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Marem hadn’t expected to be asked about herself, but after hours of listening to Leo’s adventures, she felt more trusting of him.

“Hm, well what do you want to know?” questioned Marem.

Leo responded, “I guess I don’t know what exactly. I’m just interested in learning more about you, especially if we’re going to be traveling for a while.”

“Alright, then you’ll get to hear about the wonders of sewing and healing,” started Marem, “since my class is the one thing I can talk about for hours.”

“You have a class?” asked Leo.

“Well, yeah. If you decide to go through Koraha desert, a class is the bare minimum,” she responded.

“Huh, well yeah, I’d love to hear about it.”

“I’m a Seamstress of Flesh, I got into it because of my parents and grew to love it,” chatted Marem, “my magic is really only focused on patching up injuries that people have though.”

“Seamstress? I haven’t met anyone with that class before, what’s it do?” questioned Leo, intrigued by the odd sounding class.

“Really, you’ve never met a seamstress before?” Marem responded, a confused tone in her voice. “It’s not much of a combat class, so it's not unreasonable that you haven’t heard of it, but it’s pretty simple to understand. My parents thought I should know the basics of survival and adventuring, which involved learning how to patch up clothing. With my skill of sewing, I ended up going all in on becoming a seamstress.”

“Well okay, I get that, but do you just give people stitches?” he asked.

“Well, that is something that I can do, but no. What I can do is manipulate the body of a person, mainly closing up any wounds that they suffer. Though I also know generalist healing magic, for other injuries,” answered Marem. “Becoming adept with magic was an expectation for me while growing up.”

“Sounds like your parents had a lot of expectations for you,” Leo noted, grateful that he was able to coast in his previous life.

“Well yeah, but what parents don’t have expectations?” reasoned Marem. “My Dad was an adventurer, so he wanted me to follow in his footsteps, well, as close to his footsteps as I could.”

Her voice grew more distant as she spoke, eventually not saying anything else. Leo was curious about what she meant, but didn’t want to overstep. He knew that family relationships could be rough, and didn’t want to bother her with invasive questions.

“So, what about health potions? Those were cool,” he started up the conversation once more, “do you have any more? I only saw the blue one left, and I don’t know much about healthcare.”

Marem seemed to snap out of her own thoughts at Leo’s comment, as she let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, health potions are pretty cool, I must say,” she agreed, “don’t have anymore, but now that I’m back on my feet we shouldn’t need them.”

“Of course, what good are healing potions when I have the famous Marem with me,” joked Leo.

The two of them had a light laugh as they kept walking. Leo couldn’t help but be more curious about her class, as he hadn’t expected there to be an entire class for seamstresses. He also wondered just what exactly a Seamstress of Flesh could do, if it possible to do anything more than patching up wounds.

While he was tempted to ask, he didn’t want to let excitement reveal his idiocy. He decided to simply take it at face value, doubtful that Marem would hold out information. Though he was a bit disappointed that she was just a healer, considering he didn’t need healing that often.

When the sun started to set, Marem suggested they set up camp for the night. Leo agreed, as he realized that the thought of stopping the journey had already slipped his mind. Leo tried his hand once more at putting up his tent, even with the added difficulty of the desert, so he wouldn’t sleep in sand.

Though after he finally mastered basic camping, he looked over to see Marem only had a bed roll to sleep on. While he thought of faking sleep to pass off just how unusual he was, having forgotten to explain his newest change to her, he couldn’t do so while she suffered.

“Hey, you can sleep in my tent if you want,” said Leo.

Marem shot him a confused look, though before she could speak he interjected.

“Not like with me in it,” Leo interjected, realizing what he had just said, “I’ll sleep outside so you can get better rest.”

“My injuries are better, I don’t need any pity, Leo,” she responded.

“No! It’s not pity, I just wouldn’t mind sleeping outside and you can sleep better without the sand,” he defended.

“Well, I’m not going to be dumb enough to pass up on a free tent, but don’t think this means anything,” accepted Marem, as she moved her bed roll into Leo’s tent.

The two had a simple dinner together. Marem enjoyed another pack of rations, as Leo finished off the last of his fresh fruit. Over dinner, he asked her more about the journey, wanting to know when they could get through the desert.

“Well, as long as nothing bad happens, it should take us about 5 days,” she assured him.

“Any landmarks we get to see, or is it just gonna be sand?” he asked.

“There are some towns that we could stop by, but the fastest path doesn’t get us near them.”

“I’m surprised any towns could even last living in this desert, it doesn't seem like a friendly place to live in.”

“The people here have their own ways of surviving, though attacks aren’t that common. However, when you are attacked, it can be devastating,” Marem looked off to the side

When they finished dinner, Marem went to bed inside of the tent as Leo stayed outside. He decided to keep watch, in case any desert beasts had been alerted to them. He enjoyed the cool desert air against his skin, the burning sun replaced by a cooling moon.

Hours passed, as he sat there allowing his mind to drift. Though sat outside the tent, he finally came back to focus. There were voices talking nearby, whispering amongst each other, as they moved in closer to his position. He kept still, hoping not to alert whoever was speaking, alongside trying to spot them in the nearby sand.

Though cover of night can be a thieves best friend, it kind sucks when your target can see in the dark. Leo watched as the group of men attempted to sneak up to their camp, swords drawn and with a dreadful look in their eyes.