Work Text:
The running water was bound to cling to the edges of his clothes if he remained still for too long, but he remained, motionless and thinking, his one good eye staring down a shiny, green frog.
Raligon had made a game out of it, funnily enough. They were still unfamiliar with each other at the time, Ondal wasn’t acquainted with a lot of their customs, and they his; despite that, Raligon insisted they could still have something fun to do. That fun thing turned out to be finding frogs near bodies of water, potentially due to the amount of streams in the woodlands. Ever since Raligon first mentioned it, Ondal couldn’t help but notice just how many frogs lived in the water in this particular area.
The first frog that Ondal pointed out to the spiritmancer was a large brown one, wedged between two rocks and a few green plants he hadn’t yet learned to recognize. The red-haired man happily pointed it out to Brandon. He even picked up the damn thing with his bare hands to make sure the grumpy guy didn’t miss looking at it.
The green frog blinked its large, beady eyes, its head angled up as if staring right back at Ondal.
He picked up the small thing, taking care not to pinch it between the metallic finger joints of his gloves. He was lucky that it didn’t jump around and he wouldn’t need to scramble around to keep it in his hands.
The frog sat on the palm of his left hand, and with his right he cupped it above the animal to hide it. It was unnecessary, he thought, since Ondal didn’t really show Raligon anything else, but the gesture would likely make him smile regardless.
Ondal spotted Raligon and Brandon talking to one another near their designated camp spot. To Brandon’s credit, it looked like he was actually trying to be useful. Ondal butted in their conversation wordlessly and effortlessly, earning a sharp glare from the so-called King of the Dead that was ignored with ease. He said nothing as he lifted his cupped hand, revealing to the two the frog he scooped up from the stream waters.
Brandon held his tongue near Ondal for about a day or two after that event. Was that him being nice?
Ondal still wasn’t fully sure which memories and feelings were truly his own and which were the enemy’s attempts at controlling him. No matter which thought was which, he knew that he trusted Syphfride’s judgment and her planning.
They were to leave Isola and head... somewhere else. He couldn’t really remember it very well. It was disappointing that even in here, the maritime capitol of the western continent, nobody recognized Gaori.
Syphfride slid him a glass half-filled with liquor, both of them aware of the possibility that it would be given right back to the descendent of dragons without being touched. Ondal wasn’t bothered by it.
She talked about the things he missed. She reprimanded him at first, telling him in rather flowery words that someone with a life as short as his should be taking better care of himself, but there was no bite behind it.
Ondal traded remarks with her, telling her that someone with a life as long as hers would’ve had a better taste in alcohol by now, and it was one of the nights that Ondal could pretend was normal, one that didn’t have the worrying threat of death looming over his shoulder.
Ondal would do it again and again if he could. She taught him a few star patterns he didn’t know, though he could tell she definitely made a few up to humor them both. The Grump could not have been a real constellation.
Ondal made jokes about the Traveler’s potential identity with them, and while he brushed them off before the topic got too deep, the idea was still in the back of his mind.
He was sure now that they were some sort of nobility, but they weren’t born into or grew up with wealth. Rich people definitely aren’t that comfortable offering their prized possessions so easily. Raligon even insisted he didn’t need their cloak, and yet they still gave it to him.
They were too physically weak to fight, and their fighting style consisted of swinging their sword and hoping something hit. Plus their sword grip was completely wrong for battle.
They were naive in a way, startling at loud noises and allowing their train of thought to be derailed with the offering of food and trying to talk to enemies like negotiation was an option.
And despite the Traveler’s awful physical condition, they still tried to help Ondal and Syphfride set up camp in the Lumisade snow. Syphfride must’ve had the same thought as Ondal, because she convinced them to gather any sort of timber for starting a fire. That made Ondal wonder if dragon claws could create the friction necessary to light a fire... Unfortunately, Syphfride did not indulge in his request.
The cold wind blew in from the south, so Ondal made sure to sit to the Traveler’s right. To their left, Raligon was trying to share the Traveler’s cloak with Brandon.
The Traveler started talking to Ondal, procuring a small book from their pocket. They said that when they first met with Brandon and Raligon in Rhodon, Raligon gave the Traveler a few things to help with understanding the country better. The book the Traveler held at the moment was a pocket-sized compendium on plant life in Rhodon for gathering herbs and foraging.
Ondal leaned over the Traveler’s shoulder to look at the pictures of various herbs and flowers in the light of the campfire. They read aloud to him the text accompanying each species of plant like there was nothing they would rather be doing.
Ondal’s history with Brandon wasn’t great and neither was it terrible. Brandon told him that his soul was empty, which made for a terrible first impression, all things considered. At least Raligon dragged him back to apologize that time, even if the word ‘sorry’ never left his mouth once.
There were a few times in the group’s journey the two had the opportunity to talk and only ended up staring at each other in silence. Ondal thought of it as a conversation in its own way. Between the two, Ondal had the longest record of staring without blinking.
Brandon sure seemed to be angry despite not even doing anything. He just followed alongside the Traveler and glared at him. If Brandon thought he didn’t even need to say it, he was right.
Following Lenechka’s lure without telling anyone, was, in fact, quite stupid of Ondal to do. But she was trying to lure him in so obviously he just had to see what she was planning. How was he supposed to know that she rigged the entire floor with explosives just for some prophecy that might not even be real? Surely the elder elf would know about her plans if she... Oh, Brandon was staring at him again.
Ondal leaned less on the Traveler while they walked back through the displaced rubble in an effort to make himself look less injured than he was. While the Traveler looked like they were trying to not say anything (and he was tempted to poke fun at them for it), it was obvious that bearing the general’s weight was outside of their capabilities. Leave it to Ondal to prioritize his own comfort last.
“Try not to be such a fool next time. I’m not looking for your soul if you die,” Brandon hissed. Ondal was smart enough to know that Brandon was just worried about his ally and expressing it in a terrible way, the same way Ondal would snap at him to stay in the back versus mind attacking enemies.
“Don’t get your hopes up in a group full of fools.”
They both knew Brandon was lying, regardless. People were stupid and they lied, and that was that.