I was in a neighbor’s home.

At least… that’s how this forest made me feel.

The horse I was riding trotted along slowly, following Vim’s lead, and I felt an odd mix of familiarity and anxiousness.

We were crossing a rather large mountain pass, and the dense forest all around us did look a lot like the one I had been born in… but there was a strange difference. Some of the trees were white. Pure white. Their bark and trunks were the kind of white that I’d only seen on diseased trees, or during winter when they were stained by ice and snow… and not only was it not yet winter, these trees were all healthy and fine.

It wasn’t too startling, honestly… I knew trees came in all shapes, colors, and sizes… but…

Well…

It felt weird all the same. Likely because the rest of the forest looked so closely to the one I had been born in. The only main difference, other than the odd flower or shrub, were these white trees.

Another oddity was how slow we were traveling.

Vim had the horses more walking than anything else. It wasn’t so bad that I was upset with the pace… but it was a little strange. The mountain pass we were treading upon wasn’t the greatest, but it wasn’t so bad we needed to move this slow.

Especially since Vim himself wasn’t walking on the ground, but on a horse himself.

He had wanted to originally only travel with two horses, but decided on bringing a third once he realized how much stuff we were taking with us.

Glancing behind me, I smiled at Elisabell. She looked a little silly, surrounded by bounded bags. They were stacked as high as her shoulders behind her.

I too had bags and boxes strapped to my horse around me, but they weren’t stacked as high for some reason.

Elisabell noticed my focus, and smiled back at me.

She was riding her horse. The same one she had before the… incident. Vim had asked her if she wanted to ride it, or one of the other ones, and she had chosen it… even though it still seemed upset with her. Every so often she had to guide it back onto the path, even though my horse and Vim’s never seemed to even consider wandering off.

Vim had likely asked her preference not out of kindness, but necessity. He hadn’t wanted her on a horse that didn’t obey her properly… yet she had interpreted it as him being merciful and kind. She had thanked me in private later that night, letting me know she was very thankful she could keep the horse that her brother had bought for her.

Although glad she was happy, and had been able to keep something precious to her… I slightly wished she had chosen a different horse.

Our new human companion was obviously the main reason we were traveling so slow. Not only was she… not the best horse rider… she was also a little needy.

She had to stop often. For rest. Or to relieve herself. Plus she needed more sleep and food than not it seemed.

It made me wonder if I’d been traveling with Vim for too long. I didn’t remember Nory, or the siblings, needing such constant attention and thought… but obviously they must have needed it. Elisabell wasn’t really needy; after all, she was just human. She needed more than we did and more often.

Vim had known, and expected it, before I even realized it. He had been stopping us every so often, to stretch our legs, as he called it. It allowed Elisabell to get off the horse, walk around, and then do whatever she needed at the time.

In fact by my count it was about time for another such stop.

I sighed as I tried to focus my attention away from the forest around me, and how slow it was passing us by.

Studying Vim’s back, and the new set of leather he now wore, I wondered why I was not as happy about it as I had thought I’d be.

We matched again. The leather set of armor he had made for himself hadn’t been an exact replacement, but it was strikingly close. Yet… although the two of us now once again looked like a pair…

For some reason I just wasn’t as happy about it as I should be.

It brought a smile to my face, of course, and for some reason it made me relaxed to know from an outsider’s perspective we were a natural pair again. Husband and wife, or something akin to it… but…

“What is it Renn?” Vim asked.

I blinked, and then promptly frowned. “How’d you know I was glaring at you?” I asked him. He hadn’t glanced back once. Not in at least an hour.

Vim’s whole body made a tiny movement. He had just chuckled at me. “Considering you glare at me even when happy, it’s a safe bet,” he said.

Well… that was true… I guess…

“How much farther?” I asked.

“About a week at this pace,” he answered.

“Is it in these mountains?”

He nodded. “The dead center of them.”

Hm. That meant we’d have reached them far quicker had he and I been alone, and on foot. We’d have likely not used this path, but strode straight through the forest itself.

A part of me knew that was the main reason I was a little upset. I longed to walk through the forest… to stalk it as I had done growing up.

Yet the rest of me knew better than to voice such a desire.

