glory and gore | a Star Wars story

4

The earthy smell of moss and wet soil stung in Hux's nose. The sharp, white pain that ran through his leg each time he put his weight to it had not ceased, but he had grown used to it and now it had become more or less bearable. So instead he bit down and swallowed the urge to stop and sink to the ground, which was green and appeared to be so lenient beneath his booths. Besides, despite how much he detested the master of the knights of Ren, he did not wish to be left alone. He suspected that he would be if he complained, or increased the steady pace they kept. For beneath the surface of the forest, that at first glance appeared so tender, rested a sinister unawareness of what hid behind the thick trees, beneath the murky waters they had passed where waterlilies had decorated the surface of the tranquil water. A fog had entered the landscape as fire smoke, it danced around the roots of the trees and swirled around their legs as they divide it. The last beams of the sun made the riotous mist glow, at the spots where the trees did not catch the sunlight before the air did.

"It seems unoccupied" the words had come without a warning, Ren's voice was flat and he cared not to cast an eye to his right.

"The Supreme Leader will not be pleased" Hux declared with a sigh. He flinched and turned his head when a noise came from behind them. Wary eyes searched between the trees, and he stopped for a brief moment.

"The Supreme Leader doesn't have to know" the taller man didn't pay a second thought to the unknown sound and neither did he wait for Hux.

"He will know, whether you choose to tell him or not" he hurried after, in order to catch up, but still glanced over his shoulder from time to time just to assure himself that they were still alone. Yet, he believed he could see rapid movements behind the branches and the thick mist that seemed to have a will of its own. Hux was, what you might call, a rational man. He believed not in superstition, and cared for it less. The force he had little patience with, but had learn that it was a fact he couldn't wave away as nonsense. The man besides him was mostly the cause to that, for the General had seen Ren do things no man alone should be capable of. Less a man as impetuous as him. "And I would suggest that you inform him, if you do not wish to reduce his faith in you"

"I don't need your advise"

"Well, it appears that you do" Hux ignore the bitterness in Ren's voice while he continued in the same unbothered manner as earlier. His hands were locked behind his back, and after the crash and the little conflict he had fought with himself, he had managed to restore his pride. "If you had followed my advice we wouldn't now foind ourselves in this dreaded situation"

"If you would just have let me handle this alone none of this would have happened" he fumed, which caused a few of the birds above them to leave. The broad man had stopped, he remained on the ground as the fog twisted and turned along his legs and the dark cloak he wore. Hux ceased to walk, as well, while he waited for Ren to continue with a clenched jaw. It had not come as a surprise to him that once one of them opened their mouth, it would eventually lead to an argument. It helped not that he felt the last drops of patience run out of his body and land on the green moss beneath him, where raindrops rested as small pearls. Therefore he bit his tongue. Ren, on the other hand, had no intentions to stop just yet. "You're a coward, Hux" he uttered while he took a harsh step closer to the ginger haired man. "Stop trying to win my respect, you'll never get it"

He should have shot him whilst he could, Hux thought when his cheeks flushed with loathe. "You think that it's my will to be here?" he wondered with his head to the side while he gestured at their surroundings with his gloved hand. "To watch after you so that you don't do something half witted? Which you already have managed to do during the short period of time I've been with you?" he arched his brows, it was with triumph he noticed that no reply came from the motionless shape before him. "Don't think for a second that I came here because I want your approval, Ren" he spat, and sensed how his inhales were shallow and rapid. "Now" he breathed as an attempt to calm himself down while he ran a hand through his hair. "We need to find a way to inform the Order about where we are if we wish to leave this place" with that said he turned his heels.