Hi people. Guess what, it's spring break! You have no idea how much I needed a break, so I'm extremely excited to sit around and do absolutely nothing for a week. So glorious. Haha, anyway, it's also the reason why I've gotten the time to write the next chapter, so here it is. Oh yeah, and before I forget, I posted a new picture of Straton up on my deviant art account. It's much more accurate than the old one I had up.
Chapter 26- Of Rest and Recuperation
The two brothers didn't do much else besides rest for the remainder of the day. After Keane had counted the money and put it back into the satchel, they both decided that it would be best to spend the rest of today and most of tomorrow gathering themselves. They could start towards the next town after that, and hopefully arrive within the second day of travel once the food started to run out and buy some more.
It was the first time they'd managed to get a plan with more substance than 'move east' since they'd started on this slightly horrific journey, and it did quite a bit to put Keane's mind at ease. Maybe if they started getting their act together now they might actually be able to do this. Sure, he still had doubts about the mountains, but if they were even able to get to where they would be in their sights it would probably be enough. That far away from the capital, they should be able to find a safe place to live.
Actually being able to sleep at night again felt like heaven. Well, maybe not quite heaven, what with the rocky and sandy ground, the sudden cold that seemed to come out of nowhere every night and the fear of being found by some sort of animal or people. Still, being able to just sleep when he was used to, instead of forcing himself to stay up and walk who knows how long to some vague and far off destination was a relief.
The next morning Keane awoke to find Straton already up, messing around with one of the strips of fabric left over from when the redhead had bandaged them.
"Hey Strat? What are you doing?" he asked, taking out and eating one of the strips of dried meat. They couldn't eat a lot for how long they were hoping it to last them, but it was nice to even get a little bit of food when he wanted it.
"I felt kind of bad that you're the one who always has to do the fighting," the blonde boy started. Keane instantly frowned, and was about to protest that he didn't want Straton fighting even if he could when the younger boy continued, "All I seem to be able to do is throw rocks, so…" taking the strip, he placed a rock by his side into the middle of it, and holding both ends, started to swing it around. With a flick of his wrist, the rock went sailing through the air, surprising the older boy quite a bit.
"I found a way to throw rocks better," he finished, smiling just slightly. Keane found himself nodding. He still didn't see Straton as the type to fight at all if he could help it, but he had to admit that a slingshot did seem to fit him. Long distance, so that he didn't actually have to physically attack someone. It didn't need expensive and hard to make ammo like a bow and arrow did either. Keane highly doubted they'd be seeing a shortage of rocks any time soon.
Come to think of it, a slingshot was one of the few weapons that any of the princes weren't taught how to wield. That's not to say that some of them hadn't made haphazard versions to torment each other with, but the ones who did were usually promptly scolded. Besides the fact that it was obviously dangerous, a slingshot was a poor man's weapon. Not fit for a prince at all. It wasn't like a sword or a bow or a staff, which took hours of dedication and training to wield correctly. Those were expensive, and could be elaborately decorated with inscriptions and jewels. A real status symbol.
Yeah, thinking about it, a slingshot fit Straton perfectly.
"That's a great idea, although hopefully we wont be getting into anymore fights any time soon," the redhead said, and Straton nodded in agreement, placing the makeshift sling into the bag.
"Once we get to the next town, it'll probably be safer if I went and bought our supplies, since I doubt anyone would ever recognize me," Straton said after a few moments, and Keane agreed instantly. Sure, so far no one had managed to place him as the crown prince, but they couldn't be too careful. Even if he was probably so dirty and beaten now that even he wouldn't recognize himself if he could see what he looked like.
There was also the fact that he was a +anima now. They did not want to have a repeat of the last town, that was for sure. They'd gotten extremely lucky that time, but even then they'd just barely managed to escape with their lives in tact.
The two didn't really do much of anything after that. Keane still had a hard time walking with his injured leg, so he basically just sat on a rock and doodled in the sand with his finger all day. He really didn't think that he would ever be able to be bored again after everything they'd gone through, but he was. Straton practiced his slingshot, but he had to use his left hand instead of his right, since his shoulder was still healing and all. Keane had a feeling that'd he be a lot better at it once he could use his dominate arm.
