Night had long since arrived at the Green Forest, and a crescent moon hung in the sky above the canopy, throwing just enough light through the gaps in the leaves to make shadows out of everything.
Lukas walked through it and tried not to think about how much everything hurt.
Melody had her arm around his waist, supporting more of his weight than either of them was acknowledging out loud.
She was also battered, with her clothes torn in several places, and dried blood on her forearms. Not to mention the bruise along her jaw that had darkened over the last few hours.
But all through that, she was upright and moving cleanly. He was neither of those things.
He was covered in blood. His own, mostly, though the blood of a dozen B-rank beasts had mixed into it over the course of the night until the distinction had stopped mattering.
His shirt was held together in places by a few strings of fabric that looked like they were a single breeze from breaking apart.
