"So where is he?" Draven glared at Brig.
"That damn kid!" Brig said, stalking over to the spot where he had told Korien to stay put. "I told him to stay here! Right here! And I told him not to move!"
"You should have stayed and looked after him!"
"Hey! This isn't my fault!"
"It is!"
"I left him to look for you!"
"I didn't ask you to!"
The two friends glared at each other for a long moment.
"What are you two arguing about?" a lazy voice asked, interrupting their heat. Kiyen strolled up to them, a slightly intrigued expression on his usually bored and annoyed face.
"Have you seen Korien?" Draven asked.
Kiyen curled one corner of his mouth into a crooked smile. "Why?"
"The damn kid ran off when he was told to stay put," Brig said testily.
"You were supposed to look after him?" Kiyen chuckled.
"We both were," Brig said with a glare at Draven.
"I wasn't the one who lost him!" Draven glared back.
"I saw him." Kiyen grinned crookedly at them.
"Where?!"
"Somewhere."
"Come on, Kiyen!" Draven said with a frown.
Kiyen smiled. "Follow me."
Brig and Draven followed him and they stopped a good distance away from where Ferrahn was fast asleep, purring happily with Korien in his arms.
"He's with Ferrahn!" Draven looked at Brig with a frown.
"So? Let's just drag him away and get on with our adventure!"
"He's not supposed to meet anyone!"
"Then we'll tell Ferrahn he'd imagined him."
"Yes, go do that," Kiyen said with a grin.
Brig paused and looked at Kiyen warily. "Did you do this?"
"Of course not. I just happened to be around when Ferrahn found Korien."
"Kiyen never lies," Draven said, frowning at the sleeping Ferrahn and Korien.
"I say, we just wake Korien up and go away," Brig said, crossing his arms.
Kiyen nodded with a grin. "Yeah, why not?"
Brig paused and looked at him carefully. Kiyen raised a questioning eyebrow and smirked.
"What are you up to?" Brig asked warily.
Draven looked at Kiyen with a frown and the man smiled at him.
"I'd been watching the cat," Kiyen finally said. "He'd been trying to find a nice warm spot to curl up to sleep in and had been turned away twice. If you wake Korien up, it'd be the third time, and I doubt he'd be very happy about that."
"Who cares about the stupid cat!" Brig said, walking forwards.
"Wait, Brig!" Draven said, pulling him back.
"What now?!"
"Let's leave Korien with him for a while. We'll come back for him later."
"What?! I thought Korien wasn't supposed to meet anyone!"
"But Ferrahn's been in a bad mood since his toy's head was sent off."
"What's that got to do with us?!"
Draven glared at him. "We'll leave Korien here with him for a while. When we come back, Ferrahn'd have slept enough and won't mind his bolster being taken away so much."
"Good analogy," Kiyen nodded.
"Why are we caring so much about that cat?!" Brig demanded, crossing his arms.
"Because we are!"
"WHY!"
"Because I said so, damn it! Let's go!" Draven turned to leave.
Kiyen watched as Brig stomped after Draven.
"I don't like the cat!" Brig said indignantly. "Why do I have to care about whether he's in a bad mood or not?!"
Kiyen chuckled to himself as the muttering Brig disappeared from view. After a few moments, Draven's tired-sounding voice came to him.
"Kiyen, bring Korien back to the Cave when he wakes up."
"You expect me to stay here and watch over him?" Kiyen thought back with a raised eyebrow.
"If you're going to be around for a while, just check on him before you leave. We'll probably be back in a short while."
"All right."
"Thanks."
From where he was, Kiyen looked at Korien and the boy opened his dark eyes and looked back at him steadily. Kiyen raised an eyebrow. So the boy hadn't been sleeping after all, and even from their distance away, he'd known they were there.
"Did you hear Draven?" he asked the boy.
Kiyen had been watching, and he was sure the boy didn't move the slightest, but he knew he'd nodded.
"You heard him," Kiyen thought to him. "Before the cat wakes up, make sure you leave."
Again, he understood that the boy understood even without an outward sign of movement or thought. With a shrug, Kiyen turned and walked away.
In the distance, Korien closed his eyes and breathed in rhythm to Ferrahn's purrs.
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