They were both prepared for the creature, as Ingram had been able to hear it scuttling around inside from a distance. Emerie told him to let her take care of it. Less blood, she’d explained.
As for now, Emerie sat down against a log that appeared to have been purposefully cut and placed. She pulled out a package wrapped in cloth from her bag.
“We’ll stay here for the night.”
“Would it not be best to keep moving?” Ingram asked, sitting down across from her in the tiny, moss-covered clearing.
“Yeah, probably,” she answered as she nibbled on... food. He couldn’t even begin to decipher what humans consumed, but it looked dry, which made it hard to distinguish if it was meat or not. “However, I haven’t slept in nearly two days. I need rest, otherwise I’m going to make myself sick.”
She shivered in her uniform. It didn’t appear to be thick or warm since it clung to her so tightly.
When he tilted his head, she paused and furrowed her brows.
“Is... it okay if I eat in front of you?” She pushed the hand holding her package of food forward and gestured at it. “I don’t have a lot, but I can share if I need to.”
Ingram inched his head forward, not really closing much of the distance between them, to sniff at the air. He shook his head. What she had did not smell appetising.
“I do not consume things such as this.”
“Figures.” She let out a snort of laughter before retracting her hand. “You have a pretty good nose. If it wouldn’t trouble you, if you could sniff out things like berries and mushrooms on our travels, it’ll really help me. I could only bring so much between my tools, water, and food. I can ration for a few days, but I’ll eventually starve.” Once more, she let out a half-hearted laugh as she looked down at her food. “Guess it’s a good thing, in a way. I started getting pudgy lately with all my new tasks and studying, since they’d stopped sending me out on missions.”
Ingram understood about half of what she said, but his tail still shifted slightly behind him. He was happy that the little human was speaking with him – like it didn’t matter they were different or that he didn’t completely understand everything.
He asked her a lot of questions, mostly out of habit from when Aleron had been by his side. However, unlike his kindred, Emerie would have an answer. If she didn’t, she would try to explain it as best she could.
He pointed to where there was a disturbed pile of rocks and loose charcoal. “Are you not going to light a fire? I have seen many humans do this when they rest.”
He’d also like to see how one was made.
“It’s not smart to have a trail of smoke leading to us. It can attract all manner of creatures, as well as inform the guild of where we are.”
As a Duskwalker who had followed the scent of fire, he thought this was wise.
When silence and night fell upon them, and he only inspected the female before him because he had little else to do, he noticed her eyes drooping. They closed, and a few minutes later, she jerked up.
She rapidly blinked and then groaned as she rubbed at her face.
“I need to sleep,” she said, and yet didn’t get up. Now that she’d stopped to rest, she seemed incapable of moving again.
“Do you need me to carry you inside?” he asked, since she’d laid down a sleeping bag that had been hidden away in the shelter.
“What? No,” she quickly uttered, springing to her feet suddenly. “I’m okay. Thanks though, I guess.”
Why did she seem alarmed by that prospect? He must admit, she was awkward with him. Constantly, he sensed she was wary and unsure.
Ingram stood on all fours to follow her. “It will be faster if I carry you on our journey. You are slow, and I can move throughout the night.”
As she was climbing up the stairs, she glanced back with her lips tightly pulled to one side. She opened her mouth to say something, only to shut it.
“I’ll think about it,” she stated, confusing him on the matter.
At the pace they’d walked today, they wouldn’t make it to the westernmost point of the Veil for over an entire moon cycle. If he were to carry her on his back, he’d likely halve it – and even more so if he were to sprint on all fours.
He’d find out later why she was hesitant and attempt to change her mind.
Ingram wanted this journey over sooner rather than later, hoping to bring back Aleron as quickly as possible. That was his goal, and every day without his kindred left a crumbling hole in his chest. He wanted to fill it again.
The female said nothing about the fact he’d followed her inside, and she simply laid down with her back towards him. After a few moments, she rolled to check on his whereabouts.
“You should sleep too.”
He nodded and obediently laid down where he was, thumping to the ground in a curled heap. Even though it was early night, Ingram drifted off due to the consistent lack of sleep over the course of the past week.
His dreams were unpleasant.
The images that haunted him flickered between hazy memories of his pain: the sharpness of evil human faces inflicting them, and the Demons who had hunted him. And, in each of his darted gazes around the stone room or the gloomy forest, Ingram searched for his kindred – only to find himself alone.
Even in sleep, he could tell his heart had accelerated and his breaths had sharpened. The whines and yelps of his memories mixed in with the present ones that quietly burst from him.
Unable to cope with the intensity of his nightmares, kicking and clawing to be free of them, he jerked to his feet to escape. He paused, his orbs opening from blackness to a pale blue of combined fear and sorrow as he reorientated himself in the human dwelling.
On shaking limbs, his skull turned to the closest noise and scent.
Despite the darkness, her orange mass of hair was vivid as it lay sprawled around her on the distressed wooden flooring. It looks... warm, he thought, remembering how it had almost singed his palms in the sunshine.
He took a singular step towards her.
She smells nice. Almost sweet... and comforting. He wished he knew the names of the plants she reminded him of as he took another step closer.
I can hear her heart. It was tiny in comparison to Aleron’s. It sounded fragile, like she was fragile, as he took that last step.
Standing right next to her, he watched her sleep for a little while. Some of the anxieties in his chest faded at her lulling breaths, the way her chest waved in and out, and at her... peacefulness.
He was envious of it. He wanted her to share it.
Ingram hesitantly and carefully lowered himself into a curl with his back touching hers. He was ready to leap away and pretend he hadn’t been seeking the comfort of her unwitting touch if she woke.
He waited, then eventually eased when she didn’t.