Caed walked ahead as they finally came to the entrance of Duskmire. Caed looked back at the small girl, she was holding her arms tight around her chest and her teeth were chattering.

Caedmon sighed and unhinged the clasp on his hunter’s cloak. He dropped it down over her shoulders and reclasped it. It was long on her, but kept her warm. Arlo watched him and gave him a small half smile which Caed did not reciprocate. He couldn’t deny that he wanted to, when Arlo had touched him the night before he was desperate to fall into him once again. However Caed’s pride and bitterness would never allow it.

“We must try and pass through Duskmire unnoticed. There are creatures that wish for their privacy, and creatures that wish to kill passerby. So silence is key.” Caed said to the two standing before them.

“I could put a silencing barrier around us in addition to the protection barrier.” Arlo offered.

Caed nodded to him and watched as he lifted his hand to the sky, mumbling out the ancient magic as a soft yellow warmth enveloped the three of them. “We should still be quiet even with the silence barrier. It only makes others less aware of sound, it doesn’t silence us completely.” Arlo said as the soft warmth of a barrier washed over them.

“Can you try your hardest to be silent, Rowan?” Caed kneeled down to her level.

She nodded decidedly and reached for Caed’s hand. He took her small hand in his own and they began the journey inward. “You may feel cold once inside, but your body will adjust.” Caed whispered. “And your mind may try to trick you into despair in here, remain vigilant.”

Caed could feel the small girl’s hands quiver, he gripped her fingers tighter. The cold waft of air chilled Caed to the bone without his cloak on, he fought the urge to shiver himself and continued walking forward into the darkness.

“I can’t see.” He heard Arlo whisper quietly behind him.

Caed had thought constantly on why he had received the hunter commendation throughout his life, he had always assumed it was because he was a low faery and the high council knew it, but as his eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness and he could see for miles, he wondered if he had always been pegged as a hunter.

Caed stopped and turned towards Arlo, grabbing his hand, pulling him closer towards him. “Hold on to my tunic,” Caed said dropping Arlo’s hand. The tingling in his hand annoyed him, and it frustrated him even further that his heart was racing as Arlo gripped at the soft fabric of his tunic.

They walked in dark silence for hours, at some point Caed begun to carry Rowan on his back as she rested, sleeping quietly from the exhaustion that Duskmire comes with.

“Can we stop soon?” Arlo whispered at his back.

Caed looked around. “Not yet. There’s a specific tree we can sleep in tonight. It’s safest if we make it there.”

He heard Arlo take a deep breath in. His hand still tightly gripped to Caed’s tunic.

“Do you need carrying too, mage?” Caed whispered receiving a huffed laugh.

“Don’t jest me.” Arlo breathed out. “I’ve never been in darkness this long.”

“You get used to the headache after a while.” Caed whispered back. He actually felt bad for Arlo, it had been so many years since Caed started venturing outside the realm, he had almost forgotten what the darkness of Duskmire did to faeries. The exhaustion, the headaches, the difficulty breathing. Faeries didn’t fair well without light.

Finally they made it to the tree that Caed had been using as a resting place for the hundreds of years he had been traveling Duskmire. “Okay, climb in.” He whispered to Rowan who scrambled inside followed by Arlo. Caed laid out blockage enchantments given to him by the mages throughout the years. It was tight inside the tree with the three of them. Arlo lit a small orb to give them some light and Caed could physically see the impact even that small light had on the mage. His shoulders relaxed almost immediately.

“We still need to be quiet even under the enchantments.” Caed whispered as he divided out their food rations. He cut his own ration back to save for the others. He wouldn’t be able to hunt until they reached the other end of Duskmire in three days time.

Rowan and Arlo ate in silence, Rowan still cloaked in Caed’s Hunter robe.

“This place is sad,” she whispered out as she finished her meat. “It feels sick.”

“Duskmire is dying,” Caed said. “There was a curse put on it many millennia ago by a witch. The legend says her lover fled from her escaping into Duskmire and in her heartbreak she cursed all of the forest to decay so that only the most rotten of creatures could reside comfortably.”

Rowan’s eyes bulged and she leaned closer to Arlo. “It’s alright Rowan, you’re safe here with us.” Arlo eyed Caed for some sort of reassurance.

“Yes, you’re safe here. I’ve traveled Duskmire many times. The creatures that lurk here just want solitude or a place to die.”

“Why do you have to travel so far out of the faery realm?” Rowan asked, getting herself into a more comfortable position.

“I’m tasked with hunting and protecting the realm from a distance.” Caed responded, the guilt of his transgressions bubbling at the surface of his skin.

“But if this forest is sick and dying then why do they send you in here to protect your realm so far away?” Rowan yawned.

“The tasks given to hunters don’t make sense even to us, Rowan.” Caed whispered to the small girl.

She closed her eyes. “Could you say no?”

“Not if I value breathing.” Caed said leaning his head back.

“Mmm... doesn’t seem fair.” Rowan whispered allowing sleep to take her.

Caed caught himself smiling at the small child as she slept leaned against Arlo.

“She’s right,” Arlo whispered.

Caed caught his eye.

“It doesn’t seem fair that you are tasked with these reconnaissance missions that threaten to kill you.”

“Do they ever say why they task us where they do?” Caed asked.

Arlo shrugged his shoulders. “The high mage have never been part of the decision making, and I’ve never thought to ask. We just record council meetings really.”

“I see,” Caed said looking down at the orb Arlo had lit in between them.

“Caed?”

Caed looked up to meet the purple eyes staring at him.

“Thank you.” Arlo whispered. “For leading us through this forest, for protecting us, for giving everything up to help the girl.”

Caed stared for a long moment. “I didn’t do it for her, Arlo.”

They continued to stare at each other, neither moving closer, neither dropping the others gaze and Caedmon couldn’t help but wonder if after all these years he still loved this faery in front of him. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would still follow Arlo wherever he could, and he couldn’t help but already know the answer.