Of Shadows and Swords (Chiarra)

((I know lol we need to start with a better plot or something. though this one's almost to 100 pages already))


Archer had just finished giving a round of bows to the applauding and laughing crowd, grinning widely and happily. When Alrin came near and praised him, he gave an elegantly, princely sort of dip and then just smiled again. "Well, I take that very highly from an accomplished performer as yourself. I've done a few things here and there that have required a little showmanship and tossing around in the air. It's fun!"


((Stupid iPad typos. . .))
 
((Yeah I know lol, and that's a lot longer than our last one and it's okay, only teasing ^_^ ))


He chuckled a bit and said, "Well, how would you like to perform in one of our shows? I wouldn't mind giving you a shot at it.
 
Archer grinned and bounced a little, glad he had at least met with some approval. "Really? That would be amazing!" He sobered a little, rubbed the back of his neck and shifted almost shyly. "We . . . We've been looking for a place to stay for a rather long time. . ."
 
"We'll, you're welcome to stay here," Alrin smiled warmly at him. "But for now, dinner is finished so if you all would like something to eat..." he gestured towards the tent and then headed there himself.


Melody and Natalie smiled. "That's great news," said Natalie. "I knew he would let you join."


Melody wanted to hug Archer, but refrained from doing so for the time being. She smiled at him and said, "I agree, this is amazing."
 
Archer could see Melody trying to stay away from him and so threw himself on Lucius instead, grinning and leaning his weight on the shorter boy. "We did it! Hooray! And there's food!" He patted Lucius on the shoulder. "Onward, loyal steed."


Lucius just rolled his eyes and peeled Archer's arms away from his shoulders. "In your dreams. Get off of me."
 
Melody laughed and so did Natalie, but Melody was a bit disappointed. She wished that he would just hurry up and tell Lucius. The girls followed them to the tent though and as they grew closer, the food smelt amazing. Melody's mouth watered and her stomach growled. She was hungry.


It was chicken with some side of vegetables and Melody grabbed her plate and started eating. "This tasted delicious," she said.
 
They all took some food and sat down near each other to eat, Lucius instinctively sitting near Natalie rather than sitting away, because of their similar 'heritage'. Archer smiled and nodded along with Melody. "I concur. Very good indeed." He was starting to like this place more and more.
 
Melody ate, drinking some water occasionally and looked over at Archer. "Now you do have something on your face," she said, pointing to the corner of his mouth where he had some grease.
 
Archer laughed a little and wiped away what she'd been pointing at, shaking his head. "Well, at least the answer is finally yes, right?"


Lucius laughed softly and patted Archer's shoulder. "You're just too used to everyone adoring you."
 
Melody chuckled a bit and nodded at him.


"He'll have even more people adoring him when he puts on his show," she said. "Crowds love the danger." An idea hit her. "Hey, Lucius, you're a knight, which means your skilled with a sword. Maybe you can show off some moves or something?"
 
Lucius frowned a little unsurely, not the type to show off. "I'm not sure what I would do with that. I'd have to be fighting someone else. And that would be dangerous, if we were using real swords."
 
"Not if it's stage fighting," she said. "Though we would have to get someone who would be willing to be your dueling partner and then you would just work on some choreography. It wouldn't be real fighting, just showing off moves. The crowd won't know it's fake though, especially if there's certain parts where it looks like one of you two are going to get hurt."
 
Archer shrugged a little. "We could pull it off, Lu. We could put on a play, if we had a few more willing participants." He smiled slightly. "That would be fun if either of us knew how to write a play." And had more people. Three or even four probably wouldn't cut it. "For now we'll stick with the acrobatics, and we'll figure out how to get the other stuff in. Melody can play music, and Lucius can help set up the stunts and such. We'll need a list of tricks to do."
 
"Fair enough," Natalie said smiling.


"I'll need to make a playlist for your act," she said. "Just so the music will match what your doing." Though it didn't need to be a complicated one, she thought.
 
Archer nodded and grinned. "Just anything a bit fast paced will do. Maybe we can find more instruments to play. I'll help you learn!"


Lucius shrugged slightly when Melody gave Archer a puzzled look. "He picks up almost everything pretty quickly, so . . . I don't think he's lying."


Archer put a hand to his chest, as if offended. "Would I do that?"


Lucius gave him a dry look. "All the time."


". . . But I do it with love!"
 
Melody nodded at Lucius and said, "Alright then, I'll take you on on that Archer." She smiled at the both of them and only shook her head when they continued to banter a bit.


"You weren't kidding when you said they did this all the time," Natalie said, chuckling a bit. "Anyways, what instruments can you play?"


"Right now only a harp," Melody answered. "What about you Archer?"
 
Archer paused in trying to reach for Lucius' hair, just to annoy him, and looked back at the girls again, blinking innocently. He thought a moment, then shrugged. "I can play a sitar, and a few different drums, and a pan flute - a regular flute, too." If you get the hang of one stringer instrument, one wind instrument, and one drum, the rest aren't too hard to adapt to."
 
"Wow," Melody said, clearly impressed. "Do you have all those instruments here?" she asked, looking at Natalie."


"We don't really have any instruments here, but I'm sure Master would have no problem transforming something into an instrument for you," she beamed. "He's really good at doing that."
 
"Ooo," Archer made an eager face and clapped is hands together. "Magic tricks!"


Lucius smiled a little at his friend's energy. "Without the trick part."


"Right."
 
Melody and Natalie both laughed at that and Melody joked, saying, "Unlike one faker we know." She looked at Archer and gave him a warm smile.
 
Archer just tried not to laugh and stuck his tongue out at them. "It's the trick that makes it more fascinating! I had you riveted!"


Lucius laughed with the girls and gave Archer a playful shove. "She's got you pegged, Archer. Faker is your middle name."
 
"It's okay though," she said. "We still like you." She stuck her tongue back out at him.


Natalie just chuckled and said, "Still though, it is amazing how some people can do things that are like magic but aren't."
 
Archer just shrugged a little, grinning. "It's all just a sleight of hand, doing one thing and distracting the audience with something else. It didn't make much work to learn."


Lucius gave him a mischievous grin. "That's about as modest as he gets."
 
"Is there anything you won't learn to do?" Melody asked him, still in her quest to find out as much as she can about Archer.
 
Archer shrugged, holding his hands up a bit helplessly. "Not much, really. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes. The more I know, the easier it is to get by. I'll learn anything someone decides to throw at me." He'd even learned some more . . . inappropriate or illicit things he was not going to tell her about. Ever. She already knew he was a thief, no need to make things worse.
 
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