Bumps in the Forest(Aella)

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden ignored her words as he was walking away, his gaze raising up to a break in the canopy as he walk. “Ah, clouds are forming.” He said with an almost serene feeling crossing over him.

It was likely that momentary distraction that allowed the woman to rush in as she did, unnoticed by Jaeden, and suddenly leap towards him. Contact. His body suddenly went rigidly stiff, his desires soon loosing their meaning as the desires of another began to invade his persona. Try as he might, Jaeden couldn’t shake loose, couldn’t break free of what was coming. He couldn’t resist. Point in fact, he could barely ever resist, the only time being was when his very life was threatened. Even then, it was an exhausting struggle to prevent someone else’s desires from replacing his own. A great desire for companionship soon began to take him over, the need to not be alone, to have someone there to share the time, if nothing else, with. It was a familiar desire, one he came across often when he was still working at the Soothing Waters. Sometimes, that desire led to hours of intimacy with another. Once however, it turned to something far more dangerous, and feeling it again gave him pause. In the end though, he found he couldn’t resist and his head dropped down, a slow exhale releasing as the woman began demanding in an almost pleading voice.

“Fine.” Jaeden said during her borderline tantrum, barely a whisper. Another slow turn was taken as Jaeden slowly began stepping back towards the boar. He eventually found his movement stopped however, when he realized one of his legs felt heavier than the other. Then, as he took another step, he gazed down to his leg, seeing the female there still clinging to his leg, her body begin dragged along the ground with his step.

“Let go of my leg, woman.” Jaeden said, his voice almost grumpy as he lifted his leg and began to shake it slightly as her arms dangled around it. “Do something useful and pick up your bow and the arrows you left littered along the ground.”

When she finally did let go, Jaeden moved over towards the boar, another brief exhale released from his lips. “If you’ve got any other equipment, gather it up as well. We‘re taking the boar back to my camp.” Jaeden then said, almost a “matter of fact” tone in his voice. “It’s closer to water and already has a fire going.”

Jaeden then crouched down, laying his bow along the ground as he reached out to the boar, taking to full grips of it’s hide as he gave a slight grunt, pulling it’s moderate weight towards him. His arms went taught for a moment, as the dead weight of the animal was eventually pulled over his right shoulder and brought to rest there. Another grunt was exhaled as he grabbed his bow once again, and pushed himself off the ground into a stand again.

He then waited there patiently for a moment as he waited for her to return, the shaft of his bow being tapped lightly along the side of his leg. “Wrap your leg with something as well,” Jaeden then called out. “I’ll have Red look at it when we get back to camp.”

When she finally returned, Jaeden gave a slow nod, turning towards camp as he began walking for a third time, falling silent in his step as the boar‘s carcass flopped slightly. After a full chime had passed, his head slowly turned to the left, looking to her over his left shoulder almost a full chime. “Jaeden.” He said then in the most simplistic of introductions.

[Aella]

Today was a terrible day. She was rather relieved when he finally relented, because getting dragged along the forest floor even on a good day still hurt. She picked up her arrows, and she surprisingly proved herself capable of listening to commands without putting up a protest. In fact, she didn’t utter a word until she was far enough away to mutter, “Red is going to gnaw my face off in my sleep…” Not too far away was her camp. Well, what was left of it. The day before saw her rations stolen and her tent upturned – By what she wouldn’t say. The guy ropes were already down and the poles had fallen, so packing it up didn’t take very long at all. Her survival instincts were clearly more focused on the flight than the fight. She only paused to sit down and wrap her leg with a stray bit of fabric she’d taken from an old shirt. Unfortunately as she started wrapping her leg, she felt herself starting to cry, so it took a little longer than she wanted it to. She would twist and twist then sniffle then rub at her nose before starting over again. As she got it tied, she felt the nuzzle of her mount bury into her hair. It caused her to let out a heavy sigh and close her eyes, though it did seem to quiet her tears. Finally she reached up to scratch her horse’s cheek before pushing to stand up. He had bolted off from her at the first sign of trouble the day before– Which in this case was probably wise albeit very annoying. She mumbled under her breath, “Yes, I know. You’re sorry. You’re a coward, but I’m happy to see you.” Everything was packed up, and by the time she got back to Jaeden with her equipment and her cowardly, unnamed Zavian, there was very little clue that she had cried at all. Instead there was a bit of shock on her face that he was still there. He’d had every chance to leave, which she was rather certain he wanted to do, but he was still there. If the situation was reversed, she would have been long gone, and so as she followed long behind him she stared at the back of his head silently. When he turned, she simply stared back at him. “Aella,” she responded in turn.

