A sudden flash of light and crash of thunder sent the horse Genny rode into a fit, several skewed steps and her balance was gone. Her feet wriggled free and the reins were dropped as the spooked horse’s body contorted and threw her. With a fall imminent she attempted to ball up as the horse fled. She was never a good rider, but had subsequently become excellent at falling. Another rider, still mounted, calmed their horse quickly and gave chase, while the third set his to trotting in a circle, pulling the reins to one side. He didn’t dismount, still trying to control his own horse. From where she lay, Genny groaned, touching her fingers to a cut on her head, the true red seeping out and clumping together the strands of fiery orange hair.
And then it began to rain. The onset of the storm was sudden and without much other warning. Within minutes the forest became drenched and now, even more than they had over the last several days of their search, the woods looked uniform; the gray misty backdrop only made every tree nearly indistinguishable from the last.
Genny, her companion, and his horse eventually made their way to a nearby cave, unable to wait any longer unsheltered for their third companion. It took a while, as most of the wood and their belongings were soaked, but eventually a fire was started. They stripped down to their knickers, wringing out their clothes and laying them to dry near the flames.
“Henrie’a mus’a found shel’er elsewhere,” he man offered, laying out his pants and plopping himself beside Genny, closer than was truly comfortable.
“She’ll find us when the storm passes,” she offered, her eyes peering out as if to gauge the storm, her arms wrapping awkwardly around her legs trying to minimize the indecency caused by her clinging, white shift.
“No’very likely,” he laughed, taking a swig from an over large flask before offering it to his travel companion. “Morning comes, we go back, she’ll mee’ us a’ ‘he Dagger no more ‘an a couple days.”
It would serve to warm her, so she took the flask and a sip. And then she coughed, it burned down and up; some powerful moonshine that might make you blind. “Gah… No.”
The flask was passed back to the man at her side. The sky only seemed to grow darker, despite that it was still midday. Heavy gray, swollen clouds moved slowly with a torrential downpour in their wake. Even now they were unrelenting.
“No?!” he spit, incredulously. “Has i’ no’ occurred on you, your friend Kals doesn’ wish ‘o be found?”
“We’re close,” she pulled away, as if it might take her out of the splash zone.
He seemed to take offense to her movement and yanked her arm, causing her to turn, pulling away the cover from her legs and breast. “Mind me, woman,” he growled.
And she punched. Her free hand came whipping from the other side with incredible speed, of course physical attacks weren’t really anything she had trained for and there wasn’t much force behind her bony fist.
At least he seemed surprised before he seemed angry.
“Mind me, I hired you,” she offered a little less confident than she had intended, pushing herself further away.