"Us three, on an adventure!" Markus exclaims as we walk out of the tavern, the sun beading on our faces, I shield my eyes slightly as I feel a slight headache forming. Perhaps I should have drank less. "Our group is back together, ready to save the day and make some gold!"

"You know, I could have been making a lot more by now," I state, rubbing my temples and practically begging in my head for Markus to lose the major energy.

"Oh lay off it." Lucifer whispers to me, "let him have his fun."

I sigh and watch Markus practically disappear ahead of us. He seems excited to be heading to his doom. I hate to admit it, but it's sort of endearing.

"I'll leave it alone for now." I whisper back, "if he gets too much I will be hitting him in the throat."

"Noted," Lucifer now eyes Markus, probably hoping for him to not push it too far. Markus turns back towards me and I see him moving his hair to cover his ears. He keeps doing that constantly which makes me feel, something I also hate to admit, empathetic.

"You don't need to cover your ears," I say quietly to him, and his smile instantly drops. "We both know, and it must not be fun to worry about it."

"Don't push it," Markus states, before turning away from me and then putting on his happy-go-lucky attitude. I start to think about this, why is he putting this fake personality out? I often can't tell when someone is feeling a certain way but he is hiding some type of anger. I'm not going to bring this any further. I scoff loudly and let it go, observing the two of them for the time being.

Lucifer is keeping an eye on Markus as well. He has a fond look in his eyes but I won't call him out on this. Both of them need to toughen up if we want to get these ingredients in time. Perhaps I should have told them the deadline.

I keep my hand resting on the hilt of my sword, rubbing my thumb against the top. I don't like how I've been acting recently. I feel like I've been more carefree and not worrying about the consequences of everything around us. I have started to care about their impersonation of me and that's something I should painfully avoid with every opportunity I have. As I said, they both need to toughen up, but so do I.

My train of thought is interrupted by the lack of noise up front. I look ahead at both of them to see we have stepped into the forest from where we had fled after the battle silent once again. We now can see what's surrounding us upon stepping near the tall worn down oak trees. The sun isn't as bright as where we were in front of the tavern. Instead, it makes the forest glimmer in this yellow light as if attempting to trance us to come in.

The last monster isn't there anymore, otherwise, we would be surrounded by darkness. I am clueless as to what that was. I had never fought anything like that, and the temporary blindness it had given left me clueless to an answer.

I step in front of them and start walking forward. I ignore any complaints towards me as I stride forward. I feel my shoulder being grabbed though and I angrily turn back, shoving what grabbed me off. "What did I say about laying your hands on..." I drone off into silence, realizing what was touching me wasn't them. The tongue of the frog is swinging back in the direction it shot from.

All of us stare at what we had just seen in shock. In sync, we all immediately take out the weapons we have. Lucifer pulls out his expensive dagger, I pull out my sword by the hilt, and Markus pulls out a slingshot. I look at Markus in disbelief. "You haven't seen me fight with it yet, just wait." He says with a smug undertone. "How is this going to help us right now?" I whine, he scoops up some rocks from the ground and starts aiming."Gonna get that eye before you, are you just scared of losing?"

I practically punch him after this, how dare he try to compete with me? I start getting ready to respond to him until Lucifer chips in. "Do you both think that this is the main problem we have at the moment?"

"I suppose not," I admit as I look back to where the tongue had come from. If we head that way and do a surprise attack we can have an advantage over the creature. I slowly head that way, stepping on my toes to attempt less noise. I realize the farther we head that way, the harder it is to step forward. I suppose I should have prepared for the now-existent mud but I also didn't expect the sudden change. I start to realize that the mud is starting to get deeper and deeper, and my stamina is draining little by little the deeper I go.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm stuck," Markus shouts. I'm about to comment on this but I realize the same is happening. I feel myself starting to panic slightly, but I try to keep it in. "Lucifer, how about you?" I say in a rush as I try to yank myself out. "Same goes for me." He states while with his paws he is scooping up mud and chucking it with his hands.

I try to squirm my way out of it but I feel it rushing faster. "Everyone stay still!" Markus shouts out, and both Lucifer and I stop moving. I notice how we start sinking slower now. "This is a trap spell cast on the mud. It's similar to quicksand, except it's only to immobilize us, not to kill us." I processed this, it had a large number of signs for being quicksand, I don't understand how I didn't realize. "Just stay still," Markus commands, and I for once listen to his demands.

Lucifer lifts his dagger into the air as his chest starts to be covered in mud. I should have done that, but now me and my sword are stuck in the mud. Markus has his slingshot stuck in the mud, but he stays completely still. We play the waiting game right into the monster's hands. Once we are completely submerged until our heads are the only things peeking out, it finally stops. I listen in for a croak or anything, but there is now this silence as we wait. I'm worried to do anything more or otherwise, I might lose my ability to breathe.

