One week has gone by since the incident in Umbradium. Atear has acclimated to his new role. His days begin with him going out to gather ingredients in the forest, while looking for any signs of the intruder that had broken into their home.

While it took two days to fix the damaged wall, business has never been greater for Tyra and the others. With everything sort of falling into place, things were looking up.

Right now, Tyra was up to her ears with customers at the register, meanwhile, Aramin was busy chatting up the customers that were still unsure about what to purchase.

“Of course, we have potions of bravery in stock! Oh, you want something to help keep you healthy? O- Oh, okay, you’re wanting something to keep you focused?” Aramin’s head was spinning trying to keep up with the customers' requests and questions.

It had been so long since they were this busy that the poor demon was well out of practice. He admired how easily Tyra had adapted to the labor.

“I’ve gotta put in my best work if I don’t want to fall behind.” Aramin reassured himself before being called out to by another customer, who he hurriedly ran off to.

~ Soon after ~

The duo had just finished tidying up the floor of the store, their bodies weary from such a busy day.

“Gotta say, I could get used to this. It’s nice having all these people around.” Aramin beamed.

“Keep that attitude up and I might just have to give you a raise.” Tyra teased.

“Pfft, yeah, you don’t even pay me.” Aramin said through a laugh.

“Hmm? Then how about I give you your locked door privileges back?” She said slyly.

“Wait, when did I lose them?” Aramin asked, shocked by the revelation.

Tyra stepped along the floor, pushing some merchandise back into its proper spot. “For real though, good work today.”

“No seriously… When did I lose that.” He asked, still being ignored.

“I know I haven’t been super positive these past couple months, but I think things are really going to start going our way.” Her smile brightened up the room, making Aramin forget all about her previous comment.

“Oh, when’s Atear getting back? I know he stays out late, but he seems to spend more time out each new day.” Aramin questioned, tapping his foot against the floor.

“Worried about your new bestie?” Tyra teased the demon.

“No! Maybe a little… And he’s not my bestie.” Aramin said to the side. His face was stained with a red blush.

“Ah then that must mean I’m your bestie?” Tyra asked, even if she already knew the answer.

“Well yeah… I’ve known you the longest, plus you’ve done so much for me.” He tapered off.

“Hm, hey Aramin?” Tyra stepped closer to the demon.

“Y- Yeah?” Her proximity worried the demon. Although she was much smaller than him, when she wanted to, she could be quite imposing.

“I don’t want you fighting anymore, okay?” Once she was finished speaking to him she made her way over to some glass jars that needed to be dusted.

Aramin, still stunned by what she had said, stood completely still.

Tyra dusted the jars, but she had trouble reaching up to the top shelf, even when she boosted herself up with the tips of her toes. “Mind giving me a hand?” Tyra called out to her friend.

“You can’t be serious!” Aramin lashed out.

“Huh? Do you hate dusting that much?” She asked back.

“No, it’s not that!” He tried to find the right words, he couldn’t let himself be misinterpreted.

“Then what?” She got back to her feet and leaned against the shelf, waiting for Aramin’s response.

“You told me that I need to be the muscle if need be, right? How can I do that if you’re telling me not to fight?” He stumbled over his words, closing some of the gap between him and Tyra.

“Right, if need be. The need is no longer there, so there’s no reason to worry about it anymore.” She shrugged.

“Why not? What changed? Please, tell me.” He pleaded with his friend.

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She huffed, meeting his eyes for the first time this conversation. “There’s three reasons.” She held three fingers up.

“Okay, what are they?” He was scared of what her reasoning would be, but he needed to know. He wouldn’t be satisfied until this was cleared up.

“For starters, you lost to Atear.” She lowered one finger.

“That’s not fair, I let him wi-”

“Let me finish.” She said, cutting him off. “Next, you said it yourself, your body is that of a killer’s, I can’t risk you losing control and bringing us unwanted attention.”

Aramin couldn't argue with her reasoning, but it didn’t make her assertion sting any less.

“Finally, we have Atear now. And while he’s killed people, he doesn’t seem to have a problem controlling himself in a fight. If I need muscle I’ll use him, besides, he’s much more discreet Mr. Flame Pillar.” She walked up to Aramin and booped his nose.

Before she walked off she made him look at her. “Don’t take it personally okay? I’m doing this for your own good. So that means if someone is giving you a hard time, no roughing them up, you get out of there as quick as you can.” She had to adjust his face to keep him from looking away.

“Promise me, okay?” She held out her pinky.

He stared at it for only a moment before weakly wrapping his own around hers. “Promise…” He said, defeated.

“Alright then, glad we got that settled.” She placed her fists on her hips.

“Right… Settled.” He said, sulking to himself.

“Ughhhh, I can’t have you sulking on me. So, I should inform you that we did indeed sell over 100 products while we were in town last week.” Tyra cocked her hip to the side. “Which means you sir, are now allowed to have one day to yourself to go and do whatever you want.”

Aramin’s face lit up. “Really? You’ll let me have a day off?” His now lifted, their previous conversation began to slip from his mind.

“Uh huh, we’ll make tomorrow your day off, so every week after that, feel free to go and do what you want.” She nodded her head to emphasize her words.

