Henri took the same deep breath his friend took to calm himself down. He didn't respond to Aurelius, because he knew he couldn't say anything appropriate yet, and if he offended him he'd never be able to find out the things he wanted to know. Better to play it carefully with the voice.

"Okay...whew. Alright. Can we walk and talk at the same time?" Obviously he was in a hurry to go to the lighthouse.

That was better, at least. Roland was tempted to repeat himself, however, and to get Henri to tell him the story fully where he stood or, at the very least, to come inside the house and do it, but he didn’t want to push his luck, either. He nodded, gestured for Henri to wait a moment, and then turned around to go back inside. After a few minutes, Roland emerged from the house with his sword sheathed at his side - he rarely went around town without it - and his coat slung over his shoulder.

“Alright, we can walk n‘ talk,” he said, “but don’t get all flustered again, y’hear?”

Nervously he waited, fiddling with the sleeves of his huge jacket. Roland was only gone for a moment, but he was so high strung and impatient it felt like forever. He wanted to go now.

"Only if you promise not to get mad when I tell you what happened."

Right after that he began walking briskly towards his house for some seriously speed walking and trying to remain calm talking. What Henri said would be a good indication that Roland should be ready for some crazy stuff to come out of his friend's mouth.

Roland could already tell he wasn't going to like this conversation at all, but, out of friendship, he'd reserve judgment until he heard whatever craziness this was all about. Why did life have to be so difficult?

“Nope,” he dismissed right off. “Not promising nothin’. So either you tell me or I go back home and finish my supper, and I’m thinking of doing that last bit right now, anyways. Start talkin‘.”

He may have been curious about what was going on, but he also knew Henri well and if this all turned out to be one of his fantasies, . . . Suffice it to say, Roland was not going to be happy. Still, Henri mentioned a guy who matched Denton’s looks, and he knew how much trouble that guy was. Maybe this time was different.

Regardless, despite preferring to walk normally, he kept up pace with Henri, and fell only a fair bit below him in stride.

Perfect, Roland was gonna be pissed with him, he could tell that he was in for some chastising, and at the same time he couldn't just not tell him since his friend was in serious trouble because of his actions. For him he'd deal with it and tell him anyway.

"Eugh fine, and don't worry about supper I'll make us somethin to eat." Fair was fair after all, he'd done the same for him countless times."Lissen, remember that voice I keep tellin you about? It told me to start shit with Denton, I think it was trying to show me something. You KNOW I don't pick fights, you have to believe me."

Continuing with his pace he carried on to the lighthouse.

Unfortunately, Henri’s cooking most definitely would not make up for interrupting Roland’s dinner. This was different than calling him away from lunch or breakfast, but little good it would have done to explain that, Roland figured.

“Oh,” Roland let out a sigh. Rather, could a sigh really be called a sigh when it was so exaggerated it took almost a full two seconds before it finished? Maybe he yawned . . . At any rate, this was different; he felt like laughing, in fact: “So a voice in your head is telling you to do things and you did them, and now you’ve upset Denton? Oh, and for some reason he wants to kill me and your light house too.“

Fool, Aurelius chided. So much time wasted on you, the voice fell into a low growl, and still you don’t think. You don’t consider. You call me a voice and now he doubts you. Aurelius, it introduced itself. Again. My name is Aurelius. Use it. Do not refer to me as a voice. Think, Aurelius repeated the word Roland had said earlier. Each word you say is important. Each word holds meaning.

An important lesson and one Aurelius had been trying to teach Henri for some time now. Denton was ready to kill him, that much was clear, and all of it was over ill-timed, spiteful words that were better left unspoken; likewise, Roland was ready to ignore everything Henri was saying over poorly chosen, childish words. Both situations had different consequences but they could have been avoided in the exact same way: Thinking, deciding on one’s words before saying them. Aurelius was a voice, yes, but he was much more than that, too, wasn’t he? Henri gave too much information and, at the same time, not enough; he needed only mention Aurelius by name and not by his state of existence.

"Aurelius, the voice's name is Aurelius." He hastened to correct himself for the angry soul residing within him. Of course Aurelius had a name, but for so long between Roland and himself it was only known as the voice until recently, and he'd fallen into the habit of calling Aurelius that. Between the constant insults from Aurelius and the sarcasm (justifiable sarcasm) from Roland he was finding it hard to keep his cool, hopefully they'd get to the lighthouse soon.

