"Shane's clearly hiding something."

"He'll tell us when the time is right. Whatever he's hiding must be personal."

"Aren't we all?"

- - -

-Meilin-

They have been travelling for day which seemed to go by slowly. The days then slowly turned into weeks then more weeks as they kept on walking to the north. Every step they took seemed to get much colder and closer to the north. So far, they haven't had any problems with any Conquerors yet.

It was already turning dark and they were all preparing a camp to stay for the night.

As Meilin helped set up the tents along with the others, Abeke the spoke, "So Conor. Out of curiosity, do you have a Spirit Animal?"

"Um no..." Conor's voice trailed off and he began to look uneasy as he avoided eye contact.

"Do I have to point out that obvious lie?" The thief said flatly, earning a glance from Conor.

"We can pretty much tell that it's a lie," Meilin replied then glanced at Conor suspiciously, "What i'm curious about is why you lied. Why lie about a Spirit Animal?"

Conor met her gaze and his hardened as he narrowed his eyes, "My Spirit Animal is none of your concern."

"Well, if we're going to trust each other and work as a team, I think we'll have to know," Abeke spoke up, "Anyways, why should you keep a Spirit Animal a secret?"

Conor hesitated, then looked away, "I just can't talk about my Spirit Animal. I...I promised my brother that."

"Well, he's not lying at that part," Roll mumbled, "Though that didn't really make sense..."

Conor only shrugged, "Does everything really make sense?"

No one answered as they went on fixing their tents. It turned night and they soon were fast asleep.

- - -

"Meilin..." she heard a familiar voice trail of and she turned around to find her father, laying on the ground as blood started to pour out from a wound on his chest.

"Father!" Meilin exclaimed as she darted to his side and dropped to her knees.

"Meilin...listen..." he coughed out more blood but struggled to form the words, "You...You can't..."

"You can't what?" Meilin asked, watching her father helplessly, feeling his pain as he coughed out each agonizing word.

"You can't...trust...everyone...," he coughed some more before speaking in a raspy voice, "Trust the...right...side...change..."

"Father?" She asked, trying desperately to shake him back awake, "Father!"

She already knew once he had uttered the last words, his body had already went limp, the light in his eyes disappeared, the life had drained out of his body.

Meilin jolted awake, feeling warm tears from her eyes. She looked around before recognizing that she was in her tent. It was just a nightmare, it wasn't real...except for the part where her father died.

She heard rustling coming from outside her tent and she turned to see a shadow of a figure just outside the tent, the fire still cackling. The shadow had moved quickly and was quickly disappearing. She then grabbed her staff then slowly crept out of her tent. She glanced around before quickly following after the figure, still hearing the shuffling of footsteps.

She moved quickly but quietly as she tried not to make as much noise as she followed the sound of crunching footsteps. She tightened her grip on her staff as she neared the sounds. She could hear another sound, the sound of a gentle stream that seemed to be nearby.

Meilin turned just in time to see a bush ahead of her waving wildly, the figure disappearing into it as the crunching stopped. She braced herself, tightening her grip before slowly stepping through the bush. She took a deep breath before darting out the other side and was about to hit the person when she stopped herself just in time.

Roll spun around and his eyes widened with shock. That quickly changed as he glared at her, "What are you doing?"

"What are you doing?" Meilin asked him suspiciously.

"What does it look like i'm doing?" He exclaimed.

"Escaping?" Meilin replied flatly.

Roll let out a humorless laugh, "Of course that's what you're always thinking. I'll go back and betray you all."

"Aren't you?" Meilin snapped, "Just go back to your master and those murderers and destroy the rest of Erdas.

"First of all, I have nothing against Erdas," he defended, "Second, I don't want to go back to those 'murderers' for the rest of my life."

She felt slightly confused yet slightly suspicious, "Then why join them if you didn't want to?"

"Because I had no choice," Roll exclaimed angrily, "I was just doing what I usually do until I got dragged into this mess I can't escape..."

"You escaped with that shepherd," Meilin pointed out flatly, "And you're trying to escape just now."

"Thief's instinct I suppose," he joked weakly and Meilin remembered their first conversation when teasing Devin with his cat instincts.

Why would he be joking at a time like this? She thought, slightly annoyed.

The thief sighed, "Look, i'm not trying to escape. I just...need some fresh air for a bit."

"Right. So you went deep into the forest to a stream," Meilin said, still suspicious whether or not to trust a thief.

He shot her an annoyed look before smirking mischievously, "And of course you would know that, considering you stalked me deep into the forest to a stream.'"

Meilin scoffed, "I did not stalk you."

"Yeah, right," Roll said sarcastically, then added teasingly, "That's all everyone's been doing to me back in Concorba. Everyone's been chasing after me cause they just can't help-"

"You know what? I'm getting tired," Meilin interrupted as she started walking back but stopped just to tell him one last thing, "We'll see if you'll keep your word about escaping."

"Someone's got some trust issues," Roll joked, shaking his head.

Meilin paused, wincing as he said that, "Who can I trust when there's a war that's going on? Greencloaks who claimed they know about these talismans? Redcloaks I've never heard of that are mysteriously helping us? A thief who helped my father's killer?"

She heard no reply as she made her way back. She remembered her father's words from her earlier nightmare.

"Trust the...right...side..."

- - -

So, there's some Reilin here (well, I tried to) but it didn't end up well. On the bright side, at least they're talking, right?

Comment down below cause I need your help.

Shanbeke?

or

Conbeke?

Vote, comment, and follow! Stay tuned for the next chapter!