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The Borderland Forest
First light
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For as exhausting as the day had been, Reide did not rest at all. And neither did Miss Andreya, he noticed, but unlike him, she at least bothered to pretend.

The beginnings of sunrise filtered through the mist just after the gentle wails of the leafbody birds echoed through the treetops. Reide pondered at the clouded sky with his arms behind his head and sat up when Andreya rustled. She emerged first from under the few layers of blankets he and Stasen had scrounged together as a mess of still-knotted dark hair, followed with a silent breath by the rest of the woman who owned it. Reide's brows raised.

"So you are not a ghoul, after all," he said.

As the lady yawned and shirked her blankets and adjusted her many foreign skirts from her spot beside the campfire embers, she cast him a raised brow of her own.

"You look much more like a lady than a ghoul in the daylight." And a pretty one at that. Reide shrugged nonchalantly. "Also, if Stasen and I had shared camp with a ghoul, we likely would not still be here, which, fortunately for us, we are."

"You have not forgotten I am still a ghoul of a different breed, yes, Mister Hafiless?" She continued her raised brow as she stood and shook out her bedding, and Reide chuckled.

"I don't count immortals as monsters, Miss Andreya. And, please, call me Reide."

Another rustle sounded from under Stasen's branch shelter, which he had built to include the other two but had ended up using alone. "Just because the sky isn't pitch black doesn't mean it's daylight. And daylight doesn't mean you can talk as loudly as you want, either."

"Well it worked, didn't it?" Reide said. "Not only are you awake now, it's light enough you can't go back to sleep, so you'll have to help me clean up camp."

Granted, cleaning camp really only consisted of putting out the embers of the fire, but the man still grumbled a fair amount in leaving his bed of leaves. When that was done, the three of them collected their things and began their trek back through the forest going the way opposite the one from which Andreya had come. Following behind the two hunters, she carried nothing but her aching ankles and her bloodied sheet, which she still held tight around her arms like a sad attempt at a shawl. She couldn't help but wonder what she was getting into.

"Where are we headed again?" She hopped over a root and Reide glanced over his shoulder.

"Stasen's going to head back to the rest of the hunting teams to report our lack of findings while I escort you to a town named Feledir, where we can find a spiritist to answer your questions. Once we're out of the forest, though, we'll be in Isantad proper, which means you'll need to cover your hair and get some different clothes so long as we're near the border."

Oh. Andreya had nearly forgotten her country was more than unpopular with its neighbors. And had been for a long time, so her people had a distinctly Nasavtean look to them, too. She peered down at her fine dress, muddied and torn, and at the detestable rag she'd stolen from the mortuary and decided to wrap around herself. Even if she did not look so Nasavtean, she would still stick out horribly with her zombie-like appearance.

The Borderland Forest, as Torr had called it, was much larger than Andreya was originally anticipating. It was nigh midday when they finally reached the end of it, the sun bearing down on their party from directly above and heating Andreya's hair as she emerged from the trees and stepped straight out onto a gravel road crossing next to the forest. Looking in wonder to either side, the road spanned for miles, branching off and connecting to towns she could hear in the distance past more trees and hills and a beautifully populous landscape.

She yelped when Torr tossed something at her. She held it out to see what it was—his full-length coat—before casting him a confused look.

"Put it on and cover your hair," he said. "People will stare if you use that bloodied blanket."

"People?" She stood only a moment with the jacket before jumping again when Reide snatched it from behind her and pulled it over her hair himself. She swiveled to face the uncouth young man and stopped mid-reprimand when she spotted a carriage rattling their way from down the road, several people sitting atop its benches. Their chatter swept by on the breeze a second later and Andreya glanced again at Reide, who sported a charming smile and dipped his head as the horses clopped past, several of the carriage passengers returning the gestures as they went. Andreya watched them come, and pass, and retreat, still standing on the side of the road like a lost animal.

