Xenia made the executive decision to just continue on like he wasn’t staring at her like she had grown a second head. Quite frankly, she was a bit out of her depth here; the people in Hestia knew of her quirks and took it in stride, usually used to other people’s oddities and too grateful to her for healing them to care. And the children were just excited about her.

“I got you a shirt,” she said, helpfully. “I also got scissors. And a horse. I don’t know if you’re feeling well enough to fly to town to get supplies and stuff to return home. The scissors are so, well, I wasn’t quite sure how your wings worked.” She’d love to study them, but even she knew that was a bad way to get stabbed. Or, rather, to get Iskra stabbed because she’d rush to her rescue. And then she’d probably stab the half-Tengu, and then Xenia would have to stitch more people up.

“Cool, awesome, who and what are you?”

Sidetracking failed, abort!

She glanced wide-eyed at Iskra for support, but the Volkodlak just looked highly amused. She just shot Xenia a look back that said you were the one who wanted to save him, dumbass.

“My name is Xenia and I’m a healer,” she repeated weakly.

“What Bloodline are you from?”

“I just told you, I don’t have one.”

“She doesn’t,” Iskra finally decided to chime in. “I checked high and low for someone who matches her Magic description, nothing. She’s either not from a Bloodline or the only one, which I highly doubt."

Well…

“So, what, you’re—“ he nearly tripped over his words, “—a—a Bastard of some sort, then?”

She tapped her bottom lip. “Well, I wouldn’t be able to say. I never really knew or met my parents, so I have no clue if they were married or not.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

She did, but she’d been feigning ignorance for as long as she could remember and she wasn’t about to start now.

Thankfully, Sasha came to her rescue, making a loud whine from outside. Iskra sighed as the half-Tengu paled.

“What was that?”

“That was Sasha, Iskra’s partner!” Xenia chirped.

“By that, she means my partner in crime, and a Wolf-Beast. Really, Xea, you have to learn to choose your words better.”

“Eh?”

“Never mind,” Iskra sighed again. “He’s hungry. I want to go home, I want him out of here, and I’m sure he wants to go home too, so lets go. He’s not dying anymore, chop chop.” She glanced at the man. “Can you fly and do we need to cut up that poor shirt?”

----------------------------------------

One abused tunic and a mild bit of Physical Magic over Katsurou’s red eyes, because that would be a dead ringer for his identity, Xenia was crouching in her garden, finding a carrot to give as offering to the horse.

Finding one that looked good enough from the top, she struggled to pull it out. When she finally did, she pumped a fist in the air in triumph before working on getting the dust and dirt off of it.

“Let’s go Xea!” Iskra called. Xenia turned to the pair, on her porch, to see Iskra with a white-knuckled grip on her railing and the half-Tengu looking more and more confused by the minutes.

Sasha, for his part, just sat there with his tongue lolled out.

He was always her favorite.

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“Coming!”

She grabbed the edge of her skirt and hooked it to a piece on the belt around her waist, allowing for some easier access to move without flaunting too much. She carefully stepped over her vegetable patches before whistling.

The horse she had brought with her from town after buying the Wolfsbane from Maya the apothecary trotted over.

She took a bite of the carrot she just pulled and offered it to the horse. It gave her a droll look.

“What? I’m hungry.” She had packed herself a few apples as well for the trip

It snorted and grabbed the carrot in it’s mouth starting to crunch on it.

She turned to the pair once more.

“Is she…” The Half-Tengu asked. She should probably ask for his name at some point.

“She’s just like that. I don’t even know.” Iskra sighed. Xenia pouted.

“What are you two talking about?”

“You’re insane.” The Half-Tengu proclaimed. She blinked.

“Oh. Is that all?”

“Ugh.” Iskra said intelligently.

“Well, Mr. Half-Tengu—“

“—You can just call me Katsurou, sensei,” he sighed, running a hand through his curls.

“Sensei?”

“A title. Used for teachers, doctors, sages, stuff like that.”

