Covered in light scratches and feeling the weight of the need for sleep, Alkara is still thrilled. She isn’t performing particularly well during Uncle Iro’s “make your way through the forest at night with no light” exercise. The scratches are evidence of that. It’s been three years with Uncle Iro and the exercises aren’t exactly getting easier. But this is a new challenge. It feels dangerous. And that’s exciting. Even though she knows Uncle Iro is around and won’t let anything happen to them.
Chiron is doing better than she is. But for once she doesn’t mind. As a team, they’d started to learn a nice rhythm. Alkara is pretty good at spotting things quickly. She’d loose a well-placed arrow, and then by the time whatever it was they were fighting got to her, Chiron was behind it. He got the drop on things every time.
Well. Almost every time. Alkara has a few scars from when he hadn’t. She’s getting better at close quarters archery, but she’s still getting used to keeping her cool when a monster charges her. The lessons Kierra had paid for had helped tremendously. She beats many of Kierra’s archers often and had even done well against the best. She remembers the smirk on Uncle Iro’s face when she’d come home victorious. As well as the promise of harder challenges.
Shooting things she can barely see is definitely a challenge. But so far there hasn’t been anything to shoot. Just stumbling through the forest, trying to commune with it and Urdima the way Uncle Iro had tried to teach her to. She’s starting to get the idea, but it hadn’t saved her from tripping on roots and landing hard on the forest floor yet.
She snaps her head to the right as she hears a growl. She sees two pinpricks of light and a dark shadow looming around it. Not super close, but not far enough to consider running. She’d lost track of Chiron. She hopes he’s ready to get the drop on this thing. She cocks her head, focusing on the sound of the growl. Sounds like… a wolf. Fairly large wolf too. Her heart beats faster. Okay. Here’s my chance. She draws and looses an arrow, looking slightly away from her mark, and aiming straight for the two pinpricks of light.
She hears a whimper of pain and watches as the two pinpricks flick out of sight, followed closely by a snarl. Well, it isn’t the shot she’d been aiming for, but she’d hit it at least. The problem is, now she’d pissed it off. She turns and tries to move away from it carefully but quickly. She stumbles, making all sort of noise. She growls in frustration in spite of herself. Then tries to console herself by thinking that maybe if she makes enough noise, the wolf won’t notice Chiron.
The wolf approaches quickly. She turns to loose another arrow but plants her foot on something unstable and misses as she wobbles. Shit. She slings her bow and draws her dagger. For emergencies only, she hears Uncle Iro’s warning echo in her head, keep things at range as long as possible. She grimaces. She hadn’t managed to keep it at range for very long, but she’d done her best.
As the wolf lunges at her, she moves awkwardly around a tree, trying to keep it between her and the wolf. She trips a bit on the roots, and though she feels her ankle twinge as it twists, she manages to stay up. Shit.
At a yelp from the wolf, she peeks around the tree to see Chiron withdrawing from a precise, brutal blow to the creature. The wolf turns on Chiron, but is slowed and favoring its left foreleg. Alkara quickly sheaths her dagger, unslings her bow, and looses an arrow, this time hitting closer to the mark she’d aimed for. The creature yelps again and falls over, but they can both hear its pained wheezing and whining.
She presses her lips together, frowning. Her eyebrows pull up in the middle. She can’t help but feel for the wolf. It’s almost like she can feel its confusion and fear. It had just been doing what wolves do: attack, protect, defend.
As Chiron kneels down to put the wolf out of its misery, Alkara realizes their error. “Chiron! Get out of there!”
Wolves hunt in packs.
Chiron looks up at her as another wolf leaps from the shadows, clawing and biting at Chiron. Nimble enough to backpedal from the bite, the wolf still rakes his arm and the dagger tumbles from his grasp.
“No!” Feeling strangely focused in spite of her outburst, Alkara steps around the tree, quickly and smoothly draws an arrow, and looses it into the wolf’s skull. It falls at Chiron’s feet, who’s clutching his arm, breathing hard enough for Alkara to hear it now.
