[Bronze Wood] Debt (Aiken)

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

40th Summer, 510 A.V. As they approached the stretch of forest where they had done battle with a bear, Sam wondered about the memory of horses. Horse had recovered from what had been superficial wounds, and a summer storm or two had likely washed the smell of blood out of the air. Then he unlashed his shortbow from its mooring on the saddle, drew an arrow from his quiver, nocked it, drew, sighted the bole of a tree about thirty paces away, and thought of nothing. There was only the motion of Horse, the mechanism of his body, the bow's tense curvature, the arrow, and the target. At a certain level, they were all the same thing. Then he loosed his arrow and it went flying into the underbrush. "Dammit," he cursed, and Horse ambled on. They passed his intended target and then, a ways beyond, he found the arrow safely embedded in the mud. His foot came out of the stirrup and hooked around the saddlehorn. He leaned way down, reaching for the arrow's shaft, and Horse snorted, compensating for the shift in his weight. Once he had the arrow, he climbed back up into a normal seat, flicking gobbets of mud off the arrowhead, wiping it clean on his pant leg. Then he found a new target and went through another iteration of the process he had been taught so many years ago. Ever so rusty, he missed this target too. The shortbow was a bit different from the longbows he had been working on with Jaeden, or at least that's what he told himself to mollify his bruised ego. If only he hadn't been caught, he might have grown up to be a proper warrior rather than a jack-of-all-trades, but there was no changing the past unless you were Tanroa's favorite, he figured. This time, when he recovered his arrow, he looked up at the sound of birdsong up above. He targeted a swallow, drew the bowstring back to his ear, then paused for a moment before aborting the shot. He would only miss, and this time it would be much more difficult to find his arrow. "Well, I'll have to find a target back in the City, Horse. Practice there. I'm going to need it." Horse snorted, and Sam put his bow and arrow away. The sound of water grew ever stronger, and just as he was sure that they had somehow made a wrong turn, they happened upon their old campsite and he looked eagerly around, hoping to see Aiken against all odds.

[Aiken]

Aiken strolled through the forest, carefully avoiding the territories of other animals. He wasn't in the mood to try to survive, and the safest way to do that was leave the other predators alone. The sun was high in the sky, casting strange shadows as it pierced the canopy above. It was cool on the forest floor, and the trail was filled with smells that Aiken always tended to ignore.

There were flowers and plants he never paid attention to that he was finally noticing. Vivid colors, reds, whites, blues. It was almost disturbing how he never saw them before, even if he knew they existed.

Time passed as Aiken jogged along the worn path. He spotted some horse tracks and followed them for a bit. His nose to the ground, he followed the horse's scent for awhile. A bit of curiosity hit him as the scent of a human rose in the trail. Was that..? No, it couldn't have been Sam. He still hadn't gotten the deer that he promised to the man.

After a little more tracking, he came to the same site they once shared and spotted Sam, and Horse as well, of course. He barked once and sat looking at them, tongue out.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sam had taken a knee and was running his fingertips gently over a track that he took to be Aiken's, unless some other wolf had been at this little riverside site since they had camped there for the night so Aiken and Horse could rest and recover. He didn't know why he was looking; it wasn't like he was going to be able to track him down from there with a trail over two weeks old. What he realized then was that he was saying goodbye to experiences in Syliras, because it was entirely likely that he might be killed getting back to Endrykas, even with an Akalak tagging along. Still, it seemed to be what he had been waiting for all this time, and now he was going to do it. So with his hand over what he hoped was Aiken's print, he said goodbye to the kelvic who had saved his life, and that of Horse, not all that long ago. And then, because the gods have senses of humor, he heard a bark just then and turned. It couldn't be Aiken. Could it? With his tongue lolling out, he looked almost like a dog. Of course, for most of their time together, Aiken had been a naked man with a bandage over his back. When he had been in his wolf form, he had looked much more ferocious. "Aiken?" he asked, just to be sure. He grinned anyway.

[Aiken]

Aiken barked again and stood up. He walked a little closer and turned to show Sam the line of fur that was slightly lighter than the rest of his dark gray fur. He wished he could laugh in this form, but all that came out was a husky, twitchy growl that sounded stranger than anything Aiken could think of.

He shifted his his human form in a swirling cloud of lights, standing up full as they disappeared. "Of course its me, who else would I be? Hello Sam," he said, grinning like a fool.

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Oh, well..." His grin was rather goofy. "I was hoping to see you, but I wasn't sure if you would still be around or if you would have gone off to find some other hunting grounds or something." Nonplussed now by the nakedness, he stood up, brushing his hands off on his pant legs. "I guess you healed up pretty well, huh? I'm not so terrible at taking care of wounds, I guess. No champion of Rak'keli or anything, but more help than harm, anyway."

[Aiken]

"Yea. I caught horse's scent a little bit ago. Horses don't usually come through here, so I wanted to investigate. I'm glad to see it's you." Aiken looked back at the pale-pink skin. It was raised slightly, only noticeable if you were to run your fingers over it.

"Its doing good, yea. No pain or anything, just a scar. I never had the chance to really thank you for it."

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Makes sense. I came here trapping because I thought there would be less competition. As it turns out, just you and some bears..." He grinned. "It's good to see you too. And don't worry about thanking me... you got the scar from helping me out with that bear, after all." He hadn't forgotten about the offer of a deer, but for all he knew, Aiken had just been talking. It wasn't the sort of thing he would actually ask to collect. He made a clicking noise with his tongue to let Horse know that it was safe to graze, though the stallions ears still swiveled around to catch all the forest sounds. Sam sat down on a fallen log, leaning back against a living tree. He stretched his legs out in front of him. "I see you're still managing without a pack."

[Aiken]

"A scar's a scar. Jut a reminder that I need to watch my flank better." Aiken chuckled and sniffed around. Sam smelled more like the city this time, with the scents of other people and races, as well as cooked food and a hundred other things Aiken failed to recognize either from lack of knowledge or diluted trace.

"I am. I'm rather fond of being alone. I don't have the sense of home in a den, but I also don't have to deal with challenges for rank and all of that nonsense. How is city life?"

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sam shrugged. "City life is all right, but I'm... well, I'm leaving in five days. Southwest to the Sea of Grass. Just to see..." He looked down at his hands rubbing nervously together. This was the correct decision, he felt, but the idea of being among the Drykas again after a decade of shame was still nerve-wracking. "Well, my pack is gone, but my people remain. Perhaps I will build my pack anew. I guess I came back here to see you and to say goodbye. I don't know when or even if I'll be coming back. You don't have to worry about the deer or anything. I've got enough stores to get me to Endrykas... assuming none of the monsters or bears get me along the way. An Akalak fellow is going with me, though. He's headed for Riverfall, so we'll have strength in numbers for a while."

[Aiken]

Aiken watched Sam carefully. He seemed.. anxious, nervous. He wasn't totally sure why, but maybe it was because he was going somewhere without a pack, or that he was afraid of what was waiting for him.

"You know, I haven't left the Syliras in a few months. If you didn't have any issue with it... I suppose I could offer my service as a bodyguard during your trip." Aside from owing Sam for the healing, Aiken wanted to go. He really had been cooped up with the same-old land, and he felt like there was the tiniest thread of a deeper connection with the man.