Thanks to Zerousy for the review. :D
Evan POV
Seeing the woman who'd been in my dreams last night was quite startling. But I think the people of the village were more startled then I was. They ran out of the inn screaming something about a pyro. I can see why that's a nickname for her.
Tiana had us stay where we were as the woman walked toward the only sensible person left in the inn, the innkeeper. The fireballs disappeared as she took a seat and I began hoping that she wouldn't see us.
"Really, Rain? You have to scare away all of my customers and blow a hole in my wall?" the innkeeper asked the lady. She did something between a laugh and a chuckle and smiled at him. I shuddered as my dream came back in all too perfect clarity.
"It keeps your customers on their toes, Maverick. Besides, I always give you enough money to fix the walls," Rain said.
The innkeeper shook his head and turned to Tiana, "What can I get you?" Tiana asked for a few rooms and a meal for each of us. He nodded and set about fixing a meal saying that we'd want to eat before going to our room.
"Hey, why weren't you afraid of me?" Rain asked us. Tiana laughed and raised a hand that suddenly surronded by flames. I looked at Sam as my heart raced, he was looking at the fireball in amazement with his mouth open. He wasn't much help.
Rain smiled as the Maverick came in with our meal of bread, stew and chunks of salted meat. Tiana nodded her gratitude and handed the old innkeeper a few pieces of gold after the fire disappeared. Or at least I think it was gold. He smiled at her and guided us to a table in the back.
We ate quickly while Tiana went and was chatting with Rain. The girl in black had a few facial expressions that I don't think showed very often. Then both of them came over to us.
Tiana sat next to me as Julian scooted over to make room for Rain, "Well, we'll stay here until the next clue shows up. But I'd like you all to meet the newest member of our group, Rain." Rain smiled as Tiana began introducing each of us.
Rain looked at me, "You seem frightened, why?" Her voice seemed to bear a warmth in it that wasn't what it seemed.
"I thought I saw you in a dream, that's all," I muttered.
Tiana looked at me with narrowed eyes, "What dream?" I explained what I'd seen and her eyes widened in amazement. She muttered something under her breath before looking at me, "Next time you have a dream like that, tell me! Understood?" I nodded as the innkeeper came over to guide us to our rooms.
Tiana and Eva shared a room, Julian and Trevor shared a room, and Sam and I shared a room. Tiana said that she was going to be the look out next time we were in a village. Then she ordered us to get some rest and that she would take first watch.
"No," Sam said firmly. Tiana looked at him with narrowed eyes. "You need your strength, Tiana, let someone else be look out for tonight." She looked like she was about to protest, but looks from both Sam and I stopped any arguements. For the moment.
Tiana POV
It didn't matter that both Evan and Sam had told me to rest, sleep alluded me. I was laying in my bed looking up at the ceiling and listening to Eva's snoring. Having her as a room mate didn't make it easier.
Neither did knowing that Evan had seen Rain in a dream. Evan shouldn't have kept secrets like that. Since sleep wouldn't come I got up silently.
I walked down the stairs into the taproom of the inn and cast a magical light. I pulled the red book out of my bag and began reading it. It told of a child of light, a child of dark and a prince of darkness. There was a handwritten note saying that the ruler of Oz had a copy of the story in the Emerald Palace.
After the story there was a glossary of different types of spellcasting. I scanned through them before hitting a term called dreamsight; the ability to see people who you will meet in the future in different scenarios that you might be in, in the future. The ability of dreamsight was usually found in warrior mages.
I leaned back in my seat and pondered this. Could Evan be a warrior mage? If he could use dreamsight it might be possible. One look out the window told me it was almost dawn. I put the book back in my bag and silently went back up to my room after dispelling the magical light.
When I came back in Sam was waiting, "What were you doing?"
I silently cursed, "Does it matter? I couldn't get any sleep that's all." Sam raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. "Can we just forget the matter? We'll be leaving town as soon as the next note comes in." I walked toward my bed and began pulling out a change of clothes from my bag. When I looked up Sam was gone.
As quickly as possible I changed and began distributing the clothes to everyone. A bag of holding and a chest of need was quite handy. When I went downstairs Sam and the innkeeper were setting up a table for breakfast.
I tried to ignore the fact that Sam was probably trying to figure out what I was up to last night and offered to help them. The innkeeper chuckled as Sam denied my request, I shrugged and sat down in the chair I'd used last night.
As the others joined us Evan came up to me, "Want to tell me why you left your room in the middle of the night?"
I looked up at him, "Were you spying on me?"
"NO! Sam told me," Evan crossed his arms in front of his chest.
I glanced at Sam, "Can't drop matter, can you?" He didn't look at me as I shifted my gaze back to Evan. "I just couldn't get any sleep, okay? Why do you guys have to make a big deal out of it?"
Evan glared at me, "We just don't want you to get hurt. Besides, we should be able to trust our leader." I stood up and returned his glare, "I can take care of myself." I pushed past him and left the Dragon's Way.
What could I tell him? That he was possibly a warrior mage? That I knew he had an ability called dreamsight? Evan wouldn't believe me, even if I pulled the book out of my bag. That's the problem with being in a place full of magic and yet having grown up in a place sorely lacking in it.