For every sigh and breath Roland took Henri had to take one os his own. Somehow in his vocabulary there was a way to arrange all the words he knew in a way that Aurelius and Roland wouldn't completely hate him for. They were there somewhere.

"Hrm...okay well. Ever since our first trip to the ruins, that night I was attacked by that monster?" Like this was making any more sense, but he had to be honest to his friend, otherwise he would be lying to him, and that just wasn't cool."I had been visited by this spirit. I'm not actually sure what he is but he says his name is Aurelius. He asked me to get into a fight with Denton. Aurelius is very big on having things being properly planned out and having meaning, so I don't think it would have been for nothing, I think he was trying to show me something. Okay? Stay with me. "

The towering structure of the lighthouse was coming closer, and Henri sighed dramatically. The thing was still standing, good, soon they'd be there.

"During the fight something happened, time seemed to slow down, it wasn't just me I swear. I think that's what Aurelius wanted to show me. Either way, if you can't believe that you can definitely believe that Denton said him an his friends were going to be after us."

There would be less reason for Aurelius to rebuke and insult Henri had he not been so very, very dense all the time. Alas, as it stood, there was nothing it could do to change things except try and make the best of a bad situation, and to educate Henri to the best of its capabilities. Who knew, maybe he'd change one day.

“O-okay, but, uh, why is Denton after me and yer lighthouse? He usually just bloodies a guy - not jump their friends and trash their livelihood. What did you do to him? How are you even here? He should have beat your ass if you talked that much shit to him . . . ”

There was no worry in Roland’s voice or demeanor. He didn’t even seem phased by Denton and his pals wanting to jump him, but he was quite obviously avoiding mentioning ‘Aurelius’ or whatever weird time wizard powers Henri was now claiming to have. He had told him before, a few times, that he would only believe him when he could offer proof, and right now, Henri could not offer any major proof.

A ways off behind Henri and Roland, a couple of men were following the same path, but neither appeared threatening enough to cause worry. But that may have just been because of the distance.

Roland would probably never believe him, but that was okay. In his mind, if all this crazy stuff kept happening something that would make him believe was bound to happen. The time just wasn't now. It wasn't just him right? Right?

"I honestly don't know. If time didn't suddenly slow down I'd probably be de-." The thought was interrupted by a strange, uneasy feeling, which wasn't him just being paranoid. There was a separate rhythm of footsteps, and his back felt heavy, like he was carrying the burden of a hundred watchful eyes. "Don't look back now, but it feels like we're being followed."

Again with the time slowing! That was not what Roland wanted to hear at all. A fight between Henri and Denton apparently occurred, but the former looked no worse for wear. That didn't make sense to Roland; at the very least, Henri should have had some showings of a fight, but he looked about as normal as ever.

“Yeah?” Roland looked around, shrugged, and turned back to where they were walking. “Maybe, or they could jus’ be headin’ the same way as us. Ignore ‘em,” Roland advised, “did you hit him?”

The men behind them could be some of Denton's buddies, but they were too far away to really tell, and short of stopping and waiting for them to catch up, there was nothing they could really do about it. They'd find out eventually.

"Maybe." His voice was uneasy, but Roland was right, they could just be going the same way they were, but his mind was so uneasy, so paranoid about what Denton said and expecting the worst that he was convinced they were being followed. For now he followed his friend's advice.

"Ya, once..." And he sounded not so proud of it, not that Roland was disappointed in his for doing it, but that he wasn't too happy about it himself. Heck he should be thrilled to even be alive but it just wasn't right and it didn't make sense yet.

Even hitting Denton once was an accomplishment for Henri - well, as far as Roland was concerned, at least; it was unlike the cowardly Henri that he knew, but the fact that Denton wasn’t decisively put down was kind of upsetting. They had been training under Colonel Dasari for a while now and some of their first lessons involved unarmed combat, and Roland knew that Henri’s mannerisms aside, he should have been able to prevent this situation. Granted, he probably shouldn’t have talked shit to Denton in the first place . . . At any rate, disregarding his disappointment, Roland was proud that Henri hit Denton - he didn’t speak it, but on the inside? He was totally making a note to buy Henri a beer in celebration.

Unfortunately, there was something of a problem when it came to reaching the lighthouse. Well, not so much a problem, as problems were, but a barrier of sorts; it was Denton, obviously, and he was none to happy looking, either; he had two friends with them and they were standing with their backs to the lighthouse and facing the path to town, facing Roland and Henri.

