Private Tales Scorched Earth

[Raigryn Vayd]

It was several hours before he was roused from his slumber. Raigryn woke the a thumping headache. As he groaned and sat upright he reflected that at least he had some of his strength back. It had entirely sapped it to be struck around the head so hard and then be choked almost to the point of death.

"Lad, you kept watch all this time?" he asked softly. Fife was sat by the window, crossbow across his lap. They had spent some time on practise in Belgrath before being forced to leave by the siege. Fife hadn't shot it in anger at another human yet, but if he held his nerve he wasn't going to miss.

 

[Fife]

Her eyes had been fixed on the stable door, but her mind had been far away. She turned and looked away from the window when he stirred. Fife gently set down the bow and nodded.

I didn't see anything, she signed.

Standing, she brought his shirt over to him. She held it enough to point to the stains. She had cleaned it as well as one could without soap and running water. Laying it beside him, she pointed to him, then touched her head where he was injured. Then, frowning, she touched her throat and pointed to him again.

How are you feeling?

Fife glanced around for the canteen, making the sign like drinking from a cup and pointing to him again. Are you thirsty? Fife picked up the water and extended it to him. As she had proved in the past, she had a tendency to fuss a bit, and she was in prime form now.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn shuffled up the bed and used it to sit upright. He gratefully took the shirt and lead it out on the sheet. Fife had scrubbed off as much of the dried blood as possible. It would do for now.

He wasn't afraid of hard work, that was clear. Raigryn couldn't fix the world, he could barely be a part of it these days. He could change one person's life and all because they had tried to rob him in the night.

"The head hurts and I still feel a little dizzy," he admitted. He took a glass and sipped. "Still feel a little sick. You get that after a blow to the head like that. My ears rang for nearly a month with Sir Hathel from the western provinces clocked me with the blunt end of his halberd and I was a much younger man back then."

Fife would have learned that if he was willing to start regaling him with stories of the past then Raigryn was not feeling that bad any more.

 

[Fife]

He almost immediately answered with a story, which Fife took as a good sign. She fought back a grin. After looking out the window again to check on the stable doors she sat down, one foot on the seat and her knee bent against her chest.

She gestured between them and hitched a thumb over her shoulder, her brows rising in question. Should we go? She pointed four fingers away from them, then brought them to her other hand, showing two. Her soft grin had faded. They might come back.

Fife looked him over. He looked pretty rough still. Pointing to him, she signed a figure on a horse and then raised her palm in question. Can you ride? She could outfit the horses just fine on her own, all he had to do was get his big ass on Dusty and stay on. If he couldn't yet, they would have to dig in here until he could. There were other buildings. Fife was particularly good at finding suitable hiding places; she could probably find them a new hideout. There was a whole town abandoned here, after all.

Her eyes burned from a lack of sleep, but jer mind was still sharp. She was not sleeping any time soon. She wanted to be far away from that bloodstained mattress before she even considered sleeping. Fife wasn't feeling afraid, but she knew damn well what her sleep would have in store for her.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Just like on that day, it's better to ride away now than hang about and push her luck," Raigryn replied. He hadn't quite got the inclination that Fife was asking if he was able to ride.

Raigryn rolled up the nightshirt and instead stood right up and started going through his pack and getting dressed. As soon as his trousers were on he gave up on standing. He sat back down on the edge of the bed, breathing more quickly than usual. He waited for the room to stop spinning and continued.

He could feel a tightness across his skin where it had been bound. There was going to be a hard lump under the cut where he has been struck in the head.

"There is a town further down the road that might not be abandoned. Keep that thing loaded on the way. Might meet those bandits again. They won't get off as lightly if we do."

 

[Fife]

Raigryn stood right up and Fife very quickly put her foot down and turned in her seat, thankful he seemed too out of sorts as he wandered to the far side of the room to get dressed. She wanted to argue, but she wasn't going to argue with a naked man.

He managed to get his trousers on, but had to sit down for a dizzy spell. Bending and standing probably weren't ideal with a head wound. But now that he had something on, she knelt beside his bag to help him get his things so he wouldn't have to bend for it. It expedited the process for both of them. Fife helped him with his boots, then made quick work of her own while she was sitting.

