It was the first morning in Spidena’s life that she had woken up outside.

She knew instantly in that Gods awful moment where her eyes opened and her entire body ached, her skin was clammy, and she felt more tired than when she had initially gone to sleep, that she hated sleeping in nature.

“Oh good, you’re awake. I have a question for you.”

Potent ire filled Spidena in a heartbeat, and if it weren’t so strong as to choke the words from her throat, she would have cursed every unfortunate soul who had ever known Ben. The man who dared to talk the second she awoke.

“You said yesterday that incantations take a long time to figure out the bargain, but you cast the one for me quickly. Why was that? Also… You said you can’t do charms, but you could summon ingredients when doing the incantation. How did you do that?”

Spidena sat up slowly, her fingers twitching. They were at an utter loss as to how to handle the violent urges she was experiencing.

She turned, slowly, to stare at Ben. Her eyes burning from exhaustion.

He sat comfortably chewing on a bun that, from the effort it took for him to bite and tear into, Spidena could tell was stale.

Ben looked horribly, and unforgivably refreshed.

“Fuck. Off.” Spidena’s words were met with silence as Ben stared at her blankly… And then proceeded to pound the final nail in his metaphorical coffin by grinning at her.

“Didn’t sleep the greatest?”

Spidena looked around herself for a rock. A stick. Anything that could be used to beat that look off his face, when a fluttering of black wings, and the reappearance of her raven, Wolf, distracted her from her murderous plot.

“Danger!”

When the raven informed them of this in a voice clear as day, Spidena took every pleasure in watching Ben launch himself backward in shock.

“It can talk? Isn’t that magic?”

Spidena started to crack her neck from side to side. “No, it isn’t magic. Raven’s can talk if you train them, and Wolf is smart. If an animal that can’t normally talk is talking, then it isn’t a normal animal. It’s made of pure magic. Most likely crafted to be a minion to a witch or warlock. More importantly though, my smart, normal raven here thinks something nearby is dangerous.”

That or he could tell I was about to throttle you. She thought to herself grumpily.

Ben continued to gape at the raven, not looking all that convinced that the bird wasn’t stuffed full of magic, while Spidena started to pack up her blanket and dirty pillow in order to avoid whatever nearby trouble Wolf may have spotted. The sun hadn’t risen, but the hazy blue around them had lightened their surroundings enough that she didn’t need to rely on the campfire to see anymore.

“Is it bright enough for us to travel again?” she asked, feeling somewhat more in control of her mood.

Rising to his feet without taking his eyes off the raven, Ben brushed dirt off of his rumpled coat. “Yeah, I can roughly see what’s on the ground at least. If Wolf thinks there is danger, we can head straight north. It’s a bit closer to the Earhav’s land than I’d like, but-”

“Earhav? As in… Callex Earhav?”

Ben nodded grimly.

“Why would we go all the way over there?!” Spidena demanded with a great amount of panic.

Blinking in surprise, Ben tilted his head. “I take it that particular warlock isn’t a friend of yours?”

“That creepy asshole? Why the hells would I know him? Did you think all magic users know each other or something?” Spidena’s jittery outrage toward Ben sparked anew.

Ben held up his hands in surrender. “I won’t make you knock on his door or anything. We’ll avoid his land as much as possible, but if we continue straight north we should skirt his domain enough that it’s unlikely we’ll see anyone else.” Ben started kicking dirt onto the coals of their fire as he spoke, though his leisurely pace while doing so suggested he either didn’t believe Wolf’s warning, or he didn’t particularly care.

Spidena bit her tongue, and tried to ignore the sweat that started to build along her back despite trying to avoid thinking about what would happen if Callex Earhav found out she was anywhere near his property…

“Is there any particular reason you don’t want to answer my questions this morning? You seemed pretty chatty yesterday,” Ben wondered idly while the final clump of coals sizzled out.

The witch took her time dusting off her skirts before responding. “Sometimes I feel like talking, and sometimes you’re too annoying to indulge.”

“We met yesterday, and already I’m annoying to you?”

“You have natural talent.” Spidena tossed the strap of her bag over her head and stared at Ben expectantly, though she caught the tail end of him rolling his eyes at her. “Well? Are we leaving?”

“Aren’t you going to eat something?” Ben eyed her bag, then looked back at her. “Walking for long distances is hard enough without doing it on an empty stomach. Take it from me.”

Spidena scoffed. “I will take care of myself, thank you very much!”

“You’re welcome,” Ben nodded seriously in response, then upon seeing her irritated facial reaction to his smart ass remark, he grinned at the witch before turning and waving her straight forward. “Come on. This way.”

Spidena picked up her skirts indignantly, and stomped over to Ben’s side.

He chuckled, and her hands gripped into fists.

“You were a lot more quiet and serious when we first met. How can I make you be like that again?” the witch wondered bitingly.

Ben sighed, sending a plume of vapor into the cool morning air. “I don’t have a group of large, threatening men after me, and I’m not recovering from being magically bound either… Sorry to say it isn’t looking like I’ll be as solemn as before.”

“Don’t give up. I’m sure you have peeved off more than just one group of killers.” Spidena turned her snub nose up. The brisk temperature already nipped at Spidena’s face, but she didn’t give any sign of feeling the chill as she blatantly ignored the sardonic glance Ben was giving her.

