Colin took another step through the forest, the warm breeze stirring his cloak as he tried to conceal his presence through walking softly. The pine forest had a unique atmosphere to it, the whisper of the wind, the rustle of different animals in the ecosystem as squirrels chased each other through the upper branches while deer and rabbits ran underfoot. He was doing his best to remain undetected, the forest's apex predator still not having detected him, as far as he could tell.

  His hands were cmmy, sweat dripping down the back of his robe as took another tentative step, peering in every direction and trying to follow the trail left before him. A twig snapped behind him, and he twirled, wizard's staff leveled and ready to cast. Nothing, an empty forest. The wind whipped through the forest again, stray leaves and small twigs swirling at his feet. Colin continued rotating in a circle, suspiciously gring at the surrounding greenery.

  Deciding it was a false arm, Colin began trotting down the trail again, this time trying to trade speed for stealth in his quest to escape the forest. If he could just make it out, he'd be free and safe. It wasn't much more than another mile, he estimated, until he was out of the old state forest. Colin started running the numbers in his head, confident that within seven or eight minutes at this pace, even with the rough terrain, he'd be out.

  As he ran, thinking through scenarios, he stopped paying attention to his surroundings and completely missed a tripwire strung across the path he was running. It snagged around his leading ankle, causing him to tumble forward. As he tried to recover, changing the fall into a dive and rolling, he saw a giant pine trunk swinging toward him from a deadfall. With a yelp, he threw himself to the side and the trunk just grazed him, bouncing him off another tree and sprawling into the dirt below.

  Colin raised his head, groaning, and gnced around the forest. There was no way she hadn't heard him trigger the trap. He staggered to his feet, rubbing at his sore ribs, and staggered off into the woods, breaking into a run as he did.

  "You know you're going the wrong way, right?" Colin stopped, blinking and staring around as Deirdre's disembodied voice sounded from the surrounding trees. "You were going the right way until you hit the trap, but when you got up you were turned around and are only headed further back into the forest."

  Colin sighed, sitting down on a comfortable rock and looking up, trying to spot the wood elf. "You win, again," he said with a disgruntled tone. "Go ahead and tell me what I did wrong." Deirdre dropped from the trees, nearly nding on top of the elven wizard, and ruffled his hair as she sat down next to him.

  "You were doing well," she said, smiling at the wizard. "Really." Colin crooked an eyebrow sarcastically, not convinced. "For a wizard," Deirdre admitted. "Look, you wouldn't expect me to be able to cast fireballs and I don't expect you to be able to track a mouse through a forest in the middle of a snowstorm, but you are improving."

  "Bullshit, there's no way you can do that," Colin challenged, staring at the ranger. Deirdre's puzzled expression looked back at him. "Really?" She nodded and shrugged, confused at why he thought it so extreme a task. "Wow, okay. Learn something new every day..."

  "What is it that you want, Colin? What is your quest?" Deirdre asked, leaning her shoulder into the rger man. He put an arm around her back, pulling her close to him and thought for a minute. He sighed, blowing a gust of air between clenched teeth and y back on the rock, propping his hands behind his head as he stared at the trees swaying overhead. Deirdre rolled on top of him, the smaller ranger ying on his stomach, chin propped in her hands, as she gazed down at him.

  "When we started, my goal was just to protect my friends. Alice and Bridgette have a big task from Fi, but really I'm just along for the ride. I have magic, which is fucking awesome, and I can go around on adventures with my buddies. As things continued, that sort of evolved into 'I want to learn as much as I can about magic' and 'I need to grow stronger to protect my friends,' but still the same concept."

  Deirdre nodded, encouraging him to continue. "Hecate has never spoken to me, never asked me to do a thing, just passively encouraged my learning by giving me a slight power increase as I've continued leveling. And that's fine, I don't need to be dragged into the whole 'save the world' drama. But these past few months, with you, I'm not sure. It feels different, like I want more out of life than I did before. I just don't know the words for it yet." He picked his chin up and gazed at her. "What about you?"

