Bad luck charm (closed, for Nouh-Bdee)

[Evayla]

People were gathering.
Not a good sign.
Usually that meant she was going to loose. Who would disbelief a respectful elder, after all?

But Bin took the lead and quickly got them out of the city before there was any more trouble!

Her heart was beating fast, her cheek burning. But she was out! Her father did not get her!

Once they slowed down, she dare take a deep, deep breath. "BACK? Are ya nuts?" She gasped. "Nuh-uh!Can't go back there now! Tha's like deliverin myself in a neatly wrapped package to m'dad's doorstep!With a pink ribbon!

The coins were ignored for now. She had to make sure he did not get any funny ideas about her wanting to go back!

"Yer stuck with me fer now!" Rowen nodded, kinda hoping he'd not just decide to leave her here and have her walk to wherever. The girl had no clue where they were!

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Rowen was surely being ridiculous. She could easily have just gone back into the city and found some other place to work. She might not enjoy the jobs available, but she was human. She could have done it. There was just no way it made sense to take her with him.

“Are you crazy!? Luftig is weeks away on horseback, and I’ve only got the one tent! Even if I took a detour, which I don’t want to do, the next nearest city is days away!”

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He should have just walked to a different city to buy a horse instead of taking the chance of running into this girl. He felt bad, though. Her father obviously treated her poorly and didn’t give her any respect. Bin’rahl knew what it was like to have an unpleasant relationship with a parent, although his mother had had arguably too much confidence in him.

Bin waved his hand up and down. “Just take the coins, alright?”

He took another deep breath, his expression changing, becoming more sympathetic. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have gotten in the middle like that.”

Surely he could make her see that coming with him was a bad idea. “If I have to hunt for two...Look, I’m sure you don’t want to be seen traveling with a half-demon, anyway, right? Surely you can just avoid your dad in Alkor. It’s a big city…”

 

[Evayla]

Rowen stiffened.
This was it then.
He was going to get himself killed and she was being sent off.
Not listened to.
Crazy.

"Fine." She grabbed the coins and started walking.
She was done here.
She'd manage on her own.
Somehow.

Anything better than trying to bash some sense into that head of his. She'd tried hard enough.

An angry kick against a helpless pebble.
A rattle.

Rowen froze.
A rattle?

Right in front of her an agitated snake rose up, clearly not pleased by having its rocky shelter kicked away.

Don't move.
Keep looking at it.
Don't move!

Rowen stared.
The snake slid out a tongue, tasting the air.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin’rahl felt bad. He hadn’t really meant to send her away without giving her a chance to talk him into taking her with him. He surely didn’t want her trapped in some terrible situation by a dick of a father.

“Rowen! Wait!”

To his surprise, she actually stopped walking. She didn’t turn around though, just waiting in place. He started walking to catch up.

“I’m sorry. Listen, I...I, uh, I don’t know how this whole traveling-together thing is going to work, but if sending you away is going to get you stuck with that dick...I guess you can--”

Bin got close enough to see what had actually made her stop. There was a rattlesnake only about a foot in front of her, hissing and rattling.

Bin wasted no time, and in an instant the snake was flying back into the tall grass, struck by the flat of his blade. He put out a large, clawed hand to rest it on her shoulder.

“You okay?”

 

[Evayla]

Just like that the snake went flying!
Rowen released a breath she did not realize she was holding. "Bloody bones!" She cursed, feeling her heart trying to win a race all by itself.

That stupid snake had seriously rattled her, her mind chiding herself on the stupid silent pun. The girl shrugged off a shiver. The heavy hand landing on her shoulder grounded her.

"That...yea...didn't bite. I'm fine." She sounded slightly baffled. Perhaps even a little annoyed. Now the red man had seen her lacking control in two situations! Not her favorite way of leaving an impression.

Then his previous words dawned on her. "Wait..." Rowen turned, not necessarily shrugging the hand off. It was silly, but it was exactly the kind of weight she needed not to give in to the fact that she had gotten freaked out. "Yer okay with travellin together fer a bit? Yer not gonna keep on tellin me to get lost? Why?" There was suspicion alright. What changed his mind? Did he suddenly thinks he was a helpless waif or something?

Fair enough, he had just helped her out for a second time in a very short period. If anything he had a right to think she was an idiot.
She was.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin’rahl sighed in relief when Rowen told him she wasn’t bitten, although he’d assumed he would have seen her jump if she had been. He could hear the suspicion in her voice, and it galled him. What did she think he was doing? He was holding out an olive branch and he didn’t appreciate her doubting him. He pressed his lips together and did his best to tamp down those feelings, though. They’d had enough tension for now.

