The Morning After The Years Before [for gunslingerqueen]

[toweredingly]

He came awake with a barely-stifled groan, tears still wet on his face and his arms empty, the song still ringing in his ears. The fire had burnt down to ash, and there was a grey caste to the sky, the not-yet-dawn of a day he was going to have to drag himself up into. Roland closed his eyes, weary and heartsick in every way, and listened to the morning, slowing his breathing down to almost nothing.

There was Nathan's breathing, a warm huffing close against his ears. Further off, he could hear Kaine toss and turn, and Alain's low, steady snoring. It all seemed too loud, too much, especially set against the other sounds of the camp. Somewhere, a throcken yelped, a disconcertingly human sound. Bert moaned quietly in his sleep, something that might have been a name or might just have been a cry. Roland closed his eyes more tightly, then, giving up abruptly, sat up.

There was a shape nearby that hadn't been there before. Even before he'd fully registered that, let alone recognised Nariko in the dim half-light, his gun had leapt into his hand like a live thing, and he was wide awake. Then he did recognise her, and the weapon fell out of his suddenly nerveless hand.

"...Nariko?"

Comments

[askthelookout]

"Sure." Bert looked only a little worried, and it was easily missed under his smile. "He's got a better head on his shoulders than any of us, you should kennit by now. Save your worry for yourself, you're the one heading into occupied territory with two madmen as your guides." Finishing his work of knotting the reins of one horse to the saddle clasp of the other, he turned to look at her, reaching up to brush her hair back tenderly with the tips of his fingers. "He'll be fine. And so will we. The worst is past, I think."

[apassingafternoon]

"You're probably right." And she really did believe that. There might still be challenges but there was never a day or week without one of those. The apex was falling behind them, everything on the downward tumble would be simple enough. But knowing that wouldn't really calm her down, the best cure for her mood was to get going.

"At least this'll be interesting."

It would also be quiet and full of far too many men, but Kaine would hold her own. She gave the opposite party one more glance as they began to head off in their own direction, and suffocated the part of her that wanted to follow.

and scene?

[askthelookout]

"That's the spirit!" Bert grinned at her, and leaned in to kiss the corner of her mouth before turning away and vaulting into the saddle. "We'll do just fine. All of us. You'd best get ready to move, though. There's a long road ahead."