64 Avoidance

By the time that Mem and Raven returned, they had already set up camp.

Dawn looked up at the two, and smiled seeing her best friend. He had a white cloth bound across his eyes, but he was smiling broadly and looking around.

He could see. The way he craned his head around, grinning almost from ear to ear it was obvious. She felt glad for him and it made her own disappointment lessen just a little that he at least had gotten his issue fixed.

She stood up, calling to Mem, "You managed to -?"

"Oh, yes. And his eyes are on the way to recovery. It might be blurry a bit. The light hurts his eyes and they are not really all that presentable yet either, hence the covering. But by the end of two weeks they should, as long as nothing happens, be as good as new." She smiled, and patted Raven on his scrawny back, "His body, after all, is remarkable. He hardly even needed a priest at all. Just someone with some basic knowledge."

Dawn turned to smile at Raven. He was no longer smiling; his earlier beaming had dissolved into a serious and more steady looking expression instead.

"I'm glad." She hugged him, feeling him stiffen at the oddity of the sudden show of affection, "One of your maladies fixed and the other on the way to recovery…"

"Yeah, uh, it's great…" He seemed a bit distracted.

As soon as she released the hug, he stepped back and turned his head away, "You're…" He did not finish what he was saying. Instead she watched his jaw work a bit as if he was at a lost for words. "I think I want to re-meet everyone now that I can actually sort of see them."

He left hurriedly. And Dawn was left in utter bewilderment at his actions. What had that been

about?

Mem though laughed. Then she turned to Dawn, and grinned, "So what's for dinner? I'm starving, and your poor Child of Drez must be famished. His recuperation just got kicked into high gear."

"Miria is making it…" Dawn managed.

She walked towards the camp and watched as Raven talked with everyone for a few minutes, even Vixen though only after making sure that Lowks was with her to control her a bit. He seemed to be very happy and it was easy to forget that odd behavior of his earlier.

But she soon realized that while for the most part he was acting normal, there was still some odd behavior there.

He was avoiding her.

Dawn had no idea what to make of it. At first, she thought she was imagining it, but soon realized that yes, he was avoiding her.

Anytime she walked closer to him, he would find a reason to go to the opposite end of the camp. But what made it definitely obvious was during dinner. She went to sit by him.

And he got up and went and sat by Miria and engaged her in a conversation.

Dawn felt hurt. Raven had been the closest friend she had ever had, and all of a sudden, he was treating her like this.

When she needed his friendship too. She lowered her head and stared at the food in her bowl, suddenly feeling absolutely no hunger.

Did she do something? But he had been smiling and then suddenly while she was talking to Mem it had vanished. And a hug should not have made him then ignore her, right?

She decided to ask Mem if she had any clue what was with her best friend. There was something about Mem that made Dawn feel like she could tell her what was bothering her. Anyway, she had already cried in front of the girl over Arrion so…

Mem looked up at her, as she chomped on her spoon. "Your friend? Oh, yes, he is quite obviously avoiding you. I've been getting a laugh out of it. I think he was shocked when he laid his eyes on you. Probably your beauty."

"What?" Dawn shook her head, "Nonsense. Raven and I are friends. He would hardly even have such a thought."

Mem stared at her and arched an eyebrow, "He's a man. What do you expect? I mean, my brother I would not doubt that he could look at a pretty girl and not bat an eye, but after all he did grow up with me. But your friend has been blind for how long? Then one of the first things he sees is your pretty face and naturally it would strike him. It might even be worse since you are friends."

Dawn blinked, and her face must have looked bothered because Mem patted her shoulder, "Just give him some space until he's got himself under control. He's probably just avoiding you so he doesn't do anything against your friendship. It's not even necessarily that its anything all that drastic. Probably just had a shocking thought that scared him or something."

That relieved Dawn a bit and she decided to give him space until their watch later.