Lear peered around at the little grove of trees we’d stopped in. Many were pines. There was a little stream that ran nearby, and we were tucked just behind a small hillock, which provided even more protection from the wind. “Yes, this will do nicely.” he nodded approvingly.

“So I guess I’ll get to see you build that shelter now, huh?” I asked him, smiling a little.

“You certainly will! Can you start a fire?” There was no need to use the heating stone outside, the heat would dissipate immediately, and we wouldn't really benefit from it. It was better used in an enclosed space, and a fire would do until we had that. It would also help to keep away any curious or unfriendly animals.

“Sure.” I nodded. “I’d say I’d start on dinner, but it’s just bread and cheese and dried stuff.” We’d brought enough food with us to last the entire trip, so we didn’t wind up having to forage for anything, which would be a waste of time.

“That’s alright. It’s better than nothing. Oh, we can bake a few of those potatoes in the coals, too.”

“Good point. So at least one hot thing. And I can start on that, once the fire has been going for a little while.” I nodded.

“Now, our shelter.” he grinned at me, then bustled about as I started to gather wood for the fire.

I saw he was also gathering wood, but in the form of large, fresh boughs from the pine trees, whereas I was collecting older, long-dead, dry branches with brown needles.

Diana was loafing on top of her basket, watching our antics in vague, catlike amusement.

After arranging the wood, I soon had a little fire crackling away merrily. Once there were a few coals, I’d push some potatoes into them to bake.

Lear had finished gathering branches, and had a large pile accumulated, but had then moved on to gathering rocks about as big as my fist.

Soon, he had a good amount of stones. The fey soldier then took a few moments to select three large branches, two had large forks at the end, and the third was nearly straight. Once he had the sticks he wanted, he broke all the little twigs and branches off of them.

Using his immense strength, he easily shoved the two forked branches securely into the ground, forked ends up, and laid the straight one across. Lear then quickly peeled some bark off some smaller branches, and used it as a string of sorts to secure the joints of the makeshift structure.

Seeing the configuration he seemed to have going on, I had a general idea of where he was going with the temporary structure.

I felt his magic surge, and he grimaced a little, but continued on. The rest of the branches, still bearing their smaller limbs and all the needles, floated into the air, then leaned up against the straight cross-branch one by one, the fluffy parts with the needles were pointed upwards, the flatter part where they’d been cut off the tree, I suspected with his claws, were against the ground, as they were less likely to slide around.

“There!” He smiled. “And now…” Another surge of magic, and the stones he collected soared into the air, settling against the outside of the part of the sticks that butted against the ground. “They won’t be as likely to slide with the rocks there.” He told me.

“Ah.” I nodded.

“One more thing, then we’ll be done.” He told me. After one more surge of magic, large quantities of leaves from the trees that weren’t pines floated, as if on a breeze, to the shelter, and settled down like a blanket on the branch-walls. “There!”

“Very nice.” I smiled at him.

“It goes a lot faster with magic.”

“I’m sure! I imagine most things do!”

“It certainly does.”

The fire had now burned long enough that there were some coals, and I was able to push the potatoes in. We wouldn't really be able to eat the jackets, thanks to the ashes, but the insides would still be good and hot!

Lear pulled our things into our little shelter, but left the food stuff out, and laid out blankets over the ground. “The ground is cold, but having the heating stone will help.” He pulled the stone out, and placed it in the back of the shelter, away from the entrance, then left and put a few branches over, “That can be the door. It’ll help keep the heat in.”

“Good idea.” I nodded.

He came and sat by me, stretching out one of his wings so I was shielded a little more from the cold. “There.”

“Thank you.”

“I just realized that I can’t use my line about snuggling and body heat because we brought the heating stone, so this will have to do.” he sighed regretfully. "What a shame! It's such a good one, too!"

I laughed, though I’d thought the very same thing earlier. “You’re a mess! Besides, it's probably over-used!" If I'd thought of it, it almost certainly was.

“I try.” Lear grinned, "And yeah, probably."

Diana hopped up from her basket, and stretched, then joined me under Lear’s wing, maowing sweetly as she did.

“No, of course I don’t mind, Annie. You only saved our lives.” Lear rolled his eyes amusedly, “You don’t even have to ask. I’m fairly fond of you, too.”

I reached out and scratched her ears gently, then pulled apart some pieces of dried meat we’d brought with us for her, and broke it up into pieces for her. “There, will that work for your dinner, sweetie?”

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A confirmatory maow was her reply, and she started to eat.

“Good.”

We sat there for a while in the cold night air as the sun set. Soon, stars twinkled above us.

It should have been a nice, cozy, albeit chilly, romantic sort of scene, but the fear that I’d felt consistently since we’d left the protection of the runes on the mountains still gnawed away at me. Not to mention the guilt about all the injured people that I'd left behind.

I took a deep breath and pushed the unpleasant thoughts away.

"You okay?"

"I'm...alright."

He studied me for a moment, then shook himself, “Well, let’s eat. The potatoes will probably be done soon.” He handed me bread, cheese, dried meat, and an apple. “I even had the liberty of getting this in town while you were checking on your patients this morning.” he produced a small wax-paper packet from his bag with a flourish.

“I wondered where you’d gone off to.” I peered curiously at the bag in his long fingers.

“Here, open it.” He pushed it eagerly into my hands, gorgeous green eyes sparkling like a child’s. “It took some work to make sure it didn’t get squished as we traveled, but I managed it!”

