Craig awoke to the sunrise on his face through the treehouse. As he sat up, the boards squeaked loudly. He quickly looked to Tweek to see if the noise had woken him, but he remained asleep with his arm wrapped around his head, shielding him from the growing sunlight.

Where they were staying was honestly less of a treehouse and more like a sort of platform. Suddenly he wondered if it was used for sniping arrows. He wasn't sure why Barbarians would need that, Tweek showcased that he was fine shooting from the ground, not to mention that they were far enough off the main path that it wouldn't be the most obvious place to wait for passersby, be it animals or humanoids.

He stretched and yawned-though he tried to do so quietly enough to not wake Tweek. He wasn't sure why he was avoiding waking him. Maybe he should wake him so they could get an early start on the day. Yet for some reason, he decided to let the barbarian sleep while he collected his thoughts.

"Why are you so rude?"

Tweek's words from yesterday echoed in his mind.

Craig knew that he was a rude person. People said it to him all the time. Clyde would say it with a laugh, Red to tease him and get on his nerves, Bebe with annoyance, Wendy with malice. To him, said what he thought and didn't care if others liked him. It wasn't a trait he was proud of or anything, but at the same time he didn't really care or actively try to change it. In fact, if he was going to be honest with himself, part of him actively didn't want people to like him.

Well, it wasn't exactly like he wanted to be hated. He didn't set out trying to think of ways for people to despise him. That said, he never went out of his way to try to make people like him either. Even with Clyde. Clyde and him had been through so much and knew each other so well, that he didn't have to do anything for him to like him-he could be unapologetically himself.

Clyde was always enough for him. Even if he wasn't enough for Clyde. Clyde had Bebe, he had his other friends...but that was fine. Clyde was a lot more social of a person, he wanted a lot of human interaction. Craig didn't.

He didn't really want to think about the reasons why he was the way he was. He always told himself that as a thief with no loyalties, that was how he should be. Yet deep down he knew he was that way before he became one and would have been this way regardless. And so, sometimes he would fall down that rabbit hole and question these things about himself, but he'd quickly try to pull himself out of it and think of something else. He just wasn't a people person, he figured. That's fine. Not everyone has to be.

Before long he heard a yawn. Tweek had just woken up.

"Morning," Craig nodded towards him.

"Good morning," Tweek returned the greeting, his voice noticeably still tired, "How long have you been up?"

"A little while," he shrugged, "I'm usually an early riser. When I was younger, my family always got up before sunrise. In the past few years, I've been sleeping in more often with the curtains closed, but I can't sleep with sunlight in my face."

"Is that normal in Kupa?"

"In my village it was," he answered, "Though not in the city. A lot of the rich stay up until daybreak partying like assholes and wake up at noon. Your people?"

"I guess it depends," Tweek leaned back, trying hard to think about an answer, "What someone's job is, personal preference. We have parties and festivals that go late into the night, so I guess in those situations people will wake up late in the day."

"You have festivals?"

"I thought you didn't want stories or rambling," Tweek raised an eyebrow.

Craig frowned. "Forget I asked, then."

"We do," Tweek childishly giggled, "For different parts of the year-winter festivals, fall festivals, things like that. Others for activities like music or games. Also, of course, for events celebrating occasions and events that happened long ago. Some variations or tribe specific ones...depending."

"I wouldn't have thought."

"Kupa is the same, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, "My favorite was the spring equinox. My mom always made us snacks with honey."

"I'm confused. You said you were a street kid before, didn't you?"

Craig was caught off guard. He did admit that, didn't he? Now he was subtly giving details of her serf life with his family. He was quickly sharing far too much with this guy.

"I don't really like talking about my past," Craig told him. An honest answer.

"Alright," Tweek stood up, rummaging through his things for the fruit he picked yesterday, "Then I won't ask. Breakfast now?"

