Redman Frank

It was the joyful tweets of the songbirds that roused the two youth sleeping on the bed of grass. Golden light filtered in through the entrance of the tree bringing a gentle warmth to the room. 

Russ took a deep breath, drawing in the fresh air and taking stock of his surroundings. As the memories of the previous night leaked back into his mind without the spell binding effect of being in the moment, he started to panic, wondering what he had gotten himself into. Just before he could raise his voice to wonder aloud, he felt a squeeze, drawing his attention to the hand that he held in his own, and the warmth it provided. He calmed down and took a moment to study the girl that lay next to him sleeping. 

Her chest rose and fell softly, carrying with it the long strands of hair that trailed down her face and past her shoulders. The grass around her seemed to embrace her, hugging against her pure skin. She was a thing of nature. Russ wouldn't have found it unnatural to stumble upon the sight of her sleeping inside of the large hollowed tree if he were walking through the forest. His wonderings, however, were brushed aside when her eyes fluttered open. She sat up, taking back the hand she had lent him to wipe the sleep from her eyes. 

Russ's gut wrenched. The moment they broke contact it felt as though this wonderful piece of nature, Ona, had died, blinked out of existence. His hand shot out from reflex and grabbed her arm, causing her to jump and look at him, startled. Russ took several deep breaths to calm himself, and Ona offered him a sympathetic smile. She slowly grabbed his hand and took it off of her arm, removing her touch from him. The difference was night and day. While Russ sat, trying to take in the situation, Ona stood up to stretch. He looked at his hand, realizing that it wasn't just the meaning that Ona conveyed that he could feel, but it was her very being. It had been as though their minds were connected. 

Russ remained sitting in the bed of grass while Ona slipped outside of the tree. After a few minutes he began to wonder if she had thought it would be funny to make him find his own way back to the city. Much to his relief, the girl glided into the room a few moments later, bringing with her all sorts of fruit. 

The two of them ate in quiet company before Ona stood up, offering Russ a hand. He took her offer and the two of them headed back to the guild where they were supposed to meet Fitz. 

"What's this?" Fitz watched as her two other party members walked through the guild doors at the same time. "Do you two just have coincidental timing or..." She trailed off. There was something about how the two of them walked in that told her there relationship had changed from yesterday. 

"Hello?" She asked when she didn't receive an answer. She went over and kicked Russ in the shin. 

"Ow!" He said out of reflex. 

"Oh, good." She sighed with relief. "I thought you had gone silent too." With a glance at Ona she quickly readjusted her statement, "Not that it's bad that you can't talk, it would just kinda lonely talking to myself."

Ona just waved it off. 

Russ held himself from commenting on how she was the very one who wanted him, the only other person in the party who talked, to leave when she felt that way, and answered. "Well, I can talk, so lucky you."

"So, how come you two walked in together then?" She asked casually. 

"Aren't we here to take another quest?" Russ tried to avoid answering. 

"My quest is about to be to find out what is happening between you two. A good leader should know what is going on between party members."

"Sounds like it would benefit your gossiping if you were a good leader then." Russ said snidely. 

"Just like a good leader, I got here before the rest of the party to scope things out a bit." She said, puffing her chest out. 

"And what exactly is it that fell within the sights of your scope?"

"Just come over to the board and I'll show you." Fitz started toward the rank 1 quest board.

After Fitz turned her back, Ona tapped Russ on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Yeah?" He asked, but Ona quickly put her hand over his lips, looking at Fitz. 

He raised his eyebrows at her. She discreetly pointed at Fitz then touched his hand, shaking her head.

Whispering, he asked, "You don't want me to tell her about your talking thing? Or that we held hands?"

Ona nodded at first and then blushed. At the second question she started to shake her head, but gave a confused look and nodded again, drawing a line across her throat with her finger.

'Either she really doesn't want me to tell Fitz about me holding her hand or she is going to kill me if I do. I think it's best to play it safe.' Russ thought, after processing the flurry of hurried hand motions. 

At the board, Fitz plucked off a mission request and showed it to her partners. 

"Redman Frank?" Russ read, unimpressed. "What exactly is this supposed to be?"

"Clearly this is our going to be our first real mission!" Fitz said, raising her voice. "This man is a nuisance and all we have to do is run him out of town."

"What? It's our second day on the job and we are running homeless people out of town?" Russ asked.

"No, actually. This guy is a disturbance to the peace and we have to remove him from the peace." Fitz said, getting frustrated. 

'That doesn't sound ominous at all.' Russ resigned himself to the mission.

At all of this Ona just shrugged. Fitz narrowed her eyes at the silent girl and pointed a finger at her. 

"You. I will be getting some details out of you later." 

Ona visibly paled and gave a weak smile, then dramatically waved toward the door, beckoning them to start on their quest.