Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 9)

( ;-; ) (at least I've stopped blushing profusely at this point haha at least I said 'that was easy' instead of insulting him or myself haha)

Ky glanced at him and tensed a bit when she saw his furrowed brow. Had she pissed him off? She quickly averted her gaze, looking back at the chair. Should she have done that? Should she put them back on the bed? Should she apologize? She carefully didn't look at him, chest feeling a little tight.

(True that; it could always be worse)

"Open the window, please," he said softly. The sooner they had a look, the sooner they could get out of this room.

Ky reached forward and unlatched the window. It stuck a little, clearly unused for years -- but she got it open without much difficulty. Cold air stabbed her in the face and she flinched before she caught herself.

Gaius took one step into the room as the window was opened and he saw outside. The landscape looked like one expected it ought to, but there was a dark blot just below the horizon, moving slowly towards them above the trees. He squinted, then took another step in, then another.

Ky, on the other hand, reflexively took a step backward. It wasn't... it wasn't... was it?

It was growing closer very quickly. Gaius was beginning to pick out texture--hair, lots of hair. The trees only came up to its chest, and a great many of them were bending or falling as the creature waded through. Gaius approached the window, coming to stand beside Ky as he stared out at what had to be the troll.

Spoiler

Kinda this thing once Ky and Gaius see it in more detail

(oh gosh, that's terrifying. Also reminds me of the chijurru I created in my canon lol they're like 60-foot tall beasts covered in orange fur with long talons and teeth)(Jerica killed one and everyone is like 'dafuq?' about it haha)(she, also, does not know how she managed it haha)

Ky stood paralyzed in fear, trembling and staring with wide eyes. She hated this dreadful anticipation. It was like watching Aleth coming towards her with a whip. She couldn't run. Couldn't hide. Just had to watch helplessly and know that there wasn't anything at all she could do to keep herself safe. To keep anyone safe.

(Big hairy monsters are very scary and fun to write about. What do chijurrus do?)

The creature continued to walk until it was perhaps a human's thirty minute walk from the wall of the Keep, at which point it came to a stop and raised its shaggy head. The pair of round black eyes that Gaius could only just barely see seemed to be staring straight at their window. His breath caught, and he shivered but didn't move from where he stood. It truly was huge; if it came up to the wall it would be able to hop over it without trouble. The beast was as wide as a ship and unbearably ugly, with teeth sticking out at all angles--herbivorous and carnivorous. That was all Gaius could see in the darkness, but evidently the guards could see it too. He could see their small shapes like ants scurrying along the top of the wall in a panic. He imagined they must be shouting orders or trying to comprehend what they were seeing.

(This particular one got brought out as a weapon during a war. Jerica didn't have any idea whatsoever about what it was or how to kill it or even what it's name was until the opposing army was like 'bitch killed our chijurru >:[' and she was like 'I did what now? ohhh' haha it carried huge boxes and pelted their city wall with them and when they landed they broke open and had enemy soldiers inside as a sort of trojan horse mixed with catapult action and was making their defense falter since then suddenly the enemy soldiers were beside them instead of just down below/climbing the ladders)
(she ended up fighting it because everyone was just gaping at it with no idea what to do and the enemy soldiers were still climbing up the ladders and her squire who she """definitely didn't adopt""" was too busy gaping at it to notice an enemy soldier climbing up the ladder next to him, and the soldier grabbed his arm and yanked him over the wall so ofc Jerica rushes over and kills the soldier and looks down below and sees her squire is still alive but very, very injured and at that point she also was very injured from having been shot with an arrow a few days prior and so she knew she couldn't climb down to get him and get him back up, and also knew that she was very much a target and if she climbed down then it would only draw attention to him, too -- and eventually the chijurru started ripping out chunks of their wall and was on the war path heading towards her squire, still laying on the ground, and if she didn't do something about it then he was going to crush her squire so she leapt off the wall onto its back and started stabbing it until it got its hands on her and started squeezing until she almost passed out and then tried to eat her, and she managed to stab it in the back of the throat enough times that it decided to throw her)(that was what got her captured by the enemy forces and was, in fact, my inciting incident lol the things you'll do for love)

Ky's trembling redoubled, tears springing to her eyes in an instant as she stared. It was huge. It was going to kill them all. If she had the capacity for rational thought just then, she'd be grateful that Zander wasn't here to get murdered along with the rest of them.

