Give him a quick peck on the cheek

"This." You say, before quickly leaning up and giving him a small peck on the cheek.

He stands there for a moment, frozen, his cheeks red.

"Sanna has turned you into a tomato again, very sorry." You laugh.

He looks at you, stunned, you caught him completely off guard it seems.

"Where did that come from?" He asks.

"Part of the thank you, Sanna just wanted to wrap it in a little bow for you." You say, walking forward a bit.

"Let's get going tomato face, we're running out of daylight." You tell him with a cheeky grin.

Nacius shakes his head and motions for Whiterun to continue following you two and Nacius walks back to your side, then the three of you begin walking again.

"When are you going to light the torch Nacius?" You ask.

"Soon as we have to start straining our eyes to see, this torch is almost burnt out, I've used it up." He replies.

You kept walking, soon you hear crickets off in the distance, night was fast approaching and you started feeling nervous, Nacius did too, you could see it in his face.

"The crickets are out." You tell Nacius.

"What other animals should we expect to see around here?"

Nacius looks at you for a moment, then back at the road.

"Nothing good, the West Weald gets a lot of bears, some wolves, some people have even come across trolls around here, keep your eyes peeled." He says

You inch closer to Nacius, things were serious, you knew for a fact that if anything attacks you now, the both of you would be done for in your current state. The two of you continue walking and scanning the area, the only things you hear are the sounds of your own footsteps, Whiterun breathing, and the crickets chirping. Then Nacius speaks up.

"I hope they sent out another patrol to look for me, they usually do that if a patrol doesn't make it back in time, and I'm pretty late." He says.

"How many do they usually send out when a patrol is missing?" You ask.

"Usually two men on horseback, sometimes four if they feel the situation is bad enough." He answers

"Sanna is worried about this arrow." You say

"Will they be able to take it out of her safely? Is it infected?"

Nacius looks at your shoulder, then looks at you.

"That arrow is the only thing keeping you from bleeding out, don't worry, I've met men that have gone almost whole days with an arrow sticking out of them." He says.

You still felt nervous about it, but that comment made you calm down a bit, you couldn't wait to stop feeling this constant searing pain.

As time went on, you felt your eyes begin to adjust to the lower light levels, you could still see almost perfectly fine, but it was apparent that Nacius was beginning to have trouble seeing.

"Can you see Sanna? I'm having a hard time trying to see now." Nacius asked.

"Sanna is khajiit, she can see in dark places." You reply.

"That's no fair!" He says in a joking manner.

You see him raise his hand to the tip of the torch.

"I'm lighting the torch Sanna, get ready." He warns you.

You close your eyes, you didn't feel like going blind tonight.

"Go ahead!" You say.

After a few seconds you hear a small eruption of flame, then you hear Nacius swear under his breath.

"It...it's lit." He tells you

You slowly open your eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light, still squinting, you look over to Nacius who is looking at his hand with a pained expression on his face.

"Did you hurt yourself Nacius? You okay?" You ask him.

"Yeah, I kept the fire up for too long, I burned my hand." He answers.

Your eyes eventually adjust to the light, you look over at Nacius's hand, it was a light burn, nothing too bad, but it was obviously painful.

"You want some water Nacius?" You ask.

"No no, save what's left of it, I'll be fine." He replies.

"Hush, just take the water Nacius, Sanna doesn't mind." You say, retrieveing your near emptied waterskin.

You take Nacius's hand and slowly pour a little water onto it, he tenses up and hisses for a moment, but then he eases up and closes his fist.

"Thank you Sanna." He says.

"No worries Nacius, practice your fire casting abilities though, Sanna thinks they could be a little sharper." You tease.

"I've only just started learning on the side, like a hobby." He says.

You put the waterskin back into your bag. Nacius looked at his hand for a moment, studying the damaged skin and then looked back out onto the road. You kept walking in silence again, hoping that nothing would jump out at you... Then, to your horror, you heard something...