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Chapter Text

A torrent of color soared past Lykou and Kuna as they were whisked through the vortex. They felt like they were floating in the air, or perhaps falling sideways was a better description. As they pulled close to each other, they gradually realized the colors flashing past them were visions of other places, people, and things flying past quicker than their minds could really parse. Finally, everything went blindingly white before they suddenly stumbled out of another archway onto a grassy hilltop.

They heard the portal close up behind them, leaving them in comparatively peaceful silence to look around at the vast, hilly, somewhat rocky landscape that now surrounded them. There were clusters of trees scattered around, but they were relatively small. Short, green grass coated the land. The air was cooler than what they’d gotten used to the last couple weeks, but not unpleasantly so. In fact, it was a little bit closer to what they were accustomed to before they were magically whisked far away from their homelands. Small, puffy clouds intermittently dotted the otherwise clear, blue skies. Off in the distance, they could see the hills gradually giving way to large, rocky mountain ridges.

“Wow,” Kuna said, surveying the landscape.

“Yeah,” Lykou replied, rubbing his neck. “That was… intense.”

“And look at this place,” Kuna said. “It’s so… open.”

“And the grass is a lot shorter, too,” the canid pointed out, looking down briefly. “It’s honestly kind of pretty, in its own way.”

“I prefer the forest, but… yeah,” the sereva agreed. After a moment, he pulled up his hand and noted that the mark had changed. He thought for a minute and realized he could feel a faint tug pulling his attention to the northeast. “Well, we might as well keep going,” he said, gesturing in that direction. “Hopefully we’ll find a decent place to set up camp.”

“Don’t know we’ll find a cave or anything out here. At the very least let’s look for somewhere near water.”

“Yeah, I can always use my magic to make something,” Kuna pointed out as they began walking down the hill. “Nowhere near as impressive as what Inkari made, but still.”

“At least yours won’t come with the creepy shit and meddling-in-peoples’ lives,” Lykou replied with a slight shiver.

They walked for an hour or two before pausing at the top of another hill. Down near its base on the other side, they saw a clear beaten path lined with small, mostly white stones winding between the hills. “That… doesn’t look natural,” Kuna pointed out.

“Must be people around here. Maybe they travel between villages a lot?”

“Could be,” the sereva said, looking back and forth. “I… hope they’re not hostile. Not exactly a lot of good hiding places out here if they get up on top of the hills.”

“True,” Lykou said. Part of him was curious to see where the path led, but he knew the sereva wouldn’t go for it, and there was a fair chance it was a bad idea anyway. “Well, just keep alert, I guess.”

They crossed the path and continued onwards for a while longer. The lack of thick forests to obscure the horizon meant that they had a bit more daylight than usual, but even so, the sun eventually began setting. Fortunately, while it was still bright enough to see around, they came across a small stream winding its way through the hills. Another path crossed it, though, so they moved a bit further upstream until they were out of sight before they settled down. There was a small stand of trees not far away, so they quickly ran over to find whatever fallen branches they could, then began setting up a fire in a flat spot near the stream. There weren’t enough large rocks around to form a proper pit, so they settled for finding a clear, bare spot and tearing up what little grass was around it until there was minimal chance of the fire unintentionally spreading.

Finally, once they had a fire going, Kuna began using his magic to grow a shelter for them. He’d saved a couple of the other apple seeds, and used them to sprout a trio of small tree saplings, then reformed some of the nearby grass into a tent-like mesh of vines and lichen hanging from their tiny branches. It wasn’t big, but it was at least enough to protect them, should any rain show up. By the time he was done, though, he was fairly worn out and quickly dove into his food bag to help replenish his energy reserves.

“You’re getting pretty good at that stuff,” Lykou said after he swallowed a piece of salted meat. “Is it getting any easier?”

“A bit. Trees are still exhausting once they’re past a certain size, though,” Kuna replied, leaning back on the hillside as he ate.

“Well, progress is progress. I guess we should go back to taking turns keeping watch tonight, though.”

“Yeah,” Kuna reluctantly agreed. “I wish we could find a way around that. But I guess I can always practice while you’re sleeping.”

“True. And hey, maybe eventually we’ll figure out another way to keep safe.”

“If I can get good enough at this,” the sereva said, gesturing back to the small shelter. “I can make one we can seal up for the night, hopefully.”

“Good idea.”

The two finished eating and cuddled by the fire for a bit, before Lykou yawned and decided to go to bed. Kuna followed him, confusing him at first, but the sereva just grinned and patted his lap after reclining back. “Fair is fair,” he said. “About time I repay the favor, you know.”

Lykou grinned back at him, then laid down and cuddled up with his head in the sereva’s lap. “Works for me. G’night, Ku.”

“G’night Kou,” Kuna replied with a small giggle, then stroked the canid’s head softly until he dozed off.

*****

Over the following several hours, Kuna alternated between sky-gazing and using his magic to tweak the grass on the nearby hill at range, though he was careful not to over-fatigue himself with it. He ended up creating a small design made of flowers, resembling a star. Once he’d finished, he pondered what to do next. Suddenly, after looking down at the konuul for a moment, he realized that the light in their medallions had completely faded. He quickly conjured up the soul energy and reignited them before returning to his life magic practice.

After that, he thought for a few minutes, then tried transforming some nearby grass inside the shelter into a few carrots. He had a feeling that, at his current level, he was probably using more energy to fully form and grow them than he’d get from eating them, but at least it would let him practice while tiring himself out more slowly.

Once he’d finished growing them, he dug one out and took a bite. He immediately spat it out and cringed. He’d been so busy getting the appearance right, he never put any thought into making sure everything else about them was right. Somehow, despite its shape and texture, it still had the flavor of grass. Tossing the failed not-quite-carrot aside, he manipulated the others some more, focusing on thinking about the taste of carrots as he did so. Once he was done, he tried another, and bit into it. Satisfied that it tasted more like what he expected, albeit still imperfect, he happily snacked on the rest of it.

Once he’d gone through the rest of the bunch, he decided to grow another. Midway through doing so, however, he heard something that made him freeze on the spot.

“Oi, wis tha’ magic??” a slightly hushed, masculine voice called out from up on the edge of the hill separating them from the path they’d seen.

Kuna quickly looked up, wide-eyed at the source of the strange voice. There, partly lit up by the firelight, was a figure staring back at him with a similarly shocked expression. He wasn’t any species Kuna recognized- he was a little on the short side, from what he could tell, but had unusually long and odd-looking ears, which bent slightly at the midpoint.

Naturally, the sereva was alarmed, but as he started nervously trying to nudge his friend awake, he realized the stranger appeared just as bewildered by him as he was and paused. There was a particularly long knife in one hand, but he didn’t seem intent on using it, for the moment at least.

“Here now, whit even are ye?” the stranger said a slightly less hushed tone, with a thick accent. “Ye dinnae look like any spirit I seen, and ye certainly arnae lepne. Ye no here to cause trouble, are ye?”

Kuna slowly shook his head. “N-no… are you?”

The individual eyed him for a moment, before sliding his knife into a sheath on his hip. “Only trouble I hae is for ‘em clatty bandits, but I don’ ken yer one o’ ‘em, judgin’ from yer lack o’ armor and weap-,” he said, slowly descending the hill, then paused when he got a slightly better look at the konuul dozing in the sereva’s lap. “...then ag’in… that a sharp-toother?” he nervously asked, his hand drifting back to the sheath.

“Er… yeah, but he’s not dangerous. Please, we’re n-not looking for trouble,” Kuna nervously replied, wrapping his arms around the sleeping canid protectively.

The stranger eyed them both for a minute, then finally took his hand away from his knife and resumed down the hill. Once he was better lit up, Kuna got a better look at him. He was wearing some kind of simple skirt-like thing, but nothing across his chest, save for the thin strap of some kind of bag hanging by his side. And he had a belt around the middle, with a sheath on one side. And while it seemed his fur was naturally brown and white, it looked like bits of it had been clearly dyed blue somehow, including part of his face.

“I seen plenny a’ strange shite, but this be the strangest by far,” he said. “What’s yer name, stranger?”

“K.. Kuna. And this is Lykou. Y-you?”

“Faergus,” the stranger replied after a short pause. “Where ye from, Kuna? Ne’er seen either ae yer kin ‘round these lands, and I’m pre’y well traveled.”

“Um. That’s… kind of a long story,” Kuna said anxiously.

Finally, Lykou started to stir. He rubbed his eye as he started to sit up. “Is it time for my wat-” he started to ask, then froze when he saw the strange individual standing a few yards away.

“We, um. We have company,” Kuna said sheepishly. “I tried waking you, but you’re a heavy sleeper sometimes, ‘Kou.”

The konuul finished sitting up and blinked the sleep from his eyes, sizing up the stranger.

“Aye, A’m Faergus, an’ yer fren vouched fer ye, but dinnae think I be trustin’ a leg-biter jest yet, even one tha’ ken talk,” Faergus warned, his hand yet again descending to his knife. “Nae funny bi’ness, a’right?”

Lykou’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Leg… biter…?”

“I think he’s worried about you being a, well… predator. I guess he’s never met one that was a person.”

“O...kay…” the canid said, clearly still groggy.

Kuna wrapped his arms around his friend again and pulled him back into a hug, eyeing the stranger. “W-what do you want from us?”

“S’what I was ginnae ask ye,” Faergus replied. “Campin’ close tae the road like this, thought ye might be bandits. But I see ya doin’ tha’ glowy-hands shite, an’ I dinnae any bandit wi’ them tricks. So agin, where ye from and what ye doin’ ‘ere?”

“Like I said, it’s… kind of a complicated story. Basically, we’re trying to find our way home after a, er…”

“Trickster spirit,” Lykou chimed in, rubbing his other eye, then yawned again.

“...or just a really powerful magic user, we’re not sure which one, sent us a long way away.”

“Och, really? Ne’er heard o’ magic like tha’. An’ ye could’nae magic yerself back?”

“Pff, I wish,” Kuna said, rolling his eyes a bit. “No, I’m actually kind of new to the whole magic thing. That’s why I was practicing just now.”

“Aye, really?” the lepne said, glancing over at the flowers for a moment, then back to the shelter the two were sitting in. “Nae bad fer a newbie,” he commented, nodding appreciatively and placing a hand on his hip. “I’m sure the druna back in Kerney w’like to meet ya.”

“Druna? Kerney?”

“Kerney bein’ the nearest village. And druna… well, magic user. Guessin’ ye call it somethin’ differ’nt?”

“Everyone seems to have a different word for people that use magic,” Kuna replied with a shrug.

“Och, I wouldnae ken aboot that. Ah think there’s some other folk o’er the mountains, but we rarely see ‘em here. Just lepne in these hills. What ye call yer kin, anyway?”

“I’m a sereva, and he’s a konuul.”

“So, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night? Do all, er, lepne sleep during the day?” the canid asked.

Faergus smirked and shook his head. “Nae, just bandits, and us night-watchers lookin’ fer ‘em.”

“Bandits?” Lykou asked.

It was the lepne’s turn to look confused. “Aye? Them scabby bastards tha’ batter traders n’ travelers tae nick their stoof?”

The konuul stared at him in confusion for a minute, then checked his medallion to make sure it was glowing before finally turning to Kuna. “Did… you understand any of that?”

“People that attack other people to take their things while traveling between villages,” Kuna explained, then looked back to Faergus. “Right?”

“Aye, s’what I said. Ye dinnae havnae where ye come from?”

“Lakefire- that’s our home- is… kind of isolated. We don’t really have a reason to wander far from there. Only other tribe nearby are some ursarans, and they used to try and raid us sometimes,” the canid said, then grinned, unable to resist a little minor bragging on behalf of his people. “Key words, ‘used to’. They know better now.”

“Aye?” the lepne replied with a big grin. “Bash ‘em right, did ye? Good on ye.”

“So are, er, ‘bandits’ a common problem here?” Kuna asked somewhat anxiously.

“Sometimes. They come an’ go,” Faergus said with a shrug. “Bin quiet lately, which is how aym scoutin’ aroon fer ‘em, in case they’re plannin’ somethin’.”

Kuna shot Lykou a worried look, then turned back to the lepne. “Do you think they’re likely to attack us? We’re not exactly carrying much worth taking.”

“Oh they’ll nick anythin’ they kin carry. An’ you two… well, I dinnae ken. I see ye got one spear, thas not much to deter ‘em. Depen’s on if ya see ‘em comin’ I s’pose. Yer magic might give ‘em a scare, unless they sneak up on ye.”

“Well, I do have this, too,” Lykou replied, pulling out his knife to show him, careful to hold it in a clearly non-hostile way. “And I’m pretty decent with it.”

“Crivvens, whit a bonny blade,” Faergus said, his eyes widening slightly. “Whit’s it made o’?”

“Sunstone! It’s extra tough and sharp, and you rarely have to re-sharpen it. Also supposedly maybe a little magical, though we haven’t proven it yet.”

“That’s ferr impressive,” the lepne said, then tilted his head a bit. “Unfortunately, it wilnae hulp much in an ambush, or if they hae a bow. Which way ye headin’, anyway?”

Kuna briefly summoned up the symbol on his hand to double-check, which, since the night sky was clear, also briefly shot a light darting up to the stars, startling the lepne. “Er, that way,” the sereva said, gesturing to the path the star-light took, with a slightly sheepish grin.

“In the name a’… ye swear yer a newbie, but most druna I ken cannae dae that, s’far as ah ken,” Faergus said, wide-eyed. “Tell ye what, let me tak ye tae Kerney. It’ll be safer there n’ ye kin travel wi’ a caravan when they set fer Whitlan, up tha’ way.”

Kuna shifted nervously. “I don’t know…”

“Ah insist. Ye seem like decent boys, n’ a’d hate tae see ye fall prey tae some mawkit bandits.”

“That’s awfully nice of you,” Lykou spoke up, rubbing the sereva’s back softly. “But no offense, how do we know we can trust you?”

“Ah, fair ‘nuff,” the lepne said with a chuckle. “See this though- there’s two o’ ye, and one o’ me. ‘n one o’ ye has magic. A’m a decent fighter, but tha’ wouldnae end well fer either o’ us, ya ken?”

“Sounds reasonable,” Lykou said, then turned to Kuna. “Right, Ku?”

“I guess…”

“Great!” the konuul said, then crawled out of the shelter and got up to start gathering their things. “Thank you, Faergus.”

The lepne took a step back, eyeing the canid. “Crivvens, yer taller than ah thought,” he commented, then smirked. “Yer kin pick fights wi’ trees er somethin’?”

Lykou smirked back and rolled his eyes. Kuna grabbed his things together as well, although he kept shooting nervous glances at the lepne. Once they were both packed up and ready to go, the canid began to douse the fire with his waterskin, but then paused. “Wait, do you have a torch, by any chance?”

“Nae need fer me. Guess yer a bit nervous gawin’ unner the stars?”

Kuna held his hand up and temporarily manifested a familiar green glow. “I can always use this if we need to see a bit better, at least nearby,” he suggested, then looked up at the sky and let the energy go. “Although I guess it is clearer out here, without a bunch of trees to block the sky. And the moon’s nearing full.”

“Aye? Lotta woods where yer from?”

“Yeah, and most other places, as far as we know,” Lykou replied as he finished dousing the fire. “This is actually the clearest land we’ve seen so far. Well, other than where the shakonu live. But their grass is a lot taller and a little more yellow-y.”

“Shakonu eh? They look like you?” the lepne asked, leading them up the hill.

“Nope, totally different,” Lykou said, then began describing their encounter with the tauric people as they began walking up the ridge. Before long, they reached the stony path and began following through the hills.

“Soons like ye’ve had quite a trip already!”

“That’s barely scratching the surface of what we’ve seen,” Lykou replied.

“Oh, aye? Do tell!”

“Shouldn’t we be w-watching for, er… bandits?” Kuna asked nervously, sticking close to the canid.

“Already checked this piece a’ road on the way oot, n’ they’re less likely tae hang aroon nearer tae th’ villages anyway,” the lepne assured him.

“That’s good to know,” Lykou said, then wrapped an arm around Kuna to try and help him relax a bit when he continued eyeing the nearby hills nervously. “Hey, it’s alright. We’ll be fine.”

“Aye, yer a flighty one, aren’tcha?”

Kuna’s ears folded down and he leaned into his friend’s embrace. “Just tired, I guess.”

“To be fair, he has pretty good reasons, too,” the canid informed the lepne. “We’ve seen a lot of danger, and… well, we both almost died the other day.”

“Och, really?? Howfer?”

“Well,” Lykou started, then looked over at Kuna and thought better of it. “...actually, now might not be the best time or place for that story,” he said, giving their guide an apologetic look. “Still pretty fresh, you know?”

“Say n’more, tha’s fair,” Faergus said, then smiled at them a bit. “Ye both seem… claise.”

Lykou chuckled and gave the sereva a gentle squeeze, managing to get a small smile out of his friend in the process. “Yeah. Can you believe we didn’t even know each other before this trip?”

“Haud on,” the lepne responded, giving the canid an incredulous look. “Ye wis total strangers afore?”

“Yep,” the konuul said, then went on to describe their first encounter together. The retelling made Kuna blush, and if he hadn’t already been looking away to keep an eye on the nearby hills, he’d have done so to avoid eye-contact with either of them. Lykou went on to describe their adventures together since that night, as they all continued walking. Noting the sereva’s embarrassment, he decided to gloss over some bits and avoid talking about his background in the process.

Eventually, Faergus held up a hand and they all stopped. His ears twitched a bit and he peered off towards one of the hills in the distance. When Lykou started to ask, he shushed him, then dug a small object out of his bag, brought it to his mouth, and blew on it. It let out a high-pitched whistle. A figure appeared in the distance and, after a moment, there was a similar sound in response. Faergus played three more shorter bursts, then put the whistle back in his bag and continued leading the way.

“Another night-watcher?” Lykou asked.

Faergus nodded. “Likely Tavish, if ah wis guessin’. He’ll let th’ village guards noo we’re comin’. We’re getting claise noo.”

Kuna yawned and shivered slightly. “That’s good…”

“Pure doon-in, are ye?” the lepne asked with a chuckle. “Nae tae worry, ye’ll be comfy-cozy in nae time.”

“You sure it’s alright for us to just… show up? We don’t want to impose on anyone.”

“Na kinch at a’. There’s always a few spare beds in th’ travel lodge. Nothin’ fancy, but a heap better’n sleepin’ on the cauld, hard groun’,” Faergus replied, then chuckled. “N’ a’m sure clan master Griogair will be delighted t’shaw aff Kerney tae ye t’morra. Bin a lang time since he's gotten th' chance tae host someone freish.”

“Are… are there beds big enough for two people?” Kuna quietly asked. Lykou gave him a gentle squeeze.

“Oh?” Faergus asked, glancing between the two for a moment, then smirked. “A’m sure somethin’ can be arranged.”

*****

Eventually, the village came within sight. Of course, it was largely dark so late at night. But there were several guards patrolling the outside wall with torches, and two braziers made of a material neither of the boys recognized sat lit on either side of the main entrance in the modest-sized wall that surrounded the village. Though the details were hard to see in the moonlight, they could make out rows of several kind of plants clearly being farmed in large patches outside the walls, surrounded by simpler fences and accompanied by a handful of wooden structures.

Once they reached the entrance, Faergus exchanged some words with the head guard. Afterwards, he led them into the village proper. As they passed, Lykou and Kuna could feel the eyes of the other guards on them. Lykou glanced at one of them and waved with a small smile. The guard didn’t respond, instead just eyeing him with a mixture of wariness and mild fascination.

Soon they arrived at a particularly long structure. The base of its walls were made of stone blocks, but most of the rest of its length was made up of wood, with a few slatted windows on the side. It had a thatch roof, like most of the other buildings, from what they could tell- aside from wide chimney in the middle on one side.

They were brought inside, where they could see by the dim light of a large fire in the central fireplace. Near it were a dozen or so small beds, with roughly two thirds of them filled by sleeping lepne. On the far end, stacks of boxes and bags were set up against the side walls. On the closer side, there were a couple tables with some stools sitting around them. There was another door on the far end of the building, which Faergus led them to. The ceiling was a bit lower than Lykou was used to, but not so low he had to bend down.

“Th’ straw room is thro' there. It'll be a bit colder 'n' less cozy than in 'ere, bit ye'll hae plenty o' space fur th' two o' ye. Someone wull come fetch ye in th’ mornin' fer breakfast 'n' tak' ye tae see th' chief afterwards,” he explained, quietly, to avoid waking the other lepne. “Need anythin’ else?”

“No, this is already fantastic. Thank you, Faergus. Will we see you tomorrow?”

“Possibly afore ah heid to kip masel’, bit otherwise nae ‘till evenin’. Hopefully we'll git tae blether mair then, bit otherwise, 'twas buzz meetin ye!” the lepne said, clapping both on the back lightly- and a bit extra gently in Kuna’s case. “Sleep will, ye two.”

As the lepne turned to leave, Lykou and Kuna walked through the door and found themselves in a storage area filled with straw and some other similar materials. There roof was made of wood like the sides, rather than thatched, and there were some gaps near the top, presumably for ventilation purposes. It did indeed make it cooler, but once they both set their stuff down and laid down on their mat in a spot nestled among the piles of straw, they hardly noticed the breeze. And once they had their blanket out and cuddled up under it together, they were more than content.

“You don’t always need to tell everyone that story,” Kuna suddenly pointed out, sleepily shooting a playfully annoyed look at the konuul. “Not exactly flattering for me, you know.”

“Well… I mean, it’s kind of important,” Lykou replied with a somewhat apologetic smile. “And it’s not like I don’t come across a bit silly, too. Chasing someone because I thought they were a spirit.”

“Yeah, well, in the future you don’t have to point out I was naked,” the sereva replied with a flustered smirk. “And maybe downplay how much of a scared little moody bitch I was.”

Lykou chuckled a bit. “Alright, alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, then booped the sereva’s nose with a finger. “It was super cute how you melted when I held you, though.”

Kuna blushed a bit more and rolled his eyes. “You call everything I do cute, I swear.”

The konuul grinned. “Well, I mean…”

The sereva folded his ears down and groaned, but grinned despite himself as he buried his face the konuul’s neck fur. “Good night, Lykou.”

The konuul chuckled some more, then pulled the sereva into his arms and gave him a gentle squeeze. “Goodnight, Kuna.”

*****

Lykou and Kuna slept well into the morning. On several occasions, different lepne individuals came to check in on them, mostly out of curiosity. The village was abuzz with rumors about the strange visitors staying in the travel lodge. Eventually, breakfast was served to the other travelers in the lodge- a caravan group- and that temporarily took their attention away. After serving up food to the rest, one of the ones that had been assisting the cooks snuck into the straw room. She eyed the two, hesitant to wake them, not so much out of fear, but because she had to admit they looked so cozy cuddled up together.

Still, she knew they’d be hungry as well, and in any case she was as curious to get to know them as anyone else, so she stepped over and shifted some slats on the wall to allow in a bit more fresh air and sunlight. She then walked over and bent down, and gently nudged Lykou’s shoulder until he started to stir. Kuna soon followed suit, and they groggily sat up, yawning and stretching.

“Mornin’ strangers,” the girl greeted them, causing Kuna to jump and press up against Lykou in surprise. She had to stifle a giggle before continuing. “Name’s Clara. Sorry tae wake ye, bit ah figured ye wid want some breakfast while tis guid 'n' warm.”

The konuul smirked and hugged the sereva, then turned to face Clara. “Mm, morning, and thanks. We’ll be out in a minute.”

“O' coorse. 'n' welcome tae Kerney, by th' way,” she said before stepping back into the main part of the lodge.

Kuna yawned again and leaned against the konuul’s chest and sighed.

“You alright, Ku?” the canid asked, giving him a gentle squeeze.

“Mmm… did we really walk into and sleep in a village full of strangers?” the sereva grumbled softly.

“Well, yeah, they seem pretty nice. And if there’s ‘bandits’ out there, we’re safer here. Come on, let’s go get some breakfast.” As he tried to get up, Kuna blocked him, refusing to budge at first. “...Ku? What’s wrong?”

The sereva folded his ears down and looked away anxiously. “There’s… people out there. A bunch of them.”

“Well… yeah? This is a village after all,” Lykou said, then rubbed the sereva’s back. “You were alright with the shakonu. And these folks are nowhere near as big and intimidating, heh.”

“Mmm,” Kuna mumbled. “Eventually. But there were also fewer of them.”

“Aww, Ku… you gettin’ shy again?” Lykou playfully teased, then squeezed the sereva again. “Hey, I’ll be right there with you. Come on, you’ll see. It’ll be nice. And some food will do you good.”

After another minute’s hesitation, the sereva reluctantly got up and followed Lykou out into the main lodge. Once inside, they saw that the tables were mostly full of lepne eating and chattering away. However, with the newcomers entering, they all stopped and turned to look at them. Clara was standing by one of the tables and waved them over. “Come hae a seat, ye two!”

Lykou led the way over and happily sat down at one of the stools. One of the lepne hopped over to another one to give Kuna a spot next to him. The reactions of the group were a mixture of excitement and curiosity. Kuna nervously clung close to his friend, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. The lepne were definitely less intimidating than the shakonu had been, but he still wasn’t thrilled being around so many strangers.

“Mornin' strangers! Where ya from?” one greeted them.

“N’ whit are yer names?” another asked. “A’m Ealar.”

“Ah, right, a’m Effie by tae way,” the first added.

“N’ a’m Gavin. What brings ye to Kerney?” a third asked.

“Whit even are ye? Clearly nae lepne,” a somewhat less tactful fourth chimed in. “Ye from o’er the mountains?”

“Awright, all o' ye settle doon 'n' gie them a moment, wull ye? They’re barely oot o’ bed,” Clara lightly chided the curious bunnies as she brought two steaming cups of something over for the two.

Lykou chuckled a bit. “It’s fine. I’m Lykou and this is Kuna. It’s nice to meet you all,” he said, then sniffed the offered drink. “Smells nice. What is this?”

“Jist some mint tea. Ne’er had it afore?”

The konuul shook his head. “Don’t think we have anything like it back home. Smells really nice though.”

“You said its mint?” Kuna asked quietly, sniffing at his own cup. “Actually it does grow in some areas back home, but… I never had it like this before.”

“Really? Wull, yer in fer a treat then,” Ealar said.

“Aye, whit kind o’ tea d’ye usually drink?”

Kuna folded his ears down and looked away awkwardly as he took a careful sip.

“He’s not used to the idea of ‘tea’ as a whole, actually. It’s a long story,” Lykou explained, to Kuna’s mild relief.

“No tea? Thas odd,” the as-yet unnamed tactless lepne responded. “Whit kinna folk dinnae ken tea?”

“Ach, dinnae be such a tadger, Dougal,” Clara chided as she set a coiuple plates of food in front of the two newcomers.

“Weel tis pure weird, isnae it?”

“Shut yer puss afore someone hae tae skelp ye,” Gavin said, shooting Dougal a withering glare.

“Alright, alright, fine.”

After taking several appreciative sips of the tea, Kuna looked at the plates of food in front of them, then looked at Lykou with some concern. Much to his surprise, though, the konuul had happily dug into the roasted potatoes and carrots he’d been given.

After catching the sereva’s expression, Lykou smirked and shrugged. “Told you, there’s some plant stuff I eat. Might not be charnops, but whatever these white and brown things are, they’re pretty good.”

The sereva smiled a bit and started eating as well, enjoying the warm and filling breakfast.

“Ne’er had taters afore? Whit d’ye normally eat?” Ealar asked.

“Er, you know, um...” Lykou glanced around awkwardly and took a sip of tea to avoid the subject.

“Oy, guessin’ yer a predator, from them teeth,” Dougal chimed in again, causing several others to shoot him a glare.

“Fer the last time, Dougal-”

“Well, he’s not... wrong,” Lykou finally said with a sheepish smile. “Uh… hope that’s not, er…”

“Really?” Gavin asked, somewhat fascinated. “Didnae want to assume, but ah was wonderin’ aboot tha’.”

“Aye, me too,” Ealar said. “Never seen yer like aroon here.”

“Nae that we’re judgin’ or anythin’,” Clara quickly chimed in. “Ye are whit ye are, nae shame in that.”

“Aye, as lang as tis beasts an’ nae people ya hunt,” Dougal predictably said with a wary look, then yelped as Effie, who had largely remained more quiet than the others, finally hauled around and smacked him upside the head with her empty plate. “Ach! T’was a reasonable-”

“Away n’ bile yer heid,” she practically spat at him, to the general rumblings of approval from the others. “Tis nae way tae treat guests.”

Grumbling, Dougal got up and stalked off.

“Sorry aboot ‘im. He’s nae all bad, but ‘e can be a real eejit sometimes,” Clara said.

“Er, yeah… no worries, heh,” Lykou awkwardly said. “But just to be clear, yeah, obviously not people.”

“Aye, ah ken most o’ us assumed that, but tis kind o’ ye to confirm,” Gavin replied.

“So tell us aboot yerselves,” Ealar said, trying to lighten the subject.

Lykou started telling them about his village, its people, the ridge, the lake, and so on. And of course, upon talking about the sunstone, he showed off his knife, much to the lepne’s fascination. Finally, after some time having made Lykou the focus of their attention, Gavin glanced at Kuna. “Sae, are ye both from tae same village?”

“Maybe not from, but going to,” Lykou replied.

“Oh? How’s that?”

“That’s a complicated and, well, not very pleasant story,” he said, hugging the sereva gently. “I’ll leave it to him if he wants to tell it, but-”

“Pass,” Kuna said quietly, looking down at his tea, then sipped some.

“Fair ‘nuff,” Ealar replied. “Nae need to pry up bad memories. If’n ya got any pleasant ones tae share, we’d love tae hear ‘em tho. Ye’ve been pretty quiet.”

Kuna folded his ears down and shifted a little, trying to stay focused on his food and drink. “Er…”

Lykou chuckled and gave him a gentle squeeze. “He’s kind of shy, just give him some time to warm up to you. Or some booze,” he said with a wink.

The group got a good chuckle out of that, much to the blushing sereva’s chagrin.

“Aye, that kin be arranged at dinner if he wants,” Clara said with a grin.

Kuna blushed and grumbled faintly. He wanted to object, but he knew it probably would help his nerves a bit.

“So whit brought ye tae Kerney anyway?” Ealar asked, looking back to Lykou.

“Faergus brought ‘em in lest night, apparently. Found ‘em oon his patrol,” Clara said.

“We were camping not far from the, er, path you have between villages,” Lykou said. “He warned us about the ‘bandits’ you guys have to deal with, and offered to bring us here to see if we can travel with some caravan going to… er, what was it…”

“Whitlan?” Gavin suggested.

“Yeah, Whitlan! That was it. Apparently it’s up the general direction we were heading anyway, and we’d be happy to help keep watch along the way. I may not have a fancy weapon, but I’m good in a fight, and Kuna’s got magic.”

“Magic, ye say??” Effie chimed in, eyes going wide as she turned to the sereva. “Show us!”

The others murmured in agreement, including some lepne from the other table that had largely kept to themselves up to that point, content to just listen in and let the others ask the questions. The attention flustered the sereva as he sipped his tea nervously. Lykou rubbed his shoulder softly. “Go on, show off a little.”

Kuna groaned slightly, then sighed and took one hand away from the cup and summoned up his life magic, to the delight and astonishment of the onlookers. He glanced around for a moment, then looked out a slatted window in the wall and spotted a small bush growing just outside. Focusing for a moment, he made it sprout a few dozen tiny, white flowers. The lepne were impressed and applauded as he dismissed the magic and went back to sipping his tea bashfully.

“Wull how aboot thet, it wid be pure dead brilliant tae hae a druna wi' us oan th' road. And ye look quite capable yersel’, Lykou,” Gavin said. “Ye’ll hae tae clear it wi’ Bhaltair, tae trade leader, bit a'm sure he'll be chuffed tae hae ye alang.”

“He’s wi' th' clan chieftan right noo, bit you’ll likelie catch up wi` him oan th' way there yersel', sin ah suspect he’ll send a guard t’fetch ye soon as weel,” Clara said.

“I take it Faergus is asleep now?” Lykou asked.

“Aye, he’s a night-watcher after all. Shame, really. He’s a guid lad, wid be nice to catch up wi’ him more often,” Gavin lamented. “Still, ‘least we’ll seem ‘em at dinner t’night, hopefully.”

“Yeah, I’d like to thank him again for bringing us here.”

Just then, another lepne walked in. She clearly stood out from the rest, wearing armor on her torso and a helmet on her head, with a wooden shield on one arm and a long blade strapped to her side, made from whatever material they’d seen the braziers made from the previous night. She looked very physically fit, as well. And she had blue dyed markings on certain spots, like Faergus had. “Lykou n’ Kuna, ah presume?” she asked, looking at the two.

“That’s us,” Lykou said, smiling and waving to her. Kuna shrank down a little, slightly intimidated by the newcomer.

“Ah’m Raghnaid, and ah’m here tae take ya to the chieftan, as soon as yer thro' wi' breakfast. ,” she said, nodding at them, then removed her helmet and tucked it under her arm. “Nae rush, though.”

Clara walked over to the guard and embraced her briefly. “Can ah get ye anything, Ragh?”

“Nae, ah’m fine. Ye might take some tea tae mum when ya get the chance, though.”

“Sure thing,” Clara replied, then turned to wave to Lykou and Kuna. “Ah’ll see ye lads later, bin a pleasure meetin’ ye!” she said before heading out the door.

They both waved back. “Likewise!” Lykou called after her. He then hurried to finish the last of his food, while Kuna took the last sip of his tea.

“Should we bring our things?” Kuna asked, a little timidly.

“If ye like, but there’s nae need,” Raghnaid replied.

“Dinna fash yersel’, it'll be safe 'ere wi’ us,” Gavin assured him.

“Appreciate it,” Lykou said after finishing his own tea. “Well, I think I’m ready if you are, Ku.”

The sereva took a deep breath, then nodded and got up, anxiously taking Lykou’s hand as they walked over to meet Raghnaid at the door.

“See you all later, was nice meeting and talking to all of you!” Lykou said to the lepne on the way, who all replied with various similar sentiments. Kuna smiled shyly back at them and gave a little wave as they walked out the door behind the guard.

*****

As they walked through the village, the sereva continued to stick close to the konuul. The number of lepne milling about brought his anxiousness back in full force. Lykou wrapped his arm around him to help calm him somewhat, even as he struck up a conversation with Raghnaid.

“So is Clara your sister?”

“Aye, she took o’er the traveler’s lodge aroon three years ago. Now ma and da spend mos’ o’ their time weavin’ or tending a small garden,” Raghnaid replied.

“That’s nice. You always been a, er, guard?”

“Since ah was ol’ enough to swing a blade,” the guard replied with a chuckle. “Though 'twas bound tae happen eventually. Ah wis always gettin’ in scraps when ah wis a lassie. Especially wi' some wee jimmies that thought thay cuid git awa' wi' bullyin’ Clara.”

“Hah! Good for you,” Lykou said. “You know, you kind of remind me of my own sister.”

“Aye? She a guard too?”

“Something like that. She’s a hunter. Hunters double as warriors when they’re needed in my village,” the konuul explained, then raised a brow as he noticed something hanging around the guard’s neck. “Speaking of which… I thought lepne didn’t eat meat, but… is that a leather bag you’re carrying? And are those teeth on your necklace?”

“Aye!” Raghnaid said proudly. “We dinnae eat ‘em, but those o’ us that protect our kin from nasty beasties are more n’ happy to take whit they no longer need, once they’re done with it, if ye know whit ah mean.”

The phrasing made Lykou grin and laugh a bit. “Great way of putting it.”

Kuna cringed a bit, trying to distract himself from the conversation.

“I actually saved a couple tusks from something that attacked Kuna and I a few days ago, come to think of it. Haven’t decided what to do with them yet, though.”

“Ah'd be glad tae tak' ye tae th' jimmy that made mah necklace, if ye like.”

“Nice as that’d be, I’d kind of like to make something practical with them,” Lykou said, then playfully rubbed Kuna’s head. “And this guy gets a bit uncomfortable around that kind of decorative thing anyway. Which would make some things a bit awkward”

Kuna blushed and rubbed his arm a bit. “Sorry, I’d rather bones stay inside living things than hanging off friends,” he snarked, then folded his ears down and shot a slightly nervous, apologetic look to the guard. “Uh, n-no offense.”

Raghnaid laughed. “None taken, lad. Nae everybody wis made fer violence.”

“That’s what I keep telling him. Though he’s getting better at standing his own, when it comes down to it,” Lykou said, smiling at the sereva.

Kuna smiled back a bit, folding his ears down.

“Oy, way ah see it, world needs baith soft folk 'n' solid folk. Yi'll need us tae protect ye, 'n' we need ye tae remind us whit’s worth fightin’ fer, 'n' nae let us lose oor heids.”

“That’s a great way of putting it!” Lykou said, giving the sereva a gentle squeeze.

“And yet somehow you’re both, fluffbutt,” Kuna playfully responded with a small grin, earning a hearty laugh from their escort.

Chapter Text

Lykou and Kuna were brought to a mid-sized square building made of wood and stone, similar to the travel lodge, although the chimney was smaller. Another guard dressed similarly to Raghnaid stood next to the door and nodded to her silently as they entered. He eyed the boys curiously, but his expression remained steadfastly neutral.

Once they were inside, they immediately entered a hallway and took the first door to the left. The room they entered was mainly lit by a pair of wide slatted windows on either exterior wall, being situation on the corner of the building. It was mostly empty, except for a table and four stools sitting in a ring around it. Two of the stools were occupied. Closest to the entrance was a lepne wearing a vest and long trousers, with a knife sheathed on his belt and large bag made of some kind of soft, fuzzy material slung across his chest hanging on the other side. The lepne on the other side was more stout and wearing a slightly more ornate-looking vest, with some kind of emblem stitched onto the front. He also had a small, but intricately-carved wooden crown sitting on his head, with a trio of smooth agate stones embedded into it.

“Ah, thae mist be th' strangers ah wis hearing aboot!” the stout lepne said, standing up. His other guest stood and turned to greet them as well.

“Aye chieftan! Ah bring ye Lykou, 'n' Kuna, o' th' village o’ Lakefire,” Raghnaid reported, gesturing to each in turn. She then looked to the boys and introduced the two lepne, “Honored guests, this es chieftan Griogair, 'n' th' trade leader, Bhaltair.”

Lykou thought for a moment, then crossed one arm over his chest and dipped his head slightly. “Thank you for your hospitality, chieftan,” he said, nudging Kuna slightly.

The sereva was a little confused, but mimicked his friend’s actions. Outside of certain spiritual and funerary situations, he wasn’t used to the idea of so much pomp and circumstance towards one individual.

“Ach, na need fur a' that, tis a buzz tae hae ye!” the chieftan assured them, then gestured to the remaining two stools. “Hae a seat! We dinnae git much chance tae chat wi` folks fae places we ne'er even heard o'. Welcome tae Kerney!”

“Indeed, Lakefire is a mystery tae me. Mah band haes traveled a' o’er these hills, bit that name haes ne'er met mah ears. Wid loue tae hear a' aboot it!” Bhaltair added, standing up and offering Kuna his seat. “Ah will hae tae wait till later, though. Ah'm needin' tae mak' some arrangements. Bit ah hear that you'd lik' tae jyne mah caravan tae Whitlan, sae ah will see ye at th' lodge efter, aye?”

“Yeah, we would really appreciate that,” Lykou said, sitting down alongside his more hesitant and anxious friend.

“Great, ah’ll see ye tonight, then,” he said, then turned and pulled a small shiny, polished disc of agate out of his bag, then handed it to the chieftan. “A'maist forgot. A gift from chief Eimhir. Pleasure as always, Grey.”

The chief stood and the two embraced and patted one another’s back, before the trade leader turned and headed out the door, giving a friendly nod to Raghnaid on the way out. The chief dismissed the guard as well, then turned back to his guests with a friendly smile as he sat back down. “Right, weel then. Lykou 'n' kuna. Happy tae hae ye 'ere. Ah trust a' body haes treated ye weel?”

Kuna nodded quietly, nervously looking down and only occasionally shooting little glances up at the chief.

“Oh definitely. Everyone’s been extremely friendly. Thank you again for the hospitality, sir,” Lykou said, smiling back. He gently rubbed Kuna’s shoulder a little, then pulled him a little closer so he could wrap his arm around him. “Forgive Kuna, he’s a bit shy.”

“That's a'right. Na need fer fomalities, though. Ye kin skip th' 'sir' nonsense. Juist ca' me chief, or Grey, if ye lik',” he said, briefly looking over the agate he received, then turning to set it on a small decorative shelf alongside several other small gemstones sitting on it. “Ye lik' mah collection? Th' ither chiefs 'n' ah send bonny hings tae each ither that we fin' in oor territory.”

“They’re very pretty,” Kuna suddenly spoke up just before Lykou was about to reply, seemingly noticing the shelf for the first time. “What’s that little blue one on the end?”

“Ah, tha's a sapphire fae th' Longhair clan ower in Dunbri. Bonny wee thing, isnae it?”

The sereva nodded, smiling a little. “They’re all really nice.”

“Yeah, that’s quite a collection. Are there many stones like that around here?”

“Nae exactly a lot, bit ye fin' some agates, lik' thae,” he replied, gesturing to his crown. “Layin’ in th' fields 'n' hills 'ere whiles. S'what ah send back, whin ah fin' a gid sized yin. Anyway, tell me aboot Lakefire! mist be ferr a wey fae 'ere.”

Lykou happily began describing his home to the chieftan, while Kuna passed the time looking over the pretty stones on the nearby shelf. When that grew old, he looked out the slatted window and watched some villagers passing by. A number of them paused and chatted with each other along the way, frequently pointing towards the building he was in. Some even spotted him looking and waved to him, making him feel a bit self-conscious as he shyly waved back.

“Whit is this ‘sunstone’ ye keep mentionin’?” the chief eventually asked the konuul.

“Oh yeah, here, let me show you,” he said, then pulled out his knife and gently set it down on the table. “Apparently it’s a kind of ‘metal’, though I only recently learned that word. A couple crafters make it into all sorts of things like this.”

“Aye, that's a splendid wee blade!” the chief replied, looking it over with obvious fascination. “It reminds me o' copper, bit it keeps tis shine? 'n' ah assume tougher 'n' sharper, tae.”

“I’m not sure what copper is, but yeah! You barely ever have to sharpen sunstone blades once they’re cut.”

“Ye nae ken copper? Weel, ah suppose ye wouldn't need tae, if ye hae a bunch o' this stuff sittin` aroond,” Grey replied, then handed the knife back to Lykou and stood up. “Come wi' me, ah will shaw ye aroond Kerney, 'n' see if we kin fin' some copper tae shaw ye. 'n' some bronze, while we're at it, seeing as how tis made wi' th' stuff.”

Lykou got up and gently nudged Kuna to do so as well. The sereva snapped out of his mild daydreaming with a sheepish smile as he stood up. They both followed the chief, who began giving them a small tour of the village. He was clearly enjoying himself, happily introducing them to a number of different villagers as they went. They stopped by communal storage house that kept the harvested goods from the farms that surrounded the village, and he offered them each a snack- which Kuna accepted, if only to have something to distract himself with, but Lykou politely declined. Several farmers greeted them, with varied mixtures of curiosity and delight. A few had young lepne with them, who were even more excited to meet the outsiders.

Next they stopped by a simple smithy, which fascinated both Lykou and especially Kuna. The konuul mentioned the similarities to the sunstone-crafters and the oven houses back in Lakefire, but was fascinated to see the actual metal-working being done. When he saw the copper, he brought out his knife for comparison, much to the fascination of the village smith. The two also were shown the simple bronze tools that she’d been working on.

“Where do you get that stuff from? I don’t remember seeing anything shiny laying around on the ground,” Lykou asked, then rubbed his neck. “Although admittedly it was dark when we got here, heh.”

“Th' caravans bring it fae Tannil,” Grey explained. “They bring it fae th' mines thare, 'n' we send back food 'n' wool hings oor weavers mak'.”

“Wool? What’s that?”

“Ach, ye dinnae ken wool either?” the chief asked, grinning. Far from perturbed, he seemed excited to get to introduce them to something else. He turned back to the smith and nodded to her. “See ye efter, Una! Thanks fer yer time.”

“See ya later chief!” the smith replied, then nodded to the boys with a smile before going back to work. “Lovely meetin’ ye lads.”

The chief led them to another large building with a set of especially wide wooden doors that were sitting propped open by a couple large rocks. Inside, there were a trio of lepne sitting on stools next to some strange creatures the boys had never seen before. Much to Lykou’s confusion and mild amusement, and Kuna’s confused dismay, they were in the process of trimming most of the thick, dense fur from the creatures with a pair of shears- though the beasts didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, they were remarkably docile and relaxed.

“Are… w-why are they…” Kuna stammered out, unable to comprehend the strange situation.

The chieftan let out a hearty laugh and clapped the sereva on the back lightly. “Ah guess it mist be streenge if ye'v ne'er seen it afore. Thaes ur sheep. Thair fur is called wool, 'n' as it sae happens, thay graw awfy much o' it fur th' summer.”

“Thay used tae run aff wey north when it got warm. We stairted penning ‘em in 'n' feeding ‘em in exchange fur th' extra fluff. It’s great fer making a' sorts o' claithes and blankets and so oan. Works oot bonny weel fur th' baith o' us,” the closest worker chimed in, pausing to wave to the visitors.

“This 'ere is Hamish,” Grey said, gesturing to the other lepne. “Hamish, this is Lykou 'n' Kuna. They're payin’ us a visit fae a far awa' village call’ Lakefire.”

“Welcome tae Kerney, lads,” Hamish replied with a smile, nodding to them as he resumed sheering the sheep next to him.

Grinning, the chief reached over and picked up some of the discarded wool and brought it over to the boys. “'ere, cop that. Softest, coziest thing ye'll fin' in a' thae hills.”

Lykou reached over and examined the wool. “Wow, no kidding! I bet this makes great blankets.”

“Aye, ‘n’ a lot else ‘asides.”

After hesitating for a moment, Kuna reached over and felt it as well, and was suitably impressed. “It’s really soft, alright…” He couldn’t help but look over at the sheep with concern though. “It… it really doesn’t bother them, though?”

“Na harm at a’. Lik' he said, it works fur thaim 'n' us alike. How come dae ye think they're sae calm aboot it?” Grey reassured him with a chuckle.

Kuna suddenly jumped slightly when something brushed his hand, earning a round of snickers and laughter from the various lepne nearby. Another individual had walked up with another sheep, bringing it to be sheared, and it had brushed up against the sereva, curiously nudging his hand with its nose.

Lykou rubbed his friend’s back softly and smirked. “I think it likes you.”

The sereva folded his ears down and frowned slightly in embarrassment. Still, the sheep seemed to remain curious about him, nudging him again. As the lepne guiding it stood by and watched in amusement, he hesitantly reached his hand out and pet the creature’s head, which seemed to please the beast. After a moment, he couldn’t help but smile faintly. This is so fucking weird, he thought to himself. But I’ll gladly take this over some kind of monstrosity trying to murder us for once.

Eventually, the chief set the wool back down and guided the visitors away after bidding Hamish and the other workers farewell.

“Hae Bhaltair shaw ye some o' th' hings he's taking tae Whitlan. Th' weavers dae mighty braw wirk,” Grey said as they walked. After a short stroll across the village, they approached an odd-looking round structure with a tall oak tree growing out of its center. Off to one side was an area with a tall wooden fence, obscuring the interior space. Both the fence and the building had ivy sprawling all over their sides. Unlike most of the other buildings in the village, this one’s roof looked like it was made of a mish-mash of living plant matter. The chieftan turned to face Kuna as they approached, an excited glint in his eye. “Noo kuna, ah unnerstan’ yer a wee bit o' a druna?”

Kuna rubbed his arm and glanced over at Lykou, then nodded slightly.

“Kin ye show me?” Grey asked, pausing outside the odd building, then gestured to some of the ivy hanging off the edge of the roof.

Kuna took a breath and looked around, wary of a few other lepne that’d stopped and started watching them as they approached the building. After a moment, he summoned up the life magic and caused a few pale blue flowers to bloom on the vines. Once it was done, he quickly dismissed the energy and shifted uncomfortably, huddling up to Lykou under the fascinated gaze of several onlookers.

The chieftan’s eyes went wide as he watched the sereva work, then he nodded appreciately. “Aye, this is th’ right place, then. Kuna, let me intr-”

Before he could even finish, the door swung open and a somewhat tall, slender lepne stepped out, wearing a thin green and tan robe and a flowering headdress. She had a somewhat authoritative air about her, as she examined the visitors.

“Ach, Moyra!” the chieftan said quickly, giving a little bow before continuing. “Ah hawp we're nae disturbing ye, bit these ‘ere lads are visitin’ fae a far awa' village, 'n' Kuna 'ere-”

“Brought me some flowers, ah see,” the druna cut him off in a light, airy voice, as she glanced at the flowering vine hanging off the roof, then back to the sereva, sizing him up with a carefully neutral expression. “Seems yer th' one missing yer crown, however.” After a moment, her own hand manifested a green glow, and the vines lifted and stretched over to him, startling him. It shed one of the flowers on his head before returning to its previous position and falling slack once more. “Welcome tae Kerney, young druna.”

Kuna eyed her nervously. “Th-thanks…”

She raised a brow. “Whit's yer name, then?”

“K… Kuna.”

“'n' yer companion, is he a druna as weel?” she asked.

Kuna slowly shook his head. “Lykou d-doesn’t use that kind of m-magic, no.”

“A pity. Still, nice tae mak yer acquaintance, Lykou,” she said, nodding to the konuul, who smiled and nodded back to her. She turned back and opened the door, then beckoned Kuna inside. “Come in, Kuna. Ah'm sure th' chieftan wull wantae shaw yer friend th' brewhall whil we discuss druna matters.”

“Aye, guid idea!” Grey said, grinning eagerly as he clapped Lykou on the back. “Ah cuid uise a crakin' dram right noo. Let's go, laddie!”

Immediately Kuna shot Lykou an anxious look, not wanting to separate from him. The canid just smirked and pulled him into a tight hug. “Go on, Kuna. Nauja was nice, right? This isn’t you-know-who. I’m sure it’s fine. I’ll come back to check on you in a little bit,” he said to the sereva quietly as he held him for a minute.

Kuna finally nodded and walked to the door hesitantly after they separated. Even so, he still stared after his friend as the konuul and the chieftan walked off down the street. He only completely entered the building after the druna cleared her throat pointedly.

*****

Once inside, Kuna noticed that the building was lit up not just by a few gaps in the ceiling, but also by clusters of faintly glowing flowers growing from vines hanging from the ceiling. Moyra walked over to a branch extending from the wall, then removed the flower headdress and hung it on the end. “Ah, that's better. That thing gets kittlie sometimes. Dae mak' yersel' at hame, Kuna. Tis guid tae hae a fellow druna aroond fur wance.”

Kuna blinked at her uncertainly for a moment. The druna’s entire demeanor had changed once the door closed. Where she’d once had an airy, slightly intimidating presence, she now seemed much more casual and relaxed.

When she caught his expression, she smiled and quirked a brow. “Ye a'right, then? Ye kin relax in 'ere, sorry if ah came across a wee bit intense . Hae tae keep up whit expectations oot thare, ye ken. Kin ah git ye some tea? Ah j e st stairted a pot fer masell, thir's plenty tae share,” she offered, then winked. “Tis mixed wi’ a wee bit o’ licorice root.”

“N-no th-” Kuna started to say, then caught a whiff of the smell and shifted a bit. It smelled remarkably nice. “Er… actually, that does s-smell good…”

She chuckled and stepped around the corner for a minute, then returned and handed him a steaming wood en cup. “Yer a timid one, aren't ye? Unusual, fur a druna.”

Kuna took the cup and murmured a quiet thanks, then shrugged slightly and took a long, slow sip.

She eyed him in silence for a moment as they both awkwardly stood there, sipping their tea. Then, she suddenly carefully took his cup and set it and hers down on a nearby wooden table, startling him. “Forgive me if ah'm wrong, bit ah hae a knack fer knowin’ folk. 'n' ah think ah ken exactly whit yi'll need. C’mere,” she said, then suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, with one hand reaching up to rub his head. “ Yer safe ‘ere. N’ yer friend’s safe wi’ Grey. Promise.”

He was s urprised and a bit bewildered at first, but after a moment his ears folded down and he nervously returned the embrace. As awkward as it was initially, he did feel a little bit better, if slightly embarrassed about it.

“Better?” she asked as she pulled back.

He gave a small nod and a shy smile. “A little, actually…”

“Hud that feeling aboot ye. Especially efter that wee moment wi' yer friend oot thare. Ye seem lik' a sensitive soul,” she said, rubbing his arm softly, then handed him back his tea with a sympathetic look. “Ah'm guessin’ ye'v seen some mirk troubles, aye?” she added after a short pause, in a quieter tone.

Kuna nodded again and looked away .

She patted his back softly. “Ne'er forget yer stronger than they troubles. Yer still standin’, aren't ye?”

“Y-yeah, I guess so,” he replied, then took another sip of the tea, enjoying the unique taste. “Wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for Lykou, though.”

“’ere now, give yersel’ some credit.”

“No really, he’s literally saved my life. Several times,” Kuna said, rallying a bit. “...in more ways than one, too,” he added after a moment, smiling faintly as he looked down into the steaming cup.

“Oh aye?” Moyra said, smirking as she stared at him. “Soonds lik' ye'v git some stories. Come, jyne me in th' back green 'n' tell me a bit.”

She guided him out through another doorway covered in thick hanging vines. They emerged in the fenced-in area, which was filled with a variety of blooming plants. Some bees and butterflies flitted around some of the flowers, and a chipmunk darted along the top of the fence. Somewhere high in the tree protruding from the house, a few birds were singing away happily.

“Wow, this is… really nice,” the sereva said, looking around. “You grew all these yourself?”

“Aye, proper druna wirk, after a’,” she replied with a shrug. “Ye dinnae hae a garden?”

Kuna frowned and shook his head. “No, I… I’ve never stayed in one place that long. And I only recently started learning magic, anyway.”

“Really noo?” the druna replied, intrigued. “A newbie, 'n' a’ways oan th' move?”

“Yeah, its… complicated,” he finished lamely, then shrugged. “Maybe I can start one eventually, though. Does seem nice.”

“Sae howfer did ye start learnin’ th’ craft?”

Kuna shivered, a haunted look briefly coming over him. “Well… I was taught. By a, um. Well, someone I have very, very mixed feelings about now,” he said, his eye twitching. “Someone I originally thought was a fire spirit, but then she turned out to be… well, definitely not that.”

