Jade Ravens 2

Carrick arrived at the door of Jade's house at the same time as the sun. He knocked softly and Jade's father opened the door and let him in without a word.

Jade's room was small, and made smaller by the amount of stuff that Jade tried to cram into it. Books lay on top of piles of clothes, arcane regeants sat atop sheaths of paper, a rock collection sat on a shelf all by itself, and in the corner of all the chaos Jade was asleep and snoring softly. Carrick picked his way carefully until he reached her bedside, and with a gentle push woke her up.

Jade winced as her head informed her that it had not forgotten how much she had ended up drinking last night. After the sharp burst of pain had resided she looked at Carrick.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"We said we were going to talk to the others today, about taking care of the goblins." He said.

"Firstly," Jade said, rubbing at her temples in a vain effort to push out the hangover, "I don't remember saying that. Secondly, is there a reason we needed to get up at dawn to do it?"

"Derra heads into the woods a bit after dawn, if we want to talk to her before she goes we need to do it now."

"Right, right. Okay, get out of my room, I want to change."

Carrick obliged, wincing as he inadvertently knocked over a pile of books on his way out. Jade's family house wasn't small as farmhouses go, but the kitchen and dining area was only about ten feet from where he was standing and Jade's mother beckoned him over, freshly made bread in hand. Even though Carrick had eaten breakfast, it was too tempting to resist.

Jade Ravens 1

"The Jade Ravens." Carrick said slamming his mug on the table for emphasis.

"You can't be serious." Jade said.

"And why not? You're the one who wants to go on this fool mission, and the ravens are traditional. We dwarves are very big on tradition you know."

"But we can't name the group after me." Jade said. "I mean everyone's going to think I insisted we be called that."

"Let 'em think that," Carrick replied, holding out his mug for a refill, "we'll know what really went down."

"Fine, we'll talk about it later, but who else would we bring? Derra obviously, but we'll need more."

"Sivernos, for one, and Chessa. Both of them seem skilled enough, and trustworthy sorts. I know Derra knows both of them better."

"That sounds good." Jade said, absently chewing on a piece of her hair that had fallen into her face. "Siv creeps me out though, I always feel like he's reading my mind."

"Well, you'll be the leader, so you'll just have to order him not to."

"Wait, who said I was going to be the leader, I can't be the leader. You're the one who needs to be in charge."

"They won't follow me, you know that, you've always been the leader Jade."

Jade stared into her mug instead of replying. The common room of the Silver Swan was as loud as it usually was this time of night. The barmaid came over and refilled Jade's mug before she spoke again.

"Alright. If you won't do it then I guess I don't have any choice. We should bring along Maro too."

"Will he come? I mean, he'd have to leave his guard position wouldn't he?" Carrick said, finishing off his second mug.

"He'll come. That will make five, do you think that'll be enough?"

"Yes, with the five that we'll have."

"Well, I guess it's official then." Jade said.

"Sure, soon as we convince the rest of them."

"Oh, right."

~~~~~~