Darin had almost been asleep when Ridahne hissed at her. With a scowl Darin looked at the Elf. Did the warrior really have to wake her up for bandits? The human didn’t think she snored, so she could have been quiet while asleep. Then again, if it was bandits they might need to move soon. That was fair. Darin supposed she needed to wake up then. She slowly rubbed at her eyes to remove the grit from her eyes. She then sat up to stretch her arms out above her head. Alright. That was about as awake as she was going to get. She slowly sat up as well. At least now she wouldn’t be facing the bandits while staring at the stars.

Though it was odd. Could bandits operate this close to The Tree? It could be that The Tree was losing strength as it died. Darin wasn’t sure being a bandit was flat out evil anyways. The few that the village had gotten always turned out to be starving almost adults her age or people with kids to take care of. They usually felt like they had no other options. The ones that took her pack mule were looking for money. So, Darin supposed that the type of bandits these were depended on the type of person they were before they started trying to rob others. 

Darin looked to Ridahne to try and gather more clues. The Elf looked mystical as she crouched in the moonlight. Darin almost wanted to raise an eyebrow at that except for the fact that she couldn’t do that. Thomas could and so could Milla. They used to tease her about it all the time. Darin had to wonder if the Elf realized just how dramatic they looked. It was certainly a sight. Darin almost hoped that Ridahne was doing it on purpose. That would be awesome on so many levels. However, the human was willing to bet that wasn’t the case at all. The dramatics were most likely accidental. That was a shame.

A shout filled the air, “Over here! A fire that’s just been put out.”

Darin’s head snapped around at the sound. She slowly got to her feet. Talbot remained in place. He would not be as quiet, and he knew that. Slowly Darin backed up until she was behind Ridahne. She wasn’t a complete idiot. She had no hope of fighting off anyone. Her best bet was to not get in the way of the warrior. That didn’t mean that the human wanted to be too far from the Elf. That would just be stupid. The last time that had happened Talbot had to save her. Darin didn’t know if that was an option or not this time. She didn’t know much about fighting or even defending herself. That was how she managed to get caught the last time she had faced bandits.

A snapping sound filled the air and felt unnaturally loud to Darin’s ears. She stopped moving immediately as she looked down. She had stepped on a branch of some sort. She was not used to sneaking. That much was painfully obvious. She cast Ridahne a look that was half question and half apology. Hopefully the bandits, if that was what they were, would think it was just an animal of some sort. She didn’t know what the odds were, but she wasn’t moving anymore. She couldn’t risk making anymore noise. Darin did spare a thought for The Seed. It wasn’t reacting, so Darin didn’t think these people were like Mark and his crew. Then again, they could just be too far away for The Seed to pick up on. It looked like all they could do now was wait. Darin hated waiting. It always took forever.