darkSpyro

Even though the boy had nodded, Red had a hunch that he still didn't get it, especially considering his next choice of words. Now it was her turn to act offended, narrowing her eyes at him as she grumbled, "You think I'd be risking my hide out of something as vain as pity?" With a sigh, she turned her gaze back to the front and shook her head. "If I pitied you, I would have barely looked back, let alone zap that bug."

The boy opened his mouth to retort, but no sound came out. He didn't know what to say to that. You could be sure he was trying his damnedest to come up with something, though. It would seem he wouldn't be coming up with anything, however, for his mouth closed and he turned his head to stare straight ahead, frowning all the while.

Eventually, he came to say, "So you saved me because you're..." He seemed to struggle getting the last word out, as if it tasted terribly on his tongue. "Nice." Looking at the man pointedly, he said, "Where I come from, nice means weakness."

Yeah, that's what I thought, she bitterly said in her mind, watching the boy's fruitless attempts to counter her argument. She supposed she shouldn't let herself be so impatient with him, however. It wasn't as if she knew where he was coming from, and he likely wasn't interested in spilling those beans any time soon. Although, he was giving her plenty of clues to work with. This time she didn't seem offended, instead sounding almost bored as she replied, "Sounds lovely, your old folks. I'm sure they're a riot at family reunions."

Family. That was a word he hadn't heard, hadn't thought of, in a long time. Where were his mother and father now? Were they even still alive? It should have disturbed him, but he found himself... not particularly caring. He could barely remember them, wouldn't have been able to pick them out in a crowd of people. They were a part of his old life before the Legion, and he found that he couldn't remember much of his life prior.

Letting thoughts of family drift away, he said, "Nice people don't last long out here." And apparently neither do former legionaries.

"Oh really?" Red retorted, her tone almost sarcastic. "Kid, I've been around longer than even I can remember. Eh... granted, I haven't been 'nice' all my life, but the past few decades? I'd say that's a pretty long time. Wouldn't you?"

"I'm not a kid," he insisted. Pausing for a few moments, taking the time for his words to really register, he asked, "Decades? How old are you?" Ghoul physiology was foreign to him, so he had no idea they could live as long as Red already has.

"Uh... I wasn't joking. I really can't remember." She raised a hand to count her fingers for some mental math equation she was solving. "I know I was born before the war, but my memory's not what it used to be." That was saying a lot, as her memory was never particularly impressive in the first place. "At least over two hundred years. The exact is... ten, twenty, thirty... shoot. You know what year this is?" She knew she probably sounded so incredibly stupid, but this had happened so many times before that she didn't find herself caring anymore.

"Before which war?" he asked, immediately thinking of the conflict between the NCR and the Legion. As the man went on, however, it was made very apparent what war he was talking about. "Two hundred years?" he asked, admittedly rather awe-struck. "It's 2281," he told him. Blinking rather owlishly, he asked, "How have you survived for so long?"

Red became more and more perplexed by the boy's apparent awe. He couldn't have been that uninformed, could he? She suspected he had to be at least in his late teens, hardly young enough to be so lacking. "2281... ah, 234? Close enough." Careful not to sound too surprised in her tone, she answered, "It's what make us ghouls. Years of radiation expanding our lifespans and such. Most folks just up and kicked the bucket, but not so for the rest."

"No, I mean," the boy waved his hands, "how have you not been killed in 200 years?" Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure how he was alive at all for so long, but he was more surprised by the fact that he had gone so long without someone killing him. He had nearly met his fate and he was merely a fraction of that age. How many times must this person have cheated death? He found himself forming a grudging respect for this man's apparent abilities.

"Oh. Eh, I'm just as clueless as you are in that department, kid," she admitted with a shrug. "I haven't been out in the wild all this time, but for the time I have been, well... let's say there's been more than a few close calls. I don't know, maybe I've just been lucky. Ah, but you don't believe in luck. I should say, by chance, I managed to last this long." There was a pause where she gave the matter more thought. "And also I'm just hard to kill, so there's that."

No, you survive because you are strong, the boy thought to himself. He wasn't about to admit that to this stranger, though. He didn't even want to admit to himself just how strong this individual was, and how weak he was in comparison. Frowning, he resolved to work harder in the future. He wouldn't allow himself to disgrace the Legion by allowing this profligate to be better than him. That being said, he still wasn't entirely sure how he was going to do that...

