The lack of conversation was not so comforting anymore. To say that Oakley had messed up would be an understatement, and he knew it. Rigdraz had been silent ever since they had left the bodies of the bandits lying there in the grass.

Oakley had wanted to keep three of them alive- after convincing himself to get to that point. Now that he was out from under the influence of the magic, he couldn’t think of any way to justify what he’d done. He was just as close to ending the life of Rigdraz, too, which meant it was even harder to convince his travelling companion of his remorse.

Oakley clearly understood even less about this world than he had previously thought, which was saying a lot, considering he’d originally thought he knew next to nothing. He couldn’t blame Rigdraz for wanting to take the journey alone after what had happened, but he did need someone to teach him about this place and how to navigate his way through it. He needed to keep Rigdraz by his side- somehow.

“Hey,” Oakley said as the two walked side by side. Rigdraz had kept his head tucked inside books ever since the incident, which Oakley couldn’t blame him for. “Can we talk about what happened?”

Silence from the taller man.

He looked around at their surroundings. He really didn’t want to talk at all, but he knew he needed to if he had any chance of keeping Rigdraz as an ally.

The two of them were absolutely alone. As far as they could see behind them, was just the dirt path, rolling over hills, with patches of trees spread around the landscape. Ahead of them, it was just more of the same, though he could make out a settlement in the distance. He assumed that was where they were aiming to walk to. He had until then to bring Rigdraz back around.

“Rig?” Oakley tried again, tentatively chipping away at the oppressive silence.

“What’s there to say?” Rigdraz snapped at Oakley, shutting his book forcefully to stare down at him. “You killed five people.”

“It was-”

“Don’t you dare say it was an accident,” Rigdraz interrupted. “I tried talking you out of it. That was deliberate. How long have you had that power stored up, a secret weapon in case I stepped out of line, is that it?”

“What? No,” Oakley protested. “I’ve never had any magical stuff happen to me before today, I promise. I don’t know what came over me.”

“I’ve heard those words before,” Rigdraz said. “Too many times do people hide behind those words.”

“I’m not hiding,” Oakley said, stepping in front of Rigdraz before the taller man could begin walking again. “I’m asking for your help. To stop it from happening again. I don’t know what happened and I don’t know how to control it.”

“What makes you think I do?” Rigdraz asked, his expression somewhere between anger and confusion.

“You’re magical,” Oakley shrugged. “You read all these magic books, surely you know something about this?”

“It would take me some time to figure it out,” Rigdraz said, momentarily getting caught in the hypothetical research task. He shook his head and returned his gaze to Oakley. “Why should I, though? I’m just going to be at risk of being murdered at your next outburst.”

“If I wanted to actually kill you, surely I would have by now,” Oakley replied.

“Do you even know how?” Rigdraz asked, his tone lightening slightly as his manner shifted to a more curious one, likely subconsciously.

“What do you mean, do I know how?”

“Can you access your magic to attack me?”

“I-” Oakley had to stop to think. Surely, he could- right?

“You said something came over you,” Rigdraz prompted. “Sometimes magic manifests in unexpected ways and then the mage would need to figure out how to unlock it once more, in a safer, more controlled instance.”

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Oakley nodded, not fully following. He was definitely wishing he’d read more fantasy books in his spare time. If he’d known any of it would be useful, he would have devoured them just as rapidly as Rigdraz read his own.

“I don’t know what sparked it,” Oakley said. “I felt hot and itchy and like my head was going to pop, but it isn’t like I’ve not been in stressful situations before.”

“True, you have been in a dragon fight,” Rigdraz noted. “It is going to take some significant research to figure this out.”

“Does that mean…?” Oakley watched Rigdraz with hopeful eyes.

“Yes,” came the reply, “I’ll help you. Though you must promise me that you’ll do everything you can to avoid this sort of situation again, until we know more.”

“Thank you!” Oakley couldn’t help but shout out in relief, hopping slightly as they walked. “I promise. I can’t do any of this without you. I’m not a killer. I’m not.”

“Unfortunately,” Rigdraz shrugged, “you can’t say that anymore.”

