Ben recognized he must have fallen asleep at some point, as he woke up in the pale gray light of the morning… And found himself being stared at by Wolf, who blinked at him imposingly.

Slowly, Ben closed his eyes. He took in a deep breath that smelled of damp earth, listened to the hum of bugs and birds rising to a cacophony in the dewy dawn, then flopped onto his back with a grunt.

His feet ached in a way they hadn’t in a long time. He’d grown soft since the Hounds had been disbanded.

Ben filed that thought away as useless, then turned his head to see Spidena curled on the forest floor under her blanket, using her dirty pillow.

A single look was all that he needed to discern she had slept horribly, even though she still slumbered.

Her face was even paler, and the contrast between her dark hair and the pallor of her skin made it all the more shocking.

Against his better judgment, Ben felt a pang of guilt.

Even if he doubted the severity of the big magic that threatened their safety, she didn’t.

And she also didn’t take the fact that he was a wanted man lightly. Arming herself with spell-potions to help in the event they got caught once more…

And, she’d lost her mother because a unit of the Hounds had led the king's army straight to her.

Imagining Spidena as a small girl, Ben could picture her as being more hair than child. A scowl scrunching her small face upon looking at her vegetables on a dinner plate perhaps.

He started to smile, until it dawned on him that maybe Spidena wouldn’t have been so bitter presently if she hadn’t lost her mother.

Maybe her father had abandoned her after her mother had been taken away and most likely executed for witchcraft…

Ben’s right hand gripped his pantleg, then released it.

He needed to get the fire that was reduced to smoke to rise again, and then he’d make her tea. Even if he had to root around in her bewitched bag to get the tea leaves, he’d do it.

Ben recalled Spidena’s irritability the first morning, and instinctively he’d had a hunch that she was the type of person that needed a black tea and breakfast if she was to be in any kind of reasonable mood. And given that he’d inadvertently made her suffer enough woes despite only knowing her for four days he wanted to maybe be a little nicer.

Rolling up onto his feet, Ben made a mental list of actions. First thing to do was getting the flames of their little campfire to climb up in a thin stream. Which he accomplished quickly.

However by the time he reached his second task of locating the tea leaves, he hit a small snag as when he turned to her bag, Wolf landed on top of it and let out a guttural warning trill.

“I just want to make her tea. If I don’t get the leaves out, can you do it?”

He had asked the question not anticipating a reaction or response, but Wolf tilted his head to the right, then the left, then hopped off the bag, buried his head underneath its opening flap, and disappeared underneath.

Ben watched in amazement, his faith in the bird increasing rapidly as he watched the lump inside the bag move to and fro.

From where he sat, Ben heard a bunch of clanging, and bumps that should not have been able to exist in the bag, but eventually, Wolf reappeared with a small white canvas satchel in his beak.

Ben held out his hand, and sure enough, Wolf dropped his prize into his palm.

“Thanks,” Ben said while lifting the bag.

The raven gave another scratchy bleat, then took off into the air.

Ben stared at the satchel for a few seconds before loosening the tie at the mouth of the sack.

He gave it a sniff, and was surprised to find he didn’t recognize the scent from the teas he’d encountered.

It was peppery, and earthy… Then again it wasn’t like he’d gotten to sample a great array of tea leaves in his life. So he simply chalked it up to Spidena’s strange, witchy taste.

With step two completed of his morning plan, he moved onto the third task. Retrieving the pot he’d used to cook most of his meals before setting off to find a river, or pond.

He wasn’t quite successful in either form of body of water, but he did find a pool of water not quite evaporated in a deep groove of tree roots. Not ideal, but it would be enough to get at least one or two cups of tea out of.

Having completed his search, Ben made his way back to the site for steps four and five. Boiling the water, and fishing out a tin cup from Spidena’s sack without accidentally cursing himself. Surprisingly, this went off without a hitch, and even Wolf didn’t object to him doing this.

And so by the time the witch was stirring Ben had, in his opinion, a respectable brew waiting for Spidena. He had even managed to find some dandelion leaves and mushrooms they could both eat.

Sitting up, Spidena eyed Ben with the same amount of wariness he’d imagined she’d give a curmudgeonly snapping turtle.

