It was dead silent.  The only thing to be heard was you shifting around in your bedroll. You rolled over for what had to be the twentieth time in the last ten minutes to face Daewon. You looked at him. His eyes were closed and his lips slightly apart. He looked beautiful and at peace. You sat comfortably in the silence and admired his features.

“Can’t sleep?” His voice startled you and you let out a small yelp. He chuckled at you.

“No… You  too?”

“Elves don’t sleep.”

You had temporarily forgotten about that. “Right…”

He sighed, “but no, I can’t seem to enter my trance.” He rolled over so that you were facing each other. “What’s keeping you awake?”

“I don’t know,” you pondered. “A lot of things, I guess.”

“Name one.”

You thought carefully. “You believed in me before you saw my abilities and convinced Hansol to bring me along but… after that last fight, I feel like I let you down. I got all caught up in the webs and got hurt again. I wanted to make a good first impression…” You trailed off. Self doubt made you avoid eye contact with Daewon.

Daewon made a sound laced with incredulity. “Do you want to know my first impression of you?”

You peaked up at him. He didn’t seem like the type to offer something like that only to insult you. “Yes.”

“One thing or many?” He asked.

You furrowed your brows. “Either is fine, I guess.”

Daewon seemed to stare beyond you as he confessed what he thought of you. “Despite being incapacitated for a good portion of the fight, you managed to kill the most spiders out of the three of us. I think you’re strong. You also caught onto the troubles of the forest without being experienced with nature. I think you’re smart.” An embarrassed smile broke out onto his face. “I also think you’re pretty.”

You felt your heart rate pick up and your face get hot. You couldn’t help but smile yourself. “Thank you.”

“Tell me about you. I want to know your story,” Daewon said before the atmosphere could get awkward.

“There isn’t much of a story. I grew up in the city, born to owners of a small tavern. It got kind of rough at times so I had to learn how to avoid being hit with chairs and how to maybe swing a few myself. I got into adventuring because my friend, Chan,” you smiled to yourself at the mention of your best friend’s name, “kept getting himself into stupid situations I had to bail him out of. One thing led to another and before I knew it, exploration, jobs, and battles became what I knew.”

“So it wasn’t really intentional. Do you regret it?”

“Not at all. I’ve gotten to see a lot of amazing things because of my adventuring. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world.”

Daewon looked at you dreamily. “I want to have experiences like that. I’ve only ever known the forest. I want to see the world like you do.”

You smiled, charmed by his purity. “Maybe we can go on adventures together someday.”

The smile that broke across his face was one of the biggest you’ve ever seen. “I would like that.”

Silence fell over you again but this time it felt comfortable and right. You rolled onto your back and allowed your mind to wander onto thoughts about Daewon. He seemed like the type to see the best in people and his brightness was infectious. You could feel how caring he was. You enjoyed spending time with him and in that moment, you were content.

*          *          *          *

You woke to the sun beating down on your face. You looked around in confusion. Hansol was packing up camp and Daewon seemed to be looking over the area. You leapt up and began rolling your bedroll, half panicked that you were sleeping through the clean up.

“Morning,” Hansol said to you. He chuckled at you packing your bedroll. “You don’t need to bring that. It’s just leaves. I can always make another.”

You ungracefully let the bedroll flop open at your feet. “Why didn’t you wake me? I didn’t take watch.”

Hansol gave you his signature awkward but cute smile. “Daewon and I had it covered. We wanted you to get your rest. You did get poisoned yesterday, after all.”

“Oh… thank you…”

Daewon approached the two of you. “There are a few druids just to the east of here that care for this part of the forest. I am going to go check on them and see if they have any information or help to offer. You two can continue forward. I will catch up with you”

Hansol simply nodded at Daewon. You looked bewildered between the two. “What? No! You can’t go alone. That’s way too dangerous.”

Daewon smirked at you. “I travel faster alone. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Before you could further protest, he spun on his heel and took off running. He leapt into the air and right before your eyes, his body shrunk down and clothes molded into gleaming feathers. Where Daewon once was, there was now a gorgeous, elegant hawk rising off into the air.

Hansol placed his hand on your forearm to get your attention. “Lets get going.” He began walking forward, leaving you to follow him.

For some reason, you felt the desire to get close to him. He was more closed off than Daewon was but he had a draw to him and you wanted to befriend him. In a moment of boldness, you ran after him and hooked his arm with yours. He looked at you quizzically, but you just smiled at him. He returned it with one of his own. You walked on with your arms locked together.

“So, Hansol,” you began, “do you still have family in human lands?”

“Yes, my parents and older brother and sister live in Waterdeep.”

“Really?” You were surprised he had relatives in the same city you lived in.

“Yeah,” he said happily, thinking of them. “I spend quite a bit of time with them, but they understand my passion for all of this.” He gestured to the landscape around him.

“What do they do?”

“My parents and sister run a bakery and my brother crafts leather. I supply his hides.”

“I’ll have to go to them for bread and the next time I need an armor upgrade.”

Hansol laughed lightly. “You’ll get good food but I don’t think my brother could craft anything better than this. It’s a beautiful set of armor.”  You looked down at your own armor. It was black with silver and navy accents. It didn’t make a single creak with your movements and was magically enhanced to improve its protection. You had found it in an abandoned tower you raided a few months ago. It had served you quite well so far.

You looked up to say something to find Hansol not looking at the path you walked, or your armor, like you had expected, but right at your face. He looked lost in his thoughts as he took in your features. His dusty brown hair fell over one of his large, dark eyes that bore into yours. You looked forwards and nervously cleared your throat.

That snapped him out of it and he quickly regained composure. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare. I was just thinking.”

“What were you thinking about?”

He thought for a long time. “It’s curious… I’m usually more reserved around strangers. I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m not very outgoing, but it’s usually even more so than this. I thought maybe it was because I was with Daewon. I am more comfortable when I am around friends… but even now when it’s just us… I feel comfortable. I was trying to figure out why.”

You laughed dismissively, unable to accept that you could be special. “You’re probably just growing in your confidence.”

Hansol huffed amusedly. “I’m positive it’s not that. It’s you.”

“Well,” you said, “stick around and maybe you’ll find out why.”

Hansol gazed ahead. “I plan on it.”

Silence fell over you. Now that you weren’t distracted by the tall ranger, you could feel that the atmosphere was getting eerie. The air felt thicker and unclean. Light smog sat on the ground and it was darker than it should have been for the time of day. It all made the hair on your arms stand on end. Hansol seemed to be equally tense. “We are close,” he said.

A streak of feathers swooped in and landed soundlessly beside you, transforming into Daewon. “The druids are all dead,” he said at barely a whisper, “I can’t deduce what killed them but their bodies were covered in thorns. They were strong fighters. We should proceed with caution.”

You placed a reassuring and sympathetic hand on Daewon’s shoulder, hoping you could convey your emotions to him without risking alerting the enemy to your presence. The three of you nodded at each other and slowly started onward again, silently stalking an unknown enemy.

(chapter art by kaelakov.deviantart.com)