Back Again Lass

Garen had been walking all morning without a break. It was coming up to high noon. He'd dig into his pouch for that meat that he had stored yesterday and pick at that as he walked.

Well, he would have if he hadn't almost waltzed into the sight of a group of men. He moved behind a tree, listening in to their conversation. He could smell them from here. Lycan.

But hadn't Elleon said that Lycan didn't venture out into this forest? Especially not deep into the forest. He'd climbed trees periodically to see if there were any breaks in the forest. There hadn't been and there still wasn't for a long way off yet.

These soldiers were in a place they weren't welcome.

Talking about an oracle.

There was an oracle around here? That was interesting. There weren't too many of those around.

"We got the tip off that he was around here. We just have to keep looking."

Garen followed after the group carefully. This didn't sound good.

"Elleon, right? What are we doing to do? Just burst him, rough him up and drag him along?"

"That's the plan," the first soldier replied, a dark grin curling his lips.

Garen froze up, anger  bubbling through him. He knew that name and them talking about roughing the little lass (lad, apparently) wasn't something that Garen would tolerate.

He reached back to his pack gently, untying the strands that held his bow in place, pulling an arrow silently out of the quiver also strapped to his pack. He couldn't allow them anywhere near Elleon.

The first shot went right through the throat of one man and he was knocking a second shot immediately.

Three still up and about and now in a real panic as they realised what had happened.

The second arrow sealed the same fate for a second soldier before he bolted.

He couldn't stay in the same spot when fighting Werewolves. It was the best way for him to be killed.

He climbed a tall tree, eyes on the two still moving. They were calming down a little now. Realising someone was attacking. Not a good thing.

The third arrow shot the third Lycan through the eye.

Gone.

Now just one left.

He knocked another arrow and aim- Where was he? SHIT! He'd lost him.

Well, he thought he had lost him. The sound of claws against bark had his gaze turning downwards. A half formed beast was clawing at the tree, climbing it and snarling loudly. Fuck. He always managed to get one messy target.

He aimed and let the arrow fly. It caught his shoulder but didn't do any damage. Any damage to the Werewolf, at least. It made it even more angry, though. Not good for Garen.

Another arrow was knocked and shot. This one had more luck, striking his eye just like he had done the last. Blood splattered everywhere, hitting his face and the tree and raining against the ground below. The Werewolf fell, landing in a heap at the bottom of the tree.

Garen swallowed thickly, slumping against the trunk of the tree, his chest heaving.

Holy fuck.

Wait, Elleon.

They'd been talking about Elleon. Garen needed to make sure the boy was okay.

He dropped out of the tree, collecting his arrows and tossing them into a pouch before running back through the forest.

When he got back to the house, he threw the door open and dropped his back.

"All right, lad?" he called out.

Elleon had been outside working on the pelt Garen had given him and padded inside just as the man burst through his front door.

He yelped and visibly jumped in surprise but calmed as he heard Garen call out for him.

He moved toward the front door clutching onto his chest, panting softly.
"You almost gave me a heart attack, bursting in like that."
He scolded softly as he moved to sit down.

"Of course I'm alright."

He replied in confusion, his brows furrowing.
"What are you doing back here...wait, how did you find out I was a boy?"

He asked, slight worry filling his voice.

He was scolding him.

He was just fine.

"Not important." He waved the question off as he padded forwards.

"What have we got to eat? I'm starved." After that one sided fight, he'd run for two hours straight to get back here. It was way past lunch time but he'd missed lunch himself and the boy could cook well.

He would help himself to the boy's food if he could.

"It is important."

He muttered as a small frown graced his lips. Garen had ran back here, worried about his safety and now suddenly knew he was a boy? This wasn't a coincidence.

"They've found me, haven't they?"

He added, a touch of despair leaking into his tone, he knew they would come looking for him sooner or later once the war escalated.

He gave a sigh as Garen spoke and shook his head softly as he padded toward the stove and pulled the lid off of the pot, fish, potato and leek soup, still bubbling away from this morning.

"Here."

He said, passing Garen a bowl.

"They?"

His voice actually sounded like he didn't know what the boy was talking about.

Garen was, thankfully, a good liar. He liked it that way. It helped him a hell of a lot.

He didn't want to panic the boy with knowledge that he was being hunted down and they were so close. Garen would try to make sure the boy was okay without panicking him.

"Smells good." He helped himself to a large portion and dug into it with gusto.

Garen seemed surprised by his question, perhaps he was just jumping to conclusions.

"Never mind, I'm just being paranoid."

He murmured as he moved to sit back down at the table, folding his arms against it and leaning his head on them.

"Have as much as you please, I'm not hungry."

He hadn't felt like eating.

"Not eating is bad, you know."

But he continued to dig into his meal happily.

And when he was done, he stuck his face into the bowl and licked it clean. It was damned good and he was enjoying actually having a good cooked meal. He was going to enjoy this as much as he could. The second cooked meal he'd had in as many days.

"Don't go and starve yourself to death in front of me, lad."

"I'll eat later."

He promised, he was just a little worked up, he didn't want to right now, when he calmed down he would be fine, he had just panicked for a second.

The boy gave a soft sigh and stretched his arms out, his brows furrowing at the dull clunk of something falling over.

He reached up and grabbed the objects, small pieces of wood?

His fingers stroked over them for a moment, they were little carved deer...

"Did you leave these here for me?"

He asked, a little confused as he held them up for Garen to see.

The man stood to help himself to another bowl, freezing as Elleon began talking.

Shit, he hadn't hears him going for more, had he? He had his back turned to him.

Oh, okay, he was talking about the deer. He was safe.

Garen doled himself a second bowl and sat down again.

