Last Place You'd Think <Wilderness, Earth Kingdom>

[leighanief]

She nodded, watching more than listening though. He seemed to have sobered to quite the degree, worry, concern if not, some sort of thought in him. She did not wish to emulate that, but a part of her did not really wish for him to have to go despite her offer. It was no surprise though, the lateness could very well have turned into earliness, she was unsure how long had past now.

She gave an awkward laugh at his words of beauty sleep and some piece of work. Not sure exactly how to react, so she rubbed at her forehead with her knuckle and gazed down to the ground with a crooked smile, nodding subtly again to herself. Definitely a man. But a nice compliment nonetheless. "Ah yes, sleep is nice." She said for lack of anything better to say. "You should be sure to get some too a some point." She reveled for a moment on how nice it would be when she got to a settlement and could find a mattress, even a thick mat would do. It'd be wonderous. She looked up as he shifted and got to his knees. Wondering if he felt the same, wanting just a nice place to sleep comfortably. The things you take for granted when you have them for a good amount of time.

It came to her then that she was not only thinking of his sleeping preferences but him sleeping. Brow raising slightly she grinned crookedly and pulled in her bottom lip to keep herself from daring to guffaw stupidly at herself. Holding it back forced her to clear her throat though and she looked back to Vu, not quite in the eyes though, as well as unaware her cheeks had become a slight rouged shade. She forced herself to listen and stop being mentally troublesome.

"I promise to not tell anyone if you allow me the pleasure." She said with a sheepish grin, that almost said a silent 'good choice'. "

And though, I will protect you from all the dangers and ills of the world." Pausing to reach across the blanket to her leather sheathed weapons and take them in one hand, before taking his hand with her other, in acceptance of his chivalry. "We'll just say its much less protection as it is simply guidance for your safe return." A smirk playing on her lips as she looked to his eyes now with the proposition of the guise and in her own, an air of enjoying the prospect of the underlying role, even if it was so very unnecessary.

[vu]

“A sign of safety nonetheless,” involuntarily returning her smirk as she looked him in the eyes.

And I am feeling safe already, he wanted to quip as they stood.

A resulting combination of instinct, custom and training, Vu was just beginning to take the lead for both of them. There was only half a step managed on his part before stopping himself. And out of slight embarrassment he did not bother to turn towards her but instead slid his foot to his own bag still lying upon the ground.

Sliding the bag over his boot, Vu reminded himself that it was better in fact for her to take a complete lead from the beginning. Not entirely out of courtesy though. Though admitting to himself that other than the general directions provided by the blanket, the fire and the boulder-curtain, there was a curiosity as to how Kage could pick a way back to the river despite his inability to do so as well. More than likely it had to be through the aid of Proud, he suspected.

Lifting the toe of his boot a couple of times he finally kicked upwards, tossing the bag into the air and near chest height. Yet the direction was off, moving away rather than towards him and forcing him to reach further out than he wanted. But, still managing to catch the pouch with his free hand before securely tossing it over his shoulder.

Showoff, sarcastically telling himself. Not turning towards Kage who probably thought the same. So instead he tossed a sideways glance and tugged on her hand lightly held in his. Signally his readiness.

[leighanief]

"Of course." She said with certainty and nodded, though otherwise unsure of what else to say, not wanting to drag it out into simple mockery or else she just might have set him straight. The thought was amusing enough on its own, and she snickered lightly as they rose up, and kept her little grin at hand. He seemed a little less concerned now which pleased her. She'd hate for them to end their night with worries and sad remarks. Even if either were thinking them, but the night despite small trips in their path had been good.

She tilted her head slightly and watched his little feat as he kicked up his bag into his hand, after his half step, one she hadn't devised was to be a walk, but nonetheless had caught her attention a bit.

Her sap gaze fell to their hands as he tugged, getting the gist of the action. "Okay, one second. But, bravo, by the way." Glancing over momentarily with a smile before she leaned down quickly at the waist. Putting the material handle of her sheathed wheels in between her teeth while she one-handedly pushed the loose articles of her things into her open bag and pulled the draw strings shut. Debating for a moment if her things would be safe for the short while she'd be gone. Hopefully. She'd learned quickly enough that there were only so many things you could hang up, and half the time that only slowed the animals down slightly. Himizu's lingering presence normally helped her to be on the luckier side.

