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After Alli and Flein's heart to heart, she felt much more kindly to the Dwarf. He was, after all, even more a stranger in these proceedings than she. At least she understood quite a bit of human nature, even though it often annoyed her. He was left thinking about the average temperature of lesbians.
Now she was very curious to know why Illamatar had appeared to give her a vision that had nothing to do with her mysterious side-plot. Beavers? A Slan? Alli had a random idea, but she doubted that she was right. Though maybe... she'd speak with Flein once Anakron had put away his pokey-stick of doom and destruction. Alli had avoided death and dismemberment thus far... she didn't feel the need to turn into stone.
Walking back to the group, Alli shared a meaningful glance with Aimè and a wink with Sai. Mardil was gone.
Valde could be heard mentioning the suspicious nature of his disappearance... Alli knew better, or thought she did. She wasn't worried that Mardil would kill them all... but she still wanted to know what he was up to.
"Sai... will you come with me? If not, I can ask Aimè. I need to find out what Mardil's doing."
Sai looked worried... Fea was missing, but she was dead, so Sai knew that there wouldn't be a repeat performance of that particular fiasco. Slowly she nodded.
"Okay."
They walked to Mardil's cabin and knocked on the door.
"Please come back later. I'm in the middle of something." sounded Mardil's voice.
"Sure you are." muttered Alli rebelliously. She still hadn't managed to get over Mardil's perceived indiscretions. Sai looked nervous.
"What?" called Mardil.
"I'm sure you're in the middle of something. Who's in there with you?"
"If you must know, child, I'm trying to get some work done in here, so run along and play."
"Work is it? So that's what you're calling it these days? I'm so sure." Her voice took a sing-songy pitch as she made fun of him. "My name is Mardil and my idea of work is locking myself in my rooms with beautiful women. I have no morals so it's absurdly simple for others to condemn me. They don't even need an excuse. I'll kill and sleep around and break girls' hearts and whatever else floats my boat because I'm a stupid chauvanist like James Bond!" Alli finished at almost a yell, losing most of her temper and her maturity in one sentence.
Finally Mardil lost his temper a bit as well, shouting "If I have to tell you to leave me alone one more time I'm going to drag you into the woods and tie you to a tree!"
Alli yelled through the door. "You think you'd be able to do it so easily? Yeah right. I wouldn't let you. You'd LIKE IT too much!"
Aimè came up and put his hand on Alli's shoulder. "You okay?" he whispered. "Anything I should be worried about?"
"No... he's harmless enough... he's just being stupid." She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't crying either. Aimè's influence was helping to curb her emotional outbursts. She was beginning to owe him, if owing it could be called, for in this sort of partnership, neither of the pair owed the other anything but trust and equal commitment. "No..." she repeated. "Everything's fine. I just want to know what he's up to when he's pretending to be all macho. I have a feeling that he's very sweet underneath... I wonder why he tries to hide it so often."
Aimè patted her shoulder. "Guys are odd like that." he replied, shrugging. "Come on, girls... he'll be out when he's ready."
Alli and Sai walked with Aimè back to the circle, one grinning on each arm of his. He didn't seem much upset to have two pretty young girls as his escorts.
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