Once night came the two managed to fall asleep without any sort of incident. The redhead felt like he practically couldn't remember a day when that had happened, even though they'd only been traveling for about a week now. They were able to stay far enough away from the road that no one had managed to happen upon them. It still made Keane a bit paranoid, and they talked about maybe taking turns keeping watch. The brothers ended up deciding that it would just be better for both of them to get as much rest as they could though.
When Keane woke up in the morning, everything was as they'd left it when they fell asleep, and he let out a sigh of relief. Waking up the younger boy, the two started getting ready to start off again, this time with a clear path towards a town.
The redhead wasn't able to keep himself from wincing when he stood up, pain shooting through his leg where Kazana had scratched him. It wasn't healed yet at all, but they couldn't stay here and wait for the food to run out while it did. He could see the concern that instantly flooded Straton's face when he cringed.
"Are you sure you're okay to move? Maybe I could go ahead and come back for you?" the blonde suggested, but Keane shook his head almost immediately. Besides the fact that it would end up taking twice as long as if they both went together, he didn't want to be separated again after all that.
"I'll be fine. We don't have enough food for you to go off on your own and me to stay here anyway, and we can't wait until I'm healed to move either," he said, and reluctantly Straton dropped the subject.
Slinging the bag over his uninjured shoulder, Straton took one last sweep over the clearing to make sure that they didn't forget anything. It was a little unnerving that everything they owned in the world now could fit into one small bag, but it was more than they had just the other day, so that was something. With that, the two started towards the road. They kept far enough away from it that if anyone came down it they could hide with ease, but close enough to where they could still follow its path.
It was almost midday now an they hadn't gone nearly as far as Keane would have liked. He wanted to blame it on the fact that they were traveling at day now, so it was much hotter than night had been, but the main factor was clearly himself. They'd already had to stop three times so that he could rest his leg, and even though Straton didn't say anything, it was obvious he was holding them up.
"Do you need to rest again, Keane? You shouldn't be putting too much stress on that leg," the blonde boy asked, and Keane frowned as he shook his head. Yes, it hurt, but they would never get to the next town, let alone the mountains, if they kept at this pace.
"I'm fine. You got hurt too and you don't need any breaks," the redhead mumbled. That only caused Straton to stop in his tracks though, and Keane had a feeling that he was going to make him rest now whether he actually needed it or not.
"That's because my shoulder was hurt, that doesn't affect my ability to walk any. Your's on the other hand does. It doesn't matter if we go slow, we'll get there eventually," the younger boy argued, and Keane had to admit a bit reluctantly that he was right, at least about his injury. Sure, Straton shouldn't overexert himself either, no matter where he'd been attacked, but it didn't cause him shooting pains with every step. Keane was still going to protest when Straton started speaking once again.
"In fact, it'd probably be best if we just rest until night and start traveling again then. It's really hot out in the open like this, and we don't have that much water," he finished. The redhead started shaking his head though, not about to be the cause of them wasting an entire day.
"We don't have enough supplies to waste time like that. I said I'll be fine," Keane argued, but it was clear the younger boy wasn't about to let up.
"We've been going on much less supplies and lived. I'm not letting you hurt yourself by being stubborn," he said, and Keane frowned, trying to think of an answer. It's true they managed to survive on less, but how was a serious mystery. Straton might be right about him being stubborn, but he just wanted to get them as far out of danger as fast as he could. There was no way he could go through that fear of thinking he was going to lose Straton again.
"Okay… okay, you win. We'll rest until night comes. I guess we managed to cover at least a little ground, and it is really hot like you said," the redhead succeeded. Straton smiled slightly and sat down on the ground, Keane very reluctantly following his example. How was it that his little brother always won their arguments? He was trying to be a leader, but it was hard when most of his decisions seemed to be wrong.
After a while they saw someone coming down the trail and move farther away so that they could remain hidden. They still had a bit of the shredded blanket left, and Keane used that to change their bandages. Once again it wasn't much, but it looked like most of Straton's wounds had managed to scab over for the most part, although the redhead was still positive that they would leave some nasty scars. His own slash didn't seem to be healing quite as well, but that was probably because of the stress he insisted on putting his leg through.
