[IC] Wanderers

[Carantathraiel]

Ysaryn smiled, nodding amiably at Kire's request. When Gavin asked about horses, her smile fell instantly with dread, before she made the connection between his assumption and the reality.
The trip was short. She held on to Kire's hand, while Ruli held Rab's and Gavin's to get them to the mountains. The youngest among them roiled uneasily after the fact, and Ysaryn watched him with a sort of glee while he collected himself. Even Rab looked off-colour, but he remained upright, even if he focused intently on the ground to remain that way.

Her eyes followed Ruli as the man slipped away, not into the caves but through the woods. Southward. Toward where they were intending on building their residence.
"You, go." Ysaryn said with another muted smile. "I miss my family. I will return in a few days." She promised. "Offer Envy my hello. And tell Zeck to eat fecal." A wicked grin, and she vanished once more, Rab's eyes searching for her for more than a few seconds before he followed Kire and Gavin into the caves.

Envy was waiting for them in the main chamber, along with several others of his makeshift household. Zeke was not among them to be told to eat 'fecal', but Aeron's young face watched in curisoity as the trio arrived. He muttered quietly, and Envy nodded as they stepped before him. "Ysaryn and Ruli?" He asked simply, cutting to the chase. When informed that one had returned to her people, and the other had wondered off somewhere nearby, Envy only nodded.
"You've brought me new faces." Envy said, catching their scents, hearing their steps, even if he couldn't actually see their faces.

Rab was entranced. He had seen the Kartaian dolls in the mines, had seen their viciousness bleed out of them even in their incapacitated state. This on, so much smaller, so much softer. His colouring, with the scars that covered a large amount of his skin, didn't look so different from Rab's own. His eyes, Envy's now the soft cloudy pink that Rab boasted in his sclera.
He opened his mouth and pointed, from Envy to his chest, in an inaudible question.

Envy blinked, tilting his head curiously, before he looked in Kire's general direction (he guessed, based on footsteps), and arched an eyebrow.

[Michellin]

Gods, it was good to see Envy and Aeron’s faces. It made Kire feel all the more that it was over, and that she had, in fact, survived the ordeal. At his question about Ysaryn and Ruli, she answered readily, minus Ysaryn’s greeting for Zeke. Kire felt Gavin’s death-grip on her wrist, however, and realized too late that there was one other thing besides Shadow-Walking they hadn’t explained to him. “Calm down, Gavin, he’s on our side,” she whispered. Gavin swallowed; nodding. If he could accept that Kire was a totally different entity from the doll version of her, he could accept that there was a good-hearted Kartaian. To Envy, Kire said, “The one to my left is Gavin. He’s the Gemini, just so you know, but he’s not what he seemed. He had been under their control, but he’s free now.” Gavin bowed his head at this, swallowing. Kire continued. “The one to my right,” she paused, looking at Rab, amused at his inquisitiveness, “is Rab. Similarly freed from Ikegai and Akuma. He’s half-Kartaian. He can’t speak. Rab, Gavin, this is Envy, and the boy is Aeron. They used to live in Ziad.”

“I—” Gavin swallowed again, then sunk into silence, not quite knowing what to say. He looked to Kire, waiting for instruction, realizing with frustration that despite being free now he didn’t know what to decide to do.
“May they stay here, for the meantime, while they figure out what they want to do with their hard-won freedom?” she asked in his stead, smirking at Gavin briefly.

[Carantathraiel]

Envy's eyes shifted without focused, the clouded orbs darting around Kire as he took in the words and considered their introductions. Gavin, he zeroed in on when he uttered the sound, but Rab's 'voice' was harder to pinpoint.
"Gavin the Gemini. And Rab, a half-Kartaian." He tilted his head slightly, as if still struggling to locate the half-elf. Rab shuffled, either in anxiety or because he realized this, and Envy zeroed in on him at the sound of his feet on the soil.

"You cannot speak. May I intrude into your personal history and ask why? If anyone knows, I mean."
Rab quickly turned to Kire and Gavin and opened his mouth, pointing to the stub of his severed tongue. Behind Envy, Aeron made a face.
"I see. Well," Envy smirked, shrugging, when the answer was relayed. "I do not see, actually, I believe you've realized. So I think the two of us would make quite the pair." He smiled, and Rab inhaled, chest swelling.
Then his face turned toward Gavin. He hoped. "And you, Gemini. Under the influence of dark magic, but escaped from it I presume in the nick of time to help our dear heroes in their time of need?" Envy grinned, showing his pointed teeth. "Sounds very convenient."

