Chapter Text
Keigo sighed as he shrugged off his heavy bag, letting it drop onto the ground before he plopped down beside it.
He pulled his feet up closer to his body and yanked his shoes off. Keigo massaged his aching feet the best he could until his hands cramped up, leaving more of his body aching than before.
Walking all day really takes a toll on the body, and it was rare for him to put himself through the mentally and physically grueling challenge. However, Keigo felt the need to put as much distance as he could between himself and the royal scouts he had seen that morning.
The encounter was really odd because the scouts never went much further than just the outskirts of the forest, but this morning, coming back from his weekly meetup with Rumi, he had seen a scout in the brambles; which was miles past the entry to the forest.
Keigo decided to not risk staying in the area and decided it was well past time to move his camp.
Rumi would have no problem finding him, once she realized he was gone, thanks to her
Hare blood. No matter how many times she tried to explain her abilities and ancestry to him, he never could quite grasp it. Something about divination, the moon, and burrows. Keigo didn’t really see how those things connected, but he had a lot of respect for her and her gifts.
Rumi was his closest friend. She had gotten him out of more than a few sticky situations. Her support and friendship meant a lot to him and he knew he meant a lot to her as well.
They had grown up together, back when things were easier and they were tucked away from the rest of the world, away from those who wished their kind harm.
Now, everyday was filled with moving from place to place, never being able to settle down, never being able to have a home again; other than in each other if they choose to risk it.
Keigo was tired of running, but there was no other choice if he wanted to stay alive; and if he died, Rumi would track his poor ass down and drag him back to life.
She would never let him rest in peace. Hell, if she dies first he still wouldn't have any peace, because she would definitely haunt him for the rest of eternity.
Not that he was upset about that, he loved Rumi. She was his family and he'd be honored to spend eternity with her. Neither of them were related by blood but they had done more for each other than their actual biological families ever did.
Keigo shook his head and focused in on the present. The light of the sun was fading fast, the sun having long sat on the horizon, and he needed to set up camp for the night so that he could get some rest, to be able to rise with the dawn and get an early start on his travel.
He thrived in the dark and was naturally nocturnal, however, his wings had a glow to them during the dark hours and Keigo was not keen to be a beacon. His wings were beautiful and he loved them, but they weren’t the best to flaunt for his continued survival, so when he had to move his camp, he always resigned himself to traveling during the day.
Daytime was dark enough with the trees spreading their leaves far and wide, greedily taking in the sun’s rays and blocking them from reaching the forest floor and now the light was diminishing even more, so Keigo needed to move quickly. He was pretty confident that no one had followed him, but there was always the possibility that they had been tracking him from a distance and he would rather not give them any help.
Keigo took his tent out of his pack and set it up with ease. He could do it in his sleep if he were to sleepwalk by chance. He then pulled larger branches that he found around the area and started leaning them against the tree behind the tent, creating a barrier, in a half circle, that would keep anyone from seeing the man-made material at first glance. To further enhance his camouflage he covered the branch structure with leaves.
Once Keigo was satisfied he dragged the rest of his pack inside the tent and began settling for the night. He felt all wrong and couldn’t wait to go back to his normal sleep schedule again. The only time he was happy to be awake during the day, was when he was with Rumi and or appreciating the daytime wildlife.
Keigo pulled out his bag of rubies and found it to be much lighter than he would like. A scavenging day was long overdue.
There was nothing he could do about it for now, so he pulled out a handful of the dull red stones and let himself relax as he ate, bringing them to his mouth one by one.
Maybe tomorrow he would cover enough distance to make him feel safe enough to take the liberty of spending a day out searching for food and other supplies.
He loved the days where he could just focus on his surroundings and drown out the rest of the world. It helped him forget the life that he actually leads is full of such pain.
Keigo sighed and pushed all of his things into one corner to give him as much room to spread out as possible. He wasn’t ever able to sleep with his wings out at night, but knowing that did not help him cope with how much more cramped his entire body would be in the morning.
Nevertheless, Keigo curled up and fell asleep.
~~~
Keigo awoke drenched, tent raining in on him, making him dread stepping outside. Thankfully his bag was pretty water resistant and everything contained in it was likely dry; but until he actually checked, he wouldn't know for sure. Given the way his luck had been lately, Keigo didn’t have much hope for his belongings' safety.
The things that had certainly not escaped the water were his bedding, which he doubted would be dry by evening, himself and the clothes he was wearing.
He sighed deeply. What his supplies really needed were a long afternoon in the sun, but instead it was going to get a long day in his pack. Hopefully his things were only left smelling musty and that last night's rain hadn't been the straw that broke the camel's back for mold to be able to grow before he had a chance to properly dry them out this time.
