Evernight

[Elle Joyner]

But as she said it, and as Thalion acknowledged it, Minette was relatively certain that it just wasn't true, but perhaps that wasn't entirely the worst possible thing. Remembering it, while the pain was difficult to adapt to, would help remind her just how important he was to her. That feeling of having lost him made it all the more meaningful to have him back. Pausing midstep as this realization struck her, she turned back to see him, cast in the rays of sun pressing through the canopy of trees and blinking, a smile twisted up the corner of her lips.

It didn't matter what she dreamed, or how terrible those images would, how long they stuck in her mind. Thalia could do her worst - she could strip Minette of her very soul. For the moment, at least, Minette had Thalion back and that was enough. It would sustain her... It would drive her forward.

She feared Thalia, and rightfully so, but she needn't be afraid that they could not defeat the woman. She was, at least in Green Reach, mortal, and what was mortal was finite... They would find a way to get home and they would find a way to take Thalia down. There was simply no other option.

But she would not forget what had come from nearly losing him... not ever.

Without a word, she traced her steps back to where Thalion stood and throwing her arms around his shoulders, she kissed him, fiercely.


​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

The sun felt good on his skin. It was warm and playful, casting ever-moving shadows across his face as the beams flickered between the lush canopy. Most days were gloomy and overcast, so the change in weather was a welcomed one. The air, too, felt fresh and fragrant, with smells of an abundance of distant flowers wafting over his senses. All his life, there had been protocols for everything: how to stay alive, how to kill an Abbaroth, what to eat and where to go… but there was no protocol for this. There was no known path on how to have a soul and grieve over something he had lost.

He had lost everything, or so he had once believed, and the realization that he had lost even more was a hard hit to his morale. Alive or not, the emptiness of the camp caused his heart to stutter for just a moment. Squinting against the brightness and overexposure of the landscape, Thalion's dark eyes trailed through the sparse trees that eventually grew denser as they travelled deeper into the woods. Gregian's trail was evident in disturbed leaves and broken branches that would have never been caused by any Antropoe or creature. Even his path made him look like an oaf.

"What's that look for?" his eyes snapped back to Minette as she turned to face him, a smile curling the corners of her lips. His eyebrows raised up his forehead, almost expecting a scolding. Instead, she merely closed the distance between them and pressed her lips to his, causing the hairs along the back of his neck to bristle. His arms coiled around her slender waist, hugging her tightly against his chest.

"Mm, well, thank you for that," he mused softly when the kiss had finally broken, though he remained tantalizingly close, "Come on, let's go kill some monsters and capture a Duke."
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

It felt good, being close to him again. He felt solid and real, and most importantly, alive. It was heartening, and the sadness and fear that had gripped her following the dream swam away in the wake of that kiss, her smile brightening at his words. She would have stayed there, in that village, in that moment forever... but they did, in fact, have a job to do. They could not allow Gregian to get to Thalia, or no amount of luck would keep them hidden this time.

Taking his hand, her fingers weaving through his, she nodded, "I trust you've found his trail, then? Thank you for waiting for me." She had never been vindictive... not intentionally, anyway, but there would be some edge of pride, some modicum of satisfaction in bringing the duke down. Her cheek still stung, and while the bruise would fade, the scar of his betrayal wasn't likely to. Preventing him from causing anymore damage was pivotal, but it wouldn't be completely unsatisfactory, on a personal level, either.

"I should feel sorry for him..." She mused, as they started up the path, following the tracks that even she, as inexperienced in hunting as she was, could pick up almost without trying. The man knew so little about surviving in a world like this, it would be a miracle if he were even alive by the time they got to him, "But I don't. I want to... a part of me, anyway. He should never have been brought here, and I do believe his intentions were right, at the time, but Thalion... if you had seen him last night. It... it was terrifying."
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

Before, Thalion would have blamed his lack of concern on not having a soul. However, with matters having recently changed, he couldn't even blame that anymore. Instead, he just didn't care. He didn't care about Gregian and he wasn't sure he ever had. Maybe he should have given the poor lad benefit of the doubt, but Thalion's instincts were sharp and rarely wrong… and Gregian had proven to be no exception. After so long in Evernight, Thalion had learned how to read animals and how to trust his gut feeling, and everything and everyone was an animal to some degree in Evernight—even man.

