Uneasy Alliance (A Roleslaying with Roman story)

The Winter

Noise quite enjoyed walking through the quiet, snow-covered forest. He had never been allowed outside the college, and he was eternally grateful for the new sense of freedom that Roman and Youngblood had given him. He reveled in the fact that he was no longer held to the insane expectations the Bard King held him to. No longer tied to the harsh mantras that had been drilled into him since he was a child. No longer required to hurt people just for the sake of not getting hurt himself.

Noise was finally free. He felt a sense of safety and security around the other two boys, and he was overall happier when they were around. Aside from the comfort and freedom his friends brought him, however, he found it hard to adjust to living outside of the college. He had never thought that he was particularly spoiled, but living out in the woods with limited resources was a bit of a learning curve for him. For one thing, he had a very difficult time falling and staying asleep every night. This in and of itself was normal, considering that he was prone to nightmares and was often too stressed out to fall asleep properly. Now, that was coupled with the cold, hard, uneven stone floors that he had had to settle down on, the thin sleeping bag the only thing bringing him even the slightest bit of comfort. He had woken up the past few weeks with his back and legs aching from the lack of support. This was paired with the persistent nightmares that haunted him in the few hours of sleep he did manage to scrape together, making him much more tired and irritable than usual. Luckily, he had managed to use hunting as an outlet so that he didn't take his frustrations out on Roman and Youngblood.

The other major problem that he had to adjust to was the scarcity of food. He and Youngblood had to go out daily to try and find what few small rabbits and birds that they could to keep themselves fed. Roman, being Roman, never accompanied them on their hunting trips, because he didn't want to see the animals hurt. Instead, he opted to try and find any sort of edible vegetation that he could. This turned out to be, quite literally, a fruitless endeavor, but he would still eat a little bit if Noise and Youngblood had finished cooking whatever they had caught before he got back, always feeling awful when he couldn't give them anything in return.

Noise, who had always had the luxury of getting three full-course meals every day, was taking this change very gracefully in his opinion. Of course, the situation did nothing to help his irritability, but he was able to drown it out with the sentiment that the less that reminded him of the college, the better.

This was another reason why he'd appreciated the new outfits that the boys had gotten him. He agreed that the absence of the uniform worked wonders on his mental state, reinforcing the sense of freedom that he had gained, and tying him closer to his friends. It also seemed to draw Youngblood to him more, which he would never complain about. He silently praised Roman for being able to pick out clothes warm enough for the winter that they all still looked good in. Noise had offered to give Youngblood back his scarf when they had given him a new black eyepatch with silver stars embroidered into it, but the elf simply smiled and shook his head. Noise kept the scarf wrapped around his neck after he washed the dark splotches out of it, keeping it close as he was too nervous to ask Youngblood to be that close to him.

Noise had lost his rapier when the Bard King had locked him away, so along with the outfit, the boys had gotten him a set of daggers that he kept securely in a sheathed belt, which he had made from the hides of the rabbits that he and Youngblood had caught. He had gotten in a fair bit of practice with the daggers while hunting, but he would also go out of the cave whenever he woke up from a nightmare. He would practice throwing them into specific grooves of trees to release his tension, much to the apparent worry of whichever of the other two was awake, keeping watch.

Serving as a much more effective form of positivity should have been the fact that, thanks to Youngblood, they always had the benefit of fire, even if they couldn't find suitable firewood. This meant that at the very least, they would be able to stay warm through the winter. At first, Noise took comfort in this, but the longer that he stared into the bright blue flames, the more he felt the heat coming off of them. The more he remembered the searing pain as the flames licked up his arm...

He stopped sleeping close to the fire after the third nightmare.