The party walked down the road in silence. Not a word had been spoken as the five trudged along the deserted trading path that was leading them through the woods. It was afternoon now, and the group had not rested since the night they had spent at Menolly's. No one complained. They all knew that it would be days until they would make it to the next inhabited town, and the more ground they covered quickly, the better. Ray and Brandon were at the lead of the group, Lucy and Janet following just behind them, leaving Jason to trail along at the tail of the group alone.

He hasn't been the same, Janet thought to herself as she glanced over her shoulder to where Jason was shuffling along, his eyes cast down to the ground, since Menolly... Janet was still curious has to how Jason had realized Menolly had been a zombie. He never seemed suspicious of her, she pondered. Maybe there's more going on in his head then I've given him credit for.

Lucy glanced to her brother, catching his eye before nodding up to the sky. Brandon caught on to her silent comment and slowed his pace a bit.

"We'd better stop soon, try and find some food."

"Sounds like a plan." Ray sighed and glanced at the forest around them.

"Question is, where do we find some." Brandon stopped and tapped the hilt of his rapier lightly. The group had yet to run across any real animals on their journey, so hunting was out of the question, and there weren't any more fruit trees nearby that Brandon could spot.

"Let's just keep going..." Janet had her arms crossed in front of her and was glancing around uneasily. "Maybe we'll find something further along the trail."

Brandon and Ray exchanged glances before the windian nodded in agreement with Janet's suggestion. "Alright, if you think you're okay for a while." The party continued on down the trail once more in silence.

It had seemed like hours had passed and Lucy was about to question her brother once more on searching out food when Ray suddenly stopped and glanced around the woods curiously. Brandon gave the dragon a questioning look and started scanning the forest around them, wondering what the dragon was looking for.

"Wha-" The guard was stopped in the middle of his question by Ray shushing him with a quick gesture of his hand.

"I hear something..." The dragon continued to study the woods around them. "Sounds like running water."

The party listened. Sure enough they could just make out the quiet babbling sound of flowing water. Lucy and Janet's eyes lit up as they exchanged relieved glances, and Brandon motioned for the group to follow him as he took off in the direction of the sound. They had to leave the trail behind to find it, but eventually the group made their way to the creek that they had heard flowing quickly through the woods. Janet gave out a happy cry and fell to her knees in front of the water, submerging her hands into the clear liquid and splashing it on her face.

"It's so cold! It feels so nice!" Janet sighed out happily as she cupped her hands and dipped them into the water, bringing them back out to drink from the liquid that had been caught in their bowled shape. Lucy joined her friend a moment later.

Brandon was pacing up and down a small section of the creek, peering into it. The stream was deep, but not too deep, with a quick but weak current. The windian stopped his pacing to crouch down and stare intently into the flowing waters, his eyes scanning for any signs of movement in the liquid. "There's fish in here." He stood up and walked back over to the rest of the group. "Medium sized, they look like they could make us a good meal."

Ray nodded. "We don't have any fishing rods though, how are we going to catch anything?"

Brandon gave his reply by unsheathing his rapier and stepping up to the water's edge, holding his weapon firmly in his grasp as he scanning the stream. In a lightning quick movement, he plunged the rapier into the creek, the group caught sight as a few flickers of light seemed to scatter around under the water, causing the surface to boil with their movements. As the guard brought his weapon back up, his companions could see the speared fish writhing around on the end of it.

Ray nodded and whistled his appreciation for the windian's talent. "Alright then, you three," the dragon nodded to Lucy, Janet and Jason, "get some wood together and start up a fire. Brandon and I will take care of the fish catching part." The dragon unsheathed his long sword from where it was slung across his back and stepped up to the edge of the creek. Brandon slid the fish from his weapon and turned to spot out another likely victim from the water. The remaining three windians made themselves busy by searching out good wood and starting up a fire. In about twenty minutes the party had managed to get a good cooking fire going, Lucy and Janet were seated around it, slowly roasting a couple of fish that Brandon had managed to catch. Brandon, Ray and now Jason were all still down at the stream, working to snatch up a few more of the evasive creatures.

"Beginners luck," Brandon muttered to himself as he plunged his weapon at another fish, just missing it, "sometimes gives you a false confidence in what you're doing."

"You can say that again." Ray chuckled. The windian guard hadn't caught more then three fish in the past half an hour. The dragon had his sights set on a large dark form he could see moving under the water. With a quick motion, he plunged his sword into the water. It was the fourth time the dragon had caught something. Unfortunately, it was also the fourth time that what he caught wasn't a fish.

"Another boot?" Jason rolled his eyes. "My god! How many fucking boots do you plan on eating while we're out here?"

"Oh hush," the dragon reddened with embarrassment as he pulled the boot from his sword and tossed it into the pile that he had started up. "I don't see you doing any better."

