As the heat Of the day finally began to loosen its grip On the land, The birds having their last go at a Serenade, Kaylia Was finding that the dip Of the sun Into the horizon was increasing the amount of tightness In her shoulders with every degree. The death of the sun as it gave birth to the night Was always something that had made the muscles in her stomach tight and her nervous agitation increase, even if she couldn't remember why that was... Her stallion snorted softly beneath her, turning his black head to lip At one of her sleeves In a concerned sort of way, dark eye Focusing for a moment on her face. One corner of her mouth twitched up and she gratefully scratched at the side of the horse's nose.

"I'm fine. Look where you're Going before we both end up in the river." The horse whickered softly as he turned forward once again, as if listening to his rider. The improbability of such a thing helped Kaylia feel a little better as it made her smile widen briefly.

The two had been Traveling all day, Taking a delivery of horses out to a small farm between Glayde Village, a large town nestled at the base of the Ochre Mountain range along the eastern border of the kingdom, and the domain of a fishing population bordering the edge of a lake called Vista Shore, having met the owner of the ranch the day before in Marivienna City, the largest city in the northern providence of Liodia Kingdom. And although She had made it out with no problem, she had foolishly thought that she could make it back to Horse Grass Ranch where she currently lived by nightfall. She hadn't been Expecting the monster That had exploded from the surface of the river, inexplicably shooting Something that looked like a rock the same size as her head in her direction. Her horse hadn't been too keen To stick around and find out. She had barely glimpsed what she thought looked similar to a hunchbacked frog for part of a second before she was more concerned with gripping the reins and holding on as the stallion turned tail And headed in the exact opposite direction of the way she had wanted to go.

Sighing Softly, Kaylia gently patted Storm on his shoulder. She didn't blame her partner, she probably would have run in the opposite direction had She been given the choice Herself. But It did put them into an interesting situation, one that quite logically didn't sit well with her. As her thoughts were tugged Back in that direction, she found herself wishing all the more fervently that she hadn't been thrown into a situation that put her so off course.

First, there was the unsettled and rather nervous agitation that she felt when the darkness came. But secondly, Kaylia had overheard several conversations back in the city about farmer's crops beginning to fail them, shriveling and turning black as if scorched, where as they had been healthy and flourishing only the day before. Even their animals health seemed to be declining, getting sick, and weak, driven to insanity and attacking their owners unprovoked, only to die hours later gagging on black bile or being overcome by throbbing dark boils that seemed to be consuming their bodies. Rumors had even begun to spread, always uttered with Wilde eyed expressions and nervous gestures, about how even a few people were beginning to come down with strange illnesses that not even the most skilled medicine worker could heal. The strange and frightening rumors had begun to produce shadowy images in the woman's mind, to the point where she thought she saw half crazed creatures crawling towards her behind every bush and hill, intent on her death. The idea was silly and childish, part of her understood that, but her uncertainty of why she feared the night so much added fuel to the wild and unfounded imaginings.

Kaylia pulled up on the reins As she came level with a pair of short scrubby Looking trees, swinging her leg behind her and sliding down from the saddle. After Removing the bit from Storm's mouth, determinedly ignoring the way her hands shook as she did so, and putting it and the reins into a pouch on his saddle, She dug around in the bags until she produced a hobble, hooking it around one of the stallion's front legs before unfastening her bedroll and beginning preparations for her camp. When she finally had her bed to her liking and a small fire crackling in a comforting way, Kaylia went to Storm and unlatched his saddle, allowing it to fall to the ground before collecting a brush from within another pouch and beginning to rub her partner down for the night, forcing herself to concentrate on every motion she made to keep herself from allowing her thoughts to slip back into nightmares.

The day was early, but relentless. The sun was the main culprit, as it offered little sympathy to anyone foolish enough to travel. Trees were few and far between, and water was practically nonexistent. Aside from a few birds chirping away, there wasn't any sound to be heard. It wasn't a desert, but it felt like it.
The world may have been perfectly still, and very quiet, if not for two male voices bickering back and forth.
“If we don’t stop at a town, our supplies will run out.” The younger of the two was doing most of the talking. Or rather, he was doing most of the complaining. He rested his lean frame against a pitiful looking tree, a frown on his face as he watched the older, broader man.
“It isn't too late to turn back,” the younger reminded him, an edge of annoyance in his tone. The heat, coupled with the man's infuriating stubbornness, made him want to punch something. Or him.
“I’m not going back.” The older man grunted, adjusting the saddle straps. “Town’s cursed,” he spat on the ground, grumble-mumbling about the redhead being a fool.
“You said that about the last town!” The younger male pushed off of the tree, gesturing to the dusty path with an irritated wave of hand. “A couple of sick elderly folk hardly means the town’s cursed, Griff. If it makes you feel better, we’ll stock up on supplies and go.”
Attaching a moth-eaten blanket to his saddle, Griff shook his head. The man’s eyes were barely visible underneath his busy brows. “No, Ziden.”
Sighing in aggravation, Ziden remained watching as Griff retrieved a small leather pouch from his pocket. The contents inside made a satisfying ‘clink’ when moved.
“Here's your half,” Griff grumbled. He tossed the redhead the pouch of coins without looking. “I told you that’d be our last heist.”
Ziden caught the pouch with one hand, raising a skeptical brow as he poured a few coins onto his palm to inspect them. “I didn’t think you were serious.”
“I’m always serious," Griff responded, in the same low, gruff voice he used for any and every occasion.
“Fair enough.” Ziden pocketed the coins, folding his arms across his chest as he chose to watch Griff gather his belongings together rather than help.
With a grunt, Griff slipped his foot into the loop of the saddle and mounted his chestnut steed. “If you’re smart, you’ll avoid that town…and the next one after.”
Ziden watched as his former partner in crime rode away. Shaking his head, he pocketed a second leather pouch that made an even more satisfying 'clink'. "And if you were smart...you'd realize I just picked your pocket."