The silence is interrupted by the thumping of the frogs' webbed feet slapping on the mud. It hops over to us, every hop shaking the ground around us. I feel my breath hitch as I look at the size of this beast. It almost towers over the trees and it must be as wide as the two king-sized beds at the tavern. The frog has three large eyes, each eye attempting to follow my slight head adjustments. We are at a clear disadvantage. I look over to Lucifer, pleading with my eyes to just chuck the weapon at the creature. He doesn't make that move in the right amount of time, the creature's tongue shoots out and immediately wraps around the weapon.

It's a tug-of-war game between Lucifer and the frog. Lucifer attempts to pull it with all his might, but I see his head lowering into the mud. "Lucifer let go of the dagger!" I shout and he immediately does once hearing my yell. His dagger goes flying into the ground behind the frog, absorbed slowly by the newly placed mud. I feel a sort of panic developing within me.

My eyes glance at Lucifer for some sort of reassurance but I don't get that. Instead, his face shows an acceptance of our fate, but it also shows fear. It's the first time I've seen the look of terror on him and I feel so uneasy knowing that even the most composed of us isn't confident of our survival. He barely seems to be processing any of us, only focusing on the frog.

I look towards Markus for maybe some false optimism, but he seems to keep his head lifted into the sky. I can't read his face, instead, I can hear his breathing loud and clear. It sounds sharp and jagged and it has similarities to someone hyperventilating. I don't want to die just yet. I'm not ready for this certain fate. If I die I want to at least end on my terms. "Markus, please can you just look at me?" I beg as I feel the frog getting closer. Markus turns his head towards me quickly, and I see the sheer panic in his eyes and I feel a pang of extreme guilt.

"We are going to be fine." I attempt to reassure him, but is it to comfort him or myself? It feels like a desperate plea for mercy. I'm looking directly at Markus, and he's looking at me, practically seeing right through me. I feel my heart rate pounding a mile a minute as the frog gets closer.

"I'm sorry I can't keep us safe," Markus states with tears brimming in his eyes. And I feel myself shaking. What he said brought up emotions I don't remember having bundled up in me. This is something I would say to the small animals found in my childhood, this is what I would plead to my ethereal being above. I want to scream until my lungs cannot function. I get a feeling of nausea and my head is swirling.

"Count with me, okay?" I whisper and plead to Markus, he smiles slightly at my attempt to comfort him. I think we both understand our fate here and we have finally accepted it.

"One," Markus says along with me, I pray to Ether that our death is painless.

"Two," the frog is so close, I close my eyes and clench them. I feel like a child again, begging for a better fate.

"And three," Someone shouts from behind us.

I swing my head around so quickly it gives me whiplash. I cannot see the person who shouted this, but an arrow goes flying in the air and I feel it rush past me. I watch it fly in the air, directly into the frog's third eye. With a loud cry from the creature, the mud that we had sunk into quickly vanished. With that advantage given, I yanked my sword out as fast as I can and throw myself at the beast. I ignored the tingling feeling from my limbs.

My sword goes plunging into the heart of the beast, the frog is swinging their body around in an attempt to throw me but I hang on for dear life. I watch as the longer I grip my sword, the more life starts to fade from the creature's eyes. The beast's thrashing slows down after a moment until it stops moving completely.

Lucifer runs over to his dagger, limping slightly from our bodies being put into a state of slumber. The tingling is gone from me completely, instead, I am clean of blood and the frogs' blood. It seemed to evaporate once the frog had passed away. All that remains of the creature are the eye of the beast, which has an arrow sticking out of it.

The arrowhead is made of obsidian stone, with my eyes wandering up I notice the shaft is made of worn-down wood, and the fletching weaves of a black crow's feathers stick out unevenly. "I can feel some sort of magical essence coming from that, be careful," Markus states from behind me and I jump slightly in response.

With Markus, I feel stuck in a certain vulnerable situation. I revealed a certain panic I had never shown before to anyone besides my father. The life-or-death situation scared me. I was an open book, and he was rereading every single page.

Being stuck in the same environment I was a part of really seemed to take a toll on him, he seems so frail and brittle. I hate how easily he changes the feelings I have directed toward him. At one second I cannot handle him and I would hate to be around him any longer, and at other moments I simply feel bad for him. I don't like feeling bad for others, and I don't want to worry about someone else's well-being.

I attempt to shake Markus out of my head and go to think about who had spoken and shot that arrow. I didn't recognize that voice, no familiarity. I also wonder if that person would have saved us if I hadn't been loud enough for anyone to hear.

I look at Markus and watch him nervously pick at his hands as he composes himself. "Can we not speak about how I acted?" He asks me, and I nod. "As long as you keep quiet about me comforting you."

"Deal," he says as he grabs my hand and shakes it. I let him go through with it, but after he finishes shaking my hand with great enthusiasm, I flip him over my shoulder and slam him to the ground.

