[littlemanpoet]

Eala, I goofed. Somehow, I missed reading the paragraph in your previous post that refers to Elián having stepped over to Rowenna and telling her. Had I actually read that the first time, I would have written from her perspective instead of Eodwine's. I'm going to copy and save both my last post, and yours, to this post, and then we have the option to delete those posts and start over again giving Rowenna the chance that you were trying to give her. And we have the old posts here if we want them after all.

Are you willing to do that?

formerly post # 801

Eodwine looked up at Haleth, for so the captain was named, and furrowed his brows.

"You would speak differently had you known these two as did we, Haleth. These were Lefun and Ritun, friends of ours, killed by these outlaws."

Haleth's eyes widened and he looked about him. "Oh! Hm!" He coughed into his fist, his face reddening. "Forgive me. I did not know."

"Will you help us return Lefun and Ritun to the my mead hall?" Eodwine asked.

Haleth gave a curt nod and gave his closest warriors quick orders. While they began the work of hoisting Lefun and Ritun amongst six men, the new stranger spoke up.

“Don’t ask me how I know,” he said barely loudly enough to be heard over the snarling of the dogs. “But this man has not been properly searched. If you value your life, check behind his buckle and bracers. He still has the tools to free himself.”

Eodwine narrowed his eyes at both the speaker and the outlaw whom he had just betrayed, the wiriest and weakest looking by far of the three bandits. "Thornden, check him."

As Thornden searched the outlaw, who was staring balefully at the sailor, Eodwine spoke again.

"You tell me not to ask how you know. But that begs the question, friend, if so I may call you. You know each other." Eodwine meant his words to be statement of fact rather than question. "Do you know any of these others? Are you perhaps the odd one of their number that we cannot find? Speak quickly or you may find yourself bound and taken by my law."

formerly post # 802

The muscles along Elián’s jaw line clinched as the Eorl overheard his remarks to the woman holding the dogs and rounded on him, firing the volley of questions that Elián had been hoping to avoid. He had chosen to address the woman because she had seemed the least likely to interrogate him, but had forgotten to take into account his sea-farer’s voice. From necessity, he had developed the sort of voice that could carry from one end of a ship to the other in a gale. While he could speak as quietly as the next person – after all, it was the only way to have any privacy whatsoever aboard a small ship -- oftentimes ashore he found that he had been speaking louder than he had intended. This, apparently, was one of those times.

Ignoring the baleful glare of the outlaw that he could feel drilling into the side of his face, Elián turned toward the Eorl with an expression of calm equanimity.

“Begging your pardon, milord,” he said politely. “I only pled not to be asked out of embarrassment over an act of very poor judgment. I do know this man, but only in passing.”

“Liar!” muttered the outlaw behind him. Actually, they had done quite a lot of business together. And drinking.

Elián pressed on regardless. “He has a set of lock picks and a miniature dagger hidden on his person. I know because I sold them to him.” That much, at least, was the truth. “I had won them at dice and, being in need of money and having no call for such things myself, sold them rather than destroying them... as perhaps I should have done.” Another lie. Before running away to sea, Elián had spent several years apprenticed to an unscrupulous cutler who had taught him, among other things, how to craft a very efficient set of lock picks. The tiny dagger had been Elián’s own invention. He had made at least fifty sets of both with his own hands over the years and sold all of them for a tidy profit. For all he knew, the rest of the outlaws had them as well. For his own sake, he hoped that they didn’t, but the other two were beginning to look vaguely familiar as well.

“Oh, you liar!” said the first outlaw even louder. By then, the other two outlaws were watching the proceedings with interest as well.

“I speak the truth,” lied Elián confidently. “I am not an outlaw. If I were, why would I turn on my friends? If I chose, I could have killed the Shirrif here and his young friend with ease when I encountered them in the woods, yet I did not. In fact, I offered them my aid.”

He paused, looking innocently from face to face, trying hard to judge how far his bravado would carry him. “Also, I could have chosen to remain silent and let this fellow use his picks and his blade to free himself. I did not. So, arrest me if you must, milord, but do so with the knowledge that it is an ill way to repay a stranger for a service rendered.”