[Jaeden Kincade]

It took close to half of a bell to reach Jaeden’s camp, and things had been already set up as he had said. His tent was raised and staked to the ground in the northern side of the small clearing. A campfire burned lightly at the center, the flames a little bit taller having been fed some additional kindling recently. A short log rested nearby the fire, dragged in from the forest from the west, evident by the gouged and dug earth leading from the camp to it’s resting spot. Not far from the clearing, a large Nightwalker raised it’s head from gazing, viewing Jaeden and Aella approaching. The strong, black horse viewed Aella’s Zavian a moment, as if waiting to see some sort of reaction, but eventually the Nightwalker once again dipped it’s head down and continued to graze, gnawing at grass along the forest bed.

Jaeden stepped over towards the western side of the camp. He slowly tilted his body and dropped the boar to the ground as it landed with a heavy thud. “Red?” Jaeden called out, taking a moment to catch his breath.

A quick rustling then could be heard from the tent, the top shaking for a quick moment before Red emerged from within, still in human form, but this time fully clothed. She held in her hands a small pouch, her hands rummaging through it’s contents. “I think I have something that will numb any pain you have in your shoulder…” Red began to say before looking up and seeing Aella in the camp with Jaeden. “What is she doing here!?”

“She’s our guest.” Jaeden said as he began removing his equipment.

“Our guest?” Red suddenly said, looking almost exacerbated. “She shot you with an arrow.”

“We’ve come to an understanding about that.” Jaeden said as he slowly began fumbling with the straps along his leather armor. “Would you please clean and treat the wound along her leg?”

“Treat her leg!?” Red then said, almost a growl escaping her lips as she began stomping towards Jaeden. “She shot you, and now you’ve brought her back to camp and want me to heal her?”

Jaeden slowly looked up, staring down into Red’s eyes for a moment as he unbuckled the first strap to his leather armor. “That’s right. She’s not going to do it again.” Jaeden said as he began working on the second strap, lowering his voice slightly. “She’s a little lonely and hungry. She just wants some food and some company to share it with.”

“Oh, and shooting you in the arm with an arrow was her way of announcing that was it?” Red replied, her own voice in sharp, disapproving whispers. “Even if she told you this, how can you believe her?”

“She didn’t tell me. I just know.” Jaeden then said, finally working on the third strap of his leather armor.

“You just know?” Red said, frowning in confusion for a moment as she leaned back.

“Yes.” Jaeden replied.

Red fell silent for a moment before a dawning of realization appeared in her face before an expression of anger quickly replaced it. Her gaze shot around to Aella, a quick growl escaping her lips. “You touched him, didn’t you bitch!?” She suddenly yelled before she took a quick step forward, only to be stopped by Jaeden‘s hand snatching out to grab Red by the arm. “Give me your hands! They’re mind now! Mine!”

“Red!” Jaeden suddenly yelled, his voice taking a volume that managed to exceed her own, booming in in echo across the area. It caused Red to suddenly stop, cowering slightly as her head dipped down and her shoulders rose slightly in a bracing stance. Like a child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Red’s face took on an apologetic expression as she slowly turned to look at Jaeden.

Jaeden’s hand slowly released his grasp on Red’s arm, falling to her shoulder as he looked inter her eyes with those blue hues of color in them, and a warm expression crossed his face, likely the first one she had seen for the past numerous days since Jaeden had lost Olevar.

