Homeward We Go Part Five

Characters: Kentar, Aikuen, Will, Fira

Location: Broadstream

The Nothern Bank of the Broadstream heading south to Mossflower Woods

The group has stopped for a mid-morning snack along the stream. The food has been set out and most of the group are eating, but yet again, Kentar isn't. He's not really eaten in a few days. Right now he's polishing his rapier and sitting next to the water, staring at his reflection.

The two otters are sitting by the fire, eating some of this fish they caught last night. Will has gone a little bit away, to eat his food, away from them because of the mushy stuff their doing. Fira nudges Aikuen in the ribs and points to Kentar. The older otter sighs and nods, and picks up the food that they had cooked for the stoat. He heads over to him, and plops down next to him, not doing anything but sitting. After a good while he finally breaks the silence, "Hey matey! How are you?"

Kentar keeps polishing his rapier but looks up when Aikuen speaks. "Tired. But alright" he replies quietly. "What about you and Fira?" the stoat asks, smiling a bit, before looking back at the water and his weapon.

Aikuen nods and grins, "Were doing just great... I cant describe how great it actually is..." He sighs, "Tired huh... Your also not eating mate... Is something wrong?"

Kentar chuckles a bit and sighs himself, shaking his head. "Nothing's wrong. I'm fine"

Aikuen snorts and laughs, "Liar! or... you can prove me wrong by eating this..." He shows the skewered fish, "If not, you have to tell me what's wrong with you" Yes, this otter is direct and too the point.

Kentar frowns some and eyes the fish before the otter. "No. I'm not hungry" he says simply, placing his rapier back on his belt. "I swear, there's nothing wrong with me"

Aikuen shakes his head, "You haven't eating anything in two days, and you tell me somethings not wrong...If you don't want to tell me... that's fine... Im just looking out for yah" He munches on the fish, and throws a rock into the stream.

Kentar slowly sighs. "I just don't want to talk about it, okay?" he says quietly. "Just...leave me alone about it" the stoat looks back up, frowning some. "Really. Stop worrying"

Aikuen shrugs, "If yah say so mate..." He begins to hum a tune as he looks for another rock to toss into the stream. 'Kentar and Will have both been acting weird lately' thinking to himself '... right after... hmmm'.

Kentar watches Aikuen for a few moments before speaking again. "So...When are you and Fira gonna get married?" he asks, grinning

If Aikuen was drinking water, it would have gone everywhere. He coughs and hacks a little bit before looking to Kentar and saying, "Whoa matey... I haven't even told her that i love her... let alone talk about getting married!" He places his paws in front of hum, and twiddles his claws.

Kentar laughs and grins wide. "Hahaha. Come on mate...gotta tell her you love her" he grins winking. "Don't worry mate, I'm making fun of you" he laughs.

Aikuen says, "I was planning too... But i wanted to make sure it all worked out... Will for example..." He sighs, "I asked Will the other day about what he thinks about her. He said she was alright... but then he got all quiet all of the sudden. Then there is something you two did... then yesterday he poured it all out to me. Said something about that he is glad for me, but not quite sure that he wants her for a ma... I told him it would be alright... but i dont think he believes me..." He points a claw at Kentar, "Yah well, your not the only one who does that..."

Kentar watches Aikuen for a moment. "Well. He asked me what to do about it...He's scared that if you two go off, get married, then have some dibbun's of your own, you'll stop liking him" he says. "For them

Aikuen shakes his head, "But we wont... I love Will, and i couldn't do that to him... I told he could be a big brother to them..." It got dryer all of a sudden in his mouth, when he talks about that, "... He said it wouldn't be a good idea... but i don't see what's wrong" He picks up a sizable rock and chunks it into the river.

Kentar Sighs. "Will is a strange kid. I honestly don't think he believes any of us when we say you will love him more then anything..." he shrugs. "It...gets rather annoying I have to say. Though I'm sure any of us in his position would believe the same" He shrugs a bit, looking into the water.

Aikuen nods, "Aye that's true... I know he has been with a lot of families... And last night he said that he has seen this before... hmmm... I don't know... I hope im not like that... I would do anything for him" He shakes his head, and begins to unlatch his armor from his arm.