Envy let the tense silence fall for little more than half a second before he shrugged. "I don't believe so. If you were brought here, you're trusted enough. Plus there are several people here to whose bad side not even I would venture. One of them apparently punches trees to lumber in her spare time." He cast a (nearly) pointed glance in Kire's direction.

"You both may stay here, yes. Until such times as you decide to venture on, if you decide to do so. But I warn you, we are not strapped for supplies and comfort, though efforts have been made to rectify that. And you will both be put to work. Is that understood? Do say yes in some vocal fashion, as I cannot see you nod, young man." He grinned more kindly still towards Gavin as he stood sheepishly beside Kire. Rab smacked his lips together in affirmative.

[Michellin]

Kire couldn’t help but grin at how paternal Envy was to the newcomers, and even before Envy had explicitly said ‘yes’, she knew the answer. Though she did grimace at his ribbing about her tree-punching temper tantrum. Rab looked delighted. She looked to Gavin, who looked like he didn’t know how to be happy yet at a new opportunity. He raised his head to face Envy, already having felt more warmth within the few minutes of meeting the Kartaian than in the six months of captivity with Akuma, and the years before that with Briar. “I don’t mind work,” Gavin said, realizing more and more how new this all was to him: being welcomed, spoken to as an equal, being given a choice. “My hands get to do something good, for once.”

“You brought me back,” Kire said softly. “I’d say you’re off to a good start.” She looked at him, solemn, and Gavin met her look with a smile, his eyes welling up even as he tried to look composed in front of everyone. Kire looked away, giving him his privacy. “Alright. I am terribly happy to be back in—more or less one piece, but if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t eaten in a day, and I still have a lot recuperating to do. We’ll talk another time,” she added to Gavin. The young man watched her nod at Rab, then wave at Aeron, before heading off, presumably to find food.
Left behind in the main chamber, Gavin cleared his throat, rubbed the tears from his face. “So, uh. Where do I start?”

Just as she’d said, Kire settled in the kitchen and hunted down some leftovers. Making a note to perhaps ask either Gavin or Rab if they knew how to hunt, and to help replenish the pantry if so, she ate quietly, glad for the meal, glad to be smelling things other than the dank caverns of Cordon, or the blood-stink of taboo magic, or the rotting dolls. She had eaten too fast the first few bites, which hurt her throat, but she didn’t care. Somebody had made a simple soup, and this she slurped down with gusto. She wanted to bathe, but she was still exhausted, and now that she was full, quite sleepy again. Though it wasn’t even evening yet, the moment she found a spot to lay on inside the sleeping chamber, Kire went fast asleep.

She slept through the night, waking up in the early morning. She rose carefully, checked her torso. It was easier to rise now, and her ribs bothered her less. Wanting to savor the peace of the early morning, she quietly left the chamber, noting that Gavin lay curled in the far corner, and made her way through the kitchen, outside. The dawn looked so beautiful to her then. She remembered the burst of happiness she felt when they had escaped the mines and felt the sun on her face. Then, looking southward at the woods beyond, Kire remembered Ruli. He was the only one she hadn’t spoken to thus far since waking up. Though she recognized that wandering off to be by himself was, by now, par for the course for him, it didn’t stop her from being anxious about his wellbeing.

Before that, though, she needed to bathe. After what felt to her an agonizingly long time, she managed to get it off. She could devote most of the Ring’s energy to healing her body now, at least. She bathed carefully, shivering in the cold and slightly regretting the decision to do this with a sore torso to worry about, but feeling much better about it afterwards. She looked at her reflection as she dried her hair, cringing at what was left of the head injury. At least her hair had already been very short; getting some of it skinned off would have been more hideous if she had kept her long hair.

She took her time making her way south, following Ruli’s signature. Without any chores to do or a battle to look forward to, Kire could enjoy the walk and their surroundings better. By the time she found him she felt warm from the exertion and from the morning sun. He was already working, clearing out the forest. It looked like the others already had a headstart on the task, and he was slowly continuing it. To her credit, she didn't interrupt him just yet, observing from the edge. He looks alright, she noted, relieved.