They continued their trek through the seemingly endless forest. As Tweek had warned, there were more and more dangerous creatures that they came across that the barbarian would promptly deal with. It made Craig feel a bit useless-he was always considered good at protecting himself and had just received vigorous training to improve, yet there this lean blond guy would already handle before he even realized there was something to handle.

What they didn't ever deal with, Craig suddenly realized, was other Barbarians.

"Where are all of your people?" he found himself asking, "I was warned that you guys are everywhere and watch over your roads. Kind of like you but, you know, not just you."

"Usually there would be," Tweek shrugged, "Now is just special. You're lucky, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"We were talking about festivals this morning," Tweek answered. He paused for a moment before continuing, "Right now is one of our most important ones. Everyone is busy deep in the woods celebrating it. It's against tradition to do any other of our duties right now."

"Except for you, I take it?"

"Like I said, I'm away from my tribe," he told him, his voice slightly melancholy, "I'm at the age where I have to prove myself. I'm not a part of any festivals or traditions until I do so. This festival was always my favorite, so I do miss it."

"They had you do this right before then?" Craig asked, "That's pretty shitty."

"I've been away for a while."

"Define awhile."

"Not quite a year."

Craig nearly coughed. "A year? Why didn't you just set up a trap to kill an ogre or something and call it a day?"

Tweek laughed, "Well, that's the sort of thing a lot of us do. I would too, probably, but...the standards are, well...different for me I guess."

"I guess it's no wonder why you wanted to follow me, I guess," Craig found himself thinking out loud, "I'd go fucking crazy if I had to wander this hellforest alone for a year. You parents must be real assholes to put that sorta pressure on you."

"It's not their fault," Tweek insisted, "But...this morning you said you didn't want to talk about certain things. Well, this is the sort of thing I don't want to talk about."

"Fair enough," he shrugged, "It doesn't really matter to me."

"Speaking of things not to talk about," Tweek quickly changed the subject, "I really shouldn't have told you about the festival. Like you said, outsiders expect us to be on the lookout at all times. If everyone knew when our festivals were, when we're most vulnerable-"

"Believe me, I'm not the sort of person who would have bothered to mention it anyway."

"Right," Tweek frowned.

It was then another one of those obnoxious pixies flew around them. Craig quickly swatted one as soon as it came near his face. It fell to the ground a few feet away.

"Feldspar!" Tweek scolded quite angrily, running over to the fallen pixie.

"What?" Craig shrugged, "A pest flies into my face, I'm going to swat it."

"Pixies aren't pests!" Tweek glared at him as he kneeled down very carefully and gently picked up the pixie in his hands, "I can't believe you just-look she's hurt!"

It was definitely an unexpected sentiment for him to hear from a barbarian. Even one like Tweek, despite learning that many of his misconceptions of them were wrong. He saw Tweek kill dangerous creatures without hesitation. It was still true that barbarians killed trespassers without a second thought, Tweek himself saying upon their first meeting that he would have been justified to do so.

"For such a warlike, brutal race, I can't say I expected you to care," he spoke a summary of his thoughts.

"We don't senselessly kill for the sake of it. We have honor, you know," Tweek still glared as he stood up with the pixie resting in his palm, "We try to protect this forest, especially those weaker than us. Pixies are beautiful, peaceful creatures who call this place home as well. Who are you, an outsider, to come into their home and hurt them?"

That was a good point, Craig had to admit. He didn't have an answer, so he decided to remain silent.

Tweek carefully walked over to the edge of the path, pixie still in hand. With his other hand, he carefully helped the pixie stand up on his palm and very lightly brushed off some of the dirt on her with his finger. After a few moments, the pixie fluttered her wings. She flew up to Tweek's face and kissed his nose before flying off deep into the forest.

"She's lucky," Tweek told Craig as he started to continue their trek down the path, "She was mostly just in shock. She could have bent a wing or broken her neck."

"Okay, fine, I'm sorry. I won't swat at them anymore."