Moyra’s eyes widened as she stared at him for a moment. “Posed as a spirit, ye say? Ne'er heard o' a druna that cuid dae hings lik' that. A bit o' body-changing, mibbie, bit nae intae fire or anythin' lik' that.”

“Yeah she’s… very powerful. And she claimed to be mortal, but I’m not entirely convinced she wasn’t some other kind of spirit,” Kuna continued, then took a long, slow sip of his tea.

Moyra rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Druna usually learn fae older druna, bit ah hae heard that th' earlie ones learned fae spirits, 'n' ev’ry noo 'n' then one still does,” she said, then raised a brow at him. “Whit aboot her fashes ye? Ah tak' it she’s na langer teaching ye?”

Kuna shook his head with a certain amount of conviction. “N-no, definitely not. She, um… let’s just say she matches the description of a certain kind of trickster spirit I’ve heard stories about since I was little. And, uh… she’s apparently the one that flung Lykou and I across the world in the first place.”

“...ah’m gonna need ya tae explain that,” the druna said, staring at him with fascination.

The sereva sighed. “Well… Lykou and I had an… awkward first meeting. Several weeks ago now. Long story short, we ended up taking shelter in a cave together during a freak thunderstorm that came out of nowhere, and ended up sleeping there overnight. When we woke up, we were in an identical cave a very long way from where we came from. We’ve been traveling ever since, trying to find the way back. At a certain point one night, after he was asleep and while I was up keeping the first watch for trouble, she showed up disguised as a fire spirit and offered to teach me magic. I accepted and everything was fine until a few days ago when Lykou and I were… were attacked and n-nearly k… k-killed by a r-ravager,” he started explaining, then paused as a shiver ran through his body. He had to take a moment to sip some tea and compose himself before he could continue.

“Crivvens, tha’s terrible! Whit’s a ravager?”

“Let’s just say they’re one of the most terrifying monsters out there. One, um… k… k-killed my p… my parents w-when… when I w-was a kid,” he paused again to take another moment to fight off the dark memories.

“Ye poor sweet bairn. Ah’m sae sorry,” the druna said, gently stroking his back.

Kuna took a long, somewhat shaky breath to steady himself, smiling weakly at her. “Th-thanks,” he said, then took another sip before continuing. “I-I’m better about it than I used to be, but it still… you know.”

“Aye, that's a tairible thing tae happen tae a wee jimmy.”

“Anyway, yeah, we were attacked by one the other day, but then… she showed up and saved us at the last minute. Only she clearly wasn’t a fire spirit anymore.”

“Whit did she look lik’, then?”

“L-like a person, only… not, at the same time,” he said, then did his best to describe the jarzin.

“Ach, that does soond streenge… ne’er heard o’ someone lik’ tha’. Bit ye say she saved ye 'n' git rid o' th' beastie?”

Kuna slowly nodded. “Y-yeah. And helped me use my magic to heal Lykou. He was… hurt pretty badly,” he said, his ears folding down sadly as he thought back to the recent events. “I was so scared that….”

Moyra gently rubbed his arm and smiled at him. “Aye, but he didnae, did ‘e? Tha’s whit’s important.”

He smiled back weakly. “Yeah.”

“Sae howfur dae ye ken she's th' one tha’ magic’d ye ‘cross th’ world?”

Kuna looked down into his cup thoughtfully, then shuddered slightly. “She basically told us so. In the creepiest, scariest way,” he explained. “At first she was pretty nice- a little creepy and weird at times, but generally nice enough. While Lykou and I took a day to rest up and recover some, she hung around and answered random questions we had, about her, and magic, and so on. And then she gave me my last magic lessons. The next morning she was preparing to send us off on our way and wish us well, then she just… gets real creepy and lets us know she’s been manipulating things around us a lot longer than we thought, and that she’s the one that put us in this situation in the first place, right before vanishing in a… very dramatic way.”

“Tha’s pure weird, a’right,” she agreed, then sipped some of her own tea and thought for a moment. “Ye ken, some o' this does seem vaguely familiar though, somehow. Whaur wis it ye 'n' yer friend wur headin’ efter kerney?”

“Oh, uh, Whitlan, apparently. Our, uh, next destination is off that general direction.”

“Hae dae ye ken whaur yer goin’, exactly?”

“Well, the last trick she taught me before… all that, was how to use s-… er, star magic to navigate home.”

The cup stopped part way to the lepne’s lips as she gave him an odd look. “Star magic, ye say? Whit’s star magic?”

“Well, uh,” he replied, then pulled the medallion out from under his poncho. “The kind that’s making this work so we can talk right now.”

She looked at the faintly glowing necklace with rapt fascination. “Aye, that magic…” Her gaze flicked between him and the medallion for a moment. “Ye kin actually do tha’?”

He nodded, then closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. He found it slightly more challenging without Lykou around, for some reason, but after an awkward minute, he managed to grasp the energy and opened his eyes again, showing her the glowing pale blue light around his hand. “See?”

Moyra eyed him in silence for a minute. “Ye ca' it star magic, bit ah ken tis something else. Whit exactly, ah'm nae sure, bit ainlie a few druna kin dae that stuff. Mak' sure tae visit th' high druna in Whitlan while ye'r there.”

“High druna?”

“Aye. Tis a bigger village, a full toun even. Thir's sev’ral druna, bit the one in charge wull mibbie ken somethin’ aboot yer mysterious teacher.”

What in the world is a ‘toun’? Kuna wondered to himself as he rubbed his shoulder anxiously at the thought of a larger-still village. After a moment, though, something else occurred to him. “By the way, that reminds me- isn’t the chieftan usually the person in charge of a village? He, uh… kind of didn’t seem quite that way around you,” he pointed out with an arched brow.

The druna grinned. “Aye. Grey is in charge. Th' chieftan runs th' village.” she said, then swirled her tea, looking down into the wooden cup as she did so. “As lang as th’ druna says he does,” she added before taking a very pointed sip.

Kuna couldn’t help but grin back at her some. “I see… guess being a spir-, er, druna tends to make people listen.”

“Oh aye,” she confirmed with a smirk. “Bit thir's mair tae bein' a druna than juist glowin’ bits 'n' making plants graw 'n' dae stuff. Tis jest as important tae learn howfur peoples' heids wirk 'n' git tae ken yer neighbors real weel. Knowing fowk is mair important than ony amount o' fancy magic tricks.”

“Huh. That… makes sense,” Kuna said after a moment. He glanced around at the fence nearby. For a moment he had a weird feeling similar to being watched. “Er, should we be talking about this out here? Someone nearby might overhear you.”

“Nae. Nobody wid be rude enough tae hear something a druna didnae want heard said in th' privacy o' thair ain back green,” she said, casually strolling up to the fence and conjuring up her magic. Suddenly the vines creeping over the top began stirring to life and she knocked solidly on the wood, causing someone on the other side to audibly scramble away and trip. “Isnae that right, Callum?” she called out over the fence.

“R-right m-ma’am, m-miss Moyra!” came a very anxious, and fairly young sounding voice from the other side. “A-ah mean, w-what whis tha’, whit a f-funny soundin’ bird ah heard jes’ noo! Ahaha…” More scrambling could be heard out in the street, followed by frantic footsteps running out of earshot. The druna chuckled.

Kuna looked at her with mixed concern and amusement. “Neighbor’s kid?”

“Aye. He likes tae snoop, bit he's a guid lad otherwise.”

“You’re not worried he’ll-?”

“Nae. Everything ah tellt ye is mair or less an open secret. Fowk ken, bit thay ken better than tae pure ken, ye ken?”

Kuna scratched his head as he tried to follow along. “I’m… not sure?”

“Exactly.”

“O...kay…?”

She got another good snicker out of that. “Dinnae worry aboot it.”

Kuna shrugged off the confusion after a moment and finished his tea. “Thank you again for the tea. This is really good stuff.”

“Yer quite welcome,” she said. “Sae how much did that streenge teacher teach ye, anyway?”

“Well… I can make things grow and change, obviously. Including at a distance, which was one of the last things she taught me. And I can heal people, although I’ve only done it once so far. Still don’t have much experience with things besides plants.”

“Aye, they dinnae stop ye,” she replied with a smirk. “Forby healing, ah ne'er tried much else wi' people or beasties masell. Whit else? Ye ken how tae make plants move aroond?”

Kuna looked at her quizzically. “Well… you mean other than just making them grow and change quickly?”

“Weel that's certainly one way, bit tis th' pernicketie wey. Tires ye oot quicker. Thir's an easier way.”

“Really?” the sereva asked, intrigued.

“Aye. 'ere, let me shaw ye.” she said, then took the cup from his hand, then set both cups down on the ground. She then gently took him by the shoulders and walked him over to a particularly large, thick vine hanging from the side of the house. “Git this big fella fixed in yer mynd. Then claise yer eyes 'n' focus oan th' life energy aroond ye. Grab it lik' ye normally wid, ‘n’ follow it tae th' vine. Wance ye guide th' flow tae it, ye'r connected tae it 'til ye let go. Instead o' trying tae shape or graw it, huv a go movin` th' energy flow aroond some.”

Kuna followed along as she instructed him. He’d been able to feel the energy of things around him before, but he’d never thought about focusing on any that he didn’t have direct control over. He’d largely treated a lot of it as background noise up to that point. So when he reached out and shifted his mental grasp from the energy he was manipulating, to the energy already flowing through the plant, it came as a surprise to him. Something about it definitely felt different, and there was some resistance. A lot of it, in fact.

“Kuna, laddie, that's me,” the druna pointed out.

Immediately, he opened his eyes and blushed as he realized the flow he’d been reaching for was in fact connected to the lepne teaching him- and his hand had been following his mental grasp right to her arm. He was mildly mortified, but relieved it hadn’t been some other part of her anatomy. Fortunately, she had a highly amused expression, rather than an offended or annoyed one. “S-sorry!”

She chuckled and shook her head, then patted his back. “Dinnae fash yersel’. Folk are practically unmovable anyway. Jest gie it anither go.”

He took a deep breath, then nodded and tried again. This time he tried to pay attention to what the different flows of energy felt like. He gradually started to get a feel for what was a tree root, a bush, a flower, and of course, the lepne. And finally, he found the vine and began mentally tugging at it. Again, he found some resistance, but nowhere near as much as he’d encountered with Moyra. Finally, he managed to make it shift a bit, and he opened his eyes again when he did so. Much to his delight, he saw the vine twitching and moving around as he mentally tugged at it.

“A’right, ye'r getting it! Weel dane, Kuna,” the druna congratulated him, rubbing his head lightly.

“Thank you so much!” Kuna said, releasing the energy after another moment of fiddling around with the vine. “That’s a lot easier than constantly growing and changing it!”

“See? Ah tellt ye!” she replied with a chuckle. “Ah, tis a pity yer hame is sae far awa'. Tis nice teachin’ someone th’ craft fer wance.”

He smiled at her a bit bashfully, then thought for a moment. “Maybe I could repay you…”

“Nae need, t’was ma pleasure, laddie.”

“Well, I may still be pretty new to it, but I could try and help you learn, you know,” Kuna said, then tapped the medallion around his neck. “This kind.”

Moyra glanced back and forth between him in the medallion, clearly having an internal debate with herself. But after a moment, she grinned, bouncing in place slightly. “A’right, let's huv a go it then.”

He smiled back at her, then thought for a minute, rubbing his chin. “Hmm, could be a bit tricky. Before we start, when you first learned magic, how, er, did you start out?”

The druna looked up for a minute as she dragged the memory out of the recesses of her mind. “Let's see, ah wis a young lassie whin th' lest druna picked me as his apprentice, efter talking tae mah parents fur a while. At first he jest hud me tend his garden a bit, th' auld normal way. Whin a'd bin daein' that fur a lil’ while 'n' ah git tae ken him better, he eventually asked me if ah'd lik' tae learn how tae speed hings up a bit. O' coorse, me bein' sae young, ah jumpt at th' chance,” she said, smirking at the memory. “Sae he shawed me his magic 'n' how it cuid dae stuff tae th' flowers 'n' sae oan. Ye kin imagine mah excitement. He said if ah wanted tae learn tae dae th' same, ah'd hae tae drink a funny-smellin’ tea afore th' neist time ah gaed tae bed, 'n' then mah dreams wid somehow mak' me be able tae cop magic energies th' neist mornin'. Sae ah did juist that, 'n' sipped it with mah parents nearby. At his urging, ah did it while ah wis awready in bed, 'n' wis sure tae let thaim ken it'd knock me oan me arse.”

“Wait, there’s a tea that can do it?”

Moyra nodded. “Why? Whit happened wi’ you?”

“Inkari- that’s my, uh, teacher- just kind of… somehow knocked me out. I guess with magic or something. One moment I was sitting there, and the next thing I know I’m opening my eyes in the ‘astral realm’, as she called it.”

“Wow. Soonds a bit scary.”

Kuna shivered. “It was startling, but not half as scary as the, uh, ‘trials’ themselves.”

“Trials eh? Ah remember huvin tae confront some hings, bit it wasn't tae bad. Ye ken, fightin' bairnskip nightmares 'n' self-doubt, that kind o' thing,” she said, then frowned as a thought dawned on her. “Och, right, ye likelie hud... worse ones, aye?”

The sereva nodded and rubbed his arm. “Yeah, but… it was good for me in the end,” he said, then sighed with a faint smirk. “Definitely felt a lot better afterwards, and with some luck maybe I’ve seen the last of a… certain recurring nightmare,” he added with a slight shudder at the end. “So at the end of yours, did you reach out for some glowy… thing?”

“If ye mean walk thro' some shimmery doorway-type thing, aye. 'n' then ah woke up.”

“Oh,” Kuna replied, scratching his head thoughtfully. As wary and somewhat afraid of Inkari as he now was, part of him really wished he could ask her another question right then. “So… nothing before that, just the ‘doorway’ thing, huh?”

“Aye. How come, whit wis it lik' fer ye?”

“Er. Just… for some reason there was an extra step for me, I guess. Not sure what that means. But I had to reach this shimmery glowy thing that made everything feel amazing for a minute. I was hoping you did something like that, too, because grabbing that energy is how I do this stuff,” he said, tapping the medallion again.

“Och, na, ah didnae experience anythin' lik' that. Ah jest remember bein' able tae kind o' cop th' life magic enside me 'n' hings aroond me.”

“So you don’t… feel any others, even a little?”

The druna rubbed her chin and thought about it. “Weel, noo that ye mention it... sometimes if tis real wheesht 'n' ah'm a' relaxed-lik', ah sort o' feel lik' thir's ither hings there. Jest barely at th' lip o' notice, tae th' point whaur ah’m na sure if ah'm imagining it or nae.”

Kuna smiled and nodded. “They are. I really only know the two so far. The way it was explained to me, one flows through your body- that’s the life energy- and the other flows through, well… your soul.”

Moyra stared at him wide-eyed. “Crivvens! Soul energy, ye say?”

“Mhmm. That’s what this is, and apparently also what that… thing is that I had to grab in my astral-dream-thing,” he explained, then thought for a minute. “Well, I have an idea. Take this for a minute,” he started saying as he took off the medallion and handed it to her. “And see if you can feel the energy inside, then-” He paused as a perplexed and mildly bewildered expression crossed the druna’s face.

“Dè tha thu ag ràdh?” she asked.

After briefest pause, he clapped his palm to his face, then took the medallion back and slid it back over his head. “Right. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

The druna arched a brow at him. “Whit wis that? How come wur ye suddenly talking sae strangely?”

“Uh, so… people around the world don’t always speak the same way, with the same words, as it turns out. I’m not entirely sure why- Lykou seems to think some spirit that supposedly taught our ancestors to talk in the first place decided to make them different for different people, for some odd reason. Anyway, this spirit sign,” he explained, tapping the medallion again. “Allows us to talk to anyone as long as it has soul energy in it.”

“Ach, that's amazin’. Sae that wis whit ye pure sound lik', aye?” she asked with a smirk. “Ah imagine ah mist hae sounded quite funny tae ye jest then, as weel?”

Kuna shrugged with an awkward grin. “Definitely different,” he admitted. “Anyway, what I was trying to say is, if you can hold this and try to feel the energy inside, then try to find something similar flowing through you, maybe you can separate it from the life energy and grip it. It’ll be tough at first, but it gets a lot easier after the first time.”

“Aye?” she responded, gently examining the medallion while it still hung around his neck. “Hmm…”

“Hey, I know. Why don’t you wear it while you’re focusing on it? It’ll be easier and we’ll still be able to talk as long as one of us has it on.”

She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “If yer a’right wi’ that.”

“Of course,” he said, then slipped the necklace off again before handing it to her.

The druna slipped the necklace on and smiled. “Whaur did ye git it anyway?”

“Lykou and I met these people called shakonu, and one of them did magic. He gave them to us so we could talk, and let us keep them after I, er… helped them with something.”

“Soonds fascinatin’. Ye shuid tell me a' aboot it efter this,” she replied, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she held the medallion in her hand.

“Inkari said the magic energies all have different, er, personalities. Soul energy is kind of, I don’t know, shy I guess. So try taking a gentle approach with it.”

The lepne nodded and the two sat in silence for a bit. Eventually, they both sat down so that she’d have an easier time focusing. For his part, Kuna quite enjoyed silently sitting in the garden and enjoying the ambiance of all the varied plants and the occasional small critter darting around. It was quite peaceful. Occasionally, he sniffed at some of the flowers and eventually he started counting the number of different plants he could tell apart from one another. It was a bit of a challenge, seeing as how some individual plants had multiple kinds of blooms on them- obviously a product of the druna’s magic. He could see several kinds of fruits hanging from certain plants as well, but he didn’t dare pick any without her permission.

After a while, Moyra suddenly jolted and her eyes shot open, then she looked down with a big grin at the pale blue glow around her hand. “Ah... Ah git it! Ah did it!” she said excitedly.

“Congratulations!”

“Och, I havenae felt this excited sin ah wis freish,” Moyra said with a slight giggle. “Tank ye sae much, Kuna.”

“Don’t mention it, I was happy to help! Only fair since you helped me, too,” he said, using his magic to wiggle one of the nearby flowers with a grin.

The druna chuckled. “Sae whit does this 'star' magic dae, anyway?”

“Well, apparently a lot of things, but so far I only know a couple. There’s the bit with certain spirit-signs, obviously,” he said, gesturing to the medallion. “And it also lets me find my way to things. Like finding other spirit signs in the first place, for example.” To demonstrate, he drew the medallion’s symbol in the ground, then imbued the drawing briefly, causing the light to jump up and point to the necklace.

“Och, wow! Tha’s brilliant!” she excitedly replied with a little clap.

“And then you can also use it to find your way to other people, things, and places, but they have to be ones you’re already familiar with,” the sereva said, then thought for a moment before demonstrating, smirking as he focused on Lykou while casting the spell. A light jumped up into the sky, immediately being lost in the daylight, but he held his hand up and saw a path among the unseen stars recreated on its back, pointing to where the konuul presumably was with the chieftan. “You can’t see it right now, but at night you can see the light jump between stars to point where to go.”

“Let me guess, yer friend?” she asked with a knowing grin.

He nodded with a slightly bashful grin of his own, then looked down at his hand again. “Oh, that reminds me though, I’ll have to re-cast the one leading us home once I’m back with him. That one takes both of us.”

“Oh? How’s that?”

“Well, since I, uh… haven’t actually been there, he has to be the one to focus on Lakefire while I channel the energy through both of us,” Kuna explained, looking away a bit awkwardly.

“Hauld oan, ye haven't bin thare?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “That's right, ye said ye first met in that cave... Sae ye come fae a different village?”

The sereva shifted uncomfortably and rubbed his arm a bit. “Something like that.”

She eyed him thoughtfully for a moment. “Ah'd ask how come ye'r joining him in his village, bit ah hae a feelin’ that's pairt o' they mirk troubles ye mentioned, aye?”

He nodded silently.

“Fair enough. Ye ken, you'd be welcome tae stay 'ere in Kerney if yi'll want. Cuid always use anither druna aroond,” she offered after a moment.

Kuna quickly shook his head. “That’s… very nice of you, but Lykou needs my help to get home. And anyway I wouldn’t want to, um…”

She smirked. “Ye cuid ne'er say bye tae him sae easy. Hud a feeling you'd say that, ah juist wanted tae confirm it. Awready that claise in juist a few weeks, aye?”

The sereva’s ears folded down and he nodded, smiling as he stared at some flowers nearby thoughtfully. Then he chuckled as he turned back to her. “I guess having several life-and-death encounters together will do that to people. You know… he actually has a kind of magic, too. Not the kind we do, and even Inkari isn’t sure how it works.”

“Really noo?” she asked, intrigued.

He nodded and described the mud slide event and the subtle hints he picked up on, much to her fascination and delight. “And the whole time, he had this faint, easy to miss glow around him, and particularly in his eyes. They were even prettier than usual, and it was like he knew what was going on all around him all the time. And I know he’s, you know, really fit and all, but I swear he was faster and stronger than usual.” He chuckled a bit. “It’s funny how he can be so, you know, toned, but still fluffy at the same time. Of course, he was totally exhausted afterwards and I had to help him walk to a new campsite afterewards.”

“Ne'er heard o' such a thin’!” the druna said, then smirked. “Sae dae ye mak' it a habit o' obsessing o’er peoples' looks, or jest him?”

The sereva blushed and looked away with a flustered smile. “I-I was just trying to be observant. Inkari said I should keep a ‘curious eye’ on him if I thought something unusual was happening, that’s all!”

“Mhmm, ah’m sure,” Moyra replied in an amused tone. “Weel ah suppose ye shuid git back tae him, then, afore he starts worryin’ aboot ye.”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah I guess I should,” Kuna said, standing up and dusting himself off. “N-not that I’m trying to run off, I-”

The druna chuckled and cut him off, patting him on the back as she stood up next to him. “Relax, kuna. Ah haven't gotten tae spend time wi' anither druna in fer a while, tis bin a delight. Thank ye fer stopping by 'n' spending a few hours wi' me.”

He rubbed his arm and smiled at her. “Thank you for having me. It’s been really nice. Thanks again for teaching me about that plant-moving trick.”

“Aye, ‘n’ thank ye fer teachin’ me the star-magic. Ah cannae thank ye enough fer that,” she replied, then remembered the medallion and reached up to grab it. “Speaking o' which, 'ere, ye'll be needing this back.”

“Oh, right,” he replied with a light chuckle after taking the necklace and slipping it back over his own head. “Would be awkward out there without this.”

“Aye, ‘n’ afore ya go,” she said, then grinned as she brought another vine down to his head with her magic. It grew and formed a circle on his head, then sprouted several flowers, before the whole thing hardened into the texture of wood. Finally, she dismissed the magic and physically snapped it free from the end of the vine. “Thare ye go. Ev’ry druna aught tae hae a proper crown, at least a wee yin.”

He folded his ears down and smiled back at her. “Wow, thank you…” he said, then shifted a bit, clearly thinking something over some internal conflict as he shifted around in place.

She smirked again and opened her arms wide. “Right, c’mere then,” she said. The sereva smiled and hugged her happily as she rubbed his back.

“It’s been fantastic meeting you, Moyra,” he said after pulling back from the embrace.

“Likewise, Kuna,” she replied, then began leading him back to her front door. “Dae tell Lykou ah said hello. 'n' compliment him oan his ain healin’ skills fer me,” she added with a wink, tapping his head lightly.

He gave her a slightly surprised look at the final comment, then blushed and nodded with a small grin. “Will do.”

Chapter Text

After leaving Moyra’s home, Kuna was faced with the fact that he’d have to navigate the village alone as it was approaching sunset. Fortunately, he had his magic to guide him to Lykou. The drawback was that it’d be tricky to do so without drawing even more attention to himself than he already was getting for being a very different looking outsider in a village full of lepne, most of whom were around a foot or so shorter than him, on average. It wasn’t that he felt particularly in danger at that point, but he still didn’t like the attention.

He took a deep breath and began walking, trying to avoid meeting anyone’s gaze while doing the best to hide the glowing mark on his hand. Even so, and even trying to use the least-busy paths to get to where he was going, he still encountered many fascinated villagers who stopped to ogle him and whisper to each other. A few actually waved to him or greeted him, to which he made some effort to return a friendly wave while still trying to avoid getting caught up in a conversation. On the one hand, it was refreshing being around so many people that were so nice to him for once; but on the other, the attention was a little much, and he wanted to be back with Lykou as soon as possible.

Finally, he arrived at another larger building, with a higher roof than most of the others in the village. But as he approached the double doorway at the front, it flew open and Lykou, Grey, and a few other lepne came walking out, laughing and carrying on. A couple of the lepne were leaning on one another for support, clearly inebriated.

“Spark Night soonds -hic- lik’ a right crackin’ time!” the chieftan said, leaning on one of his least-intoxicated companions, then looked up to see Kuna. “Ach, Kuna laddie, guid tae see ye. Ah hawp -hic- th’ druna bu’ness went weel?”

Kuna nodded and looked at the assorted bunch with a mixture of amusement and mild concern. “It was very ni-” he started to say, then paused and thought for a moment before continuing, remembering Moyra’s comment about ‘keeping up appearances’. “Er, very enlightening, yes.”

Lykou wasted no time walking over and wrapping his arms around the sereva. “Miss’d ya, bud,” he said, squeezing him gently. Despite the awkwardness of the obvious drunkenness, Kuna smirked and hugged him back, just glad to be reunited with him.

“Guid tae hear it,” the chieftan said, then clapped Lykou lightly on the back, albeit only after missing twice. “’n’ it wis brilliant -hic- banterin’ wi’ ye, Lykou.” He paused to wave over Rhagnaid, who Kuna hadn’t noticed standing by another building nearby. “Rha-hic-gnaid ‘ere wull take ye back tae th’ lodge, ah best ‘av dinner ‘n’ git tae kip mysel’. G’night lads!”

“G’night, chief -hic- Grey!” Lykou replied. “Thanks again, it’s been fun!”

Raghnaid began leading them back to the lodge, and glanced at Lykou. “Dae ye need any halp?” she asked the two, as Kuna helped the konuul keep steady, with one of the canid’s arms draped over his shoulder.

“I’ve got it,” the sereva replied.

Lykou chuckled. “I’m -hic- fine, really, I’m not that drunk,” he insisted, then grinned at the guard. “He’s just using this as an excuse to -hic- hold onto me.”

Kuna smirked and rolled his eyes, blushing slightly.

“Yer pure steamin’,” the guard replied with a smirk. “Some dinner ‘n’ water should halp, though.”

“Really, I’m just -hic- tispy!” Lykou said, then thought for a moment before giggling. “Tispy… tipsy… okay maybe -hic- m-more than I thought...”

“Yeah, you’re ready to ‘tisp’ right over, you goofball,” Kuna teased.

Soon they arrived at the lodge. When they stepped inside, they were greeted with the smell of hot, fresh food, and Clara was bringing some cups of some kind of murky brown liquid over to the tables. “Welcome back, lads,” she greeted them. “Ah’ll bring ye each a plate in a minute. Wull ye be jynin’ us, too, Ragh?”

“Na, ah shou-”

“Ach, c’mon,” Clara insisted. “Yer always hidin’ at hame wen yer aff duty.”

“Weel…”

“Yeah, c’mon,” Lykou chimed in. “We’ll be telling everyone our -hic- story.” He wavered a little bit as Kuna helped him into an empty stool by the table, bracing him against a wall carefully before sitting down next to him. “Well, mostly him for -hic- now, I think,” he added, shooting an apologetic, yet playful grin to the sereva.

Kuna tensed up and folded his ears as he sat down. “Really?” he mumbled quietly, shooting him a small glare.

Rhagnaid shrugged, then found herself a seat at the other table. “A’right, ah suppose ah kin stay a li’l while. Grey wis callin’ it a night anyway.”

“Great!” Clara said, then went to grab some plates for the three.

“Seems lik’ someone’s been tae the brewhall wi’ the chief,” Gavin said with a chuckle. “Mak’ sure ‘e gets water, Clara.”

“Aye, wull dae.”

“’n’ how wis yere day, Kuna?”

“N-nice,” Kuna replied quietly, scooting close to his inebriated friend.

“Ye dinnae need to be sae shy wi’ us, ye ken,” Ealar told the sereva with a friendly smile, after taking a sip from his cup. “We dinnae bite.”

Kuna looked up briefly with a faint smile and rubbed his arm. “I know, just...”

Effie, who was sitting next to the sereva, leaned over and rubbed his shoulder softly. “Es a’right. Ah wis alwis a bit quiet, tae,” she said softly. “Anyone gies ye trouble, ah’ll skelp ‘em fer ye.” She winked at him.

“I-I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Kuna replied appreciatively. “But thanks.”

“Some scran wull probably halp ye relax, tae,” Gavin suggested.

On cue, Clara returned and set a plate in front of Kuna and Lykou. They both thanked her, then began eating. After some of the lepne had finished their food, Gavin turned to one of the others that hadn’t been introduced yet. “Oy, Finlay, wid ye mind gi’en us some choons?”

The other lepne smiled and got up. “Nae problem, wis jest thinkin’ aboot that,” he said as he stepped over to one of the piles of boxes and bags on the edge of the large common area, then began digging around for a moment. Soon he returned with a stringed instrument and began tuning it after sitting back down. Before long, he began filling the air with soft, but cheerful music, much to everyone’s delight. Another individual pulled out a small flute-like instrument and joined in.

The music wasn’t very loud, but it helped everyone, including Kuna, relax a little more. In fact, along with the food and the comforting warmth and glow from the fireplace, he was starting to feel somewhat at ease by the time he finished his plate. Lykou’s tail was flicking and twitching along with the music. At one point, Bhaltair arrived and joined the group, greeting the boys as he set his bag down near the far wall.

“Bit o’ bad news, folks,” the trade leader announced. “Ginnae hae tae delay anither day. Soomhow, a stack o’ blankets bound fer Whitlan were misplaced, sae they’re makin’ a few more tomorrae.”

“Mibbie Effie jest miscounted,” Dougal suggested, earning a glare from the smallest lepne in response.

“Ah’ll help ye count yer teeth, ye mawkit bawbag!”

“Oy, settle doon ye two,” Bhaltair said. “Nae sense arguin’, whas done es done.”

The casual chatter in the room carried on for a bit. After making sure Kuna was done with his food, Lykou re-positioned himself to the floor, and playfully pulled the sereva along with him. He’d started to sober up a bit, but was still pleasantly buzzed. Kuna let out a small yelp, but couldn’t stop himself from grinning as he was pulled into their usual cuddle position. “For the dozenth time, you can just use words,” he playfully complained, blushing and trying not to focus on the attention they’d drawn from some of the lepne.

“Nah,” the canid replied with a grin. “Speaking of which though,” he added, then booped his friend’s nose. “Story time!”

Kuna groaned and folded his ears down again.

“Come on, it’s only fair after they’ve been so nice to us,” Lykou half-whispered in his ear. “Besides, I’m right here with you. I can even go grab my blanket if you want.”

“N-no, I don’t need to look even more like a baby, thanks,” the sereva retorted with a slight eye-roll.

“Aww!” Clara cooed at the two along with one or two other lepne, then covered her mouth and giggled as Raghnaid nudged her. “Sorry, sorry! Please, dae goan then, Kuna.”

“Aye, we’re itchin’ tae hear yer story, lad!” Gavin agreed.

“Tell ye whit, goan git started, ah’ll fetch ye some liquid courage, aye?” Clara offered.

Kuna wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but at that point, he’d be up for anything to help ease his nerves. Finally, he sighed and settled back into the konuul’s arms. “F-fine,” he said, then looked around a bit, blushing from increasing attention. “I… guess I should s-start at the beginning.”

“Aye, tis how it usually works,” one of the other lepne responded with a chuckle, earning a light slap from Effie.

“Well… L-Lykou and I actually didn’t e-even know each other w-when we first m-met. I’ll skip how w-we got into the situation,” he said, shooting a look back towards the konuul behind him before continuing. “But basically we... got caught in a weird f-freaky storm and took shelter in the s-same cave. We ended up s-spending the n-night there and woke up… in some weird place f-far away. Turns out the s-storm was a magical one.”

“Oy, soonds lik’ powerful magic!” one lepne replied.

“Must’a bin a spirit!” another added.

“We’re… still a little unclear on that,” Kuna said, his eye twitching.

“Oh I’m pretty sure she was a hounaka,” Lykou said, looking a bit nonplussed at the thought.

“Er, trickster spirit,” the sereva explained, upon seeing the confused expressions on some of the lapines. “And we r-really don’t know, but anyway that’s s-skipping way ahead.”

“Certainly soonds lik’ a trickster thin’ tae dae,” Gavin said.

Kuna shrugged a bit. “Maybe. But anyway, w-we woke up in this strange forest that w-was different than we were used to. First couple of days were rough. We only h-had Lykou’s knife and the f-few things he had in his pack to survive w-with. S-so we spent the first day mostly just trying to f-find food for ourselves. Not exactly exciting.” He rubbed his arm a bit and looked away, clearly trying to dance around certain details. “Eventually Lykou made a n-needle I could use to make the bags we used to c-carry our food in, and l-later on a… mat-thing we could lay on s-so we wouldn’t have to sleep on the h-hard ground.”

“And your clothes, too! Not a good idea to wander a strange forest naked. You did a great job, too, considering what little there was to work with,” he complimented, then immediately realized his mistake and smiled sheepishly when he felt the sereva tense up. “Er, right, sorry Ku…”

“Ye wis naked??” one of the lepne asked. A few others snickered.

“Were ye oot bathin’ or somethin’ afore the storm?” another asked.

Kuna’s eye twitched as his blush returned more intensely than before. Luckily, Clara showed up at that moment with a cup full of ‘liquid courage’ and handed it to him with a sympathetic smile. The sereva quickly brought it to his mouth and gulped down more than half of it in one go before shooting a glare back at his friend. “Yeah. S’gowiththat.”

“Ah’ll… fetch ye a second, then,” she said, stepping away again for a moment.

“Th-thanks,” Kuna said and sighed. “A-anyway. After that we just s-sort of… picked a direction and started walking. We passed this h-huge gorge with these weird tortoise-looking things that h-had shiny colorful shells and breathed fire, of all things. There were a c-couple enormous ones down in the gorge f-fighting each other.”

“It was amazing!” Lykou chimed in. “They kept bashing each other and making these colorful sparks and blasting each other with fire!”

“Breathin’ fire?” one lepne asked incredulously. “Ye sure they wasnae spirits?”

“I… somehow didn’t even think of that,” the konuul said and looked down at the sereva in his lap.

Kuna shook his head. “I don’t think s-so. There w-were too many in one place, and I don’t think s-spirits usually fight like that. Plus, one s-started to bleed, remember?” he pointed out to the canid.

“Oh, right,” the canid responded. “Good point.”

“A-after that, this w-weird spiny thing… which apparently is c-called a ‘devilhorn’ or s-something? Attacked us- well, me- when we were distracted,” the sereva said, folding his ears down and looking away.

“Yeah, it charged up and flipped him over itself. It had a big horn on its ugly face and all these spines on its back. Poked all over poor Kuna’s back,” the canid said, frowning.

Kuna smirked up at him. “And then you saved our asses.”

Lykou grinned. “True.”

“Ach, details! Gie us th’ details!” one member of the audience insisted eagerly.

“You tell ‘em, it was… kind of a blur for me,” Kuna told the konuul.

“Well… I kind of danced around it a bit, until I was next to Kuna again. Then I took off one of its big pinchy claw-arms with my knife.”

“Jest a knife?!” Ealar asked incredulously.

“Oh he can be a s-scary good fighter, believe me,” Kuna said, rubbing the konuul’s arm.

The konuul blushed and smirked. “Yeah, but that only pissed it off, so I grabbed Kuna up and ran over to the edge of the cliff, then tricked it into charging us and running off the edge.”

“He grabbed a vine and s-swung us out over the edge to do it, too,” the sereva added with a grin, then reached up and tussled the canid’s hair. “This guy’s crazy in the best way sometimes.”

“Soonds lik’ it!” Gavin said with a chuckle.

“Quick thinkin’ lad!” another lepne chimed in. Several others echoed the sentiment.

Lykou grinned and squeezed the sereva gently.

“After that we s-set up camp for the night so h-he could patch me up. Luckily I wasn’t hurt too bad.”

“Physically, anyway.”

“Shh! ‘Kou!” Kuna quickly shushed his friend, his face flushing a bit.

“Right, sorrysorry!”

“Aye, pride hurts bad when et’s injured, dunnit?” Ealar commented with a sympathetic smile. “We all bin there.”

Kuna sighed and rolled his eyes up for a moment. “Yeah…” He paused to think, then took another sip of his somewhat bitter, but comforting drink. He could feel it starting to take effect after having gulped down so much so quickly to start with. “...and it wasn’t exactly healthy to begin with, I guess,” he finally admitted, then sighed. “When Lykou first found me, I… had a lot of, um...”

“Demons in your head,” Lykou interjected.

“...yeah, that,” Kuna replied. He smiled up at the konuul. “Let’s just say this fluffball saved me in more ways than one that day.”

There was a faint round of ‘aww’s from a few of the lepne, including from Clara, who’d just returned with a second cup. She set it on the floor next to him, then sat down nearby. Lykou smiled down at the sereva.

“Tis nae wonder yer sae claise, then,” Ealar noted with a smile.

“Yeah, he’s a good demon hunter,” Kuna replied, nuzzling back against the canid lightly. Lykou just smiled and squeezed him in return. “Anyway, after that we met these two strangers…”

He went on to describe their first awkward encounter with the shakonu, then the burned village and the ghosts. The latter fascinated the lepne, and Lykou chimed in a few times to talk up just how brave Kuna had been, and how it was the first time there was a hint that he could have magical abilities. The sereva grew a bit flustered but was happy to let the canid take over the story for a minute while he started on the second cup of… whatever it was. It didn’t taste nearly as good as the gourd juice, but it was quickly washing away his nerves.

“But yeah, anyway, after the echo guy-”

“Tareq,” Kuna chimed in.

“Right, we later found out his name was Tareq. After he faded away, we kept going until we found this really pretty camping spot behind a waterfall and ended up staying there a couple days so we could resupply again. Honestly I wish it was closer to home, because it’d be a great spot to visit again now and then.”

“Other than the creepy lizard thing,” the sereva said with a shiver.

“Hey, he just spooked us a little. I don’t think he was dangerous in the end.”

“A lizard ye say?” Gavin asked curiously. “Ah tak’ it t’wasnae wee one?”

Kuna shook his head. “Nope,” he said, then gestured with his arms. “About this big. And six legs. We were swimming in the water near the base of the falls and suddenly he came out of the depths and popped up next to us.”

Lykou snickered. “We both got out of the water so fast I think it took our shadows a minute to catch up. Luckily, the thing didn’t seem hostile in the end. It just crawled onto the other shore and started basking in the sun.”

“We don’t go near water that deep anymore, though.”

“Yeah, I guess it made us realize we weren’t being as careful as we should have,” the canid admitted with a sheepish smile. “Not much else to say about that place, I guess, but-”

“I mean, we found a salt cave, which was nice,” Kuna continued. “And you helped me with… you know.”

Lykou raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised, then smirked. “Oh now you’re not avoiding it, huh?”

Kuna shrugged. “Maybe it’s just this stuff,” he said, gesturing to the cup in his hand before taking another sip.

“Whit are ye talkin’ aboot?” Ealar asked.

“I’ve… had this bad, recurring nightmare I’ve dealt with for years,” Kuna answered with a frown. “And it woke me up the first night we were there. I won’t go into details, but it basically forced me to finally tell Lykou some… painful things about why I had those head-demons.”

“Aye?” Clara asked with a concerned expression. “Ye dinnae ‘av tae tell us if ye nae want ta, bit ah’m sure we’re aye curious.”

Kuna glanced around at the small crowd for a moment, then sighed as he looked down at his cup. “Like I said, I won’t go into the details, but…” he trailed off and took another big gulp from the cup. Then he took a deep breath before continuing. “I s-saw my parents get… killed… savagely… by a berserk monster, w-when I was still a kid.”

A flurry of gasps and soft consolations erupted from the audience. Effie hopped over and gave Kuna a brief hug, making him smile bashfully in response. “Ye poor dear...”

Lykou gently squeezed the sereva. “And to make matters worse, his worthless, cowardly tribe eventually just abandoned him when he got older.”

“Nae, really??” Gavin interjected in disbelief.

“Yeah, that too,” Kuna said after a moment, then took another moderate-sized sip of his drink, his eyes just starting to get a little glassy.

“How wid they dae such a thing?!” Finlay asked from the back, having paused his music.

Kuna shrugged. “They thought I was cursed. And to be f-”

“Hey! None of that,” Lykou interrrupted, squeezing him again.

The sereva smiled very faintly and leaned back into the cuddly canid. “I’m not excusing it, I’m just explaining their stupid logic, okay?” he said, then turned back to the lepne. “I was always real sick as a kid, I’ve always been on the weak side, and I think some of them blamed me for the… attack. Plus another one later on. And then there’s this,” he explained, waving a slightly unsteady hand over the bumps on his head. “My people are supposed to have antlers when we become adults, but mine never grew.”

“Es tha’ all?!” Ealar demanded. “Thas how they ken ye ‘ad a curse ‘n’ ditched ye?”

Kuna shrugged. “Pretty much, as far as I can tell anyway,” he said, cuddling into the konuul’s arms.

“Whit a buncha glaikit fookin’ feartie bastards!”

“My thoughts exactly,” Lykou said with a mild scowl.

“Hey, I’ve got much better company now at least,” Kuna said, rubbing the canid’s arm.

The canid’s expression shifted to a smile as he squeezed his friend again. “And a new home to go back to.”

The sereva smiled as well and took another big sip from the cup before continuing. “So yeah, I just kind of… told him everything after that nightmare and he helped me, well…”

“Realize they were dead wrong about you and that you’re worth something?” the konuul suggested with a smirk. “Although I keep having to remind you every so often.”

“Yer a real class lad, Lykou,” Bhaltair said and raised his cup to the canid, prompting a chorus of agreement from the other lepne.

Lykou blushed and smiled, resting his head on top of Kuna’s. “Thanks, I try,” he said, then playfully tickled Kuna’s side very briefly, making him squirm and giggle. “Not like I could let this guy suffer alone, anyway.”

“Alright, alright, enough with the sappy shit, let me get back to the story while this stuff is still workin’,” Kuna said with a flushed, bashful grin, holding up the cup before taking another big sip.

“Ah’m not complainin’,” Clara teased. “Lemme ken if ye need more.”

“At this rate, probably so, if that’s alright,” Kuna replied.

“Aye, nae problem. Jest be careful na tae overdo it. Ah’ll bring ye some water, tae.”

Kuna continued the story and ended up splitting the third cup with Lykou, as it started getting more tipsy. Together they told the lepne about their next run-in with the shakonu and Kuna’s worm-dodging adventure. Lykou then brought up Kuna’s first experience with being drunk, and playfully teased him about maybe having a repeat, much to the sereva’s chagrin.

“On that note, I think I should -hic- go easy on this stuff,” Kuna said, his hand already wavering ever so slightly as he set the cup back down. “Unless you want to take over the story.”

“Aww, it’s fun watching you get silly though.”

Kuna rolled his eyes and continued with the story, bringing up the attacks from the armored beast and the golzogs. Kuna described the galdra after several lepne mentioned not knowing what one was, and it was revealed that few of them ever saw any elemental spirits in the highlands.

“Aye, thas druna business, anyway,” one of them said. “Nae wonder et showed itself tae ye.”

“Och, thas right, ye do magic, right? When did ye start tha’?”

“I was just -hic- getting to that, actually,” Kuna said, then went on to describe his first encounter with ‘Mentor’, and his little ‘initiation’, much to everyone’s fascination, despite occasionally stumbling over his words. Lykou chimed in to describe their encounter with the giant, but Kuna made sure to describe the mudslide-ride in as much detail as he could, making the konuul blush a bit at some of the things his cuddle-buddy opted to focus on. Ultimately, when it was clear he was going off on a gushy, somewhat playful tangent about the konuul in general, Clara give him another cup of water to hush him, snickering in amusement. Lykou mouthed a silent thank you to her.

“A’right, ah think thae lad es pure blootered. The rest of th’ story kin wait fer noo,” she said, much to the audible dismay of several of the other lepne. Luckily, several others agreed with her and shushed their compatriots. She bent down and booped the sereva’s nose playfully. “Ye jest tak’ it easy, aye?”

Kuna giggled as the crowd gradually shifted away to chatting among themselves, though from the sound of it, their story featured in all the various conversations starting up. “W’s I really -hic- getting that bad?”

“A bit,” Lykou said behind him with a chuckle. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to get back at me for making you the center of attention.”

“Mmmaaaybe,” the sereva teased, then reached for the cup that still had a bit of liquor left in it.

Lykou quickly scooped it up before he could reach it. “I think you’ve had enough silly-juice, goofball.”

“Nuh-uh!” Kuna protested, tugging at the canid’s arm playfully.

“If you have any more you might do things that’ll kill you of embarrassment tomorrow,” the canid warned with a smirk.

“S’future Kuna’s -hic- problem. Gimme!”

“Mmmno. Trust me, you’ll thank me tomorrow,” Lykou said, then, after a moment’s thought, downed the rest of it himself. “There, all gone anyway.”

“Aww,” Kuna complained, then slumped back against the konuul and pouted. He looked around for a moment, then blushed and tilted his head back to look up at the konuul. “Hey. Thanks for -hic- everything as usual, ‘Kou. S-sorry if I made you -hic- feel awkward at the end,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“You’re fine,” Lykou replied, then chuckled and squeezed him gently.

Kuna thought for a moment then unsteadily started to sit up. “Lets go lay down, I’m -hic- tired.”

“Mm? Sure, that sounds good.”

The two bid everyone goodnight, then slipped off to the storage area they’d been sleeping in.

*****

The somewhat cooler night air coming through the upper gaps in the wall helped the two sober up, but only slightly. They quickly cuddled up under the blanket together, but right away Kuna propped his head up and poked the konuul lightly in the side. “Seriously though, I didn’t -hic- make you uncomfortable, right?”

“I told you, you’re fine,” Lykou said, rubbing the sereva’s head softly. “...as much as you tried to get a rise out of me with all that flattery back there,” he added with a blushing grin.

“S’not… ah, nevermind. Thanks -hic- for helpin’ me tell th’ story though,” Kuna said, then sighed and slumped over, laying his head on the konuul’s chest. “These lepne are n-nice -hic- people. I know I need to work on not being so -hic- shy.”

Lykou gently rubbed the sereva’s back. “Hey, you’re making good progress.”

“Yeah, s’long as I got some giggle-water,” Kuna pointed out with a smirk.

The canid snickered. “Well, yeah, I guess that always helps. But even still, you’re getting better. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with still being a bit shy in the end anyway,” he assured the sereva. “How did things go with that… druna-lady, anyway?”

“Oh yeah, Moyra,” Kuna said, perking up a little. “Really -hic- well, honestly. She’s actually super friendly and laid back wh’n she’s not, uh… ‘keeping up appearances’. I gather -hic- druna have to keep a certain reputation around here.”

“Heh, yeah, I noticed how the chief acted around her. So, is she really…?”

Kuna snickered. “Like she told me, ‘The chief is in charge… because -hic- the druna says so’.”

Lykou chuckled. “Sounds about right. So what did you two talk about?”

“A buncha stuff. She -hic- actually taught me somethin’ Ink didn’t, and I managed to help her start learning -hic- sta-… err, soul magic, too.”

“Oh really? That’s great!” Lykou said, rubbing the sereva’s head softly. “What’d she teach you?”

“How to make plants -hic- move around, n’stead of just grow n’ change in differen’ directions. Uses -hic- less energy,” he explained. “I’d show you, b’there’s no plants in here. Plus I prolly couldn’t anyway, ‘m too -hic-… that,” he added with a giggle.

“At least you’re not as wasted as last time,” Lykou pointed out with a smirk.

“Yeah, thanks for -hic- keeping me from overdoing it. Even if I really wanted to for a minute there,” the sereva said, poking his tongue out playfully.

“Believe me, it was tempting to watch you get adorably silly again. But I didn’t want you to be utterly miserable tomorrow,” the konuul said, snickering. “So did you two talk about anything else?”

“Sure, plenty. Told her a bit of -hic- our story, too,” he said, then sighed. “Including some of… you know. She kind of picked up -hic- on it early on, to be fair. Apparently she’s pretty good at figuring people out.”

“Really? Guess you’re getting more used to spilling things, hmm?” the canid said, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Proud of you.”

Kuna shrugged. “She w’s pretty comforting about it. And -hic- as for the crowd tonight… drink helped. I’ll prolly -hic- feel awkward about it tomorrow.”

“Maybe, but you don’t have to. Not like anyone’s going to hold it against you.”

“Not everyone needs to -hic- know my whole sob story.”

“True, but you don’t have to keep it hidden either. It shows what you’ve overcome. And hey, at least you can talk about it now without-”

“Drink, remember? Would’ve been -hic- harder normally,” Kuna pointed out, then sighed. “Thank goodness Moyra was so sweet -hic- and patient about it.”

“Well, still. You’re improving,” Lykou reiterated, hugging him.

“I guess,” the sereva replied, smiling up at the konuul. Then he yawned and nuzzled into the canid’s fur. “Mmm, lets do that whole -hic- sleep thing for real now, though.”

Lykou chuckled. “Sounds good. G’night Kuna.”

“Nini, ‘Kou,” the sereva replied contently before quickly dozing off in his friend’s arms.

*****

Late that night, a figure slipped out of the travel lodge. He darted between buildings silently, keeping an eye out for the guards on the night watch patrolling the village. Once he reached a crack in the outside wall, he waited for a short while. Soon, he was joined by a second individual. One of them peeked through and waited for the nearest guard to turn and begin patrolling the other way, then they both slipped through the nearby farm’s fields. Once they passed the end of the fields surrounding the village and began entering open countryside, they dipped down around a particularly large hill and waited in a dug-out hollow in its base, facing away from the nearest road. Soon, several other individuals approached, with a few of them holding small, crude lanterns putting off just enough light to confirm each individuals’ identity to the others.

“Dougal, Caelan, whit’s th’ word?”

“Ah bought us an extra day, bit ah dinnae think they’ll hauld oof enny lainger,” Dougal replied. “Ah hawp thas lang enough.”

“Should be plenny tae mak’ sure everyin’s in place,” the first shadowy figure said, then turned to the second figure. “’n’ the guard?”

“Ah’ll keep Rhag n’ Lachlan hoachin’. Jock ‘n’ Barabel wull hae a distraction t’lead th’ others astray south efter the caravan es goan. By time they gi’ back, it’ll be tae late.”

“Ye git whit ye need fra Tannil?” another asked the first.

“Aye. ‘nuff tatty banners n’ broken shite tae mak’ it convincin’. Even some guard claithes tae wear.”

“Not tha’ wi’ll leave witnesses, aye?”

“S’jest an extra precaution.”

“Whit aboot th’ outsiders? Th’ plan didnae involve them,” Caelan chimed in.

“One or twa extra bodies wull be nae problem. Wi’ll still outnumber ‘em.”

“Aye, bit one’s a druna.”

“’es freish, tho, fram whit ah unnerstan,” Dougal commented. “Wouldnae unnerestimate thais twa, tho. They bin through a lot, at least if thir stories are half true.”

“Ye’ll just ‘av tae keep ‘em separate, then. As fer th’ druna,” the first shadowy figure said, then smirked in the dim light. “Ah’m sure Kerr kin handle him.”

The group scattered after a few other matters were discussed, agreeing to meet one more time the next night. As Dougal and Caelan made their way back towards Kerney, however, they weren’t alone. Another, even stealthier individual slipped away from the shadows near the top of the hill the group had been meeting under. After Dougal and his accomplice were through the wall, they whispered something to one another, then went their separate directions. The secret third individual slipped through shortly afterward, then made their way across the village, ending up at Moyra’s house. They slipped around back, lifted a thick patch of moss hanging like a mat over the back fence, then slipped through a hidden gap behind it.

The druna was standing in the garden, waiting for them, and sighed with mild relief when Faergus joined her in the moonlight. “Weel? Wis ah right?”

“As usual, aye. Tis nae simple banditry noo. Thir upty somethin’ big. Ah ken they’re plannin’ tae ambush the caravan, ‘n’ tryin’ ta pin et oan Tannil. Ta make matters worse, they hae eyes in’ the guard.”

“Damn. Cannae go tae them, then. The rest wull scatter afore they kin be caught,” she said, then rubbed her chin thoughtfully. She then bent down and sketched a symbol in the dirt, before concentrating in silence for a few minutes, holding her hand over it. Eventually, she manifested the pale blue glow and tried to push energy into the symbol.

“Och! When did ye learn that??”

“Kuna taught meh jest todae. Bin practicin’ sin’ he left,” she replied. She smiled up at him briefly before returning her focus to the symbol. But after a few minutes, she sighed and dismissed the magic.

“Whis tha?” Faergus asked curiously, pointing to the drawing.

“Ah wis tryin’ somethin’ Kuna showed me. Lets me find th’ way tae things. Unfortunately, ah s’pose ah need some kind o’ connection to whit ah’m tryin’ tae find.”

“Aye? Whit wis ye tryin’ to fin’?”

“Th’ bandit camp. Fer a conspiracy lik thae, they must hae one out in th’ hills somewheres.”

“Ah kin follow ‘em next time, find thir camp. They wis gonnae meet agin tomorrae.”

“Tis too dangerous by yersel’,” Moyra said, standing again and placing a hand on the other lepne’s shoulder. “Dinnae dae anythin’ rash, Faergus.”

“Ha! Ye ken ah’m a sleekit bastard. They’ll ne’er ken ah wis there.”

“Still, ye shouldnae go alone, jest in case.”

“Yer worryin’ too m-”

“Please, Faergus,” Moyra insisted, concern painting her face. “Bad enough ye insist on stayin’ on the watch, ah’m already worried ah’ll lose ye one day.”

Faergus sighed and embraced her. “Ah ken. Mibbie if we kin stop thaes bastards, it’ll turn more folk away frae tha’ banditry shite altogether.”

The druna returned the hug and rubbed his back. “Aye, but ye dinnae need tae jump at it heid-first. We need tae think o’ a better wey.”

“...whit if ah get hulp? Someone tae watch mah back?”

“Guard’s oot. They ‘av moles, aye? ‘n’ ah wilnae hae ye tak’ someone tha’ cannae fight.”

“Ye ken who ah’m talkin’ aboot.”

Moyra sighed. “Aye, ah ken. Bit ah hate tae drag ‘em intae our problems, especially efter how many they already had o’ thir own. They’re such nice lads.”