[Carantathraiel]

Envy grinned again, less teasing, more grateful, glad to have more willing and capable hands. As Kire spoke, he nodded. "Sid's made a dish that is quite good. She dove into Ysaryn's herbs, though, but I won't be the one to tell her." Envy chuckled, turning back again to Gavin and Rab as best he could. As Gavin asked for a task, Envy shook his head. "Judging by the few furtive words Ysaryn passed along yesterday night, and by Kire's mention of lack of a recent meal, you have been busy enough. Take a day. Acclimate. Rest. Explore. Introduce yourself. Tomorrow, we will find tasks for you both. If you get restless, Aeron here will find something for you."

Aeron did not look up to the task, his midnight eyes hard on Gavin, but he nodded in silent agreement.

"You." Envy turned once more toward Rab, who straightened. "Your silence and my inability to see may create a problem. Perhaps you and I may sit together and sort out a means of communication. Once you've eaten and rested, of course."
Rab smacked his lips again, and Envy assumed that to be a positive response.
"All good, then. The two of you, settle, and we'll speak again tomorrow."

Ruli didn't return that night.
He walked until he found his way to the little glen, upon which they would build. Relocate. When he came across it, his body aching, his head worse, he stood and stared at it for a long moment before he stumbled further in. There was a small stream that ran its course through the hills, the lush green shrubs and flowers blooming along its sides. Ruli settled beneath a rather short pine tree and stared ahead, trying to imagine. To visualize what this could be with the right attention.

He was hungry. He hadn't eaten in Cordon, even when a platter of dinner, and breakfast, and lunch had been delivered. He wouldn't have kept it down anyway, he feared. Even now, the idea of eating anything sent his stomach biting and twisting angrily.
But he loathed the idea that the last thing on his tongue had been Akuma's blood. Or, at least the blood that had been inside her. He wasn't sure who it had belonged to. Or what. Just knew that it had been horrible. Coated his tongue as he clamped onto her. Until she threw him off with her magic. He had found pieces of her between his teeth before his interrogation.
After that, he had no desire to eat at all. Not even to erase the traces.

That, and his behavior.

Whatever Gavin had given him had unleashed him. Cut the hundreds of tethers he had forced into himself to keep who he had once been locked away, never to see the light again. He'd stopped being Rulitus, and had again been a number. A pet.
Not even Akuma burning and slaughtering her way through his home, laughing as his friends died, bled, and fled, had unleashed that. And when it came, it hadn't been his choosing. But Gavin's.
Not that he'd known. Ruli understood that. Ruli hadn't even considered that such an option would be presented. Ysaryn had mentioned drugs, and he assumed, technically correctly, she meant sedatives. Gavin had simply believed he was giving him an edge. Not tearing through his self control.

Ruli bowed his head and shut the world out.

Only to hear someone pacing before him. When he opened his eyes, the sky had grown dark, the mountains a void of black against the stars that peered down. It was cold, but he'd hardly noticed.
Envy stood some ten feet away, clutching a thick blanket, head shifting as he tried to locate Ruli, knowing by smell that he had to be close. The Kartaian inhaled again, and Ruli tilted his head back. "I smell so bad I should be far easier to locate."
Envy jumped, swearing softly, as he spun around. "Its rude to sneak up on blind elves."
"You snuck up first. I haven't moved."

Envy took a few slow, cautious steps forward, his bare feet searching for stones or branches that might nip at his toes. When he found Ruli's outstretched legs, he crouched. Even without being able to literally see him, Ruli had the feeling Envy read his mood with a clarity that only came with a long friendship.
He'd stayed for nearly two hours, offering Ruli the blanket once the cold settled into him and he'd begun shivering. They spoke, or at least Ruli did, offering his remorse and regret, until his eyes burned and his throat was hoarse.
He felt lighter then, but still refused to return when Envy offered kindly. He needed space, Ruli insisted. Maybe he'd get some work done when the sun rose.

Which was what he did. When he'd woken again, sprawled out against the ground beneath the tree and sporting some lovely new insect bites, he got up and shuffled about the site. Others had cut down trees and made neat piles of the logs, but he went about in search of something less stressful. His body still ached, his muscles tense, his bones brittle, but at least his head was clear. He went to work, moving rocks and using them as markers, finding branches and twigs to draw lines. Plan a few buildings. He was probably only two hours into it when he felt someone watching him.

She was bathed, dressed anew, and her face was flushed from her walk here. Suddenly very aware that he had neither bathed nor changed his bloody clothes, Ruli bent and went back to work, dragging a stick through the soil to draw what would be a wall. "How does it feel?" He asked without peering back at her. "Ending him? Her?"

