Ghosts

[Bogwoppit]

Oh but it was nice to see her blush ~ usually such an upright uptight young woman quivering in his prescence. Had he not been so tired Boromir would have continued the very pleasant pastime of teasing her mercilessly, but tomorrow he had a battle to prepare for, and now he just wanted to sleep.

"That would not be necessary my Lord. I am here to serve, not to be served. Please, Lord Boromir... do not tease me so."

He took a deliberate step closer to her, ignoring the towel as his green eyes bored into her.

"But perhaps that would be a service to me," he murmured, reaching out to run the side of his forefinger down her rouged cheek once more, allowing it to continue its path across her tense jaw and along the line of the frantically beating pulse in her neck.

He laughed softly under his breath and stepped away, at last taking the towel and holding it before himself.

"Do not worry, little mouse," he smiled. "I will not force myself upon you. I am tired, and in any case my taste in women lies in the more... experienced."

He stepped away from her, lazily drying his chest, and turned towards the bed, knowing full well what a pleasing sight his taut buttocks and muscular back made. He padded to the bed, draping the towel loosely around his hips before turning back to Eonan.

"Will you at least turn down my bed for me little mouse?" he asked, his tone teasing still. "And put something in there to warm it?"

As he said this he ran his eyes slowly over her slim frame. What he had told her was true ~ he did prefer more experienced women who knew how to please him, but he wasn't averse to the odd virgin when the mood took him. Was this one untouched? She certainly behaved so, and he would duly note that piece of information down in his head for future reference.

[Bogwoppit]

Well he had certainly used women for sex before... Nathan Lake was no angel, but he could honestly say he had never taken any woman as forcefully as he had just taken Thrace. He was a little stunned as he watched her storm out, although had he been totally himself he would still have been unable to think of anything to say. She certainly wouldn't believe him if he told her it was her fault he had done it, and it sounded like a load of crap even to him. But that was the only explanation he could come up with ~ there was something about Katee Thrace that made him want to lash out at her, to punch her and fuck her and hold her and...

Hold her? No, not hold her. He hated the bitch, he certainly wouldn't want to fucking cuddle her after that. He never had been the kind to cuddle after sex, more the roll over and go to sleep type was Lake, and he couldn't think of anyone he would less like to cuddle than that prickly little cow.

He stood staring at the closed door for minutes after she had gone, before shaking his head and snorting angrily, turning away and sitting on the edge of the bed to take his boots off. That made him smile. He could count on the fingers of one hand the times he had left his boots on to make love...

But that had been about as far from making love as anything could be. That had been pure unadulterated lust ~ sex at its most carnal, and fuck he wanted to do it again! He was getting hard just thinking about it...

He left his trousers on and threw himself back onto the bed, putting his hands behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. That was confusing. He didn't like her, not one bit, but that was excusable because he had fucked women he didn't like before. But he had never wanted to do it again. What just happened should have got rid of the tension between them, it should have been a one-off, he should be happy to have got one over on her, taught her a lesson. But the trouble was it had been fucking good, and he wanted it again.

"Well get used to wanting what you can't have you stupid bastard," he murmured to himself, turning onto his side and closing his eyes, "'cause she sure as fuck ain't gonna want you anywhere near her again."

[Pinkie]

Mari knew it was a bad idea to continue watching him as he dressed. He took the underpants from her a little snappily but she thought nothing of it as she got his trousers together and then turned back to him. Her brown eyes widened at his bare back - all of it bare, from top to bottom. Literally. Her lips pulled upwards in a giggly kind of smile and she looked up at his face, looking an absolute picture of innocence, when he turned around to her.

DJ said:

"No, I haven't touched a cloud! I think I liked you better when you were quiet. And you don't get to know my real name until I know you a lot better,"

Mari recoiled from both his tone and his words. She looked hurt and hung her head as he went to the tray of food. His words were really rather cutting and Mari was unused to such cruelty from strangers. From her father that was normal! But not from strangers she was trying to help. And that he had never touched a cloud also made her pout a little. Her hands held his t-shirt, running her fingers over a crease idly.
She was just about to ask him in a mousey voice if there was anything she could do for him but he was moving and she didn't want to interupt.

