The Fateful Heart

Evaline was getting tired of the questions. He completely ruined her feelings of heroism and valor by interrogating her like this.

"Sure. That's a way to put it," she said, already letting the irritation seep into her voice. "It's close enough."

James hummed. He could feel like he was treading on thin ice, but he tried one more question.

"What would be a more exact explanation?" James asked.

"Things that are important to me!" she yelled out, letting the words fly out her mouth in the name of annoyance over his incessant questions when she had at least attempted to be somewhat vulnerable just a little bit ago.

She should feel more vulnerable just admitting that, but she couldn't right now. Somehow, James had exhausted that supply too.

"There? Are you happy?" she said through an exasperated sigh, running her hand through the roots of her hair out of habit and accidentally loosening the braid.

James stared at her, frozen for a moment as the volume of her voice echoed throughout the forest. At that moment, his mind split in two: one half was considering the implications of what she said, and one half worried that someone might've heard her. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he scanned the forest around them, subtly.

Things that were important to her. Important to her.

Well, not dying or not wanting to die seemed obvious. She herself had said it was her survival instinct. He could see how it'd kick in there. But he was still trying to wrap his head around what exactly happened that night by the fire, when they'd been looking at the stars.

She'd told him that she'd seen him die. But she'd also told him other things. That she'd seen a friend die, and that she always escaped death by using her power. Those things had stuck with him.

And then... well, he'd hugged her, and she'd begun to sob.

He could only imagine how hard it had been to say those truths out loud.

Of course that would be important...

"I'm sorry," he said slowly. "I didn't mean to force it out of you. I just wanted to understand."

Evaline briefly closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She blew up. It happens. But most of the time, the other person doesn't apologize and backtrack right away. It was hard to stay mad at James.

She sighed and looked back up at him. "It's okay. I'm just frustrated."

She took another deep breath in, trying to calm herself down.

"I have never had to explain it like this to someone before," she said, hoping this would detract him from asking more specifics of what she meant by things that are important to her. "No one has needed to know. Until, that is, you."

Did that make him the first person she'd ever explained it to? No, she had to have explained it at least a little. Maybe just not in that much detail?

"I'm sorry it's taking me a while to understand," James said softly. "Thank you. For explaining."

Well, now Evaline really couldn't stay mad at him. James was killing her anger with kindness and she didn't know how to feel about this.

She had to be a little more honest.

"You're probably still confused, and I can understand why. I'll have to explain some more things to you, but... not now."

She looked down at her hands pulling on the grass beside her. "I'm not ready to share that. Not yet. I just want you to accept that I'm going to try to look out for not just me, but you too. And you might remember it. And if you do end up remembering horrific things... I'm sorry. But I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen."

James nodded slowly and offered her a small smile. He was glad that she seemed to be a little more open, if not completely. It didn't seem like she was saying this out of frustration.

"That's okay," he said gently. "That you're not ready. And I'm glad you'll be looking out for me. It's mutual."

The edge of her mouth lifted just a little, but it was hard to smile after going through the whirlwind of emotions since starting the truth or dare game. She was mentally exhausted right now, and too tired to think through about how far this conversation had deviated from their lighthearted game.

"Yeah," she said softly, briefly meeting his eyes. "I know."

She could never forget how he pushed himself off Elliot just so she could safely get away.

"How about you get some rest," James suggested after a pause. "I'll take first watch. Besides... I'd rather have that pepper catch up to me while I'm awake than when I'm alseep."

Evaline gladly took the first shift sleeping. She thought she would have a tough time dozing off since it seemed that a lot happened in the past fifteen minutes and she now had so much to think about, but her mind felt fatigued and depleted, and she went to sleep rather quickly.

James woke her up a couple hours later to switch turns, and since then, she prepared for another uneventful night. The fire died out and he had cautioned her to let it stay that way since it wasn't cold, but she was getting bored. It was pitch black outside with only the twinkling stars above to provide a tiny shred of light and entertainment of the night.

Evaline was sitting next to the dead fire leaning up to the dirt wall to stare at the sky while lost in her thoughts and recovering emotions, when suddenly she heard a faint noise.

Her head snapped to the direction of the noise, but it didn't make a difference since she couldn't see anything around her. It sounded like a faint tracks and a slight rustle of a bush, and although a tiny part of her mind wanted to find this concerning, she dismissed it.

It was probably a rabbit or squirrel. The first night she kept watch after the incident with Butch, she would wake James up a few times over the smallest things, and each time, it was either a forest critter, the wind, or nothing. Although he assured her it was alright, she didn't want to bother him like this again. Plus, since he was a light sleeper, she figured he'd wake up anyways if there was something concerning at night.

So instead she stared ahead, still wary of what it would be since she didn't hear any noise after that, but stayed sitting without doing anything but rationalize the thought away.

Silence was all that followed for some time, and only the empty blackness of night stared back at her. It seemed like it really was just a rabbit... that is, until the faint shadow of a figure was standing over James's sleeping body.

Realization began to sink in when Evaline saw a faint shadow kneeling over James, and it was not one of a rabbit. She didn't know if this was a kid or another big creature, but she wasn't going to test the theory by asking.

"James, wake up!" she blurted through a panicked voice, leaning over across the ashes to furiously shake him and pull him towards her.

As Evaline lurched forward, the creature jumped back, and stood up to their full height - which wasn't very tall. Shorter than Evaline by a few inches. Their legs seemed a bit more stocky, and their ears looked like they were long, protruding out from the sides of their head and drooping downward. Their hair was big, bouncy and curly, and looked like it fell far past their shoulders.

James groaned faintly, but he wasn't very responsive. He seemed sluggish as he turned his shoulders with a sloth-like speed.

The shadow struck a match, and a small flame appeared in their palm. At first, there was a small stick acting as fuel, but it quickly faded, and the ball of flame simply hovered over their hand.

The fire lit up her face.

Despite being small in stature, this woman looked a bit older. Her skin was a deep green, and the canines of her top row of teeth jutted out over her lower lip. The whites of her eyes looked more yellow, and her irises were a vibrant green - catching the moonlight much like the eyes of a wolf. Her hair was dark and full, falling over her shoulders and around her face in tight ringlets.

She wore a hardened expression. Eyes squinting, looking down at Evaline. Evaluating.

"Your... person," she said hesitantly. She pronounced the words oddly, with an accent that couldn't quite be placed. "Wounded."

She looked Evaline up and down.

"Smells bad."

She shifted her weight and put her free hand on the hilt of what looked like a sword.

"Are you mages?"

Evaline usually wished for James to sleep deeply. She really did. But this was not one of those times.

She had shaken his shoulders and had bunched up the front of his shirt to pull him away in a panicked attempt to do something about the situation, but he only groaned and turned away.

And then the creature struck a match, and Evaline finally looked up to see who it was.

Not a person. Not an animal. A goblin.

At least, that was what she thought. She had to rely on James's past descriptions and the flickering light in the goblin's—her—hands. The green skin, the overbite, the yellow eyes—these were all descriptions of a goblin.

But James seemed to gloss over some important details. Namely, that the goblins can do fire magic and can speak the same language as them after all. Evaline should be feeling scared, but she couldn't help but feel more curious, especially since the goblin didn't seem aggressive.

She looked down at James then back at the goblin who seemed to notice that he was not only wounded but also smelly. Evaline certainly wasn't going to disagree with that.

She did disagree with the next words out of her mouth and the first sign of aggression, though.

"No," she said calmly, still holding on to James's shoulder and furiously pinching the back of his neck hoping it would wake him up. "We're not mages. We're only travelers passing through the land. We mean no harm."