Mags

Nera just shrugged, clearly at a loss.

"I would never be so barbaric as to choose the latter . . ." Jerehlu insisted. "And we haven't had a new batch in a little while . . . so?"

"Well . . . my band of bandit's here have a special way of doing things. See, we don't particularly like people knowing much about us--It'd make our job harder. But now you know about us . . . you see where this is going."

"I don't think you're in the possession to be making demands honey," Jerehlu said, "That's my job for this discussion." He led her back over to the fire that was almost completely out now, and sat on one of the logs surrounding it. The pink of dawn was just starting to tinge the sky, the sun would rise soon. "First, of course, me and mine will be taken all of your caravan's valuables." He explained. There weren't as many on their own now that Jerehlu had captured several of the party, and was sitting by the fire. All the bandits, including the ones holding Nera and Eublech were standing in a general circle, watching the discussion. The furthest out one was a short, stocky bandit after 5 yards from the man group. He was leaning against a tree.

"Of course, I hate it here."

"I already told you, he's evil and I hate him. I'd never want to run away with him . . . I don't know how I'll convince July to leave without him but I won't go if he's coming." June said, expression suddenly darkening.

He held her close, glad to see her cheer up a bit. @Through The Living Glass @TheRavenHasLanded @Exotic Almond @BlueWildRye

August just shrugged. "Actually it might've been better in the long run if the bandits had kept it . . . Then it wouldn't be back with the Emperor now. But it was a reckless choice in the first place, I honestly didn't see it staying out of their hands for long, though it was noble of July to try." "When I caught up with July was when we had to really start running . . . We ended up stopping in a village to work out some conflict surrounding a friend July made, but after that we traveled to Jouken and you know the rest."

June ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of how to explain it. "It's not the right time, I-I wasn't ready and he wouldn't listen to my advice--plus, he went with August and I could never . . ." "Well, I did manage to visit some old friends of mine in Hujo* but we just sat around and talked about things, nothing exciting." August said with a laugh. "It's possible July had some adventures, I do know that he lost the Shi-Matahn to bandits for a while and had to hire someone to get it back to him, but you'd have to asked him for details."

"I-I didn't want to go," He sighed, "We had a whole argument about it."

"Yeah we're super close! He'll probably be upset with me after this for a while but . . . I'm sure things will go back to normal soon."

"Yay!! That's wonderful, shall I give you my terms?"

"Hmmmm, I don't know that's a hard question . . . I like taking walks and spending time with July."

"It wasn't really the most product trip," He said with a chuckle, "But oh well."

"No no it's fine . . . I feel sad about it all the time you're not making things worse," June said brightly, failing to make things better.

"It could be worse.," He insisted.

"Yeah, when people don't want me around I get tons of time on my own," June insisted. "It's not-- I mean, I know it's bad but it's not that bad."

"Heeey don't go back to your tree, clearly it's safe down here, I'd hate to have to yell and ruin my voice." They didn't appear to be 'at the ready', now that Jerehlu was handling things and Nera and Eublech were captured. That said, most still had their weapons drawn.

"Why wouldn't they be?"

"Only when people aren't watching."

"Oh yeah I write my own songs sometimes, and people usually like them but I'm really slow at it."

"Now we're like . . . adopted . . . sorta . . . it's weird. I guess he hated all his real kids for some reason so he disowned them all and then hand-picked knew ones. Something about keeping the fate of the empire in line." He chuckled, "Not that I'm involved in all these politics."

"N-no sometimes patrons will want me to play at a restaurant and I get to order food as a perk--the older ones of us have more freedom though, because Father trusts them more. That's why October and December are always gone off on missions and stuff."