“I guess not,” Oakley said. “I do feel bad about it, though. It isn’t like I went in hoping to kill them.”

“You’re going to have to prove this goodness with your actions,” Rigdraz said. “Your words mean very little in comparison to the deeds you have already done.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Oakley said, determined, “I will.”

It was half as if he was convincing himself as well as his ally. He didn’t like whatever side of him had come out when under the influence of the magic within him. He had done wrong and he needed to make it right. At the very least, he needed Rigdraz’s help in figuring things out first.

The two of them continued walking on, until the evening’s setting sun threatened to plunge them into darkness. They both worked together to set up camp, hoping to make the rest of the journey to the next town before they would need to make camp again.

Oakley could feel Rigdraz’s eyes on him as he tried to get comfortable enough to sleep. If only he could figure out what the taller man was thinking- how he was feeling after the attack. He had agreed to help him, but Oakley was sure that was more due to a natural curiosity about magical things and in no way a sign of forgiveness. He would have to earn that.

The next day brought a slight frost to the grassy area around their campsite. Rigdraz went around, muttering under his breath and melting the frost away. Oakley watched him and silently tried to manipulate the grass into moving. Nothing happened. He didn’t really know how to do it anyway. It was as if the grass had acted on instinct, reacting wildly to those it deemed to be enemies of his.

“Get up,” Rigdraz prompted, “if we make good time today, we’ll be sleeping under a roof and not the stars tonight.”

Oakley nodded, groaning a little at the effort of getting up when it was so cold.

They both set about packing up the campsite and set off, back along the path, towards the town in the distance.

“I saw you trying to move the grass,” Rigdraz muttered, as he read one of his books.

“I had to test to see if you were right about me not being able to do it,” Oakley said, shrugging, though he felt a slight urge to apologize, for some reason.

“You really don’t know how to control it, do you?”

“Not in the slightest,” Oakley sighed. “I thought I had an edge on the enemy, but it turns out it’s just another dud. I don’t know what it is, how it works, and have already messed up when using it.”

“No idea where it came from, at all?” Rigdraz asked. “Did you mess with any other cursed items from the dragon hoard, or were any of your ancestors magical?”

“Magic isn’t a thing where I come from,” Oakley shrugged, “and the only items I picked up, we threw down in the grass way back there.”

“Strange,” Rigdraz murmured. “I’m going to have to flip through a few of my books once we get to a place to stay. I wouldn’t want to get the pages wet in all this frost.”

“It’s getting colder where I’m from, too,” Oakley said quietly. “The turn of the Autumn was just beginning.”

“You’ll get back,” Rigdraz replied, “it might take some effort, but we’ll get you back to your family.”

“Thank you.”

“I can’t forgive you,” Rigdraz said, “not yet.”

“I understand.”

They both continued on in their usual silent contemplation. Their walking pace would get them to their destination by that afternoon, even with a couple breaks to rest their legs.

Oakley liked looking out over the rolling hills, as they slightly reminded him of the hills he walked over with Erin. These ones weren’t filled with fields, but they were close enough to bring the memories in- to torment him as he dwelled on what he couldn’t yet reach.

Tripton’s exterior reminded Oakley quite a lot of Branchkeep’s walled defenses. The walls were not as high, but he could see the similarities. He wondered if there were beasts nearby that threatened this town just as much as Branchkeep has to worry about the Graveyard Grove.

“So, this is Tripton,” Rigdraz said, consulting a small, roughly drawn map that had been folded and placed within one of his books. “First stop of many, it seems.”

“It’ll be nice to finally get some rest under a roof,” Oakley sighed as they both walked closer to the town’s gates.

“It will,” Rigdraz nodded, “just do your best not to kill anyone.”

Oakley wanted to retort, but instead just accepted the dark-humored joke for what it was. He just sighed and followed the taller man as they approached the first sign of civilization that they had seen in days.

A rest would be nice, Oakley thought, but he had a nagging feeling that it would be the least likely thing he would get within this town. He only hoped he wouldn’t figure out how to use his powers while other people were around. His itching was slowly returning. Perhaps he would need to take Rigdraz’s words as less of a joke and more of a warning.