"Alright." She spoke up again after she pulled the blanket over her bags and pulled the object from in between her jaws, wrapping her fist in the dangling strips of material. Having yet to relinquish his hand, not that she could have exactly explained why, should it had been asked, but he had not either yet. She used it know to return his tug as she headed off to the odd tree she knew the first marker was at.

She got a few steps, and glanced back, glancing to the stones around the base of the fire. Now not wanting to look too close to it, in fear of worse night blindness. It took a silent moment for her to decide it would be alright until her return, it'd died down a fair bit anyhow. Then she looked back to near the blanket, where Himizu sat impatiently. She threw her chin forward in signal to him, and gave a low whistle. "C'mon now."

He got up stiffly and began padding behind them, keeping a little behind Vu's heels, head low as he stalked along with them when Kaijin started up again. She was silent now, while she looked ahead when they got back into the vegetation. Glancing slightly back and forth for things she recognized and the strips that would be roughly at her eye level, as well as trying to watch her foot-steps, double stepping if she came down on any awkward roots or stones.

[vu]

Vu attempted to follow her footsteps as best he could, given the darkness and differences in their normal strides, as if he were an infantryman or guerrilla trying to mask their numbers during a single file march. Taking note of her double steps so as not to trip or slip over stones and roots himself.

Immediately it occurred to him, as they strolled further from her camp, that Himizu would not be the one taking the lead. Instead the vole-tiger padded after them, just behind Vu’s heels. Trailing behind Kaijin and ducking the occasional low branch, Vu decided to not let the animal’s presence faze him despite pondering how the animal felt for the human male interloper who walked hand-in-hand with his owner and causing him to tag along as a third wheel. Instead, with Himizu behind them Vu began to speculate as to how Kaijin was picking the way back to the river with a specific path in mind. A specific path he was thankful for, since they met further stream from his encampment. He refused to think of the events and consequences that would arrive if they had instead cut a straight path towards the river, appearing directly opposite of the camp’s central edge in a worse case scenario. Yet appearing anywhere near the presence of his fellow soldiers along the river was a bad scenario no matter what.

So how exactly was she doing it? Asking himself and attempting to catch her looking around when he was not watching her steps. Unlike her, he was uncertain as what specifically to look for. And the fact that he did not take into account her eye level helped less. But he was content enough to follow her nonetheless as they traveled on in silence.

[leighanief]

Kaijin continued on her way for a while, taking her steps carefully, and pushing away branches of vegetation when she needed, and holding them longer in hopes they wouldn't snap back painfully. She slowed her pace after a while of walking. Her night vision had been becoming better since they'd strayed into the darkness, away from the lighted atmosphere of the camp. Despite that this next ribbon seemed tricker to spot, and she felt they'd be nearing it soon, if she should have not already seen it.

As the came to a dark tree, that seemed thick trucked, but stunted in its growth for some reason, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder. Looking up to Vu, at a darkened face she could not see too well. Even with the light from the sky, it was little to no help when she was looking upward instead of down. She grinned crookedly but said nothing, instead she lifted her hand and released the soft pressure oh his she'd been applying, and pulled hers away.

Walking forward, she took the sashes attached to her weapon and wrapped them around her waist, so the leather hung at her right hip, and then she approached the tree, squinting at it slightly, looking for a marker. She remembered now, there'd been too many branches on the odd tree. She looked across from it to a sapling a little ways ahead.

She moved to it and let her fingers rub gently on the maroon material tied around a small branch, before she glanced back to him. "Don't let yourself get lost now." She said in a quieter but smooth tone. Raising up her hand and signal to him once with a flick of her wrist in the direction they were now going, which was a slightly more easternly route of what they were already walking.

Himizu brushed past Vu leg, hopping over a higher root and then walking over to Kaijin's knees, bumping her as well as he kept going a few more paces. "Impatient." She scoffed at him, but let a couple rings of a chuckle escape her lips. Making sure Vu was still with her as she started walking again.

[vu]

Standing there, Vu’s body shifted into an at attention stance. Face forwards but eyes trailing Kaijin as she tried to pick up her personally marked trail again. Following her as she went about the stunted and thick trunk tree, the eyes attempted to target her line-of-sight and every branched she touched or her fingers neared.

Though he had no real need to do so but the matter of how what and how Kaijin had marked her path was just a passing, personal curiosity for Vu. He found himself leaning over a bit when she went over to a nearby sapling. Eyes squinting as he tried to discern in the darkness what her fingers stroked against.