Knowing Vim, if I did… he’d find a way to allow such a desire to come to be. Though I wasn’t sure how he’d do it… not only would that mean he’d need to get rid of Elisabell, he’d also need to get rid of the horses and all the stuff they were carrying.

I didn’t want to test Vim’s strange capabilities. If there was a way to accomplish such a thing, without actually hurting Elisabell, he likely knew how to do it. I didn’t want to torture poor Elisabell more than she was already being subjected to. It wasn’t right.

Especially since my desire was such a silly, pointless thing.

I wanted to run through the forest. With Vim. Because of course that was what my heart longed for, somehow.

It made little sense, but I’ve come to realize lots of things did too.

“Do you normally end up taking so much stuff between locations Vim? We hadn’t really done this before, like this,” I asked. We had almost as much as that time we had left Secca. At least, it felt like it.

Difference was most of the stuff we were carrying now was finished product. Clothes, and blankets and other such stuff.

“It happens often enough, yes. Sometimes I even end up escorting large caravans, or taking entire cargo ships. It’s not always simple gifts though,” Vim said.

“Why didn’t we leave Lumen with more?” I asked.

“Herra doesn’t like taking much to her family. The few times I’ve tried to take them resources have only resulted in huge fights. So I stopped trying,” Vim said.

“Ah… That’s a little rude of Herra,” I said.

“It is,” Vim agreed.

My horse turned a little, going to the other side of the path. Vim had guided his horse that way first, so I didn’t try to correct it. It was just following Vim. But as we trotted along, I glanced down at the ground and around the side of the road for the reason that Vim had done such a thing.

I couldn’t find it.

For a few minutes I debated his reason for doing so, and then once I decided on the most likely reason, I asked him. “Why’d we move to this side of the road?” I asked.

“There’s a family of bears downwind. They’re about to enter hibernation, so could be hungry. I’d rather not have to kill them just because we smell like easy prey.” Vim answered.

I blinked, and realized all of my possible answers had been wrong.

“I don’t smell them,” I said as I scanned the distant trees.

“Hm,” Vim made a small shrug.

“Do we uh… not fear bears?” Elisabell asked from behind me.

“Not with Vim,” I answered.

“Hm,” she made a similar sound Vim had just made, and I smiled at her. She was strangely picking up some of our mannerisms. I wonder if she was just… that impressionable, or if it was some kind of instinctive survival mechanism.

As I smiled at Elisabell, I realized something serious.

“Animals can’t smell me anymore,” I said aloud.

“Right. They only smell the horses and the girl now. Which is too bad. I enjoyed traveling without having to worry about animals,” Vim said.

“Wait…” I groaned as I realized the truth. Now that I didn’t smell, actively… then…

Yes… that meant when we were with others, or on horseback, the larger predator creatures such as bears and stuff were now indeed something we needed to be on guard against.

My smell alone usually kept most creatures away. And those that dared to draw near only did so to see what I was. They rarely ever drew too close because of it. Especially the larger prey and predator creatures.

“Anything else I should be aware of because of this?” I asked Vim.

“Not sure… Be ready for animals to treat you different. And to forget to brush your teeth or take baths sometimes, since neither you nor anyone else will notice,” Vim said.

Great.

“I’d like to not stink,” Elisabell mumbled.

I smiled and turned to glance at her. “You don’t stink, Elisabell,” I told her.

“He thinks I do…” she mumbled again, a little lower this time.

“Well…” Yes. He did. Or had. But how did I explain to her that he simply thought so because she was a human.

Vim thought everyone stunk, supposedly. Except for me.

“Do you not smell even when you fart?” Elisabell asked us.

I turned to look at Vim, to hear his answer.

“Nothing we do or wear will have a scent. If we spend enough time in the same bed, or area, that stuff too will eventually lose their scents as well,” Vim said.

“Same bed…? You two are married yet don’t seem to share one much,” Elisabell mumbled again.

I frowned, and then realized that she likely was whispering when she mumbled. Meaning she wasn’t intending for me, or Vim, to hear what she was saying.

Suddenly a lot of her comments made sense. She actually mumbled a lot, and I had originally thought it was just her being shy or unsure of herself… but most of that earlier anxiety was gone now. She acted normal around us, just as I remembered her back when I met her and her brother.

She was mumbling quietly. Thinking she was speaking lowly enough to not be heard.

