Florie was good on her word and Katherine went to sleep clean, out before her head hit the pillow. She knew full well it would be some time before she got such a safe, secure place to rest her head and her body seemed to want to stock up. She slept deep and long and it was only towards dawn that she slipped out of the oblivious of deepest sleep into that of dreams. It wasn’t a pleasant change but it also wasn’t an unfamiliar one. Though she’d had the dream before it didn’t make it any more pleasant. And she woke with the taste of rot in her mouth and the feel of things growing in her flesh, eating the rot she’d garnered under the pile of dead she had been meant to join. 
 
She didn’t scream, the taste made her wake retching, which, while unpleasant, wasn’t nearly as loud. Small things to be grateful for she supposed as she stumbled for the pitcher by the bed and rinsed out her mouth, spitting the foul mouthful into the washbasin. She stood for a moment and collected herself, or rather stood while her body lost the shivers and shudders that wracked her when she woke from such dreams. It had been bad enough that she nearly guiltlessly lifted her flask to her mouth and took several calming mouthfuls. The warmth hit her empty belly like a punch but quickly eased into her body, loosening things and taking the edge off. She needed to stop doing that, it was a bad habit. But not this morning, not with that taste threatening to fill her mouth again. 

She hadn’t unpacked and so it was only a matter of moments to stuff her few loose things back into her bag and to slip into clean-ish linen and then the leathers that kept her more-or-less alive. She could hear the city starting to wake up around her and began to hustle. She wasn’t about to miss out on one last bit of Florie’s cooking before heading out of town and she couldn’t risk being late for her first job back. 

She managed both, if only because she did the latter half of the former as she fetched her horse from the livery and hustled over to the square. She hadn’t beaten him, which was unfortunate but he didn’t look too worried which meant she wasn’t overly late. Breakfast had been a luxury, one she probably should have forgone. But he didn’t need to know the details of her lateness. She led her bid, ugly mud colored gelding through the growing, morning crowd. The beast nearly as scarred as she, but his all showed whereas hers were mostly well hidden under her new armor. He was not a skittish beast which was good and had he been less hideous she might have had to pay his worth when she’d bought him. 

“Good Morning.” She called to him, lifting a gloved hand in a more chipper manner than she’d felt. He looked younger in the light of day, or was it that he looked less worried? He had secured his horse and his escort so perhaps it was that. She wasn’t certain as she moved to stand beside him and looked over his horse and his packing. The horse was in fine trim and would do and though his packing lacked the precision she managed, it was well enough and shouldn’t burden his mount overly. She nodded curtly at it in something like approval. 

“Are you ready to be off, Sir? Best to be gone before the full flood of farmers start hitting the market gate, then we might as well find a place to hole up until they have moved on.”