[i][color=green][font=Optima]Redistributing wealth with style![/color][/font][/i]
[Template=Archer]

What Archer said in response to Phantom's words was hazy, and things only became moreso from that point.  Apparently, despite Archer's concern for the young man's level of fatigue, it was too little too late.  They weren't anywhere close to the hotel they were staying at, yet Phantom was gone.  Alertness faded, he was out like a light.

The ranger was alerted to his charge's lack of consciousness by the shifting weight upon his shoulders.  As soon as the light of wakefulness left him for the night, Phantom slumped forward.  Archer was there to catch him, repositioning the magus so that he... well... for a split second, Archer was wracked with indecision over whether he should enact a bridal carry or sling his Master over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.  The choice depended on which position would elicit the most amusing reaction from Phantom, however, and alas, at the moment no reactions were happening.  Archer settled on the former so that Phantom wouldn't be sore when he woke up.  With that decided on and the unconscious man in his arms, Archer began to make his way back to their hotel.  He got a few strange looks as he went, and could only imagine how much like an impending date-rape the two of them appeared, but unlike before he couldn't be bothered to charm the passerby into not thinking oddly of the pair.  How he acted earlier in the day, that had mostly been for Phantom's benefit.  In truth, he cared very little for how the people of this era saw him.  As fun as it was to pretend otherwise, when all was said and done he was a Servant, here to fight and kill rather than to enjoy himself.

Still...

Partway through his return walk, Archer's eye was caught by something off in the distance and far above.  His mouth fell open with genuine surprise and what passed for breath for Servants caught in his throat.  Plans were changed, and the Servant decided not to retire for the night quite yet.  As for what it was he saw, an explanation will come in time.  For the moment, narration is going to shift to the perspective of the other half of this partnership.


-----


Phantom may have departed from the land of the waking, but that didn't mean his senses were shut off.  He left Archer to find him again, although in a different time and place.  Younger, more innocent, more human... but no less impish than the Archer he knew, this one was in the middle of a clash with a man easily twice his height astride a log bridge that spanned from one bank of a river to another.  To most it was a familiar scene from a familiar hero's story, where both he and his opponent armed themselves with quarterstaves made from the forest around them, both too prideful to accept that the other cross the bridge first.  Although Archer was knocked into the water first, the conflict ended with them both going for a swim and started a friendship that lasted a lifetime.

Then there was another companion of that hero, someone who Phantom would find looked uncomfortably similar to himself.  The hair on that youth's head was different, a fiery red befitting of his name rather than inky black, but the facial structure, general expression, and manner in which he conducted himself made him a dead ringer.  Perhaps more jarring than that was how the Archer in the vision interacted with him, often getting into arguments due to clashing personalities and the young man's secretive nature - quite different than how Archer was perpetually toying with Phantom.  Still, in the end, despite all their differences, they were close companions.  That much became clear through the things Phantom saw.

There were a number of other interactions included in the montage, such as with the broad, buxom, good-natured woman who was garbed in the robes of a religious order

[/Template][align=right][font=Geneva][color=lightgreen][color=green]➵➴➶➶➶[/color][[SIZE=1][color=black]Robyn Hode[/SIZE][/color]][color=green]➴➴➴➶➵[/color][/color][/font][/align]