Northbound Pilgrimage II

Chapter CI - Before Dawn

Aeyrin closed her eyes once more, trying to finally fall asleep.

She almost had before, but that was before Bishop started to squirm and mumble in his sleep. It rarely happened that he managed to drift off before she did and it really couldn't have come at a worse time. This way, she wasn't able to concentrate on resting at all, fretting over him.

She didn't want to wake him up though. She knew that they might be woefully unrested from their night here again, so the more sleep he got, the better, right? Even if it was filled with nightmares. She felt bad for leaving him in their grasp, but he wouldn't remember. Waking him would do more harm than good, wouldn't it?

Now that he was awake again, trying to rest once more, the quiet might let her sleep. He seemed fully awake and alert. It would take him a while before he managed to calm again. His breathing was still a little uneven.

Though she shouldn't concentrate on that too much. The more she tried to fall asleep before him, the harder it would be.

She tried to empty her mind of all worries, thinking hard about something pleasant or mundane.

Like what they would do tomorrow.

They studied the map before bed. There were quite a few places where they could go and explore. Vekel, one of the Guild members, had mentioned some old cavern to Bishop that was supposed to have a necromancer in. Apparently the Guild was interested in his journals for some buyer but they haven't had a chance to go there yet. Bishop didn't promise anything to Vekel, but now that they were here, they could stop by and earn a few drakes from the Guild again. There was also a barrow nearby which they haven't explored yet, back near Nightgate Inn.

She started to imagine their plans for the day, when they would roughly be able to head out, if they had all the supplies.

And with these thoughts, sleep claimed her soon enough.

...

It was no use.

Her eyes kept snapping open – she couldn't sleep at all. She kept tossing and turning, thinking incessantly how she needed to fall asleep already. That hardly helped. The more she thought about it, the more impossible it was.

Bishop was already asleep again. He looked really exhausted after his nightmare, but this time, he actually seemed to be resting calmly. At least his distress didn't keep her up, though it was not as if it helped. She couldn't sleep anyway.

With an almost silent groan, she disentangled herself from Bishop's embrace. She was worried that her movement would wake him, but he really seemed to be hard asleep. That was good. He needed the rest. So did she, but nothing could be done about that, apparently.

Maybe she was too anxious about the potential nightmares. It was silly, really. She wouldn't even remember them. What was she so worried about?

She just needed to do something else for a while. To concentrate on something enough to take her mind off sleeping.

She shimmied across the bed towards the foot of it. She was squished between Bishop and the wall and there was really no other way to go. Luckily, Bishop still didn't wake. Not even when she managed to get off the bed and locate her pack. She hastily threw some clothes on and moved towards the small table in the room.

She wanted to look at the map again. Or count her gold. She wasn't sure how much she had left after the supplies shopping.

She pulled out her coin purse from her pack and a few washcloths to put on the table in order to prevent any noise that could rile Bishop up. She began to put down the coins on the washcloth slowly, one by one. Master Therien once told her that this kind of slow counting could put people to sleep really fast. She used to try, back when she was little and couldn't sleep in the new place, but it never worked. She could never concentrate on it too long, whether she was trying to count something real or some imaginary animals she conjured up in her mind for the task. Maybe this time she would be more lucky though.