“Red. No one was killed, no one was seriously injured, and no one will be now. Now please, for me, treat her leg wound.” Jaeden said, his hand slowly lifting from Red’s shoulder as she cradled her face in his hand for a moment.

An expression of joy and a wide smile passed over Red’s face then, seeing the Jaeden she had originally bonded with almost a full season ago. If she had had a tail in human form, it would have been wagging vigorously at that point as her arms hung lazily to her sides, almost dropping the pouch she held in her hands. “Okay.” Red then replied, almost in a dream-like tone.

“Thank you,” Jaeden said before his hands slowly moved to finish working on the last strap of his leather armor, slipping it off. “I’ll get to work on field dressing this boar while you ladies are busy with that.”

Red let out a slow exhale, her gaze fixed on Jaeden for another long moment. Her gaze then dropped down to the ground for a moment before raising to look to Aella. Her expression wasn’t angry anymore, but it wasn’t exactly happy when she looked at her yet, either. More than anything, it simply carried a look of indifference on it now. Red slowly raised an opened hand, slowly motioning towards the log. “Have a seat, if you would?” Red then simply requested to Aella.

[Aella]

By the time they got to his camp, she’d taken to limping pretty badly. Though she didn’t complain, she wasn’t able to hide the fact she was in pain. Or perhaps she was hiding as much of it as she could, considering that so far she had presented herself as too proud for her own good. Her Zavian seemed rather clueless to the way he was supposed to react to the other horse. Instead he moved off to the other side of the camp to see what he could find to eat – Aella would have explained that the horse spent much of his time eating or hiding. She’d perhaps been a little too hasty in picking him out, but one wasn’t always able to leisurely choose when stealing horses. At the arrival of the Kelvic, Aella’s eyes dropped down to the ground. Her jaw tightened over the conversation being had in front of her, but she proved herself capable of keeping her mouth shut. She took to crossing her arms over her chest again, perhaps to hug herself a little. She was feeling herself come apart, and bit-by-bit she was starting to wonder if bleeding to death in a tree would have actually been a worse fate. She let out a noise that almost sounded like choking at the mention of her being lonely and hungry. He was kidding, right? She glanced up at him then Red. Her eyes flickered away to peer out into the forest. She wouldn’t put up an argument about being hungry. As far as she was allowing herself to admit, that was her only problem. The loneliness was just hunger and exhaustion and… It wasn’t there. It didn’t exist. Her gaze skittered back to the pair as her hands came into question. She leaned back on the heel of her boot, bit the inside of her cheek, and looked upwards. The expression on her face clearly said she was holding back some sort of biting response. While it might have taken all of the power she had left in her, she remained silent as the two of them worked out the last bit of it all. Yes, she’d touched him. She didn’t exactly understand what that had to do with anything, nor did she really care. Being dragged through the forest while clinging to a stranger’s leg wasn’t the finest moment in her life, and she was already working on forgetting it. When Red requested she sit down, Aella took a glance to the log before looking back to the woman. A look was given to Jaeden, a rather dubious one that likely gave away that she considered him an idiot for suggesting she get treated by a woman that had threatened to take her hands - Though she was the bigger moron for actually moving to sit as requested. She lowered herself down. Her eyes moved back to Red as she said quietly, “Thank you.”

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden slowly turned, pulling the large belt pouch, which also contained his quiver of arrows and his sword, free from his waist, laying it down gently nearby. A slow tune began to be hummed from his lips as he turned and lowered to a knee. He reached behind his waist, pulling a hunting knife free as he soon began to slowly cut into the hide of the boar.

Red still carried a look of indifference on her face as Aella thanked her. A slight scoff escaped her lips at that as she knelt down, setting the bag down along the ground next to her as she began to pull items out, laying them along Aella’s good leg. “Save your thanks, human.” Red said with a bit of a snap in her voice. “I wouldn’t be doing any of this if Jaeden hadn’t asked me to. You shouldn‘t have touched him.”

