Xaxac sat at the vanity, taking off his makeup as Alex lounged on the bed, marveling at the room’s many wonders, and his attitude made Xaxac thankful. Alex had said he had ‘hit the jackpot’ to be the personal pleasure slave of the Duke of the Agricultural district, and Xac believed that. Agalon had a lot of money, which he spent on Xac; he had bought him nice clothes and all his knitting stuff, and he got the nicest rooms when they traveled. Xac wondered what Alex’s rooms were like and suspected they might not be covered in grand tapestries and knick-knacks.

Lee and Bobby had gone back downstairs to eat, but Xaxac was tired, and didn’t want to face the crowd. He wanted to crawl into bed and suspected he was crashing again. The frost made him feel really good, but it wore off after a few hours and the absence made him desperately tired. But Alex probably wasn’t tired at all, given how much he had slept on the trip.

“They say the empress sleeps here, when she travels,” Alex said.

“I heard that, the last time I was here,” Xac agreed and moved to the basin to wash his face.

“I’ve seen her,” Alex bragged, “Not much, but I been to court before, with your master, for the solstice ball. He took Ky with him for some military thing. They do that kinda thing ever so often.”

“Neat!” Xac said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, draped his washcloth over the corner of the basin to dry, and crawled into bed to cuddle up with Alex.

“She ain’t into humans,” Alex explained, “She’s got a bunch of courtesans, all of um gorgeous, young, blond, fair skinned. You see um with her sometimes. What a gig to get…”

“Yeah?” Xac asked. The concept of a courtesan was still strange to him; it seemed too much like a pleasure slave to be a job fit for an elf.

“Everybody’s into somethin,” Alex said, “all the elves are lookin for somethin. Everybody’s lonesome, I think.”

“Yeah,” Xac said as he cuddled closer into Alex’s side. “They are, I think. They’re just… so old. They live so long. They get bored easy, get lonely easy. There’s… a lot to um. I bet the world looks different when you look at it for centuries.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to,” Alex agreed, “I’m not lookin forward to… livin real long.”

“Me either,” Xac agreed.

“It’s weird,” Alex said, “I mean… you’re weird. It’s weird that you ain’t more weird than you are. Seein that… monster… watchin you run, how quick you move… you jumped over us and I just about shit myself. Scared the hell outta me.”

“I don’t reckon I’d hurt you,” Xac pouted, because he would have given anything to be sure, to know that he wouldn’t hurt anyone, “I don’t… I don’t wanna hurt anybody. I wanna go to the rodeo.”

“We probably will, tomorrow,” Alex sighed, “It’s fun. And it’s beautiful here. You can get you a funnel cake, I don’t reckon there’s no meat in that, if they’re fryin it in corn oil.”

“What’s that?” Xac asked.

“Fried dough what comes out a funnel, with sugar on it. They’re real good. Rot your teeth, though.”

“I can rot my teeth and it won’t matter,” Xac bragged, “they grow back!”

“They only do that once,” Alex said.

“No, mine keep growin, on account of I’m a shifter,” Xac giggled, grabbed Alex, and spun him until Xac was lying on his back and Alex was straddling him.

“Ok guess you can just do that,” Alex said, and Xaxac thought he was talking about his teeth until he continued, “Guess you can just… throw me around. Can you pick me up?”

“Yeah, probably,” Xac shrugged, “You’re so tiny and cute! God, Alex, you’re so cute. I wish I was as cute as you are.”

“Stand up,” Alex slid from the bed.

“Nooooo,” Xac whined, “I didn’t sleep in the carriage and I did frost this mornin, I’m dead tired.”

“Come on, please?” Alex asked, “I wanna see if you can pick me up.”

“I know I can,” Xac pushed himself onto his elbows, “You’re real light. There ain’t nothin to you. Come back to bed.”

Alex grabbed his hand and pulled him reluctantly to his feet, then jumped.

Xac had to catch him or fall, so he caught him.

Alex wrapped his arms around his neck and giggled.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he said, “didn’t even stumble.”

Xac fell backwards onto the bed and held him close.

“We can totally fool around if you want, but I’m scared to death I’ll fall asleep on ya.”

“What?” Alex rolled off of him, grabbed a pillow, and smacked him across the face with it, “The hell you would. What’s that say about me?”

Xac giggled and threw an arm across his face to block the next blow.

“The best way to win a pillow fight,” Alex said as if he was imparting some great wisdom, “Is just hold it down real tight over his face till he quits movin.”

“I’ll remember that,” Xac promised and scooted until he was facing the right direction on the bed and fought to keep his eyes open.

“Good lord,” Alex huffed, “Fine, sleep, little bunny.”

