A Brotherly Talk

Characters: Kentar, Garnet, Chris, Will, Amy, Aikuen

Location: Moledeep

Moledeep: Infirmary

"Oh no you don't!" Slap. "Ow!" Kentar laughs and grins, picking Garnet up and spinning her around a little as they enter the infirmary. "Don't ever do that!" she laughs. Both stoat's are wet, probably just getting back from the pond. Kentar's tunic is half off, mostly cause he picked her up before he could get it properly on. "Hah! And if I do, huh?" he grins. "Well, maybe I wont ever let you get another child," is Garnet's response. Kentar makes a sad face. "Aww. Really?" he then laughs before setting her down on a bed, then properly fits his tunic.

Will is sitting on one of the beds with Amy as the stoats come in. His ears had turned toward the door at the slap and he is aware that the stoats are there but he doesn't look up from what he's doing.

Amethyst is laying on her stomach on a cot with Will sitting in front of her quietly counting a pile of coins that lays between them. She sits up to smile at the stoats arrival. She can hear water dripping off them and onto the floor. "Need a towel?" she asks

Kentar chuckles then looks up and smiles. "Oh, no, no, we're good. Thanks!" he smiles. "How are you two rattys?" he asks, smiling wide, sitting next to Garnet.

Will still doesn't look up, "Fine. Pa an Stepmum are in their room. Door's locked."

Amethyst asks, "How are you, three?" She hadn't heard Chris when they came in but thinks he may be sleeping if he is with them.

Kentar laughs. "Yeah I know. I saw Aik come out for a few moments on our way in before going back in. His fur really needs to be combed." the stoat laughs. "And us? We're great, thanks." he smiles. "Chris is napping. Thank seasons.

Will nods some.

Kentar asks. "So Will, Amy. What have you two been up today?"

Amethyst shrugs, "Not much. Will just got back from that underground town you went to th other day and we had lunch. Not much has happened today."

Kentar oohs and nods. The two stoats look at each other then grin wide. "Did you bring us back anything nice, Will?" they laugh.

Will has finished counting and recounting the coins and as he starts to put them away he answers the stoats, "No. Went there t get money not spend it."

Kentar oohs and peeks over, quite interested. "Oh. What did you sell or do?" he asks, smiling. He's just curious.

Will shrugs, "Just some figurines. Wax ones were more popular but they're a little harder t do cause ya can't hid mistakes as well on those and we only have so many candles laying around."

Kentar oohs and smiles. "Cool." he smiles. "I should find something to sell." he thinks for a few moments. Garnet chuckles. "You could maybe do wood carvings or make tools or such?" she suggests. The stoat nods. "Maybe."

Amethyst offers, "I hear there are a lot of unfinished projects laying around the smithy outside. Don't know if any of them are any good after all this time but maybe you could get some idea from them."

Kentar smiles and then nods. "I'll have to go check them out." He smiles, then yawns. "So Garnet." he looks over. "You really didn't mean what you said did you?" she doesn't answer, just sits back and grins.

There is a loud noise coming from the elders dormitory. Sounds like a very deformed giggle, and then it is quiet. About 10 mins later, Aik pokes his head through the door of the infirm, "Oh..." his fur is still completely disturbed. He slowly walks forward, "Eh, Hiya..." he hums as he goes to sit down to an empty cot, "How... Whacha talking about..." he places his paws under him.

Kentar blinks. Garnet just chuckles. "Hey, need a brush?" he laughs

Aikuen blinks a few times, and smells himself, "Umm?" he then tries to push down the fur, with no success. "The fur... I don't see any point..." he shrugs and laughs.

"Well. Anyways, glad you two finally got your alone time. Why did you come out?" he asks. "Just wondering and all."

Aikuen smiles and starts to rock a little bit, "We do... We do!" he snickers, "Umm...." He blinks a few times and shrugs, "I'm just out for a break..." he grins, "And some more water."

Kentar laughs and then smiles. "How much water do you need Aikuen?" he smiles. "And why a break!?" he laughs again, almost falling backwards.

Aikuen goes over to Kentar, and plops next to him. He cups his paws around his mouth and whispers something to him. Don't want the others to hear.

Kentar ohs and nods a little but says nothing. "So Aik." he smiles a little. "I was thinking of planning a trip for sometime. I'm not sure where yet. But if your interested, you want to come with us?" he asks. "Fira too. And Will, Amy, Kluna. Sort of like a family trip. Again, not sure about it yet

Aikuen is glad to be off the topic. He smiles at the mention of another trip, "Really! Hell yah mate!" he laughs and pats Kentar on the shoulder, "We were actually thinking of a trip... a boat trip! But what did you have in mind mate!" he smiles.

