[center][u][h2][color=7ea7d8]Jeanne Christina Roussin[/color][/h2][/u][/center]
It reminded her of a home she had once known. Ris slowly inhaled the smells of wet dirt, pine trees, grass and all the other scents that were so familiar to her. Once the horses had passed the first few trees, she had immediately felt more at ease. After all this time, Ris was back in her element. She had spent the last few weeks, months even, in villages, towns and valleys where the lack of trees and pure air had always disturbed her. The wind rushing through leaves overhead sounded  impossibly peaceful after all the chaos of the doomed town they had left behind. As they went deeper into the woods, the group slowed their pace considerably. The sun had long gone and letting their horses trip and fall in the dark wouldn’t be too helpful. 

After some time, Fae suddenly indicated for them to halt, while there was nothing extraordinary about the place where he had decided to stop. At second glance, Ris noticed the very slight elevation of the ground. It reminded her a little of wild boars’ hidings she had come across every so often on her hunting tracks. The elevation was hardly worthy of the term ‘hill’, barely noticeable due to all the other shrubbery and foliage surrounding and covering it. Fae took a few steps towards the ‘hill’, leaving his horse in Levi’s care. Ris remained in the saddle a little longer, looking around at anything that might indicate a hideout. She had expected Fae to take them to another village, or a cabin perhaps. He wouldn’t have hidden any camping equipment out here, would he? If this really was a wild boar’s den, she cared little for staying here until morning when the beast would return. Ris made sure to keep an eye on Fae as she dismounted, who was now rummaging through the moss which covered the base of the ‘hill’ until suddenly he pulled back and a camouflaged hatched opened outwards. 
Ris raised an eyebrow, even with her trained eye she wouldn’t have expected there to be a hatch over there. [i]Impressive.[/i] Fae turned around, a faint smile on his face. It was obvious that he was glad to be here, and who could blame him, compared to what they had left, Ris was feeling overjoyed to be here as well.  The group listened quietly as Fae explained the hideout’s layout, giving them directions on where to go for the different facilities. 

After the briefing, Levi quickly offered to take care of the horses; unsaddling, wiping them down with grass and giving them some water and such. With as little words as usual, Romeo offered to help him and the two led the remaining horses after Fae. With a small smile, the boy promised to make them something to eat or drink with what he would find in the kitchen. In the meantime, Hilde and Ris accompanied Rich down into the hideout, leading him to the ‘dormitory’; a somewhat dank, Spartan room with six beds and a small closet. It wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to lay low and recover for some time, exactly what they needed. Hilde quickly explained what she had done thus far to help Rich and Ris send her off to gather a few buckets of water. She then turned her attention to Rich, instructing him to sit on one of the beds with outstretched arms, after which she soaked the bandages Hilde had hurriedly applied and carefully unwrapped them. Rich cringing slightly while she worked, finally showing signs of how much his burned hands actually hurt him.

[color=7ea7d8]“Unfortunately, most of my medical equipment is still in the boat, so I’ll just have to improvise a little, Rich. Hope you don’t mind. You can cry now, Hilde isn’t looking.”[/color] She added the last words with a smirk, hoping her words would distract him from the pain. The painkillers she had were still in the boat near Riverseed, along with her violin and other equipment. Rich merely shrugged, but a faint smile made his way to his face as well.

[color=fff79a]“A few scars here and there won't do my appearance any harm, don’t you agree? In fact, it'll only improve the whole [i]brawly mercenary[/i] image thing.” [/color]Rich mused. Ris merely chuckled in response while inspecting the wounds. They should have been cooled as soon as Rich was burned, it had been over an hour and cooling was far less affective than it could have been. 

[color=fff79a]“Ris?” [/color]Rich asked quietly, at which she mumbled something acknowledging. [color=fff79a]“Don’t trust that Fae alright? I have a bad feeling about all this.”[/color] Rich said, the usual mock completely gone from his voice. She looked up, surprised by the serious tone of his voice. After a few moments, she nodded. [color=7ea7d8]“I’ll keep it in mind.”[/color] Reassured, he sank back into the wall and let her carry on with her hardly adequate healing. She cooled the burns again with the flasks they had for drinking water, helped by Hilde as soon as the latter returned with more water. 

[color=7ea7d8]“He’ll need to stay warm, please make sure that he remains covered with a blanket and his spare clothes, I have some you could use as well… Also, he should drink water frequently to ensure he doesn’t get dehydrated. If possible, he should keep on cooling his hands.”[/color] Ris instructed Hilde, after asking her to keep an eye on Rich, the latter protesting that he’d rather drink wine than water. Once she was sure Hilde was performing her task properly, Ris left the two alone. She knew little more than Hilde about medicine, and was of even less use without her medicines. She walked back towards the entrance, wondering where Fae had gone while she had checked on Rich. She came across Romeo who was sitting close to the hideout’s entrance, whom appeared to have taken the initiative of remaining on guard. His expression was even more grim than usual and Ris recalled that he had once told her that he deeply disliked the feeling of being trapped. Claustrophobia. 

[color=7ea7d8]“Once things are clear I’m sure you can go up.”[/color] She told him, lightly touching his elbow to show she understood. He merely nodded, turning away from her and her touch like a hurt animal. Suppressing a sigh, Ris turned around to go in the other direction. It pained her to see how much the man had changed since Juliette’s death. He had never been outgoing, but this… 

She quickly discovered Fae sitting at a desk, a candle lit up his face and plunged the rest of the room in even deeper shadows. Like most rooms in the hideout, this one seemed stably constructed, but decorated in a Spartan fashion. There was but one other chair near the desk, where Ris sat down. She coughed softly, to catch Fae’s attention.

[color=7ea7d8]“Hey… I just really wanted to thank you. For getting me and my companions out of there. You obviously know a lot more about what was going on there, so I doubt we would have been able to get out of there without your help.”[/color] She moved around on her chair a little nervously, it was awkward to admit she wouldn’t have been able to lead the group to safety. Besides, she was talking to a man both Rich and Dike had warned her not to trust. She examined Fae’s appearance carefully, her eyes lingering on his. [i]That’s impossible, he couldn’t be…[/i] 

After a few moments of silence, she continued. [color=7ea7d8]“And the hideout… It’s amazing, thanks again. I have quite a few questions as you might imagine. If you don’t want to answer, I’ll refrain from asking them for now, I’m your guest after all. If you have any questions of your own, feel free to ask me.” [/color]