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Evening was fast approaching and the group was busying themselves setting up camp for the night. Well, everyone except Evie who was currently crouched atop a branch of the tallest tree she could find, scanning the horizon. Any other time, Evie would have been taking a moment to enjoy the beautiful reds and purples of the sunset, bask in the slight breeze that promised a cool and pleasant evening, and enjoy the stillness amongst the treetops. But not today.
The ranger’s eyes were trained on the faint glow coming from the distant goblin encampment. They were still a ways off, but even at this distance Evie could tell that the group of them would be facing down a veritable army come morning. In the back of her mind, Evie could hear Asatrion scoffing and saying something to the effect of, ‘They don’t call themselves the ARMY of the Absolute for nothing…’ It was enough to make Evie grimace as she started to climb down from her spot.
‘How in the hells are we going to do this?’ Evie contemplated, her mind looking to the future rather than her current descent. ‘ We can fight our way in, but who knows what sort of reinforcements they'll have on the inside.’ Evie winced as a wayward branch jabbed her in the ribs. ‘ Maybe we can play up the whole ‘Glory to the Absolute’ angle and maybe talk our way in?’ Another branch got snagged in her ponytail, but she ignored it and kept climbing down. ‘ But what are we going to do if we get made inside and get surrounded on all sides?’ Absent-mindedly, she placed her hand on a particularly thin branch and it snapped in her grip causing her to teeter precariously before she caught herself. ‘ The whole camp will come down on us and we won’t have a way out. Wait, is there a way that we can use that smoke powder barrel we found? And what about Halsin? Gods, what if Halsin’s already dead?’ The thought of finding the druid they were supposed to rescue dead had Evie completely missing the last branch beneath her. Suddenly, the world around her spun, her stomach flipped, and Evie plummeted and landed in a nearby bush with a thud. For a split second Evie’s brain registered that she was in intense pain, but even those feelings were pushed aside quickly by the whirlwind of thoughts that continued to bombard her mind.
Her thoughts then turned to what would happen to the Grove if they didn’t bring back Halsin, about what would happen if Kagha completed the ritual before they even got back, about Wyll’s father being taken, about Karlach’s engine, about Lae’zel and Shadowheart and how Evie was going to have to try and keep them from killing each other, about how Auntie Ethel had gotten away, about Gale’s needing to absorb magic items. Evie just couldn’t stop thinking about everything and anything as she lay there in the bush.
How in the hells did this happen? How did she end up here? How did she become the de facto leader of this ragtag team of misfits?
A week ago she was basically a bird trapped in a gilded cage who no one listened to, and before that it was just her and her mother living on the outskirts of Rivington.
Evie was a blacksmith, not some hero.
She wished that, with the limited magic she had, she could command the foliage around her to overtake and swallow her whole so she could just be one with the earth and not deal with any of this. Hells, Evie couldn’t help but think about how nice it would be to just be a tree. No worries, no feelings, and no tadpole.
At the thought of the tadpole, Evie’s eyes shot open in horror because she could swear she could feel something squirming just behind her eye.
“No, don’t you start!” she cursed under her breath. Evie quickly pressed her palm to her eye hoping that the added pressure would get the worm in her head to stop its wriggling. But it did nothing and panic continued to swell in her chest. “Stop it, stop it, stop it! Not now!” she hissed.
“Evie?”
She froze and her heart stopped.
It was Gale.
“Um…. Gale! Hi…!” Evie managed to choke out. Slowly, she removed her hands from her face and when she opened her eyes, she could see Gale looming over her. “What are you doing here?”
“Um, I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing down there?” he asked, already extending a hand to help Evie out of the bushes.
“Oh, I was just thinking about setting up camp here,” Evie lied unconvincingly as she reached for Gale’s hand, “You know what they say about bushes being nature’s pillows and all that.”
Gale chuckled before mustering up all the strength in his body to help Evie out of the foliage. “I’m fairly certain that’s not a saying of any kind in any language,”
“Yes it is.” Evie retorted petulantly as she stood upright.
“In what world?” he asked, slightly bewildered by her quickness.
