Chapter Text
Laudna picks fresh flowers for her house the day before she leaves Gelvaan. It’s not the first time she gathers flowers for her home of course, but it has been several weeks since she’s bothered. She likes the flowers, they pretty up the place. But if she’s honest with herself, the flowers are to make the house more presentable to others, and she hasn’t had any visitors in a long time. Until today.
Imogen is going to come by later. Imogen, the local girl who has somehow become friends with Laudna over the last few weeks. Imogen, who isn’t scared of her (or Pâté), who doesn’t run away, who doesn’t whisper with others behind Laudna’s back. Imogen doesn’t look away every time their eyes meet. Instead, it’s Laudna who looks away. Imogen comes by every day, just to chat and sit in the woods. Sometimes Imogen shows up on foot, and sometimes on her horse.
Flora, Laudna reminds herself, the horse’s name is Flora.
Flora doesn’t like Laudna much (horses never do), but Imogen doesn’t seem to mind. Sometimes she brings Laudna food or supplies, and Laudna will repay her with what little coin she has, or the occasional trinket fashioned from twigs and rocks and scraps of metal.
Today will be different though. Today will be their last day in Gelvaan, because Imogen has decided to leave. And Laudna will go with her. Laudna doesn’t have anywhere else to be. And now she’s found a friend. She’s not attached to this cabin or these woods, and it’s already been months since she’s living here. Eventually the villagers will discover the crazy lady in the woods and drive out the witch. It happens every time.
So she’ll leave with Imogen instead. They’ll stay tonight in the cabin and set off at dawn tomorrow, with only a friend by their sides and the wide world before them.
Laudna has spent the last few days prettying up the cabin. She’s packed all the belongings she’s going to bring and arranged the rest to be less messy. She’s mended some of the furnishings and cleaned the house. The windows are opened to air out the space and let in a little breeze. There is some firewood stacked by the door in case it’s cold at night, even though Laudna usually doesn’t care.
Now that everything seems ready and Imogen hasn’t arrived yet, Laudna picks flowers because the colours might brighten up the house for Imogen. There’s a small metal pail on her arm, and each bloom she snips is placed gently within. When she has enough to fill out the bucket in various hues, she stops by the stream to get water for the flowers, and turns towards home.
Imogen is waiting in front of the cabin, pacing nervously around a full pack on the ground, but when she sees Laudna she smiles and waves. “Did you get flowers because of me?”
“I get flowers all the time, “ Laudna lies, suddenly shy. “You could have gone inside, you didn’t have to wait.”
“It didn’t seem right without you here. It’s your home, and I’ve never been.”
Laudna leads the way through the door, dropping off her pail of flowers just inside. She gives Imogen a quick tour, although the cabin has just one bedroom and a main living area. “I made us some dinner, with enough to keep us for the road tomorrow too. And there’s only the one bed, so you can have it for tonight and I’ll sleep out here.”
Imogen frowns. “Laudna, I’m not going to have you sleep on the floor of your own home because of me.”
“I can’t have you sleep on the floor either,” Laudna retorts, “you’ll be cold.”
“Then I guess we’ll share. It looks big enough.”
Laudna isn’t convinced, but she can’t argue with Imogen.
They sleep back to back that night, each on one side of the bed, and it is just wide enough for both of them. Laudna can’t splay out on her back like she usually does though, so she lies awake listening to the sound of Imogen’s breath. There is warmth coming from the other side, and that too is a strange sensation. Laudna doesn’t mind the cold, but when it’s just her under the blanket, it never warms up. So this is different. Nice.
It’s a moonless night, but Laudna can see just fine in the dark. And as the rhythmic breathing behind lulls her to sleep, she notices that Imogen has moved the bucket of flowers to the windowsill so they can get the morning light.
When they run through the house just after dawn to make sure they have everything, Imogen grabs the flowers off the windowsill. “You want to bring this bucket, right?”
“Yes.” It’s a useful bucket, for water or food or just carrying things around.
“Then we’ll keep the flowers for now. Seems a shame to dump them out when you went through all the trouble of picking them for me.”
And Laudna wants to say that she didn’t pick the flowers for Imogen, but somehow she can’t make the words come out.
Their first night on the road, Laudna starts a fire and sets up her bedroll alongside it. And she doesn't know about camping etiquette, so when Imogen puts her bedroll right next to it, she doesn't find it strange. In fact she's glad, and it's nice to have Imogen nearby, because Laudna had assumed they would sleep on either side of the fire.
"Do you want to sleep first, Laudna? I can keep watch."
This is new to Laudna too. She's always been alone, so there could never be any watches. Either she would risk sleep, or she wouldn't. Mostly she did sleep though, without a fire to draw attention, and relying on the fact that she could scare away any bandits. She had done it more than once, rising from her slumber with limbs askew and mouth dripping black ichor. That tended to send looters running.
But Imogen probably doesn't feel as safe. "Are you tired, though? I don't mind staying up."
"You rest. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping."
There's a part of Laudna that wants to insist, but she thinks Imogen also needs to feel like she's contributing to this journey, so Laudna nods instead. After all, they had eaten her food, and she had built the fire, and most of the supplies they carried had come from the cabin.
So Laudna lays out on the ground next to where Imogen sits with a blanket over her shoulders. "Goodnight, Imogen."
"Goodnight, Laudna. It's nice to be out here without anyone around, but I don't think I could have done this myself. I'm glad you're here."
"Me too." Laudna smiles to herself, because she can't remember the last time someone was glad for her being around. And as she drifts off to sleep, she notices that Imogen has placed the bucket of flowers right by their bedrolls.