(2021-06-26) Day 26

Details

Author:	Jessa
Summary:	When you have to go, you have to go, even if you're a daffodil.
Rating:	M for Mature 17+

Chain: The Re-education of Miss Ivrianna Barlowe

Ivri let Llastra tilt her head, angling it so the lamplight fell on her face. "Mm," the Night Elf said. "Healed too late. It's a scar now."

Tragg whapped her on the back almost hard enough to knock her off the bunk bed they were both sitting on. "Scars from battle are a badge of honor. Wear it with pride."

She drove an elbow into his heavily muscled side, to absolutely no effect. "Rubbish," she said. "Scars just mean you were too slow or too stupid to get out of the way."

He growled at her. "Human," he accused.

"Orc," she shot back at him.

They grinned at each other, an oddly similar baring of teeth despite their physical differences.

"i aM LeaVInG toMoRRoW," Judah said.

The others all looked over at him.

"TRaIniNg is gOoD aNd usEfUL buT i MUsT Go bAck," he explained. "thINgS aRe HAPpenIng anD I maY BE neEdeD."

Llastra sank onto the bottom bunk of the bed across from the one Ivri and Tragg were sitting on. "I had… some reservations about staying myself," she admitted.

"I don't suppose anyone else's contacts had any better an idea when the Legion might show up," Ivri said.

Everyone shook their heads in the negative.

"The Legion is an enemy to every living thing," Tragg growled in his low rumble. His head was bowed to keep from hitting the upper bunk, but his eyes lifted to Llastra, then Ivri. "If it comes, all blades will be needed to defeat it."

Ivri's eyes widened.

"What I hear, what I learn, I will find a way to tell you," he said, rolling his massive shoulders as if to settle a new weight on them.

"And I," Llastra said, reaching across the tight space to rest her pale hand on Tragg's fist.

Ivri looked at the two hands. "You realize this is what Ravenholdt wants by making us all train together," she said. "Needful information gets passed around without all the dipolomatic problems of going through official channels."

"You think it a bad idea?" asked Llastra.

"Nah," she said, dropping her hand onto the pile. "I just hate doing what's expected of me."

Tragg snorted at her and bared his teeth. She nudged him with her shoulder.

Judah started to rise. "anD I wIlL dO Th—"

A chorus of objections rose up.

"We do not need your confirmation!"

"Ugh, we've been here like a month and you still haven't taken a bath!"

"I doN'T SwEat, whY SHouLd I baTHE?"

"You stink! Stay there!"

"WhAT'S thAt? CoME clOSeR, JuDAH?"

The Forsaken dove on top of their joined hands, doing his level best to drag his hands across each of them, shoving his head under their noses, waving his feet at Llastra. Tragg's angry and disgusted roars mingled with Ivri's screams and protests, all tangled up with Llastra's laughter.

Daffodils forever.