Disclaimer: I don't own anything. The characters, places and anything else you recognize is property of Bioware.

Uh... this is the rewritten version of the rewritten chapter. Sorry for the lousy character-development of Taya in the -ahem- first rewritten version (geez, I shouldn't write when tired), and thanks to Kendris for pointing our what I really should have realized myself...

Findulas - Thanks for telling me about the errors, again. :)

Shadow - Are you alright? .:gives you a worried glance:.

Snackfiend&TheThridRaven - Thank you. :)

Kendris - Thanks again for your review for this chapter. I hope it's better now...

Chapter Three

A small smile had slowly appeared on the goddess' face while she had been talking. She was now gazing at the cold gray floor, obviously thinking back to different times. The bard decided to leave her to her thoughts for the moment, although he had a number of questions and remarks.
When she finally looked up at him again, still smiling, she leaned back in her seat. She looked almost content, in a way that he had never seen on her before.

"You know, it was always lots of fun to spend time with him..."

When they had found out that Imoen had probably been brought to Spellhold, the Cowled Wizards' secret keep that was dreaded all over Amn, Taya had been rather depressed. Of course she had known right from the start that Imoen could not be well when kidnapped by Irenicus or the wizards, but she had somehow not realized how awful it had to be. She could not recall most of the time she herself had spent in Irenicus' dungeon before Imoen had freed her from her cell, and what she remembered was nothing but a blur. But the merchant and host, who had told them a bit about Spellhold, had been scaringly detailed in his discription of how the wizards there dealt with their prisoners. Taya's consequence had been to head straight to the Windspear-Hills, the next place where she might be able to gain more money for Imoen's rescue. ButTaya had urged the groupto travel at such a rapid pace that everyone was exhausted before they even arrived.

Taya had offered to take the first guard since she was in no mood for sleeping anyway, and uneasily watched the sun set and the moon rise, while her friends fell asleep one after another. Only Yoshimo, she realized, was sitting on his bed-roll, looking absent-mindedly and seemingly supressing his own nervousness. Taya watched him for a while. She had to admit that he was quite handsome with his sun-browned skin, shoulder-length black hair and elegant moves that reminded her of a cat. But at the moment he looked nervous and restless, and she was pretty sure that it was not - or at least not only - because of what they had learned about Spellhold. He simply had not known Imoen long enough to be that affected about it. No, he really did not seem to be the kind of person who worried lots about people they hardly knew. That he looked that troubled none the less made Taya decide to push her own worries aside for the moment and see what was wrong with him. She got up from the stone she had been sitting on, gathered up her staff and the boots she had taken off, and walked over to him.

"Are you alright?"

He looked up at her, and it was obvious that he had neither seen nor heard her approaching.

"Yes... it's just... I'm fine."

She studied his face again, then stated, "Doesn't look like it." and sat down next to him. "So what's wrong? We're a group, if you've got problems it affects all of us."

Yoshimo seemed to consider the point for a second, then answered.

"My wife has spent a little fortune just to send me a messenger, who told me she was fed up with a husband who's never at home and that she had someone new."

"Oh... I'm sorry," Taya said, but strangely enough Yoshimo seemed to supress a grin. She frowned. "Really?"

"No."

Taya arched an eyebrow.

"Do you even have a wife?"

Yoshimo laughed.

"No, I don't."

Taya grinnned and gave him a slap on the shoulder.

"Don't you make fun of your group-leader."

He pretended to slap back, but laughed and let his had sink again when she reflexively took a defensive position.

"Don't you mistrust your companions so much," he mocked, "Do you really think I'd seriously hurt you?"

She gave him another slap for that remark.

"Ouch! Now please, lets solve this like grown-up people," he laughed. Taya smiled and raised one eyebrow.

"Alright. We'll stop it now," she said and offered him her hand. He took it, and while he was struck with a grease-spell the moment he did, he upended a small bottle over Taya's head. The elf vanished in a cloud of purple smoke and had turned into a weasel when she reappeared, while a sticky black oil covered the bounty-hunter from top to toe. He tried to shake some off himself, but he got rid of only a few drops - which hit the weasel in the face. Taya spit into the grass and sqeaked, "What in the nine hells...!"

"I could ask the same of you", said Yoshimo, trying not to let too much of the liquid drip into his mouth while he spoke, "Do I now have to walk back the two miles to the last pool of water we came across?"

The weased giggled maliciously.

"Oh, don't bother to do so, you won't be able to wash it off with water anyway."

Yoshimo shot her a death-glare. The Taya-weasel sighed and let herself plop onto her back-paws.

"Calm down, it'll wear off in a few minutes... What about this?", she added after a few seconds, demonstratively pulling on the fur on her tiny right arm, "Do I need a counter-spell?"

"Sure, and the best is still ahead of you - you're goning toattract lice like a filthy old dog."

The weasel used her back-paw to scratch behind her ear.

"That was nasty..."

But this moment, with a little 'plopp' and another cloud of colored dust, she turned back into her normal elven self. With one foot still behind her ear.

"Counter-spell, you said?", she asked with a smirk. Yoshimo seemed to grin, too, although it was not clearly to be told due to the oil still on his face.

"Well, since that potion was originally meant to be for me, of course you don't need one."

"Why would you want to be a weasel, Yoshi?" she teased.

"Very funny," he responded in only semi-serious sourness, "As you could figure out yourself, it sometimes can be very practical in my profession to be a small, cute, unobtrusive animal... like you just were." Even through the oil on his face Taya could now see a grin that could not mean anything good. "You know, thinking about it, I feel cute weasels deserve a hug from time to time..."

She shrieked and jumped up, wanting to run away, but Yoshimo quickly slung one arm around her waist, pulled her close and smeared her all over with the sticky dark liquid. Taya laughed and struggled to get away from him, but to the only effect that they both stumbled and fell to the ground, still laughing.

"Mmm... could you please be a little more quiet?", Nalia asked sleepy from behind them, sitting up in her improvised bed. She looked around to find the disturber of her peace, and finally spied Yoshimo and Taya on the floor. The grease-spell had just started to wear off.

"Oh...", she mumbled, "Well, don't let me disturb you, just... just go ahead..." She let herself fall back into her pillows and turned away from them. Yoshimo and Taya looked at each other a little embarassed for a moment, then both burst into laughter.

Thanks to Funduilas88 for the grammar- and spelling-correction in this chapter, too. :)