He awoke the next morning when dawn had already begun to take shape inthe eastern skies above the distant, snow capped peaks of the Boreals, and night had begun to sink and hide behind the trees of the Anchored Forests to the west. He pushed himself off the thick bedroll he had laid out the night before and dragged his pack into his tent. It was warm inside, almost uncomfortably so, as the leather had  acted as a barrier to trap his own body heat. He tied the front flap shut just enough to stop anyone from peeking inside, or a ram from wandering in and fished inside of his pack for his roll of clean clothes that he kept near the top. It had been about a week since he had last changed clothes, and, though he kept himself and the clothes he wore cleaned by jumping into the streams and creeks that drained the snows from the mountains, and that dusted the grasses of the Sea every now and then, he figured it was time to change. His scalp had begun to itch and a rash had begun to form on his left bicep. It took a few moments of shuffling inside of the tent to finally pull off his clothes and change into his clean ones, but when he was finished he repacked everything and pulled out a leather sack that he kept in a tin pot in the middle of the bag. 

A cool breeze blew in from the north, and carried with it the aroma of blossoming flowers. A tell-tale sign of burgeoning spring and a warning of the coming equinox. They had perhaps three days to make it to the Rest, he figured. To complete the three month cycle of wandering around that sacred place. He stretched out his back, popping out the knots that had built up over the eight hours or so of sleep that he had gotten, and looked down the slope of the hill, over the flock and the land that they would be traversing that day. This was the tallest point he could see, though there were a few smaller knolls along the way, and a larger  hill a bit further north that they would have to go over in a couple of hours. They'd get to it around noon, if they kept the pace they had been over the last couple of days. Otherwise the day would be clear, it seemed. No storm clouds darkened any of the horizons around him. No heavy fogs or light mists rolled off the grass. Nothing to indicate that it would be anything other than a peaceful day of travel.

 Aethel sputtered and spat and pulled herself up for air as she breathed in a mouthful of the aged ewe's wool. He looked back as the fae-king struggled to free herself from beneath Dolly's forelegs that had been draped over her during the night. Her hood had fallen during the night and shimmering beads of dew stuck in the duff on her head.

“Morning.” He said.

“Ah, morning.” She responded, finally pulling herself free from the ram's grip, who then rolled over onto the ground to continue her sound sleep. “Thank you.” She said to Dolly, running her handover the top of her wooly head.

“What exactly do you eat?” He asked, as he pulled open the brown linen sack he carried and dug around in it.

“Food.” She stated simply.

“Nothing...special?”

“Whatdo you think I eat? Worms?” She laughed. “What do you have?”

Heopened the nearly empty linen sack and peeked in.

“Somejerky and some berries that I picked two days back.” He answered. “Not much right now. They'll be more at the Rest.” He pulled a few of the small white berries out of the sack, and a strand of jerky and tossed her the rest.

“Ah,” she said as she snatched it out of the air deftly, “You don't have anything warm?” She pulled open the bag and looked indisappointingly. Her stomach grumbled its contempt as she pulled out a strand of salted jerky and pulled the tie close.

“You know what?” He said, popping one of the small white berries intohis mouth. It burst into a cold tartness that scrunched up his faceslightly, “I'll make something tonight.” He glanced down theslope of the hill towards the land he had surveyed before. “It should be safe.”

“Really? I'd appreciate that.” She responded, pulling the piece of the jerky apart with her teeth. "It's been a while since I had a hot meal." 

“Just how long were you wandering out there for?” He asked, popping another of the berries into his mouth.

Her eyes went to the sky and she began to count on her fingers.

“Abooout two weeks, I'd say.” She said, taking another tear off the jerky.“Left with a group out of Deep Iron to investigate some ruins thathad been spotted out here — my first job as an adventurer. I wasexcited. Stupid of me.” She sighed, and finished off the last bite of the salted hunk of meat. “When we finished clearing it out we camped in the fields nearby.Before morning, the group decided that they didn't want me thereanymore.” Aethel pushed herself off the ground and shook the dewout of her feathers, “They took all my stuff and left me with this.” She lifted her chin to show a bit of discoloration aroundthe bottom of her jaw, “And a few others. But those have mostly faded by now.”

“Ah, I'm sorry to hear that.” He said, “How'd you survive out there for two weeks?”

She pulled at the bottom of her cloak to show it off.

“This makes for great camouflage.” She said, spinning around to let the wind billow out the bottom of the cloak even further. “Both in towns, and out here.” She made a wide sweeping motion of the grassy knoll they sat on. “Mostly foraged for food.” She said, “Didn't eat some days. Honestly, I don't know how much longer I would have made it.” She said, “I don't know if I've said this yet, but thank you.” A bit of mist clung to the corners of her sapphire eyes. She swallowed the sorrow building up in her throat. “Really, thank you.”

Johnathan shook his head. A bit of heat rushed to his cheeks.

“No no.” He said waving his arms back and forth, “there's no need to thank me, anyone would have done it.”

“Would Arthur have?” She asked grimly. Johnathan suddenly felt a rush of shame.

“He's not really a bad person,” he said, “His father's just...stuck in his ways.”

“I know, I know.” She stretched and popped her back, “I'm used to the looks and jeers I get. Don't worry about it.”

Silence fell over the hilltop like a heavy fog as Johnathan finished hisbreakfast and starting to break down his tent. Aethel, meanwhile,took a long drink of water from the water-skin that he hadn't seen until that point, hidden in a loop beneath her flowing cloak.

“Do you hate humans?” He asked as he pulled the second stake from the ground in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence. “They've seemed to have treated you badly your entire life.”

She thought about it for a second as she brushed the grass out of the ruffles of her clothes.

“You know, when I was younger I might have answered yes to that.” She admitted, “but my father's a human.” She said, “And so many people who have treated me kindly — the woman who helped me sign up for the Guild in Deep Iron, the old man from the village where me and my dad lived who taught me how to  read when I was a kid ,and, of course, you...” Her voice trailed off for a second, “You're all human. The same as the others. As you said before, I can't help the way I was born, but neither can humans. It'd be stupid of me to assume they're all bad when I haven't met them all yet. Even if some I meet are jerks.” She said, “If that makes sense.”

“Ah. Thank you.” He said, the slight blush returning to his face.

“For what?” She flipped her hood back over her head.

“For not hating all humans, I suppose.”

She laughed.

“What a strange thing to thank someone for.”

“I suppose it is.” He said as he pulled the second and last spike from the ground.

“What do you need me to do today?” She asked as she watched him finished his breakdown of the tent.

“Same thing you were doing yesterday,” he said, “scout ahead a bit in the west for anything suspicious.” He rolled up his tent and began to stuff it back in the compartment at the bottom of the pack. “If you stay out of the path of the herd you'll be hard to spot from a distance within the grass by anything that might cause us trouble during the day.”

"What do you mean by that?" 

"Like if you see a pack of wolves coming in from the east, or a hidden pit that one of the rams might wander into." 

“Alright, will do.” She said, “And you're making something hot to eat tonight, like you promised?”

“Of course.” He said, as he finished packing his bedding and slinging it over his back. He adjusted his new robes over it so that it would obstruct his movements a whole lot. 

He pulled up his crook from the grass and sent a command to his herd to begin to wake and move.