Dragons, Dystopians, and Denial

Elias rolled his eyes and laughed. "Okay, I'll get you the sword even though you didn't say please or ask. But only because you saved my life." He picked up the sword for her, taking a rag and cleaning off the blood that was on it.

Jerica took it from him, looking down at the area she'd been laying at. There was quite the pool of blood off her left side, and even more smeared on the right side from her arm. No wonder she felt so bad. She cringed hard as she twisted to get the sword to fit back in her scabbard, inhaling sharply.

"I think it's safe to say that we pause on the training," he said as he watched her struggle to put the sword away. "Also, here." He handed her the canteen. "Drink up. You lost a lot of blood. You don't want to be dehydrated."

"I can still kick your ass," she muttered, taking the canteen from him.

"And we'll be eating spinach tonight," he went on anyways, ignoring her comment. "Because you need more iron from the lost blood."

"Fine." She looked down and realized her dagger was still laying in the dirt next to her puddle of blood. This. Again. She sighed, then gestured at it and decidedly looked away from him. "Please."

She could feel his pleased grin emanating from the corner of his eyes.

"Of course, princess," he said, bending down to grab the dagger in the puddle. "Wouldn't want you digging up gross daggers in pools of blood."

"Keep talking and that's where your nose is gonna be."

Elias cleaned the blood off the dagger. "I think I'll keep this one on me instead," he mused.

She smirked at him. "Fine... we should get the throwing knives out though. Those'll be easier for me than a sword, if we need them."

He laughed through his nose, but seemed to pocket the dagger anyways. He then bent down to grab the remaining of the supplies and headed back to Mellie to put away and also put on a shirt.

Jerica walked up to Evan, suddenly regretting getting such a tall horse. If Elias was actually a good rider she'd have demanded to switch. But, Evan was going to buck Elias within ten minutes. She'd bet on it. She gritted her teeth and grabbed the horn, then put her foot in the stirrup. It sent an agonizing stab of pain through her entire body before she even tried to put weight on it.

"You godsdamned motherfucking," she whimpered, pulling herself awkwardly on top. She took a deep breath, swallowing hard before she bothered to get herself situated properly in the saddled. "Knuckle-dragging son of a bitch. Fuck!"

She wanted to be angry. But was in too much pain to do anything else but pant for breath.

Elias, meanwhile, was already on top of Mellie, staring at her. "We can always... walk," he said.

She shook her head. I'm going to pass out if we do that. "I just need the throwing knives with me... please, peasant."

Elias turned to dig through the saddlebag on top of Mellie, but couldn't seem to find it. He then trotted Mellie over to Evan so he could reach the saddlebag behind her. He found it then handed it to her. "Here ya go."

"Thanks." She took the belt and laid it across her lap, looping it around the horn so that she wouldn't have to worry about it falling off. She squeezed her legs to urge Evan into a walk, cringing as his steps jarred her body. "Fuck... our quest just got hard, Eli."

Elias looked over with her with narrowed eyes, maybe because she called him Eli. But his eyes softened with empathy. "You really shouldn't ride a horse if it's exerting you too much," he said gently.

"We have to get away from the corpse." She closed her eyes, the world starting to spin around her. Her stomach felt queasy. "We'll just take it slow."

"If you say so," he said softly.