A Journey Always Begins With The First Step

[adi]

In the panic of being dragged around the corner, Hrothgar quickly spun to avoid smacking Aiden's head on side of the wall. In the process he smartly scraped his elbow against the brick. His face scrunched silently into the only humiliatingly pained expression that can only come from funny-bone smackage. He dug his face into his free shoulder until the urge to shout faded, straining to hear the old woman and the guard as they maneuvered towards the inn.

Aiden had been reaching for the knife when he and Kei had found him--the knife he had stupidly wrapped and put into his own bag! Had Aiden been beaten up in the library and came to the room, since the innkeeper mentioned she recognized whoever had the knife? But the room was obviously looked through and in shambles-- surely a boy as injured as Aiden was couldn't have caused such a ruckus-- and Hrothgar didn't recall a lot of blood around the room. And if Aiden hadn't been the one she had seen, then... then what? Fuck, if the scholar had known he would have run into this deep of trouble by leaving school he would have stayed. The nightmares seemed so much less troublesome in comparison to being caught up in the middle of something like this.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath, after he heard the door close behind the innkeeper and guardsmen. He stood as close to the wall as the body half-over his shoulder would allow-- either of those two catching sight of them out of the window out of the corner of their eye was the last thing they needed. "Okay..." he floundered, unsure of what to do.

If he ran off with Aiden to find medical help, and left Kei to eavesdrop, she might be discovered and forced into an inconvenience like questioning or even framed for the police's own convenience. "No, not okay. This is very fucked up,and I don't know what to do," he admitted quietly, massaging the bald patch of his eyebrow. "Aiden needs help, but we can't just leave him. Fuck."

[Nayt]

Something decidedly unhelpful to Kei's nerves was Hrothgar losing his. Until now, he was about the closest thing she had to something rational and intellectually capable in this mess of a situation. Suddenly, Kei had two options presented to her: freak the hell out or man up and clean this mess up. The former was surprisingly tempting. She stood next to Hrothgar with her back flat against the wall. She took in deep breaths and fought the urge to pant.

Regrettably, freaking the hell out was not an option for the time being. Kei was left with only the alternative: man up and solve the problem.

"O-okay," she whispered.

Kei took in a deep breath. With everything else in her life, literally every job and physical task she'd ever undertaken, this "man up and find a solution" came easy to her. She was deceptively strong and could work for hours upon hours without rest. Manning up did not come difficultly to her. Except with the average job, lives were not on the line. A person or persons was not going to die from her negligence.

"Okay." This time a bit more self assured.

She took in another deep breath. Now, she thought about the situation as a whole. They couldn't take Aiden to a clinic even if Ceildh had a clinic. They couldn't take him to a general store or market. Being spotted was effectively a death sentence . . . probably to all three of them, actually. So long as they were with Aiden, they were likely to be found guilty by association. That meant they had to temporarily get rid of Aiden to solve the crisis of Aiden's health. It was a bit of a quandary, one that seemed to contradict itself by nature, but Kei remembered an idea she thought of earlier, right before the innkeeper and militiaman sent her and Hroth both into full panic.

"Okay," Kei stepped away from the wall. She fully adopted a visage of confidence and faced Hrothgar with a decision of the utmost importance, "Get out of town. Go north. Hide somewhere you can see the road. I'll get some medicine and bandages and bring them your way."

[adi]

"Okay," Hrothgar nodded dumbly, at a loss for words. He shifted Aiden's body gently to get readjust and renew his grip, as well as to pin the strap of his satchel under the boy's dead weight to keep from slipping. He fumbled for a moment, digging around in his satchel. "That is better then what I've got. Okay. Uhm. Hold on."

"Here," Without hesitation, he withdrew his wallet and shoved it in Kei's hands. It contained the last of the money he had withdrawn since leaving school, as well as the coin he had earned just earlier that day. He didn't waste time saying so, or that he trusted Kei with it. There wasn't exactly time to do so, and he was afraid of sounding selfish or attempting to guilt-trip Kei in an already stressful situation. "I don't care what is or isn't left over. Just get the best you can, okay?"