Kentar ohs and smiles. "Really? A boat trip! Well that kicks the tail off what I had in mind." he smiles. "We were thinking of maybe going to the western shores for a while. But heck, I like that idea better." he laughs.

Will half listens to the older beasts talking, not too interested in whatever it is Aikuen's been doing all day. "Boat trip's not til Fall," he says. It's a fact not an invitation. "We've been t th Western shore once .... last Winter. Th desert's much bigger than it looks on th map and you need t pack lots of water and watch out for splinters on th bridge. And tree-rats that are always throwin rocks at every beast that passes by. Lots of taverns along th way if ya need t buy anything or don't want t sleep outside. And don't order tea or eat blue flowers like some beasts do," he grins remembering the trip he took with Aikuen.

Aikuen looks to Will, and sticks out his tongue, "It doesn't have to be until Fall, that was just a time I made up... As for the other stuff... I don't know who I was, or what I was even doing... Only been in Mossflower for about 2 months then..." he grumbles and then looks back to Kentar, "Don't worry mate... i have enough money to buy a boat... a really nice one... so don't worry at all..." he chuckles.

Kentar laughs. "But do you have enough money to hire a crew for the boat?" he grins. "Or even a good big boat?" the stoat laughs before looking to Will. "Er. Doesn't sound like a very good trip."

Aikuen smiles and whispers to Kentar, "Don't worry mate... I have enough to pay for the crew... for several seasons... and a BIG boat... believe me mate... I need to spend the money anyway..." he nods a little bit.

Kentar eyes the otter then grins, whispering back. "You didn't steal my money, did you?" he laughs before grinning a little more.

Will looks over at the otter and stoat,"It /was/ a good trip. Except for th part when I got sick. But th rest of it was good." His ears move toward the whispering making out a few words here and there. Something about money and Ashurah. The rat keeps quiet looking away as if he weren't listening though his ears are still turned toward them. Bad habits can be hard to break more so if they've proven useful in the past.

Aikuen looks back at Kentar, "Yes Ashurah... My island where i was born, and i lived... where i fought for my country, and they stabbed me in the back" He has never told anybeast what he did, not even Fira, and he will not tell Kentar "Nothing i did Nothing... Just believe me, its nothing" he looks away from the stoat, seeming a bit off put by him.

Kentar tilts his head and then nods a little then frowns. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to." he gently places his paw on Aik's shoulder

Aikuen grunts and nods, "NO i don't want to tell you... At least..." he sighs, "At least not now... maybe... maybe later" he sighs and smiles, though he still fells bad. He places his paw on the stoats, and taps it, "Maybe... later..." after he tells Fira, and she is okay with it, but that's not for a long time

Kentar nods slowly. "You don't need to tell me." he nods a little then looks around towards Will. "So Will. Any plans for tonight?" he asks.

Will looks up puzzled, he'd been reminiscing about the trip he and Aikuen had taken all that time ago and remembering how he'd gotten drunk at on the taverns on the way back home. "Huh? .... I don't think so. Why?" he asks coming back to the present at the stoat's question.

Aikuen stands up to go sit over on the other cot. He tries to mat down his fur again, to no avail. He hums a little bit, and he continues to mat it down.

Kentar smiles. "Well. I wanted to talk with you. And I was thinking a walk would be a good setting." he says before looking to Garnet who drifted to sleep.

Will shrugs, "That's fine." He looks around the room for the first time since he'd gotten back. It looks like Amy's joined Garnet and Chris in slumber land. He smiles a little at her sleeping form before looking back to the stoat, "I just need t put some things away and then I'll met you in th hall."

Aikuen stretches and stands up, "Well if yah don't need me... I think ill be off... After i get some water of course..." he snickers and stands up to walk out the Infirmary.

Kentar laughs and nods. "Right. Oh and Aikuen. Tomorrow, Garnet and I will be gone for the day. If your not busy, can you please watch Chris for me?" he asks.

Aikuen stops on the door, and hmm, "Er... Well... Yah sure why not, Ill be up before you leave, if not... just knock on my door" he blinks a few times, and walks out.

Kentar nods. "Thanks Aikuen." he stands and goes out to the hall.

