After the group meet up and the gathering of all the groups to talk about our plans we headed out - walking to our raid. We were upfront with the other leading groups we were taking up the whole road which was made out of smooth rock. No one really goes to the dungeon anymore saying it’s too cursed to even step foot outside of the outpost. I don’t know if that’s true or false so I kept myself quiet as the groups talked between themselves just above a whisper.

I was stuck in the middle of the party - almost fully hiding me from the peering eyes of others. Even though they already saw me beforehand - or maybe they didn’t. I don’t quite understand if they can even feel my presence when I’m near them. I would say they would have to look at me just to notice me - or maybe some people I just don’t know.

Even though the dungeon isn’t that far away it’s still a days walk - maybe longer with how many groups we have. Though there is almost always safety in numbers - we hoped at least. I kept my eyes plastered onto the path - staying within the middle of our groups as we went from easy smoothed out rock to a dirt path. Slowly looking up from my daze looking towards the trees that blocked out the harmful sun I blinked. The trees were barely alive - almost all of them had no leaves on their branches and the ones that did look like they are about to crumble apart.

The trees themselves look like they didn’t take a beating - but others looked like their bark was ripped off with huge holes where the wood should be within the tree missing, replaced with ash. I wonder if the bark protected the trees or the inside of the trees are already ash in some places. I shook the thought out of my head as we walked into a large clearing easily enough for our large group to set up camp with a little space between our camps which I figured is what will happen with the sun creeping down as it started to turn dark.

“We’ll be setting camp here,” Eli spoke loud enough for everyone to hear - before his group broke off as well as ours. I just quietly watched as the other set up camp in a timely manner - we could tell they are seasoned adventures based on how fast they can do something - especially how fluid their teamwork is. 

I slowly sat down onto the ash ground, moving my knees against my chest as I rested my chin on my knees staring at the group and quickly started a fire with the firewood they brought. Once they were done the sun was nowhere in sight - darkness making the dead forest look haunted. I ignored all the noises around me - as the group talked and made themselves dinner laughing between each other - similar noises echoing from other camps within the clearing.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

 It was the middle of the night, it was silent. No living animals making a noise, just the crackling of fires within each camp filling the night with noise. Only the night watch people were awake - well not counting me of course. They all forgot about me - which isn’t a bad thing. I was by the dead trees, holding a bottle of the stored blood quietly drinking.

From the look of things, we will be getting to the dungeon tomorrow, I have no idea if we are gonna camp another day before we go in or what they’re planning. They didn’t include me - which I don’t really care about hiding in the background is my new specialty. I let out a sigh, slipping the bottle into one of my inner pockets licking my lips before I felt a presence walking over towards me from behind. I didn’t move; the campsite was behind me so I’m guessing it’s one of the adventurers.

I looked over slowly as the person stopped beside me - to see the same strange girl from this morning.

“So this is where you were.” She spoke, though didn’t turn her eyes to me just staring up towards the stars. I frowned slightly before looking up to the night sky as well.

“I guess so,” I spoke simply, my tone of indifference infused with my words. She smiled looking over towards me as I as well looked towards her. My softly glowing purple eyes staring at her slightly discolored eyes.

“You aren’t human.” I put plainly, staring up at her emotionless. She giggled softly, leaning closer, right next to my ear.

“You aren’t either.” Her warm breath tickled my ear as I slightly backed away from her breath frowning. She seemed to frown moving closer to me once more.

“Why are you acting so shy?” She teased, a small playful smirk plastered on her face as she tried to wrap me up into her arms. 

Shy? I frowned slightly, backing up before I felt my back hitting a tree that was behind me. I stared up at her still as she still held her arms out trapping me from getting around her - well I could always duck but she will probably still catch me. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” I muttered, staring at her coldly.

“Ah! Why are you so cold?~” She teased again, before moving her hands down to her sides. She quickly leaned over, kissing my cheek before turning walking back to camp a giggle being heard as she quickly disappeared into the camp. I’m meanwhile standing there in shock - why would she do that? I felt my cheeks start to heat up before trying to shake the thought out of my head. She’s just weird - no meaning behind the kiss on my cheek.