Despite the lost time, they were in no hurry to get anywhere. Slone tracked a deer for a while, and then when they finally found it, they crouched and watched it silently until it ran off deeper into the woods. Slone explained that he wouldn’t take down prey that size when he knew he wouldn’t be able to use all of the meat.

There was something about just being out in nature that made Duran feel lighter, less suffocated. It was only when he’d been travelling with Fanner and Yore that he’d realised how much he liked the outdoors. Before that, he’d never been anywhere more wild than a well manicured back garden.

When they started to hear the rumble of thunder late in the afternoon, Slone frowned up at the sky. “Could be a problem.”

“Are there any caves or friendly settlements nearby?” Hamish asked.

“Ah, well…” Slone said. “Guess I didn’t really think about that. On four legs, everything’s pretty near. Takes a lot longer to get places on two.”

“Let’s keep an eye out,” Hamish said. “If worst comes to worst, I guess we huddle under a tree together and wait it out.”

Slone made a face. “It ain’t great, though, huh? I mean, I can rough it, and Duran will prob’ly be fine, but humans die from that kinda thing, right? Exposure?”

Hamish shot him a grin. “What, you’re not going to keep me warm?”

“If you want a hug, you can just ask. Don’t gotta be dying of exposure.”

“Or a kiss,” Duran added. “Apparently nothing bothers this man.”

Hamish laughed. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, he did that,” Slone said, a smile on his face. “Can’t say it’s for me, but I ain’t upset about it.”

“Well, I’m jealous now.”

Slone pressed his hands to the sides of Hamish’s face and planted a quick kiss on his lips. “Happy?”

“You know what?” Hamish asked. “I am.”

As the sun went down, the temperature grew colder, and the first drops of rain began to fall.

“Think it’s about time to give up on finding any kinda cave or anything and just hunker down,” Slone said. “You can make heat, yeah, Duran?”

“Ahh… some,” Duran said. “My body will keep itself warm, but I don’t think I can actively heat Hamish up all night. I’m not some special thing like Danya or Fanner. I’m just a Companion. The things I can do are fairly weak and limited.”

“Trust me, being sandwiched between two men is pretty warm even without any magic,” Hamish said as he sat down beneath the biggest tree in the area. “We may have to get naked to maximise the exchange of body heat, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

The three of them huddled down together as thunder rumbled and finally the skies fully opened up and began pouring rain down onto them. What had started as a nice excuse for a cuddle soon turned into an uncomfortable and miserable experience.

“What’s that?” Hamish asked.

“Huh?” Slone said, lifting his head from where he’d tucked it down in an attempt to shelter Hamish with his body.

“Through the trees. It looks like a light.”

Duran followed Hamish’s gaze and, sure enough, there seemed to be a dim, blue light moving through the trees up ahead.

“Huh,” Slone said. “Wanna go check it out?”

“Well, I’m willing,” Hamish said. “I think I’m already about as wet as I can get anyway. Duran?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m asking your opinion. Do you think we should go and take a look?”

“Oh! Yes. Anything that might get us out of this rain sounds good to me.”

As they got up and moved towards the light, Duran started to see the silhouettes of tall figures moving around. Very tall figures.

“People?” Hamish murmured.

“Ah…” Slone gave a shrug. “Weird thing is, I can’t smell anything. Don’t think it’s just the rain, either.”

“I think I see the shadow of a little cabin,” Duran said. “They have shelter.”

Hamish took a deep breath in and let it out. “Well, let’s hope they’re friendly.”

Duran brightened his magelight and they continued forward until they came upon the first of the tall figures. Slone was a tall man, but this thing bent itself nearly in half to be on eye level with him. It was dark and featureless and the light from Duran’s magelight and the dim lantern the tall creature was carrying seemed to refuse to touch it.

More of the tall creatures approached, leaning forward to look their guests over. They were completely silent. Something brushed Duran’s leg and he jumped. When he looked down, he found that Cookie had slipped in beside him. She broke the silence that had fallen between all of them by chittering when one of the tall creatures got a little too close. It was completely undeterred by her objections and continued looking her over until it was good and done.

“Uh, so, um…” Hamish said, his eyes fixed on Cookie, likely waiting to see if she’d give them some clue as to how to handle this situation. She was certainly alert, but she seemed no less uncertain about things than the rest of them. Hamish turned his attention to the tall creature in front of him. “So it’s raining and we were wondering if you might put us up for the night? The storm’s getting pretty wild, and…”

The tall creature turned and walked away. When they stayed where they were, it turned back and waved its lantern at them until they followed.

“Oh,” Hamish said when it led them to the cabin they’d seen earlier. “Thank you?”

The tall creature opened the door and held its arm out, indicating for them to go inside.

Hamish looked between Duran and Slone, but all they could offer him were shrugs. The four of them went inside and the tall creature shut the door behind them.

The only things inside the room were a large bed and a bare wooden shelf. Duran brightened his ball of magelight in order to see better, but it didn’t help at all. Past a certain point, the room refused to get any brighter.

“Well, this is creepy,” Hamish commented as he watched Duran brighten and dim his magelight to no effect.

“You know what’s really weird?” Duran asked. “Those things are like twice my height, but Slone had to duck to get through the doorway. The bed wouldn’t fit them either.”

“Might be this place don’t even belong to them,” Slone said. “Kinda don’t seem like house living folk.”

