The night was young, the stars twinkling brilliantly. Garion sits quietly beside his Aunt Pol at the edge of the campfire, looking nervously at their new-found companions. Mister Wolf was having a conversation with the small man that Aunt Pol referred to as Silk, the large hairy man nodding along and interjecting a word or two. Durnik the blacksmith stays silent, feeding the fire with some kindling that he had found lying around. Garion nearly jumps out of his Aunt's arms when he hears Mister Wolf cry out in frustration, and then the campfire grows quiet again. Well, mostly.

"Are you two daft? Even Garion here would know better than leaving the girl in the woods alone!" Mister Wolf seems to tower above the two other men, which seemed rather amusing to Garion, seeing as the hairy man was quite a bit larger than him. The sneaky man that still scares Garion slightly cowers, his head bent low as he looks up towards Mister Wolf.

"Well, you see, we found that she was capable of keeping herself occupied, so-" Mister Wolf grows in frustration once more, and then stomps over to the campfire, sitting on Aunt Pol's other side. Everything is relatively quite again and Garion sniffs the air, the smell of wood smoke curling into his nostrils and not leaving until he heaves out his breath. Aunt Pol moves away from him and, shooing Durnik to sit beside Garion, she pulls a few large rabbits that Silk had caught a half hour earlier towards her and hums as she begins to cook. As Garion watches his Aunt cook, he can still hear Mister Wolf grumbling to himself something about 'fools, all fools'. Finally, after a quarter-hour of silence and grumbling, Mister Wolf stands up and snorts in disgust towards the two scary men.

"Pol, I'm going to go for a bit of a walk. Apparently, these two are incapable of keeping a girl close to their sides like I asked them to, so I'm going to need to go and fetch her myself." Without waiting for Aunt Pol to answer him, he starts off into the woods, and Aunt Pol calls calmly over her shoulder,

"Don't be too late, father, all the good meat will be gone!" Garion watches as Mister Wolf disappears into the trees, then smiles delightedly as the smell of cooking meat floats towards him. He breathes the scent in deeply, then lets out a happy little sigh. He can feel Durnik's chuckle more than he can hear it, and he grins up at the blacksmith. Things quiet down as the food slowly (too slowly in Garion's opinion) cooks, until Mister Wolf comes back through the trees. He looks a little less grumpy, and all traces of said grumpiness evaporates when he sees the food is ready to be served. Garion's attention wanders, however, to a young girl that has followed the old man through the tree line to their campfire.

The girl is slight but still muscular, with dark brunette hair. As she gets closer to the campfire, Garion notices there is a certain red tint to it in certain lighting situations. The red-brown hair curls softly to her shoulders, but is held back in a loose pony by a small strip of leather that rests on her shoulder. Her eyes are a beautiful color, black to the point that it is impossible to distinguish between the iris and the pupil. Her eyes are a delicate almond shape, caused by a curious slant to the corners. She is wearing hunting clothes which look well worn; all soft, shiny black leather. Tight-fitting pants and flat-footed boots and a tight-fitting vest, all of which is brown with age and usage. There is a white cotton shirt under the vest. As the girl sits down beside the small scary man with the pointed nose, things become relaxed and Aunt Pol hand out the food to everyone.

"Everyone," she begins while handing people their share of the rabbit, "This is Adana, please be kind to her. Adana, this is my nephew Garion, the sensible one is named Durnik. I'd like you to please refer to me as 'Pol' for the time being, and Old Wolf here as 'Mister Wolf'." The girl listens intently, then nods her head once.

"Yes, Mistress Pol." Once everyone starts to actually begin eating, Silk starts a slight banter with the girl, whose eyes shine with a barely concealed excitement that grows the further they get through their conversation. The conversation holds for a while, giving things an air of a carnival, with food and drinks and a lot of jokes. His stomach full with Aunt Pol's wonderful and perfectly spiced rabbit's meat, Garion curls up beside Aunt Pol and slowly drifts into sleep, not at all afraid of the strangers he had met anymore. His dreams are happy and colorful, and all doubt is gone from his body and mind as a whole.

Review, please! How do you like it? Can I do anything to make it better? Cookies to those who review!

~R