[The Rearing Stallion] A Girl's Gotta Eat (Markus)

[Airil]

Airil had been no stranger to pain during her life and had no difficulty seeing through Markus's lie but, she knew that people who tried to hide their pain usually had a good reason to do so. Who was she to interfere with that?

She nodded her head in confirmation that she was fine, though her face still held that worried look, and led the way back to the table. He needed to sit down and relax, hopefully the pain would subside soon.

Her plate was still there, untouched. She pushed it away, the fight had spoiled her appetite. Her stomach was quite queasy but she didn't think she was in any danger of causing more of a scene by being sick. Instead, her mind was churning away about what she would say. She needed to apologize to Markus.

She waved her hand indistinctly towards the area the fighting had occurred in, “I'm sorry... about that.”

[Markus Andres]

Markus was happy to know that she was alright, she could be lying like he was, but he almost always trusted people. For he believed that people inherently wasn't so bad people. With some exceptions. He found his chair, that he had kicked in the path of the Drunk's friend. And pulled it over by the table again, before finally sitting next to her again and pleased to find his mug of Ale still standing. He took a drink from it as the pain in his midsection diminished and he found it easier to breathe again.

It was never a pleasant feeling to have the air knocked out of you. But he had tried worse things, still, he didn't enjoy pain at all. He let out a good relieved sigh when things in the tavern had returned to normal and he turned to the girl who seemed really serious about her apology. As if it had been her fault.

"Don't worry about it, hardly your fault that you're pretty." He said as he reached out and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "As I said, you're safe here in the city."

[Airil]

She could feel herself blushing so she looked away. Before the fight she had briefly entertained the thought that he might have ulterior motives for approaching her but then he had risked his own safety to defend her. He didn't even blame her.

But what if it hadn't been her fault and had actually been a setup? She shook the thought from her mind. She just wasn't going to think like that. She'd always had trouble with her master's way of thinking and it seemed harder to believe now that she was away from Ravok.

She still didn't understand why he'd thought the drunk had wanted to kiss him. Maybe he wanted a kiss. Her blush grew brighter and she rushed to fill the growing silence between them.

“Is the pain going away?” She had forgotten that she was pretending not to notice his lie.

[Markus Andres]

Markus noticed the girl's blush before she turned away. She was a Konti and the blush was a stark contrast to her pale skin. Markus looked down at his ale and drank some more until Airil broke the silence between the two, Markus hadn't thought about his pain for a while, his mind had chased away the feeling and replaced it was a funny feeling after he had noticed her blush. He was a young man and even his usual noble intentions couldn't ignore his raging hormones. But then he remembered he had told her he was alright, meaning she had seen right through his bluff with ease. Surprising since he had been hiding his pain from other knights and Richard during sparring.

"Ah, so you noticed? ... I didn't want you to worry about me, it was my decision to punish the guy." Markus said. Thinking that it was refreshing to have someone ask if his pain was easing up. Richard would have ignored it and the other knights would have told him to suck it up.

"But yes, the pain is almost gone now." Markus, who found that talking about his pain wasn't an interesting subject, was eager to change it to something else.

"Do you come from the fabled Konti isle? I have always heard about that place and wanted to travel there." Markus said in a light tone of voice.

[Airil]

While she was glad that he had changed the subject, their new course wasn't one Airil knew how to answer.

She wanted to hesitate but instead her nerves hurried her into answer, afraid of taking too long, “I am.” Airil had never been very good at deception. The few times she had tried to hide anything from her master, he had seen through her and punished her severely for it. He had preferred that she remain an open book.

Though it wasn't technically a lie, she found that she still couldn't live with it, “I haven't been there since I was... very young. My mother...” No, she didn't want to go there. She needed to change the subject, “liked to travel. What about you? Are you from Syliras? What do you do here?” It wasn't the smoothest transition and the two questions rushed out, a stark contrast to the halting way she had answered his question. She vaguely hoped he wouldn't notice.

She didn't even know why she was continuing the conversation. She wasn't hungry anymore and all she wanted to do was go back to her room and get away from all these people but she had caused him some trouble and didn't feel it was right to just walk out so soon. Still, she knew that the longer she stayed, the more likely she was to say something wrong.

