#Ruyak recognizing that he likes being trusted in that way

[keydekyie]

Hi! I am super stoked to read your second book soon! Is there any chance you could post a small sneak peak of a fluff scene or part of the next book? Those were always my favorite parts of your first book🥰

Ask and ye shall receive (though it's hard to find fluffy scenes that aren't peppered with spoilers, I think this one ends on a cute note). For context, the two of them have been traveling together for a little more than a month at this point. They've been slowly getting more comfortable with each other and haven't encountered all that much mortal peril yet.

The Stranger

Excerpt from TMatB II: The Crossing (Chapter 26: Upwind) 1408 words, no content warnings

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After making camp that afternoon, the weather started turning again.

It wasn’t surprising, spring in the mountains was always temperamental, but as Ruyak picked his way through the brush, the smell of coming cold rains put him a bit on edge. The wind was biting, and overhead a blanket of clouds rushed across the sky as though they had somewhere to be.

The change wasn’t all bad. It did bring with it the hope Kaelin would forgo her tent again. Weather like this made Ruyak the better option, and the prospect was oddly enchanting to him. For the moment, though, he needed to get some hunting done.

He was moving across the wind away from their camp, hoping to pick up the scent of something as he went. If he picked up a trail in enough time before the weather turned, he’d count himself supremely lucky.

The spring foliage was truly starting to thicken up here and there, shiny green leaves unfurling all around in impenetrable clumps. Everything smelled fresh and growing, even in the cool air. If he couldn’t find prey here, Ruyak was hopeful about finding other fare.

He paused to more closely sniff a spot that caught his attention. Boar, less than a day gone. Young male. No… several males, mixed ages. Ruyak walked along the trail, sniffing carefully. The herd of boar had headed east. If they were still somewhere over there, his own scent was likely wafting on the breeze towards them. That was inconvenient, but he took off in that direction anyway. If he had any hope of catching them before they were alerted to his presence, he’d need to hurry.

He tracked the scent with his nose close to the ground, following the trail. It wasn’t too difficult, as boar usually made tracking easy with how much they stirred up the leaf litter as they foraged, but he needed to stay close to it. Wherever the forest opened up, the scent was stale and mixed up by the wind.

Finally, Ruyak heard a soft rustling in the brush up ahead, and he broke from the trail to move downwind of his quarry. When he found the right place, he crouched down in a patch of thick foliage to watch.

The forest before him was clear and open, smelling strongly of cool, decaying pineneedles and mushrooms and podzol. Mediocre terrain for a chase. It’d be slippery, and a boar would be able to turn quickly around the huge trees.

The thing about boar was that, like Ruyak, they were faster than they looked.

Ruyak watched motionlessly from the edge of the thicket as the boar meandered through the towering pines. It was just one boar, a male, a few years past his prime, but very large and well fed. He had a slight limp in his left hind leg that was only apparent when he raised his head to move to his next rooting place. He smelled clean, no recent injuries or illnesses, but a little stressed. The limp was worrying him, or something else was.

Ruyak started to creep forward, but then another scent caught his attention.

He almost disregarded it at first, thinking he’d somehow crossed his own trail, but it only took a second of consideration to realize how foolish that was. Ruyak ground to a halt and snorted, heart turning over, and at the sudden sound the boar sped off with a wailing screech. Ruyak didn’t care. Boar forgotten, he scrambled back to where he’d noticed the new scent.

A Kanai, just a few minutes gone. Ruyak wasted another moment trying to determine whether the scent was familiar or not, before realizing in what direction the trail was going.

Whoever it was, they were at that moment somewhere between him and camp. Camp, where Kaelin was. Alone. 

They could be doing anything. They’d had plenty of time while Ruyak was wandering after boar trails. And Kaelin was alone.

And then Ruyak was sprinting, tearing through the woods as fast as his legs could carry him. Panic spurred him straight through every obstacle he met, and in no time at all he was crashing through the trees back into their campsite. 

