User:Arrow Quivershaft/Meeting Nick
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{{#ifeq: User |User| Meeting Nick | Arrow Quivershaft/Meeting Nick}}[[Title::{{#ifeq: User |User| Meeting Nick | Arrow Quivershaft/Meeting Nick}}| ]]
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After we talked with Dawn, we changed our plans a bit. There was a boat leaving straight from Athens to Lecce the next morning, so we adjusted. I’d go back and touch base with Nick and meet them in Selene’s Grove at the nearest opportunity, since I was by far the slowest. So after yet another boat ride, I arrived in Athens. This one was a lot rougher, since we’d encountered a minor storm on the way. So everyone was more than glad to get off the boat as soon as we landed on the evening of August 5th. It was cloudy, with the sun going down anyways. But it was still nice and hot. Italian summer, and all.
I dragged my pack behind me off the boat when my turn came, looking around, and nearly did a double take when I saw what looked like an anthropomorphic tiger standing there, wearing gloves. I recognized him from the news photos...Nick was HERE? He’d already come down here? How’d he know I was coming back, or had a plan, or...questions to ask. I headed over towards him at the unloading zone, digging in my pocket with my free hand for my identification paperwork. Nick eyed me as I approached.
“Mr. Snider, I wasn’t expecting you,” I said to Nick as I got within conversational range.
“...who’re you?” he asked with a quirk of a brow.
Of course, while I’d seen him in the news, he had never seen me before. "Apologies; I'm Nathan Renfrew." I showed him my documents.
His face lit up in recognition. "Oh, Nathan, been expecting you. Yeah something came up kinda bad so I came to you."
"Ah...ok. Sorry if I took a bit longer than you were expecting." I apologized. I hadn’t expected him to come down here this soon, but he didn’t need to know that.
"Yep, no problem.” He said, not missing a beat. “It alright if we go somewhere safe to talk?"
I shook my head. "That's not an issue, no. So long as you don't mind my gear..."
"No prob...lets just get back to the hotel if that's okay with you..."
"Sure." I hefted my pack and followed him to the hotel in relative silence, since he obviously wanted privacy for this conversation. A bit of an intro about myself, but that was it. No one paid any special attention to us here. Seems Nick’s 15 minutes were mostly over...then again, Lecce isn’t that great of a place to measure your uniqueness. Once we were in the room, I took my pack off and set it down for the moment. I was pretty sure I’d be ok here.
Nick looked over to me. "Anyway, some crazy things have gone down..." He offered a chair and took one himself.
"Ok. What exactly has occurred?" Be diplomatic. I sat down on the offered furniture.
“I got a letter from Tel Aviv..." Nick sighed.
"Bad news, I presume?" I asked, trying to be unflappable.
"They want Alex and Blossom in the city so they can be marked." He sighed. "That seemed suicidal so came here a bit early." This was troubling, if only because of the fact that I’d left them unguarded in Selene’s realm and Bast probably didn’t know they were both marked already. "By now those in England know I'm AWOL, so'll Bast...I just couldn’t...”
"Ok. Well, they’re in Selene’s realm, and they’re both marked...so they’re safe from Bast on the mark level. Just don’t let it slip they’re there and they should be fine till we can make a run out there."
"Anyway...what's up with you? I notice a certain Fox and Stormwing are out still." Nick said, shifting topics without a clutch. I wasn’t really done, though, so I pulled it back.
"Gotta question. I thought Bast let you go; but you said she'll know you're away from England. So she didn't REALLY let you go, did she?" I queried.
"I'm Nkosi...so not really. Plus I worked for the realm, I'm sure she'll know about that."
"Ah, yeah...ok." I could understand that. Let go, but still on a sort of leash.
"Exactly...anyway where are the others?" NIck got back to the point.
"Regarding your friends, they're in Selene's domain at the moment. We decided it would be more time-efficient to split up again." I hoped they’d made it there. DIdn’t wanna be a liar.
"Oh, any news?"
"We went to Athens. And we spoke there. And they said that if the two parts of your 'fractured soul' could be brought there, something MIGHT be arranged." I chose my words carefully, so as not to give any false hope to the guy.
"Awesome. So we have to capture my evil twin." Nick said with a touch of sarcasm.
"That's one way of putting it, yeah."
"Even then if nothing can be done we'll be stuck with a really angry and rather large tiger." he's speaking sarcastically.
"Yeah..."
"Either way it'll have to be tried, to reverse my mistake." Nick said. He paused and sighed. "So what do the gods think of such a predicament?" he seemed sad.
"I didn't speak with them, directly. I don't know, honestly..." I shook my head. "Is something wrong, Nick?"
"I hate to sound like a pessimist but, it's just not looking good and my friends are in trouble because of me. Alex..."
"That's more sounding like a realist, to me." I tried to encourage.
"Yeah, so we hope...I hope." Nick sighed again.
"In any event. We need Nkosi before we can do anything else..."
"Luring him out is going to be a pain, something I haven't figured out quite yet."
"Well, that's our next step. If I may speak freely?"
"Now that, I leave up to you...everyone needs to get together before we go chasing Nkosi." Nick said.
"Getting people together, I can do."
"Depending on how long that takes, I'll figure something out." Nick resolved.
"If I may speak freely?" I repeated.
"Of course, I'm not a oppressor."
“I’m not sure if anyone knows if Blossom and Alex are marked yet. Though I’m loathe to suggest live bait, it may be your only option if you can’t think of something better.”
"Hm Nkosi dragging them in...maybe." he shrugged a bit.
"If they don’t agree, though, we should look for another option."