She looked at their gear and sighed. It was a lot for her to carry unless he was going to get a lot more steady on his feet real quick. Fife could handle the hard work, though, and he could carry something light that left a hand free in case he needed to lean.

Handing her small bag, she shouldered his heavier one (only swaying a little as it threatened to tip her over) and then leaned carefully to pick up her crossbow. With a reassuring smile, she padded over to the door and opened it slowly, peeking down the hall before swinging it open and stepping out. Fife waited for him. If nothing else, she was proving that she could be useful.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn chose to shoulder a small bag and to use his right hand to hold his sword by the scabbard. He doubted the bandits were lingering right outside, but after being caught unprepared the night before he wasn't going to take any risks.

There was a cool breeze coming from the north, following the line of the spine. The mountain ranges were so extensive that even from door here they could see the snow-topped peaks.

They were soon on the road again. Raigryn was gripping the reigns more tightly than usual. Off towards another settlement. Unfortunately it was the settlement where the group of bandits had come from and since returned to.

"Maybe the next town will have some nice stew?" he called to Fife. "If you want to rest before then we can always find somewhere secluded," he offered.

 

[Fife]

She got the tack on the horses and Raigryn was at least upright as they left the town. And good riddance. Fife didn't think she had been this happy to leave a place since that underground city.

At his offer to stop, conveniently for her to rest, she trotted Socks up beside Dusty. The plucky pony reached his muzzle toward the horse's, his robust body shaking as he whickered softly.

Fife was still tired, her eyes red and stinging for sleep, but she shook her head. Sleep? No thank you. She would rather be miserably tired and go until she dropped. Perhaps, if she was tired enough when she hit the pillow, she wouldn't have the nightmares. But she pointed to him in question. He still looked like he was liable to fall off.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"I've ridden on through worse," he told Fife as he tried to smile. "I was worried about you. You stayed up all night. Thank you."

Raigryn wanted to say more. Even as his head span and the jumble of words fell out, he wanted to try and express how appreciative he was.

Over time he had learned that it wasn't fair how much he could convey so quickly, when Fife had to struggle just to get some very simple concepts across. Raigryn had learned to adapt, leaving plenty of openings for Fife to interject. He was a patient man, though right now with his head spinning he was liable to just let the whole world drift on by.

 

[Fife]

He had supposedly ridden through worse and he tried to smile. Raigryn was a grown man. She had to trust that he knew himself well enough and was being honest. She nodded, doing her best to smile back.

But she didn't know how to respond to the admission that he had been worried. She didn't know how to respond to his thanks. Fife could only stare at him for a moment, eyes ringed and dark with exhaustion.

When she could think again, she shook her head again, trying to dismiss it with a smile. How to say she was worried about him, too? Fife touched her chest, a more personal sign for herself, then shook her hands in an anxious way while grimacing. She pointed to his him and touched her head where he was hurt. Conveying complex feelings was hard, so she was going to let him take a guess before she continued.

She pointed to herself, then shook her head a cut her hand horizontally to negate the sign for sleep she made. I didn't want to sleep.

Her smile was flimsy and she had to look away. Knowing that he probably knew what about the ambush had scared her so badly was a rather mortifying feeling. Fife watched the road ahead of them. She would have to succumb to sleep eventually, but she would fight it with every scrap of stubbornness she had until then.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"You were worried about me? Well. It has...been some time since anyone worried about me," he admitted. "Even if you had to stay up the night and carry all the bags. It feels good to me, to know that you care."

Raigryn was an empath, but some of the first lessons between them had been how to close off from other empaths. Perhaps it was old fashioned to learn a defence against a dying breed of mages, but you could not fight an empath who could play with your emotions.

Actions could speak louder than sensing emotion anyway.

"You don't want to..." Raigryn started, prompting Fife to have another few goes. "Oh, sleep."

"I will protect you tonight. You understand? You will be safe. Not like how things were."

 

[Fife]

She repeated the sign for him patiently until he understood, then nodded. But his reply hit her in a strangely emotional way. Fife had no real context for it. It had been a long time since someone had cared for her, too.

Perhaps it betrayed her age, but her eyes were wet with tears as she smiled and nodded. She was going to have nightmares, but Raigryn would be there when she woke up. Knowing that was oddly comforting. She wasn't entirely alone in the frustrating, maddening silence of her world.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Now, now, it's alright," he said softly. Clearly he was not sure what to do when he saw the tears roll down Fife's cheek. Raigryn was not a father, he had never become conformable dealing with children, even as an empath.

