Star Crossed Players

“Let’s start with a forest,” Darthanion said as he tilted his head to the side. “A forest with lots of... trees.” His companions nearly sighed in unison. “Come on, just picture it.” He tugged a pair of elfin twins to their feet. The two stood listlessly while he produced two lengths of green cloth. He threw a cloth over each woman. They stood still, looking like children dressed as green ghosts. He physically spread one’s arms out.
“Pretend with me,” he whined. He stepped away, eyeing his trees.
“Darthanion,” another man said.
“Just a minute.”
“Darthanion,” the man said again.
“What, Jaqes? I’m thinking.”
“The group decided something last night while you were out thinking,” Jaqes said. Darthanion turned from his forest, his enthusiasm dampened by the seriousness in Jaqes’s deep voice.
“What? What did you decide?”
Jaqes took a deep breath as he looked at the others. The two trees were slowly uncovering themselves. They stood together fidgeting with the green cloths. The fifth companion, a young dwarf, kept her gaze on the toes of her boots.
“We think that we should take a winter off, Darthanion. Give you time to write something really good for the spring, just in time for all the festivals.”
“You want to split up?” Darthanion asked incredulously.
“Not split up,” one elf said.
“Just stop seeing each other...all the time...every day...for a while,” her sister added slowly.
“And you all agreed on this?” he asked, looking around.
Everyone avoided meeting his gaze. Finally Lilith, the dwarf, piped up. “We’re all broke, Darthanion. And none of us want to live in the wagon all winter again.” She gestured towards the dilapidated wooden wagon they all called home during performances. The wagon’s paint had faded. Where originally the wagon had read proudly Star Crossed Players, it now read t r Cr sse Pla s.
Darthanion gaped at them in disbelief. “You’ve all gone soft! What happened to doing it for the sake of the play, for the sake of the art? For the sake of...”
Jaqes cut him off. “For the sake of all the gods, Darthanion!” he thundered. “We’re hungry! No one wants to spend this winter like we did last year. Cold, hungry and begging food at the temples because no one goes to outdoor theatre in the middle of a snowstorm. Or have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what it was like?” He stopped.
One of the twins, Ilthana, said quietly, “At the next town we’re going to get jobs.”
Dathanion gasped and stumbled back a step. “You’re serious about this!” The others fell silent and avoided his gaze again. The silence last until finally Sylph, the other elf, spoke up.
“This isn’t easy for us either, Darthanion,” she said quietly.
“Well,” Darthanion said slowly. “What else is there to say? You’ve all decided. I can’t force you to stay. You want somewhere warm to stay for the winter, somewhere secure. I can understand that.” He sniffed once before smoothing a lock of hair back with his fingers. “Well I guess we should get going then.”