"Fair enough, then," he agreed. He removed his jacket and, making sure to shrug of any hesitation he might have let show, approached her and draped it over her shoulders, also pulling the hood up over her head to cover her ears. Then, he began to lead her through the wheat to the caravan.
While Jericho was pleasant enough during the introductions, he still found himself disturbed- no, that was too strong a word- rather, unsettled by Holo. She seemed pleasant enough herself, but he couldn't get the image of her fangs out of his mind. Every now and then, however much he tried not to, he very quickly glanced over his shoulder at her. He explained this as just him making sure no one was following them- but really, it was to make sure she didn't have a change of face and attack him from behind. Every time he looked upon her, the hairs of his arms and neck jolted upright again for a moment, and he constantly felt her presence at his back.
Still, he made an offer, and she hadn't attempted to eat him yet. He had no reason to disbelief or reject her, and so until she gave him one, he'd be civil to her. It was only the decent thing to do.
The caravan consisted of a single four-wheeled cart exactly five meters long and three meters wide (Jericho measured it himself) pulled by two oxen tethered to the front of it. The oxen, bulky and brown, grazed from the grass of the field where Jericho had brought it to a stop. The cart was more like a small mobile cottage- exactly how Jericho had intended it to be. He needed a safe haven, and yet he also needed to get back on the move at a moment's notice. And so he paid a group of woodworkers to build him a mobile fortress. The exterior, aside from its size, was nothing extravagant; only a basic redwood box with a door on its left side and another, smaller door at the front allowing access to the platform from which the oxen were directed. The interior was another matter entirely.
The walls were lined were locked cupboards filled with ingredients for alchemy, as well as food, drink, and clothing. At the back was a wide bed, and the floor was covered from an expansive green carpet bolted into the wood in the corners. What little of the walls weren't covered in cupboards were instead covered with surreal paintings and murals from the foreign places Jericho had visited. In the center of the cabin sat a small rounded ivory table with two wooden chairs at both ends of it.
"Welcome," Jericho announced, "to my humble abode."
In ages of hate and raging swords / Along these gray plains so wild and cold
The armies of dragons, men, and elves / All stormed the dark gates of a thousand hells
And now we'll declare eternal war / To every damned new hellish lord
On the way to Ainor!
-"On The Way To Ainor" by Rhapsody of Fire
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