[Traveler]

As Traveler stepped down from the wagon, He heard Mara say something about a ghost. That's just before he got a whiff of something awful. It smelled like a cross between burning sulfur, a skunk, and an outhouse. It grew worse as he got closer to Carriac and Mara.

He slowly walked around the back of the wagon as Carriac was talking to her when he realized the smell was coming from Mara. Almost overcome by the stench he began to talk to Mara to reassure her everything would be all right. "We'll take care of that mean ole' Ghost." He looks at Carriac and mouths, "Do you smell _that_???" Once he decided it was Mara he thought about asking her what it was, but remembering what she had done to his beard earlier he decided another approach would be more fun.

He coaxed her from Carriac's arm, with little resistance, and took Mara in his arms and kissed her gently on the cheek, before picking her up and looking her in the eye tenderly. She was in full blush as he walked to the riverbank they were traveling by, choking back the bile, and dumped her in.

She didn't even realize what had happened till the steam began to rise from her body.

[Carriac]

Carriac looked on in surprise as the warrior took Mara from him so gently.

"A tender side to the man," he thought. "Who would have guessed?"

Then Traveler dumped the frightened maiden into the river.

"Figures. Well, it's his funeral pyre. Let's see about this ghost."

Carriac heaved himself up into the back of the wagon. The stench was worse in here. It was so strong, in fact, that Carriac was forced to place a handkerchief from his pocket over his mouth and nose in order to breathe.

"What _IS_ that stench."

~Well, my guess would be that the delousing agent I soaked the bedding in got a tad too hot�~

In spite of Mara's warning about a ghost, the eerie voice startled Carriac. It was indeed ghostly - muffled and icy. The sound of it sent shivers down Carriac's back.

He looked up to see a pale luminescent figure floating before him in the air. It was a pitiful looking creature, a bedraggled gnome with broken spectacles dressed in a scorched lab coat. Its expression was so forlorn that Carriac was immediately put at ease. This ghost had no intentions of harming anyone.

"You treated the bedding with a delousing agent?" he asked the apparition.

The ghost nodded. ~It was my own design�a little, er, fragrant, but I found it kept the burglars away as well as the lice.~

"So this was your wagon. You're the gnome alchemist who...."

~I'm the fool alchemist who blew himself up! Go ahead, rub it in. Everyone else seems to.~

Carriac smiled. "I have no intention of rubbing anything in. Mistakes happen." He meant it to be reassuring. Instead, the ghost hung its head.

~They happened to me all the time. I wasn't a very GOOD alchemist, you see. I was forced to get this wagon warded so it wouldn't blow apart like the others had.~

"Others?" thought Carriac, though he kept the question to himself.

~But that proved my undoing. See, I was thrown clear in the other explosions. It took awhile to heal, of course, but I survived all the same. This last time, the explosion was contained. The walls magnified the force of the blast so many times they couldn't even find enough of me to bury.~

"An unfortunate accident. But tell me, why are you still here? Shouldn't you have moved on by now?"

The ghost sighed. The low moaning rasp made Carriac's stomach drop. ~Therein lies my quandary. As near as I can determine, the wards, though designed to protect against fire, really act to contain energy. My soul is a type of energy, thus the wards contain me. In order for me to be released, the wards need to be deactivated. It's a little hard to look for a good mage when you're trapped in a smelly wagon. Oh, woe is me�.~

Carriac frowned. He felt sorry for the little gnome and appreciated his dilemma. He wondered what they should do. If they removed the wards, the wagon would no longer be Mara-proof. If they left them, the gnome would remain trapped. He was torn.

"What's your name?" he asked to change the subject.

~Moiranantollis. Friends called me Moiran.~

"Well, Moiran, we aren't wizards, so we can't be of any immediate help. But we can keep an eye out and see what we can do. In the meantime, will you allow us to offer our friendship? My name is Carriac. The woman you saw earlier is Mara and our bearded companion is Traveler."

The gnome actually seemed to perk up at the idea of having friends. ~Pleased to make your acquaintance. Maybe I could teach you some alchemy!~

Carriac smiled nervously. "That would be fun. But later. For now, I'd settle for some advice as to how to get rid of this horrible odor."

