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[sub][color=8E939E]✧     Location: Snakeburrow Woods     ✧     Purse: 12 copper     ✧      [@McMolly] [@Achronum]     ✧[/color][/sub][/center]
Kyreth regarded Lilann with a sympathetic half-smile, appreciating her humour but still pitying her her mistake. However, he did not despair; any other time, Lilann would be in a serious bind, but luckily for her Kyreth had come into some luck of his own. 

[color=8E939E]“Don’t worry Lilann, I have plenty,”[/color] he offered her, gesturing with the sack over his shoulder. By the weight of it, he was certain he had enough food to split with Lilann over the course of their journey; if he could make it from Straithmoor to Soft Haven on a pocketful of dried fish skins and handfuls of berries, he could manage on half rations for ten days. He smiled supportively. [color=8E939E]“We can share.”[/color]

However, no sooner had the words left his mouth than the murmur of another voice appeared directly behind him, whispering warnings of savage beasts that came out in rainstorms. Ceolfric’s warning came too late; as soon as the voice manifested, Kyreth had whirled around to face the nonexistent stranger - or, perhaps, to run away from it -  his heart racing even as their companion explained himself. A sharp glare in Ceolfric’s direction was his only response, as Kyreth was quickly distracted by Lilann’s whispers. 

Kyreth looked down at her in surprise, but left it at that; the cart was starting to move, and it was time to take their places. Though he admitted it begrudgingly after that little assault, Ceolfric had a point; they could tell ghost stories when Ms. Buckman was out of earshot. 

Before taking up his spot near the rear of the cart, though, Kyreth remembered that he was here for a reason. As the cart - and the group - started to pull away, he paused, turning away from the noise of wheels and hoofbeats and closing his eyes to draw a deep breath. After a moment of settling, his senses awoke to the aether in the area, dense and bright at once, flowing gently toward the town as if on a soft breeze. The nervous buzzing in his limbs had yet to cease, and now Kyreth saw why; despite his lack of any real frame of reference, even he could tell that the aether in Soft Haven was dense, and something pulled it inwards to the town proper, like water circling a drain. He didn’t understand the why of it, but he took note of it for comparison later, allowing himself one more slow breath before hurrying to catch up with the wagon team. 

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Fortunately, despite Lilann’s suspicion and Ceolfric’s warnings, the day passed largely without incident, the team winding slowly through the Snakeburrow Woods with little more than a frightened pig to startle them. In fact, other than that single scare, the trip was kind of pleasant; the rain never ended up falling and Lilann filled the hours with stories and songs, making it that much easier to forget the threat of monsters hanging over their heads. Kyreth could see how she managed the money for her lyre and (now missing) sword - he’d have kept walking all night listening to her, forgetting the soreness in his shoulder or the holes in his boots. He still kept an eye out for threats, of course - old habits died hard, and if he was going to hitchhike on the rest of the group’s job then he might as well be useful - but it would have been easy to forget and get lost in Lilann’s tales of far-off lands and ancient heroes. 

Night was beginning to gather when they finally did stop, and it was only then that the full force of Kyreth’s fatigue came to bear on him. He gratefully dropped his pack when they reached the clearing, working out the stiff knots in his shoulders as the others found their spots. Damn, he was used to traveling, but traveling with [i]luggage[/i] was a whole different beast. He supposed it had its merits, though, as he unfurled the top and pulled out a portion of food wrapped in oilcloth. Definitely better than fish skins, the rations consisted of a good-sized chunk of hardtack, some dried meat, and even a few slices of dried apple. Lord Mystralath was generous indeed.

[color=8E939E]“Here,”[/color] Kyreth told Lilann, kneeling down and placing the unwrapped bundle on a hard spot of ground. Producing his knife, he jabbed the point into the middle of the hardtack biscuit, thumping the pommel with his palm a few times until the rocklike biscuit split roughly in half. Careful not to drop any crumbs, he pocketed half the biscuit and a slice of the dried meat, wrapping the remainder and the apple slices back up in the cloth and handing it to Lilann. [color=8E939E]“That should do you for the night, I think. No need for mushrooms.”[/color] He grinned. 

Reassembling his pack, he shouldered it once more and made his way back to the cart, putting his waterskin with the others, but lingered as the others spread out in the clearing. When he and Cerric were the only ones around the water trough, he cleared his throat.

[color=8E939E]“Evening, Mr. Liadon,”[/color] he greeted, offering a token smile before immediately tripping over his own tongue. What was he supposed to say? ‘Thanks for making sure I don’t burn the forest down’? ‘Sorry to crash your escort party with my martially incompetent ass’? Gods, he felt like a little sibling begrudgingly taken along at his mother’s command, not a student, or an apprentice, or even a simple traveler. As soon as he spoke, he fell awkwardly silent again, grabbing the strap of his pack en lieu of the back of his neck. 

[color=8E939E]“I… wanted to thank you. For having me along. And for… well, supervising, I guess,”[/color] he finally said, momentarily distracted by the sound of a flint striking. He glanced suspiciously over to where one of their number was starting a fire in the pit, and shifted so as to put Cerric between himself and the distant flames. [color=8E939E]“I hope I’m not making your job much harder,”[/color] he continued quietly, [color=8E939E]“I don’t want to be a burden on their evaluation, so if there’s anything I can do, by all means…”[/color] 

Kyreth trailed off, distracted by the fire. To his credit, he was rather more used to [i]starting[/i] to offer help than [i]finishing[/i] it; normally, whenever he tried, he was chased away before he had the chance to finish his sentence.