Friedrich sat at the river bank, splashing water on his face while Marina was lying on the grass. She was zapping leaves from the trees above and watching them drift silently towards her. It was a much-needed moment of rest for the pair who had been walking for some time.

They were still three days from Eagle’s Crest and the journey had been tiring, but they maintained bright spirits. Friedrich could tell that Marina was not used to lengthy journeys, but she kept her grumbling to a minimum which he found impressive.

“I’m hungry,” said Marina, watching yet another leaf slowly dancing through the air. Now was the time for one of her rare grumblings.

“We just had lunch,” replied Friedrich, wringing his hands to dry them off.

“I know, but it was a small portion.”

“You didn’t mind a small portion the other night when you met me. You ate the scraps from that pheasant without a single complaint. Picked the bones clean!”

“I couldn’t get greedy when we barely knew each other, could I?”

Friedrich laughed. “And now we know each other very well, do we?”

“Well enough that I don’t mind complaining a little,” said Marina, winking at him.

“Alright,” said Friedrich, “I’ll see if I can find a few berries.” He didn’t mind relenting considering he too wouldn’t have minded a snack.

“Make sure they aren’t poisonous!”

“I know which ones are poisonous and which ones aren’t,” said Friedrich, taking the fox mask from his bag and placing it upon his face.

He hated the painful sensation of transforming, but he needed to build up a tolerance to it. If he was to use it for sneaking around and infiltrating dangerous dungeons, then he couldn’t let the feeling distract him. That would be a death sentence. No, he had to use the mask as much as possible to get used to it.

“Why are you in fox form?” asked Marina, sitting up and raising an eyebrow. Friedrich brushed a paw past his nose and started sniffing the air. “Oh, I see,” she said, flopping back down again.

Friedrich scurried across the grass and into the thick foliage, being careful to avoid getting pricked by any brambles. One benefit he had found in his usage of the mask so far was that most thorns simply slid across his fur, but the thicker ones still gave him a couple of unpleasant jabs.

He sniffed as he moved, his sense of smell heightened in this form. He tried to sort through the many scents in his mind, picking out the sweetest and sourest ones, then following them as best he could. It wasn’t easy, particularly when the smells were so numerous it was almost overwhelming, but this was his second time attempting it and it was already a quicker process than his first try.

It wasn’t long before he found what he was looking for, a blackberry bush with its fruits right for the picking. All he had to do now was wait. He stood at attention, unsure if he had a minute left or thirty seconds, but he figured that as long as he was standing upright, he wouldn’t fall face first into the bush.

Suddenly, his stomach felt as though it was trying to jump out of his throat and his limbs started trembling and stretching. A few seconds later, he was standing upright in the forest as a human once again, braced to prevent himself from falling. He shuddered as he put the mask away and started gathering berries, which he placed inside a small cloth pouch.

With red-stained hands, Friedrich walked back through the trees and bushes until he reached the river bank and sat down next to Marina, who was now staring across the river. Friedrich followed her line of sight and saw what it was that had caught her attention; a small plume of smoke.

“What do you think that is?” asked Marina, looking uneasy.

“It looks like a campfire to me,” said Friedrich, handing her the pouch of berries. “Probably someone cooking up their own lunch. I don’t see any reason to worry about it.”

“I think we should take a look.”

“Why?”

“Just in case it’s dangerous.”

“If you’re worried about danger, then going around it would make more sense.”

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“But what if they follow us?”

“Why would they do that?”

Marina looked scared. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe they know about your treasure.”

What she was saying made no sense to Friedrich, but the girl was clearly anxious. It was clear to him that she wasn’t worried about the treasure, that was an excuse, but just to satiate her worries, he decided to check things out.

“Come on,” he said, standing up and hiding his sack of kupons inside a bush.

“Really?” she asked, looking relieved.

“Really. If it’ll stop you feeling the need to look over your shoulder for the rest of the journey, we’ll see who it is. We’ll come back for the rest of our things later.”

“Thank you,” said Marina, hopping to her feet and clasping her hands together. “You’re really nice, you know that?”

“Too nice sometimes,” said Friedrich, shaking his head.

The two headed onto the road and crossed a small wooden bridge that brought them to the other side of the river. The sun overhead was slowly being obscured by the clouds, which made it all the easier to hide between the trees as they approached the source of the smoke.

