Luka rolled his eyes at the next question. Still, it wasn’t a personal one, so he supposed he didn’t mind answering that. “Of course she’s a she. Has to be something doesn’t she?” He was probably coming off as a big jerk for not answering her, and in truth it was all just to protect himself. The less she knew the less she would be able to tell others. As it stood she didn’t know who he was, what he’d done, where they were going or where he planned on going after that. She wouldn’t be able to tell them a thing.

The less she knew the easier it may be for her to forget about all this too. He knew the less he knew about her the easier it would be to forget her. It made moving on easier when he had less to remember and didn’t care enough to worry. He’d rolled over once more to lie on his back, staring up at the sky, once again letting things go quiet between them, though he was still aware of her nearby, could hear her breathing and her scent still lingered in his nose. He felt himself on the verge of sleep when she spoke again, bringing him abruptly back to reality, his eyes snapping open.

He hadn't realised how tired he was, the drowsiness had caught him off guard. However it was what she said that surprised him more than anything else and the boy frowned deeply, thinking about the words as he contemplated an answer. He heard her get out her book and begin scribbling in it, Endi’s interest peeked by the action she began creeping slowly, stopping every now and then to watch the girl, as if she was trying to get closer undetected. The small creature circled around the girl until she was sitting behind her, looking at the pages of the book as she drew.

They were close now, only a hand’s width away and the creature kept looking from the girl to her actions curiously, obviously unsure of what she was doing when suddenly Luka spoke again. “I couldn’t let him… do what he was thinking of okay?” The boy suddenly said, as if annoyed he had let himself answer her. “It’s cruel. No one ever deserves to have their choices taken away… their freedom.” It seemed now he had begun he was unable to stop, his words laced with anger.

He rolled over again, looking at her with deep blue eyes. “I am not a bad guy okay? You may think I am because people are after me… but I’m not.” He looked down bitterly. “I’m not.” The boy repeated under his breath before suddenly getting to his feet, his anger seeming cause him to decide it was time to go as he pulled his shirt and boots back on and began walking without anymore words. Endi took off when the girl closed her book, running back to the boy’s side and practically running up his body until she came to rest on his shoulder, blinking back at her, clearly curious to see if she’d follow.

Luka had headed off into the forest, leaving the city they had been in to his back. They wouldn’t be travelling for long until they lost the light. He suddenly wanted to put as much distance between them and the horrid place as possible. In the forest he felt… safer somehow, the trees could easily conceal enemies, but they also concealed him, and he was certain he’d know someone was close to him before they knew he was close to them. If he could eventually manage to tune out the girl trumping behind him that was. Either way the outburst had apparently left the boy in a foul mood.

Though she had asked a different type of question this time, the man’s response made it obvious that he was not interested in answering questions at all. She was surprised by the snapping, but she didn’t complain to him. After all, what would be the point in arguing further? Maybe he was just exhausted from the travels, or whatever had preceded them. He seemed to fall asleep, which surprised Rhys a bit. She was not sure she was going to sleep at all around this strange man in a strange forest, but he seemed to do so with ease. Rhys noticed the creature coming around behind her, and debated putting the book away. She was so used to guarding the book that she reflexively pulled it closer to herself, before she scolded herself and continued to work. What would be the harm in Endi seeing it, really?

Rhys didn’t have too much time to debate just how much of her book the creature could see, because the man spoke up again. She hadn’t expected him to reply to her comment, and she was taken aback when he did, and responded so angrily. She was left sitting, confused, her mouth agape as he insisted that he wasn’t a bad person. She had never said he was—she had thought it a few times, but mostly when he was acting hostile towards herself or the guards. She watched him pull his boots and shirt on, and she wondered for a moment if he was just stepping away to clear his head. When he kept walking, she realized that he was possibly just leaving, and she closed her book, signaling apparently for Endi to go and catch up with him.

