She didn't take the direct path to the cemetery. Instead she stayed in the midst of trees as much as possible, though she occasionally cast her eyes upwards to make sure no one was hiding in them waiting for her. When she found a decent sized cluster of trees she did a rough inventory. She had a small handful of gold, a decent amount of silver, and a lot of copper. She stashed some of it, mostly the more valuable pieces, in a squirrel hole in the tree, removed one of her socks, and put the bulkiest amount of money inside.

The cemetery wasn't far. She spotted it first, then a big jagged rock that protruded from the dirt. Sure enough, a campfire had been set. Two scruffy looking men, a small carriage, a lethargic-looking horse, a sleeping bear chained to a tree, and one captive half-elf. Dominic.

Fury built up inside her. As far as she could tell he was unharmed. He looked alert, eyeing the cut of meat roasting on the fire hungrily; there were no visible cuts or bruises on him, But how dare they kidnap him? How dare they scare her so badly? How dare they let him
go hungry?

They would pay.

They had picked an open area. No chance for a sneak attack but that was fine. She wanted them to know who was killing them and why. She grabbed her trusty spear in one hand, her sock full of money in the other, and stepped out into the clearing.

It took them a pathetically long time to notice her. Dominic was the first one to do so - he caught her eye, then maintained eye contact while shaking his head. Didi paused. Why would he gesture at her to leave – was there a trap somewhere? She pointed from one direction to another, casting Dominic questioning glances each time. Each time he shook his head, but each time she tried to advance he shook his head faster.

"Hey! Who are you!?" shouted one of the bandits, grabbing a sword from the ground. He'd noticed Dominic's head shaking.

She jangled the coins in the sock like he was a house pet she was trying to lure back with food. "I'm here for my brother!"

"Ha! So you are the little sister! And you actually brought the money! How sweet!"

"Some of it!" she called out at him. "You can have this bit when my brother's untied. Then, I'll tell you where I stashed the rest, and by the time you find it we'll be safe at home!" She might as well keep the lie up until they unbound Dominic.

To her confusion, both men started laughing. There was something more than crude in it, something... It reminded her of home somehow, but it wasn't like her mother... No, these men reminded her of her father.

Her father, who she barely knew. Her father, who her mother used like a bull for breeding. Her father, who had been chosen for that purpose for his strength, and brutality.

Both men rushed at her and she sprinted forward, her spear held straight out to deflect their weapons. She rushed through the center of them, causing them both to stumble a bit. They hadn't expected her to go past them, but her first aim was to free Dominic. She ripped the gag from his mouth first, then went behind him to get at his tied wrists.

"Get out of here!" Dominic said, as she sawed at the ropes–an awkward matter, with her spear. The bandits had already doubled back; she wouldn't have much time.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"I'm fine! Get out!"

She continued to saw, though the bandits were mere feet away. "Move your wrists apart more!"

He did, and she slashed away the last few tethers of the rope. Dominic sprang up just in time to get between the bandits and her, causing each man to divert their path, going around him separate ways to get to her. Dominic chased the one on her right. Her spear was enough to hold the other one at bay. Her eyes fell on Dominic–he was holding his own, but the bandit had a weapon, and Dominic's strongest spells needed a focus–his staff.

Where would they have kept it? The staff was only a piece of wood; it had no value to anyone but Dominic. But if she was lucky, these crooks wouldn't know that. Otherwise, the most likely place for it was the fire pit. But if they did think it was valuable–

There it was, in the carriage! She recognized the handle sticking out from between a pair of worn linen sacks. But the brief slip in attention cost her–her opponent's spear came at her face; she jumped backwards, inches from where it landed, only to find herself in range of the other man's sword. It slammed against her ribs, but didn't penetrate her armor. As the swordsman tried to swing it back up, the spear came towards her neck.

"Who taught you to aim, a plumber?" Didi asked, dodging. "I could fight better with a toilet plunger than you with that spear!" She infused the insult with magic, and the man flinched from the headache. Didi sprinted towards the carriage -

And stopped short as the chained-up bear, having awoken from the commotion, lunged towards her. Its chains stopped it from reaching her by inches. Didi ran around the carriage, approaching from the side away from the bear and the tree it was tied to. She climbed up the side, swiped the staff -

Braaar! The bear roared as it sprang up on its feet and pounced on the carriage, which snapped in two under the weight. Didi jumped backwards, dropping the staff, which rolled underneath.

