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@everyone

Okay, before I start a few things that you need to know: in order for my characters to have an arch nemesis I have to transport them to a different stage in the story, so there’s going to be (hopefully) some major changes. The biggest of these is that Quin has a peg-leg. He’s also dressed in more “foreign” clothes, but I don’t know what yet. He still looks the same, except that his thinness is a wiry-ness, born of a lot of physical work, and he carries himself taller.

Quin/Qatar

Quin got up and dusted himself off. His wooden leg made a grating sound on the floor and he winced. It could wake the dragon.

He couldn’t see the beast yet, but the word was on everyone’s tongue.

Qatar was becoming protective of Evie, who was being ogled by a newcomer. Quin smirked. Oh, brother mine!

He stretched his shoulders carefully, trying not to make anything hurt worse. then he started out of the shadows toward where most of the group was concentrated: Niarok, Yila, Aydin and Liorah, Ruan, Klein.

While he watched Aydin jerked Liorah off a pile of rubble. She tried to kick him, and it seemed to annoy her that she couldn’t.

He couldn’t read Klein behind the armor he wore.

Ruan was just standing there; like a statue, staring at something beyond where the great beast must be lying.

Niarok was gripping Yila’s wrist like his life depended on it. Or someone else’s. No sooner had he thought it than Yila’s hand jerked out and sent a knife whizzing through the air. In the corner where they all stared someone shouted in pain.

Quin looked that direction. For the first time, he saw the dragon. Huge. Covered in scales as heavy and close-knit as chain mail. Each of it’s sword-length claws was razor sharp as they lay, gleaming in the little light that seemed to glow from it’s pile of hoarded treasure. In the dim light he couldn’t tell which direction it was lying. Which end is it’s head and which it’s tail?

Then he knew: one of the great eyelids began to roll back, revealing an eye like a ball of fire. light must have come from it, because as it opened the room became brighter, as if the eyelid of the morning had opened. But what a dawn! Suspicion. Wild, un-tameable hatred and suspicion beamed from those burning eyes.

But Quin hardly noticed the beast. his eyes were focused beyond it, staring at the group of captives. The one Yila’s knife had hit was crouched in a ball, whether alive or dead he couldn’t tell. The other’s were staring desperately at the great beast which had wakened. Except one.

He’d know the face anywhere. The shaggy, muddy-blond hair; the proud face; the mouth that sagged at the corners either in scorn or hopelessness; the long, nose with the hump in it.

Fedor.

Those eyes, the color of rotten wood, looked back at him. They recognized him, too. Hobble-Horse. Quin could hear his nasal voice. Even with the heavy chain around his neck and wrists, his eyes sent chills down Quin’s spine.

Soft laughter startled him, and he looked around. Qatar had appeared beside him. “So! The positions are reversed.” His brother’s smile wasn’t altogether nice.”I wonder how he likes it?”

For a moment Quin fought. His back wasn’t healed yet; he could feel the itching and burning of the scars. Natalya. His eyes set, hard and angry. If he could have seen himself, he would have looked almost exactly like Qatar, standing side by side, staring at Fedor together.

The baby. Anika!

Quin clenched his fist. The words he’d told Anika echoed in his mind. “I know that one day, everything I do will be called to account. On that day, I want those who hated me most to have the least to say against me.”

“We have to try, Qatar.”

Qatar looked down at him, almost surprised. “Of course we do. What did you think I was going to do?”

Quin flushed. Even Qatar hadn’t doubted what to do. But his brother smiled. “I couldn’t let the dragon get him no matter how much I want to. I have something I have to settle with him first.” He laid his hand on Quin’s shoulder. Gently, so that Quin didn’t even wince, but his brother’s big fingers traced the scars, and his smile hardened into a grim line.

~~

I’ll leave it up to you whether your character wants to react to Quin’s altered appearance or not. 🙂