[AW] listen to the wound

[Eik]

KNOW THE PRAYER OF FURY, AND
KNOW MORE THAT IT HAS ALWAYS BELONGED TO YOU.

To be honest, maybe a fight is what Eik is looking for. A chance to feel his bones grind against themselves, to feel blood vessels break and bloom into bruises. Everything has been so upside down recently, so achingly unfamiliar, that he's been left to grasp for something-- anything-- familiar. And sometimes (often) he craves the unparalleled feeling of being, for once, in control of something. You could not blame the results of a fight on the gods, or chance, or destiny. It was all you. Of course your opponent had an effect on the result, but really in the end it was yourself you grappled with. Your strengths, your weaknesses, your everything, out in the open and on the table. If you won, it was on you. If you lost, it was also on you. Eik wished, sometimes, that everything else could be that simple.

But ah, the other man is not here for a fight. The slim part of him that feels disappointed is far overshadowed by the part of him that feels relieved. He relaxes a little, ears pricking forward to catch Mathias' next words. From the little Eik knows of him, he is not surprised by the expletives. The grey grins, wolfish, and it looks out of place on his somber face. It lasts only for a moment, that look- you want to see who the bigger man is?

But Eik was never good at maintaining bravado. He just didn't care enough.

After a long pause, he nods tersely. In truth, this was not a task that he could take on by himself. Not if he wanted to escape unnoticed. He could maybe fill half a bag of water before the guards noticed him, but then it would be a long and fast run through the canyons to escape. And he was in no physical shape for running. No, the guards would have to be taken out, and without sounding the alarm. Two could do that far easier than one.

Still, it would not be easy.

Eik speaks quickly, quietly, and concisely. "I'll take the one to the left. You take the right. Beneath that crooked palm tree." He gestures to the dark figure in the shade, and he tries to prepare himself for the inevitable guilt that will follow his actions today.  "We take the third together." His saddle bags lower gently to the sand and he steps quietly to the left. "Try to do it quietly," he adds. It seemed obvious, to him, that they would not want to draw unnecessary attention. But it also seemed, to him, that quiet was not in Mathias' nature.

He waits for acknowledgement before he sets off to his task, hoping with a swiftly beating heart that he is not making a huge mistake by trusting the other stallion. Hoping Mathias will make the task easier, and not harder.

BUT BE CAREFUL. IT WILL ONLY MAKE YOU HUNGRIER.
IT WILL ONLY MAKE YOU MORE AWARE OF DEATH.

@Mathias