Chapter Text
The heat was silent, but for the static of wind over dead earth. Somewhere, a dog barked—something feral and frothing, no longer a mabari. Jagged metal sliced the sky beyond the haze of miles.
The sweat upon her brow was quick, evaporating as it formed. A hot and dusty puff of air bowed the braid behind her back. A lizard skimmed across the baking soil, its four eyes seeking shade, two tongues tasting its way.
“We cannot stay,” his voice rumbled, calm and even. Not a judgment; a fact. A reminder for her own sake, she knew. Lyrium ghouls did not feel rads like the living. She wondered if he even felt the poisoned itch anymore, after it infected his blood. The scars still ached, but did his bones? His fevered dreaming and the muttered prayers it birthed were all so alien to her, even three years on.
A white-scarred hand brushed hair from his brow. “You will fall ill.”
She sighed and stood, slowly, savoring the last inches of shade. Green eyes fell as they always did to the scar across her nose, a token from a yao guai’s paw. She felt the rads trickle, aching, into the shiny, taught skin, and knew he was right.
With a sigh, she pulled her helmet from her arm and nestled it snugly on her neck. She felt the seal click, and his green eyes turned outwards.
“Only a few days from here to the Glow,” she said with a cheer she did not feel. He looked at her, sideways but silent.
She smiled at him. Her face was lost beneath the helmet, but she imagined he heard it in her voice.
“Come on, Fenris,” she said, as her mabari came loping toward them. They stepped from the shade, and walked into the west.