~Oh, that. There should be a bottle of de-scenter somewhere over there.~

Carriac found the bottle and opened it. Another scent filled the small room, worse than the first. His eyes bulged a bit.

~Or was that the bottle I used when I de-scented that skunk...?~

Carriac grabbed the bedding and raced for the door.

[Mara]

Mara felt Carriac's arms slipping around her, and she felt so safe in his arms. Puling him closer, she could almost taste his scent and she started to smile. Hearing the crunch of footsteps, she watched as Traveler came around the wagon and she turned and looked into his eyes.

Without a word, he pulled her free from Carriac's grasp, picking her up gently and kissing her cheek. She blushed and reached back for Carriac, before Traveler turned away. With a deep sigh, she pulled one arm around Travelers neck, while her other hand came up and started playing with his beard.

She didn't hear the babbling of the small river, nor did she notice the smile crossing Traveler's lips until it was to late. She felt herself suddenly leaving the warm confines of his arms, and watched in slow motion as she flew up, like a feather that had caught a soft breeze, before turning to stone and dropping like a rock into the river. She watched with wide eyes as the water rose up around her, felt the chill of the water hitting her back, before sinking down below the waters edge. The water fell back over her, filling in the spots where her body hit, then settled back to a soft flowing stream like nothing had happened.

Mara tried to fight the fear that was growing deep inside her, and the anger that was swelling up in her fist and chest. Breaking through the surface of the river, she took a few quick gasps of air, before being pulled under once again, as she tried her best to get a foothold. But the rocks and pebbles that made up the rivers bed were slippery, and unyielding. The harder she dug her feet into the water, the deeper she would sink. Water rushed over her eyes and her hands were thrashing about, trying to reach for anything that she could use to pull herself up and out of the water.

Suddenly she felt something, grabbed for it, her fingers locking onto leather, and cloth as she pulled herself up and out of the water. Gasping for breath, choking on the water that she had swallowed, she felt a pair of rough hands running through her hair, and bubbles of soap floating by her eyes and down her small nose, before dropping to the river below and being whisked away by the waters current.

"Hey," she choked out as the hands went down her back, then across her neck and face. "Watch that you're doing there!" Now with a face full of soap, and her eyes stinging, she felt the hands pushing her down back under the water. Coming back up for air, she sputtered and coughed, before trying to smack the hands away from her.

"Just you wait! When I get out of here I'm going to skin the both of you alive!"

Then she was dunked again, and held there for what seemed like hours, before being pulled back up once again. With her hair in her eyes and water dripping down from her ears and nose, she started beating the water with her fists.

"I don't want a bath!"

But by the looks of things, she was a bit late in that request. Getting her feet under her at last, she slowly stood, and found that the river hit her just above her knees. Brushing her hair back from her face, and spitting out a mouth full of water, she slowly looked up, after catching her reflection in the water. Shaking her head, to get the water out of her ears, she spotted Traveler standing there, his pant legs and chest dripping water. From his elbows down, he was wet, and she knew then that it was him that had given her the bath.

Standing there, she started to feel angry, her eyes changing from green to red, but the feeling quickly faded and she started to laugh. "You're going to get yours..."

With the speed of any elf, she was out of the water and was lunging towards Traveler, her arms stretched out as she hit him square in the chest, pushing him backwards into the river, before landing on top of him. Laughing and splashing water all around him, she jumped from his chest and squealed, laughing as she ran out of the river and stood on the rocky bank. Turning back, she had an evil smirk on her face, as she bent down and started skipping flat brown stones at Traveler, her tongue sticking out the left side of her mouth, as she closed her right eye to take careful aim, before skipping another rock towards him.

"Come Spangaer (bearded one)," she called out in Elvish, before jumping out of the way as a number of rocks came skipping back towards her. She jumped and skipped out of the way, before running up and hiding behind Carriac, as he stepped out of the wagon, bedding in hand. She had grabbed the back of his shirt and was trying to use him as a shield, pushing him closer towards the waters edge, while giggling and laughing in his ear.

