"And can we sing with one voice?
If we all love the same God,
Can we agree to disagree?"
--The O.C. Supertones
-------------------
For most of the day, Erin hovered around, half-avoiding Apollo, waiting for an opportunity when he seemed ready to talk.
In the afternoon, she sat on the steps leading to the courtyard and watched Apollo darting around practicing fencing moves by himself.
"Hey, Apollo," she finally got up the nerve to call.
Apollo looked over his shoulder at her, with an utterly pitiful gaze.
Erin got up and trotted down into the courtyard. "Wanna see a sword trick that Bratis taught me?"
Apollo suddenly switched from his sulky, pathetic mood to his smirking, arrogant one.
"Sure, why not?" He said with a sniff.
Erin rolled her eyes at the hare's sudden re-aquisition of his oversized ego. "Let me borrow your sword for a second."
Taking the blade, she sat on her haunches and proceeded to do a series of elaborate paw twists, whirling the blade deftly through the air, as she passed it from paw to paw, so that it made a slight whistling sound.
"Oh please." Snorted Apollo.
"Shut up, I'm not finished." growled Erin. She stood up on her hind legs, whirling the sword the whole time. Suddenly, with a quickly movement she swung the blade down in an arc, and jumped over it, passing it to her other paw at the same time.
Apollo. Scowled. "You don't know anything, girl, I can do muchbetter than that.
Erin just looked at him, then she tossed the sword straight into the air, and leaped after it, tucking her head and paws in and doing a mid-air somersault, unfolding at just the right time to catch the falling weapon and land gracefully on her feet.
Apollo snatched the sword back. "Ha, that's child's play." He said condescendingly.
Erin stuck out her tongue. "You're just jealous."
"I am not jealous of you, girl, I'm ten times better of a warrior than you." Said Apollo, his voice taking on a whiny tone.
"I bet you've never fought a battle in your life."
"I'm sure I've fought a lot more than youhave, dear girl! I'm a knight!"
"You're probably right, but that doesn't make you better than me!"
"Wanna bet?"
"No."
"You're just full of it, Erin." Apollo seethed.
"Takes one to know one." The vixen retorted.
"If you know so much, then prove it!"
"You!"
"I don't have to!"
"You chicken."
"You're gonna be sorry, little girl! I could kick your butt in a second."
"Apollo,"
"What?"
"What the heck are we fighting about?"
Apollo paused, still fuming. "I'm not fighting. you'refighting." He said.
Erin sighed and shook her head. "You're impossible." She muttered.
"Fine. Why don't you just go away?" Said Apollo, turning his back. He didn't want Erin to see the angry tears welling up in his eyes.
"Because I'm on a mission. I'm supposed to tell you about what happened to Bratis."
"You already did."
"No, I mean about what killed him." Erin moved forward and stood beside him, staring across the courtyard to the east as she talked. "Apollo, it's something big. It's bigger than we can imagine, and it's evil. Pure evil."
Apollo said nothing.
"I've seen it, sort of." She continued. "I've felt it anyway. It drove me to the brink of insanity, Apollo! I came all the way here to tell you about it. If only for Bratis' sake.." She looked at the side of his head pleadingly. She couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye.
After a long pause Apollo sighed. "Maybe...maybe we should do something about it?"
Erin nodded. "That's why I came here. We need to rally everyone to protect the land from this... whatever it is. Or something."
"You wanna go tell somebody about it? We could tell Lupinithus..." Said Apollo slowly.
"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea." Said Erin. And she turned and walked back up the steps.
Still staring at his paws, Apollo followed her.