Geinwortelparadijs: Riddles from the mountains chapter 4: On the road to Mimes
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After walking through the forest following the small trail winding on east for just over an hour they eventually come across something that looks a bit like a road. But one that doesn't seem to be used very often judging by the few and rainworn wheelmarks. The middle of the road is green with a grass and herbs coming to Tyranael’s knee's with their sporadic flowers. And as Vladimir actually likes to see further then the next stalk of grass stays out of it preferring the irregular surface of the wheel marks.
The sun is fiercely burning straight down on your head and the lack of humming suggest that even the insects seem to be taking a siesta. Not being in the luxury position of the insects, Vladimir takes a white handkerchief out of his bag and puts it on his head to avoid his brain being fried.
Now and then something can be heard moving in the shadow of the forest, a bird searching the ground for food kicking some leaves away, a squirrel crosses over to the next tree, all the normal sounds of a quite forest.
Even though at this hour the sun can't help in determining the direction anymore they know that going north should be turning onto the road to the left and thus they start to walk. The terrain doesn't change much except for a slight constant rise in the road that's more felt then seen but in the far distance the shadows of some mountains can be seen.
Now they are finally together, walking and not having much else to do Meinozsé tries to get to know her party members a bit better.
So when being on the road for half an hour looking at the surrounding and glancing a bit at the others she finally gathers the courage to speak to Lepus. His shy behaviour giving her a bit of confidence.
"Lepus, what did you do before you got on this mission?"
The cunicul is almost comically surprised at the question and it takes him a moment before answering.
"I'm a scribe. I run a business writing letters and reading things for those who can't. It's not much, but it's comfortable."
Something about the way he says it shows the veiled contempt he holds for those unable to read.
The shy cuniculs frank response encourages Meinozsé to ask more
"So you had your own clientele? Then why come on this trip?" Her eye's start to gleam. "Did you come across some dark secret in one of those letters?"v
"I keep letters confidential" Lepus says haughtily. "And I came because it's not a good idea to ignore a royal offer of employment."
Meinozsé nods "So your also working on your résumé."
She looks at Fhianna and Vladimir.v
"Fhianna, Vladimir, did you also come along because this looks good on your résumé like us?"
Vladimir, responds open and confident as he seems to deal with everything.
"I don't need a résumé, I have an outstanding reputation! Finding water and figuring out why mountains collapse has little to do with my profession. I'm just curious"
Then in another, more serious, concerned tone: "I think something very strange might be going on"
Vladimir takes a deep breath and looks like he just realised he said something he didn't want to say. After some seconds he continues in a much lighter, more relax way
"And perhaps I can find same dwarfs that like to walk around above the ground, and offer them eye-lifts. Because of their dwelling in the dark undergrounds, their eyelids tent to go hanging due to the lack of training and they look all droopy. It may not be visible to all, but dwarfs are often very vain. I might be able to help them!"
His eyes get a dreamy glare and he sighs: "I haven't done a lot of eyelid surgery before and it seems quite interesting". Enthusiasm catching him he waves his arms to set power to his words: "Blepharoplasty!!! That would look good on my résumé!!"
Meinozsé smiles at Vladimir getting lost in one of his wishful ramblings
"I would like to meet some dwarfs also. With a bit of luck they might be able to teach me a lot more about rock and the best ways to work with it."
"I heard there where dwarfs at the palace last night, so why go away from the palace with us when there where just some dwarfs there Vladimir?"
Vladimir looks thoughtful as he answers.
"The dwarves in the palace.. Hmm I was talking about them with my friend Chlamor, you know, the kings famous mage, we were just discussing their anatomy and stuff and a servant came to tell us the king ordered us to stay away from those dwarves, they were under 'palace-protection' or something similar to that. He has assured us several times he doesn't spy on our private conversations, but somehow he always knows what we are talking about...." He ponders on that for a while, then he say: "Anyway, when he gave me the chance to meet other dwarves, I had to take it!"
