Chapter 1: Into the Woods

"Come on, hurry up!"

I let out a breath, laughing, using the wind to augment my speed as Bennett somehow kept ahead of me. There was no way he should be able to do it. We were both of about the same height and build so it would make sense we would run at about the same speed… but we didn't. Somehow he outpaced me and by more than a few yards every dozen seconds or so.

Razor didn't surprise me. Andrius's spirit raised the boy and he was as much a wolf as he was a human. Even possessing a human body he moved in ways neither Bennett nor I could imitate as he dashed around trees and through bushes that had the two of us twisting around or, in Bennett's case, simply crashing through as I laughed and leaped over them.

"The disparity of the discrepancy is appalling to my conscious sense of wellbeing. Why must I be forced to endure such non-imitable acts?" I could hear Fischl somewhere behind us, though when I say that her words reached me and me alone on the wind currents as they traveled through the trees and were likely meant only for her flying companion.

It was admirable how she was trying to keep up with these two. She was failing still, but hey, we all fail sometimes, and up until the point all the pigs started stampeding away, she had been doing a perfectly fine job while everyone was hunting them.

Razor was ahead of both of us, cutting low at one of the boar's feet as it squealed and fell before him. It was enough to slow him down, another pig still ahead of us and the only one that had stayed on this path. Bennett kept on it so I smiled, nimbly using the wind to jump over the boy and the fallen animal as I winked. "We'll be right back."

"Careful." Razor's eyes squinted up a moment as they met mine, darkening. "Smell fire."

I nodded before taking off. Bennett had already taken leaps ahead of me as I called upon more wind to help keep up, asking a few nearby spirits anything about smoke. I hadn't heard anything myself from them but I hadn't been listening too hard. It was difficult when there were so many voices all at once sometimes. In seconds they gave me a mass of jumbled information that I took as nothing more than a few campfires nearby. 'Nearby' to them included everything in the surrounding area for miles and we were right outside Springvale. That wasn't odd at all.

Bennett caught up to the boar before I caught up to him. I could have shot at it before then but there wasn't time to stop and aim before it would have been out of sight from either a tree or bush with all the cover it had in the area. A quick slice to the animal's backside brought it down before Bennett finished it off, smiling at me as I stopped beside him. "Wow, you kept up."

I had to smile back. He made it impossible not to. "Of course. Did you expect anything less of me? I know I'm best known for my music but that doesn't mean I don't have other talents you know."

"Usually the only ones who can keep up with me are Razor and Kaeya." He spared a moment to clean off his sword before grabbing onto the boar's hind leg. "This'll be great. We can make some dried meat out of one of these! One of the hunters in Springvale showed me how to do it and we can all share it and the other one can be lunch and dinner. We'll probably even have some extra if you want to take any back."

I wanted to either laugh or sigh and whatever I produced I was sure was somewhere in the middle. To Bennett I appeared somewhere around his own age and, now staying in town and at the bar as a free-loading tennet, I was wondering if he didn't think I now needed to bring Master Diluc food or something. The man had enough mora and food and land to have his own meals far more grand than most I could think of, save for Morax's when he wanted to be grand about them. "Perhaps. Let's see what we have left."

A sound echoed in my ears. Something was out of place. It wasn't from the direction of the others. Too big. Too loud.

I already held my bow, ready with it since we were hunting, though I had no clue what the noise was. I turned quickly but my arm didn't come up. I wasn't one to flinch towards danger. I wasn't sure if there was danger. When I was faced with two men in the shadows of the trees, both having their eyes widen as they met mine, surprised I had spotted them, they stepped forward.

I had to smile, eyes leveling as I glanced at their outfits. "We have no treasure here."

"I don't know about that." One of them looked us over just as I had him. "The boy from town with no parents and the bard who likes to get drunk in the streets with the same. I think we just found the best treasure we could have hoped to find - two people that the town won't really be looking for."

There was a quiet laugh behind me, loud enough I was sure Bennett heard it too as he turned and I shut my eyes. Vision helped in this form but with all the sensory input I could get without it, it was more of a distraction. 'Difficult' was a nice way of stating understanding anything I could hear without directly conversing with any of the spirits around me. It was like hearing thousands of children all trying to speak at once about hundreds of different topics. Five? Six? Not a lot from the sounds of it. Maybe that would trouble someone without a vision but someone blessed with that power, for Bennett alone, this little seemed no danger at all.