"Mhm," he answered in a hum, though it wasn't particularly hard. The man had crashed through the forest like a herd of Wiverunners—his feet destroying everything in its path. "Perhaps he didn't deserve to come here," Thalion agreed, "But if all he has is his intentions, the road to hell might as well be paved, I suppose." Thalion didn't have much room to talk. After all, when they had first met, it had been Thalion's intention to kill Minette. He hadn't, but he had wondered if it had weighed the same on his mind as it had on Gregian's. After all, on several occasions he had very seriously considered the option of offing her.

Exhaling a deep breath as they trudged through the familiar forest, Thalion fell eerily quiet so he could listen. There were no sounds of birds, they chirped high above his range of hearing, but there were bugs and crickets and frog-like creatures filling Thalion's silence with noise. He couldn't hear anything that would have alarmed him—no big creatures, at least none he could readily identify and that were moving.

"Surely he couldn't have gotten too far," Thalion mentioned after a while, glancing back to note the village had disappeared behind the forestry. "But I don't hear him."
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

Try as she did, Minette just had too difficult a time, really genuinely hating Gregian. It was the same inner restraint, she supposed, that had made her so defiant about hating Thalion as well, and so she couldn't actually feel sorry it was there, but all the same, the gnawing sense of dread that filled her stomach as they began their hunt for the duke was hardly a pleasant sensation, and it only grew stronger and more frustrating as they got further and further from the village.

They would have helped him. They would have found a way, however it was possible, to get him back home. She had been determined and she knew despite what he said, Thalion felt the same, that defeating Thalia was the way... the best way, and the best thing for all of them. But Gregian had been selfish and foolish and he had nearly ruined everything... gotten them all killed. In truth, he had gotten Thalion killed. He had been greedy and arrogant, and his recklessness had blinded him to reason and if they didn't find him first, it was going to be the end of him...

Might already have been.

Frowning softly, she reached for Thalion's hand, the comfort minimal, but welcome nonetheless as she shook her head, "It's been a few hours, but he doesn't exactly know which direction to head. Could be, though, he got lucky and found the path we took to get here. Though if he's made it to the Twisted Woods..."

The words hung heavy in the air and the frown deepened, her fingers tensing around his. Gregian would never make it through the Woods alive... "We should hurry."
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

Minette's hand slipped into his and he tightened his fingers around the backside of her palm, but like in every instance there had ever been any affection between them, their task in Evernight overshadowed it. Thalion's dark eyes, a stormy grey, were framed perfectly in a passionless expression as he crept forward. He acknowledged Minette's response with a small nod of his head, but didn't offer much in response right away. A beat of silence stretched between them. He paused suddenly, his gait shortening as he glanced down and narrowed his eyes to focus on something.

"Looks like he's already bleeding," Thalion mentioned off-handedly, noting the small dribble of blood, reddish brown drops nearly invisible to the human eye on the forest floor. Had the root of the plant the drop had splattered on not been so light, the droplet probably would have been lost. He nudged the tip of his boot against the small pool and the blood readily smeared. "He must be close."

Blood was a dangerous thing. It drew in every great predator within dozens of miles and Thalion readily slid his hand out of Minette's so he could reach back for his bow and an arrow. The drawstring hung slack, pinched up against the tail of his arrow that was angled downward, just out of his own weariness, but the only creature making any noise nearby was the Duke. It was the coughing Thalion heard first. The cough sounded loose and wet, like thick phlegmy mucus was sliding up and down his throat with each violent expulsion of air. Following the noise, Thalion pushed through the ever-thickening forest before he all but stumbled on the duke, who ended up crumpled on the ground, curled up, from exhaustion and illness.

