Cael came back with a boar over his shoulder and didn't stop moving.
He grabbed a handful of crystals from inside the cave, looked at Neve and said "Let's go" in the same tone someone used when they were already late.
Neve looked at the boar. Cael had taken it down cleanly, no blood or open mess. Just a large animal that had been alive an hour ago and was now a trading item.
'Smart,' Neve thought. 'Annoying, but smart.'
They climbed down from the cave and moved through the village and that was when Neve looked at his feet.
There were no shoes.
He was going to walk an entire day's journey with no shoes on his bare feet across forest ground and whatever else existed between here and a trade city.
He slowed down slightly and stared at his own feet like they had personally disappointed him.
"Are you hurt?" Cael had already stopped and turned around, eyes on Neve's feet, ready to crouch down and check.
"I'm fine!" Neve stepped back immediately. They were already in the middle of the village. People were looking. He could feel every single eye without having to check. "My feet just... I'm fine so let's keep moving."
Cael looked at him for one more second.
Then set the boar down in the middle of the path.
Right in the centre of the village.
Neve stood there.
'Why?' he thought. 'Why would you put it down here? There are people everywhere. There are so many people looking at us right now...'
Cael shifted into a large leopard, right there in the middle of the village with everyone watching. He got the boar balanced across his back somehow and then turned and crouched low, looking at Neve over his shoulder.
Neve heard the crowd immediately.
"Is that the red fruit from before?"
"Only a mate is allowed to ride a male. Is that red fruit the young chief's mate?"
"Is it even male or female? There's no way that thing is the young chief's mate..."
Neve climbed on.
He had no other options and his feet hurt. He was not going to stand in the middle of the village being discussed like a fruit at a market stall.
Cael moved the moment Neve was settled, increasing the speed as they cleared the village and hit the tree line and suddenly they were moving fast enough that the forest was blurring past and Neve had both hands clamped around the boar to stop it sliding off.
He did not look back.
He stared at the green moving past him and thought about how many things he needed to figure out in this world and none of the faces back in that village.
Cael didn't say a word the entire way. Just ran. Whatever he was thinking, he kept it to himself.
Neve didn't ask. He didn't mind silence.
After three hours the trees thinned and then opened up and Neve sat up straighter.
It was a city.
An actual, functioning, busy city. Stalls in every direction selling things he could smell before he could see. Different tribes moving through the paths. Animal forms and human forms mixed together, trading, arguing, carrying things.
His eyes caught something immediately.
"Is that salt?"
"Salt?" Cael crouched and Neve slid off, landing on his feet. Cael shifted back smoothly, reached for his leather and the crystals Neve handed back to him.
"Thank you, Neve," he said, touching Neve's cheek once.
Neve's face went warm. He looked down at the ground.
'Why is my cheek heating up? Maybe it's the three hours of wind.'
He looked up when he felt eyes on him.
It wasn't just Cael. Half the people in the immediate area had noticed them. Or more specifically, had noticed Neve.
Cael's hand came around his wrist and he started moving toward the nearest stalls. "Stay close. This place isn't safe for females."
"I'm not a female."
"Your scent doesn't care about that." He glanced back. "Stay close."
"Yes, Cael," Neve said. "Obviously. I'm not going anywhere."
.
.
An hour later, Neve was somewhere he didn't recognise with his hands tied behind his back, draped in white linen so fine and clean it clearly hadn't come from anything nearby.
He stared at the ceiling above him.
'Where did the linen even come from?' he thought. 'Actually, that doesn't matter. What matters is...'
'I'VE BEEN KIDNAPPED.'
'CAEL!!!!'