She took a few moments to compose herself. Unlike his clothes, hers were still wet, since she hadn’t felt comfortable taking them off by the water with him. He was a fair distance ahead of her, and she didn’t rush to catch up. Perhaps a little space was what he needed right now. She walked behind him, gradually picking up her speed to close the distance between them, but giving him a few yards still. They walked until after it got dark, and Rhys found herself hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. Further, she could barely see the steps in front of her. After she tripped on the third root, she put her hand on the tree, stopping. “Sir…I am going to stop.” She said. It wasn’t a request for him to stop as well, just a statement that she couldn’t go any further. She had no idea how far they were from her home, or from water or food, and she didn’t have anything in her bag to help with that. While it wouldn’t be the first time she had gone to sleep hungry, she preferred not to sprain her ankle when tripping over these roots as well.

Looking around, Rhys saw a spot where the tree roots had grown out on a bit of a hill, leaving a small area beneath the roots that was concealed. She knew that the woods were not a safe place, and she wanted to provide herself as much cover as she could, so she began to move a few branches to go underneath of the roots. There was quite a bit more space under the tree, though she didn’t request for the man to join her. He would do what he needed, and she would do the same. She couldn’t force him to stay with her, and so she saved herself the frustration of being refused.

Luka’s pace was quick, only just short of a march for the first hour, fuelled mostly by painful memories now surfacing in his mind. However after that initial period he did slow down to a very casual pace, mostly because he was tired. He’d spent the entire day running from those guys, his muscles were exhausted, he was hungry, thirsty and his side was throbbing, even after the treatment. Still he marched on due to necessity over anything else. It began to get dark, but he was able to see well enough that he pushed on.

It was only after the girl spoke suddenly did he realise how dark it had gotten and how difficult it must be for her to see. So he stopped, somewhat grateful for the intrusion. In all honesty he’d mostly forgotten she’d been there. Looking around for the moment Luka walked over so he was only a few metres away from the girl and sat down in sight of where she had made her little shelter. He couldn’t just leave her alone in the forest. He had cemented, at least in his own mind, that he was going to escort her to the next town, where she’d be safer.

He figured he at least owed her that much. No one would know her there, she’d be able to blend in and by then the guards wouldn’t be able to remember well enough what she looked like to make an arrest. He hoped anyway. Still, that wouldn’t do much good if they starved on the way there so he resolved to see what he could do about it in the morning. His resolve hardened he was easily able to slip into an exhausted sleep with Endi curled up on his stomach.

His rest was not nearly as much as he would have liked though, Luka’s sleep disturbed too soon by the first light of morning. Eventually he sat up, giving into the morning and rose, yawning and moving off into the forest. Endi stayed behind, keeping an eye on their new sleeping travelling companion. No doubt when she awoke and found herself alone she’d assume she had been abandoned. Luka could only hope she didn’t go wondering off into the woods on her own. There were a lot of dangerous things out here, some of them not human.

Her dreams that night were turbulent, and they were mixed with strange visons. Some were just jumbles of images, like herself running, or a stranger injured. She usually didn’t even draw those because there wasn’t enough detail. One vision, however, was quite detailed that night. She was a patron at a tavern, getting a drink and some food. In the vision, Luka was with her, complaining that he wasn’t going to stay. He soon left, having better things to do, but Rhys didn’t complain. She took a seat in a corner. The dream grew hazy, and there was music being played, some strange melody, along with some gypsies dancing in the room. Most of the patrons in the bar were wet, and the floor was a bit slippery, causing one of the dancers to fall. That wasn’t the source of distress, though. The source of distress was the sound of a crack followed by the building shuttering. It was lightening, and the dampness of the tavern couldn’t stop the spread of flames, which engulfed the door. People were burning to death, and Rhys woke screaming.

It took her a few moments to calm herself, longer because she was in a strange place now, and alone. Wrapping her arms around her legs, Rhys forced herself to take deep breaths. She had to stay calm, and draw the tavern so she wouldn’t forget it. She scooted out from under the tree, and looked up at the sky, seeing that I was overcast. Calm down, Rhys. You cannot prove that this is ever going to happen, let alone soon. She reminded herself. Rhys was actually relieved when she saw that Luka was gone. She didn’t see Endi immediately, because the creature had to move back a bit when Rhys screamed. See, Rhys… The man has already left. He is not going to follow you into a town. She reminded herself as she opened her bag.

