Hey, don't worry, I did not abandon you! My mom moved out and took the PC with her, leaving me with a brand new laptop to begin college. However, all my files ended up traveling with her on that PC, as I forgot to grab them off onto my backup drive before she left. So, GAH, after dealing with all that I've finally written another chapter, and I hope you guys will forgive the terribly long delay. I know I left it on a cliff hanger, and holding out of you for so long is cruel. So here you go, enjoy, and know that the next one will come out sooner than this one did!
Emile was feeling strangely peaceful. Almost completely, in fact, despite the many reasons he had to feel otherwise and the sensible side of his mind telling him to worry. For example, at the moment he was conscious of five hunters on their trail who he could physically hear, several who were just out of active range but occasionally made large enough sounds to hear, and knew there were uncounted others. And, of course, the last two encounters with humanity had left him with gunshot wounds. But the wounds were healed by Rhonwen and today seemed the kind of day that only allowed for a peaceful mindset. So he trotted along, the sun on his shoulders, and allowed his worries to trail somewhere behind him.
He walked beside Rhonwen, as his horse had escaped during the last sprint, as had two others. Diana now rode with Edward and two of the brothers shared a horse as well, but that was not an option for him. Only his own horse had been large enough to seat him. So he was on foot now. It was not as much of an inconvenience for him as he knew it would have been for one of the others; his stride matched the horses, so he had no need to saddle-run. But his feet were sore and he was growing somewhat weary. Nevertheless, all that he could feel was a light, contented happiness.
The day was beautiful, for a start. He had never been to the Southern Kingdom, much less in the beautiful Summer weather, and he couldn't help but be enchanted by the softer, sandier soil, the more delicate foliage on the trees, and the glorious skies above them.
And then there was the fact that he was walking beside Rhonwen; small amounts of joy were unavoidable at the sight of her today. She wore no cloak, as their cover was well and truly blown now and it was too warm to wear one otherwise, so all of her incredible hair was visible and she was back in her bandit outfit. The messy braid, which looked more and more like real rope every day, was still tied around her torso in her favorite X pattern, which she said made it easy to access but more manageable to carry. And, despite her not being able to unbraid and comb or brush her hair, it still managed to gleam golden in the sunlight, setting off her modestly tan skin (probably from the several days spent outdoors) and her large, green eyes.
Finally, he couldn't help but be excited about the fact that they were getting so close to the ocean, so close to the next large road mark on the unsure map of their adventure. There they could speak to Melody's grandfather, Triton, about the stories of his father Poseidon, and maybe they could find a way to locate Circe. It still made him uneasy that Circe had appeared to Rhonwen, giving her veiled threats without anyone else being able to help her. For a moment his troubles caught up with him and Emile's hackled rose slightly just thinking about it, which drew a glance from Rhonwen. A glance from Rhonwen…
"Emile?" she asked, her large eye rounding with worry, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing really," he said, trying not to seem too outright in his admiration, "Just thinking. We should be arriving at the seashore in no more than a day at this speed. And it occurs to me that we've never planned for what we'll do when we get there."
"That's true," Rhonwen said, her eyebrows going up in surprise, "I hadn't even thought of it. I guess we had just been so busy trying to get through the village areas that planning that far ahead seemed…"
She seemed at a loss for what word to use for the end of that sentence. Emile read her meaning however, and the most obvious word came from his mouth before he could think about it.
"Useless?" he said, then immediately regretted it.
Rhonwen turned a little bit pink and looked away. She probably hadn't wanted to admit to herself out loud that it had ever been unsure that they would make it through. Emile flicked his ears back in embarrassment and the two trotted a few steps without saying anything. Then, gratefully, Rhonwen started up the conversation again.
"So, what did you have in mind?" she asked, turning back to him.