"You know," Tweek said after a few moments of silence between them, "You keep calling this place a 'hellforest'. You...aren't wrong that it can be incredibly dangerous and scary. It's full of all sorts of things that can kill you, tainted with magic that isn't always...pure. It isn't exactly the easiest place for people to live in and to be honest maybe us barbarians are crazy for doing it." He paused once more.

"Yeah?" Craig prompted him.

"But it isn't just all those things," Tweek finally continued, "If you actually stopped only viewing it as something dangerous and terrible, I think you could appreciate all the beauty here as well. I have never left this forest, but I know Kupa Keep bans all magic, so...even if you find things like pixies annoying, don't our, I don't know, magical plants interest you? There is so much there is to offer that you seem to completely ignore."

"I'm trying to survive a mission, not go on some self-discovering nature hike," Craig rolled his eyes.

Tweek frowned. "You have such a black and white way of thinking, you know."

"What do you mean?" Craig asked. That was the first time a person used that specific sentence to describe him. He got called stubborn a lot not to mention being too pragmatic (which was a concept that never made sense to him), but not 'black and white'.

It's true, he did previously think of a lot of things in a black and white way. He thought Barbarians were all ugly brutes. He still thinks elves are awful. He hates nobility. Okay, maybe he did have a black and white way of thinking.

He thought back to that bard he met at Red's tavern. He spoke of how Barbarians weren't blindly murdering brutes but instead nice people, going against everything he had learned about them. He told Craig to question everything he thought he knew about Zaron. Though he was also a spy who got Red killed. It's possible he was speaking on experience, but he felt it was more likely he was making things up. He decided not to take anything that bard said seriously.

He looked around once more. He guessed the flora here was pretty. But he still didn't see how it would be prudent for him to stop and smell the glowing roses instead of keeping watch of his step. For all he knew, the glow could be a sign of poison. It was easy enough for Tweek that probably knew what everything was and was used to this way of living. Hell, he toughed it out on his own for nearly a year. He had no right to judge him for keeping on guard over letting himself become distracted.

So for that reason, he decided to dismiss what Tweek had told him.

That whole dealing did, however, led them back to journeying on in near total silence. Even when they stopped for a lunch break of food Craig had brought with him, they only had a minimal exchange of the angry silence like yesterday, but instead like that which they agreed upon the night before. They didn't have to like each other, they probably were far too incompatible of people with their own personal worldviews to like each other. Perhaps not speaking to avoid saying something that would irritate the other would be the best course of action.

"Where are we going to sleep tonight?" Craig finally broke the silence as he noticed it was beginning to get dark, "You seem to always know a place."

"I don't know of any shelter all the way out here," Tweek admitted, "This isn't really a part of the forest I know that well."

"So we'll camp the old fashioned way?" he asked.

"Well...there's a pond not far from here," he added, "It should be safe and can also get us water. Maybe fish, too, if we can catch some."

"Alright."

And so, about a half an hour later Tweek led them off the main path and down to a pond, just like Craig expected. What he didn't expect was just how this pond would look. Or any of the land surrounding it, for that matter.

For one, it wasn't like any riverbank he'd ever seen-ones he was used to were just a little bit of cleared out land and generally quite rocky. This was a full on meadow, as if he had left the forest entirely. Unlike the darkness of the forest with glowing dark blue flowers and such this, even in the dimming daylight, was very bright and colorful. It was full of pinks and purples and other pastel colors all around. The pond itself too looked nothing like a body of water he had ever seen. It was a weird hodgepodge of different shades of pinks, blues, purples, and so on. All around, dozens and dozens of pixies of various color glows flew about.

"I like to come here," Tweek told him, "But it's a little out of the way, so I don't often."

"It's sure...something," Craig said, a loss for words.

"It's said the fairies and their unicorns once lived here," Tweek explained, "But the fairies left the forest generations ago, so it's been taken over by the pixies."

"My sister would love this place," Craig found himself blurting out without thinking. Well, it was true. It was the stereotype of every little girl's dream. Even someone as stubborn as Craig had to admit that it was absolutely beautiful. Still, he immediately regretted bringing his sister up.

