The Traveling Bards (for Cleverfox)

[Renton]

Ryna felt the sparkle of genuine hope that had an honest to god chance of success. She felt more motivated about performing than she had in years. "I am, sweetheart," she said, answering Nicolas's question.

She had indeed given the troupe their week off as planned, because she felt it would do them a lot of good to spend some time getting to know the locals and improving their grasp on the native language. The week passed lightning quick, however, and before long Ryna was calling another meeting, this one all business.

"Actors, here are your parts," she said, handing out the scripts to the performers. She smiled with pride when she gave Nicolas his script. It was a thick script for a sizable part, but she trusted her son to handle it. Fergus and Rosa were already at work designing the sets and costumes, and a wagon returned from the lumbermill with some freshly cut timbers to build the stage. Their camp was buzzing, and it made Ryna feel joyful. "Get to reading your part, love," she said gently to Nicolas. "Tonight we will be having our first cast reading. You don't have to memorize your lines yet, but the first read through works better if everyone is familiar with the play," she said to Nicolas.

[CleverFox]

The way that his mother was smiling just served to make Nicolas feel really good, he loved to see her happy and she seemed more excited than he could remember seeing her. He was a little surprised that she wasn't having them get to work immediately now that they actually had a goal to work toward but he didn't argue that and he did enjoy the week off that she had given to all of them.

It seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye however and soon enough they were being called for another meeting where they discussed the play that they were going to perform. Looking to his mother Nicolas took the script that he was given, not really startled by the size of it but it was a bit daunting to know that his role was that large. He didn't say anything about it and instead just flipped through the script, his gaze skimming the pages before returning to his mother when she spoke again. "Alright," he said when she told him to start reading, nodding his head when told that he didn't have to memorize his lines yet since he hadn't expected that to be a requirement.

All the same he was pretty good at memorizing so he'd likely know at least the first scene before it was time for their first walk through.

[Renton]

Ryna trusted Nicolas to do his reading as she studied the scripts herself to plan her directions to the actors. This was a funny play, about a retiring court jester and his apprentice who has no desire to be a jester but is very good at it. Nicolas's role require less court jester antics than acrobatics and singing. Over the course of the play, the jester realizes that his apprentice is too talented to simply be a jester, and helps him find a job with the royal players. It was all very light and fun and it was the sort of play she felt her troupe needed after the stress they'd been through, and she felt it had a chance to be a real crowd pleaser.

As the afternoon passed she gathered the actors around on the stage to begin their reading. "All right everyone," she said, "let us begin our first rehearsal. Just a reading, mind you, but I hope you've all given the play at least a once over".

[CleverFox]

While he was less than studious when it came to his general studies, a fact that had landed him in hot water on more than one occasion, Nicolas always took it seriously when he was given a part in one of the plays. Because in that instance he wasn't just letting himself down if he failed to do it, he was letting the entire troupe down and that was something that he didn't want to do. So he spent a good portion of time reading through his script and he joined the others when his mother called for the first rehearsal, his gaze going to her as she said that it was just going to be a reading.

Which he knew because she had said that previously.

Nicolas was holding his script in his hands but he didn't need it for the first part because he had already started to memorize them. He would need a glance here and there for the first part but after that he wouldn't be able to recite them so he'd have to read.

[Renton]

Ryna gathered the actors around in a circle and they began to read through the play. It was a cold reading, with none of the song or dance routines that would be added later, but it was still fun to run through a play again. She was pleased to see Nicolas holding his own so far, and he seemed to have a decent amount of the play memorized. When the reading was over she smiled. "That was very good," she said. "We will be ready for dress rehearsals before you know it."

After the reading, Ryna spoke with the older actors for a while, giving Nicolas permission to run along. "Don't stay out too late, son," she said as she returned to discussing staging the play with some of the other actors.

[CleverFox]

Nicolas had a thirst to prove himself that was pretty common for children his age and he had worked to memorize some of the play already though he could by no means recite it all word for word. He switched back to just reading his lines when he reached the point that he didn't have memorized but he was still having a good time with the others.

Before long the rehearsals were over and Nicolas looked at his mother when she basically shooed him off, the boy nodding his head when told not to stay out too late. "I won't," he told her before walking away, wondering if Rosa was anywhere nearby. It seemed like forever since the two of them had spoken at any length and he found that he actually missed her company.

[Renton]

Rosa had been working with her grandfather on constructing props when Fergus gave her permission to finish up for the day. She saw Nicolas wandering around and she walked up to him. "Isn't this exciting?" she said, grinning. "I'm getting better at speaking the local language too," she said, rattling off a few sentences that she'd learned, like "where can I buy a horse" and "This stew needs some salt" (she'd been learning them just by listening in to random conversations in the marketplace).

"Oh, and congratulations on the role," she added. "I always thought you would be terrific in a lead part."

She looked down the road, toward the coastline. "Would you like to walk to the beach with me? I haven't really walked on a beach before," she said. They had pulled right into port, after all, and in that time Rosa had not yet explored the actual coastline.

[CleverFox]

Nicolas offered Rosa a smile when he caught sight of the girl and saw her walking over to him, that working out pretty well since she had been who he was searching for in the first place. He listened as she told him that she was getting better at speaking the language, nodding his head and smiling slightly as he said, "That is pretty good. I've been doing the same thing, seems like it'd be useful to know."

When she went on to congratulate him on the part he blushed a little bit and said, "Well I'm still uncertain about that one but I guess we'll see how it turns out in the end. Keep your fingers crossed."

Rosa went on to ask about walking to the beach and he thought that sounded like fun so he nodded his head and said, "Yea sure, we can do that if you want to." He gestured in that direction as he said that before he started walking, figuring that she'd fall into step beside him or something.

[Renton]

Rosa smiled and began to walk to the beach. It didn't seem all that far, but it was a bit more of a hike that she expected. Suddenly it appeared before them, all golden sand and shimmering blue water. "Oh my god," she said, gasping. "I've never seen the water... like this before."

It certainly looked much prettier than it ever did on the ship. She walked towards the water and took her shoes off so she could dip her feet. "It would be wonderful to swim in," she said, feeling how warm the water was against her toes.

[CleverFox]

Nicolas couldn't help but chuckle at Rosa when she said that she had never seen the water like that, the awed look on her face making him glad that he'd agreed to come along with her. "I would have thought you'd gotten your fill of water," he teased her lightly, walking over to the water with her and watching as she dipped her feet in and made the comment about swimming.

"We could always do that," he said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.