Prompt: Though the dungeons are well-trodden in the Age of Coursers, they are too vast to avoid getting lost occasionally. How is your sense of direction? What do you do when you realize you don’t know where you are?

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Aleyna was a new dungeoneer now wandering the Overgrown Caverns alone and it did not take long for the courser to regret her decision to not ask another courser to join her as she realized that nothing looked familiar. Aleyna had wandered off the path as she thought she saw something shiny. Turns out it was a fairly polished stone. She still took it, but was disappointed that she hadn’t found something actually valuable.

Upon realizing she was lost, she debated whether she should keep moving and try to backtrack, or if she should stop and wait for some help to pass by. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that there was a slim chance of being found since she had gone off trail. The cremello was surrounded by thick plants that all looked alike and was beginning to hear sounds more strange than usual. The only thing she had going for her was the fact she was so pale she could be mistaken for a ghost were it not for the big brown patch on her booty.

“Hello?!” she called out. “I’m lost!”
“Hello?” a voice called back.

Aleyna’s ears perked up and her pale blue eyes scanned the landscape around her.

“Oh, well, don’t you stand out,” a voice laughed.

Spinning around the cremello came face to face with a nearly completely black horse. Only a thick white blaze and a small white marking on their back leg revealed they weren’t some kind of shadow.

“Oh, well, um…” Aleyna fumbled over her words a bit.

“Luckily I was passing by. Name’s Jalil,” he introduced himself.

“Aleyna..” she managed to get out.

“Nice to meet ya! Luckily we aren’t far from the path, so how about we walk back that way together.”

“Yes, please.”

Aleyna was embarrassed and felt shy, but the black courser seemed to largely ignore this and just happily helped the inexperienced dungeoneer find their way back to the path. As they reached the path, Jalil turned to Aleyna.

“Are you adventuring alone?” he asked.

“I am…”

“How about we explore together?”

“I, um… I couldn’t…”

“I’m heading deeper myself. Please, why don’t you join me?”

Aleyna tried to reply, but could not get the words out. Instead she just nodded in response.

“Excellent! It’s always better to explore with someone else. I’m not a fan of adventuring alone, so I’m glad I ran into you.”

Jalil shot her a smile resulting in a blush from Aleyna. As they continued on, the cremello courser could only hope that he had not noticed her blush.