Marianne

Of course, Sagus could hardly resist the pleading look on Marianne's sweet face. In addition, her reasoning was not too far off. Although he was no hulking beast himself, Sagus knew that he was handy with a blade and even more so with a spell. He smiled slightly as he nodded to Marianne. Her face brightened considerably as he said, "Come on, then. If we're to get ready for bed, I'm certain that you'd want to get it done with first. I'll take watch."

Rebecca nearly punched herself in the head when she realized that Sagus had brought up a point she had been too preoccupied to remember: The night watch! She silently cursed herself as Sophie began creating the tents and Sagus grabbed his gear to head out to the outskirts of their camp. She looked at him, curiously, and found herself watching his well-sculpted forearms as he drew up his short sword and traveling gear. Of course, Rebecca had not been with a man for any length of time due to her itinerant lifestyle, and she found herself smiling as she shook her head. A bit too loudly, she murmurred, "I really need to get laid..."

Suddenly, she felt a rough **** on her shoulders from behind, and she was sprawled out on the ground, ass-first. She growled and reached for her crossbow as she scrambled to get on even turf with her assailant when she was met by Marianne's smiling face.

"Did that help? You were complaining about being tired and needing to lay down, so I thought-" Rebecca, formerly pissed off to no visible end, was now struggling with all effort to keep from cracking up. Although she knew it was wrong of her, Rebecca often found herself highly amused by Marianne's overly pure and sweet approach to everything in life, including Rebecca's slang. Marianne quickly grew concerned with her friend's strange behavior, however. "Rebecca, if you don't mind, would you please tell me what I did wrong? You seem considerably upset. Whatever it was, I'm truly sorry." Rebecca, still straining to hold back a violent bout of laughter, simply waved Marianne off with a slight smile and managed to **** out a few words.

"You're fine, Marianne. I'm just going to check on Sagus with the times for watch." Rebecca swiftly left, then, struggling to hold in her laughter until she was a safe distance away. Because of the circumstances of the hilarity, she decided it would be better if she kept the encounter to herself.

Marianne watched her friend in the grey robes depart and felt a slight pang of... anger? Marianne shook her head physically, despite the fact that her struggle was internal. She couldn't understand why, but this intense feeling off ill will toward Rebecca had been conjured, and would not go away. It was almost as if she suspected Rebecca of some ulterior motives... Was it jealousy? She suddenly felt a cold presence at her back and closed her eyes, knowing what was to come. A horribly cold and scratchy voice arose from behind her, "The seed of doubt is something best left untrifled with, my dear... Thinking too hard on it may just lead to oblivion. Perhaps it would be better of you to simply use us, hmm?" Marianne turned tear-filled eyes to her verbal abuser, a creature that leaned against a strong oak, wrapped deep in the shadows that the branches cast down. Although Marianne could not see the creature too well, she already knew that on any amount of closer inspection, she was bound to find a horrible arrangment of missing body parts and other objects of disgust. She shook her head violently, pouring all of her effort into dispelling the horrid apparaition before her.

"What's wrong, love?" asked the creature as it drew closer. Her vision began to swirl as darkness threatened to overtake her. "Aw, now, you're not afraid of little ol' me, are you?" Marianne could not hold back her fears or tears as the thing's rotting hand reached out from the cover of the tree's shade. "Come now, I don't think we have anything to fear from each other. Why don't you just come here and give me a big ol' hug, eh? I promise that I won't bite..." Marianne stumbled backwards, trying to keep her mind steady and her wits about her.

"At least, not too hard..." She could see his putrid lips part into a menacing grin as he drew ever closer to her. Her knees buckled and she began to sink to the ground, her head bowing. "Now, love!" exclaimed the shade before her, "I don't think you heard me proper-like, I think I asked you to give me a hug, right? So, how's about it?" The thing took a few more shambling steps toward her on legs that should have fallen apart long ago. His head suddenly snapped toward the area Sagus had left to patrol. "Is it just that boy over there? Is that what you're worried about? It can be our li'l secret, you hear me?"

Marianne looked back at her hallucination, shaking her head violently. She stammered out, "It- it's no- it-," before the revenant finally caught onto her gist.
His grin split even wider, revealing a hole in the back of his cheek through which she could dimly see the light of a fire Sophie had built. "You're afraid that the one-eyed whore is goin' to steal him form you, is that right? Well, I suppose you should have listened to me in the first place." His voice suddenly seemed very large, almost an outlandish shriek as it pierced her skull, "KILL HER."

Marianne grabbed at her head, clutching at her hair as she screamed.

Sagus, hearing Marianne's shriek of terror, quickly bolted from his position at the edge of the camp. His periphereal vision caught a flash of movement, but his worry for Marianne made him throw caution to the wind as he slid on his knee to her side. He grabbed her as she was about to collapse to her back and held her.

He looked, scared and angry, at Sophie. "What happened to her? Why didn't you help her?!?" he bellowed.

Sophie stammered, taking a step back. She had never seen Sagus this angry before, it was almost as if he had lost his mind. She simply shook her head, speechless and dumbfounded. Rebecca came bounding by in an instant, concerned for Marianne and Sophie with Sagus' quick rise to fury.

Sagus looked at the frightened and concerned expressions on their faces and softened considerably. He bowed his head and said his sincere apologies as he picked Marianne up. He turned to them and said, "I'm going to put her in the tent. We'll split the watch three ways tonight, and if we're lucky, she'll be well enough to travel again by morning. Rebecca, you take second. I'll wake you when the time comes." With that, Sagus left his two abashed and frightened companions and laid Marianne to rest on the floor of his tent. Her face, although still bearing a mark of horror, was still quite angelic as she lay there, almost as if sleeping. He put a light blanket over her, left the tent, and got ready to keep his watch at the perimeter of the camp site. After roughly thirty minutes, he heard the commotion of the other two crawling into their tent. He sighed and looked out over the wilderness surrounding them, reflecting on their journey and all the hardships that had faced and conquered so far.