Snippet #2284569

Mar was stunned into silence at both Sumara's words and her tears. He tried to remember if he'd ever seen her cry, but drew blanks. Struggling to understand what she meant, and to wrap his mind around the fact that she might have had such a bad relationship with her parents that their possible kidnapping wouldn't phase her, he was finally snapped into action as she turned to walk further down the path.

"No," he said, catching up to her in a few long strides and putting a hand to her shoulder to turn her to face him. "This is serious. Even if we go from here, we now know that they're after you and your brother. Even if Jace won't think this is a big deal, it is... we need to get the authorities involved to keep you... and your family safe," he said, tacking on the bit about family a little awkwardly.

As he looked down into her face, another uncomfortable stirring of heated emotion stole over him, a strange mix of sympathy, shock, anger that this was all happening, and something else he couldn't define. He told himself to take his hand off her shoulder and let her step back, but found himself frozen in place.

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Brigson spent most of the ride in an uncomfortable state of confused agitation. He felt a combination of relief and ambivalence as the journey came to an end, and disembarked from the Fearow, stretching somewhat stiff muscles. He slipped the proper bills and change into the pouch around its neck and thought of adding a note about the one-Fearow-versus-two-Fearow mix-up, but left it alone in the end. The bird took off, its enormous wings kicking up dirt and dust, and Brigson narrowed his eyes against it before turning to Jace.

"If you're not fond of flying I can arrange for ground transportation from now on. Assuming we will need to do much more traveling once we arrive." He glanced down the pier where they'd been dropped and scanned the numbers for pier 42, where his contact, Sanders, would be found. He was about to head down there when a whoop from a nearby vessel caught his attention.

"Braedon! ... And Braedon's friend! What's up!?" The extremely sunburned face of Brigson's former partner brought a smile to his face for a moment as the other man whistled to the crew of the 30-foot boat and hopped over the edge, barely making it to the dock. Brigson would have rather enjoyed seeing him flop backwards into the water, and chuckled softly as he approached.

"So! Two for Sandstone Island, hm? What business ya got over that way?"

"Classified," Brigson said simply, though it was mainly just to get Sanders to stop nosing around. "You gonna take us down there or will we get a vessel of our own?"

"I'll take ya down there, and once you make port you can secure yourselves a craft should you need to get back here... or I dunno, go on a romantic moonlit cruise." He batted his eyelashes at the pair of them and Brigson frowned deeply at him, shaking his head in exasperation. Some people never changed.

"Let's be off then," he said gruffly, heading over to the craft which was being tied to the dock.

"Not that one," Sanders corrected, grinning at Jace in a sort of predatory way Brigson recognized at once. He groaned slightly, knowing Jace would be harassed frequently during their two-day journey by the over-friendly guy. "This baby." He gestured to a much larger vessel, a little fancy and extravagant for their needs. It was also the opposite of inconspicuous.

"I requested something subtle."

"These things are in the water all the time now! It would be more conspicuous to travel in a small craft. Besides, in a bigger craft like this there'll be more room to set up your defense bazooka and bunker complete with a panic room," he joked. Brigson narrowed his eyes at him.

Sanders turned his attention back to Jace as they walked, and Brigson could hear Sander's abandoned crew at the other boat cursing him out as they left. "So, what brings a no-doubt charming young man like yourself into the company of this grumpy has-been?" he asked, jerking a thumb at Brigson as Brigson rolled his eyes.