"Yeah, sounds good to me. Definitely want to get there as soon as possible." He stretched a bit and yawned, resting his hands on the back of his neck as he walked. "Maybe we can rent some horses for the way back so we don't have to do so much walking. It's faster, too. We'd probably get back home in less than a day depending on how fast we went. Have you ridden horses before?" He asked.
Loner X Popular OxO (Closed)
I have not, Rowan replied with a little shake of her head. She never had the chance to, first being "raised by Ash", and then she was constantly on the move. There wasn't a whole lot of time to learn in between the two, and Ash never thought to teach her anyway to truly leave where she was anyway, which included riding horses. Rowan tapped her fingers a few times, But I would be fine with learning.
"It's not too hard, really. I might teach you to trot, but we probably wouldn't go further than that. Cantering isn't super safe if you don't know what you're doing." Nich smiled reassuringly. "And you'll have a saddle and reins and stuff. Riding bareback is way harder. I've fallen off of a lot of horses that way." He laughed again, growing increasingly aware of the aching in his legs.
I definitely don't think I want to try that immediately, Rowan replied looping every word. They made it to the edge of town and she quickly moved to hide her face a little bit. There weren't any eyes on her yet, but once she started writing she was sure there would be at least a few. She took a deep breath, Know where any inns are?
Nich noticed Rowan's nervousness and shifted so that he obscured her from the public's view, but was still able to read what she said. "Yeah, there's one pretty close to here where I know the innkeeper. Even if she doesn't let us stay for free, we'll probably get a reduced price." He shrugged. "It's a pretty nice place, and it'll be good to sleep in for the night."
Lead the way then, Rowan wrote back to him. Her writing was smaller than usual, but the point got across. She noticed how Nich was taking the time and effort to hide her from the eyes she was so afraid of. A soft smile slipped onto her face as she went to write again, And thank you.
Nich smiled softly over at Rowan as he led the way to the inn. "Of course. It's no problem." They soon arrived and Nich started chatting with the hostess until he had seemingly charmed his way into a free room. "Alright! Time to get some rest, yeah?" He said cheerfully, turning to Rowan.
Yes, please, Rowan wrote out with a happy smile on her face. She realized that the two of them would end up sharing a room, but there would be two beds in the room. And, she could probably take her next potion while he was fast asleep. Her throat felt fine at the moment, It's on the second floor first right, right?
"Yeah, it is." Nich spun the keys to their room around one finger, humming softly as he led the way to where they'd be staying for the night. Upon entering the room, it appeared pretty simple, but comfortable. Two beds, a dresser, and a window. Nich went ahead and sat on a bed so that he could start on detaching his prosthetics.
Rowan let him open up the door and placed her bag with a few glass clinks next to the base of the other bed. She let out a long sigh and started to softly hum a tune under her breath. Not so she could talk, but rather so she maintained what was left of it. She tapped her finger on her thigh along with the beat before she broke off into coughs. It wasn't as bad a fit as it could have been it told her to stop humming for the night.
Nich sighed softly in relief once he'd removed his prosthetics and gently lain them on the floor. He lay in bed, massaging where the prosthetics met his legs for a few minutes before turning on his side to go to sleep. "G'night, Rowan…" He murmured softly. It only took him a few minutes to doze off into a quiet, comfortable sleep.
Rowan would have wished him a good night, but that was physically impossible since he was looking away from her and she couldn't speak. She let out a small huff as she took out her notebook and continued to work on the potion. She stayed up a little while longer in order to let her potion last as long as possible before she eventually started to feel tired. Rowan yawned, took her potion, and then laid down to fall into a fitful sleep.
Nich awoke somewhat early in the morning and stretched, yawning. He rubbed at his eyes a bit before he fetched his prosthetics from the floor to reattach to his legs, and then stood up once they were connected securely. He rifled through his things to ensure he hadn't lost anything on the way, and once he was sure he had everything, he looked over his shoulder to check on Rowan.
Rowan was tossing back and forth as her nightmare got worse and worse. She whimpered slightly as in her nightmare, her memory, the man was chanting a spell and a glowing ring appeared around her throat. Ash was just standing there watching in the background with that stupid look on his face that told her 'I warned you this would happen if you tried to leave'. Rowan struggled against the man restraining her as her throat felt like it was being torn out of her body. A scream tore out of her mouth as a bright light filled the scene making her shoot up from where she had been laying on the bed, blood dripping down from her mouth.
