Closed A Chance Encounter (Orion Michaels)

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Winter 7, 513 AV "Look at you pretty boy" Tourmal said as he looked at the newly finished war ax he finished. He took pride in his work, despite that there were others better than he. All that mattered to him was that he did a good job, and kept trying to improve. Which he did. The steel ax was plain, no added embellishments. Tourmal was merely impressed in how smooth the polishing was on the blade. Before he did that he roughed up the broad sides up a bit with a medium wire brush. The last thing was his mark. The Drykas had drawn a rough sketch of what he wanted then took it to one of his more artistic friends to fine tune it. The mark was a depiction of his clan name, Firemane. A horse with flames running down the back of its neck. He loved it. It was not exactly what he envisioned. But if he could draw it himself he would not need his friends help. Right now the mane didn't really look like flames but it would do. No one else had these marks and neither would they put the effort into such an intricate design. Thankfully the drawing was simple enough for Tourmal to make a few copies on some extra pieces of paper he had. He took one out and with a trick another smith showed him he smeared some chalk on the back side of the paper and lay it on the ax centering the paper on the ax and proceeded to trace the design onto the ax. When he lifted the paper it was a little off but he could make it work. He took out his finest chisel and placed the point on the line and started tapping it with his hammer. Slowly he followed the lines, painstakingly accurate. After some time his hands were sweating and he slipped and made a small gouge where there wasn't supposed to be. "Shyke!" he shouted. A few nearby smiths heard him and glanced over then returned to their work. Paying no attention to them, the tall man dried his hands and started where he had left off. 'Tink, tink, tink, tink, tink. The man tapped away until it was finished. At that time he straightened his sore back and looked at his finished work. Proud of his accomplishment he gave him a mental pat on the back and cleaned up his work place. Then left his task on his station for the shift boss to pick up. Normally he would drop it off but he had asked to get off a bit early because he had an appointment at the soothing waters to get to. Which really meant he just didn't want to hear the old man's life story again. All Tourmal was going to do was take a bath at his place and head to the Rearing Stallion. After he had cleaned up the man felt much better and was walking down one of the few open roads in Syliras when he heard a commotion. A knight was taking in an unruly citizen for something or another. Tourmal could not help his curiosity. He was just like most other people, when he saw someone getting into trouble he had to investigate. The man walked closer to the kerfuffle. To get a clear look at who it was that was being taken in. When he caught a glimpse of someone he thought he knew quite well.

[Orion Michaels]

After a long morning of riding practice, the last thing Orion had expected was to have to patrol the corridors of the walled city until nightfall. Yet that's exactly what he'd had to do. Dinah had a lesson in it somewhere for him, but he wasn't having any of it. Instead he found himself pouting, just like the adult he was. Tired and grouchy, the usually personable squire was anything but.

"Orion, please don't be like that," Dinah pleaded, glancing over at her squire. She could see the exhaustion in his face and the way he'd carried himself, but he needed to understand that sometimes he just wasn't going to have the rest he desired before completing his tasks. When he went on the winter patrol with Sera Druva he would learn that lesson fully. "It's part of being a knight. We're weary warriors."

"I know," he replied brusquely, never breaking his gaze from the ground before him. Bell after bell of riding, followed by a patrol that went until Syna disppaered, well, it was enough to ruin the squire's day. It had seemed so promising earlier on, too. A little harmless flirtation with a blonde and a mess of a show at horsemanship. Why couldn't they have just gone home afterwards? "At least it's almost over and nothing happened. I'm so..."

Orion frowned at the scene they walked up on. He'd spoken too soon and now his patrol wasn't nearly as finished as he'd hoped.

"You're a cheat, Randolph! A dirty, rotten cheat!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Mortimer! It was a fair deal and you know it!"

While nothing too terribly crazy happened within the walls of Syliras, occasionally there was a squabble such as the one unfolding between two merchants. Tempers would flare and judgement would give way to impulsive, irrational responses. When that happened, the knights would be there to maintain order.

Dinah thought for a moment about intervening, but then had a better idea come to mind.

"Orion. Deal with this."

The squire shot his patron an incredulous look. "You're kidding right?"

A smile was all he received in reply. That wicked, unforgiving, cruel smile. He was on his own.

"You told me that it was the finest quality!"

"And it was! The finest quality I had."

"What's going on here?"

Both men turned to look at Orion, and seeing him in full plate, assumed him a knight. Convinced that their counterpart was the one at fault, both of the merchants rushed up to Orion, spilling their story.

"He won't stop harassing-"

"He lied about his-"

"I did no such-"

"You've always been a liar, Randolph!"

The men were quickly back at bickering with one another, now directly in front of the squire, voices escalating as each of the merchant's tried to be heard over the other. It was absurd, and Orion wasn't going to have any of it.

"SHUT UP" The squire's deep voice roared out, cutting through the squabbling, if only for a moment. "I've had a long day, and you're really testing my patience," he began, leaning into the personal space of the two men. "Now one at a time, or I'll be forced to drag you both to the tank for a little time out. Until the council is ready to sentence, of course. Understood?"

[Tourmal Firemane]

Tourmal, Winter 7, 513 AV The scene was a common one. When a city was known for its safety generally the only issues that arose were those between merchants and customers. Merchants had a knack for pulling the wool over potential buyers eyes. With them realizing later that they had been had. He didn't like to do that, the gain in the short run was big but in the long run people didn't like to deal with you if you were known as a cheat. Tourmal himself dealed shrewdly, always bringing in a profit but it seemed not anything too big. Sometimes he got lucky and he would make a good deal with someone who didn't know what they were doing. Most of the time however, he was not so lucky. He was not that great of a salesman. Here one man blamed another that he sold him low quality goods after saying they were high quality. Tourmal didn't blame him for being mad he would be too. Normally he would just pass by and leave the problem be. But today he got the added benefit to see his old friend Orion having to handle this debacle. Just how would he do it. “How yeh gonna work this one out Orion?” He said loud enough for the man to hear. Tourmal stood arms crossed with a victorious grin on his face, thinking he had one upped his old friend. Orion had already silenced the two men, by threatening them to be sent to the tank. Tourmal stood by waiting for a sign of recognition from the would be knight.