What the dawn can bring

[Kriss]

The pale rays of the rising sun fell inside of the dark tavern. Soft yellow light illuminated Kriss’ face lying at her crossed arms on the bar. She slowly opened her eyes with an usual morning grimace. At the very first moment she did not know what was going on. It took her a few seconds to wake up completely and realize that she had spent her last night sleeping on the bar. One thing was sure, her achy bones would not let her forget about this for the whole day.
She slowly stood up rubbing her numb shoulder. With a quickly look into the dark corner direction she found out that her son was exactly in the same place that she had left him last night. Aniel was still sleeping on his furry carpet with his plush friend lying next to him. His mother gently smiled at him and walked to the kitchen.

It was still very early and the accommodation was still rather dark. Kriss came to the back-way. When she opened the door the fresh, cold, morning air touched her face. She took a deep breath and looked around.

Except a few guards and tradesmen, Basra was still sleeping. The woman sat on the stair, closed her eyes and was enjoying the silence. Even the chills of her skin could not change the fact that she loved the cool dawn’s moments.
However, her lonely musing did not take long because soon she heard the steps and some joyful voice calling,

“Good morning, Kriss.”

It was Takim, her cook. The plum man came to his work early as he did everyday to prepare the breakfast for the guests who were renting the rooms. In a wicker basket he was carrying the fragrant barke’s goods.

“Hi, Takim” She murmured and following him she got back inside.

Since she always felt that kitchen is not a good place for her, Kriss went to the main room and sat down on an armchair in her corner, excepting that soon the guests also would wake up and hoping that the new day was not going to bring her any new troubles and any new problematical guests.

But you never know what the dawn can bring...

[19101989]

The sun was starting to wake up from its daily sleep, when Bryn began to stir from her one. A fury feeling was tickling her nose and the sides of her cheeks. She felt warm lips licking softly the skin of her neck. It was something ticklish. She reached with her hands quickly to the object that was on her chest, but her fingers sank in a soft and copious fur. Bryn's lashes parted slowly and her gaze met with two bluish orbs. The fury thing was a cute little cat which began to meow in low voice when it felt Bryn's gaze on it. An astonished smile invaded Bryn's face as she began to draw herself up on her bed. She held the kitten between her hands and stroked her white fur lightly enjoying the sweet feeling. "Where did you come from, my girl?" Bryn murmured to the little creature which kept moving lazily in her arms. "Don't you have an owner?" The kitten began to lick its fury leg.

Bryn sent her eyes from the creature to the room she was in. She was still in her room in the tavern owned by their new friend. The sunlight was sneaking through the curtains. It was almost morning out there. Bryn stretched her limbs, feeling her mind clear. I must have slept for ages. She thought as she put the kitten on her sheets before leaving the bed.

She went with light steps to the small and only window in the room and moved partly the curtain. The streets of Basra welcomed her sight as live began to creep into them. Uncomfortable traces clouded Bryn's eyes as flashes of the night before hit her mind again. She turned quickly around to where a pool of water was. she dipped out some water and splashed them on her face, trying strongly to push aside the memories. She looked at her reflection in the water. Her face was still affected by her long sleep, but a trace of relaxation portrayed her features as well. She could hardly believe that all what she passed through happened the last night. She felt as if they happened in another world and in another time. She took a small coppery comb behind the pool and coiffed quickly her long dark hair.

After she finished, she went to the white creature on her bed and held it again. The brunette passed her fingers over the creature, and then closed her dark lashes, collecting her power in a way to contact the kitty's feeling.

The contact happened
The feelings mixed
The visions formed
Pictures of streets, crowd, markets, trees, animals, fishes, wooden walls, trees, flooded. Raw feelings of fear, hunger, cold and warmth transmitted to the sorceress apprentice.

"So, you are so hungry, my poor one" Bryn murmured softly "There is no single image of your owner" she whispered as her being mixed with the creature.
Suddenly, the contact stopped. It was as if it hit a virtual wall, something like dark hole that hinder Bryn from continuing to surf. Bryn had to cut the contact immediately, and then she frowned in confusion to the innocent animal. "What was that? A part of your memories are hidden?! What happened to you?" Bryn questioned in astonishment but the cat continued to meow innocently.

