Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:50:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Mark Friedman <forcewielder2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: An Apprentice's Adventures, Ch. 2

All the usual legalities and warnings stated in previous installments of
the series still apply.

Comments can be sent to me at forcewielder2000@yahoo.com (flames will just
be ignored!).

~Mark

************

Ambassador Kroaswell proved to be very apt at taking care of himself. When
he asked me one evening as we sat next to a small campfire if I was
surprised by that, I laughingly asked him why I was even being brought
along at all.

He smiled. "Well, suffice to say, the bureaucratic mentality is the only
constant in the world. Some people think that I can't survive on my own,
being blind and all."

"Sir, if I may ask..."

"You're wondering how it happened, aren't you? How I was blinded."

"Well, yes, sir. I was only told that it was as a result of a tragic
incident that happened 15 years ago."

"Oh, is *that* what they're calling it now?" he said with a bit of a
snort. "I suppose you could call it that. It interestingly enough ties in
with why I was selected to be the ambassador to Andares. I suppose they
told you I got the position because I'm a merchant who used to trade in
Andares a lot."

That's right," I replied.

"That is a part of it, I'm sure. But it's not the only reason, or even the
main reason. After all, I'm not the only merchant to have traded
extensively in Andares, not by a long shot. This `tragic incident,' as some
are apparently so fond of calling it, was when I was involved with what was
supposed to be a routine trade mission. Now, it's important to remember
that at the time diplomatic relations had already cooled somewhat between
Skronina and Andares. It might seem like a shocking thing to most, but
things had never really been all *that* great between the two nations to
begin with. Sure, we were never enemies or anything like that, but things
were never all that buddy-buddy, to borrow a phrase my son and some of his
friends used to use when they were your age, between Skronina and
Andares. About 20 years ago, Andares turned a lot of their attention from
foreign affairs to internal issues. They have some of the better social
programs I've seen in my time, though I digress. Anyway, as I mentioned, 15
years ago I was involved with what was *supposed* to be a routine trade
mission that took me to one of Andares's duchies that is ruled by one of
King Osvaldo's favorite cousins."

"Let me guess," I said. "Things didn't go quite as planned."

"Exactly. One of the `internal issues' that was being addressed was dealing
with pirates that had been plaguing Andares's eastern coast for several
years, and as you can imagine, the pirates didn't take too kindly to
that. The pirates decided to assassinate several notable members of the
nobility – and yes, one of their targets was the aforementioned duke –
figuring that they'd be an easier target than the more heavily guarded
king. They hired an assassin mage to handle the dirty work. The attempted
assassination – it turns out that the duke was to have been the first
target – took place late one evening. I had been a guest at the palace,
as the duke and I knew each other from several other prior
engagements. That evening, as fate would have it, I had decided to head
down to the stables to check on one of my horses, a mare who was pregnant
and was close to delivering. I stumbled across the assassin – almost
literally – as he was carrying out his plan. Apparently, it startled him
as much as it had startled me, and he dropped something called a
flashbang. I don't know if you've heard of those before."

"I have," I said. Flashbangs were very popular with assassins, though hard
to come by. They were ceramic balls filed with chemicals, enhanced with
magic, that would cause a bright flash and a loud bang (hence the name)
when broken and stun anyone nearby (or at least those without certain
magical wards over their eyes and ears) long enough for an assassin to
carry out his task; looking directly at a flashbang without the
aforementioned magical wards over your eyes when it went off could lead to
permanent blindness.

"But how'd you survive?" I asked. "I mean, I'm sure the assassin couldn't
exactly have been thrilled that you messed up his plans like that."

"Fortunately there were guards near enough to hear the flashbang going off
but not so close that they were blinded in the flash or dazed by the
noise. And as it turns out, the assassin had not yet had an opportunity to
place the needed wards over his own eyes and ears, and was momentarily
stunned as well. It made it possible for the guards to discover what was
happening, figure out what was going on, and kill the assassin before he
was able to kill me or anyone else. The duke was saddened that one of his
guests would be injured while under his roof, but also grateful at the same
time that I'd saved his life, even though it was unintentional."

"I'm sorry," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry about," he assured me. "As an old
saying goes, life is what happens while you're making other plans."

