Roland almost laughed at Henri picking up the larger of the weapons and again when he put it back for the smaller one. Typical, he thought as he stood up and strapped the belt and sheath to his waist; unlike Henri's, Roland's weapon sheathed at his side and simply hung there, ready to be drawn. It was more traditional, he figured.

“What’re you doin‘?” Roland asked out of curiosity. “Are you seriously just going to hold it like that? You look ridiculous.”

Roland bent down and picked up Henri’s weapon’s sheath, tossed it to him, and started heading in the same direction that the soldiers had.

"I don't think we're actually meant to guide 'em anywhere," he said. "What about you?"

Actually Henri had no idea how to hold the god damned thing, he'd never carried one bigger than a kitchen knife. He could wield a steak knife with deadly accuracy, slicing the shit out of his dinner, but this one not so much.

"Actually this is how ALL the REAL warriors hold their weapons. YIPE!"

Henri easily released his grip on his weapon and easily caught the sheath Roland tossed to him. By doing this, he dropped the heavy knife right on his foot. The sound he made wasn't unlike a dog's yelp.

"Geezes! Uh..." There was a bit of a pause while he fidgeted with the sheath, trying to somehow strap the thing onto his waist without it really being on his waist, but it ended up there anyway. "I honestly have no idea, I thought we were gonna be fillin in the hole at first but..." Henri shrugged his shoulders.

"Pay is pay, h-uh? I guess these guys should be loaded, too, right? They gave us weapons n'all, and swords are pretty expensive, I heard."

And it was true - both Henri and Roland’s weapons were of extremely high quality, even if one of them did not have any major distinguishing features. The weapons would have fetched a high price in nearly every region, too.

“I think I’ll take the Colonel up on ‘is offer though... To learn how to use this, I mean.” he rested his arm on the hilt of the sword, his hand cupping the pommel; it felt good, natural.

“How ‘bout you?”

After some toying around Henri was wearing his sheath with his shirt over top of it, hiding the thing. Having a bad ass knife was cool and all but he felt a bit self conscious having everyone see it, especially the townsfolk. For him it didn't quite feel as natural as it did for Roland.

"Yeah I mean, we kind of have to. He went out of his way to get us these real 'spensive gifts so it would be kind of rude not to use them. I think he's expecting us to anyway."

He faced the direction of the campsite, with a small twitch in his face. That knife was heavy, his foot was probably bruised or some shit.

"We should go, I don't wanna end up like that other guy." He was of course, referring to the corpse swinging from the rope.

"I think he wants us to, but I don't think they really expect it. " Roland shrugged; honestly, he figured that the soldiers didn't think too highly of Mercorans, but he also guessed it was for a reason. Their worlds were completely different, after all.

"Don't say that!" He snapped back at Henri's remark. "That's disrespectful as hell, and seriously, what if one of them overheard something like that? Anyways, they've been nice to us so far, I think it would've taken somethin' big to cause 'em to execute one of their own, right?"

At least, that is what he hoped. All he really had to go on was Colonel Dasari saying the executed man was a traitor, what he did was a mystery... Well, even in Mercoras, traitors are executed, and so who were they to judge?

It would take a lot of practice to figure out how Henri's mind worked, even though Roland was Henri's best friend he was no exception. First Henri would be startled by the sudden raise in volume, his face would change, eyebrows furrowing and eyes squinting, like he was upset or disgusted at an animal he saw at the zoo.

"Don't worry I'll make sure all two of them don't hear us Colonel Roland." He of course didn't mean that there were only two Esconians, but only two that to his knowledge that spoke Mercoran, it wasn't safe to make assumptions but he didn't mean it and he felt Roland's reaction was uncalled for. Needless to say, there was heaps of poison in his last few words.

With a token, dramatic huff/sigh Henri rolled his eyes and turned his back to Roland to walk to their destination. Roland had gone and pissed of Henri, but it was less of a threat and more like an annoyance that would hinder their work together. Henri would and could make things difficult if he felt like it, starting now.