With that said, the scholar had nothing left to say. With a small nod of departing, he hurriedly headed towards the edge of town. He would slow his pace as soon as he reached a substantial distance away as he began to double-back towards the road north of Ceildh, but at the moment getting out of sight and earshot was most important.

Hrothgar avoided making too much noise by sticking close to animal-made paths between the trees. Once he felt he was far away enough to not worry so much about attracting audible attention he strayed further. He tumbled through thicker patches of undergrowth in what was hopefully a straight and direct line until the north road was visible in the dark. He continued north after that, being sure to keep the road in sight until the last of his adrenaline began to fade. He wasn't sure how far he had gone, but after what felt like a panic-stricken eternity, he had to sit and rest.

He laid Aiden down carefully, laying him down on his stomach, to avoid putting pressure on his back wounds and sat with an exhausted sigh against a tree. The ground was slanted to a greater degree then he remembered the road being from two days prior. He forced himself up from his sit immediately, momentarily panicking that he had maybe gone on the wrong direction. The hill overlooked the road as it curved towards Ceildh. Thankfully, as he looked down towards the road and his eyes followed it, he had been heading in the right direction.

The trees didn't seem to be sparse enough to immediately give away that he and Aiden were up there, and seemed to work surprisingly well as a lookout over the road. He shifted Aiden so that his feet pointed towards the bottom of the hill, not wanting him to somehow roll onto his back if he was negligent. He sat down again, pausing to move the sheet away from Aiden's face to allow him better air flow and leaned back against the tree. That didn't last for very long however, as the sight of Aiden's face unnerved him. He could see both the sheet and blades of grass move as he breathed, and how his chest rose and fall shallowly, but that didn't stop his peaceful looking pale face any less stressful and dead-looking. Hrothgar maneuvered the boy's head to face the opposite direction, bunching up the sheet beneath his head as a sort of cushion against the ground.. Satisfied that Aiden was no longer somehow watching him behind closed eyelids, he leaned back against the tree. The bark dug sharply into his back and in a way he was thankful he wasn't exactly comfortable.

If it was comfortable, he might have fallen asleep. He leaned forward on his knees and gnawed on the scant remains of his fingernails. Though he wasn't sure he had ever been so physically exhausted to this level before in his life, he didn't want to risk falling asleep and having nightmares. When he had been back in school they had been relentless, and that was with the stress of schooling alone! Hrothgar was truly afraid of what horror his sleep might conjure if he tried to sleep now. Besides that, he had to keep an eye out for Kei. Eventually he took to simply biting his fingertips and worrying the skin of them in small pinches between his teeth to keep awake.

[Nayt]

Kei accepted the wallet without protest. Under any other circumstances, she'd have told him to keep his money and that she'd take care of the bill. The truth of the situation, though, was less that she didn't have the money to cover a medical bill. She hadn't the slightest clue what Aiden needed and she'd every intent to buy every Goddamn thing that seemed useful and just hope that she and Hrothgar could put their heads together and pretend to be doctors, at least for an hour or two, before praying for a miracle.

"See you soon," Kei said to him before turning away.

Truth be told, the second she was no longer in Hrothgar's presence, Kei nearly lost it again. Her knees suddenly felt heavy and she had to fight back the want to fall. She paused, took in deep breaths, and composed herself to the very best of her ability. I can do this, Kei thought to herself, I can save this kid.

So she tried to do just that. Kei checked first for a local clinic. She found one, but the doctor was out. Weird. Okay. She tried a pharmacy. There was no pharmacy. Disappointing. Okay. She tried an herbalist. Bingo.