Kentar nods slowly. "Yeah..." he nods slowly before hehing. "All I know right of this moment that is for sure, is that I'm quite jealous of you Aikuen" he smirks and looks back at the water, thinking.

The strange kid is too busy eating fish to pay much attention to what the others are doing at the moment. He muches on his fish happily as he watches a butterfly pass by, keeping a close eye on it til it's out of sight.

Aikuen stops and looks at the stoat, a quizzical look on his face. He points to himself and says, "Jealous of me? Why?" He really has no idea.

Kentar sighs. "You've got a kid who loves you. An ottermaid who's practically crazy about you" he says, kicking a few stones into the water.

Will has finish his fish and gnaws on the left over stick thinking.

Aikuen laughs a little bit, "Never thought about it like that, I guess your right.." He pulls off the armor, and since he never took it off since he first put it on, when he first got it, The fur underneath is matted, dirty and coming off where the straps held it to him. He stretches the arm, and blows off the some of the dirt before saying, "At least your young, im jealous of that."

Kentar slowly stands up and smiles a bit. "Your living the life I could have had Aikuen, be happy and not jealous of me" he says, slowly looking to the sky. "I'm going to go scout the area" he says, starting to walk along. "Will be back"

Aikuen nods to him and says, "Be careful mate!" Takes some water from the stream and washes off the dirt and flatten the fur. He hums to himself as he does this, not aware of much at the moment.

Fira had been trying to talk to Will with mixed results. After some goading the rat had tried to climb a tree proving that rats have very little in common with squirrels, which should have been obvious in Will's opinion. He did manage to get back down without falling on his head or getting too scratched up. Fira seems to find this amusing and denies that the rat's poor climbing skills are her fault nor is his nearly falling out of the tree. Will decides to see what the other otter is doing.

Will walks over and sits down next to Aikuen. "Where's Kentar off to?" he asks.

Aikuen pokes at his new bald spots and sighs, "Oh... He's off on a scouting mission."

Will asks, "He still not eating?"

Aikuen nods some, "Aye... I didn't push it too much for him too eat... Think I have an idea why he's not though?" He pulls out a tuft of hair and tosses it behind him.

Will watches the otter for a bit, "Oh? Why do you think he's not eating?"

Aikuen shrugs, "Well, I have a guess... I think he still loves his mate... And i think me and Fira, kinda started to make him think about her again... Er... Dont tell him i said that" He washes his arm again.

Will nods some, "Is that what you and him were talking about at th sea shore? I talked to him some already and he thinks maybe what you and him talked about is why he's not eating or least partly why."

Aikuen sighs and nods, "That's what I think... We were talking about how we got over our last mates. He threw his ring into the ocean saying how he is ready to move on. And i told him that even though i got over mine, ill never forget her..." He points to his ring, then continues, "He says that he is over her... but I don't think so..." He hmms.

Will chew on his lip, "That's probably it. ...... He say how long ago he lost her?"

Aikuen says, "Three seasons..."

Will chews on his lip some more. "Been longer for you huh? An bet you an Kentar knew the beasts you miss for more than half a season. Told him he needs t think about other stuff more .... and everyone says time makes it better ...... never say how much time has t pass though."

Aikuen nods, "Aye I lost mine about twelve seasons ago... I knew her for about six seasons, course I didn't knew I loved her except for the last season..." smiles and pats Will on the shoulder, "He does need to think about other things, but if he wants to think about her... then let him..." He sighs, "It took me, about 7 seasons to move on, but I also was fighting in a war at the time... so I had to keep my mind on other things." He places his footpaws into the stream.

Will nods, looking the large scrape on his knee that he'd got when trying to climb a tree. "Might take him a while t able to think about them and not get so sad but he still needs to eat between now and whenever that is."

Aikuen says, "Well tonight if he doesn't eat, I'll give him some of the medicine I got. He might not like it... but it'll keep him from starving." He sighs and picks up his armor and a rag, cleaning the inside of it, and mumbles, "Why, if you were scared of losing me to Fira...and...our..., " He gulps loudly, "young...Why didn't you come to me first... Kentar told me that you talked to him about it first."

