A Bored Lich

'He looks mad,' Olpi thought.

Frey stormed up to the others. Fresh blood and sweat dripped off his armor. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself from the rush of battle, but when he eyed Olpi his breaths quickened. He tore his gaze away from her. Elero was the immediate concern. "I've never heard you scream like that."

Elero shrugged. "And I've never seen you fall for such a basic trap. Were you distracted by something, or better someone?" She glanced at Olpi.

Frey scoffed. "One moment I see you going to help Olpi, and the next moment you're on the ground screaming your lungs out. What if you had died?"

"I'm fine."

Frey nodded a few times, then turned to Olpi. His hands clenched and unclenched. He was calming down, but not fast enough. "I heard you say 'watch out', meaning you had enough time to warn Elero. Why didn't you just cancel the spell?"

Olpi took a moment to think upon her next words. However, as she thought, she realized she didn't know what to say. She barely knew anything about Frey. He was waiting for a response. She said the first thing that came to her mind. "I'm sorry. You don't understand. Magic doesn't work like swinging a sword-"

Frey cut her off. "You're right, I don't understand. Doevm has refused to use magic for most of his life, and you've only been with us for two weeks. I don't even know why you're here. Are you just helping us out of the goodness of your heart? You could at least say something a little more realistic."

Olpi threw her hands up, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. "I have already apologized. Is this really about my mistake or is it something else? I really don't know what else to say."

"Neither do I," Frey replied.

The tension hung as the two stared at each other; Frey with sweat dripping from his chin, and Olpi with her heart in her mouth. 'What is he so worked up about,' she thought. 'I can understand getting mad, but something tells me that he's not just angry over this.' She searched her memories over the last two weeks, searching for anything she may have said or done to him. Nothing.

Elero got between them and put a hand on each of their shoulders. "We should all sit down. We're far from town, and there's still a long way to go."

"Fine," Frey agreed.

"Alright by me," Olpi said.

Elero's grip loosened. "Good, now I don't have to hear you both bicker." Her hands slid off of them as she collapsed into the snow.

Frey and Olpi both stared at her back before the panic set in. "Elero?" Olpi asked.

Frey cursed and knelt by her side, but as he went to flip her over, Olpi slapped his hands away. "Wait!"

"What now?" Frey growled.

Olpi hesitated. "Sorry. We should put her on her side, not her back. Here, let me." She knelt on the opposite side to Frey and gently propped Elero on her shoulder. Her pulse was still there, so she was alive at least.

Frey watched with a tense expression plastered over his face. "What's wrong with her? Was it your spell?"

Olpi scrunched her lips. "I'm sorry, but please let me check on her first."

Frey nodded. "Good idea. Go ahead."

Olpi didn't move.

"What's wrong? Do your thing."

Olpi cocked her head to the side. "I need to do an inspection to tell what's wrong with her."

"Do it."

Olpi shooed him away. "Frey, you need to turn around."

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" Frey remarked before he turned around.

'I guess I need to be a little more direct with him,' Olpi thought.

Olpi slid Elero's jacket up by a few inches, then put a hand over her mouth. 'I knew it. It's a miracle she was even conscious, let alone fighting wolves. How does she have this much pain tolerance?' By rolling the jacket up further, she got her answer.

Her eyes went wide. She pulled the jacket back down over the tattoos and mouthed a silent apology. 'I guess these people have more secrets than I thought.'

"What happened to her?" Frey asked, resisting the urge to turn around.

"It's my…" Olpi hesitated, remembering Frey's glare. "It's my guess that she has an infection. She probably got some wolf blood mixed into her wounds or something."

"Is it bad?"

"Nothing major," Olpi lied. "but we need to get her to shelter. You can turn around now."

Frey knelt next to Elero, stared right into Olpi's eyes, and said. "Are you sure it wasn't your spell?"

Olpi swallowed her saliva. "If that was the case, how would she have kept fighting?"

Frey leaned in close. His next words were not said out of anger or vengeance: "I want you to listen very carefully. I will leave her in your care and I will do what you say in order to help her, but I'm not as cool headed nor trusting as the rest of the group. If you do anything I don't like, I want you gone. Do you understand me?"

Olpi swallowed her saliva. "I-If you didn't trust me, why did you let me come with you in the first place?"

"People can say whatever they want about themselves, but the only way to see who they really are is when they put their life on the line," Frey explained. "Good thing the day isn't over yet. Now what do you need from me?"

Olpi shrugged. "She needs warmth and a place to rest but…"

"What?"

Olpi hesitated, for fear of setting him off. "We're too far from town. We also need a way to move her." Frey moved to pick Elero up, but Olpi shook her head. "We need a sled, something gentle."

Frey rolled his eyes, then formed his shield into a tower shield. With careful hands, the two began moving Elero into a sleeping bag, wrapping her in rope to keep her from sliding off, and other preparations for moving her.

"You're gentle," Olpi remarked, watching him tighten knots just enough so they wouldn't cut off Elero's circulation.

"So what?" Frey asked.

"Nothing, I just didn't expect it." Olpi tugged on each rope, surprised to find them all secure, yet not too tight. "I thought you were a guy who could only hit things and get hit."

"Practice makes perfect." Frey tapped the shield/sled and a small hole opened up at the end for him to run a rope through it. Shouldering the two ends of the rope, he made a harness for himself to pull Elero along as he walked.

"Practice on who?" Olpi asked.

Frey ignored her question. "I know of a shelter nearby. It's got some wood to start a fire."

"Great! Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"Because I don't know if it's still there."

"How long ago were you there?" Olpi asked.

"A long time ago." Frey said, his expression hardening. "Can you stop asking so many questions? You already found enough about me today. The last thing I need is people poking into my past.." He turned on his heel and began to trudge onwards with Elero in tow.