Is It Wrong for a Stubborn Elf To Be in a Dungeon?

Sudden Encounter

The following day, most of the familia was preparing to head out onto different mainland areas to gather materials for specific items.

"Colin looks like me, and you are in the same group." Said Havu.

We were given assigned groups by our goddess to explore specific areas.
My group with Havu was assigned to the woods near the plains.

"No fair! I don't get to explore with Colin." Says a disappointed Aya.

"You'll be fine, Aya..." I said.

Afterward, we started to head out onto our mission to gather materials.
Some of the materials we needed to gather were harder to find than others, so we needed to split up to search different plains areas.
I also had to be on my guard, as monsters sometimes wandered near the woods.
Havu searched the plains, and I searched the woods.

Even though I have never been to the woods very often, I had strange familiarity whenever I came here.
I couldn't explain it very well, but sometimes I feel like I've been here my whole life. It was odd.
I put these strange feelings aside, and I ventured into the woods.
The materials I was assigned to find weren't that hard to locate in the woods. I had to fight some monsters in the forest, though I had no trouble defeating them.

"It took a while, but I managed to find most of them. I wonder how the others are doing." I said to myself.

As soon as I decided to head out for the day, I heard a faint scream. At first, I mistook it for a monster, but then the faint cries sounded more and more... human.
My instincts took over, and I immediately sprinted in the direction to where I heard the screams.

"What am I doing?" I ran before I could think.
I slew all the monsters getting in my way while trying to get through the dense woods.

As I kept on trying to get through the woods, the screams and noises stopped.
I stopped myself from running any further and try to listen for any faint sounds of distress.
I couldn't hear anything of the sort, only the sounds of the woods.
All of a sudden, I heard footsteps. At first, I thought it was Havu or someone else from our group, but it sounded like they were desperately running.
I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from since the sounds from the woods were getting in the way.

Ow!

Something ran onto me with enough force to make me lose balance and fall over.

'H-hey, what's the big- huh?" As I looked down to see whoever knocked me over, all I saw was someone in a damaged cloak. Whoever it was, they were significantly injured.

"Hey, are you alright? Those injuries don't look very-" As I tried to reach my hand to grab onto theirs, the person's cloak fell and revealed a girl, and she made eye contact with me with a scared look on her face. I first noticed her round pointed ears and pale pink eyes.

"A half-elf?"

When I pointed it out, she immediately trembled with fear.

"N-no!" She screamed as she was backing up away from me.

"Hey, it's okay! I'm not going to hurt you!" I tried to calm her down, but each time I tried to reach my hand towards her, she kept on backing up in fear.

She was losing a bit of blood. I needed to treat her with a potion as soon as possible. But she was too afraid of me to let me do anything.

I didn't know what to do or how she ended up like this in the first place. I immediately tried to remember what my Familia usually did to cheer up someone else.
Damn it. I couldn't think of anything that would be helpful in this situation.
The girl started to get up to leave.
I started panicking and suddenly remembered the time when someone comforted me.

"Aw, ~ did Hayu go too far at your sparring match again? Please don't feel too bad about it. Come here~."

Why was that the first thing I remembered?! The time when Aya hugged me against her chest when Hayu knocked me out.

As the half-elf girl got up to run away, without thinking, I grabbed her hand and pulled her towards me.
I don't know if what I did next was the best decision in my life, but at this point, there was no turning back.
As I pulled her towards me, I wrapped my hands around her and pulled her towards my shoulder.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry!" I said as I hugged this girl. My mind was going all over the place. I was prepared for any negative reaction from her at any moment.

But there was no reaction for a bit. When I looked back at her, her eyes filled with sadness and confusion.
She then later blushed.

"W-why?" She asked.

"Um- because..." before I could say anything else, I heard someone approaching us, but not just one, a group of people.

"Someone's coming..."

The girl immediately held on to me as tight she could out of fear.
Were these the people she was afraid of?
A couple of seconds later, they arrived where this girl and I was at.
It was a group of elves who looked like they were after this girl.

"Looks like someone beat us to her. Thank you, fellow elf, for catching her for us." The leader elf said.

"Um- are you after this girl?" I asked. I still wanted to know why they after this half-elf girl and why she was seriously injured like this.

"Just an unwanted pest in our forest. She was giving us the hassle to capture her, but it's all over now. We'll reward you handsomely if you turn her over to us." That was all the elf said.

As he made his offer, I looked back at the girl, and she had a terrified look on her face. Her injuries, her expression, not of it felt right.
It didn't take long for me to respond.

"No thanks."

The elves looked shocked at my answer.

"W-what do you mean no?" The leader elf looked increasingly agitated.

"I don't know what's going on, but I can't let you guys have this girl." The elves were still not yet satisfied with my answer.

"Why do you insist on protecting this half-elf. Do you even know who she is?

"No, I don't know her, and I don't know what's going on. But seeing as she's hurt and running away from you guys... I don't have a good reason to trust you, even with a reward."

"Such a foolish reason will be your demise." The leader elf said as the rest of the elves drew their staffs and other weapons.

Damn it, these bastards. Would they go this far to hurt this girl?
I looked down at her, and she spoke for the first time to me.

"H-help me...please..."