A priest and an adventurer, those two are a mystery to Ruby. It’s plain to see that Ruby is a mystery to the priest as well. They exchange eyes a few times trying to understand each other's intentions. They got around to making fire and sitting around it cooking some veggies and meat on wooden stakes, all from Gregory's pack. A red fiery ember that resembles Ruby’s eye dancing in the shade of the trees on the side of the road, heating the turnips and potatoes and the sausage meat. It was a long time ago since she saw such tasty looking meat, one she didn’t need to work hard to hunt and butcher herself.

“Are you out here alone?” This adventurer is the most peculiar of the two, mostly because of his attitude towards Ruby, without caution or fear he turns to her with a question. She doesn’t know what to say, so she ignores the question.

“What did you call the bandits?” He asks again. Perhaps because she ignored the last one she feels obliged to answer this one, it’s not about her so maybe it’s not too bad to answer she guesses.

"Damians.”

“Damians? Who are they?” Fren continues with a follow up question

“They’re bandits.” Gregory answers

“Oh really, the bandits are bandits?” Fren asks him sarcastically, Gregory did not intend this as a joke but couldn’t help but laugh after he realized how silly it is.

There aren’t many things to say about bandits, there are groups all over, some are only thugs, some stick to taking tolls, some use blackmail. Gregory only heard that the Damians are a group of bandits lead by a man called Damian, and that they lounge around some town nearby. Not much more was said about them.

“Scum.” Exits Ruby’s mouth involuntarily. The two wait for more information but she returns to silence immediately.

“What about you mr. driver?” The driver is resting on the ground lying down after his meal.

“You can call me Klem.” He says before getting up to a sitting position and sighing. “Damians are a bunch of bullies with no mercy, as you saw they also have no shame. They mostly bully people from a nearby town called Coppercamp next to the Yasin river.” This sparked something in Ruby. She got up and grabbed her bow tightly, thoughts of her past mistakes flooded her mind and she couldn’t let go, it felt like she wanted to smash something.

“Are you alright?” Fren asks her again and looks into her eye softly. “Stay and eat, we need to go to the nearest town soon anyway, might as well stick together.” Her anger slowly subsides, only a feeling of helplessness lingers. “Sit, finish your potato.”

“You know them?” Gregory asks her, he gives her a less suspicious look than before.

“Yeah.” She does not go into detail, why should she share this with strangers? And if they learn she used to be with the Damian bandits in the past…

“Well, we might as well travel together, you’re from the nearby village I assume.” Fren tries to make plans and keep her around.

“I’m not, I can’t go into the village.” She admits, Fren likely doesn’t understand why but Gregory knows, it must be her eye.

Since the meal Gregory started to think that maybe she isn’t a vampire or a demon, just an unfortunate girl. You cannot blame him for being careful around her but he understands, she’s a person. Either that or she has one heck of an act.

“You won’t be harassed if you travel with a priest, and even if you will be, Fren can protect you, he killed a named goblin once, and a vengeful spirit too. Well the spirit was ac-”

“I don’t need protection!” She cut him off “If anything it’s Coppercamp that needs help.” That was the longest sentence she said out loud to them, it surprised her, and she even continued it a little farther. “I need revenge.” This is the most she ever told anyone about herself since… She grips the bow again, to hold back the memories.

“Ruby,” Fren finished his meal and got up. “I want you to come with us. You’re a great archer.”

“What? No, I need-”

“We’ll help you with the bandit problem, then you can join us, right?” What is Fren thinking? Is he really? Ruby’s mind can’t be made up, does she want to join them? There’s nothing for her at the village anymore, but these strangers. She used to trust someone, a long time ago. She can’t bring herself to do that again.

“No, I can’t.” She gets up too, and turns around ready to leave.

“But you could still use some help with the bandits.” Fren does not relent. She does not deny it, taking down the bandits, she can’t do it on her own, and it is all she wants. She thinks for a moment and turns back around.

“Fine, but I won’t join you after.”

“Alright.”

“What? Fren!” Gregory calls out while still sitting down, he’s a slow eater. “We need to- this is- what about meeting Allous?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Don’t tell me you want to be an adventurer but not go on an adventure.”

“It’s not that but… uhh fine, we’ll help you with the bandits. But it’s not like the undead, I can only heal.” He checks the book he carries on a chain everywhere. “And I think I can put some blessing on you if I can-” He looks at Ruby, remembering her red eye. “Oh but-”

“I’m not a demon! I’m just a girl!” Ruby angrily stops him from what he was about to say. “Use your book right now.” She can be a feisty girl when she gets used to interacting with people.

“Alright, I’ll bless you.” Gregory waits for a moment and stares at her. “Why aren’t you sneezing?”

“You kids are nice, but I can’t help you, I’ll leave you be when we get to Coppercamp. I don’t think I’ll be able to continue the trip right now, too much excitement.” The driver butts in.

“Is it far, old man?” Fren asks.

“Old ma- did you forget my name already? It’s Klem.”

