Most of them went to sleep not long after. Borev had already gone to his room, watched over in his sleep by an impatient Ifrit. Lada and Idun had already both laid down with Awruk sleeping between the two of them. Kleok and Icara were both laying down by now and sleeping heavily. Domall was meditating next to Kleok in silence, but a strange sensation a few hours later began to disturb him.
 
    As it did, Gwindon became restless within his bedroll. He twisted and turned as his breath became more and more hurried. Before long, he shot to a sitting position and rapidly gripped his chest with his right hand. Breathing a sigh of relief, he checked over the room to make sure everyone else was asleep before standing up. He grabbed his sword and tied the sheath around his hip before heading to the door. As he did, the strange sensation rose Domall from his trance just in time to notice Gwindon leaving.
 
    Domall followed after him quietly, curious as to what he could be doing at such a late hour. It didn’t take him long to catch up, but he kept quiet to avoid the knight seeing him. Peering out the door, he caught Gwindon just as he moved behind one side of the house. Even stranger, the monk noticed that he had had his sword drawn when he did. After he heard the squish of the wet ground as Gwindon moved away, he followed after him. At the edge of the front wall, Domall peeked his head around the corner to see what the knight was up to.
 
    “Dammit, just come out already...” he heard Gwindon mumble.
 
    He cocked an eyebrow at the statement, not only because of it’s oddity, but because of the powerful truth he felt from it. Gwindon wandered around, keeping his sword low to the ground as he did. Suddenly, without warning, he turned around and pointed his sword at Domall. Domall flinched before stepping around the corner. When he did, Gwindon relaxed slightly, lowering his sword, but still keeping it ready.
 
    “What are you doing out here?” Gwindon asked him.
 
    “Because I wanted to ask you the same thing,” he replied with a smile.
   
    The knight didn’t reply or move in response. Domall stepped out from the house and glanced up at the sky. The clouds had moved on, and his powerful ears could only hear a small patter of the storm raging some distance away in the fields. Even though it was long gone, the ground was very wet beneath his bare feet. He looked back at Gwindon, who was still staring at him stoically, and sighed.
 
    “Not very talkative tonight, hmm?” he asked.
 
    Gwindon once again replied with silence, so Domall continued.
 
    “Well that’s alright, I can speak for the both of us. So maybe I’ll just guess your reasons for coming out here, and you can tell me if I’m right. Sound good?” he said, leaning forward and crossing his arms. “Now, why you are out here... could it be you like the smell of wet grass? It is a pleasant smell, but not really worth waking up in the middle of the night for. Perhaps it was a nightmare that woke you up? But then again, why would you bring a sword to fight a nightmare?” he continued, tapping a finger to his chin.
 
    “Enough. I’m going back inside,” Gwindon replied angrily, marching towards the front.
 
    Domall moved in front of him and place a hand on his shoulder. The knight snapped his head to look at the hand before grabbing it and pulling it off of him. Domall stepped back and grabbed his wounded hand, staring at Gwindon bewildered. He shook his head and pressed on, but was stopped by Domall once again, he leaned close to him.
 
    “Or maybe this has something to do with what happened in the woods with that strange girl?” he asked in a low, concerned voice.
 
    Gwindon paused before slowly turning back to Domall and glaring at him. Neither of them spoke as a gust of wind rolled over the house. Once it had passed, Gwindon stepped back towards the monk and spoke.
 
    “No, and it would be best if you forget that even happened.”
 
    “Just tell me once, in a clear voice... are you human?” Domall asked slowly.
 
    “What are you talking about?”
 
    “The way you move, your actions, everything about you seems human... but different. It’s like you’re a monk as well, but I cannot feel your connection to the ether. So I ask again, what are you?” he asked, stepping back from the knight.
 
    Gwindon stared at him for a brief moment, an eddy blowing a few loose blade of grass through the wind and chilling their skin.
 
    “I’m human. Satisfied?” he said, holding his arms out to the side.
 
    Now it was Domall became silent.
 