Moledeep: Mole Hall

Will puts the bag of money in his pack and take it to the storage chamber. From there he goes to the dibbun hole where Racky and Kluna are sleeping. He takes the coins from the bag and carefully slides them into the lining of his pack in such a way that they won't make noise when the pack moves and should a beast take his pack they'll have a hard time finding any coins in it. Once this is done he puts the pack away in the storage chamber and goes out to the hall to met Kentar.

Kentar is sitting at a table, humming a tune to himself. The stoat is staring upward and is just waiting for Will to arrive.

Will comes into the hall from the storage chamber. He walks over to the stoat and says, "I'm ready now. Where do you want t talk at?"

Kentar stands. "Follow me will." he smiles and goes for the door.

Will follows the stoat out the door.

Mossflower Woods: Bank of the Moss River

Kentar leads Will to the river and starts to walk slowly down the river bank. "So Will."

Will walks along the bank and looks over at the stoat when he speaks. "What did you wanta talk t me about?" he asks.

Kentar shrugs a little. "I wanted to ask you something." he says. "And I wanted to ask away from everyone else. How would you feel if Garnet and I stopped living at Moledeep? Not because of conflict or anything, we're just thinking perhaps a nice place in the woods or something." he doesn't tell the truth there. Not the whole truth anyways.

The rat chews on his lower lip thinking it over. "I don't know. I'd miss you, all of you. Amy'd miss you too. .... If you left when you do think that would be?" he asks.

Kentar shrugs a bit. "Don't know. Don't even know if we will be leaving. And if we do, you don't have to worry, Will. We'd still see you quite often." he smiles.

Will asks, "Do you want to leave?"

Kentar shrugs. "Sort of. You know. Just so my family can have its own space." he says. "I mean Garnet, Kluna, Chris and I. I'd sort of like to build a home near Moledeep.

Will nods, "Ok. But you shouldn't move too far away, Amy wouldn't like that. Cause then it'd be just us here with th otters."

Kentar laughs. "You and Amy could come stay with us whenever you two wanted, if you wanted." he nods.

Will grins, "We might .... depends when you move. Or we might have you take th otters with you."

Kentar chuckles. "Those otters are not coming with us if we move." he laughs.

Will smiles, "Aw, it was worth a try anyway. If you move anytime soon expect t get visitors real often."

Kentar laughs and nods. "Nice try." he nods then smiles. "I'd look forward to it." he smiles.

Will picks up a rock and skips it across the water of the river. "Anything else you want t talk about?" he asks.

Kentar sighs a little then nods. "Yes. There is something else." he says. "Will. Why do you like me?" he asks.

Will chews on his lip a little before answering, "You remind me of my brother I had before that's dead a little and besides that you act like my brother even before you said you would be my brother and you're fun t be around and Amy likes you a lot. Why do you ask?"

Kentar phews a little. He thanks the seasons that Will never said because he was a good beast. "Oh. Well. I was just wondering. If I was evil or something. Would you still like me?" he asks.

Will is quiet a while than says, "Depends. What do you say evil is? And do you fit that description."

Kentar thinks for a few moments. "Evil. Someone who kills for fun or money, does bad things and so on." he says. "If I did things like that. Would you still like me?" he asks.

Will asks, "Do you do those things now? Do you think you will later on? I like you. If you have done those things that doesn't change that I who you are right now, in fact it makes you who you are /now/. I've done things I'd consider evil but I don't make a habit of it or try not to anyway, but it's still a part of me and who I am. I know I'm a kid but thinking about it I'm not, not like other dibbuns are. Yes I'm a kid of about six seasons or near that but I've see kids my age and younger and most of them don't act nothing like me. And I know why. Every beast has a past Kentar and it make us who we are. I'm was just really lousy in a lot of ways but if it had been different I wouldn't be th way I am now .... I don't think so anyway. ..." Will falls silent and picks up another rock to throw in the river.

Kentar sighs and shakes his head slowly. "If I was evil right now. And if I was just pretending to be nice old Kentar. How would you feel?" he asks.

Will doesn't like where this is going and says,"If I find that to be true, I'd feel a lot of things .... and if I were to find that to be true you'd be feeling the blade of my sword or /worse/ if you were to cause trouble."

Kentar nods a little then shakes his head. "I'm not, if you were wondering." he says. "I'm just. Trying figure out things in my life right now."

Will relaxes a little, "Good. I wouldn't like killing you. .... It's fine with me if you've done bad stuff or killed beasts before. I can't hold that against you. I've killed beasts, sometimes because I wanted to or for no reason at all. I don't like that it happened but I can't change it."

