And I just saw that you're not here. For when you get back, then.

Rose~ 

We decide that the best way to travel is with me carrying her over my shoulders, in the fireman's carry. I have practiced it with Lilly, ages ago, although Sybill is different. We practice, too, over the next few days. I figure out how often to rest and how to adjust my pack. Sybill figures out ways to duck branches I miss and keep a lookout for us.

On the sixteenth day, I can hold off no longer. Sybill makes this clear at breakfast.

"My burns are healed."

"Mhm."

"It's getting colder. Last night it was almost freezing."

"We have blankets for our journey." 

"We also have meat, water, bandages, herbs, flint and tinder, all your weapons..."

"I understand."

"So can we go, then? It's been, like, a month!" 

"It has been approximately nineteen days since you broke your ribs." 

"Yeah, and they're better now."

"You still take great care when you breathe."

"Well, I don't need to!"

"I would recommend continuing it."

"That's not the point."

"I know." I sigh, look up. "It looks like there will be sun today."

"Perfect weather for traveling."

"We shall see."

Sybill gives me a look. I give her a look back. We leave as soon as she finishes her rabbit. 

Rose~

"I'm excited!" Sybill bubbles. "I wonder who will be there. Do you think Catastrophe will be there? Ooh, what if there's royalty..." 

She goes on like this for quite a while. Her speculation makes the travel go faster, although sometimes if I miss one word I'm lost for the next ten minutes.

During our first rest we have just finished eating when a bush near us begins to rustle the way bushes do when something is in them. I grasp the hilt of my dagger and share a look with Sybill, who is sitting alert. A faint smell of lemons rises.

The rustling stops, but I do not relax. This goes well, as the next moment, a fox leaps out and lands in front of us, wearing a bandolier hung with pouches and brandishing a dirk that has been poorly fitted to its paw.

"Yaaah! Give me all your money, or I'll cut you to smithereens and take it!" 

A jay steps out after the fox and rather sardonically asks, "Isn't it supposed to be 'I'll cut you to ribbons'?"

I sigh and take a subtle stance. "Everywhere we go..." 

~The fox and the jay are highway robbers, in case it wasn't clear, but they're not very good at it. The jay might be trouble if it takes up dive-bombing our duo, but that might take some provocation.

... I be disturbed... Remind me again what set Sybill off on the road to insanity? Wasn't it when Yin died? Also, what happened to Lily? Last we saw her, I think she was grappeling with another ghost, but then we never knew what Death did to her.

I just realized that both charries on this RP are both insane.

Oh, whoa. Okay. I wasn't actually expecting Sybill to be so open to that. It works, though, and it helps move them onward to villainy...

Rose~

"Hm," Sybill considers. "It does seem sensible, right? I mean, nobody else will have to be annoyed by him then."

I think about it. He might come after us again, in vengeance. Restraining him temporarily wouldn't do any good if being knocked out didn't discourage him, and crippling him one way or another wouldn't necessarily be a safe solution either.

"Well, who cares? Let's just do it," Sybill prompts, and I nod in agreement. I slit his throat quickly and easily; not a bad way to go for a highway robber. Sybill points out a bush to put him under, and soon we continue on our way, though not before I inspect the contents of his bandolier. There is a collection of coins, flint and tinder, a bit of food, odds and ends. Nothing to suggest attachment to any organization. I take only the greater part of the money. We will need it more than him.

I think about the last time I killed something. A hare, in the woods near the caves. It had not been quite as easy as this; it noticed my arrow just before it hit and moved so that I needed a second shot, and its cries likely scared off everything within range of hearing. However, I had known we would be leaving soon, and its meat was only an addition to our supply. What a different reason for its death... 

Another memory flits unbidden through my mind. The killer of my sister, lying prone beneath my hands on the damp night grass, bleeding. Yet another different reason. 

"Sybill," I say.

"Hm?"

"Keep an eye out for the jay."

"You think it'll come bacK?"

"I do not know."

"We'll be fine. It's probably long gone, and if not, we can take one jay."

"I hope you are correct." 

We take turns keeping watch that night, but the jay does not return. Dreams, however, do.

"Karune..."

Lilly's pale, spectral form cowers in the trees.

"Karune, I'm scared..."

"It's okay," I tell her. "I'll protect you."

"Karune, he cheated," she says. "You have to be really strong..."

"I am," I assure her. "But I'll get even stronger if it makes you happy." 

"Thank you..."

I am left holding thin air.

~I had the idea that Rose's hallucinations of Lilly will start to embody her paranoia and make her think that she needs every advantage she can get to be able to protect those she cares about, prompting her to be extremely critical and rise to power in her quest for strength. She might occasionally be reckless out of fear, but out of that same fear she will also weasel out every flaw and threat possible and eliminate them. She will also use fear to control those she commands and justify everything she wants to do with the desire for safety, which is actually almost reasonable, except that she's going to do incredibly ridiculous and paranoid things.