"Hey! That bitch broke our carriage!" one of the men shouted. Dominic and his opponent had become distracted by the noise and were staring at the wreckage.

"Why would you chain up a bear next to your carriage? Moron!" shouted Didi, another magically-infused insult. Though, this one didn't affect the guy badly enough to distract him, and he kept charging at her. She drew her spear and ran at him, aiming for his eye. Just as she was near enough to reach him, he jumped sideways, out of her reach–and straight into the reach of the angered bear.

Its massive paw knocked the man off his feet. The man screamed. The bear roared and fell upon the prone man savagely. Whether it was attacking out of rage or hunger, Didi could not tell. But it didn't exactly refuse to swallow the mouthfuls of shredded flesh it tore off

The other man, to his credit, was brave enough to try to save his friend. He let out a loud battle cry and swung at the bear, who let go of its prey long enough to dodge the sword. The mauled man crawled on his hands the length of two paces, and collapsed. The still-standing bandit dropped his sword and ran to his friend, dragging him by the shoulders outside of the bear's reach, and shouted, without looking at Dominic or Didi, "We surrender! We surrender! Our life is in your hands! And he needs healing, now!"

Dominic picked up the standing man's sword and hit him in the neck with it. He collapsed on his dying friend and bled out.

"...So," said Didi. "Your staff is under the carriage."

Dominic looked at the carriage, and then at the bear, which was within mauling distance of the carriage.

"...I mean, it probably wouldn't be too hard to find a new staff," said Didi.

"No!" said Dominic, as though startled. "No, besides, they have a lot of money in that carriage. Here, gimme your spear–I'll take care of the bear."

Didi looked at her spear, and his outstretched hand, and then away, guiltily.

"What?" asked Dominic.

"...That bear has only helped us."

"...Uh. I don't think it ate that guy out of the goodness of its heart."

"I know, but... it must've been so scared! It's not its fault that those people captured it."

Dominic looked at his feet, too. "I've heard bear meat tastes pretty good."

"Eww! That would be like... second-hand canninalism!"

A pause. Dominic sighed. "You really don't wanna hurt that bear?"

"It wouldn't be fair. It's not its fault."

And besides, she already felt a tiny bit guilty about Dominic killing the bandit after he surrendered. Even though that had always been the plan. Even though they deserved it.

She didn't want to kill anything else right now.

"Look," she said. "I have an idea. If it doesn't work, I'll kill the bear myself. But that's gonna be the last resort."

The bear, which after having been roused, was lunging towards the two dead bandits, trying to break free of its restrains. Didi reached for the Weave, catching a few tendrils of magic in the wind. She found the notes of the wind, rustling the branches in a tree in the opposite direction of the carriage, and changed it into the buzzing of bees. From that sound, she focused her imagination and built the illusion of a beehive in the tree, dripping with honey.

The bear's ear twitched. It turned around and trotted towards the tree, stood upright, and pawed at the branches. The "hive" was just out of reach.

"Go, loot the carriage!" said Didi. "I don't know how long I can fool it. But don't worry, if it goes towards you, I'll handle it."

Dominic seemed less than pleased with that idea, but he ran towards the carriage anyway. He fumbled underneath, came out with the staff, then climbed into it from the top.

The bear growled at the hive in frustration.

"Hurry!" Didi said.

"I'm almost done!" A second later, he emerged from the top of the carriage, holding a velvet pouch which he used to carry his magical components. He whispered something and threw some sand onto the ground by the bear. The bear immediately lay down and fell asleep.

"Oh! Good idea!" said Didi. She lowered her spear and went over to the carriage.

"Be careful. I dunno how long that'll last," said Dominic. He ducked back into the carriage and re-emerged with a sack of coin, which he handed to her. Then he ducked back down and retrieved some things to carry for himself.

Didi took the bandit's sword and cut the sleeping bear's tether, and they went back the way they came, arms full of all the sacks they could carry.

"Are you okay?" Didi asked.

"Huh? I'm okay. ...Are you?"

"Of course I am! I'm not the one who got kidnapped."

A long pause. "I'm okay. I'm just hungry."