A deep gash lunged across his cheek like he had ran into a branch with too much force and the slight purpling effect around the cut was immediately recognizable. "I guess we don't have to worry about drugging him," Thalion sighed and rested his bow against his hip, "The man walked into a Sneezing Bittersweet… it's a hallucinogenic and toxic plant." Squatting down in front of the Duke, Thalion studying the man's face as he looked up and wobbled back and forth in surprise. Though for a man who had just witnessed a walking dead man, the Duke's response was a little bland.

"I—uh… where… where… who are you?" Gregian reached out to pet Thalion's cheek, but Thalion quickly shook him away with an annoyed grunt, "Good dog."
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

The blood was disconcerting, to put it mildly. As much as she held a private disdain for the wretched duke, Minette still wasn't keen to see anything happen to him, and it was a surprising fear that gripped her when they had picked up that vibrant crimson trail. Fear and sadness. Maybe he had shown little of it in Evernight, but she had to believe there was goodness in the man - and to see him brought so low, to a disappointingly bitter, ugly place, to see him struggling to survive, struggling just to find direction... it was hard enough. But knowing he might've been gravely injured brought her little joy.

That, and knowing the further he went and the more blood he lost, the most chance there was that something worse than Gregian might be drawn to their location. Having been recently dead, she couldn't imagine Thalion had much fight in him, and while she understood a little better about the world they had stumbled into, she was hardly able to take on anything much bigger than an Oiler at that point. It was somewhat comforting then, after only a few minutes they seemed to caught up to the man, bumbling through the thickly grown forest.

As Thalion paused to inspect the duke, Minette reached into her bag and rifling around for a few seconds, came up with a thick, flat, almost furry leaf. Kneeling beside Thalion, she pressed the plant against the gash, pressing her palm against Gregian's forehead with a thoughtful frown, "Millroot... I think I've got some in my bag. Crush it up and put it into my water jug. It should keep the fever down..." Peeling up the leaf for a moment, she shook her head, "This might need to be stitched... it's awfully deep. I grabbed a sewing kit back in the village, but I'm not much for anything more than embroidery."
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

"Ah, the beautiful woman…" Gregian almost purred out in delight as his eyes shone across Minette. His smile was inherently aggressive in nature, but even if he wanted to do something, he was too incapacitated to do so. His pupils were wobbling as he tried to get his eyes in focus, blinking away droplets of blood that gathered in the beams of his eyelashes. He looked like he probably had fallen and struck his head on a rock, Thalion decided.

Squatting down closer, Thalion drooped his hands over his knees and narrows his eyes, inspecting the long jagged wound that ribboned across his forehead. There wasn't a clear cut anywhere, instead looking more like flesh had just been hemorrhaged and ripped apart. "Millroots good, yea," he agreed, sitting back on his heels a little ways as Gregian swayed back and forth. Even though he was sitting upright, his body drooped a little, like his muscles were not entirely responding to the demand he was trying to put on them. The stream of blood had begun to saturate the front of his jacket and, surely, the smell was bound to attract predators if they didn't get him up and moving quickly. There was a stream nearby Thalion knew about, but Minette was right, they couldn't just leave him with an open wound.

"I know a little bit," he admitted hesitantly. His knowledge was crude at best and came from survival needs, not training. More often than not, he had cauterized his old wounds instead of stitching them, but he wasn't sure they'd be able to get Gregian to sit still long enough to safely press a hot iron against the wound to close it. That, and it was too close to his left eye for comfort… stitches seemed to be the only truly reasonable route.

