"The damage is infectious, and all that can be done is purge it all and start from scratch."
If life is a series of choices, then perhaps that just means that life is a game? To Akazawa Saki, that's all life really is. She refutes the existence of G...
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The walls of Wistal were a welcome sight for the exhausted Saki come dusk the very next day. What was a sleepless twenty-something hours was spent watching the passing landscape by, thankfully in more silence than anything else.
Zack's bout of chatty questions had subsided for the most part following his brief remark about footsoldiers from another country. Whether it was because he'd realized she wasn't much of a talker, or he actually saw her coughing up blood somewhere along the way, Saki didn't know. All she did know was that he had taken to steering his horses along the way and left the silence continue with just a few peppered glances here and there.
What was a three day journey on foot, as stated by Zack, was easily halved with just breaks for the horses, and there was no way Saki could have managed even half of that on foot, no matter how determined she was.
Upon arriving at the end of the queue waiting after-dusk entry into the city, Saki had managed to drag a sleeping Lirae and displeased Tok from within the cart and slipped down to the ground. Her brief attempt at thanking Zack for the help was quickly waved off with a wry chuckle and a remarkably amiable smile.
'Don't mention it, Saki.' He had responded, using her name for the first time since he had picked her up. 'If you see me 'round, stop by and say hey at least. I'd appreciate seein' a friendly face around.'
If that was it, then Saki guessed that was fine.
She really had more important things she needed to deal with.
The walk straight through the forest towards her house felt like it was perhaps one of the longest trips she had endured, and as soon as the familiar, poorly faced building on its own island of the river came to view, Saki felt undeniable relief threaten to drown her.
The clucking hoard of twelve chickens had torn open another bag of wheat and cleared it out, though they were currently roosting all over the smithy pit walling as if it was their own personal sleeping perch, and the oak had finally lost all its leaves. Tok, who was trailing along after Saki's feet appeared quite perturbed about the balls of feathers twice its own size, and hesitated to even scoot past the birds to follow Saki and the slumbering Lirae into the house.
A faint mewling from upstairs caught Saki's attention the instance she had kicked the loose door open, though she had paid it no heed as she dropped Lirae into one of the two chairs situated at her table, and deposited her belongings with little care. The black cat who'd taken a more permanent residence in Saki's home descended the crudely built staircase, with its wide eyes taking in the sight of the new faces warily.
Even though Saki really wanted to, now wasn't the time to rest. Now wasn't the time for her to collapse for up to a whole day in its entirety, when there were matters to tend to.
So she left Lirae there to snooze while she had the opportunity and washed up in the cold as best she could, tossing her well-tarnished ensemble of clothes aside as she sought out a set that was at least a little more presentable. She set the fire alight beneath the steel basin in the smithy, poured water into the basin until it was at least to a fair level over the bricks placed at the bottom, and before it had heated too well, she roused Lirae and sent the girl to wash up.