Keigo shook his head and unfastened the front of his tent. He wasn’t surprised when the ground looked akin to a swamp. What he wasn’t expecting was the flood of water that went into his face and left him sputtering, but no more wet than he already was.
A quick glance up at the sky told him the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. He sighed again and steeled himself to pack up in the rain.
He pulled out his bag and put it in the driest area he could find before pulling stakes out of the ground and folding up his tent, failing to keep his disgust from showing as he tried to keep the muddy parts away from everything else.
Keigo rolled the tent up looser than he normally would in the hopes that it would help keep the mud from caking the fabric. If he could get the tent dry, dirt would cling to every crevice and for months opening his tent, would lead dirt falling onto him while he slept.
If he couldn’t get it dry, he would have a whole new slew of issues. He wasn’t sure if he could get away with sneaking into a town to purchase a new tent without suspicion or being discovered, so he would have to get materials to make it himself, but he still wasn’t sure if risking going into town was something he should even entertain.
Keigo might be able to find an outpost with a bizarre set up somewhere or a traveling sales group which would be safer. More people passed through but they were not guarded, unless the vendors had hired bodyguards. They usually would go out of their way to avoid or misguide the royal scouts, so it was a better bet than pretty much anything else.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, and his tent would be just fine after he somehow found a sunny area that was protected enough for it to dry out in. Wishful thinking. With his luck it would be the worst case scenario.
Keigo sighed and finished shoving all of his things into his bag. From the outside the bag appeared to be quite small, but in reality it was so large to the point that Keigo hadn’t been able to find a bottom to it yet.
The bag had been a gift from an eldritch being, adept in spatial and dimensional magic, who had been fleeing from their kingdom and headed to another. Unfortunately they encountered the royal scouts just a day’s journey from the border. Keigo had come across the group of scouts and as he turned to head in the opposite direction he saw that they were escorting a prisoner in chains. He couldn’t just leave the person to their fate, they looked to be in rough shape and he hadn’t wanted to leave and come back with Rumi because it may have been too late for them, so Keigo had taken a deep breath, taken to the sky and swooped in.
The eldritch being introduced themself as Foras and had explained that they were fleeing from their homeland of Ravana to find refuge with their people in the kingdom, beyond Keigo’s homeland of Endeavor, that was a safe haven for anyone seeking asylum and especially welcoming of non-humans. They had given him both the bag and a promise that if Keigo ever found himself wanting or needing to flee his kingdom, he always had a place with their ménage. Keigo only had to write their name and location down, put the material into the bag and wait for Foras to come to his location and lead him to their home.
Keigo had been and remained very thankful for the bag. It had made traveling far less conspicuous and inconvenient as well as allowed him to be quicker when he inevitably ended up running away from someone or something. It certainly, however, did not help his hoarding habits.
Rumi always teased him over how much stuff he had, but he never saw her complaining when she needed something and he pulled whatever it was out of the bag.
As for the offer, Keigo always thought about it. Especially after a hard day, he would allow himself to entertain the thought. However, he knew in his heart he wouldn’t leave unless fleeing was really his only option if he wanted to live. As much as the kingdom had its problems- an understatement-it was still his home.
Although, it was comforting to have that escape in his back pocket.
Keigo sighed again and shrugged the bag over his shoulders. It was time to move on.
~~~
Keigo paused mid step as he picked up the unmistakable sound of moving water somewhere off in the distance.
Washing up and drinking his fill of water, even if he didn’t need it, sounded superb right now. Even with the normal cool breeze of the forest, the heat had been unrelenting since a few hours after dawn.
If it was just the heat, Keigo would have been much happier.
Instead, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the air was thick and heavy, as he walked the air seemed to stick to him, making him feel like he was in a hot spring. Wet and muggy; definitely not the best weather for travel, and certainly not permissible to dry out a tent.
It had been two days since everything out in the open had been completely saturated with water and the tent wasn’t fairing well at all. It had yet to grow mold, but it was still damp and smelled absolutely foul.
Keigo may just have to bite the bullet and find a market to make a new tent before this one became completely unusable.
He sighed again, which was coming to be a very common occurrence in the past week and altered his path to head in the direction of the water.
It didn’t take too long for Keigo to notice the change in soil, and the telltale smell of wet dirt had him looking down as he walked. It would do him no good to step right into a small creek or a spring leading into the larger body of water that Keigo was hearing.
As the trees grew further apart to expose the river, he was quite pleased to see that the river had meandered and created a nice, deep looking pool not too far off the bank that he definitely would be able to wash up in later. The river itself was wide, even after the bend with rocks scattered, some larger, others barely peeking out of the water revealing their location with the rapids that stemmed from them.
