As the sun dipped below the trees and twilight soaked into the clearing, Rowan stood, brushing ash from his hands.
"I'll hunt," he says simply, already scanning the brush beyond their camp.
Auro, still seated by the fire, stirred. Her mist shifts gently around her shoulders as she looks up at him, brows furrows with concern. "Don't."
He pauses "We're not in the everglades anymore. The curse might not even effect you anymore—"
"It doesn't matter," she interrupts gently. "Every forest still breathes. You don't have to hurt anything just to fill your belly."
" Says the mystical being that doesn't have to eat." Rowan retorts
Auro turns back to the fire. " Then starve." She mutters.
Rowan studied her for a long moment. Her skin caught the firelight like stained glass. He remembered how she behaved and acted when a creature was hurt and how her body shimmered like broken crystal when even a vine was scorched.
He said nothing, but turned away and walked into the trees without another word.
There was no telling the forest here wasn't sacred, but it was still alive—crickets sang, leaves whispered, and the underbrush was thick with life. His instincts kicked in quickly; a trail of pawprints, disturbed soil, a thrum of nearby breath.
He crouched behind a fallen log, eyes fixed on a rustle in the grass—but her voice echoed in his mind, soft but insistent.
He exhaled through his nose, stood, and turned away from the trail. Further into the trees, he found a patch of fruit-bearing branches. Pale blue skins, heavy with juice and faintly glowing under the moonlight. Edible. Enough.
When he returned to camp, he dropped them wordlessly beside her. Auro looked at them, then up at him with something like surprise.
"You listened," she watches quietly.
"I was hungry," he mutters, sitting down and tearing a bite from one of the fruits. " And you made me feel bad about it."
She smiles, wide and glowing. " You should feel bad about hurting life for yours."
" That's the point of them. To live and be eaten."
She pouts. " Your such a brute. I'm starting to think you were fated to be cursed."
He narrows his gaze to her. " Everyone thinks like me. I'm just the unlucky guy you caught."
She frowns then. " Why do you keep bringing it up?"
"I didn't. You just can't help but feel guilty for your actions." Rowan picks up another fruit. " You're the one that keeps bringing it up at any opportunity to pick a fight."
" I am not trying to pick a fight with you. You keep mentioning the curse, so I feel the need to be defensive!"
Rowan was surprised by her sudden burst in anger. He'd never really seen her angry, sad maybe but never angry. It reminded him that she was still the menace that hurt people. He watches her colors turn quickly from rouge, back to normal. Her expression turns docile.
She turns her posture, and sighs. " Let's talk about something else. Where are you from? Like really from?"
" Why do you suddenly want to know?" His voice is guarded.
She shrugs. " I just think we hardly know anything about each other."
He eyes her with disbelief. He couldn't even think of a retort that wouldn't get her riled up again. She was truly impossible to deal with.
" We're not obligated to...." He watches her start to frown. " Fine. I'm from a place called Everthine."
" Oh, what's it like?"
" Like the tower but shorter and everywhere. They're a places where you can buy and sell things. Recreational places too..."
She nods like a child listening to a story, and he chuckles in a low voice.
" Why'd you stop?" Her voice nearly cracks.
" I just realized you don't really know what I'm talking about anyways." He sets up a place to sleep near the fire. " There are just some things you have to see for yourself to understand."
" When this curse is broken. I want to see all of it."
Rowan flinches. If the curse is broken.
That was not something he was willing to promise her. "Well... Maybe one day."