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Vale of the White Horse
Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,310 Views)
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Impatiently, he brushed Essylt's hand away and took a step closer to Rufus. He was only a few inches taller, but that was quite enough to look down on the man. 'I don't care if you're ten times the man you claim to be. Protecting Essylt is my job and that is what I'll do, by whatever means necessary.'

'Admirable,' Rufus said with a faint smile. He really detested violence, but if this man continued his rude speech, he'd have to beat some sense into him. Or have it beaten, since he did not want to get his hands dirty on some common oaf. 'But perhaps you should learn to keep your temper in check if you want to be an effective bodyguard.' Rufus turned to Essylt and nodded at her. 'Good day.' Then he turned around and started walking away, before he lost his temper and killed the man. His chances with Essylt would be lost if he did.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She waited until the Roman was well out of earshot before she could breathe out. For a moment she had believed that they would hit each other. ‘Morcant. Please. Look at me.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He'd sent a withering look at the Roman's retreating back, as if that could somehow unnerve or bother the man. Now he tore his gaze away and looked at Essylt. 'What,' he grated, 'were you doing with him?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘I didn’t invite him,’ she answered unsteadily. She would hate it if he gave her the same sort of look as he had just cast in Rufus’ direction. She would surely crumble if he did.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'But you didn't exactly walk away, either.' Morcant straightened his back and breathed deeply, trying to calm down. It felt as if the man's words had done something to him that made it harder for him to control himself.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘No…’ It was because she had wanted to be here, on this hill. And she had tried to. He had stopped her. Not with force – she really had no excuse, not anything that he would accept. Essylt lowered her eyes. ‘That’s true.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I don't want to lock you up,' he said after a silence, 'but you must realize you can't just walk around alone like that when that man's on the loose. What if he decides to finish what he started when he entered your room at night?' Gods, he didn't want to think of that. The mere thought of that Roman lording over Essylt... Morcant clenched his fists and jaws and looked the other way.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Lock her up? Essylt pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, not sure what was the right thing to say. Perhaps she’d better stay quiet, but she found that it was impossible. ‘That’s because you think I would let him, isn’t it.’ It wasn’t really a question. She felt sinking feeling in her belly, as if somehow a hole had been opened inside of her, bringing up shadows all around her. Then, with a voice on the verge of breaking, she added: ‘Please don’t look away from me like that.’ It made her feel unworthy, dirty.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I know his type of man,' he said flatly. 'There aren't many women strong enough to resist him.' Even he, Morcant, found it hard not to react to Rufus, even though it was in a different way than a woman would. He wanted to bash his charm out of him, and he was quite sure that was exactly how the Roman wanted him to feel. With some effort, he looked back at Essylt. It wasn't her fault, he kept telling himself. That didn't take away the fact that he wanted to take her by the arms and shake sense into her.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She said nothing to this. Even if she wanted to cheer Morcant up, it was very hard to resist Rufus. There was simply no denying in that. He didn’t ask if he could kiss her – he simply assumed that he could. At least Morcant turned his gaze on her again, but it was hard to read the expression. It wasn’t soft, that was certain. She stood perfectly still, waiting for whatever he was going to release on her.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Promise me you will not put yourself in a position again where he can catch you off-guard,' he said when she remained silent. Perhaps it was unfair, but he didn't want to take any more chances with this man.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She had not orchestrated this. Essylt bit her lip. ‘I’ll try.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'All right. Let's go back,' he said and put a hand on her shoulder. The Roman was going to pay for this, some day. He hadn't seen Rhywallon for a while, but he'd seek him out and ask whether or not it was time to rid the world of the man yet.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She let him shepherd her back, but halfway down the hill she stopped. ‘If he talks to me,’ she said, ‘you can find out more about him that you’ll ever do through spying.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He continued walking, but the frown in his forehead deepened. 'Yes,' he admitted, 'but I do not want to put you in that position. He is dangerous, Essylt. It won't be just talking. What if he decides he's had enough of you after getting what he wants, before you can wheedle enough information out of him to make it worthwhile?' He shook his head sharply. 'Don't put yourself in that position.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
