The wind lashed at our faces; rain battered the horses turning the ground to sludge. Kaisen was on the back of Eron's horse and was silent as usual. His eyes reflected the weather; dark and gloomy. "You know we've never been to this area before," Eron was constantly talking to Kaisen holding a one-sided conversation that was more like a monologue than a conversation.
Kaisen remained quiet, the long rain cloak Eron had lent him swirling in the wind making him resemble an angel with black wings, his fragmented obsidian eyes adding to the almost serene image he was creating.
"Have you ever left your village before Kaisen?" Eron asked patiently. Kaisen seemed to consider the question before simply replying, "no." his voice was the same flat whisper as the day we found him. Eron smiled slightly, "then this is your first time," she was trying to cheer him up, her voice gentle with an excited undertone. Kaisen nodded slowly, disinterestedly even.
Eron continued chatting idly to him as we rode towards the next village. The others kept glancing back at him, me included. Zero was giving the kid the cold shoulder having stopped with his hostile glances the day before.
Aaron rode at the head of our group following the map we had bought a while ago. "Only a few more minutes and we'll arrive," he said looking back to make sure we weren't too back.
We were riding in our usual formation due to the wide road, Aaron at the front followed by me, and Lyric, Eron rode in the centre (with Kaisen) and the twins and Zero brought up the rear.
The village we were heading to was located a week's ride from Kaisen and truthfully, I was surprised we took so little time to travel there due to Kaisen's frequent episodes. Eron had volunteered to take care of him and had made some headway in terms of gaining his trust. She could pat his back while he was vomiting without him flinching and she helped him gain his breath back after each episode. It was like she was a sedative to him.
The last week that we had been travelling, Kaisen had been mostly quiet, apart from his episodes. He had bonded with Kylie and Eron the most, but he still seemed sad and broken, he just didn't respond like a child should. He was polite and unenergetic, the opposite of what a boy his age should be. The boys from the places I had seen were rude most of the time and they were always full of energy. When they talked it was like being barraged by a million arrows from a million different directions.
I contemplated his prolonged strange behaviour as we rode. I know that the shock of so much death and destruction happening so quickly wouldn't just disappear, but I had hoped that he would be more comfortable with me since I was the one that had saved his life. Then again, the look in his eyes often suggested that he would rather have died than stay alive. Surely, he was grateful for God's gift to him.
Sometimes while staring into his eyes, I found myself questioning God. Why would he pile so much tragedy onto one child? Unless... no it couldn't be.
I shook my head expelling all those nonsensical thoughts on the reasons why God saw it fit to test the boy so much at such a young age. After all there was already five individuals who were part of that organisation, God surely wouldn't want to add another.
"We are here." Aaron yelled. I glanced up and saw large stone buildings, the village was clearly well into progressing into a town. It was largely stone with minimal lumber used. It was clearly designed for expansion. The streets were clean and organized and despite the heavy rainfall the roads were largely devoid of puddles.
I glanced at Kaisen, he was looking around his blank eyes soaking in his surroundings. He almost looked like a normal child seeing something for the first time, almost. His eyes remained dead and glazed over; he didn't even blink as the rain lashed at his face and eyes. He seemed so emotionless and numb.
"we'll find an inn," Aaron announced (he didn't really need to tell us that since we were already heading in that direction). The inn in question was a large block that resembled a manor house, only without the glamor and niceties that usually adorned a manor house. The stables were practically empty, so we tied up our horses and headed for the entrance to the inn.
Kaisen dropped off of Eron's horse rather inelegantly and plodded along with us towards the entrance. His behaviour resembling a lost puppy, well a lost puppy that was depressed and feeling ill. "Hey Kaisen, was your village this impressive?" Kylie asked innocently, before clamping her mouth shut realising her mistake. Kaisen looked around and shook his head nonchalantly. Usually, he would've had one of his episodes. He would rock and murmur and stare blankly at the wall or sky or anything in front of him. Then he would vomit violently. But luckily, Kylie's comment hadn't triggered Kaisen at all.
We all let out a sigh of relief, well everyone except Zero who carried on ignoring him. "Well, what do you think makes this village so impressive Kaisen?" Eron asked tentatively as we walked. "It looks harder to burn," Kaisen responded coldly. The wind howled ominously as if echoing his statemen. "Oh," was all Eron could say in reply.
We reached the entrance to the inn and entered through its large oak doors. We stood in what appeared to be the coat rack room, muddy boots and sodden cloaks were tucked neatly into small niches in the walls. We decided it was time to get out of our soaked raincoats.
I peeled the wet fabric from my body, the fabric making a squelching sort of sound, the others were having similar experiences as they removed their soaked attire. Only Kaisen's didn't make any noise during its removal.
