Independence

Iries had always been independent. Even in their first meeting she had been reluctant to rely on him. Something that had caused her much pain in the end, Nick had thought guiltily.

But seeing her in this position almost made him laugh, though he maintained a straight face on the outside.

"You can't walk on only one leg." He said, watching as she balanced precariously on her right leg. Her left leg was a bloody mess with her pants in tatters from the knee below and a neat little hole in her calf. She glared, but it's hard to feel intimidated by one who is wobbling and waving their arms like a drunk.

Ignoring him, she tried to walk, favoring her good leg and half hopping. If her left accidentally made contact with the ground or was jarred too much, her face twisted and she'd clench her teeth together, trying not to let the pain show. Nick wasn't fooled though, but he let her keep it up.

They walked in silence for a few minutes with the crunching of gravel under their feet. Eventually that became softer and Nick turned to see where Iries had gotten to.

She was several yards behind, hands on knees, well, one knee at least and breathing hard. From here her leg looked even worse; twisted and hanging limply to the side. When she caught him looking at her she'd hastily straightened up and looked at him defiantly, daring him to say something. He'd just shrugged and continued on.

He didn't ask how she got the way; he was curious but he knew better than to pry into her business. She tended to get very snappish and violent if provoked too much.

They continued like that for around half an hour; Iries stopping to rest when she thought Nick wasn't looking and Nick unconsciously slowing down, but not enough that Iries would get suspicious.

Eventually at the hour mark they were going so slow that it would take until after sundown to reach the town. A walk that normally took only around 2 or 3 hours.

Even now Nick wasn't totally sure why he did what he did next. The reason he gave Iries and Mitarie and tried to convince himself of was that if he hadn't it would have taken too long and he didn't want to get caught unarmed and vulnerable by bandits.

All he knew is that after about the dozenth time stopping for Iries, he got so tired that he just turned around and scooped her up. Iries. Picked her up. He picked Iries up!

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?!" She'd shrieked, waving her arms for balance. He noticed with some amusement that she must be very flustered, she didn't usually like to swear. "Carrying you." He said as though it was the most obvious answer in the world. Well, it was.

"I see." She seethed. Her glares were more effective now that she wasn't flailing around.

"..."

"..."

"Would you mind putting me DOWN?"

"No."

"...Well?"

"I mind, but I mind even more getting caught by bandits."

"Are you saying I'm a hinderance?" Her voice dripped with venom.

"In this case, yes."

Another deadly look.

"I am going to kill you know."

"I know."