Page 65 of A Soul to Touch

He must evade being noticed by the one creature he dearly wished to avoid at all costs. Unfortunately, that person could see all the Veil through their magic and could show up within the blink of an eye.

I never wanted to come back here.

He never wanted to see the mixing black and white mist nor hear the eery silence of a place that was afraid to have life. There were no bugs, no birds.

Stomachs were living, moving graveyards – that’s what lived within the Veil, death. The smelling rot of it never escaped hisnotice.

It had taken a single day and night of solid running on all fours to reach the edge of the Veil, which would have taken a human at least four, if not five. He’d slept at the border, knowing he needed to rest and recover before the rest of his treacherous journey.

He’d been walking inside it cautiously for five days.

Entering north of the forest’s canyon, he’d been slowly making his way southeast the entire time. He avoided the middle altogether, but he’d been walking as direct a path to his destination as he could.

A destination he came upon now.

Faunus let out a sighing breath of relief when his left hand pressed inside the magical green ward belonging to the Duskwalker he planned to visit. There had been no Demons loitering on this side of the ward, but he heard them in the distance on the other side.

He imagined there were only a few as it was difficult to see the house and its occupants through the swaying trees.

When a Demon approached the side he was entering, he picked up his feet and sprinted for the middle to shamefully hide.

He’d done well to snuff his apprehension of wandering through the Veil. His fear was not unfounded, he had every reason to be cautious, but he hated how it felt. The blanket of emotion was cold within his chest and so heavy it was impossible to remove – no matter how much he wished to shed it and be his usual, free-hearted, warm-spirited self.

In the middle of the forest sat a log cabin. The trees this close to the building had scarcely been cleared away, as if those that lived here never wanted to be able to see the Demons that lurked – to pretend they didn’t exist, that they weren’t inside the Veil.

The house was tall enough to accommodate one taller than him by at least a foot, and was rectangular in shape. At the back, he knew there was a large garden with an apple tree nearby. He could faintly smell all those pleasant scents, and they helped to ease his senses. He felt safer near them.

The long logs that made up this house were fairly new, and the porch was mostly free of any kind of weather damage.

He paused when he neared the house and found two sets of glowing orbs already facing him.There is another here.Faunus was not the only Duskwalker visiting.

One set of green orbs remained their colour. The other set, which had initially been blue, turned a threatening red. Faunus’ own remained yellow. He held no worry for the tetchy Duskwalker as he intended no harm.

When Faunus broke through the trees on his hands and paws, the white wolven skull and Impala antelope horns he saw brought to light who it was.

Orpheus,he lightly growled within his mind.

He’d been less than friendly when he’d found Faunus investigating his home out of curiosity. The male was very territorial, just as Faunus had been when he had a home.

Unfortunately, his own home had been destroyed years ago. It had upended him and caused him to find a residence in the middle of the Veil with the Demons. A poor choice, one he’d realised far too late.

Faunus brought his sight to Magnar, the antler-horned, fox-skulled Duskwalker standing beside Orpheus.He,on the other hand, had been a little more welcoming when he found Faunus in his territory.

Perhaps that was out of pity since he’d been running for his life and had obtained the crack in his skull not long before.

“I know this Mavka,” Magnar said while turning his head to Orpheus. “It is the one I told you of, with the ram horns.”

“Our brides are here,” Orpheus growled. He took a step back to place himself closer to the house.

Faunus paused and cocked his head, twisting it deeply to the side as his orbs brightened in their yellow colour.Brides? They have both bonded with a human?

He’d never known that Orpheus had obtained a soul to keep and cherish.

His curiosity faded, leaving a dark and weighty cage around his heart in its wake. They’d both obtained something he would never be able to, and that caused his orbs to flash a bright green in unbridled envy.

He snuffed it, as he did with most of his emotions so that it wasn’t so prevalent to keep his orbs that colour. Instead, it lingered in the back of his mind like a terrible ache.

Magnar stepped closer towards Faunus with his orbs turning a bright yellow in curiosity. Orpheus took another step back towards the house protectively, going closer to where Faunus figured their brides were.

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