“I forgot.”

Unbelievable. She shook her head.

“I have never seen a human do this or make that strange sound you make.”

Reia opened her mouth to explain what a laugh and smile were, but his head suddenly turned to the side to peer in a certain direction.

“He is here. I smell his scent on the wind.”

He looked around and then at his body that was still heavily wounded, but at least no longer bleeding. Her eyes widened as she turned her head the way he had.

“Then you should at least get out of the salt circle,” she said quietly.

Why does it feel like I’m about to be caught doing the wrong thing? Like she was cheating talking to this Duskwalker.

“I will be attacked if I leave now.”

He was wounded and covered in blood. No doubt the Demons would try to eat him. The key word here was try.

“Okay, okay, um.” This wasn’t good. She knew just because he sprinkled dirt everywhere that the scent of blood wasn’t gone, and she currently had a strange Duskwalker in the salt circle near her. “Just... I don’t know.

Go stand on the other side of the clearing, near the salt circle or something.”

He started to do as she told him to, and Reia turned to where she thought Orpheus might come.

I hope I can keep him calm.

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Orpheus walked through the gloom, mist, and ever constant shadows of the Veil.

Underneath his cloak, he had a dead deer straddled across his shoulders with its four legs dangling on either side of his neck and down his chest. With it under his cloak, its scent was hidden by his.

Finding a deer to hunt had been the easy part. Finding one he’d managed to surprise and snap the neck of so he didn’t spill a single drop of blood was difficult. He couldn’t carry a bleeding carcass through the Veil without drawing attention and fighting with Demons for his meat.

There was also another problem. If the deer made him chase it, he’d consume it in a frenzy-induced high from the hunt.

Still, he’d managed to complete his task for Reia within a day, thankful a lone deer had managed to get separated and settled a short while after he slaughtered a handful of its herd in a craze.

He lifted his right hand, bright yellow filling his vision as his gaze fell upon what else he held.

I hope she will be pleased with what I found.

Getting it had been easy but keeping it had been painful.

Licking his sore and swollen tongue against the roof of his

mouth, he shuddered.

A reward? Orpheus hoped she would give him something in return.

A smile. Another hug like the one he’d obtained before he left. A touch to his body like the one she’d given him when she had that strange bleeding only the human women he’d taken ever got. He didn’t know it brought them pain, and he still didn’t know what its function was.

He lowered his arm to hold what he held carefully, being sure not to crack it in the grip of his large hand.

The walk was relativity short since he wasn’t ferrying a human and didn’t need to stay at the pace of their short strides. Of course, border dwellers, like the ones near his home, tried to ask him what he had when they were close enough, knowing he must have something beneath his now odd-shaped cloak. Warding them away was easy enough.

Just a simple snap of his maw in warning and they backed off.

If it had been bleeding, that would have been a different story.

As excited as he was to return to his little human, there was an unsettling feeling of dread. He was worried he might find her gone or dead.

As he got closer to his home, the scent of spilled Demon blood infiltrated his senses. He paid little mind to that. He couldn’t smell any of Reia’s blood on the wind, meaning she’d remained uninjured. The Demons often hurt each other, killed each other, ate each other; their foul-smelling blood wasn’t any cause for alarm.

She is still here. Her scent was strong. She had stayed as she promised, and his tension eased.

However, there was another scent. The scent of Mavka blood. He didn’t know what that could mean.

There were too many Demons around for him to run. He knew they would give chase and he might lose the meat he

was intending to give to Reia, but he did quicken his long strides.

He emerged from the forest into the beginning of the clearing.

His sight immediately found her standing in the middle of the yard already facing him. With her streaks of sunlight hair, snowy skin, and bright green eyes, she smiled for him.

It was the sweetest greeting he’d ever received upon returning home.

“Reia?” he asked, tilting his head as he crossed the salt circle. “What are you doing outside?”

He thought she might walk around the day before, but she should have known better than to wander outside the house without his spell in place.

“Um... Long story.” Her eyes darted to his side before they widened. She stepped towards him. “Wait, is that what I think it is?”

“You said there is honey within these.” He held up the beehive he had in his hand where a few bees were still persistent in fighting for their nest. “And that you wanted it.”

But as much as he wanted to revel in his gift, something felt amiss.

Why can I smell Mavka and Demon blood within the circle?

He began to lower everything to the ground, the deer sliding from his shoulders to thud against the grass. He was more careful with the fragile beehive.

That’s when Orpheus looked over Reia’s head to find the Mavka he knew standing on the other side of the yard within the salt circle.

He shot forward, wrapping his arms around her protectively and pulled her to his side.