"I'm not a kid," he muttered again.



It wasn't long before they came across a camp that could be seen in the distance. "Town" would have been a more appropriate term for it, as there were no tents to be found there, but instead actual buildings. There was even a church that stood in Camp Searchlight, but that little detail was hardly noticed by the boy. No, what he was more concerned about was the disturbing amount of NCR troopers walking about. It shouldn't have come as any surprise. He was bound to run into the profligate troops if he traveled west, and he knew it, but he was still caught off guard when the moment actually occurred and he was in their presence.

Pausing where he stood on the hill overlooking the camp, he eyed the place warily. These men would have no way of knowing he was a former legionary, but that didn't negate the fact that he would be walking amongst his enemies, and that was a dangerous thing to do. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face the ghoul, asking, "Should we keep going?" Or stop here? went unsaid. His crippled leg was aching and he really should get the rest, but he wasn't sure this place swarming with NCR troopers was the place to do it.

The ghoul's silence had continued even when the town came into view. She made no comment on its presence, only continuing her steady pace as the two travelers neared it, and her dead-set gaze forward only broke when she turned her head about to survey the rest of their surroundings. When the boy halted, she almost kept moving forward until he spoke up. Stopping to look behind where she had left him, Red replied, "I'd say so. I still don't think you should be up and about after that." A distant sound too unintelligible for her to decipher caused her to stare alertly into the distance it echoed from. "And nights are dangerous. Can't be too careful out here."

"I can handle myself just fine," he argued, but there was little enthusiasm in his words. He knew they were empty, and he was never much of a liar, even when he was very small. Well, smaller. At Red's reply, the boy looked at the town warily, then shot his head in the direction of the distant noise. It might have been a coyote. Or a nightstalker. He wasn't sure how one could differentiate the two based solely on the sounds they made. He looked back to the camp. Between the NCR soldiers and whatever wildlife was out there, he'd take his chances with the profligates. Men were more predictable than beasts in combat. Turning to the man he'd traveled with and giving him a slight nod of acceptance, he trailed after him again, though his steps were hesitant.

"Will they shoot us on sight?" he asked childishly. If his contubernium had been approached by strangers in the dead of night, well... he can't say he knew how his Decanus might have reacted to that.

Red gave the boy a look that probably enforced his belief that his deceptiveness was lacking. And even if he had been a good liar, she wouldn't have been having it either way. She wasn't about to let this youngin get himself hurt even more if she could help it.

"Hm." She scanned her eyes over the camp and its outer walls, observing the people that were patrolling it. "Looks like an NCR camp, I'd reckon. They're nothing to worry about, so long as you ain't got dirt on your name." At her own words, she briefly considered if this boy was on the run for a reason that could fall under that category. She wouldn't have been too worried if that was the case; it would be easy to convince anyone that a child should be cut some slack.

Continuing her walk, she said, "Just stick close and act normal. They'll have no reason to suspect anything if we ain't got nothing to hide." Suppressing a sigh, she also considered that the boy probably did have at least one thing to hide, if his vagueness regarding his situation indicated anything. Again, she was sure it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.


OOC: For anyone who's reading this, I'm sorry her accent and dialogue keeps changing, please bear with me. I'll figure out what to keep consistent soon enough.

"Yes, an NCR camp. However did you guess?" he sneered, his bad leg making him grumpier than usual. Whether it was the two-headed bear flag or the uniforms the men wore, it was quite obvious what sort of camp this was. At the man's insistence that they wouldn't be a problem so long as they didn't have a reputation, he frowned ever so slightly. Surely he didn't have a reputation, did he? He had been a mere recruit legionary, hardly worth recognition or remembrance. Then again, what if one of these soldiers recognized him from...?

Act normal, was the man's advice. Problem was, the boy didn't really know what normal was. The profligates behaved so differently from the men of the Legion. Would his usual behavior be considered suspicious? He did not know, nor did he particularly care to find out.

Hesitantly following his travelling partner, he said slowly, "I don't like... soldiers." Not a lie, exactly, but hardly the full truth, either.

