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Journey to the East

Elann wouldn't ever title herself a teacher, but she had taught the children at the orphanage various arts, math, writing, and many other things to a lesser degree. While she wasn't a teacher, she had certainly taught a lot. The near year of doing so obviously had rubbed off on her and she was able to clearly teach Aimee how to set up the tent properly and yet educate her in an interesting way.

Noah seemed to be doing fine, and with her wrapped about his waist, she too felt more comforted, but she could even see his sister and her silence. It wasn't until the family smiled at her did life seem to breathe back into her. While there were those who didn't know the difference between magic and gnosis, they did know Elann previously as a very kind woman, and Aimee as well. Whatever their issues, their aid likely would cause some inner turmoil over their natural dislike of the magic/gnosis users.

One such woman came up to the three of them and looked mainly to Elann with little eye flashes toward Noah.

"I'm glad your husband is doing better. It's good to see him out of the wagon again."

That was all she said before she headed off and went toward where some people were helping her set up a tent for her. She had lost her husband and essentially whole family and was all that was left. The somber tale tugged at Elann's heartstrings as both her and likely Aimee would know the woman's story. There she was, congratulating Noah on his recovery, and Elann couldn't help but feel a little sad for her.

"Thank you," she said as the woman passed them and then looked up to Noah with a soft smile, then looked over to Aimee.

Her piercing eyes studied her pose, her body language, and compared her to how she was before. Giving her a soft smile, Elann voiced, "I'm glad you were there to help us. You saved a lot of people's lives. We're all thankful."

Noah didn't know that even Elann knew some pretty deep depths of what it meant to be a Reinmancer and the cost and toil it took on your body. How one would have to live a life where part of them was secretive, and the worry and threat of people finding out. It was probably rare that someone would ever thank a Reinmancer, but she had done so much for them.

Journey to the East

Elann hadn't noticed Noah's plea for help as she zipped out of the wagon, but upon looking back as she started to set up the tent, it was clear he had descended. It seemed to always brighten Elann to see him walking about and knew for a fact it was helping him heal. She only wished she could lay her hands upon him and heal him instantly. She hated to see suffering and death, pain and misery. In her mind they were a form of life, but impure from what could be.

"You are up," she voiced when they finally drew near. The tent was laid out already by that point but hadn't been erected yet.

As Aimee sought to help her, she would naturally explain her people's secret ways of doing things. It was all very scientific, and every fold or crease in the tent walls had a purpose. Every peg had its place. Each place was meant for optimum wind/rain/flash flood resistance to keep the tent from being swept away and in case there were bandits, would allow some minor protection in giving you a place to run through the chords; protecting you mostly from incoming sword swings.

All in all, even though they started after everyone, they would set up the tent long before anyone else got done. Elann tried to not geek out too much on Aimee, only teaching her as much as she seemed willing to learn, but Elann had a lot of information to give.

When it was all said and done, she thanked Aimee for the help and then she came up beside Noah to wrap around his waist. She then gave small waves to those who had gathered around the flame with him in silence and it seemed her cheeriness brought smiles to their otherwise long faces. The fire kept away the bugs in the area and emitted a wonderful smell. In the distance, the cook was preparing the meal by his wagon and would soon bring a pot over to cook over the fire, and in the woods nearby people were chopping some wood to replenish their supplies, taking only from the fallen trees in the area.

"Are you doing okay here?" she asked, looking up to him.

Noah and her standing there, and wherever Aimee ended up going to brought fresh to people's minds the strange otherworldly powers they had witnessed the other night, and only because Noah and Elann both had divine marks upon them did they seem to be more settled. Magic however had a bad stigma and fortunately for Aimee, they were grouped in among the 'divinely chosen' people who were among them. People didn't speak about it, but any influence by the gods, whether large or small was appreciated, where as by magic, it was feared.

Journey to the East

The mere thought of Aimee's saying that it was unlikely that there was something large that killed it brought back to mind the terror of coming face to face with the lumbering bear, the primal roar of the woman of the woods, and the drawing doom of the dire bear as it crept closer to kill her. Elann wrapped her arms about herself and nodded. Disease sounded like a much better thought and the terror seemed to fade from her.

Moment's later, comfort took over the terror to calm her husband's mutterings, but happiness replaced it as Elann thought to Aimee staying out in the cold.

"Well, I am leaving you a blanket regardless and if you want to snuggle up into it, then you can."

It was playful defiance, and she knew that Aimee would - like most often - become her true self and have fur, but she always slept so deeply and comfortably curled in a nice nest of warm blanket.

"They are his treasures," she commented as Aimee spoke to her husband's paintings. It made sense. Everything else he kept were baubles of shiny pretty things, even her. She had learned that morning that even though there was desire in their bond, it was not out of pure attraction for her or because he admired her in the way she wished he did, but in many other ways. Still, she too was a treasure of his, if not the chiefest treasure.

Her near glowing eyes shimmered in what was left of the light as she looked to her husband to confirm, and likely finding him still caught away in thoughts, she focused on Aimee, setting the things down on the bench and nodding to her offer.

