Traveling Music

We continued on in a similar fashion the following day, only coming across a few monsters, all of which Leonard disposed of quite easily. It was almost as if he didn't need any of the rest of us there. Any road, we made it out of the Kogen Forest before nightfall, and found ourselves on the Great Road. We crossed straight over it, into the Elva forest, at Sir Knocks' direction.

"Why not follow the road, like any sane person would?" The dwarf groused.

"Because we need to get to the forest of peace as quickly as possible, and if we followed the road we would not reach it for another fortnight."

"Can we at least find horses?"

"We don't need them. Once we cross through the Elva forest we will be there."

The dwarf sighed, and stared at Sir Knocks with a petulant expression for a long time, but went along with the plan without anymore fuss.

Once again, as soon as it was too dark for the humans, we set up camp. We had a fire this night, and feasted on a rabbit Leonard Stone had caught. He was quite the hunter, one had to admit.

The rabbit eaten, and no one tired enough to sleep yet, we sat around in silence, not quite enjoying each other's presence, but not minding it either. Before long, Sir Knocks requested a song from me. I obliged, singing the Ballad of the Sky with Leonard Stone accompanying me with humming. The men smiled cheerily at me at the conclusion, but the dwarf just huffed and laid down to sleep. The rest of us soon followed suit, Leonard Stone taking the first watch.

I woke, long before the change of shift, with a start. I wasn't sure what had woken me, but stone noticed that I was awake. Through the gloom I could seem him smile at me.

"Sleep, dear one. It is not time for you to wake."

I followed his suggestion, not giving notice to the fact that he had his hunting knife laid across his lap.