"You have a sister?" Tweek asked. That was entirely why Craig regretted blurting it out.

He considered pulling the I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it card. That would be the smartest option, strategically speaking, and also would prevent him from opening that can of emotional worms he tried so hard to suppress. The last thing he wanted was to get emotional in front of this guy.

"Had," he found himself admitting instead.

"Oh," Tweek's expression fell, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You didn't know," Craig shrugged. He quickly tried to change the subject, "You said there were fairies and unicorns here? What made them leave?"

"It's not known," Tweek shrugged, "It's more of a legend anyway."

"I guess Kupa has a magical creature you don't then," Craig commented, "The princess had a unicorn. I've never seen it, though."

"They aren't banned like the other magical creatures?" Tweek's eyes widened.

"They'd be banned anywhere else, but if you're royalty I guess rules don't matter. There's a reason why I hate nobility, especially royals."

"I see," Tweek said, frowning.

"Hey, that water-are you sure it's okay to drink? I don't want to get sick on some weird rainbow water."

"Perfectly," Tweek's troubled expression turned into a smile, "It's magic infused, they say it's even better for you."

They then set out to prepare for the night. As Tweek said, the water didn't instantly poison Craig. It was weirdly sweet, as though it wasn't entirely water at all. They were also able to catch a few of the weird (and also strangely sweet) rainbow-y fish in the pond and set up a little campfire to cook them. Craig trusted Tweek that they were safe here.

"We should reach the edge of the forest in less than half a day," Tweek told him after they finished their dinner.

"Oh thank God," Craig laid back in the soft grass in relief.

"That means the start of the Neunbruck Kingdom," he added.

"That's right," Craig sat up, "This will be your first time leaving the forest, isn't it?"

Tweek didn't speak, his mouth slightly agape, barely visible in the light of the fire.

"What?" Craig raised an eyebrow, slightly annoyed, "That's what you said, isn't it?"

"So you aren't going to fight me going with you?"

"I thought we agreed to that already."

"You only specified to the edge of the forest."

"I guess I thought it was implied," Craig thought about it, "Why, are you getting second thoughts?"

"No!" Tweek frowned, "I was planning on going no matter what. I just was hoping to not fight you over it."

"Well you don't have to anymore, I guess."

"Good."

"Good," Craig agreed.

"But you know," Tweek suddenly added, "Neunbruck doesn't really like Barbarians. This time you're going to have to be the one to lead and deal with things."

"Why don't you just say you're from Kupa Keep, too?" Craig offered, laying back down on the grass. He was getting sleepy fast. They didn't have any sort of tent, but the sky was clear enough and it wasn't cold, so it should be fine sleeping out in the open. Tweek insisted that predators don't come here.

"Excuse me?" Tweek answered just as he was about to try to sleep.

"Just wipe off that paint or whatever and I'm sure they'd be none the wiser," he yawned, shutting his eyes.

"That's-I can't just do that!" Tweek sounded greatly offended, "Going around without it would be against every tradition, every-"

"I thought you said while you were on this proving yourself thing you weren't a part of that," his voice even more tired.

Tweek groaned unintelligibly, but Craig found himself too tired to open his eyes once more before falling asleep to the pops of the dwindling fire.

The next morning, Tweek woke before Craig did. The fire had long since died out and was instead a pile of black ash, though Tweek had covered it with some flowers and stones to make it less of an eyesore in the beautiful meadow. Craig didn't feel guilty-he knew from his formative days living a farmer's life from his father that fire often helped the ground become more fertile. Still, that level of caring was something even after only a few days of knowing Tweek he had come to expect.

What he didn't expect was for Tweek to look entirely different.

Well, to be fair, maybe saying entirely different was an overstatement. He still had the same clothes on, complete with no shirt. His hair was still messy, his body still not clean by Craig's standards. He was still the same height, had the same piercing blue eyes, and lean muscle to him.