The snide remark was met with yet another look, and one that suggested that he not test himself around the ghoul. Nevertheless, she let it slide, instead noting his voiced distaste for armed, trained folk like the ones they were about to meet. She was now wondering more if he was being chased down by the law; as a result, she started planning such a situation in her head. Eh, she's dealt with more frustratingly complex issues before. It was no skin off her nose-- not exactly the most appropriate saying, given that she was no longer in possession of one.

"Yeah. Lots of folks don't. If they pick up on that, the worst they'll do it keep an eye on you. Again, if you've got nothing to hide, there won't be a problem."

The boy returned his look with a glare of his own, one that suggested he was in no mood to be parented by this fellow. At his words, he frowned slightly. But he did have something to hide. He was once part of the very faction the NCR so ruthlessly fought against. Though it wasn't as though he had "former Legion oppressor" stamped to his forehead, he wasn't exactly the most subtle of sorts, either. This could go very badly very quickly. He decided he was going to have to behave himself in this place. No calling people the dissolute dogs that they were. That would get him hung up on a cross---or whatever it was the NCR did---sooner than it took a drop of water to evaporate midday.

So he merely nodded in response to the man, hoping that if he kept quiet and let the ghoul do the talking, things would run more smoothly.

Luckily for the boy, Red was in no mood to parent this adolescent. While she was hardly as tired as he likely was-- frankly, she was rarely tired at all-- the idea of debating with him on the topic of tact and politeness seemed to tax her mind in of itself. Right now, her main focus was to get the kid somewhere safe to rest while he was recovering from the venom. She was quick to pursue this, as when she reached the nearest guard in sight a few yards away from the borders, she asked, "Pardon. Does this place welcome travelers?"

At the sight of the two travelers, the guard raised his gun slightly in preparation, but made no move to take aim. Studying the two, one a ragged ghoul and the other a boy whose clothes didn't even fit him, the guard holstered his gun, saying, "So long as you don't cause trouble."

The boy eyed the guard warily, but kept his mouth shut. He was going to let the man do the talking. If he kept his head down and kept his mouth shut, he might just survive this venturing into the snake's pit. Of course, lowering one's head was a sign of submission, and he had no intention of showing such a thing to these profligates. Raising his chin defiantly, but still saying nothing, he glanced over to the ghoul, wondering what his response would be.

"Of course. Our stay shouldn't be long." Pausing for a brief moment to consider her words, missing the glance the boy was giving her, Red continued, "Where do you suppose the vacancies would be?" During day hours she wouldn't feel so hesitant to chat up the locals a little more and get to know the place, but in her experience folks working the night shift tended to be jumpy and grumpy, and for varying reasons. She deemed it best to get to the point and out of this guard's hair sooner than later, but not before making a proper assessment of his attitude.

Gesturing with his head, the guard said, "The church up ahead should be empty. Not much to look at, but it has a roof."

The boy looked in the direction the man had gestured. He didn't know what a church was, but the triangular shaped building looked unique, so he assumed it was the place. Again, he kept his mouth shut and let the ghoul do the talking.

"Good enough for us," she nodded after following his gesture. After getting a better look of the camp now that the two were closer, she ventured to say, "It looks pretty well-established. Do you get a lot of traffic through here?"

"Not much. We see some Legion activity from the east, but they've been keeping back as of late," the guard replied, an evident scowl on his face from the mention of the Legion.

The boy, on the other hand, visibly flinched at the mention of his former faction. Stay calm, he told himself. They don't suspect anything.

"That's good to hear." She glanced at the boy, who she presumed was getting more and more exhausted by the minute, and as such decided not to bore him with her idle chatter. "Well, we'll leave you to that. Thank you, and have a good night," she said with a tilt of her hat before walking past the guard and towards the entrance.

"Good night," replied the guard, taking out his weapon again as he resumed his perimeter around the camp.

The boy trailed behind the ghoul like a lost puppy until he eventually came to walk by the ghoul's side. That's good to hear. So the man must not have a good standing with the Legion. Not that he was surprised. He was a profligate, after all. When they were out of earshot from the guard, he asked the man, "How long are we staying here?"

"Not long," she aptly replied, heading straight for the camp's church. "We'll get some rest, buy some supplies," she glanced down at him again, "and you some better clothes. We should be heading out by noon, but it's a little early to tell for sure."

