our infinite burden / ghost boys and the darlings day 1

"Do we really need to hoard all of this?" Eulalie can understand the logic: gather all the resources and move them to a safe location before taking the time to source through it all. What she struggles to understand is why. "Say someone tries to ambush us, I still like our odds. It's not like us to play hide-and-seek." Pretending that she's not the most lethal thing in this arena doesn't fancy her.

It's all said and done, either way. The girls have been dragging the massive pile of goods for almost a half hour, the crumbling castle and field of rubble fading far behind them. Florentine taking the lead doesn't bother her, so much as Andromache taking the rear doesn't surprise her. The strongest part of the monument is its center. Without Eulalie, the whole alliance would collapse, or so she has herself convinced.

The bubbling of a brook catches her attention, the telltale sound of frogs croaking in the distance. "If you expect me to swim and carry this, you're asking too much." She sets aside her portion of the wealth, crossing her arms over her chest as the girls take a moment to catch their breath and monitor their surroundings. Andromache seems distracted by a little sphere of light, bobbing up and down in the air, but Eulalie hardly pays it any attention. This place will have many wonders to discover, and they can wait.

The trick is to find the other tributes.

Kill them, get a crown, go home.

"Look. Stop, a moment."

Ever the perceptive one, it's Florentine who draws Eulalie's attention to the two strangers approaching. She has a brief moment where she considers taking out her axe, preparing for the ambush she's jinxed them to have, but she's barely even touched the hilt when she realizes... they hardly seem scary. The bigger one, a boy who looks like he could be from her home district, is all smiles and waves as he bounds over like a lost puppy. The lithe boy approaches with more hesitation, his gaze just as clever and calculated as any career on the hunt.

When he proposes his "moving services," all cheery bravado and biceps flexed, Eulalie just blinks. This... is not what she was expecting her first interaction with tributes after the Bloodbath would be. Either this is the most fascinating ploy ever thought of, or the guy is just genuinely as nice as he's acting. It feels almost tragic. Like gazing down at a mewing kitten stuck in quicksand. Andromache's instinct is to ask questions, which is wise.

But it's not Mr. Biceps who answers her, instead Clever Eyes takes the diplomatic approach and moves to the front. "He just wants to help." The tinge of fatigue in his voice makes it sound like watching after the big guy is a 24/7 task. He makes the mistake of titling the other stranger 'boyfriend,' and Eulalie makes the choice right then and there to make note of this. They're from the same home, they have an intimate connection, and they can be exploited.

To his credit: he's right. If a fight ensues, the two of them are as good as dead, so the only options left are simple. Either they keep dragging all of this on their own, or they take advantage of the manual labor being offered to them. "You make sense, at least. Moving in larger numbers will make the first day of travel easier." She spares a glance over her shoulder at the pile of glittering things that looms behind them, uncrossing her arms and turning back to Mr. Biceps. "We all have our uses. It's sweet that you've found yours."

This is as much of a confirmation as he needs to get started on carrying out his part of this one-sided deal. Eulalie strides up beside Clever Eyes, who has joined Andromache and now Florentine as they peer at the strange light coming from between the moss-covered trees. Eulalie leans in close, her voice just above a whisper. "When the day is done, promise me this. I will never see the two of you again." Her eyes flit just barely to the other boy, holding a pet frog in a jar and looking as if he's tumbled out of a fairytale.

"That one doesn't deserve to die painfully."