He took his hand off her shoulder and looked down at her with an exasperated expression. “Look, I’m not saying we’re best friends now or anything, but...” His voice softened. She would hear a bit of sympathy in it now. “I know a bit about having a...less-than-ideal...relationship with a parent.” He pursed his lips in a half-frown. “If you want free of that man, I’m not going to drive you back in his arms.”

Then his annoyance almost got the better of him, coming through as he started another sentence. “And I wasn’t trying to…!” He rubbed his forehead with one of his large hands and took a deep breath. Being bad at talking to people had never been a real problem before. “I’m used to being alone, okay? I’m not...good at this. Let’s make a deal.” He held out his hand for a shake. “I’ll promise to try to tell you to get lost only rarely, and in exchange you promise not to listen to me when I slip. Deal?”

He wasn’t sure what he hoped she’d do. If she said no, then his life would continue largely unchanged. That would be nice. But, something inside him made him think he’d miss this strange little woman who frustrated him.

 

[Evayla]

Unexpected words from an unpredictable man. Demon. Whatever. It was an honest try, though. She had to commend him for that.

"Thanks." Rowen nodded. "Yea, I don't intend on returnin there."

For a second it looked like he was going to explode after all, but the words were once again unexpected. She looked pleasantly surprised. A grin followed. "Eyy now tha's a deal I can live with!"

The girl took his large clawed hand, her slender fingers disappearing inside. She still tried to make her grip count. And she certainly picked up on the unspoken message in his comment: not listen if he told her to get lost. He was actually okay with her sticking around!

Not something to rub in.
Yet.

"Okay. So. Can I ask?" She tilted her head. "Half demon. Which side?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin scowled and forcefully pushed her hand away, breaking the handshake. “Damn it, if you think traveling together means we’re ready to have some kind of heart to heart, then you can get lost right now!” He angrily pointed back toward Alkor before storming off toward their horse.

He was teasing, but he also wasn’t sure he was ready to open up like that. He didn’t know whether he wanted to talk about his mother yet. Hopefully Rowen would know he didn’t actually mean for her to get lost.

He stopped next to their horse and looked over his shoulder at her.

 

[Evayla]

If he thought she had not listened, he was wrong. The moment Bin turned around Rowen stood there and blew him a raspberry.

"Im crazy, not deaf! Besides, I thought that since we were on a first dad basis now I would get a li'l curiosity satisfied. Guess not. All good." And with that she sauntered back to the horse. "Done huffin?" Why on earth she was not cowed much by the demon, she did not know. Perhaps humans had already proven to be much worse.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just get on the horse.”

Once Rowen climbed up, Bin climbed on behind her, reaching around her to pull on the reins and direct their steed down the road toward Luftig. Maybe he’d given her too hard a time.

“I suppose it is only fair. I’ve already met your demonic parent. For me, it’s my mother.”

He didn’t know whether or not he would answer more questions about her yet or not, but he certainly wasn’t going to volunteer more to that story.

 

[Evayla]

She could not suppress the grin on her face as she climbed back on the horse. Score one for the street rat!

It didn't hurt to hear the man disclose a little information at least on his heritage. Rowen grinned at his joke. It almost seemed like he could be nicer than a constant grump.

"Ya should see him on a bad day..." She volunteered. "So, Luftig? Been there before? I haven't. But then, I haven't gotten much further than Alkor, as ya guessed."

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin’rahl laughed. “Ha! That was a good day? Then, I’m, uh, I’m really glad I didn’t send you back. Shit.”

He shook his head, still not completely sure taking Rowen with him wasn’t a terrible idea. He was committed now, though, and he was a man of his word. It’s not that she was unpleasant company, although she seemed to be more...loud...than he would have preferred, but he was worried about having her with him in situations with bandits or wild animals or anything else dangerous. He felt responsible now that they were officially traveling together.

“Nah, the closest I’ve been is Halvfryst. I...uh, I try to avoid cities most of the time.” He didn’t know much about Luftig either. “I just know it can get pretty cold there.”

Bin wondered if Rowen expected him to carry on the conversation with questions of his own. He wasn’t used to having someone to talk to, so he’d probably embarrass himself, but if he did and she wanted to leave she was free to, he guessed. “Where were you before Alkor?”

 

[Evayla]

Rowen fell silent for a moment. The girl was not fond of making a big drama of her home situation. It was a relief somehow to hear him laugh. He had taken it as a joke.
That was good.