She starts to move toward Chiron to help him with his wound when a third wolf tackles her, slamming her into the tree she’d been using as cover. She gasps in pain at the impact and cries out when the thing claws her across her abdomen. Tears prick her eyes as she tries to draw her dagger and throw her arm up to block the bite she sees coming toward her face, when an arrow land in the wolf’s back and Chiron tackles it right back, plunging his dagger into the wolf’s throat.
Chiron pops up quickly from his kill and Alkara stumbles but nocks another arrow, both children determined to be ready for the next wolf. They hear a yelp and some scurrying away somewhat nearby, but they stay alert until suddenly there’s a torch burning and Uncle Iro is next to them, with a satisfied, amused smile on his face. He stakes the torch into the ground and gestures for the kids to come closer. “Not bad you two. I hope you’ve learned some valuable lessons?”
Alkara nods as she shakily attempts to put her arrow back into her quiver, but she misses. The arrow lands quietly on the forest floor. Alkara just stares at it for a little bit before kneeling to pick it up and putting it back in her quiver. She looks at her shaking hands and then realizes that her abdomen hurts, a lot. In spite of herself, a tear falls. She wishes she were tougher. Stronger. It isn’t that bad. She shouldn’t be crying. She sniffs as she moves closer to Uncle Iro and Chiron.
Uncle Iro, already cleaning Chiron’s wound, briefly glances over at Alkara, “What’s wrong young one?”
Alkara shakes her head. “Nothing.” She says with a small tremble in her voice. She swipes at her nose, “Just the excitement wearing off.”
Iroshi chuckles, “Aye, that’s part of it. But something else is bothering you. You’re gonna wanna figure out what it is.” He finishes dressing Chiron’s wound and then turns to Alkara. He helps her unsling her quiver and Alkara obediently slips off her tunic, her small, but growing breasts wrapped snugly with bandage material so that they don’t hinder her movements.
She winces as Uncle Iro begins to clean the wound, and Chiron walks over and retrieves his dagger. She looks down at the wolf with the arrow in its head and realizes that Uncle Iro is right. “Um. Chiron?” She says as he come back around to sit in the firelight. He arcs an eyebrow at her. “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t landed that shot, you’d have been seriously hurt. I should have realized sooner that there would be more wolves.”
Chiron shrugs, “Good thing you landed the shot then.” He smiles and winks at her.
Alkara furrows her brow, “You shouldn’t have been in that much danger. I’ll do better next time.”
Iroshi chimes in gently, “It’s good to recognize what you’d like to do better next time Alkara, but Chiron also should have remembered that there would be more wolves. You can’t take all the responsibility for what happened.”
Alkara sets her mouth but doesn’t say anything. She’s not sure why, but that just feels wrong. Chiron makes his own choices, but… she should have handled the situation better too. Then he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. But as strongly as she disagrees, arguing isn’t worth it. I won’t let anything happen to him. We’ll stick to risks that are most likely to play out well. Maybe she’d ask for a new book next time they went on one of Uncle Iro’s trips. Something that would help her keep him safe.
As the decision solidifies in her mind, Uncle Iro finishes dressing the wound. “Alright. You’re both tired, what do we do?”
Alkara looks to Chiron, who’s already looking at her. “Camp,” she says. It’s almost a question.
Chiron nods, “But not here. We should move away in case there are more.”
They turn back to Uncle Iro, Alkara nodding agreement. Uncle Iro smiles, one corner of his mouth quirked lopsidedly. “Chiron, are you okay walking? I’m going to carry Alkara.”
Chiron nods as Alkara objects, still securing her tunic and re-slinging her quiver, “Why, because you think I can’t keep up?” She says with acidic scorn in her voice. Some of the boys in town like to say that just because she’s a girl, she isn’t as tough as they are. One had even said that he’d be as good as she were at archery with half the practice. It had pissed her off so much she’d beaten the crap out of them.
She’d later found out that they were the sons of the Cliffward nobles. They’d been too scared to tell their father how they’d gotten their bruises because they’d been beaten by a girl. And as smug as she’d felt when she’d heard that, their comments still piss her off. She still doesn’t really feel better.