---

For the rest of the afternoon, Ziden traveled alone. The terrain remained flat and uninteresting, which gave his mind ample room to wander. He hardly considered Griff a friend, but he found himself wondering about him. For the past week, Griff had been mumbling about the land being cursed and the deaths that were to follow.
By the time evening came to cool the land, Ziden was already hot, tired, and disgruntled. Supplies were running low, his horse was worn, and his luck was running drier than his canteen.
“Should’ve turned back,” he muttered, dismounting the mare. He decided to walk on foot awhile, giving his legs a chance to stretch. The road had been long, hot, and boring. For him, the boredom was perhaps the worst part about it.
He reached up to pet his horse, a weary, sort of bored sounding sigh escaping him. "Looks like it's just you, me, and..." the words trailed off. Just East of their location, he saw evidence of a fire being started, the light showing up against the blanket of night.
Ziden chuckled lightly, a sly, cunning smirk pulling at his lips. "Looks like we found our supplies."

Steadily, Kaylia pulled the brush over her horse’s coat, pulling a few stray burrs from his tail as she went, until at last, she was satisfied. Patting Storm’s shoulder, she left the stallion to graze at some of the dry vegetation and returned the brush to her bags, waving a hand quickly in front of her face to discourage a hopeful night time insect before pulling out a small cooking pot and one of her water skins. Carefully, she used some sticks to balance the pot over her fire, pouring out some water to start the process of getting the liquid boiling for some soup. Luckily for her, she hadn’t used up the lunch she had packed for herself. The man she had sold the horses to had insisted she stay for lunch and when his wife started pleading with her as well, she found that she just couldn’t say no.

“Which is probably why you and I are in this mess now.” Kaylia sighed, glancing over at Storm with a wry smile. The horse, of course, didn’t respond.

Retrieving a small bundle of cloth that was tied around a dried soup mix that her adopted mother had taught her to make, Kaylia then paused with her hand brushing a couple of carrots that she had packed. She had intended to feed them to Storm, but... Well, She would give him one and add the rest to the soup. The idea appealed to her stomach. Separating out one of the orange root vegetables, she whistled to her stallion, getting his attention before tossing him the carrot. He happily lipped it into his mouth, crunching noisily for a moment before he began snuffling around for another.

“No! You only get one!” Kaylia laughed helplessly as Storm nuzzled her shoulder with his nose. Carrots, after all, were his favorite treat. He snorted in patiently, bumping her shoulder a little harder. “Fine! Fine! Take it, you greedy adorable beast!” She squeaked, laughing all the more as she surrendered another of the carrots. “But that’s it! These other two are for me.”

Storm eventually, though rather reluctantly, acquiesced when she started cutting up the remaining carrots and dropping them into the cooking pot along with the soup mix, shuffling away to nibble at the sparse grass once more. Kaylia shook her head, the laughter fading into a few residual bubbles of sound as she stirred her dinner, grateful, Not for the first time, that she had her horse for company.

Blinded by his eagerness to obtain supplies, Ziden began to walk in the direction of the fire. An irritable, disapproving snort from his horse reminded him not to be so hasty.
"Eh. Sorry, Missy." Ziden wasn't all that sorry for forgetting her. His bond with the horse was nothing special, but his belongings were still of use to him. Everything he owned was wrapped snugly in a bundle attached to the saddle, and the last thing he wanted was for her to take off with it.
Taking hold of the reigns, he led her in the direction of the fire until he came across a cluster of trees. He tied the reigns to a sturdy, low hanging branch from one and pressed a hand to her muzzle as a warning. “Stay here,” he held a finger to his lips. “And keep quiet! You’ve gotten me into enough trouble lately.”
Drawing up his hood, Ziden ducked into the shadows. He was alert to his surroundings, but didn’t practice caution until he was close enough to have a bit of visual as to who – or what, he was dealing with. Not only did the fire act as a beacon for him to follow, it illuminated the scene.
What he noted first was the fact that there was one horse. That usually meant one rider, which was perfectly fine by him. Due to his location, the rider was harder to see.
As Ziden crept closer, he kept an ear out for any others late to the camp and proceeded to advance, fingers twitching for the knife concealed underneath his cloak. With every step, the aroma of something being cooked increased. Stew, from the smell of it. At least, that was what he hoped. The luxury of stew meant his unsuspecting victim had vegetables and water to spare.
The setup felt easy. Too easy. Ziden craned his neck back to see if he had been followed, but he hadn't. He still didn't have a good look at the horses rider, but he didn't care. He was impatient, and he had the element of surprise on his side. It was time to make his entrance.
"Well, well..." twirling a knife in one hand, Ziden exited the concealment of the shadows, approaching the figure from behind. "Looks like I'm not the only one crazy enough to travel all alone out here. Hands where I can see them," he motioned with the knife for the figure to raise their arms. "I'll make this quick."