Evalia and Emily walked all day and found a small cave to spend the night in. The rain began shortly before they found it, and continued to pour and spit rumbles of thunder.
The fox woman assumed that other travelers had already been there, because a pile of wood stood against the wall with three matches next to it. She built a fire and dug through her pack for some food.
Emily emptied her bag and studied all of its contents. There was a package with almonds which she picked up and ate while she sorted through everything else. With her stone, she separated all the items, making a pile of food, an assortment of survuval tools such as more matches and a water bottle, a communicater that she hadn't noticed until now, and some odd-looking peice of jewlery.
She wanted to use the communicater to tell Leon she was half-way back to the Charnon House, but feared she would disturb the residents by calling in the middle of the night. She put it back into her satchel along with the food and tools.
Then she picked up the peice of jewlery. What in the world was it? The design was a complicated arrangement of gold lining and violet gems. Maybe it was the centerpeice of a necklace missing a chain. Another thing that bothered her was that she had no idea where it came from. There wasn't any sort of market in these woods. Did Evalia make it? Emily held it out to her.
"Do you know where this came from?"
The fox woman took it and said, "Not from me, that's for sure. It looks like elvish work. Sometimes an elf will stumble by my shop, and his wife's got one of these things on her ear." She handed it back to the stonekeeper. "I bet Elf Boy gave it to you."
That confused Emily. She asked, "Why would he, though? He certainly never wore it, so I don't know how he got it to me."
"I bet he's got pockets in his armor. Armor like his almost always has some sort of compartment. Maybe he bought it for one of his old girlfriends and now he thinks it should be yours." Evalia revealed a sly smile.
Emily chuckled. "We're not that close."
"Maybe not, but I still think he likes you."
"He chose to go his own way."
"I bet he's just trying to protect you. His evil dad probably stuck a chip in his neck."
"I guess I'll never know."
"Don't say that. I'm sure he'll come back at some point."
"Can we not talk about it anymore?"
"Fine, kid. Get some rest."
"Goodnight, Evalia."
"Goodnight."
Then both of them tried to get as comfortable as they could and went to sleep.