Red turned for a moment, reaching out as she pulled back a pale of fresh water, the slightest amount of steam rising from it’s surface indicating that it had been warmed. Red slowly reach up, pulling whatever cloth Aella had wrapped around her leg free. Looking over the wound for a moment, her fingers lightly touched along either side of her leg. “This is a mess.” Red said, shaking her head before her fingers gripped the fabric of her pants tightly and gave a quick jerking motion, tearing the pant leg further open.

Red then reached over, grasping a pure white piece of clothe, likely cleaner than any piece of fabric in the whole camp, and dipped it into the water for a moment. Her hands gripped the fabric, wringing excess water from it before it was slowly brought up towards her wound. The cloth was dragged lightly over the surface of Aella’s skin around the wound first, cleaning away dried blood and dirt slowly. She continued to clean the grime away, rinsing out the rag occasionally before she finally found the edge of the wound, stopping there. Red slowly reached over, grasping a small vial that she had left resting along Aella’s leg the. She pulled the cap free, reaching into the bag as another piece of cloth was pulled out. A quick couple of dabs were given along the cloth then, as she looked up to Aella. “Fortunately, this will hurt a lot for the first moment,” Red said, forcing herself not to smile, “but it will soon fade and the area will be numbed.”

Red them pressed the cloth lightly down along her wound, and true to her word, the contact made caused a burning sting to rise in Aella’s leg. Short quick dabs were given along the length of the wound, each one bringing a new sensation of pain as any clotted blood was broken up and the leg began to bleed lightly once again. Also true to her word though, was the numb feeling that soon followed a mere couple of seconds later as Aella’s leg became pain free for that moment. Red then slowly turned once again, and both Aella and Red saw Jaeden standing there, replacing the bloodied pale of water Red had with a clean one. “I’ll just use this old one to clean my hunting knife now.” Jaeden simply said, moving back over towards the hog, which had been half skinned already.

Red gave another bright smile to Jaeden, before it quickly faded once again when she looked back to Aella. The cloth was pulled free from the fresh pale, much cleaner now that it was becoming originally. This time, Red began pressing the cloth against the wound itself, cleaning away clotted blood, flakes of tree leaves and bark, and clumps of dirt until the light laceration could be seen. “I’ve seen worse on Jaeden.” Red finally said, giving a slight scoff. “You’ll live.”

Red then finally reached over, grabbing a curved needle and some thread from the bag. A quick moment was taken to slip the thread through the eye before she finally began sewing up the wound, pausing ever now and then to wipe blood clean when it obscured the work. When she had finally made twelve different stitches down the length of her leg, Aella finally slipped the needle and remainder of the thread away, pulling out one finaly piece of fresh cloth and a long, wide length of hemp fabric. The cloth was finally pressed along her leg, her thumb pressing along the center, pinning the hemp fabric to it as she made the first wrap. She soon spun the hump around it a few more times before finally tucking the end under the wrapping behind her leg. “That numbness will last for at least a bell, so don’t move your leg around so much, and tear the stitching.” Red then said, gathering her things up. “I hope you can learn out to cut meat away if you don’t already.”

Red then quickly called out to Jaeden, indicating it was his turn for treatment.

[Aella]

“I shouldn’t have touched him,” she echoed back to the Kelvic as if pulling some taste from her words she didn’t care for. She kept her eyes off of her. For a while she watched Jaeden going about his business before resettling yet again on something nondescript in the distance. “Don’t worry, love. I don’t have any plans on moving in on your territory. I know you wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for him. And thank you anyway.” Despite the fact that she had this vague understanding that she could very well be being poisoned if she’d missed something in this situation, she sat there docilely anyway. Her hand went up to cover her mouth, rubbing a scraped palm against her lips. When the pain hit, her nostrils flared. Her eyes slammed shut, squeezing out pained tears. She made no attempt to hide any of this. Instead she sat there trying to catch her breath. When the numbness crept in, she wiped at an eye and opened both slowly. She peered at Red as she continued to speak, giving a tiny nod at what she was saying. When she was calling out to Jaeden, Aella took the time to daintily stand up. Once she was sure on her feet, she grabbed the Kelvic’s jaw and bent down quickly to shove her mouth against the other woman’s in a probing kiss. She pulled back slightly, whispering, “I hope that was as good for you as it was for me.” And then she was limping away.

