woods like snow-capped dunes spiked with huge wooden splinters of oak trees.
Radek placed his chin on Yev’s shoulder, so he could look ahead, but he trusted Yev to keep him safe and was overwhelmed by the care this man had given him. He’d tried to communicate for days to no avail because Yev would pick him up mid-scratching letters, and wouldn’t realize what Radek was doing in the first place. Now that Yev knew the truth, Radek was both relieved and nervous. It calmed him to have such a fierce protector despite it being somewhat patronizing. But he wouldn’t dare reveal who he was, because Yev would have kicked him out on his furry face and laughed about the irony of a fox farm owner ending up this way. Even the best men had their limits, and Radek had crossed Yev’s.
The forest went quieter at dawn, only to liven up again once the night shift left their burrows. As a grown man with a rifle in hand, he’d never feared anything out in the wild, but now that he was a tiny animal, being out in nature meant being vulnerable to a number of threats—animal and human alike. The amputated limb would have made him more of a target, as it slowed him down, so he made sure not to venture far away from Yev, even though having to go so close to him was embarrassing as fuck.
His brain stalled and caused him to lean against Yev when something large moved between the trees. His heart beat faster, his fur bristled, muscles filling with adrenaline in preparation to run for his life.
He’d always seen well in the dark, but had no point of reference for the silhouette climbing a mild hill a stone’s throw away. Bipedal and as tall as an elephant, it did not belong in those woods, but the creature moved fast, pushing trees aside as if it knew exactly where it was going. Radek expected the twisted horns on its head to tangle into the branches, but that didn’t happen, and the beast made its way through the dusky forest, paying them as little mind as a giraffe might to ants.
Radek might have shivered, because Yev rubbed his paw with his fingers in a calming gesture. “Don’t be afraid. You’re with me now, but the depths of the forest can be dangerous. Never come here on your own at night,” he whispered as the giant humanoid disappeared from sight.
Radek nuzzled Yev’s neck, eager to show his gratitude. He barely remembered the petty anger that had led him to Yev’s door just a few days ago and in turn had caused the events that had pushed his life off-course. Yev had been right from the start. Radek shouldn’t have gone hunting while drunk, shouldn’t have shot at wolves, and should have known what was going on at his own fox farm.
It did strike him as odd that Yev knew of a witch, even if she was likely a lady dealing with some sort of folk healing, who also was a little bit mad. Way stranger was Yev’s lack of concern about an unnatural creature walking through the woods as if the valley were its home. Its powerful form was a distant, shadowy presence at the very edge of Radek’s vision, but Yev remained calm, as if he’d expected it to be here in the first place. Come to think of it, he hadn’t been that shocked to find out the truth about Radek either. Maybe he was just calm about everything.
Yev smiled at him and continued forward, until they faced a steep rock wall that for some reason made Radek’s stomach churn with worry. There wasn’t anything particularly eerie about the place, but he couldn’t help the sense that something was off in its atmosphere, as if the air were vibrating at some low frequency he couldn’t grasp. He sensed a coppery flavor on his tongue, and as Yev groaned, squaring his shoulders before he stepped farther toward the cliff, Radek’s heart got into a frantic rhythm when he realized he could barely smell or hear the forest anymore.
He whimpered, tapping Yev’s shoulder, not so sure if he wanted to go see the witch after all. What if she was the one who’d put him in this position in the first place? He was so frustrated with not being able to ask the hundred questions running through his mind that he nipped on the exposed skin of Yev’s