I hope Marren's alright, it's been over six hours since we left him back there," Cailin said as she turned her head toward Petra.  Looking into her young partner's eyes, Petra replied, "don't worry, I'm sure he'll be along soon," then in an attempt to further relieve her friend's uneasiness added,  "yer not startin' to get sweet on the boy, are ye darlin'."  "Well I... NO, of course not!", Cailin retorted, "I just think it wouldn't be good for us if something happened to him and we were to lose his skills."

Pointing up the road, Lyranda interrupted the conversation, "look, up ahead!"  Standing in the middle of the road only a few yards away, stood Marren casually leaning on his bow.  "Miss me, ladies?", Marren said with a slight devilish grin, " you made good way, better than I expected, took awhile to catch up."  "By the way, the ruse worked, when the orc's friends got there, they found the...", Marren's words were suddenly interrupted when Cailin jumped from her saddle and raced toward Marren, throwing her arms around the man and sending Marren reeling to the ground with Cailin landing on top of him.

"Marren, you're OK!  Thank The Light, I... we, were all worried about you," Cailin said to the prostrate man.  Looking at Marren's face, Cailin then noticed the nasty bruise to the left side, "you're injured, what happened?", Cailin asked, concern filling her voice.  By that time , Petra and Lyranda had joined the couple, Petra saw the injury and asked, "Oooo, that is quite the shiner ye 'ave there, lad.  What 'appened?"  Marren turned his attention toward the dwarf and replied, "it's a little embarrassing, but I ran into a tree."  "Ye ran into a tree?", Petra said, trying to stifle a chuckle, but failing, miserably.

"Yes... a tree,"  Marren replied in a stoic monotone, "as I was hightailing out of the area after the orc's took the bait, I turned for a second to make sure they weren't following me, when I turned back, wham, right into a tree.  Looks worse than it is, I'll have a nice shiner for a week or so, though."  "Nonsense, did the blow cause you to forget I am a healer?", Lyranda interjected, "I'll have you back to normal in a few moments, but you may be sore in that area for a day or two."  Peering up at the druid, "thank you, Lyranda, I'm afraid it did slip my mind, won't happen again," Marren replied.

Returning his attention to Cailin, Marren said, " the last time you and I were in a similar circumstance, there was a knife at my throat, now this is much more along the lines of what I had in mind that night."

"Marren," Cailin softly cooed, then her voice turning stone cold, "you're an ass."  At that moment the young woman stood and turned to walk away in a huff.

Still laying there dumbfounded, Marren turned to Petra and said, "what... what did I do now?"  Looking down at the man, Petra  replied with a sigh, "Marren, ye just don't know when to keep yer big mouth shut."

"Hmm, yeah, that does seem to get me in a bit of trouble with her, have to learn when to keep my thoughts to myself in the future," Marren replied as he reached behind him and untied a small, but heavy pouch from his belt.  Tossing the bag to the dwarf, Marren said, "here, catch.  Seems the orc dropped this in the bushes as he and Lyranda were fighting."  As the woman reached out and caught the pouch, it made a jingling noise, and when she opened it and looked inside, gave a whistle as she exclaimed, "by The Light, there must be over a hundred gold in 'ere!  Looks like our 'friends' had a pretty good scavenging trip."  "That's what I figured," Marren replied, "I didn't have time to count it, I was a bit preoccupied getting the hells out of there.  The Spoils of War, it's ours now."  Continuing, Marren added, "we're only about another two hours ride from Myra's Cove, I figured we could get ourselves a room or two at the inn and a good meal.  There should be more than enough for more supplies and to stable the horses, they'll need the rest.  What do think, Petra?"  "Aye," Petra responded, sounds like a good plan."

Turning his attention to Lyranda, who was kneeling beside him, softly speaking words in what he assumed was her native language, Marren said to the druid, "thank you again, Lyranda, I'm feeling much better, but as you said, still a little sore.  I need to ask a favor of you."  Breaking her concentration for a moment, Lyranda looked at Marren, "yes Marren, what is this favor you ask of me?"  "I know the way you dress is your custom and I respect that.  But, I must ask that you possibly borrow some less 'revealing' clothing from the others.  I mean no offense, but your natural differences from everyone in this area will draw some attention any way, however, dressed as you are now, we may draw some definite unwanted attention.  Can you do this for me... for us?"

"Your favor is not without merit and reason," Lyranda replied, "I will do as you ask.  Now lay still and be quiet so that I my finish my work."  "Thank you, Lyranda, thank you for everything," Marren said to the woman as he lay back and let her continue with her healing ritual.
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