Darin watched the Elf work. It was almost enthralling to see her move and act with the express purpose of scaring the two men. She wondered if it was a skill Ridahne had learned or if it was natural. The human was almost willing to say that it was both. Ridahne had honed a natural talent. It led to a performance that Darin thought she might fall for if she hadn’t had the Elf scream at her in pure simple rage before. Ridahne was a person just like everybody else in the glade. Darin tried not to draw attention to herself, but did let a small noise that sounded like, “eep!” when Ridahne had the two men strip everything off. Darin quickly looked away, suddenly interesting in the stars above the canopy of leaves. She was not used to casual nudity. Even when the kids her age went swimming they all kept on enough clothes to remain modest unless they were Jason, Jax, and Emily, but they did it when it was just the tree of them, and they were looking to start a life together so it was expected.

Darin finally dropped her gaze back to the Elf to respond to her comment, “It’s not a performance when fates are on the line. At least I don’t think so.” Darin walked over to the two men’s clothes to look at them, “And what am I going to do with their underwear Ridhane? I have no need for it/ I don’t think.” She did pick up one of the shirts, “I do like this shirt though. I’ll have to tailor it before I can wear it though. I don’t need it slipping of one shoulder while I ride.”

Darin looked thought the collection the men had left behind. It was a nice collection and include a better knife than she had but not better than Ridahne’s. It also included a small pouch of coins the farm girl didn’t recognize, but there were gold, silver, and copper ones, so Darin was willing to bet it was more money then she had ever seen in her life. She liked the smaller waterskin but taking a swing out of it caused her to sputter. It was not water. Darin thought the warrior was right. They had done well for themselves. She was willing to bet they wouldn’t stop despite the fact that Ridahne had injured them. They hadn’t regretted it after all. They regretted being caught.

That was just sad. They enjoyed making a living via a way that hurt others and, in the end, themselves. The Tree was failing, and Darin didn’t know why. She didn’t even have a guess. She needed to see The Tree and quickly. Maybe, at least she was hoping, that seeing The Tree would give her some clues. She didn’t know enough about trees, regular trees, to say that she would know for certain. She was crouched over the clothes as she stared off into the air. She needed to find a solution, and quickly. Well that wasn’t exactly true. She had a solution; plant The Seed. She just needed to figure out how and where to do that. Maybe The Tree would have a clue to that as well. Darin was distracted from her thought as Talbot let out a noise. Her head snapped around to look at the horse and then moved to look in the direction the he was looking. Darin picked up the collection of items as she slowly stood.

She started back towards Talbot, “You’re right. If the sun is starting to rise, we might as well keep moving. Let me pack this away and will get started.” She turned to look at Ridahne, “If that’s alright with you?”

While Darin waited for an answer, she started to pack her new clothes into her pack. She needed a new one. This one was going to be too small if she kept collecting things to put in it. She absently thought of the pack mule and supplies she had lost when she ran into the bandits when she first started out. Maybe it was good that she was collecting things. She did have supplies to replenish after all. She held out the wineskin to Ridahne. The human wasn’t going to drink it so she figured she would offer it to her companion. That only seemed polite.