Closed Firelight (Nate)

[Arundel]

513 AV, 76th Day of Fall

The endless plains stretched far into the distance all around them. Trees dotted the landscape here and there, and far off to the north she could see forestline - a good sized woods by Cyphrus standards. She and Nate had been traveling for well over a week, and it felt to her like they were making good progress. They were heading in the right direction. A West-Northwesterly course toward Lake Serifal and the encampment waiting there for them, though the exact spot was unknown to her. The package she was delivering - or rather they were delivering - was tucked away in her backpack. She felt its firm, rectangular bulk against her spine. It provided a nice little frame for the otherwise soft pack, and kept any sharp edges from poking her. Surprisingly useful, for a seemingly useless item.

Arundel had followed instructions and not opened the thing. The man's warnings had been cryptic but clear. Open it and bear the consequences. Her imagination ran wild, and so she decided not to tempt fate. Nathan was quiet behind her, sitting atop his big mare. The sound of hooves in the grass, wind across the planes, and water gurgling kept the silence from being too thick. She wasn't confident enough yet to just start a casual conversation with him. It was unclear whether he despised her as intensely as earlier in the season. He was still an enigma to her. There hadn't been a word passed between the two of them for over a bell. They were following a broad stream that cut through the hilly land like a gash, and since she was confident in their direction, there really wasn't any need to say anything.

Domero's ear swiveled around and flicked at her. He could sense the turmoil in her his rider. It didn't take a Strider to feel that. Any horse was intuitive enough to pick up on it. Arundel checked the position of the sun offhandedly for the fourth time in just under a bell. Being close to winter, it was setting to the south of true West. That was something anyone had to know if they were to navigate throughout the year. It was the first thing her father taught her when she was young; the ways the sun rose and set. Some people thought it was always East or West, but in truth that was only a general direction. If it were summer, then it would be the opposite. Instead of setting south of East, it would be north of East. Not by far, but enough to mess someone up by miles.

Nathan, she had come to learn, couldn't find his way to a city on a paved road with signs every ten feet. She smiled to herself, imagining the exaggeration. He wasn't that bad, but he was pretty bad. Arundel was no master navigator, but at least she could remember markers. If there were three distinctly different trees to remember, he would surely confuse them. Before the two of them departed Endrykas on the 53rd, a letter had been brought to the pavilion - addressed to her. It was from the employer who'd given her the package, stating clearer directions to the encampment. He listed certain markers to look for, and in which direction to head once they reached the shore of the enormous lake. It hadn't occured to her when he'd left her with the parcel that she didn't know exactly where the camp was, and she could have slapped herself repeatedly for the stupid mistake.

Of course the man had fixed that. He was bound and determined this package would reach its destination. Well, so was she. Arundel was fond of being alive, and she wasn't going to take his subtle threats lightly. Rich men - for he was obviously rich - were dangerous and powerful. And he was foreign. Who knew what he was capable of. Or not capable of. They weren't going to risk it. "Nathan," she finally began after their long silence. "Need camp. Dark soon. Need fire. Safer. Help find good spot?" Arundel twisted around on Domero's back to look at him. He seemed a lot more comfortable now at their current pace of a steady walk. Almost completely at ease, it seemed. This pleased her immensely, but she didn't say anything. Arundel wasn't sure he would like the praise. After all, learning to ride a horse with an yvas made him that much more Drykas.

[Nathaniel Deveraux]

Well here they were; wherever 'here' was. Nate really didn't like the feeling of being at the mercy of another person, but if he was being honest that was exactly this situation. Like before - with Oryani - Nate was not in a position of strength. He had no clue where they were, and he was utterly dependent on Arundel to lead them to where they were going, and to be able to lead them back.

Their journey had been relatively uneventful thus far. No major disasters, no animal attacks, and Nate had only fallen off his horse a total of two times! Well... not counting that first time he fell, in Endrykas. OK, fine, that was two more times than Arundel fell off but still, he was learning, right? It was easy for her to say to grip the horse with his knees, but the Yvas tended to shift under him and the jostling motion of the horse tended to cause him to be rather unsteady upon it.

