FPK - A mismatched team on the Road

Kalei:

I glared at Thanael. We were riding what, an hour now? And he was so close to driving me insane! Where did he take that obtrusively good mood from? Why couldn't he just shut up? No, he had to sing...

"We're off to seek the Countess, the beautiful Countess of cold,
we're off to seek the Countess, with hair and eyes of gold,
because, because, because, because, because...
because of a command that we were told,
we're searching the Countess of cold!"

"Oh, please, stop it finally!", I requested, somewhat exhausted.
Thanael grinned, but he stopped singing. "Does mylady not appreciate music?", he inquired.
"I don't appreciate being called 'mylady', that's for sure", I told him.
He shook his head. "Why is everyone so insulted by being addressed with a proper title? Someone once told me it was courtesy, but it seems to be an offense." Hurrying his horse, he rode up next to me. "Besides that, you'd like it far less if I called you simply by your name. So, tell me what else to call you or I'll stick with 'mylady'."
I rolled my eyes, once again. When we'd be back at the palace, they'd be entirely worn out. "Kalei, that's it. No 'mylady'. Or don't call me at all." If I'd tie him to some rock and feed his liver to the eagles, would someone miss him? When we rode out, I had assumed he would be troublesome, maybe even dangerous. I didn't think he'd be simply annoying.
"Have you ever been in the eastern mountains?", he asked.
"No..." I frowned. "What's this going to be?"
"Oh, you might have heard of it, a very ancient art, not easy to master", Thanael explained earnestly. "They call it 'conversation'."
His aura of delight was rightaway strenuous. He should not be full of joy. He was basically out on probation, with a chaperon, on a mission that was important to the kingdom. Why was he acting as if he were on a jolly holiday? "Can you just not?", I asked. And after a moment, because he put such value on behaviour, I added: "Please?"
For the next hours we rode in silence. Maybe it had been better to have him singing; the silence made me nervous, disrupted only by the voices of animals we encountered, and I kept my mother's sword by my side in case we should encounter robbers or anyone dangerous. I shook my head, rubbed my cheek and pinched my nose bridge to pull myself out of these thoughts. I had to keep my watch up.
In the evening, we approached the base of the mountain, and as they promised, Freedom and Sequoia were waiting for us.
How far up is the cabin? Or whatever it is...
More of a cottage, as far as I know. Well, I don't know lengths or distances, but it's quite a trek, Sequoia responded.
With a sigh, I turned to Thanael to inform him. "They say it's quite a trek up, so we stay the night here and then get up early in the morning. Might be we have to spend a night in the mountains, too."
"That's just fine", he dismounted his horse, then he frowned at the eagles. "Do your bird friends show us a way passable for humans and horses or do they only know flight route?"
I lifted an eyebrow. As if I could not think of that myself. "I'll tell them to look for a passable way." I bit back a snort and got off Cima's back.
Thanael grabbed for his dagger and a few cords and said: "I'm off for hunt."
I blinked. "What now?"
He grinned. "What, do you think I'm sneaking away?"
Actually, that was a possibility, but I didn't want him to know that I was worried. "Not even remotely. I just don't get why you want to hunt at all. We have supplies."
He grimaced. "Yes, bread and soup and whatever nice stuff else. I prefer some fresh meat. Except you mind me killing animals around you?"
Still confused, I shook my head. I had shared the mind of animals when they were hunting, it was not a problem. But Thanael had been struggling with nausea when I'd mentioned the supplies... I absolutely didn't understand this guy.
While he was gone, I prepared the camp, picking a bit of wood and making a fire. Thanael returned when it was already dark, bringing more dry wood, a dead rabbit and the rests of some bird that woke my suspicion again. I would have seen if he had made a fire by himself. And, as I got to know through Cima's nose, Thanael had a slight smell of blood about him.
I stared at him. "You ate that raw!"
He shrugged and began flaying the rabbit. "You can still cook something, if you want to."
That was just... disgusting. "I can't believe you can stomach that", I murmured.
"Stomach takes what it's used to", Thanael explained. "I still go ill on cooked meals. In prison, they gave me dry bread and water and a bit of raw vegetables, but on the battlefields, we were hunting for our meals and forbidden to make fires, so the enemy would not see us. Raw meat was it then." He looked into my direction vaguely. "Have you fought in war?"
A moment I thought; was that question too close? Should I answer at all? Hesistantly, I told: "Not on big battlefields. I've only fought in smaller combats."
He didn't ask anymore on that, just finished preparing the rabbit and wrapped it up before he wrapped himself into his blanket. Then something came to his mind. "Oh... do we need to keep night watch?"
Hadn't thought about that. I was rather uncomfortable in these surroundings, all out in the open. "I... don't think so. But it wouldn't hurt just to be safe." Before he got up again, I waved it off. "I'll take the first watch."
Thanael nodded. "Good night, Kalei."
I winced on that. He was right; it felt highly unsettling when he called me by my name. I stared into the fire, and sometimes I noticed Thanael did the same, being awake for long yet, watching the flames with his strangely reflecting yellow eyes. His thoughts were far off in war, and they took him to a restless sleep.

