Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24123288-20150315182542/@comment-3293219-20150316154204

Arrietty slowly wandered out of Markarth's gates, glancing up at the sky as she heard the hark of crows above her as they flew over her head and swooped down onto a mangled animal carcass. The creature was most likely a rabbit, made road kill by a merchant's carriage as it left the city, it didn't look identifiable as a rabbit or edible as meat, only the birds were interested in it now and they seemed to be very protective of their claim.

The Breton continued down the approach, expecting to hear song birds, like she used to back in High Rock. She could name them all at one time but like a mother tongue, the information had since gotten suppressed to the back of her mind, unused, unwelcome, like everything that was good about her. She liked the shrieks of the seagulls, sort of, when they were far away. It wasn't the song of a lark or a whistle of a robin but it was something other than the shriek of crows, morbid birds for a morbid city...

As Arrie arrived at the guard tower, she immediately stopped and looked around, to make sure that nobody was watching her... She was very thorough with her scan, the less people who knew about her stash, the safer it was. She knelt down, behind a rock and slowly lifted it, pushing it away from her and revealing the hole that was beneath it. Within the hole was a treasure chest, a unique chest as the key hole was on the lid and it could only be opened with the key that Arrietty carried around her neck. She quickly proceeded to open it and pulled back the lid...

-

Arrietty stepped inside the door as it opened, gently pushing it open with her foot as both of her hands were full. She held a tray, with a bowl of soup, still steaming and a cup of tea that had cooled down significantly, since she brewed it and between them sat a small vase, with a flower poking out of the top. All three were for her patient, who was revealed to her as the door slowly opened, lay buried under a quilt and propped up with several pillows, with a face as pale as death, clutching several bloody rags in his grey, frail hands...

It hurt Arrie to see him like this but she never let it show, she pushed through, with a smile. He often was the voice of pessimism, if she weakened, then she knew that he'd lose hope... If he hadn't already...

The sun shined through the window, fully illuminating him, in the rather dimly lit room. It was still early spring, late winter, the trees were still bare and it was cold outside but there were some signs of hope and promise that the sun would return. Toan even managed a smile as he heard the song birds, perhaps the first time that he had been woken up by something other than pain or a coughing fit since this whole mess had started...

Arrie stopped as she saw him looking out of the window, staring at the tree in the distance and watching the birds as they tried to form a nest or possibly repair it. He knew but Arrietty didn't, she didn't have time for such trivialities.

The Breton stood in silence, letting Toan have his moment as she stared at the soup bowl, watching as the small herb sat at the center, like a boat in the middle of a green lake... She tried to make it like her mother made it but it never turned out quite right, it was always good but never the same... It was a shame that her mother never shared the preparation and recipe instructions with her before she passed...

"We'll be able to open the window soon..." Arrietty commented, getting Toan to slowly turn to her, his weak, bloodshot eyes slowly glanced up at her. He didn't seem remotely startled, he didn't seem remotely anything anymore...

"You'll be able to hear the birds again, properly... and the fresh air will do you good."

Toan listened until she stopped talking and then fell silent, looking back to the window again as Arrietty approached with the tray, gently placing it on his lap and getting his attention as he slowly turned back to the tray, watching as Arrietty took the tea cup and placed it by his bedside before sitting down, next to his knees.

"Maybe, when you're feeling a little better? We can go up, onto the roof, like when we were kids... Sleep under the stars again.

Or... Just sleep on the grass, depends on how much better you're feeling but sleeping outside'll be good for you."

"Rie..." Toan whispered painfully, cutting her off as his eyes failed to meet hers and they immediately retreated to the safety of his soup bowl.

"Hmm?"

"What... Will you do?" His voice was incredibly weak, drained of everything, he always had some sort of wise crack or... something, now he was like a machine or a lobotomised drone. His tone completely bleak and void of all expression...

"Erm... Sleep out with you? I mean, there's enough space for two of us, your ass isn't that big!"

"No... I'm... Serious. When... I die, what happens to you?"

Arrietty's eyes lingered on sick man for a few moments, wondering if he was serious... Of course he was but she didn't want to believe it, she couldn't believe it, it was her duty not to believe it.

