Turned Around

Demaren left to fill up the water bag, taking off before I could look back up to see which way he went. I let out the breath I'd been holding.
"Gods above, that was close," I muttered.
Friend looked at me, his ears perked up in question as he munched on some near by stubbly grass. I put half the mixture I'd been making into another bowl and sat down with my own, sloshing it around as I talked to the hop.
"He was really close," I clarified. "Didn't you see that?"
Friend looked at me and blinked.
"He was so close, his earring brushed my cheek!" I said in a squeaking whisper, looking at the ground instead of the hop's big brown eyes.
He snorted; it sounded like a chuckle.
I glared at him. "Of course it doesn't mean anything! There I went, pouring my entire sob story out to him last night, and now I'm just self conscious. End of story."
Friend huffed in a way that definitely said, "Yeah, right."
My face burned the color of the berries I had found near our sleeping area. They were the same sort of fruit my brother and I would pick at the edge of the rain forest in Velt as children. I took a huge bite of food.
"I barely even know anything about him," I mumbled between chews.
I bit my lip. I really didn't know anything about him. He was Syla, but I had guessed at that. What else did I know about him? Apparently he liked to save people, since I was proving to have an impressive knack for attracting deadly situations. But that was it. I didn't know about his family, his home, his friends.
Why was he on this journey anyway? Shouldn't he be finding his way to Grayman and not tagging along with me?
I had almost finished my mushy bowl of... mush, when Demaren landed back in the campsite. He was literally sparkling, and it took me a moment to realize that it was because he was soaking wet and not because of some divine aura. I blinked, and closed my mouth (which had fallen open at some point) and settled for biting my bottom lip. His hair stuck up, naturally, in a sort of peak at the top, almost like a collapsed mohawk.
When his eyes had finally found mine, they weren't the same shining, pale gold they had been a half hour before. They were brooding and thoughtful, so instead of pelting him with the thousands of questions I realized I hadn't asked, I handed him the other bowl of mushy.
He nodded slightly, reaching out to take the bowl. Our hands brushed as I handed the bowl off to him and his hand hesitated at the touch.
I looked at him quizzically, wondering what had happened.
"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.
He looked down and rubbed the back of his head. "Big fish."
I had to lean in to hear the words, and I wasn't sure I got them right. Demaren, seeing me lean in, inclined his body in the other direction.
"Big fish," I repeated flatly, bringing myself back to my original position so he didn't have to lean away.
"Yeah. It was," he made a hand gesture to suggest something about a foot long, "really big."
He shuffled off to go stand next to Friend, moving in close as he patted the hop's neck. My brow pulled together as he muttered something in Friend's ear.
How had we gone from a natural friendship to suddenly stand offish? I shrugged. Maybe he didn't like fish.
I moved around the camp, packing things away to give Demaren some space. It was mid afternoon by the time we were ready to leave.
"I guess we won't travel too far today?" I queried, hopping up on Friend's back as Demaren shouldered his pack.
"Why do you say that?" he asked, frowning at my assumption.
"Well, it's so late in the day," I said, lamely. "I just thought... We should probably bed down before night fall. I think we're pretty close to the forest."
He looked at me, seemingly distracted for a moment, then shrugged. "Oh. Okay."
I felt my eyebrows raise. "Unless you feel like traveling at night? But if we hit the rain forest, you probably shouldn't fly around."
That got his attention. "What? Why can't I fly?"
I tilted my head. "There's a Gaeaian legend about creatures that live in the rain forest. In the trees. Supposedly, not many come back out. There won't be any people traveling through it, though. If you don't want to go that way, we could try another..."
He looked at me strangely. "Why are we going to a forest where people disappear?!"
I smiled. "I don't think that anyone disappears in the forest without wanting to. There could be creatures in the trees, though, so I don't know if you should fly around in there."
"Nonono... You're missing my point. Why are we going in at all?!"
"Because there won't be anyone there. There's too much of a chance I'll get discovered if we don't stay away from people," I paused. "...And I'm not sure how they'll react to you."
"So, you'd rather get killed than discovered? Why can't we just fly...?"
"It probably would be safer to fly, though it's a long ways off. But I won't leave Friend," I said, frowning up at him.
Demaren looked at Friend, who blinked innocently back at him, and scowled. He rubbed at his head again and nodded.
"So, you expect me to walk," he said a little sourly.
He'd never put up this much resistance before. I bit my lip and shrugged, feigning nonchalance, though I was a little stung by the words. Walking around with Friend and I couldn't be that bad, could it?
"You could fly and meet us there," I suggested, looking off to my left so I didn't have to see his expression. "I'm sure if you stick to the coast line it'll be easy to find from far up. There's a part in the Veil that thins out enough for people to walk through in caravans. That's where Velt is."
His scowl turned a little black with irritation.
"And leave you alone in a forest full of murderous beasts," he said, heavy with sarcasm. "Oh, yeah. I'll fly."
"You just seemed so adverse to walking..." I tried to explain, wondering where his dark mood was coming from.
"I don't exactly have the best walking feet," he retorted, angling a foot out in observation.
"I'd be happy for you to take a turn on Friend," I suggested, trying to smooth things over. "I'm sure he--"
I came up short as Demaren took on the look of someone who realized they had just stepped on a small kitten.
"This entire venture is steadily progressing into a bad idea," he stated, folding his arms over his chest.
I flinched, but came back immediately. "No one's making you come..."
His expression turned even darker and he scuffed a foot on the ground.
"Well, I'm not leaving," he muttered.
"Fine," I snapped. I flicked Friend's reigns and trotted forward at a slightly quicker pace than usual.
I refused to look back to see his expression. His words had cut me a little, like parchment. It was a complete turn around from his understanding the night before and his closeness this morning. I wondered if I had done something to provoke him. I bit my tongue to stay my uncertainties and tasted blood.