The day was drawing to a close and the sun was slowly setting in the west. The wind blew gently through the trees, Valandil had made himself a small fire and sat looking into it, watching the wood burn and the flames dance. As he stared into the flames and watched the kindling burn away and the wood burn slowly he began to lose all sense of time and place. The crackling of the fire and the smell of the burning wood began to seem familiar and recent. Old memories began to resurface of times long ago and places long since past.

Another time and place.

Valandil sat crouched low, staring into the fire when a stone flew through the air and hit him on the back of his head.

"What the-?" He said. As he span round from his position he saw Cruf coming through the trees, laughing.

"Pay attention," Cruf smirked as he came and sat down next to Valandil. "So, what was on your mind that was important that would have gotten you killed if it wasn't me coming?" enquired the faun as he stretched out his legs and arms.

"It's nothing," said Valandil as he began to poke the fire with a stick.

"Come on!" cried Cruf, poking the elf playfully, "We've got a long road ahead of us and I need your head on straight".

"You're right," said Valandil, shaking his head. "So, what's the plan?"

"We head north from here," replied Cruf. "It's another 3 day hike through this forest then we hit the edge of the mountain and up."

He stood up and stretched. Without another word he rolled out his bed roll and lay down. He crossed one leg over the other and began to drift off to sleep.

There was a few minutes before the faun's breathing became regular and deep as he fell into a deep sleep. Valandil lay down and got himself comfy in his own bed roll and made sure his sword was close at hand. He looked up through the trees and at the edge of the branches he saw the stars and the moon ... which began to remind him of his love, Althea. He said a quick prayer to her in elvish fearing Cruf may still be awake and never let him hear the end of it, and after the prayer he began to drift off to a peaceful sleep.

The first thing he felt was the water hitting him in the face. As he woke the rain began to fall hard. It was early morning and luckily his his bed roll was still relatively dry. He crawled out and stretched and looked over to Cruf who was still sleeping, despite the drips landing on his face. Valandil leaned over and shook Cruf, who blinked a few times as he sat up and looked around

"Time to move," Valandil said as he rolled up his bed roll

"Right," Cruf replied gruffly. As he began to get up his hoofs fell away from him and he hit the ground and began coughing, covering his mouth.

Valandil quickly moved to his friends side and helped him up. He noticed the blood round the fauns mouth.

"It's getting worse," noted Valandil looking down with worry on his face.

Cruf nodded and motioned for Valandil to move away. "But it will pass and as soon as we find this witch. The sooner we do I'll be on the mend." He whipped the blood from his mouth.

He gave a quick smile as he regained his hoofing and packed his things. Valandil put on his cloak and quiver with bow and swung his bag over his shoulder. He grabbed his sword and attached it to the side of his belt and checked his daggers and attached them round his back. (use other words in this section aside from "grab". Suggestions - "took up" "collected") Cruf swung his cloak over his shoulder and collected his two small axes and swung them round his fingers before putting them on his belt, and looked round and found his large axe with the chain and wrapped it round his back.

The two began to head their way down through the trees towards the mountain, and the witch that supposedly lived on it.