“Aye, bit thas how we should ask ‘em. Them mawkit bandits wilnae ken what tae expect from ‘em. Ah ‘av a guid feelin’ about ‘em, ‘n’ if ah kin feel it, then ah ken ye definitely dae.”

The druna smirked. “Aye. A’right, if we kin get them to hulp ye oot, ah s’pose that’ll ease mah worries a smidge. Ah’ll talk tae Kuna tomorrae. If they agree, ah’ll ‘av ‘em meet ye ‘ere. Unnerstan’ they kin say nae, though.”

“’course,” Faergus replied, then smirked. “Bit ye tell me. Wull they?”

“Unless ah’v lost mah edge fer kennin’ folk, nae,” Moyra admitted, grinning back. “Lik’ ye said, they’re decent lads.”

Chapter Text

“Ugh, were you chewing on my head last night?” Kuna groaned, then sipped from his cup of water, squinting against what dim lighting was present in the lodge. Thankfully, Clara had been kind enough to keep the closest window slats shut, knowing that some hangovers were likely that morning. Lykou and a few of the lepne that were still lingering around seemed less than comfortable as well, but the sereva was definitely faring the worst. Still, at least it wasn’t as bad as his previous experience.

“Mmmnope,” Lykou replied, also squinting a little. He took a bite out of the salted meat he’d pulled out of his bag. While he’d appreciated the lepne’s hospitality and even enjoyed some of their food, the lack of meat was starting to get to him, compounding the effects of his otherwise weaker hangover. “’s is the only thing I’ll be chewing on today, too.”

“Sorreh ah dinnae hav’ more food tae yer likin’, Lykou. Not exactly accustomed tae folk lik’ ye aroond here,” Clara said, handing him a fresh cup of water.

The canid shrugged and smiled a little. “S’okay, I appreciate everything you’ve done for us. That stuff is good, I just wish I could live off of it long term. Would certainly make some things easier.”

“Aye, ah kin imagine. Tatties dinnae run away from ye,” Clara replied, then snickered. “Bit ye are whit ye are.”

After Kuna finished eating, he sat in the darkest corner he could find and continued sipping on water in silence. Meanwhile, Lykou struck up a conversation with the lepne. Around mid-morning, Rhagnaid returned with instructions to bring Kuna to Moyra. The sereva had mixed feelings- on the one hand, he certainly enjoyed his time with the druna the previous day. But on the other, he dreaded going out into the daylight, let alone having to socialize. Upon seeing his expression, the guard smiled sympathetically and walked over to help him up. “Ah ken tha’ look. Trust meh, if ye jest brave th’ walk there, she kin gi’ ye somethin’ that’ll mak’ ye feel right as rain when ye get there.”

With a heavy sigh, Kuna quickly drained the rest of the water from his cup, then set it down and stood up with Rhag’s help. “Thanks…”

“Aye, nae problem. We all bin there,” she said with a chuckle.

Kuna paused to give Lykou a hug before he left, which the canid happily reciprocated. “I guess I’ll see you a bit later…”

The konuul patted and rubbed his friend’s back. “Enjoy your ‘druna’ time, Ku. I’ll be waiting here for you when you’re done.”

The sereva nodded as he reluctantly separated from his friend. “Hopefully it won’t be long,” he said, then followed the guard out. The sun made him squint even harder and he tried to keep his gaze turned down, holding a hand up to shield his eyes.

“Ye git blootered lik’ tha’ often?” Rhag casually asked.

Kuna shook his head slightly. “Mm-mm. S’only the second time I’ve even had stuff like that. Well, I guess third, but the first time it was watered down to the point where I didn’t even realize it had those kinds of… effects,” he explained.

“Ach, realleh?” Rhag said, then chuckled. “Tha’ explains it. Dinnae worreh, ye’ll get used tae it and learn yer limits o’er time.”

“I’d say there won’t be a next time, but I said that before, too,” Kuna grumbled.

“Aye, ah imagine it halps wi’ certain thin’s,” the guard commented. She gently rubbed the sereva’s shoulder. “Jest dinnae git too dependant oan et fer tha’, ye ken? Th’ comfort is fleetin’ and dinnae solve anythin’.”

Kuna shrugged. “Probably not going to have it as an option very often on this journey anyway.”

“True.”

The two walked in silence for a couple minutes before the guard spoke up again. “Yer a brave lad, fer overcomin’ whit yet hav’. Ah’ve ha’ some tussles wi’ nasty beasties and real radge bandits, bit ah kinnae imagine fightin’ whit ye’ve whupped.”

Kuna smiled weakly at her. “Thanks,” he said, then sighed. “Still… can’t exactly believe I told everyone about that stuff, though,” the added, rubbing his arm a bit before wincing and shielding his eyes again. “Damn drink…”

“Ach, et’s guid fer ye to acknowledge et.”

“Yeah, s’what Lykou said. Still feels a bit weird, just… letting a bunch of people know all that stuff,” the sereva continued. “Not exactly experienced with feeling so… I don’t know, vulnerable in a way, I guess.” He took a breath, then smirked faintly. “Then again, I guess I’m just not used to, you know… talking to people in general.”

“Ye’ll get there, lad. Jest takes time.”

*****

Back at the lodge, Lykou was chatting with the lingering members of the caravan that weren’t milling about the village- mostly consisting of Gavin, Finlay, and Effie. “So what’s it like being a trader? I take it you’re not tied to any particular village?”

“Na realleh. Each village belongs tae a clan, bit us caravan folk are technically clanless, tae keep th’ peace,” Gavin explained. “We travel fra village ta village, bringin’ things one has extra of and swapping things they need fer ‘em. Keeps us on th’ move pretty regular.”

“S’nice, always seein’ diff’rent folk ‘n’ places,” Finlay chimed in.

“So ya dinnae hae much trade back hame?”

“Not really. Just the visitors from the one tribe up north. I guess we’re just lucky we pretty much have everything we need where we’re located. Kind of a shame though, in a way. Would be nice to have some other tribes around to be friends with,” Lykou replied with a shrug. “I always used to envy them when they visited. Always wanted to see more of the world outside that little valley,” he said, then rubbed his neck thoughtfully. “Just didn’t expect to ever experience it so unexpectedly.”

“Aye. ‘n’ ye miss yer folk, ah imagine,” Gavin replied.

Lykou nodded. “Even more than I would have guessed. Especially because by this point they’ve probably assumed I’m… well, dead, or something.”

Effie hopped over to the stool nearest the konuul and patted his leg. “Ye’ll jest gi’ them all th’ better a surprised when ye git back, then.”

Lykou smiled down at her. “Yeah. That’s what I have to keep reminding myself. I just wish I could somehow get a message back to them. Let them know I’m okay, you know?” He sighed. “I can only imagine how Nai, or Nezha, or Mom and Dad are taking it.”

“Ah’m sure ye’ll see them soon, lad,” Gavin said, patting him on the back.

“I hope so,” the canid said. He took a deep breath after a moment and shook himself slightly, as if to shake away the gloominess. “No sense dwelling on that right now, though. So what’s with these, uh… ‘bandits’ you guys have to deal with?”

“Ach, thaes mawkit bastards,” Gavin said with a frown. “They jest try to tak’ stuff fra’ easy targets. Its how there’snae many lone travelers these days.”

“Luckily they bin gi’en up ever sin’ we stairted groupin’ up intae caravans. Been a while sin’ they tried anythin’ wi’ us.”

“Prolly sin’ we skelped their arses guid th’ last few times they tried,” Effie chimed in. “A guid arrow where the sun nae shine es bonny convincin’.”

Gavin laughed. “Aye, especially as guid as yer aim es, lass.”

Lykou smirked. “You guard with a bow, huh? I never could get the hang of those, I always hunt by spear myself. Or knife, when that fails. My sister’s good with just about any kind of weapon, though.”

“Aye, she, Dougal, ‘n’ ah keep watch wi’ bows a’ th’ ready while the others pull th’ carts. Jest aboot everyin’ kin fight if it come daen tae it, tho,” Gavin explained.

“Sometimes ah help wi’ th’ watch if the load’s light,” Finlay added. “Glad es rarely needed anymore though. Fightin’s dreich bi’ness.”

“Well, in the off chance that there’s any trouble on the trip up to Whitlan, I’m happy to help deal with it,” Lykou offered. “It’s the least I can offer for all you’ve done for us. And Kuna can help patch anyone up if they get hurt.”

“Ach, thas class o’ ye, Lykou. Hopefully willnae be necessary, bit es appreciated.”

*****

Kuna immediately appreciated the comparatively dim lighting in Moyra’s home after he stepped inside. Almost immediately, she pressed a cup of warm tea into his hands, though it smelled different from the kind he’d had before. “Thanks,” he said, then tasted it experimentally. “...what’s in this one?”

“Somethin’ ta halp yer headache,” Moyra said with a knowing smirk. “Got a wee bit mad wae it las’ night, ah ken?”

“Yeahhh,” he replied with a sheepish grin, then took another sip. “Lykou insisted I tell our story, so Clara brought me some... ‘liquid courage’, as she put it, and, well, I guess I need plenty of it talk to that many people at once,” he said, then looked down thoughtfully. “Especially about… certain things…”

“Ah kin imagine,” the druna said, rubbing his shoulder softly. “Ah’ve heard some of the chatter aboot et. Includin’ some… amusin’ bits aroond th’ end o’ the night,” she added with a grin.

Kuna blushed and took a long, slow sip of the tea as he tried to avert his gaze.

Moyra chuckled. “’nuff said, ah s’pose. Drink brings oot th’ silly in all o’ us.”

“Yeah, you can say that again,” the sereva said, blushing. “Mm, I think this stuff is already starting to help a little. Thanks again. I hope you’ll show me what’s in it, I could really use something like that in my medicine bag.”

“As lang as ye dinnae use et as an excuse tae overdae it more often,” the druna warned with a raised eyebrow.

Kuna quickly shook his head. “Like I told Raghnaid, I don’t think I’ll have many opportunities to do that on this trip, anyway. And anyway I need to stop embarrassing myself,” the sereved mumbled into the cup. “So not that I’m complaining, but was there something particular you wanted to see me about? I’d love to swap magic tricks again, but I think I’m out of things I can repay you with, heh…”

Moyra sighed and shook her head. “Unfortunately es nothin’ sae light,” she said. “’n’ ah hate tae even bring et up, bit ah hae nae ither options, ‘n’ et’ll involve ye two soon anyway ef nothin’s doon aboot et.”

The sereva lowered the cup and looked at her with concern. “Oh?”

The druna took a moment to gather her thoughts. “...Faergus ‘n’ ah hav’ stumbled on a plot. Them bandit bastards were tae quiet fer too lang, ‘n’ it turns out mah worries were right. He foond oot they’re plannin’ somethin’ real serious. Somethin’ tae dae wi’ ambushin’ the caravan ‘n’ makin’ it look lik’ guards fra’ anither clan.”

Kuna brought his hand to his mouth, his eyes widened. “...shit,” he said after a moment. “I… take it there’s a reason you haven’t talked to Kerney’s guards about this?”

“Aye. Some o’ ‘em are in on it. At least three we ken, ‘n’ possibly more. We’d clype ‘em oot, bit then th’ rest wid run oof ‘n’ probably try it again anither time, only more careful.”

“Well f-fuck,” Kuna said, then covered his mouth again sheepishly. “Er, s-sor-”

“Ach, nae, fuck es right. Na need tae mince yer words wi’ me,” she replied with a brief smirk. “Tae realleh stop ‘em, we need tae find thir camp and find oot who else es involved. Particularly thir leader. Faergus wants tae follow ‘em efter their meetin’ tonight out in th’ hills, but I dinnae want him goan alone, ye ken?”

Kuna stared for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Right… s-so you want Lykou and I to go with him.”’

Moyra frowned. “...aye, if yer willin’. Ah hate tae bring et tae ye, ‘n’ ye ken yer under nae obligation. Es a lot tae ask, but ah dinnae ken any other options noo.”

The sereva stared down into the cup for a minute, then took another big sip. “Of course we’ll help,” he said after taking a deep breath to steady himself.

“Are ye sure?” she asked. “Ah’d hate ta endanger ye two-”

“You’ve been so kind to us, and it’s the least we could do,” Kuna replied. “Besides, while it’s been very nice not constantly being on guard the last day or so, I guess Lykou and I need to keep sharp for our journey.”

The druna gently laid a hand on his arm, noting his anxious demeanor shift. “Ye sure yer na tae nervous aboot et?”

“Of course I am. I’m always a bit terrified of dangerous situations,” Kuna said, shivering slightly. “But I’ve been trying to do better about facing my fears. And Lykou’s pretty inspiring about that anyway.” He smiled at her, even if somewhat uncertainly. “So yeah, as f-far as I’m concerned, I’d be happy to help. And knowing Lykou, he’ll probably jump at the chance.”

Moyra eyed him for a moment, then embraced him tightly. “Thank ye, lad. Yer doin’ us a mighty favor.”

Kuna hugged her back. “Of course. Just let me know where Lykou and I need to be, and when.”

“Faergus will come fetch ye tonight. He’ll be leadin’ ye, o’ coorse. Ah jest need ye to keep ‘im safe, tha’s all. He kin do the spyin’ work.”

“Sure thing,” Kuna said, nodding. “Heh, it’ll be nice seeing him again. Haven’t gotten to speak to him since he brought us here.”

“Aye, ah’m sure he’ll be happy ta see ye two agin. Shame ‘es bin sae busy at night, ah’m sure he’d love tae hear yer stories.”

“Well, maybe after this is over with, we can tell him. Or rather, Lykou can, mostly,” Kuna replied with a sheepish expression. “I’ll… pass on getting silly again so soon.”

“That’ll be nice. Ah’ve bin tryin’ tae get ‘im tae tak’ a break fra th’ night watchin’ fer a while noo, mibbie this wull finally convince ‘im after thae mess es done wi’,” she replied with a smile.

“You two good friends, I take it?”

Moyra smirked. “Aye, ‘n’ more. Druna tend tae live a bit… weel, celibate, as an unspoken rule. But ah figure if it isnae spoken, naebody kin blame me fer breakin’ it,” she explained, then winked.

“Ohhh,” Kuna said after a moment, grinning and blushing slightly. “Is it… kind of secret, then?”

“Aye, na tha’ folk wid see us together often anyway though, sin’ we always meet at night.”

“Makes sense.”

“Whit aboot you, then, Kuna?” Moyra asked, studying his reaction.

“Hmm?” asked, sipping some more tea.

She arched a brow, grinning. “Yer… ‘friend’, Lykou? S’tha’ really as far as tha’ goes?”

Kuna blushed hard and spluttered for a moment. “N- I mean yes! I-” he stammered, then rubbed his head for a moment, smiling bashfully. “I mean, I do find him attractive, but yes, we’re just friends. He’s my best friend, and honestly the only one I’ve ever really had. But that’s it.”

The druna chuckled and rubbed his shoulder. “Ah’m jest messin’ wi’ ya lad. Ah guess ah struck a nerve tho, aye?”

The sereva rolled his eyes slightly, albeit still grinning. “I mean… don’t get me wrong, I… do feel… things around him sometimes. But I think that’s just me being extra clingy because of our circumstances and the fact that he rescued me and stuff,” he continued, then sighed and shrugged. “He’s just a big sweetheart and the first person to seem to genuinely care about me outside of… well, family.” He smirked and looked away, folding his ears down. “And like I said, he, well…”

“Gies ye flusterin’ private thoughts?” the druna teased. “He is a braw lad, ah’ll admit. Fer a… whit wis it, ‘con-ool’?”

Kuna’s blush intensified as he pointedly took a big sip of tea before replying. “Y-yeah, if you put it that way,” he replied with a bashful look. “And yeah, konuul. Ironic, considering how we first met, I guess.” He quickly shook himself and ran his hand through his hair. “Let’s… get back to the subject at hand, though. Much as I know people apparently enjoy seeing me get flustered, it seems like the wrong thing to focus on right now.”

“Aye, fair ‘noof,” Moyra agreed, patting him on the back with a small chuckle. “Lik’ ah said, Faergus wull fetch ye tonight. If ye need it, ah can gi’ ye baith somethin’ tae halp ye stay awake ‘n’ alert.”

“Oh really?” Kuna asked, curiously. “Might not be a bad idea, especially for Lykou. I’ve kind of gotten used to being up later than him anyway, but a little extra help would be nice. What is it, another kind of tea?”

“Tis a mixture o’ herbs ‘n’ berries ah grow tae help both Faergus ‘n’ mahsel’ stay awake fer langer on occasion. Ye kin mak’ tea wi’ it, but ye can also jest chew it up. Th’ trick es a kind of berry thas a bit hard tae find aroond here, bit ah learned as much as ah could about the bush they came fra, so ah kin grow ‘em when ah need ta,” she explained, then picked up a small lump of something from a stack on a nearby table, showing it to him. “Ye cook ‘em up and mash ‘em together, then dry ‘em oot real guid efter makin’ wee lumps lik’ thae. Takes a lot fer each one, bit tis worth it when ye need it. Ah kin show ye the herbs and berries in mah garden, if yer heid’s up tae it?”

Kuna thought for a moment, then quickly downed the rest of the tea. “Yeah, that sounds good. This stuff really helps,” he said, smiling at her. “I should start experimenting with things a bit more, knowing I can use my magic to grow what I want.”

“Aye. O’ coorse, findin’ things growin’ natural is probably still th’ best, especially until ye learn ta get ‘em jest right, but tis useful tae sproot up whit ye need in a pinch,” the druna explained, leading him out into the garden.

*****

Back at the lodge, Finlay was showing Lykou his instrument, which he called a ‘pridlin’. The konuul had always enjoyed music and loved any chance he could play with an instrument, but he’d never really specifically learned how to use one properly- other than some simple drums, back home. Still, when the lepne gave him a chance to pick at the stringed instrument, he showed a slight knack for it, learning the basics pretty quickly, much to the group’s mutual delight.

“Where did you get it, anyway?” Lykou asked after eventually handing it back to its owner. “Someone make it for you, or did you make it yourself?”

“Built wi’ mah ain two hands,” Finlay replied proudly. “If ye want tae mak’ music thas pure personal, ye hav’ to ken the tools ye use tae mak’ it through ‘n’ through. ‘n’ th’ bes’ way tae dae tha’, is tae mak’ ‘em yersel’.”

“Ye should try makin’ yin yersel’ sometime, Lykou,” Gavin suggested. “Ye clearly hav’ an ear fer choons.”

“Aye, ‘n’ playin’ is a crackin’ way tae mak’ a lang trip more enjoyable,” the musical lepne added.

Lykou rubbed his chin and grinned. “That does sound like a great idea. Never made an instrument myself before, though,” he said, then looked over the pridlin’ again. “Can you tell me a bit more about how you made yours?”

“Gladly, lad!” Finlay said, then began showing the canid the specific details of the different parts. He spent a while explaining what he used in its construction, what each part was for, and occasionally going off on tangents about the trial-and-error he went through to get it sounding just right. Lykou enjoyed it all, tangents included, and made mental notes in hopes of starting a similar project of his own the next chance he got. He remembered Kuna still had one more gourd in his back, and figured it might make a decent start for such a thing, once it was opened and had its insides… consumed.

After a while, Kuna returned to the lodge. Despite some lingering anxiety about the coming night’s ‘adventure’, he couldn’t help but smile a bit at seeing the canid so enthused over the instrument. He greeted the group when they noticed his presence, then waved Lykou over.

The konuul excused himself, then walked over to the sereva and wrapped an arm around him, already anticipating the hug he knew was coming. “Welcome back, Ku. How’s druna business?” he teased lightly.

“Good,” Kuna replied, returning the hug eagerly. “She showed me some herbal things that I hope I can recreate. One helped with the headache- like, really, really helped. And then also something that might come in handy for us in the future,” he said, then leaned in and lowered his voice. “And I need to talk to you in private for a moment.”

“Oh?” Lykou asked, arching a brow. Then he turned and smiled apologetically to the lepne. “Sorry, shy-boy needs a moment alone with me, I guess. We’ll be right back.”

“Aye, lads, na need ta explain,” Gavin said with a chuckle. “Drunas aye hae guid reasons fer a bit o’ hush-hush.”

Kuna nodded, “That’s right. Should only take a few minutes,” he said, then pulled his friend off to the storage room. Even once in side, he made sure all the slats that could close up were closed as much as they could be.

“What’s this all about?” Lykou asked curiously, growing concerned as the smile faded from the sereva’s expression.

“Moyra and Faergus need our help,” Kuna finally began explaining, keeping his voice low. Once he made sure it was as discrete as possible, he moved close to minimize how loud he had to speak.

“Oh? What with?” With the place as sealed off as it was, not much light could get through, save for a sunlight near the roof. It made the whole thing that much more conspiratorial, unsettling the canid mildly.

“The bandits Faergus mentioned, they’re up to something big. He’s been spying on a group of them that have been meeting at night out in the hills, and it sounds like they’re planning to ambush the caravan after it leaves, and make it look like a clan from a different village is behind it.”

“Shit!” Lykou said, eyes widening. “Well shouldn’t we g-”

Kuna shook his head and shushed him. “Not too loud!” he said, gently holding a hand up to his friend’s mouth for a moment. “Apparently, some of the guards are working with them,” he explained, then narrowed his eyes and frowned. “And that ‘Dougal’ guy is, too. So it’s hard to know who’s trustworthy. And Moyra doesn’t want to risk just going after the ones we know about, because then the rest will run off and just try to do it again at a later time, maybe somewhere else.”

“Damn, sounds like a real mess,” Lykou admitted. “So what do we do about it?”

“Faergus wants to follow some of the others after their little secret meeting tonight, to find out where their hidden camp is and see if we can figure out who’s behind it, and hopefully more details about the plan. But Moyra doesn’t want him going alone.”

Lykou nodded. “So they just need me t-”

“Us, Lykou,” Kuna insisted, placing a hand on his arm with a determined expression. “Not just you.”

The canid smiled a bit, arching a brow. “You sure you’re up for that?”

“As much as any other shit we’ve dealt with,” the sereva said, then shrugged. “Which is to say I’m a bit scared and I just know I’ll probably end up mostly useless if a fight happens, but I want to try and help anyway,” he said with small smirk. “If nothing else, I’m sure I’ll be able to do something with my magic, especially if either of you get hurt. All we have to do tonight is help watch Faergus’s back.”

Lykou nodded and crossed his arms. “Alright then. So when do we meet him, and where?”

“He’ll come by here after the others are in bed, and we’ll head out after that.”

“Alright, sounds good. So… is it just the three of us and Moyra that know about this?”

“As far as I know, yeah. Like I said, she doesn’t want to risk one of the conspirators finding out we’re onto them.”

“Makes sense. So… I guess we just lay low until Faergus comes by?”

“Yeah. Maybe even nap a bit so you’re ready for tonight, if you want. Otherwise, just continue like normal,” the sereva said. “So what were you talking about anyway? That… Finlay guy showing you that instrument, I take it?”

Lykou nodded and led him back into the main part of the lodge. “Yeah, he let me play with it a bit and showed me how it works. I was thinking about maybe making something like it myself sometime when we’re camped for the evening. C’mon, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind showing you, too.”

*****

Late that evening, as the majority of the village’s residents were dozing off in their beds, Kuna sat leaning against one of the large mounds of stockpiled straw with his friend’s head in his lap, stroking it softly as the canid napped. After a while, he heard a very faint rustle up along the edge of the roof. He squinted at the skylight up near the edge, then jumped slightly as a figured swooped in through it and landed a few feet away. Even knowing who to expect, it startled him enough to inadvertently stir Lykou awake.

“Hmm, what’s-?” Lykou started to ask, then yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Oh, right. Hi Faergus.”

“Don’t mind him, he was just dozing a bit to save some energy for tonight,” Kuna explained in a soft voice.

“Smart thinkin’,” the lepne replied with a smirk. “Ah got som’a Moyra’s wake-up snacks if ye need ‘em, though,” he added, patting his bag.

“We’ll hold off for now, but keep that in mind, thanks,” Kuna said as the konuul sat up and stretched.

“So what’s the plan?”

“When that clatty two-timer Dougal leaves, wi’ll jest follow ‘em to thir meetin’ spot. Efter they finish meetin’, wi’ll follow the others back tae thir camp,” the lepne said, leaning up against the door to listen through the crack.

“Right,” Lykou whispered as he stood up and continued stretching out his muscles to loosen up. “I knew something seemed off about that guy.”

“Besides just kind of being a tactless jerk?” Kuna replied as he got up and started checking to make sure he was ready to go as well.

“Plenty enough for me,” the canid said as he stood over by Faergus and helped listen in. A short while passed in tense silence, then suddenly the both of them heard the faint sound of the front door opening and shutting slowly, like someone trying not to draw attention. They looked to each other and nodded.

Faergus turned and quickly hopped up to the skylight again in a single jump, impressing both boys. “Kin ye two make it through here?”

“Wow, nice jump,” Lykou said appreciatively. “I can climb up there, sure, but it might be a bit tight and take me a moment.”

“I can fit, but I’d be a bit slower. It might be easier if I go around,” Kuna said. “That way I can keep an eye on him too, until you two catch up.”

“You sure?” Lykou asked with concern.

Kuna nodded and pointed to himself with a mild smirk. “Sereva. Stealth. Remember?”

“Right,” the canid said with a small grin. “Just be careful.”

The sereva nodded, then slipped out into the main lodge quietly as the canid began climbing up to follow the lepne out the skylight. Once he reached the hole, Faergus helped him out and they both hopped back down to the ground, hugging a nearby wall as a guard walked by several yards away.

Meanwhile, Kuna crept past the sleeping members of the caravan team in deathly silence. Compared to the twig-and-debris covered floor of a typical forest, it was almost painfully easy for him to avoid making any sound, especially since he’d opted not to carry anything with him. Once he got to the door, he winced as it creaked when it opened. Luckily, he only had to open it narrowly in order to slip through, and he made sure it shut behind him with as little noise as possible. Outside, he quickly got his bearings and saw the retreating figure of Dougal in the distance, passing through a narrow alley between buildings.

After making sure the coast was clear, he quickly, but silently bolted after the rogue lepne. For once, he was relieved for his light, agile sereva heritage, allowing him to swiftly catch up to and follow Dougal without notice. Once the lepne in question reached the village wall, Kuna huddled up in the shadows against a building’s side, waiting.

Dougal was soon joined by his fellow conspirator, and they both slid through the hole in the wall shortly thereafter. Kuna found himself nervously glancing around, wondering if he should continue or wait for the other two. Luckily he didn’t have to decide, as Lykou and Faergus soon joined him.

“They just slipped through,” Kuna whispered quietly.

Faergus nodded and peeked through the hole, then gestured for them to follow before slipping through himself.

*****

After a quick, stealthy run through the fields and hills outside the village, the trio stopped at the top of a tall hill, where Faergus gestured for them to lay low as he peered over the edge. Kuna nodded and hunkered down, scanning their surroundings for any sign of trouble. Lykou similarly crouched down, but he crept part-way up around the side of the hill and perked his ear up, hoping to listen in a little as well.

He could just barely make out the sounds of people talking, but from his position it was too faint to make out any details. Still, it was enough to know when the meeting had ended. Confirming that fact, Faergus quickly slid down and gestured for both to again follow him. They both did so, and the three of them narrowly avoided being seen as Dougal and Caelan passed by, by hugging close to the ground in the shadows by the hill.

After they were out of earshot, Faergus peeked around a large rock, then waved for them to follow. The boys could just barely make out the shape of another lepne figure hurrying away in the distance, whom their guide was following. He could clearly make them out better than they could, so they just focused on sticking near him, while glancing around for signs of other trouble.

It took longer than any of them would have liked, but eventually Lykou picked up on a faint whiff of smoke, and Kuna spotted some puffs of it floating up in the starlit sky not far away. As they cautiously peeked over the next hill, they saw a large cluster of ramshackle tents set up around what must have been a single large campfire. They were set up in such a way as to minimize the visibility of the fire from farther away, Lykou noticed.

They slipped back down below the top of the hill. “Right, ah need tae get claiser. Ye two follow bit stay back a bit. Jest cover fer me ‘n’ let meh dae th’ spyin’,” he whispered.

Kuna and Lykou nodded. “We’ve got you’re back,” the canid assured him.

The sereva’s hand glowed with a dim green light, and he tucked it under his poncho to keep the light hidden. “Anyone comes, they’ll have a hard time not tripping,” he said with a wink, earning a grin from the other two.

“Right. Le’s go,” Faergus said, then began creeping as close to the camp as he could get. Soon, he was within earshot as the lepne they’d been following reported back to another conspirator at the edge of the camp. Kuna got nervous as their guide got closer and closer, risking getting up right behind the tents so he could hear and see better.

The sereva took a deep breath after a moment and just focused on the flow of life energy in the grass all around him, keeping himself steady and grounded in case he had to spring into action suddenly. Meanwhile, Lykou pulled out his knife and crouched low in the shadows midway between the two, keeping a keen eye out for any patrolling bandit guards.

They sat in tense silence for a while. The konuul could faintly hear muffled conversations, but unlike Faergus, he again wasn’t close enough to make them out, much to his mild annoyance. Still, he knew that wasn’t his job, so he just waited and watched. At one point, both he and Kuna tensed up as one bandit crested another nearby hill, looking around, and came dangerously close to discovering them. Fortunately, Kuna thought quickly and made a small bush in the distance rustle with his magic, causing the guard to look away and investigate the disturbance long enough for him and Lykou to re-position and get Faergus’s attention to do the same.

After what felt like ages, Faergus turned and regrouped with the boys. Before they left completely, though, Kuna stopped them and stared at the camp for a moment. He dismissed the life magic and instead summoned up the soul magic, then performed the ritual for finding things, making sure to keep the camp in his mind as he did so. With that finished, he nodded to them and they quickly fled before another bandit on watch could come along.

They quickly began making their way back towards Kerney. Once they were well away from the bandit camp, Faergus finally spoke up, albeit still in a hushed tone. “Tis nae guid, lads. Na guid at a’,” he said. “Thir’s o’er a dozen o’ ‘em. Not even’ countin’ Dougal ‘n’ th’ other treach’rous bastards back hame. ‘n’ they’re armed tae th’ teeth.”

“Damn… what do we do?” Lykou asked.

“Right noo, we heid ta Moyra’s place. We kin talk there.”

The boys nodded and they continued silently back towards the village.

*****

Once they were back in Kerney, they carefully crept between the buildings and made their way to Moyra’s home. He led them to the secret garden entrance, where they met with a very relieved druna who quickly embraced the night-watcher and kissed his head. For his part, Faergus was briefly flustered by the affection in front of the two outsiders, but he returned it nonetheless.

Moyra looked up at the boys. “Thank ye so much fer halpin’, lads.”

“No problem, we’re happy to help,” Lykou said with a smile.

“It’s the least we could do,” Kuna added.

“Sae whit’s the news? Did ye find th’ camp?”

“Aye. Tis bad,” Faergus replied grimly. “They’re fra a’ over th’ hills, far as ah kin tell, bit they ‘av a pile o’ shite from Tannil waitin’ ta pin it oon them. Soonds lik’ they’re tryin’ ta stir up trouble between th’ clans so’s they kin tak’ advantage o’ the confusion ‘n’ chaos. Thir leader is some radge named Kerr, ‘n’ ‘e ‘as… ambitions, fra’ th’ soond o’ it.”

“Damn!” Moyra said, pacing thoughtfully. “Tis worse than ah expected…”

“Aye, whit wull we dae noo?”

“Ah hate ta say it, bit we may jest ‘av to tell th’ guard efter all, ‘n’ hope fer the best,” Moyra said after a moment.

“What if… we reverse the ambush?” Lykou suggested.

The other three turned and eyed him. “What do you mean… ‘reverse it’?” Kuna asked warily.

“Well, now that we know, we’ve taken the advantage of surprise away from them, right? Why not use it ourselves? Turn the caravan into a trap. Maybe we can’t rely on the guards on the whole, but we can tell the other caravan folks- besides Dougal, anyway- and help them prepare for a big fight. Kuna and I can always deal with Dougal and tell the others on the way out of town so there’s no chance the rest of them will find out we know. And slip in some extra weapons and shields or something beforehand. And you maybe drop word to Clara and Raghnaid, too, for good measure, so they can help you trip up whatever the traitors in the village get up to, then send backup after they’re dealt with.”

“Aye, thae two wid ne’er betray the village. Bit there’s tae many o’ em even wi’ a’ th’ trade-crew ready ta fight,” Faergus said. “Ah ken ye may be a decent fighter, Lykou, and ah ken ya hae magic, Kuna, bit even then…”

Lykou grinned and shared a look with Kuna. “I can easily take several at once, no matter how well armed they are. Especially,” he said, then activated his bracers. “With this.”

Faergus and Moyra stared at him with wide eyes as his fur turned brown and woody. “Whit kind o’ magic es tha’??” Faergus asked.

“As far as we know, partly life magic and partly a kind that’s been lost from the world for a long time” Kuna explained with a small smile. “These were made by some people from some other world besides the spirit or mortal world, called Sylthea.”

“Aye, yer baith full o’ surprises,” the druna said with a growing smirk. “A third world, ye say? Crivvens…”

“It’s part of our story we hadn’t gotten to yet,” the canid said, then tapped his arm. “Here, give it a feel.”

Faergus touched the canid’s arm and raised a brow. “Yer all… woody?”

“Mhmm. It’s like natural armor all over.”

“Remember though, it doesn’t mean you’re invincible,” Kuna reminded him with a concerned look, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I know, I know,” Lykou assured him, then disabled the bracers. “But hey, I doubt any of those bandits are anywhere near as dangerous as a ravager. With this and my knife, I should be able to take on several at once, no matter how well armed they are. Remember the golzogs? And I didn’t even have these bracers back then.”

Kuna slowly nodded. “Yeah, true…”

“’n’ ye got some tae, Kuna?” Moyra noted, glancing at the sereva’s wrist.

“Yeah, although I’ll have to be careful about using them. They do slowly use your body’s natural life energy while they’re, er… active. It’s fine for a while, but it adds up over time, so we usually only use them when danger is right in front of us, especially me.”

“Aye, makes sense,” Moyra said. “Must be a balancin’ act fer ye.”

“Yeah. Don’t want to tire myself out too quick with that and life-weaving at the same time,” the sereva said with a shrug. “I was never very strong to begin with. Luckily I’ve found that I tend to recover that stuff faster than usual, somehow.”

Faergus glanced back and forth between them for a moment. “...magic stoof?”

Moyra chuckled and rubbed his head. “Aye, magic stoof.” She turned back to Lykou and took a deep breath. “Even wi’ them fancy bracers o’ yers, it seems bonny risky.”

Kuna thought for a moment and smirked over at the konuul. “Honestly… that’s why I’m inclined to agree with it.”

The others gave him a look. “Aye?”

“It sounds crazy and dangerous. But,” the sereva explained, then walked over and hugged the grinning konuul from behind, resting his head on his shoulder. “I’ve learned to listen to this goofball’s crazy ideas.”

Lykou grinned and rubbed the sereva’s head. Moyra raised a brow and shared a look with Faergus, then grinned and shrugged. “A’right, let me fetch us some tea ‘n’ we can discuss this ‘reverse ambush’ idea o’ yers, Lykou.”

Chapter Text

The travel lodge was abuzz with activity the next morning. Lykou and Kuna were initially quite groggy due to having stayed up so late, only to have to get up early to help prepare for the caravan’s departure. Fortunately, Moyra had given them each one of what Faergus had dubbed her ‘wake-up’ snacks. After a quick, light breakfast- with Lykou again opting to use his salted meat reserves- they each popped one into their mouth and munched it down. The konuul screwed up his face slightly at the taste, but Kuna didn’t mind it. Soon enough, however, they both felt surprisingly awake and alert.

Once they were fed and awake, they began helping with the packing, discretely ensuring that weapons and bandages were easily accessible. The plan was a loose one, but they’d ultimately decided to trust Lykou’s instincts. They’d decided they would play it normal until the caravan was well away from Kerney, then they’d reveal the plot to the caravan team and deal with Dougal. It was determined that the others were trustworthy- Moyra was good at ‘people’ after all- so that was the easy part. Moyra and Faergus would handle the traitors among the village’s guards shortly after the team left, then send backup to the caravan when they’d been dealt with. The most difficult part would be for the boys to thoroughly prep the caravan for the ambush before the bandits struck. They knew they’d be outnumbered, so they’d discretely ensured that extra shields and weapons were squirreled away from the guards and slipped in among the trade goods overnight. To ensure that the caravan crew knew the boys were telling the truth, and to counteract any lies Dougal might try to concoct, Moyra left the boys with a special signet stone indicating her support- and the word of a village druna was the most solid endorsement one could ask for in those lands. Kuna made sure to have it within reach in the top of his bag, for when the time came. For extra measure, he donned the floral crown Moyra had made for him- partly for the added semblance of authority it might give him, but also partly because he genuinely liked the thing, and it was a nice gift from a new friend he’d made.

As the group finished packing up their carts outside the lodge, the boys grabbed their bags and joined them. Clara was going around bidding each of them farewell, and especially had a big hug for Kuna and Lykou, wishing them well on their journey. She seemed reluctant to see the two go. “Ye best find a way back ‘ere someday ta finish tellin’ us yer story, ya ken,” she playfully chided them.

“Oh believe me, once we find our way back and spend some time at home, I plan to work out a way for our people to visit each other regularly,” Lykou said, grinning. “So long spirit-chasing, hello trade caravans!”

Clara chuckled. “Aye, soonds crackin’, wi’ll look forward ta seein’ ye again, then,” she said, then turned to Kuna, who happily returned her embrace. “’n’ ye better share the storytellin’ load, shy lad. Yer better at it then ye giv yersel’ credit fer,” she said, patting his back. “T’was an honor meetin’ ya both.”

Kuna blushed and smiled. “Thanks. It’s been great meeting you, too.”

Raghnaid and chief Grey arrived behind Bhaltair, who had been visiting with them since early morning. Grey and Bhaltair embraced briefly before the latter turned to take up his position alongside Finlay at the front cart.

Grey and Raghnaid approached Lykou and Kuna as a crowd of villagers was starting to build up around the caravan to see them off. “Weel lads, ah hope ye enjoyed Kerney. Wis mighty pleased ta ‘av ye here, ‘n’ on behalf of all of clan Greenrun, ah wish ye a safe and happy journey!” the chieftan said, clapping them both on the back. “Ah ken yer a lang way fra’ hame, bit ah do hawp ye see us agin someday.”

“I was just telling Clara that I hope I can arrange exactly that, somehow,” Lykou eagerly replied. “Hopefully convince chief Ryvis and the elders to do more of this ‘trade’ stuff.”

“Aye, tha’d be pure brilliant!” Grey said excitedly, then stepped back as the other caravaneers picked up their cart handles or bows, respectively. “Guid luck tae ye, lads! ‘n’ safe travels to the brave Dunnyhill traders, as weel!”

“So that’s what you guys call yourselves,” Lykou remarked, smiling over to Gavin, who he’d opted to take up position next to.

“Aye, ‘n’ we dinnae usually get quite this big a farewell,” Gavin replied with a chuckle.

“We should bring ootsiders mair often,” Ealar joked from the rear cart.

Rhagnaid patted Lykou on the back and tipped her head to him, then grabbed his hand in a tight hold. “May yer path be free o’ any trouble ye cannae handle, and full o’ any ye look fer,” she said with a wink. “Safe huntin’, Lykou.”

The konuul chuckled and nodded. “Likewise, Ragh. It was great meeting you. I hope you can meet my sister some day, I think you’d like her.”

“Aye? Ah look forward tae it, then,” the guard replied, then turned to Kuna. At first, he shyly lifted his hand in anticipation, but she instead pulled him into a hug. “Na, ah ken whit yer aboot,” she said with a chuckle, then patted his back as they parted.

Kuna smiled and folded his ears down as he returned the hug. “Thanks, hehe…”

Finally, after all the goodbyes wrapped up, the caravan began heading towards the village’s exit, including Lykou and Kuna. Moyra appeared discretely at the edge of their crowd, with a faint smile, yet with a seriousness underlying her expression. She caught Kuna’s eye and they both nodded to each other as he subtly patted his bag, then she turned and disappeared again behind some buildings.

Once the group was approaching the edge of the farm fields surrounding the town, Lykou and Kuna exchanged a look. Lykou loudly suggested to the lepne that he’d continue their story to help pass the time, which earned a round of approval and mild cheering. After getting someone to remind him where they’d left off, he picked up with their first night at the edge of the canyon, fascinating them with the description of Koki and how Kuna had secretly shaped his tree to serve as a shelter for the night. Once he thoroughly had their attention, the sereva slipped up beside Bhaltair and leaned down to whisper something in his ear.

At first, the trade leader looked surprised, then a bit annoyed. They whispered back and forth a few times, and it looked like the lepne was growing agitated, but then Kuna pulled something out of his bag and showed it to him. Bhaltair’s expression shifted dramatically and he slowly nodded, then glanced over his shoulder a couple times. The two exchanged a few more hushed words, then Kuna stepped away and the trade leader held up a hand, bringing the caravan to a stop as he turned around to face the others.

“Ah’m afraid ah have some worryin’ news, folks,” he began as Lykou paused his story, doing his best to act surprised.

Meanwhile, Kuna carefully positioned himself to look as casual as possible, while surreptitiously hiding his hand under his poncho and conjuring up his life magic.

“Whit’s th’ problem, boss?” Ealar asked, cocking his head to one side.

“Aye, whit’s th’ hold-up?” Dougal agreed, already started to grow a little wary.

Bhaltair took a deep breath before announcing the news to the group. “Our friend Kuna ‘ere has informed meh o’ a plot tae ambush the caravan jest down th’ road a spell. Apparently, ‘e ‘n’ Lykou wirked wi’ Moyra ‘n’ one o’ Kerney’s guards tae suss it oot.”

“Ach, how dae ye ken he’s tellin’ th’ truth?” Dougal demanded.

“Shet yer weesht, Dougal! Ef Bhaltair trusts ‘em, th-” Effie began, before being cut off.

“C’mon, whit ef thir th’ ones wirkin’ wi’ some bandits er somethin’, tryin’ tae delay us?? We jest met them!” Dougal insisted.

“Let’s na jump tae conclusions!” Ealar interjected, clearly looking uncertain and a bit anxious as he turned back to Kuna. “Ah want tae believe ye, lad, bit hae ye got any proof?”

While the group’s attention was turned back to the sereva, Dougal began subtly reaching down for the long knife sheathed at his side. Kuna lifted up the signet stone with his free hand, causing the lepne to murmur among one another.

“Och, es tha’ Moyra’s sign?” Gavin asked, wide-eyed.

Finlay nodded. “Aye, tha’ settles it, then. Moyra dinnae gi’ tha’ tae jest anybody.”

“To make matters worse, Dougal’s part of the plot,” Kuna said flatly, glaring at the lepne in question.

But just as Kuna said those words, the treacherous lepne grabbed ahold of Effie and pressed his knife to her throat. “Stay back, er she dies!” he threatened, scowling at Kuna as he started stepping away from the caravan, dragging her with him.

“Dougal, ye traitorous bastard!” Gavin spat out at him angrily. “Ah ken ye were a clatty bampot, bit workin’ wi’ bandits?!”

“Let ‘er go!” Ealar pleaded. “Tis nae worth it, lad!”

“Howfer ye ginnae dae this, Dougal??” Bhaltair demanded. “Ye was part of the team...”

“Kerr’s ginnae oon these lands soon enuff, ‘n’ anyone tha’ stands in his way’s a corpse a’ready,” Dougal replied with a crooked grin, slowly backing away. “Outside halp or noo, yer too late. Ya cannae git away wi’ the carts noo, ye might as weel drop e’erythin’ an’ run whil ye still can.”

Effie glared back towards him with burning hatred. With the knife pressed against her throat, she didn’t dare make any sudden moves, but she was far more angry than afraid.

Dougal narrowed his eyes as a few of the other lepne’s expressions shifted and he noticed them looking behind him. As he was backing up a nearby hill, he suddenly bumped into something. In a flash, a collection of vines whipped down and ensnared him, pulling his knife-hand away from Effie. She let out a yelp as the knife lightly nicked her, but the vines were fast enough to prevent him from fully following through on his threat. Before he could cry out, one of them wrapped around his mouth, while another dragged him to the ground by the throat, half-choking him.

“Couldn’t hear you, asshole. Can you speak up a bit?” Kuna snarked.

Now free of her hold, Effie whirled around and glared a hole into the restrained traitor. Suddenly, she began swearing up a storm beating him to a bloody pulp with a savagery that made even Lykou wince. He stepped over to pull her away, but before he could reach her, she finished off with a powerful kick to a spot that made all the males wince and avert their eyes. Dougal let out a faint, high-pitched sound before fainting from the pain.

“Ach, hawp he didnae plan tae be a father,” Gavin remarked.

“Doubt the little shit had much there to begin with,” Kuna said, walking over to join Effie by the unconscious lepne while Lykou turned to tell the others what they knew of the bandit plot. “Your neck okay?”

“Aye, jest a scratch,” Effie grumbled, rubbing her neck. “Thank ye fer th’ halp tho. Shoulda ken he wis upty somethin’. Mawkit shitebag…”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to assume just from how he treated Lykou and I, but something seemed pretty off about him,” Kuna agreed. “Want me to patch that up for you?”

“Na, ah’m guid. Save yer energy fer… whatever’s comin’,” she said, turning back to face the others. “Which is whit, by the way?”

Kuna quickly filled her in on the short version while Lykou finished explaining to the others.

“-so we realized the only way to fully stop them is to turn their own ambush into a trap,” the konuul said. “Not going to lie, it’ll be dangerous. But we slipped some extra shields and bandages into the trade stuff last night. If anyone isn’t up to a tough fight, you can probably make it back to Kerney if you start back now. But stopping this plot now and capturing their leader would probably make these hills a lot safer for the near future.”

“Ach, tis nae question, then,” Gavin replied. “Ah’ll stay ‘n’ fight.”

“Same! Thae bandits need ta be taught a lesson!” Ealar agreed.

“Ah’m na fan o’ violence, bit tha’s a’ th’more reason tae finish ‘em once ‘n’ fer a’,” Finlay chimed in.

The rest of the crew rumbled in agreement. “A’right, whit’s th’ plan then?” Bhaltair asked Lykou.

Lykou looked around for a moment, then nodded. “Right, we can’t let them know we’re onto them until the last moment. We’ll have to continue like normal down the path-, er, road. But be ready to get your shields at a moment’s notice,” he said, then turned to Kuna. “Ku, do you think you can use your magic to help sense for them?”

The sereva thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. “I think so. It’ll be tricky, but if I really concentrate, I think I’ll be able to give us at least a little heads-up,” he said, then glanced down at Dougal’s unconscious form thoughtfully. “You know, Dougal here might be of some help if we wake him up. We could bind his hands and make him help pull one of the carts, freeing someone up to keep guard.”

“Ah dinnae ken if he’ll cooperate,” Ealar said. “’n’ howfer kin we trust ‘im anyway?”

Kuna shared a look with Effie, and both grinned darkly as they looked down at the bound lepne. “Leave that to us. I think we might be pretty… persuasive.”

“...aye?” Gavin said with a nervous grin.

“Right, you two work on, er… convincing him. Everyone else, make sure you’ve got your weapon and shield ready. If at all possible, Finlay, can you get your pridlin’ thing out and get ready to play some music while we travel? If we can get Dougal to take your place on that cart, that would help them think our guard is down.”

“Aye, ah kin dae tha’,” the lepne said as he went to dig out his instrument.

Meanwhile, Kuna used his magic, along with Effie’s less-than-gentle nudging to rouse their captive, after pulling the one vine off of his mouth. Dougal eventually opened his eyes and winced at the pain wracking his body. As he blinked the blurriness out of his eyes, Kuna knelt into his field of vision with a wicked smirk. “Hello, Dougal. Have a nice short nap?”

Dougal scowled and grumbled in response.

“Glad to hear it. It’s a shame you turned out to be such an asshole, but you know, as a druna, I think it’s my responsibility to offer you a chance to redeem yourself. How about it?”

“Ah’ll na betray Kerr, sae save yer breath.”

“Aww, that’s a shame,” the sereva replied, then made the vines squeeze down around him a bit. “You should reconsider.”

Dougal winced, then spat at him, narrowly missing due to his mild dizziness. “Thir’s nothin’ ye, nor yer bone-chewin’ buddy kin dae tae meh that’ll change meh mind. Git fucked.”

Kuna tsked at him and shook his head. “So rude. You know, Lykou and I actually tend to dislike violence. Me especially. But unfortunately for you, I have some head-demons that I feel coming back to bother me, and I’ve learned to channel them into anger instead of fear these days,” Kuna said, lifting his glowing hand up to where the lepne could see it. “Did you know I can use this to heal? But that requires getting to know how peoples’ bodies work a bit better. I think you’d make a good practice buddy.” He briefly looked away and waved Effie over, then turned back to Dougal as both of them leered down at him. “And I’m sure your former companion here could offer some creative advice.”

It was likely a bluff on his part, of course- he was pretty sure he couldn’t bring himself to do such things to someone, especially someone bound and helpless. At least, not under normal circumstances. For some reason, he did feel oddly more aggressive than usual, though. In any case, he doubted Dougal would take the chance. Especially when Effie leaned in and grinned at the traitor with a look that would dominate his nightmares for a while to come, brandishing a knife in one hand. Kuna might have been bluffing, but as for the smaller lepne, there was honest malice in her eyes. “Aye, ah’m a’ready gettin’ ideas.”

Dougal’s eyes widened as he began instinctively tugging against the vines in an effort to back away. The vines, in turn, tightened again and began developing large, sharp thorns that dug into his flesh. A couple slowly crept up his pant legs. Suddenly his trousers became slightly damp as fear overtook him. “A’right a’right! Ah gie’, ah’ll halp!” Dougal finally cried out desperately. “Git thaes two away fra me!”

Effie frowned. “Aw, ah wis hopin’ ye’d last langer,” she groused, briefly holding the knife up to his nose. “Yer a coward through ‘n’ through, Dougal.” She lightly cut the tip of his nose before standing back up and stepping away.

Kuna just smirked and stood up as well, using his magic to bind his captive’s hands, then release him from the rest of the vines. “Hmm, don’t want to walk around with that smell lingering,” he said, then had the vines tug off the lepne’s pants. He then magically wove a crude grass skirt around him, then nodded to Effie, who severed both the skirt and the hand bindings from the plants they’d grown from.

Lykou stepped over and crossed his arms, glaring at their captive. “Right. Start talking. Where is the ambush supposed to happen?”

With some prodding, Dougal spilled as much as he could, with Effie standing nearby and pointedly playing with her knife, watching him. He revealed that the ambush was to take place up around a bend in the road under a single, tall oak tree growing atop one of the hills.

After he finished telling them what he knew, he was brought over to the cart, head hung, and tied up to one of the handles of the front cart. He was again gagged for good measure. Finlay began playing his instrument as the caravan resumed its traveling, albeit with their guard up. Kuna sipped some water from his jug and snacked on a carrot, just to make sure his energy reserves were good and full. Lykou smirked at him. “Didn’t know you had that in you,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Me either,” Kuna replied with a sheepish expression. “Guess those ‘demons’ have their uses after all. Not that I could have gone through with it, though.”

Lykou chuckled. “Didn’t think you would, but I’m sure Effie would have made up for it,” he said, hugging the sereva briefly. “Glad she’s on our side.”

The sereva nodded with a smirk. “A lot of fire in such a small person, who knew?” he commented, then frowned and nodded a the road ahead. “We better stay alert though.”

“Right,” the konuul agreed and resumed scanning the nearby hills as they walked. “You ready for this?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Kuna replied, then took a deep breath and started focusing on the life energy of everything around him. It took some serious concentration, but he managed to mentally mute out the grass covering the landscape in order to search for any other moving signs of life on the other side of the hills. The caravan carried on, acting as casual as possible as Finlay filled the air with music. Still, the others eyed their surroundings carefully as they went, without the usual idle chatter.

*****

Eventually, Kuna pointed out a large oak tree come into sight atop a hill not far away, and the group braced themselves. Effie and Gavin prepared their bows, and Lykou grabbed and equipped a shield. Finlay moved closer to the nearest cart, ready to swap his pridlin with another bow as soon as trouble arrived.

Suddenly, Kuna looked up at one of the hills nearby as they approached the one with the tree, then whispered, “They’re here.”

The caravan halted and the cart-pullers quickly armed themselves, with a few of them taking place with shields to protect Finlay and the archers. Lykou activated his bracers and picked up his spear from one of the carts. Kuna took a deep breath and felt around for the energy flowing through the grass atop the hills.

There was a moment of tense stillness as everyone watched and waited. Suddenly, several lepne crested the hill and shot a flurry of arrows down at the caravan. Luckily, the shields blocked any arrows that would have hit their bearers. Effie and Gavin retaliated quickly- the latter’s shot went wide, but Effie nailed one assailant right in the eye, bringing him to his knees as he dropped his bow and clutched his face in pain.

Finlay quickly swapped out his pridlin for a bow of his own and launched a counter-attack as Lykou and Bhaltair charged up to meet their attackers. As the bandit archers prepared another shot, several were suddenly knocked to the ground by thick roots popping out of the ground and jerking their feet out from under them.

Several other bandits leaped over the hill armed with various melee weapons, but Lykou proved himself to be an especially dangerous foe with the bracers activated. He slammed his wooden fist into one attacker’s face, sending blood and teeth flying into the grass as his target fell to the ground and dropped their axe in surprise. He spun around to meet another assailant’s blade with his shield before similarly knocking the wind out of them with a savage blow to their gut. He grabbed a third’s makeshift mace as it was swung down at him, then kicked the wielder onto the ground just as Bhaltair came down on them with his own better-made battle hammer.

With Kuna’s magic making it difficult for the attackers to keep their footing and Lykou keeping many of them too occupied to focus on their intended targets, the caravan crew was starting to make quick work of the assailants. Effie and Gavin took out two more of them with their bows, and Finlay finally managed to nail one in the arm just before they could take a jab at Bhaltair’s side.

Still, more bandits poured over the hill as the sounds of battle rang out in the air. Eventually Lykou’s shield broke and he switched over to his knife, painting the grass with the blood of his enemies with renewed vigor. Kuna stayed well back and continued focusing on the life energies around them in order to stay grounded and calm.