Nich looked concerned as Rowan tossed and turned in bed, and he took a couple steps closer to her. Should I wake her? Would that make it worse? I wouldn't want to get either of us hurt… However, his thoughts were interrupted by Rowan screaming and jolting awake. He jumped and yelped, tails bristling, but rushed to assist Rowan after he'd recovered from being startled. "Ah, Rowan? Are you alright?!" He asked worriedly, swiping some of the blood away with his thumb, but only growing more anxious at the sight of it. Something was definitely wrong.
Rowan tried pushing him away as she coughed up more blood. Her mind was still racing from the memory and she moved away from the man. Her eyes scanned the room and she quickly realized that she wasn't in her home. And the man wasn't one she recognized. As her mind calmed and she began to come back to reality, she realized the acidic feeling in her throat was still there and her cough wasn't going away. She glanced at the man rowan now recognized as Nich and quickly wrote to him, I need one of the glowing violet potion in my bag. Quickly.
Nich's heart was racing, and he was clearly stressed, but he still managed to fulfill Rowan's request. He fetched one of the potions and handed it to her. Of course, he'd been in stressful situations before, but this was different. His companion was in danger, and he didn't know what was going on or what do to. When he was the one in danger, he wasn't nearly so worried. "A-Are you okay? Sorry, that's… um… probably a stupid question. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Rowan took the potion from him and immediately popped the cork off. She waited for a moment where she wasn't coughing and downed it in one swig. Immediately she could feel the effects on her throat and her coughs began to lessen. As she let her throat calm down, coughing ever so often she wrote out to Nich in shakier than normal handwriting, I'm fine. This is a pretty normal thing for me and you can't really do much to help. sorry.
Nich nodded hesitantly, still looking pretty pale and concerned. This shouldn't be normal for her, but there wasn't anything he could do to help her. It had to be painful, as well, for her to be coughing up blood. "Don't apologize to me, Rowan… you haven't done anything wrong. I just don't want you to be suffering if there's anything I can do to prevent it."
Nich nodded hesitantly, still looking pretty pale and concerned. This shouldn't be normal for her, but there wasn't anything he could do to help her. It had to be painful, as well, for her to be coughing up blood. "Don't apologize to me, Rowan… you haven't done anything wrong. I just don't want you to be suffering if there's anything I can do to prevent it."
You can't do anything to prevent it. I can't do anything to prevent it, Rowan wrote out a little sadly. A slight frown was on her face as she went to wipe off what blood was still on her face and glanced down at the sheets seeing them also stained with blood. She looked back at Nich, The potion mitigates the pain, but it's all I can do.
Nich sighed softly and scratched behind his ears, looking uneasy. He didn't like that Rowan was in so much pain, and he really wished that there was more he could do. "There's no cure or anything? Nothing but a temporary pain relief?" He asked, his voice quiet and sincere.
Nothing but that, Rowan confirmed. There was a cure, she recovered what was stolen from her. She shook the thought from her head. She would get it back eventually, but right now she needed to focus on making Nich not concerned about her, It's not a disease or anything like that. More of a curse, that I can't counterspell.
Nich nodded, his ears turning back for a moment. "Alright… I'll do what I can to keep you comfortable. Are you okay to get on the road now?" He asked. "We could always just get one horse and ride on the same one. Then we may be able to get there faster." He thought aloud, hesitating before going to grab his things.
I can continue to walk, Rowan protested as she went to grab her own bag and hat. She didn't need to be coddled any further, she had plenty of that already. After a moment she realized it might be smarter to go quicker than slower, If you think taking a horse from here would be a good idea, then I'm okay with it.
"I know! I don't mean to say you can't." Nich insisted, flushing lightly. "I just figured it would be good to get there sooner, and we sorta mentioned it in passing yesterday, so… and only getting one would be cheaper and faster, since we could theoretically get to a canter. I'm familiar enough with riding horses that it would be okay I think, but it would still be faster even if it was just walking."
Then let's go get a horse, Rowan agreed with a happy smile. She didn't think she would be riding a horse so soon after only talking about it yesterday. She adjusted her hat and then gestured to the door, Ready to go?
"Sounds good. And yeah, I'm ready to go whenever." Nich threw his bag over his shoulder and led the way out of the room. He thanked the innkeeper for letting them stay and then headed out to look for a place where they could rent a horse.
Rowan followed him around town looking for a place to rent a horse. She stopped writing entirely being self-conscious after her nightmare and what followed. She adjusted her hat ever so slightly before tapping her thigh. She spotted a stable in the distance and quickly tugged on Nich's sleeve before pointing it out to him.
Nich kept looking around for a while, and he looked over when Rowan tugged at him, turning his attention to where she was pointing. "Oh, good! You found one! Thanks." He smiled and led the way over to the stables, which took a few minutes. After talking with the stable's keeper for a few minutes, he found a suitable horse for he and Rowan to borrow.