The already narrow gap between the rock wall of the mountain to Serena's right and the tree line to her left is much tighter now than it was at first, before Edmund had wordlessly urged her forward when it became clear they would need to go single-file. The path had been fairly uneven then too, but now the trees are so close they're nearly growing right out of the slope. Navigating past the trees and their roots in addition to keeping her footing on the loose stones under several inches of snow takes nearly all of Serena's focus and quickly saps what energy she'd had left.
Serena pauses after squeezing through a particularly tight spot, leaning against a bare trunk while she waits for Edmund to get through as well. She takes a moment to peer into the snowy void ahead. The swirling eddies of snow have left her nearly blind— and she hasn't caught sight of Adan in quite some time— but she pushes off the tree and stumbles gamely on as soon as Edmund reappears behind her.
Each obstacle they tackle feels like another impediment that whoever or whatever is behind them will have to tackle, though. She doesn't know precisely what they're running from— because neither Adan or Edmund had actually said and she wasn't sure she should ask— but she knows that if they are intent on avoiding it she wants to avoid it as well.
Serena catches her foot on something hidden under the snow— another snaking root, probably— and steadies herself on the nearest tree. She pauses there, pulling her hood tighter in an attempt to block the wind blasting her from the right. The thick fur lining of the cloak does help, but the wind still manages to find its way to her skin and chill her to the bone.
As much as she'd prefer to just curl up somewhere warm and cozy and safe— and as much as the thought of a nice hot cup of cider consumes her thoughts— she knows that stopping is not an option. Despite all the horrible things Serena has experienced over the past day, or maybe because of them, she forces her limbs to keep moving. Her aching feet, the icy wind, the blinding snow— she can't let it stop her. She's never done anything this difficult in her life, but there's really no other choice in this dangerous, freezing land but to keep going.
Serena takes a deep breath, feeling the cold air fill her lungs. She pushes off the tree, lifting her foot to take the next step, when a black form suddenly appears before her on the path. She stumbles backward, colliding into Edmund as he catches up behind her. Her head knocks into his chin and he exhales with an audible 'oof' as her shoulders hit his chest, but he still manages to keep his own balance and swing her around behind him before she's even caught her balance. She nearly lands on her butt in the snow, but at the last second she backs into a tree instead— which is arguably more painful than just falling would have been. All the same, Serena has barely even registered what's happening before Edmund has his sword drawn against a very confused-looking Adan.
Of course it's Adan. Serena feels a blush burn across her half-frozen cheeks. Neither of the other two say anything, though, and Edmund quickly slips his sword into its sheath and then moves aside. Adan skirts around him, and the Wolf must give some kind of signal to Edmund because he motions for Serena to follow Adan into the woods. Pushing off the tree, Serena ignores the new bruises on her back and trails after Adan, Edmund following close behind.
The constant wind, hitting the resistance of the closely packed tree trunks, dies down to a strong breeze as they move further into the trees. The snow-laden boughs scrape against Serena's legs as they pass, but she's too glad to be out of the wind to really mind. In fact, she's so busy wrestling with a particularly clingy branch that she doesn't realize Adan has come to a stop in front of her until Edmund yanks her arm back, preventing her from running right into the Wolf. Again the two say nothing of her fumbling, though, seemingly more intent on whatever it is they've stopped for.
"What is it?" Edmund asks. He lets go of Serena, brushing aside the branches of a snow laden bush as he kneels beside Adan. The small clearing they've stopped in is really just the space between a few trees and leafless bushes. It would probably be impossible to find if everything was full and growing, but spring seems farther away than home in this foreign place. Serena swats at the lower branches of a large evergreen, dumping a pile of snow off of them before lowering herself to the ground. She's careful to tuck the cloak under her, grateful for the fur-lined leather. The last thing she wants, on top of everything else, is to deal with soggy clothing— well, soggier clothing, since between the snow and her own perspiration she hasn't been completely dry for most of the day.
"The Giant road is just ahead," Adan replies, tilting his head to the left, the direction they'd been heading. Serena slowly stretches her legs out in front of her, careful to avoid bumping Adan. Her throbbing feet pulse in time with her heartbeat, and Serena hopes 'just ahead' is as short of a distance as it sounds. Edmund brushes her arm as he shifts to pull the compass from his pocket, and she scoots closer to the evergreen.
Edmund studies the compass for a moment while Adan looks off to the right. Serena notices the Wolf's nostrils flare as he breathes in deeply. How close would something have to be for him to smell it, she wonders. Adan lets his breath out with a sigh. When Edmund looks up from the compass at him, Adan slightly shakes his head.
While Serena is relieved that Adan has sensed nothing, she knows that they'll still have to be moving on again shortly. She rolls her ankles in slow circles, stretching out her muscles and trying to mentally prepare to get up and keep walking. She glances to her right when Edmund still hasn't said they're leaving, though, to find him staring toward her feet. She immediately stops moving them and pulls her legs to her chest.
