From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1992 21:39:08 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Week 12, Kadrys: Unamusing musing...

[ADMIN] Once again, this is posted for Andrea Evans...

Kadrys pushes a section of the ghost ship's railing, and when it fails to
collapse, leans his elbows against it and stares outwards. He is far from
pleased by the prospect of a long stay on this crumbling derelict, where
accidental impalement is seldom more than a misplaced footfall away. He sighs
aggrievedly, annoyed at himself for this instinctive nervousness. 'Well,
Kadrys, for once you are in about as much peril of death as any one of your
companions. This is what you came to the Inn for. To remember your humanity.
Hah. Not always pleasant to live like a mortal, taking your life in your hands
at every step, is it now?' he asks in his mind, mocking himself for his
weakness. 'No.' he reconsiders a moment later. 'Not weakness. Unusual caution
in unusual danger: normal self-preservation. I _must_ not let this plane
poison my mind...' He turns hastily away from the rail, moving in the
instinctive certainty that it is better, in this place, not to brood in
solitude.

He looks across at the questers. Valgar and William are talking together, and
ShockWave is pacing the deck, ignoring its creaking. Lancos and Miro sit
hunched over a chessboard, thoroughly occupied in their game. The medallion
Lancos wears throws a brief hot glint of the sullen sunlight back into Kadrys'
eyes, which narrow in thought. Kadrys recalls Maribel's prophecy: that Lancos
would kill him, and in turn become his first and final convert to undeath.
He wishes fervently that Lancos would take that medallion off for once. But 
Kadrys knows better than to ask him to remove it: Lancos would only argue that
the danger of injury aboard this crumbling hulk is too immediate. 

Alita watches Kadrys sudden, abortive movement towards the group, and leers a
bit. 'Let's see if I can't raise some heat from that cool customer...' she
thinks as she moves towards him, her walk undulating much more than can be
blamed on the rocking of the deck. Kadrys watches her approach with a wry,
resigned grin. She slips a hand round the back of his neck and traces the line
of his cheekbone with her fingertips. He sighs and brings his own hands up to
gently detach hers. "Oh now, don't tell me that's all I'm _ever_ gonna get from
you, dark eyes, just a _sigh_..." she pouts. Kadrys arches an eyebrow at her,
replying amusedly, "Well, you _did_ manage to get yourself quite a long kiss
when you first met me, remember?" He is fascinated to notice that Alita's
teasing pout is momentarily replaced by a look of real confusion. "Uhh, sure
I remember..." The next moment, she brightens and falls back into her usual
routine, "Why not c'mon belowdecks and refresh my memory, you ol' charmer..."
He shakes his head, gaining a teasing grin of his own, "If you've forgotten
already, I can't've been that much of an experience..." As he backs away, he
notices the return of her confused frown, and thinks 'I wish I could've felt
free to use gaze on her. I'd give a fair bit to know what she's really
thinking. _Has_ she forgotten? Or was that just a particularly intricate
come-on: one based on pique? No, I don't believe her confusion was faked.
She's not that deep a strategist. Something - or someone - has interfered
with her memory...' He sighs, disturbed by the implications.

Kadrys turns towards 'Raelf, watching the other's movements, noting the same
restlessness he remembers seeing before in the mage, back in Generica. A moment
later, he frowns, studying 'Raelf's face more intently while the other's gaze
is fixed on the heaving sea of dust. 'No. Much more than simple restlessness.
Those eyes... Hungry eyes, hunter's eyes... He almost looks like - like one of
my kind, athirst...' The thought makes his previous worries over Alita's patchy
memory fade into insignificance. If it were possible, Kadrys might have gone
pale. He resolves to speak privately with 'Raelf, and moves towards him.
However, he has only gone a couple of paces when the young man yields to his
obvious need, stripping and preparing his board for travel. Kadrys stops
trying to approach him, thinking 'There will be no talking to him until he has
sated himself. That is always the way of it. "Lust never sleeps: something
must be done about it." I will speak with him after he returns; perhaps then I
can discover the source of this strange fierceness of desire in him...'

'Raelf screams something (a spell-trigger presumably, since the language is
quite unfamiliar to Kadrys) and suddenly backflips over the side, plummeting
straight into the lethal dust. Kadrys dashes to the rail, half-fearing that
'Raelf's longing has been a suicidal one. He looks over the side at the
widening ripples that mark 'Raelf's disappearance, trying to see whether the
Traveller is in need of assistance, trying not to wonder whether there might be
nothing he could do to help him. The next instant, 'Raelf surfaces quite
unharmed, grinning happily, and waves, before sending his strange board
skimming lightly over the surface of the dust. They shoot across the tossing
blackness with the fluid grace of some sea-creature, making an image at once
bizarre in this waterless waste, and at the same time strangely fitting. As
Kadrys watches, his apprehensive mood lightens for the moment. He finds himself
chuckling at the sheer gleeful effrontery of the gesture. "Here we are,
surrounded by a sea of pure crystallised evil, and what does _he_ do? Go in
swimming. Just for the fun of it." He shakes his head, still chuckling quietly.
'_This_ is what I came to the Inn for...' he thinks, 'This is the gift of the
living, the courage to take _joy_ in every moment of their imperilled lives,
that I left the safety of my solitude to remember. This is what makes all the
danger and the risk worthwhile...'