Suddenly, though, he noticed some of the energy starting to resist his will. Some of the roots he’d been tripping the assailants with stopped doing so. It was as if he could feel someone else tugging in the opposite direction. Confused, he looked up just in time to narrowly avoid a large, spiny vine bursting from the ground and taking a swing at him. He jerked to the side and looked up to see a new stranger rounding the corner of a nearby hill.

The newcomer was different from the other attackers. Whereas they all were wearing a mish-mash of disheveled armor and messy clothing, he had a dark brown feathered cloak draped over a mostly clean, grey shirt and matching trousers. The shirt had a red hant-print painted on the front- Kuna didn’t want to speculate what the paint might have been made from. He had several necklaces hanging around his neck, featuring teeth and small bone fragments hanging from it- Kuna suspected they belonged to lepne victims, from the look of them. Hanging from his belt were several flopped, dried things that the sereva realized with horror might be severed lepne ears. Long, dark hair draped around the stranger’s head, blowing in the breeze as he fixed Kuna with a piercing stare. He looked extra large, for a lepne, and quite physically fit as well. A green glow surrounded both of his hands as he stalked forwards to meet the sereva.

“Druna, aye?” the stranger said simply, in a measured, steady voice, seemingly disinterested in the nearby battle raging, even as a stray arrow whisked passed him, narrowly avoiding his head.

Kuna narrowed his eyes and nodded slightly. “I guess you’re Kerr?”

“Aye,” the lepne replied simply. Suddenly, with a fast wave of his arm, a large, sharp-ended root shot out of the ground at Kuna.

The sereva just barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid being impaled. He tried retaliating, but almost immediately Kerr grabbed control of the same vine he was about to use to do so. He was about to try another direction, but quickly instead shifted to defensive mode as he countered another sharp root aimed at his side. With a sinking feeling, he knew he’d be too busy just trying to keep up with the rogue druna to continue helping the others. He may have had an innate knack for magic, but his opponent was clearly more experienced. He just hoped the caravan team and Lykou could handle the others without his help.

Meanwhile, Lykou and Bhaltair, working as a team, had already crippled or knocked out around a half dozen assailants on their own, while the others had taken out around the same number. Still, more continued to attack. No more archers seemed to be forthcoming, but without Kuna’s help tripping up the bandits, their raw numbers were starting to overwhelm the caravan. Ealar let out a pained yelp as he was surprised by a nasty blow to the shoulder and found it impossible to lift his own long knife up to retaliate, so instead he focused on protecting himself and Effie with his shield. Another bandit charged Gavin and knocked him onto his back. He cried out in pain as his leg was broken by a heavy hammer strike, but luckily Lykou arrived and landed a rib-shattering kick into his assailant before he could do any more damage.

Without protection, Finlay took a sharp slash on his arm that made it difficult for him to aim his bow, so he ended up ducking down on the other side of the cart, only popping up occasionally to take pot shots at any enemy that got too close. Effie’s bow was broken by an altogether too-close axe-swing. So she immediately took out the knife she had sheathed at her side and launched herself into the fray with an angry cry, rapidly stabbing and slicing at any unfortunate individual unwise enough to leave bits of their flesh exposed to attack.

Bhaltair’s shield cracked as a particularly aggressive hatchet-swing struck it dead-on. He used the moment the weapon was stuck in its wooden side to jerk the attacker sideways and land a direct hit onto their torso, cracking several of their ribs. At the same time, another bandit charged in and sliced an angry red cut down his thigh, making him wince in pain before turning to dodge another swing.

Two attackers rushed Lykou from either side with knives drawn. He let them close in and take their swings, barely flinching as they scraped uselessly against the coarse bark covering his body. He grabbed them both and slammed their heads together with all his strength, then winced as a club met the back of his head. Small cracks briefly appeared at the strike spot, but soon began healing up again as he rapidly spun around to meet the sneak-attacker, who was already backing away- but not fast enough. He charged the club-bearer, grabbing the weapon as they tried to swing it at him again, then tugged them in and stabbed them right in shoulder with his knife. Before they could even cry out, he slashed harshly down their arm, sending a crimson flow of blood spraying across the ground. Hearing someone charging up behind him, he whipped around and blocked the incoming axe-strike with the club he’d taken from the last bandit, then kicked the newcomer onto their back before slamming it down on their head.

Kuna frowned at the growing number of pained cries, including some from familiar voices. But he could hardly dwell on them as he continued struggling to anticipate Kerr’s attacks. Every time he tried to strike back, he found whatever plant he was trying to manipulate quickly torn back out of his mental grasp. The bandit leader barely seem phased by the effort, rarely moving more than a few feet even as Kuna tried darting around to throw him off.

“Yer losin’, lad,” Kerr taunted. “All o’ ya. Yer friends willnae be breathin’ much langer.”

The sereva scowled at him and tried again to snag his ankle with some roots, but they were stopped halfway as usual.

“Too slow, ye wee scunner,” the lepne said before managing to land a glancing smack with a large root aimed at the sereva’s leg.

Kuna glared at him and tried again to retaliate. After a few more failed attempts, he backed up and took a moment to catch his breath, only focusing on defense.

“Surrender ‘n’ mibbie ah’ll let ye choose one tae spare.”

The sereva stopped trying to attack and instead focused on his surroundings. He’d been tormented by his own personal demons enough and he thought back to his initiation. He remembered how they’d tried to stop him from reaching the end. The relentless taunting from the ghosts of his past. The paranoid thoughts about Lykou. Even the terrifying confrontation with the ravager that killed his parents in front of him. He’d overcome all of them despite their best efforts, why should he let some shit-bag stranger get to him?

With a deep breath, he gradually managed to summon up the cool, collected mentality he remembered from that night as he dodged and weaved around the enemy’s attacks. He tuned out the cacophony of pain and violence nearby, trusting Lykou and the others to keep one another safe. Instead of attacking directly, he first studied Kerr’s behavior, trying to get a feel for his tendencies. While the bandit leader wasn’t moving much, he was shuffling around- barely lifting his feet from the ground enough to do so.

Kuna got an idea. As he dashed and dodged around, rather than trying to attack, he began rapidly altering bits of grass bit by tiny bit, moving from one plant to another before the rogue druna could even begin countering his grasp. Gradually, he turned the area around Kerr into a hidden minefield of curved, hardened grass blades with the appearance of normal grass, but the stiffness and consistency of wood. He then activated his own braces and suddenly charged directly at his opponent.

Kerr threw up several roots to try and block or snag the agile sereva, but they each missed. Perplexed by the sudden apparent change to physical combat, he shifted backwards and brought his arms up in preparation to teach the younger magic-user a lesson in pain. But when he swung out to meet Kuna’s face with his still-glowing fist, the sereva dipped around behind him and lightly smacked him in the back of the head before jumping back again. The bandit lord angrily spun around to charge and strike him in retaliation, but his feet immediately snagged on the unexpectedly stiff curved blades of grass and he tumbled over onto his face.

Kuna immediately seized on the opportunity to quickly wrap a large root around him and pin him down. He tried to bring a few more to bare, but already he felt Kerr’s resistance. Much to his frustration, even pinned on his chest, the rogue druna was managing to defend himself from further attacks.

A loud yelp of pain from Lykou briefly distracted him long enough for Kerr to pry free from the root holding him down. Kuna barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid another root-strike.

“Yer a clever shite, ah’ll gie’ ye that,” Kerr said with a chuckle. “Bit ah’m sure ye’ve noticed yer still losin’.”

They both glanced over at the caravan and saw its team largely huddled together, struggling to fend off an encroaching ring of bandits. Lykou was separate from them, with some red cracks visible on his back and thigh. He was still holding his own, but slowly losing ground to his own ring of assailants. Things looked grim.

But just as several bandits charged the konuul at once, a blur bolted down from a nearby hill, crashing into one of the assailants hard enough to send them careening into several others. The blur turned out to be Faergus, and he immediately stabbed and slashed several other bandits in rapid succession. He let out an incoherent battle cry as he headbutted one of his victims just as they started to recover, knocking them back down.

Rhagnaid and several other guards from Kerney appeared at the top of the hill, led by none other than chief Grey himself, sporting a sloppy but thorough blue-dye job similar to the rest, and wielding a large axe made of solid bronze. “FER GREENRUN AND DUNNYHILL! NAE MERCY TAE BANDITRY!” he cried out as he charged at their enemies, with a burning fury in his eyes. He was hardly recognizable as the same jolly, amicable soul the boys had met back in the village.

The guards raced in and began savagely assaulting the bandits surrounding the caravan. They didn’t hold back, either- they weren’t interested in prisoners. Raghnaid outright decapitated one of them, and Faergus slit the throats of several bandits in a row. Many of the now-panicked rogues turned to flee. Grey’s own axe caught one of them right down the middle of their head.

Reinvigorated by the presence of reinforcements, Lykou joined the guards in turning the tide of the battle. Up to that point, he’d been trying to hold his attacks just enough that the bandits could be taken captive after the fight. Seeing that such was no longer strictly necessary, he let his anger take over. Any bandit that still dared to attack him or any of his nearby allies were met with a blade solidly lodged in their throat or chest.

Having been temporarily distracted, Kuna quickly turned back to face Kerr, only to realize the bandit leader was gone. Shit! he thought. Asshole must have run off as soon as reinforcements got here.

He briefly considered hunting him down, but decided it was probably not a very wise thing to do on his own, so instead he ran back to the caravan to begin checking over peoples’ injuries, as the last of the standing bandits were dealt with. By the time the fighting ended, only a handful of bandits were left alive, laying on the ground with their arms bound behind them and occasionally groaning in pain. The lepne from Kerney were going around, tending to the wounds of the caravan folk. Lykou deactivated his bracers and rubbed the red cuts and scrapes that’d managed to make it through the wood armor, tired out but otherwise in decent shape. Kuna disabled his own bracers and hurried over to him, then embraced him for a moment before turning to help check over their friends.

“Anyone bleeding bad?” he quickly asked as he checked over people.

“Na tae -ach- bad,” Ealar said, rubbing his shoulder.

“They’re werse aff, sa ah’m fine,” Effie declared, glaring at some of the bodies littering the ground as Raghnaid bandaged her side.

Another guard was bandaging Finlay’s arm. Gavin appeared to be the most injured, wincing in pain at his broken leg. Kuna knelt down to take a look, but the lepne waved him away. “Where’s -ah!- th’ mawkit bandit boss ye wis tusslin’ wi’?”

Kuna frowned. “He ran off in the chaos, unfortunately.”

“Damn!” Grey swore, hurling his axe into the ground. “Ah wis hopin’ ta see ta him pers’nally.”

The sereva thought for a moment, then conjured up the symbol on his hand. “I have a feeling I know where he ran off to, though,” he announced, then shared a look with Lykou before pulling out a second pair of Moyra’s wake-up snacks and smirked. “Want to go bring him in? I think I can handle him with your help.”

Lykou grinned and took one of the small squares. “Sounds good to me.”

“Count meh in as weel,” Faergus chimed in. “Ah want a crack a’ tha’ bastard.”

Grey sauntered up as well and smiled toothily. He was about to join in, but Raghnaid gently laid a hand on his shoulder. “Sir, th’ caravan wull need halp getting’ back tae Kerney. We kin spare one, bit nae more. ‘n’ ye ken Faergus is th’ fastest o’ us.”

The chief’s face fell and he sighed. He wanted to argue, but he knew she was right. “A’right… bit bring ‘im in alive if ya can, y’hear? I want tae show ‘im justice in front of the village proper with my ain two hands.”

“Out cold but not dead,” Lykou said with a nod. “You got it.”

The boys each popped their energy boosting snack into their mouths, then Kuna brought his hand up as he focused on the soul magic directing him back to the bandit camp. Once he had it locked in his mind, he led them up the hill and the three charged off in pursuit of the rogue druna.

Chapter Text

Once they started getting close to the camp, the trio hunkered down behind the closest hill and peered over the edge. They could see Kerr giving orders to a small number of thugs that’d stayed behind as the darted around, apparently packing some things away as they prepared to abandon the camp.

“I think Faergus and I can handle the extras,” Lykou said quietly, looking over at Kuna. “Can you hold him off long enough to take care of them?”

Kuna nodded. “As long as you guys are quick, I can keep him busy.”

“Right,” the konuul said, then turned to Faergus. “I’ll take the two on the right, you take the two on the left. Sound good?”

“Aye, bit lets sneak aroond and get claise before rushin’ in. Wait’ll they’re well sep’rate.”

“I don’t know that we can be too sneaky with Kerr there, guys,” Kuna said. “If he can sense people like I can, and I’d be surprised if he can’t, his range is probably better than mine.”

“Ach, mibbie, but thas only if he’s doin’ tha’ right noo,” Faergus replied. “Look, his hands arnae glowin’.”

“He probably didn’t expect us to know where his camp is, and figured he lost us,” Lykou pointed out. “We’ll have to be careful, just in case, but it looks like his guard is down.”

“Aye, stay jumpin’,” the lepne agreed.

“Alright, ready? Kuna, wait for us to strike before you hit Kerr,” Lykou said. “But be ready to start as soon as we reveal ourselves.”

Kuna nodded. “Right. You two go ahead then, I’ll be waiting,” he said as he summoned up his magic again. “And don’t forget your bracers.”

“Of course. I’ll use ‘em once I’m in place,” the konuul confirmed. He and Faergus nodded to each other, then they both crept off to sneak around to their respective side.

Kuna took a deep breath and waited, keeping his eyes locked on the bandit leader in the distance from his hiding spot at the hill’s top. He used all of his focus to feel around for the energy flowing through the grass at his target’s feet. It was a bit of a strain at that distance, but he made sure to have a firm grasp on it for when the time came. Several minutes passed in tense anticipation. Finally, Faergus was the first to burst out, immediately stabbing one thug in the ankle as they were carrying a heavy bag of something, then jumping to nail the other in the neck when they turned to see the source of the commotion. A once again wooden Lykou followed suit immediately and stabbed one bandit in the side, then knocked the other to the ground with a powerful kick.

While the other two were busy taking his henchmen out of commission, Kuna quickly set to work on Kerr. Luckily, he had the advantage this time and managed to shoot a plethora of vines and roots up around the bandit leader and pull him harshly to the ground. Two constricted around his arms and another bound his legs together. But soon the sereva felt that familiar resistance set in as his enemy manifested his own magic and slowly pried himself free.

Kuna took the time to charge in closer, preparing to counter anything the rogue druna tried to attack with. He dodged several large, thorny vines that burst from the ground and tried tripping Kerr again, but found it impossible to move anything quick enough. Faergus charged over, having disposed of the two bandits on his side. Somehow, Kerr managed to smack him aside with a large root-attack at the last minute despite keeping his focus primarily on the sereva. Fortunately, that gave Kuna a chance to lash out at him again- he knew he couldn’t hold him, so instead he just had a thorny vine slash across his legs painfully.

Suddenly, Kerr did something Kuna didn’t expect- he quickly picked up a knife from a nearby stack of boxes and hurled it at him. Kuna’s quick reflexes saved him, but only barely, as the blade whizzed past his side and embedded itself in the ground behind him. The distraction was enough for the head bandit to snatch Faergus away with more vines and thoroughly bind him up on the ground. Again, Kuna lashed out at his leg briefly. One of the other bandits flew past Kerr and landed in a heap near one of the tents as Lykou approached.

Kerr’s eyes narrowed and darted between the two for a moment, then he turned to fully face the canid, dodging out of the way of several punches and stabs. Kuna took this as his chance to try and snag the bastard, but every time his vines reached out for him, the lepne leaped high into the air and landed some distance further away. He seemed to have gone entirely into defensive mode.

Finally, Lykou charged forward with enough speed to catch the rogue. He was about to slam his fist into his face, but suddenly paused when he heard a muffled cry from Kuna’s direction and saw his captive grinning at him. Something felt off.

“Dinnae want yer friend dead, dae ye?” Kerr asked, gesturing towards the sereva with his head.

Lykou risked a quick glance towards Kuna and his eyes widened when he saw him bound up by vines, with one holding the knife he’d thrown earlier held tightly against his friend’s throat. In that moment, Lykou felt a burning, bitter rush of hatred boil up inside him, only amplified by the fact that he knew there was nothing he could do in that moment. With extreme reluctance, he slowly let go of Kerr’s shoulder and started to back off.

There was a moment of tense silence, aside from Faergus cursing and struggling against the thick roots and vines holding him hostage on the ground nearby. Finally, Kerr broke it. “Right. Drop th’ knife, ‘n’ oof wi’ th’ woody look, fer starters,” he instructed the canid.

Glaring intensely at the lepne, Lykou dropped his knife and slowly disabled the bracers.

“Na back away nice n’ sloo. Hands where ah kin see ‘em.”

As Lykou slowly backed away, Kerr bent down without taking his eyes off him and picked up the discarded knife. “Whit a bonny wee blade ye ‘av here. Ne’er seen one lik’ it,” he commented, looking it over. “’least ah got somethin’ o’ value t’dae.”

While the bandit was busy examining the blade, Lykou again glanced worriedly over at Kuna. The sereva caught his eye and pointed down with a quick flick of his eyes . The canid realized something Kerr had overlooked- while Kuna was mostly bound, he’d apparently stopped struggling to wrestle control of the vines and roots holding him away and dismissed his magic. But his hands were close enough together that he could reach the bracer on one arm with the other hand. They exchanged a look, then Lykou tensed up as he realized what the sereva was planning. He didn’t like it, but he saw no other option, and he doubted he could dissuade his friend .

As the bandit boss lowered the knife again, he tilted his h ead and eyed the bracers on the konuul’s arms. “Them tae. Brilliant wee trinkets. Give ‘em.”

Lykou slowly reached to start taking them off, but then Kuna sprang his plan. He quickly moved to activate his bracers. The movement didn’t escape Kerr’s notice and the vines quickly drove the knife into Kuna’s neck, ushering forth a gush of blood as the sereva cried out and winced in pain. It was a jarring, icy-hot sensation unlike any other physical pain he’d ever felt, and for a moment he thought it might be his end. Fortunately, the bracers quickly took over and started rapidly healing the would-be lethal wound into merely a very uncomfortable one as he slumped back into the roots and vines.

That snapped something in Lykou though. A primal bloodlust he’d never experienced before was flooding through his entire being. He didn’t want to merely kill. He wanted to maim. To hurt . He hated seeing p eople and animals in pain , unless they deserved it. That was always his rule. But now, more than anything, he wanted Kerr to experience unparalleled agony . There was an uncontrollable inferno erupting within him, accompanied by a strange tingling in his muscles and a surge of strength .

Kerr began to raise the knife to defend himself, but it was far too slow. The konuul fell upon him with an avalanche of violence, ignoring any cuts he received. He grabbed the lepne by the throat and began choking the life out of while simultaneously lifting him up and repeatedly slamming him into nearby objects and obstacles. When the bandit’s grip on the knife loosened, Lykou waited for it to drop, then kicked it away. He hurled his opponent to the ground and began beating him to a pulp with his bare hands and whatever random junk laying around nearby he could grab. He let out a savage snarl, then dragged the now-dizzy and disoriented bandit over to the still slightly-burning embers of a recent fire by his ears and shoved his face into them. He stomped on the back of his head a couple of times in the process, eliciting muffled screams from the now at least temporarily blinded rogue.

After he let go, Kerr scrambled to try and stand up, frantically trying to rub the hot soot from his face, especially around his eyes. Seconds later, the canid was back upon him and sank his teeth down into his shoulder, then ripped out a chunk of his flesh before he resumed beating and clawing at him. Finally, he hurled the leader against a lone nearby tree trunk with enough force to break some segments of bark off upon impact . He spotted an axe laying on the ground and picked it up, then slowly stalked towards the bloodied and brutalized bandit lord laying and groaning at the bottom of the oak .

“Ach, remember, dinnae kill ‘im, lad!” Faergus reminded him, finally slowly starting to pry himself loose from the tough roots and vines.

Lykou glanced at him, then back at his target. He took a long, slow breath as the disturbing feeling started to subside. Still, there was just enough left that he wasn’t done yet. A crooked grin crossed his face as he hefted the axe up. “Don’t worry… I’m just… disarming him,” he said, then brought it down on the bandit’s arm, severing it just below the elbow.

Kerr’s back arched as he let out a silent scream. Lykou dragged him over and shoved his stump in the coals to cauterize the wound, then kicked him away when he fainted. Finally, as the feeling finished draining from him, he dropped the bloody axe and stumbled around a bit dizzily.

Faergus finally dug himself out of his trap and dusted himself off, then walked over to help Lykou steady himself. “Ach, ye a’right lad?”

The konuul struggled to stand up straight, feeling a bit di soriented and confused. For a moment it was almost like the last few minutes were a hazy, red-tinted dream. “I… don’t know…?” he replied, then quickly shook his head and looked up . “Wait… Kuna!” he said, quickly turning to run over to the sereva.

Kuna was weakly pulling himself free from his own cage of altered plants, his flesh still woody. But as soon as he was free, he disabled the bracers just as the konuul arrived at his side to help him up. As the bark faded and turned back to his flesh and fur, a very noticeable mark was visible on his throat. He winced as he rubbed it gently. “Fuck, that hurt,” he said weakly.

Lykou quickly wrapped his friend in a tight embrace. “That was way too damn close,” he said, tears running down his cheeks. “Are you going to be alright?”

The sereva smiled and returned the hug with all the strength he could muster. “Yeah, it’s sore as fuck, but I’ll be alright,” he replied, shaking slightly “And I feel…VERY drained now. Shit… might need some help walking back. And maybe need to try and find some food in this stupid camp before we go.”

“Sure, of course,” Lykou said, refusing to let go. “I can’t believe you did something so risky.”

Kuna smirked and leaned against him. “You can’t have all the crazy ideas, you know.”

The konuul chuckled and choked back some tears as he rubbed his friend’s back. “I’m just glad those bracers worked,” he said, then wavered slightly as he started to pull back some . “Woah… I should… probably sit down for a moment myself…”

Worried, Kuna sat down on the ground with him, each helping the other do so without falling over . Finally getting a good look at him, he drew back for a moment with wide eyes. “Uh… L-Lykou… is… is that b-blood on… y- y our mouth??”

Lykou stared at him blankly for a moment, then stared off into space, his expression a mixture of confusion and growing distress. “I… uh… y… yeah…? I… think so…?” He started to grow dizzy again and slumped back against the slope of the hill.

Kuna looked him over, noting all the blood coating his friend. And from the relatively few cuts and scrapes the konuul had, he knew it wasn’t his blood. He was growing a bit disturbed, to say the least. In all the fights and hunts he’d been in, he’d never seen that much of someone or something else’s blood sprayed across the canid’s body, except maybe after butchering the result of a hunt . “...what… happened?”

“I… I thought he… you…,” Lykou tried to explain, his head spinning a bit. “And then… everything just… it was all a blur…”

Kuna’s eye twitched. “I can’t decide if I’m more touched or disturbed that my situation inspired… whatever caused all,” he said, gesturing to the canid’s bloody, messy body and clothing, as well as what’d smeared off on his own poncho when they’d embraced. “This.”

“Ach, dinnae fash yersel’,” Faergus said, grunting as he approached, carrying the savagely disfigured and beaten, but still somehow living bandit boss with him. He set the unconscious prisoner down once he was close enough to the two, having tied a rope around his torso and upper arms in case he woke up at some point. “T’was at least partly th’ biscuits’ influence.”

Lykou and Kuna exchanged a look. “Biscuits...?”

“Aye. Moyra’s little wake-up snacks?” the lepne explained. “There’s reason she dinnae jest hand ‘em out tae anyin’. They add fuel ta yer fire in moar ways then one, ya ken. ‘n’ sometimes, if the situation hits jest right, they kin drive ye a wee bit mad fer a bit.”

“Oh…” Lykou said, then leaned back again, feeling a slight bit of relief. Still, the unsettling mix of confusion and self-reflection lingered. “I… see...”

“Aye, th’ side-effects are howfer some o’ the guards call ‘em ‘blood biscuits’,” Faergus said with a shrug. “We should ‘av warned ye it might happen, especially ye not bein’ used tae ‘em. Sorreh aboot tha’.” He glanced down at the rogue druna. “Dinnae feel tae bad. ‘e definitely deserved it, especially judgin’ fra tha’ necklace ‘n’ belt ‘es wearin’.”

“True,” Kuna said, then looked back over at his friend and gently rubbed his shoulder. “You gonna be alright?”

Lykou just sat in silence for a moment before answering. “I… think so. Just… kind of… dealing with things,” he replied, then took a breath before looking over at Faergus again. “No more of those… ‘biscuit’ things for me, though. Ever.”

Faergus chuckled. “Aye, ye wis one o’ the ‘lucky’ ones tae ‘av a berserk spell ,” he said, hands on his hips. “Ye two rest up a smidge, ah’ll see if these tadgers have enny decent scran n’ water ah kin bring ye.”

As their lepne companion darted over to the camp to search its contents, Lykou and Kuna sat in a somewhat uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, occasionally looking down and cringing a bit at the bloody, maimed lepne laying nearby.

“Damn, what… what’d you even do to him?” Kuna couldn’t help but wonder out loud.

Lykou’s expression fell more and he laid back on the ground fully , finding the sky to be the only thing he could bare to look at for the moment. “Spirits, that thing turned me into a monster…”

Kuna shot him a sympathetic look, thinking back to how he’d felt when the ravager had nearly killed him . He sighed and gently stroked his friend’s head. “Nah. Monsters don’t feel bad about it afterwards. And like Faergus said, the fucker definitely deserved it. Who knows what he did to the poor people whose, er… bits… are hanging on that necklace, or his belt .”

Lykou glanced at the sereva briefly, then sighed. “I still don’t ever want to feel like that again,” he said, then shivered. “That’s… that’s not who I am,” he added, then started tearing up again. “That’s… not who I am. I swear it isn’t. I-I don’t... do those things. That’s not me. I...”

“Of course it isn’t,” Kuna said, leaning down over him and gently taking the canid’s bloody chin in one hand to get his attention. “You’re the most good-natured, kind-hearted, sweetest person I know. Under normal circumstances I don’t think you have a mean bone in your body. Only time you do is when someone’s trying to hurt someone you care about,” he assured the konuul with a smile, letting go of his chin to resume stroking his head. “So take your own advice and stop beating up on yourself.”

The konuul stared up at him with watery eyes for a moment, then looked down at how filthy and coated in blood he was. “You trying to tell me this doesn’t scare you?” he asked, gesturing to the mess. “That I… I did all this? It doesn’t make you see me differently?”

Kuna smirked and dug into a small pocket he’d made on the inside of his poncho, then pulled out a certain stone, holding it up for the canid to see. “Nope. Because no monster would have given me this just to comfort me and keep me from freezing myself to death like an idiot,” he said, then laid down across the konuul, nuzzling his neck softly, though the action made him wince as the pain in his own neck reasserted itself . “Not that I need that anyway to know what a good person you are, or that I can trust you.”

“Heh… you still keep holding onto it, though,” Lykou pointed out with a slightly sardonic smirk.

The sereva sat back up and gave him a look. “Yeah. Because you gave it to me. And it reminds me of how much you care,” he said. After a short pause, he grinned and looked around for a moment. He spotted the knife that’d recently gotten entirely too intimate with his own neck and picked it up. Lykou arched a brow and started to say something, but Kuna shushed him. Without warning, he cut his palm, wincing, and clutched the stone in his hand tightly. “I, Kuna, tentatively soon-to-be of the Lakefire tribe, swear on my blood and soul that I trust you and believe you to be a good person, not a monster, Lykou.”

Lykou watched with a mixture of surprise and mild amusement. “Did you really just-”

“Yep,” Kuna said, pressing the stone into the canid’s hand and tossing the knife aside. “Now you hang onto it for a while.”

The canid eyed him for a moment, then laughed and pulled him into a tight hug. “Thanks, you goofball.”

The sereva happily returned the embrace. “Hey, if you can do it, so can I,” he said with a chuckle. After a minute, he rolled off the canid and laid on the grass next to him, pressing part of his poncho to the small cut on his hand until it stopped bleeding . “Man, this is fucking surreal though. We just helped a bunch of people we just met put an end to a major threat that they didn’t even know about before we got here.”

“Yeah… and just a few weeks ago, the most exciting thing I ever had to worry about was occasionally stumbling across an irritable boar,” the canid responded as he stared up at the sky. “And now here I am, covered in the blood of a murderous bastard that tried to kill us and our new friends.”

Kuna cringed and shivered a bit. “Yeah, I’m kind of trying to keep telling myself this is just a bunch of sticky fruit juice or something .”

“We’re definitely going to need to get cleaned up at the next stream we come across. No way I’m going back to Kerney like this.”

“Yer in luck, thir’s one pretty claise by,” Faergus said as he walked up with a jug of water and a small bag full of miscellaneous vegetables. “A little mess fra a battle is a mark o’ honor they say, bit ah dinnae blame ye fer wanting to clean up all o’ that,” he added with a chuckle.

Kuna sat up and greatfully took a big swig from the jug before passing it to Lykou. “Thanks, Faergus. How are you, by the way? Sorry I didn’t ask before.”

“Ach, ah’m guid,” the lepne said. “Ye both took th’ bigger scratches ‘n’ dinnae ‘av my tolerance fer them biscuits. Ah’m jest sorry the bastard caught me off with them damn weeds sae ah couldnae be more help agin’ him.” He glanced back at the still-dozing wreck of a bandit laying nearby, then smirked. “Seems ye handled him laldy tho. Remind me na tae ever git oan yer bad side, Lykou.”

“I was just reminding him he doesn’t have one of those. Just a protective side that looks that way sometimes,” Kuna pointed out, playfully nudging the canid.

Lykou smirked as he sat up and drank some water. Kuna took a radish out of the bag and hungrily began devouring it.

“Aye, fair ‘nuff,” Faergus replied with a grin. “Yer a fierce and respectable warrior, lad. Glad we ‘ad th’ chance tae fight alang side each other.”

The konuul nodded to the lepne. “Likewise, Faergus,” he said, then sighed and rubbed his head. “I really hope that’s all the violence we’ll see for a while though. I really, really don’t want to have to fight anyone or anything again anytime soon.”

“Ach, weel, after t’dae, once word gets aroond aboot whit became o’ these bandits, ah kin at least say ye willnae have anythin’ but peaceful travels in these hills fer howe’er lang yer in ‘em,” Faergus replied, then gestured to Kerr. “Especially once people see whit their leader looks lik’ efter getting’ a wee bit o’ justice.”

Lykou sighed. “Good. Yesterday was nice, I’d love to get back to more of that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, it was,” Kuna agreed and offered him the bag of food. “I know it’s not meat, but try and eat something. It’ll keep you going until we get back.”

The konuul hesitated for a moment, then reached in and grabbed a carrot, then started munching on it. “I hope we find some charnops or something like that soon,” he lamented. “These aren’t bad, but I don’t feel right after eating nothing but this stuff for a day or so.”

“Whit’s a charnop?”

“It’s like this round fruit type thing that grows on the side of lakes,” the konuul explained, gesturing with his hands to indicate the size. “Its got a tough beige skin that turns kind of yellowish when its ripe. My people eat ‘em all the time, especially when there aren’t enough turkeys or boars around. They even grow all year round, too, although a bit slower in the winter.”

“Aye? Soonds interestin’. Ne’er seen anythin’ lik’ tha’ aroond here tho. Prolly sin’ we dinnae ‘av any lakes near here. Jest a buncha’ streams, creeks, ‘n’ some ponds. Bhaltair’s crew might ken o’ one somewhere tho.”

“If we do find any, I’ll be sure to learn all I can about them so I can grow them for you,” Kuna offered with a smile.

Lykou smiled back and the two one-arm hugged each other as they continued eating.

*****

A short while later, Faergus pointed Lykou and Kuna towards a large stream over some hills nearby. They both thanked him and hurried to go get cleaned up. The sereva was so eager to get the blood off that he didn’t even bother hiding or making the canid look away before stripping off his clothes. On the other hand, Lykou was too focused on his own clean-up to really notice.

The water was too shallow to submerge much of their bodies, so they did the best they could as fast as they could. After cleaning themselves, they went to work on their clothing, though it was obvious there would be large stains left behind, which were especially noticeable on Kuna’s poncho, much to his chagrin.

“Er… you know what this means, right?” Lykou said, pausing as he held up his shirt and glanced over at the sereva. “...we can’t exactly walk back with wet clothes.”

Kuna frowned. “Yeah. Not like we could walk back filthy like that, but… what do we do? I’m not walking back naked, either.”

The konuul chuckled. “Hey, you survived being naked in the forest for a while. At least out here there’s no bushes and twigs and stuff to poke and brush you in places.”

“Also nothing to hide behind,” the sereva replied, blushing as he tried to carefully wring the water out of his poncho. “And I’ve gotten used to clothes again, so I don’t like the idea of being naked around everyone.”

“Well, unfortunately we may not have much choice until our stuff dries out.”

Kuna bit his lip and thought for a moment, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “I wonder if those bandits kept any spare clothes at the camp…”

“Maybe, but I doubt they’re our size.”

“They’re not that much shorter than us…”

“No, but enough. Doesn’t take much.”

Kuna sighed. He knew the canid was right. “We’ll have to look, just in case. Maybe we can just, I don’t know, find some blankets to wrap up in for the time being. It’s already a little chilly standing here wet like this and it’ll get worse walking across the hills without any clothing.”

Lykou paused in the middle of cleaning and looked thoughtful for a moment. “That’s a good point,” he said, then shrugged. “I can handle a bit of chill, but I don’t blame you for wanting something more. That blanket idea is a good thought. We can check when we’re done here.”

They both finished getting cleaned up and wringing as much water out of their clothing as they could. Lykou’s was notably still in rough shape, covered in little cuts and holes. “...when we get back to our stuff, I may need you to stitch these up a bit for me.”

“Sure thing,” Kuna said as he bundled up his poncho and pants, stepping back out of the water. “Wish we could find something you could wear over your shirt for extra protection though.”

“Yeah. Hey, maybe the bandits have something we can take for that, too.”

“Worth checking for,” Kuna agreed with a shrug.

Lykou finished bundling up his own clothing and they both left the stream to return to the camp. When they arrived, they found Faergus sitting casually on the ground next to Kerr, having a snack for himself. Kuna self-consciously used the bundled up poncho and pants to try and cover himself as he walked down towards the tents.

“Welcome back, lads,” he said, waving to them, then smirked. “Breeze feel guid?”

Kuna blushed. Lykou rolled his eyes and smirked back. “I’m going to see if I can find something to hang our clothes on to dry out. Kuna’s going to see about finding something to cover up with in the meantime.”

“Aye, should be plenty tae choose from,” the lepne replied, then shot a glare at Kerr. “Bastards certainly ‘collected’ a lot fra travelers and villages tae hoard ‘ere.”

The konuul found a decent spot to hang their clothing near the fire, which he rekindled with some wood stacked nearby. In the meantime, Kuna found a pile of clothing and blankets stacked in one of the other tents. After going through them, he dried himself off with some of the extra clothing, then wrapped himself up in one of the largest blankets he could find. After some more searching, he found a knife and cut two holes in it. He stuck his arms through the holes, then found a spare rope nearby and used it to tie the blanket around his waist, forming the whole thing into a very crude robe of sorts. After Lykou had finished hanging up their own clothing, the sereva helped him create a similar garment for himself with another large blanket.

Once they were both dried and dressed in their crude makeshift clothing, they again joined Faergus in snacking some more. They were both so exhausted that they were tempted to curl up in one of the tents and doze off. But they had no way of knowing if more stray bandits would show up at some point, and in any case they knew the others would be waiting for their return. So after resting up for an hour or so, they reluctantly got up to head out. Luckily, Faergus was more than willing to handle carrying the still-unconscious Kerr, although Lykou still offered what help he could, grabbing the bandit’s one still in-tact arm to help with the load, while Kuna carried their clothing.

*****

It was an awkward and somewhat slow trek back to Kerney, but they eventually arrived in the outskirts. If Kerr woke at any point, he made no indication of it, keeping his eyes closed. A few farmers looked up upon their approach, eyes widening at the sight. Chatter immediately started up and a few of the farmers went or sent members of their family members into the village to spread the word. Soon, a pair of guards hurried over from the walls to help take up the load and check them over for injuries, accompanying them back into the village proper. Once past the walls, two guards carried Kerr away, while a third accompanied them back to the lodge. They could see the caravan’s carts, suffering some damage from the battle, sitting once again outside. Rhagnaid had been standing guard near them, and when she spotted the three, she hurried over to greet them. “Welcome back, lads!” she said, looking them over. “Did ye catch th’ shitebag?”

“Aye, ‘n’ lets jest say Grey will, uh, approve o’ Lykou’s justice,” Faergus said with a wink.

Lykou smiled a bit uneasily and shifted uncomfortably. “Er, yeah… he uh… won’t be causing any more problems.”

“Ach, ye didnae kill ‘em yet did ye?” Raghnaid asked, raising a brow.

“Na, bit ye should see th’ state o’ th’ mawkit bastard,” Faergus replied, snickering. “Wha’s left o’ him anyway.”

Lykou frowned and looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. Kuna wrapped a comforting arm around him. “Can we head on inside? We’re both pretty exhausted.”

“Of course,” Rhag said, leading them over and opening the door for him. As the two passed through, she caught Faergus for a moment and leaned in. “Blood biscuits?” she asked quietly.

“Aye, caught a wee bit o’ the madness,” he replied, with a smirk. “Nae worries tho, he’s weel past it na.”

Ragh nodded and smirked back after a minute. “True warrior efter a’.”

“Aye, bit he didnae tak’ it weel efter. Best be gentle wi’ him.”

The guard nodded and followed Faergus inside.

Once Lykou and Kuna had entered the lodge, with Faergus shortly after them, Clara looked up from helping Moyra tend to the caravan team’s wounds, then raced over to embrace each of the three in turn. “Thank goodness yer okay! Ah wis sae worried when ah heard!” she declared with somewhat teary eyes. “Are ye hurt??”

Kuna rubbed his neck, wincing a bit. “Just sore and exhausted.”

Clara’s eyes widened when she saw the mark. “Kuna, ye poor dear! Whit happened??”

“Bastard nearly killed him,” Lykou said darkly, his eyes narrowed as he glared down at the ground.

“But he didn’t, and you kicked his ass good for me,” Kuna reminded him, smiling and rubbing his friend’s shoulder. He turned back to Clara and held up his arm to indicate the bracer on his wrist. “Luckily this thing saved me.”

The lepne looked a bit confused. “How di’ tha’ protect yer neck?”

“It doesn’t directly. It, er… it’s magical. Makes your fur and skin all woody, and makes you heal faster, but it drains your energy over time, too,” Lykou explained. “I’d show you but-”

Before he could finish, Kuna simply activated his bracers again. “See?” he said, once the transformation was complete.

Clara’s eyes widened as she looked him over. “Wid ye look at tha’!”

“Hey, careful! I can’t imagine you have much energy left, especially after that walk,” Lykou pointed out, grabbing the sereva gently to help him stay steady.

Kuna quickly deactivated the bracers and slumped down against the wall, with the konuul sitting down alongside him. “Yeah, but it was only for a moment. I’m fine,” he said, then his stomach rumbled a bit and he smiled up sheepishly at Clara. “...could maybe use a bit more to eat though if that’s okay.”

“Of course, of course, ah’ll be right back!” Clara said, then bolted off to bring the boys some more food. “Ye too, Faergus?”

“Na, ah’m fine,” Faergus said before picking an empty stool and leaning back against the wall, propping his feet up on the table and looking rather content overall, despite recent events.

“Sae ye got th’ bastard eh?” Gavin called over from across the room, twitching and wincing a little as Moyra used her magic to mend his leg. “Great job, lads!”

“Aye, cheers fer th’ big heroes, Faergus, Lykou, ‘n’ Kuna!” Finlay said, standing up and lifting his cup up in the air. “Long may yer lum reek!”

A round of cheers went up around the room from the gathered lepne, albeit followed by some pained groans and yelps afterwards.

Lykou and Kuna weren’t sure what that last comment meant, but didn’t bother questioning it. They just contently cuddled up together on the floor with tired smiles. “Hey, you all fought hard. You’re all heroes for taking those bandits on too, you know,” Lykou pointed out. “It was a team effort.”

“Ach, bit without you three, we’d never’a seen ‘em comin’! And yer the ones tha’ took down thir big boss.”

“Aye, ‘n’ mibbie ah’m imaginin’ it, bit did ah see ‘im usin’ magic?”

Kuna nodded. “Yeah, he was a… ‘druna’ apparently. And a powerful one.”

Moyra looked up and frowned. “A druna, ye say?” she asked, then tsked and returned to her work. “Nae. He might’ve had magic, but naebody tha’ uses magic fer such foul ends deserves th’ title.”

“Either way, it’s a good thing all three of us went after him. He was tough enough on his own,” Lykou commented.

“And sneaky, too,” Kuna chimed in.

Moyra glanced up again. “Th’ guards ken aboot his magic?”

“Shit, I didn’t think to mention it,” Kuna said, sitting up a bit.

“Dinnae fash yersel’ lad,” Faergus assured him, then turned to Moyra. “He’ll be in no condition ta think straight fer a while, even efter ‘e wakes up.”

The druna’s eyes darted between Faergus and Lykou for a moment, then she shot a questioning look to her mate, with one eyebrow raised. He simply nodded in response. Moyra took a deep breath and finished with Gavin’s leg. Afterwards, she walked over and sat on a stool next to Lykou, then set a hand gently on his shoulder. “Ah’m sorreh ah didnae warn ye, lad. Ah take it ye had a… reaction?” she asked quietly.

The konuul nodded and shivered a bit. “You… could say that.”

“Are ye gonnae be a’right?”

Lykou nodded slightly again after a moment. “I think so,” he said, then looked up at her with a very faint smirk. “No offense though, but I don’t think I’ll have any more of those, uh… ‘biscuits’ of yours.”

She smirked back. “Understandable,” she replied, then held her hand up to stage-whisper to him and Kuna. “Ye kin eat the berries alone fer a wee boost without th’ side-effects, just so ye ken,” she informed them with a wink.

“Good to know,” Kuna replied. Just then, Clara returned with their food and the boys dug in hungrily. She also brought them two cups of a familiar drink. At first, Kuna seemed unsure, but she insisted.

“Efter whit ye been through, jest take it, Kuna,” Faergus said with a grin, gently nudging the sereva.

“Dinnae worry, ah watered it down a wee bit fer ye,” Clara added.

“Thanks, Clara,” Lykou said, then took a big sip. “After that mess, this is exactly what I need.”

Kuna eventually smiled and took a big sip himself. “Yeah, it’s… been a day, alright. Or most of one, anyway. Feels like several though.”

“How is everyone else doing?” Lykou asked, looking around. “Where’s Bhaltair?”

“Everyin’s on th’ mend. Mostly minor wounds, other than Gavin’s leg. Bhaltair’s wi’ th’ chief again,” Clara said, then looked over at Faergus, shooting him a small glare. “Feet, mister.”

Faergus rolled his eyes and smirked as he took his feet off the table. “Fine, fine.”

“That said, ye want a drink, tae?” she asked the night-watcher.

Faergus pondered it for a moment, then shrugged. “Aye, soonds guid. Ah’ll probably git tae kip soon, though,” he replied, followed by a big yawn.

“Oh yeah, you’ve probably had the least sleep of any of us, haven’t you?” Lykou commented.

“Aye,” Faergus replied with a chuckle, then yawned again and stretched. “It’ll be th’ first night ah dinnae see th’ stars in a lang time.”

Moyra walked over and sat next to him. There was some tension and Kuna could tell she wanted to throw her arms around him, but had to keep up appearances. Still, the two exchanged a look and he could see the affection there as she began checking him over for wounds, however small.

A short time later, Bhaltair entered the lodge and as soon as he set eyes on the returned trio, he came over to thank them. “Ah cannae thank ye enough fer savin’ oor skins, lads. Yer pure brilliant heroes. Are ye doin’ okay?” he asked, looking at each of them in turn.

“Yeah, just exhausted,” Kuna replied, leaning against Lykou as he took a bite of his food.

“A few scratches, tis all,” Faergus said. “Ye wis fightin’ along wi’ ‘em langer than ah wis. Well doon keepin’ them bastards busy till th’ rest o’ us arrived. Ye ‘av a guid swing-arm there, Bhaltair. Ye git tha’ hammer in Tannil?”

“Aye, wis a gift fra mi brother back when bandit attacks were more common,” Bhaltair replied. “Bin a while sin’ it last saw use, bit ah’m mighty glad ah kept it near all this time.”

“So what happened back here in Kerney after we left, anyway?” Lykou asked. “How did you deal with the traitor guards?”

“Ach, soon as ye left, Moyra ‘n’ I took Raghnaid aside, ‘n’ Clara too, ta let them ken what was ginnae happen,” Faergus explained. “Rhag wanted tae ‘av their heids right away, bit we convinced her tae wait until they tried somethin’ first, in case there wis any ether traitors among ‘em to show their hand.”

“Aye, luckily t’was jest the three of ‘em,” Rhagnaid chimed in. “Soon as they tried tae start a distraction, Moyra called ‘em on it, ‘n’ ah came ta put ‘em away. Caelan ‘n’ Barabel tried ta fight back, bit Moyra’s magic had ‘em tied. Jock wis smart enough ta surrender right awa’, tho.”

“When chief Grey heard whit was happenin’, he wis ready tae kill ‘em, bit when Rhag ‘n’ ah wis gettin’ a backup team fer the caravan, he insisted oan joinin’ in efter he heard th’ full plot. Even th’ word o’ a druna wasnae enough ta dissuade him fra joinin’ us,” Faergus continued, then chuckled. “Havnae seen tha’ side o’ the chief in many a year.”

“Aye, not sin’ he was a guard hisself. His axe lay quiet ever sin’ he became chief,” Clara said.

“Thas nae entirely true,” Moyra chimed in. “He always practiced wi’ it ‘n’ kept it sharp, jest quiet-like, a few times a week, usually at night. Ye kin take th’ chief oot o’ the guard, bit ye cannae tak’ the guard oot o’ th’ chief,” she mused with a faint smirk.

“It really showed. Never expected to see that from him,” Lykou said. “He’s quite an impressive fighter.”

“Always was. Th’ fact tha’ ye never ken it ‘till tis needed is howfer ye ken he’s a guid chieftan,” Moyra pointed out.

“He obviously took th’ plot pers’nally, tae,” Faergus added. “Kerr dinnae ken who he messed wi’.”

“I’m just glad you all showed up when you did. It was getting… bad,” Kuna said with a shiver.

“Ach, ye wis doin’ fine,” Faergus assured him. “Impressive, even, unner the circumstances.”

At that moment, the door again swung open, and the chieftan walked in, flanked by another pair of guards. He had a far more serious expression than the boys had seen on him previously in the village, but it lightened when he saw them. He smiled and propped his hands up on the head of his freshly-cleaned axe, somewhat like a cane. “Faerhgus. Lykou. Kuna. Ah’ll have a proper acknowledgement fer ye tomorrae mornin’, bit ah had ta come thank ye persn’ally fer catchin’ that bastard,” he said, then arched a brow and smirked at Lykou. “AND fer givin’ him a taste o’ his comin’ justice.”

Lykou smiled back a bit uncomfortably and rubbed his arm. Kuna looked over and squeezed him gently. Faergus raised his cup to the chief. “Here’s ta showin’ ‘em bandits what fer!”

The other lepne in the room raised their cups as well and let out a round of cheers.

Grey nodded and looked around at the others. “’n’ ah wantae both thank ye fer all yer help, as well as… apologize,” he said, then took a deep breath. “Seein’ as some o’ mah own clan were traitorous bastards tha’ tried ta be a part o’ bringin’ harm ta ye, th’ responsibility fer their actions falls on me. Rest assured that any left alive will ken harsh justice soon, ‘n’ ye’ll be compensated fer yer trouble.” Bhaltair began to object, but Grey held up a hand. “Ah insist. Again, thank ye all fer yer commendable bravery.”

“Thank YOU for the save,” Lykou spoke up. “It was an honor to fight by your side, s-, er, Grey. That’s a nice axe you have, by the way.”

The chief grinned at the konuul. “Aye, tis a link to mah roots ah’ll ne’er forget. Ah hate ta need it, bit ah’m glad tae ‘av it,” he said, then straightened up. “Ah need ta tak’ care o’ some things. Rest well, all o’ ya. Stay ‘n’ recover in Kerney as lang as ye need. Ah’ll se ye in the mornin’.”

Everyone bade the chief farewell as he turned and left, with the other guards in tow. He told Raghnaid to stay with the group- officially as part of her guard duty and to help the others with anything they needed, but he let her know she should unwind a bit as well. Everyone chatted well into the evening, with Lykou and Kuna staying cuddled up by the wall for most of it, until eventually they excused themselves and went to bed. They were fast asleep together almost as soon as their heads were down and they were under the blanket.

*****

The of prisoners were being held in a simple stone building with only a few small barred windows in it, and a single door sealed with an exterior barricade that could be lifted and shut by the two lepne standing guard outside. Most of the captured bandits sat around, looking glum and nursing various injuries. The worst of their wounds had been mercifully patched up just enough that they wouldn’t die from them, but otherwise they were still in varying levels of not-insignificant pain. Jock had been mildly spared and put in a different hut, awaiting punishment for his part in the plot, even if he didn’t fully follow through with it.

At the back of the holding cell, a disfigured and bloody mess of a lepne slowly sat up without making much sound. Unlike the others, he didn’t groan. He just took a long, slow breath, wincing slightly at the pain in his chest from doing so. A few of the others looked over and tried to speak to him, but he ignored them, instead staring off into space, one eye still blinded from his experience. After a while, the few other prisoners that bothered speaking to him gave up and went back to nursing their own pains. Eventually, once the moon was high in the night sky and the others were all sound asleep, he subtly conjured up his magic and began slowly patching himself up without a sound. He considered focusing on trying to restore his missing forearm first, but decided to hold off and deal with his remaining internal injuries, first. Slowly, his mind churned as he gradually patched himself up in the darkness, keeping his glowing hand hidden under his shirt.

Chapter Text

After the violent events of the previous day, the caravan crew slept in late, even Bhaltair. The only ones to rise at a more normal time were Lykou and Kuna, due to having gone to bed earlir, and they weren’t in any hurry to do much. Indeed, hearing the quiet in the main area of the lodge, they decided to linger in the storage room and cuddle until they heard the lepne stirring. By the time they finally came out, Ealar and Effie were sitting at one of the tables and Clara had just finished bringing them some food. The others were either still asleep or just starting to get out of bed. Gavin, in particular, was snoring away softly. Everyone was more or less healed up from the ordeal, but he’d had the most to recover from, so he was getting all the sleep he could, and the others were content to keep their voices low for him.

Eventually, once everyone was finally awake and fed, Bhaltair checked around with everyone, to see if they were ready to set out again. He assured them all they could stay one more day if necessary, but everyone was eager to resume traveling- especially now that the bandits were thoroughly dealt with.

“As much as I like Kerney, Kuna and I do need to get back to our own journey, too. So we’re ready to go pretty much whenever you are,” Lykou said.

“Aye, ah kin imagine ye must be mighty eager tae git back hame,” Gavin replied. “Dinnae worry lad, we’ll mak’ guid time when we git oan th’ road, now tha’ we ken its much safer.”

“Well there’s no need to rush, either,” the konuul reassured the lepne. “We enjoy you guys’ company, too. And after yesterday, taking it easy traveling the hills sounds nice.”

“True. ‘n’ the road tae Whitlan is bonny nice this time o’ year,” Ealar agreed.

“It’s settled then. Wi’ll pack up ‘n’ heid oot efter everyin’s doon wi’ breakfast,” Bhaltair said.

Just then, the door opened, and Raghnaid stepped in and greeted everyone. “Friends, members of the Dunnyhill trade gang, ye’ve a’ bin summoned tae a ceremony en th’ village circle. Kin ye be there in an hour?”

After some brief conversing among those present, Bhaltair spoke up, “Ah think we kin be ready in half that, in fact. Tell Grey wi’ll be right over, soon’s we finish packin’.”

Ragh nodded and smiled. “See ye there, then,” she said, then turned and left. The crew quickly finished their breakfasts and packed up what little wasn’t already stowed away. Lykou and Kuna fetched their things again as well, and soon everyone left the lodge, with Clara following along with them. Kuna anxiously clung close to Lykou, noticing that seemingly every lepne in the village had set aside their daily routine to come to whatever ceremony the chief had planned.

They were eventually led to a large, circular opening between buildings, with a wooden platform in the middle. The caravaneers, along with Lykou and Kuna, were led up onto the stage, where they met up with Grey, Faergus, and Moyra. The crowd gradually built up, filling in the space around the stage. With some shuffling around, the group on stage was arranged in a neat line. Kuna didn’t like that he stood out so much more without the lepne to at least partially hide behind, but at least he was able to stay close to Lykou.

Finally, the chief stepped forward and raised his hands up, bringing a hush to the previously noisy crowd. “Ah’m sure many o’ ye are confused tae see the Dunnyhill gang ‘n’ our outsider friends up here, when we only jest bid them farewell yesterdae morn’. Some o’ ye ken what happened, bit fer the rest o’ ye, ah’ll explain,” he began, then took a deep breath, slowly pacing back and forth across the stage as he continued. “Bandits use tae be a much bigger problem back afore folk formed th’ caravans, like thase fine folk. Since then, wi’ th’ extra protection, they bin getting’ shyer fra attackin’.”

He paused to sigh, his expression falling to a frown. “Or sae we thought. Y’see, it turns oot, they wis jest plannin’ somethin’ much bigger and mair despicable a’ alang. A leader o’ theirs- a rogue druna, na less, wis plannin’ tae start an ol-fashioned clan war between the villages o’ thae hills by attackin’ these folk and pinnin’ it oan oor friends in Tannil!” The crowd erupted into gasps and chatter for a minute before he held up his hands to continue. “Tha’s right, a rogue druna by th’ name o’ Kerr were workin’ on this big plan, ‘n’ tragically… even some o’ our oon wis involved in th’ plot.”

The crowd grew even noisier this time, and it took a few minutes to calm them down. Moyra eventually took a small step forward and cleared her throat- which caused everyone to near-instantly fall silent. She stepped back again and allowed the chief to continue. “Fortunately, th’ plot wis foiled. Moyra ‘n’ Faergus here,” he said, gesturing to the two. Faergus grinned and waved to the crowd, while Moyra simply nodded with the subtlest of smiles. “Began tae suspect th’ bandits were up tae somethin’ and began investigatin’ a few days ago. ‘n’ then, jest recently, these fine lads fra a far away land,” he continued, turning to gesture to Lykou and Kuna. “Lykou and Kuna, volunteered tae risk their lives ta help them investigate further. ‘n’ once the plot wis uncovered, rather than simpleh rattin’ oot the traitors ‘n’ riskin’ losin’ th’ rest, they took it upon themselves to hatch a counter-plan, ultimately with th’ help o’ the very caravan the bandits planned oon attackin’.” He gestured broadly to the rest of the caravan crew.