"Ya wanna give it a go?" Thalion asked, arching back up to his full height. "Probably have a steadier hand than I do right now." Ever since his death… or near-death… or whatever it was experience, Thalion hadn't quite returned to normal. He felt the familiar prickle in his fingertips of magic, but it hurt. Not enough to cause him to grimace or not function, but just a dull, slow ache, like the sleep hadn't quite entirely given up its hold on him just yet. "We better make it quick, before it gets dark."
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

A small frown curved her lips downward, but slowly, Minette nodded and reaching into her bag again, produced both the Millroot and the sewing kit. The first, she handed to Thalion, "Work it into a paste, then add it to the water and see if you can't get him to drink it. I'll need to make a small fire, so I can sterilize the needle. It won't do at all if he's sewn up, but gets an infection..." Biting her lip, she set the kit aside and looked around, collecting a small pile of leaves and twigs.

"How long will he be like this?" As she worked at sparking the fire to life, she glanced up at Thalion, then down to the duke with another frown, "I'll work as quickly as I can, but there's no telling what sort of creature's he'll attract, bleeding the way he is. It'll be best if we move him." Glancing up again, she smiled faintly, "Sorry... I'm being terribly bossy. I... I'm afraid I had to adjust to it, quite quickly, being on my own. It sort of sticks..."

With a spark and a bit of air, the small fire roared to life and taking the needle, she waved it through the flames a few times, until the tip glowed a brilliant red. Satisfied that it was sterile enough, she found a thin thread and wove the end through the eye of the needle, "Can you hold him still? This... probably won't feel great."

She wanted to think there was some small satisfaction in it... bringing him pain, but once again, all Minette could feel was that twisting note of pity, as she dug the needle through the end of the wound and began to stitch it closed. She worked quickly, her hands indeed steady, but her heart pounded as she did her best to focus on the task and not the man under the needle. When she had finished, she sat back and eyed her handiwork.

"It'll probably leave a terrible scar... But he'll live."
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

Thalion took the Millroot from her and settled back down onto the leafy forest floor. Truthfully, he wasn't used to being bossed around. No one had everbossed him around before, and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it. He gave Minette a lingering glance, deciding there and then was not the time to start a conversation, not that Thalion was particularly keen on conversations anyways, so he took her directive and began to work on Millroot. It wasn't hard; he had done it dozens of times before for his own self. He made no comment, nor did he glance her way, when she apologized.

Millroot was a silly little plant. Once broken down, it fell apart into long, juice fibers that had a gel-like consistency. It tingled when left on the skin and could act as a mild numbing agent, though it certainly wouldn't be potent enough to ease Gregian's pain entirely. It did, however, help starve out infection, so before Minette even began to sticth, Thalion had smeared it across the young royal's sweaty forehead. "Dunno," he replied, "Dependin' on how hard he hit his head, could be a while." Time was a mercurial object in Evernight. Minutes and hours didn't mean much—only day and night had any real time-telling value.

At her request, Thalion managed to wrestle Gregian to the ground, pinning him down by digging his knees into the poor fellow's shoulders and pinching him against the dirt. He writhed and yelped, and tried to bite Thalion's hands a few times as Minette worked. The job got finished and once Thalion sat back, Gregian shot up and tried to scrape at his wound with the discomfort.

"A scar might do him some good," Thalion said pointedly, "Might remind him he's only a man and isn't as immortal as he thinks he is." He stood and dusted off the knees of his pants, letting Gregian twist and thrash and moan confusedly. "We shouldn't stay here though. Too dangerous with all that blood. Let's take him to the stream to get him cleaned up before it gets dark, after that, we can figure out where we're goin' next and what we're going to do."
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

Looking down at her hands, Minette frowned thoughtfully. They were still soft, smooth and dainty, but there was dirt beneath her nails, the edges of which were hopelessly chipped, and smattered across both palm and face was Gregian's blood, dark in spots, dried rusty in others. They weren't the hands of a princess. Not anymore and she wasn't entirely sure that she was disappointed in that revelation or not. She had changed... so much. And part of that was thanks to Thalion, who wouldn't allow her to behave the way she'd grown so accustomed to all her life... but part of that was her own doing, her own desire to change.