DJ sat down on the bed and scratched his bare chest. Mari kept her face downcast, large eyes apologetic. But he broke the silence --

DJ said:

"Do you live here, in the city?"

And that was that!

All the awkward, intrusive feelings Mari had had were gone with those inquisitive words from DJ. She put his tone down to just the way he normally spoke and from henceforth she wouldn't take offense if he used that tone on her. He musn't be angry if he was asking about her. And Mari could talk for months about herself.

Her smile would have outshone the sun. Dimples appeared in her cheeks and she shuffled towards the tray. She took the watered wine and brought it to him on the bed -

"I live just outside the citadel with my father, Kolya. He's a guard here or some such. He likes swords and blood and things of that ilk. It's a bit crowded in the city and alot of people, including my father, wouldn't like to live here after the destruction during the War of the Ring. I barely remember that but my dad does. He fought during it you know? Against orcs and Nazgul and all sorts of horrid beasts." Mari said, her brow creasing sweetly in distaste for the creatures of teh dark. She hadnded DJ the goblet of wine with a smile, sitting down next to him quite casually.

"What's your home like? Is the sky a different color? One of women downstairs said that one of your friends has yellow eyes! And that your women wear trousers and keep their hair short? Is it true?" Mari asked the questions quite uncontrolled but innocently enough, her bright brown eyes intent on DJ's face. She didn't realise that she had put her hand on his forearm as she questionned, her slender fingers resting against his warm skin, holding him until he answered her questions.

[Pinkie]

One more thing in life to regret, Thrace told herself as she stripped to get into bed. She shoved her pants to the ground and tossed her jacket onto the end of the bed before sliding in between the sheets in her vest and underwear. Her ripped vest. As she lay propped with many pillows, the blonde had alot of time to think because she sure as fuck was not doing any sleeping right now. She went over it again and again in her mind and each time she came up with the same thing.

They had really fucked up this time around. Whatever about the irritating, caustic remarks back and forth, whatever about slapping each other across the face a couple of times, this ... tonight... tonight had been way above and beyond anything that Thrace had done before that she regretted. Or did she really?
She was pissed off at Lake for calling her a whore right at the end like that. She was pissed at him for shoving her up against the door and not letting her have a say in anything that happened between them but ... well, another part of her had kind of enjoyed that.

A rueful smile lifted the blonde's lips and she shook her head.
Mistake. that's all it was.

One that she would not be making again.

Rolling onto her side, Thrace clasped her hands up under the pillow and stared at the window with little to no emotion on her face.
Tomorrow she would ignore the fucker. Tomorrow she would pretend nothing had happened. And if he ever thought to lay a finger on her again, she'd break it. She'd break him.
And yet, when she shut her eyes, she could almost swear she could feel Lake's breath on her shoulder, against her neck and it sent a pleasurable jolt down her spine, rousing all the nerves in her body.

"Oh fuck." Thrace groaned, shutting her hazel eyes and pulling the cover up over her head gloomily.

[Bogwoppit]

"It'd almost be just as natural to stay here."

Oh... this wasn't good... the jolt Mark felt when their eyes met and held was inappropriate to say the least. His steady gaze dropped to her lips as she parted them, and had the touch of her hand on his not brought him to his senses he may just have moved closer...

But it did, and he blinked owlishly as she spoke those soft words, licking his lips and laughing nervously. He moved almost as quickly as she did, pulling his hand away from hers and sitting up, rubbing his hands along his thighs as though they were sweating, although they weren't.

"Right."

He smiled at her, waiting for her to move, but instead of getting up she leaned forward and kissed him. Automatically he turned his head to kiss her back on the cheek, then frowned as she stood up, unsure as to what he should do next. They had never been nervous in one another's company before, and he didn't know how to react. This was new, and strange, considering they had been so easy together before. Maybe it was the result of seeing Katee again and realising that there was really no going back, but since arriving in the city he had suddenly noticed Gypsy in a whole new light.