Ring Ding

The door to the shop had opened, and in came Atear. “Geez, what a rough day.” He said, stretching out his shoulder.

“Welcome back.” Aramin and Tyra said, waving to their friend.

“Hey guys, I brought back quite the haul.” Atear untied the pouch he had at his belt, showing off the many items he had obtained.

Tyra swiftly grabbed the pouch and began giggling to herself. “Look at all this! Gingerroot, Talis Leaves, Perennial Caps, oh there’s just so much!” Tyra continued to fangirl over the items.

Aramin turned to Atear. “I’m guessing you had no luck finding that girl, huh?”

Shaking his head, he had a frustrated look on his face. “No, wherever she went, I have a feeling she isn’t in the forest anymore.”

“That so?” Aramin found himself still thinking about the girl that had broken into their home. “Why did she do it? And why was there only food missing?” He thought to himself.

“You’re acting pretty concerned about this.” Atear said plainly.

“Well yeah, someone like that can’t just be left to their own devices, you know?” After saying that, an idea went off.

“How about I join you on your patrol tomorrow?” Aramin suggested.

“I don’t see why not, you might be able to help me track her down with those ears of yours.” Atear said with a grin.

“Yeah the ears you almost destroyed with that damn thunder magic of yours.” He replied with a grin of his own.

“Oh? And here I thought you were completely faking being hurt.” Atear teased the demon.

“Faking how hurt I was? Yeah, one hundred percent. Was I really hurt? You bet your ass I was.” Aramin bounced his intonation around as he spoke.

“Well no matter, I’d be happy to have you accompany me.” Atear and Aramin locked hands, both of them giving each other an assured smile and nod.

Tyra watched them with a side eye, still acting like she was checking through what Atear had brought back.

~ The next day ~

The two men quietly moved through the forest, it was so early in the morning that the dew drops that were plastered all along the foliage were yet to drop to the ground below. Meanwhile the sun was still so low in the sky that it didn’t even pierce through the thick mass of leaves that formed a roof at the top of the treeline.

Atear took great care to not make a sound, aiding Aramin by having him mimic his steps and movements.

Surely with the two of them, finding the one that was responsible for the damages to the store would be a cinch.

“That reminds me, have you run into any of those wild beasts?” Aramin asked.

“Shh!” Atear whipped around to him.

“Sorry…” He said much quieter.

Atear looked back to the path ahead of him. “No, I haven’t.”

“Seriously? You’re insanely lucky then, anytime I went out for herb gathering I’d usually get attacked at least once.” Aramin said, pondering the likelihood of Atear not seeing at least one beast.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen anything. I’ve seen what I would assume are remains of them.” He said back, slowly pushing a branch aside for them.

“That doesn’t sound right. These beasts are the apex predators in the forest, nothing else that lives here should be killing them.” Aramin said, confused.

“Any chance they’re committing cannibalism?” Atear asked. “After all, from the sounds of it, you’ve probably dwindled their population.”

“No, I don’t kill them unless absolutely necessary, Tyra made that I knew that. No, even if they were killing each other they wouldn’t be wasting any pieces.” He shook his head. “Just doesn’t make sense.”

“Then I suppose that confirms that our little perpetrator is still in the forest, since I found fairly fresh remains before returning home last night.” Atear said, gratifyingly putting the pieces together.

Aramin stopped in his tracks.

“Something wrong?” Atear asked, stopping his march as well.

Aramin’s hairs were standing up on end. He never got like this, he felt scared. Like someone was watching him, he hated this feeling.

The low but distinct noise of air being cut through was heard by Aramin. The whizzing noise became louder, enough for Atear to also be able to hear it.

“Get down!” Aramin yelled, shoving Atear to the ground. At the same time, an awful sound of bone cracking and blood spilling was heard.

When Atear looked up he saw Aramin, a spear shot through his stomach.

“Damn it…” He choked out before passing out.

The attack had come so fast that it left Atear shaking. Not to mention that it had taken Aramin out, something that he couldn’t even do when they had fought.

He put more focus into listening. Sure enough, the sound he had heard earlier came his way. He lunged in Aramin’s direction, scooping him up and ducking behind a tree.

When he looked back, there was a spear nearly completely buried in the ground. Looking back to Aramin he saw the color draining from his body quickly.

“Shit shit shit!” He cursed to himself. He placed his ear to his chest, ensuring that his heart had not stopped.

What he heard back was a deafening silence.

Atear was at a loss. Unable to properly think of anything he could do. Should he try to fight the one attacking them? Make a run for it with Aramin? Cut his losses and return to his solo life?

He landed on the one and only option he had.

“Please! My friend is hurt! Let us leave so I can get him medical attention! I promise we’ll leave you alone!” He called out to their attacker. If his hunch was correct, they just wanted to be left alone, so perhaps promising that would halt their assault.

He heard nothing back. But that wasn’t a bad thing either. Another weapon hadn’t been thrown his way. So it was possible that they were gone after sending that very loud message.

However, high above the ground, resting in the crown of the trees. There was the woman from the other day. She herself was weighing her options about what to do. Her eyes dead set on the elf she had her sights on.