Morning comes with a quick rain shower and a burst of warm air. Humidity so thick it feels just as wet inside the house as it is outside in the down pour. Rosco nervously paces the house, chewing at the already abused beds of his nails. Feet rhythmically passing over the floor’s squeaky board.

Rosco’s departure doesn’t stop life for the rest of them so all the others had gone ahead to see to their tasks for the day. Even Lolly who had lagged behind had been forced to set out, leaving Rosco alone to wait for Hayden.

Rosco is not exceptionally good at waiting, his mind has a habit of wandering, often causing him to forget whatever he was meant to be waiting for, and thus missing it entirely.

Nervous energy pulses through him, demanding that he do something to pass the empty time. If it were not raining, he might go for a run, or spilt logs, or pull weeds from the garden, or go job hunting, again.

Wait, he doesn’t need to go job hunting anymore, he has a job.

The floor squeaks again underfoot, wrecking his train of thought. He rocks back on his heel, the wooden creek filling the small space. He could fix it. Easily. But the house is normally full of people making it difficult to pull up errant floorboards. How convenient that no one’s around!

“What are you doing?”

Rosco blinks, knocked out of his own head by the deep rumble of Hayden’s voice. “I was waiting for you?” the boy answers, a bit surprised to find himself in a hole in the floor. Apparently, he had already pulled up the squeaky boards and was halfway through the repair job.

“That is not what it looks like,” Hayden answers, leaning forward slightly with his hands behind his back.

“I, Uh, got distracted,” Embarrassment and shame heating up his face.

Hayden sighs, straightening back up, “you’ll want to put the floor back together before we go?”

“Yes?”

Hayden makes a ‘get to it’ gesture.

“Right, yeah, sorry. Thank you.” Rosco mumbles, busying his hands.

“C-can I ask you something?” Rosco ventures softly, having Hayden stare at him while he was working was not helping Rosco keep his mind on task so he hoped getting an answer to his question would help him finish the floor before the god got sick of waiting for him.

Hayden meets his eyes in answer.

“Am- am I a priest now?”

Hayden’s eyes widen with surprise, “Absolutely not.” brow knitting together, “What on earth made you think something like that?”

A relieved breath escapes Rosco’s lungs, “Yewin, one of my foster brothers, said that anyone who serves a god is a priest. I thought that by agreeing to go with you, I’d accidently made myself one.”

Hayden shakes his head, moving to squat beside him, “There are many benefits to being counted among my servants, but accepting my blessing also means accepting my rule. The last men who made this bargain with me died in fires that burned for years after their bones had been reduced to ash, their names erased from history, their accomplishments stripped from them, until they became the sum of their failures,” The god’s light eyes turned stony and black, “My priests speak in my name. It is not a title to be taken lightly, and not one I would bestow you by accident.”

Rosco swallows, shivering in the chill that had suddenly filled the room, “Thank you. I’m pretty sure I’m not interested in that.”

“Good, neither am I.” Hayden mumbles before smiling brightly, eyes returning to their nearly white shade of gray, “Let me know if you change your mind.” He offers lightly.

Rosco clears his throat, “I’m uh, almost done.” turning his eyes away from the god, wondering if it wasn’t too late to back out.

Hayden rocks his feet back and forth across the wooden planks experimentally, while Rosco nibbles at his nails.

“A solid repair job,” The god praises, “Why do you not have work as a carpenter?”

“I have.” Rosco replies, “I just,” mulling over his choice of words, “Wasn’t a good fit with any of my previous employers.” He answers diplomatically.

Hayden’s eyes narrow, “What was the problem?”

“I, uh,” Rosco shuffles his feet, “get distracted easily.” He admits more honestly than he’d meant to, glancing away to avoid Hayden’s stare, “And I may have had problems with authority on more than a few occasions.”

“Will this be an issue going forward?”

