The Attack

Elle's vision blurred as they crossed the river and slowly his body slumped against Garen's as he was pulled from his vision.

Again he was left panting softly as he clung to the man.

"I'm sorry."

He murmured softly as he held onto Garen as the man coughed. There was nothing left to do now except run and hope.

"Don't apologise."

Garen coughed again as he pushed himself harder.

His legs were starting to burn and his panting was slowly increasing. But he wouldn't stop until he was damned sure they weren't being followed.

No matter how long that took.

Elleon listened out for any other sounds as he held onto the Necromancer.

He had no way of telling if they were being chased now or not and trying to force himself into another vision just ended with a sharp pain in his head.

His body wasn't used to doing that.

It would be something he put effort into learning to do if they made it out of this forest.

Garen didn't stop until his legs felt too heavy to move.

Over the past few weeks staying with Elle, he hadn't done too much exercise. Running like this carrying Elle was a lot for him.

It did take a few hours of running to do him in, though.

They were close to the other edge of the forest now.

Garen moved to sit at the base of a tree, panting heavily as he settled Elle in his lap.

Elle stroked a hand through Garen's hair as he gave the man a sad little smile.

He felt guilty for getting a free ride all day, at the very least he wanted to be able to carry his own weight instead of depending on Garen for everything.

"Do you need a drink?"

He asked softly, he had rations in his bag as well as a flask of water, if Garen was going to be keeping the two of them alive he wanted to take care of the man.

The man nodded, his chest heaving as his eyes slid shut.

A drink would be appreciated. He hadn't stopped to eat or drink all day. He'd been far too worried about getting Elle to some kind of safety.

Right now this was as close to safety as he could manage.

They'd have to move out again when Garen had rested a little.

Elle pulled off his back pack and reached into it, pulling a flask of water and some food wrapped in linen.

It was best to use all of this up now, saving it would be foolish, if Garen couldn't move then they were as good as caught at this point, when they got further away they would be safer.

He uncorked he flask and lifted it up for Garen before unwrapping the food, they were triple baked biscuits, not the nicest thing in the world but they kept for a long time.

"Here."

He muttered, offering them to the man.

Garen took the flask, sipping the water carefully.

His tongue ran over his dry lips, wetting them before he took another sip of water.

He handed the flask over to Elle as he took a biscuit. Garen didn't know when he'd be able to hunt. He planned to take an hour to rest then get up again. They needed to ration.

"Drink, eat," he ordered a little raspily.

Elleon shook his head softly.

"You need it more than I do right now, you're running for both of us."

He didn't want to take it if Garen could have it, this man was saving him, the least he could do was make sure he was fed and had enough to drink.

Garen could move yet he felt completely fine if not a little tired.

"Don't argue with me. Eat and drink."

He wasn't taking no for an answer.

He was going to make sure Elle was healthy and stayed that way. Elle was going to eat and drink if he had to force food and water down his throat.

"Garen please..."

He murmured as he sat up in the man's lap, his hand stroking through the man's hair softly.

"You just saved my life and carried me for hours. At least let me feel like I am helping you, even the slightest bit."

He didn't need the food, he wasn't burning as much energy as Garen was yet the man was still being selfless.

"I don't want to be useless, please eat it..."

"And still you fight."

He picked up a biscuit and broke a piece off, pressing it to Elle's lips.

"You're what's important here. I need you to stay healthy. You need to eat and drink just as much as I do. I need to you stay well."

He pressed the piece more firmly to Elle's lips.

"Eat."

Elleon pursed his lips, his mouth trembling a little as it opened to take the morsel that Garen was forcing onto him.

It took it in and chewed slowly, he didn't want to fight with Garen.

The man was his only ally and he didn't want to lose him, he almost had, he was sure that the Vampire's would have killed him if they had made it into the house.

"Good boy," he crooned softly.

His hand stroked through the Fae's hair gently, pushing it out of his face as he pressed a kiss to the boy's forehead.

The man chewed on a piece of biscuit himself before snapping another piece off for Elle.

Both of them were going to be fed. He couldn't risk either of them losing health. Not right now.

Elle accepted the second piece without protest, it wasn't worth it right now, even if Garen couldn't hunt, he could still try if they needed it, it wouldn't take too long to rig up a trap for rabbits.

"I was so scared..."

He murmured as he fiddled with the hem of his shirt.

"In my vision, they killed you."

He added, a sad look on his face, he had made them flea from the house not for his own safety, but because he wanted to save Garen.

"I'm not going anywhere," he promised.

He brushed crumbs off the boy's lips tenderly.

"It'll take a lot more than a few Vampires to kill me off." Garen never went down without a fight. He had precautions for when he was in a serious fight.

But he would stay out of serious fights. For Elle.

Elle nuzzled his face in against Garen's hand when the man brushed his lips.

His arms wrapped around his shoulders as he held him close. This was very dear to him now, he didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

Not now, not ever.

"I don't want to lose you."

They could take away everything he had, just not Garen.

"You won't."

Garen bought the flask to his lips and sipped at it again.

His breathing was calming now. Almost back to ordinary breathing.

"Are we going to continue heading inland?"

Elle nodded softly.

"It's the best way to go to avoid the Vampires, though then we have the Lycans to worry about, they were heading toward my house as well."

He muttered, chewing on his lip nervously.

"If we can make it to a town we can get on a trading wagon and get out of Kenndrick, maybe head toward Fae lands would be our best option, moving on foot is too slow and dangerous."

The man hummed, chewed on his lip.

"That sounds like the best option."

Leave the country. Head elsewhere. Someone hopefully not affected by the war. Somewhere that they could hide where no one would be hunting them down for their king or queen.

"We'll have to look for a town tomorrow."

"The Vampires will have to retreat soon, the sun will come up so if we wait till then to rest properly."

Then they had to just worry about the Lycan, though hopefully they would be too preoccupied chasing the Vampire's off.

Though they would find his house abandoned, they would probably start searching, and a Lycan could run much faster than they could.

"Hopefully the rain covered our scent."

"It should have. Crossing the river helped, too."

The scent wouldn't have carried.

They should be safe from trackers around the house. It was new trackers appearing that Garen was worried about. Ones that would be sweeping the area.

So far they had made all the right moves in evading capture, he just hoped that their luck continued.

"If we keep travelling, we could go somewhere sunny."

The boy muttered with a small smile, it was best to look on a bright side, they could curl up in the sun, away from all of this.

"That would be nice."

The man grinned, his fingers running through the boy's hair.

"We could go swimming. Naked. Then lay out under the sun." A soft chuckle sounded. "I can show you how to best play with what I made you earlier." That would be fun.

"As long as you were playing with me at the same time, I wouldn't mind."

He replied with a little grin. Perhaps this wasn't the best time to be discussing things like this, but when you don't know what's around the corner it's best to just enjoy the time you have.

He wanted to enjoy every moment with Garen, even when times were at their worst.

"What about that place with the fruit that you mentioned, we could gorge ourselves and play in the sun."