[Markus Andres]

Markus was hoping that she knew a lot about the island, for as he had said, he had an interest in traveling and that island was one of the places he really wanted to visit. Mainly because of the scenery and such, but an all female race didn't sound too bad either. which was why Markus was a little disappointed when she revealed that she hadn't been there since she had been very young.

Markus noted how she suddenly changed subject, much like how Markus had when he didn't want to talk about his pain. Which meant Markus should probably steer clear of asking about her past. Markus took another mouthful of ale to gather his thoughts.

"I wasn't born here in Syliras but I've lived here for the most of my life, or at least the part of my life I actively remember." Another good taste of ale "I am currently a part of the Syliran Knights, but only as a squire. But I will probably soon venture out on my quest to become a full-fledged knight." Markus said with a glint in his eyes and his voice thick with a sudden passion. He loved the idea of him soon joining the knights as an equal.

[Airil]

Airil felt a chill run up her spine. A knight... Of all the people she had been trying to avoid, she ended up in an intimate conversation with a soon-to-be knight. She slipped her hands into her lap and couldn't help but rub the back of her left hand nervously.

“A knight,” she said rigidly, “that must exciting.” She knew that she sounded less than excited, but hoped he would mistake it for some other emotion. She needed to make her way out of this conversation but without being totally rude. Who knew what he might think of her if he knew her better, but she still couldn't be mean to someone who had started out so nice. Then his words ran through her head again.

“Wait, quest?” The thought of the man who had brought her here, rose into her mind. When she'd asked him why he'd bought her and brought her to safety, he'd said it was all part of his quest. Suddenly she seemed far more interested. “What kind of quest?”

Could it really be that the people she was so afraid of were the same as the man who had freed her?

[Markus Andres]

Markus said in silence for some time after she asked for kind of quest. That was the problem, he really didn't have a clue, he had talked to some of the other knights and those who revealed what their quest had been, gave him a broad scope of things. Rarely had the quest been something ridiculously hard to accomplish for a single knight.

"I really don't know..." Markus finally responded. "From what I've heard, the quest could be finding a special tome or book in some ruins, or to the more dangerous idea of bringing bandits in an area to justice." Markus paused for a couple of seconds.

"Which is why I train a lot, so I can do a lot of different things."

[Airil]

Airil sat in thoughtful silence. So the knights had to do different deeds to prove themselves. If that was so, then maybe her benefactor had indeed been a knight in training and had freed her as part of his quest. But that would conflict with what her master had told her, about the Syliran Knight hating slaves. She burned to ask Markus more about that.

She thought again of her mother's story and the Konti who helped start the knights, the thought of being able to follow in her footsteps was thrilling. Maybe she could help now, as a way of paying back the debt she had incurred with her freedom. She still wasn't even sure how she felt about being free. Surely it was something to be thankful for and to give thanks to the Gods for, but had her master lived, she wasn't sure she'd feel the same way.

Her emotions on the subject were too strong and conflicted so she pushed the thoughts from her mind for now.

“Who decides what your quest will be?” Her attention was all focused on Markus now.

[Markus Andres]

Markus lifted his mug to take another drink, and found that after a moment the ale stopped flowing. It made him annoyed that he hadn't accepted any of the earlier offers to buy him more ale. But done was done and he couldn't do anything about it now. He looked to the pretty lady by his table and for the first time noticed that she hadn't eaten since the fight.

"Well, from what I've been told, we spend a day meditating in the shade of the Windoak. After that I become unsure of what happens. I mean, maybe the meditation grants us a moment of enlightenment and our quest is made clear. Or the Windoak reveals our quest to us. But the general theme of the quests seem to be doing something that benefits the Syliran Knights or the general population."

Markus thought about his own quest, he was almost too eager to get his own quest. But he doubted himself, he didn't feel ready. Didn't feel strong enough. There were many people who were better than him at fighting and what if Markus failed the quest? Would he be forced out into a civilian life? He didn't know how to handle himself outside the military. But was it possible to fail your quest and still be alive? Markus pondered about this question for a moment. Wishing Airil would say something so he could stop thinking about death and dishonor.