I gulped as I shifted on the horse, and felt itchy all of a sudden.

Another thing I’d forgotten about humans. Why had I forgotten so readily…? It wasn’t as if I’ve not spent time with any lately. Most places we went to, or stopped, had me interacting with humans. Sometimes even human members of the Society, to boot.

Most humans didn’t realize how well we could hear. Jeez, there were non-humans who didn’t comprehend how good my hearing was compared to theirs.

Usually this showed itself in other ways. Like the other night, when I had slept in the main building since Nann and Nasba had been working in the workshop and being noisy. I had slept in one of the rooms… alone… and had to squeeze my head, and ears, with pillows to stop the sounds from a nearby building.

I made a mental note to not forget that Elisabell didn’t realize how good my hearing was… and also to forgive her for any strange comments.

“Does a smell return Vim? Take that bed for example. If we left it, would the smell return over time?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. But I’m honestly not sure how long it takes. Could be days, could be months. I’ve never really cared much to test it to be honest. Celine once tried to test it, but I convinced her to give up,” he said.

“How’d you convince her?” I asked, interested.

Vim didn’t respond right away, and I noticed the way he rolled a shoulder.

Uh oh.

Smilingly softly, I waited… and waited… then he sighed. “I teased her. In a rather cruel method too, now that I think about it,” he admitted.

Oh… “So you were mean to her,” I said.

“Only sometimes,” he said.

Hmph. No wonder she had placed so many tedious rules on him. It was probably her way of getting back at the man who was as oblivious as he was strong.

“Ex-wife?” Elisabell muttered.

I bit back a response, and shifted a little.

“She stunk sometimes. Not in a really bad way or anything… she just had a strong scent. Her stupid church was also always burning with incenses and stuff, which didn’t help,” Vim said.

Feeling a little bad, I realized what he meant by teasing. He had likely been rude about her smell.

I didn’t like how I felt a little bit of solidarity with her, but here I was… relating to her.

Though many had said my smell wasn’t bad either… just startling and strong, being a predator. Maybe her being a panda was the same thing. Was a panda even a predator?

Rounding a small bend, we neared a different path. One that was not as overgrown or broken. It was a dirt road, but it had obvious cart marks from use over the years. Vim guided his horse onto it, and mine and Elisabell’s followed suit.

“Honestly… you and I are entering new grounds, Renn. We’ll have to figure some of it out as we go, I fear,” Vim said.

For some reason hearing that put a huge smile on my face. “Going to let me test and experiment?” I asked him happily.

Vim glanced back for the first time in a long time, only to smirk at me. “Only if I can too,” he teased.

Elisabell groaned behind me, but I couldn’t help but smirk and enjoy the moment.

She’d not groan in such a way if she knew how difficult, and how long, it had taken me to get Vim to lower his guard enough around me to even make such a silly little joke.

Brushing the horse, I hummed as I studied a massive tree that we were passing. It wasn’t the biggest I’ve seen, not anything like the giant tree at the Owl’s Nest, but it was definitely one of the biggest I’ve seen in this forest so far.

“There should be a small stream up ahead. We’ll stop and rest there for a moment,” Vim said.

“Brandy and the rest once mentioned we had messengers in the Society. Who are they?” I asked Vim.

“Oplar runs them. Most are humans. They don’t go everywhere, but they go to enough locations to make a difference. They’re similar to your eastern girls, and sometimes they come from families within the Society. For instance Nann has a few children who go to Lumen and Telmik and back, and along the way they stop at other locations to exchange letters and stuff,” Vim said.

“I heard we had orphanages too?” I asked.

“We do. Though we’re down to just a couple. Most of them aren’t used in that form anymore… they’re mostly just charity now. Telmik has the biggest,” Vim said.

Hm… “How long does it usually take letters to be delivered?” I asked, thinking of the one I had sent to Lomi.

“A month or two, depending on where. Sometimes the letter, and the one delivering it, gets lost though. For one reason or another,” Vim said.

“What happens then?” I asked.

“In Telmik is the hub. A request for verification is sent there if the sender never receives confirmation or a letter back. It can sometimes take months for that to happen. Usually that’s when I get involved. Because it usually means something bad happened. It honestly doesn’t happen often, once every handful of years. You’d think it happened more, to be honest, but,” Vim shrugged.

