Ellie looked down at the bright yellow of her dress and grimaced, “….”

“…Does it have to do with that bandage on your head?”

Ellie sighed, ‘I guess there’s no point in not telling him. Maybe he can help me figure out what happened.’

“…I actually don’t remember how I got out here. I woke up on a farm this morning. My clothes were torn up, I had a big bump on my head, and apparently I’d been asleep for three days.”

“….” Chevias said nothing to this, but was listened intently.

“The old woman on the farm was very kind. She gave me these clothes, some food, and told me the way home. But she doesn’t know how I got there either.”

“Hmm…what about your leg? What’s wrong there?”

“Oh, this.” Ellie looked down at the bandage on her leg, “I actually don’t know. It doesn’t hurt much, and I was in such a hurry that I didn’t bother to take it off and look.”

“Well, take it off.”

She didn’t argue with him, and instead started unwrapping the gauze. She gasped as the bandage fell away.

Her leg had several long, thin scabs that stretched from about the middle of her calf and wrapped to the side, near her ankle. The scabs were surrounded by the remains of large bruise. It seems that the cuts were shallow enough to have healed this much in just three days, but the fact that she hadn’t felt much pain from such a noticeable wound shocked Ellie.

At her gasp, Chevias had silently gotten up and come to crouch in front of her, inspecting the wound. To Ellie’s relief, he didn’t try to touch her, but he frowned at the scratches, “Looks like something caught your leg here.”

“Yeah, but what did this? I don’t remember this!”

“…It could’ve been a tree branch.”

“A branch did this!?”

“Look,” he pointed to the top of the scratches, at the front of her leg. “It’s wider here than the other spots, so this is probably where the scratch started. You were probably running and scratched it up on a fallen branch.” Even as he said this, Chevias had a look of deep thought on his face.

Ellie voiced her doubts, “That doesn’t explain the bruising.” Chevias said nothing to that, but went back to his place by the fire.

“…Ellie, have you considered the possibly that you were kidnapped?”

Her blood turned cold, “…I thought about it.”

He had a grave look on his face, “I’ll tell you what that bruise looks like. It looks like someone tried to grab your leg while you were running away, and they scratched you in the process.”

Ellie took a deep breath and held it for a bit before exhaling, “…I’d been thinking about all this when you showed up. I figured it was most likely that some bandits caught me while I was mushroom picking and carried me off. I didn’t want it to be true, but it was the most logical answer I think of.”

“It’s the best I can come up with too. Well…” he looked Ellie over, “…they probably dropped you off the horse and figured you were dead. At least you got away safe enough.”

“Yeah, thank goodness for that.”

Chevias turned to the rabbits that were still roasting, “These are probably done by now. Here.” He reached over and picked up a stick by the end, then handed it to Ellie. She carefully took it and blew a bit on the rabbit. Chevias took his own and started tearing into it without bothering to let it cool.

Once Ellie was sure it was cool enough, she followed suit and started eating while she mulled over what she would do. When the time came tomorrow for Chevias to head off to do his errand, she could either follow him, or continue onto town alone. The only reason she could think of to not go with him is that perhaps his errand might take longer than expected, and she’d have to stay an extra night Tyman. On the other hand, considering she wouldn’t be able to reach Tyman until late tomorrow, it would be unlikely that she’d be able to arrange a method home and get started on it tomorrow anyway. Plus, sticking with Chevias meant that she wouldn’t have to worry about bandits or food as much.

She glanced over at him and saw that he was almost done with the rabbit. His sharp teeth ripped through the meat with no resistance. She looked back down at her own rabbit. ‘Sure, he’s pretty strange, and a little scary. But he’s been nothing but kind to me. Really, he’s given me no reason to mistrust him…alright, I’ve decided.’

“Chevias?”

He looked up at her, “Yeah?”

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to stick together until we get to Flatrend.”

He smiled at her, “Sure, if you want.”

“Also, I want to thank you. You’ve been really kind to me.” Ellie giggled a little, “You know, I’ve never seen a witch before you, but I’ve heard all kinds of stories about them being unfriendly and cold, so I was pretty scared of you at first.”

Chevias blinked and slowly put down his skewer, which was mostly covered in bone and gristle now. “…Well, those stories wouldn’t be wrong.”

“Pardon?”

Chevias shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable, “Most witches never leave the mountains, and never see anybody except for other witches. So on the occasion they do come down, they usually don’t know how to interact with other races. And ever since they started sending people like me to do dirty work, the number of witches that roam has dropped even further.”

“But you’re so nice!”

“I’ve been doing this job and interacting with other races since I was twelve, so my social skills are more developed than the average witch.”

“I see…then what are other witches like?”

Chevias waved his hand, brushing off the question, “Not important. If you’re lucky, I’m the only one you’ll ever meet. And trust me; I could name a few that you wouldn’t want to run into.”

“Alright….” Ellie punctuated that with a yawn.

Chevias yawned in turn, “Yeah, I think it’s time to sleep. I’ll put out the fire, so go on.”

“Should one of us keep watch?”

“Nah. No one’s gonna bother us here. Just go to sleep, I’ll wake you up in the morning.”

“Ok, if you say so.” Ellie settled into a patch of ground, sorely wishing for her bed at home. “Goodnight Chevias.”

“Night Ellie.”

Ellie didn’t expect to fall asleep as quickly as she did, considering she was on the hard ground, miles from home, and six feet away from a practical stranger. But the day’s events weighed on her, and she was out in a matter of minutes. She had strange dreams of home, of her mother knitting quilts out of red dragon scales, and her brothers chasing a giant chicken. Then she dreamt of a tail swishing mockingly about in front of her, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t catch hold of it. Then she dreamt of blue lights and hands groping in darkness. If she dreamed anything after that, it was forgotten as soon as she woke.