“Yesterday, they turned th’ ambush oan its heid, usin’ it as a trap tae mak’ sure e’ery last bandit wis thoroughly dealt wi’, while Moyra and Faergus stayed behind tae mak’ sure the traitors here wis all sussed out and caught before we sent reinforcements ta the caravan. Needless ta say, everyin’ fought bravely, ‘n’ thae hills are doon a coupla dozen bandits,” he announced, to raucous cheering. “AND, when their craven leader slipped away at th’ end o’ the battle, Lykou, Kuna, and Faergus ran efter ‘im, caught ‘im at their oon camp, ‘n’ gave ‘im a laldy thrashin’ that will go doon in legend!” he added, chuckling a bit as everyone applauded and cheered some more.

Finally, he gestured to Raghnaid, who walked up onto the stage carrying a stack of some kind of colorful fabric garments. “’n’ that es how todae, it is mah honor, as chief o’ Kerney, tae present these brave fellows wi’ these sashes o’ distinction and declare them honorary members o’ clan Greenrun, ‘n’ heroes o’ th’ rollin’ hills o’ Clovaria!” he said, as Raghnaid and Moyra began to hang the beautiful sashes over each individual while the crowd continued to applaud. Faergus, Lykou, and Kuna were given ornate pins on top of their sashes, which Raghnaid helped them fasten on. Kuna was intensely uncomfortable from all the attention, but Lykou wrapped an arm around him to comfort him, beaming out at the crowd.

Once the sashes were distributed, Grey again held up his hands for quiet. “In addition ta recognizing these heroes, ah hav’ another wee surprise fer everyin’. Ah may be the chieftan, bit we all ken th’ druna has final word in thaes hills. ‘n’ all o’ this wouldnae be possible without oor own Moyra’s cunnin’ ‘n’ wisdom. Ah ken she willnae accept the same kind o’ decorations as we gie’ th’ others up here, bit ah’v one she might,” he said, shooting a brief look over at the somewhat surprised druna. “But tis nae my place ta present.”

The last comment sent a murmur of confusion around the crowd, and even Moyra seemed perplexed.

“Now ye see, ah ken whit ye all kin- oor druna es lik’ most druna oan th’ ootside- aloof, wise, mysterious, ‘n’ a wee bit intimidatin’. Okay… mibbie moar than a wee bit, sometimes,” he added with a chuckle, earning a murmur of laughter from the crowd as he smiled over at Moyra. For her part, the druna just stared at him with uncertainty and mild amusement. She was trying to maintain her air of control and restraint, but she allowed herself to smirk at the comments. “Bit we all ken she ‘as a big heart unner it a’. ‘n’ as it turns oot, ‘n’ some sleekit bastard went ‘n’ snuck in tha’ heart, jest like he’s always sneakin’ aroond thae hills at night. So withoot further delay, ah’d lik’ ta let ‘im speak fer himself.”

Moyra already saw where this was going, but couldn’t believe it. Her aloof facade was rapidly failing as her face flushed and she watched Faergus step forward and turn to her. “Ah’v bin doin’ th’ night patrollin’ fer a lang while noo. ‘n’ ah enjoyed it. Bit efter the violence yesterdae ‘n’ kennin’ tha’ the bandits ken better than mess wi’ Kerney or her friends fer a good lang time, ah think it’s time fer a change. Ah ken es na exactly typical en thaes hills, bit ye wis ne’er truly a typical druna, either, aye?” he said, also a bit flushed, but grinning big as he pulled a decorative bracelet out of his bag. “Moyra, wid ye do me th’ honor o’ bein’ mah heart-bound mate?”

Moyra glanced back and forth in flustered disbelief between Faergus, the chief, and the crowd for a moment. Then, suddenly, a grin spread across her face and she grabbed him up into a big kiss, tears of happiness peeking out of the corner of her eyes. The crowd roared with cheers. “Aye, dammit,” she declared after finally pulling back. Faergus helped slide the bracelet onto her wrist after catching his breath, beaming with happiness.

“A ceremony will be held at th’ end o’ th’ week!” Grey announced quickly before the crowd could drown out his voice.

After a few moments, Moyra’s smile transitioned to a smirk and she turned towards the crowd with narrows eyes and she pointed at them, silencing them for a moment. “Bit efter th’ ceremony, ah’m still intimidatin’ as far as yer all concerned, ye ken?” she chastised them all playfully.

“We ken!” the crowd retorted more or less in unison before returning to their previous noisy celebration.

“Guid,” she said, then turned back to embrace and kiss Faergus again.

On the other side of the stage, Lykou grinned and leaned over to Kuna. “This is without a doubt the best place we’ve been to so far,” he commented.

“Yeah… I’m inclined to agree,” Kuna replied, similarly amused and delighted by the turn of events.

*****

After the award ceremony broke up and people went back to their daily routines, the caravan- including Lykou and Kuna- again began their farewells to Kerney and its residents. Moyra and Faergus were practically inseparable, and the former was uncharacteristically a bit giddy with delight. Still, she bid everyone a fond farewell and wished the boys luck, again thanking them for all their help. She reminded Kuna to seek an audience with the High Druna in Whitlan. She did warn him that the rest of the druna council would likely want to see him as well.

“Th-the whole council?” Kuna nervously asked, clearly anxious at the idea.

“Aye, bit dinnae worry, Kuna. Yer more than deserving o’ tha’ audience,” she said, gently rubbing his arm. “An’ fer all their mighty, aloof airs, they’re still guid people.”

“’N’ none o’ ‘em e’er took doon a rogue druna-”

“Magic abuser,” Moyra corrected.

“Aye, that. None o’ ‘em ‘av doon anythin’ like tha’, bit ye two ‘av. So ye kin always brag aboot tha’ if ye feel a wee bit intimidated,” Faergus pointed out with a wink, playfully nudging Kuna.

Kuna’s anxious look briefly gave way to a slightly bemused one. “Have we met? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly the ‘braggy’ type.”

“We’ll work on that,” Lykou said with a grin, wrapping his arm around the sereva. “Got a few days to practice on the way to Whitlan, from what Gavin said.”

“Exactly!” Faergus said with a chuckle.

“Ye’ll enjoy th’ garden as weel, Kuna, trust me,” Moyra assured him. “Ah went as a lass, t’was a breathtakin’ place.”

Kuna perked up a bit at that. “Well, I guess that does sound pretty nice. Maybe I’ll see some interesting plants I can learn to copy.”

“Possibly!” Moyra agreed.

“Shame ye cannae stick aroond fer our ceremony, bit ah kin imagine ye must be getting’ a mighty itch tae git back oan yer journey.”

“Yeah,” Lykou said, taking a deep breath and rubbing his neck. “Much as I’d like to stick around, every day that passes reminds me there’s a bunch of friends and family out there maybe thinking I’m dead, or else wondering where I vanished to. So I’d really like to get back on the path home as soon as possible.”

Kuna smiled and hugged him tightly. “And we’re going to get you there before you know it.”

“Ye best listen tae yer druna now,” Moyra playfully said to the konuul.

Lykou grinned and squeezed Kuna. “Always. Come on, Kuna, lets see if they need any help with the carts.”

“Okay,” Kuna replied, then turned back to Moyra and Faergus. After a moment’s hesitation, he quickly moved in to hug them both. “Congrats you two, and thanks. It was great meeting you both and I hope we see each other again some day.”

“Aye, likewise lad,” Faergus replied, patting the sereva on the back.

Moyra lifted his flower crown briefly to tussle his hair playfully before replacing it. “Ah dinnae doubt fer a moment we will. Take care, Kuna.”

*****

As the caravan crew prepared to depart for a second time, a much darker atmosphere hung over the dimly-lit space of Kerney’s crude jail. None of the bandits were particularly talkative. The ones that’d been in the fight sulked in their respective spaces, nursing their various painful injuries. The two guard conspirators were the only ones showing any sign of life.

“Sae much fer rulin’ th’ hills,” Caelan muttered, breaking the silence that’d lingered since the others were first brought in.

“Aye, guess th’ mighty ‘Dark Druna o’ the Hills’ wasnae as unstoppable as we thought,” Barabel replied, glaring at the silent former leader laying on the floor, facing the wall.

“’least he didnae fold th’ minute things looked tough,” the former remarked. “Bet Jock es o’er there on ‘is hands ‘n’ knees beggin’ lik’ a wee bairn.”

Caelan spat and grumbled. “Most likely. ‘least thaes eejits put up a fight,” he said, then turned to one of the others curled up on the floor. several feet away. “Oy. You. Whit wis yer name agin’? Di’ ye at least kill one er two o’ ‘em?”

The lepne in question in question didn’t respond, so he stretched his leg over and kicked their side roughly. “Ach, ah’m talkin’ ta ye. Ye slept enoof. Wake up.”

Still, the lepne didn’t respond. Several of the others looked up, curious to see what would happen. Any sympathy they might have had for their fellow was overshadowed by self-preservation. They’d had plenty of violence already and were just relieved they weren’t about to be the target of it.

Caelan got up and trudged over, then kicked the unresponsive lepne again, a little harder. “Ah said, git up. Did ye at least spill some blood?”

Still, the figure didn’t stir. Calean scowled. “Oy! Wake up afore yer th’ one losin’ more blood!” After a moment, he hauled back and kicked the bandit as hard as he could. The impact rolled the figure over and everyone let out a gasp. Caelan suddenly looked pale as he stumbled over backwards, scrabbling away from the sight. The lepne in question was very clearly dead- with a large, noticeable chunk of their neck missing. Oddly, there was no sign of any blood spilled anywhere.

“TAE FUCK ES THIS?!” Caelan blurted out.

“Did thaes sick bastards stick us wi’ one o’ oor dead fra the ambush?!” one of the others blurted out.

“Ah… dinnae remember anyin’ takin’ a hit lik’ tha’…” another chimed in, pressing herself back into the corner as far away from the corpse as possible.

“Ach, ye cannae see everythin’ in battle. Ah widnae put it past th’ bone-chewer,” another grumbled. “Still fookt fer them ta leave it in here wi’ us, tho!”

“Oy, ye shet yer damn weesht in there!” a guard shouted in from the small barred window at the door, thumping on the door itself to emphasize the point.

Barabel got up and charged over, giving the door a swift kick. “Yer th’ ones tha’ left a damn corpse in ‘ere wi’ us! Yer hilarious, ye ken tha?!”

“Ah said shut-” the guard started to reply, but then paused as he conversed with another guard. “...whit dae ye mean, ‘corpse’?” he asked suspiciously. “One o’ ye kill yer own a’ready?”

“Dinnae play stupid, ye brought one o’ the dead fra the field ‘n’ left ‘em here, prolly jest to spook us!” Barabel said, kicking the door again.

There was another conversation at the door, then the other guard spoke up, “Step away fra the door. We’re comin’ in. Any o’ ye so much as flinches withoot permission, yer fertilizin’ the fields, ye ken?”

Barabel grumbled and reluctantly stepped back. “Whatever. Fine.” She and Caelan sat back down well away from the door, glaring daggers at the guards as it opened up and they stepped through, weapons raised. Having been former guards themselves, they knew very well it was no bluff. It was only on Moyra’s good graces they hadn’t already been executed in a very bloody manner.

One guard kept watch on the prisoners while the other inspected the body. Her eyes shot wide open at the site and she looked around suspiciously. “Right, which one o’ ye did thaes?”

“Very funny. We ken ye brought ‘em fra th’ battle jest tae fuck wi’ us,” Caelan accused.

The first guard took a step towards Caelan and shoved the tip of a long, sharp halberd under his chin. “Watch yer tongue or ye’ll be joinin’ ‘em. Did ye do this?”

“...nae. Ah didnae do it. Ah’m na covered in blood, am ah?”

“None o’ us a’. Tak’ a look aroond,” Barabel invited, gesturing to the cell. “Thir’s nae splatter. Most o’ these sorry shites arenae in any condition ta dae such a thing anyway. We jest foond ‘im lik’ tha’. How are ye playin’ thaes games wi’ us?”

The guards looked around, then exchanged a look. The one that’d been inspecting the corpse sighed and reluctantly lifted the body to begin carrying it out. “All o’ ye best watch yersel’,” the other warned, then slowly followed the other guard out, sealing the door behind them.

“...ah dinnae think they ken anythin’ aboot it,” one of the bandits commented after a minute. “’n’ tha’ didnae look lik’ any blade-cut.”

“Oh shut it, ye tadger,” Barabel snapped. “They’re jest fuckin wi’ us. Dinnae play alang wi’ it.”

“...aye,” Caelan agreed after a moment, though there wasn’t as much conviction behind his voice as he looked around at his various injured, miserable looking fellow prisoners. “Jest fuckin’ aroond…”

*****

The guards hurriedly stuffed the body into a small storage shed and blocked it off for the time being. One of them waved over another passing guard returning from the award ceremony. “Goan tell Grey we ‘av a situation. Shouldnae be too serious, probably the prisoners jest tryin’ some shite wi’ each other, bit somethin’ seems off ‘n’ he should see fer himself.”

The other guard nodded, then rushed off to fetch the chieftan. A short time later, Grey showed up, looking decidedly nonplussed. “Whit’s this aboot? Ah hope tis a guid reason ta ruin’ mah mood sae early.”

“Sorry sir, bit… well, ‘av a look,” the guards said, showing him to the body in the shed. “We jest foond I’m in the cell like tha’, bit there wasnae enny blood anywhere.”

“Aye, ‘n’ they wis accusin’ us o’ stickin’ a body fra th’ battlefield in wi’ ‘em.”

Grey narrowed his eyes and shot a suspicious glare at the holding cell, thinking for a minute. “...keep a claise eye oon ‘em. Listen fer anythin’ suspicious, ‘n’ check in every hour or sae. Ah’ll send ye some backup, jest in case’.”

“Should we ask Moyra aboot it? She’ll be able ta see if thir’s somethin’ streenge afoot,” one guard asked.

“Nae, na todae. Let ‘er enjoy herself wi’ Faergus. Ah’ll mention it tae her later if anythin’ else comes up. But fer noo, jest stay alert.”

“Sir?” the guard asked, quirking a brow. “Faergus?”

Grey smirked and patted them both on the shoulders. “Ye’ll hear aboot it later, dinnae worry. Somethin’ ta look forward ta efter yer watch.”

“Aye, sir,” the guards both said in unison, sharing a grin as the chief walked away again.

Meanwhile, back in the cell, Kerr, who’d remained silent and still the entire time, continued subtly drawing strange symbols in the dirt on the floor with his remaining hand. His half-blind, cloudy eyes stared blankly at the wall. An otherwise parched tongue briefly licked some lingering blood off his now very jagged, half-broken teeth as his mind churned in silence.

*****

The caravan set out around noon. They knew they’d end up camping out in wilderness before long, but luckily the Dunnyhill gang were experienced enough travelers that they knew of many good spots to do so along the road. The mood briefly turned somber as they passed the site of the ambush, but quickly bounced back a short time later as Lykou insisted on taking over for Finlay so that he could play them some music. By the time they did finally make camp on that first night, they’d made good time despite taking a fairly casual pace.

While the caravan had a couple tents, they were mostly used to sleeping under the stars, since the small tents tended to get rather cramped with all of them sharing the space. They mostly had them in case it looked like rain was approaching. As the group sat around a good sized campfire at dusk, Kuna pointed out he could always use his magic to add an extra shelter or two, albeit smallish crude ones, if necessary.

“Tis mighty decent o’ ye, lad, bit we’re fine fer noo,” Bhaltair said.

“Besides, tis a beautiful night,” Ealar commented, looking up at the stars. “Almost a full moon, looks lik’.”

“Aye, almoost. Aboot three mair days, ah believe,” Effie chimed in.

“Alwis love these nights oot on th’ road,” Finlay commented as he idly picked at his pridlin. “Oot in th’ open air, stars creepin’ overheid, sittin’ by a warm campfire…”

Kuna smiled and enjoyed the music, then perked up and turned to Lykou after a moment. “Oh, speaking of stars… we need to re-cast that spell again, Kou.”

“Oh, yeah, good point,” Lykou said, taking the sereva’s hand with a smile. He then turned to the others. “You guys wanna see some fancy magic?”

Kuna folded his ears down bashfully. “S’not that impressive… just some silly lights…”

“Oh come on, you know it is. You certainly thought it was impressive when you first did it, too, y’know,” the konuul reminded him.

“Ye gonnae grow somethin’ interestin’ lad?” Gavin asked curiously.

“...not that kind of magic,” Kuna said, looking away with a small grin. “...it’s star magic.”

“Star magic, ye say?” Finlay asked, pausing from his music.

“Whit’s that?” Effie chimed in curiously.

“Well now you’ve certainly gotten their attention,” Lykou pointed out with a grin, squeezing his friend’s hand gently. “Go on.”

Kuna sighed and rolled his eyes up for a moment. He didn’t want to admit it, but a small part of him was excited to show it off, especially with the stars out and clearly visible. “Alright… here goes,” he said, then straightened up and sketched the symbols in the dirt before manifesting the blue glow around his hands. Even that was enough to warrant a couple gasps from the lepne. But when he ignited the drawings and caused the light to appear and leap up to the stars, then dance around from one to another off into the distance, they all gawked at him and Ealar dropped the radish he’d been eating.

Once the spell was complete, Kuna followed through with holding his hand up to the sky until the star path was duplicated on the back of his hand. With that out of the way, he brought his hand back down and grinned somewhat bashfully. “...ta-da?”

The lepne stared at him in wide-eyed silence for a somewhat uncomfortable minute. Finally, Effie broke it as she broke into a big grin. “Pure dead brilliant, that.”

“Ah’ll say,” Bhaltair agreed. “Yer headin’ ta see the council when ye get ta Whitlan, aye?”

Kuna shyly nodded. “Y-yeah, Moyra said I should.”

“Damn right ye should,” Gavin agreed. “Even Moyra cannae dae tha’.”

“Wellll… actually, now she can,” Kuna replied, looking away with a coy expression.

“...aye?”

“She and I uh. Taught each other a couple things,” the sereva informed them with a grin.

“Fuck yeah you did,” Lykou said, rubbing his head softly. “I told you it was impressive.”

“Ah bin ta th’ druna council’s garden afore, ah’ll be glad ta take ye pers’nally if ye lik’,” Ealar volunteered with a big grin. “Tis a big toun, ‘n’ ah ken ye dinnae lik’ th’ crowds, sae ah kin show ye th’ quietest way.”

“S-sounds good, thanks Ealar,” Kuna replied. “But uh… h-how big is Whitlan, exactly? What’s a… ‘toun’?”

“Ach, right, yer na used tae bigger villages,” Bhaltair said. “Weel… ye’ll see when ye get there.”

“Tis quite a sight, too,” Finlay pointed out. “Biggest trees in all thaes hills growin’ right in the middle.”

“Tis th’ council’s sanctum,” Effie explained. “Think Moyra’s place, bit… bigger.”

“Tha’s an understatement,” Ealar said, whistling. “Nae disrespect ta her, bit the council’s sanctum mak’ her hame look lik’ a wee flowerpot.”

“Aye, bit honestly thas whit ah lik’ aboot her,” Finlay chimed in. “Even unner tha’ guise o’ hers, she wis alwis one o’ the mair humble drunas.”

“True. She’s a class lady, her,” Bhaltair agreed. “Ah’m happy she’s breakin’ wi’ stupid rules ta be wi’ Faergus. They baith deserve it.”

“Cheers to that,” Lykou suggested, remembering how he’d heard the word used before as he raised his waterskin, then took a sip. The lepne all agreed and did similar with their various water jugs or cups.

The group sat around and continued chatting for a while, but finally everyone started to get sleepy and agreed it was time for bed. As everyone else was dozing off for the night, Ealar, Finlay, and Effie worked together to make sure the carts were secure for the night, before turning to get in bed themselves. The three grinned and shared a look after catching a glance at the sereva and konuul cuddled up together under their shared blanket.

“Thaes two sure look-” Ealar whispered to them, but then Effie shushed him.

“We all ken, bit let’s na jump tae conclusions,” she reminded him.

“Aye, if tis somethin mair there, let ‘em figure it oot on thir oon,” Finlay added. “’n’ if na, tis a very special friendship, ‘n’ tha’s bonny enoof.”

*****

Back in Kerney, as the village slumbered, Kerr stirred. The other prisoners were asleep again, having had their meager evening meal and been given an extra day before Grey felt like dealing with them. The former bandit lord slowly rose from his spot on the ground and manifested his magic. Again, he set to slowly healing himself. His face and torso were almost completely restored, though his vision remained cloudy and he’d yet to address his missing arm. The time for that was coming, but first, he needed… energy. And the scraps they’d been begrudgingly fed were hardly enough to sufficiently restore his reserves.

He looked over the mostly-battered lepne sharing the cell with him and sized them up one at a time, mostly using his magical senses. After a few minutes, he made his choice and quietly approached one of the slumbering, bruised bandits, then knelt down beside him.

A few hours later, there was another fresh corpse laying in the room, turned in such a way as to hide a gaping wound, as well as a missing arm. And Kerr was laying back in his usual spot, facing the wall, licking blood from his lips as he prepared to doze off again. But before he did, he suddenly sat up again and looked around as a faint voice whispered to him, seemingly from all directions at once.

“...aye. Sae ye do exist, ah see,” he quietly replied. More whispers came to him as a pair of ambiguous crimson figures faintly shimmered in and out of sight on either side of him. “Aye… aye,” he answered to secret questions. Slowly a crooked grin spread across his face. “Aye. Ah’ll do it then. Ah kin wait tha’ lang.”

Eventually, the entities faded from sight and he took a deep breath, listening for any signs that any of the others had awoken. When he was sure they hadn’t, he laid back down himself and dozed off with a new plot churning in his mind.

Chapter Text

“Whit tae fuck is goin’ oan aroond here?!” Caelan demanded, mildly panicked. It was early in the morning the next day, and he had just discovered another corpse. If there were any prisoners still sleeping, his outburst ensured that their slumber came to an end.

“Agin?!” Barabel responded upon seeing the dead body. “Whit, are they sneakin’ ‘em in ‘ere efter we’re asleep jest ta mess wi’ us?!”

“Shut it in there!” the guard shouted through the door, thumping it loudly. “Tis too earleh fer yer shite!”

“Yer a fine one tae talk! Ye put another damn corpse in here efter we wis asleep!” Caelan accused. “Thaes es sick!”

There was a moment of silence, followed by the sound of the barricade being moved. “We’re comin’ in. Any o’ ya na’ sittin’ or layin’ doon well away fra th’ door is a dead lepne, unnerstan?”

Caelan and Barabel grumbled and walked back to sit against the wall. “Aye, fine,” Barabel snapped. “Yer damn fookt fer doin’ this tho.”

The door opened and a trio of guards walked in. Two of them kept an eye on the prisoners, weapons at the ready to cut down anyone that made a sudden movement. The third immediately spotted the body and went to examine it. She looked up afterwards and glared at the prisoners. “Right. If one o’ ye don’t fess up, none o’ ye eatin’ todae.”

“Whit tae fuck are ye talkin’ aboot?!” Caelan demanded. “Do ye see enny blood?!”

“Fer how are ye doin’ this? Ah git we’re prisoners ‘n’ ye wantae punish us, but this is a fookt punishment if tha’s yer game!” Barabel added.

“Aye, jest put us in th’ fields or get ta hangin’ us a’ready, none o’ this mind game shite!” one of the bandits pled.

The guards exchanged a look, then the one that investigated the body began carrying it out. “Right, time fer interrogations. When the chief is up, yer gonna regret yer behavior. Best start askin’ th’ spirits fer mercy, ‘cus he’ll ‘av none fer yer sorry arses,” one of the others said before he and the other followed her out the door.

“Ah’m sae tired o’ these mind games,” Barabel grumbled, punching the wall next to her lightly in frustration.

In the corner, Dougal, who’d done his best to keep a low profile and avoid attention, curled up and eyed each of the other prisoners nervously. “Somethin’ na right, here,” he finally said, quietly.

“Whit wis tha’, trade-boy?” Caelan asked, quirking a brow.

“Look, ah ken we never really got ta ken each other ver’ weel, us Kerney folk ‘n’ the others, bit there wis nine o’ us in here originally- ten, efter Kerr wis brought in. ‘n’ all o’ us wis breathin’- mibbie in a bad way, but ver’ much alive, ‘n’ na bleedin’ or anythin’,” Dougal continued, looking around warily. “Ah wisn’t payin’ attention ta who wis who, but count agin’. Thir’s two less o’ us. Them bodies wis freish.”

“Ah, shet yer-” Caelan started, but then one of the others interjected.

“Th’ bastard’s right,” said one of the bandits, sitting up and looking around nervously. “There wis onleh six o’ us tha’ survived th’ ambush. ‘n’ they made sure we wis well enoof to walk back afore they brought us.”

Barabel looked around and counted everyone. “… six, seven, eight…” Her tough expression started to slip slightly. “Caelan, they’re right...”

“Someone must ha’ jest miscounted, obviously,” Caelan suggested, though he, too, was starting to seem a bit uncertain. “Ah mean, otherwise, that’d mean-”

“One ‘o us is upty something dreich as fuck,” one of the bandits suggested. Everyone eyed one another suspiciously as an uncomfortable and ominous silence fell over the group. Each individual slowly made sure to put as much distance between themselves and everyone else as they could.

Suddenly, Caelan’s gaze drifted over towards the only one that hadn’t spoken or moved the entire time- Kerr. Their former boss had remained by the wall, facing it, for most of the time they’d been in there. “Oy, ‘druna’, ye still breathin’ over there?”

The others likewise turned their attention to the silent heap laying by the wall.

“Ach, dinnae bother, he wis th’ most fookt up o’ anyone when he got ‘ere,” Barabel commented.

Caelan shot her a brief glare before turning his gaze back to the bandit lord. “Kerr. Wake up, ya false shite. Dinnae think ah’m still scared o’ ye. Ah seen whit they did tae ya,” he said, standing up.

Still, there was no response.

Caelan gritted his teeth and slowly walked towards him, even as Dougal and a few of the others shrank back nervously. “If yer tryin’ ta reassert yer dominance wi’ a creepy act, ah swear ah’ll-” he started, then suddenly froze in place and clutched at his throat, his eyes widening in a panic as he found himself unable to breath.

Slowly, Kerr sat up in an almost unnaturally smooth motion. He then stood and turned around, revealing his nearly fully-healed body, though one arm didn’t quite seem to match the other right, and he’d left various scars visible on his flesh. And his eyes remained cloudy. Most of all, his hands were glowing with magic again. “Or ye’ll what, friend?”

His victim clawed at his throat and slowly sank to his knees, unable to grasp what was happening.

“Ye should really be mair careful chewin’ yer food. Tha’ scran fra last night ‘ad seeds in it, ye ken,” Kerr said darkly.

Caelan’s eyes rolled up and he slumped over. Barabel got up to confront the bandit lord while he was seemingly distracted, but then froze and clutched her stomach right before she was about to kick him. His eyes glided over to her. “Ye ‘ad th’ same thing, aye? Everyin did.”

Suddenly, both victims exploded in a bloody shower of gore as large, thorny plants burst out from their torsos, killing them as they were rooted to the ground. One of the bandits panicked and ran for the door to call for the guards, but suddenly he suffered a similarly violent, yet eerily quiet fate, his blood fertilizing the very same twisted rooty plant that now stood where he’d been.

The rest of the prisoners cowered in their respective corners, trying to avoid the dark druna’s attention as he slowly walked over to where Caelan’s remains laid in a mess around the base of the new plant. After standing there for a moment, he bent down and picked up a piece of the former lepne, then began thirstily licking and drinking the blood from it. His eyes scanned the room, observing the terrified lepne that shared the space with him.

“Ah see th’ rest o’ ye still ‘av yer survival instincts,” he commented, before taking a bite out of the bloody flesh he was holding. After swallowing, he continued. “Guid. If ye survive the chieftan’s judgement ‘n’ still ‘av the spine fer it, ah’ll be oot in thae hills agin’ a year fra noo wi’ a new plan. Ah ‘av a new friend ta work it oot wi’, bit it’ll tak’ a while,” he said. Suddenly, a whispy red entity appeared, slowly floating around him. After a moment it faded behind him. His own eyes turned a dark shade of crimson and a set of subtle spikes grew from his head. “Wi’ll be back in a year. Try na tae die withoot mah permission, aye?” he added, with a crooked grin, his voice distorted and twisted, seemingly combined with a second, somewhat ethereal one. He then cackled as a plethora of twisted, diseased looking thick roots shot up from the ground, swallowing him up, then buried themselves again, taking him with them.

*****

After a few days of travel, the Dunnyhill caravan finally came within sight of Whitlan. Beyond a small sea of farms- notably lacking any of the sheep or more leafy crops found around Kerney- sat a town larger than any settlement either Lykou or Kuna had ever seen. Its walls were much taller, as well- around ten feet high, in fact. But tallest and most notable of all were the enormous cluster of different trees forming a ring in the center of the town, rising high above the rest of the town. Several other roads from different directions came from the hills and led to other gates. And at least one other caravan could be seen approaching the town, and another was just leaving.

Numerous lepne were out working the farms’ fields. Most of them paid no mind to the Dunnyhill gang as they passed by, but a couple looked up in surprise and stared for a moment when they caught a glance at Lykou and Kuna, clearly intrigued and surprised at the sight of non-lepne travelers on the road. Lykou just smiled and waved to them, while Kuna did his best to avoid catching anyone’s eye. The latter was already starting to get anxious about the size of the town.

When they reached a certain distance from the walls, a group of nine guards was dispatched to meet them, all marching in formation, two by two, with one at the front leading them. Unlike the slightly more casual appearance of Kerney’s guards, these ones were all wearing identical, well-kept uniforms, including bronze shields, bracers, and some polished plates covering their chest, back, and shoulders. Half of them were carrying truncheons while the other half were carrying spears. The four at the back also had bows strapped to their backs.

The caravan came to a stop as the guards met up with them. The lead guard stopped the others and spoke with Bhaltair for a minute, notably pointing to the two non-lepne members of the caravan during the discussion. Luckily, the trade leader had encouraged everyone to wear the sashes they’d received in Kerney that day when they’d stopped for lunch, knowing they’d be arriving in Whitlan later on. The decorations certainly seemed to impress the guard capain. Once some questions were answered, he stood at attention and turned, barking an order to the other guards, who then marched forward and took up an honor-guard position around the caravan. “Welcome, honored friends, tae Whitlan,” the captain said, then nodded to Lykou and Kuna. “Especially ye ootlanders. If ye ‘av enny problems wi’ tounsfolk, let one o’ us ken, ‘n’ we’ll see ta it fer ya. We wull tak’ ye to yer lodge fer th’ night, ‘n’ efter yer trade leader talks tae th’ trade administrator, ye may ‘av free roam o’ th’ common areas o’ th’ toun,” he announced, then pulled off a snappy salute the boys weren’t familiar with, then turned and began leading the group at a moderately brisk pace to the gate without another word.

Several of the guards shot sidelong glances at the boys as they walked, but their expressions remained perfectly neutral and they made no comments. Lykou was tempted to try and strike up conversation with them, but he got the impression it’d be very one-sided. So instead he contented himself with chatting more with the other caravaneers. Ealar and Gavin were happy to go on and on about the town, having apparently lived there for a while before joining the caravan. Bhaltair chimed in and explained that Whitlan was basically a huge trade-hub, more or less in the middle of Clovaria, where caravans came and went from all the other towns and villages across the landscape.

Once they were past the walls, numerous lepne could be seen milling around on the heavily-worn earthen streets between the many buildings, most of which were at least half made of stone. A few structures were even two or three stories high. Various townspeople stopped to stare in curiosity at the non-lepne visitors, but the guards were enough to keep them from approaching or causing any issues.

Finally, the group approached a particularly large rectangular building with several large stalls in the side, two of which were already filled with carts from other caravans. One was in the process of unloading, and a few of the ones doing the unpacking waved to the Dunnyhill gang. After the guards finished leading them in, most of them marched off back towards the gate, though two stayed behind in case any assistance was needed. Bhaltair greeted the leader of the other caravan on the way in, exchanging some small talk as his group moved their own carts into place and started unpacking them. Lykou hurried to offer a helping hand. After a few minutes, he paused to gently nudge Kuna, who was stuck standing near the entrance, gawking at the size of the nearby buildings and sheer number of lepne milling about, many of whom repeatedly shot him fascinated glances.

“Quite a place, huh?” the konuul asked him with a concerned smile. “You alright?”

“Y-yeah, I’ll uh… be f-fine,” the sereva replied. He turned around to help unload some of the lighter things from the carts, staying close to his friend. Once the unpacking was finished, Ealar led the group through a door at the back of the stall into the common area, where there was a large cluster of tables and stools, some of which were already taken up by members of another caravan, chatting and eating their dinner. Their eyes immediately fell on the newcomers and their conversations faded as they eyed the boys. Gavin helped introduce them to the strangers, who in turn were introduced as members of the Durvinna trade gang.

Lykou and Kuna took up a seat over by the large fireplace as the konuul struck up a friendly conversation with them, only too happy to tell them all about himself and the sereva. It wasn’t long before he was telling them about their story, much to the strangers’ delight. For his part, Kuna mostly stayed quiet, but offered a small smile and the occasional added commentary once he relaxed a bit. At least in the trade lodge, there were far fewer lepne around, and he already knew more than half of them anyway.

Eventually, however, Bhaltair returned from talking to the trade administrator and called his gang together. Lykou excused himself and Kuna from the conversation with the other group, promising to continue later if they were interested- and of course they were. “A’right, we’re guid ‘n’ settled in fer th’ night, ‘n’ it’ll prolly be at least a day afore we heid oot agin’. Ah think we’re bound fer Tannil next, so ah’m afraid this es where we’ll be partin’ with ye two,” Bhaltair said, turning to the boys. “Bit until then, yer o’coorse welcome tae stay wi’ us in th’ lodge as members o’ oor caravan. ‘n’ please dae let us ken when ya plan on leavin’, so’s we kin all say a proper goodbye.”

“Of course, and thanks for everything,” Lykou replied, hugging Kuna in one arm. “This has definitely been the highlight of our trip, minus the whole bandit mess.”

Kuna nodded in agreement. “Yeah, thanks again guys. This has been really nice.”

“Tis bin oor pleasure, lads,” Effie said, hopping up to give Kuna a hug, while the others all echoed the sentiment.

“Na’ then, ah ‘av a stipend fer each o’ ye ta goan enjoy the toun. Try na tae spend it a’ in one night tho, s’all ye get till we leave, ya ken?” Bhaltair said, pulling out a pouch and passing around some small copper discs decorated with an intricate design featuring a spruce tree on one side and a stylized lepne portrait on the other.

“What’s this?” Lykou asked curiously as he and Kuna looked over the little things.

“Ach, ye dinnae ‘av coins back hame?” Gavin asked. “In these bigger touns, ye trade ‘em fer things. Cannae jest work oot normal trades n’ such wi’ so many people aroond, s’they ‘av these as a sort o’… middle-step kind o’ thing.”

“Oh…” Lykou replied, scratching his head. “I guess that makes sense. Uh…. So what do we do with them?”

“Well, ah dinnae aboot you, bit I’m heidin’ fer th’ brewhall, mysel’,” Gavin announced with a smirk. “Alwis a crackin’ way ta relax efter a trip.”

“Aye, ah’ll join ye, then,” Finlay said, putting his instrument away before joining him. Most of the others voiced general agreement.

Kuna shifted uncomfortably. “I think I’ll just… stay here for now,” he eventually said. He went to sit back down on one of the stools, but Lykou pulled him back.

“Oh no you don’t,” the canid teased. “There’s things to see and do here. Besides, you were going to see the druna council, right?”

“Ach, tha’s right lad!” Ealar agreed. “Still time fer tha’ afore the garden closes fer the night, if we hurry. Lik’ ah said, ah kin tak’ ye th’ quiet way, where there’ll be less folk aroond.”

The sereva glanced back and forth between them, then sighed. “Yeah, I guess I did agree to that,” he said reluctantly. “Alright then… as long as there aren’t… too many people around.”

“Nah, tae gardens mostly get visitors earlier in th’ day. Practically sunset noo, sae they’ll be emptyin’ oot soon.”

Kuna took a deep breath. “Alright… l-lets go then, I guess.”

“Great!” Ealar said, then turned back to the others. “Ah’ll join th’ rest o’ ye efter.”

“You sure you’re okay with that, Ealar? I’m sure we could find the way on our own,” Lykou suggested, then smirked. “Hard to miss those enormous trees.”

“Aye lad, ah bin wantin’ ta visit the gardens agin mahself anyway. ‘sides, ah already promised ye the quiet way,” the lepne replied with a smile. “C’mon, le’s git!”

*****

The walk was a little nerve-wracking for Kuna, but at least they encountered fewer lepne than out on the larger streets as Ealar led them steadily towards the enormous trees standing in the center of the town. Lykou, on the other hand, was fascinated with everything, grinning and waving to every lepne he saw. He found himself wondering about each building they passed, and Ealar did his best to answer what he could.

Finally, they arrived at another set of walls- shorter than those around the edge of town, but still taller than any of the three of them. And they were positively overrun with ivy hanging down their sides. They followed the wall around until they came to an ornate bronze gate flanked by two more guards with especially decorative-looking uniforms. One held up a hand as the three approached. “Tis past usual hours. Who are ye, and dae ye ‘av business fer the council?”

“Aye, ah’m Ealar, ‘n’ this es Lykou and Kuna. We’re wi’ the Dunnyhill trade gang, ‘n’ Kuna here,” their guide said, gesturing to the sereva. “Es a druna. On th’ advice o’ Moyra o’ Kerney, he seeks an audience wi’ th’ council, as a visitor fra far away.”

The guard sized up Kuna, noting his flower crown, then nodded to the other, who then opened the gate for them. “Welcome, then ta th’ Grand Garden o’ Whitlan. Ye are expected ta treat everythin’ growin’ ‘ere wi’ respect, ‘n’ please keep the noise doon. Please enjoy yer visit. ‘n’ Kuna, ye kin let th’ guards a’ th’ sanctum gate ken yer bis’ness wi’ th’ council,” he said with a nod and a small, professional smile. He snapped a quick salute before stepping aside and letting them in.

The three thanked the guards and walked through the gate, which was closed again behind them. Right away, Lykou and Kuna were amazed by the enormous, fancy garden that met them. Moyra’s garden had been impressive in its own right, but this one was massive, and far more organized- a bit ostentatious, even. There were a large number of diverse plants filling the area from wall to wall, all neatly cultivated and organized in clusters and patches lining grassy, carefully maintained paths that wound their way around and through the garden as a whole. Many of the plants had various colorful flowers, with quite a few of them putting off a faint, magical glow- which was good, since the sun began setting as the three slowly made their way through the garden, gradually making their way towards another gate further inside. Some enormous roots even protruded from the ground and formed benches, shaded by broad-leaved ferns of some kind.

Several other lepne were scattered around the gardens, some enjoying the sights and a few tending to the plants themselves with various gardening tools. Most of them were already heading for the exit, but paused to ogle the new visitors on the way out. By the time the three approached the much larger and more extravagant sanctum gate, only one other lepne- a groundskeeper, apparently- was left, besides the four guards standing at the sanctum entrance.

When they walked up to the gate, one of the guards stepped forward and held up a hand. “State yer name ‘n’ purpose,” she said simply. These guards were more decorated still, with flecks of gold and silver lining their armor and weapons, which glinted in the light of the plants and the slowly-rising moon.

Again, Ealar went through his spiel and introduced Kuna as the one seeking an audience with the council. The guard arched a brow at the sereva questioningly and took note of his floral circlet.

“Ye say yer a druna,” the guard said to the sereva, then pointed to a vine hanging on the wall nearby. “Wi’ respect, ah’ll need ta see proof afore ye go enny further.”

Kuna nodded and took a breath to calm himself, then manifested his magic and altered the vine to produce several more tiny, glowing flowers. Satisfied, the guard nodded and turned to speak with one of the others for a moment. The other guard opened the gate and walked through, shutting it behind him. The first turned back to the trio. “Th’ council is bein’ informed o’ yer request. It’ll be a short wait till we get word back, sae please mak’ yerself comfortable and enjoy th’ garden in th’ meantime.”

Kuna nodded and looked around, then sat down on a root-bench next to Lykou. Ealar walked over and smiled at him. “Weel, ah think ye got it fra here, lads. By th’ time ye leave, tae streets should be less busy ‘n’ if ye need halp, jest tell a guard yer wi’ th’ Dunnyhill gang and they’ll halp ye back tae th’ lodge. Ah’m ginnae goan join th’ others noo. Ah’ll see ye at th’ lodge later, either tonight, er in tae mornin’, aye?”

Lykou nodded and smiled back. “Sure thing, Ealar. Enjoy the brewhall.”

“Thanks for bringing us,” Kuna chimed in, trying his best to hide his nervousness.

“Aye, nae problem. ‘n’ Kuna,” the lepne said, then patted the sereva on the shoulder. “Dinnae fret, yer a mighty fine druna. Ye’ll be perfectly fine in there.”

The sereva smiled and, after a moment’s hesitation, pulled the lepne in for a hug. “Thanks, Ealar.”

Ealar chuckled and returned the hug. “Ah’ll see ya later, lads,” he said, then walked back off towards the garden entrance.

For a short while, Lykou and Kuna sat and enjoyed the serene quiet of the mostly-empty garden. As the last traces of the sun vanished beyond the horizon, and the stars and moon climbed into the sky, the beauty of the gardens took on an almost other-worldly quality. Finally, the fourth guard returned and spoke with the first for a moment. Afterwards, the first stepped forward to address the boys. “Kuna, th’ council wull see ye noo. Lykou, ah’m afraid thir onleh seein’ drunas at this time, so ye’ll ‘av ta stay here.”

Lykou nodded. “Fair enough,” he said, then turned and hugged the obviously-anxious sereva. “Hey, you’ve got the crown, the sash, the pin- and your magic. You’ve got nothing to be anxious about. I bet none of those drunas have done as much as you have, so just keep in mind you’ve got nothing to be intimidated about. You’ve got this, Ku.”

Kuna smiled a bit and returned the embrace. “R-right… be back in a bit, I guess,” he said, then reluctantly pulled back and took a deep breath. He then walked to the gate, where the guard led him through the gate and into the woody hall beyond.

Lykou sat back down on the bench and sat for a few minutes in silence before trying to start a conversation with the guards. They weren’t particularly chatty, however, and only gave the briefest of responses, when they could be bothered to reply at all. So, eventually, the konuul stood up and began casually wandering around. Eventually, he spotted the lone groundskeeper still working on the garden, humming contently to herself. After a few minutes, her work brought her closer to him, so he decided to try again at some idle conversation.

“You always work at night?” he asked casually as he looked over a patch of flowers nearby.

“Aye, tis peaceful,” the lepne replied as she pruned a small bush.

“Sure is. This place is incredible,” the canid replied. There was a brief silence before he continued. “I’m Lykou, by the way. Nice meet you, er…?”

“Aelana,” the lepne responded simply, not taking her eyes off her work. “’n’ es a’right. A wee bit showy, bit tha’s howfer the council likes it, sa tha’s how et is.”

“Well, it’s certainly peaceful,” the canid said, sitting back down on another bench. “Which is nice after all the little… adventures I’ve been on recently.”

“Adventures, ye say?” Aelana inquired with a faint smirk, still not looking up. “Tha’ whit ye call it?”

Lykou opened his mouth to continue, but paused for a moment, thrown off slightly by the odd reply. “Er. Yeah… Kuna and I- sorry, that’s my friend th-”

“Aye, th’ young druna ye walked in wi’ thas wi’ the council noo. Ah figured.”

“Er, yeah,” Lykou said, arching a brow. “He and I have kind of been on this long, complicated journey for a while now. We’re a long way from home-”

“Agin’, ah figured,” she interjected, glancing sidelong at him for a moment before returning her attention to a patch of flowers down in the dirt, where she was adding a transplant from elsewhere. “Yer nae lepne.”

“...right,” he continued. “Actually… you’re probably the first person around here that hasn’t seemed terribly, uh… surprised or distracted by us, now that I think of it.”

Aelana shrugged. “People are people, na’ matta’ whit they look lik’. S’all th’ same ta me.”

Lykou nodded slowly. “I try to think the same thing, though admittedly before this journey I hadn’t seen any people besides konuul, and a few ursarans. Until I met Kuna, anyway.”

“Aye? We ne’er git enny non-lepne aroond here, bit ah figured there wis more oot there,” the lepne replied with a shrug. After a moment she stood up and brushed some dirt off her hands, finally looking over to size him up. “Kerney, aye? Musta doon somethin’ nice fer ‘em tae get tha’,” she said, nodding to the sash he was wearing.

“Oh, yeah!” Lykou said, perking up. “We helped take out this real nasty bunch of bandits that were planning to try and start a clan war or something. Kuna and I helped Kerney’s druna and one of their night-watchers figure it out and counter it.”

She quirked a brow and smiled a bit. “Mighty decent o’ ye, especially bein’ ootsiders ‘n’ a’. Well doon.”

“Thanks,” the konuul said, his tail flicking slightly behind him. “You know, I really liked Kerney. In fact I like these hills in general. Disregarding the bandits, this has been the nicest part of our trip so far.”

“Ah’m glad ta hear it. Ah hope th’ rest o’ yer time in Clovaria is nice as weel,” she said, leaning over to prune a rose bush.

Lykou tilted his head and watched her work. “...you know, I would have thought the drunas of the council would manage this garden. You know, with their magic.”

Aelana snickered. “Tha’ stuffy bunch? Nah. They’ll sproot things up now ‘n’ then, bit they’d rether leave it tae other folk ta keep up wi’ it. They mostly stick tae rulin’ th’ toun and dealin’ wi’ whate’er mystical nonsense catches thir interest.”

“Huh… sounds like Whitlan’s pretty different from Kerney. Besides just the size, obviously.”

“Tha’s pure,” she replied, almost wistfully. “Moyra’s lucky, havin’ such a nice wee village tae look efter. This toun’s all hustle ‘n’ bustle a’ th’ time. Keeps th’ council plenny busy ev’ry day.”

“Sounds like you want a change of scenery,” Lykou pointed out. “Ever thought about going to live there?”

“Aye, wid be nice, but ah cannae dae that.”

“Why not?” the canid asked curiously.

“Got obligations here, ah’m afraid,” she replied with a shrug.

“Ah. Family?”

“Nah.”

“...the garden?” Lykou asked, raising a brow.

She smirked. “Aye. Sure.”

“Aren’t there other folks that help out, though? I know I saw a few earlier.”

“They do it tae mak’ a livin’. Ah do it fer passion,” she explained, flicking a bug from a stem, then plucking off the leaf it’d been occupying. “Besides, none o’ em stay efter sunset, lik’ ah do.”

The konuul grinned. “I guess there’s something to be said for being dedicated to something. You been doing this a long time, I take it?”

“As lang as ah kin remember,” she replied, then shot him a mildly bemused look. “An’ no, ye cannae halp. Bit ah appreciate the offer.”

Lykou jerked back in sudden surprise. He was indeed about to make such an offer, but he had no idea how she could have known such a thing already. “I… uh…”

She snickered. “Ye’ve got ‘ah’m a good boy, let me help ya ‘n’ prove it’ painted all over ye, lad,” she said. “Nah offense tho, bit ah dinnae think yer well suited tae this kind o’ work.”

The konuul was a bit taken a back. He would’ve pouted a little if he wasn’t so stunned at feeling like his mind had just been read. He was about to reply when she spoke up again.

“Oh, dinnae tak’ offense. Ah ‘av nothin’ against ye fer bein’ a meat-eater. Ah’m sure some o’ ya are fine gardeners as weel,” she said, then smirked up at him. “Bit ah kin tell yer more o’ a runner. A… chaser o’ somethin’ mibbie?”

At that point, Lykou was more than a little bewildered. “Uh…. Y-yeah…?”

“Yer certainly built fer it. Probably could be a decent hunter, or warrior, but ye dinnae ‘av the attitude fer one,” she continued. “Nothin’ against them guards, bit they kin be a smidge tae serious sometimes.”

“You’re… pretty observant,” Lykou hazarded.

She shrugged. “Ah ‘av two things ta do a’ day. Tend this garden, ‘n’ observe its visitors. Ah pick up oan things.”

“Clearly,” he replied with a bemused smirk.

“Well anyway, ah best stop distractin’ mahself. If ya want, thir’s a bath over on th’ other side o’ them hedges over there,” she said, gesturing to some tall, shaped bushes nearby. “Wid do yer sore muscles a treat.”

“A… bath? Like a little lake or something?” the konuul asked curiously.

She chuckled. “Somethin’ lik’ tha’,” she said as she turned to walk off and resume work on a different section of the garden. “Ah’ll send yer friend tae join ye if ah see ‘im, efter he’s out.”

“Oh, uh… thanks,” Lykou replied, watching her go. He thought it over for a minute, then shrugged to himself and got up, deciding to check out the ‘bath’ she’d mentioned. When he rounded the shrubs, he was surprised to see what indeed looked like a perfectly circular pond- only it was clearly artificial, with smooth marble sides and a matching bottom. It was fed by a series of wooden tubes held up by vines of varying thickness. The water drained out of a wooden grate at the other end into a more natural-looking stream winding through the garden.

He looked around for a minute, then disrobed and stepped into the water. The water was chilly, but surprisingly less so than he would have anticipated, given the cool night-time air. He slowly sank down into the artificial pond and leaned up against the edge, the water coming most of the way up his torso by the time he was fully sitting down. After a few minutes adjusting to the change in temperature, he smiled and leaned back, looking up at the stars as he let the water soak his aches away.

*****

Kuna was led down a curved hall made up of the trunks of tall, skinny trees that didn’t seem entirely natural. After a short walk, they arrived at some wooden steps that seemed to be made from their carefully-reshaped roots and branches, and they began climbing up a tight, winding staircase. The only light came from lichen with what looked like tiny glowing berries growing on it.

Eventually, they arrived at a hall that led to a mossy curtain-covered entry. The hallway was strange, with every part of the structure clearly being made of the branches and trunks of unnaturally-shaped trees. Patches of carefully and symmetrically shaped pine needles dotted the sides as a form of decoration, forming sconces lit up by glowing pinecones. When they reached the curtain, the guard pulled it back and gestured for Kuna to walk inside.

He entered a large, circular room, with a series of raised seats along a high second level forming a semi-circle around him once he reached the center. The room was more brightly lit than the rest of the strange structure, thanks to a large, perfectly circular skylight allowing the moon and stars to shine down on it. “The council wull be wi’ ye in a moment, lad. Ah’ll be ootside when yer doon,” the guard informed him, then turned and stepped back out of the room.

Kuna looked around nervously, waiting and taking in more details of the strange place. It was like a full forest and the ruins he and Lykou explored were combined- not something he really wanted to think about, given the harrowing adventure they’d had in those ruins.

Soon, a group of robed, hooded figures entered the room from a pair of passages up on the second level and took their places in the seats. Once they had all sat down, they pulled down their hoods, revealing a group of mostly elderly lepne individuals. The one in the middle in particular had long, grey whiskers and matching eyebrows, as well as tufts around his ears.

“Welcome ta Whitlan, young stranger,” he said, once everyone was situated. “Mah name es Ivor, and ah’m th’ High Druna. To mah left are Fionn ‘n’ Lagan. To mah right, Gordon ‘n’ Rhona. Ah’v been informed yer a druna yerself. By the name o’…. Kuna?” he asked, quirking a brow. “This is nae jape, is it?” he wondered aloud, glancing sidelong at Lagan.

Lagan shook his head. “Nae, tis whit ah wis telt as weel,” he said, then looked back down at Kuna. “Tha’ is yer name, aye?”

“Uh, y-yes, that’s right,” Kuna replied with a nervous smile. “The um. Th-the similar s-sound is just a coincidence.”

There was a brief pause, then the council shared a light chuckle. “Weel how aboot tha’,” Rhona chimed in. “Ah suppose ye wis fated ta be a druna, aye?”

“Do make yerself comfortable, lad,” Gordon chimed in. “’av a seat.”

Kuna looked around in confusion. “Er…”

“Feel free ta mak’ one,” Fionn said, leaning in and watching intently. The others followed suit, waiting to see what he’d do.

“...oh. Oh! Right,” Kuna said as realization dawned. He manifested his magic and nervously felt around the floor. It was such a strange mish-mash of limbs and trunks and other bits he didn’t even recognize that it was a bit tricky getting it to shape the way he wanted it to- especially given that it was hard to tell the different individual plants apart. But eventually, he formed a somewhat impressive chair from numerous twisted branches and stems, including a mixture of leaves and pine needles, and several flowers for good measure. He hadn’t meant to make it decorative, but somehow adding a bit of color felt a bit soothing to his nerves. Once the chair was finished, he sat down with a small sheepish smile.

The council murmured in general approval. “Nicely doon, lad,” Ivor said, then conjured up his own magic. “Do join us up higher, tho. We may be th’ high council, bit yer a druna jest the same, n’ should feel welcome.” Suddenly, Kuna chair rose up to be, if not quite at the same level as the council, then close to it. “There, tha’s better.”

Kuna blushed slightly. “Uh, th-thanks…”

“Weel then, let’s git right tae it, shall we?” Rhona suggested. “Ah willnae mince words, we’re mair than a smidge fascinated ta see ya here, lad.”

“Whit manner o’ folk are ye, fer starters?” Gordon chimed in. “Been a lang, lang time sin’ we caught a whiff o’ any non-lepne folk in Clovaria.”

“Oh, I-I’m a sereva,” Kuna replied, rubbing his arm a bit. “M-my friend down in the garden, Lykou, h-he’s a konuul, by the way. W-we’re from a long way away.”

“Ah’d assume so. Ah’v never heard o’ anythin’ like either o’ ye,” Ivor said, to the general rumbling of agreement from the others. “Whit brings ye to these parts?”

“W-well, it’s a long story, but Lykou and I w-were, uh… m-magically transported a long way from home, a-and now we’re trying to make our way back. A-and that just happened to bring us through um. These h-hills.”

“Magically transported, ye say?” Lagan asked. “Who by, a spirit o’ some kind?”

Kuna opened his mouth to respond, but paused to mull it over for a minute. “Uh… maybe. W-we’re not entirely sure. It turns out it w-was this weird… individual, named Inkari, that d-did it to us. She c-claims to be some kind of m-mortal, or at least p-part mortal. S-something called a jarzin. But I d-don’t know if I believe her, she’s incredibly powerful.”

