“Whut do ye mean, cut—” Perfidy started to say, but stopped short when her hand located the problem. Half her hair was boy-short and the other half was down to her shoulders. She cringed, remembering that moment of madness when she’d said something along the lines of, “I don’ need all this hair, do I? Cut it fer me.” At which point Gruff had borrowed her knife and hacked away until…

She glanced at his grubby fist hanging at his side. Her hair was still gripped between his fingers, dangling like a prize he’d won in a contest. His eyes met hers, and for a moment he actually looked sheepish as he said, “Oops.”

“Wait, you let Gruff cut your hair? Are you mad?”

“’Parently,” Perfidy said. “An’ also dead tired. Walked farther afield than we’d planned to. Need to sleep.”

“Yup,” Gruff said with a yawn, pointlessly hiding Perfidy’s locks of hair behind his back while the rest of the group stared at them. “A little nap is just the thing.”

“Wait a minute,” Jereb said, making both of them freeze. “Gruff, did you get a fourth gold leaf?”

Perfidy answered for him. “Course he didn’t, don’ be ridicu—” She stopped, because her eyes had finally spotted the extra bit of gold peeking through the tangled foliage of his dark beard. “Wait, ye did? Why didn’t ye tell me?”

“I, er, never really found the right moment…”

“Why would he tell you?” Jereb asked. “Are you two best friends or something?”

Was that jealousy Perfidy detected in his voice? “Friends with him?” she said quickly, making it sound like the most absurd notion she’d ever heard. “If ye must know, we cain’t stand each other’s company fer more than a few minutes.”

“Then why do you keep going on long walks together?”

“She’s teachin’ me about…forest stuff,” the dwarf said, a rather poor lie. “And I’m teachin’ her about…godsblood stuff.”

“That’s my job.”

“Fair enough, but nothin’ wrong with supplementin’ it a bit, is there?”

Jereb’s stare took turns leveling itself on each of them, before he finally said, “Of course not. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. It’s good to see some initiative from you in particular, Gruff.”

“I’m tryin’, Jereb. I’m really tryin’.”

Perfidy thought he was laying the act on a bit thick, but apparently it worked, as Jereb seemed to back off. “That’s good.”

“Now all this tryin’ has made me awfully tired. So about that nap…”

“What about training?”

“Later?” Perfidy said, like it was a question. Then, more pointedly. “Aye, later. Goodnight. I mean, good day. I mean, see ye after our nap.”