"Well I, for one, don't feel like sitting here all day," Torr said, garnering Andreya's attention again as he started after the carriage. "Enjoy the day off, Reide, Little Miss. I'm going to work. Invite me back for the wedding."

"Don't make our helping her sound illegal," Reide called back, and Andreya caught something like a tsk from him before he turned to her with a much friendlier look. "Shall we be off? Feledir is a ways from here, so we should stop by a town nearby for supplies."

He held out his hand to her, a common custom of guiding others for the Isantadi people. For Andreya, however, taking his hand could mean anything from a gesture of brotherly camaraderie to, most commonly, an offer of courtship.

Andreya's stomach fluttered in a way she did not like and heat flushed from her neck to the tips of her ears. She had not done anything of this sort in years. And certainly never with anyone but the Radenbutan brothers as a child or those who wished for the title she held.

She placed her hand in his—camaraderie, surely—and ignored the thrum in her traitorous chest.

"Your hand is surprisingly warm." The man raised a brow and she nearly yanked her fingers away. Her other hand clutched her corset as if she could not breathe properly, although the garment was still loose enough to sleep in.

"Yours is surprisingly callous." Her voice let on nothing, as always, of her mood. She tensed when he let out a deep laugh.

"My living is as an archer, Miss Andreya, that is not surprising at all."

Andreya blinked several times at the man. He looked at home beside the hills and the gravel road, among the trees and the spritely towns. He had a way with his smile that scared her. It was a different smile than she had ever received at home, and he gave it so easily.

She turned her gaze to the ground, avoiding the scenes around the two of them in lieu of an intent focus on the pebbles they crunched underfoot. The sun at her back cast a stark shadow beneath her. In that reflection, she almost appeared normal. She almost appeared as if she belonged here like him, smiling and joking and working alongside others.

In her shadow, she almost appeared alive.

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The next time Andreya raised her eyes, it was to a lively Isantadi town, the gates not far ahead the only thing separating her and Reide from bustling streets and crowded shops and music on instruments she had never heard.

"Your new family name is Lenestrie," Reide told her as they approached, "and your first name is Dreya, if anyone asks. And try smiling, the most harm it will do is make you look happy."

First he offered to hold hands, now he wanted her to grin. She would look the part of a clown if she continued this way. She huffed as they approached the gate. She also acted as if the sudden presence of so many people did not bother her.

The gatekeeper seemed to know Reide as they stepped up to each other, their small talk nearly familial. The gatekeeper, Kaudwik Radenbutan if he were blond and friendly, motioned behind Reide to Andreya after a moment of discussing the weather. His smile was teasing but entirely unwelcome when directed at her. "Who's this little lady, Reide?"

Reide half-turned enough to flash the same charismatic smile he'd shown the people earlier before replying, "She's a friend of my brother's from the Mixed District. We've come a ways. Suggest any shops for food and new traveling clothes?"

Andreya stood as the interaction played out, hands folded in front of her and hood still drawn over her hair. Chest still tight, lips still pressed together. When the gatekeeper allowed them in, Reide chuckled at the man's joke and offered his hand again to Andreya, this time most likely so she would not get lost in the street.

It was not as difficult to accept this time, his palm feeling more like an anchor than the crash of the waves, and he tugged her along through the gate with a quick farewell bidding to the guard there. As soon as her bare feet touched on the cobble street, the fact that she had not been among people in years became apparent. Lots of foreign villagers lounged in front of shops and darted through the square, children tugging on their mothers' skirts, couples strolling by, groups young and old meandering, talking, laughing. Andreya had half the mind to freeze up or jet all the way back to the woods.

But the warm hand holding hers pulled her close before she drew blood from biting her lip and Reide dipped near the side of her hood so she could hear above the noise.

"Welcome to Esdantenella, Miss Dreya."

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Pronto, peoples! Any predictions, critiques, thoughts? I'd love to hear them! Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed this chapter and check out more from the ONC!

P.S. Running wordcount: 9,517  ;O