"Yeah, that's fair." He groans from the ground and he laughs. Before I know it I'm laughing with him. We laugh together out of the happiness of surviving, we laugh for the life we could have lost. I hold my hand out for him. "Don't take this personally," I mumble, as his eyes practically light up. He grabs my hand and lifts himself, before immediately letting go in fear of being thrown to the ground for a second time.

Lucifer stalks over to us, holding his dagger. He still hasn't put away the thing, probably worried he might lose it again. He gestures at the giant frog eye with the arrow sticking out of it. "So, who wants to hold onto it?"

Markus immediately offers himself up with excitement. I cringe slightly at him, he gives me a confused glance. "What? I've never held a giant frog eye before! I want to also check out the craftsmanship on that arrow. If it's good I can make some money from it."

"Go for it then," I say as exasperated as I can push out. He quickly rushes over to the location of the eye and yanks the arrow out. I flinch away, expecting it to gush blood everywhere, but instead, nothing comes out. That's incredibly odd for that to happen, some form of fluid should be rushing out of the open wound.

"That's weird shouldn't it be-" suddenly, a bunch of greenish goo from the wound rushes into his face. I crack up at this like it's the funniest thing to exist, falling onto the ground with a boisterous laugh. Lucifer is chuckling while Markus sets down the arrow and pulls out a sort of ragged cloth from his cloak.

"Very funny," he says bitterly as he scrubs his face with the cloth in his right hand. With his left hand, he holds out the eye away from him. I snatch it from his hand and inspect it myself. It bled a large amount but for such a short point of time, yet it shouldn't even contain that much in the first place.

I pass it to Lucifer as he looks at it. "Do you think it's enchanted?" Lucifer questions and Markus nods. "I can sense some form of magic from it, but not directly from the eye." Lucifer passes the eye back to Markus and he inspects it closer. He fidgets with it and I resist the urge to gag.

"Oh, I know what it is!" He declares, holding it closer to us. I take a closer peak and so does Lucifer. "You see the outline from where the arrow pierced it?" Inspecting it, I see a slight purple glow. "That arrow had a spell cast on it that helps to preserve dead bodies. Or in our case, a dead frog's eye."

"So, that person who shot the arrow is helping us out?" Lucifer says, now messing with his dagger. "I don't think they are helping us out as you both think," I say, they both look toward me and Markus has a look of offense. "They just saved our lives, what do you mean?"

"I mean, how did they know we needed an eye?" I'm pondering this as I start to pace slightly. It's a good question to be asking, we hadn't told anyone else about our quest, so who exactly went out of their way to help us?

"I think you are overthinking it, I mean it is odd but why would we refuse help."

"I suppose you are right then."

Markus nudges Lucifer, and I start to realize how silent he has been recently. "Hey, how are you holding up?" Lucifer does a small flinch that could go unnoticed if I wasn't paying attention to his mannerisms. He pushes Markus away slightly and he still has that look of distress plastered on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." His breathing as he inhales slightly is rather shaky and I'm now feeling a weird sense of concern for him. "I just need a second to myself, I'll be back in a bit." Tremoring, he turns away from us and starts walking farther away, practically sprinting. I look towards Markus for some answer but I only get a confused look.

"I'll talk to him," I announce, ready to head off until Markus moves so he stands in front of me. "I suggest giving him space." I watch Lucifer's moving body head farther and farther away and I eye Markus's face, it convinces me to stop. "This is extremely out of character though, isn't it?" I question, just wanting answers for everything I've been approached with. "It is extremely odd but I wouldn't doubt that reaction coming from him."

I raise a brow, "elaborate." Markus's face slightly pales. "Perhaps I said too much! let's head back to the tavern." He tries to run off, but I lift him from the back of his cloak. "No Markus, explain your cryptic message," I say threateningly, he audibly gulps and nervously smiles at me. "I will if you just set me down!"

I place Markus down but keep my hold on him tight with no room to worm out of it. "You know him better than I do, so I suggest you spill it before I leave you here." Markus now seems stressed, he kicks at the ground that has now been removed from any mud. I wonder where it had gone, when the frog had been finished off the mud quickly vanished away and went away with it. "I can't believe you are forcing me to tell you this." He sounds a little angry with me, and his tone is a little aggressive.

"Lucifer had a wife, a lovely dwarf I had the pleasure of talking to. She was like the sun to his moon." He sounds poetic at this point, I suppose there is a proper reason for it since he is reciting Lucifer's secret, but he doesn't have to be so dramatic with it.

"One of the family members of his assassination job wasn't happy with losing their sibling. They took revenge on everyone they knew was involved." He looks down with a sorrowful look. "In the wake of night, Lucifer was forcefully awoken to see his wife held at dagger point."