"Let us feed you, first, stranger. Then we will see how you came here" Bryn murmured as she opened the door of her room and went down the wooden ladder to the main hall. She was expecting to find any of her mates. But instead, she found few workers and at a seat at the corner, sat the tavern's lady. Bryn headed to her with her new friend yielding in her arms. She started with a smile "Good morning lady kriss." then she looked around her to the empty place. " I guess I'm up too early"

[Firouz]

Firouz sighed as he woke to the sun lighting up his and Rongar's room with its dull yet bright morning light.

He blinked a bit and rolled to his side to peer at the dark moor who shared the room with him.

All he could see under the large mound of blankets was Rongar's dark, bald head and the slight movements of his soothing, deep breath.

He quickly rose to his feet and moved to the washbasin that was under the window. He poured some cool water into the bowl, grabbed a washcloth that was hanging over the bowl's edge, and submerged it under the cool water.

The tang of cold against his warm skin sent jolts of wakefulness through his body and his higher brain functions quickly began to organize themselves.

After a quick, but cleansing wash of his face, shoulders, arms, and chest, he moved to his bed once more and grabbed his boots.

Amazingly, to him, Rongar moved not an inch!

His silent friend had excellent hearing and almost hawk-like eyes due to his lost of speech, so to have him sleeping still through his morning absolutions was shocking.

Once his boots were on, his shirt tied up, and his vest and amulet over his shirt, he softly thudded over to Rongar's bed.

He leaned over and lightly shoved the place where his chambermate's should would be.

He stepped back instantly through learned response; he didn't want to have a dirk at his throat.

Nothing.

With an eyebrow raised, he stepped back to the bed, shoved Rongar's shoulder a bit harder and repeated his retreat.

Still nothing.

With an exasperated sigh, he placed both hands on his friend's side and squaked as the blanket immeditately fell from Rongar's head and revealed a very annoyed dark black-brown eye.

Firouz shoved him lighter than he had planned just then and said, "It's time to wake up."

Rongar pursed his lips and pulled his blanket back up and rolled over onto his stomach.

Firouz, surprised by Rongar's almost child-like behavior, took a step back, huffed, and said, "Rongar, wake up!"

The blanket fell again and Rongar's eyes were now glaring at him.

Firouz grumbled under his breath, shrugged, and said again giving up on getting him out of bed, "Dawn's breaking Rongar."

Just as he reached the door, a swoosh flew by his ear.

Startled, he looked up and saw a dirk lightly vibrating where it rested in the dark wooden frame of the door.

With a startled yelp, he cried out, "Okay! Okay! Sleep!"

Faster than Rongar could throw, he felt like, Firouz was out the door.

As the door closed, Rongar smiled smugly to himself and closed his eyes once more.

Firouz, while glaring at his now closed door, grumbled to himself as he turned and walked downstairs, "Fine...sleep the day away...see if wake you up again..."

As he entered the tavern's main enterance room, he glanced up at the ordering table and was relieved to see Bryn up and about too.

"Bryn! Thank goodness you're awake!"

As he walked quickly to her side, he asked as his hand immediately went to her forehead, "How are you feeling, my dear?"

[Kriss]

Kriss had been sitting for a while before the first person came down. It was the woman who had caused so many troubles last night and cost Kriss a lot of nerves. She said something but Kriss did not put much of her attention on it. She just nodded in an answer when another guest walked in.
His arrival was loud enough to wake up Aniel. The boy raised his head. He seemed to be very confused or even scared. But once his eyes found his mother he stood up and came to her to sit on her knees.

[19101989]

Bryn raised her eyebrows in surprise and condemnation at how slightly rude and ignorant the woman of the tavern was to her. she didn't seem to give an ear to what she said at all. Bryn was taken back slightly at how quickly and weirdly the woman changed her manner toward one of her guests. That was really unlike the nice hospitality , the people of Basra was fame of.

A sound of quick footsteps coming from behind her, caught her attention before a familiar and cheerful voice called her name. she turned around to face Firouze with a smile , but she was surprised by him putting one of his palms over her forehead and asking her anxiously about her health.

"Firouze!! " Bryn started as she caught her friend's hand and pushed it aside delicately. "I'm alright, really. I'm feeling better." she resumed with a reassuring smile.

[Firouz]

He pursed his lips and furrowed his brows and asked as he let her pull his hand down, "Are you sure, my dear??"

She didn't look nearly as pale as she did last night and in fact she looked to be her normal color once again.

Her eyes weren't fearful or panicked at all.

