Blood and Bloody ashes, what else could she do? It impressed him, but it was also a bit unnerving. Yet somehow, he was ok with it. He must be going insane too. They held one another's hands, and gingerly stepped across, slowly and deliberately. Other than a few small cracks by Ali's footing, they made it across, the soft crunching of the earth beneath them audible in the clear night air. Mave seemed as pleased as the cat that got the cream. 

"It's a good thing Taren's Ferry isn't walled." Ali said to her, and they approached from the west now, creeping through the brush and sliding into the settlement from the outfields where the lower classes lived, if class could even be associated with such a small settlement. More like, where the men and women who could not afford to live where the cobblestone streets spread across the various shops. 

"There's only one inn here." Ali said, indicating he knew where to go. 

"No, no." She said, pulling him back from entering the town proper. "The enemy has agents. Darkfriends. Even if a Myyrdraal would not come into town, there are eyes everywhere, especially this close to the Two Rivers." 

"So we can't get a room?" Ali asked, then realized how stupid he sounded. 

"Would you be recognized?" she asked pointedly, and he nodded. She tried to gather her thoughts. "Then we'll need to think of something else." 

"We'll have to sleep in a barn, then." Ali reasoned. Mave seemed less than excited to bed down on a pile of hay, though she did well at hiding it. Ali would have felt the same, if he had been running down from the mountains and had gone through everything she had. Light, he near had gone through as much now, hadn't he? The two quickly made a trek to the south of Taren's Ferry, picking their way through the back of the settlement where a few drunks and a watchmen or two lounged, though there was no serious watch tonight. 

They found a squat barn, two stories it looked like, just at the edge of the periphery of Taren's Ferry. Tomorrow they would go and fetch supplies from the town, but tonight they needed to rest and think, and eat what's more. It was now just past midnight, and soon the early dawn would arrive. But not soon enough to not take refuge. 

Ali opened the barn door with his workman's muscles, the gate creaking open like the cry of an animal. Surprisingly, there were no animals in here. Only bails of hay and farming implements. Ali lit the torch once they were inside, holding it aloft and checking to see if there was anything they might have missed from the moonlight. When he was satisfied, he told Mave to follow him and he climbed the ladder that led upwards to the second floor. Mave shimmied up behind him, and once they found a comfortable corner at the northern edge of the barn near the outer window, Ali set out a small quilt atop the hay and opened his pack, handing Mave a bit of dried meat and cheese. 

"I've never had a Bel Tine this exciting." he said, giving her a boyish grin and a playful nudge. But his next words were more sober. "Thank you for saving me." 
[@Penny]