It was nearly forty-five minutes before Kei could actually get out of Ceildh. By then, she had no money. Not on her end or on Hrothgar's. She'd purchased, as she expected, every Goddamn thing that seemed useful for this situation, and it was all terrifyingly expensive. She had a satchel (also purchased for the sake of carrying everything) filled to the brim with antibacterials, bandages, and a range of salves from Ulsterian tribal to (old) Greoul sophisticated. The herbalist talked her into the whole nine yards. The satchel was over her right shoulder and heavy, but its weight did little but droop her shoulder a few centimeters. She left town without a second thought.

Walking along the path, Kei couldn't help but look behind her repeatedly. She was scared half to death that someone, a militiaman or something, was following her. Here, she'd gone into town and picked up all these medicines and bandages like she was treating an army or trying to raise the dead, and in the absence of an army near Ceildh, there was a nearly dead boy that was reported to the militia as nearly dead. This was the only nearly dead person in town, to her knowledge, and she had stayed with him. The old lady saw that.

Kei's suspicions were perfectly justified, though no proof for or against was available. She took in deep breaths as she made her way down the path, trying to look behind her just a little less, and hoping to all that was holy that Hrothgar would see her on the path, wherever he was. Somewhere, somehow, and sometime soon . . .

[adi]

Hrothgar had resorted to sitting on his hands to keep from completely decimating his cuticles, watching the road nervously for signs of Kei. He did not sit for very long, however, as his anxiety got the better of him and he began to pace. He walked in a small circle around Aiden. Hrothgar only went only so far as to keep the boy's form in sight which did not allow for much distance in the dark, but he did find a better vantage point of the road a little further down the hill.

He probably paced that small path from Aiden's side to the vantage point as many times as Kei checked behind her. What if she didn't come, what if she had just taken his wallet and ran? Though she seemed adamant about a hard day's work and seemed like an honest person-- this situation was on all accounts extreme. And people were known to do selfish things when situations were extreme, weren't they? If he was in Kei's position the thought would cross his mind to take the money, run, and let him deal with it all. Which probably would be just his luck, he mused. Perhaps less luck, and more of some kind of karmic justice for ditching his own responsibilities of the university and familial expectations.

By the time that he saw the slightest hint of movement in the shadows of the horizon, Hrothgar was sure that he had worn a furrow into the ground with so many worries it could make a matching pair with the one in his own forehead. He half-ducked behind a tree, and waited and watched as the figure approached. It was a silly thing to do. He doubted anyone would be staring up at the hills as they walked, and they would be able to see very little in the dark and at a lower angle then he was, but he still did it. As it became apparent it was a woman with a large satchel,
Hrothgar couldn't be sure it was Kei, but honestly who the hell else could it be?

He began making his way down the hill. He tried to be quiet about it, but he was never very graceful on the most even of footing. When he got closer and he realized it was who he believed it to be, he lost all pretenses of being quiet or stealthy and essentially stumbled down through the underbrush as quickly as his feet would allow. He couldn't think of anything much to say to alert to her that it was him and not someone dangerous, which he realized seconds after he started to make noise. He settled for halting at the treeline and waving and gesturing her over.

[Nayt]

By the time Hroth made his move, Kei was fearing the worst. What if Hroth and Aiden were found while she was gone? Or, worse: what if he abandoned Aiden and ran? This was an extreme situation, after all, and in extreme situations, people often took extreme measures.

At first, hearing something coming down the brush was almost enough to make Kei lose her nerve entirely. She expected law enforcement or worse. Her spine froze and she stopped walking all at once. Her teeth clenched together and all the muscles in her arms and legs tensed as if she were prepared to sprint or box with righteous aggression. Luckily, when she hesitantly looked to the tree-line, she did not find a militiaman, a highwayman, or anything of the like. Instead, she found Hrothgar, just as nervous as she, motioning for her to follow him.

Kei checked behind her once more. Content that no one seemed to be following her, she darted into the brush and past the tree-line, following Hroth behind.

