“Nalin?” Robin said, running back to the river with hope bursting inside her. Sure enough, the dragon was now standing over the river just as it had last time, having walked out of the forest across the river. It was looking at Robin with curiosity and a spark of what seemed like happiness to Robin, but she wasn’t sure. “It is you!” she cheered. “I wanted to meet you again!” She raised her right hand in a small wave as a greeting. Nalin bowed down but didn’t stay still, instead stretching out one of his wings and touching the ground a little away from the water. Robin was confused as to why until something slipped down, using the wing almost like a slide to get to the ground. Robin hopped back from her original position right next to the makeshift slide, startled by the sudden appearance of a- “Is that a human?” Robin didn’t have any more time to ponder on it since what seemed to be a human now stood up right in front of Robin and leaned closer to her. It was clearly taller than her, looking down on her from its tall stature. Robin only stared into the familiar-looking eyes of the person. They were a dark shade of black, just like Robin’s own from what she knew. The person pulled back, giving Robin some room to breathe. “I never expected to see anyone like you around these parts. Nalin spoke highly of you.” By the voice Robin figured the person was male, but their appearance might have suggested otherwise. Now that Robin had time to actually look at the person that had been on the back of the dragon - Robin hadn’t seen them at all since she was all the way down on the ground -, they looked as if they could be either male or female with their mossy green hair reaching their shoulders, which could work for either, and the overall lack of any visible traits for either gender. The clothing was a comfortable leather coat reaching their knees, not that much unlike Robins. With a wild guess Robin decided to name him a male.
Robin was about to respond to the comment the other had made but paused when she caught sight of the sharp tips of his ears. “Are you a forest spirit, by any chance?” she asked, hopeful. The other nodded. “My name’s Slate,” he introduced himself. “I take it you’re a forest spirit too? I thought only one existed per every major forest. And they don’t usually parade around with human children so I’m confused. Care to explain a little?”
“Oh, of course. I’m not the spirit for this forest, I’m from another one. I’m just travelling with the two humans because I promised their father I would.”
“Their father, a human?” Slate countered with a raised eyebrow.
“Uh, yeah…” Robin admitted. “It’s a long story, believe me.” Slate shrugged. “Anyway, Nalin told me about you. Said you had antlers and everything. I didn’t believe him at first but here you are, in your full antler-y glory.”
“Don’t you have antlers?” Robin asked with a note of confusion in her voice.
“Nope. You’re alone on that, I’m afraid. Just a casual wood elf here,” the other spirit grumbled. “You would not believe how easily humans mistake me for an elf.”
“Hey, I’ve heard that one before! Rob called me an elf too.”
“Really? Even with your antlers clearly stating otherwise?” Slate asked in a joking manner. “Anyway, it’s real nice meeting you. I have only met one other forest spirit before and that was because the humans managed to- Uh, nevermind. Why are you here then? Well, you told me you were travelling but why? Aren’t you supposed to stay in your own forest?”
“Oh, yeah. It was kind of destroyed by humans,” Robin said nonchalantly. Slate snorted weakly at the answer. “Figures. They always have to ruin it don’t they?” He sounded a little angry, but Robin decided to not dwindle on it for long and change the subject instead. “Why’d you suddenly pop out of the woods?”
“I was watching you. I don’t think anyone but me has ever just waltzed into the bushes like you did so I kept an eye on you and Nalin wanted to come with. We saw you pick up one of Nalin’s scales-”
“So they were scales!”
“What?” Slate stared at Robin with a confused look.
“The humans call these riverstones for whatever reason. I don’t know why, it’s clear they’re not actually rocks. I guess they just don’t know what a dragon scale looks like.”
“Oh, I actually wanted to ask about that! I saw you pull out what looked like a purple scale, was it really another dragon scale? Where did you get it?” Slate looked excited. Robin really wasn’t that happy, having been reminded of Edhyr’s brutal death yet again. “Yeah, it’s real.” She pulled a scale out of the inner pocket again, not really caring which of the dozen she grabbed. They were all various shades of purple or blue anyway. Now that she was moving stuff in and out of her coat pockets, Robin decided to put the handful of plants still gripped by her fist into the pocket too, freeing both of her hands once again. Robin stretched her hand with one of the purple scales out to Slate. “An old friend of mine,” she gave as an explanation, not bothering or wanting to talk about it for long. Slate seemed to get the message. He took the single scale from Robin’s hand and looked at it closer. “You’re right, the shape is similar,” he muttered. Robin turned to the dragon still watching the two forest spirits. “Are you a river dragon?” she asked him. The dragon nodded curtly. Robin hummed. “My friend was a gem dragon,” she replied. Slate’s head snapped over to look at her. “A gem dragon? I heard those are really really rare! Oh, were they fully purple? I bet they were, the scales must have been stunning." Robin just nodded sadly, thinking of Edhyr’s amazing colouration. The purple fading into blue and twisting into red with white pulling everything together. She missed it.