Looking up again, she nodded and with Thalion's help, managed to right Gregian, leading him to the stream. It took some doing - particularly because he had no sense of urgency in his current state of mind - but she managed with difficulty to clean his face, and when she had finished, she washed her own hands, as well. There were still a few good hours left in the day, the sun, poking through the thick canopy over head, was at full height against the pale blue sky, but how far they would get with Gregian was hard to tell in his condition.

Shifting her gaze to Thalion, she nodded, "Should be better, now. But maybe just in case we ought to get some Dragonknot and rub it on him... Won't be entirely pleasant for us, either, but it should cover up any lingering scent. Where do you suppose we should go?" There weren't a lot of choices that she felt terribly comfortable with... not with Thalia still believing him to be dead. The moment she found out otherwise, their lives would become considerably more complicated...

What little respite they had, it wasn't sure to last forever... probably not even for long, "Maybe out west? Seems we've gone everywhere else..."
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

"I'll keep an eye out for it," he replied when she mentioned Dragonknot. It wasn't as indigenous to where they were as it was in the more Southern forests, but there was bound to be a patch here or there as they went along. There best bet for the time being would be to just keeping moving though. Many predators were territorial based, so if they kept moving, they could come in and out of territories faster. Naturally, that didn't eliminate all the risk, but some. That, and moving felt like the right thing to do. He was getting anxious and stir-crazy, feeling like there was somewhere he needed to go, something he needed to do, though he wasn't entirely sure what yet.

"We can go West," he looked that general direction, squinting in to the wading sunlight. "Not much out that way. The coast is close," he explained. The coast was not like the languid stretches of water-front beaches he remembered in Green Reach. Instead, the shore was a dizzying line of cliffs that dropped into water and darkness hundreds of yards below. Thalion had never explored past the coast…. He didn't think there was anything past the coast. It was, to him, the edge of the map, the end of the world, one corner of the universe in which he had lived most of his life. He had been out that way a few times as there was good game to be hunted in that direction on the long, rolling, golden-tawny grasslands.

Dragging his hand down his face, Thalion looked back to Gregian who was floundering about like a drunk, still completely incoherent and oblivious to the world around him. In his hand, Thalion still kept the hallucinogenic bugs, just in case Gregian began to come to and make rash decisions. "We can get a few hours of hiking in before the sun goes down," he thought aloud, slinging the bow across his back and slipping the jar of bugs into his satchel alongside the few pieces of dried fruit and meats he had picked over at the Antropoes' camp.

"I'm not sure what we'll find going West, but the suggestion didn't make my gut completely churn so… that's good 'nough for me, I guess." Over the years, Thalion had learned to trust his gut and the fact alone that it didn't clench when she mentioned 'West' was a pretty good indicator that that was the way they needed to go.

"Think you're ready to go? N' think you could help me drag this slug?"
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

A brow quirked as Thalion spoke, though for the most part, Minette kept her eyes on Gregian. He was out of it, and his odd behavior wasn't entirely conducive to stealth, but short of knocking him unconscious, there was little to be done about it. Funny how she could feel both pity and fury all at the same time for one person.

But as Thalion continued, she turned her eyes to him, her expression brightening. She hadn't thought about it much since he'd first explained it to her, but something about his words struck her, and as she considered it, the idea seemed more and more sound.

"Thal… what if that's it. The answer. What if it's there… the way out. Maybe that's why it's always seemed like there was never anything beyond the shore. Wouldn't she make it feel that way? Hopeless…? So that you'd never bother to go there. So that you'd never find the tear?"

At this point, they had already gone every other possible direction… it couldn't very well hurt to try the last, and it seemed only too likely that if there was some sort of rip… a hole in the fabric of Thalia's spell, it would be where they had yet to go.
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

Thalion looked back at her and shrugged, "Maybe," he replied, his eyes lingering on Gregian, "This level of magic is way beyond my comprehension. I don't know what it takes to uphold or what the conditions are." That was something he had learned quickly though—all magic had conditions. His magic was still fledgling to him and he preferred to ignore it over try and learn about it, but the few times he had utilized it, he had learned quite quickly that magic had rules to follow. Rules that Thalion couldn't even begin to understand in any depth, so whether or not there was an extra tear in the fabric of Evernight, he didn't know. It wasn't impossible, but he didn't know if it was plausible.

