(This will probably be my last post for a while because I have work soon)

It was a relief when she told him she could swim, meant less hassle. However when she asked if she’d be going first he shook his head. “Not this time.” The boy said as he took a small step backwards before launching himself out and into the water. The cool, fresh water quickly closed in around him and Luka kicked back to the surface, taking in a breath as he swam towards the shore, checking over his shoulder as he heard a splash from behind him. However, as promised, the girl was able to make her way to an area where she could stand though maybe her form was a little lacking.

Finally allowing himself to relax Luka let his body begin to succumb to exhaustion. He pulled off his boots, tipping out the water from each, laying them on the rocks and pulling off his shirt so that it could dry out too the boy moved to the grassy area and lay down on his back, letting his eyes close. It had been clean enough to get rid of a lot of the dirt, sweat and gunk but he wasn’t about to drink it any time soon. He wasn’t sleeping, just finally taking a few moments to rest. However that didn’t last very long as he suddenly sat up, looking over his shoulder as something darted out of the forest towards him, jumping into the boy’s lap and nuzzling against him.

“Hey! Endi!” He said happily as he took hold of the small blue cat from earlier and stroked it. It was probably the first time the girl would have seen him display any true form of happiness. “I was wondering when you’d show up.” The creature looked up at him and dropped something shiny in his lap, Luka picking it up and inspecting the silver coin before smiling back down at the creature. “Thank you.” He said softly to it, receiving a small noise in return before he allowed himself to lie back on the grass, tucking the coin back in his pocket.

The sun was bright and the skies clear which meant there was little chance for rain, which would be a nice. Lying there on the ground it was clear the boy had experienced many kinds of wounds like the one on his side before, with many scars crisscrossing along his chest and torso, some small, obviously more puncture wounds from arrows or daggers and some longer, slices from swords maybe. In all honestly he didn’t remember the source of most of them. As he lay there, clearly enjoying the sun on his skin the small cat, Endi as he had called it, sauntered its way over to the girl, watching her from a distance with big, curious eyes.

She was a bit of a mystery in herself, really. He hadn't asked her for help. She knew the consequences yet she had patched him up when all he had asked for was for her to let him hide there until he could move. It made no sense to him. Went against everything he believed and he was finding it hard to wrap his head around it, so decided instead to just let it go. The more he thought about it the more it was going to bug him. A better topic would be his next course of action.