In the Valley of a Thousand Footprints

[xix] Warriors and Veterans of Life

They returned to find Clytyn waiting at the stables. He folded his arms and walked over to them, clicking his tongue. They smiled upon seeing him and braced themselves for the dressing down, considering that it was far past the agreed meeting time. 

"Where the hell were you two?" He questioned, a air of annoyance about him, "I was getting really worried."

"We had our respective adventures," Efa said smirking, hoping Clytyn would ask what they were.

"Okay then," he shrugged, "I won't bother asking."

Efa silently cursed.

"Well, I'll give a slight rundown of what I've been up to." He puffed his chest and started, "I went to the bazar and snooped around. Bought a few things, rations, clothes, you get the point. Groomed the horses, cleared up the stables a bit, organized our stuff, went about asking directions for establishments that may end up being useful and explored the city." He glared at Efa. "So you can see that I've been quite. . . busy."

Laughing, Efa punched his arm lightly. "Thanks Cly, lets all just get to bed. I can barely stand on my feet, and Elli is gonna drop dead any minute now."

Clytyn grumbled a bit but settled down soon. The three of them lay down on the hay of one of the stable stalls. Their equine friends were grazing about in a nearby grassy patch. Ellian was happily sleeping before his head even hit the hay. He slept soundly, snuggled comfortably between Efa and Clytyn. Efa tossed about a little but dozed off soon. Clytyn sat up thinking about how his life had changed in the past few weeks. Meeting these two was probably one of the best things to happen in a long time huh. . . 

Efa awoke late the next morning, only to realize that the other two were still asleep. She smiled slightly at their sleeping silhouettes and rose and stretched, plodding groggily to check on the horses. It was quite a joyous instance of being able to sleep in the safety of a city after a week of camping in the great outdoors. Efa found a bucket of water and refreshed herself, splashing it on her face and through her hair, tying it back. 

She took stock of their inventory and put together a simple meal of bread, butter and jerky, with water to wash it down. She whimpered in disappointment thinking of the luxurious feast she had had last night at the captain's house. Wynne. . . her thoughts wandered, I wonder if Winfraeid managed to find Aelieystr, hopefully they didn't kill each other. Ah shit, Aelieystr had a letter for me to deliver, and Winfraeid also wanted to talk more about things. I guess we aren't leaving for a while. Best we stock up on things, though we don't have any money. . . I don't really want to steal, yet. Ugh wake up Cly, I need to discuss this with you. 

But the two of them slept on. Efa got bored and decided to plot their next few steps, spreading out the maps over the ground under a nearby tree. She traced a finger from Cayrnr to Mynwent then to Thimbl, then gazing around to find where the roads from Thimbl lead to. Pulling back a little, she tried to scan the greater path to Targarth. 

They were currently in the lower Vale, rather close to the border to the central Vale. It was indicated that there was a expansive mountain range that acted as the border to the two. The central Vale seemed to be a low, dry, prairie, at least near the route that they were planning to take. Efa gulped thinking of the heat there. At her best estimate if everything went alright, they would reach Targarth by the month end. She wondered if they could join up with a caravan instead of riding on alone through the vast expanse, she would have to ask around. 

Her mind jumped to the followers of fire. According to Ellian they were in Thimbl, in the sewers under their feet. What they were doing here, Efa dreaded to think. After her first encounter with them at Cayrnr, she had had two more, once at Mynwent when Ellian's mother had passed and again in the Grieving Basin when they had fought against those airborne assailants. Those shits were there that day because Cly had exposed our position with that amulet. I get that they want Elli to wrap up loose ends and Cly turned traitor to them so fair enough, but I can't quite place why they're out for me. It can't be cause of Cayrnr, nobody saw me escape that day. My connection with Pagnodd. . .? Perhaps—but then again—