fh_trips | Banyan Tree Resort, Saturday [Morning / Afternoon]

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fall break 2012: kruger park & seychelle

Banyan Tree Resort, Saturday [Morning / Afternoon]

Yesterday's clouds hadn't left the sky: in fact, visitors could expect the odd spot of rain today. Not that the temperature had dropped, rising one degree to 28 celsius - or 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

But don't let the rainclouds chase you off: there was still plenty to do, including an island-hopping cruise arranged especially for the school (Lovey Howell didn't do things by halves). Enjoy yourselves!

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Cade, who'd gotten ridiculously tan over the last week, decided that the island hopping sounded good. Maybe he'd bring back a tortoise for Sparkle or something since they hadn't managed to find him a pet lion...

Mercy had gotten pretty tan herself - not that her skin wasn't always on the dark side, thanks to her Native American heritage - and had wanted the chance to see woe of the amazing islands and wildlife here.

She smiled a little shyly when she saw Cade, who was looking amazingly good with that tan, and made her way over. "Hey, enjoying our vacation?"

"We have villas with individual pools," Cade said. "I didn't know people could be this rich."

"I know!" Mercy said with a smile. "I mean, no one back home has money like this. Well, or if they do, they sure don't show it. It's amazing here. And the sights and the animals... I've never seen anything like it!"

"Me either," Cade replied. "I haven't really done a lot of vacationing. Ever."

"Me neither," Mercy admitted. "I mean, my mom used to try and come up to Aspen Creek to see me once a year and we'd go to one of the nearby towns 'cause my, well the people there would give her a hard time so it was better to go somewhere else, but that's about it."

Cade looked a little sympathetic. "Mom was long gone by the time I was two," he offered. "Wonder if she'd come back if she knew I'd vacationed in a villa..."

Oh, that was hard. Her mom had always come to see her, even if she had started that whole new secret family. "Maybe," she said quietly. "But I think anyone who could just leave a two year old... "

She shook her head. "That's just not right. I'm sorry." At least her mom had sent her away so she'd be safe and raised by people who'd understand her.

Cade shrugged and kept his focus on the waves. "Doesn't bother me. I don't really remember her anyway."

"Who raised you?" Mercy asked a little hesitantly. "i had a couple of really great foster parents. Till I was 14, anyway."

"It was Dad and me until I was 14 too," Cade said. "Then he died."

Mercy's eyes went wide. "My foster parents died when I was 14," she said slowly. "I loved on my own after that till about a year and a half ago."

That was probably the smarter choice than what Cade had gone with.

"I turned pirate," he said, reaching up and touching the red tattoo on his bicep.

[lived, not loved, stupid autocorrect!]

"A pirate," Mercy said musingly, her hand raising toward the red tattoo unthinkingly until she caught herself. "I've never known anyone who was a pirate before. What was it like?"

Edited 2012-10-14 17:38 (UTC)

"Not as full of singing and saying 'arr' as people on this planet expect," Cade said a little dryly. "It was violent and cruel, but at least I got to travel?"

Or go into hiding. One of those.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "That must have been hard."

Yeah, Mercy was a sucker for this sort of thing.

"Wouldn't have been very successful pirates if we weren't," Cade replied. "But I paid my debt to the captain and now I'm here."

She smiled at him warmly. "I'm glad you're here, then. But what do you mean 'paid your debt'?"

"Pretty much had to pay him my worth in order to leave the ship," Cade said with a little shrug. "He'd paid for my food and oxygen and all the other karking things he could think of to charge me for. But I'm clear of him now."

Said with the naivete of being seventeen.

"Rough," Mercy said, wondering if the captain would find some excuse to try and come back for him. So sue her, maybe she'd read too many stories. Still, the guy would have a hard time taking Cade from Fandom without a fight.

"You must be glad to be here. I know it's a lot easier for me than it was at my mom's."

"It's weird," Cade said. "There are a lot of people wandering around the island that have been dead for centuries back home."

"Really?" she said, looking curious. "Like who?"

"Jaina Solo," Cade said. "Anakin Skywalker is waaaaaaaay past his karking due date too."

"Wow. I've had both of them as teachers. That has got to be really weird for you." She thought about that for a minute. "I guess there are people who might think that about my guardian if they ran into him now."

He was probably close to a thousand years old - which, drat, she wasn't supposed to tell anyone.

"I mean..." She probably looked rather guilty."

Cade slanted his eyes at her. "Something you aren't supposed to be blabbing?" he guessed.

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Re: Hopping Islands [13/10: Morning/Afternoon]

Re: Hopping Islands [13/10: Morning/Afternoon]