As Sionn leisurely looked over the map, he gradually noticed Elona running her fingers over the individual markings. It almost looked like she was trying to etch them directly into her brain. He kept his head turned towards the wall, but used the corner of his eyes to watch her with fascination. Her gaze seemed to flick over it first from the star he’d pointed towards, radiating outwards in a spiral to the edge of the map. Then she looked in a grid around the town, her hand still resting against the wall. Surely she had memorized the placement of the stars, was she comparing the rest of the map to her own prior knowledge? Looking at her in earnest now, Sionn discovered that she chewed on her bottom lip while concentrating. He covered his mouth to hide his bemused smile, and Sionn turned to lean his back against the wall. To keep himself from looking back at Elona, he watched the light emanating from the mirror room. He wasn’t sure where it came from, not the mirrors or the floor, but it’s flickering cast dancing shadows into the map room.
Somehow, even though they were still technically deep within the earth inside a possibly malicious set of riddle-ruins, Sionn relaxed. For the moment, the immediate dangers had passed. Closing his eyes, Sionn felt a soft smile turn his mouth. First a contented sigh slipped through his lips, and then, enjoying the sound, Sionn began to hum. Though it was one of his favorite songs, he wasn’t certain where he’d learned the tune. Perhaps a traveller whistling in the forest? Maybe someone sang as they rested by the riverside. A fox could hear and observe much of humanity without them noticing, if they were so inclined. Sionn had been, and the notes of not just this but many songs frequently flitted through his brain during idle moments.
Sionn didn’t notice at first. Then, gradually, the sound became louder, harmonizing with his own. Realizing Elona was humming along with him, his eyes popped open. He stamped down the adoration that colored his expression, threatening to break his hum. She still stared at the map, seemingly unaware that she was humming at all. Sionn felt a strange squeeze in his chest, and he reached up to lightly touch his fingertips to his heart. Or at least where he thought his heart was in this form. As he stared at her, greedily drinking in the sight of her, she began to sing. Her voice was broken and the notes faltered, but she sang.
“The wind flies over the mountaintops669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqY0mz3Btrt
Like a bird upon the sky669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpFtgBkEIhN
The earth and the water669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp0KwYqPpvS
Kiss like long lost lovers together again669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgAjl9y59eI
Pressed close and loathing each parting tide669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXB5MgwbXE
Yet they’re all still less lucky than I
Yet they’re all less blessed than I.
The wind lifts a ladies skirts669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYz7paspTr
Like a gentleman might wish to be669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo7ukNO32SF
The earth and the flame669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFOiD2vnsfm
Meet and greet in a dance of sparks669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZeQRPqCrf
Twisting quick despite any discouraging remarks669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtQFGnvg24y
Yet they’re all still less lucky than me.
Yet they’re all less blessed than me.
For you see669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZrUpbgKmuF
For you see669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RWBjjgTyT
Better yet than wings to take you high669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEU6VtFvi6W
Or a lover to hold you close669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGW9srOdek
To be as lucky as I669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHpstOB6L5l
To be as blessed as me669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrAhzeXq5Jf
They would need to have what only I do669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZ1r6fuQYj
They would need you. “
Sionn still couldn’t remember where he’d first heard the tune, but he knew he’d never forget hearing it now. He was certain his mouth was hanging open, now that he wasn’t humming the tune for her. She wasn’t an exceptional singer, her voice softly hoarse and rusty, but he was entranced. For most of the song she had remained still, staring at the map. Even Sionn couldn’t tell when she’d realized she was singing, but by the end she’d turned to look directly at him. He was scared to read too much into it, his heart beating faster than ever in his memory. In the dim light, her sage green eyes almost seemed to glow, and Sionn couldn’t drag his own away. He straightened and pulled away from the wall, turning towards her. She blinked, snapping him out of his reverie, while shaking her head. Maybe to clear her own? The mood broke nonetheless, and Sionn coughed gently and adjusted his nearly-dry vest.
“Sh—should we, uh, head up?” Sionn hooked a finger towards the stairs, hoping she hadn’t heard the slight crack in his voice.
