Le Renard

Fox 13

"Well...I...Um...Couldn't sleep." My bottom lip caught in between my teeth as I prayed they would let this little white lie go without questioning.

The clearing had now awakened with the low music of the crickets and the rustling of the nocturnal creatures. Levi's eyes were a brilliant orange, like a slowly burning flame as he stared at me, no doubt reading my aura. I'm sure he knew enough from Jason to know what the basic color changes meant. His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion before he spoke.

"Are you sure about that?" Levi questioned folding his arms across his chest, his eyes narrowing into slits as he glared at me. I suppose I wasn't as lucky as I had hoped for.

"Yeah?" I replied, unsure of whether or not they actually believed any of this.

"That sounds like more of a question than an answer to a question." Alistair quipped. My lips parted, another lie waiting on the tip of my tongue but the words died just as Merula's voice echoed in my mind. She had told me not to lie to them and for whatever reason I was inclined to listen to her advice.

"Listen, I'll tell you what I was doing out here but not while we're out here. Who knows who could be listening." I replied genuinely worried about who could sneak up and hear everything about my strange meeting with her.

"Fine. Let's get back to the room before anyone catches us out here." Levi answered tersely. I shrunk back a little at the sound of his voice. The rough tone rung clearly in my ears and my whole body slumped at the thought that I disappointed him. Clearly he wasn't too pleased with my behavior and how could I blame him? I was here running around in the same forest that we had all been attacked in without any type of help from anyone.

We climbed over fallen tree limbs and through dense brush, maneuvering our way through the forest by moon light alone. It was completely silent and not the good type of silent. The entire way back her voice echoed in my mind reminding me to tell them what was happening and easing my worries about them being able to be trusted.

We made our way back to the dorms and momentarily I was worried about how we were going to make it back into the room. I hadn't thought that far ahead when I left the room earlier this night. Alistair didn't miss a beat and managed to levitate us up to our window which was left open. It was obvious that they had thought about this all before leaving to chase after me.

Once our feet hit the ground I dropped down onto the floor feeling completely exhausted from my night's adventure. In truth I wanted collapse into my bed tucked into Levi's side with my arms wrapped around Alistair immersed in a deep slumber but I knew what they expected of me.

"So..." Levi began urging me to begin the story.

"Well I was lying in bed..." I began after a deep sigh. I explained everything from when I first heard the voice to when they had come to get me. I could feel their emotions fluctuating greatly as I told the story. I may not have been able to read auras like Levi but I could feel that they weren't pleased with me and the decisions that I made tonight.

"Are you serious Tae?" Levi erupted when he was sure that I was done speaking. "You could've died! You don't know anything about these people and you go out there to meet them?"

"I know Levi, trust me I know but I needed to get some answers." I muttered as I crossed my legs sitting on the floor.

"Well, why didn't you wake us? Why didn't you bring us with you? We could've been back-up or something..." He questioned.

"I don't know. I didn't want to involve you guys I guess. She never said anything about bringing you so I didn't." I admitted.

"Even if she didn't say to bring us you should have. We're your friends Tae and even more than that we're supposed to be partners in this. I'm your mage and you're my familiars. I have to be able to trust you and I can't trust you if you're running around hiding things from me." Alistair replied.