"Thanael!", I hissed. He was immediately awake and next to me. I only saw a silhouette of him; when the wood had been depleted, I had not left to get more, so the fire had burned down.
"What's it?", he asked, his voice just a whisper.
"Someone over there", I pointed to the brushwood. "A wildcat saw him. He's observing us."
Thanael put his hand on my shoulder and pressed me flat to the ground, ducking down as he readied for a leap. The man from the brushwood sneaked out, coming closer to the camp. I pulled flint and my knife from my pockets; I could make a fire if I had something to set on fire... Thanael reached something over to me with no sound. It was a half-burnt stick of wood that had not been entirely consumed by the campfire.
Then he jumped forward, right at the stranger. While the muffled sounds of a fight sounded over to me, I hastily hit some sparks off the flint, and eventually the wood caught flames. With my improvised torch, I turned to the fight.
The stranger was bigger and bullier than Thanael, but Thanael was in a battle rage and had the upper hand – until the light hit the stranger's face. White skin, white hair, tattoos, black eyes. He was a Rotheran.
He stared up to Thanael who held him on the floor and stared down to him, stopped in uncertainty. But when I drew my sword, the Rotheran jumped to his feet, throwing Thanael off him who got up next to me. For a few seconds, we stood there, staring at each other. The Rotheran had something in his hand which after a moment I could see was Thanael's rabbit.
I raised my blade, the Rotheran ran – and Thanael grasped my arm to hold me back. When the thief was out of sight, I pulled my arm out of his grip. "What the heck?", I snapped at him.
"He was afraid, he won't come back", Thanael argued.
"He is a Rotheran who's roaming Avalonnian ground, and he assaulted us!", I shouted.
"He was hungry!", Thanael said almost desperately.
I glared at him. Thoughts shot through his head, guilt, empathy for his compatriot, the memory of the nagging hunger, the memory of the urgent need to eat, just eat anything, raw meat or whatever was available... I decided to let it pass. "That was your rabbit!", I commented. "I won't wait in the morning for you to grab another snack!"
He almost laughed on that, but it was not a joyful laughter. "Go to sleep, I won't wait in the morning until you get out of your featherbed."
Good point. I crawled under my blankets while Thanael sat down and kept watch.
_______________________________________________________________

The next morning, they made their way up the trails. Kalei pulled her cloak around herself a little tighter as the chill of mountains bit through even her wool tunic. She didn't mind the mountains, actually, she liked them. They provided solitude, and she'd always liked the cool air. Thanael was very silent in comparison to yesterday, caught up in his thoughts.
Kalei could feel Cima wanting to run. "Be careful, girl", she told her, and Cima bolted ahead. Amra followed close behind. Cima elegantly leapt over rocks and fallen trees in a way she hadn't done before. This terrain was definitely one way to test her endurance, but she seemed to be loving it, and the "wicked beast", as Thanael had called his horse on several occasions, appeared to be enjoying herself, too. But in the evening, both horses and people were rather happy about the stop.
Kalei found a big enough spot for the camp, overshadowed by rocks that would protect them a bit from the wind. They built a fire, and while Thanael chewed some dry bread, Kalei warmed up her rest of soup, and they talked a little bit.
It was not as awkward as it had been before, maybe because the matter of raw meat did not come up, and the war neither. Kalei began to relax a bit, and as the sun went down, she didn't mind him taking the first watch. When she was honest to herself, she could admit she was a bit sorry for him after all.
Freedom and Sequoia cuddled up next to her, warming up by the fire. Sequoia looked up at her tiredly.
You both should get some sleep, you've been flying all day.
We know. But why exactly are you travelling with him?, Freedom asked. You don't seem to like him particularly. Is he not...?
Yes, he is. I shrugged. Well, King Cold's lover... she's gone missing, and what I understood is that he won't fully retreat until she' brought back safely to him. Then they'll both go back to their kingdom, and that'll be the end of war. Thanael is helping me.
I see.
It shouldn't be much longer now.
Kalei took a look over to Thanael. He didn't seem to realize, playing with a ring on his hand she had already noticed before. She had not said anything, but she'd got the hint of what happened. They both had loved ones they missed.