It was then that her gaze fell on Endi, and she realized that the man might be coming back. “It was just a nightmare.” She told Endi quietly, her throat now hurting more than a little from screaming and her general state of being parched. Rhys quickly worked on the sketch of the inside of the tavern, trying to push her mind to the point before the lightning. She jotted a couple of notes on the paper: lightning, wet clothes and floor, and then began to draw some of the gypsies, trying to remember the decorations on their clothing and that of the tavern itself, so she could distinguish it at a later date.

She was incredibly protective of the drawing, and even as Endi neared, she pulled the drawing away a little, not wanting the creature to see the things that she drew. No matter how much she tried to focus on the tavern, the images of the people burning was stuck in her mind, and so she finally flipped the page and began to sketch the part that haunted her, hoping that putting it on paper would help take it out of her head.

Luka wasn’t too far off, having stayed at least within hearing distance to make sure he could come back if anything happened. That being said, his hearing range was rather extensive. When he heard the scream it was far off, even for him. Still he turned instantly, sprinting back towards the source of the sound. His feet flew across the ground, easily finding sure footing even across the hazardous forest floor, the speed making the pace he had been pulling the girl along yesterday seem slow by comparison. Even so, it took him nearly fifteen minutes to return to her; in retrospect a time that would have left her easily dead by the time he’d gotten there.

He hadn't realised how far he had truly wondered off. So when he finally laid eyes on her and she was just sitting in the grass drawing he seemed extremely confused. Endi turned to look at him and mewled softly. “A nightmare?! Are you kidding me! I thought you were being attacked by a bear the way you screamed.” He said, his tone a mixture of annoyance but relief none the less. Walking over to her Luka dropped something big and red in front of the girl.

An apple. He had a few more in his arms, but had been unable to bring anymore due to the rush he had taken to get back. “I know it’s not much, but there’s a bunch of wild foods we can gather as we walk today… I wasn’t really thinking too much about it yesterday, sorry.” He made no move to eat any of them himself, however, since he’d snacked as he’d explored. “There’s also a river about an hour that way.” He pointed off in a seemingly random direction. “I was just beginning to hear it and trace scents of water when you screamed and I had to come back.”

He placed the other three apples on the ground in front of her and turned away suddenly. “Eat up and we can get moving once you’re ready.” No point eating on the move like he had been, it wasn’t good for digestion. Endi looked at the girl for a few moments, sniffing at the apples before she turned suddenly and dashed off into the forest, disappearing into the thick underbrush, causing Luka to smile slightly and shake his head. She’d be back. However this, once again left him alone with the girl and an awkward silence once again set in.

Really he had no clue what to even talk to her about. He didn’t think he had a right to ask her about anything personal; it didn’t seem fair since he wasn’t willing to answer anything like that for her. So then what did that leave them to talk about? Things were certainly less complicated when he was just alone.

The stranger’s return startled Rhys, but his exchange with Endi surprised her more. She didn’t respond to him for a few moments, still trying to grasp the fact that he knew the exact excuse she had given the creature. He had made noises towards it before, and while that had just been ticks in the crazy column in her head, she was beginning to think that he could actually communicate with…whatever Endi was. Stop being ridiculous. Rhys told herself, and proceeded to try to convince herself that he had been hiding out nearby, and listened to her tell the creature those things. But that was nonsense, and she knew it. Why would he have been hiding out, and then waited so long to return? As a matter of a fact, if he was so far away, how had he heard her at all?

More likely, he heard the scream, finished whatever task he was doing, and then wanted her to be apologetic and so rushed back just a few moments before. Rhys felt a little better, having a more ‘reasonable’ mindset regarding the stranger’s response. Though that still left a strange silence between them. She didn’t apologize for screaming, and instead she looked back down at the paper, finishing a few lines before closing the book gently. What could she tell him that wasn’t an apology? She sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him the truth--that she had visions of events that might just come to pass. Out of spite could tell him a half-truth; she had nightmares every night. But what would he care? He barely spoke to her, and never answered her questions.

