@Lantaelen
Trastion
North of Calembel, Lamedon, in the foothills of the Ered Nimrais,
April of the year 3020 of the Third Age
The girl's offer of getting him a boat was not only surprising, but very kind. He paused and looked back at her thoughtfully, considering how do-able that would be.
"Well... it depends on whether there's any serious rapids along the way.. and how strong the current is." He mentioned uncertainly.
"If it's really strong, I don't think I could row back upstream... but going downstream should be easy enough regardless." He gave a joking smile. One didn't have to have much skill to flow downstream... it was the thought of rapids that concerned him. He wasn't sure if he'd have the skill to navigate the boat through something like that. As for returning, he wasn't sure whether it would be possible or not.
Trastion glanced at her again when she asked what if a deer came this way.
"No, I won't shoot it." He assured her. He further added,
"I've only got this one arrow anyway, and I wouldn't want to waste it." He shrugged.
"I don't plan on shooting anyone, but if those poachers catch up to us, I'd rather not be without any weapon at all." He explained quietly, his tone a bit more grave than normal. He did have a hunting knife, but would rather not have to get close enough to any enemies to have to use that. And, he couldn't help at least mentally rolling his eyes at her worry about a deer getting angry at them for using its path.
"I wouldn't worry about the deer. They're more likely to run away than confront us, especially with the sound of horns and dogs in the distance." He pointed out with a slightly amused smile.
Actually, he was a bit nervous about that, himself. Already, he could hear the horns, though only faintly. The dogs probably could have easily swam the river, right? While the humans would have to seek another way around if they didn't want to swim, the dogs probably would just jump right in unless the current was too strong. He didn't exactly remember how the current was at the point they had crossed, but he was pretty sure it hadn't been too rough and rapid, else he would have been far more concerned about the girl going across as she did. And he might have taken a bit more pause before doing so, himself. Brief thoughts of how his brother died flashed through his mind as he lifted up a bough to allow Nimrodel to pass under it. He took a slow breath in, and let it out just as slowly.
They continued onward, as swiftly as he could get her to go, for a while. All the while, Trastion was feeling anxious, imagining a pack of hounds closing in on them, wondering how far away they might be. They really needed to lose them, but he wasn't sure how. He knew dogs were incredibly good at picking up scents, and they would be seeking the fox's scent. They would have surely become familiar with his and Nim's scents by now as well, and while there were probably all sorts of deer and rabbit scents all along this trail, he was hoping to find a good spot to leave this trail where the dogs wouldn't be able to follow. Leaving a false trail for the humans wouldn't do much good if the dogs were still able to follow.
As they traveled along the narrow trail, he had to frequently duck under branches that were not easy to just lift or move, and glanced to see whether she needed assistance or not. Mentally, he was frustrated to realize how easy it would be for the dogs to race along this trail, while they had to constantly duck and dodge under branches and underbrush, and occasionally even fighting with briars. He did his best to hold those out of Nim's way, but ended up with a few pricked fingers in the process. All the while, his stomach felt like it was gnawing at itself, reminding him that he had not eaten today, and had only one meager meal yesterday.
Her request to wait caused him to turn to check if she was needing assistance. As it turned out, she wasn't caught on briars or tangled in a branch, but just wanted to resituate the fox cubs. Trying not to feel too impatient, he turned to scan the surrounding area while he waited. Her suggestion that they ought to give them names made him laugh lightly. It reminded him strongly of his little sister, to be honest, and he wanted to tell her so, but thought better of it.
"Name them whatever you like, Nim." He grinned.
"Just let's get out of here, before those dogs catch up to us, alright?" He tried not to get too caught up with thinking up a name for the mother fox, and figured Nim would probably get around to that sooner or later.
As they continued on their way, she then began asking him some questions about himself. Trastion hesitated as he tried to think what would be safe to tell her.
"Oh, I.. um.." He cleared his throat.
"I only claimed to be an apprentice, if you recall." He corrected, partly to stall for a moment to think. He frowned as he went on a few steps.
"I learned from a forester who.. well, was sort of like a grandfather to me." He explained quietly.
"He lived in Anfalas, near Pinnath Gelin." That was true, Farion had told him that he'd lived there in his youth, many years before coming becoming a forester, and before coming to work for the Taurhebors. And if saying that made it sound as if that was where Trastion had trained, well... it would keep her from learning where Trastion really came from.