"I think you're scaring him."

Aimed at me or Bennett, that comment made me laugh. "Not at all, my friends. I mean, speaking of our abduction, and in front of us no less- what a horrific idea. Someone should really teach you some manners. Would you like a lesson?" I asked with a slight bow, my weapon still lowered and likely not classified as a threat by anyone who didn't know how fast and accurately I could fire it.

There were a few disgruntled noises before one of the men in the treeline before us, bigger than the one beside him, put his hand into the air. He had on dark clothes that carried more of a brown tone to them overall with black hair. His eyes held some playfulness to them when they met mine but most of his expression was hidden behind his bandana. "It seems they have no interest in having anything more to do with us. We'll just leave then. Fix that gag on her before we go. We wouldn't want her to be uncomfortable for the trip."

I turned then, not sure who Bennett was watching and not sure if I cared. I was able to protect myself well enough and I was sure if I listened I would be able to react to any movement from them before they reached us.

There were three more men, these bearing lighter colors though still in shades that blended well with the forest. It was hard to make them out with the distance they had on us through the trees. One had a stockier build than the other two and had his hands placed on a young girl with black hair and fair skin. It was hard for me to make out any further details except for the fact that she had on basic clothes and she was clearly from Mondstadt, though I couldn't recognize her.

The cloth that was tied around her mouth was removed and her eyes sought out ours, finding Bennett's first, calling out to him. "Bennett, help! I don't know what they want! I was only picking flowers! I didn't do an-'' Her words were cut off, the cloth re-tied and the man pushing down hard enough on her shoulder as he kept her to him for her to whimper into it and lean towards him.

"Why you-"

"I'll be honest, I'd have rather walked away with all of you if you hadn't noticed us. Since you did and there's nothing we can do about it, let's make a deal. I have no disillusionment that any of us would win in a fight with you so… you hand over the weapons and your visions and we let the girl go. We can't just let her go free back to town the way things are, she'd get there before we'd be able to do anything, but leaving her with her hands and feet tied should give us time to get away and she'd be able to free herself or get attention soon enough with some effort."

"Leave Chloris out of this! What could you possibly want with her?!" Bennett was mad. I'd seen him mad a few times but never like this. I had to admit, I was getting there myself. Being without a weapon and a vision, which really was no hindrance to me at all, wouldn't be an issue. The issue would be that Bennett would be without his. Right now we could fight. We also had a chance of getting the girl injured and I doubted the other three were unarmed. Those idiots who liked to hunt treasure were just as skilled at hunting people and kept all kinds of knives on themselves for slitting wrists and throats.

"We like to know what kind of weapons work best on… on people like you. Vision holders like to be a thorn in our side. We'll have real users to test it on this time instead of common folk. It'll be a treat." The man in the dark clothing nodded to the one beside him who nodded back with a more serious expression. "I think we're in agreement. Don't think we don't know that you didn't come with friends too. Make your choice and make it fast."

Bennett wasted no time dropping his weapon. His vision was a harder thing to let go of as he latched onto where it was buckled to his clothing, staring at it like it meant the world to him, before letting it fall from his hands with a pained expression. His eyes met mine with the same torment. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault." I let the bow fall, easily unclipping the fake vision without the same loss, though I did try to mimic a wince. They were expecting to see something like that.

The man from the trees came over, picking up my things before going over to Bennett's. He placed both the smaller items in a pouch at his side before sheathing Bennett's sword and taking the bow and-

"Don't- please!"

I couldn't help it, holding my arms out as if to stop him. I could feel the wind come to me, answering me even as I was unsure what I was about to ask it to do. The leaner man was in a position to try and snap the bow and it wasn't mine- I mean, it was, but it hadn't been, and I didn't want to lose it, I'd do anything to keep it. It wasn't something I wanted destroyed. It was irreplaceable.

The man had stopped when I had shouted and we both looked to the one who seemed to be in charge. I gave him the best pleading expression I could, even as I knew it was better not to show weakness. This time I would. I would do anything not to see that break right now.