I soon started to learn to appreciate that statement. A part of the
supplies that had been sent along were cots for sleeping in, but because of
the need for traveling somewhat lightly for speed purposes, there had only
been a limited amount sent along, so I politely offered to not use one. As
a result, I had been sleeping in the back of the very wagon that I rode in
during the day.

Two days after the conversation I had with Ambassador Kroaswell, we reached
the foot of the Kanant Mountains (which the Anxion Pass went through at the
top). That night I was awoken by some sort of commotion. Groggily I sat up.

"What's going on?" I murmured, rubbing sleep out of my eyes. I dropped my
hands just in time to see a fist coming right at me. It slammed into my
face, and all went dark...

***

I slowly came to, groaning. I tried to sit up, but immediately flopped back
down as the world spun around me.

"Shhhh," someone – a woman – said at the same time a hand was placed
gently on my chest. "You've had a rough night."

"What happened?" I moaned out. "Where am I?"

The hand was removed from my chest, and someone helped me sit up, and once
the room stopped spinning, I looked around. I was in a small room, with
several people near me. A mug was pressed into my hands, and I was directed
to drink.

"You're in the settlement of Klodia," one woman told me as I drank some
sort of tea, and I recognized her voice as the one who'd spoken earlier. I
remembered hearing about Klodia; it was a settlement not too far from the
route we were taking. It was one of several settlements in the area founded
a couple of hundred years before by a group of people looking to maintain
their belief system away from the persecution that existed at the time;
while such persecutions had long since ended as people learned that
different beliefs weren't necessarily bad, the descendents of those
settlers remained where they'd been raised, and still remained the dominant
belief system in the area.

"Your caravan was attacked last night by a group of bandits," the woman
continued. "One of our scouting parties happened upon the scene just after
the attack started, and was able to kill several of the bandits and chase
off the rest. Oh, and sorry about Pacey," and she jerked her head towards a
wiry fellow, "slugging you like that. When you sat up, it surprised him,
and he thought you were a bandit."

"Yes, my apologies," Pacey rumbled in a voice deeper than I'd thought would
come out of someone his size.

"Is everybody all right?" I asked.

"A few cuts and scrapes," she said. "You were the worst off in most
ways. Several of your wagons were damaged. You'll be stuck here a while
waiting for them to be fixed." I finished the tea, and she took the mug
from me. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "Where are my manners? I'm Kala Yoanda,
Klodia's healer."

"Aidan Marsatal, apprentice archivist in the palace at Toskel and current
ambassadorial aide," I said.

"Nice to meet you," Kala said. "I only wish it was under better
circumstances."

"So, can I see the others from my group?" I asked. "I'd like to let them
know I'm all right."

"Of course," Kala said.

I hopped off the bed, but had to stop as the room spun around me once
again. Kala placed a supporting hand at my elbow until the room stopped
spinning. I took a deep breath and nodded at her when I was ready.

We headed out of the room, and I was taken to some sort of communal room,
where I saw quite a few other people, including Ambassador Kroaswell and
several other members of our party, were seated at tables. The smell of
food was in the air, and my stomach rumbled.

"About time you rejoined us, sleepyhead," Shemar, the driver of the wagon
Ambassador Kroaswell and I rode in, said with a grin.

"So Aidan is finally with us again, I take it," said Ambassador Kroaswell.

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Please, come sit down with me," he directed, and I came over and took a
vacant spot on the bench he was seated on. "Now," he continued, gesturing
in the general direction of three girls, around Kavon's age, who were
seated across from him, "I hope I may be permitted to introduce my three
dining companions. These are Jovana Ainsley, Deyanira Jabari, and Adamaris
Maliah." Each girl raised her hand as she was named. "Ladies, this is Aidan
Marsatal, my aide."

"Hello," I said, waving somewhat shyly at them, and each of the three girls
returned the greeting, as strange, conflicting feelings washed over me. I'd
been having what I suppose are the "usual" feelings towards girls since
hitting puberty, and while my father had told me about it when we'd had
"the talk" years ago (and I thus knew to expect it), I'd also been having
those feelings about boys as well, and I didn't quite know what to make of
it. While pa had mentioned that there were those who also held those
feelings for their own gender (either just for their own gender or for both
genders), he seemed to imply that it was something I shouldn't expect.

