Ash woke up, surprised he had even managed to sleep after the events of the night before. It was already daybreak and the snow that had covered the world in the night was almost gone.

  The forest was green and bright, the birds singing in the sky every critter out on the move.

  What had him more surprised was the fact that his elf companion did not wake him the way she usually did. The bodies of the beasts were no longer where they were the night before and that startled him.

  "Elf lady?" Ash called out, his eyes scanning the tree branches above for any sign of her. But silence greeted him instead.

  "Did she leave me?" His voice broke as he spoke and his heart fell into a cold pit. "It's all my fault."

  He felt a hot slap on the back of his neck causing him to hiss out in pain. His skin burned hot from the impact. He turned back to see the elf standing there, her face looking more worn out than pale, her eyes had dark bags under them like she had not slept. Or she had cried all night.

  A piece of black clothes tied over her shoulder wound the night before.

  "Nothing here is your fault." She said coldly as she walked past him.

  He caressed his neck gently, careful not to cause further pain for himself. "Why did you hit me, I could have lost my neck."

  She scoffed at him. "You kept saying the same thing in your sleep over and over again."

  Ash swallowed hard, then spoke. "Where were you?"

  She glanced back at him over her shoulder, her eyes transfixed and angry. "I have no reason to answer your question but I will. I buried the poor creatures I sent back into the goddess' embrace."

  "W—why?" Ash asked hesitantly.

  She turned with a glare so sharp it made him feel insane for asking. "Why? We took their lives."

  "And they would have taken ours?" He tried to defend himself.

  "How is it that I look like a killer, but you speak like one." As she said this Ash quieted down and tried to avoid her gaze. "The burden of the lives we take are passed down to us, especially the innocent. I have appeased their souls by burying them and calling them into the goddess embrace, now you will handle the rest."

  Ash took a step back and stared at her in confusion. "Do you want me to pray to your goddess to and ask for forgiveness?"

  She walked up to him, slow and deliberate. The closer she got, the harder it was for him to breath. When she was face to face with him she handed him a small satchel.

  "While scouting I found that they were not alone. It's yours to do with as you believe, show me you don't mean what you say." She turned around and left him.

  Ash's gaze stared into the black abyss of the satchel, he could feel a small tug in his hands. A small white head of a white leopard pup turned and it's silver eyes locked on him, it's howled softly at him. His breath stopped for a second.

  Ash watched it curl it's head and drift into a deep sleep. He noticed how defenceless and innocent it was, it looked like a tiny fur ball, nothing like the two beats that tried to kill him the night before. He reached down and grazed its fur, it was soft and smooth, the pup gave a low whine before turning it's head the other way.

  Then the realisation dawned on him like dew on the morning grass, "We killed it's parents, and it was my fau-"

  The elf hissed at him. "You're insufferable. Let's get moving, the bandits are still in the area."

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  "There's no way I can take care of it, why don't you keep it?" He asked as he walked swiftly after her.

  "Not a fan of furries." She replied coldly. "Oh and here's breakfast."

  She handed him a berry which he inspected poorly. He could see her devouring from a full bunch.

  "You have got to be kidding me." He groaned.

  She spoke without looking his way. "The day before you tried to choke yourself with an apple, an action that almost succeeded. So today I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry."

  His stomach grumbled, “I mean, we could’ve at least honored the leopards by not letting their meat go to waste, right?”

  She let the grape bunch slip from her fingers as she turned around sharply. One hand pinning Ash into the against a tree trunk and another taking out his blade and pressing it on the surface of his neck.

  It happened so fast that it took his body seconds to process what was going on, and seconds more to react.

  "Those wolves were not killed for food but for protection. They died in cold blood, without having a purpose to serve. I don't know if this is how all humans act but don't talk so casually about the dead next time."

  Ash nodded, more afraid of the blade by his neck that her. "I'm sorry if I over stepped my boundaries."

  She pulled back and safely secured her blade by her hip, "You can have the whole grape, it's not to my taste anymore."

  Ash had almost fainted from the fear alone, he sighed heavily and acquired the grape bunch from the ground. Elves were much different from what he had been told.

  Ash stood at the edge of the stream, its waters rushing and roaring beneath a sky bruised with fading light. He gulped down as he looked at it with fearful eyes, in his arms he cradled the tiny leopard pup as it nibbled at his thumb and sucked on it.

  "Are we really going to swim across to the other side?" He looked over at his elf companion, she looked weary and the bags under her eyes only grew larger each passing day.