“Right, because there’s no chance someone else will be able to speak our language? Because the two we met were the only ones.”

Roland could have socked Henri one for the way he was acting; hell, he started it and he wanted to smart off? That shit was not going to fly.

Roland spat, “if two exist then a third probably does, too, kid. The world works in 3's and you know it," he said, outraged.

Henri would recognize that Roland was quoting a well known Mercoran myth that stated the world worked on a system of 3's. Ultimately, it was just a superstition, but a lot of Mercoran laborers believed it. Roland was one of them.

"And you can drop the smartass talk," he folded his arms as he walke dand burned a stare right in the back of Henri's head.

The honest truth was, there was only so far that Henri would find himself able to push Roland and the end result would not be pretty, either. What he said was offensive, disrespectful, and potentially devastating to the already low opinion that the Esconians had of River’s End.

If it took hurting some feelings to get his point across, then so be it.

Even if the two continued arguing as they walked, after a few minutes of travel, they would come to a bend in the path, which curved around a patch of wooded area, and would eventually lead them to Kum Bhatt, the young woman that Colonel Dasari had mentioned. She was leaning up against a tree just off the trail and at first glance, it was clear that she was more near their age then any of the soldiers they had met prior; in fact, she may have even been a couple of years younger. Unlike the other Esconians, she was was not as dark skinned, her complexion was whiter, and not much different from their own; she was still betrayed by her features, however; she had the high, pronounced looks of an Esconian.

When she noticed their approach, the girl looked away quickly and closed the book she was reading, but held it firmly to her chest.

Henri kept his back turned to Roland for a reason, because aside from being scolded for his behavior he'd probably poke fun at the face he was making too, such exaggerated anger made him look almost cartoonish, he had a wide variety of colourful/ridiculous expressions.

The only reason he got so snippy with Roland was because he snapped at him when Henri made was he -thought- was just a joke. If Roland wanted Henri to be serious, then fine, Henri would get serious.

"Fine, neither of us should say anything in case one of the hundreds of men here can understand us right? I'll stop being a smart ass when -you- stop being a smart ass because you had NO problem," Now Henri was raising his voice, if he had the balls to he'd turn around and do some finger pointing but you know, he didn't."feeding me that whatever it was at the dinner table for fun, but if Iiiii say anything it's disrespectful."

He knew there was only so far he could push Roland, and after yesterday and now today he was probably at his wits end and an angry Roland wasn't anywhere near as hilarious or annoying as an angry Henri, it was terrifying. Besides, Roland was his best friend, he didn't want to intentionally antagonize the guy. He just wanted the guy off his case, but giving him attitude was the wrong way to do it.

Having realized this, he slowed his pace a little bit and tried to soften his features, wiping his face out of habit as if to literally wipe the look off of it. He still wouldn't look at Roland though.

"For the record Roland I've been trying really hard to be respectful, by not saying anything in the first place. I can't act the way they want and the way you want at the same time."

Henri stopped walking for a moment, and took a deep breath. When he finally turned around he was a bit red in the face, blushing because he was about to apologize to Roland, and Henri never apologized.

"And, and if things happen in threes then you know, we better smarten up before the third thing happens." It was rushed, and after he said it he power walked away from Roland to the site, hoping to reach it before he could say anything else. It was the best Roland could get out of Henri.

Unless he literally caught him and made him apologize.

"Oh, I'm sorry - a prank in good fun is exactly the same as joking about an execution, you're right."

Gnashing his teeth, Roland allowed Henri a moment to talk, but his reasoning did not do much to cull his anger; instead, it just made him more infuriated.

"You can be yourself without sounding like a complete dick," he said. "If it sounds wrong then it probably is," he unfolded his arms and flexed his fingers, clenching and un-clenching his fists. Normally, Roland was a pretty relaxed guy, but he did have his own issues; he wasn’t as bad as when he was a kid, but things still flared up every now and then.

