{"id":207,"date":"2009-11-27T19:54:41","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T19:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/?p=207"},"modified":"2009-11-27T19:54:41","modified_gmt":"2009-11-27T19:54:41","slug":"chapter-83-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/?p=207","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 83: Leader."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- \t\t@page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm } \t\tP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Geez Zee, you have literally been banned from every bar in Norren.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">That&#8217;s some feat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr walked north along the path from Norren, he didn&#8217;t know of any towns nearby, but this is where his bracelet pulled. Unfortunately though, by his count he was still due a couple of bottles of booze. He crossed his fingers in the hopes of getting some before he faced the next warrior.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">He never speaks does he?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Not really, he&#8217;s the silent type, I guess its because of his burden\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr&#8217;s followers chatted amongst themselves a few seconds walk behind him. Zephyr liked his room. It was cold and getting dark, he lit up a fresh cigarette and took a drag.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">You know who you remind me of Zeph?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Deborah asked, walking alongside him.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr exhaled, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Aren&#8217;t you cold dressed like that?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Deborah gave him a look, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course, you&#8217;re a part of me, your only as cold as me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Actually I&#8217;m only as cold as you think I am, but you are dodging the question.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">What question.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Who it is you remind me of.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8230;and who is that then?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">All those bandit leaders you massacred.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Massacred is a strong word. Besides, how am I like them?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">first of all massacred is exactly the word, you never gave any of them a chance to survive, on the off chance that one of them was the one who killed your parents you wanted them to suffer equally.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Deborah put her arm over Zephyr&#8217;s shoulder \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don&#8217;t go playing down how strong, how wild you were, you are like a force of nature, I don&#8217;t want you to turn into a pussy like some of these fighters do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr shrugged off her arm \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So how exactly am I like them?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The big crowd of adoring followers behind you, adoring you and your strength at every opportunity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I never asked them to follow me like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Oh its not a bed thing Zephie dear, I think its pretty cool, you are a natural leader.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr focussed on the path ahead.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">When you have killed this warrior, you should head back the other way, go take back Zee industries from your cousin.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I don&#8217;t want it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">but you want all the warriors dead, and if you took his position, we wouldn&#8217;t have to go on these long walks would we? A helicopter would make a nice change.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr looked at her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And just who would fly this helicopter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Deborah was thrown off, and zephyr saw it \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You&#8217;re clearly not from a particularly smart part of my head, why should I listen to you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Deborah looked at Zephyr almost in pity. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because I&#8217;m the only one who ever helped you silly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She ruffled his hair \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I got you out of that funk after your house was painted with dear mom and dad and gave you a purpose. You might not see it yet but even now I&#8217;m trying to help you here.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-family: Lucida Sans,sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Zephyr threw his cigarette into the snow piled alongside the path, he saw a light further down. It looked like he might get those two bottles after all.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Geez Zee, you have literally been banned from every bar in Norren.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That&#8217;s some feat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Zephyr walked north along the path from Norren, he didn&#8217;t know of any towns nearby, but this is where his bracelet pulled. Unfortunately though, by his count he was still due a couple of bottles of booze. He crossed his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sophiehoulden.com\/writings\/fair\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}