Noah couldn’t drift back to sleep with the constantly jostling wagon. He tried to use Elann’s presence and scent to act as his aid for sleep, but it didn’t come. Despite the drugs in his system and numbing the outward facing bits of his wound, there was an internal pain that wasn’t shaken. Elann’s breaths were deeper than Noah’s, his still shallow for fear of harming himself with deeply taken breaths. They probably weren’t going to hurt as much now that he had been healed, but the few he took while he was conscious on the riverbank were enough to scar him from trying in that moment.

He took a breath as the caravan struck a deeper rut in the road. That breath was expelled through clenched teeth as he winced and whined lowly in his pain. Elann’s touch in his hair and her quiet humming took place of the little girl whose name he had yet to learn. It was easy to be grateful and thankful for the little girl who had come to him despite his growling and protest of being healed. It seemed she saw through it to him, and saw the whimpering and frightful beast that was lying there. Elann probably saw through it the same way, but their fight was still very fresh in his mind and the shutting off of his moods was a heavily weighted thing in his subconscious.

Eventually, he drifted back off until the caravan trip came to an end for the night. Emery came to administer more medicine to the groggy Kelvic who took them without protest. He was wakeful after Emery treated him again and his stirring brought the little girl to life. She was, like him, tired and groggy, yet cute all the same. Her big eyes and tiny toothed smile brought the smallest one to his face. He had sat up in preparation to move from the wagon to the tent grounds. Elann sat on his right, if she still sat upon their stopping, and the girl sat on his left.

“Hi,” she said shyly in her tiny, sleep choked voice.

“Hello,” he chimed back. He was willing to forsake the pain in his side to seem cheerful for the girl, and it wasn’t all in façade either. Her permanent cheerfulness was contagious, and though she smiled shyly because of Noah’s unrelenting gaze, he smiled slightly in quiet happiness. 

“My name is Alena,” she said quietly.

“Alena,” he repeated in a whisper.

“What’s yours?” she asked curiously.

“Noah.”

“Nice to meet you, mister Noah,” Alena happily said. “Do you feel better?”

“A little,” he answered, nodding some.

She nodded too, humming goodly. Her smile still showed, and Noah’s hand slowly came up to the girl’s face, pushing her dark hair behind her ear. Her hair wasn’t tamed yet, having just woken up, but it was an obvious gesture of care done from Noah’s end. They said their goodbyes with the Alena’s mother called for her to leave Noah alone to rest and to help set up their tent for the evening. “See you later, mister Noah,” she said before leaving. He waved goodbye to her as she jumped down playfully from the wagon’s back, landing with a soft thud that turned into more thudding as she ran off towards the clearing they were setting up tents in for the night.