"I'll sneak you some extra food from the kitchen tonight!"

"No, we have money now! We can eat anything in Red Larch! I want to eat a whole chicken, and, like... five of those nut pies with cinnamon that that one lady sells."

"Okay. I'll get it for you," Didi said. She was tearing up, for some reason. "...Speaking of money, I have to go get the other half of the ransom I stashed in a tree."

He went with her as she went of the trail. "You actually brought money? Where'd you get it?"

"I stole it from Kaylessa's safe," she said, as she spotted the tree where it had been stashed.

"Oh." A long pause as she fished the bag from the tree hole. "It was nice knowing you."

"I'm going to give it back to her! I only took it in case we turned out to be way outnumbered."

Dominic said nothing. He was staring with a dead-eyed stare at a random tree stump.

"What?"

He looked at her again as if he'd forgotten she was there. "Look. Didi. You shouldn't put yourself in danger for me."

She rolled her eyes as they started back towards the trail. "So I should just let you get kidnapped?"

"Yes. I can take care of myself. If you hadn't come, I would've figured something out."

"Well, you're welcome," Didi said with a scoff.

"I'm serious!" said Dominic. "Those guys didn't want a ransom. They wanted you. I'm sorry – I didn't mean to let them know about you – they had me tied up, and they asked if I had any family, and I thought they'd kill me if I said no, so I mentioned you. And then they started talking about a ransom note, and I thought that was actually what they wanted so I told them where to find you–and then, by the time they started talking about the price of half-elf girls in the slave market it was too late."

"Is that why you kept telling me to get out?" She tilted her head at him. "Geez. I thought you meant I was about to step into a trap, or something. No need to freak out like that about ordinary creeps."

"You didn't hear the things they said!" Dominic said. "Those guys were really bad news. I just... couldn't stand it if anything happened to you." His fist curled tightly around his staff.

"...Yeah, well. Same to you. So if you don't want me to rescue you, don't get kidnapped."

Dominic said nothing.

"Hey," Didi said with a smirk, "how did you even get caught by those lowlifes in the first place? They weren't exactly skilled warriors."

As Didi had hoped, her teasing seemed to snap him out of it, and his blank expression turned to one of protest as he followed her back towards the town. "It wasn't my fault! They got me while I was asleep!"

"Why were you asleep?"

"Because I didn't want to go home and have to do chores after spending the whole night bounty hunting! So I just slept in a tree." His sentence had started out defensive, then faded into a regretful tone; Dominic seemed to realize as he spoke that this explanation just made him feel more foolish.

"What a foolish mistake! How shameful! And why were you sleeping? Learn to meditate! You are half an elf; act like it!" Didi said, in an exaggerated imitation of their mother's voice. Dominic tried to swat at her with his staff, but she easily dodged it and, grinning. She could tease Dominic about this for a long time.

Didi knew that she had, only a day ago, lost a fight with a similarly unskilled foe. Dominic didn't need to know that.

On the short walk back to town, they came up with a plan. They would stash the sacks of valuable items from the bandits in another hollow tree just outside town, to sneak out and retrieve at night. Then, Didi would casually walk through town, climb the apple tree and sneak into her bedroom through the window, and from there, sneak Kaylessa's stolen money back into the safe. In the meantime, Dominic would come limping dramatically into the lobby, causing a distraction. When Kaylessa called for Didi, she'd come running and pretend to be totally shocked.

All went according to plan. She snuck back in with only one person, the chef, spotting her through the window as she climbed the apple tree, and he just looked annoyed, not suspicious. She got the money back into the safe. She even added an extra gold piece. Interest. It was only fair.

And when Kaylessa hollered for her, she came running into the lobby, threw herself into Dominic's arms, and cried like a baby.

"Nice acting," he whispered to her in Elvish as he hugged her awkwardly.

Didi wasn't acting at all. But Dominic didn't need to know that, either.

Author's note: Fun fact, I have no idea how to write fight scenes. I don't pay any attention to them when I'm reading or watching movies. Sorry if the fight scene here is terrible; I did my best. 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. And any guess on who is the poet I'm stealing the chapter titles from? 

Question-of-the-chapter: Do you prefer to express your emotions, or hide them? Do you mask your more vulnerable emotions with humor, stoicism, or some other method?