Relief surged through her as Kynwric's familiar features became clear. She relaxed into his arms as he lifted her off the ground and let her head rest on his shoulder as she took stock of the energy she had left. "We need to ride a hour or so, just to be away from the carnage. Can you manage that?"

 

Could she? She closed her eyes as she reached for the reins, clenching them tightly in her fingers. Yes, she thought. "I will manage it, Gaidin, don't worry. You keep our path clear, I'll make it to the pillow I pray is on the other end of that hour's ride..." She managed a weak smile.

 

They started moving and she focused all of her attention on staying upright. Time passed and she slumped a little more. When the horses started to slow, her head was resting on the horse's neck and her fingers no longer clutched the reins. Being a well trained war horse, he didn't mind that her hands were wrapped in the leather straps holding the bit in his mouth. Now, if he'd only tell her what he saw...

Kyn kept riding, he knew the only pillow waiting on the other end was going to be a haversack stuffed with clothes but he didn't want to be anywhere near the corpses when the carrion came calling. He didn;t look back so long as he felt her conscious in his head, but when that started to fade he slowly slipped back and led her horse by the bridle. When he found a suitable place he prepared a place to sleep before pulling her out of the saddle and tucking her into it. He made a small fire, enough for some warmth and started some water to boil. he could feel the weariness seeping into his bones and knew he needed something for him to stay awake through the evening. Now all there was to do was sit and wait for her to wake.

Loraine shifted, groaning at the rock that had buried itself in her back while she slept. She didn't remember getting off the horse, but she didn't worry much about that. Finding herself tucked between saddle blankets told her everything she needed to know.

 

She sat up slowly, taking stock of injuries that she hadn't had the luxury of noting earlier. She hadn't slept too long, as the sky was still dark overhead. The small fire danced a few feet away and Kyn sat on the other side of it, his watchful gaze resting on her as if waiting on her to slump over again. "Relax," she said softly, her lips turning up a bit. "I'm not completely rested, but you feel much worse off than I am, now. Why don't you let me take a turn and rest for a bit? We'll need to be on our way again soon, and you'll fall out of the saddle if you don't get some down time..." She waited, knowing he'd fight her about it. He'd done more physical fighting than she had, though, and she felt each tight muscle and minor cut on him as he sat there.

 

"You're at least going to let me help you and dress those wounds." It wasn't a question. In fact, it was the same tone she'd used with the boys for the last twenty years. She smiled, shifting until she was sitting all the way up. "Come on and bring that sack behind you with you. I hope you saved some of that boiling water, too. I have a feeling one or two of those are going to need stitching..."

Kyn listened with a bemused smile while she insisted that he rest. "Not going to happen Aes Sedai, you're still in worse shape than I am. Binding the wounds you can do, but I can rest when we're safe behind some stone walls. I haven't fallen out of the saddle since before the boys were born. I won't be doing it now for at least two more days and we're only a day out of town... and don't you even think of channeling a set of stone walls." He wagged a finger at her. "We're leaving just as soon as you have a cup of coffee and I get bandaged... and no, there isn't any more hot water."

Loraine bit her lip, trying to hold back her grin. She'd been contemplating just that, as it were. Nothing like a nice set of stone walls to protect them and take away his excuses for not resting. Instead she waved him over, arranging her skirts so she could sit close enough to stitch the wounds that needed it. She didn't bother asking about deadening the skin, she could manage that much with a trace of saidar. If Moraine were here, she'd have these cuts Healed in no time, she thought with disgust. She poured a small bowl of water and pulled a clean cloth from her sack. She hummed lightly as she cleaned his wounds, inspecting them as she cleaned them and seeing that only one was bad enough to need stitches.

 

She leaned forward and held the needle she'd dug from her sack over the flame before threading string through it and turning back to Kyn's shoulder. Her attention was focused wholly on his skin as she laced the string through his flesh. Her stitches were small and even and she smiled, thinking of how many times they'd done this. The scene was a familiar one, all the way down to the light crackle of the small fire the kettle was bubbling over. Practice makes perfect, though, and the Creator knew she'd had plenty of practice sewing her Gaidin up. She leaned forward, cutting the string with her teeth and pressing a light kiss to the stitches before turning to pack the needle away. "I think that's the worst of them," she murmured.

 

She looked up at him as she closed her sack up again. "Coffee, you said?" Once a somewhat cooler cup was resting in her hands, she turned her thoughts to the future. "You said a day's ride from town? Which town is that? I have completely lost my sense of direction in the haze of exhaustion..."

Kyn sat there as she stiched him up, smiling as her lips pressed to his skin to indicate she was done. He answered her question as he passed the cup of coffee to her. "Fal Sion. It has walls and a garrison, it should suffice for a night or two before heading to Fal Moran." Kyn was already kicking out the fire and saddling the horses, preparing to leave. Once Loraine was finished with her cup he gave it a quick rinse and stuffed it away before offering her a hand up from the ground.

 

When they were both finally astride their horses he began to pick his way through the undergrowth of the woods they were in and headed back to the city.

Loraine nodded slowly, then sat on her pack, watching him snuff the fire and saddle the horses. She caught sight of her hands and sighed as she passed him her cup. Blood had dried and lay in cracked lines on her skin. Her fingerprints stood out starkly in the dried brown lines. She shook her head slowly and looked up as Kyn gaver her a leg up onto her horse. "As long as it has a bath, I'd be willing to build the walls myself," she laughed, turning her horse to follow the path he picked from the vegetation.

Ummm... the end.

LMAO goober