Don’t Press Your Luck

JP with Gonyaul and Voah.

The Arbiter stepped over the torch and the firefight on the back of her robes began to fade as she continued walking into the dark.

No one had noticed, but Gonyaul had quietly and slowly moved off to the side and squatted down as if taking a break during the entire interchange between the others present. He was just making himself a smaller target and trying to go unnoticed, since he was about twelve feet behind Hunter and Voah. From a distance, he looked like a rock or perhaps a large mushroom, due to the dark cloak concealing his form underneath.

He sighed in relief as it seemed there would be no ambush coming. It was just a heated exchange of words. They were very loud words. In fact he had stopped listening to most of it. Ignoring it completely by the time Hunter started on his rant. One of the perks of speaking two languages is he could melt the lesser known language into just gibberish background noise.

He stood up as he saw Voah taking off after the Boar’s head man. What was she doing? He quickly moved his feet into her shadow and kept pace within it as it diminished upon her walking closer to the dropped torch. When she crossed over he suddenly removed his winter cloak and instantly felt the cold night air to a greater degree.

Gonyaul quietly, but with intentional effort, wrung up his cloak like a wet towel. He then flung it in time to her circling weapon. The centrifugal force of her weapon met with his cloak at just the right angle and time to get the two entangled. He instantly pulled back while stepping forward with his right foot into the cloak to pin the head to the ground and make it come to a safe halt. This would instantly jerk Voah back and not permit her to keep moving forward into the dark towards the forest as long as his foot was placed down on the cloak.

He spoke up “Please no go. Not smart.” His voice was gentle, yet urgent with concern for her well-being.

Feeling the jerk of her censer Voah spun around with a back hand to meet the unseen enemy, not realizing it was Gonyaul. The back of her fist stopped just short of his mouth. Her head quickly dashed from side to side checking the dark for more attacks that weren’t coming.

Her knuckles felt the exhale of breath from behind his lips as he exclaimed,

“Atihsedirigirig”.

He was so focused on actually getting her censer caught and pinned he hadn’t payed close enough attention to her upper torso torquing. His eyes were wide in surprise. That was a close call. He, and his face, were immediately grateful she had such control.

He was backlit by the torch on the ground, so the lower part of him was more in silhouette with it fading the higher up to his face. He held his winter cloak firm in his hands and his foot wouldn’t budge.

He tilted his head so the view of his mouth wasn’t blocked by her fist.

“You hurt.” He said in concern.

He nodded his head to Hunter who was waiting off to the side.

“He hurt.”

He nodded to the tree line.

“Not know what out there. How many? How trap? How see in dark?”

He could tell she was spilling over with emotions from righteous fury for her beliefs, almost like an exposed nerve. He took a very noticeable deep breath and then smiled softly to indicate to her to slow down and recenter before making any rash decisions.

Adrenaline pumped, shadows swelled and shrank. Her chest heaved with every breath as she scanned the trees. She heard the voice of Gonyaul but didn’t quite understand the words, but she sensed the calmness of his demeanor. He was trying to stop her from following, trying to relax her. Was it over?

He nodded and took another deep breath to try and get her to mimic him.

“Ok now. They here not fight.”

If they were here to fight they would all be dead now. It was just a spook job.

He released one hand on the cloak and pointed to his head.

“They try to make hate control you here.”

And then he pointed to his heart.

“And here.”

He looked her deep in the eyes, past the surface like a free diver going down to the bottom. He encouraged her,

“You meet them as you. Not as you they make you, yes?”

He took another breath. And nodded to her.

His guidance was working, though Voah was not aware it was even happening. Their breath became unison and finally she set her focus on his words. Then took a deep breath as if she had been holding her breath underwater. She closed her eyes and brought a shaking hand to her head for clarity to return. She took a moment to relax before meeting his eyes again. There was something about him that reminded her of home. Who was this man? He was an enigma.

“Who are you?” she asked him squinting and shaking her head. She held no more anger or disappointment for him, only a desire to unlock the puzzle.

She was calming down. This was a good thing. Meanwhile his insides were in knots. The rollercoaster ride of intense emotions, the dire events and the spikes of adrenaline were normalizing and it felt a bit like a drop in blood sugar mixed with butterflies. He just confronted an arbiter for the second time and was still alive. He was not experiencing death by angry mob, assassin or ambush from a cult. How great it was to be alive. Which meant, if he was still alive then he had things to do.

He grinned ever so slightly, his dark eyes reflecting the starlight. He wasn’t sure if she had forgotten his name? Or if it was rhetorical?

“I Gonyaul”.

He knelt down cautiously and started to undo the winter cloak from her censer. He looked up at her apologetically, it was more wrapped up then he realized. He was able to untangle it though. He bowed respectfully and backed away from her personal space while simultaneously gesturing to the road to town.

“We need go, yes?” He didn’t want to press their luck. And it was still a thirty minute, more like an hour, walk in the dark back to town.

He took his cloak and laid it flat on the ground like a tarp near the dead body of the assassin. Next, he rolled the body onto the cloak. Then firmly grabbing one side he began to pull in the direction of town.

Voah couldn’t help but chuckle aloud with unexpected amusement when Gonyaul simply repeated his name, though it was tinged with fatigue and capitulation. She should’ve known that would be his answer. For a moment she stood there smirking as she watched him unravel the mess he made with her censer, her neck getting tired from swiveling back and forth in utter bewilderment. She tilted her head backward and stretched, then nodded in silent agreement as Gonyaul mentioned leaving.

The night wasn’t over yet. She walked over to Hunter who had decided to wait off to the side and helped him to his feet, allowing him to lean on her a little while getting his bearings.

“We’ve got work to do.” she said with a sigh, no more argument left in her tonight for Hunter.