"Getting cold? Hm, 'kay. Will find a new job pronto, then." A good thing she wasn't afraid of getting her hands dirty. She hated cold. The young woman was definitely going to need a good winter cloak then, even if spring was here.

"I'm from Hillside." She grimaced. The village had such a picturesque name for the close minded people living there. "Cutest village around. Fucked up people. Don't go there. Ya definitely deserve better."

Why did she say that?
Well, easy: in the short time she'd known this weird man he had been a hundredfold kinder to her than any of the village idiots.

Kind.
Such a strange word to combine with the stubborn half-demon behind her.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin’rahl was fairly certain he would’ve remembered if a human had ever said something positive about him before, so when Rowen said he deserved better, he made a small “hmph” sound of surprise and appreciation. He decided to pretend it was about the other part of what she’d said.

“Thanks for the heads-up. If I ever find a place without fucked-up people, I’ll let you know.”

He paused before deciding he could stand to let her know that he’d heard her compliment and return it. After all, she had easily been the kindest human he’d ever met, at least so far.

“You deserve better, too.”

He couldn’t have her thinking he was too sentimental, though.

“That doesn’t mean you’re not annoying sometimes, though, so don’t go getting any ideas.”

 

[Evayla]

That non-committal sound behind her was typical. The girl rolled her eyes. His comment did not help much. "So the world is screwed up, ey? But then, I'm a prime example of fucked up, so I guess I can't blame em."

A short laugh. Oh, she knew what people said behind her back. She knew she did not make friends with her fierce attitude in a world where women were supposed to be obedient to the male counterpart. Well, they could go sit on a roof. A pointy one, preferably.

His second remark caught her off guard. Rowen raised an eyebrow. Almost she looked over her shoulder when the follow up got through. She grinned again. "Dontcha worry. I know exactly how annoyin I am. An if yer only thinkin that sometimes, then I guess tha's lucky fer ya!"

Was he another one then?
Another male thinking women should shut up and look pretty?
But if he did, he would have let her father take charge, right?

The girl shifted in the saddle. Questionmarks were added more and more about the stranger behind her.

"Besides, goes well with yer pigheadedness, right?" There. Give one, take one.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin wasn’t sure he’d call Rowen “fucked up.” At least, not in the way he’d meant it when he was talking about before. Rowen had definitely made his stay in Alkor more complicated, but he knew now that she was just loud and abrasive by nature. She didn’t go out of her way to make his life worse like so many he’d met before. Those people deserved judgement.

“I don’t know. I think we can…”

He chuckled at her insult, a deep, genuine rumble that began in his chest. Then, he realized what she’d said.

“What do you mean, goes well?”

 

[Evayla]

Hah! She made him laugh! It felt ridiculously much like an accomplishment, especially seeing her habit of making people feel pissed off at her rather than laugh.

"Whaddayaknow! Sour face can laugh! Hah! Good! An apparently we're not gonna try to kill each other. Tha's a nice start fer travellin, right? Better than ya tryin to squash me again!"

Rowen would not forget that weight on top of her in the foreseeable future. It had been a really long time since anyone had managed to get her down. Certainly something she was going to avoid from happening again!

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Oh, good, she just meant we probably wouldn’t come to blows. She didn’t mean something more...I don’t know. I don’t know what I was thinking.

It was a good point. They could argue and bicker, but avoiding serious conflict would be helpful.

“Good point, but it’s not my fault you’re so tiny,” he said with a smirk she couldn’t see.

As long as they were having some kind of deep conversation, Bin’rahl was curious about some things, too.

“So, how long have you been having those dreams?”

 

[Evayla]

"Tiny??!"Alright, that earned him an elbow aimed at his ribs.
Not too hard.
But definitely letting him know he didn't have to rub it in!

"Big enough to be a shit load of trouble an old enough to drink, damnit!"

She did not sound overly angry, just standard annoyed at anyone thinking her stature had anything to do with what she could manage.

The next subject should not have surprised her.
It still did.

Rowen frowned. "Dunno. Long. Don't happen often. Just...I dunno, sometimes. Dunno why I dream about the one an not about the other." It wasn't as if the world stopped killing people just because she did not dream about it. So far it did not make much sense, except that now she had met Bin she could honestly say it was always about people she either knew or was going to meet soon.

"First time I dreamed about someone I did not know yet, though. Congrats. Heh." She tried to make light of it.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Big enough to be a shitload of trouble, huh? “You got that right.” Hopefully Rowen would know he was teasing.

