(Untitled)

[mdidiusfalco]

The provincial life was beginning to agree with me. Almost. No matter how much the heat tricked my mind into thinking the wine tolerable or the living conditions adequate, I remained a city boy. Not a day went by that I didn't bemoan my fate to Cicero, who, in a birdish sort of way, seemed to be getting annoyed by my complaints. After all, it

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[theboywhowaited]

"Wow," Rory said once he had wandered close enough to get a good look of the statue Falco was getting a good look of. He was struck first by how pretty she was, whoever she was. Then he noticed, on a slightly disconcerting note, how he could see that look on Amy's face.

Then he remembered that they were two men looking at a bronze statue in the middle of a beach. "Is that... yours?" he asked uncertainly. "Or did someone just... leave it?" Not the sort of thing that fell out of a person's pocket, but stranger things had happened.

Let me know if Late Tag is Too Late. I can delete.

[mdidiusfalco]

I shrugged, looking at the statue more than at the man next to me, but I was fairly certain I could be excused under the circumstances. "It's my wife. ...not that she is a statue, just that it's a portrait. It used to belong to her first husband."

Late Tag is never Too Late. Ever.

[theboywhowaited]

"Wow," Rory repeated, eyebrows climbing a bit. He remembered meeting Falco that first day, the thought that he's an old Roman never far from his mind, so the concept of having a statue of one's wife didn't strike Rory as being all that grandiose. Just slightly grandiose.

"She looks like quite a woman," he said, meaning that in every positive way.

[mdidiusfalco]

"She is," I replied with a grin on my face, still ridiculously proud of Helena, even if the closest I could come to her was the bronze. "You'll never meet a girl like her no matter how hard you tried. Smart as a Greek secretary, sharp as a knife, and she looks..." Well, he could see how she looked, or at least how she looked as a fresh young bride. Personally, I thought she had definitely improved with age. "One thing's for certain, she's far too good for a scoundrel like me."

[theboywhowaited]

"I think the same thing about my wife," he said with a faint grin. "Means she made the right choice and you're lucky. But, um, back to the part where it's a statue on the beach," Rory continued, a frown popping up on his brow. "Were you planning on leaving this here?"

[mdidiusfalco]

His question brought my statue-induced reverie to a grinding halt. "I... I actually hadn't thought of that. I suppose I'll be moving it off eventually." But where on earth was I going to put it?

[theboywhowaited]

"Before high tide, I'm guessing?" Falco still had hours at that rate, but the way he said it made Rory wonder if he meant hours or days. "How did it get here, anyway?"

[mdidiusfalco]

I shrugged. "I haven't even seen the thing in years. It was just there on the sand this afternoon, I don't know why or how." Actually, that bothered me a bit, since knowing whys and hows had been my bread and butter back home.

[theboywhowaited]

"Ah, it's a--" Actually Rory had no idea what to call it so he moved on, but still with a semi-bright expression of someone who knew something of what he was talking about. "The island does that, sometimes, I've heard. Like with people and those things- your parrot," he explained. "It brings stuff from home."

[mdidiusfalco]

The parrot wasn't from home, I wanted to point out, but didn't. The last thing I wanted to tempt the powers that governed the island into sending me any animals from home to torment me. The idea of Nux on the island was enough to make stronger men than me quiver. "Has this happened to you, then?"

[theboywhowaited]

"Not me personally, no. ..Not yet, I guess," he amended after a second with a frown. "Could happen, couldn't it? Nothing stopping it anyway. But, erm, no, I've just heard tell. One friend got his ship back. I'm pretty sure it's part of the welcome speech. A part which I probably forgot to give to you," he said, shrugging in mild apology.

[mdidiusfalco]

The mildly apologetic shrug was accepted and met with one of my own. Magic gift giving islands. What could you do? "Well, perhaps you'll get lucky and it will decide to give you something a bit more practical." I looked up at the bronze bulk of my darling. "And more portable."

[theboywhowaited]

"Doubtful," Rory answered, the corner of his mouth tugging downward. He did not have high hopes for the island. It seemed easier that way, a good way to stave off disappointment. And he didn't think the universe was all that cruel, but he also didn't think it was all that kind enough to give him something truly practical.

He shook off his thoughts and frowned at the statue, considering. "It's not impossible. Maybe if we got-- d'you think they've got a wheelbarrow? With a proper one maybe we could... tip her in?"