At the promise that they wouldn't be in this profligate camp long, the boy kept himself from breathing a sigh of relief. Instead simply exhaling through his nose, he said curtly, "Good." At the insistence that they get him better clothes, he gave the man a look and looked as though he were about to say something, but he stayed silent. It was true that his clothes hardly fit him. It wasn't as if he had to deny it. Tugging a bit self-consciously on his collar, he simply followed the ghoul as they made their way towards the church.

Red couldn't help but tilt her head curiously at the boy's apparent distaste of being in the camp. She didn't pretend to understand why, as she had just met him, but wondered all the same. When they had reached the church, she decided to ask before pressing open the doors, "How're you feeling now? Any dizziness? Fatigue? There's probably a doctor somewhere, if you feel like you'll need one."

"No!" was his immediate response, mostly directed at the last statement. Just now realizing his outburst, he shrunk back slightly, raising a hand as if to wave the very notion away. "No," he repeated, much calmer this time. "I'm fine. I'm just..." Should he admit weakness to this stranger? Well... he's already seen him at his absolute worst, hanging near death as he was bottle fed the antivenom that saved his life. He saw no harm in it. "I'm just tired," he finished. And his leg ached. And the world was doing this thing where it was spinning slightly.

Red fell silent at his rather passionate response, staring down at him with an inscrutable look. She didn't have much to go off of, but it wouldn't take a genius to see that he was one of those "never show weakness" folks. She sighed; this would be difficult to deal with. The boy admitting his fatigue was good enough for her for now, at least. "We'll get that fixed soon enough." Pushing one of the doors open with a single hand, she made space for him to enter.

At the man's silence, the boy turned his head away slightly as if he feared he'd be struck for his outburst. When no such thing happened, he chanced a peek at the ghoul, who was merely staring at him with an unreadable look. He found he didn't like not being able to tell what the man was thinking. Not at all. His words made it evident enough that he wasn't about to be beaten for his insolence, however. With a nod, he walked into the church. Once inside, he picked a nice corner and curled up in it, his back to the wall.

After the boy had stepped in, Red followed after shutting the door quietly behind them, taking note of the church's most obvious features before turning her gaze to where he decided to rest. Evidently, he had decided to corner himself. Trying to muffle the sound of her heavy bootfalls, she approached him and sat with her back to one of the walls, a reasonable distance from him. She brought her knees up and draped one arm over it, the other with its hand resting on the ground. She remained in this position wordlessly.

As the ghoul approached, the boy watched from his lying position as he settled down next to him. He stared at him for a few moments, before eventually he came to say, "Aren't you going to sleep?" He wasn't sure he felt safe falling asleep in this profligate camp to begin with, but he was even less certain about sleeping with the man staying wide awake. He mentally scolded himself. Claudius, if he wanted you dead, you'd be dead already. While that knowledge didn't exactly comfort him, it calmed him enough to the point where he rested his head on the floor, though he still kept his hawk-like eyes trained on the ghoul.

There was a pause before Red replied, "Maybe. I don't sleep a lot." She didn't explain why, or even look in the boy's general direction.

At the man's response, the boy wondered for a moment if it was a ghoul thing or if the man just didn't sleep because... he was crazy. Either way, it seemed he would be having an observer as he slept. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea, but he supposed he'd prefer this man watching over him in this profligate camp. Snuggling further into his corner, he yawned widely, his eyes sliding shut as pure exhaustion overtook him.

Red didn't break the silence that grew between them. Eventually, she turned her gaze towards the boy and noticed that he had finally fallen asleep. She breathed a small sigh of satisfaction, glad that the two had the fortune of coming across some form of civilization so that he wouldn't have to recover in the thick of the wastelands. Still, there were other things to worry about that didn't consist of dangerous hazards and wildlife. The stranger had made it clear that he was on the run from someone, and who that someone may be was completely up in the air. Was it one person? A group? A gang of folks wanting to settle a score, or potentially an entire tribe? She was particularly weary of the latter possibility; her protecting this kid mind land her as one of their enemies as well, and that didn't appeal to her in the slightest.

