I look towards Elyana as she half-grumbles a bit. I know she is a bit sad but I’m happy about it. I couldn’t stand that guy Stan. Better for them to leave us instead of following his stupid lead. Plus, we don’t need anyone else. We have each other. Always have.
We trudge through the forest back towards the village, five members shorter than an hour earlier. I mean, we were never really a part of Stan’s stupid team, but I know Elyana wants to form a proper team and she thought that could have been it. Thank the gods it wasn’t. I’m happy as I skip and hop forwards, humming a nice tune. It’s nice to be only the two of us again. Who knows, we might even find that silverback ourselves before that stupid boy and his stupid friends do.
As if summoned by my thoughts, we hear a sound rather far off in the distance. I turn to look at Elyana and she looks back at me with wide eyes. I linger to look at her beautiful green eyes for a moment longer than I probably should. She is rather small with brown hair and the cutest face. I smirk as I read her thoughts.
“We don’t have to hurry.” I tell her and she looks conflicted. She is too good for her own good. That’s why I have to take care of her.
I follow her as she accelerates, but because she is a head shorter than me, and I’m just average height, her speed is not that fast. I casually skip behind her to keep up and she sneaks an accusing glare at me. I hold up my hands.
“I’m just keeping up with your speed here.” I defend myself.
“I know, but you could also go and scout it out?” She tells me, half pleading, knowing I probably won’t. No way I’m leaving her in this unknown forest all by herself. She seems to read my mind however.
“I’ll be right behind you. I’m not made of glass Lyon.” She rolls her eyes at me. But you are to me Elyana, I think to myself but keep my mouth shut.
She glances back at me one more time and silently pressures me. I feign not seeing her look at me and look around at everything except her. Nope, not doing it! Plus, I suspect it’s Stan and I do not want to help that moron out. I bet he only took us with him because he thought we were cute or something. Stuuupid.
We continue to walk towards the source of the sound even though whatever happened seems to be over by now. We are close to the cliff overseeing the forest towards the village and I luckily spot stan and his stupid team between two trees in the distance. If they are going back, they probably got the silverback. That doesn’t make me happy, but I did expect it I guess.
Elyana stops and I almost run into her. She hides behind a bush and points towards someone resting beneath a tree, only the boy looks like he just came from a battlefield. Who the hell is that? He has blood all over him and I see that he sloppily bandaged his wounds. Is he even alive? Elyana leans forwards to see better and falls forwards in the bush, making a ruckus.
The boy turns and looks in our direction and Elyana hurries to her feet. She is clearly embarrassed about it as she shily moves towards him.
“Hello.” She greets the boy who doesn’t move much. He seems more than tired.
“Thank the gods, I thought you were monsters for a moment.” He sighs in relief and I walk out behind my favorite person and wave while staying behind her.
“What happened?” Elyana asks him as she approaches.
“I fought a silverback wolf.” He explains with a proud smile.
“By yourself?!” I can’t help but ask.
“Uh, yeah.” He scratches his head as he lowers it.
“You’re lucky to be alive.” Elyana crouches in front of him before asking if she can heal him. He nods and her hands glow green as she casts [Regrowth] on him. His face regains some color and he already seems less tired as he looks at us one at a time. Then he registers her first words and he looks glum all of a sudden.
“Sadly it wasn’t luck. I… I was fighting it and winning when someone actually stole the kill.” He says and the last part is a whisper.
“Stan?” I can’t help but scoff.
“Yeah? How’d you know?” He looks surprised as he turns to me.
“Well, we met him and his team in the village and decided to go with them to kill the silverback, we are only two you see.” I start but grimace at the next part.
“But he couldn’t stop drooling all over Elyana and trying to impress her or something. He was being all creepy and weird.” I shudder at the memory. Our eyes meet and I see the same disgust reflected in his eyes as I talk about that hateful spawn of demons.
“Yeah, Stan is the worst.” He confirms. Huh, I don’t usually like new people but he might just be alright. Strong too if he fought a silverback by himself.
“I’m Lyon by the way.” I tell him.
“And the novice druid is Elyana.” I add as I point to my cute best friend.
“Nice to meet you.” My friends tell him with a shy smile, so cute!
“Nice to meet you too. I’m Blaine.” He smiles up at us and tries to stand but clearly stops himself as he winces.
“You should rest a bit longer.” Elyana tells him and he nods, sitting back down.
Elyana takes a seat towards him and I sit myself down by her side. Of course she can’t just leave him out here, generous and gentle as she is, so we sit down. Blaine seems rather surprised and looks a bit confused.
“Uh, what are you doing?” He asks like it isn’t obvious.
“We’ll wait with you until you’ve recovered enough to go back?” Elyana tells him, unsure why she has to say this out loud. His eyes go wide as he realizes what should have been obvious and his face practically transforms into a tomato. He scratches his head and doesn’t look at us properly before he finally manages to say something.
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“Well, thank you very much.” He starts before continuing.
“You know you don’t have to, I’ll be ready to go soon on my own anyway, really. You don’t have to wait here with me.” He looks embarrassed. I don’t have to look at Elyana to know that she is looking determined as she speaks.
“Of course we’ll stay and make sure nothing happens to you.” She tells him, like she would ever abandon someone in need.
“Plus, if it’s as fast as you claim, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?” I smirk at him.
“I don’t want to impose…” He says, barely audible.
“How do you know Stan anyway?” I change the subject.
He hesitantly starts to tell us how he started out as an adventurer and how Stan would bully him at every opportunity he got and our shared hatred of the guy really helps us get going in our conversation. Before I know it we are all laughing together and telling him about our experience with the guy and that we are also adventurers. Of course me and Elyana don’t tell him any of the more sensitive subjects, but an hour soon passes us by without any of us noticing.
