By the River

  A red-haired girl sat down next to the quiet river and gazed down at her reflection, trying to understand the meaning of the happenings throughout the past few days. With a glare she splashed the water, contorting the image and startling the speckled cat curled up next to her.
  "Is something wrong, Alicia?" She turned around to see her black-haired companion heading towards her, concern clouding his features.
  "It's nothing," She said, gently rubbing behind her cat's ears to calm him. The boy fixed her with a stare, his golden eyes shining with worry, and when he saw her lap and the ground around her splattered with water he sighed.
  "You can't worry too much about not remembering--" He tried to continue but Alicia had stood up, and again the power her presence gave off astounded him.
  "October, it has already been too long since I woke up here, not knowing who I was or where I came from. I know better than to hope to remember something after such a long time!"
  "Alicia, we both know that your dreams--"
  "No," She hissed, striding up to him, her brilliant green orbs boring into his amber ones, involuntarily conveying her emotions into the stare, making it hard for him to breathe under the intensity. He nodded once, knowing she was unafraid to use the glinting dagger resting against her hip. She turned and stalked up the bank of the river to where they had begun to tear down the makeshift camp, and he watched in wonder as she easily threaded through the obstacles of stones and bark that would pierce her bare feet. October couldn't help but laugh at the dedication of her cat, Juniper, as the tom stood up and rubbed against his legs then ran after the girl, his brown fur blending gracefully with the shadows amongst the trees.
  Alyse lost track of time as she sat on her bedroll, which was as close as possible to the small kindling fire she had started when she first sat down. She was so transfixed with her task she never once noticed how many times October walked past, and when her horse nuzzled her back she jumped, then laughed quietly and rubbed the mare's cream-colored face.
  "Asteria," She whispered quietly to the mare, running a hand through the bangs.
  "I'm just bringing them up from the water," October explained as he walked over to pick up Asteria's fallen lead. "Skia is already packed and ready, do you want me to saddle her too?"
  "I can do it myself," Alicia snapped, annoyed with his persistence to help, and stood up abruptly, sheathing her newly sharpened sword.
  "Are you sure? You seem incredibly distracted..."
  "I said I was fine!" She glared at him and he sighed as he watched her storm off, wondering why he must be so insistent.

