Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: arsmith@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Alan Smith) Subject: [VampQ] Ja'nis: On decisions and departures. Message-ID: Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 03:16:49 GMT Ja'nis found her friend on the bough of a tree in Kron Park, nibbling at a leaf. "Ptui." Palandun said, spitting out his portion, "Blech. Defintely different from yesterday." He grabbed a notebook dangling from his belt and began making some notes in it. "Palandun." Ja'nis said, announcing her presence. "Hmmm? Oh, Hi!" He said genially, sitting back in the tree. "Can I offer you some fruit? It's quite good." "No thanks." She replied, letting a wistfull grin come across her face. "Gunther's in the temple of Ilmater." She pronounced, reffering to her former employer who had sold Palandun into slavery and then skipped town when the cops came after him. "I know that. I put him there myself." ˙Palandun remembered the whole thing rather vividly. "Well, since the Ilmatrans won't release him, He can't go up for trial. If he can't go up for trial, they can't hold me here. I need work, Palandun. You seem to have this inexhaustable supply of coinage, but I'm not a rich woman..." "You found a job." He pronounced. "Outside." She nodded, "I'm going on a quest for the Vampire Orchid, whatever that is." Palandun admitted never having heard of it before, either. He said he would take a look in the literature. "Don't bother." She said, "I meet our team leader tonight, I have a feeling we'll leave either then or in the morning. You can't finish your project here before then? Well, then, this is goodbye." Ja'nis had spent the better part of the past month or so bored while Palandun was in the south chasing her former employer back and forth. She was a witness, and so not allowed to leave the city. During that time she had alternately cursed her employer and her friend, sometimes both, for her enforced inactivity. When Palanudn had returned he insisted on acting like nothing had happened, and that had hardened some part of her heart towards him, a part that rejoiced when it found she was doing this. That part of her heart jumped for joy at Palandun's surprised, hurt look. Some other part of her heart took his simple expressions for what they seemed to be, and felt that she would miss him. That part remembered fighting beside him in the Spitting cobra, and when he had staggered into the inn after helping the guards out on Founder's Day. In short, her emotions were mixed, to say the least. Palandun's were not. He reached up to a nearby branch, grabbed his pack, and rummaged around a bit until he found what he was looking for. He pitched a small black object to her, underhanded. "It's a beeper." He explained, "Fishing vessels back home use them a lot. Press on the button if you're in danger, and I'll come as fast as I can, bringing what help I can." "Thanks." She said, examining the object, then sequestering it on her person. "Thank you, for all the help I've gotten since I came here." He replied, "And good luck on your quest. Don't forget some rope. One last thing?" "What?" She asked. "How do I get down from here?" Ja'nis laughed as she helped her friend down, gave him a parting hug, and wandered off down the hill to keep her tryst...