The windows of the under-the-table inn that Ellie didn’t know the name of had no curtains, so she was awakened by sunlight streaking through the dirty panes. She sat up and stretched, groggy but refreshed compared to her night on the forest floor. She yawned as she stepped off the bed, only for the ground to shift under her feet, throwing her off balance and sending her back onto the bed.

“OW! Ellie, stop doing that! You stepped on my tail!”

“Sorry! It’s just that you’re so quiet when you sleep that I forgot you were there.”

Chevias sat up and rubbed at the spot on his tail that Ellie had trodden on, “Yeah, I’ve been told that. Try not to do that again. So-” He got up and sat on the edge of the bed, “How’d you sleep?”

Ellie smiled brightly, “Oh, I slept well.” In fact, she had slept so well that if almost made up for the fitful and achy nights of sleep she’d had since waking up the morning she disappeared.

“That’s good. You’re gonna need it, cause today we’re getting supplies ready for the next week. Come on, the Hayshams like to get up early, so breakfast is probably almost done.” Ellie didn’t even get time to run her fingers through her hair and collect her thoughts before Chevias dragged her out of bed and ushered her out the door.

They plodded down stairs to see that breakfast was just sliding into bowls. It was rice porridge, and the Hayshams were starting to tuck in. The family barely acknowledged them, aside from the mother slapping a serving in two extra bowls for them. This time, the father was sitting nearest to Ellie and Chevias while Mary looked huffy and picked at her food at the other end of the table. Apparently Mr.Haysham had put his foot down during last night’s dispute.

Ellie started to eat the porridge, for once glad about her lack of taste. For as much as she would like to be able to taste sweets or a pie, the look on Chevias’ face told her what she needed to know about the taste of this meal. Despite his obvious disgust, he choked down every last bite of it without complaint.

Ellie was still finishing hers up when there was a knock at the door. The Hayshams all stiffened and looked at each other in silence before the father stood and lumbered to the door.

He opened it and barked, “We don’t take customers till dark. Come back later.”

Ellie heard a woman’s voice from outside say, “I’m not a customer. I’m looking for a witch, and I heard this is a good place to find them. Are there any here?”

The man stood rigid for a moment before stepping aside, letting a cloaked figure inside. “Sure is, but what do you want with him?” She ignored the question and, seeming to be able to identify Chevias as a witch the instant she saw him, stalked over to him.

“You. Where are you heading next?”

Chevias narrowed his black eyes, “What’s it to you?”

“I need to get to Northwind. There’s rumors of a large band of goblins on the road past Flatrend, so I’m looking to travel with someone who can handle that.”

Chevias scoffed and took a sip of his water, “Then go find a mercenary. In any case, I don’t need another kid to babysit.”

Ellie shot a glare at him while the woman glanced at Ellie from beneath her hood.

“I already tried. They won’t escort me.”

“Why not?”

“….” The woman reached up and lifted her hood, revealing dark brown, kinky hair that framed a brown face. Her eyes were a nice shade of brown to, but the most noticeable feature were the long, pointed ears that stuck up and slightly out from her head for about three inches.

“Oh.” Chevias’ gaze flicked to the two gold piercings on the elf’s right ear and his face crumbled into utter distaste, “Oh.”

Ellie had thought Chevias’ reaction to the rice porridge had been a little funny, but to see him direct the same look at a person was frightening. He looked like he would’ve been more pleased if she had pulled back the hood to reveal of pillar of snakes.

The elf girl glared back at him, “I’m not happy about this either. If it wasn’t for the goblins I’d go by myself. But there aren’t any carts going down the road to Northwind right now because of the trouble, so this is my only option.”

Chevias swirled the water in his glass a bit before sighing, “…What can you do?”

“I’m a pretty good cook, even on the road.”

“That so?”

“I made it here all the way by myself, didn’t I?”

“Fair enough….” he paused, deep in thought before setting his glass down, “I’m heading to Northwind through Flatrend. You can come if you want, but buy your own provisions. I’ll be hunting rabbits for dinner, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Thank you.”

Chevias stood up, “Come on Ellie, let’s go.”

“Wait, were are you going?”

Chevias looked back at the elf, “We’re going to buy provisions. We’ll be back here later to spend the night then set out at morning. Come or don’t, I don’t care.”

He walked out without even checking to see if the elf was following him, and Ellie had to pick up her pace to keep up with him. Ellie glanced back to see that the elf was following, though at a bit of a distance.

