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Jaiden is finally starting to regain feeling in her fingers. It’s been about half an hour since she first arrived on the inn’s doorstep, shivering and soaked through by the rain. She doesn’t know what she would have done if she hadn’t been able to stop by here – or, what she would have done if she’d been turned away at the door.
Roier is bustling around by the fire, nudging around coals with a poker. Jaiden will be the first to admit she doesn’t really know the details of… how to tend for a fire. Although that’s probably something she’ll have to learn about, considering she’s… on the run, now. Oh god. She’s on the run. Yeah. That’s… something.
He sets the poker aside with a soft clink of metal against the bricks surrounding the fireplace, and sits down on one of the armchairs across from her. There’s a look on his face Jaiden can’t entirely identify. She doesn’t know him as well as she used to, clearly, and that stings, just a bit. She almost wishes they were meeting again under different circumstances, not these ones. But… well.
The baby dragon curled up in Jaiden’s backpack shifts in his sleep. For a moment, concern spikes inside her, and she’s worried that he’s waking, and will start fussing again – keeping him content long enough to escape the castle grounds unnoticed was perhaps one of the most stressful things she’s ever done, and she’s honestly still reeling from the fact that it worked.
(She’s sure his absence has been noticed by now, but… well. She just hopes she lost the guards in the woods on her way here. If she didn’t, then very soon, she’ll have a whole lot more to worry about than a slightly awkward reunion with her childhood best friend. It’s already going to be bad enough as it is, being on the run with a stolen baby dragon and her extremely obvious identity as a high-ranking knight that’s spontaneously gone missing on the same night that a dragon was stolen from the castle sorcerer’s tower. Talk about making her own life hard for herself.)
It's worth it, she tells herself, eyes still trained on the dragon she knows she saved from an almost certainly terrible fate. He doesn’t wake, as it turns out –just tucks his snout under his tail, lets out a little huff, and slumbers on. Thank the gods. Jaiden watches the firelight dancing off his blue scales – it almost has a hypnotising sort of effect, and with the stress of the day having time to catch up with her now, she can feel her mind starting to drift.
“So. Does he have a name?” Roier asks, breaking the silence and drawing her out of her thoughts.
Jaiden blinks, needing a moment to repeat the words in her head, be able to place the question. “He…” She ducks her head. “Well, I’ve kinda been calling him Bobby in my head.” She glares at him. “Don’t laugh, okay?”
Roier raises his hands defensively. “I’m not laughing! It’s cute, it’s a cute name.” There’s a pause. “Just… not what you would expect, for a dragon name. Right?”
“Hey, if you think about it, that’s a good thing,” Jaiden defends. “Like, if I’m talkin’ ‘bout someone named Bobby, people in public are hardly gonna think I’m talking about a dragon. Could just be a regular-ass kid, y’know?”
Roier hums. “True, true. That is smart thinking.”
(And it’s… definitely the actual reason she named him that. It wasn’t just something she came up with on the spot and that stuck because she couldn’t think of anything else. Definitely the tactical aspect. Yeah.)
Anyway. “Hey, uh… How long d’you think we can stay?”
It’s… not exactly a comfortable question to ask, and she’d prefer to be ignoring the matter for as long as possible if she could. But ultimately, Jaiden has to be realistic here. She’s the one that got herself (and Bobby) into this mess – she’s gotta stick with it now. And that means being able to plan her next move.
Roier hums. “Do you know when they will come for you? Like, were you being followed?”
Jaiden winces. “Not really. Like, we should probably get back on the move pretty soon. But I kinda wanna have a plan for where to go next, y’know?”
Roier nods. “Yes, yes, I understand. Do you… have a plan? Anywhere you can go?”
Jaiden’s silence probably speaks volumes. Roier’s brow creases a little. “Ah.”
“I didn’t really have much of a plan in the first place,” she admits. “I just had to get him outta there. I didn’t have time to think.”
“And that’s why you’re here,” Roier prompts. “You had nowhere else to go?”
“Well, when you say it like that.” Jaiden honestly didn’t even think of this place at first. It was only when she was on her way through the woods and trying to think of somewhere to lay low, at least for the night, that she remembered this place had to be somewhere in the vicinity. It’s kind of a miracle she even found it, honestly, dark and stormy as it is outside, and with how long she hasn’t been in this area herself.
Jaiden is pretty sure Roier isn’t asking all the questions he wants to ask. He’d be more curious than this, and he can’t be satisfied with the relatively few things she’s told him. He knows that she stole the dragon, and he knows she needs to lay low – and anyone would know that that kind of offense makes her a criminal certain to be hunted for in the entire kingdom from now.
And yet, he took her in. And he’s keeping the questions back, either because he thinks she won’t answer him, or because he thinks she has too much going on already. He’s considerate like that. She doesn’t know which reason she’d prefer, honestly.
Either way. Jaiden already has no idea how she’s ever going to repay him for this.
“Is there anything I can do?” she tries to offer. “Like, while we’re here. I know it’s a risk sheltering us here, and…”
“No, no.” He waves his hand dismissively. “Jaiden, I know you… have a reason. Why you are here, and why you took…” he glances over at the dragon, “Bobby. And you don’t have to tell me, because it is dangerous, I know. But… I’m just happy to see you again, you know? And you can stay as long as you need, until you’ve figured out where to go.” He cracks a grin. “As long as no one comes to burn down my place, you know.”
And Jaiden… doesn’t know what to say. He’s being kind, he’s being way too kind, for the way she’s treated him. For the way she left, leaving him alone here while she went off to the castle to train to become a knight, and for the way she hasn’t kept in contact for years. Yet here he is, acting as though she deserves this kindness from him. As though it’s reasonable for him to take her in like this, and request nothing in return.
“Thank you,” she says, softly. “Thank you, Roier.” She doesn’t know what else to say. There’s no excuse, no apology, that she can give. None that would feel earnest. She’s been a bad friend, that’s what it is. But here he is, forgiving her for things that he could very well hate her for, but doesn’t.
He smiles. “Of course, Jaiden. You’re still my friend, you know?”
She can’t meet his eye. “I’m sorry for… not keeping in contact. And just showing up like this now.”
There’s a pause. “You want to talk about it?” It’s less a question, and more an offer. For her to talk, if she wants. Jaiden doesn’t know if she wants.
“Tomorrow, maybe?” Even if tomorrow, there’ll be a baby dragon to deal with. And the potential of royal guards chasing after her, wanting to arrest her and take Bobby back, and, and, and.
But he nods. “Okay. Tomorrow.”
So for now, she can warm her fingers by the fire, and wonder when she ever deserved a friend like Roier. There is, in fact, hope out there.