“Before we leave I want to send off the soul of the bandit, then we can leave.” Gregory is acting like a priest, I guess he does have it in him every once in a while.

The driver rests in the carriage, Gregory prays for the bandit’s soul to be taken by Shahina and return to the cycle. Fren packs up what they didn’t eat, Ruby stood for a few moments before she felt like it’s disrespectful not to help him.

“You and the priest, you call him Grey?” She asks Fren.

“Oh, yeah, you can call him that too. It’s a nickname for Gregory.”

“You two are friends…” Ruby wants to ask something but realizes she doesn't know what she wants to ask. ‘Why are you two friends?’ or ‘how do you trust each other?’ or something of the sort. She clearly wants to trust them too, but she doesn’t know how, she might not even be aware.

“We actually met a few days ago. We fought some undead and he saved my life a couple of times. I also saved his and… we’re friends. We also share a terrible sense of humor.” Fighting undead? And what is this word, humor? She nods while trying to make sense of it.

“Yeah, so you trust each other, right? I understand.”

“Well… I don’t know about him but, I do have some things I don’t tell him, and he didn’t tell me he wanted to be an adventurer instead of a priest, but he isn’t very good at hiding it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s, well… I will risk my life to save him, I already did, but…”

“You have a secret.” She completes Fren’s sentence. “I have a secret too… Why I can’t join you.” Is she going to do it? She didn’t show anyone in a long time. “Don’t be afraid.” She looks around first. The driver is resting on the other side of the cart, face down but she doesn’t see that. Gregory is still in prayer and facing the other direction. She takes her hand and slowly reaches for her eyepatch, Fren watches slowly. Her thumb goes under the eye patch but before removing it she stops.

“No, I’m sorry.” She turns around and fixes the eyepatch secretively.

“It’s alright. It takes courage to share a secret with someone. Maybe after we deal with the bandits, I might tell you my secret then too.” Wait, does he really mean that? Will he tell her that he’s an outsider? Is he not afraid? He didn’t tell Gregory yet, what is he thinking?

“I don’t care about your secrets, you can keep them.”

“I know, but dealing with my secret alone is… difficult. It would be much nicer if I could find someone to lean on.”

Someone to lean on, She understands the meaning of that well. The wind blows through her long messy hair and she thinks about how difficult it is to keep her secret, it was much easier when she had a confidant. She did, a long time ago, but now she’s by herself.

“Alright, I’m done before you guys finished cleaning.” Gregory hollers them after finishing his Prayer.

“Do we not bury him? It feels… That was the first time I killed a person, a living one that is. It felt wrong, but I had to keep fighting.” People are different from goblins and undead, it’s sad but one of the greatest threats to society is the population itself.

“Don’t treat them as people, Fren, they have no kindness. I saw it with my own eyes.” Ruby calms Fren, she is not a stranger to people fighting each other to take a life. To her, people fighting people is the only struggle that exists in the world.

“Your own eye, you mean…” Gregory jokes and quickly understands that it might have been bandits that took her eye. He quickly covers it up with. “Well, if you don’t want to be food for other living things, ones with fangs, we better start moving quickly. I’ll help.” And joins Fren and Ruby in their packing.

The four leave the carriage alone, it took a bit of convincing but Klem gave in, he feels better now but with no horse to carry it he needs to leave it alone. It’s not like there’s anyone who’ll find it with a spare carriage saddled horse and take it for himself. They did look out for the horse when they went down the road but no luck. They even met a few travelers whom they asked about a gray horse with a brown mane but no luck, it must have wandered off into the distance. At the crossroads to continue toward Mandoza or turn for Coppercamp it looked like the road to coppercamp was a rocky decline.

Soon enough they met with a dirt road next to the river Yasin and from the distance they could see some big houses and cottages, fences and a town square with stalls. The pine trees made for great craftsmanship and you could tell that the town was one much larger and taken care of than Duhndale, where Fren began his journey. It also looked cleaner than the undead town, and the movement of the people about the town was lovely, but not as lively as it could be. The stalls looked like a closed market, with only a handful of places working, and the children playing next to the water looked poorer than even those at Duhndale.

Ruby turns to Fren and says “I can’t enter, I’ll wait here.”

“Don’t be silly, besides, it’s only for a bit. Besides, the sun will set soon. Where will you sleep?”

She looks at him and then looks away. She’s planning to sleep where she always sleeps. The same way she always sleeps.

“No, not in the woods! Bears poop there.” even Gregory thinks that’s too sad to allow.

“I’ll be fine, I’ve always been fine. They’ll call me names and maybe attack me.”

“You have nothing to worry about ruby lass. Fren and you nearly saved me, if anyone will try to hurt you I’ll deal with ‘em.” Even Klem supports her.

“I think you forgot about the one who actually did the healing. But anyway, yeah, if they have a problem with you, we can deal with them.”

Ruby doesn't have much to say, her heart feels warm and a smile comes to her face, she tries to hide it but that only makes it wider. It was a long time since she had someone like that.