Hamish crouched down and dug through his bag. “Hey Cookie, I’ll give you half of this cheese wedge if you let me ask Kit something.”

Cookie opened her mouth until the cheese was inserted into it and then she swallowed it whole.

Kit appeared in front of them, arms already crossed over their chest. “Just so you know, I consider any deals made with Cookie non-binding. She’ll agree to anything for food.”

“I thought you were Cookie?” Hamish asked.

Kit wrinkled up their face. “Sort of? Not really. We can control Cookie, but that doesn’t mean much because we can control you if we want to, too. We’re attached to her, but she acts autonomously. We decide things like where to go, but she manages all her own mud eating. Anyway, since I’m feeling generous and also spooked the fuck out, I’ll let you ask a second question at no extra cost.”

“So… what the fuck?” Hamish asked, holding his arm out towards the door.

“Yeah, the thing is, I don’t know. We can’t get inside their heads. We can see them through your eyes, but they may as well not be there for us.”

“What does that mean?” Duran asked.

“No clue,” Kit said. “Maybe not much at all. Maybe this is just the magical equivalent of a scissors, paper, rock game we’re losing. Maybe it’s no different from Libby’s inability to see into our mind.”

“Any thoughts on what we should do?” Slone asked.

Kit shrugged. “How should I know? They might be friendly or they might be planning to eat you in your sleep. All I know is that if things get ugly, you’re on your own. If we can’t get into their heads, we can’t control them.”

“That’s kind of scary, but also we didn’t know you were here until a few minutes ago, so everything we encountered would have been like that,” Hamish said. “I guess the question is, are any of us freaked out enough by those guys that we’d rather spend the night in a thunderstorm?”

“Well… they haven’t done anything bad, right?” Duran asked. “They look creepy, but so does Cookie. All they’ve done is look at us and take us to this house when we asked for shelter. Based purely on their actions, they don’t seem unfriendly.”

“Traps are a thing, but… yeah,” Slone said. “I dunno if goin’ back out into a thunderstorm just ‘cause maybe they’re planning something is worth it.”

“We don’t give a shit about rain, but we’ll stay if everyone else does. Also, bye,” Kit said, and blinked out of existence.

“Then I guess we stay,” Hamish said, unceremoniously pulling his soaking wet shirt off and draping it over the shelf to dry. “At least if we die, this is a cool way to go. If that whole thing with those humans had gone south and I’d died fighting them, I would have been so disappointed.”

“I might as well get naked and stay naked,” Slone said, sitting down on the floor to take his boots off. “Good to be ready to shift when things get sketchy.”

Hamish offered him a grin. “I’ll always endorse naked men.”

Duran took his boots off as well, but he left the rest of his clothes on and pushed heat through his body. It would take a little while, but his clothes would dry.

He had a knife in his bag. The same one he’d stolen from those humans when he’d been travelling with Fanner and Yore. He was well aware that if it came to a fight, he was the least capable. Beyond maybe impeding someone’s vision by throwing a ball of magelight in their face, his magic was basically useless for combat, and though he was confident he wouldn’t shy away from defending himself if it were ever needed, he had no fighting experience. 

But hey, Hamish was shivering in his damp underpants while Duran was nice and warm and would soon have dry clothes. Being a mage had its perks, even if you weren’t a particularly powerful one. Duran reached out and put his hand on Hamish’s arm.

Hamish jolted and looked down at Duran’s hand. “You’re hot.”

Duran shot him a smile. “Thank you.”

“Not like—well, okay, yes, like that was well.”

“Want me to warm you up?”

“Hm. Yes.”

They went and lay down on the bed together, face to face, Hamish in his underwear and Duran still fully clothed. They were both still damp and uncomfortable, but that didn’t take away from the intimacy of the position as Hamish tangled their legs together.

Duran ran his fingers through Hamish’s dark, wavy hair, pushing some of the moisture out with the heat of his touch.

There was something about this kind of gentle, caring intimacy that he liked, but he didn’t know how to express that without everyone thinking he was falling in love with Hamish. He wasn’t. He used to do things like this with his master in the early days, and he’d known exactly where he stood in that relationship. 

Colom. That had been his master’s name. Duran had always called him by it, from the first to the last day, but it felt strange to even think it now. To acknowledge him on that level. Such a selfish asshole of a man, but… still just a man, with all the complexity that came with that. Just a man who, when he’d barely been one yet, had sometimes just wanted to be held and kept warm on a cold night.

Hamish was nothing like Colom had been at his best or his worst. Hamish didn’t let his urges control him, didn’t wilt in the face of uncertainty, didn’t let his own insecurities devour his humanity. Hamish could certainly be sweet and soft, but there was a strength within him that was always ready to come out when needed.

If he said any of that to Hamish, he knew he’d be misunderstood, though. Hamish would think Duran’s admiration was budding love and that the comparisons to his master were him seeking to replace that relationship. From what he’d heard, Danya had struggled to shed those desires when he’d first found his freedom, and in a way Danya would probably always be tainted by what he’d been taught to desire. Or maybe ‘tainted’ wasn’t the right word. Not anymore. Just influenced. Danya had bought into the whole thing in a way Duran never had.

They weren’t the same. Each of them were individuals and Duran hoped that, one day, he’d fully be seen as one.