Finn froze and stared at Hugo. It felt like ice was moving through her veins instead of blood. She had no idea what her face was doing and could barely spare the brainpower to consider it. The backpack that was still sitting propped between her knees felt like it took up about three times more room than it had a few second before. Her only strategy to avoid conceding that it was stolen was to hold as still as possible and act like she didn't know it was there.

Hugo continued to look at her expectantly. The silence had definitely dragging on for too long, but Finn didn't have the faintest idea what to say to break it.

‘What were the chances!?’ she screamed in the sanctity of her own head, ‘Of all the people I would stumble into, it was the person I had robbed!?’

A much calmer voice in the back of her mind protested that it was probably a lot more likely than it seemed. After all, the hunters who used the lodge didn't live there full-time. And, Finn didn't really stumble into Hugo. He had approached her and only after she had walked down main street, garnering about as much attention as one could, short of stomping naked and singing a song about grape nuts.

"I notice that most of your things were once my things," Hugo added after a long stretch of silence. "From your shirt to your pants and boots. Though I think the rain cloak is Halfdene's, not mine," he added with a thoughtful squint.

Finn started bracing to run without conscious thought. Her legs tensed, the balls of her feet shifting beneath her for a better position to spring forward. She slowly drifted her hands to the edge of the table, gripping it with a strength that turned her knuckles white.

Before she had even decided to run, she was running the calculations. She could flip the table, grab the bag and make for the big front door before anyone had gotten over their confusion. Even if they had barred the big gate, she could leap the ten-foot tall wall with no problems. It would give away that she wasn't human, but that was the least of her concerns by that point.

Hugo had messed up by helping her sell the deer. She had coins in her pocket that would spend just as well in the next town as it would there. If she could get back to Adi before the townspeople got organized, they could be miles away before anyone even managed to start to search for her. Hell, Finn could carry Adi on her back again and burn through her magic to clear miles and miles in a night's time if she had to.

She was determined not to be caught in the first town she entered. She absolutely could not let that happen.

Finn glanced up to check Hugo's face. He was watching her keenly, his gaze both canny and kind. It gave her pause.

"It's all just old things," Hugo said quietly, gesturing vaguely in her direction. "Gear wears out and, sure, I always mean to fix it up and start using it again, but sometimes it's just easier to get something new instead," he said with a shrug.

Finn frowned. She didn't understand why he was telling her this. What did that have to do with anything? She had stolen his things and then had the audacity to walk into town wearing them. She didn't understand why the age of the things mattered.

"So, there's no need to bolt," Hugo said firmly, giving Finn a stern glare. "I'm not about to call for the guards. Just relax."

If anything, Finn's muscles wound tighter. There had to be a catch. There was no way that there was no catch.

Hugo sighed heavily and leaned back in his creaky wooden chair. He ran a calloused hand through his shiny dark hair and looked at the ceiling briefly. His deeply lined face looked tired in the faint light from the roaring hearth halfway across the room.

"Let me tell you a story. Maybe that will help you understand," he said, exhaustion seeping into his voice.

Finn sat back in her chair, a pretext to give her space to run once the opportunity presented itself. Hopefully it looked enough like she was making herself comfortable that he didn't notice how stiffly she sat.

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"When I was a lad, likely not much older than yourself, my Da and I got into a fight." Hugo grimaced at the memory, his dark eyes looking off into the crowds of the tavern. They were still laughing and talking and dancing, without taking any notice of the tense conversation happening in the corner. "We had never got on well after my Ma passed. She was the bridge between us, like an interpreter who could translate for us any time we had to communicate. Once she was gone, all our understanding went with it.

"So, we fought. And, finally, this time my Da told me to get gone and don't come back," Hugo sighed and rubbed his roughened hand over his mouth. He looked down at the scratched surface of the table. "I was proud back then, too proud to go to any neighbors or friends. And, I had no money and nothing saved. So, I did the only thing I could think to do, and I went out into the woods."

Here, Hugo stopped and gave Finn a hard look. She held herself very still.

"Living in the wilds is hard. I probably don't need to tell you that."

He really didn't.

"Still, I did it. And, not just for a few months to prove a point. I lived in the woods outside of town for nearly three years." Hugo scowled down at the table, a mean look coming across his dark features for a moment. "I never forgave my Da for that. He could have asked me to come back home any time, but he never did. In fact, to this day, I've never stepped foot back in that house."

Hugo looked at Finn, and she looked back, frozen in place by his stare.

Adrenaline was still sloshing through her veins, but it wasn't the pounding drum of terror it had been just a few moments before. Still, it was enough to take away her better attempts at reasoning through the story she had just been told. So, Hugo lived in the woods when he was younger? So, he had a shitty dad? She could relate to that, but she had no idea how he knew that she would. Was it just a good guess? Was it possible that shitty dad club members could develop an innate sense for other members?

Either way, she was not connecting his story with whatever else Hugo wanted her to understand.

Sighing, Hugo seemed to see her confusion and take pity on her. "Whatever reason you have for hiding out in the woods and stealing from the Huntsman guild, I'm sure it's none of my business. But, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I knew someone was going through what I went through back then and not try to lend a helping hand," Hugo said slowly.

Finn felt a pang in her heart that she knew was going to make her do something stupid. She had thought earlier in the day that Hugo was a good person, but now she knew that Hugo was a good person. He really was trying to help her out of the goodness of his heart. Even to the point of letting her obvious theft go without so much as a cruel word.

That made her feel even worse for robbing him. Hugo was a nice person who would go out of his way to help a complete stranger without expecting anything in return. And, Hugo himself likely didn't have all that much to give. It hadn't escaped Finn's notice that Hugo's clothing wasn't as nice as many other people's in town. He wasn't as clean as most of them, either. And, he had said he had never stepped foot back in his father's home. So whatever he had managed he must have scraped together all by himself or maybe with the help of friends.

Finn let the tension bleed out of her muscles and finally relaxed back against the back of her chair.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to try and help me," Finn croaked, her voice strangled either from disuse or the lingering effects of holding herself so tense for so long. She kept her voice low, but she probably didn't need to bother. Nobody else in the tavern was paying any attention to her.

Hugo's eyes grew sharp, and he leaned forward over the table.

"If I can help, I want to help," Hugo said, his tone gentle.

"My friend and I," Finn hesitated. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell him about Adi. But, everything that Finn did lately was for Adi in some way, so it felt impossible to talk about her situation without including her. "We escaped from," here she fumbled again only to awkwardly land on, "some people. They're probably not chasing us anymore, but they still have my friend's family. We need to try and rescue them..." Finn trailed off, fumbling again and this time not coming up with a good way to explain 'we need to chase after a huge contingent of human soldiers without getting caught by other humans in the process'.

Hugo was frowning thunderously at her, so Finn wasn't sure if she had succeeded in explaining anything. Or, perhaps worse, she had explained too well, and he understood too much.

"That sounds serious," Hugo said slowly.

Finn resisted the urge to snort.

"You've already helped me a lot by helping me sell the deer," she said slowly when it seemed like Hugo wasn't going to offer anything else. "If you can help me buy some supplies tomorrow, I'll be incredibly grateful."

Finn hoped that would be enough to satisfy Hugo. He wanted to help her and Finn could use his help, in that regard. But, asking for anything more from him would mean exposing herself and Adi too much.

Hugo continued to frown, but must have decided that it was a good enough suggestion.

"I have a room just up the street," Hugo said, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder. "You can spend the night there, and I'll take you shopping in the morning."

Finn nodded in agreement and hoped that things would go according to plan this time.