As even the forest quieted down to rest, she helped him move closer to the fire. He had to admit, for one who seemed unaccustomed to this, she seemed to have a gut instinct on what was the best course of action for survival. The fire offered protection, heat, and bug control and was the ideal place to sleep. Laying down pulled his injury too much and would not allow him to monitor for threats properly so he opted to sit with his back against the wood pile she had left earlier. She laid down near him but couldn’t seem to get comfortable, shifting around and turning over and back again. Eventually though, he watched the exhaustion of the day catch up to her and listened to her breath as it evened out and her slumber began. 

He had been trained to stay awake and function for at least a week with only a couple hours of sleep beforehand so he figured he would stay on watch all night so that his companion would be rested enough to forage and gather more materials for them to survive with. He remembered that the normal soldiers and people he had interacted with had needed to sleep for many hours every night and figured it was much the same for her. As the three moons slowly rose in the sky, he watched as stars in patterns he did not know slowly drifted across the darkness in a silent turn. Every now and then he added a log to keep the fire a decent size and scanned the treeline at the edge of their campsite for anything that might be a threat.

At some point, his gaze drifted to the small pile of leaves tucked into his bag, the healing herbs she had brought back reminding him of that feeling he had had earlier. He grabbed one of the leaves and as expected, the random tingling in his chest did not come back. The leaves had not been the cause then, so it must have been from her. What had she been doing when he felt that sensation? What had he been doing? He had been touching her, holding the leaf to her wrist, and she had noticed and had given him a smile. He went back to that moment in his mind, focused on that image of her smile, of the light that seemed to shine in her eyes and felt that tingling sensation to return. It was not a bad feeling, in fact it almost felt…nice. It was a feeling that he honestly wanted to feel again, even if he could not name it nor see the use of it. 

It was as he was right on the edge of this discovery that a low growl pulled him from his thoughts. He looked up and saw what might have been a wolf, if not for the fact it was twice the size and glowing red. Its red eyes were filled with malice, its jaws open and saliva dripping from its sharp fangs to the ground below, the grass hissing where the slobber fell. Its hackles were raised, making it look even bigger than it was, and it was slowly approaching them. He could tell by its body language that it was confident in its assumed victory, the slow arrogance in its pacing making it obvious it saw them as no threat. He slowly began to reach for his sword, bracing for what he was sure would be a difficult fight.