Getting Acquainted

Getting Acquainted

----

The sun was setting far off in the west beyond the Dracorange Mountains, cloaking the sky in a fire-like red. Wind swept cooly through the small valley, pushing the tall grass with a gentle breeze. A lone tent stood under a lone oak tree, a couple hundred yards from the lightly-trodden road, a small fire burning near the tent.

"It really bothers you

that

much?" Talos questioned Alanna, grinning ear-to-ear. He was sharpening his trusted bastard sword with a grindstone he picked up in town by the fire.

Alanna frowned, sitting opposite the fire with a waterskin in her hand. It did, to be perfectly honest. Not being able to read someone meant that she could not determine their true intentions. Worse yet, Talos was able to

somehow

sense whenever she tried reading him without using magic.

"Not at all," she lied with a flowery voice, "it's just quiet out here away from it all, y'know?"

Talos picked up on the lie immediately, subconsciously catching onto tell-tale facial signs he had learned over the years. He raised his sword and examined it in the waning sunlight. Seemingly pleased with the results, he sheathed it and tucked it inside the tent.

"Well, you could always try regular conversation, ya know?" Talos smirked, Alanna sticking her tongue out at the mockery in his voice. "How did you survive the trek out this far anyhow?"

"That's, well, kind of the beauty of the Empire, isn't it? Almost two-thousand miles long and you're always a day's walk or carriage ride away from the next tavern..." Alanna paused and smiled, modulating her voice deeper, "or the next lonely man with an extra bed in his house."

"

Don't let on too hard",

Talos thought. She seemed innocent under all of her lustful jests, like a kid pretending to be grown up by drinking ale. He decided to combat her lewd comment with his own.

"It is something," Talos replied, "a thousand or ten taverns and brothels, with the next beautiful wench just around the corner."

Alanna giggled and looked down into the burning fire. Was he talking about her? She, admittedly, still looked great even in the common travel attire.

Talos spoke up in a low voice after several moments of silence. "So was I right, back in town? The ruins of Mschuleft?" His sharp eyes were back on her now, the firelight bouncing off them.

"Um... yes," Alanna gulped, "and not just, um, about that. But everything you said, all of it was true." He took in her words and looked back into the fire. He had to explain how he knew, if they were to trust each other on this journey. It's not like it was worth hiding.

"I got lucky," Talos replied genuinely, "Not that I was guessing... far from that. I knew a girl who went to the same college in Catriona, even studying the same school. We were... close, once."

Alanna's ears perked up. "

This is interesting,"

she thought. This would explain quite a bit about the mysterious man. "How long ago was she there? Maybe I knew her! The school of Enchantment is quite small, after all."

Talos kept staring sadly into the fire, the last of the sunlight fading. "Rayya," he answered. "I dropped her off there when she had sixteen years of age, just about four years ago to the month."

Alanna shook her head. "Sorry," Alanna quietly replied, "I heard some stories, but we must have just missed each other. She was said to be very talented before--"

"Yeah. She was. We don't need to talk about her." Talos interjected. Thoughts came flooding back to him of searching for Rayya for months after she went missing. Rayya had grown to be a powerful empath, capable of communicating telepathically with him over great distances. She hadn't reached out since she left Catriona. Talos knew in his heart that she was gone for good.

Alanna frowned. She wanted to comfort him, but he didn't exactly look like he wanted it. Instead, she quickly changed the subject.

"So, um, what's your story then? I know you're looking for a dragon, but didn't learn why."

"Wyvern," Talos corrected her gruffly, "Dragons breathe fire and have six appendages, whereas reports of this one state it only having four." Talos stood up, breaking another branch off of the oak tree and throwing it in the fire.

"And the reason is because someone rich is paying me to do so. The quest of greed, a mercenary for hire. Take your pick." Talos looked out into the darkness and back at her seriously, "Truth is, I just wanted something new. And not many live to tell a tale of meeting a wyvern. And no one certainly tells a tale of killing one."

Alanna smiled lightly, letting him continue. She believed he was finally being sincere. Just as lost as she was in a world that didn't care about you, trying to find a point to it all.