"That's because I haven't started yet." Jason was seated next to the creek, tying on end of a lace that he had borrowed from one of Lucy's boots to the back of one of his arrows. He then wrapped the other end of the lace around his fore and middle finger and loaded the arrow into his crossbow. Standing up, the windian paced up to the creek and took aim at the water, his focus locking onto a flicker of movement and he shot. The arrow flew from the bow and dived into the water, stopping abruptly as it slammed into the bottom of the shallow part of the creek. Jason sat his crossbow down and pulled the projectile back out of the water, using the lace he had tied to it to retrieve the arrow. Dangling it just in front of the dragon's face, Jason motioned to the flopping fish that had been caught on the arrow's tip.

"That," he nodded to the fish before gazing up at Ray mockingly, "is not a boot." The red haired windian chuckled to himself as he made his way from the creek and over to the fire.

"Just ignore him," Brandon managed to spear another fish as he spoke to the dragon. "Jason's just out to get on somebody's nerves, and if it's not Janet's then it'll probably be yours."

Ray shrugged and attempted to catch another fish, finally succeeding as he pulled up the squirming creature. "At least he hasn't been as bad as he could be."

"True." Brandon wiped his rapier off in a patch of grass. "Come on, that's enough for now. If we need more we'll try and catch some more later."

The group was seated around the fire, eating their freshly caught meal. Janet had been doing her best to refrain from commenting about the whole grossness of the process of cleaning, gutting, and cooking the fish. She had been out on hunting trips with her father before, but generally did her best to worm her way from fishing trips with him. Lucy didn't seem as bothered by the process as Janet did. She had been busy helping her brother and Ray with most of the work. Jason was in charge of keeping the fire going and for cooking most of the fish. This resulted in a few charred pieces, but overall the meal was okay. The group put out the fire, washed down their meal with a drink from the stream, and continued on their way.

The rest of the day was uneventful, a nice change of pace for the party, and as evening turned to dusk they began to look for a place to camp for the night. The stream they had fished in earlier had been following the path of the trade road and the group decided to sleep near the water for the night, setting up their campfire and settling themselves down. As the world around them darkened, the party warmed themselves in the glow of the flames and they listened to the calming noise of the creek behind them.

"Are those birds I hear?" Lucy glanced around the dark woods that surrounded them. The group listened in wonder as the quiet sound of what seemed to be a type of chirping reached their ears.

"We haven't heard birds since we first left Windia..." Ray gave Brandon an uneasy look. The windian guard shrugged.

"Maybe it's a good sign. No demons around here to frighten off the wildlife." He placed another large stick on the fire and stretched his wings. "Come on, we all need to get some sleep. Another long day ahead of us tomorrow, so we'll need our rest."

"I'll watch the fire tonight," Jason said quietly. "Don't feel very tired..."

Brandon shrugged and nodded. "Alright, wake me if you need to." The group settled down around the fire and one by one slowly drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Jason was watching the flames flicker and dance in front of him absently, his mind trained on other things.

Other things like a girl named Menolly.

Jason shuddered as the girl's face came into view in his mind. It wasn't easy for him to forget what he had started to feel for the girl, and it was even harder to forget the look on her face when he had first aimed his crossbow at her. But she was a demon, he reminded himself, and I had to do it or she would have gotten Janet... Janet. Jason muttered to himself as he gazed over where the windian in question slept. The ungrateful Janet. Jason had saved her twice now, and she still seemed to hold some sort of grudge against him. I'll never understand that girl. Jason sighed to himself and poked at the fire with a long stick, watching the piece of wood catch flame before he tossed it in to the small inferno. So far during their trip, Jason had managed to get on Brandon's bad side, Lucy's ignore list, and even after multiple attempts, had still failed to earn any good favor from Janet. Add that to the fact that dragon boy's been my constant punching bag, and I'd say that I'm wandering around with a group full of people who would rather have me gone. Jason shrugged and tossed another stick on the fire. Oh well, could be worse. I could be stuck in Windia with Candi and Troy. That thought did little to improve his spirits. Jason rubbed his eyes. He was tired, but he was unable to sleep. Fucking insomnia. The windian wasn't able to close his eyes without getting the overpowering feeling that something was watching him. He had tried multiple times earlier to fall asleep, but had given up finally and just decided to suffer the night out. A glance around the rest of the group told him that the others didn't seem to be sleeping that well either. Janet was restless and kept tossing around in her sleep, Lucy was muttering some incoherent words, and Brandon seemed edgy and about to wake at the slightest noise. Even the dragon, who seemed to be sleeping soundlessly, didn't look all too relaxed. Jason was beginning to feel restless, and he stood up to stretch.

"Damn birds." He muttered quietly to himself as his ears once again picked up the noise of chittering and chirping that echoed from somewhere deeper in the forest. The noises had been off and on continuously for most of the night, and Jason was about to flame whatever feathered creature was out there making them. The windian rubbed his thumb over the tips of his fingers in irritation as he settled himself down by the fire again. Pulling his knees up under his chin, and wrapping his arms around his legs the windian closed his eyes and attempted to sleep again. Almost immediately he felt the hairs on the back of his neck prick up and a shudder ran down his back as the windian's eyes shot open and he looked around in the darkness outside the fire light's reach. Again he had had the feeling that something had been watching him.

Fucking paranoia. The windian rubbed his eyes. Why won't that stupid feeling go away? Jason threw another few sticks into the fire and watched the flames dance as the night wore on.