"How many rooms are we getting?" Zero asked gruffly staring at Aaron. Aaron contemplated for a while, "We'll get two rooms one for the boys and one for the girls," he said. Zero looked at Kaisen, "and what about the kid? I don't want him in our room," Zero said callously. Eron smiled, slightly annoyed, while me and Kylie glared venomously at Zero. "We are fine having him in our room," I announced, my tone clearly aggravated. Both Kylie and Eron nodded and smiled at Kaisen both with nervousness and a sort of tenderness.
Kaisen nodded at us, clearly disinterested and slightly out of it. His eyes stared almost unseeingly at us; it unnerved me a little.
Aaron walked through to the main area, nestled between two large spiral staircases was a small and lightly adorned desk. It had a bell and some paperwork, with keys hung up behind it. A simple wooden chair was placed behind the desk just in front of the hanging keys, in the chair sat a short, chubby woman in her mid-forties.
She had leathery skin and small, green beady eyes. Her mouth was pressed in a thin line, it could have passed for one of her wrinkles if not for the excess drool that surrounded her lips. "What brings such young guests to our humble village?" the woman said, her simple beige dress swayed menacingly as she leant forward to get a better look at us. Her voice was dripping with venom as she spoke. "Business," Aaron replied, "we're just going to stay the night so our young companion can get some rest." Aaron indicated to Kaisen, whose eyes were still blank.
The old woman's scrutinous gaze softened slightly at the sight of Kaisen, "How many rooms?" the woman asked grudgingly, leaning back. Aaron held up two fingers, a polite smile spattered across his scarred face. "Twenty Bronze coins or something of equal value," the old women said.
Aaron slid a pouch filled with bronze over to her, "this should be enough for meals as well, right?" Aaron said. The old woman nodded, snatching the pouch and counting contently.
She finished counting the bronze in seconds, she passed two room keys over to us, "room 2 and 3, you can find your own way," she said dismissively, turning away from us to the store the pouch of bronze in a sort of locked box behind the desk.
I grabbed the key, "since we have Kaisen we get to pick which room we want." I said glaring at Zero. He shrugged and the others seemed to agree with my statement since no one contested it.
We chose room three, it had two large beds and one small. The beds were surprisingly clean and neat. The room itself was quite good, very high quality for a cheap room. Its walls were cream coloured, and it was minimally furnished. It had the beds, and a single birch desk that was tucked in the corner. The room was almost completely devoid of dust and mould. Overall, it was a nice room, especially compared to room two.
Room two was infested with mites and had mould in the corners, although it was still high quality for so little bronze. But it was definitely a room used for less picky guests (boys).
We dragged Kaisen into our room, his body was cold and wet from the earlier rain. "Come on let's get you dry," I said grabbing a towel from my pack, the other two did the same and we quickly surrounded Kaisen.
Over the course of our journey, we had discovered just how jumpy and resistant Kaisen was to unwanted human contact. We started towelling him off trying to be both gentle and quick.
He didn't like it.
He started thrashing his arms almost instantly. "Hold still," Eron scolded, dodging a thrashing limb nimbly. Kylie quickly started making soft calming noises, the kind you make to calm an animal.
Slowly, ever so slowly, he calmed down. We finished drying him off and gave him a change of clothes, they were Aaron's old tunic and leggings.
They were worn and had gone a muddy brown colour. But overall, they were pretty clean and were the closest thing we had to his size and even then, the tunic looked like a nighty and the leggings had to be rolled up.
He changed behind a screen we had brought with us. When he emerged from behind it, he looked vulnerable, his dead obsidiath eyes had bags beneath them, his neutral expression seeming slightly sad and his head was angled slightly downwards. Kaisen's thick black hair fell messily over his face giving him the appearance of a sad (slightly wet) puppy.
"That wasn't so bad huh?" Eron asked, drying her short hair with the dry part of the same towel she used on Kaisen.
"Yeah, it didn't hurt did it Kaisen?" Kylie added, smiling energetically as she dried her own hair, her braids had come undone during the struggle to dry Kaisen.
I smiled gently at Kaisen, "see we don't bite," I say, quickly glaring at Eron who was probably about to say something inappropriate. From the look on her face, I'd say she was about to.
Kaisen didn't respond to us at all, he was drawing into himself even more, as he usually did towards the end of the day.
The boy went and sat on the single small bed, curling up protectively and falling asleep a little too quickly. His chest almost seemed to stop moving, his breathing became soft and near silent. When anyone slept it looked like they were dead, however when Kaisen slept you felt like he was dead.
I always checked his pulse when he first dozed off, although I had to be careful otherwise Kaisen would thrash and wake up, then everyone would have to spend at least an hour before he calmed down and stopped vomiting.
I went over gently applying pressure with my pointer and middle finger on his wrist. I felt the soft and steady bump of his pulse, the gentle rhythm of life, the oddly satisfying texture of feeling the blood pump through his veins and his hearts soft drum.
Despite knowing he was alive to begin with, I let out a breath I had no idea I had been holding, in a gentle sigh of relief.