'I'm telling you, John, there are strange things happening in these forests.' Two men, marching in perfect synchronization, shining armor and white robes, patrolled along a forest path. 'Ever since these Asura gates opened, all kinds of people have been coming to Divinity's Reach.'

John stroked his short beard and thought about this. He had been a Seraph Guard for nearly two decades, and fought many a battle - especially with the Tamini Centaurs. The ongoing fight had left its scars on him, and he couldn't say he had not seen a large part of Kryta. So he stroked his beard and thought.

'Well, Falke,' he slowly addressed his patrolling partner for the night, 'I cannot say I agree with you. In all my serving years that I've patrolled around the city, I've never seen anything strange. You should go to the Hinterlands sometime, then you'll see real madness. Those centaurs..'

'Not the centaurs again, John!' Falke interrupted. John quickly shut his mouth. He had indeed told many a tale about centaurs, including the one he had been about to tell. Many times.

'No, John, I'm seriously telling you,' Falke started again, gesturing broadly with both his hands, 'strange things are happening here. Stranger than centaurs.' Their armored boots creaked on the gravel path.

'Stranger than centaurs, you say?' The sun was high. The two men walked, a relaxed march on the not too cold day.

'Stranger than centaurs, John.' It fell silent again. They walked.

'Not much going on today, is there, Falke? Not even bandits.'

'Not even bandits, John. They must be up to something.' Had they not been at work, they might have stuck their hands in their pockets and whistled. It was definitely an easy day.

'Centaurs are bandits, Falke,' John began, and Falke sighed. 'Really, John, really?'

'They are the bandits of our lands. You are young, Falke, and you would do good to remember that well-'

'Wait!' Falke suddenly tensed, and drew his sword. He pointed at the bushes. 'That tree just moved!'

John laughed condescendingly, but drew his sword. He looked over to where Falke was pointing, and saw nothing but an oddly shaped bush quivering slightly in the wind. Except that there was no wind. And then the bush looked up to reveal a white face, that looked back at him, with a shocked expression.

'By the gods, I have never...!'

.

They had travelled all day, Caithe restlessly moving back and forth between scouting ahead and checking on Faolain.

'Caithe, are you sure this is the right direction?' Faolain asked, breathy. She walked in a fast pace, but clutched her shoulder. Her normally dark, charcoal skin looked dull and slightly grey.

'No, but this is the most interesting one. Have you seen the change in environment, Faolain? It's so wonderful, I think we might be out of the forest soon. Who knows what will wait there!' Caithe tried to keep her enthusiasm under control, and felt bad for even being enthusiastic when she saw the other Sylvari's face. She ran back to her, and gently held her.

'Maybe you should rest for a while..' Faolain bit her lip, and looked around.

'I'm not sure how much good that would do me now, Caithe,' she lifted her hand for a moment to look at the festering wound, 'I need to get rid of that poison.' Her words lingered for a moment, and neither knew what to say.

'Come on, Faolain. We will find something.' Caithe wrapped her arm around the other, a slight pang of guilt in her stomach that she had not helped her earlier. It had been her idea to fight the devourer, after all. Still, she shook off the thought and focused on going forward.

And so they walked, intrigued by everything around them but not able to focus completely. By noon, Faolain was staring at her feet while walking, breathing hard and paler than ever. Caithe had not even noticed the forest thinning out and the path parallel to their route, not more than 20 metres away. She was holding Faolain now, almost her entire weight in her arms, struggling to keep her moving. A cold feeling spread through her stomach when she saw how pale and feverish the other was. Suddenly Faolain looked up at her, clutched Caithe's shoulders weakly, and muttered something inaudible. Then her feet gave way and Caithe noticed a fraction of a second too late that she was holding Faolain's entire weight now, and shakily slumped down with her, though still breaking her fall. She tried to get up, frantically looked around, back at Faolain, who was unmoving on the ground, and then she heard voices.

Heavy footsteps, not too far away. Two people talking. She stood still, pinned with fear, not daring to move her head. Then, the voices changed, and the footsteps stopped. Caithe looked up, at two faces, matching her expression.

.

'Where did you say you were from, miss?' The two Seraph guards had put away their swords, and stood there asking questions and tapping their feet. One looked amazed, the other seemed to think it was all a big joke. Caithe tried to explain things to them, but they kept interrupting with their seemingly pointless questions.