--------------

  "Alicia!" Was all the warning she needed and instantly she was off her horse, hand on her sword hilt while October was slightly in front of her with his dagger at the ready, both staring coldly at the man in front of them.
  "Who are you?" She demanded, brushing past October when the man made no move to fight.
  "'Dunno," He said with a slight slur, grinning at her, "Who 're you, pretty one?"
  "You don't need to know," She replied coldly, turning back and once again brushing aside her associate, much to his annoyance. As she turned her head, in the corner of her eye she saw the man pull out an oddly shaped weapon and without a sound she cleared the distance between them, landing with her dagger pressed against his throat.
  "You will tell me who you are," She snarled, glaring harshly down at him, but instead of responding he grinned again and raised the weapon to her arm, trying to slice her with it. She leapt back and unsheathed her sword, now holding the dagger as a throwing knife.
  "Such a pretty lady… But with such bad manners! What a shame!" He taunted, the slur now having completely vanished.
  "You work for him, don't you?" She spat, circling him as October joined her, their movement in sync after many days of practice. As the pair danced around him, slowly coming in closer, the man smiled confidently.
  "You might want to tell her," October added, lashing toward the right with his sword, and bringing it around to clip the man's left ankle. As he stumbled from the blow, Alicia stayed silent, all concentration on his movements, when he whirled around to facer her.
  "So, is all that toughness just a show? I bet you wouldn't be able to touch me even if you had a real weapon!" With her continued silence he began to panic under the intensity of her glare but in the blink of an eye she had lunged again, cutting open his right hand, left forearm and opening an apparent old wound on his side. Chuckling deeply he moved into a better defensive stance and glanced worriedly at his bleeding side.
  "That's how you fight? It's a wonder you aren't already dead… Unless of course you perfect in running." He finished that line with a sly grin and lunged towards her, but she dodged and before he could turn around, October stepped forward and sliced the back of his shirt, and lightly traced a scrape into his back.
  "I guess you would think that, since your stance is so pathetic!" Alicia called out and ran up to him, blocking his attack with her sword and smiling smoothly as she pulled her dagger down his neck from the top of his ear. As she darted back, she snatched his dagger from his limp hand.
  "Gahh!" He cried, falling to the ground while clutching at his neck desperately. "I give up! I'll tell you the truth! I do work for him!" As he moaned and cracked his eyes open, he saw the pair walking away, and Alicia looked back over her shoulder, saying, "Even if you had put up a fight, no one who works for him would ever admit it!" And suddenly the pain in his side from where she hit him intensified and spread to his stomach, then slowly began spreading through his body, ripping screams of pain from his mouth and echoing throughout his frame.
  "That was tough, torturing him like that," October commented, once they had ridden far enough to no longer hear the screams of pain, and turned towards her curiously, "How did you know it was poisoned?"
  "He was about to do the same to me," She answered simply, sliding off of her horse and dipping both hands into the river, scrubbing them free of the few drops of blood that had spattered. "And it was obviously poisoned; with the way he tried to scratch me with it no matter what."
  "Oh, right," The black-haired teen said, looking away from her. He was the one trained by an assassin, and yet here she was beating him at his own game, without even trying! Shaking his head he walked over to his chestnut mare, rubbing the black star on her forehead and reaching into the front bag to pull out a package. He returned to the river's border to find her sitting cross-legged by it, looking at a map laid out over her legs. Timidly he walked up next to her and looked down at her for a moment, then sat down, sliding the package slightly behind him.
  "We should be here tomorrow, if we don't hit anything else today and ride hard for the rest of the day," he pointed out, motioning to a mountain city labeled Nethon. She looked up at him and sighed, having read his expression much too easily.
  "We can do that," She stated confidently, folding the map before impatiently asking, "What else?"
  "You see, Nethon is a proper town… If we arrive with you dressed the way you are…" He began uncertainly, but with the lack of her cynical responses he gained composure and continued, "You'll have to wear a dress, and I knew we would be coming across one of these towns…" He stopped when she sent a glare towards him.
  "Either speak up or get up, whichever, be quick about it." Her sharp, impatient tone made him sigh and pull the package out from behind him.
  "I saved us the trouble of stopping later today and already bought a dress for you since we will only be there a night," He swallowed nervously as he put the package next to her and scrambled up, but before he could get away she spoke up.
  "Wait," He turned and anxiously and looked at her, to see the package open and a forest green dress laid out in her lap. "How… How did you know?" He swallowed uncomfortably, sitting back down next to her.
  "What did I know…?" October asked gently, unsure about the scared expression on his friend's face.
  "This dress, it's in my dreams. I-I think it's what I'm wearing in some of them…" Her voice trailed off and quickly she scrubbed at a stray tear that had fallen, while October just stared at her silently. "Zeighkh. It has to be." That thought echoed through his mind and was gone before he could remember what Zeighkh could be, but it sounded too familiar to ignore.
  "I am not sure, it just reminded me of you, and the clothes you came to town in. If you don't like it…" Apprehensively he looked at her, and with the dress lying in her lap he couldn't help but voice his first thought. "You will look like royalty with that on."  As her face hardened he hid his face in his hands and groaned, waiting for the attack he knew was to come. When none came he brought his head up to find her laughing on her back, shaking lightly. Moving so he was seated closer to her, he saw that she was laughing. Raising an eyebrow apprehensively he asked teasingly, "Oh my. Pray tell, miss, what might you be laughing at?" Smiling, she focused on slowing her breathing down for a minute before sitting up and replying, "I'm sorry, sir, I was laughing at my friend." She jumped up and held her hand out to him, "I have no clue why you said that I would look like royalty though… What?" She asked defensively when she saw him staring at her while she helped him up.
  "It's just… You're never in this good of a mood…"