Out of curiosity, Ellie fell back a bit to speak with her, “Hello, I’m Ellie. What’s your name?”

The elf lady looked at her a bit oddly, “…Afina.”

“It’s nice to meet you ma’am!” Elves were usually quite old despite young looks, and although Ellie rarely saw or spoke to them, she was aware that it was considered polite to address elves over fifty by ma’am.

Afina waved her hand, “No no, not ma’am. I’m only sixteen. Anyways, what are you doing with that witch? Do you know him?”

“His name is Chevias, and we ran into each other on the road a few days ago. I’m on my way to Flatrend and he offered to help me out until we get there.”

“That’s…nice…of him…I suppose.” Afina glanced to the witch in question before leaning in to whisper, “Has he been…well, he hasn’t done anything…strange, has he?”

Ellie shrugged, “I mean, he’s a witch, so he’s strange all the time.”

“No, I mean has he done anything strange to you?” Afina seemed to find this question very awkward, though Ellie couldn’t figure out why.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Afina straightened, looking quite relived, “Well, I guess he hasn’t then.”

“What do you-”

Ellie cut short as they almost ran into Chevias’ back, as he had stopped in the middle of the alley. Ellie looked around him to see that they had reached an opening into the main street of Tyman. Right now it was pretty sparsely populated because of the early hour, but Chevias was carefully scanning the area.

Ellie wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but it seems he didn’t find it. He told them (or rather, he told Ellie while blatantly ignoring Afina) to stay close to him and started off.

The first stop was a small shop that seemed to be a general goods store. As soon as the bell above the door jingled, the clerk turned to see what were probably his first customers for the day. It was a young looking guy, a teenager at most. The moment his eyes landed on Chevias he balked, “Y-you’re not welcome here!”

Chevias glared at him, “What?”

“I said your kind ain’t welcome here!” The clerk reached under the counter, fumbling before finding and brandishing a heavy looking club, “Now turn your tail around and go someplace else!”

“Excuse you?!” Chevias stormed up to the counter and slapped his hand down. “I happen to be a paying customer! And who are you? Where’s Al?”

“M-my uncle passed away two months ago a-a-and I inherited his shop.” Now that Chevias was up in his face with teeth bared, the clerk looked like he was about to pass out from terror. He didn’t have the strength to hold the club up anymore, much less take a swing, “What do you want anyway?! You knew Uncle Al?”

“Whenever I’m in town I shop here. I’m sorry to hear he passed, but surely he taught you not to turn away customers for no reason.”

The clerk stepped back, setting the club against the wall behind him and rubbing at his elbow, “S-sorry Sir. It’s just that there’ve been a bunch of witches in town lately and it’s got everyone on edge.”

Chevias seemed to jump at this information, “Really? They were causing trouble?”

“No, they weren’t causing any trouble, they were just…around. They wouldn’t talk to anybody or go in any shops. It seemed like they were up to something and it’s really been scaring people. S-so when you came in, I thought something was wrong….”

“Hmmm…I can imagine.” Chevias looked perplexed, but seemed to shake it off for the moment, “Anyways, are we good? Can I buy some stuff now?”

The clerk frantically gestured to the shelves on the other side of the shop, “Yes, of course! So sorry about that Sir, please take your time!”

“Hmph, right.” Still looking miffed at the rude treatment, Chevias strode over to the shelves and Ellie followed in confusion, “What was that about?”

“Not sure, but I intend to find out.” Chevias said no more about it and instead focused on stocking up for the trip.

Chevias picked up a tinderbox, a pack of matches, and an extra water skin for Ellie. Afina seemed to have all these things, so she mostly stood in the corner uncomfortably and waited for them to finish while the clerk nervously switched his gaze back and forth from Chevias and Ellie to Afina.

While browsing the shelves, Chevias turned to Ellie, “Hey, remember when you said you could knit and stuff like that?”

“Yes?”

“So, hypothetically speaking, could you say…stitch up a wound?”

“WHAT?!”

“Hypothetically, I’m not saying you’ll have to! I’m just asking that if, in case of emergency you needed to, you have the skills to do so.”

“I…I suppose if I had to…what exactly are you expecting to happen?” The very idea made Ellie feel ill. Killing and cleaning a chicken was one thing, but stitching up an open wound in another person, or even herself? She didn’t want to think about it.

