Escaping The Empire - The Nonhuman Chronicles

The morning comes quickly as the sun peeks up over the horizon from below. You all manage to get some well-needed rest. Although it was hardly enough for any kind of real refreshment. Even Axel managed to get a little bit of sleep before the dawn's light wakes him.
@Tjf While Wilhelmina doesn't technically need sleep, she does need rest in a certain kind of way. Her body does fatigue...albeit at a slower rate than a normal person. Still, the few hours to actually rest on a bedroll did well to restore some of your fatigue and you got to enjoy the view of your companion. Thialin remained unclothed throughout the rest of the night and he seemed quite comfortable on the bedroll.

@moonblack you rest unaccosted and wake when the first rays of sunlight hit the tent. Talia still sleeps soundly in the bedroll next to you. Still face down, her arms have wrapped around the bedroll and her stubby faun tail periodically twitches in her sleep.

@Omega98 Axel stood watch for most of the night until maybe an hour before the sunrise when his exhaustion from the night before and the lack of anything happening to keep you awake overtook your vigilance. However, the sun coming up doesn't take long to rouse you from your light sleep.

@Daylan Gerid probably has the most experience with short nights and uncomfortable resting spots. Thus he managed to sleep fairly well. That on top of the fact that you managed to get some sleep earlier means that Gerid is pretty well rested overall.

 

Ariel need only a few moments to fully wake up and get up. After taking a quick look at Talia the angel decided to let her sleep a bit longer. Trying to be quiet so as to not wake up the faun Ariel got up and stretched a bit, then left the tent, deciding to check what supplies they had available, especially food and water.

 

There is some food and a little bit of water, but it really seems as if this group was living day by day. There's probably enough for you all to have a functional meal and something to wash it down, but anything more than that will be difficult.

 

No less susceptible to the sight of an attractive person than she was when she was mortal, Wilhelmina's hands rove Thialin's body as he sleeps. She squints when the painful sunlight begins to come through the tent, and rises, dressing and heading out quietly enough to not wake her servant.

@Omega98
Having risen earlier than the rest, Wilhelmina, bored, walks over to Axel, who's just been woken up from the sunlight. Accent thick, she stands beside him and says "Good moning... Axel, was it?"

 

Gerid wakes up quickly, stepping out of his resting nook and doing some quick stretching exercises to limber up his body for the day. He nods to Ariel as she inspects the available supplies and walks over to help her gather them up.

"Morning," he says, "How's the faun?"

 

“Morning,” Ariel returned the greeting “Talia was still asleep when I got up and I decided not to wake her up. She can probably use some additional sleep.” The angel replied as she took a quick look at the tent where the faun was sleeping, then turned back to the available supplies. “Seems like there's enough for a single meal. With no obvious source of food or water nearby we have no choice but to move...”

 

Gerid nods in agreement. "Unless we plan to go hunting for birds and lizards, we're not going to find much up here. Hopefully, the Leach's new plaything was smart enough to not drag his band too far away from a place where they could resupply. Or at least one they could potentially raid."

His eyes momentarily dart over to where said "Leach" was going to talk to Axel and he growls a little under his breath before returning his attention to the available supplies to see if he can figure the best way to divide them up given the group's needs.

 

Axel struggles to rouse from his slumber, but as Wilhelmina speaks to him he forces himself awake. The wound in his shoulder still stings, but it's already become more of a dull throb. The minotaur sits up and laments his lack of sleep before chiding himself on falling asleep in the first place. With a huff and a shake of his whole body he nods in answer to her question. "Yes." he grumbles out before pointing a thick digit that could be called a finger at her "You?"

 

"Wilhelmina is my name." She settles in beside the minotaur. "Are you in pain?"

 

Axel rotated his shoulder to test how much of a hindrance it might be and found it manageable and so shrugged nonchalantly with his good shoulder while he gave a dismissive huff.

The two sat there for a long while before the silence began to unnerve him, which was slightly curious because he rather liked the silence. Eventually he turned to Wilhelmina and said, "Good meet you." Mostly for something to say but also because he actually meant it. Then his stomach grumbled informing him he was hungry.

 

"Likewise." She smiles. "Hungry, eh?" @merkros Wilhelmina goes to check if there's any food among their supplies.

 

I believe that Ariel found enough food rations for all of you for one meal... So you should be able to get some from her. @moonblack can refute if i'm mistaken.

 

That is correct:

Sorry, too tired right now for anything more than confirming the existance of some food.

 

@Omega98 Wilhelmina returns to Axel with a fairly prodigous amount of food. "There you are."

 

Taking a very small amount of the food for himself, Gerid looked over at Wilhelmina and Axel again before grumbling, "Seems like a big meal for you. Don't let it make you sluggish."

 

Thialin joins you from his rest and sits next to Wilhelmina, "well I'm glad to see that you have all found some food. Unfortunately, we were pretty much living raid by raid so that's really about all that we have."

Finally, Talia joins you all. She crawls out of the tent and squints in the morning sunlight before releasing a sigh and shuffling over to the rest of the group. "I keep hoping every time that I wake up that this is all just a bad dream." She sits near Ariel and gives Gerid a wary glance every now and then.

 

“It would be nice if it was just a dream, but alas.” Ariel agreed and gave the faun a friendly smile “How do you feel? Sleep well?” She asked as she ate her own food.

 

"As well as could be expected I suppose." She sighs into her ration of food "im pretty sure I could have slept well anywhere that wasn't inside that gods forsaken cage."

 

“I believe you could say the same for most of us.” Slowly, so as to not startle or scare the faun, Ariel put her hand on Talia's shoulder and squeezed slightly, in a hopefully encouraging gesture. Then she went back to what was left of her meager breakfast.

 

Gerid acknowledges Talia's glance with a light nod but otherwise keeps his distance, letting Ariel take care of her for the moment.