Ash woke up, surprised he had even managed to sleep after the events of the night before. It was already daybreak and the snow that had covered the world in the night was almost gone.
The forest was green and bright, the birds singing in the sky every critter out on the move.
What had him more surprised was the fact that his elf companion did not wake him the way she usually did. The bodies of the beasts were no longer where they were the night before and that startled him.
"Elf lady?" Ash called out, his eyes scanning the tree branches above for any sign of her. But silence greeted him instead.
"Did she leave me?" His voice broke as he spoke and his heart fell into a cold pit. "It's all my fault."
He felt a hot slap on the back of his neck causing him to hiss out in pain. His skin burned hot from the impact. He turned back to see the elf standing there, her face looking more worn out than pale, her eyes had dark bags under them like she had not slept. Or she had cried all night.
A piece of black clothes tied over her shoulder wound the night before.
"Nothing here is your fault." She said coldly as she walked past him.
He caressed his neck gently, careful not to cause further pain for himself. "Why did you hit me, I could have lost my neck."
She scoffed at him. "You kept saying the same thing in your sleep over and over again."
Ash swallowed hard, then spoke. "Where were you?"
She glanced back at him over her shoulder, her eyes transfixed and angry. "I have no reason to answer your question but I will. I buried the poor creatures I sent back into the goddess' embrace."
"W—why?" Ash asked hesitantly.
She turned with a glare so sharp it made him feel insane for asking. "Why? We took their lives."
"And they would have taken ours?" He tried to defend himself.
"How is it that I look like a killer, but you speak like one." As she said this Ash quieted down and tried to avoid her gaze. "The burden of the lives we take are passed down to us, especially the innocent. I have appeased their souls by burying them and calling them into the goddess embrace, now you will handle the rest."
Ash took a step back and stared at her in confusion. "Do you want me to pray to your goddess to and ask for forgiveness?"
She walked up to him, slow and deliberate. The closer she got, the harder it was for him to breath. When she was face to face with him she handed him a small satchel.
"While scouting I found that they were not alone. It's yours to do with as you believe, show me you don't mean what you say." She turned around and left him.
Ash's gaze stared into the black abyss of the satchel, he could feel a small tug in his hands. A small white head of a white leopard pup turned and it's silver eyes locked on him, it's howled softly at him. His breath stopped for a second.
Ash watched it curl it's head and drift into a deep sleep. He noticed how defenceless and innocent it was, it looked like a tiny fur ball, nothing like the two beats that tried to kill him the night before. He reached down and grazed its fur, it was soft and smooth, the pup gave a low whine before turning it's head the other way.
Then the realisation dawned on him like dew on the morning grass, "We killed it's parents, and it was my fau-"
The elf hissed at him. "You're insufferable. Let's get moving, the bandits are still in the area."
"There's no way I can take care of it, why don't you keep it?" He asked as he walked swiftly after her.
"Not a fan of furries." She replied coldly. "Oh and here's breakfast."
She handed him a berry which he inspected poorly. He could see her devouring from a full bunch.
"You have got to be kidding me." He groaned.
She spoke without looking his way. "The day before you tried to choke yourself with an apple, an action that almost succeeded. So today I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry."
His stomach grumbled, "I mean, we could've at least honored the leopards by not letting their meat go to waste, right?"
She let the grape bunch slip from her fingers as she turned around sharply. One hand pinning Ash into the against a tree trunk and another taking out his blade and pressing it on the surface of his neck.
It happened so fast that it took his body seconds to process what was going on, and seconds more to react.
"Those wolves were not killed for food but for protection. They died in cold blood, without having a purpose to serve. I don't know if this is how all humans act but don't talk so casually about the dead next time."
Ash nodded, more afraid of the blade by his neck that her. "I'm sorry if I over stepped my boundaries."
She pulled back and safely secured her blade by her hip, "You can have the whole grape, it's not to my taste anymore."
Ash had almost fainted from the fear alone, he sighed heavily and acquired the grape bunch from the ground. Elves were much different from what he had been told.