Passion

On the Move: Part 2

Night time sprints were becoming a recurring activity in Miyuki's life. It was nearly pitch black and the roads to the Western Forest weren't the smoothest. Had Elara not been as great a horse as she is, they would have never made it there in one piece-- certainly not at the speed they were going. Given that Miyuki had no time to get Sawamura a horse, the strain on Elara was even greater. Her hooves took the brunt of impact and it was only when they had arrived at the Forest tree line that Miyuki noticed a considerable limp in her stride. 

"Dammit," he hissed as he briefly inspected her hind leg. 

He couldn't pinpoint the source of her pain and he didn't have time to with them out in the open like this. He grabbed their packs from her saddle carrier and grabbed at the reins. Sawamura motioned to dismount but was stopped when Miyuki assured him that it'd be better for him to stay up there. Should someone attack again, Miyuki gave him clear orders to take Elara to safety. They walked like this for about an hour, determined to make it to the denser parts of the forest before stopping. Miyuki spotted a run-down cottage and left Sawamura and Elara twenty yards away while he inspected it.

The cottage had broken windows and shattered glass blanketed the porch. As he walked up the stairs, the wooden boards creaked. It was definitely abandoned-- the house hadn't been cared for in many moons. With a still hand, Miyuki carefully opened the door, ready for anything it would reveal. Inside, he found flipped chairs and upside down tables. The furniture looked ransacked and raggedy. Oh how the place reeked of trouble; however, there was nothing more like this in the these woods, that he knew of. It'd be a shame to let it go to waste. It was still night time and Elara was hurt. He didn't have any better ideas.

After reining Elara in, he and Sawamura inspected the rest of the grounds. Out back, they found a shed that could definitely fit a horse. Sawamura tasked himself with finding some grass to lay in the shed while Miyuki took the chance to feed her.

"I'm sorry, beautiful. I know it's been hard on you." He brushed her coat with his hand, attempting to comfort her. She was used to trials like this. After all, she had fought a three-year war alongside him. Looks like today just got the best of her, though.

"I found a pond not too far from here, and it had this really soft grass nearby. I grabbed as much as I could carry. Here, lay her down in here."

With Elara now resting on the heaps of grass Sawamura brought back, he rolled up his sleeves and began to massage her leg.

"What are you doing?"

"Miyuki, you do know I'm a stable hand, right? I literally work with horses every day. I'm checking her injuries."

Miyuki was taken aback by Sawamura's confident declaration. In the short time that he's known him, the General had only seen him as timid. He's glad that at least some of Sawamura had been preserved, left untouched by the horrors he had experienced recently. The confidence that the stable boy radiated now was refreshing, and brought out Miyuki's playfulness.

"Well then, doctor. What's the diagnosis?" he smirked and walked up behind Sawamura.

He glanced over his shoulder and tried to ignore the proximity of the General in favor of returning his focus to Elara's leg.

"I can't be absolutely certain," he said as he cleared his throat, "but, uh, I think she just pulled a muscle."

Sawamura grabbed Miyuki's hand and brought it to where he had been massaging a few moments ago. 

"See," he said softly, "feel how tense that is? It means something's not right." He pulled his hand a little bit further and stopped again. "Somewhere around here."