Will nods at the part about Kentar but doesn't look to happy when the otter bring up the other topic. "... Same reason I asked for help before I told you I wanted you t be my pa. 'cept Kentar's not as helpful as Miz Gwen was," he says hoping this will end the discussion.

Aikuen ohs and thinks for a moment, as he finishes cleaning. He hmms to himself then says, "Okay I can understand you needing help to do that..." He doesn't seem like it though. He shakes his head, and goes back to his pack, placing his armor, sword, dagger, and sling into it. He then goes back to the river, wades in, and sits down. Just the top of his shoulder and head is above the water as he looks upstream.

Will can tell the otter isn't happy about this. "I talk to you about everything else. I just can't talk to you when you are the problem. I could /try/ but I don't think it would work out too well," he explains diping his footpaws into the river.

Aikuen dips his head in, and is gone for minutes or so. He slowly comes back out, nods and smiles, "I realize that im the problem. And the best way to deal with a problem is to go right to the source...me...But I think your right, it wouldn't work out too well. Heh... Dont know what I would have done or said" He chuckles.

Will nods, sure that had Aikuen seen what was written on the tablet he wouldn't have liked it. Having had enough of this kind of talk the ratling kicks his feet in the river splashing water at the otter while grinning.

Aikuen doesn't see the splash coming and takes it full in the face. He shakes it off, "Rude!" and smiles evilly. He dips underwater, and comes up near will, and using most of his arm in the water, he creates a very small tidal wave.

Will doesn't mind as the wave hits him, but he does close his eye til it's past. Still grinning he slips into the water after the otter, weighed down a bit by his sword which rarely leaves him. While he can neither climb as well as a squirrel nor swim as well as an otter, by any stretch of the imagination, he can both climb and swim /well enough/ for a rat.

Aikuen gets in front of the Rattling, sticking his rudder out toward him, "Here grab it..." He smiles evilly, but he is looking the other way, so the rat cant see it.

Will unaware of the otter intentions grabs hold of his father's tail.

Aikuen laughs and says, "Hold on tight matey!" He dives underwater, and is soon shooting through the water. He comes up a a good bit down the stream. He laughs, "Fun?"

Will breath is taken away unprepared for the dive. He tries to hang on as the otter takes off but it isn't easy with the water rushing by sooo fast all around him. The rat looses his grip on the otter and comes up sputtering and spitting out water, "Could have given me more warning! *huff* Let's not do that again for a while," He treads the water trying to get his breath back while scowling playfully at the laughing otter.

Aikuen laughs as he lays on his back on the surface of the water. He places his paws behind his head, and uses his rudder to propel him around Will, "Well if i gave you a warning, you wouldn't let me do it!"

"You don't know that. I might 'ave. If you'd asked," the rat says not bothering to keep his face to the otter as he circles him. "I might not mind going again ..... later," he adds. He tilts his head down and peals his eye patch, which had gotten plastered to his face, away just enough to let the bit of water that had gotten trapped in his eye socket drain out.

Aikuen smiles, "Alright! I hold you to that!". He doesn't see the whole eye patch thing, since he continues to circle Will with his eyes closed.

Will's repositons his patch more comfortably over his missing eye and just lets himself just float a while. "Ok. But give me more warning first," he says splashing at the otter as he circles round.

Aikuen acks, and says, "Argh! you got me!" He breathes out and he slowly sinks under the waves. He swims around and comes underneath Will, tugging on his tail, Just enough to get him to realize it.

Will starts to swim away when the otter goes under the water but then he feels something grab his tail and he lets out a surprised squeak as he pulls away from whatever it is.

Aikuen laughs as Will pulls away. He swims back to surface and continues to laughs, "Oh No! There is a Pike in the river! Hahah!" Quickly diving underneath, he pops back up next to Will, still laughing.

"Hey!" Will exclaims seeing it was only Aikuen that had grabbed him. He splashes at the otter again, "Don't do that!" he laughs.

