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Torden continues dozing soundly, the occasional muffled snore coming from his direction. His breathing is more or less steady.
Jaelyn dozes fitfully against one of the larger logs in the camp, her arms wrapped loosely about Sloane's chest and cradling his head in her lap, shivering a bit every now and then as if chilled.
Sloane slowly opens his eyes, then blinks several times in confusion. He starts to sit up, but winces hard and slowly settles his head back in Jaelyn's lap. Breathlessly, he mutters,'Oh light, it wasn't a dream.'
Jaelyn jerks awake as Sloane speaks, giving a soft moan and rubbing the heel of one hand against her eyes for a moment. 'How's your head?' she asks softly, more than just a touch of worry in her voice as she steals a quick glance over to Torden.
Sloane doesn't open his eyes, but says softly,'Feels like I just woke up from a three day drunk. I can ignore it if I have to, though.' He frowns and squints his eyes open to peer up at Jaelyn,'How is your ankle?'
Jaelyn closes her eyes slowly and shivers a bit, but manages to answer in a surprislingly steady voice, 'It's fine. He Healed it.' Her gaze darts over to Torden again as she licks her lips nervously.
Sloane's eyes open wide in shock, then squeeze shut again. He asks very softly,'Is he sane? Has he even said what he wants with us?'
Jaelyn doesn't answer right away, but she takes a slow deep breath before saying in almost a near whisper, 'For the first... I don't know. For the second...' she hesitates, 'I think I might.'
Sloane nods very slightly and slowly sits up, eyes still closed. He settles back against the log beside Jaelyn and gradually opens his eyes as he turns to face her. In a hushed tone, he asks,'Anything I need to know or just a guess?'
Jaelyn shivers again and wraps her arms about her knees, hugging them tightly. 'Darkfriends killed my family. Every last one... I'm the only Chuliandred left alive... They couldn't get to me, so they killed everyone else...' Her words are soft and slightly detatched sounding, her eyes slowly dropping closed as she starts to rock back and forth a bit.
Torden stirs quietly, his back still to you both. His eyes open and he begins to sit up, but bumps his head against the invisible barrier he wove last night. This summons a very vulgar-sounding curse in some harsh tongue from his lips. Rubbing his forehead, he seizes saidin and unravels the barrier and sits up fully. Grimacing and still holding his head, he turns towards you both, glaring, his eyes almost daring either of you to say something.
Sloane places a hand on Jaelyn's shoulder in what is likely meant to be a comforting gesture. He starts to speak, but sees Torden stirring and remains silent, giving her shoulder a slight squeeze in lieu of whatever words he was going to say.
Jaelyn's gaze snaps to Torden immediately as he stirs and she shivers again, rubbing her hands along her arms. She drops her gaze back to a spot on the ground in front of her, relaxing slightly under Sloane's hand, but probably not enough to be visibly apparent.
Torden continues to glare at you both and snarls, 'I see neither of you has had the presence of mind to prepare breakfast.' He rises and pulls on his boots and snaps like a man long-used to yelling orders at particularly dense individuals, '&ZMove ! You will find supplies in the bags piled near the packhorse. You -will- prepare a satisfactory meal or I will start removing limbs from you two sorry children.' Turning distinctly red from yelling, he barks, 'MOVE !!!'
Sloane closes his eyes and clambers slowly to his feet, a bit unsteadily. Once he seems sure that he won't go back down again, he opens his eyes and begins walking slowly towards the packhorse.
Jaelyn flinches at Torden's yelling and scrambles to her feet, helping to steady Sloane as she pointedly looks anywhere but towards Torden.
Torden glares at Sloane's back and yells at the top of his lungs, 'Run unless you want sheep swallop and buttered onions for lunch, you bloody useless oaf !' Turning to Jaelyn he bellows, 'You too, unless you want bloody ashes for seasoning !'
Sloane shoots a grateful glance at Jaelyn before he bends down to rummage through the packs. He pulls out a burlap bag of oats and sets them aside before rising again with a large pot in his hand. Finally, he turns to face in Torden's direction and raises his voice to ask,'Are we near a water source?'
Jaelyn's lips quirk up a bit in a tiny glimmer of a smile to Sloane, rummaging deeper in to the sack the oats came from to pull out eating utensils and the like.
Torden's glare focuses on Sloane and he replies quietly, a very distinct edge on his voice, 'You had best find out before I relieve you of those wobbly legs, lad.' Turning away from him, he walks away from the camp, his long strides quickly taking him away and the brush doing an adequate job of hiding him.
