“Wonder what?” she said, taking the unintended bait.
“Oh… just makes you wonder what our people could have accomplished in the last two centuries if they had worked together, combining our talents instead of fighting each other.”
“Well, there is no reason we should not be the example. You have been… tolerable thus far, and I see no reason that we cannot continue this friendship and help each other prosper from it. Though so far you have yet to contribute anything of significance, I still hold out hope for you.”
Kre laughed despite the insult and smirked back at her, “True. Well, just you wait. One of these days, I’m going to surprise you.”
Kitalia smirked back and her eyes darted down and back up again, “I would say that you are already surprising me. Perhaps you should adjust your towel.”
Kre reacted instantaneously, grabbing at the edges of the towel and looking frantically for where it needed fixing.
Kitalia laughed loudly, “Got you.”
Muttering to himself, Kre resigned himself to the embarrassment of being the butt of the joke for a bit longer. After all, it helped to lighten the mood and that was something that was always helpful.
“So, what else can we do? I mean, if we can’t cross the river.”
Kitalia rocked back and set down the mostly finished raft. “Well,” she started slowly. “Well, maybe we can make our tail believe that we crossed the river, but instead we shall start heading upriver and see if we cannot find a good place to hide out for a day or two and see if we are still being followed or not. We may need to backtrack a bit, but we shall cross the river when we come to it.”
Kre took a deep breath and let it out in a soft whistle.
“You have a problem with the plan?”
“No, not at all,” he replied quickly. “I just, well, I guess I just wish this were a normal outing where folks weren’t after us. That… that and I wish I could get a decent night’s sleep for once.”
“Well, the sooner we are off, the sooner we can hole up somewhere and you can rest for as long as you need.”
Kre nodded and looked around, trying to find something to make himself useful. Kitalia nodded to his blanket, “You could wrap yourself in that. Since we will not be sleeping here. I should be just another moment or two.”
He did as she suggested but still wished that he could do more to help out. “Why are you still working on the raft?” he asked, when he noticed her tugging on the rope once again.
“I am loosening it a bit, to make it seem like we tried and failed to make it work. Hopefully that will serve as a clue that we went across.”
“Makes sense.”
He watched her unthread a few logs, making the whole thing seem very unstable. She set it afloat at the bank of the river and gave it a gentle push, letting it slowly float out. It didn’t take long until the slow-moving current grabbed the rickety wooden device and slowly broke it apart. A few bits of it floated back over and seemed to get tangled in the nearby rocks, leaving the exact kind of evidence that Kitalia had hoped for.
“Okay Kre,” she said. “We should get moving.” She glanced back at him and gave him one of her pitying looks. “Also, since we are no longer swimming this night, you should probably put on your spare clothes. Probably best not to put on trousers yet though, as we’ll be moving through the water to hide our tracks.”
Kre nodded and grabbed his bag, keeping the blanket wrapped tightly around him for the warmth and for the feeling of decency it provided. He was exhausted, but oddly very much awake thanks to his frigid bath. Still, he wondered just what else was going to go wrong on his journey to the Citadel.