“No, because I don’t want that ankle getting worse.” Uncle Iro says patiently as he scoops her up. “Chiron, get the torch, would you?”
Chiron grabs the torch and Alkara slings an arm around Uncle Iro’s neck. He could heal her ankle magically if he’d wanted to, and he would if it had looked like it wouldn’t heal properly, like he’d done with Chiron’s arm. But there isn’t any point in asking. He likes to keep his magic in reserve. Special occasions. Emergencies. If he can do without, he does. And he teaches them to do the same.
Alkara sighs. That’s probably be the end of this trip then. At least they aren’t too far from Three Rivers… she looks up as Uncle Iro suddenly stops, staring off to the right a bit. Alkara cranes her neck but can’t get a good angle. “Uncle Iro? What is it?”
He doesn’t answer for a long time, but Alkara knows better than to disrupt his focus by asking again. Finally he responds, but all he says is, “It’s time to go.” He picks up his pace and continues at a slightly different angle. One that Alkara is pretty sure is away from whatever he’d seen.
“Wait but what was it? What’d you see?”
“Just the carcass that I’m pretty sure attracted those wolves.” He says calmly enough, but Alkara is still pretty sure there’s something he’s not telling them. “Chiron, we need to move fast. Can you shadow-walk with me for a while?”
Chiron smiles, his eyes alight, “I’ll try.”
She keeps her mouth shut. Her curiosity burns in her mind, but she knows better by now than to pester him. She’d seen Uncle Iro do this before. Scanning their surroundings more often. The way he cocks his head when he’s listening intently. She consoles herself with the fact that she’ll get to ask him when they make camp.
After about ten minutes Chiron finally says something, breathing hard. “Uncle. I’m sorry. I can’t keep up this pace anymore.” He stops and doubles over, making an effort to hold the torch up.
Uncle Iro turns and ruffles Chiron’s hair, “No need to apologize. You did a good job keeping up with me this long. We should be far enough now to make camp. Let me see… ah. There.” He gestures with his chin to a… well, it’s not really even a clearing as far as Alkara can tell. Alkara hadn’t figured out what made good camps to Uncle Iro yet and what didn’t. She can’t seem to figure out the pattern. He’s always says Urdima helps him find them, and that he couldn’t really explain it to her. She’d need to connect with the world tree first.
Alkara lets out a small, frustrated growl. Another one of his games. Chiron had probably already figured it out, though Alkara hadn’t asked him. And she isn’t gonna. She’s gonna figure this one out on her own no matter what. Then maybe she’d get better at those games Uncle Iro and Chiron liked to play with each other. She still doesn’t like feeling left out of those. Not that she ever wants to play..
Uncle Iro chuckles, “What? Don’t like the campsite?”
“Huh?” Alkara asks with surprise, startled out of her thoughts.
“What’s wrong with it? Plenty of trees. Good place for a fire. Good vantage points.” Uncle Iro teases.
“Nothing, Uncle.” Alkara grinds out with exasperation.
He chuckles again, “If you say so.” He sets her down next to a tree and asks Chiron to set up the camp while he goes and gathers firewood.
Alkara scowls as she does her best to at least set out her bedroll. Though she is begrudgingly grateful when Chiron comes over to help her finish.
Uncle Iro takes longer than usual to come back. Both Alkara and Chiron munching on their rations long before he returns. After finishing her food, Alkara tends to her ankle and recites one of the new limericks Uncle Iro had taught her from Snakewoods, while Chiron pulls out a new puzzle box.
Previous frustrations forgotten, she snickers a little as she gets to the end and looks up when she finally hears Uncle Iro approaching. She watches him build the fire for a bit. Something is bothering him.
“Um. Uncle Iro?” Alkara asks quietly. “Is something wrong?” She’s not sure how she knows, or even what she’s noticing, she just knows that Uncle Iro… seems different. Something is up. Whether he’d tell her or not is a different story.
“Not necessarily.” He says casually as he builds the fire and munches on his own rations.