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden had seen it happen, and there was a time, not too long ago, where he would have been excited, hooted and wolf whistled over Aella’s sudden kissing of Red happening. Now, he simply let his hands fall to his waist, exhaling a sigh before watching the inevitable result. Red may have been a healer, may have been a small fox when in animal form, but she had with her a fire-like spirit, speed, and mean left hook to compensate. Jaeden knew this first hand, as he practiced light training with her over the time since meeting her to help her develop such in an attempt to ensure she would still be able to defend herself if she found herself stuck in human form for some reason.

So, when Jaeden suddenly saw Red’s left hand snatch out, grasping Aella by the arm, he knew Red was holding back when she suddenly spun Aella around and slapped her hard across the face with her right hand. As Red’s arm extended further to swipe again at Aella in a backhanded slap, Jaeden once again spoke out. “Red!” He said quickly, causing Red to pause.

“But she,” Red said, still holding her hand up, “she stole a kiss from me.”

“And she get slapped for it.” Jaeden said, stepping forward. “Women have only ever slapped me once for such transgressions. Let Aella be no different in her punishment.”

Red gave a quick growl, pushing Aella’s arm away at Jaeden’s request. Jaeden soon stopped next to Aella, taking a fresh perspective of her desires. Sensing no change, Jaeden released an exhale. “I see you enjoy, as the proverbial statement goes, poking the bear.” Jaeden said softly. “Still, she’s a Kelvic, keep pushing here and you may force her pushed to a point where I won’t be able to stop her. Like a cornered animal.”

“Cut what meat you want from the pig.” Jaeden said calmly then. “I’ve already taken my share and Red’s for her healing services.”

Jaeden then continued to walk, stepping up next to Red as he took a seat along the log. Red slowly lifted his arm, resting it along her lap as she began rolling up the short sleeve to his shirt, revealing his wound. “I’ll try to be gentle.” Red then said as she slowly began to clean Jaeden’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it Red,” Jaeden said as his frame leaned forward. “You know I can take some pain.”

Jaeden’s elbow slowly rested along his leg, his cheek soon coming to rest along a closed fist as Red began to work on him. A slow exhale was then given, partly due to Red cleaning his wound and partly because of the Puzzle that seemed to be presented in front of his eyes. Here this woman was, out in the middle of the wilds, struggling on her own. Ranuri reveled so strongly her desire for companionship, if only for a short time at least, that much Jaeden knew for sure. However, it didn’t reveal why she struggled so hard against it, antagonizing those she spent time with, now that she was presented with some. Jaeden couldn’t understand it in the long run, but Ranuri didn’t leave much room for a need to understand either, just a need to fulfill.

“You’ve been out here for too long already, haven’t you?” Jaeden then suddenly said. “You’ve got look of being away from society for too long, but at the same time, you don’t want to feel as though you’re losing your independence either, so you rebel against it.”

[Aella]