"Protect me," she giggled, before reaching around and kissing Carriac's ear and blushing.

"Travelers going to get me..."

[Traveler]

He was caught by surprise as she sprung forward and knocked him down. He readied himself for the blow that never came. He scrabbled to get up when he heard the splash of a rock hitting the water. He looked up expecting to see a wet, mad Mara throwing rocks, What he saw made him chuckle.

She was standing there on the bank with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth aiming for him. He had to dodge a couple of stones as her aim improved. He finally managed to catch one of the stones and sent it back towards Mara. When she realized he was going to get her back she took off running and he gave chase. She was able to reach Carriac and hide behind him before Traveler was out of the water good.

"He's not going to be able to help you now! Besides, he doesn't want any of this." said with a Sly grin.

He moved towards the pair as they stood there, Carriac with the mattress and Mara perched behind him. An _evil_ thought began to form in Traveler's mind. ~Carriac needs a bath, now!~

He grinned as he moved closer to the pair. He said to Mara, "I think you and I have had enough of our fill of baths for a while, don't you think so? Not everyone has had a turn though."

He could see the confusion in Mara, and Carriac's eyes. Then suddenly Mara lit up with the Idea and Smiled as she said, "You're right you know, We need to fix that."

When she said that Traveler ran forwards to the pair as Carriac realized what they were going to try to do. Mara slipped her arms around him to keep him till Traveler was able to get there. There was a struggle for a moment, but Traveler prevailed and was able to hoist the portly elf on his back and manhandle him to the rivers edge where the two of them ended up in the water.

[Mara]

Mara laughed and chuckled as Traveler tossed Carriac over his shoulder, before turning and stepping back into the river. He was up to his knees when he turned Carriac loose, and the splash was anything but funny. The backwash alone from Carriac hitting the river caused Traveler to be drowned by the spray. Water fell off of his face, nose, beard and mustache as he turned slowly towards her, and she spotted the gleam in his eye. Reaching down, she started skipping more rocks towards the pair as she looked for a place to run and hide.

"You're not going to get me back in there," she laughed and she stopped, and watched the sleeping pad slowly being taken away by the rivers current.

"My bed! Ohhh, you two just wait until I get it out of the current. Your going to be sorry," and she jumped, and pulled a thin limb down, before springing up from the bank. Flipping backwards, her feet landed on the limb, before she jumped to the next tree, and the next, until she found a limb that protruded over the edge of the river. Laying flat on the limb, she slipped down it as it slowly bent forward, until it just touched the water. Mara reached out and snatched her bedding from the rivers current, causing the limb to bend more. Without thinking, she tossed the pad to the bank.

The limb that was bent by the weight of the wet pad caused the limb to spring back up, throwing Mara up and against the tree with a splat.

"OH! That's going to leave a mark for sure," as she slowly slipped down the trunk of the tree, leaving behind a wet stain, just like a snail.

Shaking her head, Mara slowly stood and walked over to the pad, picking it up, she brushed the wet and still sticky leaves and twigs from it, before walking back to the wagon. Throwing the pad over the door, she stepped back and stretched.

"Once you two finish playing around in the river, then we will set camp and get a fire going for warmth. And if you think you're sleeping in the wagon, you both have another thing coming." With her hands on her hip, Mara bent over just enough to shake her finger at the pair, before stalking off in search of firewood, mumbling about men and bathes.

"I'm hungry," Mara called out over her shoulder, in hopes that they would get the point and start setting up camp. Walking back with a flower in her hair, she stopped and scratched the burro's ears, right before one of them reached up and took the flower from her hair. By the time she turned, all that was left was a stem.

"Carriac! These beasts eat my flower! I want you to come over here and find out who eat my flower! Now," and she stomped her foot and dropped the firewood near a circle of stone. "And I'm still hungry," as her stomach growled. She started to bend over, to get the wood ready when Socks winked, before butting her with her head, sending Mara flying.

"Hey!!"