“Aye, she’d have ta be, fer somethin’ lik’ tha’,” Rhona asked, somewhat incredulously. “Ah dinnae even ken people could learn such magic.”

While the others murmured for a moment, Ivor stroked the tuft of grey fur hanging from his chin thoughtfully. “Jarzin, ye say? Hmm…”

Kuna perked up slightly. “What, have you heard of them?”

Ivor shook his head slowly. “It… sounds a wee bit familiar, but ah dinnae ken. Nothin’ specific comes tae mind, tho.”

“So yer jest wanderin’ in hopes o’ findin’ a way hame, noo?” Fionn asked.

“W-well, no… not anymore, anyway. I-I learned a way to help at l-least point us in the r-right direction,” the sereva explained.

“Oh, aye? ‘n’ howfer kin ye do tha’?” Rhona asked.

“W-well… with, um. S-star magic.”

“Star magic?” Ivor asked. “Kin ye show us?”

Kuna’s ears folded down and he grinned a little. “Uh… s-sure,” he said, then lifted his hand and manifested the silvery pale-blue glow and caused the light to reappear and jump up to its path through the stars.

The council chattered again, then quietly applauded him. “Very, very impressive, lad,” Gordon said.

“Yer very talented, Kuna,” Ivor agreed, then lifted his hand and showed a similar pale blue glow. The others followed suit, then dismissed the energy. “Yer in th’ presence o’ th’ only other druna in thaes hills tha’ ‘av a knack fer whit ye call ‘star’ magic.”

“Um.” Kuna bit his lip and hesitated for a moment, then grinned, unable to help himself. “Well, not anymore. I uh… mayyy have helped someone else learn it w-while I was in, um. Kerney.”

The group seemed pleasantly surprised. “Is tha’ so?” Gordon asked, leaning forward. “Moyra kin do et noo as weel?”

Kuna nodded. “Mhmm. She uh. Picked up on it kind of quick, in fact.”

“Ah’m na tae surprised. She wis alwis a clever lass,” Fionn commented with a smile. “Shame she cannae find time ta visit thaes days.”

“Indeed,” Ivor agreed. “Sae tell us aboot yerself, lad. Whit’s yer hame like?”

The sereva shifted around uncomfortably. “Er, well. That’s… kind of awkward to answer.”

“How’s that?” Rhona asked curiously.

“I uh. Kind of didn’t h-have a home anymore, exactly,” Kuna explained, looking away with a frown. “It’s… kind of a t-touchy subject. But Lykou w-wants to bring me back to his v-village. He could t-tell you a lot m-more about it than me, obviously.”

The council chattered again. “Soonds lik’ a dreich past ye got, sae we willnae pry,” Ivor assured him. “Still, we’ll hear whate’er yer willin’ ta tell.”

Kuna looked around at the lepne, realizing that, for all their power and authority, they were ultimately just a friendly, but bored group of strangers itching to hear a good tale. Resigning himself to story-telling duty, he took a deep breath and launched into the story of his and Lykou’s journey so far, albeit a fairly abbreviated version, omitting certain more sensitive bits.

Chapter Text

Some time later, the somewhat tired Kuna exited the council’s sanctum. It’d been a pleasant enough visit, and the members of the council were friendly. But for some reason, he’d been expecting something… else. The whole visit was just another extended story-time session with strangers. In the end, they wished him well on his journey, and invited him to return to Whitlan some day, then excused themselves to bed, at which point Kuna left and had the guard take him back to the exit. Once he left the front gate and re-entered the garden, he was momentarily nervous when he couldn’t see Lykou anywhere.

“Lykou??” he called out, looking around.

One of the guards shushed him from the gate. “Voices doon in th’ garden, please.”

“D-did you happen to see w-where my friend went?” the sereva nervously asked the guard.

“Somewhere over oan th’ far side,” the guard said, then gestured to another lepne watering some of the plants. “Ask th’ groundskeeper o’er there. She may ‘av spoken tae him.”

Kuna looked up, then nodded and thanked the guard before walking over. As he approached, he could hear the groundskeeper humming quietly to herself. “E-excuse me, miss?”

“Hmm? Kin ah help ye?” she asked without looking up.

“M-my friend was waiting f-for me out here, did you by any chance s-see him? He’s-”

“Aye, ‘es over in th’ bath ‘roond them hedges,” she answered gesturing to the tall bushes.

“Oh, th-thank you!” he said and hurried off to find the konuul.

“Nae problem,” she murmured softly, smirking to herself after he was out of earshot. “Heart forbid ye use yer magic ta find ‘im,” she added with a small chuckle.

*****

Kuna rounded the corner and stopped as he spotted Lykou sitting, quite relaxed, in the artificial pond. With his eyes closed, it almost looked like the canid was napping. The sereva slowly crept up with a playful grin, then knelt down behind him. He slowly reached down, then booped his nose. “Hi.”

The konuul jumped up, splashing around a bit as he was startled out of his relaxed state. When he turned and saw the giggling sereva, he smirked. “Well hello to you too,” he replied with a mischievous expression. “I should splash you for that, make you walk across town naked or drenched.”

The sereva yelped and backpedaled away from the water. “D-don’t you dare!”

Lykou snickered. “Relax, I won’t,” he said after a moment. “On the condition that you get your butt in here and join me, that is.”

Kuna blushed and smirked. “Alright, but you know the routine. Eyes away, mister.”

The canid rolled his eyes as he turned away again. “Fine, fine. You didn’t have any problem with it back after that battle, though.”

“I did have a few other things on my mind at the time, you know,” Kuna replied as he stripped his clothes off, then slid into the water nearby. “Alright, I’m in.”

Lykou turned back around and yanked him into a quick hug, which the sereva happily returned. “So how did it go with the almighty ‘druna council’?”

Kuna shrugged. “Fine. Not much to say, honestly. They just wanted to know about me- about us, really. It was just story-time all over again. Their… ‘sanctum’ place is pretty fascinating, though. The whole thing is like a huge cluster of unnatural trees and stuff growing together into like a really tall building.”

“Weird,” Lykou agreed. “Still, hey, you got through it, right?”

“Yeah, heh,” Kuna admit with a small smile. “They were friendly, at least. I was worried they’d all be intimidating or something, but they weren’t much different from most of the other lepne we met. Though they all knew st-, er, soul magic.”

“Guess that makes sense, with them being the ‘high council’ and all,” the canid replied with a shrug. “But hey, you got through it by yourself. And you didn’t even need my help this time!” he added with a grin, ruffling the sereva’s hair lightly.

Kuna smirked and pushed up against him, wrapping an arm around him. “Yeah but it would’ve been nice to have you there anyway.”

“Who’s the sappy one now?” Lykou teased, then chuckled and hugged him back.

After a few moments, they both moved back over to the edge and leaned back, relaxing in the moonlight. “Well, I guess tomorrow we get back onto our own journey,” the sereva commented, looking up at the stars, conjuring up his magic briefly to illuminate the star-path.

“Mhmm. It’s been really nice here, for the most part, but I definitely want to get back to heading home,” Lykou replied, then looked over at the sereva. “I do at least want to look around town a little before we head out, though. We got those, er… ‘coin’-things to use, and we might as well see if we can find some things that might help on the trip.”

“That’s… a good point, actually. I haven’t the slightest idea what, but it’s worth a try,” the sereva replied. “Never seen things like those before though.”

“Me either. Hey, I think I’ll keep one of them to take home, so we can show it off. Show where we’ve been, kind of thing.”

“Sure. Just add it to the necklaces, sashes, bracers, and whatever else we collect I guess,” Kuna said with a snicker.

“And a certain blood-smudged stone,” Lykou added with a wink.

“Yeah, especially that.” The sereva grinned back at him, then they leaned against one another and relaxed in silence for a little while.

“Well, I guess we better get out and dry off before we fall asleep here,” Lykou reluctantly suggested.

Kuna sighed. “Yeah, good point. Already getting pretty late, and we’ve still gotta walk back to the lodge after we dry off and get dressed.”

“Yep,” Lykou said as he climbed out of the water and shook some water off, then sat down in the grass.

The sereva shivered slightly as he got out and sat next to him. “Eesh… I’m glad I dry faster, it’s chilly out here.”

“Feels fine to me,” the canid replied with a smirk.

“Yeah, ‘cus you’re a big ball of fluff,” Kuna retorted, nudging him playfully.

Lykou snickered. “Hey, like you said, at least you dry off quicker.”

The sereva shivered slightly, then suddenly pressed up against the canid and pulled his arm around him. “Still. Damn cold.”

“You know that’ll just make you dry off slower,” the konuul pointed out in amusement.

“Duncare. Worthit,” Kuna retorted as he forcefully snuggled up into the canid’s warm embrace.

Lykou snickered and hugged him. “Alright, fine by me.”

They both cuddled as they gradually dried off, occasionally chatting and otherwise enjoying the serene silence and beauty of the surrounding garden. Eventually, when they were finally starting to get sufficiently dry enough to start getting dressed again, they started to hear the sound of someone singing not far away.

“Wow, that sounds really pretty,” Lykou said as he pulled his shirt on.

“Yeah. Must be that groundskeeper. I guess she’s still here,” Kuna commented.

“Oh yeah, she was humming while she worked earlier. I guess she’s the one that told you where I was?”

“Yeah. I figured she’d have left by now. All the others left before I even went in to see the council.”

“I talked to her a bit. Her name’s Aelana. Apparently she likes working at night because it’s more peaceful or something.”

Kuna nodded. “Makes sense. I can see the appeal,” he said, looking around. “It was nice in the setting sun, but it’s downright breathtaking at night.”

“Yeah, it-… wait a minute,” Lykou said, furrowing his brows and perking his ears up. “Does… something about that singing seem slightly… off, to you?”

Kuna listened carefully for a moment, then suddenly his eyes widened a little. “Now that you mention it…” He suddenly looked down and checked the medallion around his neck. It was still glowing, but the light had a faint flicker to it. “...why can’t we understand the words?”

They both exchanged a look, then finished getting dressed quickly. They carefully peeked around the hedges and saw that the groundskeeper was indeed the one singing. No longer was she merely tending the garden- she was dancing and twirling around in it as she sang. Her voice was beautiful, but the words were lost on them, even with the help of the medallions. Something seemed to be interfering with them. As the groundskeeper sang, her voice echoed faintly, giving it an other-worldly beauty.

The more they listened, the more it sounded like there were unseen instruments accompanying her voice, coming from all around. She briefly stepped behind a large bush, and when she stepped past the other side, she was suddenly taller than any other lepne, and her eyes were larger as well. And they were glowing with a sparkling light, along with certain new markings that appeared in various spots on her body. Several glowing butterflies appeared around her, flitting about among the more mundane fireflies appearing throughout the garden. The plants seemed to be blooming, moving, and reshaping themselves around her, following her movements, even though neither of her hands sported any green aura. In fact, for all the obvious magic in the air, Kuna couldn’t sense the usual flows of energy coming from her that he’d expect from life magic.

At first, the boys were a bit wary, especially Kuna, who was downright scared. He nudged his friend and quietly suggested they try to find another way around. But Lykou gently grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. “Hey, if she wanted to hurt us, I’m sure she would’ve done it while we were in the water. She knew where we were. Besides, we’re in the middle of town, in the council’s garden! For all we know, she’s a secret member of the council or something.”

Kuna shifted uneasily. “I don’t know, I can’t sense whatever magic she’s using.”

“Wait, really?”

The sereva shook his head. “She’s not manipulating life energy at all. Look at her hands.”

“I thought she was just hiding it somehow,” Lykou replied, scratching his head. “Still, that’s all the more reason we shouldn’t run. Maybe she can teach you something, or at least maybe help us with our journey somehow. She’s clearly the most advanced ‘druna’ we’ve met, right?”

“He’s right, ye ken,” a voice suddenly said from behind them, making them both jump in surprise. Aelana was standing right behind them, glowing eyes and markings and all. A faint sparkly aura surrounded her, though the sound of unseen instruments quickly faded away, as she’d stopped singing.

“Oh, Aelana! Uhh… w-we didn’t mean to spy on you,” Lykou quickly blurted out with a sheepish grin.

She giggled lightly. “Ah’m sure. If ah didnae want ye ta see meh lik’ this, ah wouldnae be showin’ it ta ye, wid ah?” She summoned up a set of massive, oversized flowers behind herself and underneath the boys, bumping them into a sitting position. “’av a seat lads, let’s chat.”

Lykou and Kuna were taken a bit by surprise, but the flowers were surprisingly comfortable. They shifted position a bit and shot each other a look, then shrugged and decided to go along with it.

“...you’re the real one in charge around here, aren’t you?” Kuna suddenly blurted out with an arched brow, much to Lykou’s mild surprise.

“Figured that oot, did ye?” she replied with a smirk. “Aye, in a way. Th’ council takes care o’ th’ town, bit Ivor comes ta me fer advise occasionally. Etherwise, ah just lurk aboot ‘n’ sorta… nudge things noo ‘n’ then. As weel as keep watch fer strange things goin’ oan in Clovaria. Thanks fer helpin’ Moyra deal wi’ Kerr, by the way.”

“Hey, we were glad t-” Lykou started, then furrowed his brow. “Wait, how did you know about that? And don’t tell me its from the sashes, there’s no way they give away that much detail.”

“Aye, they don’t. Bit ah ‘av mah ways,” she said with a glint in her eye.

“Probably magic, right?” Kuna said. “Obviously you’re powerful, but what kind of magic were you using? I couldn’t sense anything coming from you.”

“Aye. Yer lookin’ fer the wrong kind o’ thing, lad,” she replied. “Let’s jest say ah kin see things all across Clovaria when ah want tae. Tis mah domain, efter a’.”

“All of Clovaria??” Lykou asked in surprise. “I’ve never heard of someone being in charge of multiple villages… er, or towns, for that matter.”

“Well lik’ ah tellt ye, ah dinnae run everythin’ directly. Bit ah do watch over et,” she said, then narrowed her eyes and grinned, crossing her arms. “Which is howfer ah ken ye came through th’ auld gateway.”

“Gateway?” Lykou asked curiously.

“She probably means the arch-thing,” Kuna pointed out, then turned back to the lepne. “Right?”

“Aye. Arch, gateway, portal, whitever ye wantae call it.”

“Er, yeah, um… it’s a long story,” Lykou said.

“Basically we’re trying to find our way home, and someone told we could use those old… gateways, I guess, to do it,” Kuna explained. “That’s… not a problem is it?”

“Nah. Tis nice ta see ‘em used again. They bin sittin’ there doin’ nuthin’ bit lookin’ auld ‘n’ gatherin’ dust fer… well, a lang time,” she said with a shrug. “Ah assume yer heidin’ fer th’ one northeast o’ here, aye?”

The boys nodded. “Yeah, uh… it’s not too far, is it?” Lykou asked.

Aelana shook her head. “Aboot a day’s travel. Mibbie mair, mibbie less, dependin’ oan yer pace,” she answered, then looked thoughtful for a moment. “Let me ask ye somethin’. Wis th’ one tha’ tellt ye aboot ‘em by enny chance a mysterious dark figure tha’ likes smoke ‘n’ shadows ‘n’ messin’ wi’ folk?”

Lykou and Kuna’s eyes shot wide open. “Yeah, why, you know her??” Kuna asked.

Aelana rolled her eyes up for a moment in mild exasperation, frowning slightly. “Ah ken her kind. Jarzin, aye?”

“That’s what she told us. So you know of them, huh?” Lykou asked, frowning as well. “Are you another of their, uh… victims?”

The lepne snickered slightly. “Nat hardly. Th’ druna o’ these hills ‘av had an… arrangement wi’ ‘em fer centuries noo. We dinnae interfere wi’ ‘em ‘n’ they stay oot o’ our lands,” she explained, then sighed. “’course, ah’m prolly th’ only one left tha’ even remembers tha’,” she lamented. Kuna looked like he was about to ask something, but she quickly continued before he could get a word out, “Thir’s only one jarzin tha’s bold enoof ta try ‘n’ sneak aroond oor arrangement by sendin’ ye two here. Inkari, aye?”

“Er, yeah actually,” Kuna said in surprise, his question forgotten for the moment. “You know her specifically, too?”

“Aye, she’s a bit o’ a legend among her people,” the lepne said. “Jarzin are mighty powerful, bit thir’s a tradeoff fer their power. They ainly walk th’ mortal world fer aboot thirty, mibbie fourty years at most.”

“Really? They die young?” Lykou asked with a quizzical look.

“I would have thought being that, er… attuned to mystical energies would help people live longer,” Kuna chimed in.

“Aye, tha’s jest it. They dinnae die, or at least very rarely. Bit they end up getting’ a wee bit too attuned ta th’ spirit world, ye kin? Tis like they skip over th’ whole messy dyin’ part- thir body ‘n’ soul jest sort o’ meld together efter a while, till one day they step intae th’ spirit world ‘n’ cannae come back,” Aelana explained, then adopted a mildly sour look. “Somehow, tha’ Inkari foond a way ta cheat th’ system, tho. Sae suffice ta say she’s bin aroond a very lang time.”

“Damn. Lucky us,” Kuna snarked with a frown.

“So I guess she’s more powerful than even most other Jarzin?” Lykou asked.

“Aye. Thir all powerful folk, bit she’s oan anether level entirely,” Aelana said, then looked away with her eyes narrowed in thought. “’n’ a wee bit off in th’ heid, some might say.”

“I’m inclined to agree with whoever those ‘some’ are,” the sereva replied.

“Me too,” Lykou agreed with a slight shudder. “I keep worrying she’s going to show back up at some point to mess with us more.”

“Weel, at least ye dinnae ‘av ta worry aboot tha’ here in Clovaria,” the lepne assured them. “She might skirt th’ arrangement by pointin’ ye here, bit even she wouldnae dare go directly aginst it by spookin’ ye here.”

“No offense, but how can you be sure, if she’s so powerful?” Kuna asked anxiously. “I mean, I know you’re powerful too, but if she’s really been around that long…”

“Yeah, she conjured up massive storms like it was nothing, and threw us across the world somehow,” Lykou added.

“And I get the impression she’s mastered almost every kind of magic.”

Aelana grinned. “Ach, na even claise. She’s mastered a lot, ah’ll grant ye. Bit she ‘as her weaknesses,” she explained. “’n’ ye havnae seen bit a wee bit o’ whit ah kin do.”

“Oh yeah?” Lykou asked, intrigued.

“I am curious how you did all that stuff earlier,” Kuna said. “I… don’t suppose you plan on explaining it at all?”

The lepne eyed them, then looked up at the sky thoughtfully for a moment- particularly at the nearly-full moon. “...ah tell ye whit. Ah ken ye wis plannin’ ta leave tomorrae, bit ah’d like ye ta stay an extra day, so’s ye kin come back here tomorrae night. Ah promise ah’ll mak’ it worth yer while. Ah’m sure ye ‘av a lot mair questions, bit ye must be getting’ tired. ‘n’ in any case it’ll give ye a chance to use them coins yer holdin’ in toun afore ye heid oot, withoot havin’ ta rush yer decisions.”

“I... think I’m just going to stop asking how you know these things,” Lykou said in mild surprise and amusement. “And just assume it’s probably some kind of magic.”

“Well yer na entirely wrong.”

“Okay so… any particular time? I know we kind of got here a bit late in the day this time, we can come earlier if-” Kuna began to say, but she cut him off.

“Na, if anythin’, come later. When the sun’s full doon,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Ah’ll mak’ sure th’ guards willnae stop ye.”

“Er, if you’re sure…”

“Why at night?” Kuna asked, a little wary.

“Weel ah wasnae lyin’ aboot preferin’ the garden a’ night,” she said, gesturing around. “Nabody aroond, fer one thing. Still tryin’ ta keep up the ‘lowly groundskeeper’ thing, ye ken?”

“Oh, right… makes sense,” the sereva admitted. “Wait, do the guards know? Wouldn’t they have seen and heard you doing all that singing, dancing, and… well, magic?”

She shook her head with a smirk. “Na. They left a while back, efter the council went ta kip fer th’ night. Ah made sure they didnae see me, or you two, fer tha’ matter,” she said, then hopped up off her flower-seat. “Ah kin walk ye boys oot, tho. So ye’ll come by tomorrae?”

Kuna stood up and turned to Lykou. “Well...”

Lykou thought for a minute, then sighed and shrugged, getting off his own seat as well. “Alright, I guess one more day won’t hurt. You’ve admittedly got me real curious now. And you make a good point about the coins.”

Kuna yawned a bit. “And the tired part, now that you mention it.”

“Guid,” she said, then began leading them back to the garden’s exit.

“Your singing was very pretty, by the way,” Lykou complimented.

“Thank ye lad.”

“What was that song, and why couldn’t we understand it?” the sereva asked, then tapped his medallion. “These usually let us understand anyone.”

She smirked. “Song wis an old one my ma’ taught me when ah wis a lass. As fer why yer we trinket didnae werk, weel… songs often sound better in thir original language. Sae ah jest… didn’t let ‘em change it.”

“You... didn’t ‘let’ them,” Kuna replied flatly. “I guess that’s something we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get an answer for, too?”

“Aye,” the lepne replied. “Oh, afore ah forget, it prolly goes withoot sayin’, bit yer na tae tell ennyone mah wee secret, unnerstan?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Lykou agreed.

“Not like anyone would believe us anyway,” Kuna said with a shrug.

“True. They’d likely think ye’d spent tae lang doon et th’ brewhall,” Aelana said in amusement.

The three continued to make small talk on the way back to the gate. Every time they started to approach certain topics, though, she coyly avoided their questions, however. When they arrived, the guards were, indeed, gone. She opened the gate for them- without laying a hand on it, of course. Whatever magic she was using continued to be totally alien to Kuna’s senses.

“Oh, er… do you remember the way to the lodge?” Lykou asked Kuna sheepishly. “’cus I don’t.”

“Oh. Shit, no, I don’t,” he said, then shrugged. “I guess I could use my magic, though, since we’ve been there at least once. Maybe focus on your blanket,” he suggested, manifesting the soul magic.

“Ach, nevermind that, ah’ll jest walk ye,” Aelana said with a shrug.

“Uh… shouldn’t you, y’know… change back to your normal self?” Lykou suggested, gesturing to her. “Shorter, and less… glowy?”

She grinned. “Na. Nabody else will see meh, ye see,” she said. “Watch.”

Without warning, she jumped out just as a town night guard was passing by, and started dancing in circles around him. “Oy, you, lookit me!” She even leaned in and shouted in his ear. “Yer kilt’s crooked, ye eejit!”

The guard was completely unphased and continued on his way, with no indication of even noticing her- or the boys, for that matter. She hopped back over by the boys and put her hands on her hips with a cheesy grin. “See?”

Lyklou and Kuna were suitably impressed. “...I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me how you’re doing it, though. At least not tonight, anyway,” Kuna remarked with a mix of envy and mild annoyance.

“Right,” the lepne answered, tapping his nose lightly. “Tempting as it may be. Ye kin git upty a’ sorts o’ fun trouble with tha’ stuff, ye ken.” She paused to giggle a bit, seemingly suddenly almost giddy. Oy, we should-” she started to say, then clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, shaking the thought off. She turned away for a moment, seemingly having some kind of internal conflict. “Nae, nevermind. Th’ lodge, right.”

“Er, you okay?” Lykou asked with concern.

Kuna gave her a look. “Yeahhh…. Something going on?”

She shook her head again and shot a look up towards the moon, then sighed and turned back around, doing her best to give them a reassuring smile. “Nah, sorreh aboot tha’. Guess tis jest been a lang day.”

They both exchanged a glance, then gave her a dubious look. “Are you… sure?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes up. “Aye, tis nothin’. Look, truth is, ah’m jest… excited, a’right?” she explained carefully. “Ah spend most o’ my time playin’ th’ wee gard’ner, mindin’ mah bis’ness ‘n’ ne’er lettin’ anyone ken whit ah kin dae, sae it’s… fun, ta show off a wee bit, ah s’pose.”

Lykou grinned after a moment. “I guess that’s understandable.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Kuna said, arching a brow. “That does beg the question why you’re showing us anything in the first place anyway, though.”

“Hey, we’re outsiders and won’t be around here much longer, so there’s less risk from her perspective. I don’t blame her for wanting to show off for once,” the konuul pointed out.

“Exactly!” the lepne quickly agreed. “Now c’mon then, lets git ye tae th’ lodge. Tis late ‘n’ ah ken ye baith need sleep. Ah shouldnae let mahself git worked up.”

Kuna shrugged after yawning again. “Yeah, fair enough I guess.”

Aelana took a deep breath, seemingly trying to settle herself down. “Tell ye whit, ye mind if ah sing some moar? Always helps ground meh.”

“By all means,” Lykou said. “As long as your magic is keeping you hidden, I guess, heh.”

“Yeah, and honestly, I uh… really liked when you were singing,” Kuna said with a shy smile. “It… kind of reminded me of when my parents would sing to me when I was little.”

“Aw, lad, thas mighty sweet,” Aelana said, rubbing his back lightly. “A’right then.” She paused to decide on a song for a moment, then grinned and started singing as they slowly made their way through the otherwise quiet, mostly empty streets. Along the way, a few torches flickered and shadows seemed to dance along to the music as they passed. More glowing butterflies appeared and followed them as well.

*****

An hour or so later, after she’d left the boys at the lodge, Aelana was again walking around in the garden, stewing over her thoughts. A certain feeling was tugging at her inside- one she was accustomed to dealing with, ordinarily. But this time it was stronger than it’d been in ages- after all, Clovaria hadn’t had outside visitors in a long time. She’d question the likelihood of the timing, but with jarzin involved, she was sure it was intentional. “Damn that witch…” she muttered to herself.

With a sigh, she knelt down by a more still area of the artificial pond the boys had been bathing in and stared at her reflection. Except her reflection looked quite different from her current physical form. “Well doon, you, almost givin’ us away oot in th’ streets. Ah prolly shouldnae even be doin’ this. Ah ken them lads are decent, bit this could still be a risk, ye damn bampot.”

“Ah, shet yer weesht. Ye bin lonely ‘n’ bored oot yer mind, ‘n’ we ne’er git the chance ta play ennymore. Tis worth enny damn risk,” the reflection snapped back.

The lepne frowned back at the reflection. “Someone’s got tae be responsible, ya ken. None o’ th’ ethers are aroond ennymore,” she grumbled. “We didnae even think tae bind ‘em with a geas ta keep e’en this much secret!” She gestured to her current appearance, with the glowing marks, faint aura, and so on.

“Whit, bein’ tall, magical, ‘n’ wi’ glowy bits oan?” the reflection replied, then rolled its eyes. “Oh th’ scandal o’ it all. Even if tha’ did git oot, whit would folks think? Oh, a secret extra-powerful druna workin’ wi’ th’ council. Stick tae yer pure lepne form ‘n’ yer fine, e’en wi’ glowy bits. Na lik’ ye havnae doon it afore.”

“Aye, ‘n’ it was a pain keepin’ up wi’ ‘Rhea’ when they noticed her na gettin’ auld, ya ken. Ye ken how they’d be if the commonfolk ken whit we really are,” she replied defensively. “Cannae jest romp around showin’ off ‘n’ flexin oor power noo. Mythic days are gone, alang wi’ th’ others. We ‘av a whole damn kingdom tae worry aboot.”

“A kingdom tha’ dinnae even ken they’re a kingdom, ne’ermind tha’ they ‘av a quin,” the reflection snarked back. “Does nae guid denyin’ who ye are all th’ time. Damn yer ‘responsibility’ shite. Ye need friends. Real friends, na jest people ye keep an eye oan. People ye kin trust, people ye kin confide in. ‘n’, people ye kin… well, ye ken. Play with.”

Aelanna looked away for a moment, crossing her arms. “...ah suppose it has bin a while.”

“A while? Ye havnae tellt anyone yer secrets sin’ Ivor wis freish!”

The lepne sighed. “True. ‘n’ he’s na much langer fer this world,” she said, a guilty expression crossing her face. “’e stays sae busy with th’ toun’s shite, he’s off ta kip th’ minute he’s free. Ne’er git tae see ‘im, much less goof aroond lik’ we used ta. Damn these folks’ short lives...”

There was silence for a few minutes before she glanced down at her reflection again. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Yer fookin’ talkin’ tae yerself agin’, ‘Lana. Mibbie ye should loosen up a bit,” she muttered, her eyes drifting up to the nearly-full moon.

“S’what ye git fer keepin’ me cooped up fer a’ this time. Ah wantae play, dammit. Its in oor nature, wither ye lik’ it or na,” the reflection groused.

“Aye, fine, ah git it. Ah need tae mak’ friends ‘n’ stop hidin’ sae much, ye made yer point,” Aelana said. Slowly, a grin crept across her face. “Ah suppose them lads are guid fer practice. At least tomorrae wull be… fun.”

Chapter Text

Lykou and Kuna slept in late the next day. Some of the caravan crew were concerned, but Gavin, having been up especially late himself, let them know that the boys didn’t get back until after even he had gone to bed. When they did eventually show up to the common area of the lodge, half the crew of both caravans had already left to go do other things around town.

“Whit kept ye up sae late last night, lads?” Finlay asked, idly tuning his pridlin. “Jest esplorin’, er did the council keep ye late?”

Lykou and Kuna exchanged a look, then Kuna hesitantly replied, “Yeahh, council stuff mainly. We um. We did walk around a while afterward, since most people were in bed by the time we finished, though.”

“Gonnae gonna stay an extra day in Whitlan, then, ah assume?” Effie asked.

“Yeah, they want to see us again later, plus it’ll give us a chance to go use those, er… ‘coin’ things,” Lykou answered. “Speaking of which, uh… how does that work, exactly? Do we just take it to, I don’t know, a weaver and give it to them, and ask them to make us something?”

Finlay chuckled. “Weel, ye could, bit it’s easier ta jest go doon ta th’ market. Tis where folks tak’ things ta sell.”

“Sounds… convenient,” Kuna hazarded.

“They ‘av a bit o’ everythin’ there,” Effie added. “Things made ‘ere are cheaper than things fra caravans, o’course.”

“I don’t suppose you can tell us where that is, or if there’s a um…. Less busy path to get there?” the sereva asked.

“Weel, ah wis gonna heid there mahself fer ta replace one o’ mah strings here, so ah can show ye ta way,” Finlay said with a shrug. “Bit th’ market’s alwis busy, ah’m afraid.”

Kuna frowned and shot Lykou an anxious look. Lykou smiled at him sympathetically and gave him a gentle squeeze with one arm. “Hey, it’ll be alright. We’ll try to make it quick, okay?”

“Ah’ll come too. Got nothin’ else ta dae, ‘n’ ah’m used ta dealin’ wi’ folks gittin’ too pushy,” Effie volunteered, then crossed her arms with a confident smirk. “Dinnae worry, Kuna, ah’ll skelp anyone that dinnae respect yer space.”

Kuna couldn’t help but grin a little at that. “Well… I guess I can’t argue with that.”

One of the lodge-keepers walked in to check on things and noticed the boys were up. After some initial introductions and some predictable questions about the two non-lepne, he offered to bring them some food. Kuna gratefully accepted. Lykou was hesitant, but eventually relented and decided he could stomach some of whatever they had and just make up for it with some of his salted meat later. Finally, after they’d eaten, they got up and each grabbed one of their bags to take to the market with them, then joined Finlay and Effie to the market, with the lepne explaining how things worked as they walked.

*****

The boys found the market to be impressive once they’d arrived. Kuna was more than a little intimidated by all the lepne milling around, but he was equally fascinated at all the stalls displaying a variety of goods for sale. Since Finlay had something specific in mind, they ended up at a stall near one end, near a weaver’s workshop. The stall was mainly displaying various garments and sections of cloth made from a smooth, slick, light-weight material neither of the boys had seen before. Finlay talked to the stall owner as the others looked over the things on display.

“What is this stuff made from? I haven’t seen something so smooth and light like this,” Lykou commented.

“Aye, tis silk. Really fancy ‘n’ comfortable, bit expensive,” Effie said. “’n’ nae guid fer travel, either.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Wouldn’t exactly protect you much in a fight, that’s for sure.”

Kuna frowned, having been admiring a particularly fancy-looking outfit. “Yeah, I… guess it wouldn’t be very warm, either,” he said, though he nonetheless continued admiring it.

Effie shot him a sympathetic look. “Sorry lad, didnae mean ta disappoint ye.”

“Eh, whatever, it’s just fancy clothes,” Kuna said with a shrug, finally prying himself away from it.

Lykou smirked and rubbed the sereva’s shoulder softly. “Hey, if you really want, I’m sure we can find you something new here that’s better for traveling. Though honestly you did do a good job making that poncho, especially given what you had to work with.”

“Aye, right, ah didnae even think aboot it, bit ye made a’ tha’ oot in th’ wilderness efter gettin’ tossed by tha’ magic storm, aye?” Effie asked, looking him over. “Wi’ jest th’ needle Lykou made ye? Damn impressive under th’ circumstances, lad.”

Kuna blushed and smiled. “Oh c’mon, it’s practically just a blanket with a hole in it,” he said, rubbing his arm a bit. “Anyway, it’s getting pretty worn out at this point. I don’t know how many more times I can stitch it up.”

“Heh, my stuff’s in worse condition,” Lykou pointed out, looking down at his thoroughly worn shirt that’d been stitched up multiple times. “Maybe getting some replacements aren’t such a bad idea. Just, er, something more durable than this ‘silk’ stuff.”

“I don’t think you’re going to find, er… what did you call it, ‘leather’?” Kuna said. “I doubt they’ll have that here.”

“Ye might be surprised, lad. Tisnae common, true, bit when a guard saves farmers fra a nasty beasty attack, they’ll bring its arse ta toun ta mak’ a trophy from its bones, ‘n’ leave whit’s left fer someone else ta deal wi’. ‘n’ some folk git creative,” Effie pointed out. “Kin be expensive, tho. Tak’s a certain kind o’ mind ta willingly deal wi’ messy shite lik’ tha’.” She paused, then shot a smirk over at the konuul. “Na offense.”

The canid chuckled. “None taken. I’ve gotten used to it, but only out of necessity. I definitely don’t like doing it, if I can help it.”

After Finlay finished getting his replacement string and chatting with the stall owner, the group moved on. Kuna managed to keep from being overwhelmed by the crowds of lepne by focusing on all the craftwork on display at the different stalls. Lykou, on the other hand, was happy to smile, wave, and chat to the many lepne that took interest in the fascinating outsiders until they finally started to get used to the boys’ presence.

The next few stalls were from more weavers’ workshops, featuring clothing, bags, and fabric made of different materials. They recognized the wool that their sashes were made from, and Kuna was somewhat tempted by a few warm-looking garments with colorful decorations on them, but the others managed to convince him to keep moving on. As they walked around the market, the sereva was repeatedly sucked in by a number of pretty and fancy looking things- not just clothing, but also jewelry, luck charms, and other trinkets featuring various gemstones. Even Lykou was tempted by several things, though he was trying to think more practically- eyeing some of the equipment at a smithy’s stall, for example. And then there was the food- delicious smells filled the air around certain parts of the market, enticing them both, even though they didn’t know what they were smelling half the time. All they knew is that it smelled good. Effie pointed out they could have decent food back at the lodge any time, though.

“A guid rule tae go by, lads- unless ye ‘av somethin’ specific in mind tae begin wi’, see everythin’ afore ye buy anythin’,” Finlay advised them. “Ye only ‘av so much coin, sae ye cannae git everythin’ ye might want.”

“Yeah, fair point,” Kuna said with a sigh, sticking close to Lykou as they walked by a large crowd of lepne. “There’s so much nice stuff, though…”

“Well, let’s think about it, now that we’ve got an idea for what there is to choose from,” the canid suggested. “I could definitely use some new clothes- or at least a new shirt. An axe might also be nice, in case we need to make a fire and can’t find enough fallen branches or something, plus it could double as another weapon if needed.”

“For that matter, some extra protection would be nice. The bracers help, but they can’t protect your clothes, and having a little extra doesn’t hurt.”

“Ye did dae weel wi’ tha shield agin’ them bandits,” Finlay pointed out.

“Yeah, till it broke. Though I suppose a small buckler made of that ‘bronze’ stuff could be nice…”

“You could also get a spear made from it, for that matter, so you’re not always having to make new ones,” Kuna suggested.

“Solid bronze wull be expensive, ‘n’ heavy, bit they mak’ ones wi’ bronze bits attached tae wood that’d definitely be reasonable. Stronger tha’ wood alone, ‘n’ sharper tha’ stone,” Effie chimed in. “Ah think th’ axe might be mair broadly useful tho. Kin ye hunt wi’ tha’ too?”

“Er, I mean… I guess? But it’d be awkward,” Lykou replied, rubbing his head thoughtfully. “I prefer spears for that because I don’t have to get quite as close before striking. They give me more reach overall, too.”

“Yeah and the further away you can keep dangerous things, the better,” Kuna agreed.

“Ye said yer na guid wi’ bows tho, aye?” Finlay asked.

Lykou shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. Just as well though, I don’t think I could make decent arrows to replace any that break, either.”

“Ach, guid point. No countin’ on findin’ a fletcher durin’ yer travels, unless yer near a village.”

“So our options so far are a spear, an axe, a buckler, and some new clothes. Any other ideas before we decide?”

“Much as I like some of that jewelry, I know it’s not exactly practical, so no, not that I can think of,” Kuna replied, then thought for a moment. “Oh, actually, you were going to see about making an instrument yourself, right? Maybe you could get some strings for that. We should probably cut that last gourd open soon anyway.”

“Aye, tha’ so lad?” Finlay asked, intrigued. “Whit gourd ye talkin’ aboot?”

“It’s back at the lodge, I’ll show you when I get there,” Lykou replied with a smile, then shrugged. “It’s not exactly a necessity though. I can always wait on that.”

“A couplea’ strings willnae set ye back, tho,” the musical lepne said with a grin. “Ah’d be happy tae help ye git started oan it afore ye leave Whitlan.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind, then,” the konuul replied happily, his tail flicking a bit. “Thanks, Finlay.”

“’coorse, lad.”

“Oh, hey, maybe I should see about upgrading to a bigger bag for myself,” Kuna suggested. “This one’s worked so far, but the straps aren’t the greatest and it’d be good if I could carry more, especially at the rate we seem to be, er, collecting things.”

“You sure you’re up to carrying more?” Lykou asked with an arched brow. “No offense, but, well-”

“I know, I’m a wimp,” Kuna said with a shrug and a smirk. “Don’t beat around the bush. Still, I can at least carry more of the ligher stuff, if nothing else.”

“I guess… just don’t try to over-exert yourself.”

“Tell ye whit, thir’s a stall fer th’ folk tha’ suppply Whitlan’s guards. They’ll hae padded shirts wi’ armor bits tha’ might work fer ye. Wull need some tweakin’ ta fit ye, bit it’ll work fer both clothin’ ‘n’ protection a’ th’ same time.”

“Hey, yeah, that’s a good idea,” Kuna agreed. “Much as I hope it won’t be needed, we never know when we’ll end up having to fight off another monster or… something. Clothing meant for battle would be ideal.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan,” Lykou agreed. “Though maybe you should focus on something warm, knowing how sensitive to the cold you are. Maybe a second poncho for when that one gets wet, so you won’t have to be cold while you wait for it to dry,” he added, then smirked. “Unless of course you just want the excuse to come to me for warmth, that is.”

“What, don’t want me to cling to you naked anymore?” the sereva teased. “And here I thought you liked me being nude.”

“Hey, you’re the one that gripes about the cold,” the canid retorted. “By all means show off your butt all you want, as far as I’m concerned.”

“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Maybe we should just let your stuff fall apart before we replace it, for the sake of fairness.”

“Just ‘fairness’, or is that a request?”

Finlay and Effie exchanged a bemused look as the two traded playful barbs. “Oy, lads, ye wantae stop flirtin’ sae ye kin mak’ up yer mind a’ready?” Effie eventually chimed in with a smirk, crossing her arms.

“Flir- hey, we’re just goofing with each other!” Lykou retorted defensively with a faint blush. Truth be told, he and Kuna had both briefly forgotten about the world around them for a minute.

“Y-yeah, we do that sometimes,” Kuna agreed, looking away with a sheepish smirk. “Just, uh, p-playing around, th-that’s all.”

“O’coorse ye dae.” Effie replied with a small eye roll. “Typical best buddy stuff, ah’m sure.”

“Exactly!” Lykou quickly replied. “Right, back to the point then, uh…”

“Padded clothing,” Kuna reminded him, still a little flushed as he avoided meeting anyone’s gaze. “From the guard supply stall.”

“R-right, heh,” the canid said. “Lead the way, Finlay.”

*****

When the group finally left the market, Lykou was wearing a brand new padded shirt with some simple, light bronze plating over the shoulders, chest, and back. It needed adjustments initially, in order to fit the konuul, but as luck would have it, the stall owner recognized their sashes and gave them a discount for being ‘heroes of Clovaria’. The shirt also came with a very simple kilt that matched the material of the top. He’d never worn anything but pants before, but figured it’d be comfortable in hotter environments, at the very least. The old shirt was stuffed into his bag- he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it, but he was sure it might come in handy for something. And due to the discount, he was even able to get the strings for his future instrument, which he was excited to work on.

Kuna was wearing a new hooded robe that was a bit warmer than his poncho, and came down further- after being adjusted, anyway. Compared to Lykou’s new armored shirt, it had needed less tweaking to fit its new owner- it only needed to be lengthened a bit, so that it looked a bit less like a dress. His poncho was tucked away in his bag- it was a tight fit, but he managed to move a couple small things from his bag into the pockets on his new garment to make it work. In addition to the robe, he ended up buying a small hatchet that they could use for firewood. It wasn’t as big and effective as an axe, but it was affordable, and light enough that he could use it himself, even if he suspected Lykou would end up using it more often due to his superior strength. Still, it was also a decent back-up weapon if it came right down to it.

In the end, the boys were left with a coin to take back home with them, just as they’d hoped. Lykou stuck it in his bag next to a certain sentimental stone, alongside a small collection of nearly forgotten spirit-chaser charms. All in all, given their late start, most of the day had passed by the time the group began making their way back towards the lodge. Part of the way back, Effie bumped into an old friend, and after introductions and a brief conversation, she excused herself to go catch up with her at the brewhall. A short walk later, Finlay asked the boys if they were comfortable going the rest of the way back on their own, as he wanted to meet up with some fellow musicians. Lykou assured him they’d be fine, so they bid each other farewell until later, and parted ways.

Now that he and Lykou were no longer accompanied by someone familiar, Kuna’s anxiety about the busy streets reasserted itself a bit. “Er… do you remember the way we came?”

“Hmm… I think so,” the canid said. “I think we just use those smaller paths behind the bigger buildings and keep heading towards the middle of the town.”

“S-sounds right,” the sereva agreed, getting a bit uncomfortable from the stares they kept getting from passers-by. “I guess if n-nothing else we could always a-ask a guard.”

“True. But I think we’ve got this,” Lykou assured him as they walked down one of the back alleys.

They wandered in a crooked, twisted path for a short bit, getting lost a few times, but eventually they made it back to the lodge just in time for dinner. Lykou pulled out some of his salted meat to munch on as Kuna was served a large bowl of some kind of thick soup. He wasn’t familiar with the concept of soup, beyond what Lykou had described, but he had to admit it smelled delicious- especially after all those nice smells he’d encountered in the market. And once he started eating, it was obvious from the way he began hungrily devouring it that he thoroughly enjoyed it.

When they finished eating, they stashed away anything they didn’t want to bring to the garden with them, then took some time to relax at the lodge for a while, chatting with each other and occasionally members of either caravan team that came and went. They received multiple compliments on their new clothing. Most of the Dunnyhill group had returned by the time they excused themselves to head to the garden.

“Ach, where ye goin’ tae et this time o’ evenin’?” Gavin asked curiously. “Brewhall? Hawp ye saved some coins.”

“Er, no, we’re um…”

“Going for a walk,” Lykou interjected. “The crowds had Kuna too anxious to really finish exploring the town today, so now that they’re thinning out, we’re going to go do that.”

“Er, r-right!” Kuna agreed. “And taking a walk after sundown is a good way to relax before bed.”

“Oh, tha’ makes sense. Weel, ‘av a nice walk, lads. Wi’ll see ye tonight or tomorrae mornin’,” Ealar said.

“See you then, and good night in case we’re not back before you go to bed,” Lykou said with a smile and a wave as they left.

*****

Luckily, with fewer people in the streets, Kuna was less wary about the path they took, so they just took what seemed to be the most direct route to the garden. The closer they got, the fewer people they saw still walking around- even patrolling guards seemed unusually scarce. By the time they got to the garden, they realized there was nobody standing at the gate. The gate itself was standing open, as if inviting them in, although the torches near the entrance remained unlit.

They both felt somewhat uneasy all of the sudden, but they didn’t want to back out of their promise, so they nervously walked in. Fortunately, the glowing flora within the garden, accompanied by the light of the stars and the full moon creeping up into the sky ensured that they could see more than well enough to avoid tripping on anything as they slowly walked around. Still, there wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere in the garden.

“Er, should we be heading for the sanctum, or stay here?” Kuna wondered aloud. “She never really specified what part of the garden to meet her.”

“Good question. Maybe we should head over towards the bath? That’s around where we talked last time.”

“I dunno, something feels off,” the sereva noted, looking around anxiously. “Maybe we should stay within sight of the front gate, just in case.”

“Hmm, m-” Lykou started to reply, but then they both jumped at the sound of the gate shutting on its own. The two shared a look, then bolted over to try and open it again. Somehow, the gate refused to move, despite nothing obvious blocking it.

“Well that’s n-not ominous at a-all,” Kuna commented, looking the gate over. “And of c-course, I don’t s-sense any magic. N-not sure what kind th-that’d even be anyway.”

“Stone, maybe? They make that bronze stuff from stone-like things anyway,” Lykou suggested, glancing around for another way out.

“Maybe. Not important r-right now anyway,” Kuna said, then sighed and idly kicked the gate. He then stepped back and looked at the walls. “Y-you think we can c-climb those vines?”

“Well… I don’t know if we should try even if we could.”

“W-why not?”

“Well… look at it this way. Either we’re panicking over nothing, and we don’t want to be rude to the secret powerful druna that’s also the ruler of this entire region by skipping out on our promised meeting over some paranoia,” the canid explained, then took a breath and turned to look around the garden. “Or our fears are well-founded, and the last thing we want to be hanging onto are a bunch of vines she can easily manipulate. Right?”

The sereva glanced up at the vines again and frowned. “...shit. Didn’t e-even think of that.”

Lykou sighed and pulled him close with one arm as they walked back into the garden again. “Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions, she probably just didn’t want any nosy busybodies listening in on our conversation.”

“Y-yeah, well, w-why isn’t she showing herself y-yet if she was close enough t-to close the gate?”

The konuul thought for a minute, then shrugged. “Well, for all we know, she can do that from a long way off and she’s making her way here now. Or maybe she has a way of making the gate magically do that to itself after we walk through. Her magic was kind of weird, right?”

“I guess,” the sereva replied. “Still seems suspicious as fuck th-”

Just then, his words died in his throat as a large shadow flicked by overhead, and a moment later they heard a large, heavy thud on the ground behind them. They quickly spun around and were met with a shocking sight. A large figure was sitting on the ground in front of the gate. They looked like a lepne, but bigger than the two of them combined, and bestial looking. Despite its more feral appearance, it was sitting back on its hind legs with its forelegs crossed. But the most jarring thing of all were the added features- on their back was a large pair of multi-colored wings. And on their head was a pair of antlers similar to those that Kuna’s people normally had, except bigger, to match the large head. And when the figure looked up, their eyes were glowing with a familiar glimmering light.

They both gawked at the strange creature, as lively music began to slowly fill the air from unseen instruments. This time there was no vocal accompaniment, of course. “A… Aelana??” Lykou hazarded.

Suddenly, she grinned and crouched down, narrowing her eyes with an almost predatory look, looking like she was about to pounce.

“Timetorun,” Kuna insisted, tugging at Lykou’s arm slightly. The konuul needed no convincing, and they immediately bolted in the opposite direction.

As they ran, they occasionally had to stop dead in their tracks and run a different way as their pursuer landed in front of them, leaping back and forth around the garden in enormous bounds. Everywhere she landed, bright color briefly flashed across the nearby landscape. The plants throughout the garden began moving around on their own, despite the fact Kuna still couldn’t feel the presence of any active life magic being used. They had to dodge roots and vines as they whipped around and lightly smacked at them. Oddly, none of the attacking plants actually seemed to be trying to ensnare or trip them, so much as mildly inconvenience or annoy them.

The boys bolted behind some tall hedges and looked back to see where the creature was. They couldn’t see the beast anywhere, even after Lykou nervously looked up to see any sign of her leaping overhead. For a moment, they thought they were in the clear, until Kuna suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and let out a yelp as the hedges they were hiding behind turned out to be the very creature they were fleeing from, grinning toothily down at them. Again, they bolted across the grounds, back towards the front gate.

When they came within sight of the exit, they were surprised and relieved to see it standing open again. They quickly fled towards it, hoping she was somehow confined to the garden. The moment they passed through, Lykou paused to grab the gate and slam it shut behind them, on the off-chance that it’d slow her down a little. But the moment he turned back around, he froze, his eye twitching when he realized they were still in the garden. Kuna’s expression mirrored the canid’s, and they both glanced back to see the town on the other side of the closed gate. The sereva gave it an experimental tug, but sure enough, it was sealed in place again.

Another familiar thud a few yards away again drew their attention and they turned to see the semi-lepne creature grinning at them again. She even gave them a little taunting wave before crouching down again, ready to pounce. Without wasting any time, the two bolted off to the side as fast as they could, following the wall around the garden. “There’s got to b-be another w-way out of here somewhere,” Kuna said, frantically searching the stone for any kind of gap.

Again, they stopped in their tracks as the Aelana-beast landed in front of them, nearly tripping over in the process. Again, they bolted off in another direction. “Let’s try the sanctum,” Lykou suggested as they ran.

“That f-feels like a colossally b-bad idea,” Kuna replied, panting a bit. “She c-can manipulate all those trees around us.”

“Well… wait, why don’t you try and use your own magic to buy us some time or something??”

Kuna looked around, then slowed to a stop, and Lykou followed suit. “A-alright, I’ll try,” the sereva said, manifesting his magic as he anxiously saw their pursuer charging across the garden towards them. After a moment, his ears drooped and he looked around in a panic. While he managed to grasp the energy flowing through himself, that was as far as he could go. It wasn’t like the fight with Kerr, where he felt an external resistance pushing back at the same things he tried to manipulate- he just couldn’t seem to get a grasp on anything else in the first place.

“Uhh, Ku?? N-not to pressure you, but she’s getting close!”

“I… can’t…”

“Huh??”

“I can’t grasp anything!” Kuna blurted out in exasperation, the green glow around his hands flickering. “It’s all… I don’t know, slippery or something! I can’t describe it!”

“...wellp, back to running then!” Lykou suggested, and they both turned to flee again just as Aelana was closing in on them. After a few minutes of running, a wall of large, thick roots shot up around them, blocking their way. When they turned around, they saw Aelana again land in front of them, blocking their way out. Out of options, Lykou pulled his knife out to try and defend himself. “Quick, bracers,” he urged the sereva as he tried to activate his own.

“...nope,” Kuna anxiously replied, as he frantically rubbed his thumb back and forth over the green lines on the bracers over and over again, to no avail. They simply would not activate themselves.

Lykou looked down and tried his a few more times as well. “What the shit??” he demanded, then quickly looked back up and held his knife up at the ready as the beast started slowly striding up to them. “S-stay back!”

Suddenly, the creature arched her brow and smirked at him. “Er whit, ye gonna poke me wi’ a stick? Whit are ye, ten?” she said in a familiar voice.

The canid looked confused for a moment, then jumped slightly and looked at the stick in his hand with confusion. He quickly dropped it and searched himself and the ground around him. Kuna grabbed his head and tried to calm himself down as he helped scan the ground for any sign of the knife- he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in a bizarre dream, though.

“Lookin’ fer this?” Aelana replied. They looked up and saw her balancing the knife upside-down on the tip of the finger on her very paw-like hand. Still, her enormous feral form clearly somehow didn’t inhibit her dexterity, and she began juggling the knife back and forth in a showy manner, before finally gripping the blade between two fingers and handing it back to the canid, poking her tongue out at him.

The threatening impression they got from her suddenly seemed somewhat… lacking. In fact, she seemed to radiate an aura of warmth and playfulness that felt infectious, and the fear rapidly drained from them. The minute Lykou hesitantly took his knife back, she reached over and booped Kuna’s nose. “Tag. Yer et,” she said with a broad grin, scooting back slightly aftewards to see what he’d do.

The sereva’s nose suddenly glowed with a bright green light, which matched a bunch of spots that appeared all over his body after his robe suddenly went invisible. The rest of his fur turned bright yellow, and his hair developed a large, absurd cowlick. “...what.”

Lykou gawked at him for a minute. “...uh… Ku? Are you… okay?” he asked, somewhat struggling to keep a straight face.

“...other than feeling like I’ve finally lost my damn mind, wonderful. Why do you ask?” the sereva snarked, looking himself over. “This has to be a dream.”

The canid stifled a snicker. “You, uh… you do look a bit ridiculous.”

“Yer a fine one tae talk,” Aelana said, leaning forward and tapping the konuul on the shoulder.

Lykou gave her a confused look, but then turned back to the sereva when he heard him snort. Kuna was staring at him with an amused expression. When he looked down, her realized why- his fur was all shades of bright pink and covered in sparkles, and his outfit had turned into a particularly frilly dress made from some lacy, sheer material neither of them recognized. “...why?” was all he could say in response, as he turned back to the strange being with a perplexed, but somewhat amused expression.

Aelana giggled to herself, and gradually she ended up doubling over in laughter. Eventually, the boys couldn’t help but join in a bit, partly from catching sight of one another again, but mostly because of the surreal situation and the need to release some tension. Finally, she wiped a tear away from her eye, then waved her paw, sending a flurry of sparkles around them. The root-wall retracted back into the ground and both boys returned to normal as an oversized toadstool mushroom sprouted up underneath them and tripped them into sitting on it. “A’right, a’right, ye baith kin relax, ah dinnae bite,” she announced, still giggling a bit. “Hope ah didnae skeer ye two tae bad.”

“I think I’m beyond fear and thoroughly in ‘what the cock-dancing fuck’ territory now,” Kuna replied, his eye twitching.