"We'll wait here," Edmund announces suddenly. He nods to Adan and the Wolf leaves the clearing in the direction of the road. Serena pulls the cloak around her legs, too relieved at the prospect of a short break to question the reason for it. She wraps her arms around her legs as she watches Edmund dig the water skin out of the pack. After taking a few sips, though, he holds it out to her.
"Add some snow to that," he says when she takes it. Serena stretches her legs back out, setting the water skin on her knees while she pulls off the fur-lined gloves— a matching set with the cloak, she's noticed— while Edmund continues to dig through the pack. Serena uses some snow to wash off her hands as best she can before carefully removing the stopper and dropping small clumps of fresh snow into the water skin.
"Just keep it close to you when we move on," Edmund says, twisting around to settle across from her. He knocks snow off the bush at his back when he sits, but he ignores it as he reaches his whole arm into the pack to get to something at the bottom. Serena isn't sure how she's meant to carry the water skin and keep from falling, but she decides she'll just have to figure it out. Watching Edmund sift through things from the pack, she doesn't want to complain about carrying a very small portion of the weight of it. She's seen him adjust and readjust the straps on his shoulders all day, and she knows there's at least one heavy pan in there.
Serena focuses back on the water skin, forcing snow in until no more can fit. Before she can press the stopper back into its place, though, she feels a cold hand wrap around her left ankle. Serena flinches, upsetting the water skin and dumping icy water over her thigh. She quickly grabs the water skin and sends a sharp look toward Edmund, but he doesn't seem to notice— or he seems rather determined not to— as he unties the cords around her ankle.
"What are you–"
"These are too tight," he says, pulling at the cords wrapped around the makeshift shoes. When those are loosened, he moves on to the ones lacing the shoes up, and the sudden cold air that seeps in feels better on her feet than Serena would have expected— even better than the loosening of the cords that had become tighter over the miles they'd traveled. Edmund moves on to the oversized wool socks she's borrowed next, but Serena pulls her leg back. She's realized that Edmund called another break because of her. She knows she's slowed them down, and she doesn't want to delay them any further.
"It's fine," she insists. Edmund lets her foot slide out of his lap, but his fingers had already hooked the top of the sock. Pulling her leg back is enough to remove the sock almost completely, leaving her own tattered silk stocking exposed. When Serena gets her first look at her foot since that morning, the embarrassment and annoyance she'd felt when he first took hold of her foot is completely forgotten.
Serena carefully sets the water skin aside and pulls her foot into her lap, removing the wool sock from her toes and easing her stocking and slipper off. The fabric has adhered to her raw skin in a few places, and with a detached sort of horror she pries it free. Once she sees her entire bare foot, she notices that it also looks quite swollen. She hesitantly traces the bright red line where the edge of her slipper has been chafing against her foot all day, skipping over the parts that are actually bleeding. She then brushes her finger over the blisters by her smallest and biggest toes, just barely touching the tender skin.
She turns her head away, swallowing hard, and sees that Edmund has leaned closer as well. He peers at her foot, not reaching to touch her again. She looks at him— because looking at her battered foot again is not a pleasant prospect— and he meets her eyes for a moment before gesturing at her foot.
"I'm trying to help you," Edmund insists. Serena remembers him saying something similar last night, but there's no animosity in his tone this time. And as she looks back down at her foot, she knows she does need help. She doesn't know the first thing about fixing this or even what supplies they have for dealing with injuries.
When Serena finally nods, removing her own hands from her lap, Edmund reaches for her ankle again. He slowly pulls her foot towards him and looks over every mark, carefully turning her foot as he inspects. She'd felt the pain in her feet for much of the day— it was rather hard to ignore, in fact— but she'd simply blamed it on being on her feet for so much longer than she normally would and had just pushed it to the back of her mind. Besides, when they were moving there were plenty of other things to focus on.
But Serena certainly hadn't expected her foot to look so… damaged.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Edmund concludes, letting her heel rest on his knee. Serena nods as he picks up the package he'd dug out of the pack. She's not sure she believes he's not just trying to make her feel better about it. Serena picks up her discarded stocking and fingers the thin silk that has worn right through in several places, ringed by blood. That sight isn't much better than her actual foot, and she drops the stocking in her lap, turning her head in the direction Adan went instead.
"We have a few more hours until dark," Edmund declares suddenly. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him empty the contents of the package into his lap, but then he glances up through the branches. Serena follows his gaze and squints up at the dark storm clouds above them. Night will likely fall sooner than normal. Serena feels slightly guilty at being grateful for that, but then she thinks of whatever it is they're running from catching up once they've stopped. It's one of the things that's kept her going all day. At every turn it seems there's something else after them.