“Hey, do you want to go flying on Nalin?” Slate suggested all of a sudden. Robin looked up at him with surprise. The male spirit was handing the purple scale back to Robin and was looking at her with joy. “I bet you’ll love it! Come on!” He pulled Robin along to climb onto the dragon’s back. Nalin chirped happily, a sound that Robin never thought a giant dragon could make, and already hopped into the air. Robin barely managed to hold onto Nalin’s scales - the tiny edges saved her from falling off. Slate just giggled and pointed at nearby trees and other structures. “That’s the oldest tree in the forest,” he said, pointing to a giant spruce tree. “That’s also where I usually sleep,” he continued, moving on to a cliffside just a bit further away from the city that was barely on the horizon. “There’s a cool tiny waterfall that way,” he said, gesturing downstream of the river and towards the cliff. “Hey, let’s have a look there!” Nalin headed over with a nod, the sound of wingflaps being both therapeutic and stressful for Robin. She hadn’t flown on a dragon since that one time with Edhyr, after all.
The waterfall was indeed tiny, only having a meter or two in height, but the splashing sounds it made were still pretty loud compared to its size. Nalin landed on the lower side of the small waterfall with a loud thump echoing around the vicinity and the ground shaking under the dragon’s feet. Robin feared that she might fall off but Slate held her securely in place. Nalin again stretched out a wing, allowing the two forest spirits to make it to the ground safely. Robin grunted in thanks when down on the grass. Slate headed right over to the water and touched it with his toe. “It’s sure cold,” he commented on the matter.
“What did you expect? Winter is almost here,” Robin shot back, expecting another snarky reply.
“Here goes-” And before she could even move to stop him, Slate had jumped into the freezing cold river. Robin ran after him with a yelp, stopping at the edge of the water. He surfaced not far away, being pushed downstream by the flow of the water he was in. “Robin? How did you get so far so fast?” he questioned, desperately trying to stay on the surface. “It’s much harder to swim when your legs are cramped!” he laughed. Robin could hear the fear in his voice.
“Sora-” Robin ran after Slate, looking around for a way to pull him back to solid ground. Nalin hurried ahead, his hops making the earth quake under his feet. Robin barely managed to stay upright with the ground shaking so hard, a dragon sure could make some noise. Nalin managed to fish Slate out of the freezing river. Robin ran up to them as fast as she could. “You absolute idiot!” she scolded, seeing the male spirit’s body shiver as he did his best to smile a dopey smile at Robin. He defended himself weakly through clattering teeth: “I didn’t know it would do that- I’ve never done that before- The air is never too cold so I thought-”
“You’re a forest spirit, not a river one! Of course you don’t feel the air cold! Nalin can’t feel the water cold, can he? But you’re just like humans in this retrospect! I can’t believe you. I thought you were supposed to be smart!” Robin ranted, throwing hands.
“I am!” Slate countered weakly. A second of silence passed with Robin glaring at the other. Nalin bowed down to nudge Slate a little bit. “I- Uh… Might need help?” Slate said awkwardly. With a deep sigh, Robin helped Slate get up and onto Nalin’s back with a couple minutes of teamwork from all three parties. Robin continued grumbling the whole time. “Now what?” she asked when they were finally on Nalin’s back. Slate was now able to move her legs independently, thank Sora, but Robin was still unhappy with him.
“Now we fly!” Slate declared. Robin sent him a glare. “Not in your condition we don’t. With those frozen fingers, you can’t hold onto anything and will fall right off. We’re walking to wherever it is we’re going,” she decided instead. Slate looked disappointed, but accepted the answer. “Let’s go to my tree then. I can make a fire for warmth if-”
“You better make a fire or I’ll set you on fire,” Robin muttered, loud enough for Slate to hear. The other spirit’s ears twitched. “Alright, we’re making a fire,” he said with a nervous laugh. Nalin started walking towards where Robin assumed Slate’s tree was carefully so as not to shake too much and result in either of the spirits falling off his back. Robin appreciated the gesture but didn’t say anything.
