Reverie || Kit Tanthalos

~08~ The Slaughtered Lamb

"I think I should stay with you," Jade opined.

"I think I can take care of myself." Kit was obviously still upset about earlier.

Verania got back up on her horse and followed Kit and Boorman. As she passed Jade she said, "Don't worry. I'll watch out for her."

Although she didn't think she'd, in fact, be able to protect Kit, she knew she would die trying.

Jade nodded, but it was clear she wasn't thrilled to let them go.

"Hey, Boorman," Graydon shouted. "Don't let anything happen to my sister or my queen."

Verania snorted.

"Okay, then. I'd rather die a thousand deaths than fail you," Boorman said sarcastically.

"Good luck," Kit bid her goodbye to Jade before she and Verania followed Boorman.

"Come on," Boorman talked to his horse that was refusing to keep going. "You are embarrassing me."

Verania shook her head in amusement. Pitiless Pass, exactly.

"Keep going," Kit told him.

"Oh, yeah, I'm trying. I just think maybe his enthusiasm has waned."

"The Cuirass," Kit said.

"Ah, well, after Thuul impaled his little brother on a spike-"

"The part about my father."

"Excuse me?" Verania asked incredulously. "How much did I miss?"

"I was the young, handsome, heroic one. He was my, uh, slightly shorter comedic foil," Boorman said.

Verania hadn't really expected an answer but being ignored again was kinda rude.

"And where'd you go?" Kit asked. "Why did you come back and he didn't?"

"There's no such thing as fate. Okay, you get lucky ot you get dead. I got lucky," Boorman explained.

"So, you actually saw him?"

"No, but I know what I know."

Kit scrunched her eyebrows and turned to look at him. "How?"

"'Cause if he were alive, if he'd come back, things would be different. You know the Cuirass isn't a weapon. It's a shiled."

"Against what?" Verania questioned.

"Darkness."

Immediately the voice of Cherlindrea echoed in her head. "Darkness is near," she had said.

When they finally arrived at The Slaughtered Lamb, it was almost dark again, which didn't help against the scary atmosphere at all.

The Slaughtered Lamb was not an inn.

"It's a graveyard," Verania stated.

"Hey, what can I say? I'm as disappointed as you are," Boorman defended himself. He looked around the ruins, just as surprised as they were.

"What happened to The Slaughtered Lamb?" Kit asked.

"Must've gone out of business?" It sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Has anything you said been true?"

"How dare you? At least one-third of everything I've said has been true."

Verania snorted with no amusement this time. What have they gotten themselves into?

"I'm such an idiot," Kit turned around to go back to the horses.