Emile couldn't help but stare a little bit as she turned. There was a small, inquisitive smile on her face and her eyes were large and encouraging. And so very green. But he caught himself quickly and looked away, trying to appear thoughtful. In truth he had only started the conversation so that she wouldn't think he was worried. He had no idea what they should do next. But she waited for him to think of something, and eventually the beginnings of a plan laid itself out in his mind.
"Well, first we should find out exactly how Melody plans to contact her grandfather," he said at last, meeting Rhonwen's eyes again, "And how long it will take. After that, we might have to make another circle, since she'll probably have to send word by messenger and the journey both ways could take some time."
"Another circle," Rhonwen said, her brow furrowing, "back through territory we've already cleared."
Emile knew what she meant and cringed. There were already hunters waiting for them that way. But he continued on, sure of his plan.
"We can't wait by the shore," he said, "We would be surrounded and trapped within a day. And we can't move along the shore for the same reason. No, if it will take more than a few hours, three at most, for him to come, which I'm sure that it will, then we'll just have to circle and get back to the same place by the time he arrives."
Rhonwen nodded, and looked straight forward, brow furrowing in thought again. Emile was suddenly aware that walking on all fours, like he currently was, he was much below eye level for her and it must to straining her neck to continually look down. He straightened up onto two legs and lengthened his stride to match the horse. Rhonwen looked over and smiled, noting his obvious motivation no doubt. Emile's fur fluffed out a little bit, and he hoped it wasn't too obvious that he was blushing under it.
"We should find out exactly what sort of time limit we're dealing with," Rhonwen said after a little while, "That way we'll know how big a loop we will have to take."
"Agreed," Emile responded.
The quiet that followed was comfortable, despite that quiet footfalls coming from a half mile behind them. Emile smiled to himself and turned back, heading towards Melody to finalize Rhonwen's and his plans.
Vincent was not a quiet man. Vincent was not a patient man. And Vincent was not a man with any shortage of temper problems. Currently, all three of these, his greatest weaknesses/strengths were hindrances to him, as the opposite seemed to be sitting directly to his right and it was driving him mad. Eugene had barely moved for the last hour, hadn't spoken or uttered a single sound and seemed perfectly comfortable continuing on like this until kingdom come!
It wasn't that Vincent was incapable of staying still for long periods, far from it. He was a skilled hunter and knew their purpose in being here. They were waiting until the last few people in the village square were gone. Then, they would "remove and dispose of" all the items up for sale there that could lead other hunters to their children. And by "remove" Eugene had meant "steal shamelessly," which Vincent had no problem with whatsoever. The shame surely belonged to these people, who sold scraps of bloodied clothing off of his son's back. Despite what Belle told him, about these people knowing no better and doing only what they thought they must, Vincent could not help but see red before his eyes whenever someone stopped at one of the sale tents. Eugene had had to stop him from flying off the handle when one person had inquired if bits of the "werewolf's" hide would be sold as souvenirs.
And that was what irked him about his companion at the moment. Usually, it was Eugene's incessant chatter that irritated him, but he had begun to enjoy some of his lighthearted jabs and the following debates. Eugene would fly freely from one topic to another, sometimes stopping in the middle of a seemingly important conversation to remark that spending too much time on a diet of dried meat could have unfortunate results on the digestive tract. Now Eugene was like a completely different man, silent and grave as a tombstone, with as much focus as a trained hawk on a bait mouse. Vincent had never seen that side of the man before, and hoped that it did not emerge often.
Eugene must be seeing a different side of him too, Vincent realized this. He knew that he was a different man when he was angry; he was a beast (pun fully intended) when his ire was stirred up and there were few that could stand him when he got into such a state. It had always been his greatest weakness, and always would be, that he grew angry easily. But now, unlike many times in his past, the situation was worse because he was not selfishly angry. He was angry for his son, treated like an animal. He was angry for his wife, who he watched while she suffered. And, while his selfish anger could usually be tamed by logic, selfless anger was another matter entirely. If something didn't happen soon, Vincent was going to grab somebody's throat and make something happen!
