Makings of a Monster

- "...and this spell called Lower Resistance works only on pink, three-legged bunnies so it really is nothing to worry about," stated Winski.
Silence. Sarevok just stared ahead.
- "All right, Sarevok. Are you going to tell me what's going on? You don't hear a word I say and look like you have just sat in an anthill and still are somehow glad about it," remarked the half-amused Winski. "The subject, however, was something you really should have been listening to."
Sarevok shook his head and focused himself.
- "Uh. Sorry. I guess I wasn't really concentrating," he answered sheepishly.
- "Uh-huh. I guess so too. So what is it?"
- "Well... we got a new warrior in the Throne and... she... she's from Kara-Tur..." the boy stammered.
- "Let me guess. She is pretty easy on the eyes," Winski said in a neutral voice, eyes level.
- "Oh no, much more than that! She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen! She is so small and moves like a thief but she's a warrior and she has these eyes..." explained Sarevok enthusiastically, his eyes alight.

Oh, poor boy, thought Winski.
- "And I talked to her and then I came out like a total idiot but anyway she said that she would spar with me tomorrow and now I'm worried about that."
- "It couldn't have gone all bad, could it, if she agreed. And a big, bad warrior like yourself... what do you have to worry about if you will spar with a little woman from Kara-Tur?" teased Winski.
Sarevok frowned disapprovingly.
- "Of COURSE it is not the sparring I'm worried about. I mean, what if she just said it because she would spar with anyone? Or if she really didn't like me but she just wanted to be polite? Or if she has som..." Sarevok stopped abruptly, realizing that he had gotten a bit ahead of himself.
- "It is not like you at all to be this insecure. Have you any idea what it could be about?" asked Winski, who could not help grinning.
- "It is like she, or someone, has cast a spell on me. Is that what love is?"
- "Love can be many things, Sarevok. It took years before I realised whom I love and how much. But then I was always the kind of person who tried not to feel, while you have always been a passionate one. Don't know what choice you have with that blood of yours, but still."

- "What do I do now?"
- "What do you do now? Well, what I would hope you to do now would be to pay really attention to the dangers of Lower resistance spell, as it is in special interest to you personally. But given that it is probably too much to hope, I suggest a bath in cool water, good nights sleep and then you go and spar with that girl, just like that. And after you are done, you both are thirsty, so you can suggest that you share a drink and talk a little."
The idea seemed to frighten Sarevok, but he nodded.
Oh, what a man he already is, but this kind of thing reduces all of us to an insecure boy, though Winski, as Sarevok restlessly took off.

Sarevok gazed the mirror a good deal longer than he usually did before he went out. His short-cropped hair looked suddenly somehow stupid. His shoulders were still wide, but he wasn't sure that the other one wasn't drooping a bit lower than the other. And the battle scar in his cheek, which he had thought looked pretty cool... what if it wasn't, after all? He did know women often looked after him twice as his sheer size alone was pretty imposing, but what if Kara-Turans didn't like big men? Or what if his cheekbones were too sharp and angular? Well, it was not like he could do anything about it now. Feeling a mix of dread and anticipation Sarevok left for the sparring session.

Tamoko contemplated Sarevok. She wasn't sure whether to think of him as a man or a boy. He certainly was large enough to be a man, and wore scars of battle, but as he approached her he had talked with boy-like inexperience and innocence Tamoko found very sweet. She had found long ago that her exotic looks attracted attention of men, but mostly she didn't like the way they approached her. But this Sarevok... he was different than anyone she had ever met. It was not his size Tamoko did find intriguing, nor the angular face full of character. No, those startling eyes with their amber-golden hue were what really caught her attention. This man-boy had soul and passion, more so than anyone Tamoko had met so far. She didn't know how she could be so sure of that. She just was. Perhaps it was possible to find a fellow of your own soul, your counterpart who you belong together with...

Tamoko shook the thought away. Surely she was reading too much into the short interaction between a large western man with strange eyes and innocence of a boy, and herself. She had never even had a lover. No-one had touched her soul that way, and trained as a samurai, she had long ago used to make do without instant gratification of her urges. She readied herself. She would meet this Sarevok again, and found that she was pleased.