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A boy staggered out of the undergrowth and stopped in the middle of the path. He looked pale as he stood there, blocking her path, and swaying around like a sapling caught in a strong wind. The kid had antlers. Elina stared at him, an eyebrow raised.
And then he vomited all over the floor.
Elina cursed in Norse under her breath and leapt forwards. She navigated her way nimbly around the pool of vomit, and managed to grab hold of him before he pitched face-first into it.
"Don't even think about it, Valkyrie!" she warned her thestral as she guided the stranger to the floor. Valkyrie raised her head and backed away from the pile of sick, looking disappointed. "Disgusting creature," Elina muttered under her breath in her mother tongue, rocking back onto her haunches. She stared down at the boy. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked his unconscious body. She didn't do sick people. "Who do you belong to, huh?"
Standing up, she set her hands to her mouth and called out into the trees. They replied with silence. Elina sighed. She tip-toed around the sick again, and took hold of Valkyrie's head collar. Guiding the Thestral around the vomit to the cleaner trail on the other side. She paused, jabbing at the boy's ribs with the toe of her boot, in the vain hope that he might wake up. Valkyrie sniffed at him curiously and then started to lick the blood off his clothes.
She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out her canteen. Unscrewing the lid, Elina poured some into her hand and splashed it onto the boy's face. He moved a little, but didn't wake.
"Why me?" Elina muttered, replacing the canteen lid and pushing it back into her bag. She supposed she could leave him for someone else to find, make him someone else's problem. It was a well-trodden trail, someone would find him eventually. Her mother would have left him.
Urgh.
She wrapped the boy's arm around her neck and pulled him to his feet. With some difficulty Elina managed to drape him over Valkyrie's back.
"I'm going to regret this," she told the trees heavily, gathering up the thestral's reins, "I can just tell."
They continued along the path at a steady pace. Elina kept glancing back over her shoulder to check he wasn't about to slip off onto the floor. If he does, she promised herself, I really will leave him where he lands. "Hello!" she called out to the forest, "has anyone lost a boy?" She took a few more steps along the trail. "He has antlers!" she added, hopefully, "antler boy for sale?"
Still nothing.
Elina patted Valkyrie's nose, "I tell you what, Val," she sighed, "if no one wants him, you can eat him. How's that sound?" The thestral snorted in apparent delight. Elina smothered a laugh. "Any healers around?" she asked the trees, raising her voice again, "that'd do too! I'm okay at getting the blood to come out, but I swear, getting it back in is beyond me!"
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