Alkara scowls, knowing that she’d just used the wrong word. Nothing wrong about being in danger, he’d say.
But they are in danger. That finally clicks for her. She resolves to stay extra alert. She kicks Chiron lightly with her good foot, “Hey. Pay attention. Something’s out there.”
Chiron laughs and kicks her back, never taking his eyes from the little puzzle he’s working on, “There’s always something out there Alkara. It’s the forest.”
“But Uncle Iro isn’t always this…”
Chiron arcs an eyebrow, still not looking at her, “This what?”
Alkara still can’t put her finger on it. She growls in exasperation. “I don’t know! But something is up.”
Chiron snorts, “Yeah. It’s called the sky. Or maybe you mean the branches of the trees? Those are at least a little closer.” He raises his eyebrows, eyes wide and questioning in sarcastic expression.
Alkara glares at Chiron and opens her mouth to tell him what she thinks of his dumb jokes.
“Alright you two,” Uncle Iro cuts in, “You’re each taking a watch. We’ll rest till dawn and then we’ll head back to Three Rivers. I’ll take the first watch, then Chiron, then Alkara. Two hours each. Think you can handle that?”
“Yes, Uncle.” The two children respond in unison.
“Good. Now get some sleep.” He says as he props himself up against a tree, pulling out a knife and a handful of small sticks to sharpen.
Alkara furrows her brow, then makes a decision. She’ll pretend to sleep. But she’s going to stay awake the whole night. If they’re in danger, she wants to make sure can defend herself, and her family. Satisfied with this decision, she rolls herself up into her bedroll.
The next thing she knows, Chiron is shaking her, none too gently either. She shakes her head to try to clear the fog in her mind. Dammit.
“Alkara. Alkara!” Chiron whispers with a tremor in his voice. “There’s something out there!”
“S’mthing… always… ou’there…” Alkara mumbles as she starts to roll over.
Chiron shakes her again, “Come on, Alkara this isn’t funny. You were right, okay?”
Alkara groans and flails an arm a bit, fumbling for her bow. “What is it? Did you wake Uncle Iro?”
“Uncle Iro won’t wake up.” Chiron almost whimpers.
Alkara’s eyes snap open and her heart skips a beat. “What?!”
Alkara quickly rolls out of her bedding, checks to make sure her dagger is secure, then limps over to Uncle Iro. She shakes him, hard. “Uncle Iro!” But she gets no response. She catches him as he starts to fall over but she quickly buckles under his weight. She’s able to slow his fall, but that’s about it. And her ankle isn’t too happy now either. Then she spots something.
“Chiron! Look at this!” Alkara hesitates, then picks up the little dart in Uncle Iro’s hand and holds it up in the light.
Chiron gasps, “What the hell?” They both study the little dart as best they can next to the fire.
“Hey!” A loud whisper made by a high, feminine voice comes from the shadows beyond the firelight.
Alkara jumps and yelps in fear. She feels a little better about the fact that Chiron does too.
“Shhh! You want to get the whole forest’s attention? The dark elf is out, let’s go!”
Alkara and Chiron look at each other, then look at Uncle Iro. Alkara draws her dagger. “What did you do to Uncle Iro?” She demands.
Alkara hears a sound of disgust as a tall, slender, hooded figure moves forward into the firelight, “He makes you call him Uncle?” The girl shakes her head, “Look, there’s not much time. I gave him an extra strong dose but he’ll still be awake soon enough to catch up to us if we don’t leave now.”
Alkara feels a spark of irritation, “Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but we’re not going anywhere. And if Uncle Iro doesn’t get better, you’re going to be sorry.” Alkara brandishes her dagger.
The girl starts a bit, “But… He’s holding you captive. This is your chance. To get away. To be free. Isn’t that what you want?”
“He isn’t holding us captive lady, he’s…” Alkara screws up her face, “He’s family, okay? Not all dark elves are ass-holes.”
The girl snorts, “Even the ones who aren’t ass-holes are still ass-holes. The elves call them ‘The Forsaken’ for a reason.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?” Alkara challenges. “As far as I can tell, the elves are ass-holes too!”
