It was the night of her secret mission! She had been good and kept her secret. Almas had let her know when he'd checked everything with her parents, and there were no problems there. She had agreed not to talk about it with them even after then though, in case spies were listening. When she pretended to go to bed that night, she winked at her mother who laughed and winked back at her. Everything was going well.
Later, she snuck out of the house quietly so as not to wake any spies, and hurried to Almas as quietly as she could.
He was pacing back and forth in the dark when she got to him, and when he saw her he gasped and ran over to her, crushing her into a hug.
"You're late!" he said in an unusually high voice.
"I'm sorry, I fell asleep for a bit but I didn't mean to. I'll be a good adventurer now though, I promise!"
He made a strangled noise and his legs seemed to quiver briefly, but then he let her go.
"We need to go. Now!"
He picked up a small pack, threw it onto his back, and took her hand, pulling her forwards. They walked through the city at a fairly slow pace, but Almas looked like he was straining to go faster.
"Do you want to run?" she asked helpfully.
His hand flew to her mouth, stopping itself just before it made contact. She flinched away from him.
"Sorry little one," he whispered, "but we have to be quiet for now. Maybe we can run when we're outside the city."
She was becoming frightened again, but she followed along in silence. A good adventurer had to be brave.
Her legs were starting to hurt by the time they'd finally left the last of Mac'Aree's houses behind them.
"Do you still think you can run?" Almas asked her.
She didn't want to run or even walk anymore, but she nodded anyway. As it turned out, she didn't have to run for long. Despite her best efforts her little legs couldn't keep up, so Almas picked her up and ran for both of them. She hadn't meant to, but she soon began falling asleep again. She wasn't used to being up so late.