Frozen Sunset

Desmond grabbed the apothecary by the arm, his grip tight. His face was only centimetres from the males face and his tone turned into a growl. "You don't speak of this to anyone, you hear! As far as you're aware you stitched up my friend and left with your money. Got it?" Desmond released his hold on the apothecary and threw him out the door.
"Sir, if he tells a soul it'll be our heads," muttered a soldier from the far corner of the room.
"I know that," Desmond growled. "It doesn't matter. He won't tell," Desmond's tone was coloured with uncertainty and his palms began to sweat nervously. "Come on, we need to rest. General Rhinestone and Alec will be back soon."

One of Sebastian's archers simply laughed, he'd ensured that they now had access to every room in the inn which they would fill with there slumped figures, yet at the mere mention of the Generals name the situation still seemed pointless.
"Having chased nothing more than a shadow into the depths of tangled undergrowth they'll return a filthy mess, while we've a lead. The attic bedroom is alight with the smell of freshly snuffed candles and quickly vacated, there’s blood on the flood boards as well. Rest now and we'll lose the trail. Their footprints lie just outside"
The new development could have been the work of a genius, for the other archers stared, impressed while the innkeeper paled with both the guilt of not offering safer accommodations to the young fugitives the fear that he would be found guilty of hiding them in the first place.

Desmonds head snapped around to look at the archer. "You mean to say they were here?" He placed a hand on the archer's shoulder, a smile spreading across his face. "They can't have gotten far. Come on!" He pointed towards his soldiers and made a gesture to half of them. "You lot stay here and protect Sebastian. The rest of you are with me and this lot," he ordered, pointing then towards the archers.
"I want every inch of this inn searched and once that's done I want this whole town checked. Thoroughly."
"Damnit!" One of the soldiers cursed whilst he was readying himself for the search, his sword being slid into its sheath. "That witch would have been useful about now!"

The sound of the last pair of running feet finally faded off along the cobbles, losing their intimidating promises of capture. Nicholas slumped against the slates and closed his eyes. He tried to touch his leg and assess the situation, but there was no need, the heat coming radiating from the pained flesh was enough to confirm infection and within moments he had returned to a crouching position.
"We need to move, I think I broke a few of the slates, if they're noticed, they'll be on to us" And Nicholas slowly climbed down to the edge of the roof and dropped.
He misjudged the distance, his wounded leg had no time to brace for the impact, there was a definite crunch and an even louder cry of pain.

Raya cringed at the sound of Nicholas crying out and hopped off the roof herself, phasing during the fall so that she landed on four paws instead of her nimble legs. Phasing again, she took a hold of his wrist and slung him over her shoulders. Raya lifted, grunting due to his weight. "Come on, time to get you away from here!" Her voice was strained and her shoulders already beginning to buckle, but she carried him away all the same. There was a growth not far from the Inn and Raya took him there. Placing him down gingerly she scowled at him. "Are you mad?" She almost cried, massaging her shoulders. "They hadn't all left - think about it! How many came into the Inn and how many left? There are still people in there and now they've been alerted we could be in serious trouble. Now, you can either run or I will risk turning into a bear and carrying you on my back. Your decision?"
Raya was still massaging her aching shoulders. As a human she was not strong enough to carry a fully grown male and even more so one that was carrying armour.

If it were even possible Nicholas paled to a non-kin like tone. "I can walk, none of them will have heard me..probably" Anything to not be placed on the back as something as unfamiliar as a bear, horses were one thing, bred for the rump of a rider, but bears...were something completely foreign.
"I can walk" He gave her an unsure but firm look then began to limp through the shadows.
"I have to find him..." He muttered to himself.

"You're actually insane. I swear," she muttered as she followed close behind, having to force her pace to less than a walk to prevent over-taking him. It wasn't as if Raya knew where she was going and he clearly seemed to.
"Nicholas, you do know he's going to be fine, right? Christian can look after himself, if it doesn't seem that way sometimes. He's smarter than he looks. Besides, that fiery nature of his might even be enough to get him out of his situation." She gave a half-hearted, half-smile. It wouldn't be enough and she knew it, however, it would do no good to start worrying herself. If she worried any more she might even become as pale as Nicholas, and right now that seemed extremely difficult to achieve.

"I know he can look after himself" Nicholas huffed, straightening up though it pained him to do so. "The truth is that my reasons for worrying are much more selfish than...what you precieve as love..." He began to walk, half pressed against the mud splashed walls of the closest buildings.
"The longer we're apart, the weaker we get....especially me...we discovered that we couldnt survive apart the last time we ran into soldiers...when the time came to fight our way out...neither of us had the strength...we escaped when we were reunited...but it was the most terrifying moment of my...of our lives...which seems a long time ago now...." He sunk a little as his body wavered.
"but then I knew how ar away he was...now I dont and it's like having an itch I cant quite scratch...that and the terrible weakness...I just have to find him Raya..."

Raya's ears flattened against her snow-white hair and a small whimper left her lips - more dog like than bear. "I understand...but you're slow Nicholas. This will never do. I just wish you weren't so stubborn and would actually accept the help I'm trying to offer you!" Raya walked a few paces ahead with her arms folded over her chest looking much like a spoiled brat. Every half a minute she would look behind just to see if he was still standing and each time she would turn her head back and stick her nose in the air. "We'll never find him at this pace," she muttered.