    “Then why does it feel like you don’t believe what you’re saying?” Domall said, narrowing his gaze.
 
    “Let me ask you something first, do you really want to know?”
 
    “I feel like if you’re hiding your very nature, then other parts of you come into question as well. Like the real reason you’re with Icara.”
 
    Gwindon stepped forward, practically snarling at the monk as he grabbed one of the wrappings of his clothes and yanked him close.
 
    “My loyalty to Icara is beyond question! Hold your theories about my birth or past if you want, but don’t you even dare to question my honor!” he hissed at Domall.
 
    “... Very well. Knowing you are loyal to her eases me somewhat, but I still want to know who, or what, you really are. Is that something you would hide from a friend?”
 
    “If I am hiding something about myself, it is with good reason. So hear me well, I only hide what I have to hide,” he said, letting go of the monk and stepping back.
 
    “Even if I know you’re not lying, that’s still not a very satisfying answer. Why are you hiding it? Is there something that will happen if you stop being so reclusive?” he asked.
 
    Gwindon sighed and looked from side to side. Domall did the same, but saw nothing besides the tree line of The Stretch and the small hills of the vast fields. Finally, Gwindon looked back at him and spoken in a low voice.
 
    “The reason I can’t share it... are beings of great power. I have paid a terrible price to them, and the only way to keep others from it is by hiding them. So long as I keep quiet, they can’t--”
 
“Share your gifts?” came a smooth voice.
 
Gwindon froze in place at the “sound”. He and Domall slowly turned to the source of the noise, behind the house. Even though it had only existed within their minds, but both unconsciously knew where it had come from. Where they looked, a lone wolf stepped out and sat down, curling its tail around the right.
 
“A wolf...?” Domall said in wonder.
 
“You mean you see it too?!” Gwindon asked in shock.
 
“Of course I do, it’s a full grown wolf. Wait, don’t tell me...”
 
“I am the being he spoke of, yes. Really though, he has no need to be so fearful of us. We have been nothing but kind and honest to you, have we not?” The wolf spoke without opening it’s mouth.
 
It tilted its head at Gwindon, and then turned to look at Domall. The monk felt the beast’s strangely magical gaze pierce straight through him, giving him a terrible sense of vulnerability. At last Gwindon stepped forward and pushed Domall behind him, snapping the monk out of the trance he slipped into without knowing.
 
“Leave. There’s no one here for your hunt,” he said, pointing his sword at the wolf.
 
“Now we both know that’s a lie, don’t we? There’s you, obviously, and you are upholding the laws of the pack quite well. We’re all so proud of the way you’ve grown from when we first met, you know. But there’s another... I can smell the bloodlust,” the wolf said, finishing it with a small sigh.
 
“Gwindon, what’s going--?” Domall started to ask.
 
“Don’t! Don’t say anything until it’s gone,” he hissed back.
 
“Ah, so you seek to covet the power we bestowed upon you after all? Relax, dear Gwindon, he is not a warrior born. A little corruption beneath the sheen, but certainly nothing too strong for us...” the wolf replied, licking its right paw. “Of course... we do wonder if this environment is right for you, dear Gwindon. Where is the blood for your blade? When did you last taste the flesh of your foes, hmm?”
 
“I refuse to return to the state you left me in. Don’t dare intimidate me either, I know you lost the ability to do that again,” Gwindon replied.
 
“Oh? And where did you get that idea?”
 
“From her.”
 
The wolf went quiet, and for a long time, Domall thought that one of them would attack the other. Suddenly, the wolf stood up and moved to go behind the house again. Before its snout passed over the barrier completely, it looked directly back at them.
 
“Goodnight, my kin. As always, we will watch over you,” it said.
 
With that, it stepped behind the house and didn’t return. Gwindon moved after it, with Domall following behind him, only to find the wolf had disappeared. Seeing it was gone, he sheathed his sword and began walking back to the front. Domall watched the empty space for a while before turning to the knight and stopping him.
 
“Are you sure it’s gone?”
 