But she ate the leaves when he handed them to her on a plate, then drank the brew that he had set a short distance from where she’d slept and he’d gestured to.

Sipping the cup with its curling steam, Spidena didn’t hide her disgust over its taste, which was Ben’s cue to busy himself with putting out the fire and swinging his arms to try and ease out his aches, and also so that she wouldn’t notice how closely he was watching her.

“Where did you get this rancid brew? Did Obbie give it to you?” There was a stuffiness to Spidena’s voice that told Ben she had been crying into the night, and it made him want to shy away from her even more.

“No. Your raven brought it for you.”

“Wolf?”

She didn’t sound convinced but her face at least softened, and she proceeded to almost completely drain the entire cup.

“Now that that’s over with. Shall we continue?” While she may have meant to sound resolute and cavalier about walking all day again, she instead alerted Ben to her weary dejectedness.

He decided not to acknowledge this much in the same manner he didn’t acknowledge most things she did, and looked back toward their path.

“Yes. I’m hoping if we keep a steady pace we’ll reach the main road relatively quickly.”

“The main road to Kintel?! Did fungus start growing out of your ears last night?!”

Ben discovered in that moment just how tired he himself was, as he didn’t even have the energy to become annoyed at Spidena’s insult.

“Yes. The main road. We jumped ahead thanks to the inn. So it’s highly unlikely anyone Oleg knows would’ve heard anything, and furthermore, it’ll save us a lot of time and afford you a lot more comforts. There are shared campsites on the main road for travelers. You could eat properly, share a tent with other women, even find an inn or two.”

“The main road also means more chance for magic folk to find us.”

“So you say.”

Spidena scowled at him, though it wasn’t as serious as it had been the previous night… Ben took it to mean his tentative offer of peace had been more or less accepted.

Stretching in preparation for the walk ahead of them. Ben munched on a few dandelion leaves and mushrooms. Though in truth he still felt quite sated from self hatred and his dinner of squirrel.

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“Can I ask you something?” The words surprised Ben as much as they surprised Spidena.

He didn’t even know why he’d blurted them, his arms were still extended above his head in a stretch, but when he turned back around and saw her stunned reaction, he dropped them, and lifted each side of his shoulders as though still trying to work them to feel even looser.

“I gave Obbie a button… I thought fairies liked that kind of gift, but he made it seem like it was stupid.”

At first, Spidena looked caught between a laugh and astonishment, but maybe it was the shy awkwardness in Ben’s face that made her finally settle for a gentle smile that had her looking prettier than Ben had ever seen her.

“Obbie isn’t a low level fairie. If he is as tall as he is? He’s most likely a noble, or of noble lineage. The only reason he’d be working as a cook for the inn is if he pissed off his parents and they banished him, or his family owes Daffy a debt. Higher level fairies don’t really need bobbles or food offerings, but because you offered that to him? A piece of your own clothing at that…?” Spidena trailed off, her cheeks growing rosy from her smile. “You made him an admiration offer.”

Ben recoiled at the description.

Spidena started to giggle. “Especially with an article of your own clothes when you have so little, you technically gave him an invitation to meddle in your life.”

Ben’s hands came up to his face, and he hid behind them in embarrassed dread.

“Luckily for you, I don’t think Obbie is all that interested in doing anything with that. At least until you do something to really annoy him.”

“You say I’m annoying all the time,” Ben lamented with vague panic while slowly turning to start walking.

“Wait.”

Ben halted.

Then looked over his shoulder to see Spidena unlacing her boots by her knees, then tugging on the laces as she wriggled her legs and feet free.

Glimpsing her bare skin, Ben looked down at the ground, an unfamiliar feeling stirring in his chest.

There was a horrible looking blister the size of a walnut on the back of Spidena’s right heel. It was streaked with blood. While it wasn’t the only one she had, the others weren’t quite so gruesomely impressive.

“You know, it’s funny…” Spidena started to say, sounding oddly cheery. “These blisters are fantastically painful. And even though I have a salve I can put on them, I can’t heal them instantly. Despite that though? I feel quite lovely right now.”

Ben swung around in alarm.

