Trials (An ErasermicXreader Medieval AU)

Chapter 6

You were gripping onto Shouta's waist for your life as he rode full force northward, the horse's thundering footsteps filling your ears. You had been riding for a long while, the poor horse beneath you was close to being spent and you could tell as its speed faltered. Shouta kept riding until the horse quite indignantly refused to go any faster than a walk. You'd wound up in a thin strip of marshland with the occasional deeply hunched whomping willow and cluster of waterlogged bushes. The sky was darkening, the blue of the afternoon had long since given way to the golds and oranges of sunsets and was now fading into a deep purple. Your legs were numb, ghost vibrations of horse hoof beats still rolling through your hips and lower back.

Shouta stopped under an especially distorted tree with roots so large and gnarled that you could curl up into the curve of one and disappear if you so pleased. He jumped down, starting a pace back and forth through the murky ground before realizing you were having trouble dismounting on your own. Without a word he grabbed you by the waist none too gently and lifted you down, placing you on your feet in the mud with a squelch. You wrinkled your nose at the sound and the feeling of the bud sinking into the boots Hizashi had gone back into town to get you a day or so ago.

Shouta, wordlessly unloaded the travel bags and the bedroll from the horse and tossed them into a pile against the thick roots of the tree. Everything about the way Shouta was moving put you on edge, sure you'd seen him somewhat annoyed or frustrated over the last five days but you'd only ever seen a glimmer of emotion compared to this. This scale of energy was comparable to Hizashi's jittering nature, his movements were sporadic and uncoordinated. Eventually, having spent way too long on a buckle, Shouta growled in frustration and kicked a long dead stump, shattering the fragile wood. He paused and took a deep breath before turning to you.

"Sorry." He muttered. It was the first thing he had said since "we have to go".

"S'okay." you muttered back, settling down on one of the tree roots. You patted a space beside you and looked back at him. "Sit?"

Shouta huffed and looked at where your hand was patting for a moment but shook his head. He paced again, muttering the occasion word to himself. "You know how to start a fire?"

"Y-yeah." You stammered.

"Good. I'll be back." Shota started walking away, back towards the south from whence you came. You thought about calling after him but thought better of it. Perhaps if it were Hizashi you would have but there was something in the way that Shouta had been furiously trying to stay calm that worried you, that scared you. You watched him fade into the distance until all of a sudden he was gone, disappearing with the blink of an eye into the tree line.

It took you a while to find dry enough wood to make a reasonably sized fire for warmth but you got one going on a small patch of dry land where you and the exhausted horse settled down. The horse tucked its legs under itself and went straight to sleep while you decided to take a look around once the feeling had fully returned to your legs. The marshland was vast to the north but to the south, east and west you could see trees. All sorts of plants poked out of the water nearby, many of which were familiar to you. There were small clusters of pink and white flowers on tall thin stems for pain, thick green gel-filled leaves for burns, and dark green aromatic leaves for disinfecting and cleaning wounds. You collected bunches of each and wandered back to the fire, settling in and spending the rest of your waking hours cleaning bugs from your finds.

You awoke to the smell of cooking meat and the sizzle of moisture hitting the fire. Your eyes flew open and just as panic gave way to alertness your eyes met Shouta's across the now sizable flames and you relaxed.

"Sorry." he gruffed. He was calmer now. "I would have woken you when I got back but you looked like you needed the rest."

"When did you get back?" You yawned looking up at the pale pink sky: the sun was just beginning to rise.