Be Sure to Wear a Disguise

It's not dark or damp. But it is a cave and there are the vast echos that bounce off the walls as we walk along. There are cloaked figures and creatures. I really try not to stare, but some are so bazaar that I look twice, trying to figure out what they are.

Caan is holding my hand as we walk down one of the 'streets', if you want to call it that. Every time I lag behind to look at something, I feel the gently tug of him pulling my hand. We walk along, Lyris tailing us and looking around.

"What are you looking for?" I turn and ask him.

"The Fae we're looking for. She likes to hide behind glamour," He says, "She's technically more of a fugitive than you. She's more like a criminal."

I'm confused for a minute, but it settles that if she's been helping people hide from the law or anything like this, of course she would be a criminal. We walked the ravine, the town of Keep, one way then the other, with no luck. Caan started to ask people, but each one shakes their heads, some even saying they knew nothing about the person we are looking for.

The lamps that light the town start to dim, almost like it's night time. Lyris finds an inn, and we get a room. The only one open is a room with two beds. Caan and I look at each other, fine with sharing. We bed down and fall asleep quickly.



We eat quietly, and shuffle through the town of Keep. I stay close to Caan, and Lyris weaves in and out of the people, moving like water. He keeps his wings so tight to his spine, if i didn't knew he had them, I wouldn't know there were there at all. I think he is trying to hide them. I don't know why tho.

We stop at one of the shops. Since this is a small, almost refuge town, hidden deep in a secret cave, far from the world, the shops are not colorful. They do not reach out like tourist shops, loud or bright to lure you in. The shops here are homely and plain. They blend in, just like everything else. Nothing here stands out.

The shop has stands in front, holding a fruit in bins, or maybe it's a vegtable. . . or maybe it's a root. I don't know. What is this thing anyway? The shopkeeper snorts, and my eyes flash up to look. Her eyes meet mine, and in that instant I know she heard my thoughts. Oh. Poop. The corners of her mouth turn up a little and she shakes her head and turns away. I look up at Caan, my hazel eyes meeting his.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. I'll explain later," He says. His voice almost seems loud. In the town of Keep, nothing really is loud. Even in the center of the town, everything seems to be a shuffled, muffled sound, so Caan's voice is clear.

"Hey."

I turn my head and Lyris beckons us over. We walk away from the shop and join him at the head of an alley. Caan raises an eyebrow, questioning Lyris. The answers seems to be only the turn of Lyris' head. I follow his line of vision into the alley. There is a lantern at the back corner of the shop, so the alley is full of long, jagged shadows that pool around the dirty lantern.

I don't see anything and I open my mouth to say so. Then my breath draws in. Smoke. Grey smoke curls over the lips of a woman who stands far in the back of the alley. Her skin is pulled taunt over the veins and bones in her hand as she places the pipe back in her mouth. I hear her breath, inhale deep, then the smoke curls out as she exhales again. I can barely see her, just the shadow cast edges of her frame and her face. We stand silently, watching as she smokes her pipe, and she watches us.

Lyris walks into the alley and I hesitate. It is her. The Fae. The person we're looking for. I feel my fingers reach out and lace into Caan's. I take a breath, like a swimmer. Then I slip into the alley.