Pathfinder

8 - Like a fish out of water

When she woke up it was once again with a thin layer frost having crept across her cape. Needless to say, the slight fire hadn't lasted much past when she fell asleep.

This morning she didn't waste any time rubbing her eyes. The young woman straightened herself out, back aching from sleeping in such an awkward position, but she shifted around a bit and managed to crack the worst of the kinks out. It helped just about enough for her to find the will to get on her feet and start walking. 

Kirsha noted some inedible, charred remains in the firepit, but the beast it seemed had already gone off somewhere else. The river, she half guessed, even if he seemed to have been quite eager to escape it the day before.  

She picked up and flung her satchel over her shoulder before off she went, trotting down a tiny overgrown path. She had to wonder how she'd even managed to follow it in the near dark before. 

Lucky her she was right. At the river she found him floating at the surface, absentmindedly watching the thick blanket of murky gray clouds passing by in the sky above. It really wasn't a pretty spring this year...Or could be that's how it was in these part. She only really knew spring from back home, further east. Either way she wasn't about to ask him for local weather patterns. Perhaps she should have though, if only the slight furrow in his brow hadn't escaped her. 

He'd either heard her coming or noticed her in the sidelines of his vision, because when she came closer he let his lower body sink, and shifted into a standing position. 

With the blood once again washed away she had to admit there really was something captivating about him. Not just the way he looked, but the way he held himself. Seemingly untouched and yet untamed by things like shame and modesty. It took her a moment to realize the tight feeling resulting in her chest was a sort of jealousy. Suppose she couldn't really remember there ever being a time in her life when she hadn't been made to feel ashamed for one reason or another. 

When their eyes met a curt nod was exchanged. Something about it felt oddly formal,  yet at the same time she liked the implied distance it created. It felt safe. Or as safe as one could be, given the circumstances.

She began hurrying down the side of the river, up towards the log where she could cross without wading into the water. She could hear him slip under the rivers surface, but not much else. When she had crossed, however, she was soon met by the visage of...quite frankly a nightmarish creature. Its vague shape matched that of a large horse, yes, but its legs were wickedly clawed, its teeth sharp, jutting from under its lip and its beady toad-like eyes were nothing short of uncanny.  Its only saving grace might have been its almost elegant, lean shape and the way its mane and tail trailed after it, but well, the latter she'd heard was meant to tangle and entrap its victims, so it didn't really count as that much of a positive. She could also just about see, the base of the tail was far thicker than that of a horse, more aking to some lizard...which now that she thought about it was a rather apt comparison. It was as if a lizard or some other creeping creature had managed to have a child with a horse, and well here was the terrifying hybrid.

She struggled to mask her shudder when it came close enough for her to touch it. She hated the way it looked at her. Which on the bright side incentive her to climb onto it faster...if only the damned thing hadn't been so ridiculously big. Her head barely reached to its back, which mind you was still rather wet and slippery. There was no way she was going to be able to climb up there. By the gods, she'd never even ridden a pony before now, let alone this.

She could practically feel the glee in his evil little toad eyes, when she was forced to suck up her pride and finally ask.  "Would you mind lowering yourself a bit?" The kelpie did lower himself though, bowing his front legs just enough to allow her to climb on, and almost promptly fall off straight away. The only silver lining was that her woolen skirt and cloak at least did a decent job of drying the place she was sitting at, so at least she didn't have to give the fiend the pleasure of that extra level of discomfort. 

Or at least so she'd though. For it didn't take Kirsha long to discover she didn't particularly like horseriding. The creature kept a fast, unrelenting phase and she really had to struggle not to slide right off. With the way she hunched and clung on there was little doubt in her mind just about any person of actual skill, or for that matter none ar all, could see she didn't belong on the back of it. Not to mention the way the joint where her hip met her leg soon began aching with every step it took. And further still,  despite her best efforts it was not much longer yet until the inevitable happened.

Kirsha knew what was about to occur, but was powerless to stop it.  One moment she'd found herself sliding to the side, loosing her grip around the kelpies mane and the next she'd hit the ground with enough force to push the air straight out of her lungs, leaving her gasping like a fish out of water. When she tried to inhale  her windpipe had tied itself into a knot. The hair just didn't quite manage to reach her lungs, until gradually and incrementally it did. 

The young woman blinked away the wetness that had formed in her eyes and looked at the sky. The gray clouds were floating back and fourth in an unnatural manner. Suddenly something threatened to push its way up and out of her throat. She had close her eyes, swallow it down and take in a deep breath. Then another. And yet another, until she dared to look up again, and had found the movement of the sky to be more agreeable. Still, she hadn't quite managed to shake the dizziness off. Even when she'd tried to get up again she had to stumble a bit before she found her footing. 

The kelpie meanwhile had just stood there. Not that she'd expected the beast to do anything, or even wanted it  too, but something about the way it stared really rubbed her the wrong way. The girl's brows furrowed defensively. "What are you looking at!?" She growled, in voice hoarser and thicker than usually. It turned away, then slowly, once again lowered itself to invite her onto its back. it felt like some sort of cruel twisted joke. No, an outright mockery, seeing as it was just about the last thing she wanted to do after what had just happened. Still, she knew there was no way around it, and even if it had started trotting at a mercifully slower phase there was no way she could let it last. Not with the risk of hunters riding hot on their heels. Even if the possibility that they were between them and Damitri was just as likely. 

Either way her sister was in danger, and it was with this knowlege that she soon found herself once again demanding the fae pick up the phase.