[Michellin]

Kire, for once, didn’t volunteer herself into the task, having enough self-restraint to know she was in no condition to do so. When he spoke, Kire sighed; she hadn’t expected the question to be the first thing he said to her, but she had been anticipating it coming one way or another. “It’s…” Her voice trailed off. She had posed this question to herself, but she didn’t know the answer. Or didn’t have one answer. “A relief, for one,” she said after a pause. “It’s not like my other big problems had gone away but—it feels like it. Like I could do something right again. That I can cross out my list of impossible promises. It’s a well-worn phrase, but like a weight has been lifted, and I got back something that’s been stolen from me.”

She watched him toil. “Envy was right for not liking that plan. That was colossally dangerous.” She meant it as a light joke, but her tone came out more seriously than she had intended. Kire paused again before speaking. “You? How do you feel? You were alone with her for a while. That can’t have been easy.”

[Carantathraiel]

He listened as he drew the line in the dirt, then took a step back. His leg shifted, stiffly repositioning as his bare heel bore onto a stone. Line finished, he straightened, shuffled, to make another.

When she asked about his wellbeing, he still didn't look up. "No." He answered simply when asked if it had been easy. Truthfully, he remembered little beyond the bloodlust. The unchecked hatred that had fueled his every move, and the pure desire to rip her to pieces.
And he hated himself for it.

"Now what?" Ruli asked as he straightened and shuffled stiffly along. He had no magical ability to heal himself, and beyond the administrations to his sleep-heavy body by the councilman's servants, he hadn't bothered with his injuries. "Does Amria call?"

[Michellin]

As tight-lipped as ever. But he did answer her question. She watched him move stiffly between tasks, and it felt like trying not to scratch an annoying itch not to ask him if he wanted help. “I’m not fully healed yet, so I’ll give myself a day, maybe two, since bones are trickier even with magic. And then I’ll go home. Have to let them know I didn’t die from my foolish adventures.” She touched her hair, conscious of the spot where the injury had been. “There are a couple of loose ends, mostly concerning Gavin. I’ll sort it out with him when we’re both ready to talk about it but…I might ask him if he wants to go back to Amria with me. That’ll be a bit complicated, considering his kin usurped my throne, but hopefully my family won’t murder him on sight.”

Continuing to watch him, there was only so much self-control she could have. “What do you need done?” she asked, gesturing. “Can’t lift trees at the moment, but I think I can draw lines in the dirt.”

[Carantathraiel]

Usurped her throne. Fragments came back to him, before Gavin had injected him, when Akuma had mentioned the empress. The empress of Amria. He really hadn't held anything to it. Akuma said many things to worm under the skin like a parasite and infect the blood.
But Kire now mentioned throne. Her throne, to be exact. And Ysaryn called her Chieftess.

Kire offered to help, and Ruli tore his gaze from his drawing and gazed blankly at her. As if he had no interest in sharing this with her, in allowing her hands to be involved. But he shrugged instead. Do what you want, his shrug said.
Then, "Find a good place for a pantry."

Ruli went on working, casting glances at her she as hunted for a place that would be decent enough to store food, where they could build out of the winds way, and away from the western heat.

"So you are an empress, then." Ruli observed, at last.

[Michellin]

Kire was looking around, trying to picture what might be a good place for the pantry. When he spoke again, she straightened up in thought. She had lost track of who she had made privy to this information. Envy, yes. Oh. Right. Akuma. Kire sighed. "Yeah. You don't have those around here, do you?" She went back to work, carefully bending over to scratch lines in the soil. "I'd have thought she would tell you. I expected her to be someone who would wave that in your face."

[Carantathraiel]

"No." He repeated, finished with a building near the wider end of the glen that could be used as a sort of barrack or inn. Slowly, he moved further inward, passed Kire, leaning on what was currently his walking stick. "Just a lot to say about you. Primarily that she, they never thought you'd ask for help. Or that I would agree."

Here might be good for a sort of communal kitchen. Near enough to wear Kire planted the pantry. They could alter it later into a tavern when the town grew. He lowered his stick again and began drawing. "She asked about Envy." He offered in answer to an unasked question.

[Michellin]

Kire put her hands on her hips, observing their work, trying to picture what he was seeing. She snorted softly at Akuma and Ikegai's opinion of them both, though her derision was partly defensiveness. "They have a point," she muttered. Even now, working together on something mundane, both of them refused to be doing nothing, both too hardheaded for their own good.

