Traveller

Three

Joel padded into his tent quietly, careful not to wake the sleeping figure across from him.
"Any word on her?" A sleepy voice murmured through the sea of blackness. Joel chuckled.
"I thought you were asleep, Tristam."
"Ah, well you thought wrong, my friend." Tristam sat up, his figure only an outline in the darkness. "How long were you in there..?" He asked sheepishly. Joel smirked.
"You did fall asleep, didn't you?"
"Only for like five minutes... I think." They both chuckle quietly.
"About half and hour, to answer your question. She started to fall asleep, but jolted awake rather suddenly. Told me it was the flashbacks in her head." Joel explained, untying his shoes and slipping them off, then doing the same with his sword and sheathe.
"Flashbacks?" He could feel Tristam's eyebrows raise. "Enough to make her shoot awake in fear?"
"Yep." Joel nodded. "My guess is PTSD. Not surprising, considering she came from the MI."
"But didn't you say she was a rank four? They're pretty highly honored, if I'm not mistaken." Tristam was wide awake now, voice dripping with interest.
"I'd assume so," Joel paused to turn on his lamp, since they were making conversation that likely wasn't going to stop until three in the morning. "But the MI are also very aggressive and push their agents to the limit, from what I've seen. It's probably every man for himself out there. Only the strongest survive."
Tristam hummed in agreement and nodded thoughtfully. "So you think she's weak."
"No, no, not at all!" He exclaimed quickly. "You'd have to be pretty strong mentally to put up with that until you're a rank four. Plus, she looked pretty well built."
Tristam smirked and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, grow up." Joel snapped playfully, smacking him with a pillow.
"Hey!" The latter laughed, falling onto his back. "I'm gonna report you for bullying, Mr. Hunt!"
"Only after you give me your lunch tomorrow!" Joel mocked, breaking into a soft giggle at the end of his sentence.
"A growing man needs his veggies."
"Didn't you stop growing in high school?" Joel inquires, taking his helmet off and setting it beside his bead.
"Doesn't mean I'm not," Tristam flexes and deepens his voice. "Built."
Joel snort and laughs quietly. "Yeah, built like a cup of pudding."
"Oh whatever! I'm way more fit than you anyway." He chuckles.
"Alright. Let's go running on a patrol tomorrow."
"What?"
"I didn't stutter. If you're so fit, then why don't you race me?" Joel smirked, thinking he had the younger one beat, only to have Tristam reply with,
"You want to go running? Dude, you can't run! You're so unhealthy!"
"What?" Now it was Joel's turn to question.
"We run for five seconds and you'll like, fall down and die or something."
"Shut up!" He snapped playfully, both of them breaking out into giggles.
"Whatever. I think I'm gonna go in and check on the girl tomorrow morning, assuming I'm not taking the dawn patrol."
"Ah, you would've been notified. And are you sure that's a good idea? She's very jumpy and paranoid at the moment." Joel said, voice having an edge of worry to it.
"It'll be ok. I'll just go in to tell Laura that I don't feel well or something, then try to make conversation with the girl." Tristam said casually, waving a hand.
"Alright... just, try and be quick about it; Monstercat still needs to speak with her."
"Sure thing, father." He chuckled, voice clouded with sleep.
"Whatever. You sound tired, might wanna get to bed." Joel chuckled lightly, cutting his lamp off.
"On it..."

-

Rebel's eyes fluttered open to the weak light of dawn. Soft shuffling sounded every few moments; she assumed it was Laura.
"Ah, you're awake!" A kind voice said. "How'd you sleep, Rebel?"
Rebel took a glance at Laura. She had long brown hair that looked incredibly soft, a small, frail figure, and a kind face. Clearly a healer.
"I-I slept alright.. th-thank you.." she murmured softly.
"No problem, hon." She went back to sorting through various diffent bottles and medicines, then paused for a moment. "How are you feeling? Your side was cut pretty deep."
"U-Uh yeah.. I feel alright.. th-there's not much pain. Only when I move."
"That's expected. You can get up and move around, just be very careful not to tear your stitches."
Rebel sat up slowly, wincing as a sharp pain jolted throughout her side.
"Oh," she added. "Monstercat wishes to speak to you."