The stranger approached and dropped a red apple on the ground. She looked at it for a few moments before picking it up and rubbing it on her dress, which wasn’t clean by any means, but made her feel better. She was about to thank him for the apple when he apologized, catching her off-guard once more. He reminded her of someone who wanted so desperately to be disliked, but still couldn’t help doing nice things. There was a guard in her town like that, for a short while. He got himself killed, doing nice things. Rhys took a bite, and thanked him before taking another. He mentioned that there was water, and her gaze flickered in the direction that he pointed before going back to him. He put a few more apples down, telling her to eat, and then they would leave. She finished the first apple, spitting out only the stem and some seeds, and put the other three in her bag. She never ate a lot in a sitting, and changing that now would give her a stomach ache.

With their short exchange finished, the pair lapsed into silence once more. Rhys cleaned up and prepared to follow him once more. Just as he had suggested, there was water about an hour’s walk away. How had he gotten that far before? She wondered briefly, and then dropped the matter. She wasn’t going to get answers from him, and not asking fared better for her in the long run. Rhys filled up her water, drank most of it, and then filled the skin again, wanting to have water to bring with them. She ate another of the apples there, offering one to the stranger as well, before they moved on. In truth, she didn’t entirely mind the silence. Her house had always been loud. Her sisters were always yelling and fighting, and her father, when he came home, was always drinking and angry. Rhys took after her mother, who was far too soft-spoken to advocate for herself. They got along well, for the most part, but Rhys still couldn’t talk to the woman about her nightmares.

The walk was quiet, giving Luka a lot of time to think. Endi was absent for a lot of it too, he guessed that she was off hunting somewhere, since he’d never really been able to entice the creature to eat fruit or vegetables he could only assume it meant she was a purely meat eater, which often made things hard for him, having not been able to stomach animals since he could remember. It was taking a lot longer than it had when he’d been foraging on his own. But this was also to be expected.

As they walked he’d often wonder off every now and then, gathering small food items to snack on as they walked. Soon enough the sounds and smells of rushing water reached his awareness. Within fifteen minutes of that they reached a sizable river running lazily along, blocking them from going any further. He sat by the water’s edge, watching as the girl, whom he still didn’t know the name of, went to drink and gather some water.

Once again he seemed in an odd state of readiness as he prepared to jump up and catch her if she looked like falling in too deep and getting swept away. However when she offered one of her apples to him he simply held up his hand and shook his head to decline. He was more than happy to snack on some of the stranger foods of the forest but he had no idea how her body would react to them, so he figured it’d just be safer if he knew she was eating something she was familiar with. Sitting back Luka eventually rose to his feet, looking over at the girl for a few moments and then back to the river.

“We need to cross this river at some point… it would take an excessive amount of time to walk all the way around and too risky to go to the road where there should be a bridge. But I don’t want to force you to cross if you don’t feel comfortable doing so…” He trailed off again, looking down. That was probably the longest he’d taken to actually say anything to her. It was hard, the desire not to let himself get attached was strong, but it also didn’t seem fair he was being so… rude. Sighing loudly he ran a hand through his hair and looked at her again.

“You probably think I’m a real jerk for not telling you anything… you’re right. But… I feel like I should at least tell you why. I’m a hunted man… and by you being with me it puts you in a great amount of danger. The less you know about me… the safer you’ll be in the end. The safer I’ll be… it’ll be easier for you to forget that way.” He turned away again and moved over to the water, looking down at the water, his reflection unclear in the moving water.

When the man actually spoke to her, using more than a simple sentence, Rhys was shocked. He said that they needed to cross the river, but he didn’t want to force her to cross when she wasn’t comfortable. Rhys looked at the water’s speed, and though it wasn’t like the lake they had fallen into outside of town, it didn’t look like too brisk of a current. She opened her mouth to respond when he sighed and spoke again, admitting that he was being a jerk.

At least now he told her why he was being a jerk. She began to secure her bag as she thought about her own response, knowing that she had to handle this carefully, since he was a temperamental individual. “I understand that you want to keep me out of whatever it is that makes the guard search for you...and I won't press for information. But if they decide that I am involved, and that I do know things, it won’t matter that it isn’t true.” It did not matter if she knew nothing about the stranger, because the guard would never believe that he had never told her a name, or indicated where he was going. If they found her, she was in trouble no matter how much she knew. In some ways, she agreed that it was better not to know, because then she couldn’t give them honest answers when they tortured her for information. But then again… she might see where he was going even if he didn’t tell her, one of these nights.

