She stared deeply into her food.
“You said you didn’t have anyone you care for.”
Her back stiffened before she continued eating. “I don’t.”
“But you just mentioned your family. I’ve come to learn that such relationships are important to your kind.”
“Mine are all dead.” Her eyes narrowed when a dark emotion fell over her features. He wasn’t sure if it was sadness or anger, or perhaps a mixture of the two.
He took a long time to ask his question, wary about upsetting her. “Did Demons kill them?”
Her head turned to the side to look away as she said, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
He didn’t press the issue.
On the third day of Reia living in the Duskwalker’s home, he brought her outside to show her something he had done.
He showed her a tree stump that came to her knee height and the small side table from the living room that had been placed at the back of the house right in the middle of the garden.
“You made me a place to sit?” she asked, turning to him with a frown.
“You sat in the dirt yesterday to eat your breakfast.” He was referencing the previous day when Reia had sat on the ground in the middle of the garden and ate fruit, picking freely from what was available. He tilted his head, before it turned to look around at the garden that was filled with warm sunlight. “I can take it away if that is what you would prefer.”
She could see he’d already gone ahead and placed a bowl with a wooden spoon on the table. Although he produced her bathwater by using a spell with his blood, he would actually leave for a short while to obtain water from a fresh stream not too far away for her to drink.
She figured the water would take too long to carry in loads to fill the tub, and that he’d had issues in the past with people not wanting to drink the water created from his blood. Reia was a curious person and had tasted the tub water before he started applying the oils to her skin each morning and night, and found it wasn’t good for consumption.
Although it didn’t have a smell, there was a gross taste to it, one that was metallic and bloody.
She knew the cup of water already on the table next to the bowl must be from the bucket of water he carried from the stream.
“No, I like this better.” She sat on the stump and gave him a forced smile to show him she accepted it.
“I can make you a proper chair.”
Reia felt something tug on her heart strings.
“You don’t have to go out of your way for me.”
She turned her gaze down to her lap as she brushed her fingers over the top surface of the stump to feel its roughness. The roots were still connected and looked as though they’d been snaped off to create a firm base so it didn’t tip.
This is really thoughtful.
He was being really thoughtful.
But she didn’t want him to do things for her. She didn’t want him to change his home when she had every intention of figuring out a way to leave.
She’d managed to wrangle up the courage yesterday to find out what he’d eat while she was here since he wasn’t intending to eat her. He’d told her he would eventually leave to hunt. Animals, he was planning on going to the surface to hunt for a deer or a wolf. However, she also thought he might hunt a human if he stumbled upon one. He said he even fished in the stream nearby occasionally when mating season had finished and there were more fish travelling through it.
The sun faded over the right of the forest. She knew from travelling here that they had always been walking towards the sunsets, which meant all she needed to do was go the opposite way, and she’d hopefully find the Veil’s cliff walls.
She’d decided that if she survived that long and she could garner enough of his trust that he left to hunt – because she doubted he’d do it now – that she would leave then.
I just have to be good until then. Don’t anger him, don’t make him hungry, don’t accidentally hurt myself so I bleed too much.
She’d been making a mental list of what not to do. Survival was her intention, and with the circlet amulet he’d given her, the bathing he said that hid her human scent, and hopefully with her cloak shielding her, she could walk through the Veil safely if she was smart.
Which meant, Reia had come to a distressing decision this morning.
“I want to make you comfortable,” he rebuffed, making her inwardly cringe.
Guilt shot through her. He wanted a companion, a fucking friend, and Reia was planning on fleeing. He at times seemed lonely in some of the things he said, like when he’d told her no other human had wanted to make trinkets with him. She also got the impression they hadn’t wanted to eat in front of him either.
Don’t upset him.
“If you want to make a chair, you are welcome to.”
He nodded before moving out of the garden.
“Do not leave the light until I return.”
Listening to his command, she grabbed her bowl and walked in the garden that was showered in bright sunshine. She picked the fruit she wanted before returning to sit on the stump.
He returned not much later and placed a second cup on the table before backing away, giving her space as though he thought she’d prefer that he did. Orpheus never crowded her.
“What’s this?” she asked, reaching forward to find it was hot and the liquid inside had sweet smell to its honey colour.
“You do not have to drink it if you do not want to, but it is a tea.” He walked away until he was at the opening of the fence on the other side. “It’s the only one I know how to make.”
She hesitated, but the smell of it was rather inviting.
He was also watching her, almost as if with anticipation, and she found she couldn’t deny him because of that fact. Slowly lifting it to her face, she sniffed its contents before taking a sip.
Oh wow! This is actually really nice.
She took a bigger drink, and watched his eyes change from blue to bright yellow within the breath of a second, flashing so quickly to it.
“Thank you, I like it.”
He nodded, before moving away to sit with his back resting against the timber stake of the fence and face the forest.
“I will watch over you while you eat.”
Even though it was late morning, and the sun was shining, the gloom of the Veil’s forest was ever present. The blue mist never faded, and the swallowing darkness made it disturbing to try to look through it. However, it was also serene and mystical. Almost as though she was no longer on earth, but in a place beyond, like the afterlife.
She half-expected a ghost to peek through it.
She looked over the garden, having learnt more of what was planted here the day before because he’d taken the time to show her. She also wasn’t the one that ripped the plants she used for her cooking since he was determined about doing it himself, like he wanted nothing more than to assist her.