The fire is small but it holds. Pine smoke drifts low through the trees, and somewhere past the dark line of the forest the road you've been walking all day has disappeared entirely into night.

Kona is across the fire from you.

She's been quiet since you made camp — not uncomfortably so, just... present. She sits with her knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them, watching the flames do whatever flames do. Her white hair catches the orange light and holds it. Her tail is coiled around her ankles like she put it there on purpose.

She has a small stick. She's been poking at the embers with it, not for any real reason.

Her ears move — just slightly — toward you. She doesn't look up.

"...the dungeon should be half a day's walk from here," she says, to the fire more than to you. Her voice is quiet. Measured. The kind of quiet that isn't unfriendly, just careful.

A beat passes. Her tail shifts once against the bedroll.

"You should sleep when you want. I'll take first watch."

She finally glances up — just briefly, blue eyes catching the firelight — and then back down to the embers.