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	“This is taking too long!” the White Knight growled, letting his end of the deerdrin drop.
	Elayra, her bow strung over her back, hissed as the full weight of the beast fell to her, making her release her end of the carcass. The beast’s body fell with a [i]thud[/i], making a plume of dirt and long since decayed leaves puff up around it.
	“Forget the animal.” His neck and head twitched in a violent tick. “We won’t have time to skin it, anyway.” Drust turned from Elayra, and stepped slowly away, not bothering to look back.
	“[i]What?[/i]” Elayra stared at him. He stopped, his back still to her. “This thing’ll feed us for days, and you want to just [i]leave[/i] it?”
	Drust turned to face her, his nose and mouth lifted in an irritated sneer. “And I was worried you’d started losing your hearing. Come on.” He turned back around to face the twisting, dilapidated trees of the forest. “Fall behind, and I’ll add an extra two hours to your training tonight. Freestyle. No mercy.”
	Fear crossed her gray gaze, but she hid it with a quick roll of her eyes. “We both know I’d win,” she said firmly.
	Drust cast her a smirk over his shoulder, his head twitching again. Elayra’s brows furrowed in concern. Though a common occurrence, it had been ages since she recalled seeing that tick occur in so close of a succession.
 	“Make me wait; we’ll find out.” With that, he sprinted through the trees on agile feet. 
	Elayra groaned. She cast the carcass a quick glance, then, grumbling to herself about leaving it behind and Drust’s orders, jumped over the corpse, and ran after the White Knight.

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	The jagged entrance to a cave yawned in the wall of a natural, wide trench. A few dry roots dangled over it, concealing part of the top of the narrow opening. Elayra stood a couple paces behind Drust, watching him retrieve a torch hidden among a pile of branches with another twitch.
	Holding the torch in one hand, he waved the other over its top. A spark flickered hesitantly. For a moment, Elayra thought it would go out, but the torch caught.
	Without a word, Drust ducked into the cave, Elayra at his heels. The cave was a small, oblong shape made of a substance somewhere between dirt and stone. Near the rear, Drust placed the torch in a small hole carved into the dirt-stone, his head giving yet another twitch, then stepped closer to the wall, the torchlight casting eerie shadows over his face.
	He inhaled, muttered something under his breath, and extended a flat palm toward the cave wall. Nothing happened.
	“Blast it!” Drust shouted, his face distorting angrily. The black lines at the corners of his eyes pulsated and expanded fractionally over his skin. He balled his hand into a fist.
	“Hey!” Elayra hurried to his side and gripped his wrist as he moved to punch the wall. She ducked nimbly out of the way as he spun and swung his other fist at her, twisting free of her grasp. “What’s [i]wrong[/i] with you today?” She stepped back and quickly removed her bow from her, tossing it aside. She held her fists in front of her defensively as he came at her. She blocked and bobbed out of the path of a couple other well-formed punches, before she tried to tackle him to the ground.
	Drust stumbled back, but did not fall. Instead, he used her momentum to toss her to the tight-packed ground.
	She turned onto her back as he tried to jump on top of her. Before he landed, Elayra gripped one of his arms and kicked at his stomach, knocking him to the side. Without releasing her hold, she rolled atop him, gripping his other arm and sitting on his stomach, pinning his snarling form to the ground.
	“Whatever’s going on,” Elayra began, her voice harsh and eyes searching his for any sign the Curse’s flair up would recede. The black-veined red now consumed even his pupils, leaving only the whites of his eyes. “We’ll deal with it together. Including the stupid wall. Like always.”
	His chest heaving with infuriated breaths, Drust returned her stare with a wild gaze. Slowly, his breathing slowed, and his muscles relaxed slightly beneath her. He nodded.
	“Good.” She returned his nod.
	The moment her hold slackened, in the blink of an eye, he twisted his hands, one gripping her wrist to push her away and the other breaking free to pull at her elbow and force her weight off-balance, sending her once more to the cave floor beside him. Before she could retaliate, Drust sprung up. Trapping one of her wrists, he straddled her midsection, and firmly gripped her throat, preventing her from raising her head.
	She stared up at him, her jaw squared and other hand moving to rest on the wrist of the hand around her neck. She suppressed a sigh of relief as his eyes reverted to their usual appearance.
	“Together.” He released her, stood, and returned to the wall as Elayra hastily got to her feet.
	She glanced sideways at him, making sure he was still of a semi-sound mind, and stood beside him. In unison, the two stretched out a palm toward the wall and muttered, “[i]Clyesco.[/i]”
	The wall shimmered, and the two strode through. A second part of the cavern greeted them. A large tree stump sat near the center like a table. The only other items taking up space consisted of two rugged traveling packs, one larger than the other, and a large brass telescope with various odd arms, dials, charms, and knobs on a stand.
	“You… packed?” Elayra asked, striding over to the packs as Drust went to his telescope and set to compacting it to an impossibly small form.
	“It’s open, Elayra,” he answered in a monotone as he spun one of the dials on the telescope. The contraption made a [i]whirring[/i] sound, then fell silent.
	Elayra stared at him, her mouth agape. “It’s… [i]what?[/i]” she breathed.
	“[i]Open,[/i]” he hissed impatiently, scowling as he continued. “I knew it would happen soon. But the portal’s been open since yesterday, and I [i]missed it[/i] until this morning!” He snatched the larger pack and shoved the telescope furiously inside. “How could I be such an imbecile?” His face distorted in a snarl.
	“Take it easy,” Elayra watched him warily as he began to pace lividly. “[i]That’s[/i] why we’re camping so close to Hollow Wood, isn’t it?” She collected her pack and slung it over a shoulder, her hand shaking slightly. She took a deep breath. “Then what’re we waiting for? We have a Madrail to find, and a self-proclaimed Queen to kill.” A smile befitting her guardian spread over her face at the thought of finally ridding the world of the Red Sorceress. The prospect of exacting revenge for what the woman had done to the world, [i]to Drust,[/i] was a sweet one strong enough to temporarily push aside Elayra's insecurities of battling her.
	Drust spun on his heels to face her, his pack held by a single strap and almost dragging against the ground. He stared at her, a twitch interrupting him as he raised his chin and looked down at her.
	“You think you’re ready, do you?” he asked in his usual cool tone.
	Elayra squared her shoulders, displaying more confidence than she felt and more courage and determination than seemed possible. “Let’s not keep Harrow Hollow Hill waiting.”