“Why’d you get so upset, Robin?” Slate teased to break the silence. “We’ve known each other only a day after all, why would you be so worried-”
“Shut up. You’re the only other forest spirit I’ve met and I’d like to talk to you more than just a couple of hours,” she growled in response, effectively shutting Slate up again. “You’re an idiot,” she added after a couple of seconds. Slate didn’t laugh or snort, instead deciding to look ahead at where they were going. Since the trees started getting lower and lower, the two spirits were forced to duck down so as to not be hit by branches on their way.
It didn’t take very long to arrive at a familiar tree that Robin had seen earlier when they were flying. It was indeed a big spruce tree and its branches stretched wide, covering the nearby area in shadows. The roots were big and reached quite far away on the surface. The tree had a wall made of sticks and leaves separated the corner from the rest of the world by one side. Robin assumed that was where Slate usually slept at night. She headed over and pulled the makeshift door-wall away a bit, revealing a small area between the roots. It was like a burrow, reaching some distance underground. Slate must have worked pretty hard to clear it of dirt and roots so he could have a safe place to sleep. Robin was impressed by the size of the small burrowlike structure - it could fit maybe up to three people! Robin spotted a small pile of items at the bottom, but had no time to investigate further since Slate had caught up, wobbling his way over to where Robin was, and was now pulling her away from the entrance to the small cave. “That’s private, alright?” he protested, quickly shutting the hole off again with the makeshift door-wall. “We’re fine out here.”
Robin shrugged. “I am fine wherever. Now, you said you’d make a fire so you best get started on that. I’ll go find you something to eat-” Robin was cut off by Slate.
“But I just ate a week ago! It’s fine!” he said with a nervous smile. Robin frowned and completed her sentence: “-so you can recover faster.” Robin walked off, leaving Slate along with Nalin to the small clearer area under the spruce tree.
As Robin walked around the vicinity, looking for plants and animals to eat, she thought about Slate’s nervousness at the mention of getting food. “Why was he so nervous about me going out to get food? Is he hiding something? Or does he just not want me walking around the forest alone? That certainly wasn’t an issue before.” She kept pondering on it as she explored. Robin managed to find an oak tree nearby. It had a couple last acorns from fall still attached to its branches, so Robin climbed up and swiftly retrieved a handful. She didn't need much, only enough to get some energy. With her handful of acorns, Robin walked right back to the spruce tree where Slate was sitting in wait next to the newly made fire. He looked up and Robin waved her hand in a fist where she was holding the acorns she had brought. “I got you a little snack. Here,” she said and opened her palm to Slate when she got closer. Slate took the acorns and threw one into his mouth. Robin could see that the chill was still in his bones from the freezing water even though the shivers were now gone.
With a sigh, Robin sat down on the ground next to Slate. Nalin had curled up around the big tree and was looking at the two spirits curiously. “So,” Robin started, looking for something to talk about in the silence. “How old are you?” Slate took a moment to swallow the remains of the acorn in her mouth before he replied: “About three hundred years now I think.”
“Three hundred?” Robin clarified. “Is this forest really that old?” she thought in confusion. Slate nodded. “What about you, Robin? How old are you? And what forest were you from, actually? You never specified it,” he said, staring into the small fire he had managed to make. “It was next to a town called Neoma.”
“Neoma? I heard about a big battle there years ago.”
“Yeah. Most of the forest was destroyed. And I slept through all of it,” Robin replied bitterly. “If only I had been awake-”
“What do you mean slept through? Do you sleep that deeply? I never do.”
“I’m not sure how exactly but one time I fell asleep from exhaustion and managed to sleep through eleven straight years,” Robin explained. “And in that eleven years, the battle happened. The part of the forest I was in was spared, but all the rest of it is now gone, cut or burnt down. I’ve had a distaste for fire mages since waking up.”
“And when did you wake up?” Slate asked, still curious. Robin sighed: “Just a month or so ago.”
“That really isn’t a long time-”
“I know. And I have to make up for the lost time and find a way to not fade away while I do so. I need to find a new forest that doesn’t have a spirit yet and is big enough to sustain one or start growing out my old forest, though it will take hundreds of years to reach the level where it was before.”
