Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

( :eyes: )

Sara watched her husband's scarecrow features relax as he forced himself to try and drift off, sighing softly. A tiny hand came up and covered her mouth.
"Your breath is stinky too," Mattathias whispered. Sara chuckled softly and let out a great gust of air, and he shrieked quietly and covered his nose. "Ewwwww Mama!"
"Go to bed, my love," Sara told him with a grin, pulling him closer and settling herself tighter into the circle. Her smile faded even as she felt the gentle rise and fall of his breaths as she watched Gaius's brow inevitably furrow--in irritation, or was he having some inner conflict as he so often did? She reached across the pile of their children and took his mangled hand in hers, rubbing it gently with her thumb. His brow crinkled further, then relaxed again and he sighed through his nose.

(Uh oh)

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Tadaaki said. “We agreed to run away, not kill ourselves.”

“What’s the difference?” she asked sourly. “The effects will be the same either way. May as well speed it up and put me out of my misery faster.”

Tadaaki sighed again. “You worry me.”

“Worry about yourself.”

“You’re not leaving me much time to do that,” he muttered. “If I’m spending all my time worrying about you.”

She looked into the fire, sighing deeply.

Tadaaki reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She huffed another sigh, then leaned into him and closed her eyes.

Sara watched him for a moment, then closed her eyes and tucked her arms under her to keep them warm. She listened to the slow, heavy breaths of her three children and the whistling of Gaius's nose, and she let herself relax for the first time that evening.

“Everything is so, so bad,” she murmured, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. It wasn’t tight enough to keep the tears from slipping under her eyelids and running down her face. She was silent. They were always silent. But they were large, pained tears that slipped down her face quickly.

“I know,” Tadaaki murmured, pulling her closer. He felt the slight tremor that ran through her as she breathed, knowing that meant she was crying. And also knowing there wasn’t anything at all he could do about it. He felt the same, so anything he could have said otherwise would be sheer hypocrisy. “The bastard keeps fucking with us from the grave.”

“I hate him,” she said, voice harsh.

He hesitated, pretty sure she meant Aleth, but then remembering the anger on her face as she left the fire. “…Aleth?”

“Yeah.” She realized what Tadaaki wasn’t sure about, then sighed. “I don’t hate Gaius… he’s irritating me, but he’s trying to help. I know he is.”

“He is,” Tadaaki murmured. He could have gone about it far better. But even so, at least it was an attempt.

“I want to stop needing help.”

“Everyone needs help sometimes.”

(Nothing to add from Sara; she and Gaius are gonna fall asleep)

Tadaaki held Ky as she silently sobbed, neither of them saying anything else. They both knew how she felt. They both knew he couldn’t make it better. They both knew she couldn’t, either, for either of them.

And so they were silent until she’d shed all her bitter tears and was left, once again, completely hollow inside — including her stomach this time, since she was an idiot. You’d have thought she’d be used to the consequences of being an idiot after dealing with them for fifteen years. And yet she wasn’t.

Eventually, she pulled away from him and laid down next to the fire.

“What are you doing?” Tadaaki asked.

“Laying down.”

“It’s more comfortable to lay down in the tent.”

“Then you go do that,” she muttered.

“Ky,” he sighed.

“I need space,” she murmured. “And I need to think. And I’m not going to be able to do either in the tent.”

She left it unspoken that Aashi wasn’t going to shut up, but they both knew it was true.

He sighed and stood up. “Very well. Please be here in the morning. I’ll miss you terribly if you’re not.”

She nodded, then listened to his footsteps receding. She stared into the fire for a long, long time. Long enough everyone else should be asleep. And long enough for her intrusive thoughts to win. She knew it’d hurt him. It’d hurt everyone. And, perhaps, may even cause strife between the brothers if Tomhas blamed Gaius for giving her the opportunity.

But they’d work it out. If they could stop a literal war, they could learn to forgive each other and forgive themselves after her death and realize that neither of them had anything to do with this whatsoever.

And, well, if they couldn’t then she was just a selfish bitch. But they all already knew that. It wouldn’t be a surprise.