Changing the subject a bit, Rhys walked up to the river beside him. “Do you think there is a chance of not soaking my clothing through?” She asked, hoping that the superficial question would help break any of the tension from their very brief earlier conversation. The river was deeper than she thought, even near the shore, though, and she really didn’t have a chance. With a resigned sigh, Rhys decided it would be better to cross now. She took her leather satchel and handed it to the stranger. “If you could keep this out of the water as much as you can…There are things in there I would like to not get wet.” She admitted, knowing he had seen her book at some point—whether or not he had noticed it was another matter.

When he was ready as well, she lowered herself into the water, picking out a spot on the opposite shore and describing it. If she kept that spot in mind, then at least she could aim for it. Foolishly, though, the spot she picked was directly ahead of them, rather than acknowledging that she was going to end up moving with the current quite a bit as she tried to make her way across.

Luka looked down slightly at the girl’s words. He was aware that what she was saying was true and it didn’t fill him with a lot of confidence about leaving her. Still, in the end it may give him a little time to rest. He was still confident that in a new town, where no one knew her and with the days she’d be off the radar the guards would forget all about her. But how much of that was wishful thinking and how much of it was actually true he didn’t want to think about.

He looked to her as she questioned about not getting soaked. Having not spent a whole lot of time around people, sarcasm was often lost on him and he was left giving her a confused look as she handed him the bag. The boy nodded slowly as he made his way to the water’s edge, keeping an eye on the girl as he began wading into the water, holding the bag above his head as he began swimming to the other side, passing her fairly soon in the crossing but looking back every now and then to make sure she was still managing.

The river was cool, the water pushing against his skin as he swam with one arm held up, keeping the bag out of the water. As he reached the opposite side he slowly climbed up onto the bank, putting the bag down on the ground as he pulled off his boots, tipping the water out of them, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. Looking out along the tree line on the opposite side of the bank he saw no sign of Endi, which led him to guess they wouldn’t be seeing her till later that evening. He wasn’t concerned, sometimes she travelled with him, sometimes she didn’t.

She wasn’t a pet or anything like that. She was his friend. She was free to come and go as she pleased, but they had been together so long he figured they’d probably be together for a long time still. He kept his eyes on the girl as she swam, slowly getting carried downstream to his location. But he wasn’t concerned, she was getting close enough that he wasn’t concerned that she was at risk of getting swept away. He glanced at her bag beside him for a moment before looking away once more with disinterest as he waited for her to reach the other side.

The swim wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t the most difficult thing, either. The man passed her, and sat on the shore, once again clearing his boots of water as she was still getting carried down the current. When she finally reached the other side, she was a hundred yards downstream from him, and she was exhausted. She climbed to a dry area and simply lay there for a few minutes, concentrating on her breathing. Fortunately, it was still morning, so it wasn’t terribly cold out, but the sky was still overcast, so she wasn’t going to be able to just lay there for a while and dry off easily.

Her stomach began to rumble, and she knew that she needed to get up and actually wring her clothing out, as well as get her back so that she could eat something before they continued. Hopefully the man at least kept her bag out of the water, as he had promised. She took a few minutes to get up and meet him partway, beginning to get grumpy from the time that they were spending traveling. As usual, the man didn’t say much, and she was honestly beginning to miss the yelling and screaming that went on in her own home. She took the bag when it was offered, laying it over her shoulder, and took another drink of water. She would have to move a bit slower, because of the thick fabric of the dress, and the way it threatened to cling to her legs, but she didn’t really have a better option.

Hopefully there were no thieves about because she was certainly not being stealthy as her feet made wet squish sounds with every step that she took. The next few hours, once again, passed in silence. She ate an apple as they walked, growing hungry for more but not adventurous enough to just try something random that she saw growing. She dried, for the most part, but the sky never really did clear up. She made him stop again so that she could excuse herself and relieve herself in the woods another time, feeling like it was only her who had to do other things while they walked. This man was apparently content with walking until the season changed.

“How much further is it till we reach a proper town?” Rhys asked upon returning to him. She was getting really tired, and she wasn’t sure how many more days of walking she could manage. Her body was not built for this sort of thing, and she knew she would be absolutely horrid company by the morning.