“But you could just share a forest with another spirit?” Slate suggested, turning to look at Robin, who just glared at the ground.
“No spirit would want to share their duty-”
“I would,” the other spirit interrupted, staring at Robin with his eyes shining. “I would totally let you stay here and help me out. The forest is quite big for one spirit to handle alone and a lot of humans come here since the city is right next to it. I’ve just barely managed to keep them from chopping it down, too. They really want to expand the city this way for some reason.” Robin stayed silent for a while as Slate kept talking. “Greedy bastards. The residents of the edge of the city sure don’t want to come here but the guys ruling the entire thing sure do! Bigger merchants looking for new land. Don’t make me laugh! They couldn’t even spot a squirrel if it was dangling from a tree in front of them! Pathetic fools,” he ranted, throwing hands and doing other angry gestures. Robin couldn’t really understand Slate’s anger directed at a certain type of humans but mentions of a squirrel reminded her of her remaining quest. “On the topic of squirrels, I actually have to kill one and bring it to the Adventurer’s Guild.”
“You- What?” Slate was confused. “Why would you bring a dead squirrel to the humans’ establishment?” Robin, understanding his confusion, pulled out the quest sheets from her coat’s outer pocket, handing the one mentioning squirrels over to Slate. “The kids I came with last time are both adventurers. I’m not exactly sure if there are any requirements to become one but I help them gain money by doing quests with them. Today they decided to take the day off and split up. I was left alone and decided to come to the forest. And while I was here, why not help out? So I took some quests as well.”
“So you’re helping human organisations with resource gathering?” Slate asked. Robin wasn’t sure if he was judging her or just curious. “Not exactly. I only got roped into it because of Anna and Rob. I have no need for human currency so I don’t do quests for personal gain. I just thought that if I’m already in the forest-”
“That’s nice of you, to help out those two children like that,” Slate replied, looking into the fire with a sad stare. Robin didn’t really know what else to say so she just muttered a thanks for the compliment. The two sat in silence. It appeared that Nalin found it boring as he decided to start nudging Robin toward Slate, who was just as bewildered by the dragon’s actions as Robin was. “Nalin, what are you doing?” he asked as Robin was forced to yet again stand up and walk a few steps away from the blue winged lizard, sending confused looks towards said lizard. Nalin just looked at Slate and bared his teeth. Robin found it odd that he wasn’t growling, just baring his teeth- “Wait.” “He’s smiling! Grinning! I didn’t know dragons could grin!” she exclaimed happily.
“Neither did I,” Slate agreed, astonished. “He’s never done that before.” The two spirits traded looks and glanced back at the dragon. In a silent agreement, Robin stood up and walked all the way to where Slate was sitting, only laying down on the ground next to the other spirit. Nalin grinned again and took a couple steps back, finally leaving Robin alone.
“I wonder why he wanted me to sit next to you,” Robin thought out loud. Slate agreed with a hum: “I wonder, too. Sometimes I forget that dragons are mythical and ancient creatures. You never know what’s going on in their head.”
“Indeed.” Robin and Slate spent a few more minutes in silence, both throwing looks at Nalin. The dragon was now lying under the giant tree with his eyes closed, resting. Slate was the one to slide a bit further away from Robin to make room for himself to lie down on the ground. “Forgive me, but I’m still tired from hopping into a freezing cold river,” he muttered as an excuse. Robin snorted. “Not that you hopped on your own volition, dummy. I’ll be going then.” Robin stood up, ready to leave. “If I see a squirrel on my way back, I’ll kill it, that alright with you?” she questioned just in case. Slate just nodded and then closed his eyes just as Nalin had, his palms coming up to cover his face from view. Robin lingered for a second to ponder about Slate’s odd pose for sleeping and then walked off to the direction she remembered the human city to be, keeping an eye out for squirrels. She wasn’t sure when she would make it and if the Sun would already have set by then so it would be easier to catch a squirrel early on without having to worry about it later and in the dark and strange forest.
☯
Robin entered the Adventurer’s Guild without a squirrel. She took a quick detour and posted the quest back on the board before she went to claim the rewards for the mayleafs and riverstone that she had collected in the forest. “I’d like to redeem two quest rewards," she declared to the worker behind the counter, who quickly dove for some sort of parchment scroll. “Adventurer name and quest name?” the woman asked her. Robin pulled out the handful of plants from her pocket and fiddled around a bit longer with the so-called riverstone which was actually a dragon scale. “Robin Woods, quests were for a riverstone and some mayleaf plants.”