In the end, Nate managed to gain some semblance of control over his riding, which in his opinion was a miracle in and of itself. Really his 'riding' consisted of Arundel reducing her pace to the Strider's equivalent of a snail's crawl in an effort not to jostle Nate to the point of falling off again. He had almost thanked Arundel for that, catching himself at the last moment and falling into silence. It was becoming harder and harder to keep a sharp edge when it came to the woman and that was starting to bother him.

Their ride was also mostly silent on the conversation level. Granted, her broken Common and his near-nonexistent Pavi made communication difficult to begin with. That, combined with the fact that in some sense he really didn't want to communicate more than he had to made conversation a nonstarter with them. He could tell that Arundel probably would've preferred to speak; long stretches out in the wild alone were lonely to say the least. He had more experience with it than he cared to remember.

But really there was not much to talk about. Most of the topics of conversation they could really discuss were either too personal to be comfortable divulging, or too superficial to be very engaging. He wanted to ask about her hair; why it was so short compared to other Drykas women he'd seen.

Granted he'd only met a few Drykas women so far. There was the young girl at the healer's tent. Waisana, if he remembered. Her blonde hair was done up in the intricate braids he'd seen quite often around Endrykas.

And there was the red-haired girl. Rue, if he remembered correctly. He'd been drawn to her because of her hair color. It was an unusual hue, and his sisters were one of the few who had it. He himself, it seemed, was not fortunate enough to have acquired the red hair that was so prevalent in his family, perhaps that was why he was drawn to it whenever he saw it in others. But Rue's hair, though not done up as intricately as Waisana's, was certainly longer than Arundel's.

And then there was his work partner at the Opal tents. Atine, whose dark hair was also done up in braids but she occasionally wore it loose too. Her tresses were quite long - reaching almost to the small of her back - and flowed much like her words, cascading down like ocean waves.

Thus far, the only Drykas woman Nate had encountered with even shortish hair was Arundel, and Nate would be lying if he said he wasn't curious to know why. And it seemed, as he snuck a glance over at her, she was obviously trying to grow it back out. But why was it short to begin with?

But, as the hooves of their horses beat into the earth, Nate released a small sigh when he realized he'd probably never find out. There was a wall between them, built from both ends, and both of them were too stubborn to be the first to take a hammer to it. And so it remained, and as long as it was there, no real communication past the necessities was possible.

"Nathan." Arundel saying his name drew him up in surprise. He hadn't expected her to actually speak to him. Which, in retrospect, was rather foolish to think. Sooner or later she'd have to talk to him, either to give direction or to bark orders. His head snapped up and he looked over at her, equal parts curiosity and caution.

"Need camp. Dark soon. Need fire. Safer. Help find good spot?" Well, at least she had her priorities straight. It did look like it would be dark soon, and he himself would imagine a fire would probably be their best bet. Once again he longed for heavily forested Sylira, where firewood abounded and one never lacked for fuel. But out here in the plain he had to look for the tell-tale signs of arboreal life.

Almost unconsciously, Nate had encouraged the Mare he sat on to ride a bit faster, squeezing the animal's flanks with his knees as he'd unconsciously watched Arundel herself do a few times. Mainly he was after a less obstructed view of their path ahead; he wanted to know if there were any dark shadows on the horizon that might indicate a copse they could shelter near. But all he saw was endless grass in every direction.

"I ... I don't really know the area very well," Nate confessed, with a bit of a grimace. He hated admitting to his own failings, but this was something he really shouldn't pretend to be any good at. If they left the navigating to him, they'd both die.

"Umm... I would want to find maybe a copse of trees, or if there's any sort of stream nearby?" he tried. Nate sat up a bit straighter in the Yvas, trying to listen for the tell-tale tinkling of running water. Either one would be good for them; the trees would provide firewood and some degree of shelter. And a stream would provide easy access to water.

But with his poor navigational skills and practically nonexistent knowledge of the terrain, Nate did not dare venture off away from Arundel to search for either. Which mean that, once again, he was entirely reliant on her, which made him feel rather useless. And he hated feeling useless.

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