Kentar nods a little then sits next to the water. "Right." he says quietly. The stoat needs a distraction so he decides to change the subject. "So. Will. Um. You think you want to tell me more about the boat trip thing you and Aikuen were planning?" He asks. "Sounds interesting." he doesn't really care if he goes or not

Will shrugs, "I've never been on a boat that I can remember though I was more than likely born on one, but that was a long time ago and can't remember it. I just thought it'd be fun and so Pa well back then he was just Aikuen but he and me decided t ride in a boat sometime this Summer. We thought up th idea last Winter so it was a long time t wait. And I was gonna ask Zen t come with us cause me an Pa were gonna teach him how t swim in th Abbey's pond this Summer too but we can't now cause he didn't listen and went after that fox ...... Zen was strange. He's stare at th fire for hours an hours. Bad stuff had happened to him before he came t th Abbey. I nearly killed him once. I could have too. He was so much littler than me and a mouse. He shouldn't have said the things he did, wasn't th last time he did that either ..... but even though we fought ... a lot and he said those things .... bad things. He was still my best friend .... even if he was a stupid mouse."

Kentar nods a little and scratches his head. "I'm. I'm real sorry about Zen. I should never have said that fox had Mayeul in the first place. I should have stopped him. I had the chance." its true, Kentar did have a chance to stop Zen. But he let it slip. "I'm. Sorry." he sighs. Just another thing on his mind now.

Will shakes his head, "Don't be. Zen ... had problems. He would have gone and done something stupid like that anyway sooner or later. He'd been though a lot of bad stuff and had just lost his Ma right before that. It's kind funny though. He went off nearly alone t find Mayuel and he throw such a fit when I tried t take him exploring before."

Kentar nods a little. "Its different when its family." He says quietly. That's really all he says for the time being. A few moments pass before he speaks again. "Will. Hope you don't mind that I just dragged you out here just to talk..."

Will says, "It's ok. I don't mind talking. Used t do it a lot when I had problems with stuff. Get advice on things. Mostly talked stuff over with this drunk otter you might know of. Always helped a lot. An talked t Miz Gwen an Flicky when I needed t talk about Aik one time. I don't mind talking."

Kentar nods and smiles a bit. "Yeah." he then tilts his head. "So. What stopped Aikuen from drinking so much?" he asks.

Will grins, "He got reminded th hard way that kids learn by example. ..... more than once." The rat walks back up river to start the walk back home.

Kentar chuckles a little then grins. "Did you get drunk?" he asks before laughing nice and loud. The stoat stands and follows Will.

"I have. A few too many times around th otter I guess. Though getting dunked in th pond at th Abbey is much better than getting grabbed by the collar and having the otter holding you jump in a river and then back out real fast. Though it was fun havin th bar keep give him cordial in stead of tea and getting him t give me ale," the rat laughs loudly, "He downed four shots of it before I told him what it was. He doesn't drink anything with alcohol in it anymore and I don't either .... usually. His family used t be brewers back on that island he comes from so he knows a lot about stuff like that. But back when he drank he was kinda funny. He'd go in t a tavern or pub or somethin and ask for rum right off and if he was going slow on th road all I had t do t make him go faster was say there was a tavern near by and he'd start smelling th air and we'd be off again. Spent a lot of time in taverns on that trip, slept well too except for that night at Tir Arnon when I got him cordial for tea.

We got in there late at night and didn't get t bed til th next morning and when I woke up that afternoon ... bleh. It wasn't as much fun as th night before. Course having all that wine before we got there might not have helped matters. Wine lasts longer on trips than water and I'd been sick .... though I probably did have a little more of it than I should have and then th ale .... I was stupid back then."

Kentar nods a little then grins. "Ah. Sounds like it was a blast." he laughs. "I wonder. Why doesn't he drink anymore?" The stoat asks a little. "I was actually thinking of spiking something he drinks, but if its for a good reason not to drink, I wont. Then again, I've never drank anything with alcohol before." he says. "So.

Will looks at the stoat oddly, "Most drinks have alcohol in them. Cordial has alcohol in it. How else do you think Matti and his friends got drunk ages ago when they were dibbuns? Only thing I know doesn't have it in it is water and maybe fruit juices straight from th fruits. I drink mostly water now, far as I know Pa does th same. .... Race ya back!" The rat runs off into the woods making a beeline for home.

Kentar chuckles a bit. "I don't add alcohol. I use different things. I don't like drinking I don't think." he chuckles before blinking. "Hey now, that's not fair! Get back here!" he shouts, laughing then running off home.