“Just one more moment.” Frowning, Elona shuffled through the pack at her hip. “I wonder if it survived…”
A mild stab of guilt shocked him. It went straight through his gut, and he glanced away. Whatever she was looking for, if she hadn’t allowed him along, she’d still have it. Shaking his head, Sionn pushed away that line of thought. It didn’t matter. She’d let him accompany her, and now, after everything that happened, they were— they were on a quest! One determined nod to himself, and Sionn was back to normal. Just in time, too, because Elona gently rested a hand on his shoulder. Her touch was still as light as a butterfly, and Sionn reached up to grip her hand tightly. The shock on her face melted into gentle delight, and Sionn grinned brightly in response. We’re together. We’ll figure it out. He wasn’t sure entirely what ‘it’ might be, but he knew he was right.
“My map survived, so just give me a moment to copy this down onto it.”
Sionn squinted in confusion at the small cylinder she was holding. If he had to guess, it looked to be made of leather, with some sort of material stretched over the top. It smelled faintly oily? It looked nothing like the map on the wall, what was she talking about? Tilting his head, Sionn released her hand. She took off the fabric cap, and Sionn realized it was a hollow tube. She carefully removed a small piece of paper from the case, and unrolled it against the wall. When she struggled to hold it open, Sionn reached out and pressed his fingers to the edge closest to him, helping. Once she got it smoothed open, her little sound of triumph at seeing the unharmed map made Sionn laugh.
Something so simple could make the deep, mysterious Elona elated? It was amusingly endearing, this side of her he hadn’t seen. Bracing her elbow on the edge of the map she’d been holding, Elona upended the tube into her hand, shaking it a few times. A roughed piece of charcoal, wrapped in a dirtied cloth, dropped into her palm. Despite the odd angle she held her arm at, her hands were steady as she unwrapped part of the charcoal, holding it by the fabric that remained. Belatedly, Sionn reached his other hand out and held the edge of the map she’d been bracing with her elbow.
“Thank you.”
She murmured it softly as she studied the map on the wall for another brief moment, before marking the stars down in precisely the same spots on her own. Sionn used this moment to compare the artwork. Where the wall used swirls for trees, Elona had made fluffy cloud shapes. The arrows of the mountains and the boxes representing the town were similar between the two, though she had given the buildings roofs. I wonder why my family doesn’t use maps. They seem easy enough to follow. She finished marking the map and pulled away, taking it from Sionn. Linking his hands together behind his back, he waited as Elona went through the efforts of re-wrapping the charcoal and returning it and the map to their snug home.
“Alright, let’s get to the surface.”
“It’s going to be dark on the stairs, let me take the lead.” Sionn held his hand out for hers, his heart in his throat.
This time, she reached for his hand with minimal hesitation, and Sionn grinned at her. Affection from family had been common, nuzzles and nudges and a tugged ear here or there, but nothing compared to the gentle touch of Elona’s hand in his. Stepping onto the stairs, Sionn sent up a silent thanks to everything that had inspired him to try out humanity. Fingers and hands had proved useful for a multitude of things, but perhaps the most awe-inspiring was this.
Aside from the times Sionn warned her of particularly precarious steps, their trip up the stairs was silent. He didn’t know why Elona remained quiet, chose not to dwell on it after all that had already happened. Instead, he savoured her company. In just a few days, in a matter of hours, the mood between them had changed. Hadn’t it? This felt completely different to the morning prior, when she’d begrudgingly allowed his presence, and he in turn had tried his best not to exist. He’d been content before to simply watch her, follow her, but now it meant immeasurably more to him that they were moving together. Quite literally hand in hand, they were approaching the next hurdle in unison.
The staircase ended with a pair of stone doors, set into the ceiling at an odd angle. They seemed to be seeping in from the outside, like they were slowly trying to lay down, with the top higher up than the bottom. Unlike the others, these doors didn’t open at Elona’s touch, and Sionn was surprised at their weight. It took the both of them to even get one door open high enough that it fell open the rest of the way. Panting for breath, he shot a victorious grin at Elona, and lifted his arms to flex. She chuckled at him, and patted his arm as she passed, stepping up into the daylight.