"I miss him." He added sadly. While Farion wasn't dead, he did miss the guy a great deal, and it had been difficult to have to leave home without saying goodbye to those who meant the most to him. Linn was the only one he'd spoken to before leaving.
Hoping not to have any more questions from her for a while, so they could travel in silence, he continued onward. While his stomach didn't audibly grumble, he could hardly keep from remembering how empty it was, and after a while, he also became very thirsty. And then he remembered something else he wished he had brought along from his pack; his waterskin. He tried to ignore the hunger and thirst, and kept going along the path. He was already searching for a good place to leave the path and strike out more directly northward, but the forest around them seemed rather dense through here. The trail might have been the best choice after all, despite being a little too low for humans to travel with ease.
Still, after they had traveled along for at least another fifteen minutes, making it roughly half an hour that they had been traveling along this trail, Trastion began to get an uneasy feeling in his gut. He couldn't explain it, but the further along the path they traveled, the more that feeling grew. He kept quiet, but slowed his pace slightly and kept searching around for some reason to explain why the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up, and he felt goosebumps on his arms and a knot in his otherwise empty stomach.
A few more minutes passed, and then he stopped abruptly. So suddenly, that if she wasn't paying attention, she might bump into him. He had finally seen something to explain that uneasy feeling, and it changed the unease into downright fear. An animal's paw print showed clearly in the mud before his feet. The size of the bear's paw made chills race down his back. Swallowing despite his dry throat, Trastion fought back a surge of panic. It was definitely time to get off this trail, but as he looked around, he found it harder not to panic. The bushes and trees were like walls on either side of them, hemming them in. They couldn't leave the trail just yet. He took a slow breath in and out, and looked again at the track in the mud. He couldn't quite tell how old the track might be, but just the fact that it was there made him very nervous.
"We'd better be extra careful," he muttered to Nim.
"Keep as quiet as you can, and.. stay close." He tried not to frighten her too much, but honestly, the thought of running into a bear was almost more frightening than letting those poachers catch them. He wasn't really sure which would be worse, actually... but he stepped over the pawprint and proceeded with more caution, gripping his bow tightly while he tried not to make as much noise. Every dry leaf that crunched underfoot sounded suddenly as loud as a horn blowing to announce they were here. His mind frantically tried to go over anything he had learned from Farion about bears, and yet all the adventurous hikes into the forest with Aearon and Farion seemed like years ago, rather than months. A little ways onward, he saw a pile of droppings and wrinkled his nose at the smell. Suddenly, something the forester had once told him popped into his head. Something about the droppings smelling or not smelling, indicating whether the animal had been eating meat or vegetation. He was pretty sure that smelling
bad meant it had been eating
meat, and that meant more danger if they ran into it.
"We need to get off this path as soon as possible," he mentioned, so as to let her in on a bit of his thoughts. Yet, that was easier said than done, since it would be very difficult to push past the thick foliage, some of which included briars. If only it was a little later in the year, they might have seen some blackberries, but alas, it was too early for that.
After they had gotten around the dropping pile, with Trastion helping her as best as he could to keep from stepping in it, he tried to listen carefully for any indication that they might not be alone. He heard nothing for a while except for their own noise, but after a while he could hear some crows in the distance. They saw a few more bear prints as they went, and a couple of trees that it had rubbed on, but so far, no sign of the bear itself.
After what felt like ages, there was a fallen tree lying across the path. The upper branches held it up off of the ground enough that the bear, and other small creatures could pass through easily enough, but what Trastion saw was a way off the trail. One of the thick lower branches was nice and thick, and formed a sort of ramp that they could easily walk up and get onto the trunk, and then follow that away from here. He paused and took a look around, making sure that there were no bears lurking around, then hurried to take the 'ramp' up onto the trunk. Then he turned to see if she needed any help following. He'd seen how nimbly she had managed to cross the river earlier, hopping from stone to stone, so he wasn't worried about her balance in walking on the thick tree trunk, but going up the sloping branch might give her some trouble, in her skirt.
Once they were both up on the trunk, he led the way down toward where the roots were sticking up out of the ground, a good chunk of the ground still attached to them. Once they were away from the trail, it seemed like the woods thinned a bit more, much to his relief. He stepped down onto the leaf litter covering the forest floor, and held up a hand to help her down, feeling relieved to get off of the path, yet, he didn't think they were out of danger yet.
"Let's get away from here as quick as we can. You still know the way?"