“So I didn’t get to see it because Oplar hadn’t been there at the time?” I asked.

“She’s very protective of her mail room. I’d not show it unless she permitted it. Even today,” Vim said to me.

Ah… “I see,” I said.

“You can read, Renn?” Elisabell asked from behind me.

I turned and nodded at her… and didn’t like the way she was frowning at me.

“You can’t?” I asked her gently.

She shook her head. “Brother was able to read a little, but I was never taught,” she said.

Feeling a little sad for her, I glanced back ahead… so she’d not see my sad expression.

“It’s common in these regions. Haven’t you noticed most of the signs and stuff around here have symbols and not words?” Vim reminded me.

Nodding, I admitted he was right. Most of the signs lately have been without words… “Is it just a regional thing? Or is there something else at play?” I asked.

“Numbers really. The more people the more it becomes necessary to know how to read. Religions want people to be able to read their doctrine. Merchants want people to read their prices and contracts, lords of many citizens want educated servants… so on and so forth,” Vim said.

“And the less people the more one needs to spend all day working just to feed themselves,” I said, understanding.

He nodded. “Basically. Don’t feel bad Elisabell, I know people hundreds of years old that still don’t know how to read. It’s nothing too big a deal,” Vim said.

“I’d still like to…” she mumbled.

I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from promising to teach her. Such a thing wasn’t easy. It took a long time to teach someone how to read and write.

Too long for the short amount of time I’d know her.

Vim then slowed… and I was about to stop my own horse as well, but he moved his horse in a way that told me what he wanted.

Coming up next to him, I smiled at my companion as our horses glanced and sniffed at each other.

“I usually carry letters often. In fact I’ve been doing so. This whole time. I still have a letter from Rapti, its recipient at our next location,” Vim told me.

“Oh?” I perked up as he nodded.

“I usually receive a few letters every stop, really,” he said.

“Where?” I asked.

“Hm…? Recently…? Well Landi gave me two, half a dozen from Secca and…” Vim started to list them as he thought about it, but I shook my head and waved him down.

“I mean… where have you been keeping them? Vim, I go through your bags all the time. They’re not there,” I said.

Vim paused, and then smirked at me. “I’ll show you later,” he said.

Frowning at him, I wondered why he had smiled so oddly. He was looking forward to whatever he was going to show me.

Although I wanted to press him, I decided to let it be. He obviously didn’t want to show me right now, maybe just because Elisabell was behind us, so there was no point in prying. I’ll just enjoy it later…

Still…

It was a little odd to ride next to Vim. He was close… but not. Although it was neat, it only made me long for the ground. I couldn’t easily grab his arm or hand from here.

“Back during the wars I used to need riders. Lilly and those like her, although helped, had their own lives and goals so weren’t always available. You would have been useful back then,” he said to me.

“Riders?” I asked.

“Messengers. People to relay information and news. They needed to be swift, yet also smart enough to remember the message even if the letter they carried got destroyed. Or even had to go to someone who didn’t know how to read or write… which surprisingly back then had been quite a few people,” Vim said with a frown.

I grinned at him. “I’d have enjoyed that. Delivering letters would have been fun. Basically just gossiping with everyone all the time,” I said as I thought about it.

He nodded. “Pretty much.”

“I heard Merit wrote a letter to Nasba,” I said.

He nodded again. “She had.”

“Was it a good one?” I asked.

“Nasba had enjoyed it, I suppose, yes,” he said.

“The way Nasba spoke about it, I was the topic of it,” I said.

“Well… you’d been mentioned, yes,” Vim admitted.

I smirked and wondered if I should tell him that Nasba had read it to me. She had enjoyed teasing me and in turn, Merit, by doing so.

Before I could say anything though Vim glanced at me and smirked. “I’ll not tell you. I love you Renn, but I’ll not break people’s confidence by telling you their secrets,” he said.

Blinking at him, my smirk turned into a loving smile as I nodded. “I know. I’m glad,” I said.

“Are you?” he asked.

I nodded. “Of course I am. I don’t want a pet, which is all you’d be if you bent to every one of my whims,” I told him.

“Pet,” Vim said with a smirk.

