Noah shrugged at Elann’s mention of potential stories to tell his mother. The scars along his ribcage and back would be story enough to provoke her worried rambling, of which he didn’t want to hear. It would be short lived, he knew, it would last longer than if she discovered his older brothers had been injured though. He was the baby, her little dove, and the one most akin to understanding her entirely because of them being of the same species and sharing many of the same mannerisms. He figured his mother would be self-loathing in a way upon the discovery, because of her inability to protect him like the mother she was. Noah knew if his mother was around his injuries could have been either avoided or reduced by a great amount, so he shared a sense of guilt as well.

Aimee rose from the opposite bench at Elann’s expression of understanding, letting her counter-question linger away unanswered as Elann was probably lost in her own fears in the memory of the bear that once confronted her. The wolf went towards the head of the wagon where their things were stored and shifted through her trunk.

Elann’s feather-light caresses were felt on the Kelvic’s skin and they didn’t bother him. They did relieve the week old itches he hadn’t be able to scratch due to his limited mobility. The scars she may have been admiring, Noah was loathing, wishing them away and gone, not liking them to mar his skin and person. He hated the scar on his leg most of all, he could see it every day and could feel it with his own hands. It felt foreign despite it being his own healed skin. He wondered about the ointment Emery mentioned to reduce the scarring of the wound once the stitches removed and the wound allowed to breathe for a day or two longer. He hoped it would smooth his skin out once again and allow the normalcy to retake it.

His mother told him stories about healers is Riverfall who would stitch wounds with their magic. He wondered if any of the healing priestesses lived in Zeltiva and what the cost of their services would be to magically erase the evidence of his missteps and faults.

Elann’s compliment brought him out of the thoughts for the moment. Since his last faltering he had begun to doubt his own aerial combativeness. The falcon was far too quick for him to catch but with the aid of his gnosis mark he felt he could’ve bested it and came out on top. Elann’s tugging and her panic served as a way to totally distract him from using his own arsenal to its fullest extent, not that he blamed her.

“I suppose,” he said in reply. “I don’t know anymore, it has been a while.”

Aimee sat back down on the opposite bench, a small cloth sack ruffling in her hands. It was the size of her palm. She unstrung it and reached in, pulling out a small caramel candy, of which she plopped into her mouth and sucked, her sights looking towards the pattering rain as it came down outside, splashing weakly into the wagon.