Being left in her own thoughts was a bad place to be but Aeotha didn't want to start talking to Skandra either. The problem with talking to him was that it made her remember things that she didn't need to remember. If she talked too much she'd reveal things she didn't want to, or he might. She might get irrationally angry with him for talking so freely about what it was he did for fun, and if he mentioned priestesses she might just kill him and be done with it. Of course, Aeotha didn't honestly think she could kill Skandra, but she kind of hoped she could when he mentioned things like that around her. He hadn't yet, but he had before. He'd wondered why she was mad at him before.
If Aeotha had never met Skandra again, the very idea of him would have been romanticized to the point of knighthood. As it was, She'd met Skandra a second time and he'd just spent a week in a jail because he'd been screwing around with some captain's daughter. He didn't apologize for it then, what did he have to apologize for? Why was she still mad about it? If she'd gone on the rest of her life not seeing him she'd likely be mad forever and tear him down until he was worse than anyone she'd ever met in her entire life. But here they were, not speaking to each other. Aeotha didn't want to. What could be brought up, what could be remembered, what she didn't want to talk about...
Aeotha laid out what little she brought to sleep on. An extra wool blanket for padding, another wrapped tightly around herself because she felt so cold then. She just wanted to watch the stars and pray. The moon felt so very far away tonight. Most nights it seemed so close, just watching, just waiting for something. The conversations she had in the moonlight were heartfelt and sometimes needy, but they were heard. But tonight with the moon so far away, Aeotha almost felt like no one would hear her if she did speak. What death awaited her now? Who would be sent after her next, and would Skandra Tyullis be enough?
Her pack was thrown open, and Aeotha searched around for some water. Thoughts heavy in her head, she hadn't heard Skandra talking, or at least hadn't paid enough attention to it to know what he said. Assuming he was talking to himself, complaining of lack of liquor or about his sore leg, Aeotha kept looking until she felt eyes on her. She grasped her wineskin and looked around. Catching him looking at her then. ..What was it that he wanted?
"My what? I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I don't have a knife." She sat down neatly and opened the wineskin to take a drink.
Aeotha leaned back. Maybe she should pay more attention to him. Just make it professional interest. Personally? She couldn't let herself get into that again. In the end, Skandra was Skandra, he was better off without her.
Aeotha had drank what she needed to, and decided that she should tend to the horses before she tried to sleep. She got up slowly and set her wineskin down on the blanket, then walked across the camp to the horses. Putting her closer to him, but she didn't need to think about what proximity to him she was in. If he cared about it then he could show it, and he didn't. Not once had he tried to say something to her besides complain about liquor. If he wanted liquor so badly, why hadn't he brought any with him? Certainly he didn't think Aeotha was going to carry whiskey with her everywhere she went hoping to satisfy his thirst should he appear.
"So what have you been doing since you left Iasa?" Damn, she really didn't want to know. But there was little else to say to him that wouldn't come out in the wrong way completely.