From The Ashes

05

From then on it was rather easy to manoeuvre onwards. No one else seemed to decide to suddenly crop, which gave peace of mind to Bard for the time being. Though in truth his mind was still on high alert. He continued to look here, there and everywhere in search of anyone who would spy them. Him walking along the wooden walkways was fine enough. There was nothing odd about that. Everyone did it. Though his constant looking to the side towards the darkened alleys which ran alongside the walkways could be seen as odd, curious even.

Alassëa was in the shadows trailing after him. Even though she was kept in the dark – more literally considering the shadowed state of the alleys – she didn't seem to wholly mind. Even from the alleys she quietly walked down, she was always looking around. When the topic of a different route for her came about, Bard had been sceptical how she'd take it. It wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to ask of someone. Walking in the dingy, dark alleys of the town while he plainly walked in the daylight.

Or what there was of daylight. The greying heavy clouds which he had spied when he first found Alassëa seemed to want to return with a vengeance. Though these clouds didn't look as laden with rain as they previously did. He was hoping they'd stay away until they returned later. Regardless, Alassëa seemed fine with her alternative route. She walked along in silence, hood still up on her cloak and seemingly rather oblivious to the dangers which could spring across her path. Clearly her mind was not thinking of a nosy spying habitant of the town suddenly popping up and questioning her. Or worse, making such a ruckus that the authorities would come over.

However, where her mind was not dwelling over these things, Bard's was. Someone had to be on guard, and if anything, since walking out of his house he'd been nothing but on guard. And he didn't plan on dropping that guard any time soon. Perhaps when they were safely out of the town, yes. While still in it, no. Stopping suddenly he looked to the side, Alassëa leaned against the wall and looked at him with a sidewards look. She didn't understand why they'd stopped. Bard however stood and stared at the gate which closed off the outside world, for all pretence and purposes.

Walking casually over to where she was, he stopped by her side. "May I ask you something?"

"Sure." She replied with a shrug while looking over his shoulder. She could see a few of the bridges which connected different parts of the town to another. As usual icy water drifted underneath, sluggish and thick with white chunks of ice, it seemed to set the pace for the rest of the town. Alassëa had noted how nothing fast seemed to happen here. Everyone seemed to drift about lazily, much like the ice in the slow currents of the water.

"How good are you at climbing?"

Raising an eyebrow Alassëa straightened herself up and patted her cloak down. "I'm as good as I need to be."

Bard scratched the back of his neck in thought. That wasn't exactly the answer he had hoped to hear. A simple; "I've never fallen in my life," would have sufficed. That'd if anything give him some confidence in what he was about to suggest. Instead he suddenly felt rather uncertain.

"Why?" She asked while shifting from one foot to the other. Looking over his shoulder, he made sure no one was present to see him. Reaching out, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her forwards. Her eyes skimmed around the surroundings before her before her eyes fell on the wooden structure of the gate. "Oh," she said while looking at the surrounding buildings. Scrunching her nose up in thought, she seemed to understand what he was aiming at. "I can perhaps get over by climbing across the rooftops. I'm very quiet, I won't make much sound. See you on the other side?" There seemed to be a hint of playfulness in her tone. Clearly this was amusing her to some degree, a degree that he didn't know about.

"Be careful," he said while watching as she hoisted herself up onto some crates before scrambling up onto a ledge, she crouched and looked down at him. "There's a small building on the other side of the gate, stay there until there's an opportunity for you to come down."