The girl pauses before responding, “I suppose that’s fair… and I don’t actually know the story. But a dark elf adopting human children… are you sure he’s not preparing you for sale?”
Alkara’s eyes go wide and her mouth drops wide open as Chiron laughs. “That’s a long prep time. I’ve been with Uncle Iro for three years now, and Alkara was here before me. Unless…” Chiron’s eyes go wide with mock horror, “No! Say it isn’t so Alkara! You lure children in and then he sells them! Am I next?!”
Alkara glares at Chiron, “Shut up, Chiron.” She snaps her eyes back to the girl, “We’re not slaves. He’s not selling us. Anything else you’d like to accuse him of while he’s out?”
The girl doesn’t respond for a bit. “I think I’d like to find out for myself, actually.” Her voice sounds thoughtful and determined. “There’s still a chance you two just don’t understand what’s going on. Some buyers in the Depths prefer skilled labor. I’ll just wait here till he wakes up.”
“You… what? What makes you think–?” Alkara cuts herself off when the girl pulls down her hood. She’s extremely pale, with shocking red hair, immaculately braided at the base of her neck, soft, brown eyes, and a smattering of freckles on each cheek. She’s already taller than Alkara, and looks to be older too. By a few years at least.
But the thing that really catches Alkara’s eye is that when the girl gets closer, there’s clearly dried blood spattered all over her.
“Umm… are you okay?” Alkara asks, gesturing to the blood, but keeping her guard up.
“Hm?” The girl looks down, “Oh! Yes. I was performing an autopsy on a girallon back there,” the girl points in the direction where they’d been training.
Alkara just blinks at her. She looks at Chiron, who looks back at her and shrugs. Alkara looks back at the girl. “A what?”
The girl furrows her brow, “A girallon? It’s a big, oversized ape with four arms, gray skin, and white fur.”
“No no, a uh… autopsy?” Alkara says it as best she can but it’s a weird word.
“Oh. I was taking it apart. It was dead when I found it. Not many things can kill one of those, and I didn’t see any obvious wounds, so I thought I’d try to figure it out.”
Alkara recoils a little, her eyes wide with surprise, “That’s disgusting.”
The girl shrugs as she moves to sit across from Uncle Iro, next to the fire. “Most kids think so. It’s… probably better that way. Anyway the wolves interrupted me.” She shakes her head in disappointment, “Didn’t get to finish. Had to get out of there. But then I heard you two and spotted him when he lit the torch.” She points to Uncle Iro. “I thought I would spare you the horrors of the Depths. So I followed you here.” She takes out a flask and takes a swig. “You guys have water, right? And food?”
Alkara nods, then shakes herself, “Uh, look lady. I appreciate that you were worried about us, but we’re fine. You can move on now. Maybe get back to chopping up dead things or whatever.”
The girl shakes her head, “I’m not leaving until I talk to the dark elf–“
“His name. Is Uncle– well his name is Iroshi. But we call him Uncle Iro. And maybe you wouldn’t have to wait if you hadn’t knocked him out!” Alkara has just about had enough of this.
The girl shrugs again, “I’m out of the anti-toxin. Sorry. Unless you have a fresh supply of Rhodiola Rosea?”
Alkara blinks at her some more, wracking her brain. It sounds so familiar… but she can’t place it.
Chiron laughs, “Oh yes. We’ll get right on that miss! Uh… what’s your name again?”
“Dreonna.”
“Yeah, anything else you’d like us to get you while we’re out? Leaving you here with our defenseless Uncle who you clearly don’t like.” Chiron says, the sarcasm starting to develop a hard edge.
The girl named Dreonna just shakes her head, “I won’t hurt him. If you’d like to search me you can. I’m out of poisons and potions too.”
Alkara furrows her brow, shakes her head, and just limps over to Uncle Iro, trying to make him more comfortable. She manages it well enough, but now her ankle is throbbing. She sits down next to him, between him and the girl, wincing as she tries to keep weight off of it. “We’re staying here. If you wanna go look for some Rhodiola Rosea, go ahead.”