Or what was left of the daylight, since the sun was beginning to set already. From his place still a few steps into ruins, Sionn watched as the scarlet-orange light shone on Elona. Awed breathlessness overtook him for a moment, before his lips twitched into a smile and he rushed after her. Now we make camp. Sionn was starting to learn the patterns she fell into. As a fox, he’d probably have found an abandoned burrow— or forced someone out of theirs, if he followed his father’s style. Instead, they found a small break in the trees, and Elona began setting up the campfire. Sionn sat next to her, curious. The ring of rocks was simple enough, but as he watched her stack the pieces of wood and rub sticks to bring the orange flame to life, Sionn marveled at Elona’s special kind of magic. To think something so mysterious and enchanting was effortless to her.
“Can you teach me?” Sionn poked his head towards the fire, only to be pushed back slightly by Elona.
“If you don’t set yourself on fire, sure.” She smiled, that tiny curve softening the admonishment. “But shouldn’t this have been one of the things you were taught?”
“Language is easy to mimic, if you listen for it, as are human motions if you watch them.” Sionn leaned back and lifted his hand, palm up, in a way he’d seen humans do when explaining things. “But the leaders are the only ones who know how to start fire. It’s dangerous, you know. Draws notice. Burns.” Gives us something beyond our animal instincts to rely on. He added mentally. “I’ve sort of figured out how matches work, but not this.”
“Well, here.” Elona picked up a few of the other sticks and began to demonstrate. “Without my flint, this is how I do it.”
As Elona walked him through the process of rubbing the sticks together, Sionn found himself wondering why his father hadn’t taught more of them how to use fire. Surely the precautions could be taught just as easily, and how many times had they lost a relative to the cold? Or a kit, since theirs weren’t grown by winter like normal foxes. Putting perhaps more strength into the friction than he supposed, Sionn broke the sticks. Wordlessly, Elona handed him more and showed him again.
Several attempts later and he’d started a small blaze. Elona showed him how to feed dried grasses and small twigs to it, how to blow on it to nurture it. When it was at risk of growing too large, she dumped it into the campfire she’d already prepared. Sionn watched as the embers glowed, the fire consuming the sticks until they held no resemblance to the trees around them. A long moment passed, as the last of the sunlight slipped away and the night stretched out around them. Distantly, he heard the sounds of nocturnal creatures waking, but he ignored them.
Sionn wasn’t the only one who’d been lost in his thoughts. Elona had been chewing on her lip, concentrating on something, and now that he’d noticed he was waiting for her to bring it up on her own. Impatiently. He balled his hands up on his lap, to keep himself from tapping on the ground incessantly. When that failed, he swept his tail against the ground, trying to focus on that sensation rather than the thoughtful girl next to him.
The red orange glow of the fire reminded him of the sunset earlier, the way the colors had embraced Elona, casting her in new shades he’d never seen. Now those shades were deep shadows over the planes of her face. He understood that, for whatever reason, Elona acted either in an instant or after she thought things through for an eternity. The knowledge didn’t help rationally, he was anxious to reassure her after seeing the expression she currently wore. To rush her was to silence her, though, and so Sionn forced patience and watched the fire.
“Sionn?” He relaxed slightly, glad she was finally speaking. “Do you know where your family is?”
“Wha—?” A rush of panic replaced the temporary ease, and he gawked at her. “I— I can’t tell—”
“That’s not what I asked.” She frowned at him now, locked eyes with him. Sionn rubbed at the back of his neck, unsure what she was trying to ask. “Do you know?”
“Well…” Sionn rubbed harder at the knot that had appeared. “I… I guess I have some sort of idea of where they would be this time of year.”
“I see.” She went quiet again, her expression distant as her gaze went to the fire, and he dropped his arm. Holding his breath, his lungs burning, Sionn waited. After a long moment, her hands clenched at her sides, she said, “Go back to them.”
“What?” The air whooshed out of him in a painful rush. “I thought—”
“I won’t let you be put in danger again because of me!”