“Ah, well, like I said earlier, you can just call me Xenia. Anyways, are you feeling well enough to fly?”

“Quite.”

“Excellent! Shall we get a move on then?”

“Finally,” Iskra muttered, walking off the porch to get onto the path.

Xenia patted the horse before mounting it, side saddle. She watched in interest as Katsurou’s wings bloomed and unfolded behind him, like solid smoke.

“Ah, this will be interesting. I haven’t seen someone flying in years.”

He startled. “You’ve seen someone fly before? Who?”

Oops. Shouldn’t have said that.

“Mm. There’s all kinds of weird things in the Forest!” She smiled brightly and his expression turned exasperated.

She heard him mutter “Mother help him. Or maybe just her.” And she grinned.

Iskra, on the other hand, groaned. “You’re not making my plan to kidnap you to save you any less appealing, Xenia.”

She gasped and batted her eyelashes at the other woman. “Why Iskra, is that a marriage proposal I hear?”

“If it gets you to move, then yes.”

Xenia laughed. “Sorry, but I’m not quite ready to be a married woman.”

“Whatever. Can we get the fuck out of here, please?”

“Coward,” Xenia sang.

“Smart coward,” Iskra returned.

Katsurou, apparently having enough of the foolishness, took off with a gust of wind. Xenia patted the horse again, this time shouting “ya!” and it took off, Iskra and Sasha running close behind.

She kept an eye on Katsurou as he coasted in the air, eyes sharp and looking around. He seemed to be flying normally, which was good.

“I still think this is a bad idea. A horrible, no good, very bad idea.” Iskra said, pulling up to the horse’s side.

“You think everything I do is a bad idea.”

“And that doesn’t tell you something?”

“It tells me you’re boring.”

“Why do I even bother—! Where is he going?”

Xenia glanced up to see their flying compatriot veering off to the right and clicked her tongue, face slack and flying a bit wobbly.

“Ah, he’s flying towards the center of the Forest. Hold on.”

She twisted and fumbled with the bag of apples she had hooked on to the saddle, pulling one out.

Sticking her tongue out, she squinted, aimed, and threw.

He caught it without looking, but seemed startled, glancing at the apple like he didn’t realize how it came to appear in his hand.

He stopped in midair, glancing around before finding the pair who had also stopped.

He flew towards them in a shallow dive, dropping when he was a few meters above the ground, wings disappearing.

“There are other ways to get my attention then throwing things at me,” he said crossly. Xenia just grinned.

“Sorry, didn’t want to go screaming in the super scary Forest, I might give Iskra a heart attack.”

Iskra choked, and Xenia laughed. “No, the actual reason is because the Forest lures you in. You needed to feel a bit of fear to snap out of it. Plus, the Magic here tends to cancel out sound. No one would hear you scream.”

Ah, how she delighted in those twisted looks.

“You say the most alarming things,” Katsurou grimaced.

“What? It means I get good naps. I can’t stand cicadas chirping in summer. And sometimes the birds… oh! Do you think you could tell the crows to stop eating my crops?”

Iskra pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed sharply as Katsurou’s expression warped further. She had to stifle a laugh.

“Still,” she said when she managed to swallow down the worst of it, “perhaps the ambient Magic levels are different in different altitudes. It may be best for you to fly low or walk.”

“People in town won’t be happy to see him flying around like a bat.”

“Crow.”

“Whatever.”

“Mm, good point, walking it is. Unless you’d like the horse?”

He winced. “Ah, no. Are there perhaps more Volkodlak in your town?”

Iskra barked out a laugh. “Absolutely not. If you see one, tell me so I can either rip their throat out or so I can get the Hell out of dodge.”

“Iskra doesn’t like her family,” Xenia stage whispered.

“…Huh.”

“Anyways, you should probably walk.” Iskra sighed.

“You can take the horse if you’re not feeling well.” Xenia chirped.

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Well, then, onwards! Oh, let me redo the glamor first, you’ll scare everyone with those red eyes of yours…”

“Oi!”