“Look, you may not have meant anythin’ by it, but it sounded horrible no matter how you look at it. That ain’t going to change.” Roland released a large, heavy breath. If Henri didn’t understand this, then he was just wasting his time, it seemed pretty easy to understand, but with Henri, he just never freaking knew.

“The rule of three--”

Okay, fuck Hen--Roland slowed his pace, he was going to chase after his ‘friend’, but stopped when he noticed the girl; she was probably the one Colonel Dasari mentioned and that meant it was time to act serious. If Henri wanted to keep on looking like a fool, well ... That was his prerogative.

“U-um,” Henri was on the verge of power walking right by her... Had he even seen her, she thought to herself. “I-I am the Bhatt, I, uh, I keep the rec--”

She was soft spoken; in fact, she was too soft spoken and Henri may not have even noticed her, from the looks of it. She knew someone else should have been deployed... She really was terrible at this.

Confused, the girl bent down and picked up a rock, she obviously wasn’t going to get his attention with words, and so she thought maybe tossing a rock at him might work, it couldn’t hurt, right?

With all her lackluster might, she reared back and let the stone fly, sending it as hard as she could to Henri, and hoping it would get his attention.

Roland stopped walking entirely.

*CRACK*

Henri felt something warm trickle down the back of his neck, right around the same time his vision fogged over briefly and his head started throbbing. His world spun and Henri swayed with it, just once before standing firm again. After that he might just forget the whole ordeal after all.


"J-j-jAH!"Henri clenched his face shut during the height of the pain, and then opened them again when most of it went away. Instinctively he grabbed the back of his head, and when he withdrew his hand his fingers were all red with blood. Kum Bhatt threw harder than she thought she could. But Henri still didn't know she was there.

Which meant Roland was the only one who could have thrown it. He turned his gaze straight to him, his expression was a cocktail of anger, confusion and fear. Why did he throw the rock, would he have punched him if he was close enough? He was pissed of course but Roland? Roland he could do nothing about, except maybe run away, or beg for mercy.

"Rocks Roland!? Really!?"

Whoa, Roland almost wanted to clap; seriously, he was visibly impressed! Henri had walked right by her and she threw a rock and hit him square in the head, it was a level of marksmanship that he could appreciate. Although, it appeared that Henri did not feel quite the same way...

"Uh-uh," he shook his head and held his hands in front of him defensively. "Wasn't me," he pointed at the girl who was stricken, lower lip quivering just slightly.

She had not been expecting to throw the rock that hard, she was always being made fun of back in Escona for how weak and untalented she was...

"I-I-I," she stammered as she looked for some excuse, a justification for her action, but she really couldn't find one worth speaking... What had she done? Wait, was that blood? Was he bleeding? She was on the verge of panic now - no, it wasn't her fault! She was just trying to get his attention because he ignored her for no reason and, and it really shouldn't have hurt him that badly!

“A, are you alright? I,” she tensed up and brought the book back to her chest, as though it was some kind of shield, something that would protect her from the Mercoran’s wrath, and instinctively, she took a step back and ended up pressing against the tree.

“It... I’m sorry, it was an accident!”

"Huh?" If not Roland? Then who? Henri spun around to see the culprit, her, the girl, Kum Bhatt, the lady they were on their way to go see. Oh, right, because of the argument he forgot until she quite literally, knocked some sense into him.

"Oh, haha." Henri flashed her his best smile and wiped his hand on his pants (leaving behind a charming smear) and chuckled sheepishly, suddenly ignoring his wound and the stain it was leaving on his shirt.

She wasn't the kind of woman he was expecting. All the Esconians were so fierce proud and strong, he thought for sure she would be one of those powerful towering angry Amazonian built sort of lady that could break him in half, not that he'd mine. She was hardly even as dark as the others, she shared the same exotic facial features and build, just not as exaggerated as he imagined, a pleasantadorable surprise. But you know, if she wanted to break him still she could. She was half way there anyway.