Aikuen chuckles, and shakes the water out of his fur. He says, "Your sword weighing you down?" He can tell obviously, "You can stop that by placing your paw on top of the hilt, and pushing it toward your leg..." He swims around Will and pops up, "Or you can tie the end of the sheath to your leg... either one works! Of course you could always take it off, then what's the point!" He laughs and lays back on top of the water.

Will says, "I'm fine." He sees the benefits of what the otter suggests but pushing his sword out of the way and tying it to his leg could both make it harder to swim and as for taking it off .... well he won't unless he wants to, which he doesn't.

This time, the scouting mission didn't go wrong for Kentar but it did for the one he ended up carrying back to camp. Since Aikuen and Will were a bit further south, they couldn't see him, nor the one he was carrying over his shoulder.

Aikuen has attached his armor to new area of fur on his arm, so the bald areas can regrow. Standing up he attaches the two clips of his sheath to his belt on his back. He sits back down, and picks up a few rocks to toss in the river.

There was a bit of shouting from the camp, but that ended off after a few seconds, the camp going quiet again, the smoke from the fire getting bigger however, probably some more wood being put on.

Its not seeing the smoke that gets the otters attention, its the smell. He tosses a few rocks into the river, then he smells the burning of more fresh logs. he looks back north and seeing the smoke billowing from camp. Thinking that it was just Fira adding more logs to the fire, he laughs and says, "I'm gonna go back to camp... come back before nightfall, Alright?" He picks up his pack, in one paw. he heads back to camp.

Clearly there was arguing going on in the camp. Obviously it was Fira and Kentar yelling at each other but Kentar seemed panicked, and Fira seemed rather annoyed. Kentar was shouting more and as Aikuen got closer the words 'Do something, do something!' were getting clearer.

Aikuen remains quiet until he gets back to camp. He drops his pack on the ground, and asks, still not knowing what exactly went on, "What the hell... is going on here?" He is not yelling, just asking point blank

Next to the fire which is burning more, there's an injured stoatmaid, bleeding quite badly. Kentar looks up and points to the wounded stoat. "I have no idea what to do, she wont stop bleeding!" Fira doesn't seem to have a clue either. Usually Kentar knows what to do but he seems oddly panicked

Will nods as the otter leaves and after while he too get out of the river and makes his way back to camp as well.

Aikuen when he hears bleeding, he automatically takes the kit from his pack, and rushes over to the wounded stoat. He immediately sees the wound on her side of the middle, and there is already a pool of blood beginning to form. He has to hurry. He yells to no one in particular, "Someone help me close the wound! Just hold it together!" He is holding it himself, but since he doesn't have multiple paws he cant reach and use the kit.

Kentar quickly does as was told, the stoat getting there before Fira, moving quite quickly, paws going to hold the wound together.

Aikuen nods and and wipes his bloodied paws on his fur. He reaches out for the Kit and pulls out the needle and thread. She is bleeding to much to worry about infection at the moment, and disregards the flask. Starting the suture he asks, "What... The hell... Happened... Ung..." He pulls it tightly and starts the next stitch.

Will follows the river back towards camp casually munching on insects along the way and in no great hurry to get back.

Kentar watches and closes his eyes. "She was attacked...I managed to fight off the attackers...carried her back here."

Aikuen Grunts as he works quickly wiping his paws again on his fur again. He is about halfway done, and continues to work vigilante to sew her up. Course he still time to say, "You... Need... To learn... Basic Healing...Matey... Ung..."

Will says nothing as he comes upon the camp and sees what going on. He stays mostly quiet in part so Aikuen can work and also because his mouth is full of crunchy bugs.

Kentar sighs, "I...I panicked...I know healing...mostly."

Aikuen nods, "Fine... Fine..." He finishes the last stitch and cuts it with his fangs. He rubs it to make sure it sealed properly, "Take a blanket and put it over her..." He slowly picks her and moves her closer to the fire. After that he stands up and wipes his forehead. There is now a blood streak where his paw touched it.

Kentar quickly grabs a blanket and carefully places it over her, and sits back, sighing. "Is she alright?"

