Day 077: Leaving
Summary: Galle checks on Luther before she heads back to Tondc.
Date: 14 August 2016
Related: Pain Remembered and Breakfast, Just Breakfast
Galle Luther 


Site of New Coesbur, New Coesbur
The stables shelter
77 Days After Landing

Galle kom Trikru has seen to all she can before her departure: the stocks are full, bandages wrapped, and a number of thing steeping to full potency. A horse has been acquired for her from Afaye, and she is mostly prepared to leave. There is just one more thing she must see to… a patient that has been haunting her tent twice daily to see to his injured finger. She had not given him hints that she might be leaving soon, and that adds a layer of guilt. Asking after Luther sends her into the stables and storage structure, and she steps quietly through the layers of hay and cedar boughs toward where the man is sharpening axes.

Luther is just using one hand, honest. Actually, he's using the palm of his injured left hand — and several of the uninjured fingers — to hold down an axe atop a rough table so that he can sharpen it with a whetstone with his good hand. Several of his dreadlocks have fallen across his face, so when he looks up at the motion in his peripheral vision, it is through a fringe of tendrils. Spotting Galle send an interesting mixture of emotions across his face: a pleased smile, a guilty drop of his eyes

Luther is just using one hand, honest. Actually, he's using the palm of his injured left hand — and several of the uninjured fingers — to hold down an axe atop a rough table so that he can sharpen it with a whetstone with his good hand. Several of his dreadlocks have fallen across his face, so when he looks up at the motion in his peripheral vision, it is through a fringe of tendrils. Spotting Galle send an interesting mixture of emotions across his face: a pleased smile, a guilty drop of his eyes (and his left hand quickly moved off the axe), a wary frinkle, and a slightly wistful cast to that smile, "Heya. I wasn't using my hand… too much."

Galle adjusts her herb satchel as she approaches him, and she offers a quick, but full smile. "Are you taking care of that hand?" She asks, tone serious and suspicious. She catches the quick mix of emotions, and the guilty drop of his eyes perhaps gives the wrong impression. She glances over her shoulder briefly, and then steps forward to take a seat on a rather tight bale of hay. "Too much," she repeats, though there is a light smile to her words. It hides away a strange tension in her belly. "I wanted to make sure you have all you need… before I leave."

Luther tucks the hand behind his back for a moment, then brings it back up, wiggling all of his unsplinted finger, and then giving that one a much more delicate wiggle in turn, "It's fine. That salve and the rubbing has worked wond — " and then her words catch up to him, and his frowns, "You're leaving. Back to Tondc." The Warrior looks back down to the axe, picking up a rag and polishing away the work of the whetstone. "Just the salve then, I guess. I'll take over from here."

Galle watches him wriggle his fingers, and she almost reaches out to grasp the hand to give it a far better look over, until he is giving her what she feels is a cold shoulder. She frowns deeper, sliding her hands into her lap and fussing at her skirts as she does. "Just for a little while… Komfi will be needing me… she's getting too old to be on her own for very long." She then gestures him to give her his hand, holding hers out to accept it if he does surrender it to him.

Luther scoffs at her reasoning, even as he steps forward to hold his hand out to her, "You mean Komfi wants someone to order around and most of her other children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren have gotten wise to her." At least he's teasing again, even if it's a little half-hearted. "I suppose that we couldn't exactly claim most of the Healers in the area." And then he hurriedly adds, "New Coesbur, I mean."

Galle looks over his hand, gently testing the digits carefully before she gently touches the injured finger. She lifts her eyes to him, her steady blues searching his darker gaze. Then she offers a faint smile at his teasing words. "Are you saying that I'm not wise, Luther kom Trikru?" Then she starts to smile as she offers his wrist and forearm a massage to help loosens the muscles. She speaks as she works. "You will not be too lost without me?" Hurriedly adding. "New Coesbur, I mean."

Each of Luther's uninjured fingers tugs back at her pulling, a little grin flickering over his lips. The pull on his ring finger, however, causes him to wince a touch still. "I'm saying you're kind-hearted, you love your Komfi, and because you were her favorite, she didn't wear on you as much." As her hands work up his arm, the Warrior steps closer, resting one foot on the hay bale beside her and leaning over to brace his elbow on his thigh, presenting his hand and arm more easily to her. Her words, however, cause him to clear his throat, looking down to where her strong fingers work over his muscles, tendons, and bone, "Only a little. Somehow I don't think Sev or Silver will be quite the same at this…" and then he stops, grunting, "I guess it's just going to be Sev though. Wren will be annoyed, won't he?"

