The next evening, Finn set out to scout the forest to the north. She felt a bit like she had a rock in her stomach from all the turkey she had eaten the night before, but otherwise she felt excellent. She expected she would be able to range pretty far before she would have to turn back.

Finn tried to keep an eye out for animals along the way, but was also conscious that whatever she shot she would have to carry around with her the rest of the night. That wasn't something that she was looking forward to, so she intended to keep her bow stashed unless she saw something really amazing.

She needn't have bothered, as it took Finn barely two hours of careful stalking before she came to the edge of a tilled field. Itchy vines boasting vibrant yellow flowers crawled all over the carefully plotted out field. They were pumpkin plants, if Finn had to guess. Finn didn't know much about plants, but the grannies who helped with the barracks often grew pumpkins behind the baths, and she was pretty sure they looked like that.

Beyond the field was a small grouping of buildings. From what she could see, they were what looked like a nearly falling down barn, a field stone building that likely housed a family of humans and a few sheds that looked like they weren't in much better condition than the barn. Beyond that, Finn could see rolling hills, all of them tilled and still sprouting neat rows of plants, with just a few trees here and there. Finn assumed the trees were used to mark off where one farm ended and another began.

Beyond the rolling hills of farm land, sticking up like a little spiky beetle on the edge of the night, was a large fort. It was a bit difficult for Finn to see from such a far distance, even with her excellent eyesight. Finn could just make out stone walls fortified with sharpened logs aimed out at the surrounding countryside. From beyond the walls, Finn could just make out little dark blobs disgorging smoke into the sky that must have been houses.

"Well. That was easy," Finn muttered to herself. She stuck her head out from the edge of the trees to get a better look at the surrounding countryside. As she suspected, she could see the shining strip of the river to her left, glinting silver in the moonlight. To the northwest, Finn could make out more settlements from the columns of smoke marching out from more squat blobs dotted along the gently rolling hills. Beyond that, there was a pointier blob that sort of looked like a castle.

Finn squinted at it, trying to get her eyes to focus. But, it was too far away and the smoke screen provided by other settlements made it too difficult to make out.

Finn had never been far enough into human territory to see a castle, but she had heard about the tall fortified palaces in which kings and queens of the human kingdoms lived. A shiver of fear wormed its way down Finn's back. It occurred to Finn that she and Adi might have struck quite deep into human territory, if they were within sight of the capital of whatever kingdom they had ended up in.

That was going to complicate things a bit, to be sure.

Finn ducked back behind the treeline and turned things over in her mind for a moment. She had found the town. It was nearby enough that they didn't have to move their impromptu camp, she didn't think. She still had most of the night to hunt for their dinner, and the nearby fields were sure to draw in some animals. Finn would need to report to Adi about how far into the human lands they might be, but she doubted it would deter her from pursuing the caravan. Adi was fiercely determined to rescue her father and people. Finn worried that the caravan was likely far from them by then, but she wasn't looking forward to telling Adi that. For the time being, she would avoid that difficult conversation and continue to work toward their self-imposed mission.

Finn ducked back into the woods, walking slower now that she was heading back and taking a more winding path. While she did so, she tried to keep an eye out for signs of recent animal tracks. Failing that, she thought she could find another nice tree and try connecting to the natural magic in the forest again to find something to bring back to camp.

Before she could get very far, the sound of people talking in low voices caught her attention.

Finn froze, her eyes big in her head. Humans? She supposed she was rather close to a human town, so it wasn't that unusual for a few of them to be out near the edge of the woods.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nerves set her hands and legs to trembling, but Finn pushed it down. She just needed to get away quietly before the humans noticed her. The last thing they needed was a hoard of angry humans with torches and pitchforks chasing them through the woods hither and tither. Not only was that a good way to waste a lot of time, it would also be a great way to get even more lost than they already were.

