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As they put more distance between themselves and the darkness looming behind them, they opted to find the nearest village so that they could take a breather and rest. Shan was personally exhausted, Inej was hungry, and Jesper and Kaz looked like they both needed a drink.
So they walked along the edge of the town, browsing establishments for a tavern of some sorts, trudging tiredly.
Jesper had handed her the rope leash for the goat while he walked ahead to find a place for them to stop, which slowed her down a bit as she tried to keep it from wandering off to try and eat every little weed sprouting from the ground he could.
At some point something caught her right leg and she faltered in step, looking down as Milo managed to snag the laces of her boots in it's mouth.
Kaz, in the middle of the group, had heard the crunch of dirt beneath her boots all of a sudden and turned. He paused when he saw the goat chewing on the end of her shoelaces.
The others continued on, not noticing, more interested in finding a place.
Shan lifted her leg and yanked her boot away from it, ripping the laces from it's mouth. It gave out a sad bleat, looking up at her, still chewing on frayed fibers with wide, glassy eyes.
"Kaz," she breathed, somehow knowing he was there without looking. She closed her eyes to calm herself down. She held the rope out to him stiffly. "Take the goat."
"Say please."
He was pushing his luck, still bitter from earlier.
A voice in the back of his head sounding an awful lot like his brother scolded him. He pushed the sound away.
She shot him a withering look, sorely not in the mood and especially not with him.
He took the rope, tugging the creature to his side and away from her so she could lean down and fix her boot.
With one of her laces frayed and coated in goat slobber, bits of dry hay stuck to it and now the dirt beneath their feet clinging to the wet material, Shan hesitated.
Her hands paused midway to reach for it, stomach rolling, skin itching at how dirty it was and how disgusting this was.
She was scraping dirt and blood from her face, prising it from her mouth with numb fingers that ceased to work as she sobbed - her heart beating so fast she could do nothing but collapse to her hands and knees.
Sickness rolled in her stomach dangerously.
"Shan." It wasn't a demand, exactly, more of a prompt.
The girl closed her eyes and squared her jaw.
She stared down at the dirt beneath her boots, the soil clinging to the wet string, her mind screaming uncertainties at her that made her want to hit her head against a wall to stop it.