He paused, before sitting down again at the fire next to Alanna. "Same can be said about exploring the great wastelands, too."

She looked over at him and back into his eyes, "Yeah, it's all hitting me right about now. At least a fortnight of this just to get to Mschuleft, a fortnight back... if I'm

lucky,"

making a point to strongly emphasize the word. She pointed at the tent without looking at it, giggling, "and, sharing a small tent with an almost-stranger for the whole time."

"Well I got good news and bad news for you, I'm afraid," sharing in her gentle laughter briefly before continuing, "good news is we're not going to share. Bad news is, that's because someone's going to be keeping watch at all times."

Alanna hadn't considered that, but it made sense; out in the wastes, they could only rely on themselves, and someone being awake at all times sounded reasonable.

"I'll take first watch tonight," Talos stated, "and you should probably get used to waking up early."

Almost an hour later, Talos was watching Alanna's shadow on the tent undress, and prepared himself for a good six or so hours of silence. Watching her silhouette, Talos admitted that her body was absolutely gorgeous. The display was entrancing, and he was still staring tent absentmindedly when Alanna peeked her head out from the flap.

"Soo, if something does happen when I'm asleep, what do I do?"

Talos smirked in the darkness to no one, "keep quiet and let me take care of it. And if it happens when you're on watch, come shake me awake and then do the same."

"Pssh. Good night," she said sarcastically and closed the flap to the tent.

"Night," he replied, too quietly for anyone but himself.

The warm night passed uneventfully for Talos. He practically memorized Alanna's dubious map of the wastes. He pondered on missed opportunities, and was in the middle of mentally kicking himself for leaving Rayya when he did when Alanna rose from the tent. She wore only a pair of small black panties and cloth wrappings around her massive breasts, which swayed in the firelight with every small movement of her voluptuous body. Talos successfully avoided staring at the massive set of distractions.

"Can't sleep?" he asked quietly. She moaned softly and shook her head, opening the tent flap invitingly for him. Talos bent over into the tent, and slept peacefully until the morning sun.

--

Talos eyes shifted once under his lids, and he was awake. The fire was out, and the morning light was slowly gaining strength over the wastes. He gripped his sword with his right hand before realizing everything was as it should be and released it.

He was slightly disappointed to see that Alanna had gotten dressed during the night, and realized he hadn't blocked her from entering his mind when she started giggling. Something new to get used to.

"Well good morning to you too," she commented smokily with a hand on her hip. She bit at a piece of jerky in her other hand as Talos raised both eyebrows in subtle greeing to the sorceress. He sleepily walked over to the oak tree and broke off two small branches to make a fire with, from which he began boiling some water in a pot. Rather than waiting, Talos relieved himself on the tree.

"Any problems during the night?", Talos asked in an elevated voice mid-stream.

"No, and please try not to talk to me when you're pissing!" she shouted back. He was still amused at how little wilderness experience Alanna had.

Talos fixed his pants and walked back over to the fire, fishing out some beans from a pack to add to the bubbling water.

Talos was satisfied in fifteen minutes, and packed up camp silently with Alanna. He found his horse about twenty yards away, nibbling contentedly on some grass. "Good girl," Talos said, stroking her mane, "Hope you had plenty. Not sure how much we'll find out in the wastes."

Alanna cleared her throat and spoke up, "I was meaning to ask you. Why don't we ride on the horse?"

"Sofia is more of a pack horse than anything," Talos replied, ruffling the horses mane up, "she wasn't bred for long-distance riding. Plus, she's already carrying eight stone worth of supplies. Perhaps if we didn't need water?" Talos grinned at her.

"Just wondering!" Alanna exclaimed with a slight blush, feeling stupid for asking in the first place.

They made their way two miles down the road, where the wooden gatehouse protecting civilization from the great beyond lay. It was quaint affair, all things considered; beyond that gatehouse were limitless miles of unexplored wilderness and chaos, perhaps a million or ten Orcs, and all humanity had stationed at this far-flung outpost were eight bored soldiers armed with spears and bows.

