song_tra_bong | In-country with Julian: day two

"Thanks." She holsters the pistol and grabs her rifle before standing.

A shrug. "Wasn't anything overly interesting in there, and no other ways out, so we'll have to go back the way we came. Speaking of which, God only knows how long we've been down here. And we need to be back at the ambush point before dark."

'Fine then. We can go back the way we came until we find light, it should be easy enough to see what time of day it is. Then - explore further, or go back, I don't mind.'

He walks back to the base of the incline and looks up its almost-vertical face. 'Wait here. I'll...' he stops and curses because he'd been about to suggest he climb up and pull her up but they don't have a rope with him that he can see. He sighs. 'It's earth, but there are no footholds and it'll take ages to dig some out.'

Yes, of course he could just twist for a rope out of some shadow.

'I'll help you up. It'll be quicker and we should be out of here before dark in case they change guards or come back here to sleep or anything.'

She slings her rifle over her back, then heads over to the mouth of the tunnel. She sticks her head inside, bracing her hands on the incline and staring up the slope.

"Help me up how exactly? I start crawling and you just push?"

Because if so, his whole 'respecting her personal space' thing is going to have to go right out the window.

For the sake of speed, he'll get over it.

'Give me your knife. Then hold onto my back, I'll carry you up.'

He says it like its no big deal. Inside, he's cringing, just a touch.

"Here." She draws her knife and hands it to him, hilt first; part of her realizes the strangeness of the action--this is the knife she threatened him with, after all.

Once he takes it, she moves to stand behind him. He's taller than she is, and she's not about to just throw her arms around his neck and jump on him. Instead, she just rests her hands on his shoulders. "What now?"

He twists his bow and quiver back to Arden for the time being, then crouches slightly. 'Hold tight, grip with your legs too. I only need my arms.'

And his mind is resolutely not thinking about having anyone this close, for the first time in a long long while.

She nods, though he can't see it. Her grip on his shoulders tightens and she hooks one leg around his waist. With a slightly ungainly hop, she throws the other leg around.

She ducks her head, cheek resting between his shoulders. "I'm ready when you are."

She's no burden to him. Two Amberites together can lift a large car if they choose to, so one human female is no bother. He just straightens, then drives his knife into the earth with force, then the other, arms length above his head. He uses them to lift them until his arms are straight, then braces his legs on the side, pulls the knives out and repeats the motion.

It only takes about five minutes for him to lift them both to the top this way. And strong though he is, he's breathing heavily by the time they get to the top. When they're there, he just stands until she drops off him, then hands her knife back, twists Shadows until his bow is back and starts walking up the tunnel again. All in silence.

She knows about his strength, figures he probably doesn't even register she's there. She just keeps her head down on the way up and lets go when it seems like that's what he wants.

She sheathes the knife and unshoulders her rifle before following.

She can be quiet too, when she chooses.

He tries not to think about it. Maybe he will later, or when he's back in Amber - but not now.

Because he could have just twisted a rope into his hands and hauled her up. But he didn't. And he's not sure why. he stays silent until he reaches the place where the tunnels had forked.

'You still want to go straight back outside?' Just to check.

She eyes the two unexplored tunnels. "Should at least look," she admits, her gaze shifting to the way they first came in.

"It's not far...You give me a boost and I'll go see what daylight's like. I'll come back and let you know if we can afford to go on."

'Very well.' He leads the way back to where they'd first dropped down, and holds his hands for her foot to step on. 'Go ahead then.'

"Thanks." Her rifle goes back over her back and she steadies herself with a hand on his shoulder before stepping on the proffered hands.

She scrambles up and it isn't long before she can smell fresh air. Rifle back in hand, she does a low sweep before standing on tip toe to get a better look around.

The sun is low, but not as low as she'd expected. They've got some time left. She heads back down the tunnel, dropping back down beside Julian; with a clever mid-air hand switch, she even manages not to clock him with the rifle. "We've got a few hours left before we need to be back. Time for one more tunnel, at least."

