Okay, so I don't have a great guess, but this thread is dying. Let's think rational:

The last line reads "what are they?", this likely means that we are not after individual names, rather a species, race, type or the like.

- The answer is seen/found in two places

- The answer is a thing (not things)
A thing does not necessarily mean it's an inventory item, more like "it's not a living creature"

So it's a thing but it's still they, this fits with the "we're after the type, not a unique item" theory.

You say we are to think of the second line, well the second line doesn't say much in itself, it does say though that they are loyal companions, which could be a major key.

You say turn it into a question, well a question could be "Who are our loyal companions?". It makes me think of pets, dogs mostly, but they aren't really things...

"With friends by side, and running behind" this line is confusing me, not that it's badly worded, I just can't think of any possible context where this is true... Maybe in the escape from the Evil forest?

The only "things" I can come up with there is the Continental map... "Map" would sort of fit in with some lines:

[Line 1]: You get the continental map first, then the world map...
[Line 2]: They are loyal companions in that they are with you most of the time and very useful, always to your advantage
[Line 3]: Evil forest escape scene as mentioned above
[Line 4]: You can't avoid getting them, thus they are not hard to find
[Line 5]: No idea, but you said don't worry about this line so I won't
[Line 6]: Maps?

If that is wrong (which is probable), I would like to know if there are any word games in this riddle, and if I'm even going in somewhat the right direction :I