She looked very calm actually.

He eyed the turned Kriss and asked a it more meaningfully, "Everything well then?"

He knew she had, had some sort of magical reaction...or perhaps it was a backlash (if one could have one)?

She had been extremely tired after all; that could have happened only if she had expelled a large amount of magic.

He came to this conclusion due to his past experiences with Maeve when she did the same.

He could only conclude that Bryn's had been a massive explosion of power...

[19101989]

Bryn immediately caught the hint from the scientist's question. The smile on her face vanished slowly. she threw a quick glance at the tavern's owner as well. she had no idea if the people in this tavern had an idea about the events of the last night.

The brunette wrapped one arm around the white creature, which kept looking curiously at the man before it. Bryn took few steps closer to her mate before wrapping her free arm around his and pulling him few steps away from the woman who seemed to not give too much attention to them. "Yeah, yeah... I-" Bryn began, feeling a little hesitant "I appreciate your worries, Firouz. What happened last night was something I really have no clue on, but.." she smiled "I'm trying to get over it and Caipra helped a lot"

[Sinbad]

For the first time in about a week, Sinbad had gotten a good night´s rest. That didn´t mean he was feeling completely relaxed when he finally woke up, the sunlight filtering through the window of the room he shared with his brother who, as he noticed then was snoring a little. He probably had most of the night Sinbad thought and he had been sleeping tightly enough to not bother in the least. He spent a few moments blinking, trying to find his way back into waking life before he sat up and ran a hand through his hair, noticing it had grown a bit more than he liked it and feeling the stubble on his chin. He needed to shave again and he didn´t need a mirror to be able to tell that there was just the shadow of a beard on his cheeks and chin from cutting it the day before but he didn´t like it too much.

But that could wait until after breakfast. He left Doubar asleep, knowing how much he would have hated it to be woken in the morning and since the ship load was seen to there was not too much need for haste. Pribably his big brother would wake up soon as well.

When he made his way down the stairs into the tavern´s main room he could hear voices drift up towards him and noticed that some of the crew apparently were up already. He could still feel fatigue like something heavy in his limbs but it was definitely an improvement to the days before. A good chance to let his past day´s contemplations retreat, creep back into the dark pits they had come from. They still felt bad. Like a bitter taste on his tongue from a bad wine that had once been a good one but at least he didn´t feel like death in boots any more.

"How is it you never so easily get out of bed in the morning when you have to?" he greeted Bryn and Firouz with the hint of a humorous smirk edging his lips when he walked in and grapped a chair to sit down.

[Firouz]

Firouz spun lightly and said in a light tone with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

[19101989]

Bryn let out a small chuckle at the captain's way to say "Good morning" before approaching from the table he sat in and grabbing a seat to set down, as well. "I suppose you had a good sleep, then." she said while resting her chin on the back of her hand. "I thought It's hard for a captain to sleep away from his sea house" she teased, with a wide grin, while her other hand played with the warm fur of her cat which purred peacefully on her lap.

[Doubar]

Doubar awoke to the sound of a wooden door closing, its quiet creak disturbing him in his slumber. He rolled onto his side for a moment and breathed in deeply while he seemed to be yet undecided whether to go on sleeping or open his eyes and maybe even get up. Eventually he settled for the latter.

His gaze first of all drifted to his right, where the other bed was seated – only to find it empty.
So he’s up already, the first mate realized, sitting up at the same time. For some reason the sailor wasn’t really surprised about the fact that, although his little brother was the one who had slept only so little in the past few days, Sinbad was the one to wake up first. The younger man was what one could call early riser, while Doubar himself quite liked to sleep in when he could. The sound of a closing door must’ve been his brother then, too, the first mate reasoned and he wondered whether he maybe even was the last of his friends to start the new day. Deciding to find that one out, he finally stood up and got ready to go downstairs and see for himself who was up.