Dreonna shakes her head, “It doesn’t grow in this part of the forest, or I’d have my own supply.”
Chiron snorts, “So you were just trying to get rid of us.”
The girl finally shows some irritation, “I asked if you had some on you, not if you would go get some.”
Chiron blinks, then looks at Alkara, who shrugs. That is what she’d asked. But both of them are jumpy and suspicious, and need sleep. Alkara does her best to stifle a yawn, “Chiron, get some sleep. I’ll keep watch the rest of the night.”
Chiron shakes his head, “Not a chance. Not with your ankle the way it is. We’ll keep watch together.”
Alkara’s too tired to argue. She just nods, gives the girl one more hard look, and then decides to try to pass the time communing with the forest. She feels herself nodding off, shakes herself, and tries to get back to it. She opens her eyes for a bit and notices that Chiron has already fallen asleep. She looks over at the girl. Her eyes are closed, but she’s clearly not asleep. Alkara shakes her head again. So sleepy. She hopes that trying to commune with Urdima will help keep her awake. Help her… keep her… family… safe…
Alkara slowly becomes aware of the warmth and how comfortable her bed roll is. She hears two voices, staying quiet and low. She starts to roll over and then remembers. With a gasp she sits up and looks around, trying to make sure she’s still between Uncle Iro and the girl.
But Uncle Iro isn’t behind her anymore. In fact he’s sitting fairly close to the girl… Dreonna… and looks like he’s been talking with her. But now both he and Dreonna are looking at her. Uncle Iro with amusement, Dreonna with startled concern.
Alkara grits her teeth. She’d fallen asleep. Again.
“Good morning,” Uncle Iro says with laughter in his voice. He stands and walks over to Alkara, handing her some breakfast. “Let’s check that ankle. Dreonna here says you were limping pretty badly last night.”
Alkara glares at Dreonna, who looks back at her impassively. “Wouldn’t have had to if she hadn’t shown up in the first place.” Alkara grumbles.
“Now, you don’t know that that’s true.” Uncle Iro says as he begins to unwrap the bandages and check the splints. He takes a moment to ruffle her hair, “You and Chiron did a good job last night. Dreonna and I have talked and things are settled.”
Alkara furrows her brow a little at the way he says that. “Settled? What do you mean settled?”
“Dreonna is still not convinced I’m not playing a long game. Given her story, I don’t blame her. So she’s going to stay with us for a while.”
“WHAT?!”
“In exchange,” Uncle Iro continues calmly, “She’s offered to help us. Make us potions, poisons, among other things. It seems likely that the girl is quite gifted. I’d like to see for myself. Wouldn’t you?”
“NO. She attacked us! She–“
“Her strategy was sound. Take out the major threat quickly, quietly, and without bloodshed, in order to save two children from the Depths.” Uncle Iro looks up with a sad smile, “You don’t have to trust her yet. Given your experience last night I’d be alarmed if you did. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
Alkara gives him a look that says he was was the one knocked out last night.
Uncle Iro chuckles, “It does seem that way, doesn’t it? All the more reason to be curious, don’t you think?”
Alkara glares over at Dreonna as Uncle Iro finishes re-wrapping her ankle, “But… it doesn’t make sense. Why would she offer to help us if she thinks you’re just going to sell us to… who or whatever down in the Depths?”
“Two likely scenarios. The first being she is already pretty sure that’s not what’s going on, but she needs to be very certain–“
“Given her story?”
Uncle Iro nods, “Given her story. Second being that she believes she’ll have learned enough information about us all to stop it from happening when the time comes. Could be she has skills yet to be revealed that she thinks she can keep hidden until then.” Uncle Iro smirks, “A bit of an arrogant thought, but not a terrible plan.”
Alkara looks down as she thinks, then asks, “So. What’s her story then?”
Uncle Iro ruffles her hair again, “Now that, you’ll have to ask her. Lots of distrust between you two. Reasonably so. All the same, she’ll tell you when you’ve earned it.”