"Well... I'll hopefully be too old to notice you go." She shrugged, taking a spoonful of soup and gently lifting it towards Toan's mouth, however, this answer didn't satisfy the young Breton man.

"No... Rie... Seriously... What will you do, when I die?"

Arrie paused for a moment, glancing to the floor, with a shrug and a sigh as she continued to block any thoughts related to this fool notion out of her head. Toan wasn't dying, he had a good chance of pulling through, he'd pulled through the winter, surely this couldn't go on for much longer. He had to start getting better at some point.

"That'll be a while off yet, I'll let you know when I have a plan..." She uttered, failing to sound as confident as she gently pushed the soup towards Toan's lips, urging him to jerk his head away, so that he wouldn't have to eat it.

"Rie... I'm..." He paused, glancing up outside as he crushed the bloody rags in his hands before he proceeded to cough, each cough brought a world of pain to his chest and throat as it felt like he had swallowed a shard of glass. He eventually gave off a raspy gasp before swallowing hard, knocking some blood to the back of his throat as he slowly tried to pull himself up, though his arms were still too weak to do this and he ended up sliding back down again.

"Blood... No one survives the blood stage..." He whispered glancing up to the Dark Haired Breton with a look of defeat in his tear stained eyes, hoping, praying in his head that the realisation would hit her, cutting through her facade like a hot knife through butter but he should have known, after knowing her all of these years that she was stubborn.

"Well, they didn't have mother's soup..." She shrugged, placing said soup onto the ground as she climbed over Toan and pulled herself up beside him.

"Do you want me to get the Priest? He can..."

"He won't help us... You know that..."

"Well I'll make him help us. Everyone has a price Toan..."

"He won't have a price when it comes to us... You know that..."

"Well, it's not like they want us dead... We've survived on our own, I don't think..."

"What part... Of banished... do you... struggle with!?" Toan stopped as he began to cough up some flem, bringing the bloody rags up to his face as he hacked and spluttered into them, spitting into them before sinking back down into his mountain of pillows, only just noticing that Arrie's worried eyes were fixed on him the entire time. She waited for him to simmer down before sighing heavily and gently wrapping her arm around his body, resting her head on his chest.

"Look... We don't need the Priest... We'll pull through; we just have to fight this thing...

We just need fresh air, soup and the medicine from the village and some time and we'll pull through..." She muttered, slowly lifting her head up and meeting his weakened gaze.

"Clan Muldoon always does, right?" She added, with a smile, one that wasn't returned. This didn't discourage her, too much as she gently placed her head back on Toan's chest, though her smile faded as soon as he couldn't see her face.

"Remember when we used to sleep out? Staring up at the night's sky, trying to find the warrior? We spent all night arguing over whether or not he was over the old barn or out west towards the woods..." She whispered, smiling faintly as she listened to Toan's weak heartbeat, gently grazing her hand across his stomach.

"Then dad came out and told us that we were both wrong..." She added, giving a faint smile as she began to laugh, remembering him being woken up by their bickering and the mood that he was in...

Arrie's face relaxed as she heard Toan breathe out heavily, feeling his weak breath cut through her hair and then... silence...

Arrietty frowned as she noticed that something was amiss, she brought her head up and looked up at his face, looking incredibly puzzled...

"Toan?"

-

Arrie slammed the lid of the chest shut and locked it, she had enough for this week, maybe two, if she was a little more careful. She pocketed the money before concealing the treasure chest with its protective boulder, slowly standing up and checking that the coast was clear. If it wasn't, it was too late to do anything about it now...

As she looked up, she caught the glimpse of a large man, a hulking figure, staring at her from afar. His face hidden deep behind a wooden mask, only his incredibly stressed eyes were visible, surrounding his intense, inhuman gaze.

The Breton instinctively blinked and within the blink of an eye, he was gone again...

He was little more than a trick of the brain, a vision brought on by skipping breakfast. It was absurd for her brain to use that trick as he wouldn't have followed her out of the country. She'd put a thousand miles between her and him, that had to be enough...

Had to be...

