Curiosity

With Garen living with him for the last few days Elleon had been doing less and less work during the days.

Things that would have taken him hours to do Garen did in mere moments.

It left him with so much more time to do things he enjoyed and he had more time to simply relax.

The days chores had been finished by lunch time and the two of them had already enjoyed Garen's latest hunting catch.

The boy sprawled out in the grass, letting the afternoon sun warm his pale skin the sound of wood scraping sounding near by.

"Garen.."

The boy muttered as he rolled onto his stomach, facing his companion.

Garen had been whittling in his spare time for the past few days.

This piece was a big piece and very detailed. He wanted to make sure it was perfect so he was spending far longer than usual on it.

The bird that Elleon wanted was slowly coming together and almost looking like a bird.

His head turned up when Elleon murmured his name.

"Yeah, lad?"

"How's your carving coming along?"

He asked as he slowly sat up, flicking his hair out of his face, he had gotten more accustomed to looking in Garen's general direction when he spoke to the man.

He was curious about his progress, nearly every night before bed he would play with his deer, feeling the curves of it and remembering each and every angle, he cherished those carving above all else.

"Will it take much longer?"

"Its coming along well, lad. Starting to look like it's supposed to."

It was beginning to look like a proper bird. Garen was determined to make it as lifelike as possible for the boy, though.

"It'll probably take another day or two to finish up, but it probably feels like a bird right now. Wanna come feel it?" he asked, scraping a small piece of wood off it.

Elleon pursed his lips a  little, another day or two, he was usually a patient boy but he was too excited to wait for this.

He perked up at the mention of being able to feel it now even though it wasn't finished.

"I wouldn't be able to wait another day."

He crawled over slowly, knowing Garen was only a small distance away, when he felt the brush of the man's leg against his hand he stilled and sat down beside him, probably a little bit too close for what society deemed acceptable, but he wasn't aware of it.

Instead he just held his hands out in front of him, a small smile on his lips as he waited for the bird, his defiant hair falling in front of his face again.

Garen shifted when Elleon crawled towards him.

When the boy's hand pressed against his leg, he moved to sit with his legs either side of the boy so he could lean over his shoulder.

He dropped his knife to the ground and set the carving in Elle's lap.

"Here." His rough hands gripped Elle's smaller hands gently, stroking the smooth skin with the tips of his rough, scarred fingers. "Here's the beak. And we follow the neck down to the folded wings."

Elleon settled in when Garen moved to sit behind him, he had grown comfortable with the man's presence, he couldn't think of the man as a threat now even if he wanted to, Garen just did so much for him.

His hands searching out the carving for a moment, his hands stilling as they were gripped and guided down to the carving.

A soft smile curled at his lips as he was shown the bird's anatomy, gently feeling the curved and lines as he tried to picture it in his head.

"It's so pretty..."

He murmured softly as his hands continued to roam over it's form, for something that wasn't finished he could visualize it well.

Garen didn't have it in him to threaten Elleon in any way, shape or form.

The young Oracle had become close to him over the past few days of living with him. He didn't have any malicious intent towards him at all.

"These are the tail feathers here." He guided Elle's fingers over the carved feathers.

"Next time I'll carve a bird in flight for you. Then you can feel them with their wings open."

Elleon's face looked awestruck as his fingers were guided over the bird's tail feathers, he hadn't touched a real bird before, not one that wasn't already cooked any way.

He hadn't expected the tail to be so full.

At the mention of having another bird he couldn't stop himself from leaning back and nuzzling against the man behind him.

"I'd love that, thank you."

"No need to thank me lad, I enjoy doing this."

Now, what was it that he enjoyed?

Carving the creatures for Elleon to enjoy was one possible option.

Showing and talking Elleon through the anatomy of what he had carved was another option.

Having the boy so close so that he could feel him nuzzled close and squirm in happiness was the third and final option.

"Of course I have to thank you. You're putting so much time and care into making something for me."

It made him so happy to know that the man was putting all this effort in, just for him, it made him feel...special.

The boy looked up at the older man, a soft smile on his face, he might not be able to see Garen's face but he wanted the man to see how happy he was.

"Garen..."

He muttered softly before pausing, his nose wrinkling.

"You smell bad, when was the last time you bathed?"

He asked, reaching up to clutch onto his nose to stop the smell.

"I enjoy making them, so you don't get to thank me for doing it, lad."

Garen liked seeing the boy's filmy eyes light up as he felt the creature that he'd never felt before. Seeing someone so excited over his work was an incredible thing.

Garen smiled in return, one hand reaching up to stroke the boy's defiant hair out of his face. The fingers began stroking down his cheek gently, but they paused at the mention of a bath.

"Uh... I think I was in the country before the one that borders this one," he replied, face screwing up a little in concentration. "Or was it the country before that...?"

Elleon's lips pursed at the mention of how long it had been, Elleon himself tried to bath everyday, even if it was just taking a quick dip in the creek or wiping himself down with warm water.

"That's gross Garen, you'll make yourself sick."

He scolded softly, shaking his head, placing the bird gently in the man's hands before standing up.

"Come on, I am going to heat you up some water to scrub with, you can wash yourself in the creek."

Garen would have to bathe, the wasn't going to let the man in his house when he smelled like that, he just hoped the soap he had was strong enough to cut through that smell.