“Mine.” she replied, still trying to ignore the panic that had made itself home firmly in her chest. In a desperate attempt to look casual, Evie took a lean against the tree she had fallen out of. “Anyways, what are you doing here? Did you need something?” her practiced smile dropped as her worries continued to snowball, “Is it the orb? Is it acting up? Hang on, I think I got something…” she muttered, patting herself down, searching for the magic necklace she had stashed away somewhere on her person.
“Evie, no it’s not that.” Gale reassured her. “The orb is thankfully quiet for the time being. I don’t need anything right now, but thank you,”
“Oh, okay… That’s good. Did you need something else?” Evie asked, a bit confused. If Evie wasn’t trying so hard to suppress her panic, she would’ve noticed the concern on Gale’s face. “I was just about to head back to camp to help the others.”
“No, no I don’t need anything,” he repeated, this time more firmly hoping that Evie would understand. “I just came over because I could’ve sworn I saw something fall out of a tree. Imagine my surprise when I found our esteemed ranger ass over teakettle in a bush.” Gale chuckled quietly as he reached to remove some leaves from the top of Evie’s head. The sudden move towards her hair made Evie flinch for a moment. Gale quickly retreated and flashed her a warm yet apologetic smile. But that smile faded and made way for a look of genuine concern.
“Evie, are you quite alright.,.?”
“Mhm. I’m fine.” The quickness and brightness of Evie’s response startled Gale.
“Really...?”
“Yes. Perfectly, perfectly fine…”
“Evie, I just watched you plummet from a tree and start thrashing in the bushes. Forgive me if I don’t believe you when you tell me you’re ‘perfectly fine…’ ”
Evie was ready to keep protesting and march back to camp, but Gale’s knowing look stopped her in her tracks. Evie could feel her embarrassment creeping up her neck and spread up to her cheeks and ears. She watched as Gale's expression went from somewhat satisfied having caught Evie unawares with her guard down to genuinely sympathetic. He took a step forward and reached to touch her arm, but stopped short, remembering how she flinched when he reached for her hair.
“Evie, what’s wrong? You know you can always unburden yourself with me,” he offered with a gentle smile.
Gods, his voice was so soft and sounded so warm and her already weak resolve was fraying.
As she stood there before Gale, Evie silently wished again for the ground to open up and swallow her whole. No one should see her like this. Not now when there was so much riding on whatever steps they were taking next. She was devastatingly ashamed that she was coming apart. What’s more, she was terrified that she was going to annoy and inconvenience Gale in any way shape or form.
She brought herself to look up from the ground and into those warm brown eyes of his and all her resolve to turn him away and say that she was fine, vanished.
Evie took a slow, shuddering breath before she spoke. “Just… everything feels like it’s too much, you know?” she finally confessed. The Ranger ran a hand down her face in exasperation. “There’s just… so much that needs to be done and so much riding on it. And if we mess up we die… and that’s the nicest of the terrible options we have. We could wake up one day with tentacles sprouting out of our faces. And that’s if Lae’zel doesn’t get to me first with a blade to the throat.” Evie grimaced remembering how she had to talk the Githyanki warrior down from slitting her throat when she showed signs of feeling ill.
Without warning, a lump started to form in her throat and Evie could swear she could feel tears prickling at the corner of her eyes, but did her best to hold them back. She didn’t want to cry in front of Gale. She’d die before crying in front of anyone. “Before all this, my life was normal, Well, maybe not normal, it was kind of weird but compared to now it was plain old boring and normal, So it’s… it’s just a lot, Gale…” she sniffled before wiping at her eyes as though to push the tears that were threatening to spill over back into their ducts. “Honestly, I could just scream…”
“Then why don’t you?” asked Gale. Evie stared at him for a moment trying to figure out if Gale was making fun of her or being genuine in his questioning.
“Well, we don’t have time for me to throw a fit… That’d be silly. Also, I mean I could, but then I’d alert every enemy in the area,” Evie stated, still unsure about Gale’s intentions with his question.
“What if you could? I mean scream without alerting our enemies.”
“Gale, are you going to smother me with a pillow? I don’t like where this is going…” she squinted.
“Heavens, no! I’d never dream of shoving your face into a pillow!” Suddenly Gale’s face turned bright red and suddenly he was waving his hands in front of himself, “Wait, wait, don’t! I didn’t mean-! Not that I wouldn’t ever- No! I mean! What I’m trying to say is ‘I’m not going to smother you!’” he finally sputtered out.