Keigo allowed himself to take off his bag and sit on a large rock at the bank. He reached into his bag and pictured his flask. Pulling it out, he sat for a few minutes before taking off his shoes and rolling up his pant legs and getting up to wade into the water.
He uncorked his flask to fill it up with water and drank it before refilling it, corking it and headed back to the shore.
He really wanted to wash up, but he anxiously looked down the river. Freshwater usually meant encampments, and there was a chance that a market was set up close by. It would be nice to secure tent materials if he could find a market before night fell, he could always wash up in the morning. Even if he couldn’t find one today, it may be worth camping out the area to see if one would show up.
Keigo had to be a far enough distance from where he had seen the scouts, right? They didn’t seem to be looking for anyone in particular, so it was unlikely that they had searched for and found his trail in the first place. It was probably safe to stay at the river for a few nights.
If he sensed any trouble he promised himself that he would leave the area immediately.
Keigo put aside the thought of the cool river water and dried off his feet. Once he was all ready he started up the river. If the river came out of the forest the likelihood of a traveling market being set up increased by a tenfold.
Most citizens did not like traveling into the forest for a number of reasons and Keigo often did whatever was in his power to encourage that distaste. The more the average person was weary of the forest, the better chance he had of surviving.
And Keigo was going to survive, no matter what it took.
~~~
Keigo nearly stumbled over onto his face in relief when he saw the telltale bright colors of a traveling bazaar through the branches.
Keigo straightened up and cautiously turned away from the bazaar and set down his bag in front of him. He took out a rope and after pulling his wings as tight to his back as he could, and bound them carefully. He then took out a bulky brown cloak and fussed with it until he was satisfied that no one would be able to tell that he was an otherkind.
If anyone did happen to realize for any reason, he would just have to hope he was attentive enough that he noticed and was able to react in time.
Keigo took a deep breath and let it out before exiting the forest and walking towards the bazaar casually, pulling out his coin purse as he walked. He didn’t didn’t want to draw attention to his bag if he could help it.
The bazaar’s entrance was framed with a banner with a pair of mercenaries watching over anyone who passed through. They were failing at pretending to be inconspicuous, their bodies might not have been idle, and they may be conversing; however; their facial expressions were unmoving, their eyes were scanning the area, tense and ready for any threat.
Keigo relaxed his posture as much as he possibly could and walked to the gate, nodding to the mercenaries before entering and searching for any kind of fabric stall or traveling goods supplier.
As he was looking around, a figure standing alone caught his attention. The person stuck out like a sore thumb among the sea of shoppers. Their clothes were nicer, and while they were pursuing a jewelry stand, they didn’t really seem all that interested in anything.
Their build was impressive and as that thought crossed his mind, Keigo realized he was studying this stranger a bit too closely and he could feel his cheeks heating up.
Keigo forced his eyes away but immediately brought them back to the person’s belt as his heart sank into his boots.
The stranger had a royal scout emblem embroidered into his belt. Keigo cursed himself for being so distracted by their physique that he had missed something so important.
After a few moments of panic, Keigo’s rational thinking took over.
Keigo took a deep breath and tore his eyes away from the scout and continued searching for tent materials, but also headed towards the closest booth, trying to fit in as much as possible with the crowd.
Twisted silver bands decorated with questionable authenticity gemstones lay out on a fine silk cloth. Keigo bent over the table and pretended like he was interested, keeping the scout in the corner of his eye.
“Hello, dearie, looking for a gift for a special someone or yourself?”
The voice drew Keigo’s eyes up to meet those of someone much older than him. They had kohl around their eyes somehow emphasizing the deep wrinkles on their face. They were also wearing a cloak similar to his own, and they had long dangling jewelry in their ears.
The person’s words reminded him of how alone he was, and for a brief moment pain shot through him. He chided himself immediately. He may be alone now, but he had Rumi who he knew he could always count on her to be there for him. Besides, it definitely wasn’t the time to think about how alone and lost he was. He couldn’t drop his guard with the royal scout nearby.
Keigo thought about what to say to the person. He couldn’t afford to spend his resources on something like a bracelet for himself, and Rumi wouldn’t be interested in the jewelry, things like that had always been his thing.
“I’m just looking today, your work is beautiful, though. How do you get the silver alloy to shape like that?”
The person smiled at him, “That’s too bad, dearie, perhaps we may meet again in the future. The answer to your question is simply great patience and finding the correct mix of metals for it to be flexible for shaping yet strong and durable. As for what is in it,” The person winked at him, “now that’s a trade secret.”
Keigo laughed. “You can’t go around giving that away to just anyone, I suppose. Thank you for indulging me.”
