"As the Japanese say, is as light as a feather...So, don’t kill yourself." [Continues Delilah's path.]

“And duty is as heavy as a mountain…” Emmalyn murmurs.

“Or something like at least,” you crane your neck and then grunt. “Hey, uh, listen...I don’t really know what your situation is, but if you’re conflicted, it is best to go with your heart.”

“Ugh.” Emmalyn groaned and then stifled a laugh. “What a softy you actually are.”

“I’m human and grounded. You said so yourself…But yeah, that was a little cheesy. Sorry.”

It was hard to see what she looked like in the provided lighting, so you simply had to picture her face. The dimples especially come to mind when you recall her features; her non-perfect teeth and gray eyes squinted slightly as she smiled.

When she looks back, she’s exactly as you pictured. “Thanks, Warren. I really needed to hear that. Seriously.”

“Don’t thank me unless you’re going to take the advice,” you try to look serious, but her expression makes you smile too.”

“I will take the advice,” Emmalyn says to you. “Trust me on that.”

For the next 2 hours, you both sit and share general silence and conversation, but there are no advances or awkward subjects. With Emmalyn’s “big” question of the way, however, it does seem like you two can enjoy each other’s presence with a little more genuine interest.

Emmalyn is much more open about her background and personal life; usually, with Delilah, you hit a wall when you ask about her siblings or parents, but Emmalyn doesn’t have anything to hide. You forgot the last time you were able to have a normal conversation with someone about life. Just as you would ask her for some girl advice, Delilah walks in and announces to everyone a good morning, showered and dressed.

Emmalyn looks back and gives Delilah a smile with her head tilted somewhat. Her ashen blonde hair covers her stormy eyes as she greets your girlfriend. While Delilah walks over, Emmalyn meets your eyes and tilts her chin down. “Just be yourself,” she advises, but you didn’t consider yourself the problem with the wall you’re at with your relationship.

…

Around noon, you and Delilah are once again active in the forest. Your client told you the beast was active last night and had killed one of his cows. So you figure today was going to be the day that you finally managed to find the monster.

You trusted Delilah to track, and she did. Eventually, she followed the tracks to a different part of the forest, where the earth was thicker, and the mud was deeper. You never took Delilah as someone willing to get dirty (outside the sheets, at least), but she had been very keen to go through all the brush to follow the prints.

The tracks lead you to a cave. Delilah pauses when she sees the cave and turns to face you. Her cheeks had mud on them, and where the low-hanging branches had slapped her, there were lines of swollen pink lines. She lets out a nervous chuckle and shakes her head. “I don’t think I want to go in there.”

“I don’t either,” you look around and then up. A lot of daylight had vanished during your tracking. “I hate even to suggest it, but if whatever is bothering my client is there, perhaps it's best to set camp here and wait for it?”

Delilah frowns, her eyes staying on the entrance of the cave. Your mind starts to work, thinking of ways to convince her to stay here, but she surprises you by agreeing. “We should set traps and alarms around our camp then and maybe see if any prints that lead out are fresher than the ones that lead in.”

With an extra set of hands, you can set camp and a perimeter in less than an hour. Delilah starts a fire, and you dig through your equipment to find something to get. When you’re both settled in, darkness begins to filter into the camp.

Delilah plops beside you and stares into the fire as its flame dances and burns everything in the pit. The tip of her nose is slightly off color from the temperature being as low as it is, and so are her cheeks. But it ignites the color of her eyes. Then, after a couple of seconds, she turns and notices you looking at her.

“What is it?” She says, blinking at you.

“It isn’t really anything,” you manage to lie. There were a lot of things on your mind you couldn’t share. You expected Delilah to fight you, but she seemed to understand. Even she keeps things from you.

Wanting to change the subject now, Delilah clears her throat and asks how you should kill time.