Wooh, 3 chapters is a little over a month! I'm on a roll, or something... comments and etcetera are apreciated as always.

Last time, Jan hopped on a train leaving Waveshore for parts unknown, and encountered a beautiful elven woman while passing through one of the passenger cars...

Jan 17 - Running With a New Crowd

Yoca eyed Jan apologetically while her chattier but just as attractive companion yammered on about her life before she had turned up on this strange new world. They were certainly quite a pair. Yoca was actually, as far as he could decipher from Alice's ramblings, some sort of elven warrior princess. Alice seemed to have had a dull life, working as a clerk in Sometown Somewhere, leading some sort of active fantasy life pretending to be an elven warrior princess until they had both wound up here, met, and started adventuring together. They were both hot, and it was going to be a relatively long train ride. Jan couldn't think of better company.

"...I mean, I guess I did consider *some* of the problems with real adventuring, like hygiene, and stuff, but it's one thing to think and quite another to experience. I'm rambling again, aren't I?"

"Yes, " Yoca nodded. She had an interesting accent, pity she was so quiet. "I doubt that Jan is very interested in your hygiene problems." The princess smirked, and reached to take another sip of her drink. Jan and Alice both paused momentarily to wonder whether that was some sort of veiled insult. Alice shrugged and took another bite of salad.

"So where are you two brazen warrioresses headed next, then?"

"Voices on the wind whisper of rising tensions in the city of Evergreen."

"I dunno. I wouldn't want to get involved in that if you're not family. It probably just marks you as expendable for whichever side you hook up with." Jan shrugged. He didn't know who was opposing Shen, but it probably wasn't going to be very pretty. It wasn't his family, though, and he didn't want to get involved. If these two did, well, it would be a waste, but it wasn't really his business.

"So, it's like a gang thing, then?"

"Sure, I guess. Evergreen used to be pretty tight until someone killed the old Don and blamed it on his son. That's a bunch of bullshit from what I know, but now it's all factions and infighting against the new guy."

Yoca pursed her lips, thinking. Whenever she made an interesting facial expression, the tattoos on the sides of her face contracted into tight spirals, accentuating it. Jan's mind began to wander, considering other interesting way to make her face contort, but realized she was speaking again.

"Hmm?" he interjected. Yoca raised an eyebrow, causing more interesting spiral distortions. Alice smirked. She was just cute period.

"I asked where you were headed."

" I dunno. Not Evergreen.... maybe Brightsand. It's an okay place if you know where to go. Last time I was there, they had a big ban on bringing in metal weapons. That might just have been for sale, though."

"Where is Brightsand?"

"East of here. I think we'd have to get off at the next station or so, and take a sandskiff through the dessert." It really had been awhile, but they usually announced the next stops and connections anytime he'd been on one of the trains before.

"In Evergreen," Yoca began, "we would at least have something to do. In Brightsand, what is there for people like us?"

"Like I said, it's not too bad if you know where to look. I'm pretty sure they've at lest got a mercenaries guild, if that's what you're looking for. They've got guilds for everything else, anyway."

"Guilds?" she queried. Alice shrugged to her friend.

"I don't know. We didn't have them either. Well, maybe historically."

"It's just organized tradesmen, " Jan explained. In some respects, this world was no so different from his own, but he knew that other offworlders had very different experiences. "Like millers, tailors, glassworkers, magicians. They pretty much run the city, especially the glassworkers, and just about everyone belongs to a guild."

"Kind of like a union, then?"

"Dunno, never herd of them."

"Same idea, sorta," Alice expanded. Yoca worked on the last scarps of her food, clearly not having much experience with the topic. "Only it's just workers uniting to make sure they get treated fairly by management, and set standardized wages and stuff. I've never really been in one."

"Could be. I guess the guilds pretty much standardize everything too, only they manage themselves. The only one I've had any experience with is the performers. It works out okay if you're a member."

Yoca looked from Alice to Jan, nodded thoughtfully, and 'hmm'ed. "Our plans are far from fixed, of course. My attempts to find a means of returning to my kingdom have all failed, and Alice is not interested in returning to her home. If, as you say, Evergreen would be an unwise choice of destination, perhaps we may travel with you to see what might be offered to us in Brightsand. If my limited understanding of the geography here is correct, Evergreen is the further east of the two cities. We could simply continue in that direction if things do not work out to our benefit in."

"Sounds good to me, Yoca. Maybe you can continue my training there, and I can pick up a weapon or something."

"What's this? Warrior princess training? Swords, is it?"

"Alice has some experience with sparring combat from her game, but much of it is impractical in a real setting. She is unused to the weight of the weapons and has no actual combat experience."

"And you were going to take her to Evergreen?"

"Hey, man, I'm a fast learner." Alice gave a cocky sneer and flipped her head so she could look down her nose at him. "And we're not stupid. If I wasn't good enough by the time we got there, I'd just find something else to do."

"That's clever... know any magic or anything?"

"Well... not yet. But if they have a guild in Brightsand, maybe I can train there." She smiled slyly.

"What about you, Yoca? Do you know any other tricks, or is it just that huge sword of yours?"

"No, I am not skilled in the magical arts. It was never my place to learn them, and so they have never interested me much at all. My sword is all I have ever needed." As she spoke, she reached down beside the table and touched the hilt of her weapon where it rested against an unused chair. She was one of the few people on the train Jan had seen openly armed, but she didn't seemed bothered by this at all. Maybe where she came from it was normal for royalty to carry arms when no one else did. She was very familiar with her sword, and seemed to know where it was almost instinctively. Jan wondered if it was enchanted in any way or if it was as plain as it looked. There were apparently sorcerors of some type where she came from, so it was possible. And she was royal. It if didn't look so unassuming, he wouldn't have wondered, simply taken it for granted.