'The Grove! It can't be too far from here,' she said, exasperated, trying to gesture at her fallen comrade, 'but I really need-'

'Yeah, miss, calm down now,' one of the men interrupted, 'we will get you to our chief and then we can get you what you need, okay?' The man bent towards his partner and whispered, 'there's nothing strange here, Falke, just a treehugger gone mad.' Falke just shrugged and muttered 'if my wife could see this...'

'I'm not a - what did you call me?' Caithe asked, thoroughly confused. 'What good comes from hugging a tree?' The men snorted.

'Y'tell me, lassie. I've never heard of this Grove, either. Where is it?' Caithe began to point again.

'It's in this direction, but that's not-'

'Ah yeah. Is it a magical wonderland of unicorns and walking trees, miss?'

'No, please, you don't understand,' Caithe pleaded, 'my love, she got wounded and-'

'Your love?' Asked one of the men, and the other added, unbelieving, 'She?'

'It's terrifying how easily distracted you two are! ' Caithe called out, shivering now, her eyes on the verge of tears. How difficult could it be to explain something to these men?

'There was a giant devourer, and-' Suddenly the one of the men's faces softened, and he grabbed a bottle of water from his belt. Using his most fatherly face and voice, he handed it to Caithe.

'Calm now, lassie. We're not out to hurt you. Drink something, then tell us where your lovey-dovey is.'

.

Falke handed out his waterbottle to the confused woman. It must be hard for a young woman to live in these times of war. He had seen a few already, young unmarried women with nothing to do except fearing each day. They went crazy so easily, breakable like twigs. He had not quite seen this kind of lunatic before, but he guessed every personality had its own unique way out. What covering oneself in leaves and treebark and odd marks had to solve, he had not quite figured out yet. But he was not a lunatic. Yet.

The exasperated woman took the water bottle, nodding in gratitude, and immediately bowed down and picked up an old branch in her arms and cradled it. She uncorked the bottle with her teeth and then carefully pretended to let the branch drink. Falke looked at the sky, not sure if looking at such a sad display was really the noble thing to do. He heard coughing and looked back, his eyes growing wide. He faintly heard John's voice next to him.

'By the gods..' The old branch was not an old branch. And even if it was, it was moving and coughing and it had hands.

'There's two of you? John, could this -'

.

Caithe sighed, sitting on a soft bed of linen. Faolain was next to her, fast asleep. Her shoulder had been cleansed properly and bandaged, and she had been given an antidote. Caithe rested her head in her hands. This had been a trying day.

Somehow, seeing Faolain had triggered something in the two Seraph guards. They had whispered hastily to each other, and one of them ran while the other kneeled down and began to inquire about the wound. He had tried to clean it as much as he could, apologizing profusely to her and Faolain, and they had been trying to keep Faolain awake until the other guard returned with two other guards on horses.

They had been taken to the majestic city, white as snow, Divinity's Reach they had called it. It was magnificent. Caithe sat behind one horseback soldier, while the other horseback soldier held the half-unconscious Faolain in his lap, and the two guards that found them ran along.

Other soldiers in white, shining armor had questioned Caithe, in a serious way, not the mocking way the others had done, while they took Faolain away to be taken care of. Caithe had not liked being separated from her, but they would not let her go to her until she finished answering questions. And so she did.

The guards seemed genuinely interested, and wrote a full report on her. Then, they arranged for a room and told her everything would be alright. When she finally saw Faolain again, who already had regained a lot of colour in her face, she ultimately relaxed. The city was strange and big, and its people were tall and businesslike, but also friendly and generous.

At last, she fell back on the linen sheets, the feel of which was strange but not uncomfortable to her. She turned and stroked Faolain's cheek. Faolain smiled, eyes fluttering half open.

'Hush,' Caithe immediately whispered, 'you can sleep now. Tomorrow the sun will rise again, and we will see more fascinating things.' She nestled against the other as Faolain closed her eyes again.

.

Late that afternoon, two men finished their patrol after dealing with all the ruckus. It was still sunny, but slightly less warm.

'Y'know John,' Falke mused, 'I'd love to be a horseback guard someday. High rank, good pay.. yeah.' He looked at the other. 'Why did you never get promoted, John?'

John huffed agitatedly. 'Horses. Wretched beasts. You know what they remind me of, Falke, they remind me of- '

'Of centaurs?' Falke supplied, a small smile around his lips.

'Of centaurs! I'm telling you, Falke, these creatures will be the end of me..' A long tirade, that Falke had heard at least a dozen times before, started. Enjoying the fresh spring breeze, the two men walked towards the horizon.