When the sun began to rise the next morning, Julian found himself in a place he had no memory of. In front of him he saw a sleeping blonde boy sprawled across the ground, and to his left was Oliver. The pain and blood which he remembered from last night didn’t seem to be present, in him or Oliver. He wondered if the sleeping boy was to thank.

He groaned loudly as he pushed himself up onto his feet, using the tree behind him as support. The noise stirred Oliver ever so slightly, but he remained asleep, as did Jos.

‘Oliver,’ Julian said, which finally caused the other boy to wake. He looked up to Julian from his position on the floor, and was quickly up on his feet, ignoring the obvious protest from his body.

‘What are you doing...? You idiot.’ He practically forced Julian back onto the floor, ‘Your wound. You shouldn’t be standing.’

‘I’m fine.’ Julian said with a roll of his eyes, secretly glad that he was no longer on his feet. His pain was gone, but his head was still heavy. ‘My wound, it’s not bad.’

‘That guy stabbed you through the chest you nutter!’ Oliver practically shouted, then lifting up Julian’s shirt. To his surprise, the injury had been mostly healed and nicely wrapped in bandage. He looked over his shoulder at Jos, who was still sleeping through the noise. ‘That guy… It must be magic.’

It seemed the mention of magic was a prompt for Jos to finally wake up. They cracked their eyes open slightly, and propped themselves up with their hands. Jos carefully examined Oliver and Julian with slightly wary eyes, before shrugging to themselves.

‘Good morning you two,’ they got to their feet at last, brushing off the dirt which had accumulated on their clothes overnight. ‘Glad to see that you aren’t dead, and I don’t appear to be dead either, that’s a plus… Would you like breakfast? You must be starving.’

Julian and Oliver were obviously wary of the stranger, Oliver more so. They had just almost been killed, so it wasn’t unnatural. What they found unnatural was Jos’ willingness to help. Julian brushed this off quickly, but Oliver seemed to dwell on the thought for a moment longer. He cleared his throat slightly, his mouth dry from the lack of water.

‘Who are you?’

‘Hmm? Oh, I’m Jos.’ they snapped their fingers, and suddenly the burnt out campfire was alight again

‘I’m Julian. This is Oliver.’ Julian smiled, despite how uncomfortable, and confused, he was. ‘What happened? How did we end up here?’

‘You guys stumbled into the camp in the middle of the night. You had a really bad stab wound in your stomach. And grumpy here was injured too. I healed you both with a bit of my magic, then ta-da! You’re alive.’

‘Well, thank you for that.’ He chuckled and looked over to Oliver, who was frowning. He didn’t trust Jos one bit, and was annoyed at Julian’s frivolity. However, Julian ignored him completely and continued his conversation with the sorcerer. ‘And I’ll take that breakfast, if that’s alright. Oliver will too.’

‘No I won’t.’ He rolled his eyes at how naïve Julian was. ‘I don’t feel like getting poisoned today, but thanks.’ He declined ‘politely’ which Jos responded with a shrug.

‘Your loss.’ They smiled and dropped a handful of nuts into Julian’s now open palm. ‘So, where you guys heading?’

Julian and Oliver shared a wary look, they both didn’t feel like disclosing the answer, even though it wasn’t particularly personal or direct.

‘We’re just travellers.’ Julian responded curtly as he slowly ate the berries with obvious discomfort. ‘We have no particular end goal…’

It might have been more convincing if they had known where they were. However both Julian and Oliver were too stubborn to ask for help, especially from what they deemed as some sort of magic rogue. Oliver in particular found the thought that Jos could be more informed than him unbearable. Fortunately for them, Jos could pick up on their unease and with a certain informality offered them both a deal.

‘I’ll take you to the nearest village, if you pay me a few silver.’ Before they even saw their responses, Jos knew they wouldn’t turn them down, and with yet another click of their fingers, the campfire was left in ashes. Jos was already getting their items ready for the reasonably short journey which they would be embarking on.

Oliver rolled his eyes yet again at Jos’ presumptuous nature. ‘How do you know if we’re going to say yes?’

‘Well, are you going to say no?’ The smirk was evident in their voice, even though their back was turned to him.

Oliver let out an incoherent mumble, which resembled something rude. However, Julian also got to his feet, more prepared to make the deal. ‘Let’s go. If you don’t want his assistance Oliver, you can stay behind.’

Jos let out a short and loud laugh at Julian’s remark, and at Oliver’s reaction. He begrudgingly agreed to put up with Jos, but only until they got to civilisation. He had sworn to protect Julian, and it was times like these where he began regretting that oath due to Julian’s care free behaviour. Muttering a quick fine under his breath, he tried to ignore Jos’ triumphant smile.

‘Come on you slow pokes. Don’t fall behind,’ Jos chuckled lightly, already heading off to the nearest town.