He smiled as he spoke, he was far from offended. But to sleep here and now, in the midst of this murder - not the most pleasant thought. He watched her whilst she slept, he stood silent vigil, he guarded her in the night. She was entirely capable, he needn't worry; but old habits died hard and furrowed his brow.
He only afforded himself sleep when he lay next to her. He could not sleep without that, not... having to see her awake. I was an odd thing. They weren't safe. His guard would not come down. He was tired as hell, unable to rationalize; but was not ok with this.
And he yawned... and then frowned.
Really though. This is no time to sleep......
His eyes did not agree with that statement, they fluttered and he yawned yet again.
Kiko put a hand on his chest. Her fingers went across his jaw in a soothing gesture, pulling hair free of his neck and spreading it out along a shoulder. Her voice was barely audible, too.
Perhaps not, I would not choose it myself were there another option. But, I won't have you collapsing either. Tomorrow will come soon enough. Rest.
Her voice had gotten softer as she spoke, especially after she saw his eyes flutter closed. Kiko waited for him to fall asleep. She would remained beside him until his breathing evened out, then she had every intention of dragging the bodies into a pile and going through their gear.
She had zero qualms about looting their belongings for anything useful.
Grayell frowned as he fell asleep then. His brow furrowed, entirely unhappy with being this beat. It would be a restless sleep and sure enough, it wouldn't last.
Kiko waited until she was sure he was asleep then fed more wood to the greedy flames. She wrapped the blanket around him better, too.
She retrieved the body of the dead Marik, first. He was likely the only one with anything useful. Though, she did drag the other four to the cart as well. Anything they had was worn and useless, but it didn't hurt to be thorough, even if the armored poacher took more work to drag than she really had energy for at the moment.
Kiko sat down beside Grayell's sleeping for after moving the bodies. She laid her hand on his forehead, but he did not seem inordinately warm to her, which soothed some of her worry. He had not been acting normal, and the token fight he put up against her earlier ended too quickly and without any of his quips.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell had crashed hard. The drain of increasing his use of blood magic was something new and entirely unprepared for. He could manage physical tiredness and even severe injury without so much as batting an eyelid, but the overwhelming mental fatigue was something he had not felt before. Not on that scale.
But at least it wiped him out entirely. He did not dream and did not stir... though somewhere he was fighting his exhaustion, his face still upset and definitely refusing to relax....
... until he hand pressed to his forehead for that one moment. His features soothed then, if only a little. Her touch brought him comfort always and even in his sleep her knew the touch of her to him.
Kiko smiled to herself when his features smoothed out. She collected water in a small tin teapot she found in Marik's gear and set it next to the fire. Further exploration of the packs even turned up some ground tea leaves. She steep them later, if he woke.
Marik also had a small pouch of gold on him. She didn't bother to count it, only put it aside. It was probably to pay them men with him, and she was looking for something else. She did come across a small map, but it meant nothing to her. Perhaps the Wolf would recognize it. Marik was carrying one other thing that didn't seem to fit. A solid metal ring about the size of his thumb or index finger was tucked beneath his shirt on a thin cord.
Kiko spun it around before sitting it on top of the map.
The rest of the packs where gone through with little result. A few bits of traveling food and surplus water. Kiko sighed and left the bodies behind the cart.
When Grayell opened his eyes it was no longer dark. The sun had risen, the hum of early morning insects in the air, the smell of tea from a small pot beside the fire penetrated his nose.
But, of Kiko there was no indication.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell sat up and slid from the bed then, double checked it for her and found nothing. His first reaction was calm, she was likely busy elsewhere. All the same, he had slept and not seen her leave. That was something he wasn't all too comfortable with, if only because it left an unknown and they were in unfamiliar territory.
He shuffled tot he tea by the fire, checked it's warmth. How long it had been off the flames.
The tea was barely off the flames. The tin, which wasn't at all insulated, still warm. And, Kiko had returned in the form of the wolf. Though, she shook her head when she saw him awake and changed back to human.
How do you feel?
She rested a hand on his cheek.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell smiled and let her hand slide with a almost complaining growl. He stretched though as he rose from the fire side, the blanket dropping from his shoulders, his chest and arms swelling. It took him a moment to savor that sensation and then he smacked his lips. He was much brighter than before.
Kiko looked at him over her shoulder. She bent down to pick up the teapot, pour some into a cup made from the same type of tin.
Yeah. Or, rather I tried. Not much in the way of incline here. I had to run quite a ways out before I managed to get above the swamp. Still, nothing seems to match the map.
She handed Grayell the cup and poured another one.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell was sitting with his head slightly tilted, his mouth dropped open and one eye twitching a little. He snapped out of it when she handed him the cup and he smiled in thanks, going to take a sip.
Of course, then she bent over again to pour another cup and he sighed, simply staring. The cup got too hot though and he snapped out of it with a start.