The Travelers - Chapter 18

*Muscle Gel – a cream used to relax muscles and heal minor bruising

*Sweet Root – a plant similar to sugar cane.  It’s a natural and pure sweetener used by Arlytians.

 
*****

Chapter 18

There was minimal room within the shelter, but the small space kept the needed supplies within reach. 

Cayson carefully removed the med towel he wrapped around Charge Seren’s arm and then cut away the sleeve of the shirt.  It was a wide gash, probably received when he and Corbin hit the ground, and it was filled with grit, but it wasn’t deep.

“I don’t think you’ll need sewn, sir,” Cayson determined.  “But I need to clean it out, and that won’t be pleasant.”

“I know, but I’ve had worse.  Do what you need to.”

Cayson nodded and gently rewrapped the med towel around the wound.  “Keep that on for a few minutes.  I want to prepare a solution to soak your arm for a bit first.”

Seren gently pressed the towel to his arm, his eyes flinching slightly at the pain that was now starting to be felt.  He tilted his head to the side to look around Cayson and see the other two men in the shelter.

“Charge Kel, how is he?” he questioned.

Corbin was sitting on a bed mat, his shirt off and shaking just slightly as Kel examined his torso and tested his heart rate.

“Just a couple bruises from the looks of it, sir,” Kel deduced.  “Charge Cayson, if you have any muscle gel, a lathering of that would probably be the best for Corbin right now.”

Cayson nodded as he poured warmed water into a bowl and added a handful of something that smelled like nuts.  “I have some…first pocket of my med bundler right there,” he nodded toward the satchel.  “Use anything you need.”  He raised his voice a little to call to his partners he could see standing outside the shelter.  “Oz?  Amrynn?”

“Yes,” they answered in sync.

“Build the morning fire back up again and get some nectar made, would you?  And add some sweet root.”

His request was answered with the sounds of the drink being made.  He smiled lightly to himself, feeling grateful for the two people who were always there for him. 

“You take good care of each other,” Seren said softly when Cay helped him settle the injured arm into the liquid solution.  “Most people would guess you’ve been married longer than you have.”

Cayson nodded as his gloved hands sank into the solution with Seren’s arm and started to gently clean the gash.  “We’ve been taking care of each other as long as I can remember.  It was always us together.  Getting married just made it official in another sense.”

“You grew up together, right?” Seren asked, appreciating Cayson’s willingness to converse because it helped take his mind off the discomfort of his arm being cleaned out.

“Yeah, three houses side by side,” Cayson explained.  “Oz and I were born within a month of each other.  Amrynn came a little over a year later.”  An affectionate smile graced Cayson’s features.  “Her first steps were to me and Oz.”

Just a few feet away, Kel and Corbin listened to the exchange as Kel rubbed the muscle gel into Corbin’s back, shoulders, neck and chest. 

“Who proposed?” Corbin asked curiously.

Cayson chuckled.  “We all did at some point.  Amrynn was the first though.  She told us when she was five and we were six that she was going to marry us when we grew up.”

Kel laughed.  “What did you two say to that?”

“I think I very tactfully said, ‘Yuck!’,” Cayson grinned.  “And Oz told her that she couldn’t marry us because she couldn’t keep up with us.  And then we ran off.”

“What did she do?” Corbin wondered. 

Cayson rolled his eyes.  “Well, she may not have been as fast as us, but she had a wicked arm.  Oz and I both took a stone to the back of our heads.”

“And you were such a crybaby,” Amrynn’s voice said from outside.

All the men inside the canvas laughed.  “We were all crybabies that day,” Cayson admitted.  “Our parents weren’t happy with any of us.  Oz and I got our hind ends smacked for being unkind and leaving Am out, and Am got it for the rock throwing.”

“And that was how Amrynn proposed to you two,” Seren concluded with a smile.

Cay nodded even as Kel spoke up.  “But you said you all proposed at one point.”

