Chapter Text
You and Thorn are on a path in the woods, your not sure what lies at the end. Behind you is the remnants of The Cabin, the entirety of Thorn's known world and the majority of yours. You walk down the path in comfortable silence as your arm is resting on her shoulders and the hand of your other arm holding hers, fingers intertwined. The well trodden earth crunches softly beneath your feet. Signs of life outside of just the two of you becomes more and more apparent as you get further from the Cabin's ruins. Songbirds sings overhead, bushes occasionally rustle with beasts fleeing your approach, soon however the soothing sounds of nature are interrupted by one of your more bombastic mental passengers.
The Smitten: (You should watch for any stones or pebbles that may lay in our darlings path. It won't due to have her injured so early into our freedom.)
Another voice chimes in, one of the more composed and rational of your mental passengers.
The Hero: (I hate to point out the obvious, but she already is. We should get those injuries cleaned as soon as we find some form of civilization.)
And then the final member of the peanut gallery inside your mind adds in his thoughts on the matter.
The Opportunist: (And it better be soon. As much as I enjoy a trek through nature, I much prefer the comforts of four walls, a roof, and some shoes....do you think shoes can fit on our decision makers feet....talons?)
You tune out his ramblings and look over at Thorn, the Hero is right. Her injuries from the brambles she encased herself in are minor but numerous. The rivulets of blood have stopped flowing, leaving only the dried bloodstains on her arms. You continue to walk in the comfortable atmosphere that has settled between the two of you. Soon you spy the very signs that civilization that you were expecting. A single freshly felled tree, the stump standing out amongst the rest of the tall oak wood that line both sides of your dirt path. As you pass it by, you spy more evidence of someone, or many someones, having chopped down some of the trees in this forest.
The Hero: (Well this is a relief, I was almost worried about this path simply going on forever. But after what HE told us about reality being malleable, I didn't want to speak it into becoming true.)
The Opportunist: (Oh what did he know, he swore that Thorn here would end the world. So far that's been nothing but shite. So I wouldn't take what that blowhard had to say to heart.)
Your personally not confident that he was entirely wrong, he seemed to be aware of things that just couldn't be ignored but at the same time he seemed quite ignorant about other things. Especially that mirror. It's still bothering you, the fact he couldn't even see it.....
Thorn: Hey, is that smoke in the distance?
The gentle question coming from the woman at your side snaps you back into the moment. You glance up to above the treeline and see it, then wispy trails of grey. It's definitely smoke and from the looks of it, from several sources of flame. As you crest a small hill, you realize the other side of it descends down into a valley. The woods on each side of your path thin in front of you as all of five of you take in the sight. A small rustic looking village with houses made of stone, with a large open center town square lays in the distance. The thin and wispy trails of smoke coming from several chimneys. It's too far away to make out any of the finer details, but it's better then sleeping in the woods. You glance at Thorn, your beak forming a smile somehow, but instead of joy you see unease on her features. You follow her eyes, locked onto the sky above, and see nothing but the thin wisps of smoke and the darkening but still blue sky.
The Opportunist: (Knives out! Something has gotten her shook up, even if we can't see it we need to be ready!)
For some reason the Opportunist's call to action, "Knives out!" strikes you.....oddly. It makes your stomach churn as the mental image of a small crowd of other avian-like humanoids surround you. Their eyes full of malicious glee as they encircle closer. The image disperses as quickly as it formed, but it leaves you mildly shaken. Somehow you KNOW for a fact that the crowd included the very three voices you currently have residing in your head.
You feel Thorn's grip on your hand tighten, you feel the tremors coming from her due to how hard she is holding onto you. Her knuckles white and her face a matching pale color as she remains fixated on something unseen above the both of you. You brush off your internal discomfort and focus on helping her. You gently inquire what's up in the sky that has her attention, glancing up and around as you do in case it becomes something visible to yourself. Thorn doesn't respond verbally, instead finally turning her sight away from the sky and buring her face into the crook of your neck. Your feathers puff out in surprise, further obscuring her face from view.
The Smitten: (Don't just stand there, be a proper Gentlebird and console her! She needs to feel us hold her close, that will surely let her know that she is in no danger.)
You feel that normally the Smitten can be overly passionate towards the Princess, you have to admit he isn't wrong in this situation. As far as you can tell there isn't anything that would justify Thorn's fright, but that doesn't make her fear any less real. So you rest your chin upon the top of her head, careful not to let any of the literal thorns that seem to be growing from her brow jab you. Then you pull her into you, allowing her to take all the time she needs to feel safe and secure.
The Hero: (Your doing a good thing, but be mindful of the time. We don't want to be out in these woods once night sets, and daylight is already fading. It could take us an hour easily to reach that village in the valley.)
You silently acknowledge the Hero's warning. Your not sure how insulating your feathers are, and are loathed to find out. You feel the tension through Thorn's body, along with the uneven breaths she takes. You put your palm between Thorn's shoulderblades and firmly rub her back. This seems to rapidly soothe Thorn, her muscles slowly relaxing as her breathing evens out.
Thorn:.....Thank you.....I don't know what just came over me, but....but I think I'm better now.
Thorn pulls away and gives you a grateful smile, her face now red from embarrassment, but you would much prefer this compared to the deathly pale that she looked moments ago. You intertwine your fingers into hers again and explain that time may become an issue. Her face becomes determined, and the two of you resume traveling down the path. Now with a more purposeful and rapid pace to it, partly from fear of spending the night out in the open and partly from getting a visible goal to reach. The village nestled in the valley.
One of your mental passengers offers a sound peice of advice as you get closer to the village, rapidly followed by another one expressing their distaste.
The Opportunist: (Make sure to look for a Chapel, Synagogue, Mosque, or even a Gurdwara if this place has one. Religious types of all creeds are suckers if you make them helping you seem like it will earn them points with whoever they think is upstairs.)
The Smitten: (If we were not desperate for shelter, I would have quite a scathing critique of your willingness to take advantage of others. But for now, I'm afraid I must refrain. Hero, please remind me later to voice my disappointment in our companion.)
While the Voice of the Hero doesn't make any verbal response, you can practically feel the withering look he is aiming at the Opportunist. You shut them out momentarily as you take in the sights around you. You have reached the outer edge of the farmlands that must be for feeding the inhabitants of the village. What most would expect to be vast and flat fields of a singular crop, are instead terraced steps of a repeating pattern. One row of of what appear to be garlic, then strawberries, then sunflowers, then corn, followed by a row of tomato before the pattern begins again. You hear Thorn speak, as if sensing your curiosity over the pattern.
Thorn: It's companion planting. The different crops help deter pests that could harm the others. As well as helping slow the spread of a blight for any specific species by not having all of just one type of plant bunched together.
You are surprised that Thorn knew all that, considering she seems to have been kept in a room underground her entire existence. When you turn your eyes away from the farmland to look at her it seems she is equally surprised at her knowledge. Her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth slightly agape.
Thorn: Huh, didn't know I knew all of that. I wonder what else I have stored in my mind I'm not aware of.