As A Stranger Or A Friend?

Axtapor - 5 Rain's Hand, 1245 A.D.

The sun's light began to color the sky with the sleepy blue of its creeping fingers, making the fog all around us look more dense than it was. I wound us around another few trees with a sigh. I'd spent equal amounts of time balancing this task of meandering and that of moving forward throughout the night, so they could not trace us easily. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep them at bay. At the very least, it would be fastidious for them to track us even if they did have hounds. But we would need to stop to water the horse soon; the poor beast was foaming at the mouth and proceeding slowly after being worked so hard the night before.

Stopping now wasn't ideal, but we had covered a lot of ground and we were now in plain wildwood, so the chances of us being happened upon were quite low. Even so, low didn't mean there was no chance at all. We were still in the territory of The Pale Kings, and I was confident they would turn the land inside out just to find her again. Though the thought didn't seem to frighten her, and if it did, she hid it very well. I glanced down at her and found myself smiling at how unbothered she seemed.

She fell asleep almost immediately after we departed but that didn't come as a surprise to me. Her frame and stature were so small and frail-looking that she probably tired quickly. Even if she was used to hard work to some degree, she was likely not accustomed to traveling this way or experiencing such levels of stress that an escape like this might cause someone ordinary like her. She leaned against me, her head bobbing lazily from the horses' movements—a single small hand gripping the saddle's pommel. I told her to hang onto something when we started riding faster, but it was almost amusing that she had continued to do so in her sleep.

Her head slid to one side and her hood slipped off to reveal her messy hair. I scoffed a small laugh. Every time I had seen her, she was so put together, so seeing her with this tangled nest upon her head instead of the neat bun she usually sported was comical. She was a mess though I supposed that wasn't her fault. Most humans looked ugly and unkempt in the morning, even beautiful ones like her. Rather a fault of her kind. I studied her face next; it was set in a neutral expression, and now that it was, I could appreciate the gentle slope of her nose and how softly rounded it was. It was charming. Most women in The Empire prided themselves on having long slim snouts and thought that human women's faces were squished and ugly. This because of their small noses, but Mariel wore it well, in my opinion. My eyes traveled to her lips. I wanted to kiss them again. They were so soft on mine the night before, and now that I knew what it was like to kiss her, it would be hard for me to abstain from it. Would she mind if that's how I woke her?

With a gentle hand, I pulled the horse to a stop and directed her face to look up at mine. She was so lovely, even if she wasn't looking or smiling at me. I leaned down, closed my eyes, and kissed her gently. She was cold but so, so soft, perhaps more than I remembered, and her scent was sweet despite being out in the forest all night. Something like berries or honey. I heard her gasp and felt her pull away. My eyes flew open, and I saw that she had a hand over her mouth and a bright red blush on her cheeks. Would she be upset with me?

"Could no help myself." I said in a weak attempt to justify my actions.

"I see..." She replied and then grimaced before moving her hand away from her mouth, curling into herself slightly.

"Be ye well? Be ye injured?" I asked with some concern in my voice.

"N-No, I just— I need to get down."

"Aye, of course." I said, quickly jumping down and then reaching up to pluck her off the saddle.

She likely wasn't used to riding for so long—she was probably in a great deal of pain. I felt a little stupid for not thinking about that. She found her feet beneath her, but she still looked rather afflicted. Maybe she was uncomfortable? She'd traveled in nightclothes, a cloak, and bare feet; even I could admit that probably didn't feel good despite not personally needing to wear shoes myself.