Regardless of who it may be, Red wasn't going to let them catch her by surprise. She intended to wait the remainder of the night out, in case anyone was aware of their position. The thought of staying awake didn't bother her. Admittedly, the idea of having absolutely nothing to do did, but she had been forced into idleness in far more increments of time before. This wouldn't be a problem. Or, so she assumed.

As the boy slept, he would twitch every so often in his sleep, indicating he was dreaming. In his dream, he was running---actually running, not hindered by a crippled leg. He didn't know why he was running. He only got the impression that he was running from something. He ran and he ran, but whatever was chasing him was faster, and he was overcome by a tide. A tide of what? Was it water? Or was it blood?

He flinched in his sleep, but otherwise stayed quiet and still.

When he finally awoke, it was well into the morning, nearly noon. When he was awoken by rays of sunlight poking through the roof and into his face, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He'd slept in?! How?! He made to jump up and hurry to join his contubernium, but upon seeing the ghoul, he remembered the situation he was in. No... he wouldn't be joining his contubernium anytime soon.

Stretching from his spot on the floor, he sat up, giving the ghoul a strange look. "Did you sleep?" he asked.

Remarkably, Red was almost still in the same position, save for her head leaning against the wall and her shoulder. He wasn't given a reply; evidently, she had, and still was.

When it was made apparent that the ghoul was asleep, the boy watched him silently, finding the opportunity to simply watch. While he doubted much could be garnered from the sleeping man, it was practically instinct to take advantage of this opportunity and learn what he could. So he simply watched.

The boy wouldn't find out much, unfortunately for him, as Red was typically as motionless as a corpse after drifting into slumber. However, she was also a very light sleeper, and eventually the morning rays got to her as well. Stirring very slowly, her head began to lift, and her first action was to make sure everything was how she had left it. "... Oh. How long was I out?" she mumbled after a long pause.

Well the ghoul certainly slept like the dead, untroubled by dreams or nightmares it seemed. Did that mean this person's past was untroubled? He doubted it. It seemed more likely instead that the man simply was unbothered by whatever must have happened to him over the years. Filing away this small piece of information, he watched as the ghoul woke up, asking a simple question after a time.

"I don't know," the boy admitted. "I only just woke up." ...Should he have admitted that? Claudius. What does it matter?

At this, she wearily glanced about the church walls before setting her gaze back on the boy. Well, he was still here, and nothing was out of place, so there was nothing to worry about. "No matter," she eventually said. "How're you feeling now? Better?"

"I felt fine yesterday," he said unconvincingly. Frowning, he wrapped his arms around his legs, saying, "I'm okay. I just want to get out of here."

Red's brows furrowed in doubt, but she didn't press the issue. Steadily stretching out her legs and rising to her boots, she said, "Alright. But first the supplies, remember?"

The boy nodded his agreement. They obviously needed the supplies if they were going to be traveling anywhere. And it would be nice if his clothes actually fit for once. Rising to a stand, his crippled leg shaking as he did so, he gestured to the door in a Lead the way gesture.

Red did as suggested, making way towards the exit and, after opening the door and peering outside, stepped out and held it open for him. Once they were outside, she stood there wordlessly, continuing to survey the town and its going-on's as she considered something.

The boy frowned slightly when the door was held open for him. He wasn't some weakling who couldn't manage a door by himself, and he voiced as such. When he slipped through the door and joined the ghoul, however, it was made apparent that he was thinking on something. Abandoning his previous agitation, the former legionary asked, "What are you thinking?"

Red didn't verbally respond to his complaints, but she frowned in her displeasure all the same. When he questioned her, she replied, "Getting a list of what we need in my head." She kept silent on the fact that she was having some difficulty with it. Just what exactly did humans need again? Well, she knew what they needed, that was a dumb question. But in what quantity? The number of times she herself needed sustenance were so infrequent that she rarely visited markets for that purpose, especially since she found it more viable to make her own food from the local plants and animals. She had honestly forgotten how constant a human's need for food intake was.

"What do you have on hand?"

The boy nodded in response. That was a reasonable thing to do. At the man's question, he patted the small sack that he carried, saying, "A couple days worth of water. Less, if we share." Brandishing his machete, he twirled it a bit before saying, "I also have this." He didn't say that he also had a copious amount of knives hidden on his person. He didn't trust this person enough for that. He did, however, rummage around in his pocket before producing a small pouch of healing powder.