I opened the package, and stared down at it's contents. A wave of unexpected emotion crashed over me.

Inside were nestled a bunch of the tea cakes that I so dearly loved, as well as some candy.

“O-oh!” I squeaked, trying to hold back tears.

“Are you upset? I’m sorry, I thought you’d be happy!” Panic rose in his voice.

“I’m not upset!” I assured him wiping my eyes.

Diana climbed into my lap and started to purr.

“Then why are you crying?!”

“Happy tears, Lear. Th-this was…very nice of you.” I sniffled.

“Oh. Well, you like them. They’re your favorite, I know that. I thought it might cheer you up a little after you’ve had such a rough time of things lately.” he said softly, his green eyes full of concern.

It struck me that he was anxious to please me, which brought a watery smile to my lips. “Well, it worked! I-I just…no one has ever done anything that nice for me out of the blue for no reason.”

“Firstly, that makes me sad to hear. Secondly, I didn’t do it for no reason. I did it because I love you, and wanted to cheer you up, like I said.” The fey man shook his head.

“What must they have thought when you went to the tea shop and the candy shop during that crisis?” I laughed a little.

“Actually, I think I managed to endear myself to them.” he told me thoughtfully. “I had to find the tea-shop owner, which Bekka helped me do. I asked after the cakes and told her that it was to cheer you up because of how horrible you felt at not being able to help more, even though you were doing what you could, and she practically melted. Told me to just take what I wanted, but I did insist on paying her. Then she asked if I wouldn't want some candy for you too, and of course that seemed like a pretty good idea as well, so she helped me with that too.”

“Her sister owns the candy shop.” I nodded, smiling. “They probably saw this ridiculous face of yours, all sparkling and excited to do something nice and of course she melted!”

“How is my face ridiculous?” he asked, sounding taken aback.

“Ridiculously attractive, I meant.”

“Oh, that. That’s nothing.” he waved his hand jokingly, then leaned down and kissed me. When he broke away, he asked softly, “They really cheered you up?”

“Yeah.” I giggled, leaning into him. “I haven’t had candy very much. Mom and dad never would buy it for us! Cakes every now and again were one thing, but candies were usually a no. Rots your teeth, apparently.”

“It does.” Lear nodded. “But every so often is fine.”

“I kind of forgot it exists.” I laughed.

“Eat some.”

“And spoil my dinner?”

“You’re thirty years old, Winna, I think it’ll be okay.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m an adult!” she giggled.

Lear burst into laughter, and squeezed me close. “Gods, woman, I love you.”

“I love you too, Lear.” I sighed happily, then popped one of the candies into my mouth, and winced because it was shockingly sour. “Oh goodness!”

“What?”

“It’s sour! Taste it!” I grinned, shoving one into his mouth before he could stop me.

“Oh god!” he grimaced. “That’s awful!”

He made to spit it out, but I put my hand over his mouth, feeling mischievous. “Nope! You gotta eat it! You’re the one that picked it out!”

The fey man rolled his iridescent eyes at me, “I didn’t, actually. They just gave me some of the most popular stuff.”

“Oh fine.” I dropped my hand so he could spit it out.

“It’s not so bad, now.” Lear shook his head.

“Yeah, the sourness goes away pretty quickly.”

Soon we turned our attention to the actual food, and had ourselves a merry little meal. I was even able to forget my strange sense of foreboding for a little while. The warm potatoes were a delicious main course, and then we finished with our cheese, and then ate some of the sweet treats Lear had bought, but saved enough so we could enjoy them throughout the course of the journey.

Diana eventually stretched and yawned.

“Tired?” Lear asked her.

A sleepy maow.

“Alright.” he nodded, opening the branches so she could go in, then he told me, “You go get cozy. I’ll stoke up the fire and bring everything else in.” He motioned at the food bag.

“Okay.” I slipped into the makeshift shelter. “Ohh, it’s really warm and cozy in here!”

“Good!” Lear said from outside.

Diana settled down on the blanket-floor, as near to the heating stone as she could get, and I started to get out the rest of the blankets we’d packed.

Lear’s bag was enormous and heavy, but thanks to his fey strength, he’d carried it without any trouble. I’d packed what I could into my own bag, but I was comparatively weak, being only human. Not that I was all that much of a weakling. I was used to managing a small farm on my own, after all. That meant I was somewhat stronger than most people expected of me, and was glad to say that I had never needed a man to open a jar. Not that I’d be displeased to ask Lear to do so, in the future, if I was being honest.

My fey companion soon entered as well, bringing the food stuff in, as promised.

We got the blankets spread out into two sleeping areas.

“I know it feels toasty in here, but…you know, it’ll probably get colder still. I bet it won’t be as warm as the cottage.” I told him innocently. “Cuddling up really would be the warmest option, because then we can both be beneath all of the blankets that we’re not lying on top of, instead of each having half of them. And you know, body heat and all.”

“Hmm.” he pretended to think seriously, the shot a grin at me, “Well, if you insist!"

We rearranged the blankets into one big pallet.

“There.” I nodded, then felt the need to add, with my face very red, “No funny business though, alright?”

“No, no funny business.” He laughed, leaning down to kiss me briefly.

I took off the cloak and my coat, and we got ourselves under the blankets.

Lear drew me close and planted a kiss in my hair, sighing contentedly. “This is nice.”

“Yeah, it is."

“As much as I’d like to get up to mischief, I already agreed to no funny business, and you need rest. We have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Lear.”

“Goodnight, Winna.”