Falcon's Flight

Five

Fen woke up as soon as it started to get light. Her leg ached as she rolled onto her back and sat up. Shan Yu was, unsurprisingly, awake. He was sitting nearby, under a tree.
“Did you even sleep last night?” He looked up and over at her.
“Yes, I did,” he said. Fen just nodded and scrambled to her feet. “Can you walk?”
“Of course I can,” said Fen as she started to walk over to him. She stumbled as her leg hurt a little more now she was standing on it but it was manageable.

Looking through the trees, she noticed the sky was a beautiful mixture of blues, pinks and oranges. She hadn't appreciated the beauty of a sunrise in a while. Some birds had started the morning off by chirping in their nests.

“You didn't wake me up to keep watch,” she said.
“There was no need to,” he said. As he started kicking up the grass where they had been sitting and lying. “Besides, it seemed like you needed the sleep.”

“I thought there were soldiers following us,” she said.
“There might be, there might not be. I didn't see any but if there are some men after us, they are probably not close by.”
“Do you know that because of Hayabusa?” Fen asked. Speaking of the bird reminded her that she had no idea where the falcon was. Shan Yu nodded.

Hearing a screech, Fen looked up to see Hayabusa perched on a branch, eating whatever prey it had caught. She smiled, glad the bird was eating even if she probably couldn't.

“We need to keep moving,” he said. Fen nodded in agreement. That sounded like a good idea. The further away from China, the better, apparently. It was still a strange though but it was one she was ignoring. If she dealt with it now, they probably wouldn’t get very far and if they didn’t get very far, there was more chance of dying.

It wasn’t long before they reached a stream. Fen cleaned the graze from the arrow. It was stopped bleeding but she cleaned the makeshift bandage and wrapped it around her leg anyway, she didn’t want to risk it getting dirty. While she was dealing with her leg, she watched as Shan Yu checked his side where he had gotten the injury days before. In fact, it was quite a few days before, probably weeks. And if she had been travelling with Shan Yu for weeks, Fen had known him for weeks. That too was a strange thought she tried to ignore.

Shan Yu noticed her eyes watching him and realising he had noticed, Fen turned back to her leg. It would probably be fine, she was probably worrying too much.