The brothers ended up sleeping for a while so that they'd be better suited for walking during the night. It was hard to fall back to sleep in the too bright sun after having slept all night, but Keane was able to after about an hour or so. Straton had fallen asleep before him, making sure to keep off of his right shoulder as he did. The redhead couldn't help but he relieved that his bout of insomnia from when they first started out seemed to be completely over and done with.
It was dark by the time either of the boys woke up. Straton nudged his older brother awake, although he still wasn't too keen on Keane walking around on his injured leg. He did have a point about them not having enough supplies to spend too much time lollygagging in the desert, though.
Rubbing his eyes, the redhead pushed himself into a sitting position, keeping his right leg bent at an odd angle to keep it as far away from any sorts of sand or rocks that could irritate it.
"It's nighttime already?" he asked groggily, and Straton nodded.
"Yeah. Are you sure you want to try walking again?" the blonde boy asked, and Keane nodded, starting to climb sloppily to his feet. Gritting his teeth together as he put weight on his right leg, he couldn't help but wonder what Straton's shoulder felt like. Sure, he didn't have to walk on it, and had the bag slung over his other arm instead, but where Keane only had one of Kazana's claws cut him, all three had ripped into the younger boy. It surprised him how little Straton was complaining about it all.
"Alright, let's head towards the road again so we can catch our bearings," Keane suggested, and Straton nodded. It wasn't very long before the two managed to get the road in their sight, despite how dark it was outside. Well, Straton couldn't see the road all too well, but followed Keane's lead all the same.
Thankfully, or else Keane would have really started to get annoyed with himself, they were able to move a bit quicker than they had during the daytime. It still wasn't the speed he'd wanted to go at though. It would probably end up taking closer to three days to get to town, but it was better than nothing. It wouldn't be long enough for them to end up dying out in this wasteland, at the very least.
By the time the sun was finally starting to peak over the horizon, Keane felt absolutely exhausted, but tried his best to underplay it. It was pretty obvious that Straton could tell though, especially now that there was enough pre-morning light to see him. The blonde boy didn't seem to be much better off, and the two quickly slunk away from the road in order to rest for the day.
They both ate a bit more of the strips of dried meat and some water before passing out for most of the day. As Keane had thought, the next night was almost exactly the same, and they hadn't managed to get in sight of the town like he'd hoped they would.
He was right about them running out of food on the third day, however. If only he'd been wrong about that instead. Thankfully, or else he was afraid he'd start to fall back into blaming himself for this like he had earlier, by the time morning came back around on the third day he could just barely make out the silhouette of a town off in the distance.
"Finally," he said, trying to ignore the now constant ache of pain in his right leg. "Let's rest until night again, and then tomorrow you can go and buy us some more supplies," Keane suggested, and Straton shook his head immediately.
"Good idea. We should get pretty far away from the road though. This close to town, more people probably use it than far out in the desert like before," the blonde said. With that, the two brothers made their way until they felt a safe distance from the road where no one would end up finding them, and collapsed. Constantly walking like this every night, even without the injuries, was hard.
Staring off at the vague city outline, Keane tried to think of a better way to travel. There had to be something. It wasn't like they had enough money to buy a cart along with all the other supplies and clothes they were desperately in need of. Even if they did, that would look extremely suspicious for a couple of kids to buy.
Laying down, he tried to just let that thought leave his head for now. At least the town, and hopefully some new clothes and food, was close at hand. They would figure the rest out as the problems came to them. For right now though, it would be best for them to just rest and try to let their wounds heal as quickly as possible.
With the way their lives had been going recently, he had no idea when the next time they would be able to, after all.
And finished. Sorry that nothing too exciting or thrilling happened in this chapter, mostly just Keane and Straton's desperate need for some recuperation. Don't worry though, things will once again start to pick up in the next chapter. Hooray for plans and words and things.
Anyway, happy -insert holiday of your choice- thanks for reading, and as always please review and tell me what you think.
