Uneasy Alliance (A Roleslaying with Roman story)

The Comfort

Youngblood shot up when Noise screamed. He drew his sword and whipped around to look into the cave from outside, where he was keeping watch. The fire in the center of the cave was still going strong, casting a gentle orange glow over the entire inside of the cave. Noise was sitting up, slouched over, with a hand to his throat. His hair had fallen to cover his face like a curtain, and Youngblood could see that he was trembling violently.

Roman had woken up as well, and he and Youngblood shared a look. Youngblood sheathed his sword and walked over to Noise. Roman stayed back, not wanting to overwhelm Noise. Youngblood knelt down in front of him and leaned forward a bit to try to meet his gaze. "Noise? Are you okay?"

Noise didn't respond, breathing heavily and staring fixedly at a spot on the ground in front of him. Youngblood waved his hand in front of Noise's face slowly. "Noise?"

Noise looked up, seemingly startled. "Hm? Oh.. yeah... sorry.."

He looked away and laid back down. Youngblood pulled Noise back up gently. "What happened?"

Noise shook his head, still not meeting Youngblood's eyes. "Just my legs... sorry for waking you guys up.."

Youngblood put his hand on Noise's chin and gently made him look up at him. His eye was filled with tears and his ears were pinned back. Youngblood looked at him worriedly as he continued to tremble. "You don't have to talk about it, but please don't pretend that you're fine when you're clearly not."

Noise nodded and leaned forward to bury his face into Youngblood's shoulder, being careful to not stab him with his horns. Youngblood picked him up gently and looked back at Roman again briefly before going outside to continue keeping watch. Noise had calmed down considerably by the time Youngblood sat against the stone wall, and Noise propped himself up against the wall beside Youngblood.

Neither of them said anything for a while, but after a few minutes, Noise yawned and leaned over onto Youngblood's shoulder. Youngblood pulled Noise back into his arms and started to sing to him quietly. Noise perked up slightly and looked up at Youngblood, recognizing the words.

"You remember our song.."

Youngblood stopped singing and smiled down at him. "Of course I do. I wrote it for you, didn't I?"

Noise felt his face get warm and he hid himself against Youngblood's chest, hoping that he wouldn't see. After a moment, Youngblood started to sing again and Noise slowly fell asleep, helped by the subtle sleeping enchantment that Youngblood laced into his words.

This would become routine over the next few months. At the end of the day, the boys would try to come up with a plan to overthrow the Bard King while they ate dinner, Roman would read his journal, Youngblood would go out to keep watch, Roman and Noise would fall asleep, then Noise would wake up from a nightmare and go to curl up in Youngblood's arms to fall back asleep.

But everything would change at the start of spring.