  She stuck her tongue out at him, not liking the turnabout, but answering regardless. She began to talk, picking her words carefully, "Growing up without my mother, I didn't have many goals. Keep my father alive, keep the farm producing food, hunt and py in the woods. I lived in a bubble, nothing from the outside world mattered. When he vanished, when the monsters came, I chose to take that opportunity to grow strong. I no longer had my father to protect me, so I had to do it myself, and no one would ever think I was weak."

  Colin hugged her, running his hands up and down her back comfortingly as she spoke, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears as she spoke of her deceased parents. "For the longest time, I thought my goal was to cim the Winds as mine - to hunt whatever I wanted through the mountains. Maybe, if I was ambitious and thinking of the future, to move past them and down into the Colorado Rockies to find even bigger challenges. But now, like you, something feels different. I want more than hunting, but the words do not come easily."

  "I like you a lot," Colin blurted, rushed and awkward. "I don't know what love is like, I've never had anyone I felt strongly enough about before to say it, but I think it must be this. If anything happened to Alice or Bridgette, I would be devastated. If anything happened to you, I would rip my own heart out and y down beside you. Deirdre, I ...", Colin paused, gncing at the woman who gazed back at him, holding her breath, waiting, "I love you."

  "I feel the same," she admitted, sighing happily as she rested her head on his chest. "I love you, my wizard. Even if you are lousy in the woods." Colin ughed, his voice surprised and booming in the still air. The tension he'd felt for so long was gone, his feelings returned. His heart was whole, and he crushed Deirdre into a hug, his emotions taking over as joy radiated through him.

  "So, uh, what now?" Colin asked several minutes ter, as he and Deirdre continued to y together.

  "What do you mean?" Deirdre picked her head up, gazing curiously at the wizard. "What kind of what now?"

  "Well, uh ... we love each other, can we, uh ... uhm." The wood elf pinned him with her stare, Colin blushing furiously and stammering as he tried to figure out how to finish his sentence. Finally, she darted forward and pecked him on the lips briefly, pulling back and watching his reaction. Colin grinned, grabbing the ranger and kissing her back quickly.

  "I have been watching our friends in order to understand how to kiss, just in case," Deirdre confided. "They do it quite often. I was jealous."

  "Hah, that's not all they do," Colin chuckled. Deirdre arched an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "I mean, I'm not saying I watch them do it, it, you know. That would be wildly inappropriate. But they have done it, like a lot, around us. And I'm not saying we need to do that! Or even should! I was always told to wait until marriage before stuff like that, and I think that's a fine approach, and I'm happy to wait until I'm married."

  "Who are you marrying?," Deirdre asked, curious.

  "Wait, what? No, I didn't say I was marrying anyone, I said I would be happy to wait until marriage."

  "Yes, but are you saying you don't want to marry me?"

  "No! That's not true, I do want to marry you!"

  "Really? So soon? Do you always propose marriage to a woman mere minutes after your first kiss? I must be cautious."

  "Huh? Oh gods, what did I just say?" Colin stammered, words coming out of his mouth in a confused babble as he stared with growing panic at the beautiful elf ying on his chest.

  Deirdre chuckled, rolling off the wizard and helping him to his feet and pecking him on the lips once more before smiling shyly. The two elves stood together, gazing around the forest.

  "So, uhm, are we dating?" Colin asked into the still air. "Can I call you my girlfriend?" Deirdre gnced up at him, sighing. She intertwined her fingers in his and the two started walking back to the edge of the forest where Moonwhisper awaited them. "I'm going to call you my girlfriend."

  "Not your fiancée?" Colin blushed, stammering once more, but Deirdre clung to him, gripping his hand firmly as the two continued walking. "Girlfriend is perfect, boyfriend."

  WhimsicalLantern