A few days later a beautiful sunrise painted the morning sky with brilliant pinks and oranges. They'd left the forest the night before and had decided to take a break not far from the tree line. Keu'deh had fallen asleep shortly after they'd stopped and had curled up against Aniphia's belly the way he had since the first night in the woods. He'd been having a nightmare and she'd lain next to him to try to wake him, only to have him bury his tear streaked face into her belly, clinging to her like a life line and fall back to sleep. The next night he'd just stared at her pleadingly until she'd told him to lay with her. Yido had given him a few looks that Aniphia couldn't figure out but hadn't said anything to Keu'deh about it, resting apart from them instead.
Yido had gotten up when he noticed she was awake this morning and had left them in the pre-dawn gloom. She had watched him leave, her eyes picking out his shape in the dim light long after a human would have lost track of him and had waited quietly with the sleeping drow, stroking his hair idly as she scanned the horizon.
The sun was fully risen when Yido's shape appeared in the distance once more, and was on it's lazy trek trough the sky when he made it back to her. His eyebrows lifted curiously at Keu'deh, still curled against Aniphia, one arm hooked around her waist.
"He's still sleeping?" He kept his voice soft and spoke in Elven, hoping the gentle sound wouldn't disturb the drow's rest.
"Yeah..." Aniphia responded in kind, she hadn't felt like waking Keu'deh before Yido returned.
"Oh..."
"Why?" His tone had piqued her curiosity, deep and brooding.
"There's a town up ahead..." Her ears flicked up with interest.
"Oh?"
"They don't allow hooded people in."
"Oh." Her voice was flat. So much for the good news.
"Yeah......" Yido dropped easily to the ground and folded his legs. Keu'deh had been keeping his hood up to hide his face since they'd left their village, especially during the day. He squinted in the sunlight even deep in the woods with the hood shading his eyes and whatever cheer he had in the mornings tended to fade until the sun set, when he'd brighten considerably and begin to ask her question after question about the things he'd seen since coming to the surface. Yido was quick to take advantage of his far better dark vision as well, asking Keu'deh to lead them long into the night, a task he did willingly until he asked to sleep.
Yido watched Keu'deh shift slightly against Aniphia and chewed on his lip thoughtfully. He'd been up for hours, he'd rested while Aniphia had kept watch and had sat pondering the drow until he'd seen Aniphia stir. And yet Keu'deh still slept.
"......So how old do you think he is?" Aniphia glanced down at the sleeping drow.
"...Less that fifty, at the most. Poor thing..." She knew why Yido had asked, only very young elves truly slept. Older elves rested in a trance-like meditative state for a few hours a day instead, starting around the time they turned fifty or sixty, generally. Yido nodded slowly, she'd confirmed his thoughts, Keu'deh wasn't much more than a kid by elven standards.