Sure enough, Spidena was smiling.

She looked rather confused about it…

He watched as she leaned back and wiggled her toes. “Maybe I’ll try walking barefoot today? I doubt I can get those boots back on.”

“Walking without shoes won’t make things better,” Ben responded carefully. “Come on, we can reach the road in another five or six days even if we take breaks. From there we can maybe barter with a farmer or other merchant traveling to Kintel to ride on the back of the cart.”

Spidena laughed.

Then she laughed some more until she snorted, and instantly Ben’s concern for her mental stability spiked.

“You say ‘Come on, let's take a walk from hells. It’ll just last a few days!’ like it’s nothing!” Spidena continued to laugh until she flopped back on the forest floor and stared up at the trees.

Ben recalled the mushrooms he’d given her and started to wonder if he’d given her the wrong sort… But he’d eaten them too, and he was fine…

“You know, as a dodder capable of spotting magical things, you probably could help me find ingredients for a blister potion that would actually heal them instantly!” Spidena sat up, her eyes sparkling.

Ben inched backward.

“I’ve never looked for ingredients,” he countered warily. “I only looked for the silver glow around houses or people, or other places in the forests where magic creatures might be-”

“Well try it!” Spidena reached into her bag and pulled out a small cauldron. Then she started pulling out different jars, and other random objects.

“Let’s see… Oh! I forgot I brought this!” she said while pulling out a ball that was stitched with leather. It was half dyed blue the other half red, and jingled when she moved it.

Ben wondered what in the world that could be for.

“Alright, it looks like I really only need two more things! First, an inch of bark from a willow tree that has three trunks, and then two marigold blooms!” She smiled up at him so brightly that she almost looked like a different person.

“Spidena, are you… sick…?”

The witch stared up at him, still smiling. Her cheeks began to twitch as though she were struggling to make the expression, or… Like she was trying to stop making the expression.

“I might have a charm on me… Or… Or something…” she croaked as though attempting to sound concerned instead of dreamy while also glancing around in search of some hidden threat. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say I had something in–”

Spidena stopped talking, blinked, and turned her attention back to her carpet bag. She resumed rummaging around with renewed vigor until she happened to pull out the very bag that Wolf had given to Ben to make Spidena’s tea.

“Did you… drug me?” she asked with a giggle.

Despite only knowing her for less than a quarter moon, Ben knew if she were feeling more like herself she would be about to throw something at him.

“Your bird gave it to me. I was just trying to find your tea leaves.”

“And you didn’t think this looked weird?” Spidena waved the bag emphatically, her eyes bulging, but her smile eerily fixed in place.

Ben shrugged and lifted his hands defensively. “I don’t know! I wondered if it was some kind of fancy tea.”

“It’s a powdered drug!”

“I get that now!”

Spidena’s hands flexed in frustration as she chucked it back in her satchel.

“What does it do? How long does it last?” Ben wondered while thinking in the back of his head how they probably were going to lose an entire day of travel if not more just because of her blisters, let alone recovery from whatever it was she drank.

“It’s called katava, and, obviously, it makes the taker euphoric. It makes the world seem brighter, and more peaceful.” Spidena may have wanted to say this in a scathing tone, or with a grumble, but only managed to sound thoughtful.

Ben pressed his lips together.

Spidena blinked up at him and the corners of her eyes twitched.

He had a hunch she was trying to glare.

“You think this is funny?” she accused sweetly.

“Um… Am I not supposed to…?” Ben cleared his throat but wasn’t successful in beating down his own smile. “Are there any other serious side effects?”

“I’ll have an awful headache tomorrow,” she informed him while tilting her head and clasping her hands in her lap.

“Ah…” Ben paused and looked away while idly rubbing the side of his neck then chin.

“Go get the ingredients for my blister potion so I can shove my boot in your ass without pain when this wears off, alright?” Spidena beamed at Ben.

At the very least, the threat sobered him enough to stop smirking… If only for a split second while Spidena could still see his face. It reclaimed him once he turned to the forest and decided he may as well go find her ingredients with the hope that maybe the drug’s calming effects would last the entirety of the day… Or at least until she felt less violent toward him.