She saw they’d left the knife by the fire, an oversight no doubt. But it was enough to spur her on. She wasn’t going to give up this time. She was going to do what she had to do.

She pushed herself upright, grabbed the knife, then very, very carefully slipped into the woods without the guards noticing her. She just had to get far enough away no one would find her body.

The wind was practically screaming now. The tents were quickly becoming buried in the driving snow; only half of each one could be seen. The horses huddled together, staring out into the forest in unusual silence.

It only made Ky all the more miserable. And yet was reassuring, too. She wouldn’t have to go quite so far if her footsteps were completely erased. There weren’t nearly enough guards to cover every single direction. Perhaps she’d bury herself in the snow, too, to make it even harder to see her.

She kept wandering further and further until she was well away from the camp.

(I have nothing further to add to this so she’s however far away she needs to be lol)

(Excellent!)

A few minutes passed, and eventually a solitary white shape could be seen in the distance. It didn't move; it might as well have been a hill of snow. But as Ky drew nearer, it began to take shape.
A white bear that must have stood at least seven feet tall in life was lying in a patch of blood-darkened snow with its back to Ky. It was the sort of beast one would only find in the Far North, but here it lay in a frozen pool of its own blood, head thrown back so far its neck had to be broken. Its glassy eyes stared without seeing at Ky.
Under the howl of the wind and behind the bear, wet tearing noises and the smack of meat on teeth could be heard.

Ky froze in place, resolve beginning to waver. What the hell was big enough to have murdered a bear? Was it a mountain cat? She took a shaky breath. Maybe whatever it was would break her neck, too, and put her out of her misery faster. Then again, whatever it was probably wasn't hungry anymore, and may decide to bat her around in a game of cat and mouse.

She glanced back over her shoulder towards the camp. She wouldn't be able to make it back if something was chasing her. And it was better to see it coming. It was always better to see it coming.

She looked down at the knife in her hands, contemplating just doing it here and saving whatever it was the trouble. Perhaps it would eat her, too, so there wouldn't be any evidence of her left whatsoever.

The smacking stopped for a moment, and whatever was crouched behind the bear raised its head. A high, curving pair of horns rose up, stained red with blood and cracked slightly along the base.
"Girl," came a harsh, tortured voice. "Girl. Who you?" The voice was thickly accented with what might loosely be considered Nortung, but a very primitive form of it.

Ky squeaked. What the hell was this supposed to be? Her mind flicked to the Marrow Man, then she quickly dismissed the idea. He was just a bogey man meant to frighten children. This had to be some sort of a -- he was a-- a--

She had no explanation. She wasn't sure what she'd expected to see, but it certainly wasn't this. Certainly didn't expect it to speak to her. She stared at him with wide eyes and a gaping mouth, too afraid to do anything, including run away.

There was a pause, and then the speaker rose from where he crouched behind the bear. He was tall, at least 6'5 without the horns, which sprouted from a long head covered with shaggy hair that at one point must have been white but was now a dirty yellow. His face was that of a goat, with flat pupils and unwavering gray eyes, and his beard and mobile lips were stained red with the bear's blood. He was naked, too, save for half a tattered black cloak. His body was that of a very, very, very hairy man and unimaginably thin, so you could nearly see the organs working beneath his skin. His feet were obscured by the bear, but his legs appeared to be goatlike as well.

He stared at Ky, licking blood from his clawed hands. "I ask you, 'who you,' girl. Answer or run; I hungry either way."

Spoiler

Ky right now xD

She was trembling now, hard enough it'd be visible if you were near enough to see her at all, scared out of her mind. Maybe it was the Marrow Man after all. She had no other explanation. But it didn't matter now. It may as well have been the Grim Reaper, for that is what he was to her regardless.

"My name is Ky Ruiarc," she warbled, voice as shaky as the rest of her. She looked at the knife in her hand and threw it down, forcing herself to accept her fate. "And I won't fight you. I ask only that you make it quick."

Spoiler

That is a valid, valid response

"Ky Ruiarc," the creature repeated, trying to make sense of the syllables in his messy mouth. "Why you out in cold, Ky Ruiarc? You got food for me? You want die in cold and snow?"