Zul smiles at Aldrand. "Well, least now you know whose side I'm on.
'Scuse me while I see if I can make ol' Stretch here look bad".
"Don't get yourself skewered", Aldrand laughs.
She stands up and saunters toward Rotemdol, glancing at his knife.
"Careful where you point that thing, big fella. Girl might get the
wrong idea."
"Why is it that beautiful women always make fun of my little weapon",
Rotemdol sighs, "Size is not everything you know"
"Since you seem to like them big", Rotemdol says, "I will give you
this big long pointy thing here".
He flips the nivork out of its scabbard and hands it to Zul, hilt
first. "Your job is to guard the table with it. Do try to look
dangerous. Now in addition to guarding please hand me things to
juggle".
To Zul, the sword feels like it's a serious weapon, not a juggling
prop. It's well-balanced, and the edge looks sharp enough.
On the table Zul has been tasked to guard are an assortment of balls,
clubs, knifes, plates and handkerchiefs. No flaming torches or live
animals, but you can't have everything.
Rotemdol improvises according to whatever Zul hands him. Three, four,
five, six objects in the air at once, extra objects disappearing
whenever the numbers get too many. He even attempts the trick of
smashing a plate in midair, then juggling the shards; unfortunately he
doesn't quite pull it off. He does manage to make it all look like
part of the act, and does seem to be winning over the audience
To Rotemdol, Zul's clearly not an experienced entertainer, but she's
smart enough to work out she needs to do quickly enough.
The last act, of course, is throwing knifes with Zul as the target.
But before Rotemdol throws the first knife, the drunken fruit thrower
strikes again. This time, his target is Zul rather than Rotemdol, and
his aim is considerably better; the fruit strikes the side of her head
getting her red hair covered in sticky fruit bits.
--
Tim Hall
Weblog: http://www.kalyr.com/weblog
Photos: http://kalyr.fotopic.net/
