Don't laugh at me! (anyone in need of WS2-3 conflict?)

[Lannie]

Climbing out of the bath and wrapping a towel around herself, Esthelle couldn't help a mischievous grin at her fellow trainee. "Somehow I wouldn't mind bathing again with you at all..." She was not new to flirting. Before her mother had started her ridiculous matchmaking sessions, Esthelle'd had been flirting and kissing with some of her male friends from her neighbourhood already. That seemed a very long time ago, though. She towelled herself off quickly and slipped into her muddy clothes once again.

 

"Let's go," she said to Sana, who had done the same. "I feel a bit guilty for not making sure he was okay before we went for healing, even though that might have ended somewhat messily," she confessed as they headed out of the bathhouse. It had stopped raining fortunately; the late afternoon skies were still steely gray but no drizzling rain was emerging from them.

 

They walked back to the place where they had fought and found nothing but mud and Esthelle's quarterstaff, abandoned in the mess. Esthelle picked it up and rubbed it clean on her tunic, feeling as absurdly guilty over the abandonment of her quarterstaff as she did over the trainee she'd fought with. Sana soon found the other trainee he'd directed to Maldrin, but the young man seemed distracted and was in the middle of a spar with someone else and they decided quickly that Maldrin was probably still out there somewhere, hurt.

 

How long had it been? An hour? An two hours?

Nobody they asked had seen them, but in the end Sana called out: "I found him!" as he was checking some bushes. Esthelle ran over and found the trainee she'd smacked with her quarterstaff only half-conscious with a flushed face as if he had a fever. His eyelids were flickering and his eyes were rolled upwards, as if he were unconscious. Sana checked the other young man's chest under a mud-caked tunic and found a bruised and battered mess on the ribcage. "Seems like you really hit home, Esthelle," he murmured, looking up at her.

 

"Oh Light," she said, staring at her fallen adversary

with greenblue eyes as large as saucers. "We should really get someone to Heal him. Should I ask miss Faith Sedai to come get him?"

 

But then Maldrin stirred, and his eyes opened.

[Zachary]

Maldrin was really hot. And really sleepy. He'd just been awakened from the most wonderful dream. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure it was wonderful. Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Sana's face looking at him. He seemed a bit worried.

 

Maldrin grinned lopsidely. "I knew you'd come back." He tried to mumble, but it came out worse than if he'd been drinking. He was just starting to go to sleep again when he noticed a movement. Looking up for a moment, he stared blearily. There was something familiar about that face. So tantalizingly familiar. He began to slip off again when he realized why that face was familiar.

 

Still weak from his exhaustion and injuries, he nonetheless fought against the people trying to finish him off. Obviously Sana was in with this wildcat. Why else would they be together?

 

Jerking back from Sana's grasp, Maldrin snarled and took hold of his seax, throwing it at Sana hoping it'd take him out of the way, and lifted his sword towards the Wildcat. It was hard to keep it pointing at her, but he managed.

 

"Come to finish me off, eh Wildcat? I've no worries about cutting your pretty face this time" Maldrin was able to talk much more clearly this time, now that his blood was going. Though he was still a little vague on how he'd stop her. Hopefully the betrayer was dead and the wildcat would underestimate him. Hopefully.

[TaeaDawn]

Maldrin jerked back from Ursana and he had a hard time blaming him for that. The boy was still unsteady and in the end that helped Sana. He didn't see what was being grabbed, but a movement set him in motion as his roommate grabbed for a knife and threw it. Unsteady aim and good reflexes saved him from getting more than a scrath as the seax grazed his shoulder. He ignored the injury as Maldrin held a sword up towards Esthelle.

 

"Come to finish me off, eh Wildcat? I've no worries about cutting your pretty face this time"

 

Maldrin was obviously out of it and Ursana didn't doubt he'd try to hurt them both if he couldn't talk him out of it.

 

"Maldrin, come on. This is mad. Put the sword down. It's me and i'm not going to hurt you. We want to get you healed. Put your sword down," he said again in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "and let us help you. That's what we came back for."

[Lannie]

Esthelle dropped the quarterstaff she had been holding. It fell with a splash in the mudpool at her feet but she paid it no notice. She had expected a somewhat hostile reaction, but this? And... Wildcat? What did that mean? He sounded delirious. She shook her her mutely, at a loss what to say at the moment.

 

Sana had not swallowed his tongue, fortunately. "Maldrin, come on. This is mad. Put the sword down. It's me and i'm not going to hurt you. We want to get you healed. Put your sword down and let us help you. That's what we came back for."

 

"That is right," Esthelle added. She kept her voice low so he would not find any threat in it. "We came back to make sure you're alright; at first I thought you'd been helped already but it turned out that you weren't." She now looked up directly at him, making eye contact. He didn't look very impressed; or coherent for that matter. Did their pleading even help? "I want to say that I'm sorry that you were hurt and left behind like this, Maldrin. It was not my intention to make a mess like this..."

 

Esthelle hated apologising and she was not sure if she regretted hitting him, but she sure did feel bad about him being messed up like this and nobody had taken care of him. Hopefully, he would let them take him to Faith Sedai. He really needed to see a Healer...