  It had only been three days since they had left Emberfall and Ash had only come to realise how dangerous it was surviving in the world outside of his home. Only now did he see it clearly—how much of her strength was spent covering for his weakness. She did more for him than she would ever admit. Far more than he ever noticed.

  She watched over him every night without sleeping, kept him from going into panic. Fed them, lit the fires and covered their tracks as they went. She was his guide and protector, even with all these he still found it hard to trust her.

  For one she didn't seem to want to be trusted, and she had yet to tell him anything about where she was taking him or why she was taking him there. Her injury from the white leopard attack still bled and try as he might to offer his help she still refused him that.

  With everything going on, trust was a luxury he didn’t have.

  "What now? You want me to carry you over, like a wee babe?" She said in a cold distasteful manner.

  She bent down and started to stretch her limbs, showing her slender nimble figure.

  Ash pried his eyes away and cleared his throat, "I can swim just fine."

  "Then what's the problem, don't trust me?" She said between stretches.

  He shook his head, "Well I trust you not to kill me, with what we've been through so far. But can't we go around?"

  She rose to her feet and winced in pain as her shoulder wound bled again, she managed to hide her pain from him by facing the other way. "The bandits are on our trail, it's best we cross the river before the sun sets. We won't want to be in it when that happens, now would we?"

  He looked back at the forest then at the flowing water, his legs trembled under him. "I thought you went back and covered our tracks."

  She snorted, almost sounding like a laugh but too distorted and short to be one. "You mean your tracks, I did cover as much as I could for an amateur such as yourself but I can't hide every broken branch or crumpled leaf now can it? If they found just one trace they'll know which direction we're headed and it pains me to say but they are good trackers."

  Ash was beginning to feel the drumming in his chest, the leopard pup whined and looked at him with its huge beady eyes. Ash pet it on the head and turned to face her, "It makes no sense why they would be after us."

  The elf girl gave a heavy sigh, "We don't have long till the sun sets, I would like to be on the other side of the river by then and you would like that too. Won't you?"

  "Let's get moving, they have horses." She added.

  He gave her a look of utter confusion. "Horses swim?"

  "How should I know? I'm not the human expert, remember?" She said, staring daggers at him. "But I know no horse will swim in cold water."

  "Fair point."

  Ash dropped his shoulders with a sigh. There was no winning an argument with the survivalist. She was always right and clearly she had experience.

  He let the pup slip into its satchel and tied it tight to him, he was the first to get into the water. It was a bit cold, its current mild and easy for him to swim through with very little effort. The pup whined at him, its eyes frightened.

  "It's going to be okay boy." He comforted it, his legs kicking with full force, he had to get to the other end as quickly as he could.

  The elf scoffed as she mocked him. "It's a girl idiot." She jumped in after him, the moment she went submerged she winced at the force on her wounded arm but stomached it.

  Ash thrashed against the current, muscles burning, eyes fixed on the satchel clutched to his chest. One slip, and the pup might be lost beneath the dark water. The currents started to grow slightly giving him more challenge swimming.

  "How are you holding up there?" He spoke out.

  The elf said through gritted teeth, "Don't talk to me and focus on swimming idiot."

  Ash kept quiet, stealing glances at the pup, then the sky. The sun was sinking fast. So was the temperature. The waters grew colder, the currents faster and rougher.

  The edge of the river was already within view, and it brought him great joy to set his eyes on it. He swam with renewed energy, the leopard pup was already shaking in the satchel, a bit of water had leaked in.

  A few seconds later his hands touched grass, he pulled himself over. Even the pup looked relieved to see land again. Ash set it down and laid down to catch his breath.

  Seconds bled by. He waited but there was no splash behind him. No voice. No shadow. Only the river, roaring on, empty.

  His stomach turned cold—colder than the river. Something was wrong.

  He sat up straight, his eyes darting into the rushing waters. "Elf lady!" He called out.

  His eyes almost blotted out when he saw the elf fighting against the current right in the middle of the river. The cloth over her wound was gone and blood was flowing out of it, the sun was already setting and the water was already freezing.

  He didn’t think. Couldn’t. All he knew was that she’d have jumped in after him— and now it was his turn.

  Without hesitation Ash jumped back into the water, the pup started to howl in fear. Ash's head resurfaced a second later gasping, the temperature of the water had gone down by a few dozen degrees since he had gotten into it.

  The realisation of it dawned on him, “At this rate, the river will freeze over by night. If she sinks now, she won’t surface again.”