At some point during the night Lux had woken up to a muffled sob. They could make out two silhouettes in the flickering glow of the lantern; Deirdre was hunched over in a corner, as far away from the rest of them as possible, and Marion sat next to her, murmuring things Lux couldn’t pick up. Feeling as if they were intruding on something they should have stayed away from, they turned over quietly. Tobia had ended up curled up next to them in all his tossing and turning, his face close enough that Lux could imagine the invisible lines of made-up constellations tracing their trajectories in between his moles. They dozed off again with their head by his shoulder, trying to pretend his slow, regular breathing was the only sound they could hear.

“You look terrible,” was how Marion greeted them in the morning, as if she didn’t look like she hadn’t slept a wink either, and Lux was busy chewing on altogether too much guilt to come up with a retort. She seemed to be recovering from the initial shock, but Lux knew her too well not to see through everything she wasn’t saying. They could tell that part of the reason why she was looking after Deirdre was because she needed to feel anchored, to feel in control of at least one thing while the rest of her world crumbled from underneath her feet. After all, they’d fit that same slot in her life for a long time. 

They couldn’t see anyone on the road, nor were there any signs of people or caravans having passed through, but Lux still insisted on shifting to scout ahead and make sure. They hadn’t had the chance to fly in a while and they were itching to unfurl their wings. The wind blowing past their feathers felt as exhilarating as it did every time, both unpredictable and familiar as a pair of tailored boots. The cold bit harsher the higher they rose but, on the other hand, the shadow of the winter couldn’t catch up to Lux when they were flying. It was just them, the magic coursing through their blood and the vast dome of the sky, theirs for the taking.

In the end, their group had to take the long way around an outpost that was crawling with guards, trudging through the messy, snowy undergrowth and hoping their numbers would keep them safe from any wild animals. The detour slowed them down quite a bit, which meant that the sky had already long since darkened by the time they’d made it to the hay barn Deirdre had marked on the map the previous night. In the shadows, the looming shapes cast by the trees seemed to reach toward them, as if wanting to grab a hold of their capes and snatch them away. Lux had sagged in relief after confirming the hay barn was empty; the idea of having to set foot outside again made their skin crawl. 

The next few days passed them by in a blur. Flying and wading through the forest during the day, curling up in some abandoned building with exhaustion buzzing in their bones at night. Everything had been going according to plan, but good luck didn’t have the reputation of being a fickle mistress for nothing. 

“Well,” Marion said, smacking her lips, “that sure is a sight.”

In front of them lay what remained of their designated shelter for the night. In its prime, it had served as an emergency refuge for the few shepherds brave or desperate enough to take their cattle out of the confines of their villages; now, only part of the walls remained. The jagged silhouettes of the planks stood up like a gathering of marmots, bent at odd angles from the force of whatever storm had wrenched the rest of the refuge away. Their disquieting shapes made it clear the five of them would have to search for a different shelter, and they would have to do it quickly.

Lux wanted to soar back into the sky, but every single muscle in their back felt numb. Frost clung to their feathers, weighing them down. “Hey,” they called out to Marion, “help me out a little?”

They’d done this for each other enough times Lux didn’t even need to spell it out. Marion simply sighed, then she started wiping the rime off their wings with the external side of her cape.

Tobia and Wynn both looked away, red hot in the face, as if they’d caught them doing something indecent. Even Deirdre’s eyes went wide for a moment, before Marion realized how her actions must have looked from the outside. With a horrified look, she waved her arms in the air, as if wanting to physically dispel the misunderstanding. “I’ve known this idiot since we were children!” she hurried to say. “They’re the younger sibling I didn’t need.”

“I resent that sentiment,” Lux said. “But yeah, don’t make this weird, guys. I don’t need to imagine Marion doing things to me.”

That comment earned them a cuff on the head, plus the dubious honor of climbing the tree that looked the least like it was about to collapse on itself to search for shelter from above. Lux would have offered to do that anyway, so they counted the whole thing as a win in their favor. 

“All right, we have two options!” they said from the rickety branch they were perched on, after having scanned the horizon. “Option number one is a cave a ways off from the road, near that hill over there. I can’t see too well from here, but I’d wager it’s already taken, so we’d have to fight off whatever lives inside it.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of an option,” Tobia said, unaware of having just played into Lux’s hands. They grinned at him, a little wild, and he regarded them with a puzzled expression. “... What’s the alternative?”

“Something tells me we don’t want to know,” Wynn muttered under their breath. They were right, Lux had to hand them that. 

With a little flourish that almost made them slip on a patch of frozen bark, Lux said, “Option two is a Behemoth!”

Marion clapped her hands with an air of finality. “Well, time to go evict whatever lives in that cave. Hope it doesn’t have rabies.”

Like clockwork, Lux thought, not without fondness. They had been expecting that answer; in fact, they had come up with a list of counter-arguments from the moment they spotted the Behemoth among the snow. As they were about to start firing them off, Deirdre spoke.

“We should take option two,” she said, soft but resolute. When Marion and Wynn gave her a baffled look, she took a deep, shaky breath, but didn’t back down. “Think about it—all the feather temples are Behemoths, yet no one’s afraid of them. Wynn and I have lived inside one for years.”

“Plus,” Lux added, determined to show off their perfectly sensible reasoning, “we all know that guards, like most people, love to pretend Behemoths don’t exist. Just imagine how scared of approaching one they’d be, knowing Deirdre could turn the whole place against them.”

“Um, I don’t think I could do that,” Deirdre said, but Lux waved her concerns away.

“Doesn’t matter what you can or cannot do,” they said. “What matters is what the people searching for us are going to assume you can do. Which is why a Behemoth is the perfect blind spot. This one is closer to our destination than the cave, and it won’t give any of us rabies. Hopefully.”

They hopped down the tree, ready to provide more convincing arguments, but the four shivery, exhausted people in front of them were already looking at the sun as it started setting over the horizon with restless looks on their faces. For good measure, Lux winked at Deirdre. She hid a puff of laughter behind her hand, then winked back. 

“Let’s just hurry,” Tobia said with a sigh. “I can’t feel my feet anymore.”

Lux twirled on their heels, starting to walk backwards in the direction of the Behemoth. “Worry not, city boy,” they said. “If any Old Times stuff comes alive to skewer you, I’ll protect you myself.”

Tobia huffed. He reached out to brush some stray snowflakes from their hair, then flicked them on the forehead. “Face forward when you’re walking, show-off.”

If Lux didn’t have a comeback ready, it was simply because they crashed straight into a spruce before they could think of one.