Kveldulf woke himself up with a quick snort, feeling his muscles tense and ease as he moved them. He tried to move himself up clenching his teeth and gripped a handful of his bedsheets as the pain overcame every thought in his mind. He laid back in bed and looked around the room. Finding a figure, sitting in a chair with something resting on their legs and their hands fiddling about with something, all cloaked in darkness, save for a sliver of ambient light coming from the hallway outside.

He moved his hand slowly over to a small eating knife on his night stand. “You should be asleep,” the figure said, their voice was familiar, but he wasn’t able to pinpoint the person.

“That so friend?”

“Doc would be a little upset if you were moving around before everything healed up.”

Kveldulf took a moment as he began to recognize the voice. “Maeryn?”

“Present.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Cid thought after our recent guest we should have someone on watch here until you’re back on your feet.”

“Oh, how long have you been here?”

“About an hour or two mostly.”

“Right. And … I know it’s not knitting, but I want to call it that.”

“It’s cross-stitching,” Maeryn said.

“Right, that, I knew that. I just didn’t think that’d be a hobby of yours.”

“We’ve only just met, there’s still much we haven’t learned of each other,” she said, still moving the needle and thread through the fabric with swift movements.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to be rude.”

Maeryn put the piece down, groaning as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “No, I … I. Damn I did it again.”

“Again?”

“I’m not exactly what many would call personable. Shocking as that is.”

Kveldulf said nothing, unsure of what to say.

“So much for that attempt at humor.”

“It’s a little hard to read you right now, honestly. Especially here in the dark.”

“Oh, right, forgot about that. Sorry,” Maeryn said as she rose from her seat, placed her affects on the chair and went over to his bedstand and lit a small laylight. As the light touched her face, Kveldulf could see her eyes were red, energy seemingly gone from her face and with the light so dim and eyes still adjusting, he wasn’t certain if her chin was trembling.

“Is everything all right?” he asked her.

She turned to him, answering with a faint smile. “Just tired. It’s been a long few days.”

He lifted his hand up towards her, putting his hand over hers. “I think we both know that isn’t the case.”

“You should save your strength,” Maeryn said to him. “You need to rest more than me.”

“Maeryn,” Kveldulf said concerningly.

“I’m fine, really,” she replied. “I think things will be better once we get these ruins and Cullen off our plate.”

“Just promise me you’ll get some rest when the next person is up here.”

She squirmed a little. “I’ve been having problems sleeping.”

“Would it help if I told you I’d do what I did again without hesitation?”

Maeryn turned to him, a sharp gaze meeting his. “You shouldn’t have had to have done it in the first place,” she said.

“Maeryn –” Kveldulf said before she cut him off.

“No!” Maeryn said, slamming her fist against the bedstand, causing the laylight to jump up a short height. “It was my job to make sure we’re not caught off guard. If there’s something creeping up, I sense them before they do anything. And I failed. There’s no other way to explain it, I failed. You not only got hurt, you were hurt because I was careless enough to be in their line of sight.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She sat down on the side of Kveldulf’s bed. Her head hanging low as she closed her eyes tightly. “I was pride myself on not getting caught off guard. By spotting threats before they can even thinking of how to hurt one of us before even acting on it. And … I didn’t stop it. I should’ve been more alert, I should’ve taken care I should’ve …” Maeryn couldn’t finish before she began shaking, fighting the urge to lose what composure she had left.

Kveldulf took several deep breaths before moving his arms underneath his torso and lifting himself up. Pressing his lips tightly together as his muffled screams caught Maeryn’s attention. “Kel!” she called out.

“I’m already half way up,” he said through gritted teeth. “No need to stop now.”

As he sat himself up, he realized the thick layer of sweat covering his skin before he wiped it off. “By Thekkin’s beard … that, that was painful.”

He held his hand out to Maeryn, “Just, just give me a second,” he said in a strained voice before he breathing began to steady. “All right, I’m better. Maeryn, I won’t tell you not to feel what you’re feeling, because I’d be feeling the same way too if our situations were reversed. But that’s what we did back in Cold Company. We looked out for each other. If you couldn’t count on someone in your unit to watch your back, who can you trust?”

Maeryn breathed in deeply, running her hand over her face. “I guess I’m not used to having someone watch my back. I’m usually the one having to watch theirs. It’s a rather unusual feeling.”

“It’s something you get used to,” Kveldulf told her. “When you’re with a group you can trust implicitly.”

Maeryn looked at Kveldulf briefly, then to the floor before moving back to the chair, picking up her affects and returning to her cross stitching. “Probably a good idea to let you get back to sleep.”

“I’m pretty much awake, now, more or less. And for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t mind someone to talk to.”

“I’m not exactly much of a conversationalist,” Maeryn said to him with some apprehension.

“Neither am I, but it’s usually easier to talk to someone when you know them better.”

“I’m not sure what to talk about.”

“Well,” Kveldulf paused thinking hard to find an item to speak of with her.

She looked at him, slowly leaning back and growing increasingly concerned. “Everything all right?”

“Trying to find something unusual to talk about, but nothing is coming to mind, and I do not like it.”

“Well,” Maeryn said, slowly moving her hand to cross stitch, “you can ask me anything about … anything, if that helps.”

“Hmm,” Kveldulf hummed before saying, “I know that one is proper rubbish.”

“What is?” Maeryn asked.

“Oh, just something we heard about elves from Tirlloegr doing this thing called a Wind of the Morn.”

“The fuck is that?”

“I can’t remember the details, but the gist is it’s this ritual where you all flatulate on each other, or near each other, as a morning ritual.”

Maeryn looked at Kveldulf, utterly disgusted.

“I do not say I believed it.”

“Then why did you ask?” Maeryn demanded.

“Not being well assessed on your culture, I figured I’d someone from the culture directly.”

“No we don’t fart on each other!”

“I probably should’ve worded that better.”

“There is no way to word that better!”

“I think there’s a knife in my belt still if you want to stab me for recompense.”

“Where did this even come?”

“I don’t know, Jeanne was the one who told me.”

Jeanne peered her head through the doorway. “I heard my name,” she said innocently.

“Where did you get off telling others my people pass wind on each in a religious ceremony?” Maeryn cried out.

“Firstly, I did not make that up. Even at my worst, I don’t fuck with people’s religion.”

“It’s true,” Kveldulf said quickly.

Jeanne continued, “I heard that from one of the sergeants in Shield Battalion back with the Cold Company.”

“That would be something they’d say,” Kveldulf said.

“And finally, what I get off on is no one’s business but me, myself, and I.”

Maeryn gave Jeanne a perplexed look as Kveldulf put his head into his hand, groaning, “I don’t even know how to proceed on with that one.”

“Is she always like this?” Maeryn asked Kveldulf, before turning to Jeanne. “Are you always like this?”

“I’d say yes, unless the pinky toes are feeling fancy.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Kveldulf asked.

“I was about to say,” followed Maeryn.

“Hey, you need to ask them, they’re the ones with minds of their own.”

Jeanne turned down into the hall and smiled before saying, “Doc!” cheerfully.

Leonidas, looking thoroughly confused and somewhat frightened, slowly passed by Jeanne, his back pressed against the threshold opposite where she stood, and slid into the room. He turned to Maeryn and Kveldulf and nodded slowly at the two of them. “So … I see this is happening.”

“I don’t even know where to start, Doc,” Kveldulf said.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to,” Leonidas followed, “Ever.”