Tyranael stays quite while walking, she seems not to feel much for engaging in conversation. In fact, she gazes around constantly, keeping an eye on her surroundings and a hand on one of her swords, which is not peacebound anymore. Occasionally, especially on loud exclamations like 'Blepharoplasty', she also looks backwards at the rest of the party to see if they might be doing anything untoward.
Nonetheless, beneath the alert outer layer, she is enjoying herself. It's a rather lovely day and it was pleasantly quiet on the path. Sometimes her hands brush over the grass in the middle of the path and at one point she picks a particularly lovely flower, smells at it and sticks it in her hair.
Lepus seems to have been drawn out and pays more attention to his companions and starts to actively partake in the discussion instead of his usual quietness.
"We're a strange bunch to send on a job like this. I would have thought they'd send an engineer if it's a problem with a lost water supply."
An anger flash turns Meinozsé's face a bit more red for a moment
"Hey!! they did send an engineer!! Me that is!!"
Not really angry but just feeling a bit overlooked she quickly calms.
"But I think they send all of us in case somebody is wilfully doing this and we don't just have to get the water flowing again but also convince them to keep it running"
Meinozsé reprimand makes Lepus twitch and duck. "Sorry." he mumbles.
She directly switches back to a friendly tone.
"Don't worry, the kings books where probably completely absorbing your focus when we introduced."
And she gives him a stroke over the head
Vladimir walking quietly along in thought, launches an idea out of the blue.
"Or maybe the king just wanted me to go along to keep an eye on you all."
*************
Hours later suddenly a new sound is coming from the woods, it sounds like somebody is playing a sad sounding melody on some kind of flute and the feeling of sadness is being strengthened by the particular sound of the flute.
The sounds of the music seems to have a very relaxing effect and whatever worry there was on their mind seems less significant.
Vladimir, seemingly finding this a normal event just quietly whistles along. While it makes Lepus smile and look around for the source
Even Tyranael relaxes some more, wondering how she could've thought that anything would attack them here. She released the hold on her sword and actually listened a bit more attentively to the conversation going on. And of course, now that she listened, she had something to say.
"It is a rather odd party we've been assigned to, isn't it? We don't seem to have all that much in common. But maybe that's exactly why we were put together like this. We all have different qualities that might be useful under certain circumstances. I can fight and have some knowledge of the land, Vladimir knows things about healing, miss Stensalil is an engineer, Lepus is a scribe, which is undoubtedly useful and Fhianna..." she falls silent for a moment, "she probably has some powers of persuasion or something. I'd say we're quite balanced out."
The mysterious music makes Vladimir less unwilling to fly. As Tyranael speaks of her 'knowledge of the land' and 'the things he knows about healing' he hovers before her face "I know the land as well! I've spoken with the land many times, and it's keepers! Have you?"
Vladimir flitters towards Fhianna and whispers: "Our Bladesinger is pretty talkative all of a sudden! Just how much of Krustars drink díd she drink?"
Vladimir lands behind Fhianna and continues walking. But the question gets lost in the relaxed mood.
Tyranael walked a moment further in silence, starting to hum softly to the tune that pervaded the air, while also trying to discern where the sound was coming from. Her curiosity got the better of her.
"Hey, is anyone else wondering where that excellent music is coming from? I'm rather of a mind to seek out the source of the song."
Smiling Vladimir responds "That should be fun, I'll join you!"
Lepus flinches at the idea of investigating "What if the people holding that party don't appreciate more guests? It might be a private thing, and they might be pretty forceful about us not being invited."
"That's what our lovely bladesinger is here for," Fhianna replies with a small smile towards Tyranael. "Who thinks we should take a look?"
Vladimir laughs at Lepus: "Don't be afraid little rabbit, Tyranael will protect you! Besides you're the scribe! If they want to hurt us they'll leave you alone so you can write about them and what a great fighters they are. I once met a scribe when I was visiting some leprechaun friends, he was getting to close to the mydum were they lived so we all went out in the forest to tease him away, after 5 minutes he started to cry and called us. When we spoke to him he told us about a covenant from the scribes guild and all other guild that stated scribes should be left alone in fights because they have to record it all. Unless he lied you'll be perfectly save.
