As Fragile as a Breeze

[bartimaeus]

"I carried you in search of someone and bumped into a man. He was a little strange but he was good hearted. He led me here, where a woman with wings healed your wounds. She said your arm isn't going to heal though. I'm sorry Shula." Bremen struggles to hold back tears at his helplessness. Maybey had he gotten here quicker the arm could have been saved. He doubted it, but blaming himself seemed about the best he could do.

[aivea]

Shula manages a bitter laugh in reply. "I guess this is what I get for trying to save my brother from that insanity. I don't suppose you have any plans, though."

He sighs and starts trying to fall asleep after saying that. Shula doesn't even want to think about the implications of having one arm rendered useless.

[bartimaeus]

"Not particularly no. I haven't really thought about it. I guess I never expected to live or be with anyone outside the wilds of Naruta. I never imagined anything could possibly happen to me to change my future so much. Funny how one small thing can have such a huge impact. It seems that you only need a snowflake to set off an avalanche." Bremen ponders. More to himself than anyone else.

"Still it would be good to see all of Naruta. So far I've only seen everything east of Naruta. I've always wanted to know what the ocean looks like. It's been said to me that you cannot describe the power you feel from it. I wonder why no-one has ever found anything beyond the ocean. Surely it does not go on forever?" Bremen's eye lids are getting heavy again, and despite all protests Bremen gives a healthy yawn.

"I think we should....go...to the..." Bremen's eyes shut as he talks and he's asleep again before he can finish the sentence.

[aivea]

Shula falls into an uneasy sleep not long after Bremen.
_
The next morning, Beatrix is awake before her two guests and begins to cook breakfast. Once it's finished and she's set aside the food to cool, she walks to the other rooms. Not seeing Shula where Beatrix had last seen him, she panics for a few moments before finding both him and Bremen.

"Wake up. Breakfast is ready," the Wind/Water calls quietly.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen sits up and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. Forcing his legs out from under the blankets, he stands himself up. The floor was freezing. Bremen put it down to the fact they were on a mountain. Bremen smiles at Shula when he sees where his freind had fallen asleep, but it was more out of the sore muscles he knew Shula was going to have.

Bremen leaves the small room and follows the smell to where breakfast awaited.

[aivea]

Shula wakes up rather reluctantly and forced himself to keep from making any sound from the pain caused by trying to get up too quickly. A moment of panic seizes him when he sees no sign of anyone still being there; however, the scent of food is enough to put aside the feeling there is no one around. It didn't make sense to Shula why someone would leave out food when they aren't around. Though rather stiff and quite sore, he makes his way toward where the scent of food is coming from.

"Help yourself," Beatrix says to Bremen. Turning to Shula, she adds in a scolding tone, "You should've stayed in bed to avoid stressing your wounds. I would've brought something to you in a minute."

Shula sits down in one of the chairs before replying, "I'm not the type that lays around all day."

[bartimaeus]

Bremen places a healthy amount of food on his plate before taking a seat cross legged on the floor. It was easier for him to eat off the plate without spilling anything on himself. There weren’t many tables at Reave.

"Shula finds it hard to sit still in a rainstorm when everyone else is biding their time waiting for it to pass" Bremen says with a smile. Near death or not, Bremen wasn't going to stop teasing out of pity. He hides his mischievous smile by stuffing his face with the carefully prepared meal.

[aivea]

Shula glares at Bremen for a few seconds but makes no attempt to deny or confirm what had been said about him. Instead, he forces himself to focus on eating before Beatrix showed signs of intending to spoon-feed him. Being only able to use his left arm, however would clearly take a lot of getting used to.

"How long am I going to have to stay here?" he asks before looking up at the ceiling.

"At least five or six more days, just to make sure you don't get worse," Beatrix replies mildly.

[bartimaeus]

"We're not in any hurry, but I'd feel better if I was earning my stay. If there's anything you need help with let me know" Bremen replies.

[aivea]

"I was planning on bringing in some more firewood from the stack behind the house later, though you can if you really want. I don't plan to make you but it would be nice to not have to carry some of the heavier pieces," Beatrix says sounding faintly surprised at the offer.

[bartimaeus]

"It's okay, I don't mind doing it."

Bremen scoffs the rest of his breakfast and places the plate on the table the food was sitting on. "I'll go get the wood and then help you clean up." Bremen disappears out the back spotting the wood pile almost immediately. Bremen grabs several of the large logs stacking them in the cradle of one arm while balancing some of the smaller ones on top.

He heads inside and places them next to the fire place on top of the dregs left behind from previous stacks. Bremen repeats this twice more until a healthy pile of wood is stacked next to the fire. Satisfied that everything's been done properly Bremen turns his attention to the empty dishes remaining from breakfast. He walks over and begins stacking them.

"That breakfast was really good, thank you."

[aivea]

"Thanks and you're welcome," Beatrix replies picking up the stack and starting to wash the dishes a few at a time.

Shula watches silently, a faraway and nearly wistful expression on his face. Something about the scene made both the physical and emotional pain seem a bit duller; a fact which he is enjoying... Though probably the decrease is caused simply by not fussing over it like before.

[bartimaeus]

Bremen dries the dishes putting them away, slowly at first but quicker as he learns his way around the kitchen.

"We need to work out payment too. I don't know how much money I have left as I think our helper has taken what I owed already."

[aivea]

"You don't need to pay me... After the way you panicked and the condition he was in, it wouldn't be right to make you hand anything over. There's been a lot of attacks lately and your friend was... well, he was the only one who'd been attacked and lived long enough to be treated for it," Beatrix replies, tearing up and the comment about how most of the attacked hadn't lived.

Shula snaps out of his thoughts and asks, "What do you mean?"

"There's been two signs trying to kill one signs but they never mention why and they seem to come from nowhere. I don't think there's even a pattern to it. You'd best stay out of sight if you only have one sign..."

[bartimaeus]

"I only have one sign and yet managed to beat a two sign" Bremen explains deliberately omitting that part that it was Shula's brother "So how does the amount of signs you have make any difference?"