Elayra rolled her eyes at Ghent’s question. “No. You just imagined it."
	Drust turned just as Ghent raised a hand for a high-five. His eyes narrowed and his pale lips pulled down in a knowing frown, but he made no move to return the gesture.
	Wisely, the boy lowered his hand, only for his ego to ruin the moment. 
	Elayra’s expression turned into a familiar scowl at both his comment and his chosen nickname for her. She pulled back and reached up to whack away his hand with her forearm. The leaf still came away, gently lifting a couple strands of her dirtied hair with it before they released their grip on it.
	Her scowl only deepened as he threw her accidental compliment back in her face.
	“You’ll deserve respect, [i]Featherhead,[/i]” she enunciated each syllable of the nickname, “once you earn it. And that doesn’t mean by accidentally doing something right.”
	Beside them, Drust gave a growling sigh and ran a hand down his face, startling Elayra into looking to him and instinctively reach for her sword's hilt.
	“If you two [i]children[/i] are done,” he growled, his neck twitching, “we’re wasting time.” He turned from them, his cape flaring slightly despite the items on his back, and headed through the gate. He had to push it open a bit wider, but he made it through.
	Elayra’s eyes narrowed at being called a child. She glared at Ghent as if the insult was all his fault, then hurried after Drust.
	“Fine,” she began, slipping easily between the space in the gates, “but I call dibs on the first sparring match with him.” She looked back toward Ghent, a sly gleam in her eyes.
	Drust’s shoulders moved in a deep sigh. “You [i]will[/i], however, need to choose an alias,” he began with a stiffness that made Elayra sober up.
	It took her a moment to realize he was talking to Ghent. She cast him a glance to make sure that he had picked up on that as well.
	“Unless you want to end up with one like your father’s,” Drust finished in a monotone.
	Back on the cracked cobblestones of the path, it made for easy walking. For a short distance, that was. Not far ahead of them, trees grew so close together their trunks touched, creating a barricade as far as they could see with the dense greenery surrounding them. They grew to mountainous heights, where, far enough above that one would have to look straight up to even notice, the leaves of the trees created a massive brush of foliage. The branches had entwined so tightly together it was unlikely even a moth could find its way through.
	Unlike when Drust and Elayra had arrived, a few trees were missing, leaving a gap where the stone path cut off in a perfectly straight edge. From between the opening and beyond the safety of the tree barrier, Elayra could make out the thick brown trunks of Hollow Forest.
	She inhaled, her next step faltering. She had forgotten they would have to pass back through Hollow Forest. Rather, she had conveniently pushed that little fact to the back of her mind. Her gaze shifted to Drust’s back. Under normal circumstances, it would be just worse than a worrisome inconvenience. But now…
	She swallowed and squared her shoulders. [i]We’ll manage,[/i] she tried convincing herself. [i]We always do.[/i]