When he spoke again, it took a moment to realize what he meant. "I wondered about that. Her hold was pretty strong back there, too." She glanced at him. "You were fighting hard, too. I didn't expect you to move the way you did." She had questions about that, but, as usual with him, didn't expect him to give a long answer. "Gods. It would be nice to have a good long drink," she murmured.

[Carantathraiel]

He closed his eyes for a moment, pausing in his drawing, as the guilt washed over him again. Envy's burns and blindness. Ziad had all but caved on top of the Kartaian, the panic, the recovery, the trauma.
Envy only ever smiled. Never made it seem like he hadn't been blind his whole life.

Ruli opened his eyes and glanced toward Kire again, agony over his fight written across his face. Guilt that he'd let it out. Self-hatred for what it came from. Fear that she'd ask.

He turned away again, putting his back to her. For a long time, he worked in silence, likewise wishing he could drown himself in a drink. His stomach growled to voice its preference. Envy's company had eased most of the trouble in his gut, but in Kire's own words, he still felt the weight on his shoulders. Still felt something had been stolen from him.

When the kitchen was drawn, he stopped again, leaning on his stick. "Closest tavern is Cordon. If you visit her." He pointed out. ""Will Rab stay, or go back to Ysaryn?"
He hadn't missed the adoration in the half-breed eyes whenever they looked the female's way. Smitten from the moment his eyes beheld her.

[Michellin]

Kire smirked at his suggestion of a tavern, grinned briefly at his question about Rab. “He’s very taken with her, isn’t he?” she remarked, facing him as he leaned on his makeshift crutch. “Can’t say I blame him, really. She’s quite the woman.” She smiled softly as she said this. “As for a tavern, that’s sorely tempting, but I don’t know how welcome any of our faces would be there if we’re spotted and recognized.” She looked him over as she spoke; there was something about his demeanor that told her something was weighing on his mind that made him more withdrawn than usual. She had this impression of a door closing between them, and for some reason she couldn’t explain, the thought made her feel melancholy, even if she had no real expectations that they’d get along better after their shared ordeal. “Maybe I’d rather just buy a whole barrel and bring it back here to drink before I go home. You do drink, do you? You should at least celebrate the fact that I’m leaving.”

[Carantathraiel]

He was. Ruli wasn't sure why. If it was purely because Ysaryn bore even just a slight resemblance to him, giving him a small thread of connection to hold on to. In which case, Ruli suddenly wished he'd seen the half-elf's reaction to Envy.

He rather agreed with her point about Cordon, but the entire city was hardly able to know their faces. Hers, maybe. Not his. Or Zeke's, if they really needed.

"Its not your absence I would celebrate." He argued softly. "But yes. I do."
He bent and began drawing again, but his stomach growled so loud Ruli wondered if Kire heard even with the distance between them. But he blanched, still, at the thought of eating. He stopped his work once more, sighing in annoyance. His eyes flit to her once more, finally taking her in. The part of her hair that met the blade, the scalp still shining in healing. The way she held the stick. Her declaration that she couldn't lift any trees.
"How do you feel?" He felt required to ask.

[Michellin]

Somehow, his argument about celebrating Akuma’s disappearance instead of hers was weirdly comforting. That was probably the most amiability she would expect from him at this point, but she’d nonetheless count that as a victory. “Good. It’s settled, then. Goodbye party for me, and a ‘fuck you’ to our nightmares.” She knew it was probably too generous to call that a party, but Kire didn’t mind. She was about to go back to her task when he asked another question.

“Like absolute shit,” Kire replied readily, though she grinned at this. “Shit that got trampled on, then set on fire. But it’s better than staying dead. I’ve nearly died maybe a couple of times but having your heart stop completely is something else.” She frowned at that, remembering vaguely the visions she had before Gavin woke her up. Now that she tried thinking about it, she couldn’t piece together the exact details of what she had seen. She contemplated telling Ruli this, and telling him about the strange after images she still saw after his Touch, but thought better of it. “Did you even get any proper rest? You’re looking pale," she pointed out. "Have you even eaten ever since we got back?"

