Behind the Bushes

Eizit, Azael and Sophie galloped through the forest, the sun was starting to set down as it was already 10 pm and the sun was starting to set down. Having ran out of light they decided it was time to rest for the night.

Eizit and Azael were able to see in the night because of their races, tiefling and dark elf, but Sophie wasn't.

So even if they wanted to keep going, which they didn't, they couldn't. Not only did they not want to keep walking in the night-time, but their mounts wouldn't be able to anyways.

First Azael would keep awake for 4 hours, and after doing so, Eizit and Sophie would ztay both awake for the rest of the night. They didn't need to trance more than 4 hours so they just didn't have anything to do.

And so they did. Eizit and Sophie left their trance at 2 am and they chatted in a low tone about random things for about an hour.

It was 3 am and the night was young when Eizit asked Sophie something, she seemed surprised by the question.

"So why do you want to become stronger?"

Noticing she was speechless Eizit moved his hands forward towards her and tried to dismiss what he had said, a bit worried that he may have asked something too personal.

"You don't need to reply if you don't want to!"

She giggled slightly, tapping him in the shoulder with her fist, pushing him slightly. She sighed and looked at the night stars, smiling slightly.

"Don't worry, it's just that it's the first time someone cares about my motives... I train to become stronger because I was blessed by my star when I died for the second time, I don't want to let it down"

"Blessed by the star?"

She nodded

"Yeah, stars can bless people that they like, as long as they're a powerful enough star. It means that even if you die you won't lose that star"

Eizit seemed amazed by that, it was so cool.

"So you're so cool the star decided to bless you!"

She giggled slightly, she wouldn't have said it that way, but maybe it was a way to put it.

"I guess the star liked my reactions to the spells more than my utility... and that's why I want to become stronger, to prove that I can be worth the blessing!"

Eizit admired her words, and it was obvious... His expressions were like an open book. She laughed softly.

"That's such a good reason!"

"What about you? Why do you fight and train to become stronger?"

Eizit scratched the back of his head, a bit embarassed.

"Well, my motives are not as clear and good as yours. I fight to defend others, but I don't think it's because of any ideals or anything that inspired me to do so in the past... I just feel like if a force pushed me to protect other people"

She had her mouth open widely, amazed by his reply. Though Eizit didn't truly understand if that was good or bad, not until she spoke.

"That's so cool! Like the hero inside of you pushes to do good! And it's such a noble reason too, you don't do it because of anything specific, but because it's the right thing to do. You do good because that's what has to be done, what could be better than that?"

Eizit giggled slightly and scratched the back of his head, he wasn't used to people telling him good things, most of the time he had been alone, so he didn't talk to people in the first place.

And the time he had actually spent with someone it had been with Azael. Thing is that Azael is pretty much stubborn and is not the king of person to praise others, if something, he probably praises himself.

Sophie pointed behind herself, asking Eizit a question.

"What about him?"

Eizit sighed, he didn't know anything about Azael. The only reason they were together was probably because they ended up in this mess together. The reason Navi died were both Eizit and Azael, so they both escaped together.

However, Eizit couldn't tell Sophie that they had escaped because they 'accidentally' killed someone. So he had to simply reply with what little he knew about the tiefling.

"I honestly don't know, we ended up together because we were both prejudiced in The Kingdom of Chamuel. Probably the only reason he's with me is because I saved his life, but I'm pretty much sure he'd rather go by himself"

She thought for a bit, and then replied slightly excited.

"Wait, doesn't that mean he feels slightly obligated to follow you because you saved him? Isn't that a proof that he's better than he looks like"

Eizit shrugged, in reality he probably only followed him because of the not-so-self-defense crime they commited together. However, he hopes for Azael actually being a better person that he seems to be.

"Yeah, I don't know about his past, he may act tough because of something that marked him in his childhood. I don't know."

She nodded, it was always better to think about that than to think about sad stuff.

They had been talking for half an hour now when they heard something in the bushes, Eizit stood up and Sophie pointed her staff forward.

Eizit looked back and wondered what to do, he kept looking at the bushes and then at Sophie. His star was explosions and he knew that using it in the middle of the night would not be a great idea, however, asking Sophie to go in the bushes to explore by herself felt a bit egoistic to him. So he was in a stalemate of sorts, unable to come up with a solution.

Sophie, noticing that he was unsure of what to do, stood up, and tapped his shoulder.

"I don't know if you're scared or what but I'll go check it out myself"

Eizit stopped her.

"You don't have night vision, I'll go."

She nodded. For some reason that was enough for Eizit to decide on going to check it out himself, after all, what was he scared of? He probably wouldn't need to use his star, it was probably nothing.

Eizit approached the bushes, ready to look behind them and find out who or what was hiding there.

***

(5 Hours Ago)

Dahlia Noire was galloping through the forest, it was 10 pm. She expected Eizit, Azael and whoever joined them to stop for the night.

Therefore, the black and red haired girl decided to take advantage of this in order to cut the distance.

Because of them having mounts now that meant they'd go at the same speed, and therefore she would be unable to get to them before they arrived to the Gate of Iron.

Therefore, Dahlia decided that if she used her time as well as possible she would be able to cut the distance.

Using this to her advantage, Dahlia lit up her oil lamp and used it in order to be able to see the footsteps in the ground. Without seeing them, she wouldn't be able to follow them.

Of course, this would make her go slower. However, despite going slower, everything was faster than just sleeping. By traveling during the night, regardless of how slowly Dahlia traveled, she'd cut the distance between them.

Dahlia kept galloping through the forest, it was dark and the only thing allowing her to follow the footsteps was the oil lamp she was carrying. It was already around 12 pm. She didn't seem to be tired.

However, there was actually something tired, it was her horse. The black horse, almost camouflaging in the night, if it weren't for her lighting up the way, was walking slowly now. Not even galloping.

The horse tilted to a side from time to time, which Dahlia reacted to by softly tapping the side it tilted towards with her foot. To that, the horse reacted and sped up. However, about 2 minutes later it did the same.

The horse was clearly getting tired, and therefore Dahlia would need to stop soon. Nonetheless, she refused to do so. And so the girl instructed the horse to not stop.

It had almost been 3 hours already, the horse could barely stand up, and it barely remained walking. However, Dahlia kicked it slightly every time it seemed to start to fall asleep. The poor horse couldn't keep going anymore, and so half an hour later it was already walking with its eyes closed. The horse was barely standing.

Eventually, the horse was so exhausted it tilted to a side. Dahlia's tapping on the side wasn't enough to make it wake up, and so Dahlia tried kicking it. But the hourse didn't react.

Both her and the horse fell to the ground, as it completely tilted to the left. They got out of the way and hit the ground behind some bushes, the bushes shaking as they did.

Dahlia sighed, noticing the horse needed to sleep. She turned off her oil lamp and got out of the horse.

As she was going to go to sleep to, she heard something at the other side of the bushes. Probably alerted because of the sound and shaking they made when they fell. She got in guard, it could be someone dangerous!

***

Eizit approached the bush and prepared to look behind.

***

Dahlia noticed something approaching the bushes and prepared herself to fight.

***