Now that Caldor and Idriseth are together, everything seems to be going right for once. Cal is still bitter and angry after what happened to his guildmates, but he tries to put it all aside, move on, and focus on the new life path that's in front of...
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Caldor let his head fall back against the tree he was leaning on, drumming his fingers against the leather of the spellbook in his lap. There was no one around aside from him, but he couldn't help but keep checking his surroundings over and over.
It was ridiculous because even if a dragon found him and wanted to attack, they weren't exactly stealthy, so he would know immediately even without looking, and yet he could barely stand still, anxious and fidgety. Cal really hoped Idri would be done soon because he wasn't sure how long he would be able to just wait here.
Caldor sighed. He also hoped that Idri was all right. From the sound of it, this Zarleth person wasn't very friendly in general. He was still kind of annoyed that Idri had intentionally kept the fact that he was meeting another dragon from him, and Cal would force him to talk to him about that later, but most of his annoyance had fizzled out by now, and all he had left was a mild sense of worry and anxiousness.
Caldor flinched at a soft rustle behind him. He bolted upright and whipped around, gripping the tree as he peeked over its edge. And then he sighed. There was a red squirrel, searching through fallen leaves. Of course it was just a squirrel.
Cal shook his head at his reaction as he watched the squirrel run up a tree and disappear among the leafy branches. He was getting paranoid, and it had only been a moment since he and Idri had separated.
Shaking his head again, this time to clear it, he moved away from the tree he'd been hiding behind and started to aimlessly wander the woods. It was the opposite of relaxing as he kept looking around, waiting to be attacked at any moment, but it was still more tolerable than not doing anything at all.
It made him wonder if he would feel better waiting in the field next to the forest after all, but Idri had probably been right. Caldor was less of a target surrounded by all these trees, even if the way they limited his field of vision was putting him on edge.
He continued wandering around, making sure to turn around every once in a while to avoid going too far away from where he had been waiting originally. He knew that Idri could probably smell him and track him down, or however that worked, but he didn't need to make it harder for the dragon.
Caldor only stopped once he came across a few large, brown mushrooms. Normally he wouldn't pay any attention to them, but Idri seemed to like to cook, didn't he? Perhaps he'd appreciate some variety. Cal certainly would after several days of only eating unseasoned meat. But the problem was that he had no idea which mushrooms were edible, as that wasn't exactly something he'd had to worry about back in Redreach. The only mushrooms he'd gotten there were acquired from merchants, and those wouldn't gain much from poisoning their customers.
But Idri had all those books—maybe he would know. And besides, even if the dragon didn't, he could heal poisoning with his magic, right?
Deciding that it might be worth a discussion at least, Caldor reached for the mushrooms so he could pull them out of the ground, but he stopped as his eyes caught the glint of something under the thick grass that grew close to the mushrooms.
