A night in the woods

 Art by Alas de Metal

We’ve been walking in circles for three days, and I’m not sure of the reason. I only know that, instead of heading to Denerim, my knight in shining armor insists on taking always the turn to the right when we arrive to the first junction, and after a couple of detours after, we are again close to the forests around the Merry Mabari inn.

I stop him and ask him for a pause.

“Do you want to go back to the inn to spend the night there, or do you prefer to camp somewhere tonight?” I ask him, a bit confused.

He looks at me, and I think I see a bead of sweat over his forehead.

“Ah… let’s find a clearing and camp here… yes. Tomorrow we’ll continue our way to Denerim”

I nod, and start helping him to prepare a campfire in a nearby plain. While I light up a fire, he disappears in the forest, and after a long, long time, darkness already fallen and probably guided by the fire light, he comes back again with a rabbit for dinner. He sits without a word and starts skinning it.

I’m starting to suspect something.

“Is it possible that our noises scared the rabbits away and you took so long to find one?” I ask innocently. He rubs his good eye, hand red with the rabbit’s blood.

“Ah… yes… yes, that is” he says. And focuses again on the rabbit. I move closer by his side and smile.

“I think you can stop doing that… there’s no hair left in that body” I giggle. I offer him a stick to put the meat in and he starts preparing the rabbit to roast it over the fire. I move even closer again, until my arm touches his side, and say absently, looking at the fire. “Luckily you could see the fire to come back, eh?”

He nods again, focused on the rabbit, and suddenly looks at me, alarm in his green eye. “What?”

I smile, knowing I caught him. “Ah, don’t be so surprised! We’ve been lost all this time, weren’t we? I’ve seen we got walking in circles, and though at first I thought that was a trick not to arrive to Denerim, now I know you really have no sense of direction, am I wrong?”

He bites his lips, getting red like a tomato.

“I’m… sorry. Usually… my falcon Tim guides me… but I sent him to deliver a message and he’s not back yet…. Maybe you should lead the way tomorrow”

I watch the rabbit’s meat getting golden on the fire and I nod. Then I turn back to look at him.

What did possess me to want to run away with this man? Apart from a terribly romantic sad love story he could perfectly have made up, I know almost nothing about him. All right, he has always been sweet, and loving, and caring… the only one who has given a shit about me during all the time I was in that damn tavern. But… is that a reason to run after him the way I did?

He’s looking at the fire, which gleams in his only eye like a beacon, and I must admit there’s something more. I can feel it in my heart. I know I liked him from the very beginning. Not the way I liked Mihitu, of course, but… I always knew he was a good person. And… I look at his profile, the light of the fire still dancing in it, and I smile. He really is good looking, nobody can deny that. I move a hand, and hesitantly put it over his. Without thinking, he stretches it.

He likes me. That is sure. Maybe… maybe he doesn’t love me, not the way Alindra was loved by her soldier… not the way he loved his Lindy… but he will protect me… he will give me warmth and company… What else can I ask for? Weren’t I ready to sell my body in Denerim for a life? This deal is much better, because he’s not an unknown person… he’s someone I like too. I smile.

He releases my hand. “Dinner is ready” he says, and takes the rabbit from the fire. I feel my mouth drool… such a simple meal, and it smells delicious. We eat in silence, but it is not uncomfortable. I already know he’s not the talkative type, so… I will get information from him when he’s ready to. I’m not in a hurry.

The rabbit tastes as awesome as it smelled, and I wonder if it was so because I was hungry, because I had never tasted fresh rabbit like that, or because Kyle is a good cook. I hope it is the last. It would be great news for both of us, because I’ve been too worried all my life to get a loaf of bread to learn how to cook properly… and someone in the couple has to be able to do it if we don’t want to starve.

After dinner, I take my bedroll from my backpack and look at him. The night is warm, and I don’t think we have to mount a tent, so I start to place the bedroll by his side. He continues sitting, watching the fire, and I wonder what’s so interesting in it, but I say nothing either. I just snuggle under the blankets and move my head until it rest in his thigh.

“You’re my pillow” I tease. He smiles tenderly, and reaches down to kiss my forehead, then strokes my hair. I feel melting inside… I could spend my life like this. He’s so sweet!

“You won’t sleep?” I finally ask him. He shakes his head.

“Someone has to watch”

“So you won’t hug me until I fall asleep?” I tease, knowing this will make him blush, and I enjoy the consequences. He just shakes his head, and strokes my cheek as only answer. I grab his hand and kiss it softly. “All right, but wake me up to watch when you’re tired” I ask him.