Sloane frowns at the man's back then turns to Jaelyn. He shrugs and sends her a questioning glance as he asks,'You have any idea?'
Jaelyn casts a fearful look back at the direction Torden dissapeared in and shakes her head, 'No, but you're in no condition to go looking for it.' she says quietly, then stands up and holds out a hand for the pot, 'I'll look.'
Sloane's frown deepens. He twists away from her, interposing his body between her and the pot and looks for a moment as if he might argue. Then he lets out a tired sigh and nods, turning back to offer the pot out to her, muttering,'You're right, of course.'
Jaelyn makes no move to force Sloane to hand over the pot at all, merely accepting it without a word and walking off with it, her arms wrapped about the item as she picks her way through the brush a short ways until she finds a more clear area, and just starts walking off downhill, knowing of no other way to go about finding a creek.
Sloane watches her walk away for a moment before he turns and kneels to unpack the rest of the supplies needed for breakfast.
If one truly has gifted hearing, the sound of a man unrinating in the wood comes from the direction Torden left in. (Torden)
Time passes.
Sloane has several goodly sized rocks arranged into a makeshift firepit, filled with wood and with the ingredients for porridge laid out around it. He is rummaging in the packs muttering something about flint and steel.
Jaelyn stumbles back into the camp, looking a bit more worse for the wear than when she left. A few streaks of mud mark her skirts, and her slippers, meant only for city walking, are in near ruins, but she carries a full pot of water over to Sloane and sets it down carefully, wiping at her face with a shaking hand and looking quite terribly pale.
Torden returns from his sojourn to relive nature's call, still adjusting his pants as he walks back in to the camp. He spits off to the side and sneers at Sloane and mutters disgustedly, 'You don't need flint.' Seizing saidin, he weaves a simple flow of Fire and knots it to a small flame which he floats in the air near Sloane and ties. Turning away from the man, he begins changing his clothes.
Sloane shoots a concerned look at Jaelyn when she returns with the water, but says nothing. The muscles of his jaw flex visibly as he clenches his teeth at the sudden appearance of the flame. Then a calm seems to settle over him. He moves over to his makeshift firepit and begins moving the stones over to the floating flame, arranging them to hold the pot of water in the fire, then unceremoniously begins dumping the ingredients in.
Jaelyn shivers again and wraps her arms tightly about herself, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw a bit, pointedly not looking at the flame or Torden himself.
Torden finishes changing and begins packing away his things. Turning back towards his two prisoners, he proceeds to sit down on a convenient old tree stump and watches the progress of the meal with a keen look of distaste on his face.
As he shakes the last few grains of oats from the bag, Sloane turns towards Jaelyn and motions in the direction of the packs with his head while folding the empty sack. He mutters softly,'Could you hand me that long-handled spoon over there.'
Jaelyn gets back up to her feet and retrieves the spoon, handing it to Sloane without a word as she sits back down nearby, wrapping her arms about herself again and staring at the cooking meal without really seeming to see it.
Torden watches the girl and shakes his head, but doesn't say anything. He sneers at Sloane and watches him prepare the meal before addressing Jaelyn and he snapping,'Some fresh berries to sweeten the porridge would not be amiss.'
Sloane mutters,'thanks,' as he takes the spoon from Jaelyn. He stirs the pot thoroughly once, then pulls the spoon out and moves back away from the heat, sits on the ground, and watches the meal begin to boil.
Jaelyn flinches at Torden's words, but gets to her feet again and once more leaves the campsite, heading off into the surrounding brush and dissapearing from view.
Torden stands up and pulls out a small book from his things and retakes his seat. He opens the book and starts to read, his brow furrowing in concentration.
Sloane watches the pot absently, or more accurately the steam rising from it. Occasionally, as if from long habit, he leans forward and stirs it again.
After a while, Jaelyn once more returns to the campsite, a small double handlful of berries wrapped in one corner of her skirt, which she carries rather gingerly, as if afraid to drop even one.
Torden looks up from his book and frowns at Jaelyn as he returns. Peering intently at the berries, he glares at her, his face twisting in anger. Lashing out with the Source, using flows of Air, he tries to pummel the twit as he bolts to his feet and bellows, 'TRYING TO POISON ME, ARE YOU !?' Redoubling his efforts, invisible blows rain down on Jaelyn faster and harder than at first.
Jaelyn screams as the first of the few blows land, stumbling away and falling to the ground, the berries scattering as they tumble from her hands. She wraps her arms about her head, trying to shield herself from the worst of the blows.