It was when he left his room and his gaze fell onto the stairs which led down to the tavern’s main hall, that suddenly the memories of the evening before entered his consciousness again. Caipra had promised them that Bryn would be fine; that she had merely been exhausted after … well, admittedly he still had no real idea what the events had been about; the only thing he knew was that magic was involved. And Doubar had learned very early that anything was possible then – and that most likely he wouldn’t understand any of it. A faint frown hushed across his face at this thought, but it vanished quickly as he saw three of his friends chat at one of the tables, the sorceress being one of them. Having heard nothing but the last words Bryn spoke, the first mate took up on them and replied to the young one:
“Not when the beds are as comfy as those ones here”. Beyond the grin on his lips, there was an earnest smile, and maybe even some relief, lying in his features when he approached his friends and nodded at them, sending an unspoken “good morning” with this gesture. His mouth already opened again, Doubar was just about to add something to this, when suddenly a movement to his right caught his attention.
As he narrowed his eyes, the first mate was able to make out the furry little creature that lay beneath Bryn’s hands and which seemed to be pretty happy there where it was. Unconsciously the sailor then tilted his head, his gaze focusing on the white being, before eventually he voiced, “And, who’s that little fellow?”

[Kriss]

Kriss was watching the whole scene with her usual mysterious expression on her face. No body could really know what was on her minds. Was she mad? Was she thoughtful? Or simply sleepy? That was a puzzle.
She was just stitting and watching, rubbing her son's arm in the same time.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around her head. It was Takim with the cup of her favorite, sweet green tea.
"Thanks" she whishpered, taking a hot mug and added,"Bring them some breakfast..." Her galce pointed at the crew and then turned at Aniel, "and his milk."

The tavern's chef nodded and disappeared in the kitchen to back soon with a tray full of food.

[19101989]

The grin on Bryn's lips widened when the first mate asked her about the little creature.

The brunette held the kitty up with her two hands before passing her to settle in Doubar's arms with a small laugh. "I don't know. I wake up to find this girl on top of me" Bryn forwarded the first mate, amusingly."I have no clue how she sneaked into my room" she continued sending her eyes away from the creature up to meet with the first mate's, "I tried to contact her. I don't think she has an owner currently" she said as her orbs strayed a little, recalling the dark hole she found in the cat's consciousness. For a known reason, Bryn felt somehow connected to this cat . the wall that hindered her from knowing the identity of this poor creature was painfully familiar. If she could get over the hole into this cat's mind, she might have the possibility of helping both of them, the cat and... herself.

The mere idea made her exclaim with a sudden enthusiasm"You know, I decided to keep her with me. at least during our stay in Basra!!"

[Doubar]

Doubar’s eyes widened as suddenly Bryn passed him the cat – leaving him no chance to do anything but accept and hold the little creature. For a moment he blinked at the sorceress in utter surprise, feeling a little as Sinbad must’ve felt when so many months ago the young one had just passed him the baby the crew had sworn to protect - not knowing that the newborn would turn out to be a full-grown monk. Finally realizing though that he must be staring at her, he braced himself and shifted the furry white being a little so that it could lie down in his folded arms. Casting his glance to her then he noticed that the kitten looked just as startled as he must just have, and he couldn’t help the amused grin that formed on his lips because of this finding.

When he looked up again, he found himself looking at Bryn who by now had directed her gaze to meet his own while she was telling him of the way she had found the little being. Her short reverie then didn’t escape him, but he decided not to let on about it, and waited for her to go on instead. The sudden enthusiasm she showed right after caused the smile he wore to widen, and with quite some amusement being evident in his voice he replied:
“Well, then you probably should think about a name for her.” It was a soft chuckle that left his lips and which he let sound between the two of them for a moment. He wasn’t necessarily aware of it, but seeing Bryn be in such a good mood relieved him a lot more than he had expected it would – as did seeing that she seemed to be alright after what had happened the night before.
The first mate didn’t notice it himself, but for a moment his gaze lay on the young one, his pale blue eyes focusing only on her as his mind unconsciously sought to find out whether she truly was okay. The smile on her face answered him, and as he realized the colour had returned to her cheeks, he finally tore his gaze apart and, feeling the creature in his arms grow restless, he moved to return the cat to her.
“I think she’s happier with you”, he said good-naturedly while carefully he put the little being back into the sorceress’ arms. Then he straightened up a little and was about to turn back to face the scientist and his brother when – just for second – he halted in his movement and added with a wink:
“Just make sure Dermott won’t get jealous.”

[Firouz]

Firouz listened with a little grin on his face as Bryn teased Sinbad and then dropped a cute, but yet unseen kitten by him, in the First Mate's arms.

When Doubar mentioned their feathered companion, he raised his eyebrows, turned to Bryn and asked curiously but pointedly, "Where is Dermott anyways? I haven't seen him since yesterday..."