"Besides, we should find a nice safe town by nightfall."

---

"This didn't have a wall when I came through last."

Calling it a wall was a great complement. Parts were wooden palisade, others dry stone wall. They had, however, built a gatehouse which Raigryn and Fife stood before now.

"Ho there! I don't suppose you can offer lodgings!" Raigryn shouted out to the man above the gate. He didn't wear any armour, but looked as if he had a spear propped up and a pile of arrows on the wall. It suggested there was a bow too.

The man didn't reply. He looked down at the pair and then vanished.

"Well that isn't particularly friendly of..."

"Yes that's them!"

Raigryn looked up. The 'guard' was talking to a very familiar face.

"Oh fuck," went Raigryn.

 

[Fife]

She rubbed the heel of her palm into her eyes, drying them and trying to keep herself awake. As the day wore on, it got harder to pretend like she wasn't running on fumes. She fought to keep her eyes open, shaking her head and rubbing her hands over her face. She had a splitting ache in her cheek where one of the bandits had clocked her that made staying awake a little easier, and she showed Raigryn a lose eye tooth that was going to give her grief for a while until she got the guts to just pull it.

In spite of generally feeling like a garbage heap, Fife was in a good mood as they reached their destination. She rebounded quickly, eager to put the weird sentimental mood behind them. She viewed the hodgepodge wall with a curious eye. They had fortified it? Had they been so afraid of the things in the mist that they had built the wall from whatever they could find.

She looked up at the man on the wall, but he disappeared. Maybe they thought they were the same bandits that had attacked then last night?

But when a man came back, she recognized him. They were the bandits! Fife blinked in surprise then looked to Raigryn, her hand tightening on the crossbow in her lap. What rotten luck.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn squared his shoulders, sitting tall in the saddle. Seeing one of the bandits atop the gatehouse didn't actually generate as much as having a future sat at a warn fire with a mug of ale fading away.

"You hurt one of our folk!" called down the guard.

"You attacked us in the night. It was not appreciated."

The two men rocked back on their heels. When the mood took him Raigryn had a deep, booming voice of command. The softly spoken scholar receded. It was suddenly easy to overlay and image of a younger version of Raigryn in gleaming armour ready to ride into battle.

"We've been getting the kids from the local towns to safety!" countered the bandit from up on the wall.

"No room for the elderly then?" Raigryn asked. Silence followed for a few seconds. "I think we'll continue on to the next town."

"That's empty too. They're all here."

Raigryn turned to Fife. The picture was becoming more clear. "These places live off farming. The lands are dying so the towns are too. This isn't good."

 

[Fife]

Fife watched Raigryn straighten, his voice deepening and carrying like the toll of a bell. She hadn't seen him be so commanding. How many facets of him were there? It certainly gave merit to the epic tales he could regale for days on end.

Her eyes shifted to watch the men atop the wall carefully. She scanned for others, but gave Raigryn a dubious look. Fife didn't like this. She didn't live so long on the streets without learning some common sense. She shook her head softly, looking back up at the guards. They hadn't been taking her for her safety. A bad feeling like a stone settled in her gut. Had they so kindly brought everyone from the other villages for this safety?

Fife's hand tightened at Socks' reins, the other holding the stock of her crossbow firmly. She didn't motion the pony back yet and would wait for Raigryn to do so, but she would rather sleep on a bed of brambles than go through this gate.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"And why have you hastily put these...attempts at a wall together? The demons have gone." Raigryn waved his left hand to encompass the line of wood and stone before them.

"You seen better?" called the man.

"Boy, I was a Knight under Prince Verion's second campaign into the sands of Amol-Kalit. I've seen a real siege."

It wasn't quite true, but Raigryn had been there. He'd seen ten thousand repulsed by great walls and weapons of war. In the end the disease from the dead piled outside the walls had broken the siege before any assault.

"Demons are gone. But not the things...the people...theh changed before they went."

Raigryn cocked his head to one side, sensing the sudden grip of fear around the young man.

 

[Fife]

Fife tried not to look surprised when he said he had been a knight. She looked up at him again, wondering if he had really been a knight or if he was assuming the story for the purpose of intimidation. She really couldn't tell, just like she couldn't be sure if his stories were about hin or another.

