:afro:

Ranuki stood in the shadows of the trees, reluctant to leave the protective covering of the shadows. Everywhere she had gone she seemed to either attract a... companion... or make an utter fool of herself.

'Hey, at least one of those clio was in the meadow the other day!'

'Be quiet, Indary. I'm quite aware that one, maybe two saw me make a fool of myself. Why do you think I'm not at all eager to step into view?'

'And here I thought it was because you just wanted some peace and quiet.'

'Irritating jackal.'

'Oo! Insults now! You must be irritated!'

Ranuki aimed a glare at the amused jackal before turning back to the conversation she could barely hear. 'That new Overlordian is bold, isn't she?' Ranuki pondered to herself.

"Well dear, I wouldn't call it hate... Erm, yeah... Eh..." She drifted off as her daemon spoke.

"They do. Mostly anyways. They can get along, but it isn't common. You see-" He was cut off quite suddenly as Alecis whipped around and stared icily at him.

"What my lovely daemon is trying to say, " Alecis turned back to the clio, "Is that while we don't exactly like each other, we know when to be civil. Eh, isn't that right Rowan?" She smiled.

Rowan wasn't quite sure what to make of Alecis's reaction towards what her daemon had said, but he figured it probably wasn't of any importance. He gave a short nod, agreeing with Alecis. "We have disagreements on occassion, but-" he stopped when suddenly he heard some rustling coming from nearby.

'Nym, is there something over there?' he asked Nym, making a quick movement in the direction the noises had come from. Nym crept over and gave the air a sniff.

'Smells like there's a clio and her daemon there,' Nym replied. 'Eavesdropping.'

"Okay, whoever's hiding, go ahead and come out now," Rowan called out, hoping that whoever it was didn't have any bad intentions.

Charlie listened to them as they spoke of their disagreements, but was more interested in what Rowan said about someone hiding. She turned to Mae, who still rested on her shoulder.

'Should I go and look?' Mae asked silently, and Charlie nodded. Mae flew into the air into the direction that Rowan had indicated the hiding clio was. She found her and hovered in the air in front of her face.

"Hey, why don't you come out and talk instead of just watching us?" Mae asked the clio who she'd never seen before.

Giving a quiet sigh, Ranuki shoved away from the tree and stepped out of the shadows. Her cover was blown. Charming. She would have rather just waited till the three had left and then resume her nice walk but nooo. Now she would have to be polite. There was no way she was going to consciously offend three Overlordians.

"Greetings." She wouldn't have to talk a blue streak... just enough to be polite.

'These past few days just haven't been in your favor, have they?' Indary asked, emerging from the shadows behind her, cautious in the presense of what were obviously powerful clios.

Alecis turned to the eavesdropper, her smile gone.

"Erm, hello there. You like sneaking and listening to other clio hm? Really, it would have been much more polite to come out and let us know you were there. Unless of course..."

Alecis paused, wondering if this could have anything to do with the star pieces and then started again.

"Are you a spy dear? Because if you are, your Overloridian really needent send you out. I'm open enough about my findings about the recent happenings in Amelia, and Kendra honestly could have just asked at the meeting."

Alecis was frustrated. Spies made her angry.

Rowan recognized the eavesdropper as the strange woman from the Valley who'd been dancing around crazily for no apparent reason. Well, that meant she probably wasn't a spy.

Spy...Rowan thought of the spy he'd found back home. These instances didn't seem to be related at all.

"She's not a spy, Alecis, I've seen her before," Rowan informed her. "Though I do agree that it's very rude to eavesdrop." He turned to the woman. "So what's your excuse?"

Charlie wasn't paying much attention to the clio eavesdropping, but instead was practically gazing at Rowan, thinking it was a pretty good time to do so, since everyone's attention was on the newcomer. Mae flew back over to her shoulder, a bit annoyed at the fact that she had been completely ignored.

'Well, that was rude,' Mae said to Charlie, but she didn't get much of a reply.

'Uh-huh,' Charlie replied back. Mae, aggrivated that she was getting ignored again, pecked her beak against Charlie's neck to get her attention. Charlie blinked and broke her gaze and looked to Mae. "What?" she accidentally said out loud. Mae shook her head and ruffled her feathers, and the two of them looked over to the stranger.

