Shady

Pratik took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He felt so old. So tired and stiff and cold. He reached up to rub his face -- fingers even ...

"We've got to keep our coats up as best as we can to hide them. Maybe you could wrap a blanket around your shoulders like you're trying to keep warm ...

Pratik laughed a bit. "Yeah. You guys can go up to the room when we get there and get settled in. I'll get things squared around before I come up."

"This is the last bit of rest we get for two weeks," Pratik said. "We all need to be smart about this."

"Right. It's much better to sleep where any man in the world could happen upon you as you sleep, rather than with two who are in the same boat as ...

Pratik glanced over at her. "I can't protect you if you're not in the room with me."

Pratik hesitated. Rickard did have a point. But, then, he wasn't very well going to let an old man sleep on the floor while he took the bed. "Perhaps if ...

"I don't know," Pratik answered. "About the hearth, anyway. The innkeeper was told to prepare two beds... or cots... or whatever. And I can take the floor, I don't mind."

"Mm." Perhaps Rickard was the only reasonable one of the lot. At least, the only patient one. "Hopefully we won't be too much longer now."

"And a pissy one at that," Pratik muttered under his breath, but also urged his horse into a trot. Maybe freezing to death at a gallop wasn't as bad as ...

"We'll move faster than we did on the way here," Pratik said gruffly. "And if nothing else, we're better off than we were before."

"A bit, yeah," Pratik scoffed. "The universe brings whatever we manifest -- and you're predicting us to fail, before it even happens. We have to have hope if we want ...

"That's the spirit!" Pratik said sarcastically.

"Well, we clearly all have, so far," Pratik countered. "We all survived for however many years we've been alive -- and now we're free, too... or we will be."

"You gotta be, when the world is as cruel as it is," Pratik murmured. "Think faster than the thread and stay ahead of it."