Damien
the woods have remembered you
Blue’s breath plumed white in the morning air, her ears twitching with every creak of saddle leather and crunch of snow. She wasn’t built for speed, not with her thick frame and shaggy coat, but she was steady as the cold itself—exactly what Damien needed for the long ride out. He swung down as Deimos brought them to a stop, boots sinking deep into the crusted snow, and gave Blue’s shoulder a brief pat before looping her reins over the sled’s side rail. The dappled mare snorted, as if unimpressed with the whole idea of standing still.He listened while Deimos spoke, dark eyes following the motion toward the grove. Luxere. Always beautiful creatures, and always a strange sort of irony that Halo’s survival so often depended on hunting them or corralling them. He wasn’t much for songs—never had been—but hauling feed and setting bait, that he could handle.
“Right,” he said, more to himself than anyone else, before taking hold of one of the bales. The hay crackled faintly under his gloves, brittle from the cold but still sweet-smelling. He dragged it toward the open patch of snow, setting it down in a loose scatter to make the space seem less deliberate, more inviting. Apples followed, tossed gently to catch the light and scent the air.
He glanced up as Amhran started forward. A quiet smile tugged at Damien’s mouth—small, but real. “You sing,” he said, tone wry but not unkind. “I’ll make sure they’ve got reason to stick around.”
And with that, he went back to work, breaking the crusted tops of the hay bales so the scent would carry farther into the trees, patient and unhurried as the cold wind whispered through the trees.
Damien starts setting out the hay and some apples. He did not bring Aria.
ever since the first time you got lost in them