"The fall'll killa y though, if you're wrong. It's a long drop." He said as he stepped towards Gregian, gripping the man by the shoulder and hauling him to his feet. Slipping his own shoulders below Gregian's arm, he let the man hang off of him. Their pace would be slowed considerably by the deadweight that was Gregian, but Minette had made it painfully clear she wouldn't leave him behind. Thalion would have, naturally, "So I guess it's a matter of.. hmph!" Thalion grunted as Gregian pulled his weight to the side, nearly toppling them over before Thalion could dig his heels in and keep the much heavier man upright.

"I guess it's a matter of what kinda risk you wanna take. You could jump n' find the other side or you could jump n'… just be gone, I guess."

Though the idea of being gone wasn't a terrible one. Death, as Thalion had experienced, was a truly relaxing and painless involvement. That wasn't to say he was ready to die for the second time, not yet, but there seemed to be so little ways left for them to fight back. In her fortress, Thalia was nigh untouchable.

"Let's just worry 'bout getting there first, alright? If we make it there, we can come up with a game plan." He offered her a small, sympathetic smile. It wasn't the friendliest smile because it was so weary. He was tired down to the marrow of his bones and heading West would take them a few days, at least… and that all depended on how willing Gregain was to be dragged along behind.
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

It was easy to forget, probably because it still felt so new and unfamiliar, that he actually possessed it... Magic. It was a power unexplored, but it seemed even with how little he had tapped into it, there was still instinctual knowledge. He had talked about the rules before, and while she couldn't hope to understand what he meant by it, she did understand that there was little use trying to get around them. Whatever was meant to be would be, and that included whether or not they found the veil in Thalia's magic.

His words rung in her mind, and she frowned thoughtfully as she considered them. It would be a decision, she knew, that would need to be made as they arrived at it. She couldn't decide then and there, before they had even reached their destination whether or not she would make that leap. It frightened her, the idea of death, but no more than the idea of being stuck in Evernight forever. And certainly not more than the idea of Thalia taking over the world she knew and loved back home. Something had to be done... a step taken, and if that meant risking their lives, well...

They did that every day as it was. If they did nothing, if they waited it out... kept things going the way they were then death was inevitable. Eventually, Thalia would find them, and whether it was another mysterious orb, or a creature, or the woman herself, something would arise and they would meet their end. But if they made the effort to get out... if they tried... there was hope. And hope could be a powerful breed of magic, in and of itself.

Nodding to Thalion, she moved close to help him heft Gregian to his feet, slipping to the duke's opposite side and giving him her shoulder to lean again. He was heavy... heavy and awkward. It would be a miserable journey, whether it ended in their doom or their escape...

"It doesn't matter..." She said, with a small grimace, as Gregian leaned uncomfortably into her hip, "Whatever we decide. It doesn't matter. I have you back, and even if it's for a little while... even if in the end we both don't make it out of here, just having this second chance, having you back, it means the world to me."

Frowning, she looked to Gregian, shaking her head, "We'll take months to get there going at this pace. Don't suppose you remember how you got us away from your mother back by the frozen river?"
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

What was reward without sacrifice?

They had done so much sacrificing and before Minette had come along, he was perfectly happy with that. He didn't mind sacrificing; he hadn't minded his way of life. Desperately, he had searched out Green Reach, but now he was still unconvinced he'd ever find a home there. Maybe home wasn't a place. Maybe he'd never really belong anywhere, truly, but he'd find his own home, in his own way, if he lived long enough to see. Letting a breath escape from his chest, expelling all the thoughts with it, Thalion began to trudge ahead. Gregian struggled to stumble along, mumbling incoherently. He tried to doze off, but Thalion would jar him back awake.

