It’s been an entire week of slugging through the forest, ducking behind trees and in bushes in an attempt to hide from the forest’s denizens and avoid certain death. Nora and Alastair shuffle on in silence, Nora’s leg having healed just the tiniest bit in the last week that they’ve been making their escape, but it still sends shivers of pain up her body whenever she supports her weight on it for long.

  The two have been through one hell of an ordeal, having been tested on their strength and tenacity almost every step of the way through this godforsaken forest. They’ve been smart, skilled, and lucky enough to avoid the worst of it. But they didn’t manage to avoid all of the dangers, and they both show the wear from being constantly alert and constantly under attack. Even the ever-chatty Alastair has been silent all of the day, having said nothing beyond asking Nora if she needs a break.

  Their shoulders are tense, their eyes hollow and haunted with wild looks to them. Their heads are constantly in movement, searching out for any signs of danger in the shifting forest. Alastair’s sword is chipped and scratched, in desperate need of maintenance, and Nora’s quiver is filled with homemade arrows that penetrate half as deeply as her old ones but are twice as numerous as the amount she used to have. They both have scars, some fresh and others close to healed, from creatures known and unknown across their bodies. Their clothes are torn and dirtied, and at this point, Alastair’s convinced that the mere smell of them is what’s keeping half of the dangers away from them.

  As they keep walking, slogging along step by step, Nora notices something that gives her a slight bit of hope:

  The canopy is starting to thin out.

  She glances up towards Alastair, seeing the look of wary alert and concentration on his face, and realizes that she’s never seen the swordsman this serious before. He’s normally so laid-back and calm, always with a joke ready and always looking for a way to make things less serious.

  But Nora’s seen a whole different side of him this last week. A side of him that’s a lot more dangerous, a lot more alert, and a lot more prepared for things to go wrong in often painful ways.

  And she can’t help but find it…

  Kind of hot.

  She feels her cheeks redden once again as she keeps staring up at him, watching as a lock of brown hair falls down over his eyes. Watching it bob from side to side as they hobble along, she feels the strangest urge to reach up and brush it behind his ear. She imagines that it must feel soft and thick, even though logically she knows just how long it’s been since he last washed it.

  She’s known for a while now that Alastair was once the son of a bandit, and that he was practically part of the gang before he ended up on Emily’s farm. Alastair and Emily seem to have an unspoken pact between each other, refusing to acknowledge his time before the farm in front of others. But Nora has long known about his checkered past, nothing really happens in their tiny community without her dad knowing all about it. At first, she avoided him because of it. But over time, he’s grown on her. And now, she can hardly believe that the same man in front of her would rob carriages on the highway when he was just a kid.

  Except for at this moment. With the hardened expression on his face, she can imagine just what kinds of horrors he’s faced already. The hardened line of his jaw, the tightness of his shoulders, and the steel look in his eyes that makes him look ten years older than he is.

  She keeps staring into those hardened eyes, mesmerized by them, until she sees the corners of them crinkle up into an amused smile as they turn to look back at her.

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  “Like what you see?”

  Nora feels her face burning as she realizes that he’s been watching her out of the corner of his eyes this entire time.

  “N-no!” she cries out, immediately embarrassed at the whiney tone of her voice.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” Alastair says, as he flicks his hair dramatically. “You can look at much as you’d like.”

  Nora punches him in the arm, hard, almost knocking him over. “You dumbass! Look! The trees!”

  Alastair rubs his shoulder and glances up, staring in confusion at the canopy before realization dawns on him.

  “Wait… Does this mean…?”

  “We’re near the edge of the forest.”

  He looks back at Nora, his face so full of hope and excitement that Nora feels the same welling up in her chest. He smiles at her and her heart skips a beat.

  “You think you can hop a bit faster?” he asks her, as he wiggles his eyebrows at her playfully.

  “There’s only one way to find out.” She replies, returning his smile.

  They make their way faster through the forest, the trees thinning further and further as they go. Eventually, they reach a threshold, the trees puttering out before coming to an end, beautiful green grasslands and clear, blue skies stretching out beyond the horizon.

  The pair steps cautiously out of the treeline, gazing in wistful wonder at the bright world ahead of them.

  “So… We made it?” Alastair asks, uncertainty in his voice.

  “We made it.” Nora replies, relief and certainty in hers.

  They embrace with relief, laughing and sighing before clinging slightly tighter to each other. Nora feels the welcoming head of Alastair’s body, the solid reassurance of him and squeezes just a little bit tighter, hoping that Alastair would do the same and –

  Realizing how long they’ve been embracing for, Nora quickly breaks it apart, clearing her throat in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. For a moment, she even thinks that she sees a slight bit of embarrassment and longing in his face, but it disappears before she can get a second look.

  “So… Where to now?” Alastair asks her, as he searches around, trying to spot civilization.

  “I don’t know… I don’t recognize where we are.” she replies, as she narrows her eyes and searches the horizon. “But I bet you… We need to go… That way.”

  She points in a direction, a smile on her face. Alastair cocks his eyebrow at her.

  “What makes you say it’s that way? Is it based off of what side the moss is on a tree? Or is it because of the layout of the land? Or is it, like… The migration of birds that clues you in?”

  “Actually, the smoke kind of clued me in.”

  Alastair looks closely again and sees it for himself, the telltale smoke from civilization drifting up in the air, just on the other side of the hill. “Oh, yeah. I missed that. Kind of obvious now that I see it.”

  Alastair wraps his arm around Nora’s waist, pulling him closer to her. On instinct, Nora puts her arm around his shoulder, having done this a dozen times before the last few weeks.

  “You ready to go?” Alastair asks, smiling down at Nora.

  “Fuck, yes. I’ve been dreaming of a bath for days now.” She replies, as she returns his smile.

  The two hobble along the grassy hill, supporting each other and talking about what they’re going to do the first thing they get into town.

  And what they need to prepare, before they go back into the forest to save their missing party member.

  Eventually, they crest the hill, finally catching sight of the source of the smoke and their hopeful salvation:

  A bustling town, with people moving around, peaceful and serene despite the clusterfuck that is the forest just a few hours’ walk away from there.

  Alastair stops walking and just takes the sight in, taking a serene, deep breath and letting it out slowly. He looks towards Emily, a grin on his face.

  “So… Do you have any idea where the hell we are?”

  “Not a single clue.”

  “Yep. Me too,” Alastair replies, as he turns back to the town. “Glad we’re on the same page. I’ve never seen this place before in my life, and I’ve been around.”

  They stay silent for a moment, trying to figure out just how far away they are from home, and from Emily. Coming up blank, Alastair turns back to Nora.

  “Are we still going in?”

  “I will chew off an arm before I skip the chance to finally take a damn bath.”

  “Your own, I hope?”

  Nora gives Alastair a look, then stares at his arm still wrapped around her waist.

  “Alright… One hot bath, coming right up for the hungry cannibal.”

  The two keep going on their journey, hobbling along as the unknown town grows closer and closer.