Emi's facedown on the ground beneath him. Her skin's bare and dirty. Every time he thrusts into her, she screams.

...what.

People are weird. That's pretty much just a fact of life; she's more or less used to it, at this point. And usually she assumes it's pretty harmless - it's not like she's not kind of weird herself, after all.

This is something else again, though. Emi's definitely getting hurt - she can't make out the details, but she can hear her clearly enough. But what can she do against Kosh? She's just a kid, and he makes a casual habit of uprooting trees; there's precisely one way it can go if she tries to fight him.

She's frozen, for a few seconds, trying to come up with something better to do than just run away.

As she crouches there frozen, she might notice--belatedly--that she is currently upwind of Koshnak's position?

"Oh. Jen." Koshnak glances over in her direction, his-dark adapted eyes quickly pinpointing her hiding place. "You followed us all the way out from the wagon line?"

He makes no move to accost her, but does ease up a bit on whatever he's doing to hurt Emi.

Emi sucks in breath unevenly, turning in the same direction Kosh's facing but seeing nothing aside from arid brush and shadows.

"W-whaa?"

The confused noise she makes is not even slightly intentional.

"No." Emi freezes up where she lays, her body trembling and her teeth clenched tight together. "No."

"S'fine, love." Koshnak rubs a hand across her back in what is perhaps intended as a reassuring gesture. "Nothin' here to be ashamed of."

She hisses - not at him, under her breath, but still audible.

"You can't--... You shouldn't have--..."

Emi shouts hoarsely in her general direction.

"Go! B-back to camp! Now!" 

"Shhhh. Quiet, love."

Koshnak starts doing the thing, again, that hurts Emi.

"Jen. You're free to do whatever you will, here." He meets eyes with the girl again once Emi's words have devolved back into tears. "But since we'll be at this for a few hours more..."

He shrugs. Pretty a pair as he and Emi make, he expects the girl will get bored watching their joint exertions sooner or later.

She shuffles around in the underbrush for a moment - still tempted to challenge him, and never mind that it'd be utter suicide - but goes. Retrieves her bundle. Finds someplace out of the way to sit and practice throwing pebbles at the shrubbery.

The sun rises on the caravan's right flank, casting long shadows across the out of the way spot she picked out. Nomads start emerging from their tents: exchanging morning greetings, rekindling fires, breaking fast, and otherwise bringing the campground back to life.

Only a while later, past the time when she usually would've gone to sleep, does she catch sight of Koshnak and Emi on the horizon.

Koshnak, his greatcoat back in place upon his shoulders, towers like a monolith beside the human-sized woman he escorts.

She's clothed, cleaned up, not bleeding.

She does have a fleeting stagger to her step, almost like she's intermittently dozing off on her feet, but she refuses to lean on the orc beside her for support.

rrrrrrr.

They reach the campground outskirts.

The dazed Emi won't notice her, unless she makes an attention-catch sound while they're passing.

Koshnak totally will notice her, either way, but won't necessarily do more than give her a conspiratorial wink.

She stays quiet, but does glare at him.

The nomads welcome their protector and his escort back into their midst.

As always, the people of the caravan seem slightly nervous, but at the same time confident that Koshnak will shield them from harm.

Emi goes to sleep, in the back of the wagon set aside for her. Everyone else gets to work.

Nothing's changed.

It's just... normal.

Maybe they don't know? She didn't know. But... no. He wasn't trying to hide it. And the nervousness makes sense, now.

Well, that's the question of whether she's staying answered, at least. She can't. She can't.

And for now?

It's hard being alone when you're hurt. Kind of awful, actually. (She feels a little sick, thinking back to all the times when Emi really seemed to need a hug.) So. That's something she can do.

She's quiet, opening the door to Emi's wagon; she doesn't want to startle her, though she only sort of has a plan for not. Peeks in, before announcing herself.

Emi doesn't startle. Doesn't actually seem to register the door opening.

She's already sprawled out in her cot, near the front of the carriage.

She goes over and sits by the head of the cot. "Mrr?"

Emi startles awake. She'd thought she'd locked the door to her wagon, she usually does, but locks can be picked and maybe she was sloppy and...

...and there's the girl. Sitting there. Watching her. The way she must've watched earlier, when Emi was face down in the gravel...

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Emi's lips move, but no words come out.