[Zachary]

Maldrin was fast losing his grip on conciousness, though he clung to it tenaciously, aware of the fact that once he lost it, he would not be getting it back. He couldn't out wait them, at this time, which meant he needed to attack. It would lose him his strength all the faster, but he'd rather go out with a fight then slip into the dark.

 

In one smooth motion, which caused an indescribable amount of pain to shoot through his ribs, he regained his feet, using the momentum to fall forward towards the two, sword stabbing out for the wildcat. While in the middle of the motion, he had a second to realize he was delirious and that they weren't trying to hurt him, a second to think, I could've been with that doe-eyed barmaid, before he went unconcious.

[TaeaDawn]

Sluggish movements made Maldrin's movements easier to predict and Ursana jumped forward as his roommate began to fall. "He is mad!" he said with a sigh. He lowered him to the ground, kneeling beside him to check on him. He looked up at Esthelle. "AS much as I might like to leave him here and the moment, I don't think I can." He said, giving her a small smile. "Do you think you can help me carry him in to an Aes Sedai? I don't think he'd appreciate if we sent for a stretcher and alerted everyone to what happened."

 

Ursana was sure no, more than ever, that he didn't understand his roommate. He and Rodrik were both very happy to get into bar fights and talk the next day about it, but Ursana liked the peaceful life. He believed in fighting for what was right, in fighting for people that couldn't, but he liked peace. He smiled at Esthelle again. "Tell you what, we get out of this, I owe you a drink and i'll play for you." He said. He'd never played for anyone other than his family before, since it was a trade he'd picked up from a Gleeman who'd travelled with them for a while, but he was pretty good, if he did say so himself. "I play a mean flute."

[Lannie]

"You're on," Esthelle nodded at Sana, while not taking her eyes off the unconscious trainee. "I think we could both use a drink after this. What a day."

 

It was a heavy task, to try and carry Maldrin to the Infirmary in his current state. He was a dead weight and did not work along in any sort of form. Esthelle and Sana dragged him slowly to the Infirmary and left him with the Aes Sedai.

 

"Nothing more we can do now I suppose," Esthelle noted. She sighed. "I don't think he even heard my apology... and if he did, he didn't care. You guys are roommates, aren't you? I'd watch out around him, if I were you." She had not seen such irrational dumb anger since her husband and she'd had their final falling out. There was no reasoning with such delirious anger. All they had to hope for was that Maldrin would come to his senses soon and didn't carry grudges. She wondered if he did, and immediately felt sorry for Sana.

 

"So... how about that drink?" she smiled at Sana. "Drinks are on you, dinner's on me?"

[TaeaDawn]

"I don't think he even heard my apology... and if he did, he didn't care. You guys are roommates, aren't you? I'd watch out around him, if I were you."

 

Sana nodded as he listened to her. He didn't really thinkg Maldrin had meant any harm in the beginning. But in the end, he hadn't really been coherent enough to know what he was doing.

 

"So... how about that drink?" she smiled at Sana. "Drinks are on you, dinner's on me?"

 

He smiled at that. "Sounds like a good idea to me. I could really use a drink and a meal about now. I think Maldrin will be OK in here on his own. He's... well... he likes fights. Let's get out of here before he can wake up and find a way to follow us." He added with a smile.

[Zachary]

After spending a whole day in bed, Maldrin was rethinking this whole idea about becoming a warder. Aes Sedai were mean. Not mean in the yelling at you way, but mean in the manipulative way. He couldn't understand how that Yellow had been able to get him to promise to stay on the bed until he was deemed fit. But she did, and so he was stuck there. The only thing he was happy about at the moment was that he got an amazing amount of food. There were some good cooks in the Tower. If they always feed people this good, maybe I should stay with becoming a Warder... He began weighing the food against the manipulation. The thing that irked him was that he couldn't understand how he'd been molded as she saw fit. But the food was very good.

 

Maldrin sunk deeper into his thoughts, trying to figure out whether he could have his cake and eat it too. Cake! If they make cake as good as they make everything else... Maybe I could ask for some when someone comes.

 

Then, as usually happened, he got distracted when he saw that the sun was beginning to set and was shining right into his eyes. Looking away, he blinked his eyes trying to get the afterimage away.

 

Now, what was I thinking about? He had a feeling it had been something very important. After struggling for a moment, he shrugged. It'll come back to me. Sitting up at the side of his bed, he looked at his feet. There was something bothering him. He couldn't remember why he'd needed Healing. It'd apparantly been bad enough for him to need a days whole resting, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what happened.

 

All he remembered was heading for town for a drink and a dalliance. Maybe he'd gotten into a bar fight instead. That bothered him a lot though. He'd come out worst in a fight before, sure, but never bad enough for a healing. Maybe he'd gotten really drunk? That could explain it. Nodding at that, he decided to see if there was anything to occupy his mind.

 

Reaching into his pocket, he grinned. There it was, a good Andoran silver crown. He'd been practicing with it for weeks in secret. He could almost always control the spin of it now and call it right. He was planning to use it to con his roommates into doing various chores he considered unpleasant. Chuckling sinisterly, he began practicing.