Will is now able to speak having finished the moth and other delicacies he'd been indulging in previously. "What's going on?" he asks now that the stoatmaid is patched up and resting.

Aikuen goes over to Fira and sits down. She had remained quiet the whole time, and when Aik sat down she places her head on his shoulder and hugs him around the middle. Aikuen shrugs, "She lost a lot of blood, but she is still alive... only thing we can do is wait..." He closes his eyes and breathes deeply, placing his head on top of hers. Letting the stoat fill in information for Will.

Kentar takes a deep breath and nods, closing his eyes and sighing again, hanging his head in his paws. "I...uh...Found her. She was being attacked so I fought off the attackers, and well...I carried her back and here we are."

Will nods, "What's her name?"

Kentar shrugs slowly. "I don't know...she went out before I could ask"

Aikuen Cracks an eye open and asks, "Who attacked her?"

Kentar quietly speaks. "A rat and a ferret" he says

Will listens to the talking and runs through his mind all he knows about ferrets, which isn't much. Despite this he decides he doesn't like ferrets very much.

Aikuen clears his throat, "Oh no reason... just... er... wondering... and some other..." He stops and clears his throat again.

Will puts his paw on his sword drumming his fingers on the hilt wondering if they could be the same beasts and if they could read English or not. If so they'd be in for a surprised if they ever fight him

Aikuen mentally sighs with relief. Did not want to tell the stoat that there is a group of troops hunting him. And a way to recognize them is that they are wearing blood red uniforms. He wraps his arms around Fira, and kisses the top of her head

Kentar eyes the otter. "Why did you ask about uniforms?" he asks.

Aikuen shrugs, "No reason... Just wanted to make sure, there were not some beasts from my past..." He keeps his eye closed.

Kentar ohs and nods. "Okay" he says quietly, nodding.

Aikuen sighs. Good thing he didn't push the conversation. He kisses Fira on top of the head, releases his grip on her. He stands up and walks over to the stoatmaid, placing his paw on her neck. Then hovering his paw over her mouth. he nods, "Breathing is normal, but still out of it..."

Kentar looks back to her and stares for a few moments, sighing again. "I wish I got there sooner"

Aikuen shakes his head, "You got there as fast as you could... She is still alive, be thankful for that..." He shrugs and goes back to sit with Fira.

Will seems a little lost here. Looks like everyone is pairing up except him, though given his age he wouldn't care to be paired with someone just yet. A little unsure still he wanders over to the otters and sits on Aikuen's other side not knowing what else to do with himself.

Kentar saved her life, and if he was asked, he wouldn't consider that pairing up. He just stares and sighs. "I'm glad she's alive..." he sighs again.

Aikuen nods, and chuckles "lucky her..." He passes a wink to the stoat, before patting Will on the shoulder.

Kentar nods and tilts his head to the wink before sighing and standing. "I'm going to get some sleep" He says, going to his bedroll and going to sleep.

Aikuen nods to the stoat, and waves a paw. Upon doing this he can see that he is covered in dried blood. He grunts and shakes his head. Getting up again he walks to the river, to wash it off.

Will watches Kentar go off to bed and then Aikuen off to the river to wash, he looks over at Fira who's again fiddling with her spear. "Soooo what do we do if she wakes up?" he asks no beast in particular.

Aikuen scrubbing the blood out, but can still hear Will, he hmms and says, "I don't know...Up to her I guess..." He walks back and sits down again, and whispers to Will, "An what Kentar might say... Heh..."

Will smiles a little, "Yeah. I would be best to let him talk to her first. She'd be more likely to believe him than us."

Aikuen chuckles and nods, still whispering to Will and looking away from Fira "Aye, I guess. Especially me and Fira... Just in case she is a full fledged vermin..."

Will nods not bothering to remind Aikuen that it wasn't a ferret and an /otter/ that had attacked the stoatmaid.

Aikuen nods, and looks to Fira, He mouths something, and she smirks and shoves Aik in the shoulder. And the older otter can't help but chuckle.

Kentar sighs and wakes up slowly, looking over his shoulder, yawning. "How is she?"

