Leaving Noah, Aimee dropped down from the wagon and rounded the corner. She bid a hello to the occupants of the wagon that followed behind theirs, whose driver she had been exchanging friendly glances with. She couldn’t see the driver now but figured he was tending to the horses who strew the transport. She came to the side where a majority of the tents would be put that night. The children were jetting forth from the wagons they had been cooped up in all day and their chiming calls could be heard along with their thudding feet. They zipped past Aimee, sending her into a twirl to avoid being ran over by the little bodies. Stopping, she saw Elann and met the Benshira’s gaze with her own. Aimee returned the smile politely, figuring that Elann was going to Noah after leaving the wagon for the whole of that day.
 
Inside the wagon, Noah held onto his bond with loose fingers, letting his feeling trail out in the only way he could call his bondmate. Time passed since Aimee dropped down from the wagon and there hadn’t been another shift. He could feel Elann through the bond but she had yet to appear in the wagon at all. He resolved himself to stop trying in the seconds before he heard the Benshira pulling herself up into the back. Prone, he didn’t turn to see her, waiting for her to appear out of the corner of his eye. She did, a plate of bread in her hand, of which she laid down beside him as she came down to the floor.
 
“Hello,” he voiced softly, almost mouthing the words. Now that she was there he pulled his bond closed again, the action doing what he intended for it to do.
 
“I just hurt,” he admitted quietly again.
 
Noah used his hands to find some sense of bearing with the blankets. Using Elann,  he went to sit up, turning to face her in his cross-legged position, his hands going for the plate of bread. He eyed her searchingly, his light blue eyes scouring her face and posture for physical signs of the emotion held inside her. His right hand brought the bread up to his mouth, his teeth coming down and into the piece as he looked at her. His left hand rose to smooth over the matted side of his hair, trailing down to scratch at his cheek before settling in the blanket strewn over his lap bare lap.

“You left,” he pointed out. “I thought you were going to stay?”

Noah’s question was asked with the intent on having her explain herself. Each time he did awake for the brief moments she wasn’t around despite their seeming sense of closeness that morning. It was a cause for concern in him seeing as he was attempting to cover the most recent wound inflicted upon their relationship.

He swallowed the first bite of bread dryly. There was a clear thirst in him for both liquid and an answer.