Young Writers Society

James gave a small nod of recognition to her reply, and watched Cowell finish securing Romano to the tree.

"Good, good. I'll just fill in the gap between, then!" Cowell replied agreeably. "As far as setting up camp goes... well ya'll do whatever it is you want to. Pick a spot on the ground and claim it, you know the drill."

Tasha just tosses out her sleeping bag and whistles for Wolfsbane, who has long since disappeared into the trees to explore a bit.

James grabbed his bag and his blanket, and folded it out onto the ground, and set his bag on top of it. Cowell got himself situated with his own sleeping bag and snacked on some food.

"Ya'll hungry?" He asked, offering some jerky.

Tasha almost oesn't take any sheerly because of who offers it, then thinks better of it and accepts some, smelling it first out of habit to make sure it's not poisoned.

James takes the jerky, inspecting it with a critical eye before eating it eagerly. Cowell smiles as the two accept his offer.

"Some food for a job well done."

"Yay for us, we stabbed a few people."

Cowell looked up at Tasha in shock. He looked over at James, who'd sat down on his blanket with the pieces of jerky in one hand, and others in his mouth.

"Did she just make a joke?" Cowell asked James in a hushed whisper as a small grin grew on his face.

"I believe it's called sarcasm Cowell," James responded dryly, though he did look over to Tasha with a grin at her remark.

"I am known to occasionally possess a sense of humor," she informs him dryly. "Believe it or not I'm not a complete rock."

Cowell snorts. "Alright, alright. Sorry for underestimating your humor, haha."

She growls in annoyance, eating her jerky.

The night arrived, not without a few more comments from Cowell here and there, but eventually, Cowell went to rest, and Romano seemed to fall asleep as well, even in his uncomfortable position.

James sat, wide awake alert, ready for first watch.

Tasha sleeps fitfully, her dog laying nearby.

James sits in the quiet, keeping his ears open as he pulls out a small notebook from his bag and a pencil, and begins writing down notes of his current location and travels.

"Finally got out of that hell-hole. Now to enter another one." He writes, in neat cursive on the page. He then writes down the names "Tasha" and "Cowell w/Romano in tow" underneath.

He then flips to a page near the center of the notebook and unfolds a hand-drawn map, with markings and identifiers that only he could decipher, and adds a few more, seemingly marking the areas they visited. He stopped however, when he heard the grumblings of the tied-up Romano.

"You're that traitor, aren't you," he says with disgust. "Turned your back on your own people, I hear."

James paused a moment, not looking up from his notebook, but simply staying still. He didn't respond, and Romano continued.

"Word of you's been getting around the Outlands, ya know. The high n' mighty soldier who fell from grace, doesn't mind throwin' his weight around, stickin' his nose in places he doesn't belong. Didn't recognize you at first, though."

James folded up the map and tucked it back away into his notebook, and put the little book away. With a mostly blank look, apart from intense eyes, he looked up at Romano.

"You think if I tell the sheriff the last place I saw you, they'd give me a lesser sentence? You know they always give the snitches a better time," Romano continued.

James simply stared at Romano, eventually making eye contact. Romano grinned, feeling as if he had the upper hand. James, however, was running over the list of options he had to solve the situation - trying to find one that didn't involve hurting Romano if he didn't have to. The best one he could think of, however, was to run. Which would make helping Cowell pointless (apart from obtaining a horse), since they wouldn't get any money. But he had suspected something like this would happen anyway. If it wouldn't have been Romano, he was sure Cowell would've turned on him. Those were always his odds, anyway.

He looked over at Tasha, who was asleep. However, knowing her, he wasn't completely sure if Romano's voice woke her and she heard him.

Wolfsbane, in any case, is most certainly awake, and growls at Romano warningly. It's hard to tell with Tasha - if nothing else she's good at faking it.

Romano's smile faded at the dog's growl, and he looked at Wolfsbane warily.

"Smart dog, or something," he muttered under his breath, before the still night returned to silence, apart from the occasional shuffling of small critters in the forest, or the cooing of a bird. It was some time before James came to a decision, and a few more hours passed before he acted on it.

Quietly, he picked up his bag, and packed up his things on his horse. Then he looked over to Tasha, stepping over to her silently.

Romano spoke up again, his voice hushed. "Even if you leave now, they'll know you're in the area. If I'm loud enough about it, they'll find you."

James looked up at Romano. "And you're still going to jail. So it seems we've both got the short of the stick. Now please, shut up now."

Romano snuffed at James, and reluctantly fell into silence - convincing himself it was because he had nothing else to say.

James stood a few short feet from Tasha, and whispered her name.
"Agrona."