if we just stay together it'll be alright

[whattaprick]

Who: Lambert & Peridot and dead weight
Where: The Carnival
When: After Elysium.
What: An inglorious homecoming.

All things considered, everything in Elysium went a lot better for Lambert than his last encounter with True Fae, but he doesn't feel much better for it. He knows that they've only deferred their biggest problems for now -- if nothing else, the experience was a painful highlight of exactly how persistent the Ringmaster's enemies are, and they've still got their lost workers to recover -- but he can, at least, take care of one.

After everything, their return is almost anticlimactic: turn one corner, and then another, and then the Carnival entrance is there, where it was lost to shadows before. When they step through to the Carnival, and nothing follows them, Lambert isn't going to bother hiding the way his shoulders sag in relief. Rather than heading to the medical tent, though, where the Doctor might or might not be ...

"Can you bring him to my trailer?" he asks, turning to the dragon beside him. He doesn't expect her to answer him with a full mouth, but he imagines if she's tired of playing pack horse already, she'll make it known. "If not, I'll carry him the rest of the way."

Comments

[periphrasing]

Peridot is equally relieved to be back. She'd followed after Lambert obediently enough, having no reason to protest a swift and immediate return to the safety of the carnival. It was just a matter of keeping the pace while also making sure that she didn't accidentally jostle Childermass too much.

Exhaustion is hitting her pretty hard by the time they return though, visible in both the way she's carrying herself and in her eyes, which are nowhere near as bright and sharp as usual. Wearily, she cocks her head at Lambert's request (Childermass's limbs kind of. Awkwardly flop. With the motion). She wants to ask 'why not the medical tent', but as observed, her mouth is full at the moment... and it seems kind of stupid to put Childermass down just to ask that, only to have to pick him back up again.

Lambert probably has a good reason for making that call, anyway. So she affirms with a grunt, and turns to start trotting in the direction of the supervisor's grove. She gets him as far as Lambert's doorstep before stopping and waiting, figuring that trying to cram herself through the doorway while holding an injured human in her jaws is not the greatest idea.