Serphia watched the man approach her, instructing her to let him see her wound. Everything she ever knew and learned told him not to let him see her side. He could poison her, injure her more severely, kill her in her moment of weakness but her logical mind watched the way he spoke, how he held himself, and how gently he was addressing her. She bit the inside of her cheek but reluctantly moved her hand out of the way for him. As he summoned the magic to warm his hand, she snapped her eyes closed and stilled. When his hand pressed into her side, the only sign of pain she exhibited was the tightening of her eyes and her fingers lightly digging into the dirt and grass. She remained completely still otherwise and as he moved his hand away, she let her body relax lightly. 

She gave a meager nod of acknowledgement towards his apology, unsure if she could speak just yet again, her throat tight as the pain slowly simmered. She sat against the trunk with her eyes closed, listening as the wizard explained that they needed to get going. Arloke gave her some encouraging chirps and she finally opened her eyes to gaze down at her little fuzzy friend. She grunted as she finally rose, her face twisting into discomfort at the pull of the burned flesh. At least she wasn't bleeding anymore. One step in the right direction, she supposed. What she wouldn't give to have her armor back, however, or any other weapons besides her basic dagger and the guard's sword. She didn't even have a sheath for the sword so she was forced to carry it around in the open as they went. 

Her senses were on high alert as they progressed. Every little twig snap, rustling of leaves, or quiver of a bush had her head on a swivel. As night finally caught up with them, her darkvision allowed her to peer out into the wood and see what it was that was around them. Mostly it was just the basic wildlife but from time to time, she would pause for a moment and listen to human voices as they passed by them on the road. None of them seemed dangerous to their current situation, mostly just lovers looking for a place away from town and quiet where they wouldn't be disturbed. When the lights of the village flickered off in the distance like a burning torch, she paused. She was thankfully for the mage at that moment because the drow was well and truly lost. She did not know the names of the villages nor if they would be safe for them to sneak into and settle for the night. As far as she was aware, this was just a nameless settlement where humans gathered. 

As they peered through the bushes, the drow scanned the surrounding areas. It seemed to be a rather peaceful place without walls or any true defense. She searched through looking for a suitable place for them to bunker down and spotted a farmhouse off into the distance. She gave Malcador a gentle nudge before she pointed to where she saw the farmhouse off in the distance. They began their trek, slipping in and out of shadows of the treeline as they went, sure not to be spotted by anyone. 

When the mage nearly tripped on the clothesline, she had to bite her bottom lip not to sputter out a laugh. It was a sudden stress relief that came from nowhere and broke her stern mask for only a moment. Her stern mask once more in place, she picked a tunic and pants off the line and draped it over her shoulder. She followed the wizard as he opened up the barn and she silently slipped in before he closed the door behind them. She stood, crouched at the entrance as her eyes scanned the area. There didn’t seem to be any living things out in the barn, so after a moment of checking that the coast was clear, she finally straightened and gave a whistle to Arloke. He scurried along her shoulder and she raised her hand up so he could jump from her arm to the second story with ease. She listened as he explained that the barn surely wasn’t Castle Never and her eyebrow quirked up a bit. She did not know of that place. She didn’t know of any real places on the surface. 

She understood his frustration. She needed armor and true weapons, or at least a sheath so she wouldn’t have to open carry the sword around with her at all times. She was also very hungry as well. What little food she had, she threw up into the grass just outside the Thentia outer wall. She peered up at Arloke weaving himself a small nest on the second floor and pondered if her little friend could go and find them some food. Perhaps he could hunt for them and bring back anything he may find. 

When he asked how she was holding up, she moved her gaze from Arloke to the mage. She scanned him over, remaining quiet for a moment before she turned her eyes back to her spider settling into his web bed. “Serphia.” She said before she faced the mage completely, crossing her arms in front of her chest with a low sigh. She rested her upper back against one of the support beams before continuing, “You may call me Serphia and I’m quite fine.” In reality, her side throbbed painfully and her body was exhausted but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t deal with. She was trained to endure worse. 

“As for food,” she gave a low whistle followed by a few clicks and Arloke peeked out from his little cubby hole. He looked down at her, his fangs twitching lightly as they caught each other’s gazes. She tilted her head to the side, curious, before the little spider chittered and began to crawl down from his nest. He didn’t seem to be too happy about the task she sent him to do but he followed her command, nonetheless. He hurried along the ground before climbing the wall and slipping out of the window above. 

“He will hunt for us. Though, what he will bring back will not be very large.” The spider would still need to be able to bring the prey back to them and Serphia hoped that he wasn’t so upset that he would inject his venom into the prey just to get back at her. He had done that a time or two whenever she spent too much time out of the home and left him behind. He could be rather vindictive like that. She imagined he wouldn’t, however. Arloke was a very intelligent little pet and he understood, at least to a degree, that his task was important. \