I walked in the town for a bit before stopping at a stables, I wouldn't have stopped had I not almost tripped on something. A large stone had rolled to my feet, probably kicked by someone. When I began walking it rolled beside me.
I stared at the rock and looked around, nobody was near. The stone started to roll around my feet happily. Bending over, I picked it up and was surrprised at how light it was. Mud covered the stone and smaller rocks were imbeded in it's crust.
After a moment of consideration, I gently placed the stone in my bag of holding and began walking toward the inn. Evan still looked angry with me, but didn't press the issue as I sat down and began eating a little bit of bread and cheese.
Soon after a wind blew in a piece of parchment in, I caught the scrap and read: Your next target is in the town called Barloveer. Look for the woman of mist.
A second wind blew it out of my hand and out a window. I walked over to the innkeeper, who was talking to Rain, "We must be leaving soon." I payed him and asked Rain to meet us by the stables in a few minutes. The others had apparently overheard because they got up from the table and began going to their rooms.
As they gathered their clothes I walked out into town and bought a few horses. When I returned they were all gathered outside of the stables with Shadow and Rain's blonde stallion Flame. We mounted the 2 brown and white stallions, 1 brown mare with white socks, 1 black and white stallion and 1 grey dappled mare. The boys mounted the stallions while Eva and I mounted the mares. Then we rode through the streets and out into the wilderness, following directions the man who used to own the horses gave me.
Julian POV
Tiana and Evan had an arguement, that could work to my advantage. As we continued along the yellow brick road, I began thinking about how to approach Tiana about the subject. Nothing came to mind.
Around noon, she called for a halt. We dismounted, tied our horses to sturdy branches, and got a fire ready to cook a meal. Tiana walked away from us saying she would see what berries there were. Evan, of course, went after her.
Eva began flirting with Sam again, who told her to leave him alone so he could get lunch ready. All of this could work to my advantage. Eva being spurned away by Sam and Tiana having an arguement with Evan, very useful.
Evan POV
"Tiana, wait," I called to her as she began navigating through the brambles and branches that blocked the way to the riverbed.
"What?" she growled as she continued to move toward the river.
"Will you just stop and listen?" I asked as I reached a hand out to grab her shoulder.
She turned toward me and placed her hands on her hips, "Fine!"
I took a breath, "I know that you can take care of yourself, but you can't keep secrets from the people who trust you."
"Oh, you mean like you did?" Tiana began to turn back around.
"No, look I didn't think anything of the dream. Until I saw Rain, I thought it was just another dream, nothing to make a big deal of."
"Oh, so if I don't make a big deal out of something, I can't keep it a secret, but you can when you don't make a big deal out of something." She began to walk toward the river again. "Look, it isn't a big deal, so just drop the matter and head back to camp. I'll be there in a few minutes and maybe I'll explain."
I moved in front of her, "I'm not going back to camp until this is solved. So, explain." She ignored me and moved around to get to the river. "Tiana, just tell me."
She froze, "I don't know how to. Besides, you wouldn't believe me." Tiana looked over her shoulder at me, "I'm not going to explain just to be laughed at."
"Tiana, I wouldn't laugh at you," I sighed and moved in front of her again, "You can trust me." I stared into her blue eyes as she bit her lip.
"Can you give me a little to figure it out because I don't know enough yet," she whispered. I nodded and started back to camp, leaving her to gather whatever she needed.
A few minutes after I returned to camp, Tiana arrived. She clutched a small bag in one hand and held something that was wrapped up in the other. The small bag was tossed to Sam to use for lunch. She went and sat down on a log staring at the wrapped thing in awe.
I went over and sat next to her, trying to get her to explain what was going on. Tiana looked up at me, "Remember the night of the feast when I'd asked you what your eye color was?"
I was puzzled, but nodded, "You asked if I had brown eyes."
She placed the wrapped item in her magic bag gently and pulled out the red book that she'd gotten from the stronghold, "This book has a glossary of magical abilities. One of these abilities is called true sight, it allows a person to see what others are truely like. The differences are as simple as different eye color. I have this ability and that's why your eyes were brown to me, but hazel to everyone else."
Sam looked at us, "Why are you bringing this book up now? Why not earlier?"
"Because I hadn't read it earlier. I read it last night and that's why I was up 'til dawn. Now let me finish explaining. Evan," she looked at me and bit her lip. "You might be a warrior mage."
Julian burst out laughing, "Him, a mage? A warrior no less?" He fell off his log as Eva and Trevor joined in his laughing.
Tiana gave Julian a glare, "Let me explain." The area fell silent as she turned back to me. "This book talks about an ability called dreamsight that's most commonly found in warrior mages." She then explained what dreamsight was. "Now to prove my theory, we'd need to find the other woman from your dream and I believe we're going to meet her."
She didn't explain why, but after lunch she had us mount our horses and began the journey again. As we rode my mind wandered back to the wrapped object she'd had. What was that?
Sorry I'm so late in updating this. I kept getting interruptions every five seconds. Please review.