He placed his hand over hers and shook his head before making them walk away. But I’m hungry! He told her if she wanted anything he’d give it to her. She couldn’t believe he was denying her food, something she actually needed!

She pointed to a different food place that had sticks of meat dribbled with some kind of sauce. She couldn’t smell any of the meat, only the pastries and stew broths since the cloaking aroma was hiding them. Despite this, it smelled delicious.

Different spices and herbs could be smelt in the air. Some foods smelled sour, others sweet, and she craved all that gave a tangy impression.

He denied her again, before he leaned down and said very quietly, “It’s mostly human meat.”

Oh fuck. Heart thundering, Reia recoiled and knocked into the Mavka. She came out of his cloak. I almost ate my own kind! Like a freaking cannibal.

Orpheus darted closer and shielded her once more, darting his head around to make sure she hadn’t been seen.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered before he could give her some kind of warning.

He nodded to show he accepted her apology.

He eventually took her to a different food store and selected something off the menu. It was like a pocket of pastry, and she turned in his cloak when he took them to the side of the pedestrians on their path so she could lift her mask and eat it.

It tastes like mushroom... with beef and some kind of weird gravy. She looked inside and saw there were bits of carrot in it. They even eat vegetables? Everything was obviously filled with meat, not a single piece of food without it, but she hadn’t thought they would add to it.

When they left the cooked food part of the street markets, he took her to an ingredients area. Her eyes widened as her lips parted. She started pointing everywhere. A sack of flour.

Another of oats. Wheat and yeast. There were small bags of spices, and she asked for every kind that was available.

Then there were the herbs he didn’t have in the garden.

By the time they were through, Orpheus’ back was covered in sacks of food ingredients she could use to make

almost anything she knew how to cook except for the truly complicated things.

She’d had to teach herself to cook since none of the villagers would help her or feed her, and Reia could make anything. I can’t wait to eat a cookie. Orpheus was going to learn how to make so many different foods, and she couldn’t wait to show him. She grinned beneath her mask.

I wonder if I can get him to eat some.

They’d also both taken a sack of salt each.

He didn’t look weighed down at all with everything, and he took them to another place where they could purchase jewellery or supplies to some make them themselves. She was less enthusiastic about this place, but he instructed the Mavka to make choices to craft with.

Then they were walking down a street that had house building supplies.

No one tried to openly talk to them, and Reia was dizzy with how quickly Orpheus was trying to rush them through so they could leave as quickly as possible. She wanted nothing more than to explore this strange place, but knew it wasn’t possible.

The two Duskwalkers were heavily conversing on what the Mavka needed in order to begin constructing his own cabin when she saw a flash of white.

She looked out from his cloak to see it when it moved, the colour not as prominent here and it easily caught her attention. It was gone, and she became engrossed in their conversation to help them to make decisions so she could be useful.

“Black cats,” someone said quietly right next to her ear.

Reia’s breath hitched.

She turned, pulling Orpheus’ cloak to the side to see who spoke to her. No one was there.

“Are you okay?” he asked because of her sudden motion, pulling the cloak over her more and gripping her side firmer.

It had always felt strange to have his large hand circle her entire side.

“Yes. I thought I heard someone.”

He tilted his head at her before lifting it to look around them. He seemed unconcerned and continued them down the street.

“You will need lots of rope,” Orpheus said to the Mavka.

“And powdered clay so you can create a firm base. You will need much of it to fill holes where you stake your logs when you start building.”

Reia smiled under her mask as she listened to Orpheus who was clearly explaining everything. He’s really good at being a teacher. She’d felt the same way when he’d been showing her how to make trinkets.

“Black cats are lucky,” a feminine voice said next to her ear when Orpheus was in the middle of trading for bundles of rope.

She gasped, the voice much louder than before.

She turned and stepped out of his cloak just in time to see a white feather fluttering to the ground behind her. A blur of white disappeared into the crowd, and Reia quickly stepped back when she almost ran into a Demon.

She gave a disgruntled grunt at Reia.

Her heart was racing by the time she was back within the shield of Orpheus, gaining a reddened glow of floating orbs.

“Stay with me,” he warned. “You are small. It’ll be easy to lose you, and you cannot imagine how I will react if I discover you are gone.”

Oh, she definitely could, but she couldn’t ignore that someone was talking to her, whispering so close to her ear.

Her eyes darted around to find the white blur that had obviously been the one creeping up behind her. For a long while, she saw nothing but bodies of different heights and shapes crowding around her as they walked.

There! She saw a torrent of white feathers that were worn over a person that looked completely and utterly like a dark-

skinned human being. It was worn like a cloak, covering her face and the pristine white dress she was wearing.

The moment Reia saw her, their eyes met for just a moment. She ducked behind a building while waving her hand towards herself beckoningly.

She grabbed Orpheus’ shirt and started pulling him. She wants me to follow. And Reia wanted to know why. She also wanted to know why there was a human here.

Yanking him, she fell out of his cloak in her haste to follow the feather covered woman. He stumbled after her, trying to cover her with his cloak as she turned the corner.

Reia just saw her before she disappeared around a different corner, like she was only walking away.

“Reia, what are you doing?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. “We cannot leave the Mavka behind.”

“Please, we have to go this way.”

She pointed down the laneway, and he covered her bare hand with his own.