Friedrich held up a hand to Marina then signalled for her to keep lower. He was nimbler and had plenty of experience sneaking around, while she was notably clumsier and continually snapped twigs as she walked. With each snap, she jumped and moved along higher than before.

Friedrich turned to her. “Go back to the other side of the river,” he whispered to her.

“No,” she mouthed silently, shaking her head vigorously.

“Move slower and watch where you stop then.”

Friedrich led the way and set the pace, being sure to move slow enough for Marina to keep a more careful eye on the ground beneath her. After a short while, they heard voices coming from somewhere up ahead. There was at least three of them.

The two young treasure hunters crept carefully up behind a fallen tree and peered over into the small clearing where the fire glowed and crackled as it roasted a wild boar. Three figures, all covered in leather armour with swords strapped to their sides were standing beside the fire, eager for their food to be ready. All three of them had sallow green skin and two short tusks that protruded up from behind their bottom lips. They were much burlier than your average human and their sullen faces were anything but friendly. They were orcs.

“Hurry it up,” grunted one of them.

“More fire,” barked another.

“Idiots!” called the third and burliest of all—no doubt the leader. “It’s ready when it’s ready. If we make the fire bigger, that means more smoke. More smoke means any Mercian soldiers on the road find us.”

“Then we kill ‘em,” grunted the first orc.

“I should kill you, Arghur,” said the leader, thumping his lackey in the arm. “Your recklessness is going to get all of us killed.”

“Sorry, boss,” said Arghur, his face more sullen than ever, but he did not complain further. He feared his leader enough that he thought he might just follow through with that threat.

“Once we eat up, we head south and get to th—”

The orcs turned to face the fallen tree and Friedrich turned to glare at Marina, who had fallen to the side and snapped another half dozen twigs all at once. She bore a look of horror realising she had just given away their position.

“Go check that out, Begok,” said Arghur.

“I’m in charge here, Arghur,” scolded the leader. “Begok, go see what that was.”

These orcs were not mere goblins, Friedrich knew that he didn’t stand a chance against all of them at once. Even one of them could prove to be a challenge.

“Go,” Friedrich mouthed to Marina as he reached into his cloak and pulled out the fox mask. Had it been five minutes since he found the berries. It must have been. He kept low and set it upon his face, bracing himself for the unpleasant transformation. As the crunch of leaves from the orc approached, Friedrich ran out in his fox form and stared at the orc.

The orc glowered at him, then bent down to pick up a loose stone. The orc threw it at Friedrich who scrambled away and ran into the camp where the other two orcs stared at him in bemusement. Friedrich sniffed the air and then ran into the woods at the other side of the camp, disappearing from sight. He prayed that his distraction had been enough for Marina to get out of harm’s way.

He kept still and listened to the orcs who were speaking again.

“Little orange rat must have smelled the food,” said Begok.

“Should we have it for dessert, Krog?” asked Arghur.

“No!” barked the leader. “We eat and we move on. If there’s any more backchat I’m slashing your shares of the loot, ya hear?”

Friedrich edged his way around the camp and back to the fallen tree, but Marina was gone. That was a massive relief, but he had better make himself scarce too in case his transformation wore off. He scurried away, being less careful than he maybe should have. By the time he reached the bridge over the river, he was back to running on two legs with the fox mask clutched in his hand.

He jumped over the wooden beam and onto the bank, moving along until he found Marina. She was sitting on the grass again, her arms wrapped around her knees, and breathing heavily. Her eyes were wide with fear and her knuckles were white as she clenched her cloak tightly.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, not looking at Friedrich. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” said Friedrich, “but you oughta be more careful. What happened?”

“I saw a millipede.”

“A millipede?”

“Yes.

Friedrich was quiet for a moment before bursting out into raucous laughter. He pulled himself together, concerned that he was loud enough to attract the attention of the orcs.

“We almost got rumbled because of a tiny insect?” he asked incredulously.

“Why is that so funny?” asked Marina, frowning.

“Because you want to be a treasure hunter, exploring the deepest and darkest of ruins and you’re scared of insects. Do you know the sorts of things we’ll see in the bowels of lost civilisations?”

“I see your point,” murmured Marina before sighing.

“In any case, we’re safe. We’ll just need to toughen you up.”

“Yes…yes, you’re right.”

“Let’s make a pact, alright? I’m going to keep trying to master the power of the fox mask and you’re going to overcome your fear of insects. Both of these things will make us much more effective explorers. Deal?”

Marina smiled at him. “Deal.”