Sincere longing.

"I can carry you if you want to rest some more," Bugak offered and went to get his clothes, after wiping his body with the same wet cloth she used before.

"I'm able to walk on my own," She laughed as she stretched her arms before taking her clothes back on. Bravely, she kept her promise, even with her body numb from the dull pain spreading from her abdomen. 

It will take some time, the things they did last time seemed to be almost against the healthy mind. But she was still in a great mood, as she managed to lure him to stay. 

Anna just hoped it won't be a mistake.

They left the village and immediately had to set some rules.

Bugak growled in obvious displeasure as he walked beside her down the path toward the forest. Anna scolded him like a child for killing those two humans by the gate, telling him over and over she wanted a guardian, not a butcher.

"We would be no better than them," Anna explained as she bent down, her fingers brushing against the fragile leaves of an herb she learned about during her yesterday's research. After she reached for her sickle and carefully severed the plant from its toxic roots, she froze and jumped up.

What was it?

"Sorry. Couldn't help it," his titled head and mischievous smile gave him off.

"You can't do that in front of other people," She whispered, all startled, still surprised by the gentle touch of his palm sliding from her butt in between her thighs.

"Why? You are acting like you don't know me at all. Did you already forget what we did to each other last night?" Bugak frowned, "You should have warned me you don't like being touched."

"I like it!" Anna was ready to argue, because his hands belonged to one of the things she craved the most, "But not in front of other people. I want to be the only one seeing this side of yours," She blurted out without thinking. 

Her face blushed when she finally realized what she said, but before she was able to save it, he leaned closer, saying "Greedy, aren't we? I like it."

It took only a few hours until they managed to bring their co-traveling to perfection. Anna would walk slowly, searching for herbs of bigger rarity, sometimes even stopping for a longer period of time, while he ran around and chopped into pieces any human that even looked in their direction.

Anna had already collected 6 rare flowers and they had only reached the forest behind the village. As she focused on the greenery in front of her, she opened her inner sight by accident. Every few steps she would bend down to pick up another flower, herb, or mushroom, with her eyes covered by gray side-eyelid, allowing her to see what she truly needed.

All surrounding colors were dimmed, and flame-like lights of various colors waved above the tall grass. White, yellow and orange, and there was even a red one not so far away. Eagerly, she set off in that direction, her bare feet carried her swiftly toward the target. 

Epic rarity. Finally something useful. She was even able to rub a few seeds from the older flowers, already dried and ripe.