Serena looks over her shoulder— the way Adan had been facing when he'd sniffed the air. She wonders again what it is that's behind them now. It's obvious Adan and Edmund could move more quickly without her, and she wonders just how badly she's held them back already. She's sure they realize what a burden she is, too, and she hates that now she's slowing them all down even more with an injury she doesn't know how she could have avoided.
A faint minty scent brings Serena's focus back to Edmund, and she inhales sharply— though she's careful not to pull her foot back again— when he rubs something cold on her foot. She watches as he swipes the minty substance where the cords had been rubbing her skin raw, and everywhere it goes is first cold and then turns strangely warm.
"What is that?" she asks, curious about the strange effect of the ointment. Edmund finishes rubbing it over all the affected spots and glances up at her before setting the small tin of ointment on his other knee.
"Lucy sends it with me," he says with a shrug, plucking a roll of bandages from his lap. Serena waits for further explanation, but he just starts wrapping the linen around her foot, carefully layering it to cover all of her skin. She's still confused about who Lucy is, but she's distracted from that mystery when she realizes the aching of her foot has lessened. Having never had any kind of serious injuries, she wonders if perhaps all ointments work like this as she peers at the tin balanced on Edmund's leg. It falls to the snow as Edmund tucks in the end of the bandage by her heel, but he quickly retrieves it.
"We'll leave those off," he says then, setting her slipper on the pack. He reaches for the tattered stocking by her leg and sets that on top too. The woolen sock, though, he hands to her before asking for her other foot. She pulls back her bandaged foot, trying to avoid setting it in the snow, and slides her right foot closer to him now. Edmund immediately starts untying laces while Serena carefully maneuvers the sock over her bandaged foot. Once she's finished, Edmund passes her the makeshift boot as well.
"Just tight enough to stay on," he instructs. Serena nods and laces it loosely. She's just started to wrap the ends of the cord around her ankle when she hears rustling behind her. She turns toward it, clutching the laces tightly, but she doesn't see anything— just branches blowing in the wind. She notices that Edmund has paused in his task as well, but as soon as she looks toward him he continues what he'd been doing. She spares another glance back the direction they've come from before finally tying the cords in her own hands.
Serena knows she has little, if any, expertise to offer in their current situation, but she would still like to know what is going on. It's clear there's something behind them, and Serena is starting to feel that being told nothing has only made her more obsessed with trying to figure it out.
All day Edmund and Adan have kept their own council, and it seems they're determined to keep doing so. Logically, Serena knows they are probably trying to avoid scaring her— or maybe they, too, realize she'd have nothing to add to their discussions— but it's only made Serena feel like a child at best and an inconvenience at worst. Remaining ignorant while others make plans has only made a mess of her life, especially in the past few days.
It can't be a Giant though, can it? Serena slips one of her hands into the snow, but it doesn't feel like the ground is shaking— not like earlier. Maybe that only happens when there are so many together? Serena looks again at the dense woods around them. Though many of the branches are bare, there are enough evergreens and undergrowth that they'd be hard to spot here in this little clearing. Could a Giant even walk through this area? Based on stories she's heard, Serena supposes they could just rip down trees if they wanted, but surely they'd hear that.
Serena lifts her hand from the ground and wipes it on her thigh before curling both hands into the fur lining of her borrowed cloak. She cinches the fabric tight around her while Edmund finishes wrapping bandages around her other foot. Adjusting the edges of the cloak to cover as much of her lap as possible, she suddenly remembers what Edmund had started to say earlier— that someone could catch sight of her purple skirt. It hadn't seemed to be an issue earlier in the day, but he'd suddenly wanted the purple gone when they got to this valley.
"Is…" Edmund looks up at her, pausing with the bandage near her heel. Serena hadn't entirely made up her mind about asking anything, and she has the sudden urge to drop the subject now that she's pinned by his gaze. But she's tired of being constantly in the dark. She hasn't felt in control of anything— for the past several weeks especially, if not longer — and she's tired of it. She sits up straighter, unconsciously shifting her shoulders back.
"Can I ask who we're running from now?" When Edmund simply stares at her for a moment longer, she realizes it sounds more like she's asking permission than asking for answers. She sucks in a breath to rephrase her question, but stops short of saying anything when Edmund glances past her shoulder. She looks too, but when he starts winding the bandage again with a quiet 'I don't know' Serena turns back with a scowl. As soon as Edmund tucks the end of the bandage in she reaches for the wool sock and pulls her foot back to yank it on.
"Wait," Edmund says, but she doesn't. She grabs the other shoe too and starts lacing it up, frustrated with herself and with him and with everything else today has thrown at her. She's certainly less gentle this time as she yanks the cords through each hole, lacing it more tightly than she should as tears pool in the corners of her eyes. Why would he give me a straight answer, she thinks, when he hasn't bothered to tell me anything all day. When she yanks the laces though, preparing to wrap them around her ankle, Edmund suddenly grabs her wrists, forcing her to stop.