Into the woods

We reach the woods by sundown opting to camp just inside the treeline boundary for cover from the winds, even though we were on the outskirts my fear is still palpable. "How long as we in the woods for?" I inquire nervously "two or three days, maybe longer" Quinara shrugs, this does not put me at ease but I at least knew she was honest when it came to these things. Once we're ready for bed I ask "should one of us keep watch?" She looks at me puzzled "for wolves or something" I state elaborating on my thoughts, Quinara pauses for a second then breaks into a chuckle. "Gods you really don't know anything do you?" I am dumbfounded by her response "I know wolves are nocturnal hunters" I say both as a comeback and an explanation of why we might need to keep watch, "good for you runt" she jokes back. "Gah I'm serious why don't we need to keep watch?" Quinara finally stops chucking, "wolves hunt by smell, the campfire masks ours" she says finally giving me a straight answer. I scowl at Quinara "you could have just said that from the start" I huff, "I could've runt" she says it was clear I wasn't getting an apology this time.

The following morning I'm woken up by Quinara and we begin our first full day in the woods. We trek through the winding trees my heart is in my throat as I stay close to Quinara, my senses on high alert. Quinara picks up on my fear, "calm down runt" she says calmly as we move through the woods, "we're going to be fine and your breathing is distracting me". She wasn't wrong I was breathing deeply as if anything could go wrong was about to "I'm sorry" I apologise trying to calm my nerves. Eventually I do somewhat calm myself seeing that there wasn't wolves or bears hiding behind every tree, and beginning to refocus myself listening to the birds in the trees, the crunch of snow beneath our boots.

The calm doesn't last or well the calm within me as we stumble upon some carrion, a deer likely a wolves kill left once the pack had fed, I draw my sword much to Quinaras amusement. "Put your sword away runt it's already dead" she jokes, "b-but the thing that killed it" "is long gone, this shit is rotting", I sheath my sword and calm myself again. "You're too jumpy runt" Quinara notes, I pause expecting an insult or a joke at my expense but her voice softens "I get it, all you've ever known was comfy rooms and counting coins. It's akin to cruelty how you were raised, but you need to calm down, if a wolf or a bear, or a person ever comes at you the worst thing you can do is panic." She states firmly imparting a lesson to me, "you panic you'll make a rash decision and in a fight that's what gets you killed" I nod in response "Ok I'll try".

Thankfully the rest of the day is without incident, I felt like we were making progress but truthfully I couldn't tell the woods were a winding labyrinth and it looked like we were no closer nor further to Corviet. As I lie in my bedroll I reflect on Quinara's words if I wanted to survive I would need to take it to heart as there's no way I was making it through this without getting into a fight, I could only hope that her lessons and my training would pull through for me.