“That would be fantastic. I will let them know as they begin to set up camp.” Kepan says as he stands. 

“You can also let them know that there is a freshwater source in the cave. They can feel free to come in here and take what they need, as long as they don’t disturb our room back here.” Luke says warily. 

Hallie hadn’t expected him to allow them into the cave, after all he seemed very cautious but she was glad he seemed to be opening up. She looks over at Kepan to find him already looking between Luke and herself. “What is it?” she asks. 

“Nothing, I just never expected the studious Luke to find someone to love outside of his books.” Kepan says as he quickly turns and walks away.

“Wait a second.” Luke says as he quickly gets up and  follows after him. 

Deciding to leave them to talk it out and feeling slightly disappointed that Luke was that embarrassed about the idea of dating her, Hallie turned to Amber. As she looks at her, Hallie finds her already looking at her. “I should have asked this earlier, but do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

“Yes, I think that this is the best you can do. However, I wished that I would have had more time to properly train you. You are doing well, but I fear that it won’t be enough.” Amber replied as she looked me in the eye. “I think we should continue your training, even as you travel.” 

“Of course,” Hallie replied as she began digging through their supplies. Pulling out various vegetables and a few herbs, she decided on making a stew. “I plan to help make dinner for everyone and then I was hoping we could train for a few hours before bed.”

“Okay, I will go out and hunt for more meat, so stay close to Luke. I don’t trust all of the people here. However if you plan to cook for them all, we don’t have nearly enough food to do so. I can sense nearly a thousand of them.” Amber replies as she stretches her wings. 

“Wow,” Hallie says as she returns to their bag of herbs. “I suppose I’ll need much more than I thought.” 

Grabbing everything, the two of them made their way to the cooking fire to find Luke already waiting. Hallie could see a blush coat on his cheeks as she looked at him, so she quickly looked away and began to explain her plans for a stew and then roasting whatever meat Amber is able to bring back. 

As the two of us got busy cooking, several people came in and out refilling their water and by the time Luke and Hallie finished chopping all of the vegetables for the stew, Amber was already dragging in two deer that she had killed. Kepan followed her in and began to prepare the deer for cooking as Amber looked over at me. 

Hallie realized that Amber was trying to get her attention so that she wouldn’t show any evidence that she was speaking to her telepathically. Despite her doing it relatively often, it is something that feels foreign and she often finds herself looking her way or responding out loud. 

“I flew over the others to get a rough idea of who was out there, and I didn’t feel anything suspicious coming from any of them. However, I suspect that they may have been followed. I noticed that they have guards set up, but I was able to detect a faint scent from the valley. I followed it but it seemed to be a decoy, so the threat is a bit more worrisome than I first thought.” 

Hallie realized that this definitely was not good. More so now than ever, as if someone were to attack, there are more potential casualties. She quickly replies telepathically as well. “Thank you for the heads up. Could you go back out to “hunt” and keep an eye on things? At least until everyone’s had a chance to eat. Afterwards, we can go out and practice magic a bit farther from here. I’d rather handle things away from the camp if possible.”

“Will do.” Amber responds before she makes her way out of the cave. 

Trusting that she will be updating her as necessary, Hallie decides to trust in her as she helps Luke finish all of the cooking. After everyone has finished eating, she returns to the cave and along with Luke they return to their room. As Amber looked at me, Hallie could see the question in her eyes about whether or not to tell Luke. 

“You should tell him.” Hallie tells Amber out loud. Continuing in my mind she says, “Tell him telepathically. We can't afford for anyone to hear our suspicions.”

After Amber finished talking to him, Hallie could see the understanding on his face before he suggested, “What do you say we go for a walk?” 

“That sounds good.” Hallie replies as she stands up and grabs her bag out of the corner. 

As the two of us leave the cave, we avoid running into anyone and quickly exit without any attention. Traveling to a part of the valley that would be hidden from view, Hallie turns to Luke and says, “It is mostly suspicious at this point, but we need to get in as much practice as possible, so what do you say we do a bit of training while we wait for updates.” As soon as she had determined this place was safe, Amber had immediately taken to the skies to search for the intruder. 

“Sure,” Luke says. 

As soon as he replied, Hallie immediately sent some magic flying his way. She knew he’d dodge it, but she wanted to set the pace for more intense training today. Immediately he returned a burst of his own magic and the two of them continued training for nearly two hours, before we got a message from Amber. She had found the intruder, and this time they were with Kepan.