"Sure. It'll help my headache to not do as much."

With that she would take the tent from the wagon and hop out of the wagon, showing some liveliness, but a moment later held her forehead a moment before her hand returned to the tent binding. Lugging it over to a spot away from the fire, she laid it out so it faced the blaze, but was far enough away to not disturb them should people wish to stay up late into the night. It had become common for people to enjoy song and dance, but that tradition was not likely to come this night given the recent losses.

Journey to the East

Elann believed Noah had every intention of not scratching his wounds again, but she knew the temptation that came with such things. It was hard to feel pain and not assess it. It was a normal part of healing, but in his fragile state, Elann didn't want him playing at the skin, testing the stitches. It would only make his healing prolonged. Once the wounds for the most part closed, he could do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't a violent action.

As Aimee expressed what she saw, it was clear she did so in a wonderful way that piqued Elann's interest. Her eyes went wider at the sound of foxes taking down a deer, but then she remembered she said 'scavenged'.

"What do you think killed the deer?"

Elann rubbed her husband's knee as he muttered to himself, she being close enough to hear, though she didn't say anything on the subject. She couldn't fully understand, but got the gist of the statement. It was more in the way he said it that she knew he longed for something.

"I'll be setting up the tent. I just need to wake up a little bit," she said with grin as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. There was a little stretch in her back and with her arms, playfully invading Noah's space with her stretch and fluttering her fingers in his face, and then she slowly moved to rise.

"Did you want to join us in the tent? It'll likely be chilly tonight. It will be a lot more comfortable than here."

Elann moved to the chest and pulled out the playing cards and her most recent journals. Having it in her hands, she anxiously waited until Aimee responded and then gleefully looked to Noah and then back to his sister.

"I saw Noah's artwork of you when you were a little younger. You were so cute! And goodness he is a good artist isn't he?"

Journey to the East

Elann smiled softly to her sister and was about to answer when her husband chimed in as well. It seemed he was poking at his sides because she too could feel some minor acute pain there.

"I have a headache, but it is just a small one. Normally I don't sleep deep at all, I just must have been very exhausted. I didn't exactly sleep much at all last night and I don't even remember, but I think I was just so comfortable."

Her eyes flashed to Noah, as if saying he had made her feel so comfortable. She didn't touch on why else she slept so long as it was inappropriate to discuss, but there were other reasons as well. Changing the subject, Elann leaned up against Noah.

"The change will be small. Don't mess with it. We'll get the doctor to look at them tomorrow morning to see what he thinks."

Looking to Aimee, Elann asked, "Did you see anything interesting upon your walk today? Or rather, that I would find interesting?"

It was a prod at her failure to understand nature and see certain things. Even just witnessing a deer crossing the path would be highly interesting to her, whereas to Aimee this would likely be normal.

Journey to the East

"Probably not for a while," she voiced to her husband. She settled back onto her knelt position and rubbed her sides. It was then that the flaps were heard and Aimee bounded up the back of the wagon.

Elann flashed her a kind smile and chimed the greeting back to her in a similar flowing way, however with a Benshira twang at the end.

"I can't believe it Aimee, I slept allll day. I was so tired."

She rubbed her face again then and took in a few deep breaths as she was clearly still just waking up. Though Elann couldn't see what Aimee was doing as she rubbed her own eyes, she could hear that Aimee was brushing her hair from the wildness that had taken it. People had left them alone since the fighting, and she wondered if it was in part because of their display given, most people being distrusting and even hateful toward magic. Elann had not really left her husband's side, but Aimee had.

"How are you feeling? You seemed very tired after the battle."

Elann shifted to get some more water to wet her dry mouth and it seemed like it was the first they had seen her drink of the liquid in a good few days. She then deposited the glass there and came to sit by, and snuggle up to her husband's side. Soon she would have to start making the tent. People wouldn't appreciate her pounding stakes into the ground after they had all gone to bed.

Journey to the East

The accommodation of her husband leant to her comfort, and Elann before nestling too deeply in his embrace, used the fur blanket to cover her feet. Being in his arms provided a blanket of warmth to her that was very soothing at the worst of times, but in her sleepy state, she would not likely move again, and so the blanket over her feet would allow her to not turn them into frozen icicles while the rest of her body was warm. There she settled and began to fall asleep, only to wake a short time later, but his soothing words and voice invoked yet another sleepy response.

Elann curled all the more into him as his words came, singing to her and she could not restrain herself to give him a kiss upon his chest before her eyes finally closed. The words rapidly became jumbled in her mind as she drifted away, not to remember that she had even awakened, drank, and eventually moved about the wagon.

It was only when the wagons stopped and there was the loud thunderous sound of chains, clomping hooves, and raised voices did she startle in his arms. Shock took her a little as she realized how warm and comfortable she was, and how she was there within his grasp. In response, the limped body of Elann tensed to curl into his grasp once more where she had lazed and she brought a hand up to rest in his hair.

