Things are heating up. I'm crap at picking excerpts but try this one on for size:
Tomas winces at the memory of the festering bite on his hand--Casey Rance, it seems like a century ago. Reluctantly he allows Mouse to clean and dress the slash on his head. She doesn't have a scratch on her, and it's a little odd after his time with Marcus, who always seemed to be a mass of cuts and bruises. He never really thought about how physical Marcus is, until he came to work with Mouse, who fights like a mongoose, landing blows with cool precision and always dancing out of reach before the enemy can touch her.
Cool--that's the word. Marcus is a smoldering mass of coals, always ready to flare up, but Mouse is more like a north wind. Tomas wonders about her relationship with Marcus, but the cold blast he'd met with the only time he broached the subject discourages him from asking.
He falls back on habit. "I thought I could save him," he says in the confessional tones he's always used with Marcus. "I should have listened to you." This is where Marcus either goes into a lecture or wraps a comforting hand around the back of his neck. All right, once or twice smacked him in the back of the head, but that's not the point.
Mouse tapes off the bandage and says crisply, "Perhaps you'll think better of it next time," and begins neatly packing away the gear. Tomas approaches the truck and she says, without looking up, "I'll drive."
Day 9 (I think). 1900 words.
Tomas winces at the memory of the festering bite on his hand--Casey Rance, it seems like a century ago. Reluctantly he allows Mouse to clean and dress the slash on his head. She doesn't have a scratch on her, and it's a little odd after his time with Marcus, who always seemed to be a mass of cuts and bruises. He never really thought about how physical Marcus is, until he came to work with Mouse, who fights like a mongoose, landing blows with cool precision and always dancing out of reach before the enemy can touch her.
Cool--that's the word. Marcus is a smoldering mass of coals, always ready to flare up, but Mouse is more like a north wind. Tomas wonders about her relationship with Marcus, but the cold blast he'd met with the only time he broached the subject discourages him from asking.
He falls back on habit. "I thought I could save him," he says in the confessional tones he's always used with Marcus. "I should have listened to you." This is where Marcus either goes into a lecture or wraps a comforting hand around the back of his neck. All right, once or twice smacked him in the back of the head, but that's not the point.
Mouse tapes off the bandage and says crisply, "Perhaps you'll think better of it next time," and begins neatly packing away the gear. Tomas approaches the truck and she says, without looking up, "I'll drive."