"Don't let him fall asleep. He may go into a coma." God, Thalion would have given anything to just dump the man and let him lay where he fell. What did it matter if he went to his mother? Eventually, she would pursue them and, inevitably, she would find them… whether it was now, or whether it was later. He probably wouldn't even survive long enough to find Thalia. There were predators prowling all around them and Gregian would make for a very easy, nutritious supper. But, Thalion kept lugging him along all the same. One foot in front of the next, over and over again. The weight seared into his shoulder, reminding him just how much his muscles still ached and how fatigued his body was. Who knew death was such a draining experience.

"It doesn't matter?" he echoed, his eyes following her for a moment. He could just barely make out the profile of her face moving from behind Gregian's wobbling head. "Hm, I don't remember Minette ever bein' so down. The Minette I remember was the one who yelled at me that she was gunna march right up to Thalia n' talk things out." He gave her a playful smirk and looked ahead to where they were going. The ground below them was rough, making the trek all the more difficult.

He shrugged a little, but regretted the decision when Gregian flopped to him and wobbled off balance before Thalion managed to catch him and right him again. "Well, I guess if this is gunna end in darkness, we'll both end together."

Their conversation shifted and Thalion could only shake his head solemnly. "I don't," he admitted almost hesitantly, "It's like I know more when I'm runnin' from something." Like the dragon, or his mother.
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

Chuckling softly, Minette shook her head, "You misunderstand, my love... I'm not down, at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. For a while there, perhaps, yes, I had lost sight of it, but you returning... all of this? The idea that we're moving towards a solution for once, instead of running from something we can't escape...? I feel renewed."

Looking forward, ahead of them, her eyes fixed on the path with careful precision, her feet moving over the roots as if she had put them in place, herself, she shrugged, then adjusted Gregian with a roll of her shoulder, "The fact is, Thalion, there's nothing that she can do, absolutely nothing that can change what matters most. I have found what I never thought I would. In you. And she can't take that from me. Not with all the magic in the world. You died, and still came back to me. No... I have no doubts in my mind, we are going to get out of this miserable place, together. And we are going to stop her."

A frown twitching to her lips, she looked to Gregian, shaking her head, "His coming here was not ideal, and his behavior was nothing what I expected. What he did to you, and the reason for it... it's appalling to think about, and I know I have every right and just cause to leave him behind for dragon's feed. But it just feels like another victory for her, in the end. Another life she's taken. I just wish there was somewhere we could take him... leave him, where he'd be safe. I don't think he deserves to die, but I don't think he deserves to go back to Doyle again, either. Evernight is a world of monsters, and that is what he's made of himself."

​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

"You're gettin' a little to sappy n' metaphorical for me over there."

Thalion was a simple man with simple language. He did what he needed to survive, but all the talk of being free and uninhibited made him weary. The idea of being invincible was an attractive one, there was no denying it, but Thalion wore a coat of too many scars to know he was. His lip curled gingerly into his teeth as he hauled Gregian up further, the man no more effective at helping himself be moved along that a non-sentient sack of potatoes. At some point, he must have lulled off to sleep because his feet weren't moving anymore. Instead, they were just being dragged on the ground behind him as he was slouched forward, one arm across either shoulder of Thalion and Minette.

They hadn't made much progress, but night was falling quickly. Even the shadows were being swallowed by the encroaching darkness. By nightfall, the familiar trees and rocks of the daytime took on a new and ominous form. It was as if by stealing their colours, the night also stole their friendly spirits and replaced them with malicious demons. The forest became noisier than it did during the day, with critters darting just out of the corner of one's eyes. Behind them, a pair of Oilers swung into hazy loops in their pursuit. Their glossy, damp wings whistled against the cold air.

"We should stop," Thalion mentioned, glancing up at the last sliver of sun that was just barely over the horizon as nothing more than a small puff of light. The waxing moon, though giving off some light, was barely enough to light up any forest path. "Perhaps after a night of rest, Gregian will have come a little more to from his injury." Thalion didn't really plan to leave him during the night unbound. After the damage he had already caused, he planned to ensure that the man was so tightly tied to a tree he wouldn't be able to get free… or get all that comfortable, for that matter.