“No!” Rosco stills, meeting Hayden’s eyes with earnest determination. “Ah, well,” wincing as he suddenly recalls at least two recent conversations that had ended with Rosco yelling at the god, “I’m working on it.” balling his hands into fists. “I’ve learned from my mistakes; I just have to try harder. Lolly says I just have to remember to focus and watch my mouth.”

“You do get angry easily,” Hayden agrees, making for the door.

Rosco’s cheeks flare up, falling into step behind the god. His ‘firecracker’ temper had gotten him in to trouble more times than he’d care to admit. Sparking suddenly and spectacularly, leaving a mess in its wake. Distracted by his thoughts, Rosco bumps into Hayden’s back when the god stops just outside the door.

“Do you not intend to bring your belongings?” the god asks over his shoulder.

Rosco’s hands automatically lift to grab at his bag’s cross strap, “No, I-” his hands floundering over his chest finding nothing but his shirt. His eyes go wide with realization, “one moment,” dashing back in to fetch it.

The two walk along the main road accompanied by a few other travelers also heading away with the coming spring. The rain had stopped while Rosco was repairing the floor and the warm sun had already dried some of the mud, making the road damp but not unpassable.

Hayden kept to himself mostly, while Rosco eagerly chatted with anyone willing to speak with him.

He’d never actually left the city, wandered around outside the clutter of buildings sure, even gone so far as to muck about near the furthest farms that were still considered residents; but never with the intent to leave. The road looked different; gravel crunched differently under his feet. The horizon open and inviting, instead of an imposing border.

As the day wears on, the blacksmiths apprentice had fallen far behind as he made his stops at farms they passed. A family, traveling to visit relatives, bartered a room for the night and the group of merchants settled down to make a suitable camp.

Rosco bid each group farewell as they abandoned the road, careful not to fall too far behind Hayden, whose pace was relentless and steady. His attempts to make small talk with the god mostly ending in him humiliating himself so he’d eventually stopped, occupying himself with the views.

He was ogling a herd of cows grazing in a field when he finally noticed his stomach rumble.

“Uh, Hayden, sir?” Panting after his jog to catch up, “I was wondering when we are planning to stop for the night? I’m getting rather hungry.”

Hayden pauses, shoulders falling slightly.

Stumbling over his own feet, Rosco doubles back a few steps after the unexpected stop.

The sun had just fallen behind the line of trees, there was still light, but the haze of night had begun creeping in, bleaching out the world’s color. Hayden’s silvery hair shimmered in the diming light giving the god an almost halo. His brow pulled together, and his hand raised to cradle his chin.

“I did not think this entirely through,” He mutters softly, to the point Rosco is unsure if the words had been meant to be uttered aloud.

“Think what through?” the curious boy asks, giving in to his urge to inch closer to the man.

“You are mortal,” Hayden replies as if that made his thoughts clear.

Rosco frowns, slightly stung by the obvious declaration. “That I am.”

“You need things like food and rest,” Hayden clarified, eyeing him up and down, “I did not take this into consideration when I made my original plans.”

Rosco sighs, annoyed but not surprised by the god’s carelessness, “I can mostly take care of myself. I brought a little food and some camping supplies; you just have to give me the time I need.”

“How self-sufficient of you.” Hayden lowers his hand, concerned expression becoming amused. “Very well, we can stop for the night. Is this location suitable? or will we need to find someplace else to rest?”

Rosco turns, taking stock of their surroundings. To the right of the road was a ramshackle stick fence keeping the cows in the pasture, and the right, a wide-open field, stretching far out until the tree line, which had been just visible in full light. Rosco, who had never actually been this far down this road or camped farther away from home than his back yard honestly had no idea what a suitable place to set up camp would be, but now that Hayden had called him ‘self-sufficient’ there was no way he was going to admit he had no real idea what he was doing.

“We should move off the road a bit.” squaring his shoulders, “find a place in the tall grass.” doing his best impersonation of someone with confidence, “to, ya know, stay out of sight if possible.”

Hayden nods, sweeping his arm out wide, telling Rosco to lead the way.