Anwyn was startled when she suddenly heard a familiar voice calling her name. She stopped abruptly, and turned around just in time to see the two young men hurrying towards her. For a moment, she was surprised to see them. It seemed to be a rather odd coincidence for them to turn up right then. But then she remembered that they must still be on duty. She couldn't recall ever having seen them in THIS area during this part of the day, but perhaps their route varied from day to day.
The thought ran through her head that perhaps their presence could be USEFUL. If they knew of a house like the one that she'd seen, that could certainly save her some time. And the sooner that she got back, the more likely it was that she'd be able to sneak back in without Kay realizing that she'd been gone. Anwyn didn't think that Kay knew about her unexpectedly-free afternoon (Louis had told her she was excused from clinic clerk-work that afternoon because her fidgeting was making HIM nervous).
*But then again*, thought Anwyn, *they might might start asking awkard sorts of questions about what I'm was doing, and why*.
Still undecided as to how much to tell them, she turned and called back, "Heyla, Burl", she called back, "Hi, MacConal ... where are you two hurrying off to so quickly ? Or are you just exercising for the sake of building up your muscles?".
Gwenn groaned as he heard Anwyn's question. Just the sort of smart- aleck remark he would have expected from her, and an indication that she wasn't going to listen to him.
Anwyn giggled. She couldn't help it -- it just kind of bubbled out on its own. "Ok, I'll stop teasing you", she replied, deciding not to take offense. "But, did you REALLY expect me NOT to suspect that it might NOT be a coincidence to have you two turn up here ?", she added.
But Burl gave an amused chuckle. "How very clever, damisela. Why, we were hoping to see you again," he replied, then added in an aside to Gwenn, "Weren't we, Gwenn?" Gwenn didn't say anything, but the scowl on his face was answer enough.
Anwyn raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if perhaps Kay has asked the two of them to be her unofficial babysitters. One ONE hand, she SHOULD be insulted to be treated like a small child. But, on the OTHER hand, at least they were paying attention to her. "BOTH of you, or just YOU ?", she asked Burl, trying to make it sound like it was just casual curiousity.
But Burl ignored Gwenn's silence and continued with a slightly sheepish look calculated to gain Anwyn's sympathy, "Well, I must confess that I forced Gwenn to patrol the area around 'Leaves' for awhile after you entered, hoping to catch you after you left, but, um, we never expected to see you here".
"And why is THAT ?", came the reply. Anwyn didn't think they knew what had happenned inside Leaves. But since they'd been following her since then, she assummed that they had likely seen her consulting the map.
"This isn't the best neighborhood to be in, and there are no shops here for you to peruse. And so when I saw you, I thought to myself, Burl, the young damisela there is definitely in need of an escort, and that's one of the duties of the guards. So here I am." Burl straightened proudly. "So how may I be of assistance, damisela Anwyn?" he inquired solicitously with a smile and a short bow. He was trying very hard to be as charming as possible....
Anwyn looked at BOTH of them rather skeptically. SOMETHING was up, and somehow she doubted that they were going to tell her what it was.
"So ... ", she said curiously, fishing for information and carefully choosing her words so that it would NOT sound like she was accusing them of acting like babysitters. Afterall, what if her suspicions were wrong, and it WAS just a coincidence ?
She gave them her best innocent-looking grin, and added "Is it NORMAL around here for off-worlders to need guides to escort them around so that they can find things ? And to keep such people from wandering into places where strange off-worlders are NOT welcome?".
Burl gave Gwenn a confused look. But Gwenn told him, "Don't look at me. _You're_ the one who wanted to talk to her." Gwenn wasn't about to get into that dog-fight; he'd been in it too often for comfort. But it was interesting that Anwyn was giving Burl a hard time. After all, Burl had bent over backward to be nice to Anwyn. Gwenn was somewhat amused at how he had been treating her; one would think he was trying to impress her.
Burl was perplexed. "What does being a...offorler...have to do with it? We're supposed to escort--well, really it's members of the Comyn--and keep them safe, but you're a damisela. You're not supposed to go places unescorted, especially where...well, places like this. Don't you _want_ company?". Most common girls would be honored by and much appreciative of an escort by a guard.
Burl got an equally-puzzled look from Anwyn. "But it has EVERYTHING to do with it!", she insisted (looking very, very frustrated that he didn't understand what seemed so obvious to her).
"Offworlders are what you locals call 'Terranans'-- even though not ALL of us are from Terra", she explained. "SOME of us are from OTHER planets. Personally, I've lived on more than a dozen different ones, though we never stayed very long on any of them.", Anwyn explained.
"There are more than just one?" Burl asked, astonished, "and you've been to all of them?" Even Gwenn raised an eyebrow, although he knew from conversations with Kay that there were a lot of planets in the Terranan Empire. But it was so confusing, he didn't keep track of the differences between the planets.
Anwyn shrugged, "My da is a soldier (he's a Terran Imperial Marine), and my mum's a doctor. So every time their duties take them somewhere else, we've had to move again. We've never stayed on ANY world longer than a year. So I've seen many of the worlds in the Empire -- but not ALL of them. And the local people act differently on each of them. So, because I'm the baby of the family and haven't seen as any worlds as my brothers and sisters, I see things much differently from my oldest brother Sean and my oldest sister Ula. And I even see things differently from my other brother Michael and my other sister Mary, who are only five and six Terran years older than me".
'Perhaps I had better not accuse them of being babysitters', Anwyn thought to herself. Since they claimed NOT to be playing at being tour guides, that left only TWO other possibilities. Perhaps they somehow knew what she'd been up to in Leaves, and were now watching her to see what she did with her Gift next. But if they knew THAT, then surely they would have said something, wouldn't they ? Or perhaps they were simply poking fun at her, by pretending that she was someone socially-important like Kay's friend Melissa.
With that in mind, Anwyn smiled more warmly at them, and added, "So, if I understand correctly ... here in Thendara, it's considered to be a COMPLIMENT to treat some little NOBODY as if she was some important Comyn lady who is too valuable to be left alone without someone to guide-and-protect her".
Burl was so shocked at how Anwyn interpreted his question that his jaw dropped open. He hadn't actually _SAID_ that last part, but she'd put her finger on exactly how he saw it (why, he was perplexed --'course, he wondered if maybe Anwyn could've picked it up mentally).
Anwyn frowned at him. "Well", she said rather bluntly, after having carefully chosen her words, "either you must think that I'm some precious treasure to be guarded -- though I don't know WHY. Or you must think that I'm some child who lacks sense enough to be left alone without an adult to watch over them". She couldn't come right out and ask them if Kay had told them to babysit her, but she hoped that perhaps Burl's reply might indicate the answer
But all that Burl said--after he recovered somewhat--was (to Gwenn) "_Now_ I understand what you mean." He had no idea how to explain, and would've been deeply offended (in fact, he WAS beginning to _feel_ deeply offended) by Anwyn's remark, but her changing facial expression and her next words changed that.
A thoughtful look then crossed Anwyn's face, and she blushed a VERY BRIGHT RED as she realized that SHE had insulted Burl. And, even worse, apparently she had been unintentionally insulting Gwenn for MONTHS now. OOPS ! It was NO WONDER that she found him to be so difficult to get along with. Maybe she should have paid more attention when Kay had been telling her about how Darkovan social customs were different among various groups.
Apparently, it wasn't enough to simply DRESS like a local, and to have learned their language (though she had to admit that her caheunga was much better than her casta). The HARD part was all the socio-cultural anthropology stuff that sometimes seemed to make no practical sense to her.