Still, he looked very different to Craig without that dark body paint snaking around him. Sure there were still specks of it here and there and his skin was rubbed raw and red from where he presumably scrubbed and scrubbed. But it was...odd.

"Could I pass as someone from Kupa now?" he asked.

"Probably not if you were in Kupa," Craig answered honestly, "But without that paint you wouldn't pass for a Barbarian, either. We can't do anything about your accent, but we should probably get you a shirt or something."

"No shirts," Tweek demanded, "I already wiped off the paint. I'm not going to wear those torture devices."

"Torture device?" Craig raised an eyebrow, "What the hell do you guys do in winter when it's cold?"

"Barbarians are better at regulating body temperature," Tweek said with full conviction.

"That doesn't make any sense, but okay," Craig doubted, but decided to allow it without further question. He looked around the meadow once more. It was even beautiful in the full daylight. "You know, if it's only going to take half a day anyway we might as well take our time leaving."

"You like it here?" Tweek asked.

"Better than the rest of the forest," he shrugged. He did like it, but he had always been weird about admitting that sort of thing.

"I like it, too," Tweek replied with a somewhat mischievous grin. Craig scowled.

From there, Tweek caught a few more fish throwing his arrows like spears while he told Craig what sort of berries in the bushes were safe to pick for food. Pixies were everywhere flying about, some grabbing at his clothes while he tried to search for the berry bushes, but he decided to heed Tweek's words and not swat at them but instead ignore them. He took off his hat and decided to use that to carry them. Before long, he noticed a handful of pixies using all their might to pull the berries off of the bush as well, their arms barely wrapping around them and the weight of them almost too much for them to keep their flight. Cheerfully, they carefully plopped the berries into Craig's hat.

Maybe they weren't so bad, afterall.

When his hat was full, he returned to where they had slept, many of the pixies cheerfully following him back. Tweek hadn't set up another fire, but insisted merely diced them up and claimed that the type of fish he got was safe to eat raw as long as it was fresh. It seemed like a gross concept to Craig, but he wasn't going to fight someone clearly more knowledgeable than him. Cautiously he took a bite of the fish. It was pretty good. The berries were also quite good.

Seeing the pixies still giggling about him, he pulled apart some of the fish and smashed a berry into smaller pieces. He held it up in his fingers and offered it up to the pixies. They hesitated, but eventually one flew forward and grabbed some, the others soon following suit. Tweek raised an eyebrow.

"They decided to help me pick berries, so it's only fair," Craig explained. Tweek smiled but gave no comment.

He looked at Tweek closely as he ate. He was sure a weird one. They had only known each other for a few days now, but he already got less on his nerves than before. Sure, he still didn't like him, but he didn't get irritated just thinking about him anymore.

His usefulness aside, Craig was aware that bringing him along did endanger the mission. He had no idea how he was going to explain this next check in he'd give-which he hadn't given one since he first entered the forest. He knew that the recommended order would probably be to just kill him, but Craig never once truly considered that option. In that case, the order would likely be to just get rid of him. He could betray him at Neunbruck, and to be honest pragmatically speaking he probably should. Neubruck was pretty peaceful, so it would be very unlikely that they'd kill him and would at most just arrest him before returning him to the forest.

But for some reason, that hadn't been what he planned on doing. This guy saved his life a number of times in the past couple days, betraying him felt wrong. Sure, he betrayed people for a living before and had no qualms about betrayal as general concept, but usually that was about objects not quite literally someone who saved his life.

He also figured he would be of use once he reached elven territory. He could help him get his foot in the door. In that way, keeping on with him would be pragmatic.

He was going to have to betray him eventually, though. He wasn't going to the High Elf Kingdom for peace. He was going there for thievery, to steal the stick. Not only that, but he was going to be giving it to essentially a dictator in order to have power over all of Zaron. Tweek probably wasn't going to like that.

"I think we should get going," Tweek called out, gathering his things.

Well, he'd cross that bridge when he'd come to it.