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Journey to the East

Noah repeated what Aimee had said, showing Elann had heard it before. Given the time that they had spent together on the trip, it would be nice to have the freedom to wander. On the journey, it was hazardous to wander away from the caravan, but it likely wouldn't be the case in the middle of the city.

"Okay," she answered him about his family and meeting them. It was the least she could do for them. They were after all throwing her a party. The wedding feasts would last a long time in her tribe, but she doubted this would be like that, but who knew? Isabella had been to Eyktol. Perhaps she would know that their feasts took days to complete? Maybe she would have that? Given the city's reputation for wanting a party, she doubted that they would be lacking in their guests unless they wanted to keep it a family affair. She had no issue having random strangers celebrating with her as long as they paid their respects.

"I will be okay wherever. If nothing else, we have the tent. I could even live in that for a time if you wanted."

She slid from him and smiled.

"I am going to put this cloak in the tent and then go help the cook maybe make something better tonight, if that's okay?"

Journey to the East

It was all mysterious to her. She wondered if Aimee was in on this somehow as she was gone again. They were going to wait it seemed until everyone was asleep, and that seemed very strange to her. If they wanted to leave, they just could, but the fact that they were waiting until everyone who knew where they last were was gone to the land of slumber weirded her out. She was a patient sort of person at times though and she nodded about the snack. She'd likely bring a bit of bread for him incase he got hungry. She herself would not be.

Elann didn't ask anything as he looked idle to her patiently waiting for him to ask her something or tell her something. When it seemed there was no more information for her in that instance, she climbed inside to grab her cloak and then returned before him with it bundled up. He asked her again about her plans, a question he had asked a couple times already. Her answer still hadn't changed, but his repetitive asking of it told her he really wanted some sort of plan.

She took a moment longer to think this time to come up with some sort of plan for him, though really she had no idea. She grew up in a tent and had been told on numerous occasions that Zeltiva was nothing like Syliras. She had no idea what was before her.

"Um...well I guess I will look for a place that sells rugs and see if they need help. If not, then perhaps I will see about working as a tailors assistant. Your sister really wants us to stay in your home for at least a little while. She said we would likely have your brother's room since he's gone and it's I guess bigger than yours?"

Journey to the East

Elann knew better than to ask her husband as she poked him and he poked her just exactly what they were doing that night. The way he had asked it indicated that he wanted to keep it quiet, if not a secret. Who knew what that meant or what they were going to do.

"Okay," she stated cautiously after another light poke. His finger jabs were doing the trick and though not hard, it was bruising her chest and giving her great pain. She returned the object of her poking back to where it came from and ran her hands up his thigh, leaning lightly on them as her hands came up to a stop by his hips.

He indicated that it wouldn't rain, and from what she could tell, she figured it wouldn't but her guesswork wasn't as solid as his knowledge. Looking up she nodded. He had indicated that while it wouldn't rain, it may end up being cold and windy.

"Is there anything other than a cloak I should bring? A lantern? Blanket? Do we need food?"

She looked at him innocently in her curiosity, chewing her lip in thought as she tried to figure out exactly what they were doing.

Journey to the East

Fortunately for them, they had just restocked some supplies for fresh food. In a way it was a reward for pushing onward when they could have stopped. Unless botched, the meals from then on would be salted meats cooked into various foods with bread and ale. Elann wasn't too keen on some salted meats, but others she loved.

The Benshira finished setting up the interior, using mostly the lantern's light to establish it rather than the grown light of the fire to do so. She had learned almost immediately that having your tent open in the region they were in meant biting bugs would come in. Elann spared herself and her husband from any such treatment, though for the most part, for some reason biting bugs disliked her over other people. Perhaps it was her lack of iron in her diet, the lack of sugars, or it was something she preferred to eat, but whatever it was, nothing really ever took a nibble of her.

They were entering into more open country and the river was further away and the winds seemed to be stronger. That meant that the threat of walking around at night was far less than other nights when it came to being bit by the blood suckers. Still, the occasional bat would be seen in the light of the fire.

As Elann finished completely, she came up to him on the end of the wagon and came into his space. She smelled like the grass she had been walking in, the floral musty earth scent the wind carried that had blown her tamed hair, and the present lingering henna on her hair that was much less than before.

"You wanted to show me something? Are we waiting until after dinner?"

She pulled out her managalasutra and grasped the thali at the end of it, lightly poking his bare chest with the warm gold for really no reason alone other than to be slightly playful in her love for him.

Journey to the East

Part of her wished he would let her take care of him. His recovery would have been much quicker if he had not been so stubborn. Even before, without her urging when his leg was hurt, if he had his way, he would have wasted away. Silently she nodded, having to deal with it.

As her eyes remained close to the lantern, they seemed a golden blue, a color he didn't often get to see, and likely didn't get to see then due to his squinting before she stepped back. She then rifled through the things to get some stuff for the tent and then lugged the tent in heavy burden upon her shoulder once more. Giving him a quick smile, she moved to the back of the wagon and pushed through the flap and then hopped down. The added weight crumpled her down almost to bent knee, but she recovered. Elann was a fighter despite her lacking strength, and what she lacked in might, she made up for in endurance.

Quickly her mind assessed slope, distance to the fire, likeness of the possibility of rain, and escape routes needed should there be another bandit attack. While the bandit attack was a surprise before to them, Elann had always had a fear of bandits in her land. They were unfortunately very common. Eventually she began to get set up and then would come back for the lantern, the rugs and their changes of clothing for the next day. Everything else she already had inside, including a razor and knife to trim her husband. He had always been able to do it himself before, but she had always had to help her father, not out of necessity but out of a servant's mentality.