"I'm sorry that I was eaves dropping. I'm not a spy, as was pointed out. I was going on a walk hoping to avoid people. I wasn't paying attention and before I knew it, I came upon you three. I hoped that if I remained where I was I wouldn't have to come out and confront you three. I just wish to go on my way. Any rudeness on my part, I apologize for." Ranuki gave a slight bow, hoping that she could escape soon and get on with her walk of peaceful silence. Her head was killing her.

"Over doing it much?" Indary muttered, rolling his eyes. An exasperated look from Ranuki made him roll his eyes once again.

"Sorry. Forgive me for forgetting that you have a headache. No doubt caused by all of your irritation over that incident in the meadow." Indary finished his remark with a smirk in his voice.

"Stop reminding me of that." Ranuki groaned, briefly closing her eyes. Then she gazed at Alecis, who was no doubt the most irritated of the three.

Alecis rolled her eyes.

"Okay, I suppose it doesn't really matter. Who are you, anway?"

Rowan suddenly felt someone staring at him. He turned to look back at Charlie, but just as he did so she looked away. His gaze lingered for a bit too long, but he couldn't help it. Charlie was just so...appealing.

He shook his head to clear it and focused on the excuse the newcomer was giving. It was a pretty pathetic excuse. "It's a big island," he said to her. "If you wanted to avoid us, why didn't you just go somewhere else?"

Charlie really had nothing to say to the woman, so she had to find a way to entertain herself. She turned her attention to the dirt below their feet and got a funny idea. She put her hands behind her back and traced the outline of a heart with her fingers, and the drawing appeared in the dirt in front of where Rowan was stranding, so he could easily see it. She looked to him to see some sort of reaction, and didn't really think about the fact that it would be one-sided, since he couldn't control the soil like she could. Damn.

"If I had come out then, this whole scenario would have happened. I was hoping to avaoid that by standing atill. It would have worked if someone (pointed glance at Indary) hadn't moved. Now excuse me. I will be leaving now. I apologize again." Giving yet another slight semi-bow, Ranuki proceeded on her walk, having to pass the group of three on the way.

"Ah come on! You know you want to talk to them!" Indary crowed, tail wagging.

"You know I want to such thing! Do I need to muzzle you to get my silence?" A note of exasperation slipped into her voice as she glared back over her shoulder at Indary. "I have a headache. I. Want. Quiet."

"Someone's crank-" Indary's teasing was cut off as a band of shadow slipped up his leg and wrapped lightly around his muzzle, just enough to keep him quiet.

Alecis forgot about the stranger quickly as she saw Charlie smile. She was looking at the ground near Rowan. Alecis, too, turned to face the spot on the ground in front of the Dian Overloridian.

A... heart? No.

Really?

She looked back up, this time at Rowan's face. Alecis realized she had noticed the drawing before he did, and she took great pleasure in waiting for him to see it.

Suddenly Rowan saw Alecis look at the ground right in front of him. Then she looked back up at him with a strange anticipation. Confused, he looked down, and noticed the little heart drawn in the dirt. It must have been Charlie, Rowan thought. He almost smiled but then remembered that Alecis was staring at him. She was waiting for his reaction. He couldn't give away his feelings for Charlie, so he quickly came up with an idea as to divert Alecis's attention.

He looked up at Alecis with a raised eyebrow and pointed down at the heart. "Did...you do that, Alecis?" he asked, sounding convincibly incredulous.

Alecis looked confused. Then she got angry. Then she smiled.

"Yes, it was me." She said, cooing.

"Do you accept, darling?" She smiled one of her smiles.

Rheis rolled his eyes.

Charlie was a tad bit disheartened by the fact that Rowan seemed to think it was Alecis, but she realized pretty quickly that it was just an act to cover up what she'd done. And she thanked him for that. She needed to be more careful with expressing her feelings towards him, especially with other clio, an Overloridian at that, around.

She looked over to Alecis as she admitted that she had made the heart, which confused Charlie since she had created the heart. Wait, did Alecis like Rowan? She thought they hated each other. Was there secretly something going on between the two of them?

'Calm down,' Mae said. 'You're overreacting. I'm not sure what she's doing, but just calm down. You can't afford to show any more feelings towards Rowan, or she'll suspect even more. You're not very good at this secret thing. The Overloridians would flip if they found out.'

'Yeah, you're right,' Charlie agreed, and so she stayed calm, just watching whoever spoke at the time.

