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14
Harleywas pissed.
She was completely silent the entire time she and Dustin made their way to the outside of the wall. Dustin didn't seem to mind either, because he never said anything about it. Which was no surprise. He had no reason to care. But she did. She still couldn't understand why they couldn't go back to the bar and get help from the Faerie hunter. He was exactly what they were looking for. But Dustin insisted that they go through the trouble of finding a witch and hoping she would lead them to another Faerie hunter. Yet again, she knew very little of Dustin and his experience with the hunters. From what she heard from rumors, the hunters guilds were more like a cult than anything. She didn't know what kind of initiations they may have, or how their laws were. And the fact that he mentioned he had been marked made her wonder if some sort of abuse was involved. Especially since he was a child when it happened.
It was none of her business though. She wasn't about to ask for his whole life story or some sort of explanation. She didn't really care about his past anyway. She only wanted to get the hunt over with.
They traveled along the wall, heading towards the east just as the merchant had said. To their other side, opposite of the wall, was the forest. Darkness loomed near them, the silence of the forest already causing their skin to crawl. Harley recalled how she and Dustin almost died the last time they went into the forest, and knowing how close they were to it, she was sure Dustin was remembering it as well. He was likely having more trouble being near the forest than her. He was the one that reached closest to death.
The two continued in silence until the break of dawn. Only then did they finally stop to rest their aching feet. Both stood near the wall, with Dustin leaning up against it. Harley rubbed her hands together and blew hot air into them, her breath showing in the cold air. Beyond the wall, their Kingdom was in the middle of autumn, following the seasons like the rest of the world. But the forest was trapped in eternal winter. Only a few feet away from the wall the snow and freezing air began. It was completely unnatural, and it was the doing of Faerie magic. She stared off into the forest as she tucked her hands underneath her cloak.
"She should be nearby soon," Dustin finally broke the silence. "It's already morning." The merchant had told them that the witch goes on morning walks. He also mentioned that she would find them. That made her wonder if all they needed to do was sit and wait for her to find them, or if they should keep going until they cross paths with her. Perhaps witches had the ability to sense when someone was looking for them. Maybe that was how she would find the merchant. It would make sense. Very few witches were ever found and executed. They always seemed to elude the soldiers and witch hunters quite well. Either they were very intelligent, or skilled with their magic and that allowed them to escape in time.
Harley could sense Dustin's eyes lay upon her, but she still kept her attention on the forest ahead of them as if she expected a Faerie to emerge at any minute. "Are you just going to be pissed at me the whole time?" Dustin asked. It seemed he did notice why she had been avoiding talking to him since they left the bar. "I have every reason to be pissed at you," she began. "We wouldn't be out here right now, looking for a witch that may or may not even show up if we had asked that Faerie hunter for help."