"I spent it all," she reported once she was behind Hroth, "I'm sorry."

But it was well worth it. Kei passed the satchels to Hrothgar at the first opportunity, and were he to check what was within, he'd find more than enough herbal and pharmaceutical remedies, enough that they could just pretend to be doctors for a day and still save someone from heart failure.

[adi]

"I wouldn't have told you get the best you could if I wanted any change," he said, though he furrowed his brow, clearly not carefully monitoring what passed his tired lips. That was not exactly what he meant- he had hoped and wished there was change left over, but his mind was not exactly functioning at the moment to place eloquence over action. "Er.."

"Whatever. Don't worry. It's okay," Hrothgar brushed the topic off as he was handed the satchel. He didn't bother to open it until they made it up the hill where Aiden lay. Hrothgar was more relieved than anything that Kei came through for Aiden than he was upset over the loss of his entire budget. He knew that there was a possibility regret for that could come later, but there was no point in lamenting it now. He wasn't hungry yet, and he didn't really need an inn to sleep at so long as the weather stayed dry.

He set the satchel open above Aiden's head, and carefully unwrapped the boy from the sheet. The layers closest to him had to be peeled more than unwrapped, but he tried to be as careful as he could about it, removing it completely and setting it by the satchel He was glad that he made the common sense decision to lay the boy on his stomach, if he had laid him on his back the sheets would probably much messier than they already were. They could tear the cleaner sections of it for bandages if they ran out of those from the satchel.

Hrothgar rummaged around until found a bottle of disinfectant and poured it into a square of cotton. It stung his fingertips, but it he took it as a sign it was genuine. With Kei, they pretended to be doctors as best they could. When he felt they used almost everything in their new bag of tricks, he began to recap all the jars and bottles and clean up. He wasn't sure what to do with the bloodied squares of cotton used for cleaning, so he simply gathered them up and tore off a corner of the sheet to wrap them in. It probably would do nothing to hide the smell from animals, but the harsh scent of medicine would rather drive them away rather than entice them, right? Besides, he couldn't leave them sitting around as an obvious trail.

He scooted back on his hands to give Aiden space and stared up at the sky between the branches. It was a little surreal, trying to go over the events of just the past two days. He had many things he could say about it, but none of them particularly were all that constructive.

"Hey Kei," he said, folding his arms over his knees. He knew Kei probably was tired and wished to sleep, but he never could know when he reached the point of true exhaustion. Even then he was not sure that would guarantee a sleep without nightmares after this ordeal. "I was really afraid you'd ditch. 'Cause I probably would have if I was you. So, uh. Thanks for coming through for Aiden. He'd probably thank you if he could. And me, too, I guess. Thanks for coming through for me, too."

[Nayt]

By the end of it, Kei had seated herself mere feet from Hrothgar's side. She'd helped him with Aiden as some sort of mock nurse. Somehow, someway, this actually worked . . . or at least, they hoped it worked. There was regrettably no way to prove if they'd done the right thing, at least not right now. If they could get Aiden to another town with a serious doctor, where no wanted posters advertised the bounty on his head, then they'd know if they'd succeeded or not. As it was, they could only have hope, but the fact that they had pretty good materials to use helped.

Kei was tired. The whole day was exhausting; all day, they'd gone from one extreme task to the other. It was about time they had a moment to rest. Unlike Hrothgar, Kei was sitting up rather than leaning on anything in particular, but when she glanced at him leaning against the base of a tree, she found it awfully tempting.

"Hey . . . don't sweat it," Kei replied as warmly as she could. She was without a doubt fatigued; she even sounded out of breath. "I was just doing the right thing."

She glanced to her right, to Horthgar, then to her left. She took in a deep breath, followed by a long yawn. She gently slapped her fingers against her cheek, a light slap to wake herself up. This regrettably did not work. Sleep was guaranteed in the near future.

"I just hope good karma comes in handy one of these days," she joked tiredly.