I decided to interrupt and speak up. "When you say dagger, do you mean that Lucifer's dagger now is.."

"Yes, Lucifer's dagger is the one that killed his wife." Markus seems greatly dejected. "Lucifer had tried to fight the person holding his wife, but it was too late. She was stabbed in a vital point of her body." Markus makes eye contact with me again. "Before Lucifer could get the person, they were gone with the wind. Lucifer held his wife close as she begged him to spare her life instead of letting her go out like this. She begged him to be the person who ended her life instead of her bleeding out to death."

"So did Lucifer do it?" I question in shock, I'm surprised to be learning this. "He had no other choice, he yanked out the dagger from the vital point in her body, and told her to count with him as he swung it, just like you had done with me in the fear of dying."

My hands are shaking again. I let go of Markus to sit down on the ground and push my hands into my lap. "I must have reminded him of something extremely hard for him. How do you even know this full story?" I question, now feeling slightly skeptical.

"Because the sick person who had done it was stupid enough to brag about it to me."

My eyes widen and my breath hitches. "You mean?"

"Yes, the person was a friend of mine and a friend of Lucifer's. Safe to say after learning he did that and him bragging about it, I fought him and took his life in anger for my grieving friend." Markus' eyes are watering, he chokes up slightly at his next sentence. "The man begged me to spare his life and told me it was for revenge but I was too furious that I killed him."

Markus has tears running down his face. Once acknowledging these certain tears the hood of his cloak is lifted so I can't see his face. "I had never murdered someone before, especially a past friend of mine." He sits on the ground across from me, holding his hands in a praying position, he seems about to go into prayer to beg for forgiveness but he stops and separates his hands. "Am I a bad person Nashi? Am I cold-blooded for doing something like that? I never told Lucifer that I killed him, I hid his body and kept it a secret." Markus now starts pleading with me, "Please just tell me I'm not a bad person."

I'm just about stunned into silence. I never thought I would be put into a situation where I'm comforting Markus as he cries next to me. I suppose I need to be a bigger person now. "No Markus, you might have let your anger take control but that doesn't make you a bad person. To be honest, I would have reacted in the same way you did."

"You would, wouldn't you?" He says, wiping his tears and chuckling. I feel slightly offended, but I bite back on my remark. "I can tell you feel uncomfortable with this. I'll cut it out."

"Wait Markus," I say, grabbing onto him before he stands up. "Yes?" His tone questions me, and I feel myself choke back on my words. "Don't get too upset, it makes it hard to focus in battle," I say, and I feel myself mentally face-palming at that. That isn't what I wanted to say in the slightest.

"Yeah, you are right." He shakes my hand off of him and I realize how tightly I held onto his cloak. "Thanks, I suppose for the advice."

"No problem," once he fully is up, he starts dusting himself off. I lift myself from the ground and wipe at myself to get any smudged dirt off of myself. I hear footsteps approaching us and I just about grab my sword in reflex. I immediately realize Lucifer is approaching again.

"I'm sorry for how I behaved. This was completely unprofessional of me." He says, looking directly toward me. I assume Markus has seen him react this way before so it wouldn't make sense for him to be receiving the apology.

"Sometimes we need to step away from situations so you don't need to be apologizing to me." I clarify, and I see a fond look pointed at me. Was I too sappy recently? I suppose it couldn't be helped after hearing about his past.

"I'm proud of you." He says suddenly, and I feel my heart practically stop. "You are what?" I choke out, keeping eye contact with him and looking over every feature of him I can notice. "You showed self-improvement in such little time, and I'm proud." He chuckles, before turning away from me. I don't understand the feeling that's rushing into me, is it pride? I want that fond look pointed at me again. I'm reminded of a past with another fatherly figure and I feel slight tears prickle at the corners of my eyes.

I immediately wipe it away and step in front of them both again, "So, how about we recollect ourselves at the tavern and get ready for the second part of the quest?" Lucifer doesn't react but Markus nods at me, digging into his cloak for I assume the map again.

His hands pull out the map, but it looks destroyed, the map is torn apart and in pieces. "I guess the mud left one little present before vanishing." He grumbles, holding what is remaining and trying to piece them together.

"Well I believe that means we have to head to the market, we can recollect ourselves there," Lucifer says, and I see Markus pretty hesitant about that idea. "I mean, I suppose we can, but wouldn't it be more fun to make one ourselves?" He questions and I groan loudly. "No Markus, it wouldn't be fun in any way, especially since we don't know every single area around us. I'm up for heading to the market."

"So, are we in agreement for the market?" Lucifer questions, I nod to this and wait for Markus to respond. He awkwardly nods and tucks the ripped-up map back into his cloak. "I'm not paying for the map though if we do go."

"I'll pay for it," I complain, pulling out my satchel to count the gold I have on me. "Markus, give me back the rest of my gold."

"Oh come on!"