“Yyyeahhh, I think that’s a pretty good way to describe it,” Lykou agreed, though he couldn’t help but grin and snicker again at the sereva’s phrasing.

“Whit, ye never played tag as a wee lad?” she replied with a smirk, crossing her forelegs.

“No, what the fuck does that even mean??” Kuna replied before Lykou could say anything.

The canid frowned and shot him a sad look before responding for himself. “Er. Yeah, I did, but obviously not with magic, or a, um…. Whatever you are,” he said, then quirked a brow. “Which, speaking of… are you…”

She gave him a look for a minute, then rolled her eyes. “Nah, ah’m nae spirit if tha’s whit yer thinkin’,” she replied.

“Then what??” Kuna blurted out.

Aelana glanced back and forth between the two and the moon for a moment. “Ach, a’right, a’right, hang oan,” she finally said, rubbing her head and going slightly cross-eyed for a minute, seemingly having some internal debate with herself. She then raised her paw up, conjuring up a large cloud of sparkling lights and dust that surrounded her. When it faded away, she was back in at least a somewhat more normal form- comparatively normal, anyway. She appeared like she had the previous night, like a tall, graceful lepne with glowing eyes and markings. But the wings and antlers stayed, albeit shrunk down to match her new size. She stumbled around a little dizzily for a moment, then shook her head before smiling at them, seemingly stabilized. “Forgive mah playful nonsense. Ah havnae let h-, er, it oot in far tae lang, ‘n’ it’s harder ta resist on ta full moon.”

“So WHY did you insist we come back tonight?” Kuna demanded, rubbing his hand through his hair in exasperation.

“Weel, fer one, ye wondered how ah wasnae afraid o’ Inkari, so ah figured ah’d show off a wee bit,” she replied with a shrug. “Yer lucky, ye ken. Only Ivor’s seen mah ether side afore, ‘n’ ‘es sworn tae silence aboot it.”

“Yeah, I feel real lucky alright,” Kuna deadpanned.

Lykou glanced between the two awkwardly for a moment, then wrapped his arm around Kuna, hoping to help him calm down a bit. Truth be told, once the initial panic faded and he knew they weren’t in any actual danger, the whole thing did seem kind of amusing to him in retrospect. But he couldn’t exactly blame his more sensitive friend for feeling differently. “So uh… back to the question, what are you, exactly?”

Aelana smirked and conjured up another mushroom for herself, than sat down cross-legged on it as she answered. “Well, ah’m still lepne. Half-lepne, anyway.”

“And the other half?” Kuna asked, then suddenly narrowed his eyes into a glare. “Wait, I swear if you’re going to tell us you’re another half-spirit… thing…”

She snickered and shook her head. “Nah lad, lik’ ah said, nae spirits involved.”

“Okay, but like he said, what’s the other half?” Lykou pressed her.

She glanced between them with a thoughtful look for a moment. “Ah’ll tell ye, bit first ah need ye tae make a geas fer meh.”

“Really, more games?” Kuna asked flatly.

“A… guess?” Lykou asked, quirking a brow. “I mean, if you’re not even part spirit, then-”

“Nae, lads,” Aelana interrupted, waving her hand with an amused expression. “Nah a guess. A geas. A magically-backed promise, ye ken?”

“A magic… promise?” Kuna asked curiously. “What kind of promise, and how does it even work?”

“Ye ‘av ta promise nah ta tell ennyone in Clovaria mah secrets withoot mah permission. As fer th’ way it works, weel… cannae even explain it properly, especially afore ah tell ye th’ rest. Tis na dangerous, tho. Willnae hurt, either.”

“Well, I guess that’s reasonable. I don’t think we planned on going around blabbing about it, right?” Lykou said, glancing over at the sereva.

“...yeah, not like anyone would believe us anyway,” Kuna replied with a shrug.

“Ah’m glad tae hear it, bit jest sayin’ tha’ tisnae enoof. Here, gimme yer hands, lads,” she said, holding one of hers out. “Lik’ ah said, it’ll nae hurt ye. Ah ken yer familiar wi’ special promises anyway,” she added with a knowing look, glancing briefly to the pocket Lykou kept the stone in. “’n’ this one willnae even require blood.”

“How did-” Lykou started, then cut himself off and gave her a look. “Right, why am I expecting an answer.”

“Aye, na yet anyway,” she said, then wiggled her fingers. “Weel?”

With a sigh, the canid placed his hand on top of hers. A moment later, a very hesitant Kuna followed suit, after his curiosity won out over his paranoia. The half-lepne lifted up her other hand and traced a line of sparkling white light through the air around all three of their hands. When it finally made a full loop, she withdrew her finger and the loop of light tightened quickly around their hands. There was no pain, but the pressure felt like someone tying a string snugly around them.

“Ah’right, repeat efter me- ‘Ah solemnly swear, mah word tae bind mah heart ‘n’ mind, tae never reveal th’ true nature o’ Lady Aelana o’ Danag-Moor, Keeper o’ th’ Gloamin’ Hills o’ Clovaria, withoot her permission, as lang as ah roam there.’”

The boys shared a bewildered look before somewhat clumsily reiterating the phrase. Once they finished, the light vanished and shot a wave of energy through them that made their fur briefly stand on end and left a pair of strange knot-like mark on the backs of their hands, which faded away after a moment. Kuna shivered. “W-what was that?”

“Lik’ ah said, a geas. Noo ah ken ye willnae spill mah secret.”

“N-not that we were planning to, but what happens if we accidentally do?” Lykou asked nervously as he pulled his hand back.

“Oh, dinnae worry, ye lit’rally can’t.”

“Huh?”

“Go aheid ‘n’ try next time ye see another lepne. Th’ words willnae leave ya. Could be a wee bit awkward fer ye, though.”

“I’ll, uh… take your word for it,” Kuna said, examining his hand.

“Dinnae fash yerself lad, ah meant whit ah said. Th’ geas willnae hurt ye,” she assured him, then grinned. “Ah’m nah as wicked as some ether Syltheans, ye ken.”

The boys looked up and gawked at her slightly. “WHAT.”

“Y-you’re… you’re a…” Kuna stammered.

She snickered. “Aye, mah father wis fra Sylthea. A wolpertinger, ta be exact,” she explained. “Ah woudlnae share such a secret, bit, weel, ah noticed them bracers yer wearin’ ‘n’ hae some questions o’ mah own. Sae ah figured it wis fair. ‘n’ ah’m mighty intrigued tha’ yer familiar with Syltheans enoof to react tha’ way.”

“Y-yeah, we um. We f-found them in some old ruins,” Kuna said, still staring at her in disbelief. “W-we never even heard of Sylthea before recently, though.”

“Aye, soonds aboot right,” she said with a small frown. “Na many folk aroond thaes days remember ‘em, sin’ they bin gone sae lang.” She quirked a brow. “Guessin’ Ink tellt ye aboot th’ ruins?”

“Well, not directly, no, but she’s more or less the reason we went there,” Lykou said, looking at the bracer on one arm briefly, before turning back to her. “She told us about the Syltheans afterwards, though… did your people make these?”

“Nah, looks ta be Elnyr-make. Thir alwis doin’ stoof wi’ wood, livin’ in trees, ‘n’ so oan. Wolpertingers dinnae often hae patience fer such craftwork, usually,” she said with a shrug. “Especially um…” she trailed off, looking up at the moon and twitching a bit. After staring off for a moment, she quickly shook her head and snapped out of it. “...when the moon tis bright,” she finished somewhat awkwardly.

Kuna gave her a dubious look. “Yeah, what’s with that anyway? I’ve never heard of anyone being so… affected by it before,” he said, then smirked and nudged Lykou playfully. “Except maybe howling at it for fun on special occasions.”

Lykou smirked back at him and ruffled his hair playfully. “Yeah, like when you’re wasted.” The sereva poked his tongue out at him briefly.

Aelana giggled. “Aye, it affects all Syltheans in different ways, to various degrees. Bit in mah case, ah been, uh… keepin’ th’ ‘tinger side cooped up way tae lang. ‘n’ sh-, er, ah wis over-excited tae let it oot,” she explained with a sheepish grin.

“How long, exactly? You said Inkari was unusually long-lived for a Jarzin, but how long do, er… ‘tingers’ live?” Kuna asked curiously.

“Didnae yer parents teach ye tis rude ta ask a lady her age?” the half-lepne asked, as she crossed her arms with a playfully accusatory look.

“….er,” Kuna frowned, slightly confused. “No? Is… that rude?”

Lykou rubbed his back softly. “Er… Kuna, well-”

“Lost my parents at a young age and missed out on a lot of things because my tribe was shit,” Kuna finished for him with a small eye-roll. “Guess I just wasn’t in a position to learn that one.”

Aelana frowned and gave him a sympathetic look. “Aye, sorry lad, ah wis jest playin’. Didnae mean ta pull up ennything uncomft’able,” she said.

“Eh. I’m used to it, I guess,” the sereva replied with a shrug. “You uh, don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, obviously.”

Aelana smiled sympathetically at him. “Nah, es fine lad. Truth be tellt tho, ah stopped countin’ efter a thousand, sae ah canne be sure-”

“A THOUSAND?!” Lykou blurted out in shock, with Kuna staring with a similar state of surprise.

“Aye, look guid fer an auld hag, dinnae?” she replied, then snickered.

“You look good for someone our age, or any age, for that matter,” the canid replied with a bewildered smirk.

“Thank ye lad. Bein’ a half-Sylthean has it perks, ta be sure,” she said, then leaned back on her hands casually as she looked up at the stars. “Magic, looks, long life, ‘n’ so oan.”

“Damn. So… I guess even Inkari-”

“Ach, she’s nah far behind meh. Lik’ ah said, she foond a wey ta cheat th’ system ‘n’ has bin pokin’ aroond almost as long as ah ‘av,” she replied with a slightly sour look. “Honestly, much as it annoys me ta say, we’re prolly aboot as powerful as each ether, jest… diff’rent kinds o’ magic, ye ken?”

“R-right… all that stuff earlier was Sylthean magic, I take it?” Kuna asked. “No wonder it seemed so… different.”

“Aye. Works loads diff’rent ta th’ stuff yer used ta learnin’, tho ah kin do some o’ that, too,” she explained.

“Including the, uh… shapeshifting stuff?” the sereva asked, looking her over. His eyes briefly paused for a moment on her antlers, but he quickly shook certain thoughts away.

“Weel, sorta. Ah kin tak’ different forms, bit maistly mah lepne form ‘n’ mah ‘tinger form, or this sort’a mix o’ the two. Ether things tak’ either life magic, which kin be tiring, er glimmer, which mak’s it jest an illusion. Although sometimes ah kin do odd things ah norm’ly cannae dae, when th’ moment tis right, especially on full moons,” she replied, then smirked. “Speakin’ o’ which… ah see ye givin’ me them antler envy eyes, lad. Wantae try ‘em oan?”

“I wasn’t- wait, what do you m-”

“Here, ye wear ‘em fer a minute if ya like.” She suddenly plucked the antlers off her head with one hand- somehow the other one floated around in the air alongside the one she was holding as if they were joined by some unseen connection- then leaned forward and plopped them down on the bumps on the sereva’s head.

Kuna cringed. It felt incredibly… wrong. His body had a part of someone else’s body growing from it, and he could somehow feel it. The flows of life energy did not match up in the slightest. He twitched silently for a minute, unable to process the bizarre sensation. Lykou looked at him with concern, noting his uncomfortable expression.

Finally, right as the canid was about to speak up, Aelana took them back and snickered. “Sorry, cannae help mahself.”

“Yeah no, please don’t do that again,” Kuna said with a shudder. “I don’t need a new reason to have nightmares.”

“Na, in fact, ah’ll make ye a promise fer puttin’ up wi’ me,” she said, gently laying a hand on his shoulder, and her other on Lykou’s. “Yer devils will nae come fer ye whilst ye sleep in mah domain. Ah hereby grant ye nothin’ bit ta sweetest dreams while yer in Clovaria.” She winked at the sereva. “’n’ thas nae jest fancy talk.” Suddenly, she hopped off the mushroom and shivered a little. “Lads, lets walk ‘n’ talk. Movin’ kin help meh keep mahself, weel… under control,” she said with a sheepish grin.

“Sure, it’s a nice night again, after all,” Lykou said with a shrug, then hopped off the mushroom.

“...’under control’?” the sereva asked warily as he hopped down as well.

“Aye, mah ‘tinger side’s getting’ restless, sae movin’ aroond keeps meh calm ‘n’ focused,” she explained. “Unless ye want things gettin’ silly again,” she then added with a mischievous look.

Lykou smirked. “Hey, as long as we’re not actually in danger-”

“Pass. Walking it is.” Kuna quickly interjected, as they began strolling around the garden. “I… don’t suppose you can teach me how to do any of that stuff?” Kuna asked curiously.

“Sorreh lad, got tae ‘av Sylthean blood in yer veins ta use glimmer ‘n’ mak’ a proper geas, sae fer th’ most part, nae,” she replied regretfully. “Tha’ said, thir’s definitely magic things ye kin learn tha’ ‘av nothin’ ta dae wi’ th’ spirit world.”

“Oh?”

“Aye. Lik’ howfer ah ken aboot yer wee magic stone,” she replied with a grin, pointing to Lykou’s pocket.

“Huh??”

“I mean, it’s meaningful to us, sure, but magic?” Kuna asked dubiously.

“Aye, ‘n’ th’ fact tha’ tis meaningful ta ye is how tis magical,” she explained. “Tis a powerful sympathetic link.”

“Sympath-… what?” Kuna asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. “It’s just a stone. How can it feel sympathy?”

“And what does that have to do with magic?” Lykou added.

“Nah, lads, listen,” Aelana said, shaking her head in amusement. “Th’ magic yer learnin’ is all based on energy fra th’ spirit world. Bit Sylthean magic works diff’rent. Soul magic is th’ closest, ‘n’ thas how they overlap- we’re nearleh unparalleled wi’ dream magic ‘n’ so oan. Bit most o’ it is based oan, weel…” she trailed off for a moment, then waved her hand ambiguously. “Connections ‘n’ ideas, ah s’pose. Ah kin sense tha’ ye both put blood ‘n’ heart inta it, fer some kind o’ promise.”

“Well… yeah,” Lykou said, a little bewildered. “But how can you tell?”

“Yeah, I can’t sense any magic in it, certainly not soul energy,” Kuna agreed, scratching his head. “I don’t think stones would have that kind, anyway.”

“Weel, ye did put somethin’ inta it wi’ yer blood, bit thas nah th’ point. May ah see et?” she asked, holding her hand out.

The boys shared a look and hesitated for a moment, then Lykou fished it out and handed it to her. “Please don’t lose it or do anything to it…”

“Nae worries, ah won’t,” she said, taking the stone and looking it over. “Tho fer future reference, ye prolly shuid keep it claise ‘n’ hidden aroond other magic users, especially Syltheans. Someone tha’ ken whit thir doin’ could use this ta mess wi’ ye even fra the other side o’ the world if they get thir hands oan it.”

“Really??” Kuna asked nervously. “How?”

“Is there anything we can do about it?” Lykou asked, worried he’d inadvertently somehow put them in danger from the very start.

“Weel, nothin’ besides bury it ‘n’ try ta ferget it ever existed, bit that’d be an awful pity,” Aelana went on, continuing to examine the stone. “Dinnae need tae throw somethin’ away jest ‘cus it may ‘av some risk. It might mak’ ye vulnerable if ye lose it, bit es also important to ye, aye?”

The boys looked at the stone, then each other, and smiled faintly. “Well… yeah,” Lykou said.

“I guess it is sentimental,” Kuna agreed.

“Aye. Yer souls ‘av a small connection tae it noo. Holdin’ it, ah kin see exactly what it means ta each o’ ye, ‘n’ whit ye mean to each other,” she said with a smile, then handed the stone back to the canid. “A sign o’ commitment ta trust ‘n’ compassion fer one another. ‘n’ there’s a subtle, bit potent magic in tha’. One day, mibbie ye’ll see whit ah mean.”

Lykou looked over the stone again himself for a moment, then put it back in his pocket. “So all that… ‘keen observation’ stuff earlier…”

She snickered. “Weel, ah wasnae lyin’. Live as lang as me, ‘n’ ye pick up oan things a lot faster. A wee bit o’ magic doesnae hurt, tho.”

Kuna glanced between them for a moment. “Observation stuff…?”

“Just something she was doing yesterday, after you went in to see the council,” Lykou said with a shrug. “I guess it’s hard to keep secrets around here that aren’t yours…”

“Hah! Yer nae wrong, lad,” the half-Sylthean responded, crossing her arms with a big grin.

“Actually, why do you hide yourself, anyway?” Kuna asked curiously. “Seems like bandits and such wouldn’t be such a problem if everyone knew there was a powerful half-Sylthean around to keep an eye on things.”

“Ach, tha’s jest it, lad. It dinnae work as weel as ye’d think,” she replied with a sigh, her wings drooping slightly to match her change in expression. “Even wi’ all mah power, ah cannae be everywhere at once. ‘n’ if ah’m lookin’ one place, trouble wull start elsewhere, then folk blame me fer na fixin’ it. Everyin’ expects someone thaes powerful ta do evr’ythin’.” Her sad look shifted to one of annoyance. “Then o’coorse ye ‘av th’ ones tha’ dinnae lik’ whit they dinnae unnerstan’, or the ones tha’ side wi’ th’ more vindictive spirits ‘n’ jest think ah’m in conflict wi’ th’ ‘natural order o’ things’, ‘n’ shite like that.”

“Vindictive spirits? Natural order?” Lykou asked, raising a brow. “What do you mean?”

Aelana rolled her eyes slightly and sighed again, slightly more dramatically. “Aye. Spirits ‘n’ Syltheans ‘av a long rivalry as old as time. Neither kin agree who wis aroond first, ‘n’ some o’ ‘em resent us fer messin’ wi’ the mortal world, ‘cus they see it as their oon territ’ry,” she grumbled. “Na all o’ ‘em, o’coorse, n’ some o’ us git alang fine wi’ some o’ ‘em. Bit even then thir’s playful banter ‘n’ competition et times. Elnyr ‘n’ tree spirits, fer example.”

Finally, she smirked again. “’coorse, ah cannae blame ‘em fer bein’ wary. Lot o’ Syltheans do love tae cause trouble fer trouble’s sake.”

“Oh?” Kuna asked warily. “Why’s that?”

“Jest part o’ Sylthean nature. Tis usually na malevolent fer most o’ us, ye ken. Jest playful mischief,” she explained. “Some wid say spirits represent order ‘n’ Syltheans represent chaos. Ah’d say thir deid wrong, ‘cus tha’s oversimplifyin’ ‘n’ generalizin’, bit ah kin see why they’d say it.”

“Is… is that why Sylthea was cut off?” Lykou hesitantly asked.

She gave him a brief look, then wilted a little as she looked away. “Aye. Nah tha’ ah blame ‘em, things wis getting’ a wee bit too chaotic fer a while. Still, tis nae fun nah havin’ ‘em, or e’en any other halfies aroond ennymore,” she said with a sigh. “Used tae share responsibility fer Clovaria wi’ a few others, bit most o’ ‘em got trapped in Sylthea when it wis sealed off- tricked inta visitin’ at th’ wrong time. ‘n’ th’ rest, weel… some died doin’ stupit shite, ethers got bored wi’ Clovaria ‘n’ wandered off, and so oan, ‘till ah wis th’ only one left.”

Lykou frowned. “Must be lonely. Did you always hide who you were?”

“Nah alwis. Bit ah ‘ventually realized th’ problems wi’ bein’ th’ only half-’tinger aroond, sae efter ah got th’ whole ‘druna’ system in place, ah faked mah oon disappearance ‘n’ started posin’ as various normal lepne ta kip an eye oan things. Ah lik’ Clovaria too much tae jest abandon et, ye ken. Unlike some o’ th’ others, ah grew up here, among th’ lepne.”

“Aye, ‘n’ then ye started tryin’ to even ferget ah existed,” an identical voice suddenly spoke up resentfully. The group had been passing close by a small reflecting pool, with the half-lepne being closest to it. And the sound seemed to come from the water. Immediately, Aelana blushed and got flustered, but she couldn’t stop the boys from looking over curiously. They were surprised to see what looked like their companion’s large, feral form looking back at them alongside their reflections. She looked incredibly annoyed, glaring at the version standing next to them.

“Ach, sh-shut it you!” Aelana snapped and kicked the water.

Lykou and Kuna shared a bewildered look, then looked back up at Aelana. “What th-… did your reflection just talk?” the sereva asked.

“And why does it look like your, uh… full ‘tinger’ form?”

“Ah, uh… ah mean, she- it’s-” she sputtered, eyes darting around as she nervously fidgeted.

“She’s bIn trYiN’ tAe pUsh mE aWay, eS whIt!” the reflection snapped back, its voice distorted from the ripples.

“Is… are you somehow two individuals in one?” Lykou asked with a mixture of fascination and mild amusement.

Kuna suddenly looked very nervous. “It’s… not like a demon-pact thing, is it?”

Finally, Aelana let out a loud, exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes up. “Nae, nothin’ like that, lad.” The reflection began to chime in again, but she quickly cut it off. “Shut it, ah’ll tell ‘em, ye damn tadger,” she said, then took a deep breath and looked uneasily over at the two, clearly embarrassed. “Tis less tha’ we’re two individuals sharin’ a body, ‘n’ moar, weel… one person split inta two parts.”

“Only cus ye made us this wey,” the reflection accused, its voice more or less returning to normal once the ripples had mostly subsided. “Ye radge bampot.”

“Ah said shut!” Aelana said, shooting the reflection a glare, before turning back to the boys with a sheepish look. “Ah… guess ah went, weel… a wee bit mad fra loneliness ‘n’ tryin’ ta hide half o’ me fra everyin’ somewhere alang th’ way,” she continued explaining, fidgeting uncomfortably. “Tried to repress mah ‘tinger side, even tryin’ ta use magic ah guess, subconsciously.” She grumbled and shot another sideways look at the reflection. “Result es me sorta… splittin’ in two, ‘n’ lit’rally talkin’ ta mahself, or part o’ me anyway.”

“Only because ye willnae let me oot mair,” the reflection groused. “We were meant ta be one, ye ken! Tis a full moon, ah’m gonnae come back oot there, eventually. Ye promised fun tonight, ‘n’ a’ yer doin’ noo is talkin’!”

Aelana smacked her palm to her face, then clenched her fists and glared at the reflection intensely. “Ye ‘ad yer fun, ‘n’ et almost skeert poor Kuna tae death. Ye see wit happens when ah bring ye back in?”

“Yer such a bore noo! Tisnae right keepin’ meh holed up!”

“’n’ yer nothin’ bit trouble!”

The boys glanced back and forth between the reflection and the half-lepne awkwardly as they bickered. After a few moments, they shared a look with each other before suddenly grabbing her into a group hug. The sudden embrace threw both her and the reflection off, temporarily distracting them from their fighting.

“Er, w-whit’s this fer?” she asked, smiling a bit bashfully. “Ye mak’ a habit o’ huggin’ crazy folk?”

“I know what being lonely can do to a person’s head for even just a few years,” Kuna replied as he pulled back. “I can’t even imagine what it’d be like doing that and hiding half of who you are for, what, centuries?”

“Yeah, I’d be surprised if you hadn’t lost it a bit,” Lykou added with a sympathetic smile. “Especially since you’ve got powerful magic involved.”

“Ach, lads…” she replied, then hugged them back, sniffing slightly. “Yer gonnae mak’ meh tear up wi’ this sweet shite.” She then looked away with a slightly sheepish expression. “Guess mah callin’ Ink a bit addled is a wee bit hypocritical, though.”

“Still accurate,” Kuna responded with a light shudder.

“And I’ll take a bit of loopy and silly over miss dark and creepy any day,” Lykou agreed.

“See, ah tellt ye we could trust thaes two,” the reflection chimed in, then began bouncing and fidgeting around in her little mirror-reality. “Noo let meh oot ta play, dammit a’!”

Aelana began to form a retort, but Lykou interrupted. “Hey, if it’ll make you feel better, by all means, um… let ‘her’ out for a bit. Now that we know you never meant any harm, I don’t think it’ll be too bad,” he said, then glanced over at Kuna for confirmation. “Right?”

Kuna looked hesitant for a moment, then slowly smiled and shrugged. “I guess we can put up with some weird shenanigans for a bit,” he said, then briefly looked serious again. “W-within reason, I mean. None of that… antler shit, or anything like that, please.”

The reflection looked positively giddy. “See, see?! They’re okay with it! C’mon!”

Aelana’s eye twitched and she grinned nervously, unable to fully hide her own eagerness. “Are ye sure, lads? We kin be a bit… much. Ah cannae promise ye’ll ‘av th’ energy ta start yer journey agin’ tomorrae.”

“We’ll be fine. We’ll just get a late start and camp part-way to the arch if we have to,” Lykou said with a shrug. “Not sure what we’ll tell the caravan folks about being out so late again though.”

“Ach, we kin halp ye oot there ‘n’ mak’ it up ta ye,” the reflection assured them.

“Weel… ah guess if yer fine wi’ it,” Aelana said, starting to twitch a bit. She then shot a look at the reflection and pointed a finger at her. “You tak’ it easy oan ‘em, tho, ye hear me?”

“Sure, sure, ah ken, ah ken,” the reflection responded, rolling her eyes. She then shot Kuna slightly apologetic smile. “Ah really didnae mean ta skeer ye so bad, lad.” She glanced between the two for a moment. “If ah cross a line, jest tell meh, a’right?”

Kuna nodded, feeling slightly awkward interacting with a reflection. “W-will do, heh.”

“Aye, she mibbie a bit daft-” Aelana- the one physically standing by them- said.

“Oy!”

“-’n’ wild, bit she’s nae monster.”

“Ah’m still part o’ you, ye haverin’ numpty!” the reflection grumped, crossing her forelegs in annoyance.

“Whitever. C’mon then, ‘av yer fun,” the physical Aelana replied with a smirk and a small eye-roll.

The reflection grinned and crouched down with a mischievous expression. “Finally!” Suddenly she vanished and was replaced with the more lepne-looking form, who just sighed and crossed her arms. “’av fun, lads. ‘n’ thanks.”

“Uh, no… problem?” Lykou said as they turned to face where she’d been standing a moment ago. Only now there was nobody there.

Suddenly, they turned towards a big thud from somewhat behind them. They again saw the large wolpertinger sitting there, a few yards away. Only she had one notably new feature- Lykou’s tail. “Thanks fer breakin’ me oot, lads! Ah dae appreciate it,” she said, standing on her hind legs as she experimentally flicked the tail around. “Ah lik’ yer tail, Lykou! S’fun ‘n’ swishy!”

Lykou gawked for a moment, then glanced behind him. Sure enough, he was tail-less. Fortunately there was no pain- or wound, for that matter. There was no indication that he’d ever had a tail, in fact. “What th- hey! Give that back!” he sputtered.

Kuna covered his mouth and couldn’t help but snort and snicker some.

“Ye’ll ‘av ta ketch me fer it first!” the ‘tinger said with a sly grin.

The konuul darted after her and she lept away. Kuna soon followed along, as the inverse of the night’s original chase began.

Chapter Text

For the next hour or two, the garden was a flurry of activity and colorful flashes of light, as Lykou and Kuna chased the erratic wolpertinger around the garden, being thrown off by various magical shenanigans. Plants lashed out at them in a similar manner to those that they’d encountered in the ruins- albeit fortunately without the teeth or any real intent to harm them. The ground itself periodically changed its texture and shape- sometimes springy and bouncy, and other times like thick mud, without the moisture. Clouds of cool mist appeared in various places throughout the garden, and on more than one occasion, Lykou tried to tackle what looked like the tail-thief’s silhouette, only to end up tangled up in a sculpted hedge that hadn’t been there before.

Whatever had affected Kuna’s magic previously had subsided, so he conjured it up to try and help catch her. He didn’t encounter any resistance from the Sylthean, but occasionally when he lashed out with some vines or roots, another set would burst out and wrestle them back. And even when they were uninhibited, he was too slow to catch the surprisingly nimble feral beast. On one occasion, the sereva was tricked into getting temporarily tangled up in his own vines, and Lykou inadvertently ran into him, though fortunately neither was particularly hurt. The ‘tinger waited to make sure they were alright, though she couldn’t help giggling as the two disentangled themselves from the vines and each other.

On and on the antics went. Their clothing would suddenly come alive and try to flee their bodies. The ground would randomly spin around as the tried to traverse it, sending them back the way they came. Puffs of gas would emit from certain flowers that would either tickle them or make them dizzy when they passed through. And of course the bursts of light and random color-changes of both the landscape and even their fur only increased the occasional disorientation.

Finally, Lykou pulled Kuna aside and the two had a secret whispered conversation. Alter-Aelana eyed them with a curious look, watching them intently for any indication of what they were planning. When the two separated, Lykou again bolted for her. The moment she predictably leaped into the air again, though, a massive, flexible root burst out of the ground underneath him, lifting him in the air. He jumped up off its end, managing to intercept her in mid-air. When she landed with the konuul clinging to her side, she spun around and stumbled backwards dramatically. “Ach, ah’m deid! Struck wi’ a fuzzy arrow! Woe, woe ah say!” she cried out, then finally fell over on her back and rolled to her side, pinning the canid underneath her.

“Ghck- fuck!” Lykou cried out as he tried to scrambled out from under her. “Get off me!”

“Can’t, ah’m deid,” she playfully responded.

Kuna rushed up and knelt down to help, a mixture of concern and amusement on his face. “You uh, you alright ‘Kou?”

They both grunted as they gradually pulled the canid out from under the large ball of fluff and magic that was thankfully not quite as heavy as she looked. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he groaned as he stood up and stretched. He then turned to the wolpertinger and crossed his arms with a smirk. “We caught you fair and square, now give me my tail back.”

She rolled over and grinned at the two. “A’right, fine,” she replied, then waved a paw around, conjuring a cloud of sparkles around herself and the konuul. When it faded, the tail had been restored to its proper owner, much to his relief.

With that out of the way, Lykou and Kuna finally collapsed next to each other on the ground to rest for a moment. “Well did you get enough energy out?” Kuna asked the wolpertinger.

She snickered. “Nae hardly, lad. But ah kin gie ye a moment if ye need it.”

“That… would be appreciated,” Lykou said, then took a deep breath, fiddling with the end of his tail.

“I was just thinking,” Kuna said, scratching his head thoughtfully. “If you’re kind of, you know… two people in one,” he started, then quickly waved off the objection the Sylthean began to make. “Or the other way around, however you want to look at it- point is, there’s technically two of you, however you got that way- should one of you adopt a second name or something?”

The ‘tinger looked thoughtful for a moment before responding. “Tae be honest, she wis considerin’ th’ same thing, bit ah dinnae ken… ah mean, tis nah right we’re even sep’rate in th’ first place, bit ah dinnae think we kin go back together fully noo anyway.”

“Yeah admittedly I’m still not clear on how all that even works…” Lykou asked, scratching his head. “You were both a bit vague about it.”

“Ah’m jest Lana’s ‘tinger side. Body, mind, ‘n’ soul. Th’ bit she pushed away. Th’ bit tha’ wis too ‘inconvenient’ fer her rulin’ Clovaria, ah guess,” she explained, looking away with a resentful expression. “Bit cus we’re Sylthean wi’ powerful magic, ah split oof into a literal other bein’, instead o’ her jest bein’ plain ol’ mortal crazy.”

“Sounds… complicated,” Lykou hazarded.

“Ach, ‘noof haverin’. Save tha’ fer later, th’ night es still young,” the tinger said, standing back up. She looked at Kuna with a mischievous expression. “Mibbie ah should steal somethin’ o’ yers next?”

Kuna yelped and scrambled back a bit. “Noplease.”

“Maybe something besides just chasing each other around?” Lykou suggested.

The wolpertinger considered some ideas for a minute, then grinned broadly once again. “Ah ken ah have jest th’ idea,” she said, then suddenly hopped over by the two and used her surprisingly flexible wings in conjunction with her paws to scoop the boys up onto her back. “Hold on tight, ah’m gonnae show ye somethin’.”

“W-wait, what-” Kuna began to object, before suddenly all three were launched high up into the air.

Lykou hunkered down and pulled Kuna down as well, using his other hand to hold on tight to the wolpertinger’s fur. The sereva immediately began to panic, and the konuul was startled and anxious as well, but they both managed to cling tightly to their unexpected mount. For added stability, her fur magically animated itself and wrapped around their limbs to help them stay in place as they climbed higher into the sky.

When they reached the top of the arc of her absurdly high jump, she spun around and unfolded her wings, making the boys dizzy for a moment. Once they could see straight again, they could see that they were soaring high ovear the hills of Clovaria, overlooking not only Whitlan, but much of the surrounding landscape. Kuna shook with fear, but Lykou’s fear was quickly replaced with awe at the sight. The sprawling, hilly landscape was barely lit by the moon and stars, but that just made the torches and lanterns in Whitlan stand out even more. They looked like the fireflies from the garden from up in the sky. As they flew on, they could also see a few small campfires elsewhere across the dark landscape, most likely other trade caravans stopped off for the night, on the way to or from Whitlan.

“This is awesome!” Lykou blurted out when he finally found his voice again.

“That’s certainly a word for it,” Kuna responded as he shivered and clung close to the Wolpertinger’s back.

Lykou shot him a sympathetic look. He would have grabbed him into a hug if his hands were free, but under the circumstances that wasn’t exactly an option. So instead he settled for leaning over and nuzzling him somewhat awkwardly. “Seriously, take a look out there. Don’t worry, we’re safe.”

“Aye, lad, trust meh. Ah willnae let ye fall,” their mount called back to him. “Ye’d sooner fall off the top o’ a mountain than meh drop ye.”

Kuna shut his eyes tightly and continued shivering. “We’re in the sky. We’re not birds but we’re in the fucking sky,” he said, burying his head in her fur.

“Tha’s th’ idea! Watch thaes,” she said, then swooped down towards the ground. Though the fall was jarring, she slowed their descent near the bottom with her wings, and as soon as she touched the ground, she immediately leaped back up into the sky. Only this time, streams of light trailed out behind her wings, gradually changing color as they went along. She soared around in a wide arc, then spun in a tight spiral for a short distance, making the boys dizzy again. Afterwards, they went through a much larger, broader turn, allowing them to recover.

When they finally looked up, they saw the lingering bands of light painting the sky. Shimmery, sparkling patches dripped down from the bands of light. Even Kuna was taken aback by the sight, his fear momentarily fading a bit as it stirred an old, forgotten memory from his childhood, before he lost his parents.

The wolpertinger turned around sharply, then suddenly landed on a puffy, low cloud as if it were solid ground. Her fur released her passengers for the moment. “Ye lads doin’ a’right back there?”

“More than alright,” Lykou said, grinning as he experimentally stepped off and found the cloud was just as solid to him. “This is amazing!”

“It’s gorgeous alright,” Kuna agreed, his shivering subsiding somewhat. Still, he refused to climb down himself, until Lykou came over and gently tugged on his arm.

“C’mon, it’s safe. It’s like soft ground,” the konuul encouraged him.

“Goan then, Kuna. Yer safe as lang as ah’m here. Jest mind th’ edge- though ah kin catch ye if anythin’ happens.”

The sereva hesitantly started to get down, then clung to Lykou, both for support and for warmth- even with his new robe, the windy air was chilly up so high. But that just all the more contributed to the memory creeping back into his mind. He found himself staring transfixed at the lights in the distance. His hand reached out towards it for a moment, before he snapped himself out of it and pulled it back with a slightly sheepish look.

Lykou and the ‘tinger shared a look, then the canid squeezed Kuna gently. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Just… those lights remind me of something is all,” Kuna said, folding his ears down.

“Aye, that so? Do tell!” their winged friend said, nudging him gently. “Noo ye got meh damn curious!”

Kuna looked back and forth at them, then took a deep breath before explaining. “W-when I was little… my tribe got stuck way up north one winter. We usually tried to move with the seasons, but an unexpected snowstorm came up and we got stuck at the opening to this one narrow valley, hunkering down for a while to wait it out. It was a rough time overall, but then one night my parents brought me out late at night. Everyone else was out, too- there were these lights, kind of like that, all across the horizon. Everyone was talking about them and nobody could agree exactly what they were, but the general idea was that it was something to do with spirits in the distance,” he said, shivering slightly. “I remember it so clearly... It was cold, very cold, which of course I was extra sensitive to at the time. But I was bundled up pretty good and had my parents there with me. I felt something strangely wonderful come over me… I didn’t know what it was at the time, but looking back, I think it was some kind of magical energy in the air. I just remember suddenly feeling strangely at peace and… happy. But also something else I still can’t begin to describe. I had the most wonderful dream that night, even though I can never remember what it was about.”

“Wow… do you think…?” Lykou wondered aloud, looking over at the wolpertinger.

“Ah dinnae ken fer sure, bit soonds lik’ ye ‘ad an experience wi’ a stray Sylthean’s magic even afore ye met us,” she commented, arching a brow. “Wis th’ light th’ same, er jest similar?”

“...similar, I guess. Colors were a bit more washed out and blurry, and it was bigger overall. Filled a big chunk of the sky.”

She slowly nodded. “Nae one o’ oor lost kin, then. Mibbie winter-folk…” she trailed off, shuddering slightly. “Some Syltheans are playul ‘n’ energetic like meh, bit then ye ‘av some that are jest… strange. Even ta us.”

“Oh?” Kuna asked curiously, turning to look at her. “Are… they dangerous?”

A few moments passed in silence as she stared into the distance thoughtfully. “...tha’s hard tae answer. Nae much tha’ anybody really ken aboot ‘em. They stay well away fra ether folk, ‘n’ vanish soon’s anyone gets claise- anyone tha’ come back, anyway. Sometimes folk go missin’ wi’ ‘em though. Usually troubled folk that’re… damaged, in some way, if ye ken whit ah mean,” she said, then tilted her head as she glanced sidelong at the sereva. “Thir some o’ the most mysterious Syltheans of a’. Soonds lik’ ye heard thir call, tho.”

The sereva shuddered, his eyes widening slightly. “You mean…”

“If ye’d gone ta look into them lights claiser, ye might hae gone somewhere naebody ye’ve met kin describe, ‘n’ ne’er come back. Whether tha’s guid or bad, es anyyin’s guess.”

“Well I for one am very glad he didn’t,” Lykou said, squeezing Kuna tightly.

“S-same here, heh,” Kuna replied, nuzzling him lightly. “As… curious as I might be, and as strangely nice as that felt, I think I’d rather have met you anyway.”

“And you’d call me sappy if I said that,” the konuul teased, then gently squeezed him. “Not that I mind, of course.”

Kuna poked his tongue out at him playfully.

The wolpertinger grinned at them and rolled her eyes slightly. “Oy, yer both sappy. Now c’mon, quit bein’ adorable fer a minute ‘n’ lets git off thaes cloud. Ah see yer baith getting’ chilly.”

“Yeah, even for me it’s getting a bit much up here,” Lykou admitted with a small shiver. He and Kuna climbed back onto the wolpertinger, who then took off and glided slowly down into the hills. They flicked past a camped-out caravan. The few individuals sitting by the campfire didn’t seem to even notice them as they whisked by overhead. Eventually, they set down on the top of a high hill with a good view of the surrounding area.

“So uh, what do you want to do now?” Kuna asked their mount. “Seems like you’ve calmed down some.”

“Yeah I expected more, well, mischief by now,” the konuul added, helping the sereva down. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”

She shrugged. “Honestly right noo ah’m jest glad tae be oot, ye ken?” she said, then frowned. “Jest tryin’ ta enjoy some freedom afore ah have tae spend another few decades cooped up in ‘er heid.”

Kuna and Lykou exchanged a look, frowning. “We’ll talk to her for you,” Lykou said. “Because that’s just not right.”

“Yeah, and honestly, now that we’re not running scared from you, you’re pretty easy to warm up to,” Kuna admitted. “Which is a lot coming from me, trust me,” he added with a slight smirk.

“Yeah, really,” the canid agreed. “As rambunctious as you were earlier, I can’t see you being some big danger to everyone.”

A guilty expression briefly crossed the Sylthean’s face. “Weeeelllll,” she said sheepishly. “There wis… incidents, in the past.”

“...oh?” Kuna asked, arching a brow. “Like… what?”

“Ah dinnae want ta go intae it tae much, bit… ah mayyyy ‘av nearly caused a clan feud or four, helped some wee bairn trick folk inta thinkin’ he wis a new druna fer a while, turned fields o’ tatties intae dandelions, turned a village’s water intae booze fer a day withoot warnin’ anyyin, turned a few dozen farm tools intae wool, turned a few folk intae sheep ‘n’ sheep intae folk, created a disease tha’ made people giggle instead o’ sneeze, flipped some folk’s houses upside doon while they slept, turned an entire clan purple...” she listed off, with a mixture of guilt and amusement. When she saw the looks she was getting from the boys, she bristled a little. “Ach, ah ken better noo! ‘n’ everyin’ turned oot okay in th’ end! Honestly some folk liked th’ dandelions better anyway. Ye kin mak’ tea wi’ ‘em! ...plus they’re jest fun.”

“Uh-huh…” Kuna said dubiously, his eye twitching slightly.

“Errr. I mean, there’s no excuse for keeping you always locked away or anything,” Lykou hazarded, trying to be diplomatic. “But, um…”

The ‘tinger sighed and rolled her eyes up. “Ah ken, ya dinnae need ta say it. Ah’m a hoppin’ harbinger o’ mayhem,” she said, then flopped down on the ground. “Bit ah’m nae tha’ bad ennymore, ah’ve learned mah lesson! Doesnae help goin’ tae th’ opposite extreme o’ doin’ nothin’, tho, either. Ah still need tae be free- ‘n’ be me!” She sighed and grumbled a bit. “Mah ether half jest dinnae want tae risk gettin’ claise enoof ta ennyone tha’ she kin let ‘em ken aboot me.”

“Well like I said, we can talk to her for you,” the konuul reiterated, gently resting a hand on her side.

After a moment, Kuna came over and rubbed her head softly. “Yeah, chaotic mess or not, it’s obvious this isn’t good for either of you.”

She smiled a bit and nuzzled into Kuna’s hand. “Thanks ye two. Yer baith sweet lads,” she said, sitting back up. “Hope ah didnae wear ye oot too much, hehe.”

“Eh, I’m getting used to being kind of worn out lately,” the sereva replied with a shrug and a faint smirk. “After all the magic and fighting for survival, it’s nice to be worn out from something more light-hearted for once.”

“I’ll second that!” the canid chimed in. “And that stuff up in the sky was pretty awesome, too! I never imagined I’d ever be up in the air like a bird!”

Kuna shivered. “Y-yeah, but some warning might’ve been nice, and I think I’ll pass on revisiting that experience. Although the lights were… really nice.”

“Weel, ye’ll ‘av tae put up wi’ it at least once mair, unless ye want tae walk all the way back inta Whitlan fra here,” the ‘tinger pointed out with an arched brow and a smirk. “Ah’ll be gentler this time tho.”

“Er, r-right,” the sereva replied uneasily. “F-fair point I guess.”

Lykou grinned. “I have an idea. Go ahead and climb on,” he said.

The wolpertinger gave him a curious, but intrigued look and moved her wing down to make it easier for the boys to climb on. Kuna looked at him nervously, then hesitantly climbed onto her back and shifted over to one side like before, so Lykou had room.

But the canid shook his head. “Nah, towards the middle.”

Kuna arched a brow but shifted over towards the middle accordingly. Lykou then climbed on behind him and wrapped his arms around the sereva, hunkering down behind him as he grabbed hold of the wolpertinger’s fur, which in turn wound its way around both of their hands. The sereva blushed intensely and folded his ears down as the konuul poked his head around his neck and rested it on his shoulder, grinning.

“Better?”

Kuna nodded a little with a flustered smile. “S-sure…”

Their mount giggled in amusement, then hopped up into the air and spread her wings, flying them back to Whitlan’s core in a much calmer flight than their exit had been. “Careful na tae git too frisky back there in tha’ position, lads,” she suddenly teased. “Ah dinnae need Kuna pokin’ me, if ya ken whit ah mean.”

Kuna’s blush intensified tenfold as he sputtered and tried to come up with a snarky response, only to end up burying his head in her fur in embarrassment and letting out a slightly high-pitched, muffled whine. Even Lykou was flustered by the comment and blushed hotly. “Wh-what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked defensively, though he couldn’t help smirking as he looked away. “I s-swear, what’s with people today…”

The wolpertinger just snickered as they descended towards the gardens.

*****

“Thanks fer spendin’ time wi’ me, ye two,” the wolpertinger said as she landed back in the garden.

Lykou and Kuna quickly hopped off and avoided one anothers’ gaze, blushing still but smiling regardless. “M-mhmm, sure, n’problem,” Kuna mumbled.

“Yeah, it was fun,” Lykou replied, looking around for a minute, then realized they were near a reflecting pool and decided it was time to confront something- partly out of revenge and partly because it was needed anyway. He cleared his throat and nudged the wolpertinger. “C’mere for a moment, will ya?”

She sighed. “Aye, ah git it,” she grumbled and stalked over and looked down into the water. “A’right, you, ye kin come back oot. Ah’ve-”

“I dinnae hate ye,” the reflection mumbled, looking away sadly.

“...eh? Whit?”

The reflection sighed. “Ah said, I dinnae hate ye. Far fra it. Ah ken yer were thinkin’ it. Ah miss bein’ you sometimes. Ah feel… really bad fer pushin ye away, to tae point ye ‘ad ta become yer own separate bein’, only ta then nae give ye yer fair chance oot,” she explained, then finally looked up with a guilty expression at her other half. “Ah fergot how much fun all that could be, ‘n’ got too wrapped up in… well, whit am ah sayin’, ye ken whit ah mean.”

The wolpertinger looked surprised for a moment, then looked away with a mixed expression. “Wull… ah ken ah kin be… a lot tae deal wi’,” she said, then perked up slightly. “Bit ah hope tonight proves ah kin ‘av fun withoot messin’ tae much up, aye?”

“Aye, ah already ken that, ta be honest. Ah jest…”

“You don’t know who to trust with knowing about the two of you,” Kuna suggested as he walked over with his hands in his robe’s pockets, grateful to have the attention pulled away from him and Lykou for the moment. “Believe me, I know about trust issues.”

“Yeah, and I don’t pretend to know what it’s like in your exact situation, but it’s obvious you two need more real friends, however tricky it may be,” Lykou said, gently petting the wolpertinger.

“Aye, we do,” the ‘tinger agreed, looking back down at the reflection. “’n’ much as ah wish ah could help wi’ tha’, ye gotta be th’ one ta… y’ken, ease folk intae... us.”

“Aye, ah ken…”

“Okay, time out, we should get one thing sorted out first,” Lykou said, rubbing his head a bit. “So, just to clarify, you were one person but then because… I don’t know, magic meets a bit of crazy, mixed in with the fact that you’re half-Sylthean, and poof! You’re technically two people in one, now, right? Or one person in two or whatever you want to insist on calling it.”

“Aye, thas aboot th’ size o’ it.”

“Technically, aye. We still share th’ same experiences ‘n’ memories ‘n’ shite, bit etherwise we’re sep’rate, ‘n’ we jest trade oot who’s oot there in th’ physical world runnin’ things.”

“Mostly you,” the ‘tinger snarked.

“...ah ken. Ah wis cruel tae ye,” the reflection agreed softly, looking away sadly.

“...nae, nah cruel, ah ken ye didnae mean it tha’ way,” the tinger replied with a heavy sigh.

“Still…”

“Right, well, before we continue this conversation… I think one of you needs to come up with another name,” the konuul suggested. “I know you’re connected, but it sounds like you’re technically two individuals, or at least one and a half, or… something. So for the sake of clarity for me, Kuna, and any other friends you make, it’d probably help to give one of you a new name- a nickname, at least.”

“Ach, ah dinnae ken, she ‘as every right ta mah name as ah dae-” the reflection began, but the wolpertinger cut her off.

“Nah, tha’ soonds fair,” the wolpertinger agreed, then looked back down at the water. “Ah appreciate yer sentiment, bit ah’m fine wi’ it. ‘Aelana’ wis alwis more a typical mortal name ennyway.”

“Any ideas?” Kuna asked.

There was silence for a moment as the ‘tinger contemplated the notion. “...ah jest realized somethin’.”

“Oh?”

“Aye?”

“What’s that?”

“….much as ah represent yer Sylthean side… ah dinnae remember a single pure, proper Sylthean name,” she said with a slightly dumbfounded look.

Lykou and Kuna both face-palmed. Aelana- the one in the water, that is- looked thoughtful for a moment, then arched a brow. “Aye, me either, now tha’ ye say it. Ah guess most o’ th’ others took mortal names while they were here, too. Nabody ever tellt us thir Sylthean ones, mibbie even Da’.”

“Ah s’pose ah could jest tak’ a name efter somethin’ nice fra th’ garden,” the wolpertinger said, looking around the somewhat ransacked garden. “Some flower er somethin’. Ah ken a few o’ th’ others did sim’lar fer thir mortal names.”

“Yeah, how about Buttercup?” Lykou suggested.

She stuck her tongue out. “Bleh… ah dinnae ken, somethin’ feel off aboot that.”

“Whit aboot Daisy?”

“Hmm, mibbie...”

“How about... Myrtle?” Kuna suggested, then shrugged when they all gave him a look. “I dunno, I always thought it was an under-appreciated flower, I guess.”

“Nae bad, actually,” the tinger said, mulling it over. She then smirked. “Mibbie ah should go wi’ Thistle, seein’ howfer ah’m such a prickly nuisance.”

“...ah’d rather call ye somethin’ nicer,” Aelana said with a frown.

The wolpertinger looked at her with mild surprise. “Ah gave yer a free pass tae call me a pain in th’ arse, ‘n’ ye pass it up? Aye, ye really dae feel bad, don’t ye?” she remarked with a faint smirk. “...ach, Daisy es fine fer now, ah suppose.”

“Soonds guid,” Aelana replied with a small smile. “Daisy, ah realleh am sorreh fer th’ neglect. If we could be in the same side a’ th’ same time, ah’d hug ye, ye ken. Ah never meant ta make ye think ah disliked, much less hated ye. Ah jest… ah worry aboot things goin’ wrong when yer oot. ‘n’ nah jest cus o’ yer antics, bit ‘cus folk dinnae ken how ta deal wi’ ye. You remember whit some o’ them kin be like…”

Daisy sighed. “Aye, ah remember,” she said, then huffed. “Bit we cannae keep hidin’ oot o’ fear. Tis nah jest unfair ta me, bit you, too.”

“She’s right, you know. You two really just need to make more friends,” Lykou chimed in, then smirked at Kuna, pulling him in for a hug. “Like I’ve been telling Kuna, not everyone’s an asshole. You’ve just got to accept that you might have to risk finding the ones that are, to find the ones that aren’t. And most people usually aren’t, most of the time.”

Kuna smirked back and returned the hug. “You’re bit of a sap, but I guess you’re not wrong,” he replied, then turns back to the reflection in the water. “You know, come to think of it, you should give Moyra and Faergus a chance. They’re already used to, er, being secretive about things.”

“And pretty used to bucking normalcy, too,” Lykou agreed, though Kuna quickly shushed him with mild panic.

“I was talking about the bandit investigations,” he quickly pointed out under his breath.

“Whit’s this then?” Daisy asked, intrigued.

“Oh come on, it’s sort of public anyway. And even if it wasn’t, you know they won’t be able to keep it secret from these two.”

“Well…” Kuna began to argue, then sighed. “Yeah, fair point I guess.”

“Moyra and Faergus from Kerney are, well… officially together now. As in, you know, mates,” Lykou explained to the two. “They were already seeing each other secretly for who-knows how long, but they just recently made it official.”

Aelana arched a brow. “Kerney’s druna ‘n’ tha’ night watcher?” she mused aloud. “Ah alwyis ken tha’ lass wis different...”

Daisy grinned and shot a look to her counterpart. “Ah tellt ye them two wis sweet on each ether.”

“Still… a druna gettin’ involved wi’ someone-”

“Ah shu-… hush,” Daisy chided, softening her reaction part-way through. “Ye ken ye only made them rules- na even official, mind ye- aboot druna bein’ aloof ‘n’ detached ‘cus ye were jealous.”

“Oy, tha’s nae true!” Aelana bristled. “Ah jest didnae want druna-dom tae become some lineage shite bein’ passed doon tae thir descendants ‘n’ whatnae. Nepotism ‘n’ corruption ‘n’ a’ tha’ mess,” she insisted.

Daisy gave her a look. “Riiiight.”

After a minute, Aelana looked away with a sheepish pout. “...a’right, mibbie ah wis a wee bit jealous. Bit mah point still stands.”

“Er, it’s not going to be a problem, right?” Lykou warily asked, worried he’d made a big mistake.

“Nae, lad, dinnae worry,” Aelana assured him. “Might need ta ‘av a chat wi’ ‘em aboot a few things, bit ah willnae interfere wi’ love. Far be it fer me ta tak’ someone’s happiness.”

“That’s good,” Kuna said with a relieved sigh. “They’re good people and definitely deserve each other.”

“Ach, she ken ah’d never let ‘er ‘av another night’s peaceful sleep if she tried ta interfere wi’ tha’,” Daisy assured them, arching a brow at her alter ego.

Aelana rolled her eyes and smirked. “Nae, ah really wouldnae ennyway. Ah’m nae monster,” she said. “Bit aye, we should talk tae them, ah suppose. Jest let ‘em ken tae be careful.”

“And mak’ friends, dammit,” Daisy reminded her.

“...aye, ‘n’ try tha’ too ah suppose.”

“...mibbie even halp ‘em suss oot enny lingerin’ bandit problems in th’ hills,” the wolpertinger suggested with a narrow-eyed grin. “Ah’m sure there’s still a few oot there.”

“You jest want an excuse tae mess wi’ someone withoot holdin’ back,” Aelana said with a smirk.

“...aye,” The feral form’s borderline predatory expression sent a shiver down Kuna’s spine.

Lykou couldn’t help but snicker, though. “I can only imagine they’ll be eager to re-think their life choices afterward,” he said, then scratched his chin thoughtfully for a minute. “You know, maybe you should befriend the Dunnyhill folks, too. They seem pretty open-minded and nice.”

“Ooo, aye! Caravan folk usually are!”

“Weel, mibbie,” Aelana said. “Bit let’s just tak’ it one step a’ a time fer noo.”

“I wish Lakefire was closer, because I’d definitely visit you regularly, too,” he said, then gently rubbed Kuna’s back. “Both of us would, I’m sure.” The sereva smiled and nodded.