Smiling, I nodded again. Yes. That was what he’d be, in a way, if he just… gave in to me completely. Although it’d be fun, to a point, I knew I’d not like it all. What was the point? That wasn’t a friend, or a companion, but an accessory. A…

Well…

While I pondered what word to use, our horses drew closer to each other. I startled, thinking my horse had started to go off on its own, but it had been Vim who had guided his horse closer instead.

Coming up next to me, he leaned a little as if to study me.

“What?” I asked.

Vim said nothing. He simply smirked at me for a bit, and I couldn’t help but shift in my saddle.

Why’d I feel a blush coming? What was he thinking, with that smirk?

Before I could figure it out, Vim reached over and patted my thigh, and I wished once again we had been walking instead. I had nearly grabbed it, to hold. It would have been awkward while on these horses. They were too stout. Too big. Especially so for me.

Sighing at him as he nodded at me and ushered his horse forward, to return to the front of us, I wondered what to do with him.

Yet…

Frowning, I wondered why my thigh suddenly felt a little wet.

Looking down, I blinked at the weird gleam on my left leg. It almost looked like…

Touching it, I groaned as I realized it was indeed blood. My fingertips were stained with a light, reddish, liquid.

“Vim…” I said, feeling oddly queasy.

“Hm?” Vim slowed his horse, since he had ushered it to get ahead of me again.

“You’re bleeding,” I said as I showed him my fingers.

Not only did Vim frown in a way that told me he didn’t believe me… he also didn’t see what was wrong with it.

“I am…?” he glanced down at himself, but I already saw it.

“Your hand,” I said weakly.

He had put his right hand on his own thigh, to rest it. He held the reins of his horse with just his left, leisurely… so…

Yet even with his hand half curled into a fist on his thigh, I could see it. The blood gleamed a little in the daylight, and it was actually leaking at such a level that it was running down his forearm and into his sleeve.

Vim lifted his hand, opening his palm… and I flinched at the sight of all the blood. It was pouring from his palm.

“What the hell…?” he whispered as I rubbed his palm, searching for the wound.

“What’d you cut it on?” I asked. Had he touched anything lately? His reins? The bags or boxes tied around him possibly? There might have been something metal or sharp amongst the luggage, sure, but…

Just what else did he have, or the horse have, to cut him so deeply? To make his palm seep blood to such a degree?

“Is he okay?” Elisabell asked worriedly behind us.

Vim’s horse came to a stop, and I tugged on my own reins to make mine do the same. I stopped a bit away from him, and kept back the urge to hop off the horse and go over to him.

I knew he was fine. It wasn’t as if he was actually in danger… but…

For some reason, even though I knew Vim was never in danger of dying, I still panicked when I saw him get hurt.

“Huh…” Vim frowned at his hand, and I realized he had found what was wrong.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The uh…” he went quiet, and suddenly his frown was serious. He began to blink a little, as if in disbelief.

“Vim…?” I asked worriedly.

He turned his head, to look at me… but his eyes never left his palm. They were fixated… right on a certain spot… near his thumb and…

Wait…

“Is that where you stabbed yourself? With the needle…?” I asked. Surely not. Yet…

He nodded.

A weird feeling entered my stomach, twisting it as if the sight of blood was something that made me sick.

“Vim…” I groaned.

“Strange,” he said, and then wiped his palm on one of the boxes behind him.

He opened and closed his palm a few times, and then nodded with a frown. “It’s healed,” he said.

“Is it?” I asked doubtfully.

“It better be,” he stated. My horse shifted, and flicked its ears at his tone. It hadn’t liked how coldly he had spoken.

Neither had I.

Gulping down a bunch of worried questions, I ushered the horse forward a few steps. It hadn’t wanted to at first, but it eventually obliged me. I brushed up against Vim, getting close enough that the boxes and bags tied to our horses brushed against each other in the process. The bumping of the luggage made both of our horses step away from each other, annoyed.

“Vim, are you okay?” I asked carefully.

Vim’s eyes hadn’t left his palm. They were digging into it, as if trying to bore another hole. “I don’t know Rennalee,” he said softly.

Not happy with that answer at all, I glared at the man who looked suddenly out of place. As if he had just learned something that changed his whole world and his outlook on it.

“I don’t know,” he said again, as if to himself.

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