I jumped up in a flash and grabbed my sword. I looked towards the source of Anca's scream, which led me to see her standing and holding her hands close to her. I ran over to her while yelling, "Anca, are you okay?" She ran behind me.

She yelled in my ear, "Just kill it!" I must have been looking bewildered, as she then pointed towards... something. I couldn't see. I aimed my sword towards where she was pointing and asked, "There?" She moved my sword, "There! And the sword's not going to do anything!"

I turned back towards her. "It'd help if I could actually see what you screamed at!" She rolled her eyes, took a stick from the ground, held it in the fire for a few seconds, and then threw the fire to where she was pointing.

"Do you see it now?!" She asked somewhat angrily. I squinted. It was a spider. As soon as I saw it, I eased up. "Are you serious? You screamed at a tiny spider?" She nodded hastily, and then pushed me towards it. I walked slowly towards it, and then raised my foot to step on the infernal creature. As I stomped, the thing crawled away. I looked back at Anca and whispered, "Happy now?" She shook her head, "Kill the thing!" It was my turn to roll my eyes, as I asked her for my lantern. As she handed it to me, I turned back to where the spider crawled. I took off my boot and began to search for the spider.

Finally, I spotted the damn thing crawling towards the door. I swooped in for the kill. I brought the boot down onto the hairy spider with a crash, tumbling to the floor with the boot. I was a bit disheveled as I put a bit too much power into the smash, but I finally killed the creature. I checked the bottom of the boot, it was there, flattened. I rubbed the bottom of the boot onto the ground a couple of times. I returned to my feet, to see Anca giggling at me. "That was a bit too much power, wasn't it?"

I squeezed my boot back on, and said, "Yeah, well, you're the one who wanted it to die." I handed the lantern to her and then laid back down. She turned the lantern off and laid down herself. She said once more, "Good night, Jer." I reciprocated the gesture, and then finally fell asleep.

I woke up early in the morning. Surprisingly, Anca was still asleep. I sat up and looked around at the empty cabin around us, and then got up. I walked outside to check the weather. There was not a cloud in the sky, and it seemed like it would stay that way for the rest of the day. I decided to pack back up and get going already. I walked back inside of the cabin and extinguished the almost dead fire. I calmly woke Anca up, and then told her we had to move. She nodded, and then rolled up her bedroll. I got my bag prepared and then asked her if she was ready. She nodded again, and then we set off.

We travelled up a dirt road, which seemed to transition into snow somewhere up the mountain. I told Anca to get her gloves on, which she did. Anca asked me, "Do you think I need a hat?" I shook my head. She continued, "Okay, good. I hope it doesn't get too cold."

"We most likely won't be up in the snow that long, since this is a simple fetch quest." Anca agreed with me, and then quieted down for a bit. We travelled up the mountain for a couple of hours, mostly in silence. It wasn't that we didn't enjoy talking, it was that we couldn't find anything to talk about. I made small comments about things we saw going up the mountain, which made Anca laugh at some points.

I finally thought of something to talk about when we were finally getting past a bit of woods. "Hey Anca, what's your favorite season?"

She replied, "Oh, I love fall and spring. The weather is just beautiful during those seasons, and I absolutely love it. I don't really like snow, and for some reason, in summer, I usually get very sleepy." I smiled, and agreed. "Then, we both like autumn and spring. Great!" She said.

"Oh, and by the way, when is your bir-" I stopped speaking when I noticed something. Anca began to speak when I closed her mouth, "Be quiet, get down, let's find a rock." We crawled towards a rock and hid behind it. I peeked my head up above it as I told Anca, "Stay quiet."

"But what are we staying quiet for?" I shushed her again.

I pointed and explained, "Bandits." Anca gasped. There were two of them, and they seemed to be heavily discussing something while walking along. I tried to listen in to what they were talking about within each other.

"Yeah, he came from Germany or Denmark or some place. He seems pretty nuts, but eh, whatever the boss says." The first bandit stopped, "Wait a second, you still have enough bolts, right?" The second one nodded, "Yeah, of course, I have some right here. Uhh... oh no, I must have dropped them." The first bandit started fuming, "Are you serious?! No wonder your father abandoned you, you worthless..." He started to mumble. The second bandit looked hurt, but then put his head down. The first bandit started to look around, "Listen, I buried some bolts around here somewhere. Why don't we take those?"

The bandit seemed to avert his gaze towards us. "I think I put them behind that rock back there." I ducked back down and then whispered quickly to Anca, "Stay quiet, we gotta sneak around these guys." She nodded, and then seemed to tense up. She held her hand on her dagger, and then said, "Let's go." I was surprised by her bout of bravery, and tried to crawl away with her.

The only problem with this plan, is that we weren't wearing the lightest clothing, so we stood out like a sore thumb. We were crawling at a slow pace as the bandits were walking towards the rock. When they got to the side we were hiding on, we had switched over to the other side. I looked back towards our path. There was a small cabin at the bottom of this hill we were on. I looked back at Anca, and said, "Okay, once they start digging over there, we start running. Do you understand?" She whispered to me, "Yeah, yeah, I feel." I looked at her inquisitively, but then shook it off. I listened for about a minute, until I heard the unmistakeable noise of someone digging through dirt. I nodded towards Anca, and we started to run while crouching.

Our plan seemed to be working. Then, Anca whispered to me, "Jer, I dropped the coin at the rock!" I stopped, and sighed, pushed her to keep going, and then went to grab the coin. The bandits were still digging, so I was not worried about getting caught. I grabbed the coin off of the snow, and then started to sneak away. At this moment, I heard a, "Hey, who's that?" I looked back and noticed that they were looking straight at me.

I started sprinting. I stuffed the coin in my pocket and ran down the hill. Anca was waiting at the cabin door, when she noticed the two men running after me. I motioned for her to get inside, when I noticed that a bolt narrowly missed my head. They were shooting at me. I avoided the bolts, almost getting hit at some points, but getting to the bottom without a scratch. I rushed inside of the cabin, and then stood to hold the door shut.

Anca looked like a deer in headlights. I yelled to her, "Get something! To block this door!" She nodded, and then looked around. She found a bookcase and started to push it. As the men tried to get the door open, I was able to get it back closed. I looked up to my right, it was a block of wood. I threw it down and then went to help Anca with the bookcase. We were able to get it to the door. The men were still hollering at us, but soon afterwards, gave up, saying, "We'll be back here soon!"

The commotion stopped at the door. I breathed a sigh of relief. Anca looked at me with upset eyes. She started an apology. "Look, I'm sorry that I lost the coin there, and had you go get it. It's just pretty much the only thing I can hold onto right now that makes me feel a bit better." I put my hand out, "It's alright. Just try not to lose it again, please." She nodded, and then said, "Well, do you think we should keep moving, or should we rest up here?"

I looked at the door, and then thought. I started to speak quietly, "Hm, well, I assume they're still outside, waiting for us to leave again, so we should try to look for a different exit out of the house. We'll leave in about an hour." She nodded, and then told me, "Got it. Well, let's check out what's on this bookshelf." She grabbed a few books, and we spent the next hour looking at the books on the bookshelf. I checked my stopwatch.

"Time to keep moving."