“I see you’ve also taken on a quest for a squirrel, did you not manage to complete it?”
“No, I posted it back on the board for others to take. I couldn’t find any in the forest, hopefully others have better luck,” Robin explained quickly. The worker nodded and took a quill to cross out the squirrel quest from under Robin’s name. She took the plants and headed over to the scale propped up further behind the counter to check the amount. She came back and took the riverstone from the table also. “I’ll be back in a minute,” the worker said, heading somewhere to the back rooms to withdraw the total reward amount. Robin just stood around, waiting for the young woman to return.
She came back with a small fabric bag about the size of Robin’s palm. “Here you go! We hope you return!” she said, handing it to Robin. The spirit took the bag with a small nod. “Thanks.” She left without further communication with humans and headed over to the inn where Anna, Rob and her were staying at. She should probably also feed Poppy and Thunderbolt again. With her thought already lingering on the horses, Robin headed over to the public stable nearby. Carrots were sold on the spot, after all, she had no need to go to the marketplace.
The stable wasn’t big, but it looked enough to fit about eight horses, which was a considerable amount for a wooden shack of that magnitude. Poppy and Thunderbolt were assigned to rooms two and three, not that they were actual rooms, more like compartments. The whole thing cost five silver coins per every hour for a single horse, which Robin found rather expensive but Rob hadn't even broken a sweat when the price was announced. The stable itself was separate from the office and shop side of the business, which was where payments were exchanged. Robin headed to the small shop to get some carrots for the two horses.
It wasn’t a big shop, maybe the size of two regular market stalls. They sold all kinds of food for humans and horses alike and Robin was even tempted to buy some potatoes to make dinner from but decided against it after buying the carrots. The bag she was given at the Adventurer’s Guild held about 10, maybe 13 coins in total, with the majority of them being silver. Robin had no idea what the price ratio between the silver and golden coins was and so decided to not use up any golden ones in fear of being cheated. Robin paid a handsome six silver coins for two buckets of carrots. The shopkeeper was nice enough to offer help in getting the two buckets to the stables but Robin declined the offer as politely as she could. “No, I got this, thanks.” The shopkeeper looked between Robin’s tiny frame and the two carrot-filled buckets. “You sure? Those are pretty heavy.”
“I got this,” Robin repeated and lifted both buckets without much effort. She headed over to the stable with both her hands occupied with buckets. Thunderbolt and Poppy looked pretty excited in wait of a meal when Robin entered the stable. She put one bucket down in the hallway and started pulling carrots from the other one by one, reaching them over the gate keeping Thunderbolt in his own room. The horse took a bite out of the carrot greedily and in just a couple minutes the whole bucket was empty. Robin repeated the process with Poppy, though she was much calmer and pulled the whole carrot over the gate and to the floor before proceeding to eat it instead of biting off pieces. With two now empty buckets that didn’t weigh that much at all, Robin headed back to the shop to return them and maybe get a small snack. She left towards the inn with a green apple in her hand. Robin enjoyed the sunset colouring the sky a nice shade of pinkish orange.
The inn was pretty small, with the rooms being either singles or doubles. Anna wanted to get Robin her own room, but she refused and made it clear that they should buy one single room with two beds. Robin could handle herself on the floor by the window - she was used to sleeping on rough wooden surfaces anyway. Anna and Robin had no choice but to agree and so they had gotten a single room. The inn did offer breakfast, which Robin found handy since Anna and human Robin wouldn’t have to go out looking for food first thing in the morning. It had a small area where you could claim the food offered that day and the meals apparently changed every day according to the guy at the reception desk. Robin appreciated it since eating the same food every morning must be boring to humans. She herself wouldn’t have cared since she only ate once every couple of months to keep her heart beating at all - humans found it terrifying when what they thought was a dead body woke up from a nap casually. Robin had tried that out and she hadn’t particularly enjoyed the misunderstanding, though it might be a good way to avoid people disturbing her sleep - just play dead. She decided to see how long she could go until her skin changed to pure white and people started asking about it. “It’s an interesting experiment. How fun!” Technically she didn’t even have to eat at all. She only started to do so when she wandered to town the first time ever and people were utterly confused why a child that looked already dead was walking around the city. People had asked her when she had last eaten and were horrified when she said she didn’t remember ever eating at all. Robin snorted to herself as she remembered the people screaming that she was a demon. She was nowhere close to one! Now that she looked in her late teens and not like a seven-year-old human it might be a different reaction and Robin wanted to know what it would be. A little experiment from the sidelines! How entertaining.