“I ain’t never slept alone,” Xac said, “Come here and cuddle with me.”

Quizlivan laid in the snowbank and looked through the ocular Morgani had given him. It made all the difference. Something in it fought past the blinding glare of the snow and lessened the impact of the flakes still drifting in the sky by tinting the world golden, and with his newly improved sight he saw something big and bulky lumbering in the distance.

A herd of dragons were trying to find the last green things left in the snow. And they were having a hard time.

He reached into the bag at his hip and pulled out a stick they had painted a bright red, against the white snow, then plunged it into the ground on the slope facing away from the dragons. It stood out well against the snow, so he crouched beside it and looked through the ocular in the other direction until he spotted the group of people, the hunting party waiting on his return.

They would all go back home alive this time, and they wouldn’t be empty handed.

He moved at a sprint; he had always been the fastest among them, but the snow had never gotten this high before, to his waist if he actually fell into it, but it was so cold and had snowed for so long that most of it was so well packed he could run on top of it. The flakes whipped past him as he moved, and he reached the group to see three people at the campsite, and assumed the other two had gone to collect firewood.

“Find anything?” Ahnah asked.

“There’s a whole herd,” Xaxac said, “These ones, the big lumbering ones. They look pretty hungry, but they’re so big there’d still be enough to eat for a month, and the meat will keep in the snow. This’ll get us through the winter. We might actually need help getting them back.”

“I didn’t know you guys could eat meat,” Morgani said.

“Do you ever eat?” Kifat asked, “I’ve never seen you eat.”

“I’m trying to get used to it,” Morgani said and scrunched up his dark eyes as if he was trying to figure something out, “I think I can. I really think I can. I mean… it’s based… I’m based on mortal creatures. The transfusion system is just so much more efficient. I’m taking nutrients already in the blood. But I… I’m not as efficient as they are. I was the first one. I’m… closer to an animal. I’m very nearly human.”

“Nothing you say makes sense,” Kifat accused.

“The other elves only take the blood,” Morgan said, “I’ve only ever eaten blood. But I looked at the charts and I… I think my digestive system works I’ve just never used it. I think I can eat food. I think… I’m not sure. I tried and I got sick. But I think I have to stick with it.”

“You can drink the blood,” Xaxac said, “There should be plenty of it. I mean, they’re so big…”

“It’s not the blood, it’s the nutrients in the blood,” Morgani explained, but he could tell that no one understood a word he was saying, “With nutrient rich blood I can just… it’s more of an infusion than a digestion it’s not… I… I can’t explain things well. It’s more efficient. We got more efficient as we went along. They were trying to recreate themselves, I think. They’re… not very physical at all.”

“Who?” Xaxac asked.

“The ones who created us,” Morgani explained, “The ones who trapped us.”

“I don’t know about all that,” Kifat said as he stood, “But if Quizzy actually saw something we need to move out. We have to follow them. We can’t camp here.”

“Wait until everyone gets back,” Ahnah instructed, and he sat right back down.

Xaxac plopped down next to Morgan and studied him. He had seemed scary, that first night they had found him, but he wasn’t, not once you got to know him. He was just really tall and his eyes were weird, and he looked like no one they had ever seen, and he was perfectly fine with being far too cold, as if he hadn’t known clothing was an option, and had really appreciated the furs they gave him. But he had given them things too, like the food and the ocular. And he was so scared all the time.

“Hey,” Xac said and put his hand over Morgani’s, “It’s ok. Everything’s ok. I don’t think any omnipotent anything is coming for you. If it was, it would have been here by now.”

Morgani cracked a smile and turned to look at him, but said nothing.

“And even if it is,” Xac continued, “You can’t spend your whole life running from something. You can’t go running scared like that. You have to fight back, like you did before.”

“He’s stronger than the others,” Morgani said.

“I mean,” Xaxac shrugged, “Anything that lives can be killed. Maybe not by one person, though. Where’s the rest of your tribe? Why won’t you talk about them? You don’t deserve to be all alone out in this storm.”

Morgani’s smirk turned to a frown and he turned his gaze back to the storm, “I told you, Quizzy, I… don’t want to talk about it. I… made a mistake with the moon, but… I didn’t make a mistake when I left. I was right to escape.”

“Of course you were,” Xac agreed, “Nobody wants to be trapped.”

“She… she was so kind,” Morgani said, “She… she called to me. She wanted me to… she wanted everyone to be free. That’s all she ever wanted. But… but you’re right. Anything that lives… any mortal thing… can be killed.”

He buried his face in his hands, and his body wracked because he was trying not to cry, and Quizlivan didn’t understand why. He didn’t understand why he didn’t just cry. That sort of thing was always easier if you just cried, just allowed yourself to mourn.