[adi]

Hrothgar nodded and made a small noise in agreement, still mostly keeping his gaze skyward. He was not feeling up to adding his opinion, that maybe this was karma for him running away from his past problems? University did not seem nearly as strenuous as the past two days had been- he felt almost nostalgiac for the smell of over burnt candles and ink. He didn't really know. He didn't want to think about it, either. He regretted leaving and coming to Ceildh in the first place, but at the same was somehow pleased.

He felt like he had somehow reached out and plucked some invisible string of fate by helping Aiden- maybe the kid was really important in the grand scheme of things. If he ended up living. Or maybe Hrothgar had just read too many books and was filled with wishful thinking. He wasn't completely lost in the idea life worked like stories- more often then not there were tragic or bittersweet endings than ones that were happy. Knowing his luck he would probably ended up mixing the only two medicines that would be toxic together and he just made things worse.

"Hey, you know you can sleep? I can... take up first watch." he said after he watched Kei struggle to stay awake. He had never taken watch for anything, having done nothing wrong and no one following him. It felt strange to use the term. "I don't feel much like sleeping, so it's okay."

[Nayt]

Maybe Kei was a little more tired than she thought. It wasn't long after she yawned that she felt her eyes become unnervingly heavy. She leaned a bit to the right, if only to try to maintain her balance while sitting up. She had felt gravity drawing her back, and not yet planning on sleeping, she had to do something. Unfortunately, when she shut her eyes, she wound up making everything worse . . .

By the time Hrothgar finished telling Kei she could sleep, he'd feel a sudden bump against his shoulder, followed by the settling of weight against the side of his body. Were he to look, he'd discover his new-found companion leaning against him. She was sitting still, but absolutely out of it. Exhausted, she'd fallen against Hrothgar when she fell to sleep; her head was nestled, if only accidentally, upon his shoulder, and her shoulder weakly pressed against his forearm. She breathed softly, and was already sound asleep.

Kei worked herself to the bone today. She'd awoken earlier than usual and all day long, she physically and emotionally worked herself harder than she was used to. All it took was sleep to catch up to her, and it was over for the night.

[adi]

Hrothgar would have chuckled, had he not felt chuckling would take too much energy that he could not spare. He didn't have the heart to push Kei off, and her weight was not terribly crushing. She'd eventually slide fully down to the ground or wake up and move herself. The warmth of her body was a nice reminder that he wasn't exactly alone in this situation and helped to cheer him up a marginal amount.

Hrothgar really did have no intention of sleeping at all that night, despite being as exhausted as Kei. He was content to drift in and out of a half-sleep, leaning his head back against the tree trunk. His consciousness would fade to a comfortable, exhausted blur and he would snap back to attention. Whiplash was the least of his worries at this point, really. He could have been asleep for as little as two minutes or as long as twenty, and with no timepiece available, he was left only to guess. When dawn eventually broke, he leaned over and nudged Kei awake.

"Hey," he reached shook her shoulder that was not pressing into his forearm gently. "Kei. The sun's up. I think we should get moving."

[Nayt]

Exhausted by the day's events, Kei slept through the entire night. She didn't budge an inch, either. Through an awkward coincidence of placement and gravity, she'd fallen into a comfort zone. She was stable, safe, and comfortable, ultimately resulting in a restful sleep.

Hers was not a rude awakening in the least, either. The first nudge by Hrothgar roused her from deep slumber. The second nudge got her to open her eyes. By the time Hrothgar spoke to her, Kei was completely aware of herself, regardless of the sleep still in her eyes. Having not realized how she slept all night, Kei leaned away from Hrothgar, stretched her arms out over her head, stretched her back out, and vocally strained as she woke herself up. Kei relaxed following this, leaned forward some, and sulked her shoulders unconsciously.

When she opened her eyes, she saw the sunrise. "Already . . .?"