Talos hailed the Imperial red-and-gold clad gatekeeper with a haughty voice, "Greetings, noble guardian. Consider me well informed of the dangers beyond your gate and please do me the honor of raising it for me and my companion." He always acted over-the-top for soldiers and officials, Alanna not sharing the joke as she rolled her eyes at him.

The soldier looked somewhat perplexed, his eyes looking them once-over and Alanna's tits twice. "I ain't 'ere to stop anyone from goin' out," he replied boorishly, waiving a hand at the man near the gate lever, "just so long a' you're aware o' the danger."

"Don't you worry, valiant warrior of the empire," Talos grinned, shrugging his shoulders and modifying his voice to a more sarcastic tone, "she's a sorceress."

The spearman quickly glanced back over to Alanna, eyes just a bit more open, and quickly waived them through. Alanna couldn't help but blush profusely.

Not ten steps from the gatehouse, the guards quickly closed the gate once more. Talos paid no mind to it, but Alanna glanced back over her shoulder.

"Sure are careful, aren't they?" she asked rhetorically in a vaguely brittle voice.

--

Desolation. Somehow, the word seemed so much livelier than what his eyes were scanning now. Talos was a wanderer, and a wanderer always tries to compare their experiences of one location to others. Yet as he was looking out over the wastes, he struggled to compare it to anything imaginable.

The wastes were not sandy deserts, as Talos had assumed, but soft dirt which stretched on for at least several dozen miles in the form of undulating hills, dead grass growing from between the cracks beneath his feet. Worst of all, besides their footsteps and Sofia's hooves, he heard nothing except the occasional distant howl of some unknown animals, too guttural to be a wolf. He had never felt so

exposed.

A tug on his shoulder brought him back to the present.

"... we can take a break? My feet are getting a bit tired," Alanna stated, feeling the need to convince him.

He scanned the horizon, then looked behind his shoulder to see the foothills of the Dracorange Mountains. Still going the right direction. He looked up to determine the time, the suns position nearly hidden behind hazy clouds. Two, maybe three hours to sunset if he was still thinking straight.

"Yeah, just a bit concerned where we'll be setting up camp for the night." he answered truthfully. Alanna nodded, thankfully appearing too tired to try reading his mind. He worried for her morale if she did, as he had lost the desire to prevent her telepathy a half dozen miles ago.

He fished a waterskin from his pack, patting Sofia twice on the neck absentmindedly then sat on the dusty ground. Alanna followed there, leaning her back on his.

"Me too," she admitted, worried and out of breath. The back of her head laid on his shoulder, her soft, hurried breath brushing against his neck.

--

The pair settled on a small alcove of dirt under one of the nearly-identical hills. The nights here differed much greater from the day than Talos had assumed. Yes, the temperature dropped drastically, but he expected this. What he did not expect is the sounds that came alive during the night. The distant shouting of savages and the guttural squealing, of what he could only assume were some sort of massive wasteland pig, dominated the night air. And the fires; they dotted the landscape, at least a dozen visible from atop their hill. Talos could only assume these were where the Orcs made their camps, and made mental notes of the positions of each of them. They forego a fire that night, limiting them to their cold rations as they ate silently. Talos had his heavy cloak on for his watch, eyes scanning the horizon.

Alanna, worried out of her mind at the noises surrounding them, felt just a bit safer with the man watching over her. Truthfully, she had no idea if he even knew how to use that longsword he wore around his waist. Talos had dropped his mental guard during the day, or at least let her start reading him; she was glad to realize that even he was a bit troubled by the noises and isolation of the wastes, and decided to try and put on a brave face for his sake.

She absentmindedly began unbuttoning her blouse in front of him, looking over at the nearest fire as she did. He wasn't paying attention to her, regardless. She wanted to reach out to him to ask if they'd be safe for the night, but soon doubted he'd be able to convince her. Instead she just put her hand on his shoulder, smiled, and said "night" as she entered the tent to attempt to sleep through the terrible plague of sounds enveloping her.