Sloane's gaze snaps in Jaelyn's direction when she screams. With a mad gleam in his eyes, he leaps to his feet, adrenaline apparently overcoming his injuries for the moment. Screaming something completely unintelligible and brandishing the oatmeal-covered spoon, he charges towards Torden.
Torden grunts as he hears Sloane and turns his gaze towards the man. Not hesitating, he ceases his attack on the foolish girl and turns it on Sloane, full force. Blow after blow assaults the man, directed in such a way so as to herd him away from Torden, and towards the fire.
Jaelyn staggers up to her feet as soon as the beating stops, stumbling away a few steps before she realizes Torden's new victim is Sloane and, grasping Saidar, she weaves a thick shield of Air between Sloane and the fire, then wrapping it about in front of him between her friend and Torden trying to keep as many of the blows away from Sloane as possible, yelling, 'Leave him alone!'
Sloane's charge falters as the first blows begin to land on him. He brings his arms up to cover his face, providing some small amount of protection. Soft grunts from the impacts are the only sounds he makes as he backs slowly towards the fire under the pressure of the assault, until he bumps against the wall of Air and stumbles to his knees, where he just huddles in on himself, shaking under the repeated impacts.
Torden growls as he feels the goose bumps rise on his arms, but continues to beat Sloane, sparing him one invisible assailant to send it at the back of Jaelyn's head as he turns to glare at the recalcitrant girl, trying to jar her more than trying to knock her out.
Jaelyn drops like a stone under the blow, falling forward with a painful cry and biting her lip badly enough to draw blood. Her hold on the source weakens drastically, but she manages to keep a fingernails grip, just enough to keep the wall of Air protecting Sloane from the fire intact.
Sloane continues to huddle in on himself more tightly, hands gripped around his head. His body shudders under each blow, but he refuses to cry out.
Torden grimaces and stops trying to assault Sloane. Sighing, he turns away from both of you and begins gathering his things. He tosses his saddle up on to the back of his horse and starts cleaning up his section of the camp, his facial expression beyond sour.
Jaelyn manages to lift her head enough to see that Sloane's no longer being pumpled to death and she shifts her weave to dump Sloane away from the fire, then releases and collapses to the ground fully, giving a soft moan and cradling her head.
Sloane tumbles over with little resistance when pushed by the shielf of Air, as he is braced against attack from the other direction. After a long moment of not being pummeled, he uncovers his head and looks up, gazing around until he finds Jaelyn again. He climbs slowly to his feet and begins to move stiffly in her direction.
Torden continues making preparations to leave. He gives his horse a very brief brushing and begins fastening his saddle to his mount. He also ties his share of the packs on to his steed, and even takes on some extra to make up for the lost horse. Seemingly ignoring both of you, he storms past you both, towards the death horse.
Jaelyn sobs quietly, her arms wrapped tightly about her head as she just shakes.
Sloane squats down next to Jaelyn and leans forward to whisper in her ear for a moment. When he leans back, he holds out his right hand to help her up, a large spot on his right cheek beginning to turn purple already.
You whisper to Jaelyn 'Stop it and get up. You may not wear the shawl yet, but you will be Aes Sedai if I have to die to get you back to the Tower. Now get up.'
Torden reaches the dead animal and methodically starts removing anything of value from it. He sighs and shakes his head, his face grim.
Jaelyn clenches her jaw slightly, reaching out and taking Sloane's offered hand and clambering up to her feet, wincing and wavering slightly as she almost looses her balance, but looking up at Sloane a touch gratefully, wiping at her cheeks with her free hand.
Once Jaelyn seems steady on her feet, Sloane turns and walks stiffly back to the cookpot. He grabs it by the handle and lifts it off the fire, setting it on the ground nearby, apparently oblivious to the heat. Although, when he turns walk back towards the packs for the ladle, he surreptitiously rubs his hand on the side of his pants.
Torden comes back to the camp carrying all he could salvage from the unfortunate abducted animal from last night. With a sigh he sets it in the middle of the camp. Turning on both of you, he tries to use a couple of flows of Air to render you both unconscious once more, obviously unconcerned for your health.
Jaelyn drops like a stone.
Sloane drops like a sack of unconscious flesh.
Torden continues to lead the two horses behind him with his captives along through the dense forest, picking his way along seemingly without any clear direction other than a Southwest tendency. He snorts as he looks up at the sky and the sun through the forest canvas, muttering darkly, 'These two will be the death of me yet.'
Jaelyn bounces along atop the horse, dead to the world.
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