A while after I'd started having these feelings, I'd read up in the
archives about it. I learned that all three categories were considered
socially acceptable, and it was even possible for two members, whether of
the opposite gender or same gender, to become lifebonded to each other (a
somewhat rare occurrence no one really seemed to understand, in which two
people more than just fell in love with each other, but also had some sort
of deep bond between each other that was unbreakable for the life of the
two partners).

It was a couple of days before I could figure out how to ask pa why he
hadn't really talked a lot about it without mentioning that I'd been
experiencing bisexual feelings myself (and a part of what had been
particularly freaky about having those feelings was that, as of late, I was
sometimes finding them directed at guys like my friend Camryn – and not
just basic kissing stuff, but sometimes more...explicit thoughts; I'd also
read more about masturbation, which pa had referred to in passing during
"the talk," during that time, and after a bit of hesitant exploration of my
body, I now played with myself on what the writings indicated as being a
fairly regular, though perfectly normal for someone of my age, basis).

He admitted that it was because that he and ma hadn't ever really thought
about it – nobody they knew well had such feelings, and there hadn't
seemed to be any real reason to go into any depth on it with any of us
kids. Apparently I hadn't done as good a job as I'd thought in disguising
the reason why I'd asked, because he then asked if I was having such
feelings myself. I wanted to deny it, but looking into his eyes I felt I
could tell him anything.

"I...I think so," I'd admitted. "I don't know. I'm kinda confused."

He told me that sometimes it took a while for an individual to sort out
their feelings about which of the three orientations they were, and he
assured me that no matter what, he and my ma would always love me.

Back in the present, Ambassador Kroaswell said, "Aidan, we'll have to stay
here for several days. I don't know how much you've been told about what
happened last night, but several wagons were damaged, and while these good
people have offered to help us fix them, it will take a little while."

"How long will it be before we can get going again?" I asked.

"I've been told it will take about two days to get the wagons fixed,"
Ambassador Kroaswell said.

"If we can leave within three days, according to Mage Landyn," added
Driton, the convoy master, indicating a man sitting nearby, who waved at
the introduction, who was coming along to be the embassy mage, "we should
be able to beat out the storm, or at least the worst of it.  We should also
arrive in Jaana and reasonably set up before their religious festival
starts."

"What's the importance of getting set up before this festival starts,
anyway?" someone asked, whom I recognized as one of the wagon drivers. "I
mean, I've heard about this since we left Toskel, but not as to the reason
behind it."

"It should be mentioned that it's not so much the entire festival itself,
per se, that is what makes the issue of setting up the embassy quickly such
a pressing issue," Ambassador Kroaswell explained, "A part of this
particular festival is that the first two days involves a rather complex
ceremony that it somewhat limits what kind of activities can go on during
that time. And while I'm sure that our hosts wouldn't expect us to observe
their religious beliefs – there are, after all, other religions in
Andares whose followers aren't expected to observe the protocols in
question – it's felt it would be polite to not do anything obvious that
goes on against their faith's teachings. It's especially important to
remember when one considers that most of the support staff for the embassy,
and who will be helping us get set up in the first place, will be coming
from the local population, and as such most will be followers of this
particular religion."

"So we'll need to leave almost as soon as the wagons are fixed," Driton
added. "Everybody will need to stay close by, because we won't be able to
afford to wait for you if you aren't. If you don't leave with us, you'll be
on your own to catch up."

"Hey, you ever seen a griffin up close before?" Adamaris asked me suddenly.

"No, I haven't," I said. "Not real ones, anyway. Just in drawings and
carvings and such."

"C'mon," Deyanira said. "We've actually got three in residence here."

"Yeah, if you think they're great in drawings and carvings," Deyanira
added, "wait until you see `em in person!"

The three girls hopped up, as did I, and they practically dragged me
along. I admit I was a somewhat nervous and a somewhat excited at the same
time (there went those mixed feelings again!). Griffins were not sentient,
like humans, though they were supposed to be very intelligent, as far as
creatures went.

We headed outside, and for the first time I managed to get a good look at
the building we'd been in. It was one of several buildings built close
together. While the internal walls had been boards, the outsides looked
like logs had been stacked one upon the other. I'd read somewhere once that
such a construction method was often used in certain areas (like the
mountains) for durability purposes – the logs on the outside offered
protection from the elements better than most other readily available
materials, while the boards that lined the inside kept the weather from
going through the cracks between the logs.