The implication and realization hit Evie only a few seconds later and her deep mahogany skin flushed a deeper shade of red, “Oh, okay! Okay good! That’s good! But wait, what do you mean?” Evie asked, unable to keep her voice from going up several octaves. Gale at this point was covering his face with his hand to hide his own reddening complexion.
“You know, perhaps it would be best if I just showed you,”
“ Show me ?!” Evie exclaimed her mind clearly stuck on the imagery Gale had introduced to her imagination.
“Evie! No!” Gale sighed, exasperated before giving up on the blushing Ranger. Gale took a moment to compose himself and with a swift wave of his hands and a soft incantation, suddenly the world around the two of them went completely silent.
The sudden lack of any sound was bizarre, felt strange to the ears, and confused Evie for a moment. She didn’t quite register that the sudden silence was Gale’s doing, but did recognize it as the same spell those skeletons back at that hidden temple inflicted on the group upon opening the crypt. Instinctively, Evie’s muscles tensed and her head whipped around thinking that they were in immediate danger, but Gale reached out and gently tapped her arm. Evie spun back around only to be greeted by Gale’s congenial smile. He raised his hand and gave her a slight wave, signaling that he was the one responsible for the spell.
Then he waved his hands in front of him silently making an ‘after you’ gesture at Evie. Evie cocked her head, confused and unsure with what Gale wanted her to do. Gale stepped forward and took that ever familiar ‘allow me to explain’ stance that Evie had quickly grown familiar with, but as he opened his mouth to speak, no sound came out. He silently laughed at that and took a moment to collect his thoughts before pantomiming.
He pointed at Evie, pointed at the invisible bubble around them, and then screamed- or well looked like he was screaming, then repeated the ‘after you’ gesture at Evie.
Evie wasn’t sure how to react at first as the information started to settle in. She could scream in here and no one would hear her. She could vent out her frustrations and no one beyond the bubble would hear her. Hells, even Gale wouldn’t be able to hear her.
The gesture was small, but it might have been the nicest thing someone had done for her in a long time.
If there was one thing that Evie was good at, it was saying “no” to the things she wanted. But in that moment, the moment that Gale made his offering clear, Evie didn’t deny herself. She barely let herself hesitate.
She screamed.
It was the kind of scream that shook mountains. The kind of scream that you feel could rip apart your vocal chords, leaving you unable to speak for days. The kind of scream where you put so much of your body into it, you bow over from the sheer force of it. The kind of scream where you clench your fists so tight your nails threaten to draw blood from your palms. The kind of scream that drew tears to the corners of your eyes. The kind of scream that made your head spin.
Evie didn’t keep track of how long she screamed for; all sense of time seemed to melt away in that moment. She only felt like she had to stop when her lungs started to ache for air. With a gasp, Evie straightened herself out and stood ramrod straight only to be greeted by a smiling, yet mildly concerned looking Gale.
Evie froze again.
Evie had rushed headlong into the offer of relief so quickly that she had completely forgotten to tell Gale to turn around. Embarrassment hit her like a tidal wave.
He had seen everything.
In a feeble attempt to piece together what little dignity she had left, Evie frantically wiped the tears from her eyes and plastered on her usual smile. The Ranger opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
The spell was still up.
Another wave of embarrassment crashed over Evie as she frantically waved her hands and pointed down at the ground, silently requesting that Gale drop the spell. With a wave of his hands, the spell ended, and the sounds of the world around them returned.
“I’m sorry!” she blurted out. After that silence, her voice, hells, even her sniffles and breathing sounded obnoxiously loud. “I…I should have asked you to turn around. You didn’t need to see me like that. I’m so sorry. Hooo boy! Gods! That… that was a lot! You know what? The others are probably wondering where we are. We should probably head back and act like none of this ever happened,” Evie was laughing off her embarrassment and about to take a few steps back towards camp. That is until Gale reached for Evie’s hand, stopping the Ranger in her tracks.
“Or, maybe the others can manage without us for a bit and the two of us can go over there,” he nodded to the nearby creek, “And we can just sit there and enjoy the view for a moment. If that’s something you would like?”