It didn't take long before the tent was up and the food for supper had not even hardly begun to cook yet. She missed the fresh game he would bring her and that she could cook up in her own way. The cook wasn't the same in his methods of cooking and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't overly good either.

Journey to the East

Elann nodded with a hum, showing she heard him. He gave her permission to go put up the tent, so she turned to rise. Upon doing so, he joked about sleeping forever.

"It's fine. You haven't hardly moved those muscles at all for a long time. Just give them a chance to wake up. If you want, I can make you a special drink that we would make when we would be dehydrated and our muscles would be hurt and sore? It's actually kind of tasty, but it really works. It's not like the tea, it's not a medicine."

Now that the wagon had stopped, the driver hopped down and made his own tent up, but for her, she lingered to refuel the lantern and blow on the cooled wick to see if she could get it burning again. Eventually she did, but it didn't linger. She ended up having to redip the wick in the oil because it was too dry.

Once it was lit, she looked around for a moment and let her eyes adjust to the light and to see her husband where he ended up.

Journey to the East

The reactions of her husband's waking sent good and bad feelings through her body. There was the increased pain of his back and shoulder, but also the good of the stretch. He groaned and whined as she lay there looking to him in the dark. She couldn't see hardly anything except the flash of his lighter skin in the dark when the light from the wagon's flap inched through.

Even though she couldn't see him, she could hear him, and was perceptive enough to know that he was sitting up and stretching. Just by the smallest movement of his body she could tell what he was doing to a degree.

"I think your sister might be off hunting or something. I'm going to set up the tent. Are you okay? Do you need me to do something for your pain?"

She would rub his back, scratch it, or do just about anything for him he wanted. At the moment, she kept her cold hands tucked in tight to her body to hopefully warm them.

Journey to the East

It was nice to get her thoughts down on paper. That husband of hers had crumpled back to sleep quite quickly in her mind and hadn't moved for a while. Once done, she folded the journal back into its spot as well as folded Aimee's clothes and put them in their proper spot, and then began weaving. Elann wished she had a loom, a large full room sized loom, with thick wooden posts that would last centuries passed down in her family, if she could even have a family.

Noah and her had been having sex sparsely, very sparsely, but she hoped it was enough for her to get pregnant. Soon she would know. Her last period was before they had left and it had been nearly three weeks. If the Gods were gracious to her, they would wait until she arrived in Zeltiva. Nothing about the bouncing wagon seemed to inspire her to want to go through any of the journey with it, but she was prepared if it did happen.

All such worries and thoughts were in her journal, not in detail, but hinted at sarcastically, but mostly what she wrote about was how she intended to try something new with Noah and their fighting. It didn't matter to her if he read it, it would only bring up the conversation earlier. As it was, right now, she didn't want to talk about it with him, if at all. Her hope was for it to be natural, to slow down and think, cool off.

The light clacking of her tools were gentle, likely only to bother Aimee's sensitive ears, and was essentially muffled next to the sounds of the wagon. Evening passed on and when the oil ran out and she sat in darkness, she came to lay next to Noah since there was nothing else to do. She didn't feel like replacing the wick and oil when the wagon bumbled about so much. That was a good way to light herself on fire. She settled in next to him and yet kept a distance because her hands and feet were cold, yet he was so warm comparatively. Not long after she had settled, the call was sounded for them to make camp and the rough bumps that came with running off the ruts of the road shook the wagon until they were on the grass.

Journey to the East

Elann only sat up enough to let the blankets slide off his upper half, though as he whined at her, she turned to him sleepily with her upper half and pulled the blanket up over him. She sat there a moment longer and then looked around to see if Aimee was inside or not. She didn't recall her having come in, but wanted to see.

Lacking in balance as the wagon shifted, she moved to sit on the bench after grabbing her dress. Sleepily she fit it on her and hooked the back. After a quick brush of her hair, she was ready for whenever they stopped.

The sounds of a yawn would be heard from the darkness coming from her as she slowly woke up more and rubbed her face. Pulling out the lantern, she hooked it to the top brace of the canvas and readied to light it with her tinder box and flint. Having become proficient, she could feel the oiled wick needed trimming, so she pulled off the char and left it to a point before proceeding to light it.

A dim golden glow spread through the small area around the lamp, but grew to spread across the whole of the interior. It was not very bright because of how she trimmed it; thinking of her husband. It was light enough however to see if Aimee was there, where her weaving materials ended up, and was bright enough to read or write. If Noah kept to his blankets and sleep, she would write in her journal, but if he seemed to wake, she would just weave.

Journey to the East

It wasn't long before she settled on her side to face away from him as her sleep drew ever closer. Elann could feel the restlessness in their bond over his want to touch her fade away as he pushed it from his mind. It didn't mean Elann didn't want him close by turning away, and before he could assume as much, she gave a slight pull on their bond, motioning for him to be closer.

Physically she squiggled in bed, inching closer to him, but allowing him to do most of the work to hug her as she lay there. Regardless what he did, the Benshira would be asleep in no time and her husband soon following in suit.

As evening rolled around, Elann stirred in the first movements of waking. The inside of the wagon was pitch black and she was far warmer than she had been the previous night. Little squeals came from her as she stretched and squirmed, feeling about blindly to kiss him as she turned to face him.

There she lay for another good five chimes as the bond dulled again, bringing her back into instant sleep off and on until finally her brain clicked on and she sat up sleepily. There she sat for a good chime as she took in what was going on and rubbed her face.