Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

Oleander nodded gratefully and settled her head down against her legs, just above the water beneath her. Her eye fluttered shut, trying to block out the pain and settle into sleep, but it was still a little while before her breath began to, at last, even out.

It wasn't a very restful sleep. She shuddered every so often and her legs twitched, as if she was running away from something. But she did manage to sleep at least for a couple of hours. Just as it was reaching the end of the second hour, she suddenly jerked awake with a gasp, splashing the filthy water as a her legs jerked away from an invisible threat. After a few seconds of terror, the nightmare began to fade away and her movements went still. The pain was returning, blinding, and she couldn't see Warrior. He was on her bad side and her good eye was too clouded with fear to focus on anything. "Warrior?" she whimpered fearfully. "Are you there?"

@Warrior

He'd lain quiet, enduring the pain, the fear, shivering with it. But what were the alternatives-? He hadn't wanted to wake the filly, and sleeping--both of them sleeping--hadn't been an option.

Warrior had feared, every moment, that danger might crawl around the corner, or fly in from above; yet the marsh had remained eerily silent. He turned, flaring nostrils at her panicked voice.

"Am here. And--awake. It's okay." He felt anything but okay, of course, but... that was just how it was. He leaned forward, exhaling warm air in an instinctive equine greeting, a reassurance that he was there, and close, and all right. "You want to--rest more? Or watch and I rest or... we can both go?"

He shifted a little, still trembling, feeling the muck stir a little around him. Thankfully it was hot; lying in cold wet would have been dangerous, but this did nothing more than keep him cool.

@Oleander

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

His voice made her flinch, but it was reassuring, grounding, and the warm air he breathed on her face calmed her the rest of the way, but she was still halfway to terrified, especially as the pain overwhelmed. But as her head finally cleared a bit and she turned her head so that she could see Warrior properly, she saw him trembling, his own wounds still open.

She let out a soft snort. "Am okay. Sorry for scaring." Selfishness drained away and she took a shuddering breath. "I sleep enough for now. You rest? I watch as best I can." She realized that she might not be the best for "keeping watch" considering that she was still adjusting to using one eye, but she could still hear and smell the air. She'd do her best to take her turn as watch.

@Warrior

Warrior glanced over Oleander's wounds. They were bad, but so were his--and she seemed more steady, now, more level-headed now that she'd had time to rest. Not that she had been unreasonable in her fear--he himself was still frightened half out of his wits--but he wouldn't have dared ask her to keep watch were she still so terrified.

For now, though he was reluctant to sleep, he felt deep relief at her offer. Exhaustion surged up within him as he nodded, and he realized only now--as Oleander suggested he rest--just how tired he was.

"Okay," he murmured, and slowly lowered his head to his knees. And, as if in afterthought--"It's okay. Scared of everything. It's all scary. I'll sleep. We'll be okay." He reassured her of this, but it was as blind as her wounded eye: he had no idea what they might run into. But he felt... as if things were somehow less urgent, now. As if nothing would come for them; as if this place were secret, sacred, and safe.

Maybe it was just the zebra foal watching over him.

But within moments he was asleep, oblivious to the dangers of the world, lost in the black bliss of dreamless rest.

@Oleander
exit Warrior

Oleander

Melt all your art and drink the paint

The young zebra nodded and watched as he lowered himself beside her. She steeled herself for her watch. She felt more steady then she'd been before, but she was still shivering a little. The sleep had done a number for her level of fear, but there was no being completely fearless in a place like this.

She wanted to believe what Warrior was saying, that they'll be okay, that they'll be safe, but Oleander didn't know. She didn't know if she could trust anything, because everything around her told her that she would not be okay. But Warrior was here to protect her, right? And she would do the same for him. Yes, she'd be strong for him. She wouldn't let anything touch him while he slept. She raised her head and looked out through her single eye, trying to get her shivering under control as she watched over her friend.

*exit