“Great! I’ll get you a sewing kit to. And I’m just doing what I always do; preparing for the worst. Look, see. I’ve got my own.” He pulled it out of his bag to show it to her, which eased her fears slightly. Even if someone did get hurt enough to require stitches, it was more likely that Chevias would be able to do it. So he picked up the sewing kit along with a little medical kit.

He also grabbed her a bag to carry all this stuff in, and things to replenish his own supplies. Once he had picked all this out he carried over to counter and set it down, “How much?”

“T-twenty.”

“…Are you sure?”

The clerk nodded, “Yes! I’m cutting the price as an apology for my behavior. I’m sure Uncle Al would’ve cleaned my clock if he’d seen me treat one of his customers like that. So please, just twenty is fine.”

“If you insist….” Chevias dug out the money, plopped it in the clerk’s hand (who nearly shrieked at the tacky blood on the coins), and stuffed the bag he’d bought with most of the items before handing it to Ellie. “Here. Try not to lose, ok?”

Ellie nodded and wrung the strap as Chevias buried the rest of his purchase in his own bag before following him to the door where Afina rejoined them.

When they finally left the general goods store and came back onto the main road, they found that it was busier than when they went in. Chevias scanned the crowd before he ducked his head. His tail reached up to wrap around his waist and, after several loops, it hooked over itself and Chevias pulled his belt over it. “Come on. The faster this is done, the better.”

Even as they walked down the street to the next stop, the road seemed to fill up. Despite the crowd, sticking close to Chevias proved easy on account of the fact that everyone on the street was keeping at least five feet away from him if they could help it. Despite the fact that Chevias had covered up his tail and his teeth weren’t visible, his paint-white skin and inky black eyes were a dead giveaway that he was a witch. While most of the younger people looked at Chevias with caution and curiosity, it seemed to Ellie that the older the onlookers were, the more hostile their gaze to Chevias was.

They ended up walking to the other side of town for the next stop, and Tyman was a big city. Ellie’s memories of her one trip to Tyman were hazy, so it was really a shock at how big it was. It had taken them awhile to get to the general goods store, and it took far longer to get to the second stop. Then again, it might not have taken two hours had Chevias not kept stopping to look over the crowd carefully every few meters.

The next stop turned out to be a bakery. The woman at the counter had an up do that looked like it was about to topple over and her reaction to Chevias was more surprised than hostile.

“Oh! So one of you finally got hungry, huh?”

“I’m not-”

“So you witches can speak! Well don’t just stand there, come on in. You know, I really was starting to think you witches were all mutes that didn’t need food.”

“Am I the first one to come in here?”

“Since I started working here. Oh, you’ve got little friends!” The woman turned to Ellie and smiled nicely, “Hey there sweetie.” Then to Afina, “I love your purse. Anyway, what can I do for ya?”

“Four loaves of bread and a few bars of chocolate, if you have them.”

Afina chirped up, “And another two loaves for me!”

“I’m afraid some deliveries got here awfully late, so we’re late on getting the loaves ready. The first batches of bread will be done in…LARRY! HOW LONG TILL THAT FIRST BATCH IS DONE?!”

A man’s voice came booming from the back room, “ABOUT THREE AND A HALF HOURS!”

The woman turned back to them, “About three and a half hours. Sit down and make yourselves comfy if you wanna wait, or come back later.”

Chevias tapped his foot a bit, looking a very irritated, “…It’s fine, we’ll wait. Not much else to do today. Come on.” He turned and sat down at one of the tables and chairs that littered the sides of the shop. Ellie joined him as Afina stood awkwardly. Chevias snipped at her, “You gonna stand there the whole time?”

“No!” She awkwardly sank down into a chair near Ellie.

There were a few minutes of awkward silence before the lady at the counter left her post to pull up a chair next to Chevias. She leaned in, “So? Can you tell me what’s been going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know! Why have ya’ll suddenly been hanging around in droves?”

“…Were there really that many of us?”

“I saw lots just yesterday.” She paused, “…Though come to think of it, I haven’t seen any today. Did something happen?”

“…I guess something must’ve….” Chevias had that deeply troubled look on his face again.

“What, did nobody give you the memo?”

“Whatever those witches were doing here, I had nothing to do with it. I’m just doing my job.”

The woman looked disappointed, “Oh…well, I’ll let ya’ll know when your order’s ready.” She went back to her post a little halfheartedly.

Chevias immediately turned to Afina, making her flinch. “Have you seen any other witches while we were out?”

She shook her head, uncomfortable with his intense gaze. At her answer, he settled back into a trance-like state, chewing over something.