Can you heal my leg, Theo?” Florian asked one morning. It had been weeks since the other man had begun to venture out at night, occasionally bringing back with him a rabbit or two. Improving his magic had been something of a necessity, and the lengths Florian went to in order to protect the kids and himself saw his control grow explosively. The constant danger had distracted him, but he was more secure and confident in his abilities now.

Theo glanced up at him before he returned his attention to the window. “Not today. That would take far more power than I have. Something about this place… it saps my strength far faster than what I am used to,” Theo said, his barbless words nearly taking the wind from Florian’s lungs. “If only I had a fraction of my true strength, I would have fixed everything and returned a triumphant hero.”

That final, whispered bit sent Florian’s curiosity about the older man’s origins soaring. But he wasn’t stupid enough to go seeking answers. Theo continued to stare out at the vista in front of them, the grey sky painting everything drab.

“Would you like some breakfast, Theo?”

“No.”

Florian left Theo to his musings. It was strange behavior, even for the strange wizard from some strange land. Even so, it wouldn’t stop Florian from eating his own breakfast of rabbit stew. It was a bold claim, given that the stew consisted of just two ingredients: rabbit and water. The kids seemed to love it. Then again, Florian was pretty sure that he had seen Jake try to eat dirt just the other day.

Going downstairs, Florian saw a familiar sight. The three children were meditating next to each other. Day in and day out, the children had tried their hardest to learn what Theo taught them, but only Joe had shown any progress. Still, they seemed to like the meditation aspect of it, and who was Florian to tell a bunch of children that they shouldn’t just be quiet and behave all on their own.

After going through a small bowl of stew, Florian sat down next to them. However, he wasn’t interested in breathing exercises. His head was still smarting over the previous night, but he wanted desperately to try healing his leg.

If he succeeded in just regrowing a small part of it, Florian risked the peg not fitting properly anymore, which would be a bigger detriment in the short term. And that was discounting whatever side effects there could be from spontaneous limb regeneration. So he turned his mind inward again, breathing in the mana as he had down hundreds of times already.

The energy woke him up even more than the breakfast had, and Florian smiled at the feeling. He’d never settle for energy drinks again. If they ever produced them again.

Day turned to night, and though Florian had managed to stave off more boredom by playing a few riveting tournaments with the kids of the world’s most tactical game – Rock, Paper, Scissors – Theo was still at the window when Florian went to check on him.

“Not going anywhere tonight?” Theo barely responded to the question, his gaze set eastwards.

“No.”

“Okay, then. I’ll go ahead and start tonight. Just come and replace me in forty minutes?”

“Sure.”

It was forty-five minutes when Florian was relieved of duty, but he bit back any kind of accusation that had been building in his throat. Theo’s face was expressionless, his eyes downcast and lacking their usual vibrancy.

Wordlessly, Theo took over for Florian, the protective magic giving Florian a safe place to sleep for the night.

When he woke in the morning, it was to a completely different scene. Theo had packed up all the food they had remaining in a few old and moth-bitten bags that had been gathering dust in the corner of the storage room since they’d moved in at the beginning of winter.

“Florian, it is good that you are awake!”

“What’s all this?” Florian rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“We will need it for our trip. I would like you to take us to the settlement closest to the Nest, nearest to us,” Theo said, the idea completely nonsensical.

Florian stated as much. “Everything by the London Nest is a wasteland. Nobody that hasn’t found some kind of defensible shelter has been eaten or killed.”

“But there must have been some kind of fortress or castle close to the Nest, no?”

Florian hesitated. As far as he knew, there had been a castle far, far closer to the Nest than Dover. It was quite a distance away, though, and the journey could easily be the end of them. There was no way they could cover all those miles before night fell, and they barely had enough energy to keep doing magic at night when they had the whole day to sleep, much less march down a highway. Besides, for all he knew, Warwick Castle had already fallen to the Hellwolves.

But on the other hand, Theo always had reasons to do the things he did. If Theo wanted to be close to the Nest, there might be something at Warwick that could convince Theo to tell Florian the truth about all of this. It was a risk, but it was a risk that Florian would have to take.

“Warwick Castle is about two hours away from the Nest, walking. It used to maintain radio contact with us up until about a year ago. Most places have stopped responding to our calls, says Taylor,” Florian explained. “They might still be there.”

“Fantastic. Guide us there, then.”

Jake and Ellie whined about leaving the house, but even with their protests, they had managed to leave through the door in less than five minutes. Theo had been thorough in his packing. Florian led them to the edge of the vineyard toward the highway.

A wolf howled. This time, it wasn’t a normal one. This was going to be a long journey.