Rehabilitation
He was confident she couldn’t feel anymore nervous than she did.
It’d been so long since she’d been out of the house. Getting used to losing an eye had taken a long time, a task not made much easier by the darkness of their temporary housing. There hadn’t really been a lot of great alternatives though: Not in a land so teeming with dangers as Lordran.
But this was it. They were gonna try. She’d have to get out of there eventually, lest she hollow in the darkness of her small, dusty room.
Still, some part of him couldn’t help but feel it was too soon.
“Are you ready?” He asks, for perhaps the millionth time today, as he stands outside their door. He’d already cleared out the most nearby hollows, so she wouldn’t have to deal with those while getting adjusted to the sun outside.
They were just heading up to the church for now. It was a trip they both knew, and at the end was a very friendly healer who would no doubt be happy to see them.
They could turn back anytime.
Yet he couldn’t help but worry.
@evariia
“I... I think so.” Eva offers what she hopes is a reassuring smile. If she knew one thing about her surrogate brother, it was that he would always worry no matter the scenario, but still... she felt better at least putting in the effort.
Over her long recovery, she had become perhaps a bit too acquainted with the dusty house she and her companion had been forced to call home. She knew where to expect unstable flooring and which corners to mind as she moved slowly about her surroundings. The abode was now as familiar to her as the back of her own hand. Coming to terms with her new state of being had been an arduous task, but one that had been necessary to undertake. Today, she would see the fruits of her labor. She breathes in deeply and creeps forwards almost reluctantly, the fingers of her left hand gently brushing against the wall as a means of guiding herself. All this time, she had yearned to step into the outside world again, but now doubt riddled her mind. Was she truly ready?
Determined not to be deterred now after coming so far, she steps through the doorway in one quick movement. The sun was blinding, almost painfully so, after being locked away in the dark for so long. She pauses, squinting in the light, then flicks her gaze to the knight that had worked so hard to help her reach this point. Another smile worms its way onto her face as she turns her attention to him, one that is more genuine than its predecessor and conveys her newfound delight.
Looking away, she lets her curiosity wander the old, forgotten buildings slowly crumbling around her until her attention is caught by the ancient, mossy steeples of the church that was to be their destination poking up on the horizon. A second glance at the structure brings the visage of a grotesque monster looming into the back of her mind. She recalls hazy memories of claws striking her down. The sickening, metallic smell of the blood that had polluted the air that night seemed all too real and the anguished battle cries of the pardoner that had accompanied her rang loudly in her ears.
“It’s dead,” she reminds herself, forcing her consciousness back to the present reality and wrapping her arms around herself. Even if her brother had not heard the words she spoke, her body language would have given her thoughts away to one that knew her so well. She steps back until she is at her companion’s side once more and, almost fearfully, fixes her one functional eye on him. “It... it is dead, right? You made sure...?”
@falteringknightgervais
