The sergeant stammered for a moment, unable to find words. He silenced himself and regained his composure, standing crisply with his hands at his sides. There was nothing he could say. "Stay safe," he said to Adrian, and turned away from the duo. They hadn't lost people around the town, not yet. He didn't want to be the watchman to turn up the first corpse though. It was out of his hands: he wasn't going to resort to fisticuffs with someone he was sworn to protect. His patrol looked at him kind of funny for his demeanor, most armed guardsmen so far north were quick to employ the backs of their hands. The leaves whispered again, like clattery laughter along the forest floor. "You heard the man, to the road and let's get some words," he snapped the command and lead his squadron away, Lusevet pressing bootprints into the snow. The offhanded way he'd mentioned it made it more believable; if there was someone bleeding out in the woods they would be remiss if they didn't go out to find him. He told himself that on their return pass he would check again for the strange duo, though if it took them that long to get into town they were walking in circles or stopped.