When his head had cleared a bit, he busied himself by pulling the map out again.
“We should be here,” he said, pointing to where he thought—at least, where he hoped—they were. “And your dad said it was here.” The spot Kallik had circled was just a few inches away on the map.
“If we’re on the right track, we should get there early tomorrow,” Kade said. “A few more hours, I think. I’m pretty sure we’re going the right direction.”
“I hope so,” Florian agreed, leaning back with a sigh.
They set up their sleeping bags right next to each other. It was uncomfortably warm, but it would be that way regardless of how close they were; and Kade’s presence was a small comfort that he had no intention of skimping out on. Kade laughed, as he pushed his sleeping bag closer.
“We’re both way too sweaty and smelly for anything, so don’t get any ideas,” Florian teased. “It’s for safety reasons only.”
“Safety,” Kade repeated with a wry grin. “Sure.”
Florian was unsure how long it had been when he woke, but he felt well-rested enough. Next to him Kade was still asleep, laying on his side and facing Florian. Asleep and relaxed, his mouth was slightly parted, and his eyelids occasionally flickered with movement, his breathing deep and even.
He was handsome, Florian thought as he looked at him; his features were more wolfish in the Veil, almost noble. The thought was strangely embarrassing. Kade was socompletelyout of his league. Florian watched him for a long while, utterly unwilling to wake him when he looked so peaceful at rest. He could wait until he woke up on his own.
Eventually, Kade’s eyebrows furrowed together, and his even breathing became less rhythmic—his eyes slid open gleaming yellow-orange, and he caught Florian’s gaze on him. A sleepy smile spread across his face, and Florian grinned back so wide that his face ached.
“Good morning,” he said softly. Kade only reached for him, drawing his face closer to kiss him. He felt like he might melt, but only partly because of the heat of the Blight.
“Good morning,” Kade finally murmured in reply, still so close their noses were pressed together. “Ready to get up?”
He would much rather stay snuggled up next to Kade, but the longer he put off the start of their day, the more anxious he would be. So he nodded, and they started to get ready to go. With just the two of them it took a little longer to pack their things back up; but soon enough they were dressed, sun goggles on, and Florian muttered the spell to set the shroud. When they were both protected with shadow, they set about breaking down their tent and packing it away.
Hand-in-hand they set back out, Florian holding the map loosely in his opposite hand, but not entirely paying attention to it. Kade was much more focused, expression alert as he looked out into the Blight, searching for anything that might indicate that they were heading in the right direction.
Florian tried to focus on him, and not on the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Maybe this one would be different, less dangerous. They would be working together: that had to count for something, didn’t it? They didn’t know what to expect, but could it be worse than the mines, the dogs? He thought of their spikes, the teeth, the blood—
“Florian,” Kade was saying, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Are you alright?”
“Y-Yeah,” he stammered, nodding quickly—though from how Kade was frowning, he suspected the other man had been trying to get his attention for a while. “Sorry. I was… I was thinking.” He couldn’t get a read on Kade’s expression with the dark goggles in front of his eyes, but the other man’s gaze lingered on him for a moment before he spoke again.
“Do you see that?” he asked, pointing up again. Florian looked, squinting in the bright light. In the distance, there was... something, some kind of shape that looked different from its surroundings, right at the very edge of visibility. It very well might be an unusually-shaped rock, but any landmark was welcome in the unending sameness of the Blight.
“I think so,” Florian said, frowning. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure. But it might be what we’re looking for,” Kade said. Florian nodded, and they altered their course slightly to start heading toward it. Kade gave his hand a final squeeze and let him go, his hand moving to rest on the hilt of his sword. There had been no sign of anything alive other than them, but if this Arrow were like the first, the area around it might be something of a safe haven in the Blight to some extent, which Kade had clearly already considered. Nervously, Florian put his hand on the pommel of his own sword, scanning the horizon as they walked.
The closer they got, the more the shape came into view; it looked more and more like a pile of rocks from what Florian could tell. But there was an intentionality to it, so it didn’t seem like a natural rock formation at all. He glanced at Kade, who was still looking ahead resolutely, but so far seemingly unconcerned.
“It just looks like a pile of rocks to me,” Florian said, Kade’s head tilting just a bit to listen. “But it looks like someone made it.”
“I think so, too,” he answered.
Soon, they were close enough to have a good look at it, and there was still no sign of anything else living in the area. It was indeed a pile of rocks, but it was set in a pyramid sort of shape, wide at the bottom and narrow near the top. Its highest point was just a bit taller than Florian. The stones were all around the same size. Something, or someone, had definitely made this—but who, or when, or why, were all a mystery.
“What do you think?” Florian asked, as Kade paced a slow circle around it.
“I’m not sure,” he confessed. “It looks... old, but not that old. It’s some kind of marker. Maybe...” He hesitated, frowning. “Could someone have been here before?”
Florian paused. It seemed unlikely, but the creatures that they had seen living in the Blight so far didn’t seem to have the sort of intelligence or dexterity that would be required to make a stone marker like this.
“Look at this,” Kade added, interrupting his thoughts; and Florian stepped around to the other side of the monument to look at where he was pointing.
But before he could see what Kade was showing him, a familiar tingling sensation in the air stopped him in his tracks—it felt like the heavy magic in the air that had appeared when they had gotten near the Arrow last time. The feeling sent his heart leaping up into his throat.
“Wait,” he stammered, looking around anxiously. “I feel—I feel it. The magic in the air. We must be close.” He glanced up at Kade. The taller man briefly looked surprised, but he nodded in acknowledgment, his eyes flickering around in search of any sign of the Arrow as well. But they seemed as alone as ever, so he pointed back at the stone monument, gesturing to a point near the bottom.