And if these people don't want us to find them they should keep their music down so other people don't hear them and get curious!
Maybe they'll be offended if we don't join them, maybe they have spies in the bushes around us and we'll get an angry mob chasing us if we walk away!"
Lepus flinches. "I don't know if they'll be able to tell I'm a scribe, and they might not like things written down. But knowing my luck, it'll go wrong either way, so we might as well go and see."
Meinozsé gives him a friendly smile
"Don't worry Lepus, people like fame and the only way to get known is if their story is recorded by somebody and you're quite obvious a scribe"
"Come on now Lepus, surely you don't have bad luck all the time? You have nothing at all to be afraid of."
Then Tyranael stops speaking as just as suddenly the music stops and it seems all the live around is making sure not to be heard either.
Moments pass and then on the other side of the road a new tune starts, this time on a bit metallic sounding whistle. It starts really slowly and quickly speeds up to a fast happily bouncing melody.
A slightly festive feeling comes along with the sounds of this song.
Meinozsé's walk seems now to have been replaces by a dancelike walk matching the music.
"I like to go see who makes that music, it makes me feel like dancing. But can we really do that with all those people expecting us to solve the riddle of their river? It's not that I don't want a bit of rest by now, but the idea feels.... strange."
The idea seems to ruin the dancing mood a moment, but soon after she walks again on in the dancelike manner.
"Well ... maybe the people behind the music know something? We should find them - you could say it's our job to."
Fhianna grins at Meinozsé who still shows some doubt.
"Isn't that a small chance with it still being more then half a days walk to Mimes and even more to the blockade? We can always try of course"
The more they talk about it and listen to the music the more she seems to be loosing more and more reservation against leaving the path
Lepus sighs watches the conversation as if he already knows what fate has decided and is resigned to watching it happening.
Tyranael’s leading role catches back up with her.v
"I believe we have reached a consensus. Let's go see what it is then. Since we're about to head into the surrounding forest, wouldn't it be useful for you to actually fly now Vladimir? Unless you want to lose the rest of us."
Vladimir looks at Tyranael, wondering... "Just how DRUNK are you?! I've been flying for a while now, are you really that BLIND? You think you can save us if we'd be in trouble, in this condition you can't even stand watch!" He looks around, then circles around Tyranael’s head "I'm not invisible am I? I might as well be! You don't see me, Fhianna ignores, if I were to lose you, you wouldn't notice till you'd need a surgeon!!"
Tyranael focuses her eyes on Vladimir, as if recognising his presence for the first time.
"I'm... I'm sorry, I suppose I was a bit distracted by finding the source of this music. But I can assure you that I am not drunk. I could guard us all properly if there was any need to, but I don't see anything happening anyway."
With that she pretty much ignores everyone around her and focuses on getting towards the source of the music.
To go look for the sound they move of the road into the forest on the left where the growth soon forces to walk in single file again. By the time they are a hundred meters of the road it seems like the source should by now have been reached but it seems still to be quite much ahead. And then it stops.
A couple of moments of silence to wonder why the sound stopped and then yet another sound starts. From the left comes the sounds of panpipes, right of into a fast sharp merry tune with an occasional slider while switching from a higher to a lower melody or back.
Lepus looks about in confusion. "Great, someone is playing silly buggers." he grumbles.
At the right next to you suddenly a bird tjirps a piece of the previous melody but gets startled by somebody who suddenly moves to look in it's direction and it flies off.
"Anyone want to bet that there's more birds like that one around, and that they're making the song? Would explain why it stopped so suddenly." Lepus says as he resigns himself to a wild goose chase and follows Tyranael who's still doing what her curiosity demands, trying to get to the music.
And as she moves through the forest in the new direction the sound finally seems to get closer by. As a few meters ahead an open place becomes visible the being there playing the music notices the group at the same time and the music stops. Looking at each other a moment it becomes clear it's a satyr sitting on the ground that was playing it's panpipes.