He skidded to a halt in a cloud of dust and looked around. The abject stillness of the camp felt alarming enough to kill him. 

“Kaelin?” he wheezed.

After a few heart-stopping seconds, a little red headscarf poked cautiously out of a pocket in his pack, and the relief at the sight was so debilitating Ruyak could have collapsed right there. He managed to steady himself and stagger closer, but Kaelin didn’t come out to greet him, instead cringing fearfully back into the pocket. 

Too breathless from running to speak and lacking the patience to wait for her to speak on her own, Ruyak crouched down to sniff the pocket Kaelin was hiding in. She smelled afraid, of course, but unhurt. That would have to do, for now.

Ruyak turned away and stood fully upright to look around at the forest and sniff the air. The stranger would likely be downwind, probably biding their time. Watching. Listening. In any case, Ruyak couldn’t catch the scent of them anymore, so they hadn’t come into the camp after all.

Kaelin’s annoyed voice came from below, “What are you doing?” 

She’d emerged from her hiding place and was glaring up at Ruyak with her arms crossed. Of course, Kaelin would have no awareness of the stranger’s presence. From her perspective, Ruyak had just come barreling back into the small clearing at full speed like a living landslide for no apparent reason.

“Sorry,” Ruyak gasped, still breathless. He fell back onto all fours with a heavy thump, and Kaelin staggered back. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“Of course I’m alright. What’s going on?”

“There’s someone around.”

“Who?”

“A stranger,” Ruyak explained. “A Kanai stranger.”

Kaelin’s eyes widened, all annoyance evaporating. “Oh…”

Ruyak watched her face as her eyes raked the trees. He blinked hard, trying to push from his mind all the grotesque imaginings that had started accumulating the moment he’d realized in what direction the stranger’s trail was heading. His fur prickled. “I was… I wasn’t sure I’d make it back in time,” he said miserably. 

“Well, apparently you did,” Kaelin chuckled. She looked up at him, rubbing her arms. “What should we do, now?”

“Leave. Definitely leave.”

“Okay.”

Kaelin stepped away, giving Ruyak room to get to his pack. Hardly anything had been unpacked, so it only took a moment to get everything put away and strap it on. The only sign of their presence would be the unlit pile of firewood in the middle of the clearing.

“Ready?” Ruyak crouched down, watching Kaelin expectantly with one arm angled for her to climb up, but she hesitated.

“Could I actually, um…” she pointed at Ruyak’s chest.

“What? You want in the pocket instead?”

“Would you mind?”

Ruyak laughed at Kaelin’s sheepish expression. “I’d greatly prefer it, actually.” He leaned further down and flipped the top of the pocket open with one claw. Now Ruyak was glad he had kept the pocket empty ever since their visit to Urike’s, in case Kaelin wanted to ride in it again.

Kaelin squared her shoulders and marched over, spent a moment awkwardly scrambling up into the pocket, and finally tumbled into the bottom with a disgruntled huff. Ruyak waited a moment longer while she arranged herself, and finally she popped her head out.

“Ready,” she said.

Ruyak blinked at her. It was strange, how the sight of her looking up at him from that pocket made everything feel so much less daunting for a moment, made the world feel so much smaller, so much friendlier. It was even better than pretending to be a tent.

Kaelin cocked an eyebrow at him, tilting her head. “Well?”

Ruyak inhaled. The wind shifted, carrying the stranger’s scent straight to his nose, and suddenly the world was a hostile place again. He shook his head and got moving, heading northwest. “It’s nothing.”

“Why do you prefer I ride in here, anyway?” Kaelin asked.

“Oh, uh… it’s just safer, probably,” Ruyak fumbled over his words as he tried to avoid blurting what he was thinking, which wasn’t very coherent in his head anyway and probably would have come out wrong. His attention was too split between worry and euphoria for any eloquence. “And it’s getting cold. It might rain.”