“They never stay for long. Just long enough to remind you they’re there...” he drifted off, gripping his sword visibly tighter.
 
“Are you alright?”
 
“I... I’m fine,” he said, turning around to face the monk. “Listen, you can’t tell anyone about anything that happened here. I thought if I kept it vague, they wouldn’t notice, but it seems they don’t care. So nothing, not even that we came out, understand? If you do, it puts anyone that hears you in danger.”
 
“Don’t worry, I won’t. I see now why you were so secretive...” he drifted off before collecting himself again. “In anycase, you can trust me not to tell anyone. But since I’m already this far in, could you answer a few things for me?”
 
“I’d rather not. Since I’ve never had someone in a situation like yours it would be best if I just kept it to myself. I’m not sure what might happen if I tell you more. They may decide to kill you, or something worse.”
 
“But I just want to know one thing. The wolf mentioned something about some laws... what did he mean?”
 
Gwindon went quiet for a moment as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Finally, he turned back to the front of the house.
 
“I can’t tell you anything more than this; my loyalty to Icara goes beyond what most mortals are capable of, and not just because I have faith in her. Don’t ask anything more, I’m already placing you in a great deal of danger doing this.”
 
Domall surprised the knight by wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close.
 
“Relax, my friend, I understand now. You carry a great burden on your shoulders... I just hope it is worth it to carry,” he said, moving past the knight and walking around the front.
 
“It’s not,” he mumbled to himself before following.
 
Domall waited at the front door for Gwindon, who wasn’t far behind. As he approached, the monk held the door open for him. The knight moved in first, but paused when he saw movement down the hall in front of him. He stepped forward and drew his sword, squinting his eyes to see what it was. Just as he got a few steps in, he saw the shadowy form of Ifrit slowly opening the guest room door.
 
“What are you doing, demon?” he said in an exaggerated whisper.
 
The demon froze for a moment, shifting its gaze towards the two intruders. After the brief pause, it pulled away from the door and glared at them.
 
“I was just... drifting about. Unlike your fragile mortal bodies, I do not require sleep, and my eternal form grows bored when confined to--”
 
Suddenly, a blur jumped out of the spare room onto the demon’s frame. He began to struggle, tossing about it a formless manner as Gwindon and Domall cautiously approached him. The demon paused for a moment, his eyes twitching with anxiety as he pulled in his front limbs. From the top of the shapeless mass he’d become, Awruk crawled up. The demon glared at the small mammal, but winced when it flexed its paws on his head.
 
“G-get this thing off of me already!” he whispered, staring up to where Awruk was.
 
“I’m surprised the little thing could touch something like you, let alone actually keep their grip,” Domall said with a quiet chuckle as he walked over.
 
The monk extended his hand, making the small plafluf let out a curious coo. Smelling his outstretched arm, it leapt onto him and quickly scurried its way up to his shoulder, where it began to sniff his head wrappings. Ifrit backed to the door he had slipped away from in a flash, keeping his eyes focused on the small creature.
 
“Beware, rodent, you have made a very powerful enemy this day,” Ifrit hissed at Awruk.
 
Awruk responded by cocking a head at the demon and standing up on Domall’s shoulder, making Ifrit flinch. Gwindon rolled his eyes and moved back to his bedroll while the demon retreated from the creature. Sitting down and sighing, Gwindon got ready to return to sleep, but stopped when he overheard Icara mumbling in her sleep. He looked at her and noticed she was frowning heavily and shifting in her bedroll.
 
“Won’t work... you can’t... have to get away...” she mumbled in a sleepy form of distress.
 
The knight sighed, having seen such distressful sleep in the barracks he often used to sleep in with more common soldiers. He reached over and grabbed her sword before removing the blade and placing it on the ground. Gwindon took the sheath and placed it in her right hand, which quickly closed over it and made her face twitch before relaxing.
 
From his past experience, having something to grip helped keep the nightmares at bay, but an actual sword was too risky to give a sleeping person. With a final glance at her now quiet body, he went to sleep as well.