He smiles and stands up.
"You came to listen to my music? Please join me here!"
And he makes a wide arm movement
Fhianna seeing the satyr, has a big, big grin appear on her face, and she - perhaps too quickly - moves to join him.
Vladimir grins at Lepus "Is this the kind of strange bird you had in mind?"
Lepus looks askance at Vladimir. "No, I'm glad I didn't bet money. Wrong again." he says this with such a morose lack of surprise that it becomes obvious that he expected that the universe would conspire to prove him wrong. He watches Fhianna's reaction with some scepticism, but follows the satyr's invitation, albeit carefully. He definitely makes sure that someone else is between him and the satyr until he's sure it won't do anything unpleasant to him.
Vladimir flitters towards the Satyr and hovers in front of him so he can look him in the face directly. "Hello there sir, very nice to meet you, I am Vladimir", he reaches out a tiny hand and waits for the satyr to shake it.
The satyr holds his hand out with only one finger stretched towards Vladimir to grab
"Nice to meet you, I'm Pylosmas"
Then he puts his left arm around Fhianna and smiles very friendly
"And what's your name beauty?"
Fhianna makes a low, pleased little sound. "Fhianna," she murmurs to Pylosmas.
"We heard you playing, your music is very lovely, it even defrosted our Bladesinger!!" Vladimir smiles en gives Tyranael a wink, "and you made our engineer dance!. Do you happen to know 'How pleasant sings that bird, impersonating my absolute favourite steam engine, sitting on that branch in the Ironwood tree near the factory by the volcano?' It's a gnomish song I think, a friend of my parents, also a satyr used to play it for me when I was little, the song is so full of joy, I would love to here it again!"
"I did not defrost, I was never really frozen anyway," Tyranael replied a bit grumpily to Vladimir, but she immediately lightened up again "it's a pleasure to meet you Pylosmas. My name is Tyranael and we were indeed attracted to your excellent music. I'm sure we would all like to hear more of you playing."
She settled down on the ground comfortably quickly followed by Meinozsé, not even considering for a moment that they should be going somewhere or that this might somehow be dangerous. It just seemed sheer impossible that something would happen right now. Lepus being paranoid as always seems to consider that option and glances around uncomfortably while standing behind Tyranael.
Pylosmas looks a moment at Vladimir, blinking a couple of times
"A gnomish song? that's an unusual request for one such as you. But I don't know the song you are referring to. I do might know an other one but I can't do that all by myself. Have played that song a couple of times with some friends here using some pans we found. We could try and see if they are interested in doing that again"
He gives Fhianna a gentle scratch behind an ear while his hand passes by on it's way to his mouth. With both hands on his mouth he whistles low but loudly a short rhythm
"They'll probably show up soon, they now know I have company"
Meanwhile giving Fhianna a gentle stroke while putting his arm back over her shoulders.
Vladimir smiles at the Satyr and says: "My parents wanted me and my brothers and sisters to have a good and extensive education, we had to learn a lot about all sorts of music as a part of that education so I'm familiar with music from all over the world and all the races. I like gnomish music a lot just as their poetry, they know to say so little in so many words, it really is an art!"
He decides he's not in the mood for a debate with Tyranael and sits down in the circle that has formed around the satyr, quietly observing his party members and smiling.
"How nice it is to have an audience that comes sit so nicely to listen to you"
and he sits down on the stone he had been sitting on before
"Please Fhianna sit here next to me"
And his arm indicates a nice soft piece of grass next to the stone
Then he takes his panpipes up again and starts to play an other active dancing song. But soon you hear a also the whistle again this time playing along with Pylomas and soon a 2nd male satyr walks into the clearing while playing a whistle and comes to a stop close to Tyranael.
Lepus slowly relaxes and soon he can't help himself from being caught up in the festive atmosphere, and a rare smile graces his lips as he relaxes. His ears begin bobbing comically as he starts nodding his head in time to the beat of the music.
