Here's today's part. It's still a bit short, but it's still longer than the last one. ___________________________ Lois wasn't used to having to go this slow, but he wasn't about to try to outrun Gerard. The stag was doing well as it was, pushing him any harder would more than likely cause him to completely collapse. He had already done so the past two nights, and Lois didn't want to have him collapse while they still had time left in a day to work. They had now been on the move for the better part of three days, after spending the waning daylight hours of the first getting away from the camps. Gerard had been remarkably tough throughout, refusing to give up until the day was over. Lois gave him some slack; he didn't expect to be able to move at his preferred pace. Still, he often wished that there was some way to go faster. Unless a miracle resulted in the stag's leg suddenly healing, however, such a possibility was looking less and less likely. More than three days walking, now, and they had yet to come to the Giant's Dike. Lois constantly deferred to the expertise of his companion, but Gerard would just gesture in the direction they were moving with his head, affirming that they were still going the right direction. The assassin knew that they would be well past the Dike if they had been moving at a good speed, and the delay continued to frustrate him. He looked west, where the sun had long ago disappeared. Stars were becoming clear in the sky as night fell around him. They often continued well after dark because of how far north they were, but, with the Dike nowhere to be seen, Lois decided to call it a night. He relayed his feelings to Gerard, but the stag took several more steps away towards the south. "Gerard, I said I think we should make camp for the evening," Lois repeated, keeping his voice low but urgent enough to draw the stag's attention. Several more steps made Lois certain that he had been heard the first time. The ermine stopped walking after the stag and waited, watching as Gerard continued on. The animal keeper was well past him by the time he finally stopped. His massive head drooped, and Lois knew what was going on. He sighed and caught up to Gerard, placing a paw on the deer's flank. "I know you're exhausted," Lois said, dancing around the true issue. "We'll camp for the night an continue when both of us are refreshed." Gerard finally relented, carefully curling up on the ground, making sure that he didn't disturb the improvised splint that Lois had put in place. He had added it after the first few hours of moving, and found quickly that going without it had not been a horrible idea either, as the extra weight from the splint made it hard to keep the hoof from drooping into the ground. Adjustments had been made, though, and Gerard had grown used to lying down like this. The camp was extremely barebones; Lois set up a perimeter that would give them some prior warning if someone entered the immediate area without his permission. Besides that, there was no campfire, no tent, not even a lean-to built for shelter's sake. They already had enough trouble without leaving an obvious trail for someone to follow. As Lois finished setting up camp, Gerard tried to find a way to rest. He relaxed as much as he could with his leg as badly broken as it was, but the pain was still in the back of his mind. Thinking of other things to try to ignore the pain was counterproductive; each time he tried to put his thoughts elsewhere, he thought of his wife and children in Metamor, a place that seemed so far away now. Alex and Lucy would have more than likely returned to ask for a search team, but Gerard knew better than to expect a reaction. By now his wife had probably been told of the situation. She was probably in their sitting room now, beautiful little hands working as the stitches of some new project, lantern low behind her, refusing to turn it off or sleep in the vain hope that she would hear the door unlock and see her husband return unharmed. She had probably fought off sleep however she could for the last few nights, doing anything in her power to stop her young body from demanding sleep. And each night, she would be disappointed, forced to tell the children that their father had not returned yet. Wet trails were forming along either side of his muzzle as he thought of this. Gerard didn't know if deer could cry, but if they couldn't it certainly wasn't stopping him. He tried to rub the tears from his muzzle by rubbing it along his foreleg, but he possibly just made the trails more noticeable by disturbing the fur more. He was too busy trying to control his emotions to notice when Lois returned. He didn't even look in the assassin's direction as he approached, and so was very much surprised when he felt something light landing beside him. Looking over, he saw a pile of grass that Lois had apparently gathered from the undergrowth in the area. "I noticed you hadn't eaten before you settled down, and I wasn't about to ask you to stand up so soon after laying down," Lois explained, smiling as he dusted his hand off. He sat down, reflexively flicking his tail out to the side, and looked off into the night sky. It was a clear night, something that happened only rarely at this time of year and in this part of the world. Lois looked out into the stars, sighing a bit as he looked for familiar constellations. The stag looked at him surprised for a few moments, then hesitantly took a bite from the pile of grass beside him before looking back up at the sky with Lois. "I know this is bothering you," Lois said. "I've seen enough of you to know that you're extremely loyal. You have family, and you've mentioned several time that you told them you'd be back for the Yule. Now we've been trying our best to get back to the Keep in time to keep that promise, and it doesn't look like we're getting there quickly enough." Gerard nodded silently. His current lack of voice made little difference. He wouldn't have said anything about Lois' comment even had he been able to. He chewed the grass slowly before swallowing. A small part of him wanted Lois to stop, but he realized that he was trying to help. "I'm not stopping because I don't want to get there as quickly as possible. If we could be, I wish we were there now, but that's just not happening for us, and if we keep pushing ourselves, both of us, then we're just going to get careless at the wrong time." Lois took a breath before continuing. "All right, what I'm trying to say is this; we can't be too far from the Dike at this point. While we're still north of it, we need to keep ourselves fresh so we don't get ambushed. Once we get south of the Dike, though, the Keep will already have patrols out to keep lutins from slipping through. Now, if we run into one we may have the option of getting a cart and carrying you to Metamor quickly. If we don't I'll make a deal with you. I'll travel through the night for as many days as it takes to get us to Metamor if there remains any chance of making it before the Yule celebrations begin. Does that sound like a good plan to you?" Gerard almost dropped the mouthful of grass he had been chewing on moments before. Here was this man, the one they called a dangerous assassin, the one they had been assigned to as a sort of babysitter. During the past few weeks he had been nothing but a supremely competent scout and companion, and now he was offering to break his back to see that Gerard kept his promise. The stag didn't care about any ulterior motives that the assassin might have; at this point he was surprised beyond words that Lois was offering him this. "Well, will that idea work?" Lois asked again. Gerard finally realized that he had yet to respond and bobbed his head as vigorously as he could. "All right, then. Hopefully we'll get south of the Dike sometime tomorrow, and we'll try to work things out from there. For tonight, finish up your meal and get some rest. If we do get south of the Dike, you're going to want to have energy to spare." Gerard was more than happy to respond. Almost as soon as he had finished off the meal Lois had brought for him, he was able to close his eyes and fall asleep. For the first time since they had been attacked, he dreamed. It was the morning of the Yule, and his children were opening what few presents he had been able to afford. His wife was standing to one side, concern written on her face. Then she turned as a knock sounded on the door, walking in a daze towards it, then almost fainting dead away when he stood there, arms reaching out to catch her in a hug. It was clearly a dream, and Gerard was not fool enough to grow attached to those images. Still, he told himself that he would find a way to make them real. He would be there for the Yule, and he would be there for his family. Even if he had to keep limping for days on end, he would be there. !DSPAM:4e715bc3208611804284693!