Promising!

He nuzzles the girl affectionately and then goes that way.

"Hey, don't just leave me on the–ow–"

She pulls herself up with some difficultly and follows him.

So: water? Yes?

Yes!

It doesn’t take too long to get to the river, and the moment they’re there she hops in—

“—coooold! Cold cold cold!”

He hops in after her, giggling.

“Aaa really fucking cold!”

She takes a deep breath, dunks her head in and shrieks a little as she comes up.

He laughs, splashes her, ducks under the water to rinse his hair, and splashes her again.

“—hey!”

She splashes him back.

Giggle. Splash.

She leaps at him. Can't splash her if she's clinging on you! What are you gonna do now, huh?

Giggle and hug her, that's what!

"I really wish I knew what your deal is. But you seem pretty cool."

She kisses his cheek.

"Ah!" he says delightedly, and then he kisses her cheek.

That's so cute she doesn't even know what to do with herself–she kisses him back again and laughs–

–and then the arrow lodges in his skull.

There is a moment of pain and confusion, and then silence.

When he wakes up, there's a bag over his head, and all his limbs are tied down to – a table?

The noise of men conversing and eating, mugs clinking together and fire crackling, comes a little muffled through the fabric.

He hisses furiously and struggles.

There’s some muttering around him, and abruptly, he’s unhooded.

A bearded man stares down at him from above and spits something at him in what sounds like the same language that the men earlier spoke.

Ssssnaaarrrrrrrrrl.

A thin man taps the bearded man’s shoulder and he withdraws slightly, growling back.

“You killed four of our men,” says the thin man, with a heavy accent.

He grins triumphantly.

The thin man frowns. The bearded man shouts something, face twisting in anger, until the thin man quiets him.

“You should have given them their rights. Now you lose your girl for good, and you lose your fingers. No one is happy.”

Something radiates heat by his left hand.

He makes an unfriendly noise that does not entirely sound like it could have come from a human throat. Sort of a hiss-croak.