"And eat. We should find something to eat to keep our strength up." With a new bow, hunting had suddenly become much easier again and the pair of Oilers hanging behind them would make for a fine supper.
[/bg][/bg]

 

[Elle Joyner]

"Hey..." Minette started, with a gentle, teasing smile, "You're the one who was worried I was becoming a pessimist. I'm just trying to reassure you I'm well and good, still myself." She wasn't though... not entirely. The hopefulness was still there, but it was tempered now, by reality. It wasn't so much that she didn't believe that Thalia could get to them, that she could kill them if she wanted to... it was that she refused to let the chance of that control the way she saw the world around her. She wouldn't be afraid, anymore... and it was freeing.

This particular situation, however, was less than idyllic and when Thalion suggested they stop and rest, she was all too willing to agree. Helping him to settle Gregian (perhaps a little less gently than intended) to the ground, she rubbed her shoulder with a small frown. She wasn't a big girl, and Gregian was heavy when he wasn't dead weight, but those last few minutes when they had been effectively dragging him had done nothing for her. Grimacing at the soreness, she looked up and nodded, "I'll get a fire started..."

She had seen them, too. The Oilers, and she was pretty sure she knew where his line of thinking was going, but it still wasn't something she cared to watch. Even with reality seeping into her thoughts more often than it had before, it broke her heart to think about the poor creatures... and after what had happened to Thalion, it all felt a little too close to home.

Instead, she set about collecting wood and kindling and before long, she had a small, but adequate fire going. Dropping beside it, she rubbed her shoulder again, rolling her neck with a sigh. It had been nearly constant motion for days now, the only rest she'd gotten those few hours in the village, which had been interrupted by that terrible nightmare. For all her optimism, she was tired... bone tired, and aching. She had pushed herself, pushed and pushed... and she was running out of drive.
​

 

[Nav]

[bg=#244443][bg=#D3D3D3]

If there was anything to know about Thalion, it was that he didn't care for waste. He had hunted Oilers a thousand times and always refused them a second arrow. A waste of an arrow, he had explained to Minette when she had watched him hunt the first pair shortly after her arrival. Truthfully, he still believed that. Arrows were valuable things and if an Oiler mate had to kill itself by its own means, he wasn't going to stop it, but he couldn't resist acknowledging all Minette had been through in the last two days. With that thought, and that thought alone, Thalion shot the first Oiler square in the chest and sent in screaming to the forest floor. Before the Oiler's mate had even a chance to react, Thalion had pulled out a second arrow and let it fly.

The two Oilers hit the ground only seconds apart, falling suddenly still and lifeless against the dirt, moss, and dead leaves. Both of the arrows had snapped against the animals' bones and from impact of the fall, so it was a waste of an extra arrow, in Thalion's eyes… but if it saved Minette another instance of grief, he couldn't be too upset by the loss. After all, he had thoroughly stocked his quiver before departing the Antropoes' village. An extra arrow here or there wouldn't be as dire as it had been in the past, though he hadn't any idea what the future would hold. Wasting an arrow seemed like a terrible idea, but just like Minette was running out of drive, Thalion was running out concern. Whatever came was going to come whether he had one arrow… or ten.

Grabbing the Oilers by the back legs, he dragged them over to where Minette was building the campfire and began to peel away flesh from bone in long, thin steaks. Even if Gregian came to and was able to eat, there was way too much food between the two Oilers for them to consume in one sitting.

"We should really cook some of this extra down so we can bring it with us," he thought aloud, "Since who knows what we'll be able to find along the way." That, and Thalion really didn't like letting two arrows go to waste if there wasn't at least some reward at the end, and multiple meals would soothe the feeling of annoyance some. With Gregian in his current state of incapacitation, Thalion wasn't sure how much they'd effectively be able to carry in their packs. It was just a shame there hadn't been any pack animals available for taking with the Antropoes.
[/bg][/bg]