[IRP] The Dead One Calls

[WyvernSlayer]

Satsume furrowed his brow as Eli (thank you Shad, for clearing up that boy/girl situation) went into detail about his ransom plan. Seems like a lot of people I meet and travel with conveniently have relatives in high stations, he thought, peering over the rim of his stein as Eli spoke. I should look into marrying a princess.

"I just don't even know if it'll work," said Eli, staring down into his half-eaten plate of food. "Or if he'll even recognize me if he comes."

"Sounds like a fine idea to me," Satsume said, trying to cheer him up. "And besides, who wouldn't recognize their own brother?"

Eli just shrugged. Satsume grabbed his mug and tilted his head back, downing the last of the unspectacular beer. "Ahhh..." He reached into his pocket, grabbed a few gold coins, and dropped them on the table. "Well, I'm going to step outside for a bit." He lowered his voice, "...if we're going to need to be covert, I should get a good pipe in now while the sun's still up."

Satsume left the tavern and walked to the corner of the building, propping himself up against the side while he reached for his pipe and tobacco pouch. The sun was just beginning to set behind the mountains, tossing a yellow-orange wash over the tavern's wooden sign. Hmm. Wonder how the girls are doing, he thought. He pressed a clump of tobacco into the pipe and slipped a finger into his belt's side pouch to grab a match. His mind briefly flashed to an image of Cecily and Paige tossing water at each other, sans clothes - an image that caused Satsume to subconsciously smile as he lit his pipe. Yeah...

The sound of someone in the distance slamming a door shut snapped Satsume out of his brief fantasy. He quickly peered down both sides of the road, but upon seeing no one went back to contentedly hitting the pipe. Now the matter at hand became keeping everyone safe during Shad's recon mission. It made Satsume a little bummed out to not be in the middle of things, but he understood Shad's thinking. For once, he thought. My armor does make a bit of a racket. And it's hard to hit a man with a javelin in the dark, anyway.

Satsume slid down to the ground, seating himself against the tavern siding. There was nothing left to do now but collect everyone and wait for nightfall.