He didn’t want to leave her despite that he was constantly hungry and needed to hunt for himself as well.
“Fish would be good,” she told him, giving him a small smile that was only bright enough to spread soft heat through him.
“Come, you should go inside.” He gestured towards the front of the house. “I will pick what you want from the garden now that you know what is here.”
She nodded, grabbing a lemon to take with her anyway, and started heading that direction.
Before they even left the garden, Orpheus shot in front of her and pulled her flush against his back. He gave a warning growl as he bared his fangs.
The creature came closer, large and tall, walking on its back legs and only using its hand to steady itself when it needed to. Its bony head twisted one way and then the other.
It paused when it heard him growl, and then took a wary step back.
“You do not usually warn me away,” he said to Orpheus before he rose to stand on his back legs fully.
He felt Reia peek around him while gripping the back of his shirt to stay with him. She gasped, tugging on it to pull herself more forward when he refused to let her.
“Another Duskwalker?”
“Oh,” he gasped in return. He craned his head to the side to see her better around him as he stepped that way. “You have a human?”
“Stay back!” he snarled, crimson red rising swiftly into his vision, a deadly warning.
The other Mavka cracked its neck when he twisted his head sideways. His bony skull was that of a fox and he had two large antlers forking with multiple branches on top of his head rather than the horns that Orpheus had.
He wore only tattered shorts and was a similar shape to Orpheus in body, except he had more long fur and more bones protruding from his skin, like around his hips and knees.
He was a less human-developed Mavka and most likely hadn’t eaten as many as Orpheus had. He had a similar diet considering his deer and wolf fur, but he must eat more birds since he had feathers poking out around his neck, shoulders, chest, and back.
Whatever they ate gave them their characteristics.
However, this Mavka visited him often compared to the others he’d briefly met. This was Orpheus’ territory, he was very possessive of it, but he allowed him to come here as long as he didn’t linger.
“Why do you have a human that you have not eaten?”
“She is not for eating.”
His green glowing eyes, the colour they usually were, flashed to a bright yellow.
“She is a companion? We can make companions with humans?”
Orpheus’ stance grew more rigid when he dared to step closer in curiosity. He’d never felt the urge or want to kill a fellow Mavka, but he felt it now since he was a threat to his Reia.
He sniffed the air while lowering himself to crouch onto a single hand.
“She does not smell of fear!” His yellow orbs flashed even brighter. “I want a human that will not make me eat them.”
“She is mine,” he bit with a growl.
He huffed in answer, rubbing the hole in his snout where his nose was.
“I do not want your one. She smells of sticks and thorns. I want a better smelling one.” No longer being so interested in his human, he looked up to Orpheus while remaining crouched some fair distance away still. “Does she allow you to touch her?”
Orpheus’ sight faded into a reddish-pink when embarrassment soared through him swiftly. Reia was right behind him, and he dreaded how she’d take his question.
He knew the Mavka meant touch as in hold, since he doubted he even knew what sex was, but he worried how Reia might take his meaning instead.
A shrilling laugh burst from behind him. The kind that was so uncontrolled that it was loud and high-pitched.
The fox-headed Mavka backed up with his orbs turning white. “What is that sound she made?”
It made sense that he’d never heard a human laugh before since he’d probably only ever heard their screams and cries.
“What do you want, Mavka?”
This one didn’t have a name like Orpheus did.
Orpheus wanted this to end, needed him to leave.
“I have come for more salt,” he answered, once more twisting his head in Reia’s direction. “The serpent Demon is still near my home and the rain washed away the circle you told me to place.”
Orpheus, while still holding Reia against him with one arm, raised the other to point the tip of a claw at him “You still have not grown the ingredients for the charm trinkets. I told you they would protect your home.”
This time, a pinkish-red entered his orbs instead of Orpheus’. “I tried, but they would not grow.”
“Fine, I will give you more salt and then you will leave.”
“Wait,” he demanded, reaching his hand forward when Orpheus brought Reia in front of him, so she was protected when he turned towards the house. “I wish to know more about this. If there are humans that are willing to be our companions, ones that do not make us hungry, then I would like one.”