Rowan feigned looking surprised. "Yeah, riiiight," he said slowly. "I'm sorry to say I don't accept, Alecis. You see, it would be awfully unprofessional for two Overloridians to have a relationship." He paused. "Not to mention the fact that I dislike you greatly."

Nym snickered. She was getting a great amount of entertainment from this whole scene.

"Oh, well, that's just too bad." Alecis pouted her lips, then smiled again.

"I guess you'll just have to make due with Charlie then." Her smile grew bigger.

Charlie widened her eyes at Alecis's statement.

"Woah, wait," she said, putting her hands out in front of her. "You don't think I like him, do you?" She made a disturbed face. "How could I like that?" she joked. "Of all clio, you should know how much of a jerk the guy is," she said, and she put her hand in front of her mouth in Alecis's direction so Rowan couldn't read her lips, though she probably spoke loud enough for him to hear anyhow. "And I'm actually looking for someone attractive, thank you." She put her hand back and and smirked, proud of her insults. She didn't usually insult people, especially people the liked, but she thought she did a good job.

'It was an alright performance,' Mae said. 'But can you do it again?'

'I have to, Mae,' Charlie said. 'I'm gonna have to act all the time when we're around people. This is just a test, and I think I'm doing alright.'

Rowan didn't have to pretend to be irritated at what Charlie said about him, even though he knew she was lying. Though he had to admit, it was almost cute how proud she looked of herself for coming up with those "insults." Nonetheless, he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Thank you, Charlie," he scowled. "If it's any reassurance to you, I'm not particularly fond of immature little brats, especially ones from different Eilemaiden."

Nym was trying very hard not to burst out laughing at this little exchange. She'd be teasing Rowan about this for days.

"Really now Charlie, insulting clio just isn't your thing." Alecis almost giggled. She knew Charlie to be a nice clio, and this didn't suit her at all.

"I think you protested just a little too much. And you Rowan, well jeez. I honestly have to say that I never would have guessed you would date someone so much younger. I actually never thought you would date." Now Alecis did let a giggle escape.

"I promise not to tell, I think it's quite cute. But you know how other clio might react. Especially to you, Charlie. I mean, Rowan is basically a criminal in Adhbhar, isn't he? For leaving? What would they do if their own Overloridian was caught 'fratinizing with the enemy'?"

Rheis sat down, this was boring.

"But like I said, don't worry. I do think it's cute." Alecis quit talking and looked to the pair. She hummed, and a breeze picked up, pushing the Overloridians in front of her, together.

She smiled.

Rowan didn't object when Alecis pushed him and Charlie together, instead he pretended not to notice. It was unsuccessful though, as a slight coloring came to his cheeks.

"I'm not lying, Alecis," he said solemnly. "Although at this point I don't think I can convince you otherwise...We're not dating." It was true. They weren't dating. This was only the third or fourth time they'd even seen each other. "We only just met a week ago, you know that."

'Yeah, but you wish you were dating,' Nym said, thankfully not out loud.

'Yeah, yeah,' Rowan thought with a sigh. Unfortunately, Alecis had brought up a few good points. He was practically a criminal in Adhbhar. He didn't want to put Charlie in such a bad situation. There didn't seem to be anyway for it to work out.

Charlie didn't know how to act anymore. She was obviously bad at pretending that she didn't like him, and because of her awful acting Alecis thought they were together. Sure she totally wanted to be with Rowan, but even if they were together, they wouldn't want anyone knowing. If she couldn't hide it now, how would she hide it then?

So when they were pushed together, she had no idea what to do. She just stood there, looking pretty indifferent about the situation. When Rowan spoke, she just nodded in agreement with what he said. She had no idea what to say anymore, so she let Rowan do all the talking. She hadn't responded to what Alecis had said either, since she didn't want to make anything worse. She was obviously pretty bad at lying about this kind of thing.

What she said did get Charlie to think about it, though. What would the clio back home do if they found out she was interested in Rowan? Of all the Overloridians, she had to like him? Not only the clio back home, but her father? She started thinking about how this probably wasn't such a good idea, but then she looked to Rowan and she knew it was worth it.

...hopefully.

Alecis rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say you guys."

She shrugged, it wasn't that big a deal. But she still didn't believe them...

All of sudden she heard a growl behind her. Her heart stopped...