The woman in the long red dress kept glancing over her shoulder, thereby giving the impression that she thought she was being watched, but this was not really surprising, since with her style of attire she should have to stand out quite a bit in the crowd. But oddly enough, Jean was unable to spot anyone who seemed to be interested in her. The people who caught her eye were obviously all going about their usual tasks. At least that was her assumption, but in fact she could not be sure what an ordinary day-to-day life would look like in this place. Just as she was not sure where this place was actually located. However, this did not worry her any further.
She glanced once again ahead, even though this only reminded her that she was not quite certain if she was moving in the right direction. Lifting the hem of her red dress, she took a few steps, only to stop again and ponder what she was doing here on this dusty road - under the scorching southern sun. And who were all these oddly dressed foreigners? But then she shrugged her shoulders, as if the realization that she had no answer to these questions was already good enough for her.
She went forward for a little distance, before she looked around again and then, all of a sudden, she caught sight of them. Just a few steps away from her, there stood the men she had come here to encounter. The men for whom she had ventured among all these foreigners, being so different from the people she was used to dealing with. But all her thoughts, all her questions were gone as quickly as ice cream in the summer sun, as she was at last looking at those she had been seeking.
She was all too aware of her disbelief as she gazed at the two men standing on the other side of the street. Jean quickly glanced down at herself and smoothed her hands over her long red dress one more time, while she suddenly wondered why she had chosen this of all her clothes to wear. Why had she put on something that turned out to be far too thick for this weather, after all, she was well aware of what awaited her in the Outremer. Apart from the fact that she stood out in the crowd like ... For a moment she was overcome by uncertainty, as she could not come up with a suitable comparison, but then she pushed this thought to the side as is was irrelevant.
Instead of pondering further about what could have driven her to wear this red dress in the first place, she turned her gaze to something much more pleasing. And the two men who were standing not far away from her certainly fell into this category.
Both of them were dressed according to the climate - but also the local culture - but only one could pass as a native without any problems. In any case the other one was taller than the majority of the city's residents, moreover he had broad shoulders and narrow hips, although these were not visible under his wide robe. Nevertheless, Jean was quite sure of this fact, although she had known beforehand that it was not these features that made him stand out from the local crowd. If the man attracted attention in this place, it would be on account of his bright blue eyes and his shiny golden hair, which he wore, however, much longer than was customary in his homeland. Yet Jean was of the opinion that this suited him very well, even though she could not deny that she was rather biased in his case.
The other man was of smaller stature, but more compactly built. The curly hair that framed his face was just as dark as the little beard, which somewhat softened the severity of his impression, or the eyes that ceaselessly scrutinized the surroundings for any threats. That did not prevent him however from casting every now and then possessive glances towards his companion. But Jean could not miss the tenderness in this gaze, which warmed her heart, even if the dark-haired man showed this passion only when he was of the belief that no one was watching him. Afterwards he turned his eyes once again back to the immediate vicinity and the people passing the two men by. Oddly enough, the woman in the red dress did not seem to catch his attention.
At last, the man averted his gaze from the street and uttered a few words to his fair-haired companion, whereupon the two of them then left through a gate, that Jean only noticed at that very moment and which she knew was leading to the yard of a house. The woman waited only a brief instant before she followed the men, picking her way skillfully around the people, who, however, paid her no attention either. That was just fine with her, as she did not want to waste any time at this point out here on the street, but instead she wants to discover what was going on beyond that gate.
When she noticed that the two men had not vanished into their house, she breathed a sigh of relief, as she was certain she would not be allowed entry into their home. But as it was, she would be able to continue observing them, and that was what she had come here for.
The dark-haired man kept on letting his gaze roam over the area even here in the yard, while the tall one with the long blond hair was now busy with a magnificent stallion, a pitch-black beast with only a small white mark on his forehead. Jean admired the play of its muscles under the shiny coat as well as the muscles she could only guess at under the blonde's loose robe, but she knew for sure these existed. That was all she needed at that very moment.
"What did you bring, Malik?" the fair-haired man wanted to know all at once, and Jean was full of admiration when she realized how good his Arabic had become. But it was not obvious to her why she was not surprised that she could understand him. She dismissed it instantly as unimportant.
Nasir looked at his hands and at what he was holding in them as if seeing it for the first time, but then he shrugged. This slight movement would certainly have escaped Jean's notice if she had not kept such a close eye on him.
"These are bananas, Guy," he replied to the other man's question.
"Bananas? I've never heard of them," Guy retorted, without taking his eyes off the stallion whose coat he was grooming.
