The rains were early this year. Up in the mountains during the summer, there was very little fear for weather, or even a need for it. But sometimes, the weather had other plans, and sometimes that meant the herds needed to move a bit earlier than usual, and sometimes that meant Kojo got the task of rushing off into the wilderness to clear the path for the main cattle run.
It was hands-down his most favorite treat. Beyond anything else, he always hoped for early rains, because that meant days where he could ride out unbound, with only his partner and their horses and the necessary supplies of what they wouldn't be able to find on the trail. Even as the weather turned foul, even as the rain bellowed down upon them, and even as their horses huffed at having to navigate the treacherous mud of the highlands, Kojo wouldn't have traded it for the world.
The only thing that was better than this was deep winter in the plains, when the world was wide and open and he could pick any direction to just run in.
"Kojo, eyes on the road," came a call behind him, and Kojo did his best to avoid making a face as he looked back at Paja. From her returning expression, his attempts not to look petulant failed completely.
"Not much a road to watch," he grumbled back, the sharp consonants of their shared language piercing even through the rain. It wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. It had to be useful, understandable across valleys and mountain ridges and sweeping plains both. It also had the handy trait of sounding constantly agitated, much like Kojo's present mood at still being stuck as high as they were.
"You're down in the grasses already, and we've still got days ahead. Grandfathers grant you some damned patience," Paja growled back. Normally she'd cut some sharp remark and they'd both laugh their irritation off, but unlike Kojo, she had no patience for the rain. She shook droplets off of her head with a snarl, looking like a sullen, soggy cat for how she hunched over her horse.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Kojo grumbled, waving one hand while the other gently led his horse along a barely discernible path, thick droplets of water splashing into his eyes and making the going all the slower. It was a mark of how in need of a rest they both were that they rode in silence for a time.
Which was probably for the best, as it meant they could both pay more attention to their surroundings. Just enough to catch sight of something altogether foreign to the mountain wilds save in very specific circumstances. Fine cloth that had a vibrant hue despite the poor weather and splatters of mud, spotted with brambles and thorns and in a veritable heap at the base of a tree.
Kojo looked over his shoulder, one massive hand raised, only to see Paja had already spotted the oddity, her own eyes fixed and ready as she reached for her hatchet. Kojo slid from his horse, the great beast huffing and stomping the ground at the sudden shift in atmosphere, ears pinned forward and on high alert. At the very least, Kojo would be assured his death would swiftly be avenged.
He stepped forward after removing his own hatchet from his saddlebags, slowly stepping from the main path and down into the brush towards the lump. The path of the mud and broken branches said whatever this was, it took quite the nasty fall, and for a moment Kojo's stomach turned at the idea that he might pull the cloth back and get a face full of rot and maggots for his curiousity.
A vivid gash was the first thing Kojo saw, and for a brief half a second he wanted to recoil. But in that brief half a second, he spied the rest of the poor soul's face, eyes shut unlike a corpse and still leaking blood in all the different scratches taken in the fall.
But most telling of all was the puff of white air against the cool rain, sign enough that this human still lived. For the moment, anyway.
"Paja!" he called up the slope, and could hear the rustle of immediate movement as the orcess launched from her own saddle, "Blankets!"
"[i}For what?[/i]" came her reply after a moment's hesitation, but still, when she slid down the mud beside him, it was with a handful of cloth, still dry from the weatherproofed bags it'd been in. "The hell is that?"
"Human."
"I can see that, fool, I mean who is it?"
"Dunno. Cut up to hell and back, I think she fell down the way there," Kojo gestured at the slickened gouge in the earth, just the right size for a body to toboggan down.
"We should leave it. We've only got the supplies for us both, and we need to be able to make it back up to say the way's clear."
"Look at her, she's not exactly going to eat the whole of our supply."
"You share with her then, soft fool that you are. See you complain an inch of your empty belly and I'll throw you into the fire."
"Shut up and find us a clearing to set up in. We're not getting far in this mess today."
Paja shoved at his shoulder even as she stalked off, twigs and branches both snapping in her wake while Kojo set about checking the human for anything messier than her eye. Trusting that her limbs were precisely where they were meant to be, he lifted her up, stripping off the bright, soggy cloak that had drawn his initial intention and replacing it with the thick blanket that would do miles better against the rain.
It wasn't much longer before all three of them were hunkered in the shelter of a cave, the horses all too happy to settle at the mouth where there was still some light, and Paja set to getting a fire started. And just in time, too, with how the winds and water both picked up in earnest, slamming against the rock walls of the cave to where the two orcs still had to shout a bit to be heard far apart as they were.
In between setting up his own half of the camp for the evening, Kojo was busy in making the human comfortable, wiping away mud and picking twigs out of soggy hair, and hissing a bit at just how nasty the gash across her eye really was. It'd take some time to heal, even with the spare herbs he'd packed for the journey, and there'd be no saving it, but at the very least he could keep any infection from setting in.
"Don't know why you're bothering," Paja said, her mouth pressed tight as she coaxed the fire into a sizable blaze.
Kojo didn't answer her, well aware that this was a needless waste of supplies. Still. The thought of leaving the human out to freeze was worse.