"Come on, hurry!" Adamaris urged. "This is a good time to see them. They've
been up long enough so that they're not still waking up, but not so late
that they're restless and ready to be given their daily workouts or allowed
to go out and hunt."

I turned my attention to the three girls who were with me. Adamaris was
tall (She beat me by a good five inches) and slender, somewhat fair
skinned, but with dark, almost raven-black hair going down to the middle of
her back, with icy blue eyes. She seemed like the type of person who was
accustomed to being, if not the center of attention, then at least near it;
she reminded me of the types of folks back home who'd be right in the
middle of a group at a party, talking and giggling away.

Jovana was about my height (all right, maybe she was a *bit* taller than
me, but not by much), with shoulder-length flaming bushy red hair, and blue
eyes. Her tan skin looked like she spent no small amount of her time
out-of-doors, and her lean body spoke of an active lifestyle, the kind of
person who was constantly on the move.

Deyanira was about two inches shorter than I was, and, while not exactly
fat, was on the stocky side. She had pale skin, auburn hair going to just
past her shoulders, and brown eyes that gave her an almost wise look. I
could imagine her easily working in the archives.

We quickly arrived at a large building, and I was led inside. I stopped as
I took in the interior of the building. It was set up somewhat like the
stables I'd seen in Toskel. But that wasn't what caught my attention. There
were three griffins standing in there, and they were more amazing that I'd
ever imagined.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Adamaris asked in a somewhat hushed voice.

"They're...amazing," I replied, in an almost equally hushed voice.

One griffin squawked at me, giving a short hop in my direction.

"That's Dore," Deyanira said. "He's the one male of the group. The other
two are Cedilla and Tirana." She indicated the two others, staring calmly
at us.

The three girls moved closer to Dore, but I hung back. The griffins were a
lot bigger than I'd imagined, and my mind was filled with images of them
ripping me apart with those long claws of theirs, or snapping through an
arm or leg with their beaks.

Jovana noticed that I was hanging back, and called out, "Come on. It's all
right. They won't hurt you. Their squawk is *much* worse than their bite."

"Yeah, it's just Dore's way of saying he's excited to see us," Adamaris
added.

I slowly started taking steps towards them, ready to bolt towards the door
at the first sign that the griffins considered me breakfast. I was almost
to Dore when I nearly jumped out of my skin as a voice called out, "Well, I
see you've brought a new friend."

I looked over to see an old woman coming in. She was a little shorter than
I was, with silver-gray hair that flowed down to her waist, and a worn face
with more than a few wrinkles.

"Aidan, this is Odalys Quialis," Jovana said. "She helps take care of the
griffins. Odalys, this is Aidan Marsatal. He's a part of that caravan we're
helping out."

"Hello," I said.

"Hello there, young man," she replied. "Well, you're certainly a handsome
one, aren't you? I'll bet these ladies are already fighting over you."

I felt my face go warm, and the girls giggled. I'd certainly never
considered myself handsome, and wondered what had prompted Odalys to say
that.

"Oh Odalys, don't be silly," Adamaris said in a stern voice, though the
smile on her face said that she wasn't really feeling that way. "We just
met him. We wouldn't start fighting over him for at least a week, if he was
staying that long."

"At least," Deyanira agreed. "We might be able to hold out for two weeks,
if he stayed out of sight."

My face grew even warmer, which only served to send the girls back to their
giggling. Even Odalys laughed, a raspy, dry-sounding laugh.

"But you're not here to talk about your social lives, are you?" Odalys
said. "I'll bet you're here to see the griffins. Come on over, young man."

I hesitantly went over to Dore, and slowly reached out a hand. When my hand
touched his side, I stroked his golden feathers. I heard him squawk, and I
turned to find that he had turned back to look at me, blinking his large
eyes.

"Don't worry," Odalys said. "He's just checking you out."

"Uh, hi," I said to Dore.

After a few minutes, I felt that Dore wasn't going to eat me, and I relaxed
a little. At one point, I scratched his crest, and he actually leaned into
it. We soon headed back inside, and I was able to sit down and enjoy
breakfast. I was ravenous, and everyone seemed to get a chuckle out of how
much I ate.

"Now, you've got to remember he's a growing boy," Ambassador Kroaswell said
with a smile at one point.

"Boy?!" Kala said sternly.

