Sorcha had long since come to value the endless wisdom of the woman who had taken her in, but she was no closer to comprehending the enormity of it.

“I see a pair of soft leather shoes and a small stone butter crock. Odd items to be sure.” He pulled from the bag a taxidermied vole. “This was certainly not expected.” He set it back in the bag.

“Is that all?” she asked.

He shook his head. “There also appears to be a pair of spurs and a bottle of some sort.”

Sorcha hadn’t the first idea why Granny Winter had chosen those particular items, but Granny Winter seldom explained herself.

“There does not seem to be a single item in here that might aid in our defense,” Duncan said.

“Seldom can the creatures that inhabit the realm of fairies and monsters be defeated by the clash of arms. Most are overcome through cleverness and an understanding of the laws that govern them.”

Duncan peered inside his bag once more. “I cannot imagine a stuffed vole proving useful in a battle of wits.”

“Somehow, it will,” she said. “Granny Winter is as clever as the fairies. I would wager that even the strangest things in that bag will prove absolutely vital.”

“Even the vole?” Duncan asked with a raise of his eyebrows and a tip of his mouth.

She smiled in return; she couldn’t help herself. She was often reserved, struggling to show lightness even in pleasant moments. He brought that out in her, miracle worker that he was.

As they continued on their journey, the land around them grew more untamed, more untouched. The trees grew taller. The thistles grew thicker. On and on they walked. Closer and closer they came to the first of many dangers such a journey must hold. Oh, courage! Oh, selflessness!

“Where did you live before you came to our village?” Sorcha asked as they walked along the edge of a crystalline river.

“I lived in a village in the north of England, not terribly far from the border country.”

“Do you miss it?” she asked.

“A little. My family is no longer there, and they were the strongest tie I had to it.”

Had her family a proper home, a place that was theirs permanently, that is where she would have felt a pull as well. As it was, she felt them everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“My family traveled a great deal,” she said. “We spent most of our time in places like this.” She motioned to the surrounding vista. “There were times when I would wonder if we were the only humans to have ever seen what we saw or heard what we heard. I grew up more acquainted with fairies than with children, more with monsters than with people.”

“Were you scared?” he asked.

“Sometimes. My family taught me of their ways and kept me safe. Until the end, at least.”