Galle worries over his hand for several moments before she looks up into the looming features. Her words catch in her throat for a heartbeat, and then she starts to laugh softly. "Maybe so… but he understands the nature of being a Second." Then she releases his hand, and she rests her own gently on top of his foot. "Sev will manage just fine… I will come back… I have to make sure that the healer's tent is set up for the coming seasons." She then starts to stand.

Luther works his hand after she releases it, his skin warmed, and the Warrior acutely aware of the fact. He nods a little, "I'm sure he will…" A touch of his smile spreads as she promises to return, and his brows rise at her reason, just a touch. Her standing leaves them a great deal closer together than they had been, and Luther drops his foot away from the haybale, his voice softening and lowering as he asks, "The healers' tent's your only reason for coming back, Galle?"

There is a passing heartbeat between them as Galle stands there, so close to Luther that an onlooker might confuse their interaction for something more intimate than two friends saying their farewells. She looks up into his darker features, eyes searching his as he asks that question. Her throat tightens slightly, and she releases a soft noise of affirmation. "It is important," she murmurs. Something crosses her mind as she stands there, and before she can rationalize it all away, she is slipping forward a step to press her lips to the corner of his mouth…

Luther lets out a little breath at her confirmation, his shoulders dropping beyond loose into a faint slump, but he nods his acceptance. And then she confuses the disappointed man, because she's raising up to kiss the corner of his mouth… except that the target moved in his surprise, and she catches him full on the lips. For a moment, he freezes, and then his head tilts and he leans forward just enough to put a slight return pressure to the touch, treating the moment as he might a glass drop found among some Old Earth ruin, fragile and dear.

Her fingertips just barely alight on his forearm when he leans down slightly against her lips. She is surprised as he is that the contact is a shared kiss rather than a chaste press of lips. Her eyes are closed, and body very still — not so much as frozen, but just unmoving save for the barest slide of lips across his own. Then she is taking a step back, broadening the distance between them. Her cheeks flush high into the apples, and she is looking away with the shyness of a teenage girl rather than one just three and thirty. She clears her throat. "I should be moving… I want to be back in Tondc before sunset." Though her words have an air of complete and utter disillusion to what just happened, her body language seems to be battling her own sudden embarrassment.

Luther sways forward just slightly in the wake of her withdrawal, and when his eyes open again, his right hand halted just shy of where her waist used to be, he almost looks like he might say something. And then she clears her throat, and speaks up, and he nods, "Yeah." His words weigh heavy with resignation, "You'd better get going then. Don't want to be caught out after dark." He gestures up toward his face, his lips, vaguely, adding, "Sorry. Surprised me."

<FS3> Galle rolls Athletics-3: Failure. (2)

"No… It's…" Galle then resigns herself as well, nodding gently. "It's alright." Then she offers him a faint smile, reaching up unconsciously to touch the fullness of her lower lip. She starts to step away, turning blindly and… tripping quite suddenly over a bale of hay that had always been there, but she will swear just appeared behind her. She staggers, spinning slightly, and will end up in the cedar and hay in a rather embarrassing show of grace. Or lack thereof.

Luther's eyes are drawn by that touch to her lip, and one corner of his lips curls up into a tiny smile, his right hand touching the back of his left… and then she's tripping back, and he starts forward, reaching out… and coming just short of catching her hands. Grimacing hard, Luther follows after her, stepping around the hay bale and extending his arms to help her up, "Are you alright, Galle? You just…" fell over. For once, he has no jibes, no jokes or teasing.

Galle is red as a strawberry when he helps her up, looking somewhere between beyond embarrassed and a little angry. She takes out her anger on the bale, scowling at it once Luther has helped her up. She shakes her head. "I'm certain that wasn't there." It was. Then she brushes her hair back quickly, trying to regain some composure. Her blush does not fade. "Thank you," she says in a quick exhale. "I'll… see you again." Then she begins to turn around, heading to the exit with some haste.

Luther doesn't actually look as embarrassed anymore, trying to stifle a little amusement instead. He nods at her explanation, his good hand rising to help brush her hair back from her face, and he offers up a little smile, "Safe travels, Galle. There and back again."

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