Change of Scenery

[Tale Weaver]

Esile was pleased with her troupe's performance. They had raked in plenty of pay during their latest round. Though some of the acts hadn't turned out quite right it hadn't resulted in any problems for the troupe in general. Now the fox stood in front of the night's camp fire, ready to address the troupe. Her slanted eyes glimmered in the flickering firelight, transfixing her followers with her gaze.

"Not a bad day's work... a good job to each of you. You shall all get a cut of the pay soon enough." She always gathered and sorted through all they had made before deciding which beasts were fit to have what from the past performance.

"We must talk now of where this caravan is headed next. I have heard of a large settlement of peaceful creatures not far from the southern coast. Mostly dormice, shrews, and a few others.  We will spend the next few days traveling."

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The next day the troupe was on the move. Some beasts were trapped with their own thoughts while others spoke with each other. Some schemed, some planned acts, others muttered of their hopes for more pay at the next location. They moved down the path, heading for the settlement at the edge of the southern shores.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Dann wandered over to Perian and Aislinn, trilling a light tune on his flute. As he got closer, he could see that they were arguing again. He smiled and winked.

"With the amount of time you two spend arguing together, I'd think you were a couple if I didn't know better. As it is, there's only one person in love here: Perian! He's in love with himself." He let out a clear laugh.

"Anyways," he said, turning, "What do you think of our new marching orders? We're going back to the coast... Again." He grimaced. "All we do is go back and forth between the coast and the edge of the woodlands. Not anywhere new. When we get there, all we do is perform. And my audiences appreciate my music about as much as this tree here!" He knocked on an oak they were passing. "The uncultured beasts like my magic, and even my knife twirling better than my music. I don't know why I even bother performing for them."

[Rainshadow]

  Perrian, who had been trying to make Aislinn see that he had only been attempting to gain the interest of the audience through casual flirting, couldn't help but laugh a bit at Dannilo's joke.  "Quite true, Dann.  I've always been in love with myself, and I always shall be."

 Right as the wildcat was just finishing speaking, the fox placed a paw on his shoulder and cut in, "Yes, yes, it's a pity that the woodlanders don't enjoy your music as much as they should.  I, with my fine taste in music, find yours to be quite enjoyable and pleasant.  I only wish that I could play as beautifully as you, but alas, I have the misfortune of not knowing how to play the flute."  He sighed dramatically, taking his paw off of Dann's shoulder to place it sadly on his chest.

 "As for our next destination," Perrian continued, regaining his composure just as quickly as he had lost it, "I wholeheartedly agree with you.  It's rather hard to interest one's audience when the audience has seen their tricks before.  Which is why," he said, glancing at the young pine marten with slight frustration, "I was speaking in romantic tones with you yesterday.  All for the audience's sake, my dear."

[Jukka the Sling]

When the wildcat came up behind them, Aislinn turned towards him. She didn't know Dannilo all that well, but from what she'd seen of him, he seemed to be nice. One of the few she felt really were.

When he asked what they thought of the marching orders, Aislinn commented, "I don't mind going to the coast. Nice change from this forest." She remained silent as they walked for a moment, but when Perrian said again how he'd only been flirting to interest the audience, she sighed and gritted her teeth slightly, placing her paw on her blade hilt out of habit. The marten's display of annoyance was actually not so much about the flirting as it was anger over Perrian's tripping her. Flirting was one thing, but public humiliation was quite another. However, since her pride forbade her reminding anyone of the incident, she had stuck with arguing about the flirting.

"Yes, I understand that you were flirting to entertain the audience," Aislinn replied icily, directly contradicting her argument of a moment before when she'd persisted in challenging his reasons for it. Then, after a few seconds, she decided to change the subject since she was getting nowhere with it. She turned to Dann. "What did you get paid last night?"

[Faiyloe]

Hawthorn was stuck walking by herself as usual. She didn't mind being the loner in fact she didn't like most of the others in the troupe. André was ok, and Esile... well she was their leader, she deserved loyalty and respect. On the other paw there was that cat, Dannilo. For some reason he got on her nerves. He was to... improper. Unlike most other beasts who where just plain uncivil and knew it, that cat put up a pretense of it while still braking all the rules of society. For some reason this bothered her more than the rest.

At the moment Dannilo was walking ahead of Hawthorn, talking with the two bickering dueling partners Parrian and Aislinn. She mad it a point to know everyone's names, it was only proper. Now Hawthorn had better hearing than most and even though she was walking a decent distance behind the trio she couldn't help but hear what they where saying. Not that tried too hard not to hear. Yes it was rude to listen into another's conversation but one couldn't help it if they decided to talk near you. It wan't like she was doing it on purpose. Thought to tell the truth she did strain her ears a little bit when they got quiet.   

[Wylder Treejumper]

Dann shrugged. "I don't know. I gave most of it away to some of the mice. I try not to get to attached to it. What is gold anyways?" He reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a coin. "Just shiny yellow metal."

He flipped the coin. It described a high arc, glinting in the sunlight as it tumbled through the air to land in the dust. He did not pick it up. "I've got clothes, my rapier, my travelling kit, and, of course, my flute. What else could I want? The only good currency with me is adventure and appreciation."

He broke off. "But now," he mused, "I'm being shortchanged. I'm not being payed in good coin..."

"I think," he murmured to himself, "It's time to finish what my mother started a long time ago..."

Then he grinned. "So, what do you say?" He gestured expansively. "We can climb a mountain! We can sail the seas! We can explore whatever we want, whenever we want, and when we get sick of it, we can leave! We can do whatever we want!" He looked over and saw Andre climbing into Esile's wagon. "Besides," he grumbled, "I think it's high time for me to get away from old Esile Poisontail and her lackeys. They never laugh at my jokes!"

[Jukka the Sling]

As the wildcat talked, Aislinn absentmindedly fingered the coins she kept stowed in a small bag in her pocket. She didn't feel the same way about money as Dann. Money was valuable. Money would get her places... as soon as she saved enough. And she was quite tired of Esile's constant lowering of her pay cut. In the pine marten's opinion, the vixen had quite enough money already without taking from otherbeasts.

"Yeah, the pay I've been getting lately is ridiculous," Aislinn said once Dann had finished. She lowered her voice considerably when she said this, for Esile had her spies. "Honestly, I have thought of leaving before, but this is my only way of earning anything at the moment, and I don't know where I could go after this." It had only been fairly recently that the young marten had started worrying about money; for several seasons before that she had been content to wander.

[Faiyloe]

Hawthorn watched as the the wild cat throw the coin up into the air and let it land in the dirt. She scowled and picked it up as she passed. This was exactly why she didn't like him, a waist of valuable money, completely irresponsible of him.  She slipped the gold in her pocket. he obviously didn't want it anymore.

She didn't like what he was saying anymore than what he was doing. It was positively outrageous. It was nothing less than treason, flat out mutiny. She wanted to give them a piece of her mind but everything she knew told her that it was a bad idea. Not only was it improper, it was also tactically unwise, there where three of them and one of her. No she was going to keep her mouth shut and listen a little longer.

She stopped 'trying not to listen' and started to dig for every little detail that she could catch, this was a matter of loyalty. Something as trivial as eavesdropping could be ignored, at least for the moment.