Thread: A Journey to a Safer Place (Angel + Strmas)

Kryton spent a restless night, busying himself checking her bandage, making sure she was breathing alright, and rebuilding the fire. But mostly he watched her sleep, enchanted with the look of her by the fire, he wanted to touch her, to do many more things than touch but he tamped down those desires, this was a night for watching and waiting. As the night faded into early morning he checked her wound and was amazed at how well it was already healing. It would be several days before she could put any weight on it but he swore he could actually see the leg repairing itself. A remarkable sight. After ensuring she still slept deeply he moved away and put on a small kettle. he doubted the elf drank coffee but he thought a herb tea would be accepted. He sprinkled some herbs into the kettle and let it slowly simmer then stood stretching and looked to the first signs of the coming dawn. The sky to th east looked calm and clear but as he looked west it was a far different sight. Even in the dim twilight of near dawn he could see the dark clouds gathering and feel the cold on the wind that blew from the west. A storm was coming and a bad one from the signs. Alone, he would head east, a small town lay not much more than 10 miles that way but he recognized that was where the salvers were from. Bringing the elf there spelled disaster. To the north lay the remains of the elven home forest but it was a blackened dead and barren place now, burnt to drive out the elves for easier capture. The slavers were probably hurrying east to escape the storm but even without them o worry about being caught out in that barrn land by the storm would spell their doom. South was too mountainous for him to attempt, even without a hurt girl. He was tempted to just stay where they were. When the snow got deeper he could just burrow into it and make a cozy little igloo that he and the girl could wait out the storm. He smiled at the perks that might bring, maybe convincing the little minx they could stay warmer lying naked under the blanket. But it wasn't surviving one night that worried him, a winter storm could dump several feet of snow on them and then they would be trapped and the cold or hunger would get them. That left travelling west, into the teeth of the storm. He new a place that would normally take him only 4 hours, 3 if he forced his oversized bulk to push to his limits but there was no way the girl could walk for at least a day or two without starting the wound to bleed again, elf or no elf. He looked at the building storm, they didn't have a day or two to wait for her to heal. He began cutting down young birch saplings the straightest he could find and then stripping the small branches from them until he had a series of branch poles. He laid the two longest parallel and then began ting the other branches criss-cross between them, making a small open platform between the two longer poles. If he had a donkey or burrow this would be easy, as it was Kryton would have to be the donkey. The sun was a up when he finished and already he could feel the first the flakes on his face in a stiffening wind. he tied his pots and sacks on the makeshift sled and then poured them both a cup of the herbal tea and hunched down next to her and gave her a drink. ilyza, we can't stay here, a storm is coming sooner than I hoped and we will be trapped if we stay here in the open. our leg will never stand the walk. I've built a little sled to pul you but even with that I'm afraid it will be bumpy and your leg may hurt. He lifted her up and lay her on the sled, it was a good thing she was so small, it would not have supported the weight of a full grown human woman. He covered her as best he could in the blanket. Then he took the bit again and poured some of the juice from his flask. we can't risk you moving about and reopening the wound, he said as he held the bit to her again, open your mouth, Ilyza, And he secured the bit tying it behind her head again. It's better you sleep through the trip, he stroked her hair gently as he watched the drug take effect. ilyza, he said in a firm voice, You are with me you, feel safe, protected. You will feel ties on you, binding you, you will not fight them. The ropes are from me, they hold you to me, you will accept them. He quickly used his leather thongs to bind the young girl to the sled, securing her tight. He stroked her hair again, The cold and wind will come, it will hurt. You will accept it. The warmth will come again when I call for it. You will accept the cold as you do the pain until I decide for it to stop. The snow was coming down harder now, he tied the end of the two poles to his waist and began t pull the sled to the west. After a half an hour the snow was falling so heavy he could barely see his hand, the wind made it difficult to breathe. He plodded on, foot after foot. The path he followed ws an old dry stream bed otherwise he would have been lost in the whiteness already. But if he strayed from the old stream bed his feet stumbled on the old banks and he adjusted back to the center even if he could not see the way. Time was lost in the cold and the white blindness of the storm. One step after another he pushed on, the desire to stop and crawl under a blanket on the sled was like a siren's song but he knew neither of them would awake if he stopped. Minutes slowly turned to hours as they trudged further west. hours later a slight lull in the howling wind let him make out the outline of the shape he was seeking. It was not much more than a shack set back from the old stream. Once a trading post when things were better between man and elf, it had been abandoned for years but it would serve them well. With the last of his strength he stumbled and pulled them to the shack then used his bulk to force open the door. It was covered in dirt and grime but the walls and roof were still sound giving them a dry place out of the storm. He managed to drag Ilyza into the shack. Of course the firebox was empty, he began to break the branches from their sled into smaller pieces and push them into the fireplace but before he could try and light the fire exhaustion took its toll and the big man collapsed on the floor. As consciousness fled he was aware of the wind pushing open the door and snow blowing in. He tried to rally and close it but darkness closed over his mind. His last thoughts being, 'to have come so far and die here seemed a cruel joke' Then he thought no more.