She wanted to walk through a town and be able to speak to someone without their face paling in fright. She just wanted someone to look her in the eyes, to know that she was truly real and valid. Beyond that, she didn’t care.

So how did this creature, monster, nightmare, have more human loneliness within it than she did? Is it because I haven’t been alone as long as he has? She wondered if perhaps she’d feel the same way after living hundreds of years – since it was believed he’d lived that long.

He wasn’t human so she didn’t understand why he’d feel this way at all. Emotions were for people. He shouldn’t have the capabilities to feel anything other than the deep thirst for human blood and flesh, like the Demons he closely resembled.

“What has happened to the other humans you have taken?”

His chest expanded like he was taking in a deep breath as it pushed against her side, before she watched the fogging puff of it snorting past his snout through the bony nose hole like a sigh.

“Many things.” He clutched her slightly tighter, not painfully, but enough to squish her a little. “Many have fled and died. Many have been taken.”

“And the others?” she asked in a small voice, unsure if she truly wanted the answer.

“They have granted me a little more humanity each time.”

“That is not a proper answer. How did they grant you humanity?”

His hold loosened as he gave a small sigh, his jaws parting just a fraction to allow the sound of it to echo through. It was the first time other than when he’d morphed that she’d seen it open at all. It promptly shut.

“In the same way Demons are granted a little more humanity.”

Yep. Her stomach crawled while her insides twisted in understanding and uncertainty. He’s truly eaten them... Will that be my fate too?

She couldn’t let it be.

Learning that eating a human gave both Duskwalkers and Demons more humanity was new to her. She hadn’t known that, but it explained why he was so intelligent and seemed to have many emotions. He must have eaten many.

“What must be gifted to you in order to become your bride?” she asked again, wanting to know to make sure she never gave it to him. When he didn’t answer even after a long time and silence bleeding between them, she squinted her eyes. I wonder if saying it will work again. “Orpheus?”

Her eyes flung open wide when she felt his body ripple like wave similar to how she’d seen short-haired dogs shake water from their bodies in a torrent.

Saying his name gives him that much of reaction?!

“You must offer your soul for me to keep,” he said hastily.

Tension shot through her so powerfully that she felt everything within her stiffen. Okay. I would definitely never do that!

“I once thought the bargain of eternal life as long as I live would be enough, but no human has ever wanted to be bound to me.”

Yeah, well... the idea of being bound to a monster forever sounded hellish.

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It was only the following day that Reia found herself staring down into the forestry canyon of the Veil. It was usually a four day walk, but his long strides had brought that down to three. The drawn sketches of it she’d seen did little to capture the truly eerie and unsettling way it appeared.

Still cradled in the Duskwalker’s arms since she’d only woken recently, she peered over the unnerving scene.

A black smog truly circled the entire greyish looking forest that spanned as far and as wide as the eye could see, going on for miles and miles that she couldn’t see the cliff walls on the other side. The Veil apparently spanned one fourth of the entire continent and was situated in the very middle of its lands.

The smog pressed heavily against the cliff walls and flittered between the spaces of the trees before wafting higher in certain places.

The cliff edges of the canyon surrounding the Veil’s forest casted shadows over it in wide arcs, making it appear even gloomier than it really needed to be.

Despite the trees appearing lush and healthy from what she could see, the stench of rot, like decaying bodies, invaded her nostrils. Pungent and strong, it curled her insides and made her wish she hadn’t eaten her breakfast of

stale bread and a bruised apple. Her stomach churned the longer they stood right on the rim of the cliff and dared her to start heaving.

Reia covered her mouth and nose with her hand to poorly shield her senses from it.

“I don’t think I can go in there. That is the worst smell I have ever experienced.”

And he wanted to take her inside it? She could only imagine how much worse it would be at the bottom.

“I’ve always found the border quite foul,” he said, snorting a huff through his snout before shaking his head which made a light rattling sound she’d often heard from Demons.

“However, it is only on the border that it is present. Once we are inside, you will no longer smell it.”

“Is that a lie?” It had to be a lie just to make her compliant about going down there; not that she wanted to go into the Veil at all!

The smell may be putrid, but something fouler was present. Dread. Not from within her, but from within it. She could sense dread, like the emotion was something tangible.

It told her, begged her, not to come closer.

And, as Orpheus began to walk along the edge of the cliff before finding an area where he could walk down it like rocky steps, the dread called for her to run. To flee. To turn back before it was too late.

She would have squirmed to flee if it wasn’t for the fact that on one side of them was a cliff wall his shoulder was clearly scraping against, and the other side was a drop so deadly she knew she would have run out of oxygen screaming before hitting the ground.

He was even turned slightly and walking with one shoulder forward, proving just how little room he had to walk down this natural decline.

The stench began to invade her nostrils and throat like acid, burning into her sinuses almost painfully. It singed the inside of her lungs and felt as though she was suffocating.

Gasping for air, she clutched at his jacket.

“Please,” she strangled out. “Take me back.”

It was too much. Reia couldn’t handle it as tears began to collect on her lashes.

His cloak fell over her head as he dipped his body to allow it to fall forward.

“Some of the others I have brought here have told me I do not smell particularly unpleasant, like mud and bark. This should help.”

She clutched the hem of his cloak opening and curled it around her face completely to shield her in his soothing scent. They have said he smells of mud? She couldn’t smell dirt, but she managed to take in a proper breath through the material.

It must have been at least an hour before his walking position changed, and the sunlight glittering through his cloak faded into a dull shadow.

“You must walk from here,” he told her while moving her until she was forced to place her bare feet on the ground.