Garen didn't look all that pleased about having to bathe.

"What's the occasion?" he asked, hips lips pulled into a little frown. Why did he have to bathe? There wasn't anything important going on, was there? He'd just be sat around in the house with Elle. That didn't strike him as something important that he had to bathe for.

He stood up to follow behind Elle, though.

As much as he didn't want to bathe, he didn't want to upset Elle.

"Being that dirty isn't good for your body." He replied, shaking his head.

"If you got hurt you would get an infection so quickly and then you would get ill."

Elleon was worried for his health, he was also worried about throwing up if he had to put up with the man's stink for too long.

He padded through his garden, picking stalks of lavender before heading into the house and putting a large pot of water over the fire to boil, throwing the lavender in with it.

He would have Garen smelling nice even if it killed him.

"I'm a Necromancer." A damned good one, at that. "I can heal infections just fine."

He didn't have to worry so much about infections. Especially not with his advanced ability and Necromancy. He'd spent most of his life using his Necromancy like it was as easy as picking his nose.

Garen really didn't see the importance of personal hygiene.

Baths just took time and effort that could be used way better on other things.

Elleon looked up at the man, a soft pleading look on his face.

"Just humor me, please. I'd rather not have to hold my breath when I sit close to you again."

He had liked being near the man, but the smell was definitely a turn off, he wouldn't be able to withstand it for very long periods of time.

When the water had boiled the entire house was filled with the scent of lavender, Elleon took the large pot and poured a large amount of the hot scented water into a bucket with a bar of soap and a rag for Garen to clean with in the creek.

"You can take that one to the water to clean with, I'll wash your clothes."

Garen's eyes flickered away when the boy gave him a pleading look and he crossed his arms over his chest, lips pursing into a pout.

"Fine," he murmured softly.

His hands moved to unbuckle his belt full of pouches, setting that aside.

Then he moved onto pulling off his clothes. Jacket, tunic, pants, boots. He bundled them all up into a manageable mess of torn, burned and stained clothing and held it out in front of Elle.

Garen stood completely naked without a care as he waited for the boy to take his clothes from him.

Elleon blushed softly, though he couldn't see the man, just knowing that Garen was in front of him completely naked was enough to make him a little embarrassed.

"Thanks."

He muttered, taking the man's clothing off of him and setting them down by the large put to clean them, he could already feel layers of grime all over them, this was not going to be pleasant.

Elleon knelt down in front of the pot and separated the clothing, he could feel holes and tears through all of them, his fingers were getting caught up in the mess of fabric and he could barely tell what items were what.

The boy pursed his lips, perhaps it was best to count their losses and make Garen some new clothes.

"Suppose I'll be back soon, then."

He didn't want to go wash up. It was so much effort for nothing.

Honestly, who cared about a little smell?

Garen disappeared out of the house with the bucket in hand and made his way towards the creek. He'd be quick. He didn't particularly want to spend forever washing himself.

Elleon tried his best to clean the clothing, so much of it was beyond repair that there was very little point, plus, the grime clinging to it made the boy cringe, he didn't want to know what the smell coming off of it was.

After a short while he gave up and instead lay the clothing out on the floor before gathering up a bolt of linen from his trunk and a thread and needle, sewing Garen a new tunic to wear until his new clothing was ready would be easy enough, if he worked hard for the rest of the day he should be able to get quite a few items ready for him.

Figuring out the sizing from the scraps was a little difficult though a tunic wasn't exactly form fitting.

Garen unfortunately, spent more time than he had hoped to spend out in the creek.

He scrubbed until you could almost see his natural skin tone under the layers of dirt. He smelled... better, if only slightly, after the attack of lavender.

The rag was ruined, though. Covered in blood and dirt and crusted puss from infections that he'd squeezed but never wiped away from wounds. He doubted anyone else would want to touch that rag. So he did the smart thing and flung it up into a tree where no person could get it.

Overall his efforts proved well enough that he didn't smell quite so bad as he did.

When he returned, he set the bucket down next to the door.

"I'm back," he called as he opened the door.

In the time Garen had spent out in the creek Elleon had made good progress on some simple clothes for him.

He could make something nicer when he had more time but for now they would keep the man comfortable until he could make some decent items.

"I made you a new tunic, I didn't realise your clothes were so torn, here, I hope it fits, it was hard to tell how big he was."

He replied as Garen appeared, holding up the new linen tunic he had made, it was simple but it was clean and in one piece.

"If you manage to catch another deer in the next few days I could make you a new jacket out of leather."

Garen padded forwards when Elle held up the tunic for him.

He held it out for a moment before pulling it on. It was strange having new clothes.

"Thanks, lad. Fit's just fine. Here, do I smell better to you now?" Garen leaned over so his chest was pressed against Elle's back. He nuzzled against the boy thoughtlessly as he watched him sew.

Just as thoughtlessly Elleon leaned back against the man, craning his neck a little and giving Garen a small sniff.

"You still smell a little funny, but it's much better than before."

He wasn't cleaned very well, but it couldn't have gotten worse than before. Elle handled the fabric well, slowly sewing the seams of Garen's new pants, he could make all the linen clothing pretty quickly, it was the leather that took him a little more time.

"I should have your pants done by tonight, but I need more supplies before I can make a coat, vest and boots."

The shoes would be the hardest, he wasn't set up for cobbling.