My prediction had once again come true, most of the night I had laid restless in my cloak and couldn't sleep. I was happy when Will woke me up to take over patrol. That way I'd actually have something to do and wouldn't be suffocated by the repeating memory of the fight.
In the morning we packed up the camp, but not before we took the chance of having a cup of coffee. I was enjoying one of those hot cups of coffee when Gilan suddenly gestured Will to come over to him. In a hushed voice he told him something and I could swear I saw him look over to me from under his hood. Then he put a hand on Will's shoulder and they walked away from the campfire.
I was dying to know what they were talking about and even considered following them for a hot minute. But the thought was gone as quickly as a summer breeze. It'd be better if I helped Horace and Evanlyn, or rather did the work because they were rather busy flirting with each other. He made a joke and she threw her head back and laughed at it. It made me miss the times when Gilan and I were still like that.
"No, Gil-" I said, laughing so hard I was clutching my stomach. "you really have to stop."
He smiled and his green eyes sparkled dangerously. "I swear, you're lucky to have me as a mentor."
With one raised eyebrow I looked him in the eyes, trying my best to ignore the fuzzy feeling in my stomach and my breath shortly stopping.
"But come on, there's no way-" I had to stop because I already got a laugh attack at the thought of saying it.
"The moat? Oh yeah, I deserved it." Gilan's grin widended and he started snickering at first, but when he heard my snort he broke out in a loud laughter too. He poked my leg and quirked one eyebrow up. "I'll do the same to you if you annoy me too much one day."
"Oh that could never happen and you know it."
The sound of laughter faded out as I focused on the current world again. Gilan and Will had returned from their little walk and Gilan had decided what to do with the prisoners he'd taken yesterday. He let the men undress and told Evanlyn to look away, because 'the sight wouldn't be pretty'. Apparently he didn't think it'd be an aweful sight for me. Then their stuff was thrown down a cliff and they got an old horse blanket. In my opinion they shouldn't have gotten the blanket, but Gilan's always been soft on criminals. Evidently.
"Listen, I'm going to scout the area around Gwyntaleth. Maybe I'll find someone who can tell me more about Morgarath's plans." Gilan said over his shoulder as he got on Blaze. He looked directly at Will with a piercing gaze. It fell on me shortly too, but he casted it off quickly, as if I'd been a hot metal he had to get his hands of quickly.
That familiar wound in my heart had been ripped open again. The pressure in my eyes built up and I threw my hood on as fast as I could. Just as I wanted to walk off I heard him call my name. I froze and walked over to the tall Ranger on his horse.
"Look, I'm not coming back. This information is far too important to keep it from the King for as long as it would take to find King Swyddned." Even when talking to me he avoided looking at me. He was intensely studying the horizon. I didn't blame him, but it still hurt. "Leave at sun-down."
I wanted to say something, but then felt I wouldn't be able to say anything without breaking. So I simply nodded and gave Blaze an encouraging stroke over her nose. Gilan pressed his heels against her belly and so he rode off. And I returned to the group with a heart of lead.
Not only did he leave, but he also left me the responsibility for three kids. And I knew I wasn't up for it. I suddenly felt so small and almost like a child. There was this tight feeling in my stomach which almost made me barf. But I did what he'd told me. We rode as fast as we could through the night, though Horace's battle steed and Evanlyn's packing horse weren't able to keep up with the fast Ranger's horses. What made it even worse was that it started raining. But an hour before sunrise it cleared up again, so that the first rays of sunshine painted the morning sky pearl grey in the east. As soon as I could see something again I started looking for a possible spot to set up camp.
Beside me Horace was looking around him. "Why shouldn't we keep on riding for a few hours?" he asked. "The horses aren't even tired yet."
What he said made sense, but I was a bit uneasy not following my mentor's advice. Especially since my own judgement hadn't always been the best. But I committed to my decision when we rode around a curve and saw a few small bushes. It wasn't a lot, but it'd keep us covered.
"No, this place'll do. The chance that we'll find anything better is small." I said, while looking at the young Knight apprentice. He shrugged and halted his noble battle steed and dismounted with ease. Then he helped Evanlyn get off her panting pony. With our shortage of horses I decided to let her ride on the small animal and divide the other weight over the other three which were in much better shape. She stretched herself out with a loud groan, then walked over to a stone, and sat down.
Will started unpacking the food packets and threw one to the blonde girl, it landed in the sand in front of her. "You can prepare the food." He said with a rather unfriendly tone. I was quite shocked, because he'd seemed to kind and almost timid. I closed my eyes shortly when I realised I had to deal with this, since I was branded the adult. Which was hilarious because I was only a few years older than them.
They bickered a bit while I was scouting the area. I climbed the rocks and circled around the camp. Nothing to see for miles, so hopefully we could have a relaxed night without Wargals. When I came back I'd had enough of their petty fight and went up to them.
"What's going on?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and folded arms.
"Will-" Evanlyn send the boy a deadly glare-"doesn't want us to have a warm meal!"
The girl was slowly getting on my nerves, especially seeing as she was making a problem even though I really did not have the energy for it. Not to mention of course I had blamed her the moments right after my break-up, because I needed somewhere to channel all of my dislike and pain other than myself.
"I agree with Will." I said, and just as she wanted to start protesting I silenced her. "Look, there are Wargals out here and they have an incredible sense of smell. And let it be that smoke gives off a very strong smell which happens to stay in the air for quite a while."
Her green eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips. "You know, you're just doing this because you can't stand me."
"What?" I asked her, with my eyebrows knitted together and very much annoyed and confused. Her comment had fallen out of thin air. "How'd you get to that conclusion?"
She shrugged and continued a bit more insecurely: "You've been annoyed ever since I arrived."
Ironically, that made me annoyed. She didn't know what was going on. "That's got nothing to do with you." With a huff I grabbed one of the water sacks and walked over to one of the small creeks. I honestly wanted to wreck a tree in that moment. Sadly, there were none around.
A/N:
I wrote most of this while travelling with the train and honestly everything that could go wrong, went wrong. But thankfully there was this really nice man who totally saved my ass, so at least I'm back home safely. I'm hoping to update every friday now, either Ra and Brotherband Imagines or the X reader (and maybe even Saint's blood when I've settled on a plot line.)
Xxx. HeelsAreCute
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Fanfiction[[𝕽𝖊𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓]] "𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮, 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮." 𝙁𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙖 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙠: 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙢...