Another morning, they packed up again and rode out. Again, most of the ride was quite, only the ground got more uneven the higher they got, and eventually, Thanael stopped Amra, looking up the rocks. "That last part is steep", he contemplated. "We might get along better if we leave the horses here."
He looked towards Kalei who nodded. "I think so, yes. They won't run away, not from here." She dismounted, and so did Thanael.
Frowning, he turned back to Kalei while he strapped a part of his package onto his back. "Can you climb?"
Kalei just grinned. "I've climbed glaciers, a mountain shouldn't be much trouble."
With Freedom and Sequoia ahead of them, they made their way up. Thanael was not an excellent rider, but in climbing he was actually a bit better than Kalei, being quickly on the rock she was still struggling to get on top of.
Suddenly and to her utter puzzlement, Thanael reached down, grabbed her wrists and just pulled her up. Next to him, he put her onto her feet again, and Kalei protested. "Hey! You cannot just lift people up!"
Thanael raised an eyebrow while he adjusted his backpack. "Well, yes, I can. Not that much of a problem, you don't weigh more than one of my sisters..."
Kalei put on her strictest face. "I mean, you should not. At least not without a warning."
On that, he looked at her for a moment before he said very friendly: "Kalei, I'm heaving you up this rock now." And before she could stop him, he grasped around her knees and lifted her with quite a momentum over the next rock's edge. Kalei landed on knees and hands, and then Thanael climbed up to her.
She looked at him acidulously. "Can you just not, please?"
Thanael barely listened. "Is that it?" He pointed towards a few houses hidden in mountains, the tiniest, sleepiest village.
The eagles had shown her this village in their memory; the red-headed lady had been shopping for groceries here. Kalei nodded. "Yes, that's it. Lady Aurelia's cottage should be just around the corner."
Around the village, the ways were more plane. When they reached a pretty two-stored house, a bit apart from the rest of the others, surrounded by trees hundreds of years old, Kalei sent Freedom to circle the cottage.
"So?", Thanael asked a bit impatiently.
"A garden on the backside", Kalei said, observing through the eagle's eyes. "The woman with red hair... she talks to a tall blonde man. Pale, golden eyes. They return into the house." She disconnected from Freedom and looked at Thanael.
"Should be Count Viserys", he commented, and she nodded.
Thanael shrugged. "So, what now? Will you go there and knock, or do we just rush in blades bare?"
Kalei grimaced. What a refined strategy! "I think it might be better to knock. Maybe she is more willing to let us in if she saw me first... I mean, I don't know her very well, but it's worth a shot."
Thanael shrugged again and dropped into the grass as if that was none of his business. Cautiously, Kalei made her way up to the door. She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword, just in case. Knocking the door a couple times, she waited tensely.
After a moment, the handle turned, and the door opened, revealing Lady Aurelia. "Hello", she said warily. Then: "You are Kalei. From court."
Relieved, she nodded. "Yes, Lady Aurelia. I was sent here by Queen Lacriel."
"Why?" Aurelia seemed highly disinterested in a talk with her. "What are you doing up here?"
"See, I was sent to look for a Lady Lucilla who..."
Aurelia's face hardened. Behind that, she hid fear. "Then please look for her somewhere else. You're not supposed to be here."
She shoved the door close, and Kalei quickly leaped forward. "No, please listen to me! King Cold would..."
"I don't care at all!", Aurelia told her. "You have no right to pursue me on my family's property, so go away!" She closed the door.
Frustrated, Kalei returned to Thanael who laid in the meadow, looking into the sky where her eagles circled. He seemed inappropriately amused. "Do we now rush in blades bare?", he asked sweetly.
"You go through the garden, I take the front door", Kalei commanded. Thanael drew his dagger, and she warned: "I don't want anyone harmed!"
"Just frightening them", Thanael promised and left. Kalei went to the door again. The moment she heard the crashing of wood from the backside of the house, she kicked the door open, and the three persons inside the house saw theirselves surrounded for Thanael came from one door and Kalei from the other.
Thanael ignored Viserys and Aurelia, but nodded to the pretty blonde woman that was protected by the other two. "Lady Lucilla. It's been a while."
Lucilla's eyes went wide as she saw him. "You! What are you doing here?"
As she looked around, wanting to see who was luring at the other side, Kalei could see her in full length. She was shocked to see Lucilla was with child.