She didn’t put up a fight when Red slapped her. In fact, she didn’t look like she was even surprised. Amused? Of course. Surprised? Not at all. She jerked her arm away and took a few steps back, rubbing at the corner of her smirking mouth. When Jaeden stepped close to her, she looked up at him. The amusement fell away from her expression. “You shouldn’t make her do things you know she doesn’t want to do.” It was perhaps a little strange that she’d take that sort of outlook on things considering the way she treated the other woman. Not that she’d been treated so well herself by choice. She turned then to start moving towards the boar, taking whatever other response she had to him about her poking at Red with her. She pulled the strip of leather from her hair again, causing it to fall from the lop-sided ponytail it had been in. She was quick to sweep it back up and away again, tying it so it would possibly hide how badly she needed to pause and simply brush it. His question seemed to go ignored as she lowered herself down next to the pig. She didn’t start cutting on it. Instead she just glared at it for starting this whole ordeal for her. And it was an ordeal. She glanced at Jaeden a few breaths after he spoke. Her blade was pulled out to start cutting into the boar then, carefully pulling out some bit she had convinced herself was likely the best part of it. “I’ve been out here since I was fifteen. That’s eight years, and I’ve not camped with anyone else for a good six or seven seasons now.” In truth, she’d not even seen a city since she’d left Sunberth. She glanced again at him before going back to paying attention to what she was doing. “Society doesn’t exist. It’s just some group of laws and rules people decide to enforce on others so they can keep what they have, and since the majority are too cowardly to act on what they truly want… Well, the laws stick. Therefore, I have nothing to be independent from other than stupid, contrived… …Stuff.”

[Jaeden Kincade]

Jaeden slowly turned his head, watching as Red rolled up his sleeve, revealing the wound in his shoulder. She the began working the wet cloth delicately over his skin, cleaning dried blood away before more cautiously cleaning off the wound. “That‘s one view, I suppose.” Jaeden said casually, reaching out to grab Red’s hand, guiding her hand a little more, reminding her that he wasn’t made of fragile clay before a slow pat to her hand was given. “Still, how can you be so certain that is how things are all over, especially since you’ve avoided it for, what, five to teen years now?”

“Out here, you may be able to survive, but that’s all your doing.” Jaeden then said, his gaze falling on Aella once again. “Within the walls of a city, someplace like Syliras or Endrykas, survival comes a tad be easier and allows you some semblance of living then on top of it.”

Jaeden almost felt hypocritical saying such words, considering he was shunning most contact with others now, but in the end it wasn’t society in whole that caused such, but more the fear, especially after Olevar, they my be harmed or worse for simply being close to him in the long run. “I guess in the end you have to ask yourself whether or not you feel it better if you spend the rest of your life alone.” Jaeden then said before looking to Red as she finished putting a small bandage along his shoulder. “Thank you, Red.”

Jaeden then slowly pushed himself up from his seated position, moving over to the meat he had cut away from the boar. A long, slender stick was then taken as he began to skewer the meat with it before it was laid out over the fire, cradled between crossing branches on both sides of the fire. “What brought you to the life of a hermit, if you don’t mind me asking?” Jaeden then said before handing a small sliver of raw meat to Red who began eating it with contentment. “That’s all you get of the raw stuff, the rest is going to be cooked.”

[Aella]

“Surviving’s all I’ve ever done. I’ve never done this living thing that people keep talking about like it’s some great miracle that I should want,” she said with an indifferent shrug as she stood up. Though her leg was still numb, she kept in mind that she didn’t really want to rip her stitches. Not after shoving her tongue in Red’s mouth since she didn’t seem to enjoy it. She started to dig through her saddle bags until she came across her bag of salt, which she then took over to her cut meat. “Look, I’m sure that cities have quite a lot of appeal to people that need help, but I don’t. I’m not a hermit, I’m just…” As she tried to decide how she would describe herself, she poured a bit of salt onto the meat. She paused to look at her hands, which were pretty messed up from the tree debacle. The salt was going to hurt them terribly, but she stubbornly started to rub the salt into her cut of the food for the sake of starting to preserve it. She looked up at him pointedly before repeating through gritted teeth, “I’m not a hermit.” She continued on despite the sting she was feeling, even though she had to bow her head to hide the fact that she was indeed tearing up over what she was doing. “About a year-and-a-half ago my husband disappeared.” With the distinct lack of Cheva on her, it was easy to assume that something horrible had happened to him. Either that or she was lying. ”He was the only person in my entire life who actually cared about me,” she said as an afterthought before adding, ”I’m not a petching hermit.”