Rations? That was even better!<br/><br/>Avery had woken from the sounds of others getting up, and after a quick stretch and a yawn worthy of a house cat he pulled on his boots and belt, strapping on the one thing of value that he owned, his sword, and sliding his dirk into the side sheath on his thigh.  His brown hair fell over his eyes and he pushed it back, eagerly squinting at the light streaming through the window.<br/><br/>He had a job.  He had slept in a bed that night - life was looking up.<br/><br/>So as he stood with the others and accepted the food from Captain Lightning (Was she a captain?  He couldn't remember.) he felt like he had stumbled onto some kind of destiny or fate that would all make sense eventually. He scowled at Nabriel's flirtation with their leader.  After staring at the cocky elf for far too long the lad turned to move away from the crowd, nearly bumping into the monk. Truly it was more a compliment on the monk's reflexes than his own.<br/><br/>"Oh, excuse me. Sorry."  He looked up and was immediately captivated by what looked like tattoos on the man's face. How had he not noticed those before?<br/><br/>He turned and looked at the others in the group. Good God - they looked like they could be a dangerous bunch! And with their only true loyalty being to the gold, it was uncertain who was the most at risk there, the bandits or their fellow mercenaries.  As Avery tucked his rations in the side-sling pack he carried he wondered about that. Was he a mercenary now? He didn't like to think of himself that way. For some reason the term 'mercenary' and 'merciless' always went hand-in-hand in his mind, and he didn't want to think that he'd ever be the kind to cut down someone just because he was paid to do so.<br/><br/>His stomach growled but the took a sip of water to still the noise.  Food would wait. It was too precious to eat right away, especially since he ate so well last night.  No, one day he'd have three or more meals a day and think nothing of it, but he had gone too many days with nothing to eat and no prospect for the next meal to be careless with making these precious rations last.