We did not get eaten by direbears, which I personally considered quite an accomplishment. Ritsu could behave like a true menace when he chose, but as soon as the buzzing of bees became audible, he stuck to our side and did nothing reckless.

  I had led us towards the first beehive from which I’d ever harvested honey with Nasha. Once again, my combination of a small fire, a sleeping potion, and a handful of small herbs to mask the scent of honey worked beautifully. All the bees were soon dormant, and I was confident that we could avoid another instance of direbears trying to chase us down.

  I knew it had been a while since my prior visit, but I was still surprised to see that the beehive was completely fixed. In fact, there was new growth stretching down from the branches and nearly touching the ground.

  It was this new growth that we focused on as we began the harvesting process, packing away as much honey and beeswax as we could before the smoke cleared off. I was using some of my fancier glass jars once more. Ritsu, meanwhile, had brought large metallic tins for collecting honey.

  Normally, I would have warned anyone away from using metal to store honey, but two points stopped me from meddling. First, I couldn’t recognize the metal, so I had no idea what sort of effect it had on food storage. Second, Ritsu was a cook, and an extremely good one at that.

  If anyone knew how to store honey properly, it would be him.

  “Mmmm… I still cannot believe how delicious and potent this is.” The kitsune hummed, licking a wooden spoon he’d procured from somewhere. He clearly possessed some kind of storage item, too.

  “The honey has been an incredibly useful find, yes.” I nodded readily. “Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to make half the simple healing products I’ve shared with the town. The healing potions too, come to think of it.”

  “Truly? It is potent enough to be used in healing potions?” The kitsune arched a brow incredulously. “I do not meant to doubt your word, but… I have encountered plenty of potent ingredients, and while impressive, this honey does not seem that useful.”

  “I said I wouldn’t have been able to make the potions without it, not that the honey was the main ingredient,” I demurred, grinning at the kitsune’s contemplative look.

  Perhaps I shouldn’t have been discussing my potions so openly. But even if people knew I had used the crystalline flowers from the blue moss, it wouldn’t really matter. No one else possessed the recipe I had worked out, nor the Belladonna family’s healing potion recipe which had served as my starting point.

  If someone wanted to put in the research required to make a brand new healing potion from scratch, and if they succeeded, then they would have earned it fair and square.

  We continued to chat as we worked, but it was by no means our primary focus. We were all hurrying to take full advantage of the window of opportunity I’d secured for us. By the time the smoke and its cloying scent were clearing away, we were ready to leave.

  We had barely harvested a fifth of the hive, far less than would damage the bees in any significant way. They would be ready for another visit in a couple of months.

  That is, if we even needed to visit again!

  I peeked into the hives’ deeper layers. The next generation of queens was almost ready to leave the hive. Seeing as I’d already planted the blue moss in my nascent garden, I was feeling hopeful that one queen would find its way there.

  Just to be safe, I decided to spend some time trying to intensify the scent emitted by the crystalline flowers. I wouldn’t make it a major project. I’d tinker for a day or two on the side, at most. But I didn’t think it would prove too difficult.

  To make that task even easier for myself, I harvested a bit more of the moss and flowers as we started heading back.

  “Ha!” the kitsune exclaimed. “That was a little stressful, I will admit! Nonetheless, I thank you for this opportunity, dear customers. I truly don’t know what I would have done if the mean elf had decided to bar me entirely from accessing the honey!”

  “Somehow, I am certain you do know what you would have done, considering how you got your first taste of the honey,” I replied.

  The fox’s grin widened. “Why, I am not sure what you mean, dear —”

  “Stop!” I hissed, lifting my hand.

  Both Alys and Ritsu obeyed immediately, their posture stiffening as I swept my eyes over the surrounding forest. It had happened for just a moment, but I had caught some movement from the corner of my eye. Then I heard a creak of someone stepping on branches in just the wrong way to give away their position.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  My eyes snapped towards that spot even as one of my daggers found its way into my hand.

  “Wait! No! Wait!”

  The hurried squeal froze me in place as my mind processed the voice I was hearing.

  “Nasha?”

  A large bush, one featuring some truly nasty thorns, shook briefly. Then the figure of the beagle sheepishly emerged from it.

  “Ahhh… It’s, um, nice to see you all!” she said awkwardly, trying to disentangle her large cloak from the thorns. There were several scratches on her face and hands, but she was still clutching a large box to her chest protectively.

  I recognized the box. It was identical to the ones Arandel liked to hand out to people who couldn’t stay and eat in the Hall.

  “Nasha? What are you doing? Are you alright?” Alys rumbled as she moved forward to examine the beagle.

  “I’m fine, really! Ow! Don’t poke me.”

  “If touching you makes you recoil like that, then you are not fine.” The dragoness delivered her judgment, then shot me a look over her shoulder.

  “Coming, coming,” I assured her immediately, already digging around in my storage bag. I pulled out some of the honey ginger candies and a balm that would fix those scratches in no time. “Here, eat these while I take care of your wounds. Hand the box to Alys while I do so.”

