The sky was an endless autumn blue above, mid-afternoon light filtering through increasingly-bare branches to dapple fallen leaves below. Jigano walked along the scar left by the barrier, moving slowly as he leaned upon the staff he had taken with him into the Cloister, using it to steady himself and give his trembling fingers something to grasp. Isuma frolicked in the leaves, hunting bugs and hoping to scare up a mouse or two as she pounced and tossed the fiery ghosts of Longheat's shade into the air.
Her companion's eyes were also on the ground, the chilly blue gaze focused on the plants and animals they came across, seeking signs that the Blight had crossed from the Greatwood into the Hollowed Grounds. He studied each blackened leaf and dying root carefully to determine whether it was the result of the changing seasons or something more sinister. There was a distracted and thoughtful air about the wanderer, and between the tremble of his fingers on his staff and the bone-white of his hair he looked an old man from a distance. Though his face was unlined, there was a weariness in his eyes that did nothing to dispel that illusion.
He had been avoiding the Settlement and other people in general since his illness - no, even before that, since the utter debacle that had been the mess of kingship. The wandering itch was back in his feet, and only Rory's steady love had kept him tied to the Hollowed Grounds when everything in his past urged him to run, far away, and never return. Without the farmer he would already have fallen back onto the habits of half a decade, but with him... well. He had someone worth staying for.
More than one, he had to admit to himself. As alone and wounded as he had felt for those weeks, some of the haze was beginning to lift from his thoughts, even as the chill and tremors and tempestuous anger lingered from his week of fever. He did not know the way forward, but he was beginning to look for one, at least. He doubted he could redeem himself in the eyes of those whose respect he'd lost, but perhaps if he could find some new spark of information about the blight he could earn a place among the Fae...
Or perhaps that, too, was a lingering fever dream. Still, it didn't hurt to check for signs of the blight's spread, and there were worse ways to spend a beautiful Leafchange afternoon.
Her companion's eyes were also on the ground, the chilly blue gaze focused on the plants and animals they came across, seeking signs that the Blight had crossed from the Greatwood into the Hollowed Grounds. He studied each blackened leaf and dying root carefully to determine whether it was the result of the changing seasons or something more sinister. There was a distracted and thoughtful air about the wanderer, and between the tremble of his fingers on his staff and the bone-white of his hair he looked an old man from a distance. Though his face was unlined, there was a weariness in his eyes that did nothing to dispel that illusion.
He had been avoiding the Settlement and other people in general since his illness - no, even before that, since the utter debacle that had been the mess of kingship. The wandering itch was back in his feet, and only Rory's steady love had kept him tied to the Hollowed Grounds when everything in his past urged him to run, far away, and never return. Without the farmer he would already have fallen back onto the habits of half a decade, but with him... well. He had someone worth staying for.
More than one, he had to admit to himself. As alone and wounded as he had felt for those weeks, some of the haze was beginning to lift from his thoughts, even as the chill and tremors and tempestuous anger lingered from his week of fever. He did not know the way forward, but he was beginning to look for one, at least. He doubted he could redeem himself in the eyes of those whose respect he'd lost, but perhaps if he could find some new spark of information about the blight he could earn a place among the Fae...
Or perhaps that, too, was a lingering fever dream. Still, it didn't hurt to check for signs of the blight's spread, and there were worse ways to spend a beautiful Leafchange afternoon.