Alkara scowls. Uncle Iro and his secrets. She looks over at Chiron as Uncle Iro stands and goes to shake him awake. Wait a minute… “Chiron and I were trying to stay awake. How are we in our bedrolls?”
Uncle Iro looks at her with another smile, “Take a guess.”
Alkara stares at him for beat, then looks over at Dreonna, who looks a little nervous. Eventually she shrugs, “What? I didn’t want you two to get sick.” She glances down at the wrappings around Alkara’s ankle and makes no effort to hide the appalled look on her face. She glances at Uncle Iro and then meets Alkara’s eyes again, “Um. Can I help?”
Alkara looks back at her, confused. “Help with what? He just redid the thing.”
Dreonna cringes, “Yeah it’s um… it’s not bad it… it’s just…” She looks over at Uncle Iro, whose amusement never falters.
He shrugs, “Go ahead. If she’ll let you.”
Alkara glares at Uncle Iro as Dreonna slowly rises and walks over to her. “May I?”
Alkara crosses her arms. “Fine.” She hates being injured. All this fuss over a dumb busted ankle that Uncle Iro could fix up quickly if he’d just use his dumb magic…
Dreonna deftly unwraps the bandaging and pulls a tightly bound pouch from one of her pockets. From the pouch, she pulls out a small jar, from which she scoops out a weird looking goo. Before Alkara can protest, Dre slathers it all over her ankle, relines the splints, muttering something about them being a little big, and rebinds the wrapping. Her eyes widen at how much better her ankle already feels. “Whoa.”
Dreonna tucks the jar back into place, then helps Alkara stand. Alkara tentatively tests her weight on the ankle. It still clearly needs more time to heal, but it’s much easier to walk now.
Dre watches her carefully. “If I had more kit, I could do better. I figured this would help at least some. Though you probably still shouldn’t walk on it too much for now. When I get some potions made up, it’ll heal faster.”
“Um… thank you…” Alkara says, a little embarrassed. Maybe she had pegged this girl wrong.
Dreonna smiles at her nervously, “You’re welcome. I’m um… I’m sorry about last night. Well, sort of. I mean. With the Depths and the dark elves you just… You have to be careful.”
Alkara nods, “I know. I was worried about the same thing when I met Uncle Iro. I’ve never met another dark elf but he just… he just didn’t feel dangerous, you know? When I stopped freaking out about what I was seeing and the stories I’d heard, and got to know what he felt like… not physically I mean just…” Alkara makes a noise of frustration, “I don’t know how to explain it! But he’s safe. You’ll see.”
Dreonna purses her lips, “Yeah. That doesn’t make any sense. In my experience, the ones that don’t ‘feel’ dangerous end up being the most dangerous. But…” Dreonna shrugs. “We’ll see. In any case, I promise to do my best to keep you safe, okay?”
Alkara starts a bit and stares at the girl, but sees nothing but clear sincerity. “Okay. I um… well I’m not gonna just watch you die but I’m probably not gonna die for you either. But okay.”
Dreonna laughs a little, “Fair.”
“Alright, come on you two.” Uncle Iro says, Chiron next to him, finishing his breakfast and staring into the fire, seemingly oblivious. Though Alkara gets the impression that he’d been listening carefully. “Time to break camp and head back. Alkara needs to stay off that ankle for a few days. Dre, carry Chiron’s pack if you don’t mind, since he’ll be carrying mine. Alkara, on my back.”
Alkara scowls again, “But this new splint feels fine! I can walk!”
“Get over here girl before I really do consider selling you off.” He growls and winks at Dreonna, who doesn’t appreciate the joke.
Alkara snorts at the look on her face then walks over to Uncle Iro and offers her arm so that he can swing her onto his back. He grunts a little, “Oof. You’re getting too big for this little stunt. Gonna have to start climbing on my back the normal way soon.”
“Nooo, but it’s so boring!” Alkara whines playfully.
Uncle Iro chuckles and looks around. “Everyone ready?” After receiving affirmative nods from Chiron and Dreonna, he looks around for a bit, getting his bearings, and then nods in the direction of Three Rivers, “This way.”