text: [Themes: fantasy, fantasy]
  
  Despite having cracked lips, you want to kiss her. You feel an inkling of the crush you used to have start to her come back, and then you nearly kiss her regardless, but you manage to stop yourself.
  
  "Raven. Whatever you feel for me, see if you still feel it for me later. When we aren't on the cusp of life or death situations. Maybe then I can see how I feel about you." Disappointment flashes across her features. "Until then, I don't want to be distracted by you."
  
  You feel that you didn't really choose the best set of words to say, for now disappointment and hurt color her features. You mentally wince at the awkward tension you feel building up, but thankfully Vitre saves you from braving it alone.
  
  "We'll have two rooms here for a week. If we haven't found her by then, then we can pay for longer. Agreed?" Raven nods slowly. Certainly not in her usual jovial manner. You nod as well, and Vitre looks back and forth between the two of you with a knowing look on his face.
  
  "Alright then. Follow me." You both follow him as he leads you up the stairs. "Erron and I will share a room. Raven, you'll take this room." He gestures to a door on his left. "We're in the next room over. If you need us, just pound on the wall. Okay?"
  
  You watch as Raven nods numbly, and you feel a brief stab of regret. Maybe you should've kissed her if it meant that you were to keep your previous relationship. Raven walks into her room and the door slams shut.
  
  Vitre gives you a brief judgemental glance. "What did you do to her?"
  
  You stay quiet until you are safe from being heard in your room. "She confessed to me." You try to leave it at that, but he motions for you to continue.
  
  You look away from him, "I told her that, uh, I didn't want to be distracted by her." Your usual articulate self is long gone, and replaced by a less convenient embarrassed version of yourself.
  
  Vitre shakes his head back and forth. "You should've let her down more easily. I expected more from the Chosen Hero." He says that last part because he knows it'll get to you the most. "I can't have something like this ruining the mission. You're going to have to make up with her before long, or the rest of this trip is going to be very unpleasant."
  
  You nod your assent, and he gives you one last disappointing look before he goes off to take a bath.
  
  Somehow being left alone with your thoughts is even worse than having someone chastise you. You run the situation over and over again in your head trying to find a way that you could've rejected her without having left her so dejected.
  
  Vitre comes back before you can fathom a way to do so, and you go ahead to take a bath as well. The water feels heavenly, but you don't feel as if you're really enjoying it quite as much as you could. Even before the incident today, you had quite a lot on your mind. With the addition of a sad friend on your mind, you find yourself starting to get mentally taxed. Sleep would do you good.
  
  You come back to the room minutes later to find Vitre already asleep. Asleep on the only bed in the room at that. You sigh and tell yourself that you deserve it when you sink into a very uncomfortable wooden chair. You manage to get a few winks of sleep, but you often wake up due to aches on your body from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position.
  
  You wake up again, and you automatically start to rub your back, when you see a figure begin to creep through the window. You immediately close your eyes most of the way, and hope he didn't see you moving. Luckily for you, it appears he didn't.
  
  He wears a black cloak, so you can't see who he is, but that isn't what catches your attention the most. Instead of a typical rope coming across his chest to connect the two sides of the cloak together, there is an insignia. In the dark it's hard to see, but you think it's a symbol of the sun. You think it has a reddish hue, but you don't know for sure.
  
  He walks silently and leans over the bed to stare at Vitre. You ready yourself to spring at the intruder at the first signs of aggression, but there's no need. Apparently Vitre wasn't who he was looking for. Instead the man turns his attention to you. You make sure your breathing is even as he makes his way over to you, and that your eyes are so close to being closed that it's nearly impossible to tell.
  
  He examines your face, and gives slight nod to himself. You assume that you are his target, and ready yourself for the opportunity to strike. The man pulls a dagger out of his cloak, and starts the motions to stab you.
  
  It's what you were waiting for. You twist out of the way at the last second, and his dagger lodges into the back of the chair instead. You take the opportunity to punch him in the stomach and shove him to the floor. He lets go of the knife, and you quickly pull that from the chair's back. The man recovers fairly quickly and attempts to tackle you to the ground, but the attempt only goes so far. You knee him in the face and throw him across the room. Coincidentally, that place you throw him happens to be the bed Vitre lays on.
  
  You see Vitre start to stir out of the corner of your eye. You decide that you needed this guy immobilized as soon as possible, so you follow up your throwing him with another throw. This time, however, you're throwing the guy's dagger. Your aim is true, and the dagger hits the guys upper thigh. He yells out in pain causing Vitre to wake up fully.
  
  You think of why someone would be targeting you, but then realize you have your priorities skewed. You needed to make sure that the danger was gone. You rush to the window and gaze out across the city that you can see. At first you see nothing, but a glint of silver shines in the distance and you duck down. An arrow embeds itself in the wall directly behind you.
  
  Your heart pound in your chest as you realize that you could've been dead if you hadn't been so fast. You glance to Vitre who has the first attacker subdued on the floor of the room. Whoever these people were, they obviously wanted you dead, and you doubt they'd stop after one attempt. You figure you should take them out now before they have a chance to regroup and attempt another assassination attempt.
  
  "Make sure Raven is okay!" You call out to Vitre as you vault the window sill out onto the street below. You hear what may have been Vitre telling you to wait, but you ignore that. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.
  
  Another arrow whizzes pased you on the way down to the street. The fall is two stories high, but you use the momentum from gravity and roll to reduce any damage you might take from it. As fast as possible, you spring up from your roll to get behind cover.
  
  You glance from behind the wall you took cover at. Almost immediately you hear the twang of a bow, and, consequently, you move your head back behind cover. Thoughts roil in your head as you try to figure out how to get to the enemy without getting hit by an arrow. A few different ideas come into your head, but when you examine and reexamine them you are only left with two plausible ideas.
  
  You could use your blessing to speed up your reflexes in hopes that it'll allow you to dodge any arrows come at you.
  
  The other idea you have much less confidence in working. You could dash from cover to cover, and hope he doesn't hit you. You don't really like this idea, because it puts your fate into the air. Instead of relying on your reflexes, you'd simply be hoping that he'd miss.
  
  > put your hands up and hope he doesn't shoot
  A thought briefly crosses your mind. What if I just pretend to give up?
  
  It doesn't seem like it'll work at first, but you hope that he'll be so surprised that he won't know what to do. Maybe even see if he can take you hostage. Then you would make your move.
  
  You step out from behind the wall with your hands up above your head. A brief moment of silence passes, and you feel triumphant for a brief second. Then an arrow flies from the alleyway the archer is staked out in. You are no where near fast enough to dodge it, and it pierces through your chest.
  
  You don't know why you thought this plan would work, but one thing is for certain. You're failed the Holy Kingdom in your role as the Chosen Hero.
  
  The last thing you think is that the Creator must be face palming at your stupidity.