KORELIA GASPED LOUDLY; the water at her torso splashing and ending up in her wound as regular water, which caused her to flinch in pain. She snapped her head behind her, squinting her eyes at Vax who was casually scratching the back of his head in a sorry manner.

"Warning next time, Vax!"

"Oh, sorry!" Vax apologized, frowning his eyebrows when he noticed she still had her mask on.

"Do you just bathe with your mask on?"

"I'm not bathing. I'm just healing my wound." Korelia said, taking a glance at the large bruise that reached from the top of her shoulder blade to the bottom of her back. It was from when the pole hit her on her way down from the castle fall; the blood pooling under her skin in a perfect streak. Glancing at Vax, she noticed he was staring at it, frowning when he tried to think about what could have given that perfect of bruise.

"I don't bathe with my mask by the way." Korelia spoke, trying to get his attention away from the bruise. "But seeing as I am in the company of other people..."

"Why don't you just admit who you are to us?" Vax said, looking over the girl's shoulder as she turned back around to the stream. "We do seem to be having major run ins and working together."

Korelia went back to infusing the water with her magic as she placed it back to her wounds.

"Keeps you on your toes. Doesn't it?" She chuckled, looking down at what she was doing. "There is no real answer as to why I can't tell. Maybe I'm just scared of telling you a large secret."

"How large?"

"Enough to have the kingdom in shambles." Vax dropped his shoulders in a sad manner.

"Your secrets are safe with us." Vax made a face. "Well maybe not all..."

"I appreciate it, Vax. Maybe I will tell you guys." Korelia smiled. "One day."

"Maybe then I'll be able to see the face of such a charming person." Korelia laughed, the pain gone practically allowing her to be loose with it.

"Really now?"

"Of course. I enjoy when you help us." Vax carefully walked closer, not wanting to disturb her peace knowing she was naked in front of him. If he walked any closer he would be able to see over her head and at her breasts. "Keeps me on my toes."

Korelia turned to look back at him, her smile under the mask didn't allow him to see but her eyes were enough to show him she was. She took notice of his arm, the blood crusting over on his leather arm bands.

With her own wounds shut now, she flicked the water back into the stream; watching as the red color washed away with the flowing water. She picked up her cloak from the water and rung it out the best she could.

"Would you like me to heal your arm, Vax?" Korelia asked, continuing to try her best to ring the fabric of most of the water.

"Sure." Vax smiled, glancing at his injury. "I was gonna ask Keyleth to do it."

"You're here now might as well." She flicked her hand some just to use magic to dry the cloak a bit more. "Come sit."

Vax tried to rush forward to catch a peak at her figure but the cloak was already being pulled over her head, which lead him to pout in a teasing manner.

"You didn't have to put that back on, on my behalf." Korelia laughed, softly taking the half-elf's hand before gathering some water once more.

"That's for another day."

Vax chuckled, cheeks heating up from the teasing. He flinched some, having the cold water touch his skin was new. He felt an ease though, to the burning of his exposed muscle. He watched as the yellow mist swirled in the water picking up red along the way from the wound.

"Do you do this often?"

"Not really. The water healing is normally for repairing cells outside the body. I haven't really gotten any major stab wounds as of recently." Korelia chuckled. "Organ damage would be repairable, but I would have to create an opening to get the water to touch it."

"So adding more wounds to the already existing one?"

"Just about." Korelia leaned back, waving her hand to splash the water back into the stream.

"All done." Vax flexed his hand, turning his arm around to inspect the new tissue.

"Looks the same." Vax smiled, causing Korelia to giggle some.

"Of course." She reached for her shirt, ringing out the water once more before standing along with Vax.

"Come on, I'll show you where we stopped."

"OKAY! OKAY, I got one! What is the strangest thing you've ever killed?" Grog asked, laughing as everyone sat around the fire telling stories.

Vax went first, explaining his battle with some were-tiger man. Keyleth told her story about being stuck in a mountain with a lava pool and a thug. Everyone just looked at her strangely.

Grog told a story about him cracking open the jaw on a desert monster. Lastly Scanlan explained his story about being in the middle of sex and having the girl turn into a monster a top of him.

"And you, Keeper?" Korelia looked up from her staff, mask shaded by the fire.

"Umm..." She thought it over, trying to remember some fight she may have had that ended in death. "I'm going to have to get back to you on that. I haven't really had much run ins trying to find research."

"Lame." Vex snorted. Everyone else just shrugged it off, knowing not everyone was like them.

"What 'bout you, Percy? What's the worst monster you've ever faced?" Vax asked the human.

"They're in Whitestone and we'll all be facing them soon."

"Buzzkill." Grog spoke, trying to break the silence.

"Vax, come with me to get more sticks." Vex said after a bit, getting up and pulling her brother along. "Try to keep the fire going at night so we don't freeze to death."

Korelia watched them leave before turning to look at the human. He was in thought, trying to fix his weapon to make it better by the time they reached Whitestone.

"Here." Korelia said, handing him a ceramic cup she had quickly made from some clay. Being equipped with magic came in handy when you were out in the middle of the woods.

"It's mint tea." She told the human. "It helps with anxiety and any stress you might have."

The human looked at the cup for a bit, before ultimately taking it after smelling the nice scent.

"Thank you." He spoke, taking a sip of the warm water.

"From what we are going to do, anything to help relieve the stress sounds about great."

"That sounded very sexual."

"Well don't think of it that way, then!" Korelia yelled, punching Percy in the arm.

The human winced some, going to rub the now sore spot.   

"Sorry," Percy chuckled. "Thank you for coming along. I noticed that you are quite advanced in the art of magic."

"I don't think I really am. Simple spells will only get you so far." Korelia looked down at her clawed hands, flexing them to get used to the sharp nails.

"Well, healing is very useful. Especially with Pike out."

"You guys have Keyleth though."

"You can fly, though." Percy joked. Korelia giggled, looking down with a flustered look.

"You also come equipped with a familiar which means he probably knows more about magic than we ever could. It'll be useful to have something like that when we go against the Briarwoods."

As he began to sulk in his anger, Korelia looked up at him after hearing the humming sound start up again. Black tendrils fly behind him, swirling around in a menacing way. She kept her eyes on them, watching as they only looked menacing.

Vex and Vax had returned by then, dropping more wood into the fire as everyone settled down to get what would probably be their last good sleep in a while.

"You should go to sleep, Perc." Korelia told him, standing up. "At least try to."

Word Count: 1380