Denton may have been smiling, but he was most definitely not happy; he was, in fact, quite angry, and the blossoming bruise on the rise of his cheek did nothing to temper that anger, either. One of his friends had a jug slung over his shoulder and the other had a curved, oriental blade made of wood. Roland guessed he was the son of a sailor.

“Not bad,” Roland said after whistling in admiration of Henri’s work on Denton’s face. Had Henri gotten stronger in these last few months? He hadn’t noticed. “We gonna go n’ talk to him? He looks like he must’ve ran here as soon as he grabbed his friends.”

The smile on Denton's face may have been the satisfaction he got from seeing how surprised Henri was. How did Denton and his friend's get here so fast? And his friends! They were outnumbered and one of them...carried a jug. A jug probably full of oil.

They were probably going to kill them, and burn his lighthouse down. Or burn the lighthouse down and make them watch, or trap them in the lighthouse and burn it down. Worst of all, it was all his fault. He was not proud of the work on Denton's face, this was all a mistake. He could hear his mother chastising him now. "What Henri, if your friends told you to jump off a bridge would you do it? THINK for once!"

Finally he closed his gaping mouth. Before he started to panic and hyperventilate he took in a deep breath, and exhaled. Right, maybe Aurelius didn't want to show him the cool slow motion trick, rather that he should just think? Logical, linear thought wasn't exactly his strong point, but he'd give it a go.

"Well I guess we have to right? It's three against two otherwise."

Easier said that done of course, they both knew why they were there, you couldn't exactly start the conversation with small talk. A good start would be to initiate the conversation in the first place. He'd start by walking towards Denton slowly, flexing his poker face with his hands in his pockets, cold, aloof, seemingly unconcerned about the dilemma he was in. That way he might make Denton a little nervous right? Because he was shaking in his boots.

"Denton..." That was it, he'd let Denton fill in the blanks.

For a moment, Denton seemed taken aback by Henri's apparent lack of care to the situation; in fact, now that he thought about it, Henri hadn't really panicked all that much in the fight, either, and almost looked like he didn't even care - wait, he had actually thrown a good punch, too, hadn't he? What was he up to?

Oblivious to Henri’s inner fear, Denton was a bit worried now, himself, and he couldn’t quite place why; he thought he had put a bit of fear into the Bernard kid, but now, now he wasn’t so sure. Maybe, Denton considered silently, he was too mad in the fight before and didn’t notice it, and now he was up shit creek - or maybe this was the trick now and he was falling for it.

“I knew I’d run inta ya if we raced here,” Denton spat, “and lookie here, I was right.”

For whatever reason, this got a few chuckles from his pals. Denton’s friends were definitely not River’s End’s best and brightest.

“Thought you dinnit have any friends, h-heh?? That sure looks like Roland Dufort over yonder!”

Smiling pleasantly at the mention of his name, Roland greeted Denton with a wave. Unlike Henri, he was not just putting on a front; he was as calm as ever, inside and outside, and more than ready to brawl with Denton and his boys should it come down to that. The jug was a bit worrisome, he knew Denton liked to go overboard, but he was sure it wouldn’t come to that.

Fake it 'til you make it. The more he kept up the act the more comfortable he became with it. The not give a shit act was simple, exercising your poker face was an exercise in doing nothing at all. Inside he was real wound up about the jug, but he had to keep this up to make sure it didn't come to that.

"I live here." Denton wasn't right about anything, Henri would let him know that by pointing out the obvious, and hopefully the great big idiot would catch on. A short, concise simple pointing out the blatant facts would not only make him look like a fool, but put a damper on the "joke" they were all laughing at, if this works.

Then he's say nothing. Nope. Instead he would stand around, staring at Denton with a bored unimpressed expression, as if he was beneath him and was wasting his time. The more Denton ran off his mouth the better, since he was doing all the talking, he would be the center of attention, and everyone would look to him to call the shots and make his point. A bit of pressure would be good for him. The silence should hopefully emphasize how stupid he kept on sounding. Of course Roland was his friend, the whole town knew it. Even Denton's friends probably knew it. So what about Roland, huh?

It was a verbal Mexican standoff. He'd try to play silence as his trump card, and for once in his life, hold his tongue to save his ass.