Then some hear a rustle behind Lepus and when he looks up there comes a female satyr carrying a set of drums and she eye's him a moment, flutters her eye lashes and sits down next to him while starting to accompany the other two with some supporting rhythms
Lepus isn't used to being the object of sexual interest from people he hasn't paid to pretend they find him attractive. He twitches almost as if struck as the female satyr looks at him, and starts shifting about extremely nervously.
Then Meinozsé can't hold herself anymore and jumps up to dance on the music, but after a dozen paces she suddenly bumps into another satyr that came out of the woods, he gently grabs her and dances together with her on the music.
While that's happening a second female satyr silently joins the group and sits down at the edge of the clearing smiling at the festive mood her friends already made.
Glancing at Fhianna and raising an eyebrow seeing how quickly she had given into the temptation of male company for a moment, Tyranael couldn't remain sceptic about that for long, as the music started to affect her. Slowly she got up, getting a feeling of the rhythm of the music. She didn't usually dance to music a lot, except for the music of steel ringing against steel, dancing and weaving in battle. Still, with her talent for music and her bladedancing experience, it shouldn't be too difficult to dance now. Of course, it wouldn't be anything you'd normally see in a ballroom. Wide, sweeping movements, arms weaving around, making circles around the other attendees as if she were in a mock battle, only hopefully to the rhythm of the song.
Fhianna just grins at Tyranael and scoots on up to satyr.
The satyr that played the whistle observes Tyranael’s dancing a couple of moments and then stops playing on the whistle, puts it away and starts dancing in a similar fashion to Tyranael, matching her moves but meanwhile whistles along with the music****(without his whistle).
When the song ends after a couple of minutes he approaches Tyranael with an extended hand.
"Good dancing, nice to see something different for a change. I'm Mysaryas"
At the same time the satyr dancing with Meinozsé extends his hand to introduce himself as Marsilion.
Looking at Mysaryas quizzically for a moment, Tyranael took a moment to remind herself that probably only properly educated tolvs would know the dancy combat style of the bladesinger. This satyr at least wouldn't, however large their knowledge of music and dance might be.
"Nice to meet you Mysaryas. My name is Tyranael. The way I dance is inspired by the combat style of our order. We weave around our enemies, not allowing them a chance to strike. It's a beautiful and graceful style, unlike the styles of some others, which really on strength more than agility."
"A dance is a dance, if I look at it I usually can dance along" and he smiles at her
"But I think it's really nice that some people extend the art use it for other goals as well"
Meanwhile Pylosmas takes the opportunity that when people are gathering their breath and introducing to whisper something to Fhianna "Wanna go for a walk through the forest with me after the next song? I know a couple of really nice places that I like to show you" raising his eyebrows a moment at the end it.
Fhianna, continuing to grin, nods to Pylosmas, and checks out Pylosmas now and then as if he made her impatient about something.
Then Pylosmas addresses everybody, especially his fellow satyrs.
"Vladimir there" stretching his arm towards the fairy to indicate who he meant. "asked me if i could also play some gnomish music. Do you guys wanna help me?"
The female next to Vladimir takes the opportunity to introduce herself as well, 'Miladone' with a slight courtesy bow towards Vladimir.
With a variety of confirmations the satyrs get some instruments, Mysaryas takes his whistle again, the satyr next to Lepus takes a pan and addresses him:
"Do you have a pan also to join in the rhythm?" and she flutters her eyelashes again at him
The others also get some pans or set's of metal tube's.
Meinozsé sits down again at the edge of the clearing, Marsilion setting himself next to her with 2 metal tubes.
Pylosmas starts with beating a rhythm that seems almost random with 2 small tubes soon to be supported by Marsilion, Miladone and the female next to Lepus, who then directly try's to get Lepus to participate also
"Come on, just try something, it's gnomish so it's almost impossible to do it wrong"
Lepus starts as he is spoken to again. He makes a big show of going through his meagre belongings. "Errr....no. All I have is books, ink, feathers and food."
