John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

The slightly older looking one was sharp featured, short and well rounded with more womanly curves than had been fashionable. Her long dark hair was heavily curled and in the slightly humid atmosphere had started to frizz at the ends. She glanced at Morgen and Herzer with the calculating eye of a raptor looking over a likely meadow. The younger woman was a shade over normal height for a female but had the standard fashionable look: no hips, no breast, no butt. She looked at Herzer and Morgen without expression and then looked away.

“Hi,” Morgen said with another wave. “Crystal,” she said to the older woman, “this is Herzer Herrick. Herzer, Crystal Looney.”

Herzer stuck his hand out and the woman just nodded at him, her arms still crossed. To the degree that there was any expression on her face it was disdain. Herzer took his hand and ostentatiously clasped it behind his back, nodding at the woman with a smile.

“A pleasure to meet you, Crystal was it?” he said.

“Shelly?” Morgen said after a moment, turning to the other woman. “This is Herzer. Herzer, Shelly Coleman.”

Herzer didn’t bother to stick out his hand that time. He just nodded his head at the woman who nodded briefly and then turned to watch the dancing again.

Morgen flushed at the apparent rebuff then smiled brittlely.

“So what are you guys doing?” she asked.

Crystal looked at her as if she couldn’t believe the question.

“Watching The Dancing,” the woman replied, slowly and distinctly.

Morgen flushed again as Herzer nodded his head. He took her by the arm and drew her against him.

“It has been a pleasure to meet you ladies,” he said with patently false insincerity. “I hope we get to do this again real soon.” He stuck his arm though Morgen’s and walked away, at which Morgen was forced to follow.

“Bye,” she said, waving. “I don’t know what is with them,” she continued when they were out of earshot. “They’re normally friendly.”

Herzer put his arm around Morgen’s shoulders and gave her a half hug.

“Ah, I think the problem might be that you were with a guy, ” he said, carefully.

“What?”

“Never mind,” Herzer said, rolling his eyes at the sky. “Let’s go find some friends of mine. They’re at least somewhat more likely to be friendly.”

They walked along through the crowd until Herzer spotted first Shilan and then, sitting next to her, Cruz. They were parked along the stream at the edge of the crowd, leaning against some balks of timber.

“Hey, guys,” Herzer said, wandering over with his arm around Morgen’s waist. “How’s it going?”

“To the dogs, Herzer, it’s going to the dogs,” Cruz replied. “Who’s your friend?”

“Morgen, Cruz Foscue and Hsu Shilan, Shilan is like her first name. Cruz, Shilan, Morgen.”

Herzer set the basket down and first lifted out the greens, which were bundled in some of the outer leaves, then took out the blanket and shook it out on the ground, hoping there wouldn’t be any evident stains.

“Man, dude, you are always prepared,” Cruz said. “Where’d you get the rabbit food?”

“We went for a walk in the woods,” Morgen said and then blushed bright red.

“Bast showed me some of the stuff that’s edible in the spring,” Herzer replied. “You can eat all of this stuff raw, but some of it is better cooked.” He pulled out a stick of asparagus and nibbled on it. “Umm… tasty. Just like the deer eat.”

“It is good,” Morgen said, finishing off another stalk of asparagus. “Am so’gif,” she added, munching on a fern head.

“Oooo! Plums,” Cruz said, snatching up the fruit.

“Nah, kudzi,” Herzer corrected as Cruz’s face twisted in surprise.

“It’s good,” Cruz said, taking another bite then handing the rest over to Shilan.

“Yeah, but you gotta watch that juice,” Herzer said, straight-faced. But the comment still elicited a hysterical giggle from Morgen.

“I need to visit the little girl’s room,” Shilan suddenly said. “Care to come with me, Morgen?”

“Sounds like a fine idea,” Morgen replied, dusting off her hands.

The two men watched the women leave and then Cruz shook his head.

“They do that just to make us nervous, you know that don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Herzer said. “But do they know that we know?”

“They’re going to dissect us in the bathroom, you know that.”

“Hey, they’re latrines,” Herzer pointed out. “Unless they smell much better than ours they’re not going to stand in the latrine and dissect us.”

“Huh. Good point,” Cruz said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t stand outside . By the way, dude, I have got to ask you this.”

“What?” Herzer said with a crease of his brow.

“Do you take a pill or something? I mean, give me a break . One day you’re running around with a nymphomaniac wood elf…”

“She was not a nymphomaniac!” Herzer interjected.

“What ever . She’s like three thousand years old and knows every position in the Kama Sutra!”

“Oh, thousand … maybe …” Herzer corrected. “And, okay, the Kama Sutra’s like primer !”

“God almighty, man,” Cruz laughed. “What? Is it a pill? Give me some.”

“I dunno, ” Herzer said. “I was asking myself the same question. It’s like: ‘Hey, it’s the end of the world. We can get Herzer laid now!’ ”

Cruz laughed so hard he rolled over on the ground, waving his hand in the air for Herzer to stop.

“It’s not fair,” he said, waving a finger at Herzer. “You’re not the last man in the world! It’s not supposed to work that way!”

“I dunno. End of the world, all of a sudden women find me interesting. Don’t ask me, I just live here! If there was a pill I would have been taking it for the last five years. And, besides, hey, you, Shilan? Who are you to talk?”

“I’ve been working on Shilan for a week, ” Cruz replied in exasperation. “Your wood elf takes off and the first time you come back to town it’s wham !”

“I dunno,” Herzer said with a shrug. “It’s just my searing good looks.”

“Oh, puh-leeeze,” Cruz replied. Cruz was just a shade under two meters tall with long, wavy blond hair, green eyes and a chiseled face. Everyone in the society was good looking but even within that group, Cruz was on the high end.

“Look, Cruz, don’t tell me that you have a lot of problems meeting girls,” Herzer said. “When I was growing up I had… uh… a genetic problem. It made me act really weird. I twitched, I couldn’t hold my hands steady, my head was always twitching. Nobody, and especially girls, wanted to get within ten meters of me in case it was catching. Even my damned parents ‘gave me my adult freedom’ at fourteen . By that time I hadn’t seen either one of them in more than three years; all I had raising me was nannies.”

“So what happened?” Cruz asked.

“Well, thank goodness just before the Fall it got fixed. By Dr. Daneh as a matter of fact.”

“Edmund Talbot’s wife?” Cruz asked.

“Uh… they’re not… I don’t think they’re married but… yeah.”

“So you know Edmund?”

“Except in passing, I’d never met Edmund until the other day in the bath. But I do know Dr. Daneh and I went to school with his daughter.”

“Cool.”

“Well, I mean that and a chit will get me a meal,” Herzer said with a note of exasperation.