GALAHDANBLADE

brushing the dust and grime on his hands on his pants, kaleb glanced around fleetingly, making sure that holly hadn't see him using the pipes as a make-shift ladder. he'd do a quick check on the gauges dotted around the city later on to keep her sweet.

a smile flicked across kaleb's lips and he nodded his head, leading the way back towards the main thoroughfare, waiting for jeanne to fall into pace next to him as they weaved their way through the throng of people heading towards the market and the leville.

the air was heavy and humid, and kaleb threw a quick salute to the weapons dealer in the culless shop as they passed by; out onto the main thoroughfare, turn right, down the shallow steps and slope down to the tables that gave a view of the road and the disc of cauthess too. kaleb grabbed two sweet ice-coffees from the galahdan food stall, then sat down across from jeanne.

' i'm not back to full strength yet, so dave reckons i need mroe time. '

eyes raking over jeanne's face when she said that, kaleb had to stop the snort that fought to lodge itself in the back of his throat; she was lucky she was even alive, let alone walking right now. he'd replayed that hunt over and over again in his mind, trying to pinpoint just how it had gone so fucking wrong.

a night hunt out by wiz's; three thousand gil and a moon pendant - two mindflayers that had been haunting the woods for weeks. he'd led a small party from wiz's out to the nebulawoods and they'd found their quarry.

nine feet tall, roiling tentacles lashing out - they'd leaned into the intel they'd had on-file to target the two daemons; daggers, polearms, staying out of its reach and its breath, but their intel had been outdated.

there hadn't been two mindflayers, there'd been three. and it had been too fucking late to react when that realisation had dawned on the party. kaleb had turned on his heels when he'd heard jeanne cry out - turning to see the third mindflayer's tentacles winding around her and lifting her off her feet - the greying-green breath the daemon had let out had been an enervating agent, sapping what energy jeanne might have had left before it had started to wind its tentacles tighter and tighter around her until kaleb had heard her screams split the air in two ...

' i've been fine, ' kaleb finally answered, hearing his own voice back in his head and then pointedly forcing a smile - he was. it wasn't a lie. he was fine. a few bruises and scratches from that night, but she hadn't been.

she still wasn't.

brows arching, kaleb let his smile slip away, moving his drink to the side, he reached across the table and touched jeanne's hand, moving his head to the side to try and keep a hold on her gaze.

heaving himself up onto the top of the wall, kaleb sat on it and leaned back to grab the scuffed football. tossing it from hand to hand, he tossed it over the heads of the group of kids below him, watching as they tore off after it in hail of laughter and shouts.

should anyone be using the steam pipes as footholds to clamber up the wall? no, most definitely not. not when half of them were falling foul to the humid heat of lestallum and their internal pressure, rusting through and leaking at joints.

holly would chew him out if she saw him adding more pipes to her list of repairs. did it make him get down off the wall any sooner?

nope.

letting his boots thud against the bricks, kaleb let his eyes flit shut - up this high, he got some of the slight wind that blew in off of the disc of cauthess, the skyline was dotted with billboards and ventilation ducts, but no solid buildings to block the view or breeze up here.

hey there stranger...

eyes snapping open, kaleb's brow furrowed as he glanced down, recognising the voice a beat before his eyes settled on a familiar face; cropped blonde hair, dark blue eyes - jeanne. a knot lodged in the pit of his stomach when she mentioned dave and hunting - memories of the night hunt near wiz's coming back in flashes as he shifted his weight on the wall. reaching down with one foot to find the same steam pipe he'd used as a foothold to climb up, kaleb eased himself back down the makeshift ladder and back down to where jeanne stood.

truth be told, he hadn't heard that and a part of him wondered whether dave had pointedly not mentioned it to him because he'd known about the fledgling relationship that had been growing between his friend and the newbie hunter, but as soon as that thought flickered into life in his mind, kaleb disregarded it; that wasn't how dave worked. no. dave had kept it to himself because it had been jeanne's business and hers alone to discuss.

' no, i hadn't actually, ' kaleb answered honestly, twisting to look over his shoulder, he nodded his head towards the main thoroughfare of the city, back out to where the diners and cafes were.