He stood up as she moved to the door, glancing down at the ring on her left hand as she opened it. Was that an engagement ring? A wedding ring? Or just a ring? It was impossible to tell, and he wasn't about to ask her, not after that awkwardness. It struck him then just how little they knew about each other, despite talking non-stop all the way here. They had never really spoken about anything important though, just laughed a lot. Again he was reminded of how it had been with Katee at first, and it worried him. He didn't want Gypsy to go the way Katee had gone, but then, who was he to say what he wanted? There was nothing between them, and he wasn't about to encourage anything either. It was to soon and the pain was still too raw to think about relationships.

"Night Mark. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

"G'night Gypsy," he replied quietly, watching her as she went.

She might think the kiss had felt right, but it made him nervous as hell. It had felt good, sure, natural even, but... She didn't like him that way did she? She was sweet, too sweet to be dragged down by him the way he had dragged down Katee.

Even now, knowing Thrace's hang-ups, he blamed himself deep down for their break up. He was too serious, he had wanted them to be a proper little family and he had forced her into it, tried to put her in a mold. She couldn't handle that, and he should have known, should have given her space. He had ruined things between them and he wasn't about to ruin another free spirit the same way. Of course, Gypsy was nothing like Katee, but to Mark they were similar in their carefree outlook on life. For carefree, in Thrace's case, he should have read careless, and for Gypsy the smiles were a way to hide the hurt, but to Mark they were both young, happy, and too good for him.

[Bogwoppit]

That smile! It seemed to light up the whole room, and made even DJ feel a bit more mellow.

He wasn't being deliberately grumpy, it was just that he was used to his own company, and his social skills weren't the greatest. His solitary upbringing and brilliance, coupled with his military career, had left little time for a social life. His fellow scientists were a little scared of the fact that he was a soldier, and his fellow soldiers regarded him as a geek; that and the fact that he didn't much like people anyway left him a little lacking on the witty conversation front.

But this girl was like a breath of fresh air, and he found himself returning her smile as she began to speak.

"I live just outside the citadel with my father, Kolya. He's a guard here or some such. He likes swords and blood and things of that ilk. It's a bit crowded in the city and alot of people, including my father, wouldn't like to live here after the destruction during the War of the Ring. I barely remember that but my dad does. He fought during it you know? Against orcs and Nazgul and all sorts of horrid beasts. What's your home like? Is the sky a different color? One of women downstairs said that one of your friends has yellow eyes! And that your women wear trousers and keep their hair short? Is it true?"

DJ took the goblet she offered him and drank deeply from it, never once taking his eyes off her animated face. She was like a whirlwind, and she fascinated him. As she paused for breath at last he laughed, reaching across her to put the goblet down. As he did so he felt the slight pressure of her small hand on his forearm and looked down, then back up into her dark, bright eyes.

"One question at a time, ok?" he requested, placing his much bigger hand on hers briefly to pat it. "Where I come from is a lot like this world, the sky is the same colour, there are trees and flowers and animals, but there are much bigger cities, and far more people than I have seen here. We have machines called cars that we travel in, and we can fly in aeroplanes."

He paused for a moment so that she could take that in, enjoying the look of wonder on her face. She was really very pretty, but also very young, so he should really stop thinking that way...

"The women do wear trousers," he continued, "and some of them wear their hair short yes. But I prefer long hair, and dresses."