As if reading his mind, Eugene suddenly moved, sitting up straighter and looking along the street. The man who owned the hunt shop where Emile's things were was locking up. Vincent sat forward too, ready to spring into action at any moment. Eugene put him hand across Vincent's chest, quiet and collected, and the two waited, perfectly still, until the man had walked down the street and turned the corner. Then Eugene leaned forward on the balls of his feet, studying the area around him. Impatience bit at Vincent's heels as he watched, but he silenced it, knowing that Eugene was the professional when it came to these things.
Eugene signaled to move with his hand, and the two of them flew across the street soundlessly. Eugene was immediately against the front wall of the building, almost invisible in the dark of the reversed crescent moon. Vincent imitated this posture to the best of his ability, but the roof was short and not at quite the right slant for him to do so completely. Never in his life had he envied and man for being smaller than he was, but now he was coming close.
Within seconds, Eugene had the lock off the door and they were inside. Vincent held open a large sack and allowed Eugene to do the flying around the store. He was actually somewhat awed by how quickly Eugene did it; the cloak was unpinned from the wall and in the bag, all the scraps were collected, and he was doing a second sweep of the store before Vincent could have gotten the cloak halfway undone. Seeming satisfied with his work, Eugene signaled that they leave and Vincent secured the sack. Just as quickly as they were in, they were out again, the door closed slowly behind them and nothing disturbed besides what they took. Vincent had to hand it to him; Eugene really did know how to steal.
Rapunzel was worried for Belle. When she had seen the cloak in the town square, Belle had almost fainted and Eugene was forced to come up with a quick lie about her "weakness around blood." And since seeing it she had barely said a word to anyone, even her husband, who some in their group desperately wished she would talk to. Vincent had become almost impossible to deal with, and Eugene had had to think quickly several times to stop some simple, misinterpreted but harmless statement from one of their party from becoming a brawl to be remembered. Rapunzel had seen Belle calm him several times during political debate by speaking a few words into his ear, but she had not wavered from the unfocused, worried facial expression for hours. Rapunzel finally went over to sit beside Belle, hoping that company would draw her back.
"He'll be alright," she said, speaking of course about Emile, "Rhonwen is there, she can heal him. He's going to be alright, and no more hunters are going to be going after him. Eugene and Vincent will make certain of that."
She received no reply and so just sat in silence beside her friend. Justinian shot a worried glance in Belle's direction, and Rapunzel only shrugged slightly. Sometimes words were just not enough.
Gratefully, the silence did not last long. Eugene and Vincent returned swiftly to their camp, which they had made just beyond Osimandias. With the city behind them, they would receive no questions about the missing scent items and could continue on, secure in the knowledge that they were covering the children's trail.
They cut a small amount of the fabric from the cloak and then set up to burn the rest, as it was too risky to carry too large an amount of a scent that so many were hunting for. Finally Belle moved, but the movement brought tears to Rapunzel's eyes. She embraced Vincent, and her body shook softly as Eugene laid the cloak on the fire. It was then that Rapunzel remembered her mentioning something, about Emile at least having the sense to take the cloak that she made for him. She imagined having to burn the turquoise dress that she had made for Rhonwen when she turned eighteen and gasped slightly, knowing what this meant. It was like burning to only small piece of her son that Belle had seen since he ran away.
Rapunzel's thoughts went to the children, and she again thought of her daughter and prayed that she could keep safe. She knew that her daughter could take care of herself, but she also knew that she would never leave any of her companions behind and had the tendency to self-sacrifice that would alarm any mother. Rapunzel knew her daughter. She knew that if her daughter had the opportunity, that she would give her life just to save that of someone else. She knew that if it came down to a choice between herself and another, Rhonwen would always choose selflessly. And she prayed, oh how desperately she prayed, that her little Rhonwen would never have to make that choice.
And that's this little bit, hope you like it! And again, sorry for the time gap!