"Yeah. I was carving them yesterday and I thought Id leave them here for you as a gift. Sorry they're not much. Just a quick whittling project."

He purred happily as he drank down the broth in his bowl.

This was so good.

"Oh, thank you."

He wasn't used to receiving gifts, even if they were just a quick whittling project, he could feel himself smiling brightly down at them.

His fingers continued to feel every little cut and curve, trying to visualize the shape in his mind.

These were so nice, he didn't have anything that he could actually feel and picture in his head like this.

"They're really cute."

He muttered, completely uncaring to the fact that Garen was devouring all of his soup.

"You think so?"

He knocked back the last of the broth and stood up for a third bowl.

If Elleon didn't stop him, he would happily eat all of this and the boy would be left without any of this really really delicious stew.

"They're simple. I can probably carve you something nicer some day." He could spend a few days carving something really nice for him.

"Can you pour me a bowl before you finish it all off."

Thankfully he didn't normally eat an excessive amount, he doubted he would be getting much of that soup unless he asked for some now.

"I like that they are simple, I don't have anything like this in my house."

He didn't see the point of decorating when he couldn't really enjoy it, he tended to other senses, planting nice smelling herbs and plants in his little back garden.

"Aye." The man pushed himself to his feet and filled a bowl for Elleon.

He padded over and set it down next to Elle. Remembering what the soldiers said about Elleon being an oracle, he nudged the bowl so it was pressed against the boy's elbow so he knew where it was. oracles had the sight of the future, but didn't have present sight. It was universally known.

"Now you do. I'll make you something nicer next time."

"Thank you."
He muttered, grasping onto the warm bowl as he pressed against his arm.

Garen knew all his little secrets now, he pretended to be a girl in the hopes of not drawing attention to himself as an Assimar and hid the fact that he was completely blind.

"Next time? I though you were running off the join the war."

He replied as he brought the soup to his lips and ate it slowly, he honestly hadn't thought he would see Garen again, the head strong man seemed determined to run off and get himself killed.

Garen gave a little nod in return, his fingers brushing over the boy's shoulder gently as he made his way back to where he had been sitting.

The man shrugged, chewing on a chunk of fish.

"Thought I'd stay around here for a while. Seems like a nice place here, yknow? Better than the battle field by far, I'd wager. Think I'm gonna stick around here for a while and just enjoy the place before heading out."

He could take advantage of the beautiful place here. There was a lot of dry wood around to keep him occupied and he could go out hunting for Elleon when he needed him to. And he could quite happily take up residency in a tree somewhere if Elleon didn't want him sleeping on his floor.

"Really?"

He asked, Garen was going to stay around for a little while longer? He couldn't explain it, he barely knew the man but he was glad for the opportunity to have the company.

One of Elleon's hands still gripped onto the small wooden deer, stroking his thumb over it's smooth surface.

"You're good with wood, since you're hanging around for a while do you think you could help me with a few things? I'll feed you in return and you can sleep inside."

Garen set down the bowl when he had finished.

He'd let it settle a bit before going back for fourths. He didn't want to eat it all in one go and end up throwing it all up. That would be a serious waste of good home cooked food and Garen wouldn't allow good home cooked food to go to waste, no matter what.

"What do you need doing?"

He'd craft whatever he could for the boy if it was in his ability to do so.

Garen set down the bowl when he had finished.

He'd let it settle a bit before going back for fourths. He didn't want to eat it all in one go and end up throwing it all up. That would be a serious waste of good home cooked food and Garen wouldn't allow good home cooked food to go to waste, no matter what.

"What do you need doing?"

He'd craft whatever he could for the boy if it was in his ability to do so.

"The rainy season is coming up soon and the roof leaks."

It needed new shingles made and installed, it was a hard job for him trying to figure out which ones needed to be replaced.

"It would be great if you could replace some of the cracked tiles for me."

Having someone else to help great ready for the rain would be a nice change.

Garen gave a disgusted little groan.

He hated rainy season. He tried to push it away and put off anything to do with rainy season all of the time. He really hated the rains. He hated the fact that it rained so damned often in that season. One thing he missed from back home was the total lack of rain there.

"Yeah, I'll start on that tomorrow."

He'd get it done in a day if he could.

Elleon smiled brightly and for the first time actually looked up at Garen, his white hair falling from his face.

He did have some masculine features to his face when you actually looked at him properly.

"Thanks, I have a hard time getting on the roof."

It was a difficult job that he always put off until the last minute.

"You focus on the food and whatever work you like doing and I'll work on fixing things that need to be fixed."

Garen didn't mind helping out around. He was being fed and allowed a place to stay indoors.

He'd do what he was asked happily That way he knew that he was actually working for his food and wasn't just getting a free pass. Garen wasn't the sort of person who liked to get by on a free pass through life. He liked to know he'd earned what he got.

"Anything else you want me to do?"

"You don't have to do that, I don't want you to feel like you're being forced into this stuff."

He could manage to do it on his own, he had done it all before for the last few years, he always got by, it just took his a little longer than it normally would.

"I'd feel bad asking you to do more, I can't exactly pay you."

He didn't have any money to his name.

"You're not asking, I'm offering."

Garen leaned against the wall, making himself comfortable as he undid his belt. The buckle was digging into him and it was highly uncomfortable.

"And I'm getting paid in food and shelter." That was good pay in Garen's eyes.

"Is there anything else you want fixing?" he asked again.

What Garen was saying made sense, he was caring for the man and in return the man would do manual labor for him.

Though having someone help him like this was definitely a new experience.

"There is a few holes in the walls and floor where the rodents get in..."

He replied, rats had been getting into his food stocks recently, it wouldn't bode well for him during winter when nothing was growing and he had no food left.