"Does it have a name?"

"My sword?"

"Charlene," Alice snickered. Yoca shook her head.

"I still do not understand why you find that so amusing, Alice. It has no name. It is an extension of me. Would you give names to your hands or feet?"

"Yeah, I know. It's from a movie I saw, and with your prayers and stuff at night.." She shrugged and turned to Jan to explain. "A movie is kind of like a play, only the actors only do it once, it's recorded, and then people can watch it over and over again form that record. Kind of like magic, only it isn't."

"Sure, " Jan nodded, not really understanding, but not that interested either.

"Anyway, she does these prayers to some fighting God at night... 'my sword is my hand, with it I grab at victory' and such. You know, "This is my sword, there are many like it, but this one is mine...' It's only funny to me, I guess."

"Whatever makes you happy."

"I don't miss home much, but there's a few things I wish they had here. Little life conveniences and entertainment, mostly. Occasionally, food."

"No people?" Everyone Jan talked to from other worlds all missed different things. For him, it was family, the kumpania

"Eh, people are pretty much the same wherever you go. I was never that close to my family, and my boyfriend, well, I guess I don't really miss him at all."

"Easily replaced, eh?" She might have had different ideas about family, but Jan sensed an opening for something else.

"I don't know about replaced. I can't really see room for that kind of relationship in the lifestyle I'm living now." She grinned, waving her hand dismissively. Jan grinned back. There was a spark. Yoca set her fork down on her empty plate.

"I'm going to take care of our bill, Alice." She stood, paused to look them both over thoughtfully, and walked off towards the front of the dining car.

"Yoca's pretty cool, " Alice explained, "but she can be weird sometimes. I don't dwell on it much. I figure, we're both from alien worlds, so I'm probably pretty strange to her too."

Jan shrugged, wanting to draw the conversation back where it had been headed moments earlier. "Sure. So what were you saying about your lifestyle?"

"Well, you know, always moving around. Gotta take your opportunities when they're there, right? No sense waiting for someone I might never see again. And a girl's got certain...needs." She leaned forward to make her point, tipping her head coquettishly.

"Yeah, I know what you're saying. It's a pretty long ride, where we are headed."

"Oh, is it?"

A few minutes later, the two found their heavy flirting had lead them to the bathrooms on one of the other passenger cars.

"Here?" asked Alice.

"Why not?" Jan replied. Yoca was probably in their cabin, and he didn't have one. Locale was never a really important factor to him when it came to sex. Alice, however, seemed more hesitant now. He took her by the shoulders and kissed her hard. She kissed back, but timidly. He had been with her type before. Her body wanted him, but she this was the firts time she'd had an encounter like this. She needed to learn to listen to her body. Jan slid his hands down over her breasts, massaging them, pulling the sleeves of her loose blouse off her shoulders. Alice pulled her head back from his probing tongue.

"Wait, " she stammered.

"Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Yes, but..."

"Well then, shhh..." He kissed her again, pinching a nipple with one hand, the other moving down to the front of her tights. She flinched for a moment, but then squeezed him back.

After it was done, Alice wandered back to the cabin she shared with Yoca, still trying to straighten out her clothing. Her elven companion looked up as she entered the small room.

"Well, then. Was he satisfying?"

"What?" She was caught off guard by her friend's bluntness. She hadn't expected that sort of openness. It really wasn't the kind of question she would have expected from a princess. Many things Yoca did surprised her, but especially so in her current state of mind.

"Jan. Did he satisfy you?"

"Well, yes..."

"But you aren't certain what exactly happened? After you offered yourself? You lost control of him, Alice."

She sat down. Yoca could be very perceptive sometimes. She could come across as being very worldly, and was often right with her assessment of these kinds of situations. Alice once again found herself wondering what Yoca would have done. "I guess I did."

"Jan is handsome, but clearly very experienced. When you give yourself to a man like that, you give him power over you. When he comes back for more, will you be as eager?"

"I don't know what I should do."

"Don't hesitate in taking only what you want. Be more dominant, and he will be the one who is in your power. Men can be as easily controlled by lust as women."

"I don't know... Can I still get that back now? He really has done this more than me. He really knows where...everything is."

"Do not be afraid of him because of that. Remember that men are simpler creatures to please than women. Of course, " Yoca paused. "We do not have to go to Brightsand with him."

Alice looked out the window. A forest passed by, and mountains loomed in the distance. She wasn't sure what she wanted.

"Wait until your head is clear. Alice, and concern yourself about it then. We are not in such a hurry to get anywhere else."

"Alright Yoca. I'll think about it." She lay down on her bunk. Jan had proved himself, certainly, even in that tiny bathroom. Didi she really just want to walk away from something like that? Could she control it? Could she trust him, or herself? She decided to take her friend's advice, to sleep now and think about it later.

Author's Notes

Sometimes, I think I'd get in a lot more trouble for some of these chapters if I was a guy... In any case, I'm just glad to have any kind of direction to take Jan in now, as opposed to lasdt chapter, when I didn't. As always, anoyone interested in a co-write of any flab\vour, please drop me a line...

-Heather (Jan) -- Well I lived with a child of snow when I was a soldier, and I fought every man for her until the nights grew colder.

She used to wear her hair like you except when she was sleeping, and then she'd weave it on a loom of smoke and gold and breathing.

-Leonard Cohen, "Winter Lady"