Luka looked down slightly at the girl’s words. He was aware that what she was saying was true and it didn’t fill him with a lot of confidence about leaving her. Still, in the end it may give him a little time to rest. He was still confident that in a new town, where no one knew her and with the days she’d be off the radar the guards would forget all about her. But how much of that was wishful thinking and how much of it was actually true he didn’t want to think about. 

He looked to her as she questioned about not getting soaked. Having not spent a whole lot of time around people, sarcasm was often lost on him and he was left giving her a confused look as she handed him the bag. The boy nodded slowly as he made his way to the water’s edge, keeping an eye on the girl as he began wading into the water, holding the bag above his head as he began swimming to the other side, passing her fairly soon in the crossing but looking back every now and then to make sure she was still managing.

The river was cool, the water pushing against his skin as he swam with one arm held up, keeping the bag out of the water. As he reached the opposite side he slowly climbed up onto the bank, putting the bag down on the ground as he pulled off his boots, tipping the water out of them, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. Looking out along the tree line on the opposite side of the bank he saw no sign of Endi, which led him to guess they wouldn’t be seeing her till later that evening. He wasn’t concerned, sometimes she travelled with him, sometimes she didn’t.

She wasn’t a pet or anything like that. She was his friend. She was free to come and go as she pleased, but they had been together so long he figured they’d probably be together for a long time still. He kept his eyes on the girl as she swam, slowly getting carried downstream to his location. But he wasn’t concerned, she was getting close enough that he wasn’t concerned that she was at risk of getting swept away. He glanced at her bag beside him for a moment before looking away once more with disinterest as he waited for her to reach the other side.