The remaining hours of the night progressed slowly. After returning from his night out with Kane, to slay the intruding wolf, Fishy decided that he wasn't going to sleep. He already knew he would get little sleep on this journey with the sisters; but after seeing Kane's strength, he was certain that sleeping was a bad idea. And so he decided to sit atop a tree branch, directly above the tent the sister's peaceful rested in, where he was able to see every other tent in the forest.
"What do we do?" Lilith jumped out of Fishy's shadow, walking around the nearby branches with her silent footsteps, her body wrapped in a baggy red hoodie that Fishy made for her.
"I don't know. You should stay hidden. If Kane notices you he'll come and kill you."
"Don't worry. I'm a master at hiding my aura. Unlike you."
Fishy lifted a slight smile at Lilith's humour.
"Still, better be safe. If we do have to engage in combat, my mission is to protect these two."
"You'd get us both killed for two girls you've only just met?"
"They are innocent, they know nothing of this world. When we take them to their dad, they will be safe."
"And if they aren't?"
Lilith approached and jumped on Fishy's lap, her blonde hair jumping up as she landed, almost collapsing the poor branch he sat on.
"There's experience to be found in every battle." Lilith continued. "Even those where you have to run away. You aren't a coward for running. Those that call you a coward also want to run themselves, they just are too much of a coward to be a coward."
"Since when was a young kid so cryptic?" Fishy replied.
"I may be a child, but I'm also 200 years old. Being raised by vampires I was told to play dirty and do whatever you can to survive. There is no shame in running away if it means you can get them later."
"I still don't understand."
"That's because you are naive. Your fight to save my life only ended up like that because you didn't know what to do. Do you know how strong that Kane person is?"
"He was strong. He killed that wolf without me even seeing. I thought my eyes were locked onto it but it was gone before I knew."
"He is much stronger than he looks. Far stronger than you. You were under the influence of his magic the whole time. I didn't notice it either so I guess we were both at fault."
"What do you mean?"
"You were following his every word. Everything he asked you to do, you did it. I thought it was weird but I think that was his magic. He could have told you to kill yourself and you would have. Do you understand why you need to run sometimes? Not all magic is obvious."
Lilith's words turned harsher. She spoke to Fishy as if she was trying her hardest to convince him that running away was going to be the only way. As if she knew what was coming up.
"I'm telling you this now, Fishy." Lilith jumped back in his shadow, "If you are faced with a monster that you know you cannot beat. If that monster is attacking those you wish to protect, then I will run away and watch you die."
Fishy swallowed his already dry throat as he felt Lilith's annoyance through his shadow. He looked down to the tent below, reading their gently untouched and pure magic auras.
The following morning, at the first sight of dawn. Fishy gently shook the sleeping bags of Robin and Callie. The two of them woke up with tired eyes that they rubbed till they were fully awake. They didn't question the time as that felt pointless to them, they instead assumed that it was, once again, time to leave, and followed quietly behind Fishy as he stepped out the tent.
He took one careful step, but as he did, he saw Kane standing there.
"You leaving already, Woof?" The half-dog half-human said.
"Y...yes… we still have a long way to go. We don't want to be late."
"I understand…"
The two were locked in an intense stare that Fishy hoped would end. He felt Lilith's words from last night crawl on his back as Kane's aura slowly surrounded him, but as it did, he bit his bottom lip, causing those thoughts to leave his mind, and Kane's mind control magic to fall off of him.
"We are going." He said as he took a step back into the forest. Fishy pulled Robin and Callie as they all refused to look back at the monster they unknowingly escaped from.
"Weak, woof… but he did break free at the last second…?" Kane whispered to himself.