He smiled as he told her this, looking at her dark locks, some of which had escaped from its ribbon, then down at the simple gown she wore. She looked to him like a fairytale princess sitting there with her cheeks flushed and her eyes so bright, hanging on his every word. Was this how West felt when he had women hanging off his arm? Did he feel like some sort of hero all the time? Because that was how this girl was making DJ feel, she made him feel as though he was the only man alive, as though she would gladly stay there all day and listen to his stories. She made him feel like a prince to her damsel, but that thought made him squirm with embarrassment at his ridiculous fantasies and ideas, and he blinked, looking away towards the window. No one knew about his obsession for fairytales and legends, no one knew how he had read them avidly as a child, and still did, picturing himself as the dashing hero rescuing fair maidens in distress. And no one ever would if he had anything to do with it. He had a rough enough time as it was being a 'geek' in the military without that crap coming out.

[Pinkie]

Her emotions were so conflicting! Eonan could hardly make sense of them herself. One part of her wanted to throw herself at his feet and beg him to be kind to her. Another part of her wanted to don the familiar, cold facade that she had worn for all these years and have him refuse her out of distaste. But a greater part of her wanted to just shut her eyes and let him do whatever he wanted to do to her. Only a tiny portion of her rational mind cried out for her to not be so bloody stupid!

Boromir stepped closer and Eonan shut her eyes, lips moving in silent pleas to not come closer. She looked quite beautiful with her face upturned to his, her clear complexion revealed to him and her lips rosey from being grazed by her sharp teeth.

Boromir said:

"But perhaps that would be a service to me, Do not worry, little mouse, I will not force myself upon you. I am tired, and in any case my taste in women lies in the more... experienced. Will you at least turn down my bed for me little mouse? And put something in there to warm it?"

That stung!

Eonan was in his thrall when his finger so tenderly touched her jaw. She had never considered it a sensitive part of skin but with his finger upon it it seemed to send trembling spasms down her spine, all of her nerves pricked and aching. When he went to take the towel she had to focus to unclenched her fingers. She turned, eyes still shut, as he walked past her to the bed. She opened her eyes, giving a pitiful hiccup of breath when she saw the perfect lines and contours of his back and buttocks shamelessly displayed for her.

When he spoke she bowed her head and clutched the sides of her skirt tightly.

Turn down the bed. Something warm?

Eonan's sharp eyes lifted and she peered at her master curiously. What did he mean by that? Tensing her jaw, Eonan dipped a proper curtsey and turned on her heel. She took a cloth from her basket of medicines and placed it in front of the fire. She turned and walked back to the bed, purposely to the opposite side from where Boromir stood. Without a word she pulled down the soft sheets of his bed, her breath becoming heavier as she did so.
Oh but how often had she dreamt of herself in that bed?! How often had she changed the covers and wondered jealously of the women who had been there before her?

The servant's fingers trailed along the edges of the blanket affectionately and she glanced up, meeting Boromir's eyes silently. Her fingers trailed off the blanket and she took a step back shyly. Bowing her head again, Eonan walked back to the fire, took the now warm cloth from the hearth and went back to the bed. She placed it down under the covers where his feet would be. Carefully done. Tenderly.

Her tasks complete, Eonan stood back from the bed, still opposite from Boromir and looked at him, straight in the eye, with a confidence she did not truly feel in her heart.

"Does this please you, my lord?" Eonan asked. She didn't need to ask the question but she wanted to. She wanted to prove to him that in some respects she WAS experienced. Not in the way that he liked women, unfortunately, but then... she did nto want to be taken so lightly, did she? She wanted something more concrete than his current lust. She yearned for it!

[Pinkie]

Gypsy left Mark's room but didn't go far. She stood solemnly at his closed door a long while, hand on the wood and her lips pursed in silent consideration. Yes, the kiss had been uncharacteristic of their relationship thus far but it had seemed the right thing to do at that moment in time. And there was a little bit of the young woman that was beginning to become starved of affection, true affection. She was always too wary around Tomas to believe any of his 'genuine' kisses were that.. genuine. She always held herself ready to receive whatever he would throw at her. With Mark, all of her defenses were down.

The young woman's smile was lopsided as she turned from the door. She breathed an amused laugh at herself and stared back to her own room. Flopping down on the bed, she wrapped her arms across her stomach, hands tucked under her armpits where Mark had been tickling her before. Her dazzling, dark eyes looked up at the ceiling contentedly.
There was a fuzzy, happy feeling inside of her.