Then Mysaryas starts to play on his whistle strange shrill high tones that seem to resemble the flutes of steam engines and let them move from one tone to the other with fast slides. Now and then Pylosmas and Marsilion blow on one of their pipes and produce some vibrations to the mix that now and them seem like moaning engines.
Hearing the gnomish music Vladimir jumps around and claps his hands in utter joy!!
The wonder about the strange music can clearly be read from Meinozsé's face while she listens to the almost industrial sounds as she slowly start to actually hear some probably purposeful repetitions in the rhythms that even make things sound more like machinery.
Tyranael has her chat slightly interrupted by the starting of the new song, a song which undeniably had rhythm, but still sounded awfully unrefined to Tyranael. Nonetheless, as performed by the satyrs it was still quite enjoyable and although she couldn't find a proper way to dance to this, she still found her foot tapping to the rhythm.
After a couple of changes in the music, patterns became noticeable, patterns that could be comparable to stanza's and choruses with the stanza's often being new variations of the first one. A couple of minutes pass and then they finish the song and all the satyrs stand up and make a bow towards the group and Vladimir especially as it was his request.
Pylosmas steps forward and gains the attention
"If you would excuse me now, I promised miss Fhianna a walk through the forest"
and he puts his arm around her and drags her close to him
Mysaryas smiles at him
"Have fun, we'll entertain the others"
turning his attention to the rest, their 'guests' letting his eye's linger a little bit longer on Tyranael
"We like to spend time with guests"
Pylosmas gives him and the others a short bow and then walks of into the forest with Fhianna
Fhianna grins back. "And you should have a lot of time to spend with them," she adds.
Amyda smiles at Fhianna
"We didn't expect anything else, we know Pylosmas. You will have a very good time under his care"
****** intermetzo: A romantic stroll through the forest *****
Pylosmas guides Fhianna through the forest over paths that are hardly noticeable but are easily walkable by the two of them holding each other close.
When they are out of hearing range he softly whispers to her
"What would you like to see first, to the cool soft mossy ground under our old great-grandfather tree of this forest? He's really an impressive sight"
Or to the soft grass along the creek, the flowers there are really beautiful, but not as much as you"
and he looks lovingly at Fhianna
Fhianna smiles almost lazily, looking Pylosmas over with undisguised admiration. "Which is closest?"
"It doesn't really differs much, but the creek is slightly closer by"
And he leads her to the creek.
A while later the two of them lie lazily in the grass next to each other and Pylosmas turns to his side to look at Fhianna
"Its getting late. Maybe we should spend the night here. The others will explain it to your friends."
Fhianna kisses him and whispers in his ear "It will be my pleasure" and she gives him a conspiring smile.
Pylosmas gets up and takes some fishing gear he had stashed here under a bush and sets himself at the creek
"Will you go a bit downstream? There's a bush with nice berry's there"
After a dinner of baked fish and berry's they give in again the the longing of each others arms....
***************************
As Pylosmas and Fhianna are leaving grins Miladone suggestively to Amyda about some private joke. Then she gets up and takes initiative.
"Well, do you have any more music requests? Maybe a good dancing song, those two fair tolv lady's seem to enjoy that, or do you know a nice game to play? maybe one that involves music. Or something that you usually do in your spare time? I'm really curious"
And she looks at the others lingering a moment on Vladimir.
Amyda takes the opportunity to smile again at Lepus and whispers quietly to him: "Yeah, I would really like to know what you like to do in some spare time, maybe we can do something of that together, you weren't planning to wait for that fox that would probably like to eat you do you?"
Which makes Lepus jerks upright and murmur back "You....wouldn't like my spare time....I read books....lots of books...about history and geography and mag....making things. Not much else, not much in the way of....girl....boy things for me." Lepus murmurs nervously. It's not that he doesn't want to be seduced by a satyr, it'd probably be the high point of his year (if not more), but the thought makes him incredibly nervous.
