Lys watched Rue's reaction and with the words spoken she jumped into action. Tempo was watching her girl now and as Lys reached up her hand, holding out her palm toward the pale colored mare, she closed the distance quietly. Lys heaved her covered bulge up onto the mare's back. She didn't like making Tempo carry both her and her equipment, usually preferring to walk beside the mare, but now she knew, with danger lurking and unknown, that if she even had a chance at keeping up with Rue she would need to be mounted. She stayed close, ready to mount quickly if she needed.
"What is it?" she asked, her voice so small she wondered if it even made it past her horse's ears. What was out here that had this girl so scared? Whatever it was, Lys didn't want to meet it. She slide her knife from its spot on her side. It was a worn knife, its edge jagged and rusty, but it could still do damage if she needed it.
She watched Rue carefully, then turned her eyes to the place where the sounds had come from. She didn't like the speed in which they were approaching. And any second now she had a feeling Tempo would take off. Please don't move, she thought, touching her free hand, the one without a blade, to the tough hide.
But over the hill came another horse and rider pair, not some dangerous creature as Lys had been drawing up in her mind. Still, while she slide her knife behind her a bit, she didn't put it away. Just because Rue was friendly didn't mean everyone here with a horse was friendly. He greeted Rue, in a sort of way, mentioning their race. He seemed to know her and Lys slid her gaze toward the girl in front of her.
The man spoke again, echoing Rue's nervous words earlier, though with much less words. He spoke only enough to get his point across it seemed. But Lys wasn't about to object; the one thing everyone seemed to have in common right here was that this was an unsafe place. "I'm Lys," she said quietly, quickly, reaching up to push her belongings farther along Tempo's back to make room for herself. "I'm accompanying you to Endrykas, if you don't mind, I'm ready to leave now."