She knew she had to be careful though.
Mark was just a friend. And he had to stay that way. But it didn't mean she couldn't like him a bit more than a friend, did it? She could appreciate his handsome face with the eye of a woman in her prime. She could appreciate the persona around him, that of security, knowledge and comfort, ease. Yeah - there was no rules against that. Nothing in her oaths as a wife to say she couldn't do that.

Gypsy rolled onto her side and awkwardly kicked off her boots, tucking her hands up beneath her cheek and shut her eyes. She didn't bother with a blanket nor with finding the right position on the bed to place her head on a pillow. She was used to sleeping rough.

She woke and her room was on fire. Gypsy gave a yelp of surprise as the flames licked against the end of the bed. She should have recognised that the fire acted peculiar but in her dream like state everything was too real. The heat of it!
The young woman coughed, smoke filling her lungs and obscuring her vision as she hopped to the side of the bed. Her socked feet hit the ground and she scampered towards a window, slamming her fist against the glass to open it. But it wuoldn't open. She hammered and hammered, uncaring if she broke the glass and cut herself now - she needed air and cool!

"Help!" she cried out hoarsely, coughing raggedly as she tossed and turned on the bed, "Help me!" she attempted in a weak voice. Soemthing from the other direction caught her attention and she turned, dropping to her hands and knees. Her short, dark hair was plastered to her face which was covered in soot and smoke and dust. Her eyes were streaming tears, stinging as she peered into the thick smoke. She saw boots --- familiar boots!

"Mark! Mark I'm here, Mark help!" Gypsy called out in a voice that was becoming high pitched with anxiety and fear. Mark spotted her and started to shout at her, gesturing for her to stay where she was but he wasn't looking at her at all - he was looking at the bed. Gypsy coughed dramatically and sat back on her heels, looking at the bed and to her horror she saw that her body was there -- her body was laying there and her chest was not moving and ...

"No n no no no no no -- " she murmured, crawling to the bed. As she got closer however, the fire took on a life of it's own. It lashed out at her, whipping up around her face and neck. Gypsy screamed, recoiling. She heard a laugh and at first she thought it must be Mark, he was the only person there with her! Her dark eyes shut tight against the pain and the laugh became even louder as she cowered in a corner of the room. The flames danced up around the bed as if posssessed and engulfed the figure of her that lay there.

Gypsy watched in horror through a painful haze of red and grey and black. Her eyes were terribly sore, but she could see clear enough. She could see the shape of a face in the flames. And the laugh became familiar to her.

"Tomas?" she whispered in disbelief. The fire blazed stronger as if confirming her thought. In her dream it did not seem so unusual that her husband was taking teh shape of a great fire destroying her body as it lay upon the bed. Gypsy shook her head in fear and looked back to Mark. Mark was coughing and holding a sheet over his head. Gypsy started to cry as he attempted to make his way through teh flames to her body on the bed, the body that Tomas was melting even as her spirit sat destroyed on the ground in a corner.

"He's killing me... stop him, please. Please." Gypsy murmured, bowing her head in defeat, her forehead against her knees as the scene played out without her watchful eye on it.

((ooc: bless her ))

[Pinkie]

Mari smiled at DJ when he leaned across her to put the wine on the bedside table. She watched him as intently as he watched her, though probably for different reasons. He had a bright face - when he smiled. Mari saw his dimples and her fingers twitched, wanting to touch them. But she restrained herself admirably! She also wanted to touch the rims he wore around his very blue eyes. They were fascinating! And she wondered why he wore them. Her lips parted to ask him but he started to speak ahead of her -

DJ said:

"One question at a time, ok? Where I come from is a lot like this world, the sky is the same colour, there are trees and flowers and animals, but there are much bigger cities, and far more people than I have seen here. We have machines called cars that we travel in, and we can fly in aeroplanes."

