It has been about a week since Fugo, Alia, Treek, and Galio began traveling through the Darkwoods. Though it would take only a few days to travel through under normal circumstances, after only a day’s travel Galio broke his leg running from a rather hungry beast known as a  Calydonian Boar and, long story short, Treek saved him and has taken it upon himself to look after Galio until his leg heals.


   “You should just leave me behind and go, I’m just slowing you down.” Says Galio to Treek who is tending the fire and setting up a makeshift spit. Fugo and Alia are nowhere to be seen.


   “And how exactly would you fare if we did that?” says Treek shaking his head.


   Galio looks away from Treek and towards the woods presumably in the direction Alia left the camp. “Do you think Alia’s really that angry at me because I’m slowing us down? I mean we are out here to save her father.”


   Treek sits down next to Galio, the spit set up with a huge haunch of boar meat on it, and starts rotating it slowly. “No, I doubt she really feels like that, it’s just that her father been taken by a creature thought to have gone extinct. Worse than that that same creature has a reputation for being capable of destroying entire civilizations. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that Alia’s doesn’t hate you she’s just really stressed. We should just try and console her and not get her mad at us.”


   Galio looks down at his wrapped and splinted leg, “I still can’t help but feel guilty. What if something happens to Kento because we don’t get there on time.”


   Treek looks up towards the thick layers of foliage above them, it’s too thick to see up to the sky above but not so thick that the time is a mystery to those within. “If there’s anyone who can live through something like this, it’s Kento. So don’t worry yourself, we’ll make it to wherever he is and we’re going to save him.”


   Galio looks away from treek and into the woods opposite him. “But what can I do, I can’t even fight, what good would I be against a dragon?”


   Treek looks over to Galio and then to the fire and rotates the boar haunch over to the other side before speaking, “You’re right you wouldn’t be much help against a dragon, but, after the battle, when everyone is battered and bleeding, that’s when you’ll be a hero, you’re the only one of us who can mix together herbs and berries and what not that’ll keep everyone alive, including Kento if he ends up injured. If you think about it you’re just as, if not more important, than the rest of us. because if we get hurt you can help heal us.”


   Gailo looks over to Treek whose focus hasn’t moved from the fire, “Thanks for the pep talk,it helps, but I can’t help but feel guilty.”


   “That’s to be expected, but you still can’t beat yourself up about it, alright.” With the last word Treek gave Galio a nudge with his elbow and the two proceeded to speak of other things.


***


   Fugo is walking quietly through the woods, obviously listening for something barely audible. As he walks through the nearly pitch black woods the sound becomes louder and more recognizable. It slowly became clear that the sound is sobbing, someone nearby is crying. Though finding them in the intense darkness of a Darkwoods night was proving quite difficult. Fugo reaches to his side with a paw and finds the two swords, pulling one from its scabbard, the area is lit up by a green flame. Now with light to aid him it only takes Fugo a moment to find the source of the sobbing. Fugo approaches the cloaked figure that keeps itself turned away from him and sits down quietly, after a few moments the figure is able to pull herself together.


   The figure turns her head toward Fugo just enough to be seen, “What do you want?” asks Alia sounding a little sorrowful.


   “I just wanted to make sure you’re alright. Do you want to talk about it?” asks Fugo as he rests his back against a tree.


   Alia turns away from him, “What do you mean?” she asks, keeping her voice low, nearly inaudible.


   “Well, what you said to Galio, the fact that your father's been taken, or just about anything else that’s troubling you. Whatever you want to talk about.”


   Alia pulls her legs up close to her body and wraps her arms around them, letting almost a minute pass before speaking, “I’m sorry Fugo.”


   “what for?”


   “You know what for.”


   “no, I don’t, you havn’t done anything to me worthy of apologizing for.”


   “Yes I have I made you guys come out here and...” Alia clearly intended on blaming herself for who knows what before Fugo cuts her off.


   “No, you didn't make anyone come out here, we came out hear of our own volition.”


   “But what happened to Galio...”


   “Also wasn’t your fault, he went looking for herbs alone and got hurt.”


   “But if I...”


   “But if you what? Would have woken up before he left. Would have woken up before he was attacked. If you go by that logic then I’m just as much to blame as you are.”


   “But you couldn’t have done anything.”


   “And neither could you.”


   Alia stops talking for a moment and looks down at the earth beneath her feet, “I... I guess you’re right, thanks Fugo.”


   Fugo stands up and puts his hand out to Alia, “Come on we should head back to camp before the others get worried.” Alia takes his hand with a smile, Fugo leads Alia almost all the way back to camp by the hand before letting go, neither of them say anything about it, not to each other and not to Treek or Galio. They just ignore that it happens.


   When Fugo and Alia get back to camp Treek and Galio are sitting next to each other eating and laughing from a joke one of them told. “So what have the two of you been doing alone in the woods for the last half n’ hour, hmm.” Treek calls out teasingly to them once he realizes there back. Galio tries his best to hold back a laugh after the comment but cannot suppress the giggles.


   “What’s going on with you guy... Ah crap, you didn’t.” Fugo quickly walks over to his bag and searches through it, he realizing something that Alia obviously hasn’t yet.


   “What, what did they do?” Asks Alia as she walks over to where she had laid her stuff out for the night and sits down.


   Fugo starts digging through his bag, “They... they took the bottle.” he thrusts his bag back into the dirt and quickly rushes over to Treek who is now rather poorly trying to hide something behind his back. “Give me the bottle Treek.”


   “I has no idea what you’re talking about.” Treek says, trying his best to hide the inevitable speech impediment that goes along with drinking far too much alcohol.


   “I know you have it Treek, so give it to me.”


   “Fine.” He says as he tries to make an annoyed face in his currently inebriated state. Fugo takes the bottle and walks back over to his portable bedding, a single cloth large enough for someone of his size to lay on comfortably, and after a quick glance tosses the empty bottle on to his bag.


   “They won't be up for traveling in the morning. Will they?” Asks Alia as Fugo takes a seat next to his bag.


   “No, they won’t.”


   “How could one bottle of ale have such an effect on them, and better yet, Why did pack that?”


   “I didn’t pack it Dwon always gets it into my bag when I’m not watching.”


   “Why?”


   “Well you see,” Fugo tries to explain whilst, to the best of his abilities, covering up his embarrassment, “I can’t really handle my drink well, and Dwon thinks that it’s funny for some reason.”


   Alia smiles trying to change the subject to something a little less embarrassing for Fugo, “Thanks for earlier.”


   Fugo lays back and starts to relax, “He who holds the weight of burden not for him, forever strikes the cold blade of informable steel.”


   “What?”


   “Something Dwon told me when when I was younger. If you blame yourself for something that’s not your fault then you can’t move forward, you're held back by guilt that should be on someone else's conscience not yours.”


   “How prophetic. Are you sure Dwon is just a simple blacksmith.”


   “Yeah, I’m sure he didn’t think of that himself, but it’s still true.”


   Alia gets up and starts for the spit over the fire. “Lets see if there’s anything on this thing that they didn’t burn shall we.” She says as she gestures to Fugo to follow her. Fugo follows her over and they both start talking, not about what’s going on now but about the past and about Windloom, for when darkness is all that is around us, our sanity suddenly becomes that much more valuable.


   The group spends the rest of the night laughing and talking. Though Treek and Galio have a little difficulty conversing with the rest of the group in their inebriated state. There is still lots of laughing and jokes thrown about, but through it all an air of worry can be felt. Something will change for this group soon, for what no one will know until it happens.