Our first step in the forest is the loudest thing there. The sound of wind blowing through these oak trees is the only noise surrounding us. The oak trees practically hold us captive as we walk by them. While walking I notice that the ground has a sort of frozen winter similarity.

There is an uneasy silence. I look towards the bag covered by the cloak Markus wears. "Do you have anything to light our way in there in that bulky bag of yours?"

He lights up once I ask for his help. "I do, my friend!" He puts his hands onto the front of his cloak, about to yank it off until he hesitates.

"I need no judgment here, can you respect that?"

"Just hurry up, do you want to be eaten by something?"

He takes off the cloak, tossing it to the side and having the many things scattered on the sides of it clanging onto the ground. The first thing I notice is that one of his legs isn't real. He has a wooden leg, the wood looks rather worn. I'm absolutely surprised by this. He hits my jaw slightly with his palm and I don't have the energy to fight back.

"If you kept your mouth open longer, you might have caught a bug in there."

He rolls his eyes at me as he pulls out this small unlit torch from his bag. "If anyone can find a rock, we can light a fire and continue." The more and more I get to know Markus, I hate to admit it but he's tougher than I thought he was. The fact I never noticed he had a wooden leg has to be some kind of talent.

Lucifer grabs a rock and with brute force, quickly and roughly swipes the rock over the unlit torch. Within a second it's lit and Markus is holding fire. I'm in shock for the second time in the past few minutes and Markus enthusiastically waves the fire in the air as if he had just discovered it. "Lucifer is back at it again with his talented nature experience!" Lucifer scoffs slightly, but he has a small smile on his face. I won't call him out on that since I would like to keep my life today.

I see Markus continuing to stare at the flame for a long amount of time. I take the torch from his hand and hold it forward. "If you are just going to stare at it, I'm going to take it and lead." I walk forward, ignoring anything that is said behind me.

The wind has a cold fury around me the farther I walk. The torch the further and further I go is barely holding up, the flame ready to be taken out. I feel a sense of dread continuing, but I keep going. Every step gets more and more difficult, and I feel my feet getting frosted to the ground. The wind starts to feel sharp until suddenly the flame is out and everything has gone dark.

"If you have a weapon, take it out now!" I bark out an order, I hear a weapon unsheath behind me as I throw the unlit torch to the side. Suddenly, a flurry of ice is thrown into my face, I put up my arms in defense and it blocks the rest of it. With my arms up and my body taken to surprise, I ran forward. Running seemed to be much more complicated than expected. I hear the screech of the monster and I pull out my sword, plunging it into whatever's ahead of me.

An angered squeal is deafening, I must let go of my sword and clutch my ears. A bad mistake was made, feeling the creature's arm swing at me. Its touch is below freezing, and it throws me back. I feel myself struggling to breathe and I'm trying to process my surroundings.

I hear a guttural yell come from Lucifer as I hear him clash into whatever had attacked. I attempt to lift myself and join the battle, but my feet struggle to balance. I tremble and shake, stepping forward. I won't give up after one hit and I push myself from the ground and run forward again.

The beast is distracted from Lucifer, I climb up the body and feel around for the hilt of my sword. I feel the familiar leather wrapped around it and grip my weapon tightly. The beast makes a turn towards me as goo drips a little from the start of pulling my sword out.

I use my feet to prop onto the beast and I lunge myself back, pulling the sword with me. I go flying into the ground, head bashing onto the frozen dirt roughly. I'm not done yet though.

I use my sword to lift myself, I'm spitting out blood from my mouth, and my jaw must have been hit by the fall. I feel a hand press onto my side and I'm too weak to care who it is. I hazily look towards the hand, and it resonates a white glow. I hadn't noticed a wound there but I felt it quickly closing up and someone else's strength being pushed into my body.

I try to nudge it away slightly because I don't want to take someone else's health, they place it there again. "Stop being so damn stubborn and let me help you." The voice says and it sounds so damn familiar, I just can't put my mind to who exactly it is, I just feel dizzy and disoriented.

Once the wound is fully closed, the hand moves away and their body collapses into me. I finally processed who it was. Markus just used his strength and health to heal me, and I just let him do that for me. I mentally feel disappointed in myself and ashamed of my actions. He's now completely passed out and I check him quickly to see if he's still breathing. He is just taking a quick rest.

I lay him down gently on the ground, using his cloak to keep him warm. I'm doing this to pay him back for healing me, not for any other reason. I just owe him at this certain point in time. I'm killing this beast and then getting us all out of here. I'm not letting this newly found health go to waste. I feel a surge of energy coursing through me as I raise my sword to the sky and then point it again in the direction of the beast. "I shall pierce the heart of this beast," I utter out loud. "Whether or not it costs my life."

I go swinging, sword in a tight grip again and through the monster's body, presumably the heart, bullseye. Its final cry is made as a large thump sound is heard on the ground. Warmth is rushed into the area and the torch I tossed to the side is lit again. I quickly pick it up and rush myself to Lucifer. He barely has any wounds, surprisingly he is left unscathed. He grabs it from my hand and looks me over. "This thing roughed you up."

"Yeah, I should've been less careless, especially in the dark," I mutter, groaning slightly at the pain of talking.

"Here, take this." He passes me a potion. The bottle has a crack in its side, but not enough for anything to spill out. On the top is a small corkscrew, I pull it out and eye him. "These are expensive, how did you get your hands on these?"

"I have my ways, are you gonna drink it or not?"

I sniff at it, trying to sense a whiff of poison. It smells of cinnamon, I immediately feel the urge to throw it. "Why does this smell like cinnamon, what are you trying to hide in this?"

"I'm trying to hide the normal scent so I don't get it stolen from me." He tries to grab it from my hand. "Look, if you don't trust it, I can just give it to Markus when he wakes up. He sure as hell needs it too."

"No, I'll take it." I bring it to my lips and hesitate for a second. I consider this, do I want to risk the chance of poison in my system? I decided that it must be worth it to fuel my curiosity. The cinnamon scent doesn't affect the taste. Once I taste it on my tongue, I'm reminded of a peach. I was only able to access peaches in my young childhood so I feel a sort of nostalgic emotion. I pass it back after a sip, he pushes it right back into my hand. "All of it or else it's not going to work."

I eye him suspiciously. "If I didn't care about the consequences, I would assume you were trying to kill me."

I chug the whole thing, suddenly feeling nauseous afterward. The peach taste evaporates into nothing and my body feels replenished. The pain from the wounds gave a nice tingly warmth until they vanished.

"Do you feel yourself weakening at this exact moment?" He mocks me, I toss the bottle back at him hoping it would shatter on impact. It doesn't and he tucks it into his jacket. Lucifer looks away from me and goes closer to Markus. Markus is still unconscious, breathing softly, his chest lifting and lowering slowly with each breath. He looks peaceful in resting, so I assume that it didn't take too much out of him to heal me.

I still feel a form of guilt and a sort of regret for allowing him to heal me. It took a lot out of him and it had him pushing himself to a sort of breaking point. I would have been fine if not healed, so I wished he didn't assume I needed it.

I watch Lucifer lift Markus and sling him over his shoulder. Surprisingly, Markus doesn't wake up from this. He lays there like a ragdoll, occasionally snoring. I pursed my lips as Lucifer started walking away from me back in the direction of a tavern. I rush to catch up, wanting to make sure I'm not left behind. Since when did I depend on others' decisions?