Oh the place sounded just amazing! Mari's young face crumpled a little when she was told that the sky was the same color and things were relatively the same there as here. Her shoulders sagged - but as if he sensed her deflation, DJ picked her right up again talking about 'cars' and ... Flying machines?!
Mari's eyes almost lolled out of her head when he said that they could fly!

"Fly?!" she squeeked in amazement, and her awe, admiratin and general worship was directed purely at DJ. Not that she thought he had invented the machines, though he might have, he looked smart enough, but rather because he was the one to tell her these things, she attributed their immense capabilities to DJ. The only things that Mari knew to fly were birds, the Eagles, and Nazgul! Not even Elves could fly!

The young woman's head started to shake in stark amazement at this news...

DJ said:

"The women do wear trousers, and some of them wear their hair short yes. But I prefer long hair, and dresses."

Short hair and dresses... well then how did men know their women?
Mari's nose wrinkled in puzzlement at that but the sweet scrunched expression was smoothed out quickly when DJ looked down at her, telling her he preferred long hair adn dresses. Self-consciously, Mari smiled shyly and reached one hand up to her own long curls. She pulled one lock down over her shoulder, her fingers trailing off onto the chest of her dress, along the neckline with a small, sweet giggle.

"Do you?" she asked rhetorically, smiling with perfectly white teeth at DJ. Mari giggled again and reached her hand across to touch the top of DJ's glasses. "What are these?" she asked, trailing her small fingertip over the bridge of the glasses. "Do they help you see? Can I try them?" she asked the questions altogether, her eyes looking all about his face curiously. It was so easy to forget her duty, for Mari it had always been so easy to forget! But this time she had the best excuse ever. He was an alien! Of course she was going to talk to him and get to know him.

However, Mari remembered DJ telling her one question at a time and her eyes widened guitily, fixing on DJ's gaze apologetically.

"Ooops - sorry." she smiled sheepishly, dipping her head and removing her hand from his glasses.

[Bogwoppit]

((Ooc: He only wears his glasses for reading But I'll sort something out for it this time ))

"What are these? Do they help you see? Can I try them? Ooops - sorry."

DJ smiled, slightly embarrassed about her reference to his glasses. He didn't like having to wear them, but he had tried contacts and couldn't get on with them. And anyway, he only really wore them for reading and close up work. It was more a force of habit to put them on as soon as he was up as he usually had some piece of vitally important documentation to decifer. Still, putting them on this morning now enabled him to see Mari's pretty face more clearly, so it wasn't all bad.

"They help me see close up things," he replied, wriggling his nose as she inadvertantly tickled the bridge of it with her soft fingers as she moved them away. "You can try them if you really want to, but I can guarantee you won't see much with them."

He took them off carefully, and passed them to the girl, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he did so out of habit. He hated the marks the glasses left there ~ One more reason for the other airmen to take the piss.

It wasn't that he was weak, or any less able to defend himself than the other men, but he was by character a quiet man, and he didn't like confrontation generally. Of course, he had had to pass the 'tests' like any other new recruit when he had joined up, and pass them he had, flooring a guy twice his size with relative ease. But his initiation had been harder than some, having more 'faults' as it were ~ His poor eyesight, his diploma, his interest in 'poofy' rocks and dirt and old stuff. It had been hard, but he had come through it a better man and a better soldier for it. Now, although he didn't have many what he would call friends, he was at least treated with respect amongst the ranks, and others thought twice before picking a fight with him.

He watched Mari carefully as she tried on his glasses, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of bread. What would happen to her if her father was killed in the battle that was so inevitable? She was so young. These Orcs... did they take prisoners? Did they treat their enemy's women with the same contempt and lack of respect as men did on Earth? He grimaced slightly at the thought of this innocent child being degraded and humiliated, used and broken. He wouldn't let that happen. There was so much joy in her he couldn't bear to think what would be left if it was taken away.

