Aldric found himself dreaming:

He was in a dark corridor with no clear point of escape. The only light was a glowing skull, about the size of a small watermelon which was floating a few feet in front of him. It had glowing red eyes, which on a closer look were flames.

Aldric stepped back a bit and the skull floated forward menacingly.

"What do you want from me?" Aldric asked it.

"I want you... you look tasty.." a disembodied voice responded.

"I'm Edos'," Aldric immediately answered.

"I want your soul," the voice continued, "Surely that is not his."

Aldric finally got tired of this and drew out his sword and slashed the skull in half.

Then the dream faded.

Aldric woke up some hours later and was still a bit groggy. He realized he was also alone in the small camp and he could hear the faint sounds of a battle. That  brought him to full wakefulness and he scrambled to his feet.

The battle was raging in the room they had vacated before. 

That sounds a lot like another skeleton to me but I would really hope to be wrong.

Taking a moment to arm his crossbow and test his legs, Aldric then carefully approached and peaked around the corner.

As he feared there was another large skeleton, fighting the three members of the strike team, Edos, Samantha and Flynn along with the two hounds and wolf.

Damn.

Aldric was of two mind of if to get involved or not. On the one hand, he wanted to be of use but he didn't want to become a liability by over-estimating his fitness to battle. He already felt as if he had dragged back the team, it would be even worse if they had to rescue him yet again.

After thinking it through, he stayed where he was and took aim. After firing he retreated behind the wall to regroup and reload.

"Aldric is up!" Samantha called out to Edos.

"He's fine in that position," Edos told her, "Tell him to stay there and provide fire if he can but the minute he feels unstable to withdraw."

"Hold that position and provide ranged back up!" Samantha relayed to Aldric.

"Yes, Under General!" Aldric called out.

The skull seemed to sense him and sent a fireball in that direction but he was already hiding behind the wall again and it missed it. By the time he peaked his head out again he was once again focusing it's fire on the canine targets.

Aldric set up another shot and landed it.

This continued for the rest of the battle, which ended when Edos slammed his pitchfork into one of the eye sockets and the Skull seemed to lose it's power and then explode.

Edos made sure to destroy the skull effigy this time.

"Flynn is sure now, it's necromancy!" 

"I agree with you, but I am very scared of whoever is powerful enough to set up a trap like this," Samantha noted.

"It's worrisome but as long as these shenanigans are confined to the dungeons than I can only say that it would be best for those who are not prepared to not brave these more dangerous levels."

"Flynn understand that but still thinks it is a shame," Flynn said, "If this sort of thing starts happening on the surface a lot of coursers will die."

Aldric emerged from his hiding spot and trotted over to Edos' side. Edos greeted him with a muzzle kiss and he felt like if he had a sudden temperature spike. 

"How are you feeling now?" Edos asked him.

"A but woozy but much better," Aldric said in answer, "I think I can continue on."

Edos nodded and nipped at his neck. The attention and the affection were almost too much for him and he shyly looked over at Flynn and Samantha. The other two coursers were aware but seemed unbothered which eased some of his own worries.

"I think it's time I made us some breakfast," Samantha said with a laugh.

They returned to the makeshift camp and while Samantha got to cooking, Edos was checking on the canine and doing some spot training. Flynn was left to keep Aldric company.

"You're cute when you're shy. Flynn thinks it is interesting how your crush changes your intensity."

Aldric found himself blushing a bit at Flynn's observation. He couldn't rebut it, after all it was very much the truth.

"I can't really deny that, but that is how it should be," Aldric responded finally.

"You still look a bit sick, are you pushing yourself too much?" Flynn asked him.

Aldric did a scan of his body and found to his chagrin that Flynn was actually right in his assessment. He was still a bit woozy.

"I'm not sure, I'll see if I can continue on after we eat and rest some more," he decided.

"Just be honest about it!" Flynn insisted.

Aldric nodded and deftly brought up a new topic.

"Where are you from?" Aldric asked him.

"Flynn's family is from near Port Britarsa. We are farmers by trade and Flynn am the first one to join a militia or do dungeoneering full time. Flynn is the baby and I am spoiled," he happily announced, "Flynn just got back from visiting them and Flynn brought back a lot of veggies, Flynn will give you some and you can cook for Edos."

Aldric coughed in surprise at the ended of Flynn's statement. 

It seemed that he would have to get used to this shy feeling...