In a way she was glad. Still. 'If he wants me so much that I can't keep him away, wouldn't it be better to get something out of that at least?'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I'll kill him before he has the chance,' he said in a low growl. 'That'll solve myriad problems at once.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘But…’ She had to catch up with him first, because he had gone on briskly walking. She reached him, curling her fingers around his arm again and hoped that he wouldn’t shake her off again. ‘What if he has you killed first? Morcant, that frightens me!’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I'm used to constantly looking over my shoulder,' he said with a shrug, 'it will not be any different.' However, he couldn't ignore the fact that it could happen. 'But if he somehow manages, you must immediately ask for refuge at the caer and explain what happened. Don't worry though,' he added softer, and with a faint smile, 'I'm not easily killed.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Essylt pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to think about it. ‘I’m sorry you had to see just that.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Yes, he was sorry too. Sorry that he couldn't bury his dagger in the man's throat. Morcant said nothing, but instead thought about how miserable this situation was. If Rufus kept practicing his charms on Essylt, who knows what might happen. He found he really did not want to think about that and said nothing.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
They made it back to the house like this, and Essylt found that his silence nearly broke her heart. She didn’t think he was angry with her, not exactly. ‘Is there anything,’ she asked quietly, ‘so I can cheer you up?’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He could think of one or two things, but he didn't think she would want to. Morcant lowered himself on the simple bench outside their door. He found he preferred it over the chairs the Roman had provided. 'You could come and sit next to me,' said he then.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
That was a small thing to do, if it would lift the evening shadows off his face. She pulled her legs up to cross them on the bench, sitting herself close to him. Perhaps he preferred the silence over her trying to make up excuses for something she hadn't exactly done wrong anyway. Essylt moistened her lips, glancing over at him.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He was silent for a long while. Not because he didn't want to talk, but because he didn't know how to formulate the things he wanted to say to her. Though wasn't it said that actions speak louder than words? Morcant looked down on Essylt and his expression softened. It wasn't quite a smile, but it got close enough. After all he'd done to her, she was still here. And only a little while ago she'd said that the thought of him gone frightened her. If that wasn't a sure sign he'd earned her forgiveness, he didn't know what was. The guilt that had clogged his heart for so long now started to dissolve and disappear in its entirety, instead of the little bits that had chipped away over the course of the last few days. Morcant slipped his arm around Essylt. Even if she'd never be anything else, he was glad to have her as his friend.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
His arm was heavy, and it pulled her closer to him so that she was leaning against his body rather than sitting next to him. She didn’t move away. It was much easier to sit in his embrace than wait for Rufus to caress all the secret places of her body. And she had promised Morcant not to fear his hands, after all. Despite that, she wasn’t sure if this was merely a protective gesture, a sign or their unusual friendship, or the other thing, which sometimes came close to the surface; but only at times when she could not see it clearly, like when they were sleeping and his arms came up around her to soothe her shaking body after the bad dreams. Again, Essylt thought about the dream where he had kissed her neck. His lips had felt very warm to her skin, she thought, but it was hard to recall clearly. She wondered if it was going to happen. And if it was, would he force her to kneel into a lake, wanting her to see something she did not? And was she going to have Carwyn in her arms?
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Tomorrow, he'd go to the caer to ask for work. And after what had happened this afternoon, he wanted to talk to Rhywallon as well as the chieftain of these lands. Morcant looked up and down the small street. The silence wasn't something he minded, so it was a long time before he decided to break it. 'Why exactly did you go to the horse?' he asked then, shifting a little. Essylt felt cool against him, as always. He wondered if that was because of what she could do, or because of the autumnchill.

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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
It was hard to explain. ‘Did you ever feel…drawn to something, more than out of simple curiosity?’ She turned her head to look up at him. Her hair brushed his shoulder. ‘You said perhaps I was right where I should be. It felt like that when I stood there.’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He racked his brain to find a moment such as she'd described. 'I don't think I've ever felt like that,' he said thoughtfully. 'But I'll take your word for it. Have you figured out now why you're supposed to be here, then?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'No. Not at all.' There were only Udd Wyll's words to make sense out, after all: the land is sick. Heal the land. And Essylt had no idea how; and he wasn't going to show her. Not when the choice had to be her own. She looked down on her hands, shaking her head. 'I don't know anything at all.'
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