Mysaryas then takes Tyranael’s hand
"Do you wish to have an other dance with me?"
After momentarily raising an eyebrow when looking at Lepus's nervous reactions Tyranael focuses on the satyr.
"Yes, I would love to dance with you. You appear to be an excellent dancer. Aside from my bladesong style I don't know much about dancing though. I've been more of a singer really."
Tyranael turns to Amyda and smiles.
"Maybe you can play something closer to my roots. I've always thoroughly enjoyed the songs of Rinadiel Onyxsinger, famous Tolv troubadour. Do you know his songs? If so, you might play one of those."
When the gnomish song stops and Vladimir notices Fhianna gone he seems to wake up out of a trance or something. "Did we just let the foxy lady leave with a satyr? Have you guys ever encountered groups of satyr before? You know they are kind of like sirens, right? Once one leaves with them you rarely see them back? And if you do they're often with child? If we need Fhianna for this mission we better get her back right away!"
"Relax Vladimir" Lepus mumbles somewhat uncharacteristically, before he realises what he just said. For all his nervousness, he seems to be enjoying himself.
Miladone responds almost right away at Tyranael ignoring Vladimir’s worry's but smiling a slight bit more when Lepus reassures him
"I'm not really much into the music fashions among the Tolvs" almost sneering "they bother to much about having some clothes on while being among civilized people"
"But I've actually heard of this Rinadiel's songs. I think I can try one. Will you sing along with me?"
Considering Vladimir's worries for a moment, Tyranael shrugs it off as she hears Miladone's voice. Surely it couldn't be so bad, could it? Besides, she hardly liked Fhianna anyway and didn't see much use for her.
"Sure I'll sing along with you. Just start and I'll jump in somewhere."
Vladimir seems to have forgotten his concerns again and starts a conversation with Miladone about her hairy legs and what he could do about them. His topic surprises her for a moment but she quickly chats with him about the satyrs idea of beauty and how hairy legs aren't a problem.
Miladone then starts to whistle a quite tune for a moment
"Remember that one Mysaryas?"
He seems to look a moment in the distance, remembering something
"ah, now I remember, I'll start and then follow your story"
Then he starts to play the same tune on his whistle, quite soon Miladone starts to sing.
First about a valiant man that had defeated all the men who had plotted against his position, how he brought one to disgrace by exposing his attempt to blackmail him, about an other who he tricked into eating the poison the man tried to feed him by doing an impressive swapping game with the drinks and not even spilling them, and so 3 more long lasting strophes.
As Miladone doesn't seem to be to interested in getting her legs depilated, Vladimir jumps up when the music starts and dances around in a small circle, careful not to be stepped on. He'd like to sing along but he doesn't know the words so he just makes noises that follow the music. (he might look and sound like a tiny little monkey now).
As he notices the other people are careful not to step on him, he happily let's himself go... totally out of control dancing in a sort of trance. On the ground, in the air, upside down. A crazy fairy dance!
Meanwhile Amayda whispers on with Lepus, and something about it makes her chuckle.
"Why would you think I would be referring to eh.. girl boy things?
Books can be nice once in a while also. But I'm also interested in geography. In just an other way like you maybe, I like to look of beautiful landscapes, and being in one."
Lepus nervousness is increased by his embarrassment at apparently having mistaken her attempt. "Errr....right, of course. You never did say anything about....that. And yeah, landscapes are.....nice. I don't get out much.....this is the first time I've been out in the wilds for.....ever."
She scratches him behind his ears
"Do you want me to talk about those things then?"
And she gives a very lovely smile at him and the moment he looks also flutters her eyelashes.
"About what kind of landscapes have you read that you would like to see now your finally on the road and maybe able to look around?"
Lepus twitches for a moment. He's very sensitive behind the ears, and not in a bad way. With supreme effort he gathers his wits again to answer. "Uh....I've always wanted to see a waterfall." he stammers. He had almost said hills, but that is simply too similar to certain anatomical features for his over stimulated mind right now.
"Well, we don't have any of those nearby, the creek here meanders among some hills..."