Evie was ready to say “No, it’s okay,” because they should be helping the others back at camp and Evie’s spent enough time away from them, but the feeling of Gale’s steady and firm hand holding hers stopped her. Just like with the Silence spell, Gale was offering her an out again.
“Can we? Just for a little bit?” Evie asked. Gods, her voice sounded so tired at that moment.
“Come,” Gale nodded before guiding her further down the trail towards the creek. “Sit.” Gale gestured at the spot in the grass for Evie, still holding her hand to help her down. The two of them knew that Evie hardly needed any sort of help, but Evie was reluctant to let go of Gale’s hand at that moment. Once Evie was settled, Gale took his place next to her making no moves to take his hand away from her, that is until he felt something wet against his fingertips.
The Wizard looked down and frowned when he found drops of blood on his fingertips. Evie turned her hand over and looked at her palm. Her nails had broken skin when she was clenching her fists during her screaming session. Evie was a hair’s breadth away from wiping it off on her trousers before Gale stopped her.
“Allow me,” he offered, “My healing capabilities are nowhere near Shadowheart’s level, but it does help in a pinch when you get one too many paper cuts.”
Evie chuckled quietly and watched Gale turn over her palm with quiet curiosity, “You get a lot of devastating paper cuts as a young apprentice?” she asked, silently savoring the gentleness of Gale's touch.
“Oh, more than you could possibly imagine,” Gale replied, looking up to smile at her for a moment before running his thumb over the tiny injuries speckling Evie’s palm. Suddenly, there was a slight tingle and warmth spreading across her skin. Evie watched her skin knit itself back together in the wake of Gale’s touch. She wasn’t sure if it was the magic or something else, but she could swear she felt warmth move up her palm, up her arm, to where it settled comfortably on her cheeks. Even though the spell had ended, the warmth of Gale’s hands lingered and the urge to reach for him once he had released her was strong. But she ignored the impulse and drew her hand back.
“Thank you, Gale. Not just for… this, but for… letting me… let it out. And I’m sorry you had to see all that,” as Evie apologized she couldn’t help but curl in on herself. She hugged her legs to her chest and pressed her mouth against her knees as the shame of it all started to creep up Evie’s neck again.
“No, no, Evie. There’s no need to apologize. The fact of the matter is I owe you an apology,” Evie eyed Gale curiously, unsure what brought this on. “I know that we’ve only just started this journey and we're all still in the early stages of getting to know one another, but I’ve realized how quickly I’ve gotten used to your chipperness.” Gale smiled as he recalled how in the short amount of time they spent with each other how often a smile was tugging at Evie’s lips and how there was always some bright eagerness dancing behind those startling blue eyes of hers. “You always seem so sure-footed and certain with the way you’ve been guiding us through the wilds. Not to mention you don’t hesitate to put yourself in the line of fire to protect someone. Sometimes quite literally,” he chuckled remembering how Evie had stepped in front of a crossbow and dared the person holding the weapon to actually shoot her. “Unfortunately, because of this, in my mind, you seemed unflappable. I unintentionally put you on a pedestal all while you’ve been bottling up all your own worries and fears, not to mention dealing with the myriad of quirks that come with our traveling party. I shouldn’t have been doing that.”
“You didn’t mean to,” Evie mumbled into her knees.
“It still doesn’t make it acceptable,” he gently insisted before looking up at Evie with nothing but earnestness in his eyes, “I hope you can forgive me.”
“I still don’t think you have anything to apologize for, but I forgive you,” Evie said quietly as she leaned into Gale, playfully yet gently nudging him.
“Thank you Evie. For that and for everything you’ve been doing for us,” Gale replied quietly as Evie turned away to look at the setting sun, missing the faint shade of pink that had appeared on Gale’s cheeks for a moment.
“Promise you won’t tell anyone about this?,” she asked, burying her face in her knees for a moment trying to escape the residual embarrassment that still lingered.
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Gale said warmly, placing his hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll talk to some of the birds tomorrow and see if I can get them to tell me a bit about the Goblin Camp layout.” she promised, bringing herself to finally peer over her knees and back at the sunset again.
“Okay, but that’s for tomorrow. Let’s just enjoy now.” Gale chuckled before the two of them fell into enjoying the silence the coming of the evening brought, Gale’s hand still on Evie’s shoulder.