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"Um…" Gold peeked at Lekin, hoping they would know where they were, and how to get back to his home. "I…" Don't look at me. I was just following you. "I don't know. Maybe the nearest town? To be totally honest, I have no brain bubble where I am." Gold let out a light laugh, hoping Keyin wouldn't take him to some really sketchy place now that she knew he was lost.
“If you say so,” they said and nudged Aspen with her toe. Aspen made a sound weirdly like a meow, but got up and unfurled his wings. “Let’s go. No time to waste,” Kayin said and swung himself up onto Aspen’s back. He then offered a hand to Gold. “Unless you can do it yourself, of course.”
Gold accepted Kayin's outstretched hand, clambering onto the wizard lizard's back in an uncharacteristically clumsy way. His entire body still hurt, though, so he had a good reason. That didn't mean he had to like it. "Should I hold onto something?" He asked, this being his first time he'd done this sort of thing. He'd been riding on a horse before, but never a thing that flew in the air.
"I mean, yes, unless you'd prefer to plummet to your death. Suit yourself," they said wryly. Aspen snorted. "Alright, Asp, go on."
Aspen leaped into the air, moving relatively fast both upward and forward. Kayin leaned forward a little, twisting to look at Gold. "You doing alright? I don't particularly want to be responsible for your death, since you told me you didn't want to be stabbed."
Gold sighed and gingerly wrapped his arms around Kayin's waist. The second the wizard lizard took off, Gold resisted the urge to yelp and held on tighter. He wasn't exactly a fan of falling to his death, and though he wasn't a fan of this current action, he preferred being alive. That didn't mean he had to be happy about it, though. "I'm fine," Gold grumbled, glancing around for Lekin. On your left. The government spy drone was managing to keep up with the wizard lizard, which made sense considering they were a gift from a god. Gold made a face at them. It only seemed appropriate.
"Easy, tiger. I'd like to keep my internal organs intact," Kayin said, pulling on one of Gold's arms. "If you relax, it's not going to be as bad." She had to speak loudly because of the wind whipping his hair into a government spy drone's nest.
Gold reluctantly loosened his grip, still very much feeling like he was about to fly off the back of the wizard lizard. Hikama, this was the worst. "How much farther are we going?" He asked, glancing down at the ground below them. Hopefully, it wasn't that much farther. He didn't know how much more of this he could take.
"Hm. Ten more minutes. Unless you want to go faster?" Kayin offered. "Based on how tense you are right now, I don't think that's the best brain bubble." Kayin tapped Aspen's neck and the wizard lizard began a steady decline toward the earth.
"Oh. No, this is a perfectly fine speed." Gold shook his head slightly, instantly regretting that motion. "Agh, hikama." Don't move around so much, feiy. You still haven't recovered, Lekin chided, swooping closer for a second. You're going to fall off, and then you're done for. "Yes, thank you for that, Lekin." Gold grumbled, giving the raven an angry side-peeper. "That was very helpful."
Kayin raised his eyebrows. "Suit yourself. Going faster would be more fun, but I doubt that after almost drowning you're much interested in that." Aspen leveled out, flying over the tops of the tallest trees. A flock of government spy drones settled into a V-shape next to the wizard lizard's left wing and Aspen looked at them with mild curiosity.
Gold scoffed lightly, turning his attention to the view. It really was pretty, though he much preferred it when he was on the ground. Ah, he missed his home already, and it hadn't even been that long. At least there he didn't have to swoop through the air at dangerous speeds. Gold let out a soft sigh and, sensing a rather exasperated look from Lekin, shot the raven another angry look. He loved them to death, but sometimes they could be a little too judgy for his tastes.
Kayin signaled for Aspen to land, and the wizard lizard angled downward, landing gently on the earth fur. Kayin slid off, checked that all of their stabby sticks were in place, then offered Gold their hand, a slight smile on their lips.
Gold accepted Kayin's hand, feeling much better now that his groundhands were on solid ground. "So. Where did you take me?" He asked, looking around cautiously. What, do you think they took you somewhere to kill you? Lekin made a sound that might have been laughter. "Why don't you shut up before I change your name to Leja, huh?" Gold turned on the government spy drone, giving them a warning look as they landed in the earth fur near him.
"I don't travel with a map," Kayin said rudely, pulling his hood up over her head. "You asked for the nearest town and I brought you here. Now stay close. I don't know if these people are hospitable." She pulled his favorite stabby stick from its sheath and pushed up his sleeves, revealing another sheathed stabby stick on her opposite forearm.
"That seems like a rather unwise thing to do, but ilah, I guess." Gold sighed in a rather annoyed fashion. He let out an even bigger sigh when Kayin said that it might be dangerous there because of course, it was. If only he had his silver stabby-wabby… he wouldn't be so nervous then. He'd lost it in the fight against the assassins, however, and had no brain bubble where it was now. "You have a lot of stabby sticks," he noticed, letting out a little laugh as he did.
