Of Honor and Laughter

Characters: Kaedin and Azog

Setting: A Busy Street.

Lazy days are horrid, expecially for kaedin, who as of yet, hasent been able to find work, any longer not working and he might have to work for himself, which is dangerous to him, and someone else's money pouch. he is currently sitting on a berrel with a whetstone sharpening his weapons and tools, making sure every one is ready should he need them.

Azog rides up the street towards the Fernwood Pub, armored as if he were expecting trouble. Well, it -is- Alexandria. The armor grates pauldron against breastplate, curaiss against greave as the shaggy horse plods calmly up the street. Passing Kaedin, he offers a "Hello."

Kaedin looks up from his work to see the giant org once more and offers a wave with his sickle. "Hi, heard you comming down the street, might wanna put abit of oil on that armor." He says with a smile as he looks over his sickle, satisfyed at it's sharpness, he sheaths it and takes out one of his daggers. "So, any trouble? Excitment? Someone need to 'misplace' somthing?" he asks, eager to do SOMTHING productive.

Azog reins in and stops over by Kaedin so he's not blocking traffic so much, though he snorts about oiling the armor. "I do that every day. But there is an amount of noise it will make regardless, unless you have some kind of magic to prevent that. It makes hunting a challenge, but not too great a challenge." He shakes his head about trouble, though his reply is, "Not yet. Though it often happens when you least expect it."

"At the rate this week is going, a whole lotta nithin', I'd expect my pa to come stomping in from the vast ready to wed me off to some weaver's daughter." Kaedin says with a shudder. "Son of a tinker should be a tinker... phooey!" he says loudly as he looks down at his dagger. "I saw a guy once who had this contraption around his wrist and thease things would spring out... it was brilliant!"

Azog's eyes widen at having nothing to do in a week. "That's interesting," he contends. "Though I often find a week contains what you put in it. The city is a place of opportunity, but it opportunity is not the same as 'things to entertain you'. You must seize your own opportunities, then you will find things to do." He sighs wearily at the wrist dagger thing, and offers a creaky shrug. "There is much to do. But you have to do it, it will not come to you." Azog adds, "Well, sometimes it will. But not always."

Kaedin it's my line of work, I take contracts for people who need my skills, I COULD scout things, but i already had a ride about the country side, aside from the felwood, nothing really look interesting to me, and I'm not about to venture into the wood alone, I like excitment, not certain death with 'no chance of making it out alive.'" he says as he sheathes his dagger and takes out his pack of theives tools, those are crafted well, by a very skilled hand from the looks of them, and he begins to clean those as well. "Hands itch, feet itch, and I swear if i don't find somthing soon I'm going to start taking things apart."

Azog says, "You speak of your work, but it sounds like you want to be adventuring all the time, and are bored by ... I think the word in Tradespeak is 'downtime'. Exploring, eh, is fine, but there are things to do that are not adventuring or taking jobs, though I imagine practicing your ... skills," he pauses to try and find a better word, but can't, "practcing those sorts of skills isn't very exciting. Unless you're caught by the watch, I suppose." He goes on, "There is the Arena, where people practice at arms, and you can watch others there as well. And there are any number of people who would be grateful for the help of an adventurer."

Kaedin chuckles. "Well, I'm not a combatant in any sense of the word, though, you look like you would make a good distraction if i needed one while on a job, most people would be to worried about the giant orc with a sharp weapon to worry about the small halfling in the shadows." he says with a wide smile.

Azog frowns a moment, but then grunts dismissively. "I wear this armor," he taps himself on a heavy shoulderplate, "so I can stand toe to toe with anyone who cares to challenge me. But if needs must, then that is a tactic I have seen used." He grows thoughtful at that. "What I have seen, though, is that if you bite them too hard, they will turn on you however scary I am."

Kaedin blinks. "I don't like being bit, well, unless it's a pretty lass, then maybe." He says with a smirk. he finishes working on his tools and rolls them up and conceals them once more. "Besides, you arent the scariest orc i've ever seen, saw this one who had like, a hundred scars on his fac,e half an ear missing, one eye, and I don;t know if you would cal that a nose or just dangily meat...." he says with a shudder. "Wasn't to bright up top eather, but that probibly explains why his face was messed up."

