The Fae and the Hunter by T. E. Mountain

Author:T. E. Mountain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Troubador Publishing
Published: 2023-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Five

Departure

Ryheart woke with a start to find Fali stood in the exact same position she had been in when he had gone to sleep.

“Morning, Ryheart,” she greeted him in a low tone as he roused himself, without so much as turning her head towards him.

“Morning. Any bother?”

“None at all. Clearly, the things here know to give this place a wide berth.”

“Yeah, I can see why,” he said dryly, rubbing his still-sore neck.

“Well, there is some extra benefit, too. I have a way to mask your scent, which will keep most things from finding you unless they can sense your spirit magically. And if they can, they will hopefully think a doppel is about and stay away.”

“Oh, good.”

“There is a teensy catch,” she informed him.

“What’s that?”

“Well, it involves smearing this over yourself,” she said, holding a small pouch out and extending it to him. “I got it from the back of the cave.”

“…What is it?” he asked hesitantly, eying the gloopy substance suspiciously.

“Doppelganger goo. It is what their skin is like while they are not taking any form. It helps keep them mutable.”

He quickly retracted the hand he had been reaching out. “‘Doppelganger goo’,” he repeated.

“Well, doppelganger exuviae technically, since it is from their skin moulting. But, well, look at it. Goo is a less misleading term.”

“And I have to rub it on myself?”

“Well, that depends,” she said with a light shrug. “How many monsters do you want trying to eat you today? If you are fine with the number being higher than zero, then by all means, do not.”

“Alright, alright,” he said tetchily. Sometimes she was flippant to the point of rudeness.

He dipped his hand into the substance. It was cold and runny but clung to his skin in a way that made his hair stand on edge. He lifted a bit towards his nose to smell.

“I would not,” she advised sagely. “You would be better off just putting it on without thinking about it. You can only make it less pleasant for yourself.”

He sighed and slathered it across his arms and cheeks. It was thoroughly unpleasant.

“Alright, done,” he said, holding the rest of it out to her. She took it and tied it back into its little pouch.

“Wait, are you not going to use it too?” he asked.

“I do not need it,” she said with a wave of the hand. “I do not have a scent anything will recognise.”

“Oh, just me then. Great,” he said sarcastically.

“Ah, the woes of being a smelly human,” she said with a theatrical sigh and a grin.

The pair started back out through the doppelganger’s territory. Fali’s caution wasn’t entirely gone, but she seemed less leery with Ryheart slathered in its ‘goo’ to the point she was mildly chatty with him as they walked.

“There are barely any tracks at all here, other than its own,” she informed him, occasionally pointing out one of its more apparent marks to him. “It has a fair territory, which works to our advantage now that it is dead.”

“Well, I’m glad nearly getting eaten came with added benefits,” he said with a small grin.

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