YOU HAD ME HOOKED AGAIN FROM THE MINUTE YOU SAT DOWN

[attr="class","mtnsndb"]distantly she registered the sound of hooves thundering against cobblestone, and though immediately one hand pried loose a dagger from her boot she kept her other firmly on her flask. priorities. her hound pounded against her chest, thump-thump thump-thump, in time with the cadence of the horse's urgent gallop. every muscle felt coiled tight as a spring, ready to erupt. [break] [break]

there was, she knew, no real reason to feel this fear. the monsters were gone. the dragon was gone. anyone approaching on horseback would be vaguely humanoid and more than likely from the castle or its guard. but immediately, mercilessly, her mind filtered through a thousand possibilities - broken bodies, ashei is dead, shad is dead, guess what we found rusl! he's dead too!, useless guards relaying useless next-of-kin notifications, not that she would get those, she wasn't anyone's kin in the way that mattered to the letter of the law- [break] [break]

and just when telma felt ready to drive a blade into the throat of the next person who spoke to her, if only to stave off any news she didn't want, she heard boots on stone. a moment, heavy, when she didn't dare look round to see who had come and found her. hesitation. that null point between hope and the fear to feel it. [break] [break]

telma, he said, and she always swore she would never cry when people needed her, but gods, sometimes she needed too. [break] [break]

"auru," she said, more breath than sound, and in the space of an instant she had her arms flung around his neck. armor dug into her sore, bruised flesh, but she didn't care; her dagger lay on the stairs, forgotten. the flask remained secure within her grip. her face, wet, pressed hard against the crook of his neck. "you dumb fuck." [break] [break]

for a long moment she stayed there, assuring herself of his reality - solid physicality, undeniable, beneath her hands. evidence, the resistance went on and on about evidence and research and now, here, maybe ever, there wasn't a scrap of data more empirical than auru's familiar scent. the raspy scratch of his beard. [break] [break]

eventually telma pulled away. took another drink of her whisky, swaying in place - shouldn't drink on an empty stomach, too late now, whoops - offered it to auru. he was a connoisseur like no other. "i haven't seen the others," she said roughly. "shad. ashei. are they safe?"

YOU HAD ME HOOKED AGAIN FROM THE MINUTE YOU SAT DOWN

[attr="class","mtnsndb"]a breathy laugh. telma sniffled. "you know me," she said, a forced lightness to her tone. "attitude will get me everywhere. i laugh in the face of danger, et cetera." she let him look her over; she couldn't resist stretching out her leg enticingly when his gaze dropped to the gash, ignoring the pain from the movement. "like what you see, sweetheart?" she teased, but it came out weaker than she'd wanted. flat. more habitual than genuine flirtation. [break][break]

the younger members of the resistance were smart, strong, and capable, the lot of them. they were good people. that was what worried her, her mind rolling neatly onto the same track as auru's - when faced against a great danger, smart, strong, and capable people tended to throw themselves headlong into the thick of it. "tell me you know for certain that ashei wasn't right up against that thing, and i'll feel better," she said, her exasperation a mask for her worry. "you know her as well as i do." [break][break]

somewhere to stay? oh, no. "i'm staying right here," telma snapped, more harshly than she'd intended, but she just barreled right along. "i need to find the kids and get this place up and running again. i'm not letting some asshole lizard run me out of my fucking home, auru."