Eckhart froze when he heard a snide female voice come from behind him. His old paranoia began to set in, a trait living with his sister had instilled in him. "It's going to be something awful, isn't it? I'll turn around, and it will be some asshole who kills people for fun or something." Eckhart turned around anyway, and wasn't surprised to see a girl leaning against a birch tree. She was deathly pale, and her eyes were a deep crimson hue. "Yeah, see, I bet she's a vampire or something. That, or she has a serious case of pinkeye."
Eckhart could feel his heart racing, but he didn't panic. Instead, he started fiddling with his arrowhead necklace. "Alright Eckhart, you can do this. If you can heal the Thing, you can talk yourself out of this. Just remember whose brother you are." Eckhart frowned, the thought of Hildegarde didn't exactly make him feel better. "Well, whatever. I should try. Maybe she's nice. I'll just... I'll just talk about the cranberries or something."
Forcing a smile, Eckhart laughed at the girl's comment. "Haha, good one! I'm, uh, not from around here, so I've never actually gotten to try cranberries before. They're awful though, go figure."
"Alright, this sounds really stupid. I should talk about something else."
"Are you heading to Southpine? It's only an hour up the road from here if you were."