  “Awwww, do I have to?” the beagle whined. I had a feeling she was only partially complaining about the candies. Her reluctance to hand over the box was as obvious as it was intriguing.

  “This is going to sting a little,” I told her. “The balm will seal the cuts, but it will also disinfect them. Otherwise, you’d be risking an infection.”

  The beagle whined dramatically, but she never once flinched away from me as I worked. Yet again, I was reminded that there was definitely more to this short, brown-and-white-haired woman than one could possibly discern at first glance.

  She was, if nothing else, an absolute master of the teary puppy eyes. Despite the fact that I was unequivocally helping her, I couldn’t help feeling a little guilty as she gazed at me piteously.

  “There, you’re fine now. Do you mind explaining why you decided to hide from us inside a thorn bush?” I asked pointedly as I put away the small wooden jar of healing balm.

  “I wasn’t hiding! I was just… startled, that’s all. I didn’t expect to see a whole group of people inside the forest. I thought you were bandits, or… assassins!”

  I hid a wince at that last accusation. If we took my training into account, her words were uncomfortably close to the truth.

  “Hrm. And what are you doing out here, exactly?” Alys pressed, still eyeing the beastkin like she might spontaneously develop much more dire wounds.

  It suddenly struck me that Alys would make an excellent mother…

  I was instantly and thoroughly distracted from the fidgeting beagle. My face erupted in a flush, forcing me to turn away so the others wouldn’t notice.

  “I’m… um… delivering food! To… to Kiri! That’s right. I’m delivering a meal for Kiri. You know how she is! She works too hard and spends way too much time out here. I thought I’d do something nice for her. Arandel’s been cooking furiously the whole morning. She’s really outdone herself with some of the stuff she made!”

  I pulled on all of my training to force the flush from my cheeks quickly. This let me turn back just in time to catch Ritsu as he brought a hand up to his mouth, trying to stop his giggles from escaping. I still easily spotted his grin between his fingers.

  I suspected he was somewhat involved in Arandel’s current mood. Just a little.

  “Hrm. That’s nice. We’ll accompany you,” Alys declared.

  Nasha froze. “Um… what?”

  “We’ll accompany you,” Alys calmly repeated. “You’re looking for Kiri, right? Well, we’ll come with you. It’s better if we all stick together.”

  Clearly, Alys had as little faith in Nasha’s explanation as I did. And while I was confident in the beagle’s combat prowess to keep her safe, my dragoness clearly wanted to make sure of it.

  “I-I don’t think you have to do that…”

  “We insist. Don’t we, Thorn?”

  What else could I do when my dragoness looked at me like that?

  “Of course. We are not in a hurry to head back.” I turned towards the fox. “Would you like to go ahead on your own, or will you accompany us?”

  He grinned his foxy grin. “Oh, I would be delighted to come with you! Clearly, we must not let anyone take the unnecessary risk of venturing into these dangerous woods alone!”

  His solemn tone couldn’t fool me, nor could it make me overlook the eager writhing of his tails. The fox had caught the scent of drama. While he didn’t know what was happening any more than I did, he was obviously determined not to miss out.

  “Very well.” I gave him a nod before refocusing on Nasha. “Were you following one of Kiri’s birds? Or did you agree on a meeting place?”

  “Urm, the birds… I lost the owl I was following, though. Let me just… Kiri! Can your bird come back?” Nasha shouted at the top of her lungs. “I, urm, lost it! And I still need to find you!”

  This was followed by several long moments of awkward silence.

  Nasha started to grin as we all heard the sound of wings heading our way, but her expression faltered when the bird itself came into view.

  It was a crow.

  “Aha. The owl must have left the area already.” She laughed nervously, glancing in our direction while the crow squawked. She then hurried after the bird as it started heading deeper into the forest, and we followed.

  I exchanged a few glances with Alys on the way. Nasha was clearly hiding something, and the awareness of that was making us both a little tense.

  The beagle herself was obviously trying to stay chipper, though her tail and ears were doing their best to droop, which was even more odd. The number of times I’d seen Nasha be anything but upbeat was low.

  Twenty minutes or so later, we broke through the tree line into a small clearing. Kiri was there, sprawled over one of her direwolves. The Winter fae shot us a surprised look as we appeared.

  “Kiri! I’ve got your food right here,” Nasha shouted immediately, rushing towards the fae.

  Kiri tilted her head in bewilderment. Then her eyes lit up, which only confused me more.

  What distracted me from that confusion was the sharp intake of breath behind me. I turned around quickly, expecting some kind of trouble, only to see Ritsu standing perfectly still.

  “Ritsu?”

  He didn’t react. Probably didn’t even hear me, in fact. The kitsune was staring so intently that I felt mildly uncomfortable. I wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

  I followed his gaze, then had to suppress a groan when I realized the object of his fascination.

  Kiri.