[Carantathraiel]

Sounded about right. He didn't feel far from that himself. Not to mention his own wounds didn't magically heal, and the sutures in his arm itched like mad. And weren't helped by the insect bites. He was crawling in his own skin. His gaze returned to her when she admitted her heart had actually stopped, but he didn't voice his reaction just yet. She was standing here, afterall. It obviously hadn't been permanent.
"No." He answered vaguely again in response to both of her questions. "I slept a few hours here."
He turned to settle his stick against a tree, mumbling something that could have been 'fucking insects' as he moved to a rock and sat. He braced his elbows on his thighs, his sleeve stiff with dried blood.

"You died." He said, though it wasn't a question. "I thought there was an agreement not to do that."

[Michellin]

“Well it wasn’t permanent, was it? That doesn’t count,” Kire whined. “It was barely a few seconds.” She huffed, rubbing her nape, then flinching when she accidentally scratched the tender spot on her scalp. “Fine. That barrel is on me.” She looked him over again, then seemed to have heard his stomach growl. Kire clicked her tongue, disapproving. “You don’t need to get any skinnier. Get some food in you, will you? What’s the use of all the hunting I did the past several days? I owe you my life a few times over by now. How am I going to pay you back if you’re just going to starve yourself to death?” She sighed, shaking her head as she stepped a bit closer to sit down on another rock opposite him, sinking into silence.

After a silence, she said softly, “Thank you. For not leaving back there. And for coming with me in the first place.” She looked out at the land they’d roughly plotted out. “The people that care about you aren’t going to feel any better about what happened in the past if they see you punishing yourself like this,” she said, arms crossed.

[Carantathraiel]

He almost smirked when she said what he had thought about her death being temporary, but a shadow of a smirk did make itself known when she accepted blame.
If vanished when she called him skinny. He was hardly so. Leaner than Zeke, yes, but he had plenty of muscle. She encouraged him to eat, but sat across from him, anyway. They leveled stares at one another, two stubborn wills refusing to bend.

Her thank you really caught him off guard. He wanted to know, to ask, exactly how she planned on paying him back. A thank you was a start.
However, her words about the past sent a shiver through him, and he wondered what she knew, and how, before he realized she meant the fall of Ziad.
Ruli exhaled. "You have family, too." He answered her thanks. "What would they have done if you never came back?"

He stood, arched the small of his back slightly in a stretch, then offered her his hand. "Let's go." He invited.

[Michellin]

“Oh I know what they’d do. I’ve been told multiple times how they will summon me back from the seven hells with a blood ritual to murder me themselves for getting myself killed,” Kire muttered. And by ‘they’, it was mostly Janes. She was silent afterward though, the point hitting home. It was rather hypocritical of her to admonish his sulking, given everything that she had done, herself. It seemed that both of them really did have an awful knack for punishing themselves in different yet very parallel ways.

Her gaze then fell to the hand he had extended to her. She hesitated for a moment, though not for the same reasons she had the first time, her expression hiding that she was surprised that he offered it. Kire nodded and took it, though she was careful not to pull too much, given the state of him. “Gavin’s face was pretty funny when we Shadow-Walked, wasn’t it?” she snickered, right before Ruli took them back near the cavern entrance.

For his part, Gavin had taken Envy’s suggestions to rest and get used to the place to heart. He only spent a brief time in the caverns themselves for now, having had his fill of caves and being cooped up inside, though he did note that it was very, very different from the blood-stained mines. Though he had been pretending under orders to be a lord’s ward, Gavin would trade all that finery for the simple but homey meal he found in the kitchen. And coffee! He barely had any in Cordon in all his time there. As he ate, he found he couldn’t contain the grin that would randomly break from his face. Free. So this was what that had felt like.

He slept well last night, then the next day woke up late, thankful that he hadn’t had any nightmares, and explored the surrounding area. He had vague memories of growing up surrounded by woodland, but this would be the first time he would be able to explore forests. He was still not confident enough to explore too far on his own, so he went back to the caverns to rest. Not once had he taken the dragon knife off his person. When he walked back in, he was just in time to see Ruli and Kire. Her appearance still made his heart jump, but it was a momentary knee-jerk reaction. “There is breakfast,” he said lamely, still not quite sure what he was to them, how they felt about him.
“You look well,” Kire remarked, then noting the knife at his hip. “Have you eaten?” Gavin nodded. “Alright. I’ll talk to you later today, if you don’t mind.” Gavin shook his head.

Kire glanced at Ruli, then back at the young man. He seemed to her in turns both someone who had experienced a lot for his age and like a lost child. Breakfast first.