Cold Comforts

Cool hands were brushing his hair away from his face, their touch gentle and welcome, and Raven’s eyes fluttered as he woke slowly, staring around him sleepily as he tried to remember where he was and what he was doing. He caught sight of Logan leaning over him where he was slumped in the front seat of the jeep. The older man was standing outside the jeep, and had reached through the open window to reach him, Raven realized.

Sitting up so that he was no longer slumped against the jeep’s door, Raven waited patiently while Logan opened the door, no longer having to worry about him spilling out of the vehicle when he did. Raven slipped lightly to the ground and looked around, nibbling his lower lip in trepidation. They were in another wooded area.

“We’re not goin’ far, kid. Just enough into the woods to be off the road. You’ll be able to see the road from our campsite.” Raven nodded. Even knowing that the road didn’t have many travelers on it, knowing that he would be able to see it was a great comfort. Of course, it’s not like he’d be able to fight Logan off if the man tried to do anything, but at this point, he’d take what he could get. Besides, the man hadn’t needed to reassure him, but he had. And surely Logan must be tired as well. He hadn’t taken a nap in the jeep like Raven had.

Logan moved to the back of the jeep and pulled out two packs and some bedrolls before locking the doors and pocketing the keys. Raven reached out his hands silently, and Logan tossed one of the packs to him. Catching it, he slung it over his shoulders and followed Logan into the woods. True to his word, he stopped near a couple of large oaks and tossed his pack down. When Raven glanced back, he could clearly see the road, the jeep sitting in a small dip to the side. It would be easy enough to move out in the morning.

“No fire tonight, kid,” Logan muttered, setting down the bedrolls and his pack and rummaging inside. A few moments later, he pulled out some dried meat and a type of dried fruit bar, handing them over to Raven silently. After Raven accepted, nodding his head in thanks, Logan pulled out his own meal. They ate in companionable silence, Raven staring around himself. There wasn’t much to see, but it was comforting to be able to see the area he was in, even if he didn’t know where, exactly that was.

“Better hurry up and eat, kid. We’ll be leaving before the sun rises,” Logan muttered, and Raven nodded at him, frowning as he looked down at the food in his hands. “What? Food not to your liking?” Logan asked.

Raven shook his head at that. “Oh, no. The food is fine, thank you,” Raven replied. “It’s just…could you not call me ‘kid’, please? I have a name, and it’s…uncomfortable to hear myself referred to that way.” Actually, it reminded him closely of the way the men had called him ‘boy’ when they had been manhandling him.

Logan regarded him intently for several long moments, and then shrugged. “Sure, kid. The name’s Raven, right?” he asked. Raven nodded; he hadn’t missed the slip, but he figured that Logan wasn’t really doing it on purpose. It was just the way the older man saw him. “Okay. Raven it is, then,” Logan agreed, and the boy smiled, his body releasing some tension that he hadn’t even known was there.

“Now, Raven,” Logan drawled, and the boy looked back up at him warily, “how about you telling me what sort of work you can do.” Raven blinked, and then smiled; he had expected a much harder question, such as how he had come to be owned by the likes of those brutes.

“I’ve done a lot of work. Anything from bookkeeping to baking to construction work,” Raven replied. Then he frowned. “Well, the construction work didn’t last for very long. I wasn’t really strong enough to handle the work for hours on end, and the men there were all much bigger than me, and intimidating. They’d tease me about being as weak as a woman, and grope me whenever I walked past them.”

In fact, the job had lasted for all of three days before one of the men had tried to force him, and he had quit. He was just lucky that the man hadn’t expected his boss to be nearby, and that his boss was an older man who had no interest in watching his subordinates molest a sixteen year old boy. Unfortunately, Raven had then been told in no uncertain terms that he was a risk to the man’s business, and would therefore have to leave. Immediately. That was the shortest job he had ever worked.

“Can you stock shelves?” Logan asked gruffly, and Raven nodded. He had stocked shelves before. And it had helped some of the businesses at first that he was so pretty, because he’d attract both the girls and the boys. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that they had come just to ogle him, and not to buy anything, and he had been chased out. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell Logan about that, though.

“Good. I have a friend up home that owns a small convenience store. He’s and old goat now, and stubborn as a mule. He refuses to hire younger hands to help him out around the store, the greedy bastard.” Logan’s voice was fond as he spoke of this older man, one whom he obviously knew quite well, if he could insult him in such a manner. “Instead, you’ll work for him in exchange for room and board. Sound fair?” he drawled, slanting a glance at Raven.

The boy nodded; he only had to fend for himself now, and helping out an old man with his store in exchange for a roof over his head and food in his belly didn’t seem like such a bad bargain. And if this guy was as old as Logan made him sound, then he shouldn’t pose a problem to Raven, either. Logan grunted at his nod, and then stood up, moving over and unrolling the bedrolls. He brought Raven’s over to him and gestured at the area. “Choose any spot you’d like,” he offered. “I’ll sleep opposite of you, if that’ll make you feel better.”

Raven looked up at him gratefully and nodded, and then glanced around. He had been leaning against an old oak while he ate. There was a fallen tree only a few feet away, the wide expanse of trunk nestled quite firmly in a divot in the ground. Pushing himself to his feet, Raven looked over the trunk at the far side, and nodded to himself. The tree offered enough shelter, and there was a small dip in the floor of the woods on the other side that would do nicely for his bed.

Hoping over the trunk easily, Raven lay down his bedroll and climbed in; there was no point in worrying about bathing tonight. Perhaps by tomorrow they’d reach the village where Logan lived, and he could get a shower then. He looked forward to having hot water again, and even more to finally being able to wash the dirt of his journey off of him. It was hard to believe that it was only yesterday that he’d been bought, molested, and saved by a complete stranger who had no relation or obligation to him.

With a sigh, Raven settled down, burrowing his head under the blanket that Logan had provided. He used his arm as a pillow, and in moments, he was asleep, his breathing calm and even. He felt safe, here in the woods with Logan, who had saved him, and killed the men that had hurt him. Logan wasn’t a bad guy, and Raven knew it, no matter what the older man might try to pretend.

And so, Raven slept easily, undisturbed by nightmares or dark thoughts. As he slept, Logan kept watch, his dark eyes roaming the woods, his ears alert for any sound that might indicate intruders, keeping guard over the strange child that he had picked up on his travels.

Eventually, Logan was satisfied that they were safe for the night, and he, too, settled down into his bedroll. Closing his eyes, he drifted off, though not as heavily as Raven, his ears and senses still on the watch for the enemy. After all, just because he had killed two slave traders didn’t mean that there weren’t more nearby, or worse things. He would not risk his or Raven’s safety with such careless disregard. The boy was worth more than that. He just didn’t realize it yet.