An Eventful Mission

2- Departure

An hour went by. Espresso couldn't sleep at all. Stress about unfinished work occupied his mind. "Ugh.." He groaned. He turned a lamp on and tossed a random jacket on. He walked outside. A little bit of snow was falling from the sky. His breath could be seen in the air and the temperature was below zero.
It's not even winter yet, why is it freezing?
He placed each of his hands on his arms, hugging himself while lightly shivering. Maybe going on a walk would calm himself down. Espresso walked to one of the borders of the kingdom that was surrounded by forest full of evergreens. The sugar gnomes hadn't cleared out the area yet. A small, glowing pond stood before the border. Lili pads and small flowers were spread around it. He knelt down to look at the colorful, tiny gummy fish. It was quite peaceful. Even with the chilly weather, the moonlight was bright and the night was perfect. Until he heard a very familiar voice. It startled him yet again.
"Espresso?"
Madeleine leaned on a large sugar stone right beside him.
*Tch* Why do you keep showing up out of nowhere?" Espresso looked up at the knight, annoyed. He stood up.
"What are you doing out here this late? Its almost eleven!" Madeleine was concerned.
"Can't sleep, and shouldn't you be the one asleep right now?" Espresso asked.
"Well, I just needed to patrol the kingdom for the last time before we leave. Cookies still walk around really late just like you are right now, you know?"
"That makes sense." Espresso looked away from Madeleine.
"Another reason why I'm out here is because I don't feel like resting either." Madeleine said, still leaning on the stone. They both stared into the starry night sky. There was a silence.
"We should walk back into the forest. That was fun." Espresso suggested.
"You're kidding right? Remember what happened with the cake hounds?"
"It'll be fine! We handled them easily, remember?" Espresso replied, rolling his eyes.
"Espresso, you almost got injured back there, and I'm supposed to be keeping you safe."
"You mean you almost got injured? I handled those cake hounds easily. If it weren't for me, you probably wouldn't have made it out of there." He smirked.
"Whatever. I'm not letting you go back there." He laughed.
"I could easily sneak there anytime, you're always busy patrolling the kingdom anyways." Espresso said.
"Don't do that. Just— go home, okay?" Madeleine was slightly annoyed.
Espresso exhaled loudly. "It's fine if you don't want to go into the forest with me, I'll go alone. We're not even friends anyways." He began walking into the unexplored forest that stood tall above them both.
Madeleine sighed. He began to follow Espresso, as it was his duty to protect everybody he could. He caught up to the other and began to walk slightly behind him.
"Why do you even want to go into here? It's so dark and dangerous." Madeleine said, brushing away many branches away from their faces as they walked.
Espresso frowned. It's almost always very peaceful in forests during nights like these. It would be much better if you weren't here though."
Madeleine sighed. They continued exploring.
"Did you bring anything you could use to protect yourself, Espresso?" Madeleine asked.
"My magic."
"Okay, but any sharp objects? Protection?" He asked again
"No." Espresso replied, crossing his arms.
"You should bring a weapon next time, just in case."
Espresso grabbed Madeleines shield right out of his hand and carried it.
"Happy?" He yelled. Madeleine laughed at his antics.
He tried to continue walking with Madeleine as they were, but then he realized how heavy it was to carry.
"Ugh.. Ah!" He almost tripped over but was able to catch himself with one of the thick spruce trees.
Madeleine immediately turned around upon hearing his sound of distress.
"Are you alright, Espresso? I didn't even realize that you had stopped walking!"
"Yeah, because you're always focused on yourself.." He mumbled." "I'm completely fine. Take your shield back, it's so heavy.."
Madeleine grabbed his shield and took Espresso by the hand.
"Don't touch me." Espresso scolded him."
"My apologies. Did I make you uncomfortable?" He said, quickly releasing his grip on Espresso's hand.
"..No. Just— you know what, nevermind."
"Also, you cannot raise your voice so loud in forests like this. You may have already attracted threats, but it's alright, you didn't know."
He continued following Espresso to wherever he lead him until the twigs breaking below them grew louder. It didn't sound like theirs anymore. They'd stop a few times to test if the extra sound was of their doing.
Rustle, Rustle.
They turned their attention to some bushes to their right. Madeleine gripped his sword tightly. Suddenly, a small sized cakehound jumped right out of it and began biting at them. Madeleine moved his arm in front of Espresso immediately, making an effort to protect him.
"Oh.. It's just a cake hound.." Madeleine said, moving his arm out of Espresso's way. He proceeded to stab the cake hound in its face with his large sword and pushed it out of the way right after. Disappointed, he put his sword back.
So he really does want to protect others.. Espresso thought. He didn't understand.
"Let's head back. It's past midnight." Madeleine groaned. They accompanied eachother to the area in which they came from.
"Why did you have to shield me with your arm and not your shield?"Espresso asked, confused.
My shield was to the left of me, you were standing closer to the bush on our right and it would have taken me longer to shield you with my shield than with my arm. I was just trying to protect you just in case it was something really harmful."
Espresso felt dumb. He should've realized that earlier.
"Why did you even protect me?"
"Am I not a knight? I must protect anybody I can." Madeleine exclaimed.
"No.. Madeleine what I mean is, why would you protect me after how I've spoken to you or treated you."
"Espresso, I know you've despised me for years but I can't really blame you, you don't like my confidence nor my magic, but that's okay! Everybody is allowed to have an opinion on other people. Plus, you apologized to me. You're a good person! I wouldn't want something bad to happen to you."
Espresso smiled upon hearing this. It might've changed his view on the other.
"Thank you." He hadn't heard such a compliment like that in a while. He looked up at Madeleine to see him continuously scanning the area, side to side. The moonlight began looking brighter to Espresso. Maybe light magic users aren't so bad after all.