Robin entered the inn, chuckling under her breath as continuously more hilarious interactions with humans popped into her mind. She continued chucking all the way to her room, attracting a couple odd looks from the receptionist and the people she came across in the hallway, but Robin didn’t mind. She just wanted to see if Anna or Rob was back by now, since it was getting darker and darker outside.
Robin was surprised to find the door to her room locked. A couple stronger tugs on the doorknob confirmed it - neither of the humans was yet back. “Who even has the key? Rob? Or Anna? Ah, Sora.” With small grumbles, Robin headed back outside. She should be able to find her own door’s window from the outside and she was pretty sure that Anna had left it open to air the room before they left in the morning. Robin walked right past the receptionist and outside a little bit before turning around to slide her gaze over all the windows on the second floor, where their room was. She found three open windows of all the around ten that there were in total, Robin was too lazy to count them all, it didn’t matter. She quickly ran through the journey to their own room in her mind from this perspective and determined the correct window. With a nod to herself complimenting her on her smarts, Robin crouched down in a stance, ready to jump up to the windowsill and hopefully climb in this way. She wasn’t going to wait for one of the kids to show up just to discover that the other had the key to the room! With a well-aimed hop, Robin managed to indeed reach high enough to grab a hold of the windowsill. A couple yells reached her ears, but she ignored the distractions in favor of reaching her goal.
Robin managed to pull herself up and through the window, which was propped up with a small haircomb and left just enough room for the forest spirit to fit through. She landed on the floor face first with a thump. With a small groan, Robin stood up and went to wait for the two humans on one of the beds. She could hear footsteps behind the door, passing their room entirely. Robin lied down in wait of footsteps that would stop at their door. To her delight, she only had to wait a couple more minutes until somebody started fiddling with the lock on the door. It opened with a small creak and all of Robin’s joy disappeared as fast as it had come - neither Anna or Rob was standing in the doorway. It was the receptionist!
“Can I help you?” Robin asked, sitting up on the bed she had been lying on. The receptionist looked at her from head to toe. “You came in through the window?” he asked. Robin just nodded with a confused stare. What was he getting at?
“So you broke in here?” Robin took a few seconds to actually realize what she was being accused of. “Oh, no! This is the room that I and my fellow adventurers took for a couple nights. They just haven’t arrived back yet and I didn’t have the key so I came in through the window instead of the door,” she explained hastily, trying to make sure that she was making sense to the receptionist. “May I see your adventurer certificate as proof of your identity?” he asked. Robin grabbed it from behind her ear with a nod and handed it over to the male human. “Come with me,” he continued and walked back out of the room. Robin followed, not really knowing why she was even doing so. The young man headed to the reception desk and fished a roll of parchment out from underneath the counter. He quickly read through it and checked Robin’s guild card as well. “Alright, you’re in the list. I’m sorry for the disturbance but security is a top priority for us!” he declared, handing the card back to Robin with a small bow. Robin gave a quick thanks and headed back to her room, not worrying about the locked door anymore since it had been unlocked by the receptionist boy. Robin headed back to the window and decided to close it now that it was getting colder outside. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of worry at the two humans. “What if they got hurt or lost? I’d have to go find them.” Robin sat on the bed for quite a while, waiting for either to come back. It got dark outside, the Sun having dropped below the horizon. The moon was beautiful as ever along with the stars, but due to the light from different windows in the town, Robin couldn’t see the small flashing lights in the sky all that well.