“We’d love tae see ye anytime ye kin mak’ it.”

“...distance dinnae need tae be a problem, ye ken,” Daisy pointed out, grinning down at Aelana.

Aelana arched a brow, then looked thoughtful for a moment. Suddenly she smacked her forhead. “Oh fer… ah cannae believe ah forgot tha’!”

“Ye still ‘av at least a dozen o’ ‘em sittin’ in th’ sanctum unused.”

“What are you two talking about?” Lykou asked curiously.

“Ye’ll see!” Daisy said as she prepared to bolt off.

“Wait!” Aelana called out to her alter ego. “Ye willnae fit through the sanctum halls, ye daft twit!”

“...ach, right,” Daisy said, her wings and ears drooping a bit. “Damn, guess we’ll ‘av ta switch back noo…”

“Aye,” Aelana said, then smiled sympathetically. “Bit ah promise ah willnae keep ye stuck on t’ether side fer years thaes time.”

Daisy stared at her for a minute. “...ye better keep that promise.”

“Ah’d swear a geas to it if we could do that tae one another, ye ken.”

“...we kin alwis meet in th’ astral realm. Tis awkward jest ridin’ in yer heid in silence ‘till we happen across a reflection, ye ken.”

Aelana looked thoughtful for a minute. “...aye, we should try sometime. Especially if we’re gonnae start usin’ tha’ place more often ennyway.”

“So wait, if you two are still connected and experience the same things, why can’t you… I dunno, talk to each other mentally or something?” Lykou asked curiously.

The wolpertinger and lepne shared a look. “Weel… tis a bit awkward.”

“Hard tae explain in enny way tha’ makes sense,” Aelana said. “Jest suffice ta say it helps ta see th’ person yer talkin’ ta.”

Daisy took a breath and straightened up a bit. “A’right, back ah go, ah s’pose.”

A cloud of sparkling, glittery light and dust appeared and swirled around the wolpertinger until it fully engulfed her. After a minute, it dissipated, leaving a slightly dizzy lepne stumbling about for a moment.

“Welcome back, I guess,” Kuna said, helping her steady herself. “So what was this thing you wanted from the sanctum?”

She grinned. “Right, wait here, ah’ll be right back,” she said, then bolted off.

“Er… alright,” Kuna replied. He and Lykou sat down on a nearby root-bench and awkwardly awaited her return. The konuul glanced down at the reflecting pool again, half expecting to see the wolpertinger on its surface, but she wasn’t there.

“Sure has been an odd experience,” he finally said as the silence dragged on.

“You can say that again,” Kuna said, then yawned a bit. “We’ll definitely be starting late tomorrow, though.”

“Heh, yeah,” Lykou agreed, then starting looking over one of his bracers idly. “Wonder what she- er, they, have in mind. Do you think we should tell them about… you know?”

Kuna fidgeted a bit in uncertainty. “I… don’t know. Maybe only if it happens to come up?”

“They deserve to know. And I wouldn’t want them to resent us for keeping it secret from them, especially when they’ve entrusted us with their own huge secrets.”

The sereva sighed. “Yeah, that’s a good point. I guess we should, then. I… just hope it goes well.”

“Why wouldn’t it? They might be able to see some old Sylthean friends again. The ones that got ‘stuck on the other side’ or whatever.”

“True. I just don’t know how she’ll feel about us wrecking an old Sylthean village and messing with their stuff.”

“I mean, for one thing, like she said, it belonged to some ‘elnyrs’, whatever they are, not wolpertingers. And they’d abandoned it anyway,” the konuul said. “And she didn’t seem bothered by us having these bracers.”

“Fair point.”

After a short while, Aelana came hurrying back. “A’right, sorry tha’ took a minute,” she said after catching her breath for a moment.

“Heh, it’s understandable. I remember how big and complicated that place is,” Kuna replied.

“Aye. Ah try ta keep mah own room near th’ bottom, bit th’ place ah keep these ‘n’ ether special things is near th’ top,” she pointed out, pulling something out of her pocket. “Hauld oot yer hands, lads.”

Lykou and Kuna did as instructed, and she placed something like a large marble in each of their hands, then grabbed them gently with her own so that they didn’t pull back right away. “A’right, gimme a moment, havnae used enny o’ these in a lang while noo.”

“Ye remember th’ incantation, right?” Daisy chimed in from the water nearby.

“Aye, jest gimme a moment,” Aelana replied, then turned up her eyes as she ran through the words in her mind.

“Incantation?” Lykou asked, then glanced over at Kuna. “Isn’t that one of those things Inkari mentioned in your last lesson with her?”

Kuna nodded. “You uh… definitely have my attention,” the sereva said to the lepne.

“Tha’ loon mentioned incantation?” Daisy asked. “Interestin’…”

“Wh-” Lykou began to ask, but Aelana shushed the three.

“Shh, ah need tae concentrate, you three.”

“Right, sorry,” the konuul said with a sheepish grin.

She took a breath, then several strands of sparkling white light began to swirl around their hands as she began to speak in a slightly rhythmic cadence.

“’neath th’ moon’s soft glow, when dreams tak’ flight,

Within thaes orbs, a sparklin’ bridge o’ light,

Linkin’ thought ‘n’ mind, fra one soul t’another,

Distance ban us not, fra seein’ each other!”

Her hair and every bit of her fur began to raise as strange energies flowed through her and surrounding the trio. A wind whipped up around them, buffeting their clothing from multiple directions. The glow in her eyes gradually grew brighter with each passing phrase, eventually masking them entirely in shimmering light. Her voice resonated with an ethereal echo as she continued,

“By th’ gift o’ Sylthea’s arcane might,

Upon which ah now call wi’ this sacred rite,

Grant us a shared magic link unbreakable,

Tae be forged by great powers unshakeable!”

After she uttered the last word, a bright flash temporarily blinded the boys, and they felt some part of themselves being pulled into the small marble-like crystal objects in their hands for a moment. Kuna recognized it as the flow of soul energy flowing from the spirit world into and through them, though he could feel something else coursing through and mingling with it as well- from somewhere that was definitely not the spirit world. A mixture of powerful feelings washed over them one after another- awe, horror, giddiness, excitement, sorrow, pining, and various others, including some they couldn’t even put a name to.

Afterwards, they were briefly hit with a strong wave of dizziness, though the magic somehow kept them from falling over or pulling away. Finally, their vision gradually returned, and the wind and energies subsided.

“Woah,” Lykou said, clutching his head with his other hand. “That was… intense.”

“I’ll say,” Kuna agreed, doing similar.

Aelana pulled her hands away, revealing what looked like two marble-like crystalline spheres in their hands, swirling with colors and faintly shimmering lights. “There ye go then, lads,” she said with a grin. “Thaes astral charms are bonded ta ye now.”

“Thank you!” Lykou said, looking it over. “Er, what does it do?”

“It lets us kip ‘n’ touch, in a way. Jest whisper mah name tae it- or Daisy’s, or even each other’s, fer tha’ matter- then hold it in yer hand when ye go tae sleep. Th’ other person wull become aware o’ yer call, ‘n’ as lang as they agree, they’ll meet ye in yer corner o’ th’ astral realm when they git tae sleep er etherwise enter th’ astral realm themselves.”

“Also has th’ bonny effect o’ lettin’ ye astral project withoot bein’ familiar wi’ soul magic in th’ first place,” Daisy added.

“Woah,” the konuul said, eyeing the small object with awe. “I… can visit the astral realm now, too?”

“I mean… technically in a way you always have, since that’s where dreams come from, right?”

“Weel, mair er less,” Aelana answered with a shrug. “But aye, now ye kin visit while bein’ aware o’ it. Jest dinnae git addicted,” she warned with a smirk. “Remember, when yer projectin’, ye willnae git as much rest as when ye sleep normally.”

“’n’ ye’ll be limited in whit ye kin dae there by yer familiarity wi’ soul magic,” Daisy added.

“Aw. Still awesome, though,” the canid said. “And hey, it means we can talk regardless of distance!”

“And they’re real pretty, too,” Kuna said with a smile. “We’ll have to be careful not to lose them, though. I wonder if we can somehow make a second pair of necklaces to hold them…”

“Ye kin dae tha’ so lang as it doesnae involve tryin’ ta pierce it er somethin’. Bit thir’s no need, strictly speakin’,” Daisy pointed out. “Tis bound ta ye in a way tha’ it’ll alwis show up agin’ by th’ next time ye sleep, even if ye lose it.”

“Still a guid idea ta keep it secure, tho,” Aelana added. “Tis potentially another strong sympathetic connection, tho its magic limits whit someone else kin dae wi’ it. Still, alwyis smart tae be careful.”

“Thank you both so much,” Kuna said, holding the charm tightly in his hand.

“Tis nae problem. Jest think o’ it as thanks fer helpin’ Clovaria… ‘n’ us pers’nally, o’course,” Aelana said, shooting a smile over to Daisy. “Enny time ye ‘av a question aboot somethin’ mystical, feel free ta ask us, ‘n’ wi’ll halp if we ken th’ answer.”

“I really appreciate it,” Kuna replied. After a brief pause, he stuck the charm in his pocket and smiled up at her. “I, uh… I know we just met, but I’m glad we’ll be able to talk more in the future, and not just for questions like that.”

“Yeah, I hope some day we can introduce you to some other folks, too. I can’t promise I know how everyone in my tribe would react, but I think at the very least Naira would be excited to get to know you, too.”

“We’ll see, lad, we’ll see,” Aelana replied with a faint smile. “One step at a time.”

“Aye, efter ye leave Clovaria, wi’ll be payin’ Moyra ‘n’ her love a visit, right?”

“Right,” Aelana said with a slightly uncertain expression.

“Hey, you’ll see, they’ll be good friends, too,” Lykou assured her. He thought for a moment, then pulled out his knife and cut off a small chunk of his hair and offered it to her. “Just let them know we sent you,” he added with a smirk. “Doubt they’d mistake who that came from.” Kuna arched a brow in mild amusement but chose not to comment.

Aelana looked at him with surprise and hesitantly took the offered lock of hair. “...thank ye?”

“Ach, tha’s sweet o’ ye lad, and smart!” Daisy said.

Eventually the half-lepne smirked back. “Jest so ye ken, thi-”

“Let me guess, ‘sympathetic link’?” Lykou remarked.

“...aye. Lucky guess,” Aelana responded with a grin.

“Well it was just part of me a minute ago, so it makes sense if I’m understanding how that stuff works,” Lykou said, then shrugged. “Don’t care. We’re all trading signs of trust tonight and honestly I really like you two, so I trust you not to let it fall into the wrong hands.”

“Aw, lad,” Aelana replied, then immediately pulled him into a brief hug, which he happily returned.

Kuna leaned over towards the reflecting pool. “See, he’s the sappier one. Big ball of sweet fluff,” he commented with a smirk.

Daisy giggled. “Dinnae sell yerself short, lad. Yer a softy as weel, ‘n’ don’t ye try ‘n’ deny it.”

The sereva rolled his eyes slightly. “Only ‘cus he’s rubbing off on me.”

“Nah, you were always a softy, even when we first met. Just covered up with a hard, cold disguise,” the konuul said, pulling the sereva into another embrace after separating from Aelana. “I’ll never forget how you melted the first time I held you.”

Kuna blushed and folded his ears down. “Lykouuuu,” he whined, rolling his eyes a bit.

“Ach, tha’ soonds lik’ a story we definitely need tae hear sometime,” Daisy remarked with a grin.

“Aye, bit we’ve kept thaes two up long enoof,” Aelana said. “Time ta get ye lads back ta th’ lodge so ye kin get some sleep.”

“Er, yeah, but,” Kuna replied, looking around at the garden, which was still thoroughly wrecked from their shenanigans with the wolpertinger earlier. “...will you need help cleaning all this up?”

The lepne glanced around with an amused expression. “Ach, ye really did a right number on thaes place this time, eh Daisy?”

“Price o’ havin’ fun, ‘Lana,” the wolpertinger said, crossing her forelegs with a smug grin.

Aelana chuckled. “Fair enoof. Ah’m glad ye got tae run amuck withoot causin’ issues,” she said, then snapped her fingers. All of the sudden, in a whirlwind of activity and motion, the garden began rapidly cleaning itself up and restoring itself to its former state. After a minute or so, there was no sign that there had been any significant activity within its walls that night. “Need ah remind ye th’ garden tis th’ core o’ my-” she started, then glanced at the water again. “...rather, our domain. Cleanup tis nothin’.”

Kuna and Lykou looked around with startled and impressed expressions. “Right… should have known.”

“I take it ‘domain’ means something more specific for you?” Lykou asked curiously.

“Aye, fer a Sylthean- including most o’ us halfies- when we settle doon in a particular place ta claim as oor own, everythin’ within it gradually becomes an extension o’ ourselves, in a way,” Aelana explained. “Anyway, let’s get ye both tae th’ lodge.”

“Sounds good,” Kuna replied, yawning again.

“Y- wait!” Lykou said, suddenly remembering what he and Kuna had discussed. He looked over to the sereva and gestured to one of his bracers. “We were gonna tell them, remember?”

“Tell us aboot whit now?” Aelana asked curiously.

“Riiight,” Kuna said with a slightly anxious smile. “Um. You know how we said we got these in some old ruins?”

“Aye?” she asked, then suddenly narrowed her eyes and turned to Lykou with an inscrutable look. “...whit kind of ruins?”

“Ehhh, wellll,” the canid began with some uncertainty. “...some kind of Sylthean ones, apparently. There were all these moving plants, with teeth and poison needles and so on that kept trying to attack us…”

“Aye, soonds lik’ typical Elnyr nonsense,” Daisy said with a mildly bemused smirk. “Love fer gardens are common tae a lot o’ Syltheans, bit they lik’ thirs tae be challengin’ fer some reason.”

“No kidding,” Kuna said with a small shiver at the memory. “I don’t like my vegetables trying to bite me back, thanks.”

“Yeah, and they had all these weird puzzles, too, and secret passages,” Lykou continued.

“Not uncommon fer some Sylthean places, bit usually thas tae hide somethin’ important,” Aelana commented, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Seems a wee bit much fer them bracer, tho…”

“Wellll….” Lykou said with a big sheepish grin, averting his gaze. “There was, uh… d-definitely something else…”

“Y-yeah… we fell down s-some secret hatch on the floor i-into some weird dark room with glyphs all over the place, and uh….” Kuna trailed off, unable to bring himself to say it.

Aelana glanced back and forth between the two warily, then adopted a flat look. “Th’ damn tree’s back, innit,” she said with the faintest sardonic smirk.

“...isn’t that a good thing?” Lykou asked hopefully. “You’ll finally see more Syltheans around again! Maybe even some of your old friends that, uh, got stuck on the… ‘other side’?”

In the reflection nearby, Daisy was emitting a faint, high-pitched squeal and practically vibrating with excitement and an enormous, wide-eyed grin. Aelana, on the other hand, seemed to be taking it a bit differently. She conjured up a large root to lean back on and rolled her eyes up thoughtfully. “...tis a mixed blessin’, ah s’pose.”

“Oh?” Kuna asked nervously. “...did we massively fuck up?”

The lepne turned to him with an arched brow and thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I wouldnae put it tha’ way, prolly no way ye could’ve ken whit ye wis doin’ at th’ time anyway,” she said, then sighed. “’n’ ah suspect Inkari prolly aimed ye there with tha’ specifically in mind anyway, even if ye didnae realize it at th’ time.”

“So… is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”

“Definitely NO!” Daisy finally cried out, then started hopping around in the reflection with such fervor that the water actually began to ripple a bit as she began rambling on and on to herself, somewhat incoherently, about various ideas for old friends to look up and shenanigans to get up to with them.

Aelana rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Lik’ ah said, tis a mixed blessin’. It’ll be nice in some ways fer us, bit over time ye kin expect th’ world tae git… weel, mighty interestin’, ta say th’ least. Ye ken how playful this radge twit is?” she said, gesturing to the wolpertinger that was too preoccupied with her own excited musings to notice. “...or how fookt in th’ heid ah am tae be lik’ this in th’ first place, fer that matter,” she added with a more self aware sheepish grin. “Remember th’ two o’ us are only half-Sylthean. Imagine how rambunctious some o’ oor full-blooded cousin are.”

Kuna’s eyes widened a bit and he twitched. “...oh.”

“That… sounds… interesting, alright,” Lykou said with a somewhat uncertain grin. “I uh. I hope the world can handle all that…”

Aelana chuckled and shook her head. “Ach, it’ll be fine. It survived us afore th’ disjunction, it’ll survive Sylthea’s return. It’ll be a while afore many kin start crossin’ over again anyway,” she said, crossing her arms. “Remember, Syltheans on the whole kin be chaotic, bit that don’t mean they’re all evil. Ye jest… have tae be on yer toes aroond a lot o’ ‘em. Bit thir’s no more sleekit ‘n’ cunnin’ bastard aroond than fae folk tryin’ ta pull yin over on ye. Word o’ advise- pay very, very close attention tae words when yer aroond full Syltheans. Always assume thir always talkin’ lit’rally, even- nae, especially when they use common turns o’ phrase.”

“Good to know,” Kuna replied with a wary look. “Any examples?”

“Weel, ye ken when ah said ta gimme yer hands fer tha’ geas?”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s jest say some o’ th’ more dreich fae might’a kept ‘em,” Aelana said with a dark smirk. “If yer lucky it might be temporary, fer a goof, like Daisy did wi’ yer tail. Th’ truly wicked ones though… ye ken where ah’m goin wi’ this.”

Kuna blanched and Lykou shuddered. “Duly noted…”

“Aye, jest keep tha’ in mind. Demons might be infamous for tricky deals wi’ unsuspectin’ mortals, bit th’ smart ones learn thir dirtiest tricks frae Sylthea’s finest.”

Kuna gave her a wary look. “You uh… you wouldn’t-”

The lepne snickered. “Nae, ah’m only a halfie, ‘n’ anyway ‘tingers are mair er less lik’ Daisy ‘ere, jest zany goofballs wi’ tae much energy,” she assured him. “’n’ fer the record, elnyr kin be sly sometimes, bit usually onleh if thir genuinely efter somethin’ they want. Etherwise, thir a wee bit stuck up thir oon arses. Ah’m jest givin’ ye a general warnin’ cus tis safer tae assume a Sylthean’s upty somethin’ till ye get ta ken ‘em better.”

“We appreciate the warning, heh,” Lykou said, then yawned. “We probably should get back to the lodge, though. We just thought it was only right to let you two know about the tree.”

“Thank ye thank ye thank ye!” Daisy repeated, bouncing in place. “Yer mah heroes, lads!”

“Aye, th’ tree’s a mixed surprise, bit ah generalleh still agree. Yer pure decent ‘n’ a hawp ye dae return tae these hills some day,” Aelana said, walking over to embrace the two. “Lets git ye tae bed, so ye kin get ready fer tomorrae, however late ye start oof.”

Lykou and Kuna both returned the hug, then followed her out of the garden as she led them to the lodge again. “Um… hey Aelana,” Kuna spoke up as they passed through the gate.

“Please, call me ‘Lana if ye want.”

“Right, Lana… um, do you think you could, uh…”

“...want me tae sing again?” the lepne asked with a grin. “That it?”

Kuna nodded with a sheepish smile. “It’d be… nice…”

Lykou smiled and pulled the sereva into a side-embrace. “You’re too adorable sometimes, you know that?”

“Hush, you,” Kuna replied, blushing.

Aelana chuckled. “Ah’d be happy tae, lad.”

The three strolled through the streets back to the lodge as she began singing again. A few patrolling night guard, oblivious to the trio thanks to her magic, nonetheless found themselves oddly at peace on their rounds that night, with the faint echoes of a strange tune popping into their mind on occasion.

Chapter Text

Kuna woke up before Lykou the next morning. It was already late into the morning, and he could hear that the adjacent common area of the lodge was abuzz with activity. He somewhat reluctantly sat up and rubbed his eyes. He would have loved to close his eyes again and doze a bit more, but he knew that he and Lykou would have to readjust to their normal sleep pattern soon enough, and they had at least a half day of travel ahead of them.

When he glanced over at his side, he couldn’t help but blush and grin slightly at another temptation to lay back down- a nearly naked konuul. Since Lykou’s new outfit was padded with armor bits, it wasn’t well suited to sleeping in, so he’d decided to strip down for the night. Kuna had also taken off his robe. While not as strictly necessary as it was for Lykou’s outfit, he offered up a handful of excuses- combining it with the blanket was too warm, it was awkward to sleep in, and, of course, it was ‘only fair’ to the konuul. Still, they each came to the conclusion that they’d still each wear their old pants instead, at least for the time being. Unless they were in a hot climate. Where it would be strictly pragmatic to strip all the way down. And for no other reason, obviously.

Of course, they’d gotten in so late, they hadn’t had the energy to tease each other about it much before they both conked out for the night. But he had a feeling that was coming, so at least for the time being, he opted to quickly get his robe on and shake some potentially intrusive thoughts away before he gently started nudging the canid awake. He definitely didn’t think he’d find the time or place to deal with any… fallout of such thoughts until they left Whitlan, at the very least. Not without some awkward conversation he wasn’t interested in having with anyone about why he might need a secluded space to himself for a short time.

After some gentle prodding, Lykou’s eyes fluttered open and he stretched, groaning a bit. “Mmno fair. Tell the sun to go back t’bed for a bit,” he grumbled playfully.

“I don’t think even Lana’s or Inkari’s magic is that powerful,” Kuna replied groggily, with a smirk. “C’mon, we can’t get too used to this late morning stuff. We’ve got traveling to do.”

“Mmm, need to find a sun spirit or somethin’ t’ teach you,” the canid joked as he reluctantly sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Sleep okay?”

“Mmm, yeah, just not enough.”

“Me either, but I figure it’ll help if we get moving. And we can always camp early if we really need to. Let’s just get some progress today.”

“Fair enough,” the konuul replied, then looked around, blinking the sleepiness away. After a moment, he smirked at the sereva. “Already dressed huh? Eager to hide that cute butt?”

Kuna blushed and rolled his eyes. “Oh hush, it’s too early for that. C’mon, get dressed so we can go grab some breakfast.”

Lykou got dressed as Kuna began gathering their things up, making sure everything was packed away for traveling. Afterwards, they both walked out into the common area, where they saw the Dunnyhill gang milling around, packing things up.

“Mornin’ lads!” Ealar greeted them.

“Ye were oot late again,” Effie noted with some concern. “Everythin’ a’right?”

“Yer lettin’ th’ big toun gie ye bad habits,” Gavin teased, then chuckled. “Ah’m glad yer enjoyin’ yerselves, though.”

“Er, yeah,” Lykou said sheepishly. “After we met up with the council again, we, um…”

“Went for another long walk,” Kuna quickly interjected. “Spent a long while exploring the garden.”

Ealar looked at him with a perplexed expression. “They usually claise efter sundoon. Ah ken ye met wi’ the council, bit…”

“He’s a druna, aye? Special privileges, ah’m sure,” Finlay chimed in.

“Y-yeah! Druna stuff,” Kuna quickly agreed. Eventually one of the lodge porters came to check in on the group and noticed the boys were up, so he brought them some food and drinks. It wasn’t hot, but they didn’t care at that point.

Eventually, Bhaltair walked in from the cart stalls and saw that they were finally awake as well. “Aboot time ye two got up!” he said playfully. “Ah wis startin’ tae think ye wis thinkin’ aboot turnin’ intae night guards fer Whitlan.”

Lykou chuckled. “Nah, sorry for sleeping in again. Guess everything that’s happened over the past week has messed with out sleep patterns, heh.”

“Weel, efter helpin’ us lik’ ye did, ye kin sleep whene’er ye want, as far as ah’m concerned,” the caravan leader said, walking over to embrace them both lightly. “Unfortunately, we’ve got oor own travelin’ tae do, sae we’re heidin’ oot efter lunch. Ah did put in a word wi’ th’ lodge master ‘n’ he dinnae mind if ye wantae spend th’ night here again, but come tomorrae, ah’m afraid ye’ll ‘av ta find ether arrangements.”

“We appreciate it, but we were going to head out soon ourselves,” Lykou replied. “We’ve dragged our stay out long enough, and as much as we both have enjoyed Clovaria, we really do need to get on with our trip home.”

“Ah sure hawp ye come visit again someday, then,” Effie said, setting down a bag she was carrying in order to give each of the two a hug in turn, which they happily returned.

“Aye, wid be great tae see ye again,” Bhaltair agreed, then patted them both on the back. “Ah need tae git back oot there, bit in case ah dinnae see ye afore ye leave, safe travels to baith o’ ye.”

“Likewise!” Lykou said as he and Kuna both gave him another quick hug. “Who knows, maybe one day we’ll find out a way for you to come visit Lakefire, too!”

“Soonds crackin’!” Bhaltair agreed, then headed out the door.

“If at all possible, I definitely want to come visit here again, too,” the canid said with a smile. “Love the open hills out there and everything. And of course all the great people like yourselves.”

“Yeah, other than those bandits, this has been really nice,” Kuna agreed. “Thank you all for letting us travel with you.”

“Ach, we’re th’ ones thankin’ you!” Gavin said. “Ye saved all oor skins, havin’ yer company wis oor pleasure!”

“’n’ ye better believe ah’m workin’ on a song fer ye two,” Finlay added with a wink. “Two strangers fra far away come ‘n’ save th’ day- tis a perfect story tae tell by a campfire.”

“A song about us? Gosh,” Kuna replied with a bashful smile.

Lykou grinned and hugged the sereva. “Well, rest assured we’re looking forward to telling the other Ashers about all of you and Clovaria when we get back, too.”

“Mak’ sure ye get ‘im guid ‘n’ tipsy first,” Ealar teased, poking the sereva playfully as he walked past to pick up a box of goods.

“Oh definitely,” the canid responded with a grin before the sereva could interject.

Kuna just smirked and rolled his eyes. “Right…”

Suddenly Bhaltair came back in, followed by an unexpected guest- a familiar ‘groundskeeper’ from the garden. Only she was dressed up a little more formally- more like an official of some sort than a gardener. “Er, lads? This here’s Aelana, she says she works fer th’ council ‘n’ wants ta speak wi’ ye two?” he said, uncertainly.

“Oh… yeah,” Lykou said, perking up a little. “We uh, met.”

“Hi Lana,” Kuna added with a small wave and a smile.

“Ach, guid then. If ye need anythin’, let me know,” Bhaltair said to Aelana with a nod, then turned to head back out. “Ah’ll be oot here if ye need meh.”

Aelana nodded back, then turned to the boys. “Mornin’ lads,” she replied with a small, guarded smile of her own. She was clearly in disguise mode, including the way she carried herself. “Th’ council wid lik’ tae see ye one last time at yer earliest convenience. Nae rush tho, ye kin tak’ yer time.”

“Goodness, th’ council must really be fascinated wi’ th’ two o’ ye,” Gavin said.

“Seems that way,” Lykou said, smirking knowingly at the ‘council servant’. “Tell you what, why don’t you join us while we eat breakfast?”

“Oh, tha’s a’right, ah should really-”

“Nonsense, I insist! I happen to remember most of your work is in the evening, right?”

Kuna smirked and shifted over a bit, patting a stool next to him. “Trust me, he won’t stop until you join us.”

Aelana shot them a subtle look, then glanced around nervously for a moment. “Weel… ah suppose ah… dae ‘av some time…” she said as she hesitantly walked around, then sat down on the offered stool.

“Nice tae meet ye,” Ealar said as he walked back past. “Aelana, wis it? Ah’m Ealar.”

“And ah’m Gavin,” Gavin said, then proceeded to introduce the others.

“Whit dae ye do fer the council exactly?” Ealar asked.

“Ah, ye ken, jest… errands ‘n’ such,” Aelana replied. “Nothin’ tae interestin’.”

Finlay chuckled. “Errands fer the high council soonds plenny interestin’ in isself.”

“Ah suppose,” she said with a slightly forced smile. She then leaned over and whispered out of the corner of her mouth to Lykou when nobody was looking at her. “Did ye want somethin’ lad? Or ye jest tryin’ ta mix meh up?”

“You should get to know these folks some. See for yourself they’re trustworthy,” he replied with a wink, then spoke back up more normally. “You want anything to eat? You can have some of my stuff if you want. I should probably have some of my salted meat, to be honest.”

“Nae thanks, lad, ah’m nae hungry,” she replied, then twitched slightly as an odd sensation briefly flashed through her. She flagged down the lodge porter. “...ah might could use a drink tho…”

“A drink, er a ‘drink’?” Gavin teased, then chuckled. “Ah’m sure they kin bring ye some water er somethin’, bit ye may ‘av ta wait a bit on th’ guid stuff. Tis still mornin’, efter all.”

“Water will be fine,” she replied flatly.

The porter left and came back in short order with a copper cup full of water, setting it down in front of her. “Forordinar onleh trade folk wid get anythin’ ‘ere, bit if yer wi’ th’ council ‘n’ thaes lads vouch fer ye, ah’d be happy tae bring ye some food as weel.”

She shook her head. “Thank ye, bit this is all ah need fer noo.”

“Aye, jest let me ken if ye change yer mind,” the porter said, then turned and walked away to help Gavin carry a larger box out to the stalls.

The three sat and made small talk for a while, with each other and the Dunnyhill gang as they worked. While it wasn’t especially obvious, there was a faint bit of awkwardness that Lykou picked up on. He could tell she’d not engaged in such extended casual conversations about mundane subjects in a long time.

Eventually, as Effie was passing by, she paused and shook her head as she caught a glance at the cup in front of their guest. Luckily, Aelana picked it up to take a sip before she could get a better look at it. Kuna caught the look though. A thought occurred to him and he warily spoke up. “Everything alright, Effie?”

“...aye,” she said after a moment with a small grin. “Sorreh, mah eyes must be playin’ tricks oan meh. Mibbie ah’m nae as awake as a thought.”

“Tak’ a break, then,” Ealar suggested. Aelana looked at Kuna questioningly. The sereva tried to subtly point to her cup with a quick glance. She looked down and stiffened up slightly, then made sure to keep both hands wrapped around it, as her eyes scanned the room for any other reflective surfaces. “Nae much left tae pack away ennyway, we’ve got th’ rest. Ye bin workin’ at it sin’ afore some o’ us wis awake.”

Effie started to protest, but Finlay spoke up, “Aye, ‘es right. Rest up fer a spell, ye need some energy fer travelin’, ye ken.”

Before Kuna could come up with anything to draw attention away, Lykou nudged a stool out with his foot and smiled. “C’mon, listen to the others and join us.”

Finally, the smaller lepne conceded and sat down with a smile. “A’right, soonds guid. S’pose ah ‘av bin keepin’ busy this mornin’,” she said, then turned to Aelana. “Sae ye run errands fer th’ council, aye? Does tha’ mean ye met ‘em?”

Aelana looked around uncertainly for a moment, then slowly nodded. “...aye, tho usually ah jest talk t’the guards. The council bein’ sae busy ‘n’ such.”

“Ye ever get tae see ‘em use thir magic?”

And so the conversation continued for a while. After around an hour or so, once the boys had finished eating and waking up, they stood up along with their guest and decided it was time to bid everyone farewell. They walked around distributing hugs and swapping well-wishes, then finally picked up their things and headed for the door.

Aelana was still holding the cup carefully when she began following them out. The porter cleared his throat and arched a brow at her as he was cleaning up one of the other tables, giving her hand a meaningful glance. She smiled sheepishly and set the cup down before hastily making her way out. The porter went back to his work without another thought, along with most of the rest of the lepne. Effie, however, having been resting up, caught another glimpse of something odd right before the stranger walked out after the boys.

She glanced around a bit, then excused herself as she walked to the door herself. Once could be dismissed as a trick of the light or her eyes, but twice seemed odd. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed a little off about the council ‘errand-runner’.

“Where ye goin’?” Gavin asked.

“Jest hoppin’ doon tae th’ market real quick. Willnae tak’ lang.”

“A’right, jest remember ta be back afore lunch!”

“Aye.”

*****

Aelana led Lykou and Kuna back towards the garden, ducking down the quietest, least-traveled alleys along the way. Finally, when they came to a particularly isolated spot with no other lepne within sight, she stopped them and waved her hand in a large arc, sending a curtain of sparkling light around their section of the alley, which shimmered for a moment, then faded.

“I take it we’re invisible to others again now?” Lykou asked.

“Aye, naebody wull detect us fer th’ moment,” she said, relieved. But then she turned and glared at the wall for a moment as she waved her other hand, temporarily turning part of the wall reflective. The boys could see their own reflection, but hers was… missing. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “Oi. Daisy. Ah ken yer there. Quit hidin’.”

The tinger finally appeared at the bottom of the reflection, grinning sheepishly. “Aye, whatcha need?”

“I think that’s what we should be asking,” Kuna helpfully suggested before Aelana could snap.

“Whit were ye thinkin’ tryin’ tae peek in back a’ th’ lodge?”

“Ah jest wanted tae get a peek a’ these ‘Dunnyhill’ folk, a’right?”

Aelana groaned and rolled her eyes. “We experience th’ same things, ye numpty! Ye almost gave us awa’!”

Daisy frowned and looked away, her ears drooping a bit. “...fine. Sorreh. Ye were chattin’ wi’ ‘em ‘n’ ah wanted feel lik’ ah wis really part o’ it.”

Lykou shot her a sympathetic look. Aelana’s expression softened and she sighed. “...aye, bit ye ‘av tae be careful. Ah’ll kip mah promise, bit ah need time, a’right? Warm folk up tae th-”

“Who are ye talkin’ tae?” a curious voice spoke up behind them, causing the three non-reflection-dwellers to whirl around in surprise.

“Effie??” Kuna said in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” Lykou asked with a nervous grin, trying to help Aelana block her view of the reflective portion of the wall without being too obvious about it.

Effie raised a brow, glancing between the three suspiciously. “Thas whit ah wis gonnae ask you three,” she said, a faint smirk starting to form on her face. “Jest an ‘errand-runner’ eh? Didnae ken th’ council ‘ad other drunas workin’ under ‘em in secret. Whit kinda magic ye even’ got goin’ on here?”

“Hah! Other way ar-” Daisy blurted out behind them.

“SHUT IT, DAMMIT!” Aelana snapped, turning back to the wall briefly.

Lykou sighed as he and Kuna shared a look. “Weren’t we supposed to be invisible?” Kuna asked.

“She must’ve been hidin’ ‘round th’ corner ‘n’ gotten caught in th’ spell,” Aelana grumbled, clutching her head as she began to panic a bit. “Ah should’ve made it smaller, dammit. Ah’m losin’ mah edge, lettin’ mah guard doon...”

Lykou glanced between her and Effie for a moment, then gently laid a hand on Aelana’s shoulder. “Hey, she’s good people. I know it wasn’t planned, at least not so soon, but is there really any harm to her knowing?”

“Whit ye talkin’ aboot?” Effie asked, then grinned sheepishly. “Ah’m sorreh fer snoopin’, bit ye really caught mah eye back a’ th’ lodge. Couldnae help mahself. Er… ah’m nae in trouble am ah? I didnae mean tae interfere in council bus’niss!”

Aelana wilted a bit, glancing around uncertainly. “Weel, no, s’not exactly a council matter… considerin’ only one o’ ‘em even ken aboot me…”

“Ah’m sorreh…” Daisy weakly chimed in behind her.

“Who’s back there ennyway?” Effie asked, trying to peer around Lykou.

“...weel, guess thir’s no hidin’ it noo.” Aelana finally conceded, then shot the other lepne a very nervous smile. “…ah’m… nae exactly normal, ye see…”

“She’s ha- mnmnfff!” Lykou started trying to help explain, but suddenly felt his mouth seizing up in the middle of his sentence out of nowhere, as if some unseen force was forcing it shut. He shot Kuna a bewildered look, then turned to Aelana.

Kuna raised a brow. “Er… he’s trying to say she-mmmnpf!”

Aelana couldn’t help but smirk in amusement. “Geas, remember? Ah tellt ye the words wouldnae leave ye,” she said, then rolled her eyes a bit. “Ah hereby grant ye permission tae talk tae this one aboot meh.”

The boys’ mouths returned to normal and Lykou couldn’t help but smirk in spite of himself. “So that’s how that works…”

“No more ‘gesh’ promises for me, thanks,” Kuna added with considerably less amusement, his eye twitching a bit.

“...whit jest happened?” Effie asked, growing visibly more confused by the moment.

“Weird magic, not the kind drunas usually do,” Kuna answered, rubbing his jaw a bit.

“Right, so… want me to explain?” Lykou asked Aelana.

“Aye, fine,” she said, then adopted an almost manic expression as she dramatically stepped to the side, revealing the reflective portion of the wall. “Explain away!” she said with a theatrical gesture towards the now visible wolpertinger, before burying her face in her hand. “Oi…”

Daisy looked a little startled at the sudden reveal, then gave Effie a slightly nervous grin and a small wave with one forepaw. “Er, hi there...”

Effie’s eyes widened as she took a step back, unsure how to react to the revelation.

“Errr… right, so… this is Daisy. It’s kind of a complicated story, but suffice to say Aelana is more than just a druna. She’s only half-lepne. The other half is a being called a wolpertinger, which is represented by Daisy here.”

Effie glanced back and forth between the two for a moment. “Er, come agin? Ah dinnae follow.”

“Ah’m a powerful sorceress fra anether world- nae th’ spirit world, bit one most folk hae forgotten called Sylthea. Ah went magically a bit dotty tae th’ point tha’ mah ‘tinger half became her oon sep’rate person, ‘n’ tha’s Daisy ‘ere,” Aelana chimed in, then shot a sidelong look to the wolpertinger.

“…did ah git blootered ‘n’ ferget it?” Effie asked incredulously, rubbing her head a bit. “Ah dinnae usualleh drink, bit ah suppose it’d jest hit meh harder when ah dae…”

“Nope, this is all real and you’re sober,” Lykou said with an awkward smile. “I know it’s… kind of a lot, but it’s all true. The council runs things for the most part, but she’s the secret leader of Clovaria as a whole, in a way.”

“Ach, realleh?” Effie said, perking up a bit. “Sae th’ high drunas hae a high druna o’ thir oon?”

“Yes, and um…” Kuna chimed in, then glanced around between Aelana and Daisy for a moment, then walked over and gently laid a hand on Effie’s shoulder. “...she needs friends. I know this is sudden, but please don’t tell anyone about her, and consider getting to know her. This is just scratching the surface of things she’s kept secret for longer than you can possibly imagine, and it’s taken a toll on her.”

“Och, ah’m fine,” Aelana bristled, straightening herself up. “Nae need tae overstate things lad, ah-”

“Ye lit’rally created me oot o’ half yer damn heid frae loneliness ‘n’ stress,” Daisy interrupted, shooting her a look. “Yer nae fine. We’re nae fine.”

Aelana deflated again. “...weel...”

Effie looked up at Kuna, then back to the other lepne- or half-lepne, rather, and her mirror-half. She slowly nodded. “...weel, ye certainly seem off, ‘n’ tis hard tae believe ye really rule Clovaria somehow, bit if these lads think yer guid folk, ah’m inclined tae believe ‘em,” she said with a small smile. “Er. Aboot tha’ whole… ‘half-lepne’ thing tho, ah’m still a smidge confused. Ye look full lepne tae me, is tae ether half jest in yer heid then?”

“Nae ennymore, na fully anyway,” Daisy said with a smirk.

“Nae helpin’, you,” Aelana said, shooting her a look, then turned back to Effie. “Lik’ ah said, tis… complicated. We’re both th’ same person but also not. S’all… magic-related stoof. Specifically Sylthean magic, which tends tae get weird sometimes.”

“Why don’t you show her that hybrid form? That was basically your ‘true’ form, right?”

“Aye… technically,” she replied, then waved her hand around, surrounding herself in the glittery cloud of dust for a moment, before emerging in her full halfie form. The sight earned renewed shock from Effie.

“Crivvens, ye really are streenge,” the small lepne remarked, then smirked a bit. “Nae offense. Yer… actually quite beautiful.”

Aelana smiled a bit at that. “Thank ye. Bit aye, tis oor original ‘true’ form, if ye wantae call it tha’. Sin’ we split, tho, ah tend tae stick tae lepne form, ‘n’ she tends tae stick tae ‘tinger form when ah let her oot.”

“Which doesnae happen near enoof these days,” Daisy commented pointedly.

“Let her… oot?” Effie asked curiously.

“Aye,” Aelana said, then looked sidelong at her other half for a moment. “...ach, guess we might as weel show her, sin’ ye wis gonnae come oot later ennyway. Jest promise tae behave ‘n’ stay hidden lik’ we agreed, okay?”

Daisy perked up and nodded. “O’coorse! No funny bus’ness, jest flyin’ t’ th’ gateway ‘n’ mibbie aroond Clovaria fer a bit, nae lettin’ mahself be seen,” she replied, then tilted her head a bit. “Ah ken ah’m a radge shite sometimes, bit ye kin trust me oan tha’. Ye need a break fer a bit, ‘n’ ah got plenny o’ shenanigans last night ennyway. Ah’ll jest be happy tae be oot fer a bit ‘n’ enjoy th’ air under mah wings.”

“What’s this about the gateway?” Lykou asked.

“Aye, th’ reason we originally came tae git ye wis tha’ she wanted tae giv’ ye a lift as thanks fer spendin’ time wi’ us fer so lang last night,” she explained. “And honestly, she’s right. Ah need a break. More than ah ever realized.”

“So tha’s where ye two bin these past two nights,” Effie said with a bemused look. “Long walks, eh?”

Kuna smiled sheepishly. “Well, to be fair we did spend a lot of it in the garden…”

“Riiiight,” she replied, then turned back to Aelana. “Still tho, flyin’? Lettin’ her oot? Ah’m still waitin’ tae-”

“Jest watch,” the halfie said, rolling her eyes up with a sigh. She conjured up another cloud of glittery lights and dust, which gradually grew larger and larger, forcing Lykou to take a few steps back out of the way, joining Kuna by Effie’s side. When the dust disappeared, Daisy was out in the material world, and Aelana had taken her place in the reflective surface.

Effie gawked at her for a minute. “...ah see.”

Daisy grinned and bent down to sniffle at her a bit. “Hi.”

“H-hi there miss… Daisy, wis it?” Effie replied, hesitantly reaching out to stroke her snout slightly. “...this feels a smidge weird, nae offense. Ah feel lik’ ah’m dreamin’.”

“That’s whit makes it fun!” Daisy replied cheerfully.

“She gets… rambunctious, but she’s nice, don’t worry,” Kuna assured Effie.

“Ach, ah tellt ye, ah’ll tone tha’ shite doon fer noo,” Daisy whined slightly, rolling her eyes. Then she grinned back at Effie. “Ah wis gonnae give these two a ride, yer welcome tae come alang if ye want. Pretty sure thir’s room fer three o’ ye,” she offered, unfurling her wings a bit.

“...wait… ye mean lik’…” the lepne responded with growing incredulity as she looked over her wings. “...in’ the sky? Lik’ a damn bird??”

“Yup!” Lykou chimed in. “It’s amazing, like nothing you’ve ever experienced before! She took us up last night, it was awesome!”

“That’s certainly one way to describe it,” Kuna said with a slight shiver.

“Ah’ll… pass fer noo. Th’ gang’s preparin’ tae leave ‘n’ ah need tae be back afore lunch,” Effie replied, causing the wolpertinger to wilt in disappointment. After a moment, Effie grinned and stroked the wolpertinger’s snout some more. “...bit hey, ye got me all kind o’ fascinated ‘n’ wantin’ tae ken more aboot ye two. Mibbie ye kin pop by tonight when we mak’ camp? Ah’m sure th’ others wid be jest as fascinated.”

“Weel… tha’ soonds nice, bit…” the tinger replied, glancing back towards Aelana. “We made a deal tae tak’ things slow ‘n’ nae reveal oorselves tae too many folk at once… originally we wis gonnae try ‘n’ ease intae revealin’ oorselves t’Moyra ‘n’ her lad o’er in Kerney fer noo.”

“Oh, aye, they’d be guid fer secrets,” Effie agreed with a small nod. “Still, if ye ever wantae visit, lik’ ah said, ah’d love tae ask ye more ‘n’ get tae ken ye both better.”

“Definitely!” Daisy agreed.

“And hey, like we told you, the Dunnyhill gang are all good folks. Seriously consider opening up to the others, too,” Lykou suggested, glancing back at Aelana.

Aelana shrugged. “Ye know whit? Ah’m pure scunnered. Ye kin make yer oon decision while yer oot there,” she told Daisy, then arched a brow. “Jest be careful, tha’s all ah ask.”

Daisy lit up with excitement. “Aye, o’ coorse! Thank ye Lana!”

“Nae need ta thank me. We’re supposed tae be equals efter all, ah’m sorreh ah fergot that for a while,” Aelana said with a sigh.

Daisy grinned and turned back to Effie. “Right, guess ah’ll pop by tonight efter all,” she said, then paused and thought for a moment. “Tell ye whit tho, fer Lana’s peace o’ mind, how aboot jest th’ two o’ us meet at first. That a’right wi’ you?”

“Ah cannae exactly say no tae th’ high druna’s boss, can ah?” Effie said in amusement.

Daisy snickered. “Nae need ta think o’ it tha’ way. Tha’ whole secret leader thing is a wee bit overblown thaes days,” she explained. “We- mostly Lana- jest go aroond secretly keepin’ an eye oan things ‘n’ occasionally nudgin’ folk in wee ways noo ‘n’ then. Powerful borin’, tae be honest.”

“But safe and effective,” Aelana spoke up somewhat defensively.

“Aye, sure, sure,” the wolpertinger said with a small eye-roll.

“Weel, ah best git back tae th’ lodge afore the others start worryin’,” Effie said. “Bit ah’ll look forward ta seein’ ye again. Still ‘av plenny o’ questions.”

“Wait a minnit!” Daisy said. “Dinnae leave jest yet, yer invisible tae everyone else.”

Effie blinked a few times and glanced down at herself. “Right. Tha’ magic thing yer ether half started off wi’.”

“Maybe a geas as weel?” Aelana suggested. Kuna winced and subtly tried to gesture for Effie not to go for it if she could help it. “...or nae. Sorreh, yer call, Daisy.”

“Nae, ah think we kin trust her,” Daisy assured her, then smiled down at Effie.

“Aye, nae worries, ah’m guid wi’ secrets,” the short lepne assured her. “Ah willnae tell a soul ye dinnae want tae ken aboot ye.”

“Right, lemme jest-”

“Wait, so ah’m invisible tae everyone bit th’ four o’ you, aye?”

“...aye?”

Effie rubbed her chin thoughtfully for a minute, then slowly grinned. “...ah almost wish Dougal were still aroond. Ah kin think o’ some fun ah could ‘av wi’ this,” she said, surprising both Lykou and Kuna.

Daisy beamed. “Oh we’re gonnae git alang famously, lass.”

Aelana groaned slightly and brought her palm to her face. “...jest be careful o’ causin’ real trouble, a’right?”

“Right, right,” Daisy said, then waved her head around a bit, conjuring sparkles up from the tips of her antlers, which surrounded Effie for a few moments before vanishing. “A’right, goan ‘n’ git tae lunch. Ah’ll see ye tonight tho, aye?”

Effie grinned and nodded. “Ah look forward tae it,” she said, then turned to the reflection on the wall. “Wis crackin’ meetin’ ye both- fer real meetin’, ah mean,” she said, then turned back to the boys. “Seems lik’ streenge ‘n’ amazin’ things follow ye two. Guid luck oot there, lads. Ah look forward ta hearin’ more stories fra ye someday, ye unnerstan?”

Lykou grinned and nodded. “Absolutely.”

“Take care, Effie,” Kuna said, then hugged her briefly and leaned in to whisper to her, “And thanks for giving them a chance.”

The lepne just grinned back at him and winked, then smiled back at the others. “Weel, best be goin’. Safe travels ye two,” she said, then turned and sprinted off.

“Weel. Ye two ready fer another flight?” Daisy asked with a grin.

“Not really,” Kuna said with a slight shudder. “But I guess it beats walking all that way.”

“Hey come on, you have to admit it’s exciting,” Lykou encouraged him, then narrowed his eyes with a playful look as he stepped behind him and wrapped his arms around him. “And don’t forget we figured out how to make it more-”

“Don’t even say it,” the sereva playfully snapped back, blushing and looking away with a coy smirk.

Daisy and Aelana shared an amused look. “Lik’ ah said, jest as lang as ye d-”

“You either. I’ve not had enough sleep for the ‘fluster Kuna’ game, dammit.”

All three of the others snickered.

*****

A short time later, Daisy was soaring through the air with the boys on her back. Much as Kuna denied it, he did find it comforting having Lykou behind him and his arms around him. And once the fear began subsiding a bit, he did find the view all the more spectacular in the daytime. They flew for a few hours, giving them a breathtaking view at the rolling landscape of Clovaria, and he was glad to be huddled up between the wolpertinger and the canid- both for his nerves, and as a bulwork against the cold air. Lykou was slightly chilly, but Kuna had pre-emptively loaned him his poncho to put on over his new outfit in preparation for the extended flight, so it was at a tolerable level.

It also helped that the wolpertinger was flying a bit lower than she had at night, which also allowed them a closer view of some of the landmarks. While much of it was rolling, grassy hills, they did eventually come into rockier territory with a few scattered mountains in the distance. And some streams fed into a small river that eventually cascaded over some impressive falls. They also spotted another town in the distance, though they didn’t get close enough to see much of it. Early on they’d followed the road out of Whitlan, but eventually it veered off from their course and towards the distant town.

Finally, she started descending down as they spotted the old arch on top of a hill, sitting out in the middle of nowhere and overlooking the smaller hills nearby. She set down in front of it and allowed the boys to climb off, then sat up again. “Weel, here ye are. Dinnae ken where it leads, tae be honest, so be careful.”

“Well, ultimately it leads home, and that’s the important thing,” Lykou said as he helped Kuna down.

“So you never used it in the past?” Kuna asked curiously.

“Nae. We used one ‘er two o’ th’ others when we wis a wee bairn, bit tha’ wis so lang ago we dinnae remember much. Bit only a few o’ oor cousins used this’n. We jest stick tae thaes hills. Oor domain ‘n’ all, ye ken?”

“You don’t ever want to explore elsewhere?” Lykou asked.

“Ah widnae mind seein’ some ether sights some day, bit Lana has a point aboot us needin’ tae keep watch o’er Clovaria. ‘sides, tis a pretty big domain,” she replied with a shrug, then smirked. “’n’, as ye’ve seen, we dae get oor own excitement tae deal with here noo ‘n’ then. Thanks again fer dealin’ wi’ Kerr.”

“So… did you already know about him before we got here?” Kuna suddenly asked, arching a brow.

“Aye, ‘n’ we wis plannin’ tae intervene, bit then we sensed ye two show up, ‘n’ ah had a feelin’ aboot ye. So we waited ta see how things went in Kerney.”

“Were you following us all along or something?” Lykou asked. “No offense, but that sounds a bit like-”

“Nae up claise, lad,” Daisy assured him. “Aelana uses scryin’ windas all th’ time ‘n’ only goes oot o’ Whitlan when she feels tis urgent.”

“Scrying… windows…?”

“Aye, watch!” she said, then manifested a sparkling light on the tip of one antler and used it to draw a circle in the air. When the magic dissipated, what looked like a hole opened up within the circle, showing part of the garden back in Whitlan.

“Oh wow,” Kuna said with wide eyes.

“That definitely seems useful,” Lykou commented. “So uh… were you watching us the whole time?”

“Nae, jest checkin’ in noo ‘n’ then. ‘n’ nae jest oan ye two, obviously.”

“Shame I can’t learn that one,” Kuna said.

“Who says ye can’t?” Daisy replied with a wry grin.

“Oh? Isn’t it Sylthean magic?”

“Aye, Syltheans came up wi’ it, bit tis one o’ th’ ones mortal folk kin learn. Tisnae easy tho, ‘n’ ye ‘av tae ‘av claise ties to th’ person or place ye want tae scry oan. Luckily fer us tha’ means pretty much ennywhere in Clovaria tis fair game fer us.”

“Oh, right, that makes sense. Still… think you could teach me?”

“Mibbie sometime, in yer dreams- lit’rally. Bit tis a more advanced spell, sae fer noo ye got plenny else tae learn first.”

“Ah, right… guess now’s not the best time anyway.”

“Well she saved us a lot of time flying us here. We can always camp here so you can practice magic stuff for the afternoon, then go through the arch tomorrow morning.”

“Nah, I’m curious to see what’s on the other side. And the more we travel, the sooner we’ll get back to Lakefire,” Kuna said, smiling at the konuul. “We’ve stayed well distracted lately, but I know how homesick you are, Kou.”

Lykou smiled and looked away a bit wistfully. “...yeah, fair point.”

“Weel goan then,” Daisy said, playfully nudging them both. “Off ye go. Yer journey awaits!”

“Thanks again for the ride, Daisy,” Lykou said, rubbing her head lightly. “It was great meeting you both.”

“Yeah, it really was,” Kuna agreed, then smirked. “Also nice in general to meet a powerful individual that’s not all creepy and scary, let alone two of you.”

The wolpertinger snickered. “Aye, guid luck wi’ her, too. Bit ye got us oan yer side noo, sae dinnae let her skeer ye tae much if she shows up again soon,” she said, then winked. “Tis nae bye, after all. Ye got yer astral charms.”

“Right, thanks again for those, too!” Lykou said, patting his pocket. “I can’t wait to give that a try.”

“Jest mak’ sure ye get at least one guid night’s sleep afore ye use it, lad. Ah ken ye need it.”

“Right, hehe,” Lykou said, then turned to Kuna. “Well, guess it’s time then. Unlock the uh… gateway, almighty druna!”

Kuna chuckled and rolled his eyes, then walked over to the arch, manifested his soul magic, and lit up the runes around the gateway. After a few moments, the swirling portal opened up underneath it, disturbing the grass and any debris around them with the winds it stirred up.

“Ach, bin a lang time sin’ we saw one open,” Daisy said, watching it with some fascination. “Ah fergot how wild they look when thir active.”

“Yep… it was intimidating the first time we saw it,” Lykou said as he walked up next to Kuna.

“Still is the second time, too,” Kuna said, then took a breath to steady himself.

“Well, off to our next little adventure?” Lykou said after a moment, taking the sereva’s hand in his own and smiling over at him.

Kuna smiled back. “Right…”

They stepped through he portal and a bright flash lit up the area as they vanished through the arch, leaving the wolpertinger to watch the swirling images within until they eventually faded. “There go some damn decent lads,” she said to herself, then turned and jumped back into the air to fly off.