Crouching down low, Finn started to slowly step away from the sound of voices. She held her breath, listening carefully to the low rumble of two voices. But, she needn't have listened so carefully as a loud rapturous moan ripped through the woods before Finn could take more than a few steps. Birds startled from the surrounding trees at the loud sound. Finn flushed all the way to the tips of her ears.

Whoever was the cause of the moan, quickly hushed the moaner, who only chuckled breathlessly in response.

It was a pair of lovers. Illicit lovers?

Finn was a little titillated despite herself. There was only one reason a couple would head into the woods to do some amorous tangling, and that was if they very much definitely should not be doing so with each other.

Oh, man. What a temptation.

Cursing herself for being an awful curious snoop, Finn angled her long ears toward the heated sounds coming from just a bit further west of her current location. There was definitely some talking, but mostly they were panting. There were also the wet sounds of skin sliding slickly against skin that made Finn turn even redder. The voices sounded deep, maybe too deep to be women, but maybe not. Finn knew some women with deep voices, so she didn't want to make any assumptions.

Finn started inching closer to the sounds, curious despite herself. It didn't take long before she spotted the pair of lovers through a small break in some thorn bushes.

It was in fact two men. One was a little rotund and squishy looking, with a charming mop of golden curls threaded through with white. The other looked like old beef jerky, all dark leather like skin, long straight black hair, and wiry muscled forearms clutching. The leathery one had the squishy one pressed against a large oak tree, most of their clothing discarded onto the ground around them, while they pressed and slid and kissed together.

Finn took in the scene with big eyes. Wow, they were really going at it. Then she glanced down at the bits of discarded clothing, and her eyes got even bigger.

Tossed in the scrubby grass along with cloaks and linen shirts was a very distinctive black robe with a stiff white collar. Finn didn't know a lot about humans, but she knew that their priests were supposed to be celibate and that they usually wore robes like that.

She supposed that explained why they were bumping uglies in the woods. Finn certainly didn't care if they wanted to hook up, but she supposed it would be trouble if any other humans found out. She didn't begrudge the old human men for looking for a little privacy to carry out their affair.

Curiosity satisfied, Finn started to carefully back up through the tangle of brambles. Unfortunately for her, she shifted her foot wrong and a single sharp thorn stabbed deep into the arch of her foot.

Finn sucked in a breath through her teeth, such a small sound in the cacophony of noise that a normal forest was filled with, that no one should have heard it. But, at the sound, the dark haired man's head popped up and turned straight toward where Finn was hidden in the brambles.

"What is it, love?" the softer man asked, the one Finn assumed was the priest.

"I thought I heard something," the dark haired man said, his mean looking dark eyes still studying the tangle of brambles. Finn was frozen, holding her breath as he surveyed her hiding spot.

The priest looked at the tangle of thorn bushes doubtfully. He cocked his head to the side and watched along with his lover for a few seconds before shrugging and pulling the other man to him.

"It was probably just a rabbit in the brush. I doubt anything bigger could fit in there," the man whispered, rubbing his nose over the sunken cheek of his lover.

Finn took some exception to that. She was certainly much larger than a rabbit. Then again, she could move through the forest a lot easier than any other species of fae. She looked curiously at the thorn bush she was currently crouched in. It seemed to wave a friendly branch at her, and Finn gave it a suspicious look. She super really didn't want to think about that too hard.

"Hm," the dark haired man hummed skeptically. But, within a few moments, he had melted under the amorous attentions of his lover.

Finn waited until they were thoroughly involved with each other again, before she started edging away. Once she was out of the thorn bushes, she started sprinting away, trying to keep her footsteps light, but still prioritizing speed over everything else.

Her face still burned with embarrassment for snooping. She shouldn't have spied, but at least she didn't get caught. And now she knew that she would need to be careful at the forest's edge. She couldn't take it for granted that they were the only ones in the forest, especially that close to town.

And, hopefully, Adi would find the story a little entertaining.