"Give it here." The second man obliged and I watched my weapon change hands, the leader nodding to him, towards the other three. "Tell them what's happening and leave these two with me. If anything happens to me, kill her."

"Understood." The man's voice was higher than I expected but that didn't mean much as he walked off.

"Walk. They'll take care of her. Besides, your friends are going to want us and if we don't get on the road, they'll catch up." There was a smirk to his words. "You and that wolf boy run around here all the time. I'm going to have to kill his sense of smell for the next day or two."

"You were watching us?" Bennett nearly spat the words, taking only a step or two forward since neither of us knew which way we were supposed to be going and I don't think either of us trusted him to keep his word so we were both watching the other group.

"To make sure you didn't bother us, not for this. This is a bonus." The man shrugged his pack half off and grabbed a bunch of dried mint from it. My eyes widened and he smiled as he straightened and saw me. "Ah, see, one of you gets it."

I let out a breath. "Razor won't be able to find us, I think you're making that perfectly clear. You do realize though that we're all going to smell like mint."

"It's perfume is short lived. I'd be more worried about him smelling you when we're on the road but, by then, it'll have mingled with everyone else on the road as well. Now, if you don't mind." The man lit the bundle and dropped it in the grass where it sat there burning. "Get going."

We both moved, though slowly, and the man took the time that we were moving to go back to his bag and restrain the both of us. I wasn't about to go hand to hand with them but if they felt better like that, who was I to argue? It did chaff some when my hands were tied behind my back and Bennett looked more disheartened as we went. The girl was left alone where she sat though as the others joined us and that eased some of my worry.

It wasn't until we were clear of the forest and any potential sudden rescue at the men around us seemed to ease up, throwing hooded capes over both of us to hide both our identities and our bound hands. "Keep quiet and you keep living."

"Yes, sir." I spoke a little more sarcastically than I meant. I got shoved for it, though it was easy to keep my footing.

"This bow." The leader grabbed me soon after, not the one that shoved me by the direction the hand came from. "I doubt you'd tell me if it was worth anything. No one likes to lose a treasure and you know how we make our living. The style is something I have never seen before. It looks like something out of Mondstadt though, and there have been few places I've gone. I'm no historian, but this is old, isn't it? It's why you didn't want me breaking it."

"You may be true on some of your facts. I don't travel out of Mondstadt much myself and the bow was a gift from an old friend of mine. It's more sentimental value then it is anything else for me. If it held any monetary value, I don't know of it. Even you must know that kind of value exists." I could speak most of those words as truth, because they were. I didn't think a soul alive would know who's bow it was, even if I spoke her name.

"I'm starting to remember why I detest bards." The man openly drew out a knife, one used for hunting, and made sure that I could see it as he placed it near the edge of the hood. He strode beside me, the blade going to the bow.

"Ah, I told you the truth!" My words came out a bit rushed. "It was a friend of mine's. Please. I don't know how she got it or how much she paid for it and I can't ask. She died a long time ago."

"That's better. See? You could have just said that."

"Stop threatening him! He answered your stupid-"

"Shut up and look forward." I watched Bennett get shoved too, harder than I had, and he didn't get his footing back. He tried before landing badly on one of his knees and falling to the ground. Before he could get back up one of the men went over and picked him up by the cloak and somewhere by his shirt collar, making him choke as he coughed and we started walking again.

I looked around before whispering, letting the wind take my words. There was only so much I could do in a human body but I could at least speak to him a little more privately. Anyone close enough might hear but it'd be the barest hint of a word. "Thank you but don't get yourself hurt. We need to be well and I'll need you to run, so make sure you can. Also, don't speak. It's harder for me to suppress your words than my own."

Bennett tipped his head towards me, meeting my eyes as I had my own hood pushed aside, though my head down. They were wide and curious, his mouth open as he clearly wanted to speak to me. He tried a few times before closing it and nodding, looking forward a few times but glancing at me more than once.

We were led to a cart off to the side of the road, someone grabbing Bennett before I could turn and a cloth was shoved in my face, cutting off any protests I could make. Wind spirit or not, my body needed air and the few intakes I could manage were tinged with chemicals I had never smelt before, the world around me going quickly black.