So he was the first person she’d dreamed about that she didn’t already know, huh? That sounded...significant, but not in a way that he could decipher.

“Hmmm, I don’t know anything about prophecy. I met an orc once with the gift, but he couldn’t see anything about me and I didn’t think to ask anything else.”

They’d been riding long enough that Bin was conscious now of how closely they were pressed to each other, Rowen’s hair occasionally tickling his nose. He shoved those thoughts aside. Of course, it was only natural for this kind of closeness to stand out in his mind. He’d been traveling, living, existing alone for so long that he would have been overly aware of her presence no matter who it was. That’s all those thoughts were. At least, that’s what he told himself.

 

[Evayla]

"Heheh." She had brought up the trouble herself. No way she was going to feel offended about that.

"An orc?" Well now! Seemed half-demons actually did keep very diverse company, even if he did not seem to get along with most humans. "What kind of a gift was that?" Funny to realize this red man was the closest she'd ever gotten to finding some answers. If she returned to Hillside now, chances were her father was just going to turn her in for witchery at the rate she was going.

What was even more funny, was the fact that after he'd pinned her down, sent her off and yelled at her she still felt more at ease than with any of the supposed civilised people.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

It had been some time since Bin’rahl had had something like a casual conversation. It was nice. He didn’t have many people who he would consider friends, and the ones he did have were people he saw only rarely, what with his nomadic lifestyle. Not that Rowen was his friend, at least not yet. Bin wasn’t quite so trusting as to call her that already, at least not out loud.

He thought back to that orc, and his visit to the orc village. He’d been trying to sell some hides he’d collected hunting in the forests east of Zerleg. They were friendly, which made sense. If any group of people could empathize with how it felt to be a half-demon in a world full of humans, it was the orcs. He’d stayed with them for a week, offering the shaman some of the gold they’d spent on his hides to tell his fortune on a lark. The green-skinned man hadn’t accepted once he tried and came up empty. He told Bin he couldn’t see anything.

“Wasn’t dreams for him. He’d drink this concoction they made from who-knows-what, and go into this trance...thing. Woke up knowing things. Sometimes from the future, some from far away.”

 

[Evayla]

"Ew." Drinking something to willingly look into the future?
Not something she'd recommend. "So, what did ya hope fer in yer future? Tall, dark, handsome strangers an far away travels?" She laughed at her bad joke. Such a typical thing for any fortune teller to promise to dreamy dames.

Didn't sound like there were any answers for her though.
A shame.

Rowen kept quiet for a while. "If I talk too much, ya can just say so, alright?" She offered, not quite certain how to move on from here. How much did she know about the man?
Near to nothing.
And he did not seem too keen on sharing.

Still.
She could try.

"Ya got plans fer yer future then? Or...just takin it as it comes?" Had to be unsettling to have a future-teller tell you nothing was to be seen.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Bin chuckled bitterly. A future? Plans were a luxury for the more “civilized” races of the world. Humans, elves, dwarves, people that built cities so they had somewhere to keep other kinds of people out, armies so they could put down the “savages” if they ever got out of control. As one of those “savages,” Bin had no illusions about building any kind of future for himself that couldn’t be taken away on a whim.

“What kind of plans could someone like me have, Rowen?”

He shook his head. “You saw what happened when I dared to…buy a fucking horse. What am I going to do? Open my own tavern someday?”

Ha! It’d get burned to the ground in a week, if it lasted that long.

 

[Evayla]

"Oh geez, bring on the pity party!" Funny, she had not expected that from a man who had met with such adversity in life and still moved about.

She tried turning around, which was hard on horseback, even harder with his strong arms around her. "Yer still here, aintcha? So ya can't open a tavern or decide to play the fiddle an make li'l kiddies laugh, but yer HERE, ya idiot! Yer around! Yer movin! Ya obviously still have somethin to live fer or to try out or ya woulda just let one village or another slay ya fer a heroic story!"

Why was this getting to her? "Listen, bub, I ain't sayin it don't suck, but I am sayin DEAL with it. Ya are. Even if yer hidin it somewhere. So. No tea parties in yer future. Fine. What is then? What keeps ya movin?"

She made a fist. "I'll tell ya mine: universe fucks with me? I kick back harder. Try to get me down? I'll goddamn bash yer head in or die tryin. What does that get me? The friggin will to show them all how insanely wrong they are about me! An YES that is good enough to get me up in the mornin! I AM gonna change shit an no feelin sorry fer myself is gonna help there."