Jean, on the other hand, had barely heard the word bananas when she suddenly realized what she had forgotten during her weekly shopping trip. How could she have committed such a glaring mistake? No sooner had she been reminded of what had happened than she felt an irresistible craving for these fruits. Before she even had a chance to consider what she was doing, she had already rushed forward to Nasir and had then snatched the bananas from him. She peeled the first one of them immediately and put it into her mouth, while at the same time dropping its peel on the ground carelessly. Only afterwards did she raise her head once again to look directly into the amazed face of the Saracen, who could obviously not believe that he had just been robbed.
But when Nasir's hand went to the hilt of one of the twin swords he carried on his back, Jean's eyes widened and on the spur of the moment she decided to make a tactical retreat. At the same moment it occurred to her that in her long red dress she would not be able to outrun the man, so she understood at once that she would have to resort to other means. But she had already an idea how she could escape.
"Beam me up, Scotty!" she called out and immediately afterwards she heard the familiar noise of the transporter, while at the same time she already felt her body dissolving. She breathed a sigh of relief as she was sure she had eluded the pursuit.
But this sensation lasted only for a short moment, then Guy's voice made her cringe as he imitated her call perfectly. Before she had been completely dematerialized, she heard the familiar noise of the transporter a second time, a fact she did not like at all. Moreover, she had also no idea where she was beamed to and so she could only hope not to get out of the frying pan into the fire.
It took her a moment to overcome the confusion she experienced in the next instant when she was unable to make out anything more than a tiled wall. She could remember at that point that this always happened to her when she was being transported, but for this reason she could obviously not recall instantly to turning around and figure out where she was.
But after she had done so eventually, her confusion did not vanish at once, for now she was looking on a large pile of dirty laundry and also on Clarissa, who was rummaging through it. Quite abruptly the other one straightened up and stared at the first woman.
"Jean," she exclaimed somewhat gruffly. "What are you doing in my laundry room?"
"I thought I'd stop by and bring you some bananas from Outremer," the woman in the red dress mumbled, having already put another one of the fruits into her mouth, and once again she had dropped the peel rather carelessly, which earned her a chastising glare from Clarissa, who then removed the garbage from her laundry, tossing it onto the floor in front of the wall.
"Bananas from Outremer? Do you think that's a good idea?" the other woman demanded to know.
Jean was about to nod, but then she remembered all of a sudden what she had heard just before her dematerialization. "Watch out!" she called, but before she could explain to Clarissa what she should watch out for, two men and a black stallion had already appeared in the laundry room and were now taking up all the remaining space in the not-so-large room. In the process, it did not fail to happen that they trampled on the dirty laundry, which earned them also a chastising glare from Clarissa.
Nasir only raised his eyebrows in amazement, but Guy apparently wanted to pounce on the two women on the spot, but before he could reach them, he suddenly slipped on the carelessly discarded banana peel and lost his balance right then and there. Jean let go of the bananas as the blond knight tumbled in her direction as if she intended to catch the man, but instead he knocked her to the ground with him and so they landed both on the pile of laundry, getting tangled in the sheets.
"Damn it," Guy cursed. "Why does this always happen to me?"
Of course, Jean was unable to answer his question, but that was not all that important to her at that very moment, as she was currently clutching a fair-haired knight in her arms. Therefore, it had to be quite natural that she was not interested in anything else.
"You have to get up!", Clarissa urged her, but the woman in the long red dress definitely did not want to listen to that, for then she would have had to let go of the knight.
"You have to get up!" could she hear the same words once again, but now the voice was more like her husband's, at which point Jean's eyes widened in alarm due to the fact that she was after all still clutching Guy.
"You fell out of bed. Did you hurt yourself? Can you get up on your own?" her husband inquired in a caring manner.
Jean looked around quickly, but there was no sign of Guy, Nasir, Fury, or even of Clarissa. Where had they all gone to so suddenly? She was confused, for she had not noticed that the transporter had been used again.
"Is it possible that you couldn't handle the wine with your dinner?" her husband suddenly wanted to know. "Usually you don't just fall out of bed."
The wine! That was definitely a good explanation for her fall, Jean mused, since she could hardly explain to her husband who had actually brought her down. But she was sorry that she had not been able to stay longer in the other place, even though she really disliked having to lie on a pile of dirty laundry.
Maybe it will work out next time, Jean consoled herself as she climbed back into her bed, while at the same time she decided that in the future she would rather do without unfamiliar desserts, for she was confident that these was the reason for her entire night being ruined. Regarding her husband, however, she would stick to the story about the wine, for then she would not have to give him any further explanations.
Jean closed her eyes and was asleep on the spot. Unfortunately, she did not travel to Outremer for a second time that night.