Eventually Nicholas crumpled after another stomach churning crunch sounded out from his leg. He inhaled a few deep breaths and tried to stand, but upon putting pressure on his leg again, he cringed, the wall taking the weight his leg couldnt.
"....fine...but we'll only be able to search the woods with you a bear..." He turned his head to see the tree line against the sky which was slowly clearing of clouds, the trees looming like the shadow of an unclimbed mountain, no light visible through the dense trees. He glanced around and spotted the apothecary's run down lodgings but again cast his head in the direction of the tree cover. "we're going the wrong way anyway" He settled.

Raya turned around to face him, a look of worry in her eyes. "It was only a matter of time Nicholas. You would do well to listen to me next time," she smiled half-heartedly. "Now, I don't know about you having been on a bears back, but I can say I've never had someone really ride on my back so don't worry, this will be weird for the both of us," she looked at the obvious pain in his face, "and I should stop talking and get on with this." Quickly she tied her clothing to her leg loosely and began the transformation. Once it was complete, she shook off the lingering feeling of humanity and assumed the nature of a bear. A low rumble escaped her throat as she beckoned Nicholas to climb aboard.

He sunk in on himself with reluctance, approaching her snowy form slowly, partially because of his leg although he found it hard to hurry. His leg refused to be swung onto her and it took a small jump and a bit of climbing before he was sat awkwardly on her back, clutching onto handfulls of fur for dear life, even though they had yet to start moving. His leg burned at the position though he said nothing about it.
"alright...let's go...quietly...we wont have the cover of darkness for much longer...especially if the skies are clear"

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Noita left the girl for a moment or so and found the horse bound with their supplies. There was not much of anything left and Noita knew that they would soon have to leave to find a band of traiders or make their way into a town to resupply. There were a few scraps of clothing left that belonged to Noita and she gathered what she could and set herself to work on mending the clothes and fitting them to Crow. It was no easy task for a bandit of her sort but the magic that she had running through her veins made the job easier; much easier.
After a short while the clothes were ready. They weren't necessarily the best clothes in the world, but they would do for now and the gir would no doubt be grateful. As such, she laid the clothes out in front of the girl and told her to find the strength to dress herself - the extra warmth would benefit her.

Crow didn't argue. She remembered the exact moment that she came to trust this girl. The feeling had only just reached her fingertips and she ventured a look into her soul, more to test her strength than learn anything, and though she had seen nothing thanks to her groggy thoughts, she'd felt warmth and had smiled slightly. Now she pulled herself to her knees-her legs otherwise failing her, and struggled with the amateur clothes. She wanted to thank the girl, ask her why she'd been brought here, perhaps inquire as to who she was, but the tug on her insides pained her and she cringed. She was much too far away from her faggot for comfort, and that was saying something.

Noita looked at the girl with great pity. She still had no idea who the girl was and she still didn't know if the girl could be trusted; after all, she had acted on instinct concerning the girl. Something about her felt familiar, like she had felt it close to her before.
"For the record, my name is Noita. I hope those clothes are okay? Until we find a place for trade it's kind of all we got," she explained, hoping to make conversation with the girl; more to find out who she was and what her business was here. How could a girl like her hope to make it through these woods alone?

Crow glanced around at the caravan of vagabonds which probably streched far out of sight, full of unfortunates Crow knew she'd played a part in uprooting somewhere down the line. She frowned to herself looking back to the kindly girl who'd given to her at least some dignity.
"Thank you for the clothes, i couldnt ask more of you....and I hope you find somewhere safe to trade even in this weather...now, could you point me in the direction you found me?" She felt the tug again, she supposed a homing pigeon might feel the same way, though she had no idea where she was and had no real desire to return to the humiliation she'd been forced to endure under Alistair.

Noita's expression was one of confusion as she tried to remember just in which direction it was she had found the girl. "Uh, I really can't be sure. This place looks all the same but if I had to go on my gut instinct it would probably be north-east." She smiled, uncertainly. "I really don't think it's a good idea for you to go back there. Do you remember what happened to you? Or how we found you? Do you even remember your name?!" Maybe they were too many questions but Noita was sure she's be able to answer at least one of them.

Crow sighed, she was no closer to getting back than she was to getting away.
"I remember what happened...why it happened...what probably would have happened if you hadn't found me...I'm very thankful that I was found by such friendly travelers.." She folded her arms as a chill passed through her, she felt on the verge of sneezing and deduced that she was about to become quite ill.
"You can call me Crow...and as ridiculous as it sounds I need to get back to who did this to me..."

A toothy grin spread across the girl's face. "Well Crow, we're not usually the type to say no to our friends. We'll get you back but... are you sure it's safe for you? I mean, the people that did this don't seem to want you around. We'd be happy for you to stay with us?" The girl's brow furrowed, her eyes full of concern for the girl.
"Can you stand?" Noita rose to her feet and offered out a hand for the girl, in case she needed help.