Ch. 41: A Strict Warning

Once we exited the main gates we began making our way to the stables. Richie looked at me turning somber again said, "But seriously luv, you don't need to get so worked up. I don't know if I've told you this before cause I was just going to keep it to myself but Corbin gave me a very strict warning not to let your temper flare especially around men."

"What?" I asked incredulously, "Why would he even say that?"

"I don't know but it's probably because of the trouble your temper gets us into sometimes, you know? I mean, you wound up almost getting killed in that arena against that disgusting creep who wanted to take advantage of you - he probably wouldn't have been hell-bent on trying to kill you if you would have rejected him a little nicer. I know you won't tell me what exactly you said that night, but if I know my sister at all then you pissed him off. And don't even get me started on how you spoke to the 'ex'-prince along with talking crap to that cutie Baymun too . . . you need to cool it down sometimes alright? Yeah I know you've got the skills to back up what you dish out, but I just worry for you sometimes and Corbin wouldn't say those things lightly - you know?" Richie made us stop walking for a moment as he cocked his head to look at me directly. His bright blue eyes seemed to pierce my very soul, as if he were trying to sear his meaning into my innermost being.

"Geez Rich - you make it seem as if you were the elder. You even pulled the sister card - not cool bro." I smirked at him, trying to throw off his sudden strict warnings. It was odd that Corbin would request something so strange; it wasn't like I was violent when I got worked up . . . Why would he warn Richie not to allow me to lose my temper around men? Was it because we weren't around very many men in Eurosia therefore I wouldn't know how to interact with men as well as women? Maybe there was a certain etiquette I wasn't following or something . . .

"I'm being serious Ez. Stop changing the subject." Richie wouldn't allow us to go forward until I acknowledged his words.

"Okay Rich. I get it. I need to be nicer to men - okay?" I raised my eyebrows and Richie gave a small smile. He nodded, seemingly happy with my reply and began walking again. I knew Richie was probably a little uncomfortable having to get strict with me, I mean he typically loved throwing things off like a joke for the most part. It was rare to see him be so adamant about something . . I guess Corbin's warning was getting to him.

At this point Kovin was all but passed out on our shoulders and I could barely keep him up. I felt a continuous pain in my side along with a small trickle of liquid so I assumed my wound had opened up already. Because of this I couldn't think to much on Richie's foreboding message, but thankfully at that moment we noticed Rodair and Toval making their way toward us.

"What's wrong with Sir Kovin? He sick or something?" Toval asked looking at Kovin up and down.

"Nah, your fearless leader seems to have incapacitated himself." Richie grinned.

"Nice. I saw him and Ezran step out - you didn't take advantage of the noble Sir did you?" Toval winked at me.

"Nah, that's more up Richie's alley." I scoffed.

Richie feigned a hurt expression while holding his free hand over his chest, "My dear Ezzie, however fabulous I may seem, we all know I like the ladies. While Kovin is a gem of a man, my loins wouldn't allow it."

"Please don't bring up your loins." I grimaced.

Toval and Rodair looked at each other questioningly as Rodair turned to seriously ask, "Richie likes women?"

I bit my lip to keep from out-right laughing as Richie sighed, "Is it so hard to believe? I bet I could put you both to shame with the amount of satisfied women I've had in my lowly eighteen years of life compared to each of your experiences combined."

Rodair didn't seem to be bothered at all by Richie's comment, however Toval's face turned red as Richie's words registered, "You wanna go small fry? I can out-bed you any day of the week alright? I bet I could beat your scrawny arse into a pulp right now just for pissing me off - how about that?"

"I didn't realize you were into that kind of thing Toval," Richie said haughtily, "However, I will have to decline . . . I wouldn't want you anywhere near my 'arse' - I just told you I'm not into that."

Toval reached out to grab at Richie readying his fist for a punch, but I raised my free hand and said loudly, "Okay boys - settle down. I would very much like to get this drunken mess of a man back to his quarters. You can have a pissing contest later, alright?"

Toval lowered his arms as he grumbled something under his breath while Richie seemed perfectly satisfied with the whole ordeal. Rodair came forward, lifting Kovin like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. Kovin let out a little incomprehensible complaint, but his eyes remained closed. Rodair laid him over one of the horses and we all made our way back to camp.

-----------------------

After the eventful night the entire camp packed up in the morning, readying ourselves for another journey into battle. I had to re-stitch a portion of my wound last night, but luckily Richie didn't find out. Even though we typically shared the same tent, we had a small partition allowing a symballance of privacy when needed. I just waited for him to drift off to sleep before mending it up.

When we headed out it was strange for Kovin not to appear as hung over as he probably should've been. I tried asking him some follow-up questions from the things he brought up last night, but he apparently couldn't remember anything. He actually said that I was delusional to think a man like him could ever get that drunk in the first place! As if . . the guy obviously was too drunk to remember and was embarrassed to have allowed himself to get so inebriated.

I decided to drop it for the time being. Perhaps I could get him a little drunk in the future and see what type of answers I could get then. I had so many more things weighing on my mind as we traveled . . . I still wasn't comfortable with having killed so many people during our last battle. It kind of annoyed me that the King of Bargona was all gung-ho about his own soldiers getting killed - he kept claiming it was an honor. How could death be so honorable? It bothered me immensely but there wasn't much of anything I could do about it was there? I tried pushing that at the back of my mind too but everything else seemed to bear down on me.

Should I hate Baymun as much as I do and was revenge the right course? Even if revenge WAS the right course, how was I supposed to go about enacting it? I was serving the vile demon for heaven sakes! On top of that, what was with Corbin's cryptic warning huh? I shouldn't let my temper flare around men . . . That's just way too weird. I hated to even think it, but perhaps Corbin had been in that shack for too long and his mind was deteriorating more than we thought.

I bit my lip in frustration. 'No - Corbin wouldn't have given a warning if it didn't mean anything.'

But I still didn't know what it meant - perhaps it was nothing more than men being more different than I am aware of. No matter how many books I've read, human interaction was not something you could mimic from a book - it was real-life experience. It did seem like my words tended to get me into trouble sometimes but honestly, more often than not things seemed to work out for the best . . . Was that just my imagination?

I didn't have the answers to any of my questions and it would be too weird to vocalize them. The only person I could talk to would be Richie but he couldn't help me with the killing aspect; he would just advise me to let us run off and get away from here. And his advice for Baymun would be to drop it . . . and he was clueless to the whole Corbin thing as well. I was hoping that traveling and thinking of the upcoming battle could ease my mind a little.

We were heading to a land called Tyslantavia where all the soldiers were basically brainwashed mindless drones content in living in a war-driven society. None of the people really thought for themselves and nearly everyone would die in war. Their history was laced with war - they loved it, breathed it, and lived for it. I knew that I would have to kill more people this time since they knew we were coming. There would be no way to hide our presence on their side of the mountain . . . Once we passed through the mountain peaks the land was flat for miles. They would see us coming two days in advance. Since they were always ready for war, we would need to be greatly prepared. On the plus side, we were close enough to the already defeated Bargona to receive ample supplies. If the fight had to last longer than a month (which history showed that most battles lasted more than a few months against Tyslantavia) then we should still be okay. This would probably be a long drawn out battle and I figured I would need to either get used to killing people or the guilt would slowly drive me mad.