For the hours that drifted slowly past, Asbel followed close behind Augustine and Cassius, his attention alternating between the back of the elder prince's head and the surrounding forest. For his first foray into the real world, the phoenix would have picked nearly any landscape but this. The trees were tall and bare and black with seared bark, and the sky above had lost all color but the grey of the thickening storm-clouds. The smell of the place, too, now associated with the sickening marmalade jam from Frey's breakfast, had no merit either, and the whole forest assailed him with the reek of sap and burnt wood and impending rain.

Ahead of him, Augustine chatted amiably with Cassius -- meaning that Augustine occasionally spoke and Cassius did nothing but nod and, once in a while, rumble a reply. Even though he felt as though he were eavesdropping, the phoenix trotted nearly in their shadows, anyway: better there than anywhere near Frey.

The first drops of rain startled him, though Asbel managed no reaction but to glance up in puzzlement. He had not expected rain to be so cold, and he sympathized with Frey's yelp of irritation some distance behind. Was this ran going to be a frequent occurrence?

"We brought tents for a reason, Frey," Augustine called back as Asbel tugged off his jacket and covered his head with it to keep off the rain. The general and the dragon, meanwhile, tossed down their supplies and began to unpack as Frey was doing. "Cassius, you help Frey with one of them; Asbel, you stay with me."

Turning pink despite the new chill in the air, the phoenix approached and meekly followed the general's directions: canvas here, pegs here, and so on until the assorted pieces resembled something that could be slept in. And just in time, as the rain came down harder, swept into Asbel's face by an errant wind.

"Finished just in time," Augustine announced, surveying their accomplishment with obvious satisfaction. "You can take this one, Asbel. You and Frey will share; Cassius and I will take the other and take turns keeping watch."

The phoenix tensed. He would not speak against Augustine, not for anything, but even so, resistance to the idea of being alone with the demon prince for an entire night froze the breath in his lungs. "Is that... is that wise, Your Eminence?"

The general surveyed him for a moment through the rain, hair plastered to his scalp, eyes agonizingly thoughtful even in the inclement weather. "You will be fine," he promised, and he sounded so sure that Asbel almost believed him. "He's been cooperative today. But if you need help, either Cassius or I will be awake at any time during the night." The prince flashed a smile that doubled the phoenix's pulse and turned toward the other half of their party. "Cassius," he shouted, "when you finish, go inside and get the supplies dry; I'll take first watch. Frey, you're over here with Asbel!"