"You know about the enemy approaching?" he asked with his usual bluntness. "Is there a safe place for the women and children to go? There will probably be a battle today."

He should really find West and plan a strategy, but he was loathe to leave her just yet.

[Bogwoppit]

It was almost a game, each watching the other from opposite sides of the bed, Boromir with a slight smirk on his face. The way she was stroking that sheet was almost... erotic, certainly with more familiarity than a servant would in any case. Perhaps she wasn't quite the innocent he had come to believe after all.

He watched with narrowed eyes, towel forgotten in his hand, as she placed the warm cloth in the bed. Was she teasing him deliberately with a tantalizing glimpse of creamy breast as she bent over? She was not well endowed indeed, but what she had was perfectly formed, and for a split second he rethought (yes I did nearly put rethunk!) his desire to sleep.

"Does this please you, my lord?"

His eyes met hers and he dipped his head in acknowledgment.

"Not as well as having a warm soft woman in my bed," he replied, his voice low and husky, "but it will suffice... for now."

He put down the towel on a chair and stepped into the bed, drawing the covers over his lap but leaving his chest bare.

"Thank you Eonan," he said politely but distantly, feeling a little put out that she hadn't leapt at the chance to spend the night with him. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow I fear your healing skills will be much called upon."

With that he lay down and pulled the blanket up around his chin, turning to the side away from her. She should know that he did not offer his services twice. She had as good as rejected him, even though his heart had not really been in it, and she would not get another chance.

[Pinkie]

(( oops - sorry! kudos for the nice save ))

DJ said:

"They help me see close up things, You can try them if you really want to, but I can guarantee you won't see much with them."

Mari took the glasses gingerly in her hands, holding them as if they were going to run through her fingers. Big brown eyes were rivetted to the frames as she gently lifted them, peering through the glass curiously while DJ rubbed his nose. She glanced over at him briefly and gave him a chuffed smile. She brought the glasses towards her face but was a bit lost on how to place them on her face the way DJ had had them. A sweet frown creased her brow once she did figure it out but ended up with one of the bars in her ear. She gave a muted tsk and fixed it then looked around with her hands out in front of her as if she were blind.

"Oh my..." Mari said quietly, unsmiling but only because she was so intent on the task at hand. Indeed, she could see nothing with them on. And what she could see was blurred. A slow smile started to creep over her lips as she turned to DJ, trying to make out his features. She lifted her hands up in front of her eyes and laughed, wiggling her blurry fingers. Mari rose to her feet and walked a few unsure steps, her feet lifting too high and stomping too low as she walked a few feet from DJ. She turned back to him with a small laugh, looking up at the ceiling and all around behind her.
She was just about to start another rant of questions about the glasses when DJ spoke --

DJ said:

"You know about the enemy approaching? Is there a safe place for the women and children to go? There will probably be a battle today."

Enemy?
Safe place?
Battle?!

The young woman whirled around to face DJ in a flash.
Mari's stomach twisted into a terrified knot almost instantly and her face dropped. She scrambled her fingers against the tops of the glasses, smudging them in her haste to pull them off and see his face clearly. Her face was a picture of pure dread, her too-big eyes staring straight at DJ in fear.

"Battle?" she squeeked, holding DJ's glasses to her chest gently, wobbling a little on her feet as her eyes looked down at teh ground. Her mind conjured so many horrific images that it was hard to decipher what was real and what was not for a moment. Mari looked back over at DJ and shook her head, mouth hanging open slightly.
"The women and children stayed in the citadel during the War of the Ring. There is nowhere safe if the citadel is not safe. Are you sure? They are coming here... ? today?" Mari said in a voice that was becoming tight with anxiety. She had come back to the bed now but stood in front of DJ, his glasses held to her chest which was risign and falling with her frightened, rapid breaths.
If ever there was a woman in need of rescuing, Mari fit the bill perfectly right now looking fragile, small and young. Innocence oozed from every inch of her shivering body as she sank to her knees in front of DJ, a hand on his knee.