Turning back to him Kaijin teased, “Don’t let yourself get lost now,” just as he made out some sort of dark band about one of the sapling’s branches. Her soothingly hushed gliding across his ears as he made out flicked a wrist in the darkness as signal for him to follow, now that she had picked up her trail once again. Writing off Himizu’s forcing brushing past his leg with celerity as some sort of slight. He almost wanted to tell the animal not to worry as it should not be too much longer until he was across the river now.

[leighanief]

Kaijin stretched her shoulders back, and yawned wide, her feet kept going, though she caught her foot slightly on the uneven ground and took a larger step forward to compensate. Such grace. She let out a soft but amused sound, and raised her arms and crossed her arms behind her head and interlaced her fingers loosely together.

The silence of the night felt peaceful, more than it did normally when she was without company. It was nice to just listen to their footsteps as they went, the sounds of crickets and the occasional bird and/or bird-hybrid. She almost missed the next marker because she'd been looking up to the sky as it became more visible along their path, but she kept them on course.

"So, whe-" There was a rustle in the nearby foliage and she glanced over, one hand lowering from behind her head to move to the leather and metal at her side. She kept her thumb in between the two folded together pockets. "C'mon, trouble-maker." Himizu bit at some of the branches in his way and stuck his head out of some tall grass. Looking up with to Kaijin with eyes that flickered the eerie reflective green-blue that many animals had. Something that could send a chill down your spine.

She kept walking pulling her hand away from her belt and he tagged along behind her for a bit, chewing on a thick leaf he'd come across. She gave him a tap in the hind with her foot as he trotted ahead of her again. She knew why, you could hear the faint sound of the water's constant movement. She looked back to Vu with a small smile. "It should be right ahead." Her hand rose up and she gave a small tug on what she believed was the last of the markers she'd put up when she came to it.

[vu]

Despite the darkness and Kaijin in front of him a clearing was still visible through the bush, messaging that the river was near. The thinning of foilage and increasing sound of moving water that drowned out a whisper as they progressed helped as well.

Quietly, Vu momentarily sped up his pace, any real caution and following Kaijin was no longer needed at this point. Closing the distance in only a few strides and almost stepping on her heels as he neared. Wanting Kaijin to halt before she made her way into the clearing or at least too far towards the shore.

Cautiously raising a hand as they were entering the clearing, a middle finger lightly pressed onto her arm. Just below the shoulder, followed by the other fingers as he sought to get Kaijin's attention. As well as to halt her. His mind kept cycling for something to say, yet not wanting to arise any suspicion as to why he kept her from moving onward. He realized there was nothing he could say, or at least conjure, to bring her to a stop without question.

His lips missed the corner of her cheek. Finding instead the corner of her lip.

Hoping that would be enough he strode passed her. Boots forcefully landing on the ground with each step. A hard scrunch of sand and mud under his boots as he progressed down the bank's small incline.

He stood there for moments at the water's edge. Looking down river at nothing, but nodding as if approving something. Then he looked upriver towards the camp, glad that none of the cook fires could not be seen. Sure they were told to build them far from the shore but Vu did not want to leave much to chance. And thankfully no one was seemed to be swimming or bathing in the river, at least as far he could see in the darkness. Yet the camp was far enough upstream neither them would be able to see or even hear his comrades if they were in the river.

He nodded again and turned back to Kaijin. Looking around her as well for a place to undress rather than walk back to camp in a soaking wet uniform. Hopefully she'd get that message, as he did meet her while dry.

Of course... she could be given the hint, kneeling down to take off the straps that encircled the heel and ankle of his boots which kept them snug on his feet.

[leighanief]

Kaijin’s gaze shifted over as she felt his hand on her arm, looking upward slightly to inquire as to his behaviour. She’d expected some look, or a few words even if sparse. Her brow pulled up in surprise, eyes a bit wider but it wasn’t as though she saw anything but further darkness. But she felt his lips well enough, and it’d taken some effort to not pull back in surprise from the quick action. It’d done its purpose though, she halted now, and as he walked by over the expanse to the water, she turned away slightly, glancing back the way they’d come. Glad now that colours were near to impossible to see in the darkness, else the rouge of her cheeks might have been much harder to bear than it was already now.

She stepped forward a few steps moving to a shrub that had a patch of barren branches; the breeze blew at her firs or final marker, depending on how you viewed it. Her finger hooked under its fold and tugged the knot open before she took the smooth material strip into her hand. Looking down to the dark of it in her hand, she wondered on when would be the next time she used them, at least for something equally as… interesting. She couldn’t imagine. Looking back over towards Vu she saw him kneel down near the river’s edge. Gaze then shifting to Himizu, who approached him with a slacker’s pace.