Robin was thinking way too hard about this. Both Anna and Robin were quite independent and had done just fine on adventures by themselves. They didn’t need a forest spirit worrying about them! Robin convinced herself they were fine. They had to be, right? “But what if something did happen? You’re just sitting here, useless, while one of them might be on the verge of death. Why else would they be out so late after sunset?” a voice in Robin’s head whispered. Robin was inclined to agree and a wave of panic washed over her. “What if they ARE in danger after all? What if-” Robin couldn’t overthink it any more because the door to the room creaked open. Robin jumped up and dashed over. To her joy, it was Anna! And Robin as well! Both of them had come back together! She probably hadn’t managed to hide her smile of pure joy since Rob gave her a funny look. “Why so happy? Missed us?” he teased. Robin cleared her face to be neutral again. “A little,” she admitted, looking at the wall next to the door. “Why were you gone for so long?” she questioned, voice stern. Anna walked into the room quickly, Robin following after her and closing the door behind him. “Well,” Anna started, “I lost track of time and only realized at sunset how late it was. I had no idea where either of you were so I went to check at the guildhouse. Neither of you were there so I decided to just come back on my own and meet you back here. I met Robin on the way,” she explained. Robin nodded. “It just took me a while to get back. I was all the way by the edge of the wall.”
“What is it that you wanted to try out?” Robin asked the human, actually curious to know why Robin spent so long by the wall and what he was doing. The male immediately got jumpy. “Well, uh… I wanted to see… Something. And I needed to try out some stuff-”
“What did you want to see?” Robin pushed. Anna nodded along enthusiastically. “What was it?” she added. The blond stayed quiet for a few seconds before muttering very quietly: “I wanted to see if it was climbable.”
“You wanted to what?” Robin asked to make sure she heard right. Anna just looked confused. “I couldn’t hear what you said,” she complained with a pout. “I wanted to see if it was climbable!” he repeated. Anna tilted her head to the side. “But why?”
“Because of security reasons. If it was indeed climbable, anybody could just climb over the wall and bypass all the security set up to protect everyone inside!”
“That is true but do you really think someone might be able to climb it so nobody else sees-” Robin said, mind already racing to think of the possibilities.
“During the nighttime, it is possible,” Rob argued. “I wanted to make sure everyone was safe!”
“So you, what, tried to climb the wall the whole day?” Robin asked. Rob didn’t reply. “Wait hold on, you actually did try to do that, didn’t you?” Robin continued with a snort. Anna joined in on the laughing too. Just the mental image of Rob repeatedly falling from a small height made Robin giggle. “Not funny!” Rob protested, waving his hands. “I did it to help!”
“Sure you did. And I did it to help the two of you,” Robin swiftly changed the topic and pulled out the small fabric bag given to her at the Adventurer’s Guild. Anna hurried to peek inside. “This is a good amount of money! Did you do quests?” she asked Robin upon her discovery. Robin nodded. “I managed to do two quests in the forest. And I also fed Poppy and Thunderbolt this evening. Now, have you two eaten?” Robin continued. Anna nodded whereas Rob shook his head shyly. “I didn’t think about that,” he admitted, head ducked low in embarrassment. Anna just giggled. “Well, I’m tired!” she declared. “I’m heading to bed!” Robin nodded along. “You do that. I’ll go find Rob some food. Actually, Rob, you can wait here with Anna. I’ll be right back.” Robin grabbed the bag of coins from the floor and swiftly exited the room before Rob could protest against being left alone with Anna.
Since it was already dark outside, Robin doubted any market stalls or shops were open anymore. The only place she figured would be were taverns, where humans went to socialize in the evenings. Robin wandered around town quite a bit before she found one. She cautiously opened a door and made sure nobody was near it before stepping inside the cramped room filled with the scent of alcohol and fried potatoes. Robin hurried to the counter, looking for an employee to order food from. She spotted one waitress-like girl walking around with a small tray, handing out drinks and set her steps that way. “Excuse me?” Robin asked politely. The girl looked her over before replying. “Aren’t you a tad bit young to be here this late?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Robin brushed the comment off - it wasn’t important right now. She was internally happy that she hadn’t even commented on her antlers at all. “I’d like some food, where can I order some?” With a small sigh, the waitress nodded. “What do you want? And make it quick.”
Robin had no actual idea what the tavern served other than the smell of roast potatoes in the air so that’s what she settled for. “A portion of roast potatoes, but could you give it to take with me? Kind of in a hurry.”
“So am I, kid. So am I,” the waitress muttered with another nod before walking off to where Robin assumed the kitchen was. Robin decided to spend her time near the counter in case she was called upon and stood by the wide table, thinking her own thoughts and ignoring the noise filling the room. The waitress returned a little while later and handed Robin a plate of roast potatoes. “That’s six silver coins and one gold coin for the plate. Bring back the plate and you’ll get your gold coin back,” she said in an uninterested voice. Robin handed over the payment and thanked the girl before heading back to the inn to give Rob his dinner.
