“Are you certain? If we just-”

“Absolutely not. Need I remind you what we’re hunting for? There is absolutely nothing you can say that would convince me splitting up is a good idea. You know why we can’t Friia.”

Giving a soft sigh she nodded to me before returning her gaze to the ground. “You’re right, you’re right. I do understand it’s not a perfect strategy but this forest is massive. We don’t have the luxury of time on our side.”

I returned her nod as I continued to help Volk set up our campsite. Passing him the cooking spit I turned to her and said “I know. But while it’s true we’re in a rush I’m not going to budge on this. This forest is notorious for praying on solitary travelers. I learned that the hard way on my first trip through when the caravan I was with decided to send a lone scout to find a decent sized place to rest. We never even found him; we found his bloody tattered clothes scattered among the trees.”

It was then Volk decided to interject. “As pleasant as that story was becoming, camp is set up. We need to discuss how this is going to work considering splitting up isn’t an option. In case you forgot there’s only three of us...if you don’t count the horse. And I don’t believe this is one of those situations where you count the horse.”

I held back a laugh before acknowledging him. “It unfortunately isn’t. Thankfully we won’t have to worry about anything happening to her.” I pulled a small bag from the wagon and showed it to my companions. “When we were still in town I stopped by the local church and picked up some talismans. As long as we place these in a circle around the camp, they’ll create a barrier to keep it safe.”

Friia tilted her head while looking into the bag. “Why can’t we just use these on ourselves then? If they can provide a barrier wouldn’t it be easier to carry one?”

Shaking my head as I began to place them I told her “These don’t work that way. Believe me, I asked for those as well. They didn’t have any available and it would have taken a few days to sanctify new ones. We didn’t have a few days so I just took what I could get.”

She sighed, rubbing one of her temples. “Why is it whenever we actually need something it’s never available?”

Volk cheerfully chimed in once the last talisman was placed and the barrier began to build. “Because if it was life would actually be easy. And there’s no such thing as an easy life.” He sat down on a log and kicked his feet out in front of him while pulling out his tome. “Maybe there’s something in here. But in case there isn’t, I would start planning what we’ll do.”

“Agreed.” Turning to Friia I pulled a map out from my satchel. “This is the most up to date map of this area I could find. It shows up to the border, but no one is ever willing to cross it to map out demon territory.”

Looking over my shoulder Friia said “Daniel where did you get this? Border maps aren’t cheap and I know I haven’t seen you stop into a cartographer’s shop.”

“Well that’s probably because I stole it.”

“Stole?! When?!”

Holding up a finger to ask for a moment while my hearing recovered I eventually said “Let me rephrase. I found it on an unconscious drunk after a bar fight and made the decision he no longer needed it.”

“Oh, I was wondering what you were stuffing in your bag! I knew you nabbed something other than the gold.” Although I was enjoying Volk’s presence, I could see we would need to have a discussion about what not to mention around who. For example: Friia.

“So you stole the gold too?! What else have you been taking?”

“Hold on now, I told you already that things outside of my control happened. A massive bar fight between drunken mercenaries was simply a part of that. It was agreed between Volk, the tavern staff and myself that they pay for the broken furniture and ruined atmosphere.”

Volk’s cackling didn’t help the situation as Friia’s hand met her face. She glared at me from in between her fingers before sighing and shaking her head. “We haven’t been accosted by an angry mob, so I suppose I can’t be too angry about it. And the map is genuinely helpful.”

“See? I knew you’d-” I was quite rudely interrupted by her finger being shoved in my face.

“That does not mean I’m forgetting about it. I’ll be keeping a close eye on you and telling Stephanie when we see her.” Ah yes, the joys of having your own personified moral compass. Especially one that goes and tattles to your more violent moral compass. “In any case let’s get a move on. I don’t like this place.”

“I was trying to work on a plan before you demanded exposition.” I pointed to an area of dense underbrush relatively close to where we had made camp. “This is probably our best bet at finding bloodroot. It’s fairly common in heavily wooded areas like this where bodies are easily hidden.”

Friia’s face paled a bit at my explanation. “Wait, bodies?”

“Well yes. How else did you think bloodroot grew? It’s a demonic vine that sustains itself on fresh corpses.”

I could see her hold back a gag as she pictured it in her mind. Even with how long I had known her it was easy to forget Elvenkind’s disdain for less than pleasant forms of death. Much as they preferred death to be beautiful and peaceful, that simply wasn’t how the world worked. Granted I was aware of the irony in her prowess as a warrior; a subject she avoids whenever I bring it up.

“Just keep an eye out. If Volk or I find it first we’ll be sure to tell you so you won’t have to look at it.”

“We will?” Volk looked up from his tome as Friia’s face somehow grew paler. Upon seeing my pointed look he nodded rapidly and gave her a grin. “We will, we definitely will.”

I shot him an appreciative glance before turning back to Friia. “Let’s go. Don’t think about it too much, and if you see a flash of red in the bushes just tell us. We’ll go about harvesting it.”

She smiled meekly as she nodded. “Thank you Daniel, I am truly grateful.”

Taking one last moment to get stock of our supplies, we stepped out of the barrier and into the eerie darkness of the forest that seemed to engulf us whole.