It burst forth, like Elona hadn’t meant to say it, and her eyes were screwed shut. Sionn’s mouth dropped open, and he reached for her instinctively. Pulling his hand back a moment, Sionn hesitated. This… this is good, right? Sionn practically pleaded with himself. It means she cares about your safety. It means you matter. Moving forward, Sionn placed his hands firmly on her arms. She’d thrown them around herself, wrapped up into herself, and her eyes were still shut.
“Don’t you get it?!” Some measure of his desperation not to be cut out again slipped into his voice. “You’re the only reason I’m even alive!”
“The ruins were my—”
“That’s not what I mean.” Sionn cut her off. He hadn’t meant to bring it up, but now that he had, she was going to know the truth. The whole truth. She deserved that.
“The river too—” Her voice was broken, distant, but she was talking. If only she wasn’t saying something so idiotic.669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLq4LKIumH
669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI2A4pIS0wT
“Not that either.”
She went silent a moment, but at least now she opened her eyes and raised them to him. The sparkle of moisture in the corner of her eyes answered a question Sionn hadn’t thought to ask. She’d been withdrawing to hide tears. The only other time she’d broken down like this had been right after she’d hauled him out of the river, and her lifelong secret had been revealed. Just how painful was it for her to send him away? Touched, Sionn gently brushed some of her hair out of her face.
“Oh.” She’d thought of something else? “Sionn, the people in town wouldn’t have killed you if they caught you.”
“No! You saved me as a fox.” That wasn’t how he had meant to say it, but the fact that she’d come to the wrong conclusion again caused a bubble of frustration to pop. Fruitless frustration that what was the most important moment of his life— up until he’d met her again— hadn’t even made it into her memories. Nevermind that he’d tried to be relieved she didn’t recall him as he’d been then, pitiful and weak. He still wanted her to remember him.
“...What?” Her voice was as soft as the wind through the trees, and Sionn almost didn’t hear her.
“Last winter.” It was all coming out now. After this, who knows how her feelings towards him might change. He’d hidden it, after all. But she was getting the truth. Now, rather than even one moment later. His voice was strangely calm and even. “I was hungry. If I went back to my family, they’d have shared. They aren’t cruel. But then they’d be hungry. We age differently from traditional foxes, we still have kits to feed in the winter. I couldn’t do that to them. So, I got reckless. And I approached a hunter.”
Her soft gasp could have been of remembrance or astonishment, but it was encouraging either way, and Sionn continued. Forcing his grip on her arm to ease, Sionn dropped his head. The hand that had moved her hair fell to the ground for support. He couldn’t look her in the eye and tell this tale of his lowest moment.
“Fire has always fascinated me. The smell, the smoke, the lights… Humans, too. So I know of a few of the better places to make camp in the woods. I was going by one when I heard the fire, smelled the food. Against my better judgement, I went towards it. I…” His shoulders drooped, and he confessed in a softer voice, “I was convinced I was going to die either way. It might as well be quick, an arrow or a sword from a frightened human seemed more appealing than hunger. Less shameful for my family, too. But when I approached the fire, you were there.”
Elona’s hands surprised him. They rested on his shoulders, then slipped over his back, strongly pulling him towards her in an abrupt hug. His head was resting in the crook of her shoulder now, and the position was an awkward tangle of limbs. There was a pain in his knee where it rested against the ground, but Sionn would sooner cut it off than move. He swallowed, trying to clear his throat of the swell of emotion, and he pressed on with the rest of his story.
“You didn’t reach for the bow sitting by your feet. Or the arrows near your hip. Instead, you reached for your food. I thought perhaps you’d throw it and sprint away, and it filled me with a bittersweet elation. Food, but at the cost of fear. Except you didn’t. You cut off a piece of the deer you had been cooking, a large piece, and you gently placed it between us.” Sionn forced a chuckle, trying belatedly to make light of the seriousness of the situation, but it was waterlogged with his tears. “When I edged close enough to eat it, you spoke to me—”
“I remember that fox.” Her voice, strained with her own emotions, interrupted him with the sweetest words she could have said. Sionn gave a half sob and leaned into her, broken and whole all at once. 669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb1Ez1uQ1pv
669Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsfQRVm4xt4
