Ugly Inc : Chapter 4 : Tine Paths
In reply to Temple (msg # 21):
Oh, I didn’t mean nothing by it, Doc. I don’t mind when you use my full name. You always have, it’s normal. But this feathered pain-in-the-scales only unpacks it when he’s feelin’ especially motherly. An’ I don’t need it. I just need us to find a thread to pull on and get on with this job. Like you say, new allies…ok, maybe not allies, exactly, but business acquaintances, well bein’ on their good side is a good start to keeping ourselves amongst the breathin’.
Ash spent the remainder of the night sitting with the Doc and Kray, and the others as they came and went, laughing and occasionally staring in bewilderment at some of the stories shared. For just a moment he could almost think they were all friends and that there wasn’t a nasty, gruesome world just outside their door, waiting to swallow each of them up in turn. It was a good night.
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Ash couldn’t keep his eyes still as they moved through the market the next day. From what Temple had said, he shouldn’t be in immediate danger from these deep elves, and as long as they could pull off the job, things ought to stay that way. That wasn’t quite enough to settle his nerves, so he moved on edge most of the morning.
For the first time in his life, Ash was happy to have Buto nearby. The blue mountain was certainly enough on his own to make any would-be assassins reconsider. Or at least decide to wait for another day. That was an odd feeling, as Buto was normally nothing more than a pain in Ash’s rear quadrant.
Ash took up a position to watch the streets around them as Kray began his spell. Better prepared than skewered. He glanced at his friend, eyes blank and apparently unseeing. He was there, but also not. Kray had tried to describe it to him once. Something like dreaming to Ash’s mind. Kray’s body was here, but his mind was everywhere else. Somehow connecting with the people who had come and gone from this place recently. Ash couldn’t fathom it. He preferred his boots to be firmly on the ground and his mind to be fixed on their immediate surroundings. At the moment those surroundings seemed peaceful; Ash only hoped it would remain that way.