She gestures to the remaining two--one angling up, the other heading determinedly straight ahead. "Which?"

He points up. 'Nearer the surface will provide us with chances to get out quicker if necessary - and there are more likely to be enemy near the top.'

Which is, after all, what he'd rather be doing right now. It's been a while since he killed a human, last night notwithstanding.

A nod. It's what she was thinking.

"You stay on point, then."

She knows he wants a kill--it's a feeling she understands. She offers him the means; it's a thing she can do.

He'd appreciate it, if he thought further than the assumption that she knew he was more likely to survive a fight.

He wanders on in silence, sword drawn - and after about ten minutes, stops. There's the clear sound of voices - not more than two or three by the sound of it, but quite clear all the same. They're pretty close but not moving, so obviously not walking.

'I suggest we get up close and you use a knife. This close to the top the use of a gun would surely be heard and could draw any number of them - we could easily find ourselves trapped.'

She nods, listening to the voices. The rifle is put away and the knife brought out. She twirls it once, then sets her grip.

She gestures with the blade for him to continue. And if she's smiling...well, she's fond of close kills.

He wonders about that briefly, how someone takes so easily to blood - or a human someone anyway. But puts it away for another time, and sheaths his sword. His bow is taken instead, and two arrows pulled from their quiver - he pulls one third of the flight from both to adjust their path in the air, sets them against each other and nocs them both.

And then walks towards the voices - there seems to be four different ones, the closer he gets. The tunnel opens out into another cavern, slightly bigger than the ammo dump but not much. Four men sit eating and talking - he checks to see Mary Anne close behind, then turns back and looses the arrows, watching in satisfaction as they split off and bury themselves in the foreheads of two of the seated men.

She wishes for a moment that she could watch him shoot again, but that gets pushed aside as soon as they enter the cavern. An eyeblink to assess the situation--she lunges, slitting the throat of the third in a wild swing. Blood gets in eyes, but she throws the knife at the fourth and last man.

She turns, scrubbing blood from her eyes, to check the kill. She missed--but not entirely. The knife entered at the base of his neck rather than in the throat proper. The man lies thrashing on the floor, still alive.

She sighs, crouching beside him. A knee rested on his chest still him somewhat. She pulls the knife from his throat and slips to the hilt in his heart, twisting it to be sure.

She stands, pulling her knife free from the dead man. She's vaguely angry at herself--she prefers a clean kill when working this close.

He's leaning on the table, watching her with half-lidded eyes. He wants to ask her about that - how it's OK to kill but not enjoy it if it's not clean. He finds it curious. But now is not the time.

'We should leave. If we venture further and these bodies are found, our way back will be blocked. We know where this place is, we can always come back tomorrow - or later tonight. And anyway, I'm hungry.'

It's said dispassionately but his eyes are searching her face. He doesn't know what he's looking for, but he still does it.

She knows he's watching before she ever turns to look at him. She wipes her knife clean and sheathes it before meeting his eyes.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go."

She doesn't know what she's looking for either.

He doesn't move for a moment longer, then drops his eyes and nods. He relapses into silence until they get back to the entrance, then cups his hands to give her a foot up again. 'Tell me if it's clear and I'll boost you up over the edge.'

A hand on his shoulder again to steady herself, then up and a look around, pistol in her free hand. She listens but doesn't hear anything out of the ordinary; sticking her head out further to look around doesn't set off a rattle of enemy fire, so she gives the all clear.

Once she's out, she stays crouched near the edge, looking back at Julian. "Need a hand?"

He just snorts, and jumps straight upwards without any kind of preamble, grasping the edge of the hole with his fingertips and still somehow managing to look graceful as he hauls himself straight out.

Then he just stands and looks at her coolly. 'No.'

Distant, cold. He doesn't like that she made him wonder about her.

She shrugs. "Alright, then. Don't say I never offered."

She stands and walks past him, leading the way back to the ambush point. If he thinks he's going to phase her, he's got another thing coming. At least, that's the plan.

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