Kalen just laughed at her comments, instead choosing to just ignore it. He wasn’t going to bother having an argument with her over something so trivial. He shook his head slightly, making his way into the grass, sitting down for a few moments, fiddling with his blade. Using the grass and the cloth he had to clean off the blood and make sure it was all shiny. Kalen sat there staring at the blade for longer than he’d needed to, before tossing the spotless blade onto the grass in front of him, the light bouncing off it, into his eyes.

He sat quietly for a few minutes, before looking up at her, a surprisingly sincere look on his face. “What’s going on?” Kalen asked quietly, hoping she’d just understand what he was referring to so he wouldn’t have to outright say it. He didn’t like showing weakness, especially not to somebody like Ase, who was literally his enemy. Kalen looked at the ground, almost embarrassed by his question. He hadn’t wanted to ever be in this position where he’d have to have this conversation, but here he was. It was pathetic and shameful.

Kalen wasn’t the type of person to open up about his feelings. But this morning had taken a toll on him, he was angry and confused and he didn’t know what was going on with him. The way he’d looked at her, the way she’d looked at him, it was just different from what it should have been. It should have been anger, hatred, not whatever this was. It didn’t feel right and for a few moments there, Kalen was almost sure she felt the same. He had the chance to kill her, and he didn’t. She had more than plenty of opportunities to attack him, and she didn't. "Tell me this isn't just me"

Ase blinked a few times and gritted her teeth before turning to face Kalen. She didn't want to, but she did. She ran her tongue along her teeth and huffed a bit, keeping her stance where she was.

"I have no idea what you mean."

She knew exactly what he'd meant. She felt..different. And she hated it..so much.

She'd hated him before. Now sh hated hurting him. What had changed? Well, they'd both changed...a lot. But why the hell did she feel like this? Did he feel the same way? Of course he did. Or he wouldn't be posing these questions. Right..?

She sighed a bit and turned her back to him yet again, pulling up her satchel. She slung the bag over her shoulder and started to th edge of the clearing.

The woman stopped, and thought for a moment, going against er better judgement and going back over to Kalen. She ventured close to him, about five feet away, and plopped down.

Kalen huffed as she responded, not even surprised by what she’d said. ‘Yes, I think you do, actually,” he muttered as she began to walk away. He wouldn’t have blamed her to just leave, if it had been the other way around that’s exactly what he would have done too. They didn’t seem like the type of people who’d have a heart to heart conversation, minutes after trying to kill each other.

Kalen looked at her in surprise as she sat down near him. He looked at her for a second, before going back to stare at the trees, his eyes scanning through the forest as he spoke. “I know you feel it too. I can tell” he muttered quietly, half regretting his decision to start this conversation.

Kalen watched her for a moment, listening quietly as she spoke. Once she had seemingly finished her piece, he remained quiet. Unsure of how to proceed from that. She clearly didn't want to be talking about this, similar to him. Despite knowing it would only get worse, he sighed in defeat.

Getting up, he looked at her for a split second before turning away. "You know what? You're right. You better come more prepared next time" he muttered to her, before spreading his wings, jumping into the air. Kalen paused in the air for a moment, before letting his wings fall open as he soared away.

Ase tilted her head up to watch as her adversary took to the skies. Then, she shook her head and stood up, biting her lip. She huffed forcefully and snatched up her things, throwing them over her shoulder to start home. She took one more look at the clearing before tromping off into the woods.

He was right. I need to be better prepared tomorrow so I can beat him. She thought, stepping over a fallen log. Do I even want to now? Of course I do! I just want this damn war to be over. The woman shook her head and bit her tongue for the umpteenth ttime that day.

"God damnit."

The half-fae pushed her nails into her palms, causing little crescent-like intents, and started to walk again.

Eventually...she didn't know how much time had passed, she caught sight of a distant smoke stream.

Kalen soarded low over the tops of the trees, his temper high from her little tantrum. Soon enough, he noticed the familiar tents of his group. Smoke rose in a small column into the air, grumbling under his breath, Kalen swerved tightly to narrowly avoid the smoke. Swearing as he stumbled onto feet as he landed on the ground, he glared around at the few guards who were just standing around looking at him guiltily. Shaking his head, he ignored their questions about his battle, instead deciding to push past them, retreating into his tent.

Kalen looked around the tent for a few moments, before plonking himself down onto one of the chairs he had set up. Holding his head in his hands he grumbled to nobody in particular, before groaning bringing his head up just to smack his arm into the small side table next to him, watching the wood splinter, falling over. Cursing loudly, he got up, unbuckling his swords’ sheath off his belt, letting it drop to the floor as he left the tent, ignoring the guards as he walked off into the forest with a glare.

(Words cannot convey how bad this is)

Kalen had kept on the loose cotton shirt that he’d been wearing underneath his armor. The loose fabric sitting softly against his skin, the still-healing scars only slightly irritated by it. It was the best he was going to get, there was no point in keeping them bandaged up 100% of the time so he’d have to make do with this. Walking through the eerily quiet forest, he focused on not punching the trees he passed, trying to clear his head.

Kalen wasn’t usually the type of person to let things get to his head, let things affect him, but for some reason, whatever the hell had happened with Ase, it got to him. It had somehow struck a nerve he didn’t even realise he had. It was messed up and weird and he didn’t know how or why it happened, or even how to deal with it, let alone fix it.

He tried to force her out of his mind, putting all thoughts of her and their fights to the back of his mind. He’d deal with that later. Kalen was finally beginning to calm down, slowly walking deeper into the forest, the dense foliage blocking out most of the light, save for small strands of light sticking through the leaves.

Kalen sighed in slight content, pausing for a moment while he enjoyed the warm air drifting through the trees. But his relaxation died quickly, hearing footsteps echoing through the trees, growing louder as the source of the sound grew closer to him. Swearing under his breath, he ducked behind the nearest tree, his back pressed firmly against the back, his head tilted to the side as he waited quietly, hoping whoever it was, they hadn’t already heard or seen him.