"Young man," Ambassador Kroaswell corrected himself. "Sorry, Aidan."

"It's all right," I replied, though it came out rather muffled, as I had a
roll in my mouth.

Several men came inside at that point and sat down at the table nearest
us. They were handed the food dishes, and were quick to dig in. I noticed
that they were dressed in work clothes, which were covered in wood
shavings, sweat, and soot.

One said, "It looks like we'll be able to get the wagons repaired in time."

"That's good," Ambassador Kroaswell said.

As Ambassador Kroaswell talked with the man over a few things, I noticed
that one of the group that had come in wasn't a man at all, but a youth
about my age, probably a year or two older than I was. He was kind of
good-looking. He noticed me looking at him, and he held up a hand in
greeting. I somewhat shyly returned the greeting.

When I finished eating, Ambassador Kroaswell said, "Aidan, perhaps you'd
like to take a bath – they do have bathing facilities available here."

I was about to politely decline, but taking a quiet sniff, I decided that
it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to accept. After all, I'd last bathed
well in Toskel.

"All right," I said, "if it's not too much trouble."

"Oh, not at all," Kala said. "Here, I'll show you where the baths are."

We got up, and I followed her down the hall, past the room where I'd been
taken the night before. "This will be your room while you stay with us,"
Kala commented. "Your things have already been put in there."

The baths were at the end of the hall, which was two doors down from the
room I'd been assigned. I was surprised to find that it was a communal
bath, this one being for the guys, while another one nearby was for the
ladies. Kala quickly explained how to get water (including hot water, which
surprised me; if I had time later, I decided I'd have to ask how they'd
managed *that*) into and out of the tub, and provided me with a towel and
soap. I thanked Kala, and when she left, I headed back to my room.

As I grabbing a set of clean clothes, I started realizing that I hadn't
played with myself since I'd left Toskel, and having been around the girls
with their casual flirtations had left me a bit horny. Quietly I pulled
down my pants and underpants and sat down on the bed. I ran a couple of
fingers along the side of my already-hard 5 inch dick...and promptly
came. I flopped back onto the bed, groaning out in pleasure, as my semen
exploded out of the end of my dick.

Once I recovered from the ejaculation, I sat up from where I'd flopped back
onto the bed. Feeling a bit sheepish for some reason, I pulled my
underpants and pants back up, grabbed my clothes, the towel, and the soap,
and returned to the bathing room. Shutting the door, I started filling a
tub, and stripped my clothes off. Getting into the tub, I started washing
off.

After scrubbing myself for a while, I laid back, allowing the warm water to
soothe me. One of the things that never seemed to get mentioned in all
those adventure stories was how sore you could get.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when the door suddenly opened. I glanced
over to see one of the men who'd been working on the wagon. He nodded a
greeting, and I nodded back, feeling self-conscious as he started filling
another one of the tubs. There ought to be no reason for me to be
embarrassed (we were both guys, and it wasn't like he was standing there
gawking at me), so I didn't really know why I was feeling self-conscious. –
after all, it wasn't the first time I'd ever been naked around another guy,
and it wasn't like either of us had anything the other didn't.

Once he was in the bath (facing away from me, I noticed; whether this was
accidental or if he was purposely giving me as much privacy as the
situation allowed I didn't know), I got out of my tub as casually as I
could, releasing the plug to allow the water out. Grabbing the towel, I
quickly dried off and pulled the clean clothes on. Tossing the towel into
the bin Tala had indicated earlier, I grabbed my dirty clothes and headed
back into my room, where I stashed the dirty clothes. Heading out, I bumped
into the same boy I'd seen earlier.

"Oh, uh, hi," I said. "I'm Aidan Marsatal."

"Hi, I'm Perrin Tussah," he replied, similarly shifting the clothes he was
carrying to his own left hand before taking my hand in a firm handshake.

"So, I hope you left some hot water for me," he said with a grin on his
face.

"I didn't use it all up, but I'm not so sure about the guy who came in
after I did," I said, grinning back.

"Figures," he muttered. "With my luck, it's probably Tamin. He always did
hog the hot water."

"Well, I'd better let you go," I said quickly, then mentally cringed,
wondering why I'd said it the way I had – it made it seem like I was
eager to get away from Perrin.

"All right. See you later," Perrin said.

"Yeah, see you," I replied.