“Of course, of course. Take care of yourself dear, I’ll let you be on your way. If you ever find yourself in another wandering caravan just mention Madame Ryo. ”
Keigo bowed his head towards them, and joined back into the traffic and meandered towards something that looked like fabric in the distance.
He swiveled his head around as if he was simply looking for something but he was really making sure that the royal scout was still within his line of sight.
He stopped when he spotted the scout still in the same place, looking just as distracting as they were before. Keigo let out a frustrated huff, turned on his heel and headed to the-hopefully- stall that he spotted fabric at.
~~~
Keigo hefted his spoils over his shoulders, satisfied. He had found more things than he thought he would, limiting how much he would have to improvise while putting the tent together. He had even gotten a deal on a few water resistant blankets that he could take apart and use for a rain fly that he usually made with regular material and animal fat himself and never was able to properly treat.
Taking one last look at the scout, he saw two people hurrying up to them, who were also wearing scout garb. Keigo was instantly alarmed and ducked behind a stall, keeping a much closer eye on the scouts to make sure that they were not coming for him.
He was beginning to relax because the two scouts that rushed up to the other were no longer in a rush and the one Keigo had been ogling waived them off walking away with the other two hurrying after when a voice caused him to jump.
“Hi, friend, care for a talisman?”
“I’m sorry-” Keigo started but was quickly cut off.
“No, no, I insist. No charge. From one wanderer to another.”
Keigo looked up sharply at this. He studied the person in front of him closely. At first glance they looked to be as normal as can be, but as he stared, Keigo realized that the person looked a little too average to be normal. Something was definitely very off with the person, but he only noticed because he was given reason to look past the facade.
Still, Keigo hesitated.
He knew that this person was definitely otherkind, but just because you come across another otherkind, doesn’t mean that they are immediately your ally. He looked down at the wares and then back up at the person.
“How did you know?” Keigo asked suspiciously.
“How did you know? I will not harm you, there is enough pain caused to us by others that I dare not add to it.”
Keigo relaxed at the person’s words. He could sense the sincerity in their voice. He looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to them before asking a question.
“What is your name?”
“It is safer that we remain anonymous.”
Keigo nodded solemnly, understanding their decision,“What do your talismans do?”
The person’s face broke out into an eerily wide grin, “A wide variety of things, may I suggest a few?”
They waved their hand across the table, presenting their wares.
“Sure, you know your craft the best.” Keigo shrugged, glancing behind him to check on the direction the scouts were headed.
The person followed his gaze.
“Don’t worry about that one, friend.”
Keigo snapped his head over to them, confused.
“What do you mean?”
“All in good time, my friend. I am sure you will understand soon enough.” The person said.
“How do you know that?” Keigo inquired, voice sharper than he meant it to be.
“I just know things, little bird.”
Keigo took in a sharp breath and started backing away. The person started waving their hands in a non threatening manner.
“I meant what I said before, I mean you no harm and I am not about to go around announcing anything, if that is what you are afraid of.” The person paused to lift up a pendant on their neck. “No one can hear us. This here allows us to have a conversation with less risk of a passerby listening in. Now if someone really paid attention to us and moved closer they would be able to hear, but I’ve been watching.”
Keigo stopped backing away but he didn’t relax all the way back to the way he was before.
“That’s useful.”
“Yes very, but not the one I had in mind for you.”
Keigo tilted his head, inviting the person to go on.
The person reached down beneath their table and came back up with what looked to be a ring.
“If you wear this the less you move the more you will blend in with your surroundings. Think of it as a mirage of sorts. Movement disrupts the false image. If you stay completely still, it would practically make you invisible.”
The person held out the ring to Keigo, who cupped his hand and the ring was dropped into it.
“Are you sure I can just have this?” Keigo asked in disbelief.
“Yes, yes, of course. We otherkin have to look out for each other you know.” They smiled in what Keigo knew was meant to be friendly, but with their uncanny features it just looked sinister.
“Thank you so much,” Keigo expressed, reaching out his hand. “I really mean it.”
The person took Keigo off on his offer and grasped his hand in theirs.
“Hold fast and remember that you are not alone,” the person said ominously.
“Okay… you too. Thank you for everything,” Keigo thanked the person again.
Putting on the necklace with the talisman threaded on it, Keigo hoped that it would work and bring him a little more safety and peace of mind.
“You best be off now. No one may be able to hear us, but they may take notice of you being here for so long.”
“Yes,” Keigo agreed. “Yes, I should be going. Maybe I will see you again one day and I’ll be in a place where I can repay your kindness.”
The person gave him a soft smile.
“Maybe.”