The hefty little vole-tiger, walked forward, pausing for a second in front of Vu, before he moved to the edge beside the man, his informal rival, and slipped his paws down the incline of the bank. Lapping up some of the water for his own sake after their small hike, he pulled himself up, once he’d been sated. Turning back he looked to Vu’s face one more time, for a moment long enough to think he was considering, should one believe an animal to be able to do such a thing. With a slight dip of his head, he turned his watch back to Kaijin and trotted back to her.

She bent over slightly and patted his head before turning away, and stepping back towards the small camp she’d made for herself. She only made a few steps in that direction before she glanced back over a shoulder. Hell with it. She turned quickly towards the shore again, and hurried over, bending at the waist when she made it to him, “You couldn’t have thought I’d let you get away with that, did you?” That being him having the last ‘say’ so to speak.

Her hand reached down and took hold of a wrist of his quickly, while her other one, pushed the strip of cloth into his fingers. “Safe travels. Don’t let yourself get lost, unless of course that’s your goal.” Her eyes looking to his face the whole time though. Not to the river, or what he was doing, she could guess well enough, but just to him, as she couldn’t help but to grin despite her genuine words. She let go of his wrist and pulled away her hands, leaning forward a little bit more, she laid a kiss on his forehead then stood up straight again just as quickly. “See you.”

She turned away and stepped forward, Himizu ‘mrow’ed impatiently and she pushed off one foot into a light jog, back to him as though to answer ‘coming’. She turned her head slightly, but didn’t truly look back again, just walked on her recommencing trek to collect her markers and sleep before a dying campfire. The momentary break in routine had seemed to come to a close, but it would always be among one of her stories.

[vu]

Vu observed the troublesome vole-tiger's approach. A... rather furry blessing in maybe more than one sense. Inadvertantly leading him to Kaijin earlier today. Then playing the role of male rival around Kaijin ealier tonight. Surely, Vu would realize in the next day or two how important the latter role was. Sometimes it was better for a soldier, a frontline soldier no less, should probably attempt to keep his personal attachments to others as loose as possible. If not entirely nonexistant. Such things could prove distracting, even mournful should his life be lost. And other times such things were needed, reminding him that he was human and that there was at least some reason to survive.

A rather amazing balancing act if it could be achieved.

A rather saddening act given who he still percieved her as. Kage Gale: some rather Earth Kingdom woman. Not the Fire Nation runaway as she truly is. And he? Nhat Vo: some random Earth Kingdom soldier. Not the Fire Nation soldier he truly is. He refused to think of ever meeting her again, despite some part of him wanting to. Fervently pushing the image of her, the look on her face, in her eyes, should she ever see him again in his truer form.

Pulling off his boots he watched Himuzi slipping down the river bank to drink. Calloused feet touching down on cold earth and smooth rocks, his perturbed lips pulled inward, thanks a lot, he mentally scolded the animal while its back was turned. Vu exhaled a sigh through puckered lips as the animal returned attention to Vu, causing the human to raise a curious eyebrow before returning the animal's head dip. Human perception making its own guesses. As the animal trotted back he looked at Kaijin, waiting for her to leave so he could finish undressing.

Vu decided to take his time with his shirt, still hoping she would get the message to leave. Instead, she made stubbornly made her way towards him at a hurried pace.

"You couldn't have thought I'd let you get away with that, did you?" she questioningly scolded. Realizing it she meant the peck on her cheek he had given. Causing Vu to withhold a smirk, and maybe replying with some sort of agreeing comeback. And just as he was about to crack, she pushed a slip of cloth into his fingers. A fine piece of cloth from the feel of it, though unable to look at it and thus surmise it's color in this darkness when he finally looked at it. At the moment he felt unable to look away from her, despite the darkness hiding much of her features from him. "Safe travels. Don't let yourself get lost, unless of course that's your goal," she gave him a light chuckle before she leaned over to kiss his forehead.

He bowed a quiet "fair well" to her as she hastened back into the forest. His eyes almost glazing over as he stood there staring into the darkness of the forest. Mostly wanting to make sure he was gone before he went back to undressing. After which, he slowly hastened in doing such, taking care to place the newly aquired cloth in the center of his clothing before lethargically wading across the river. As if intending to wash away something that may have been a dream to him. Yet whether it was or not he felt...

Satisfied.





[Vu Ganesa has left the thread]