“How are you feeling now?” Elyana asks him as the conversation finally slows down. He moves a bit, tests his body and looks a lot better than earlier. The spell [Regrowth] takes a while to take effect, contrary to more ‘standard’ healing spells, whatever that means.
“Good enough to go back.” He smiles at us. Blaine slowly gets to his feet and I notice he is about my height, so average, but I fear he might grow still. He sneaks a glance at us and hesitates.
“Well, out with it.” I grin at him. Why is he being all shy now? He should feel comfortable with us now shouldn’t he? He wasn’t shy when we talked about stan at least.
“Uh, I don’t know how to say this.” He scratches his head again as he starts looking at his feet a bit.
“Then don’t start? Just say it?” I tell him sarcastically with a smile.
“Alright. Here goes.” He says as his face shifts to a more serious one. It almost makes me nervous that he is nervous about telling us something. What’s it going to be? Is he a wanted criminal trying to start anew as an adventurer or something crazy? He puts my wild theories to rest as he finally opens his mouth to speak.
“Do you want to team up?” He asks, hopeful. I miss a step as it takes me off guard. He got that worked up to ask us that? I can’t help myself and start to giggle. He turns to me and frowns, clearly unhappy about me laughing.
“No, it’s just.” I barely get out as I start laughing harder. It’s his face! It’s making it even funnier as he looks at me uncomprehending and clearly a bit upset. Maybe this is why Stan bullies him, he looks like fun to tease. I slowly force myself to stop laughing as I take deep breaths and I stop. I spot Elyana trying to hide a smile of her own. I look at her and she seems to agree with me, so I speak up.
“Sorry, it’s just you got so worked up about it! I thought you were going to tell us something crazy.” I giggle a bit before turning back to him with a huge smile.
“Of course we’d be happy to team up.” I tell him and he is visibly relieved and smiles back at me.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that Stan always makes fun of me… I thought for a second you were too.” He fidgets, embarrassed.
“I would never dare to make fun of you.” I tell him sarcastically and he smiles gently in response. Elyana seems very pleased and amused but is a bit too shy to really participate. We continue to walk in comfortable silence for a while until he breaks it with a question.
“How do you know each other by the way? I never asked.” He looks at me and I turn to Elyana.
“We are childhood friends.” I smile fondly at her as I say it. It seems to say it all and so little at the same time, but it doesn’t matter. She looks at me and I know she understands all that it means to me and her both. I notice Blaine looks a lot more somber at that and the words slip out before I can think about it.
“What’s wrong?” He turns to look at me at the question and I see something I have only seen in people that are usually old and full of regrets.
“It’s nothing.” He tries to avoid the question. It doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about it but it really makes me curious. I’ll respect his privacy… for now. I can truly be nice sometimes.
We soon get out of the forest and back in the village. He told us earlier that he is aiming to become a low silver rank. From what he told us, he obviously has what it takes if he took down that wolf all by himself. But we might still advance to silver as a team, even if me and Elyana might be considered high bronze for a bit longer.
We decide to wait for a night as the sun is getting rather low on the horizon before going back to the capital. With a bit of luck we’ll get a merchant caravan to join. This close to the capital there are fairly many and we don’t even have to wait until morning as we meet one in the small inn that evening.
It doesn’t take us long to get back and we chat most of the way. Elyana, shy as she is, starts to participate more and we learn more about each other. The only thing he doesn’t seem to be willing to share is talking about his village or his family and friends. It’s a bit strange but it’s clear that it’s a sensitive subject for him.
What we do not agree on however is a team name, and he has a terrible naming sense! Who comes up with Radiant Heroes? I would be terribly embarrassed to call my team anything with heroes in it… It takes some time but we do finally decide to settle on Wolf’s Silver to honor the wolf that brought us all together.
That is also when we learn something else.
“I have a fourth member I’d like to invite too.” He confesses to us a bit after we settled on a name. I raise a brow at that. Blaine has friends?
“Her name is Sarah.” He says and I can’t help but raise my eyebrows higher. A real woman's boy this Blaine. Doesn’t he have any male friends or what? Trying to create a Harem much? Good luck with that, Elyana is the only one in my heart anyway. Still, I’m curious and so is my best friend.
“And who is this Sarah?” She asks him and I can see a mix of emotions fighting it out on his face.
“Where do I even start…” He pauses and ponders for a bit before giving up and just explaining as best he can.
“She is an assassin that operates in the capital. I saved her life… I think. The only issue is that I don’t know where to find her.” He scratches his head as he looks at us. That sounds… complicated.
“How long have you known her?” I can’t help but ask.
“Uh, a night?” He supplies the answer. Elyana goes beet red at the implications and I can’t help but grin at him. Sly dog! I did not expect that from him!
“No! Not like that!” He yells as if to stop our imaginations. I can’t help but want to tease him and open my mouth.
“Even in the day?” I act shocked as I look at him. He stops and looks at me all serious.
“Really?” He says in a deadpan voice and I relent, smiling at him.
“Fine fine. What do you know about her?” I sigh. Sounds like it might be a pain to find this girl.
“What does she look like?” Elyana asks him and he looks even more embarrassed now. No. Don’t tell me he doesn’t even-
“I never got to see her face.” He tells us while studying his feet like they are suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. I can’t help but facepalm at that. This guy! We try to extract more information from him as we are closing in on the capital and learn precious few things. She has a nice voice and her name is Sarah. He hasn’t really looked for her as he was too busy training and honestly didn’t feel like he was strong enough to dare, whatever that means. Sounds strange to me but I’m not a boy and that sounded like boy logic to me. Still, we tell him we could as well try.
A few hours later we pass through the gates to the capital and make our way to the adventurers guild. Now we just need to find an assassin that is medium height and has a nice voice named Sarah.
How hard could it be?