"But you were going in the right direction to find some mountains with waterfalls."
"What do you like so much about those waterfalls that you like to see them?"
And she moves a little bit closers and scratches again behind the ears where he reacted so funny
Meanwhile the songs tale moved on and now it tells about how he tries to court the princess but how she constantly plays with his attempts to impress her and let it look like no special act.
It takes Lepus even longer to respond this time. He knows if he doesn't tell her to stop, he'll do something stupid. But it's so nice...."I think they ....might look nice. Big, majestic, watery." he mumbles distractedly.
She smiles and gazes a bit in the distance
"Well they can seem that way if you don't see them daily. My mother lives near one, but I couldn't stand it up there in the mountains, I need forests around me to feel good"
Lepus twitches and shouts "NO!!" while shaking his head. He obviously means "Yes!!!!" Just as the song is about to tell about how the hero makes a bold move to ask her on a big court day and they end happily ever after and Meladone en Marsilion abruptly stop playing, in the middle of a sentence!! The abruptness startling Vladimir and making him crash down to earth, hitting it not very subtle. The satyrs turn towards Lepus and Meladone speaks
"No? what's the problem? Don't you like the music?"
Lepus boggles for a moment and becomes as tense as anyone has seen him yet. he shifts about in embarrassment and looks down at the ground. "Uh, not you. The music is fine....keep playing, please."
Startled by Lepus's shouting and the consequent stopping of the music, Tyranael stumbles in her dance and almost bowls over Mysaryas. But it also clears her head enough for her to realise that they have priorities over dancing with satyrs.
"Uhm. You know, maybe we should go on to Mimes. We've had some excellent fun here, but we should really get moving if we want to get there in time. Thank you for an excellent time Mysaryas, the rest of you."
She bows gracefully and then eyes her three companions.
"We should probably see if we can find Fhianna," she says, with a small tinge of regret.
"I don't think she'd like being disturbed." Lepus mumbles.
All the satyrs faces suddenly seem to look a lot less happy, and Marsilion joins the discussion
"That's a sudden mood swing, but Lepus here is correct, they should be left alone till they return, and that will most likely be a bit after breakfast, if she has even any interest to still go on with you. You see, Pylosmas seems to have that effect on women that once he has taken one in his arms..."
A let's a short moment of silence
"So you can either keep dancing and singing here with us and hope that she will still come along, or leave now and try to find you way further without her."
Lepus seems extremely uncomfortable as the mood turns sour. He looks to other, more forceful members of their little band for a decision and apparently hopes to be left out of the whole affair.
Noticing that no one of her party replies to the satyrs in any way, she looks at them quizzically, especially Vladimir, who usually talks more than he should, until she sees him sprawled out on the ground unmoving. She moves quickly towards him and carefully picks him off the ground to check for breathing. Sighing a breath of relief because he was, she lays him carefully on a nearby low tree branch.
"Well, I suppose we could stay here until breakfast," she says, gazing at the edge of the forest Fhianna disappeared into and then at the still form of Vladimir, "maybe Fhianna will return and Vladimir here will regain consciousness. And I suppose this is as good a place as any to spend the night."
"Right." Lepus says. He seems quite pleased with the decision, though he tries not to show it.
Amyda then puts an arm around Lepus, and pulls him a bit against her, almost hugginly, and meanwhile gives him a stroke over his head
"So you and me have still a whole night together, really nice don't you think?"
"Y...y...yeah." Lepus stammers. He doesn't exactly appear displeased, just nervous beyond belief.
Mysaryas meanwhile quickly joins Tyranael in looking after Vladimir, when he is put down he takes a little bit of some herb en crushes it under Vladimir’s nose releasing some crumbs and a peppery smell
"That should wake him up. Does he has more often problems with flying?"
Vladimir wakes up.. "yeah flying is a disaster..." tries to lift up his head "ouch my head" falls down again... "I'm just gonna lie here for a bit if you don't mind...". He closes his eyes and tries not to move.