[Carriac]

It was surprise, more than anything, that caused Carriac to struggle as Traveler tried to pull him to the river. When the fighter succeeded in hoisting the portly elf over his shoulder, Carriac simply settled back for the ride. Just before he hit the water, he gave the mattress a good push to start it floating down the river. Mara wasn't the only mischievous elf in the party.

Carriac took his time in the water, washing off the remaining dirt from Mara's earlier 'episode'. He watched in amusement as his ward fished the mattress out of the river and her subsequent slide down the tree. He smiled as she traipsed around the camp, flitting from place to place with wild abandon.

It was good to be in the company of another elf.

Very good.

The shaper waded his way back to shore and stepped out on the bank. He briefly touched his clothing and willed it to squeeze out the water. His clothing dry, he made his way over to where Mara was sprawled in the dirt, the eyes of the two mules laughing at their fun. He reached down a hand and pulled Mara to her feet.

"Lirimaer (lovely one)," he said in elvish, "I hope Socks didn't hurt you."

Carriac brushed off her arms and then reached up and gently tugged a piece of grass from her hair. He turned and fed the blade to Petunia.

[Mara]

Mara looked up and saw Carriac standing over her. Glancing around him, she saw the two burros laughing, and she stuck her tongue out, before reaching her arm out for Carriac to pull her up. Standing on both feet, she helped him brush herself off.

"One of those thing ate my flower. And it was a pretty one two. It even had all its petals and it looked so good in my hair," as she started to pout and kick rock around with her feet. "I thought I might look pretty for you," as she looked up, her lower lips sticking way out, before she kicked a rock towards Socks.

"But one of them had to eat it before you got the chance to see it," and she watched as Carriac pulled a blade of grass from her hair and fed it to Petunia.

"I hope she chokes," she mumbled, as she kicked another rock.

[Carriac]

"I'm sorry about the flower," he continued, pulling something from his pouch. "Let me replace it with something she's less likely to eat."

The shaper held out his hand to reveal a delicate miniature water lily. The petals were made of silver, the stem gold. Closer inspection showed a small clasp at the back to hold it in place in someone's hair.

Carriac brushed back the hair at Mara's right ear and clipped the hairpiece into place. He let his fingers brush her cheek as his hand fell away.

"I hope that will do the trick."

[Mara]

Mara's eyes grew large as she watched Carriac. Biting her lip, she watched as he placed the hairpiece in her hair, and she slowly brought her hand up and ran her fingers across the lily.

"It's...beautiful," as tears of joy fell down her cheeks. Dropping her hand back down, she reached up and kissed Carriac full on the lips, before blushing.

"Thank you! I'll cherish it forever," and she jumped up and down, before running over towards Traveler.

[Carriac]

The kiss was completely unexpected and entirely too short. It had ended before Carriac fully realized it was happening. As Mara flitted over to Traveler, the shaper clung to the feel of her lips against his: so soft, so impassioned. So wonderful. A pleasant warmth filled him, a fuzzy tingling he hadn't felt since....

He shoved the memory to the back recesses of his mind and focused on the present. Mara was showing his gift to Traveler.

[Mara]

"Traveler! Look at what Carriac gave me. Isn't it the most beautiful thing that you've ever seen?" She tilted her head as she held onto Travelers shoulder, making it difficult for Traveler to even catch a glimpse. Spinning around and around, while clapping her hand, she quickly kissed Traveler on his cheek, before running over and showing it to Socks and Petunia.

"You better not try to eat this, or we'll have burro stew for supper tonight!" Socks rolled her eyes as she glanced up at the hairpiece, while Petunia was busy eating some grass that was by her feet. Neither one paid much attention to idle threats. They had both heard far worse...

Running back up to Carriac, Mara kissed him again, before running down to the rivers edge, to look at her reflection in the water, her hunger long forgotten.

"It's so...beautiful!"

[Carriac]

The second kiss was even shorter than the first. He half lifted his hand to ask her to wait, but the words jammed in his throat and the hand dropped to his side. He couldn't. Not yet. The banished memory threatened to rear it's ugly head and the effort of suppressing it left Carriac feeling cold, the momentary warmth of Mara's touch draining away into an emotional void.

He spun suddenly and fled at a walk into the forest.