What the fuck was this country supposed to be?

She wanted to go home. South. Where the only thing that wanted her dead was Makata.

(Damn your stories sound so cool I wanna read them now.)

Gaius was sure he had locked eyes with the thing. Its breath was visible from here, rocking the trees as the warm fog blew out into the air. His face was warm, and when he reached up his fingers came away wet. His eyes stayed on the troll. It stared at him and Ky for a few long moments, then very slowly turned and walked parallel to the wall, heading east.

(haha aww I'm flattered <3)(I'm actually really proud of an adorable scene I recently thought up but haven't had time to write, yet. Basically, in canon, she's 20 and he's 12, he's been with her two years at that point. She took him on as a squire because she was watching him steal an apple in the market and he got caught and a soldier was trying to arrest him for theft and she panicked and was like UNHAND MY SQUIRE! and did some quick thinking and paid the merchant and scolded him and was like 'this was an exercise of stealth not theft, I told you to leave the money behind' and he went along with it -- and then got the crowd dissipated and her uncle the war lord comes walking over and is like 'you do not have a squire' and she's like 'I clearly do. I have... what's your name?' and he tells her and she's like 'see? my squire Kieran' and he's an orphan so she took him on and has been educating him and mentoring him and teaching him to fight and read and all sorts of stuff and has most definitely adopted him and her cousin is like 'you have clearly adopted this child' and she is like 'I have not if ANYTHING his age is a mark against him, I don't like children' and he's like 'mhmmm sure okay' -- so fast forward to the cute scene, they're going to be sparring, and she's going to accidentally hurt him and go rushing to him to see if he's okay and is like 'Kieran!' and he's gonna go 'Mom? MA'AM! MA'AM! I'm so sorry! MA'AM!" and it's going to hit right in the feels haha)

Ky choked on a squeak, not sure if she'd ever been this terrified in her life. Somehow it was so, so much worse than when she met Rönn. And certainly far worse than Jaerek or even Aleth. She wanted to run, and yet if she moved she was sure her knees would lock and send her face-first onto the floor. And she wouldn't be able to get up if that happened. No. She needed proof it was moving away.

(Aw just a baby boy
I love soldier squire mother child dynamics so much)

Gaius followed it as far as the window's view would let him, and he paused for a moment, wiping at his face. Had Ky seen? He chanced a look at her and found that she was trembling. She obviously wasn't as fascinated or awestruck, then. Terrified, more like. That was unfortunate.

(Me too :') it was actually a complete accident haha he was strictly a plot device to get her to fight the chijurru and the rest of the novel in that draft people were like 'what happened to Kieran, Shady >:[ " and so I was like uhhhhh he's.... okay? haha and now I've developed them a lot more and it's really wholesome and adorable and I love him so much)

Ky was staring out the window still in horrified silence. Rönn was right. He was always right. She should have just gone to bed. Shouldn't have looked out the window. She was never going to sleep ever again in her entire life.

(I'm so glad!! Any chance we'll meet him in this?)

Gaius had to get to the library or to an empty journal immediately. He had to write, to start a study on this. Things were stirring, revealing themselves! There was no troll sighting in centuries, and suddenly here one was. He whirled and took a step toward the door, then paused and looked back at Ky. She still looked very unwell. He stepped back towards her. "Well," he said slowly, voice breaking a little, "that was...something."

(Hmm I'll have to think on it. I would absolutely love to introduce y'all, but I'd have to scale him down quite a bit since she's only 15 here. But honestly you know what? I could see that being a thing. She gets abused a lot by her uncle the king and his best friend, and so she's continually like 'I fucking dare you to try to touch him -- over my dead body' so if she'd already rescued him at this point then she would absolutely throw a fit until they agreed to let him come along, too, since she doesn't trust her uncle enough to leave him alone with Kieran)(and honestly in canon she used to be 17 when she took him on at 12, until I ended up scaling her up to 20 and decided I still wanted him 12, so I could just make him be like 10 here and make it be a newer bond but I kinda dig the idea ngl)

Why the fuck was he so excited about this? She looked at him in horror. He was insane. Who could see what she'd just seen and be happy about it? She couldn't remember how to speak. So instead she turned and closed the window.