It pained Lysithea to state the obvious, but as they passed a tree that looked far too familiar, the words escaped her anyway.

"It's getting dark."

"And we're lost," Dorothea added, looking from the sky to Lysithea. "I thought if I didn't say it..."

"I think we could backtrack to..." Lysithea trailed off, thinking about where they'd apparently first gone astray. The directions they'd been given hadn't been great and they'd less located the trio of bandits they were after and more stumbled upon them. Then there'd been a chase, but they'd made it to the correct tiny village and...

"We might've taken the wrong road out of the village," Lysithea said softly. That was the most likely explanation, though an exceptionally embarrassing one. It wasn't a mistake that either of them should have made. But there they were, with the color seeping out of the sky and few other reasons for their situation.

"We might have. I suppose I just wanted to be done with things," Dorothea admitted. "I still don't think we were the best choices for this."

"Nor do I." Lysithea held out a hand and whispered until a small flame sprung to life on her palm.

"Maybe we can find a farm," Dorothea suggested as she glanced back down the road. There had been one, a ways back, or a ways forward, depending.

"Maybe." Lysithea was not against the idea in any way. A farmer would at least be able to give them a decent idea of where they were. But getting to that farm, or any farm...

There was a sudden bird-cry some ways off the road and they both jumped.

Lysithea put a bit more magic into her flame.

Dorothea just inched closer until she had an arm around Lysithea as they kept walking. It would not be polite, Lysithea thought, to point out that this made it more difficult for Dorothea to draw her sword, not when it also felt oddly comforting.

They walked mostly in silence, listening, watching, until they could smell smoke on the wind.

Whether it was the same farm or another, Lysithea wasn't sure, but that mattered little as they asked for both directions and shelter for the night.

The walk back was oddly quick come morning. It was all about one shortcut, easy to miss.

Lysithea simply shrugged. There were more important things, like taking Dorothea for cake.