It has been a week since Ashen and Lina left Everett, they are currently camping the night in a dense forest.

  Lina sits by the campfire and looks over to Ashen’s still form as he lays in his bed roll, even while sleeping he wears his cloak and gear.

  Lina makes sure his breathing is steady and eyes closed before she closes her eyes, she focuses her blessing and grants energy to herself, trying to mimic the golden thread Evan formed in the dungeon.

  Her blessing forms and gathers in her scarred hands but doesn’t take shape.

  She stops her blessing and kicks a rock in frustration before burying her head in her hands.

  She and Ashen have barely been making it through the wilds as they journey towards the dwarves, they pissed off that Hurine guy, and the paladins will start chasing after her again before long.

  She swears to herself as she then says,

  ”I need to be able to do more, Ashen has had it hard enough already, I can’t become a burden.”

  Lina is frustrated with herself for being so weak, she always thought her blessing could only heal or buff, but Evan uses the same blessing to tie her up with a golden thread that appeared from thin air.

  Lina wallows in self pity for a while before a familiar voice says as Ashen says still lying down,

  “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”

  Lina pulls her head away from her hands and looks towards Ashen’s still form, she sees him roll over showing he isn’t actually asleep.

  Lina blushes in embarrassment that he overheard her and looks away as she says,

  ”Why not? It’s true isn’t it? I can heal and grant minor buffs but that’s all, we haven’t even entered the southern wilds yet and we have been struggling with the monsters.”

  Ashen sits up and sits on a nearby log, then he says in a clam voice,

  ”At least you can use your blessing, Without a soul to use I can’t activate mine, but wallowing in self pity won’t help us survive.”

  Lina has a hard time denying his words, but even with only a single crappy dagger, Ashen still holds his own against other monsters.

  Lina wants to argue, to speak about how pathetic she must seem, but Ashen’s steady gaze centers her, she takes a deep breath and calms down saying,

  ”Thanks Ashen, Sorry I know this is already tough for you too without my complaining.”

  Ashen looks up at the stars through the leafy canopy as he says,

  ”I prefer it this way, before I was surviving easier yes, but I was alone. It feels nice having someone else by me and my misfortune.”

  Lina smiles softly, then says,

  ”I suppose we are both figuring this stuff out, you’re right blaming myself won’t help me figure it out any faster, besides we have a few more weeks till we get to the dwarves, I’ll work on it.”

  Ashen gets up and goes to his bed roll, when he is about to lie down to rest through the night, he notices his bag was disturbed.

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  His pack which lays by his bedroll, lies with its straps untied and its contents slightly displaced.

  ”Lina, we aren’t alone.”

  Lina is quick to act, she knows Ashen isn’t wrong about these things, she quickly gathers her gear and stands with her back to Ashen’s as their eyes search the dark forest around them.

  Ashen and Lina can’t see or hear anyone, it’s too dark to see anything past the small clearing their campfire illuminates.

  Lina knows with an unknown enemy it would be a bad idea to venture where they can’t see, she gathers her energy and at once illuminates the forest around them.

  They see a blur of brown dart behind a bush further into the woods.

  Ashen draws his dagger and with Lina continuing to illuminate the woods, walks slightly behind him.

  As they approach the area, a figure in a brown cloak jumps out with a dagger.

  Ashen back steps to avoid their slash which shows shorter arms than expected.

  Ashen goes to counter with a slash of his own but the figure leaps backwards extremely quickly.

  Lina knows they are at a severe disadvantage like this but gets an idea.

  As the brown cloaked enemy leaps forward to strike Ashen with their dagger, Lina targets her light and brightens it.

  The light blinds the figure who is facing it while leaving Ashen unaffected as his back is towards the light.

  Ashen manages to catch the figure’s brown cloak and pull them to the floor, Lina ties a rope around the figure while Ashen restrains them.

  After it’s over Ashen and Lina stand over the brown cloaked figure who is tied up as they sit, they are significantly smaller than they thought.

  Lina pulls back the hood of the cloak revealing it to be a little girl with fluffy wolf ears, the girl snarls and struggles against the rope but is restrained.

  Lina is shocked to see a girl probably only 14 years old is their attacker, she looks towards Ashen who still has a cold glare despite seeing it’s a kid, Lina puts an arm in front of Ashen not wanting to harm a kid.

  Ashen looks at Lina and says annoyed,

  “Lina she attacked us, doesn’t matter if she’s a kid or not.”

  Lina steels her gaze and steps between them saying,

  ”Yes but let’s try being a bit easier on her before we resort to torture.”

  Ashen and Lina duel with their gazes for a moment before Ashen turns away, though he takes the Girl’s dropped dagger further as he steps away.

  Lina crouches by the wolf girl who is still mostly cloaked in the brown cloak besides their head, Lina asks,

  ”Why did you attack us?”

  The wolf girl stops her snarling seeing no point but says nothing, she looks down at the ground. Lina can’t tell if it’s because of guilt or preparation for torture which is common to do for bandits and assassins.

  Lina tries again, this time trying to speak more gently,

  ”We aren’t going to hurt you, just tell us this, why did you attack us?”

  The girl looks confused as she looks at Lina then says in a soft voice that has been sharpened from hardship,

  ”You drew your blades first.”

  Lina thinks to after Ashen discovered there was someone snooping through their stuff, Lina and Ashen had immediately prepared for a fight, did this girl see that as an act of aggression?

  Lina is thinking of a response when Ashen chimes in,

  ”You were looking through our stuff and spying on us, then you were the first to attack as we went to investigate, don’t spin the story.”

  The wolf girl’s ears actually droop in sadness as she says softly almost like a whisper,

  “I’m sorry, I thought you were attacking me, and yes I was spying on you but I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

  Lina softens her gaze and turns towards the girl, Ashen still doesn’t trust her and keeps his guard up, Lina ignores his glare and says softly to the girl,

  ”So what’s your name?”

  The little girl pauses for a while, Lina doesn’t get why she is so confused about a name, the girl finally responds after what feels like eternity saying,

  “Nari Lowen.”

  Lina smiles as she continues,

  ”Nari, so if we untied you then you won’t attack us right?”

  Ashen tries to raise objections but Lina wins the argument

  Nari sits there silent in confusion for a second before shaking her head and saying,

  ”No I won’t, so please don’t kill me.”

  Lina unties the ropes and lets them fall to the floor then says,

  ”Don’t worry, you’re free now, no one is going to hurt you anymore.”

  Ashen doesn’t like this situation, as Nari looks around with suspicion and hope, Ashen steps forward still with dagger drawn and says,

  ”If you have nothing to hide then take off the cloak, you might have hidden weapons or something, I’m not buying that some spy is all innocent.”

  Nari hesitates for a moment before removing her brown cloak. As it falls away it reveals a dirty oversized tunic, Lina’s eyes widen as she sees Nari without her cloak but it isn’t because of the tunic.

  Right on her neck is a large metal collar with runes etched into its surface, a Slave Collar.