Though Rhys had never had a pet, when she was young, she used to spend a bit of time at the local stables with horses. They had always been nervous around new people, and would move closer slowly until they could smell her to see if she was a threat. She got used to being patient, waiting for them to be comfortable. The stranger didn’t answer her question, but instead addressed the behavior of the creature that was still edging closer to her. “She?” Rhys questioned, though she didn’t wait for an answer. 

Instead, Rhys straightened a little, slowly, and turned to the creature. “Hello, Endi.” She said, repeating the name she had learned from him before. Rhys didn’t reach out, or try to grab at the creature, she simply let the creature continue to assess the situation. The man said that they would depart soon, and he sounded like he was going to fall asleep. He had moved closer to her, but he certainly didn’t inspire confidence. He had never answered her question about why he was running, but what bothered her more is that he simply ignored it. Had he stated that he didn’t care to answer her, she would have been much more content. His lack of response had the intended outcome, though. Rhys didn’t bother to ask any more questions. He clearly had no interest in answering them, or in posing his own to learn anything about her.

She was tempted to ask where the nearest town was, so that she could depart there, unsure of whether that was his plan as well, but she didn’t really want to break the silence again. Though she considered herself a decent person, she could be a bit stubborn, especially when she felt someone was being unnecessarily rude. After some time in silence, though, her frustration fizzled away, and she remembered that without him interrupting, she would have been raped by the guard. Whether or not he had been in the back room and she had helped him, the guard would have likely made the same demand, and so she really ought to be thankful.

Rhys shifted positions in order to help dry a bit more of her gown, though it would certainly take longer than his clothing, before she spoke again. “Thank you, for stopping that guard.” She said, figuring that if it wasn’t a question, she wasn’t really ruining his peace. Letting the silence fall between them once more, Rhys took out her writing pencil and journal, and continued to sketch on one of the pages. She was filling in a few more details from her dreams last night, which didn’t involve the ones surrounding her, at least to her knowledge. She usually had dreams that didn’t seem to mean anything, but she could never be sure, and so drawing them and jotting down details helped her get the images out of her head, especially the more violent ones.

This one wasn’t particularly violent. There was a small vending stall with some produce knocked on its side in a busy market, and a figure running through the parting crowd. Most of the people were blurs, and so she didn’t add a lot of detail in, but it was a very complicated image, and so it was a good way to pass some time. For all she knew, this was part of the scene that had played out that morning, with the man running through the crowd. She didn’t have a good image of him in her head, and since she had been in her shop until he burst in, she had no idea if a few stalls might have been knocked and its items on the ground. A little while longer passed, and she began to pack her items back in her back, saving her journal for last so she could look through it once more. The journal was her most important possession, and she kept it very private. People would think she was strange for drawing such dark things, and even more so if they knew why she kept a journal at all. With everything packed away, Rhys rose to her feet to continue to walk, unsure what direction the man would be choosing, and quite confident that he would want to do the navigating.