Will had been about to drift off himself and is startled by the stoat's voice, "Huh?! Oh," he looks over at Kentar, "She's ok I guess. Still sleeping."

Aikuen cant move, because Fira is beginning to fall asleep on his shoulder, "Still out, but she is still around with us" He looks over to her and asks, "I wonder what she'll think when she wakes up... seeing two otters, a rat, and another stoat..."

Kentar looks over and ohs, sighing a bit. "Thats...I thought she'd...er..be up by now"

Will says, "She'll probably wake up soon."

"She'll probably wake up soon," Will says.

Aikuen shrugs with one shoulder, "She lost a lot of blood... may take awhile before she finally gets up." He sighs, "Im guessing anytime now... and the afternoon tomorrow..."

Kentar looks up and nods slowly, closing his eyes. "I just want her alright...I don't think we could carry her with us till she heals. Suspect she'll be on her way when she can."

Will yawns, "She might not want t go back for all we know."

Kentar looks at Aikuen and uhs. "Er...Why would I ask her to go with us?"

Aikuen shrugs and smiles, "Oh, no reason... just thinking aloud I guess..." He places his head on top of Fira's.

Kentar blinks and sighs. "Come on mate, tell me why you said it."

Will is tired and stays quiet.

Aikuen chuckles, "Remember how you said it would be hard to find some stoatmaid that's not a Vermin..." He nods to the stoatmaid, "Just a thought..."

Aikuen chuckles, "Remember how you said it would be hard to find some stoatmaid that's not a Vermin..." He nods to the stoatmaid, "Just a thought..."

"This isn't yurr island Pa," Will says, "It'd be nice in /some ways/ if it were more like that here. Yurr forgettin where you are and how things /usually/ are here."

Kentar watches some and frowns. "Uh. Yeah, but I don't know her, and I don't really want to."

Aikuen nods slowly forgetting about how this isn't his home, "Oh... yah... Well, I like to keep an open mind." He looks to Kentar and tilts his head, "Why not?"

Kentar frowns and closes his eyes. "You know exactly why."

Aikuen chuckles and shakes his head, "No... I don't... At least I don't remember... or I don't get it, which is probably the correct answer." He scratches his head, trying to figure it out.

Kentar frowns. "I don't want to talk about it again" he sighs.

Aikuen still doesn't get it, but shrugs, "I'll figure it out eventually..." He sighs and closes his eyes.

Kentar closes his eye. "I still love my old mate...remember? I don't think I'm ready to fall in love again."

Will has somehow managed to drift off to sleep during the conversation.

Aikuen in his mind, the otter puts on his most confused look ever to what the stoat said... But then again, what he said makes sense. but he wants to make his point clear, "I thought you said you were ready to move on? But i do understand..."

Kentar sighs. "I'm not ready to love or move on."

Aikuen nods and says, "I figured as much... not eating... felling depressed... Simple signs" He sighs, "Well then, when she wakes up, well just tell her to be on her way, or follow us if she want too, and i wont press the matter anymore."

Kentar nods slowly. "I will have to I suppose" he sighs.

Aikuen looks to Fira and chuckles. She has fallen quite asleep on his shoulder. As slowly and carefully as he can, so not to disturb her, he gets up, and picks her up in his arms. Taking her to her own bedroll, he lays her down carefully, giving a quick kiss. He smiles, because even though she is asleep, Fira still smirks when she is kissed. He goes to sit on his own bedroll and looks back to Kentar, "Well, like i said before... give it time..." He lays back with his paws behind his head.

Will is curled up asleep, looking for all the world as if he were dead, typical rat.

Kentar nods slowly. "I suppose I should..." he sighs, looking to the sleeping stoatmaid, smiling a bit before rolling onto his side

Aikuen nods and closes his eyes. But taps his leg... Yep, knife is still there. Even though the stoatmaid looked innocent enough, this otter doesn't take any chances. He sighs as he thinks that when they wake up, we'll she be there? or worst, if she is gone, will one of us be dead? But soon the otter is fast asleep, leaving those thoughts behind him.

Kentar sighs and quietly falls asleep sooner or later.