Suddenly, he didn't seem to mind so much. "You hit me from half a mile away, it was a great shot! You've got nothin to be sorry for." Fancy that, something made him forget how mad he was for getting pegged with a rock. Conveniently he also seemed to have forgotten what they were really there for.

"Are, are you sure?" She was reluctant to accept that it was alright, that it was fine... She clobbered him, and he was bleeding, too! That was the exact opposite of ‘alright.’

But ... Well, if he was okay with it then so was she, if only to forget it ever happened; hopefully, he didn't tell the Colonel on her, because it would make him mad, probably, and recently, he was really stressing over the Mercorans feeling bullied, and now she went and ... Oh!

“That’s right!” She exclaimed all of a sudden, remembering just why she had been waiting here in the first place. “You...,” she looked from Henri to Roland and then back to Henri, “you two are Shri Bernard and Shri Dufort, I hope?”

Roland nodded his head and approached the girl.

"I am Bhatt Ira Rajat,” she introduced herself once more, “and, u-um, I’ll be your boss, sort of.”

You know, corpses, terrible food, arguments and injuries aside, suddenly today seemed to be shaping up into a pretty darned good day. Something about having really attractive bosses just did something for him, and he didn't even know what his job was yet, it could be something horrible!

Henri your job is to clear up all the cattle cap with your bare hands.

You are ordered to fill the giant hole in with dead puppies.

Boss says you have to fight Roland armed with a wet sock for your pay.

And yet, he was just as eager to please and perform well at work as he was with Colonel Dasari, this was kind of different somehow. With Dasari if he failed to do a good job the punishment was probably death or worse, with Bhatt she would probably report his failures to Dasari, get in trouble AND not have a chance with her.

Not to say he had a sure fire shot, but he didn't see any long term consequences in trying right? The Esconians weren't staying, they would leave eventually. Now, where did he start?

Sadly now when he actually wanted to talk he didn't know what to say. He knew very well that they both wanted to learn how to use their weapons, but she was talking about work and stuff, would it seem off topic?

"N-nice to meet you." He managed to stutter out. This was so much easier when both parties were drunk.

"Eh? O-oh, yes - um, nice to meet you, too!" she bowed her head in greeting. Wait, was she allowed to do that? Could she bow to them or was she supposed to be sterner? ... Colonel Dasari made it look so easy and this was her first time being in charge of anything, ever!

Ira let out a sigh and slumped a bit in thought, pondering her situation silently; still, after a minute of this, even Roland grew bored with the waiting and decided to break the silence himself by letting a loud - fake, of course - cough announce that he was going to speak:

"Bhatt, right? The colonel, er, Dasari, that is, before he left he told us to ask you if we had any questions, that fine?"

"Y, yes!" She answered enthusiastically, but the role of who was boss seemed confused. "Do you have one ..., a question?"

Roland glanced at Henri and shook his head in shame, but he wasn't surprised.

"Why were we hired?" he was blunt, straight to the point. "One second he's," Roland pointed at Henri, almost like it was an accusation, "telling me we're supposed to dig and then we're supposed to excavate and now we're guides or something, but what the hell are we guiding to?"

At first, Ira flinched at Roland raising his voice, until she realized that he wasn't actually yelling at her, but at the situation, itself. Then she thought on his words, but was ultimately confused by them: Dig? What? That made no sense, had someone told them they were going to dig? She wasn't told about that!

"No, um ... Dig? No, nobody is, well there was digging, but nobody is digging now, I think. Well the excavation team... Maybe, they might still be digging a bit... Ah, but that's not important! You two are, uh," she was at a lost for words and didn't want to offend either of them, but it looked like she would have to risk it: "kind of for show. The mayor, Whathisname, wanted to make the project a ... joint effort? You two are here to just, to make it look like we're letting you help... Actually, it was kind of my idea. Uu, but enough of that, it doesn't matter! Do, are there any more questions?"

Roland grumbled something and looked away, kind of mad. He didn't hold it against her, however. Maybe he'd find some way to blame it on Henri later.