"We stopped?" she voiced in question to him. "I slept all evening..."

Upon her voice it was clear that she still had sleepiness there, but it was revealed that she was more awake than before with her simple mutterings, moans, and groans.

Slowly she moved to shift from him, giving his arms a break from holding her, and there she sat up on her knees in front of him rubbing her face. Once done, she would happily - filled with love - wrap her arms about him and kiss him romantically to show her love and affection for him. It was common upon her waking to give him a brief kiss, but this had more meaning to it. In her mind, the last she recalled she was in his arms and they had lowered to the bed, but upon waking, it was clear he had picked her up once more. It was endearing to her and she wondered that she slept through the action, but however she ended up in his arms, she knew it was by love that he kept her there close to him, and thus the kiss.

Journey to the East

Thankfully to her, the cup came quickly, and she didn't like making Noah do anything, but it probably in a small way made him feel like the kelvic he was, being able to help her for a change. She slowly sipped the water and patted her lips with her hands as they began to heal from the cracks upon them.

Her husband's voice at her side told her it was getting later and she slowly rose with the glass in her hand. It was clear that her actions were all groggy and weak, even the bumps of the wagon knocking her off balance. Quickly, she sat on the bench of the wagon before she could fall and hurt herself and then sipped some more water. It was then she smiled.

"Thank you for the water."

There was another little moan as the wagon shifted and she finally cracked her right eye open to view him where he had settled. Another little moan came as she exhaled the last of her sleepy breaths from her and she nodded to him about the stopping. Elann finished her water and then would want to come curl up in his arms like she had done earlier before their nap. It was entirely possible that she was not exactly awake. If able to come into his arms, he would find her asleep in not even a few chimes.

Slowly her breath would become heavier and then the wagon would shift, showing the lack of tension in her neck, and she would let it fall wherever was most comfortable. Much like the little girl Alena who had slept at his side and finally woke to be carried away, she did not fully wake, only enough to get what she wanted and then was back to the realm of dreams. If he left her be, she would start to go deeper into her sleep until her brain told her that she was sleeping. It was a delayed process and would at most take five chimes, but in the end there would be an even deeper intake of breath and she would wake up with a confused look on her face.

Journey to the East

Elann had seen in her sleepy gaze at Noah that he had poured himself the drink and was drinking now. It was enough to tell her not to worry about him. As her leg jiggled, her face was buried into the pillows, but she heard him.

She let out a breathy moan from her nose in response and began to jiggle again as now she was thinking once more. More often than not, she woke up, rose up quickly and mostly still asleep, would go about her day until she properly woke. This time she didn't rise, didn't get ready for anything, and yet her brain was telling her to get active and ready, thus the twitching. It was a conscious behavior and she knew she was doing it, but it felt good against the soreness of her body.

Having still not answered her husband, she could hear him sipping and the jiggling grew in intensity as she slowly began to move again. First her arms came from her side to prop her up as she slowly came to her knees. With eyes closed, she leaned forward onto her hands and remained there knelt and slumped slightly to the side. She looked like she had slept hard and was still that way.

"Water..." she said with an addition moan again, this time giving a little tug to the bond as she flopped down again onto her side and rolled to her back. She smacked her dry lips together and rose a hand to feel them. It had been a long long time since she had water and her body was telling her it was time. Noah would notice that she only ever drank water when needed, and only ever ate when hunger truly had set upon her, and then only in small amounts.

Journey to the East

From the moment Noah left her side, she began to become cooler, however under the heat of the fur blanket he got her, the warmth soon returned. In her mind, she could consciously feel him slipping away, and the light sleeper that she normally was told her it was time to wake up. Her body however was groggy and terribly sleepy, not only from the emotional drama over the past couple days with the death's of people, but the rekindling between her and Noah. It wasn't all emotional or mental, but physical as well. Her body was sore from their quick spat that morning and she was extra sleepy because of it.

His willingness to keep the bond open added to her pain and so as her mind willed her to wake, and her body intended her to sleep, her mind won out, mentally having to deal with the pain. It was not extreme, but present, and as soon as her eyes began to crack open, she had all but mentally pushed away the nagging aches. Her hands were pressed against her pelvis upon waking - a subconscious effort to keep them warm - and as the sounds of water were being poured, she silently stretched her hands upward into a little squealing, full-body stretch.

"Mmm..." she moaned quietly as she flopped back down as if dead. A good ten seconds later she finally breathed again and her left hand came to rub the sleepiness from her eye. It was followed by the right, lagging a full three seconds behind, and then she sat up and turned onto her side. A short moment later, she looked straight to Noah in the dimness of the interior and almost looked mad at him, or it was a very intense squint to try to see him, and then she flopped face first into the pillow. Her body was contorted, and finding it uncomfortable, a few moments later it straightened out so she was lying on her front with her arms tucked in at her side, taking pressure off her chest.

Another audible feminine groan could be heard from inside the pillow and her butt began to shake as she jiggled her leg as if thinking. It paused, then jiggled again, then paused, and jiggled no more.