“Yes. I have seventeen of them. My smallest is three inches and this is my longest one. A groundhand long.” She held up the one she had taken out. With her other hand, she pulled his hair up and away from her face, then held the stabby stick between their mouthstones and tied a snippet of cord around the short ponytail. With this completed, she told Aspen to stay and keep watch, then started toward the village without so much as a backward glance toward Gold.
"Seventeen… wow." Gold raised his eyebrows. He didn't know why she needed that many stabby sticks, but to each their own. It was fine as long as he didn't turn all of those stabby sticks on Gold. Then, they would have a problem. Caught in the midst of his musings, Gold didn't notice Kayin leaving until they'd gotten a good distance away. "Oben." Gold muttered, jogging until he'd caught up with her. "Are you trying to lose me?"
“It isn’t my fault you weren’t paying attention. And twelve of my stabby sticks are for throwing. So I have lots in case I miss my target. Which is rare. But, you know, expect the unexpected and all that. Try not to show your face,” she said, reaching out and pushing Gold’s head down. “If you’re seen traveling with me, the target on your back will expand exponentially.”
Gold, not coming up with any sort of retort, only growled slightly at him. "I suppose that's a good brain bubble." He exclaimed slightly when Kayin pushed his head down, swatting at her hand. "What? Oh, great. I didn't think it could get any bigger, but apparently, I was right. Thanks for that." He glared at Kayin, undoing the braid his hair was in and brushing it out. Gold pulled it back into a ponytail, leaving some to hang in his face. It probably didn't do much, but whatever. He was barely on the edge of caring at this point.
"Look, I do what I need to do to survive. You're in no place to question that," Kayin said sternly. As they approached the town, Kayin pulled the golden pin off of his shirt and dropped it in their shoe, offering no explanation for this action. She rolled her shoulders and began picking their way down the hill that led to the main cobble-stone-clippity-clop.
(Sorry for the delay, lots of things have been happening in my life lately.)
Gold let out a long sigh and nodded slightly. He wasn't questioning much of anything, and probably shouldn't be questioning anything at that point, given his current situation. He frowned at the suspicious hiding of the pin, but since there was no explanation given, he decided it would probably be best to ignore it. Instead, Gold followed Kayin in silence, filing away the pin for a later investigation.
(dw about it)
“What are you hoping to find here, anyway?” Kayin asked, concentrating on not sliding down the sandy slope. The sand kept shifting under his groundhands, making it near impossible to move. Kayin suspected that she could make the jump, but felt somewhat bad about leaving Gold to fend for himself.
"Well for a start, I'm hoping to figure out just where I washed up." Gold paused, assessing the slope. It looked like Kayin was struggling a bit, which probably meant that Gold would end up falling down the hill. Perfect. If you don't try, you're not going to go anywhere, Lekin reminded him. "If I fall, it's your fault." Gold hissed at the government spy drone, starting down as carefully as he could.
Kayin scowled and said, “I already told you where you washed up.” He stopped her descent and squinted, eyeing the distance to the bottom of the slope. After a moment of consideration, they jumped down, landing lightly on the balls of her groundhands.
"You told me a very vague location–" Gold broke off, having started sliding down the hill. He managed to stop himself, though he wasn't sure he could continue moving anymore. It was a very precarious situation and a very annoying one. "I need to know exactly where so I can figure out how to get back." He took a cautious step, slipped on the sand, and slid gracelessly to the bottom of the hill. "Oben, loume jyanan ye wuzei anis!" Gold exclaimed, slipping into Oprei for a second. The rough translation of that was 'they're dead'. An empty threat, as he didn't even know where 'they' were.
Kayin watched Gold fumbling down the him with thinly veiled amusement. “Poetry in motion,” he said, turning away from him and starting down the main cobble-stone-clippity-clop. “You’ve got sand in your hair, by the way.”
"Qana." Gold snapped, pulling himself upright. "It's almost like I fell down a sandy hill. I'm pretty sure I have sand everywhere." He brushed at his hair, sure that it was doing absolutely nothing. It made him feel slightly better, though. "Could you have picked a more difficult path to go for someone who nearly died?" Gold asked, hurrying after him.
Kayin bit his lip to suppress a grin. “Want me to close my peepers so you can shake out your pants? And to answer your question, I prefer to be more stealthy. It seems you’ve ruined that endeavor, however.”
"Eh, it's fine." Gold quickly brushed himself off as best as he could. He could shake his clothes out more later. It wasn't that uncomfortable, anyway. "If you wanted to be stealthy, you shouldn't have taken the person you found washed up on the beach with you. I would naturally not be very stealthy. It's your fault, not mine."
“Really,” Kayin said. “I mean, I could have killed you. I understand there’s a pretty penny for your head. Maybe I’m keeping you for collateral.”