The guard, however, accounted for his makeshift wall as defense from people. But not people, things. Just like she wasn't sure if Raigryn was being honest, she didn't know if they were being honest.

Raigryn looked curious, though, so maybe there was some merit to it? Fife glanced over at him. She still didn't like any of this. These same people had tried to kidnap her and kill Raigryn a few hours before.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn turned over his shoulder, catching Fife's eye again. This was not a decision he was going to make on his own.

"What do you think? Should I try and talk to them and find out what is going on or shall we just go back the way we came and then get out of these lands?"

 

[Fife]

To her surprise, Raigryn turned to her to ask what she thought they should do. Would he judge her too harshly if she chose to leave? But what if her decision to stay meant trouble later? Neither of them were really in good shape for a scrap.

She glanced nervously back up at the guards, still not trusting them. He had asked her to make choices before, but they had been about dinner choices and what landscapes she wanted to see. It hadn't been this... difficult.

Keeping the men in her peripherals and not lifting her left hand from the stock, she signed to Raigryn with short, familiar gestures. She pointed to him, touched her lips, pointed to the men again, and then, pausing briefly, motioned between them and hitched her thumb over her shoulder.

You talk to them and then we go.

She motioned to them both again, shook her head gently, grapsed her hand in want, walked her fingers forward, and pointed to the doors. I don't want to go in there.

Fife looked up at the wall once more, setting her jaw. Something wasn't right here, and she was too tired to be fully confident she could slip put of trouble. But Raigryn was ultimately in charge. She would follow him in if he thought it was safe. He had said he would protect them tonight, and she trusted his judgement more than her own.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

Raigryn nodded slowly. "You keep that crossbow ready. If one of them draws a bow you take aim and shoot. You're a good shot, but I'm going to need you to make that shot. No hesitation, understand?"

With that he rode onwards, closing the distance to put himself within spitting distance of the gate.

"What do you mean things?"

"One of the villagers from inside the mists came here. Sprouted fucking tentacles and ate one of the town guards. That kind of 'thing'."

"What other towns are still standing around here?"

"Why would we answer?"

"Because I asked nicely," Raigryn replied.

"Stow-on-bridges, Bairston," called the youth. It was clear that he didn't know what to do about Raigryn right now. He didn't open the gate, but he didn't call for reinforcements.

Raigryn drew a mental map and nodded.

"Goodbye then," he called, turning to ride back towards Fife.

 

[Fife]

She nodded. Fife had wanted to learn a weapon she could be useful with, and she had practiced. She watched Raigryn ride confidently forward. If he had even the slightest doubt as to whether or not she could hit the mark, he sure didn't show it. Now to just not let hin down.

She watched the exchange from further back where he had left her, her eyes fixed on the guards. Fife frowned at the description of the thing they meant, but the conversation was a short one. And thank the gods. She gently backed Socks, keeping an eye on them as Raigryn turned his back to ride to her.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

He watched Fife intently as he had Dusty saunter back towards him. Raigryn looked for any sign of concern on the boy's face as he kept his back to the gatehouse, using him to read what might being going on.

Fife's expression didn't significantly change. The boy didn't lift his crossbow.

"Well, that was frightening," Raigryn admitted. His heart was pounding. "I think we have a long diversion ahead of us."

 

[Fife]

Fife let out a deep breath when he arrived at her side, without incident. But apparently he had been as nervous as she was. She hoped she had looked even a fraction as calm as he had. She hadn't a clue. Regardless, she was relieved he was back from the wall and the guards hadn't made any move for their bows.

She gestured between them, then hitched her thumb over her shoulder and held up her palm. Are we going? she hoped they were going. Fife was still keeping a wary eye on the wall. She got the feeling it was going to be another long ride and a few stressful nights until they were well away from this shady group.

// Raigryn Vayd //​

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

"Let's go," he said, clicking at his horse. "We've got a long way I'm afraid. North is the dead lands and I have no intention of sleeping there. That means we go back to the town we stayed at and turn south. We'll have to circle around their farm lands.

"I'm sorry, I promised a warm fire. We might not even light one tonight. I want to go a long back back before he take our tracks off the main road so they can't follow us too. How long do you think you can stay awake?"