“I s’pose I…will be seeing you…” What John didn’t expect was the questioning chime, and puzzled tilt of Cannonade’s partially armored head.

“Sorry…I th-thought you…were just traveling with us…f-for a short while…” Now it was the Horseman’s turn to be confused, as Cannonade just gave a quiet shrug, and what seemed like the wind-being’s strange equivalent to a smile. A windy finger then pointed at Cannonade’s own armored frame, before gesturing to the horseman and his mount.

I will go with you.

Though the grin on the pumpkin’s face was a frozen one, it mimicked the feeling of a quiet, somewhat grateful smile that was starting to bubble from somewhere in John’s mind.

“Al-lright then.” His voice rasped despite the smile in the tone. All packed and ready to go, the pumpkin-headed rider swung himself into the stirrups, and almost without urging sent the horse under him into a light gallop through the trees. Cannonade barely wasted any time, tall form whistling along after the pair, easily keeping pace.

Trees flew past them as they went, wind rustling through branches and scattering leaves. The light from the sun overhead grew brighter and brighter as the dense cover grew thinner and thinner, though John barely had a few moments to think about it before the forest fell away, a treeless hillside causing him to pull back on the reins. The open air almost confused him, the blue sky overhead almost terrifying in its hugeness coupled with the mirroring fields below. The only bit of stability was the line of a road cutting through the long grass, heading off into the distance. Cannonade seemed much less intimidated by the space, breezing to a halt at the crown of the hillside, arms spreading out in a stretch.

Though, when the wind-being realized that the Horseman had not quite followed, and that the horse was lightly trotting to the same point with his rider a little vacant-eyed, the molten eyes staring around with an almost overwhelmed air, the elation started to melt into something a little more concerned. Drifting closer, the windy suggestion of a hand hesitated before tapping at John’s knee, making the horseman jump.

 “Ah, s-sorry. I jus’—” John’s voice graveled for a moment before he managed to marshal his thoughts. “Don’t s-suppose you know, where we are, d’you?”

 Cannonade seemed to consider the question for a moment, looking around and stretching transparent hands to the air before pointing at the horizon and making a round of gestures that took a few minutes to puzzle through.

“There’s…something o-o’er that way?” John clarified, pointing in the same direction that Cannonade had been indicating. The wind-being nodded and spread apart his arms, seemingly to indicate size, and suddenly there was a cascade of sounds on the air. Of many voices speaking at once, bells, clattering and clanking of things moving through a space, and a host of other noises that passed too quickly for John to readily identify.

 Eventually Cannonade stopped, leaving both horse and rider staring with bemusement in the wake of the strange explanation. All in all, it sounded as though wherever they were going, it was going to be interesting. Loud, more than a little harrowing, but interesting.

At the unsure silence from the other members of the party, Cannonade calmly breezed up to the pair, waving a little to get John’s attention. Once the eyes framed by the pumpkin grin looked to him, the wind-being pointed back out to the horizon, and gave a thumbs up. Then Cannonade pointed to himself, then to John, and then to both pairs of eyes. It took the Horseman a little while to get the message, but he couldn’t help the feeling of a smile in his voice as he answered Cannonade.

“A-Alright, we will go.”

On the heels of that declaration, the trio set off down into the open fields, the cheery sound of bells coupled with the whickers of a happy horse. And underneath the cheery, bright noise was the gentle breeze that rustled through the grass and trees, following in their wake.

With such a bright scene, the shadows of ash and dust could not quite follow. It was the lightest the Horseman, that John, could ever remember feeling.