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“You don’t have a lot of friends, do you?” he asked dryly.

“I’d take having cunning enemies over dumb friends on any phase of the moon! Dumb friends are far more dangerous.”

Ben’s eyebrows shot up in flabbergasted awe before shaking his head. “Right. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

Spidena grumbled, but her traveling companion ignored it, and so continued making their way due north. Wolf took to the skies again above them, leaving the pair to walk on in silence, save for the crunching and rustling of forest brush beneath their feet.

When the sun eventually emerged from the horizon, the trees around them took on a wakeful, enchanting glow, and the smell of sweet, fresh growth started to waft up from the earth. The rising temperature also made it so that Spidena no longer needed her blue shawl, and so she stowed it away in her satchel as they walked, though while doing so, she wound up missing a step, and with the small heel of her boot toppling, her ankle followed suit making her give an anguished shout.

Ben halted his progress, and watched as she stumbled, then as she caught herself against the nearest tree trunk.

“Godsdamnit,” Spidena uttered while catching her breath and taking a moment to stretch her ankle. Luckily it didn’t seem sprained.

“Did you happen to pack any boots that don’t have a heel?” Ben sidled over to the witch unconcerned.

Spidena glared daggers at him. “No. Otherwise I’d be wearing them.”

He shrugged indifferently and waited for her to right herself again.

She had just finished readjusting her satchel once more and tucking the loose strands of dark hair that had escaped her long braid behind her ear, when Wolf fluttered down to a nearby fall tree.

“Closer! Danger! Closer!”

Ben frowned. “Is he able to be any more specific?”

“While Wolf is smarter than you, he is blessed with the gift of only speaking a few words.”

Crossing his arms, Ben’s eyes hardened. “If you’re going to be a cow everytime you speak I will leave you here to get yourself to Kintel on your own.”

“Good luck with that!” Spidena retorted with a snort. “You can’t get there without me. I already told you, we’re fate tied.”

“You could’ve made that up so I wouldn’t try to ditch you the instant I got sick of your personality,” Ben accused, his right toes already starting to turn west.

“Ha! Go ahead and try then! You’ll find out before tonight that I’m right!”

“You know… I’d heard the stories about witches being nasty and eating children when I was young, and back then thought it was completely made up. Now I’m seeing it as factual information!” Ben sniped while turning away from Spidena and starting to stalk away.

With her right hand clenching into a fist, the witch seethed for an instant, then jogged to catch up to him.

“I can just follow you, you know!” she informed him haughtily at his back.

“Maybe I’m going to take a detour through the Huffinal kingdom instead of going straight to Kintel. It’ll really make sure I lose anyone still following me!” Ben reasoned loudly, his anger coloring his sarcasm.

“Oh for the-” Spidena darted in front of Ben though it was in no way easy or graceful. He tried to step around her, but she matched his movements, blocking him. “Stop wasting time! The sooner we get to Kintel the sooner we’ll be finished with each other! Besides, you owe me a favor!”

“I haven’t shoved you down a hill this morning, I’d say we’re even,” Ben countered scathingly before he feigned going left and instead carried on right, successfully getting around Spidena at last.

“I told you about magic, didn’t I? I’m not all that bad!” she hollered. The witch could hear her own note of desperation and hated it.

Ben didn’t even bother answering as he continued to trudge through the forest.

Spidena waited to see if their fated tie would yank him back somehow, but when he managed to get quite far from her, her panic won against her pride, and humbled her.

“FINE! I’M SORRY!”

Stopping in his tracks, Ben turned around and stared at Spidena expectantly.

“What else do you want?!” Spidena demanded, already feeling all kinds of embarrassed.

Ben took his time making his way back over to her, his expression unreadable until he stood nearly toe to toe with her.

“I want you to eat something, and if you happened to bring tea leaves with you in that magic bag? You should have a cup in the morning. I’ll even boil the water to get it ready before you wake up, but, and I say this from the bottom of my heart, you need to do everything in your power, to be less of a banshee.”

“I just apologized to you, and you think you can-”

“Sorry to interrupt your lover's quarrel!”

Ben and Spidena jolted, then whirled around to look to their left toward the voice that had just interrupted them.

A thirty something year old man wearing a dirty, mustard yellow coat, a long burgundy necktie, and a battered brown bowler hat stood leaning against a walnut tree trunk with three gruff looking men standing behind him.

A quick glance around themselves, made Ben and Spidena realize that there were another five men standing a short distance from their right, and they were closing in.

“You see, a business associate of mine by the name of Ostrig Vontrik was looking for a thief who robbed him of his gold the other day, and I wondered if you fine folk might have seen any suspicious people.”

Ben stiffened in shock, and Spidena shrunk closer to him, her eyes cast toward the ground.

When neither of them said anything in response the stranger took long, leisurely strides closer to them. Despite his hands being in his pocket, neither Spidena nor Ben were naive enough to think he was unarmed.

“Now, now, no need for you to be shy. I’ll even introduce myself first! My name is Reggie Bowen, and even if you don’t happen to be carrying stolen gold on your person, I wouldn’t mind relieving you of any extra valuables you might be carrying.”

Ben didn’t so much as blink, and Spidena?

Well… She was starting to consider using one of her packages far earlier in their journey than she’d hoped.