[Traveler]

After having a bath and then getting thoroughly soaked twice, all in the same day, Traveler decided it was time to dry out. Mara was complaining about being hungry again. And Carriac was giving expensive gifts again. He shook his head as he thought about what this looked like. It was a sheer flaunting of apparent wealth that was shameless.

~What is he doing? Is he trying to make this girl more infatuated with him than she is already? Why do I care, anyway? She's an unknown. She's dangerous. Carriac is an unknown. Hells, I'm an unknown! ~ Traveler laughed out loud at the thought that he was as much an unknown to himself as the others in the group.

With a smirk on his face he said, "If ya'll can get a fire started I'll go get some dinner. Neither one of you are opposed to Rabbit meat are you?" Once again, he didn't really wait to hear the answer before he took off into the woods in search of some meat for their dinner. The walk would serve to dry him out _and_ to get him away from the talkative girl.

As he moved through the woods and he set his mind to the task of hunting his vision slowly began to change. At first he didn't really notice the difference, but then he began to notice he was seeing things that he shouldn't be able to. What he saw was orange, yellow, and red flashes in the trees, and surrounding brush. His hearing had become a more sensitive. He could hear breathing sounds coming from all around him, some slow, others extremely fast. It was a dizzying experience. It was more than he could handle at the moment. He continued to walk through the woods and stumbled to his knees. He sat there for a moment as all the sights, sounds, and smells assaulted his senses. He was reeling from the experience when he realized he could focus on one of the images and things would calm down. As he concentrated on a warren of rabbits he realized he could tell where and how many there were.

He stood up and lost his concentration as he _felt_ a squirrel run up a tree next to him. He almost lost his grip completely, but managed to concentrate on the rabbits. He took his crossbow from its place, set the bowstring, notched a bolt and carefully walked towards the rabbits. There were several families of rabbits living near each other. He crept behind a tree near their warren and peeked around. They were a bright orange color.

One or two of them were standing on their hind legs sniffing at the air. They knew something was near that shouldn't be. Traveler quickly brought his crossbow to bear and pulled the trigger. He heard the whistle of the bolt flying through the air and the squeal of the rabbit as it died. The other one scampered off to hide, but it did it no good, with his heightened senses he could see it in the underbrush. Again he loaded and again he fired and again he killed a rabbit. He then killed a third one.

~ Three rabbits this size should be plenty for us! ~

As soon as this thought entered his mind his Senses returned to normal. Traveler realized that heightened senses must have been triggered by his thoughts of hunting. To test his theory he thought again of hunting an animal and once again his senses changed. He thought about quitting and they returned to normal.

~This was something that would be extremely useful. ~

He gathered the killed rabbits and dressed them putting the gore in a small hole and covering it up. The scavengers would find it and pick it up, but it was a hard habit to break. Once this was done, he strung them and threw the rabbits over his shoulder to carry back to camp.

As he was walking he tried his new trick several times thinking of different animals to see if it would make a difference. It didn't, but if he didn't concentrate, the experience would overwhelm him. It was during his experimentation that he found Carriac with his hand stuck in a tree. As he watched the elf, Carriac pulled his hand out of the tree. He was now holding a staff. The tree itself seemed to close around the place where the staff had been pulled and no wound could be seen.

He hollered at Carriac, "You trying out new tricks?" When he didn't get a response from him he walked a little closer, but got the feeling something was wrong and simply said, "I've killed some rabbit if you want to come back with me for dinner."

[Carriac]

The staff came out smooth - a perfect piece of ash heartwood. Carriac ran his hand over the hard wood, admiring its perfection. So absorbed was he in his examination that he failed to notice Traveler until the man was almost on top of him.

He kept his face slightly averted as he said, "I'm not hungry."

[Traveler]

"Suit yourself. I'm going back and cooking these things. They'll be ready before too long. If you don't hurry you might miss out on dinner. You know how Mara is about eating"

[Carriac]

"I might be awhile. Don't wait up."

The shaper went back to examining the ash staff and missed Traveler's shrug as the warrior returned to camp.

(to be continued...)