We’re not having the usual time together couples have… but I suppose it is too soon… both for me and for him. And I like the warm of his hand against my cheek, and the soft pillow his leg provides me. I could get used to this, I think, while slowly I feel my eyelids heavier, and sleep comfy in his arms.

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Spending all the night without dozing was almost an impossible task, but Kyle was used to wander alone in the woods and he had a sixth sense, or at least a very acute hearing, so he could sense the figure approaching to him before it could harm him, or the defenceless elf sleeping on his lap.

“Oh… hello… Here you are… You plan to murder someone?”, Kyle opened his eye and smiled friendly to the elf standing in front of him. “Probably you mistook me by someone else you’re hunting, didn’t you?”

The elf shook his head, his sword ready to fight. “No mistake.” The voice had a weak Orlesian accent. So his past was reaching him. Even here. After all these years.

Kyle’s face darkened. “How lucky I am…”.

He softly deposited the girl’s head on the ground, being careful not to wake her up, and stepped towards the elf. “Not here. I don’t want to disturb her”

The elf chuckled, a naughty laughter. “So she won’t run away while I finish you? It’s perfect. She won’t know what got her until it is too late”

“You’re wrong” Kyle said with a voice which froze the elf’s laughter. “She won’t know what happened because you’ll be dead before you even think of touching her”.

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The sun is not yet in the sky when I wake up. I frown, a bit confused, and soon I realize where I am. My head is no longer over his lap, as it was to be expected, but he’s nowhere to be found, and suddenly I get up a bit scared. What if he’s gone and lost again?

I rub my eyes and shake my head trying to become completely awaken, and with a clearer mind, I realize there are fighting sounds coming from the forest. Those are probably which woke me up, I think. I shake my ears and as soon as I can tell where the sounds come from, I run between the trees, taking care not to be seen. I may be a city rat, but stealth is handy also in the wilderness.

The fight sounds have already ended when I find a body on the ground. I blink, confused, and crouch to check that he is, actually, dead. An elf. Nobody I know. A sword fallen by his side, stains of blood everywhere. Suddenly I feel worried. Where’s Kyle?

 

“Greetings, mylady!” I hear behind me, and I jump, shocked, before realizing it is him. He’s waving a bandaged hand towards me, and smiling as if nothing had happened. I feel confused.

“What has happened here? Who was this elf?” I ask

He continues smiling. “A bandit. But you’re safe now”, he adds, leaning over the corpse and looting it. “Now, I’m hungry! Let’s have breakfast?”

“Are you sure he wasn’t alone?” I insist, pointing at the corpse. “I… don’t want to be stabbed in the back while we have breakfast”

There’s something wrong, I know it, in the way he smiles, and in the way he’s trying to keep me away for the dead elf, but the corpse won’t talk… and it’s no use to stay around it. “All right” I concede, walking after a more-than-eager-to-be-away-from-there Kyle. “Let’s go back before someone steals the remaining of yesterday’s rabbit”. I smirk, drooling at the idea of that crusty meat. “Do you think that thug you killed was there to keep us away from the food?”

“I hope not” he smiles, and this time his smile doesn’t seem fake, so I feel much better too. I smile back at him.

“I think we should go back to The Merry Mabari. It’s closer, and… well, I don’t really have a reason to go to Denerim now that you’re with me. What do you think?”

He nods, as if he was relieved, and I sigh. I’m not sure anymore if I really intended to work at the Pearl, but even if he just wants to be a friend or even a companion, it’s out of question that I’m not doing that now. Maybe we can continue doing some quests for money, and then, time and the Maker will tell.

We have already arrived to the campsite, and everything seems untouched, but it will still pay to be careful, I think while I look around. When I’m sure there’s no danger, I turn again to him.

“Did he hurt you?” I say pointing at his bandaged hand. He shakes his head.

“Nothing severe”

“Next time wake me up” I say. “You shouldn’t stay all the night awaken! I can fight. I can help you”

He suddenly stares at me in a manner I can’t just describe, but that sinks into my heart like a knife. Then he hugs me against his chest, so tight I can’t hardly breathe.

“I will never, never let anybody harm you”, he whispers, and I decide I don’t care about the bandits and the questions without answer and whatever. I raise my hands, and hug him back, lost in his embrace, enjoying his human scent.

“I know” I just reply. And I now I know that it doesn’t matter where we’re heading on - back to Denerim, or to the Merry Mabari.

I made the right choice.

And the right choice is being by his side.