Chapter 12: Sparring

Nimbrethil led them back down the mountain towards Ember searching for the small stream she had seen on the way up. She was very tired and her chest still hurt from whatever Zeeaire had done to her. When she found the stream, she started gathering sticks to make a fire for the night was chilly and she asked Casavir if he wouldn't mind taking first watch. The paladin gave her a puzzled look but simply agreed to do so and Khelgar quickly chimed up that he would take second. She nodded her thanks and turning to Shandra handed the woman her own bedroll to sleep in.

"I don't feel right about taking your bedroll after everything you've done for me," Shandra protested half-heartedly.

"I'm used to sleeping outdoors on the ground and you're not. We have a long journey back to Neverwinter and if you don't get enough sleep then you'll slow us down. Take the bedroll," Nimbrethil told her tiredly and turned to stretch out on the other side of the fire, wrapping her cloak about her.

Bishop in the meantime had been watching the elf closely and could tell from her movements that she was in pain, but he didn't hear a single complaint come from her and her face showed nothing either. When she gave up her bedroll to the farm girl he had to suppress a snicker. She wasn't so hurt she couldn't boss people around. He was actually finding her bossiness to be amusing coming as it was from such a small package. He watched as the paladin moved off to take his position for first watch and when he was out of hearing he walked over to the dwarf. "Don't wake her for her watch, I'll take it along with mine," he told Khelgar.

Khelgar looked up at the ranger in surprise, but simply nodded and watched as he laid out his bedroll near the elf and lay down. The dwarf knew that Nimbrethil must be in poor shape because she always took first watch, just as the ranger always took last. He was surprised the ranger cared enough to take her watch and frowned in concern. He hadn't missed the way the two had behaved around each other and he couldn't help but feel the ranger was trouble. However, he knew that if he tried to say anything to her she would just get pissed off at him.

"Khelgar do you mind if I ask you some questions about her?" Shandra asked softly, not wanting to disturb Nimbrethil.

"I don't mind," the dwarf looked at the farmer and saw that she was pretty enough to be considered attractive to human males, so Bishop's offer in the cave made some sense. However, he figured it was more of a reflex on the ranger's part than anything else. A blind man could tell that he was more interested in Nimbrethil.

"Well, I get this feeling that she doesn't like me for some reason but I have no idea why," Shandra shrugged.

"No lass, it's not that. You see from what I gathered she was orphaned at a pretty young age and was raised by Duncan's half brother Daeghun back in West Harbor. From what I could get out of Duncan, Daeghun lost his wife the same night that Nimbrethil lost her mother. Some kind of horrible battle down there years back." Khelgar picked up a stick to stoke the fire and pulled some dried meat out of his pack, handing some to Shandra.

"That doesn't answer my question," Shandra said as she took a bite of the dried meat.

"Well, Duncan told me that Daeghun kind of closed himself off emotionally after that, but he had a responsibility to raise the girl and he did. I just don't think he ever showed her any affection. She doesn't let her emotions show often, and she gets uncomfortable around those who do." Khelgar didn't say that since the ranger joined their group she had seemed to open up a bit more. "She doesn't dislike you girl, she just doesn't understand humans and their emotions too well, so she tends to become distant when confronted with them. Let's face it, you weren't exactly unemotional the two times you were with her. Not only that, it takes her a while to trust others. Once she gets to know you better she'll open up a bit more, you just have to be patient."

Shandra nodded at him and continued to watch the elf as she slept. She didn't know what that monster had done to her, but she could tell it had been painful. She really felt bad now for her behavior earlier. Nimbrethil had only been trying to help her and she had acted like a shrew. Hopefully she would at least have the opportunity to become her friend, she had a feeling Nimbrethil didn't have too many of them, and she really did owe her something. She felt her eyes closing and saying good night to the dwarf, she crawled into the bedroll and fell asleep quickly.

******

Khelgar awoke with a jerk as he heard the clashing of swords and scrambled out of his bedroll, grabbing his axe as he did so. Looking around he saw the camp was empty and focusing on where the noise was coming from, headed in that direction. He crashed through some trees into a small clearing and ran right into Casavir's broad back. Landing on his backside he yelled "What's going on?"

Laughing, Shandra helped the dwarf to his feet. "Nimbrethil is just having a little sparring match with Bishop that's all. Of course Casavir doesn't seem to approve of it."

Khelgar looked at the man and saw his frown as he watched the two combatants. Turning to watch, he saw that Nimbrethil was holding a long sword in her right hand instead of a short sword and wondered where she got it. He saw that she was holding her own against the ranger, but was clearly not comfortable with the weapon. He watched as Bishop soon had her overbalanced and she fell backwards to the ground with his sword at her throat.

"Come on elf, you can do better than that. Wielding a long sword isn't any different from a short sword," Bishop sneered at her as he stepped back.

With a snarl Nimbrethil leapt to her feet and took up a fighting stance in front of the ranger. They circled each other warily, their movements almost identical, and when Bishop suddenly lunged at her she successfully blocked his attack. This time she was able to actually get in some counter attacks and couldn't keep a slight smirk from her face when the ranger almost lost his balance after a particularly sharp riposte. "Looks like you spoke too soon Bishop," she taunted.

Bishop flashed her a feral smile and then faked a thrust to her left side. When she moved to counter it he dropped down and sweeping his leg, took her from her feet and once again had his blade at her throat. She lay on the ground glaring up at him, a dangerous light flashing in her green eyes. He stepped back again and waited for her to get on her feet.