She couldn't really remember taking watch for Hroth so he could get some sleep, as well. Either this meant she was groggy the whole time, or she hadn't woken up for it at all.

"O-oh shit," Kei gasped, "O-oh-- oh man. I'm so sorry. I slept the whole night . . ."

[adi]

"S'okay," Hrothgar insisted, standing and arching his back in a stretch. He rubbed at his eyes, checking around to be sure everything was all accounted for. There were no extraneous items, really. Just his satchel, the one filled with half-used medicines, and Aiden. Whatever they didn't grab out of the room last night were probably already taken for evidence.

"I said I didn't feel much like sleeping. Guess you didn't hear it," he shrugged, checking his satchel for his belongings. Journal, broken pencils, pens leaking from abrupt jostling, depleting hygiene supplies, one set of extra clothes, a folded up wanted poster that was half-stuck to itself,-- and a sheet-wrapped knife found at the crime scene. Shit. Hrothgar had forgotten he had grabbed that, or what his intent had been in acquiring it.

He unwrapped it halfway, examining the hilt in the dawn's light. He was careful to keep the sheet between his fingertips as he flipped it over and over in his hands. Maybe he thought the events would play out like a mystery novel, and that the knife would be some crucial clue to figuring out what happened to Aiden. But as far as he could tell it was just an ordinary knife. Not one made for kitchen or food preparation, but pretty plain and unremarkable as far as he could tell. He decided to re-wrap it and place it back in his satchel. Maybe it would be of use eventually, if not some sort of clue.

"Anyway," Hroth said, scratching his head. He walked over to Aiden's side, crouching down. "Better one of us to be well-rested then two of us with shitty sleep. Plus I am pretty used to it, anyway. How are we going to get about getting to.. wherever we need to go? I think I can handle carrying Aiden, he's pretty light."

[Nayt]

Kei frowned some. She actually felt pretty bad, now. She should've been more aware of Hrothgar. He said he didn't feel much like sleeping, but that didn't mean he couldn't have used some shuteye. She'd have to make sure of it later, when they got to another town. There was no chance they were going back to Ceildh. Aiden was a wanted criminal there . . . for some reason or the other, and they were probably wanted as accessories. Or Hroth was, at least, and while Kei wasn't going to put Aiden in danger, she was especially unlikely to intentionally put Hroth in danger. In fact, she felt now like she owed him more than ever before. Like some sort of indentured servant . . .

Except she really didn't mind.

Kei watched Hroth stand and make his way to Aiden. She watched him check his own pack and the materials they had left. There wasn't much to carry. Just Aiden and the little things they had left from fleeing Ceildh. Hrothgar seemed willing to carry Aiden, though-- a burden Kei was more than willing to take off his hands.

"A-are you, um, are you sure?" Kei asked hesitantly.

She was still sitting on the ground, even after she asked. She looked from Hroth to Aiden and judged his weight in her head. He didn't look like he weighed much. She could probably carry him just fine.

"I could carry him," she volunteered, "If it'd help . . ."

After all, she got a full night's rest last night. If Hrothgar wasn't feeling at full strength, then she'd be better off with the heavy load. It was the least Kei could do.

[adi]

"Uh. Good question," Hrothgar admitted, looking down at Aiden. Aiden was light, and he had made it this far carrying him. He doubted his amount of energy, but his pride made it difficult to judge. After a small musing, he shrugged.

"I can carry him first. We can switch off when either of us get tired," he decided. He set his satchel down next to the one containing the medicine. He checked the bandages to see if they were particularly dirtied or bloodied. He decided they could wait on changing them. Aiden was lifted up with a small grunt, and placed into the same fireman's carry as he had been the night previous.

And Hrothgar would get tired fairly quickly- a little under a first hour of walking, to be specific- though he tried to remain somewhat chipper. He didn't try to make too much small talk besides asking how Kei's rest was, and simple get-to-know-you questions whose answers were easily forgotten. The topic of their peculiar situation were mostly avoided.