The morning light filtered down through the thick canopy of the forest as a soft gray glow that pushed back the darkness of night, and Serian woke up slowly with her body still heavy from a deep healing sleep that she hadn't realized she needed so badly. The first thing she noticed was the smell of something cooking, a simple savory scent that drifted through the cool morning air and made her stomach rumble with a hunger she'd been ignoring for too long.
She pushed herself up with her back stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, dead leaves clinging to her clothes and hair as she blinked the sleep from her eyes and tried to orient herself. Across the clearing the fire was going again as a small steady blaze that pushed back the morning chill, thin tendrils of smoke rising up into the canopy, and Nox was there with his back to her, crouched over a small metal pot balanced on two rocks over the flames and stirring whatever was inside with a stick.