Azog blinks in surprise, and says, "I don't know why you would find an orc who'd lost so many fights to be scary. You need to find the orc with no scars - the one who's never lost. That's the one you should fear." Though he adds, "Though around here, there are ... those who do not fight, or challenge, and some without scars may be those who have never fought, or even tried. If you see my blade out, you will see something to fear."

Kaedin giggles. "Innuendo..." he says before he hops off the barrel. "Okay, now I need to find trouble... or SOMTHING to do.. hmm." he says as he looks around the area. "Hmmm......"

Azog looks puzzled about innuendo, shrugging. "There is much I don't understand." He grunts about trouble, and says, "There are places enough to find trouble, I think. But you must decide for yourself what sort of trouble you want. Will you start a fight? Or do you mean some sort of burglary?"

Kaedin blinks. "Burglary? No, see, it's not burglary if I'm paid to do it... okay so maybe it is, but it's not wrong if you don't get caught." he says with a smile. "And I wouldent start a fight, i would just backstab the bugger who did."

Azog's expression turns into a frown at the reply about burglary not being wrong if you're not caught, and he asks seriously, "Do you honestly believe that, or is that glib wordplay intended to show your wit?" As far as starting fights, he says, "There is a place people go to spar and train. It is not real fighting, but it is close enough to serve as practice."

Kaedin chuckles. "Yes, burglary is wrong, you need to learn to laugh friend orc, I do it because I'm good at it, and i don;t get caught, mostly." he says as a rather large german shephar like dog comes around the corner with a brush in her hand and a saddle on her back.

Kaedin turns to the dog. "Gerdy, you want me to brush your fur?" he asks as he takes the brush from the dog and starts to groom her. "Well, I DO want to learn how to use two weapons at once, would be easyer since I learned how to use my agility instead of brute for in a weapon swing." he says with a nod to the Orc.

Azog ehs? "Why do I need to laugh?" The fact that he even asks this is probably indicative of his general temperament. He peers at the dog coming around the corner, and allows his frown to fade. He'll offer the dog his palm to sniff, if it's interested, nodding about agility and fighting with two weapons. "I have seen that technique. As long as your enemy's defense is weak, that is a good tactic. If your enemy has a strong defense, you will not be able to strike him no matter how fast you are. There is a time for fury, and a time to focus."

Kaedin smirks. "Yeah, usualy my focus is on the vital parts, though I use my crossbow for that. Hard for someone to focus when there is a crossbow bolt stuck in their throat."

Azog agrees about focusing, "That's true, to an extent. Zombies won't much care, though, and skeletons don't really have throats to pierce. But those are exceptions. In any event, if your skill is that great, though, you should have a good future here."

Kaedin nods and smiles. "Yeah, I was told that by a few people, but back to what i said earlyer, you DO need to laugh, if only to releive stress, it's good for the soul." he says simply as he finishes grooming his dog.

Azog allows, "There -are- ways to damage skeletons and zombies. I'm sure you will work out what those are. As far as laughing, you seem to misunderstand me. I am not under stress, nor do I feel it the way I have heard others speak. My soul is in fine shape, all the same."

Kaedin looks at the orc with a raised eyebrow. "Come on now, You mean to tell me you have no sense of humor? Nothing is funny? Like, someone falling asleep face first into poridge? Someone having a hand at wenching and getting ale poured on them... though a dwarf would find that heart breaking..." he says with a sigh.

Azog shrugs dismissively. "You are telling me you delight in the misfortune of others. When I was young, I would have assumed that you were evil at heart. But now I understand that a certain amount of misfortune, provided it happens to others and not to yourself, is considered humor. I appreciate misfortune for those who deserve it. But to ... find that it pleases you, or makes you happy. I find that suspect at best. If there is something that pleases me greatly, then perhaps I will laugh."

Kaedin looks at Azog and tilts his head. 'Oh, I would laugh at myself too if i did somthing like that, hell, I've done plenty of stupid things when I was younger, and all if it gave me a laugh." he says as he hops onto his dog. "But for now, I'll let you go on about your day, I'm going to go wander around rnadomly and see what happons, if anything."

Azog looks puzzled, then shrugs. "Each of us are different. Some more so than others. Have a good day." He mounts back up on his horse, and returns to whatever he was about.