"You tricked me," Nimbrethil protested a little and saw anger darken his eyes.

"That's right elf," he snorted. "Your enemies won't hesitate to use every trick in the book to kill you. There's no such thing as fighting fair when it's a matter of survival and you know that."

"Oh yes, I know that very well," Nimbrethil growled low and narrowed her eyes at him. As she circled him again she sent a call to Thorondor and then launched her attack on the ranger. Bishop was just starting to get the upper hand again when her falcon swooped down at him causing him to flinch and turn away a little. As soon as he was distracted, she quickly moved in and soon had him pinned beneath her with her blades at his throat. To her surprise, instead of being angry, he started to laugh. Unable to keep a smile from her face, she stood up and held out her arm for Thorondor.

"You're learning elf," Bishop smirked at her as he got to his feet. "I don't know about you but I've worked up quite an appetite, how about some breakfast?"

Nodding at him, she turned away to head back towards camp, but stopped when she saw a dire wolf standing at the edge of the clearing. She hesitated, not moving a muscle, wondering why the creature was just standing there. Reaching out she touched the mind of the animal and got the image of it and Bishop hunting together and knew this was the ranger's companion. She was impressed despite herself because having a dire wolf as a companion was unheard of.

"Ah, I was hoping you two would get to meet," Bishop said as he stepped up beside her. Hearing the sound of weapons being drawn he turned towards the others to see them about to attack. "Make one move and you die," he snarled at them, his hand on his sword.

"It's okay, that's Bishop's companion," Nimbrethil told them and saw the looks of disbelief on their faces. When she turned back, she saw that the animal had moved closer to them and was watching her curiously. He told her his name was Karnwyr and that he had been with Bishop since he was a pup. He showed her images of the two of them sitting in front of fires sharing their kills and playing. Her mouth twitched in amusement at that and she heard the man beside her growl in warning. It was a side of Bishop that she had yet to see and found herself suddenly wanting to see more. She looked at Bishop out of the corner of her eye and saw he was a little embarassed.

"I figured since you introduced me to Thorondor that it was only fair you got to meet Karnwyr," Bishop walked over to the wolf and scratched behind his ears, warning the animal against anymore images like the ones he already showed the elf.

She walked over to the wolf as well and reaching out let him sniff her hand to get her scent. She then waited as Thorodor and Karnwyr sized each other up, knowing that it was important for the two to get to know each other's scents as well. When she figured enough time had passed, she started heading back towards camp with them. As she passed Casavir she saw a dark frown on his face and sighed knowing that he was not pleased about this turn of events. Well, too bad for him if he didn't like it for he would just have to learn to live with it or move on.

Bishop couldn't resist smirking at the paladin as he walked by with Karnwyr in tow. Sensing his master's mood the wolf looked curiously at the human they passed. He got the impression that the man in metal didn't want the ranger around and wondered why. When he asked Bishop all he got was an image of the elf and wondered how she fit into everything. Sending a question to Thorondor he got the image of the elf and metal man traveling without Bishop and the friendliness between the two. Ah, competition for a mate, that was the problem. Chuckling to himself he told Bishop not to worry, he had it all over the other one where it concerned the elf. Chuckling Bishop looked at his companion and then back at the elf who had turned to see what was so funny before deciding to ignore them.

When Nimbrethil reached the camp she saw that Thorondor had been busy and had brought her four rabbits. As the falcon settled on a branch overhead she set to skinning and cleaning rabbits while Bishop stoked up the fire. When she was done she spit them over the fire and tossed the scraps to Karnwyr. She couldn't help smiling as Khelgar came over sniffing appreciatively at the smell of the cooking rabbits.

"This is why I like traveling with you lass, you know how to take care of your friends," the dwarf chuckled.

"Well, with the way you eat it's a good thing I have Thorondor to help with the hunting," Nimbrethil teased him.

As soon as they had finished eating their breakfast, they packed up their gear and continued their journey back to the city. Nimbrethil wasn't eager to return, but the answers she needed weren't out here. Hopefully Shandra would be able to remember something that would help them find Jerro's Haven and soon. She had a feeling that they hadn't heard the last of the githyanki, and the presence of the demons and devils in the cave suggested someone else was seeking her as well. She would have to figure out what to do about Shandra, for the woman would definately be a target and was clearly not all that capable of taking care of herself. Sighing, she realized that yet again she was being led down a path that she wasn't sure she even wanted to follow. However, Daeghun had taught her to not run from her problems, so she would just have to find the solution, no matter how long it took. Shrugging away these thoughts, she turned her attention back to the path she was following, ignoring the quiet conversation amongst the others.

Casavir and Khelgar were taking turns bringing Shandra up to speed on recent events, while Bishop looked on. Every time the farm girl said "ooh" and "ahh" he thought he might be sick. He also saw the way she seemed to be hanging on every word that came out of the paladin's mouth. Gods, if a woman ever behaved like that with him he would probably run screaming for the hills, but the paladin seemed to be getting puffed up with the attention. Finally, in disgust, he moved ahead of them to walk by Nimbrethil's side. When she merely looked at him and nodded before turning to face forward, he sighed in satisfaction. This was much better and glancing back he saw the paladin once again glaring at him, but he merely smirked and ignored him. Let him stew over it, it was the elf's choice and he knew that Karnwyr was right and that he was number one, at least for now. It would be up to him to keep it that way.