“Yeah, I was the most persistent of the three of us…at least verbally.  The year Amrynn turned ten, I decided I was in love with her, so for her birthday I got her a purple ring with a blue gem on top and asked her to marry me.”

The image made the men laugh, even as Seren flinched while Cayson cleaned a particularly sore spot on his arm.  “What did she say,” Seren asked.

“I said, ‘Yuck!’” Amrynn announced from outside the shelter. 

The men roared as Cayson nodded.  “Yeah, she brought me down a peg or two, but I kept at her.  I got her a ring and proposed to her every year on her birthday after that.”

“What about Oz?  Didn’t you propose to him too?” Corbin wondered as he shouldered back into his shirt.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t the same as with Am.”

“How was it different?” Kel questioned. 

“Well, I only proposed to him once…kind of.”  Cay shook his head in self-amusement.  “When we were fifteen we were swimming at Blue Creek one day.  That was a spot near our town.  No one else was there and we were just horsing around for a while and then lying out on a blanket to dry off.  Oz was…still is…my best friend and I just looked at him and said, “You’re gonna marry me, right?”

“What did he say?” Seren asked when Cay paused.

Cayson glanced to the silhouette of his husband outside the shelter.  “He said, ‘Of course I am’.”

There was a minute of silence as Cay lifted Seren’s arm out of the water and started to gently dry it.

“What about Oz?” Kel asked after a minute.  “You said he proposed too.”

“Yeah, he did,” Cay acknowledged.  “I guess that was the ‘official’ one, but he managed to include our past proposals in it.”

“What do you mean?” Corbin asked, his interest thoroughly caught up in the story.

“I mean he waited for Am’s birthday, and then took us to Blue Creek.  He had a ring for all of us and he asked us there.”

The men were thoughtful and quiet after that, allowing Cay to concentrate on wrapping Seren’s arm.  When he was finished, he looked back and forth between Seren and Corbin. 

“I know you want us to get a move on, sir, but I’d highly recommend at least an hour of undisturbed rest for the two of you.”

As he spoke his wishes, Oz and Amrynn came inside the shelter with enough mugs of nectar for everyone.  The drink was passed around while Seren shook his head. 

“I’d rather get the crew moved on past this place.  We’ve got at least two more days of hiking and I’d rather not have our people in these woods if there are any more of those animals around.”

Cay sighed.  “Can you at least humor me for a little bit?  Why don’t you and Backer Corbin stay here and rest while someone packs your gear?  Then you at least won’t have to worry about that.”

“I can get Corbin’s things ready,” Kel volunteered.  “It’s with my stuff anyway.”

“And I can take care of your shelter and bundler, sir,” Ozias offered.  “Cay and Amrynn are here to pack up our belongings, so I won’t be needed, and I know Cay would like to keep an eye on both of you a while longer.”

Seren considered the suggestions and then nodded.  “All right, then, but as soon as everyone is ready, we’re moving.  It’s already a later start than I expected, and we’ve got at least a half a day’s trek before we’re out of the woods.”

A forlorn sound came at the end of his statement and the group looked over at Corbin.  The young man’s face was the picture of dejection.

“My map,” he uttered.  “I don’t know what happened to it after that creature attacked,” he explained.

There were looks of sympathy all around, but Kel spoke up before anyone else could say anything.  “It’s all right, Cory.  It was lying on the ground near Charge Seren’s canvas.  I picked it up and brought it with us.”

He took the rolled up paper from a spot near the canvas’s opening and handed it over to his young friend.

Corbin looked choked up, but he held himself together.  “Thank you,” he murmured, his relief palpable.

Seren looked on with approval and noted the expression in Kel’s eyes.  The culinary Charge was clearly taken with Corbin, but Seren was fairly certain the young Backer had no idea of the other man’s interest.  He offered a small smile to both men. 

“Perhaps tonight I’ll have a chance to look at it, Backer Corbin.”

The young man nodded gratefully, and then both men were urged to lie down and rest until the camp was ready to depart.