When Hamish woke up early the next morning, Slone and Duran were still asleep, so he got up and wandered down the road back towards where the fae had been yesterday. They were still there, gathered around the naked woman who apparently served as a permanent fixture in the landscape.
"Hello," Hamish said as a couple of the fae moved around him in strange, jerky motions. "Got any free magical powers on offer this morning?"
It was difficult to tell if the fae had even heard him, as they continued their strange dance undeterred. That was okay. He hadn't really come here expecting anything. He'd just wanted to see them again.
He couldn't help but think of Simon, who had come home one day with a harrowed expression on his face and a wet and shaken young dog-boy in his arms, telling tales of death and rebirth. Beautiful, yet terrifying in its power.
It was hard to remember that as he watched them shiver and dance around. They didn't exactly exude an aura of great power.
He left before anyone caught him hanging around their naked woman and started to question how gay he actually was. He was fully and completely gay, thank you very much, and it wasn't his fault that they kept their naked women where he wanted to be. By the time he got back, Duran and Slone were awake.
"Are we ready to go?" Duran asked as he finished packing up their belongings.
Slone looked up from struggling with his shoelaces. "We're not gonna stick around and see about some free breakfast?"
"Oh, we could," Duran said, but it was clear from his tone that he wasn't enthusiastic about the idea.
"We still have food from home that won't keep much longer," Hamish pointed out. "I also got a lot of fruits and vegetables from them last night that I've packed into our bags. They've probably given us enough."
"More than, I reckon," Slone said. "All right. Let's get going, then."
The three of them started out walking side by side, but it wasn't long before Slone's restless nature got the best of him and he raced ahead, eager to explore on his own.
"So," Hamish said to Duran. "Any thoughts or feelings on what happened last night?"
Duran shrugged. "I've got no complaints."
"And I doubt you'd be getting any from anyone else," Hamish said. "You may have just changed the course of Roman's life, or at least the sex part of it. I think you opened his eyes to possibilities he hadn't given his full consideration."
A slight smile curved Duran's lips. "It was definitely his first time."
"Do you prefer to top?"
"Not really, but I do prefer to know I'm in control. I wanted to know if he'd do it. Or... not even necessarily that, because we're all allowed to have our own preferences. I wanted to see how he'd react to the suggestion."
"And did he surprise you?"
"Pleasantly."
"But you didn't want to stick around this morning."
Duran sighed. "I know this isn't fair, to them or to you, but groups of humans just make me uncomfortable. Even last night, I mean... I was okay with it, and I have no regrets, but there was a tension, a sense of uncertainty, that wouldn't have been there if the company was anything but a group of humans."
"That's easy enough to understand, Duran."
"I don't feel like that when you're the only human involved, but..." Duran looked away. "It feels bad to say, but when there are other humans involved, the fact that you are human contributes to that feeling."
"Only exotic orgies for you. Got it."
"Preferably, but I'm also addicted to human dick, so keep that in mind."
"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's having a human dick."
Duran smiled. "What a man."
#
As they journeyed further north, away from the icy mountains, the temperature rose and Hamish had to remove his coat. It was too bulky to fit in his bag, so he draped it over the top of it and carried it that way. He might have to get rid of it altogether soon. It was a hefty thing to carry around when he no longer really needed it.
The dense forest concealed many secrets. They encountered rivers that they had to find ways to cross and small mountains they had to navigate around that had remained hidden behind the trees until they were almost upon them. In the middle of the day, when the sun was high in the sky, they reached an abrupt end to the treeline and found themselves in front of vast fields of carefully cultivated farmland.
"Huh, more humans?" Hamish said, his brow furrowing in confusion as he took in the sight.
"Might be," Slone said, wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the air. "Can't say I smell 'em about, but these are bigger fields."
Duran had folded his arms over his chest, his posture tense and guarded. "I didn't anticipate this adventure involving more than one human."
"Might also not be humans," Slone said. "They sure ain't the only thing that can grow plants, and most things got to eat."
Hamish nodded, his eyes scanning the fields. "It does look exactly like the farmland back where I grew up, though. Even more so than the human settlement we passed through. They even have scarecrows out in the fields."
"Mm..." Duran kept one arm crossed over his chest, his hand on his shoulder. His other rested on the hilt of his knife. He had kept the weapon close by since they'd encountered the humans the previous day.
"We can just go around if you want," Hamish offered. "There are plenty of mysteries out here. We can leave this one unsolved."
Duran sighed and dropped his arms to his side, his posture relaxing slightly. "No, we can check it out. If they are humans, well... the other ones were nice."
"We'll check it out and then we'll keep going," Hamish said. "We have plenty of daylight left. No need to start thinking about staying the night anywhere."
They walked between the neat rows of plants, approaching a cluster of buildings in the distance. Hamish nudged at the base of one of the plants with the toe of his boot and unearthed a light brown globe. Onions.
As they passed a scarecrow, they paused to admire it. It was sturdier and more well put together than any scarecrow Hamish had seen before. In the past, he had always encountered ones that were little more than a stick dressed in old clothes with some straw stuffed in to pad it out. This one, however, had been crafted with love. It had button eyes and a big smile stitched on its sackcloth face, and its arms and legs were properly filled out inside its shirt and pants, finished off with a pair of old boots.
"Either they have very intelligent birds around here that won't be fooled by anything but the best craftsmanship," Hamish remarked, "or someone found an outlet for their artistic inspiration."
Slone leant in and gave the scarecrow a careful sniffing.
"Does it smell of human?" Duran asked.
"A lil bit," Slone said, still sniffing the scarecrow. "But other things, too. Kinda hard to say what. There are a few different scents and they're old. Probably this thing has been rained on a few times since anything living wore its clothes."
"Maybe the person who made it traded with the humans we met yesterday for old clothes," Hamish suggested.
They continued on through the field, approaching the cluster of buildings. As they got closer, they realised that none of the buildings were houses. They were mostly large, rectangular structures meant for storage, but there was one smaller, more approachable building. 'Visiters' was painted in messy blue letters across the front of the building.
"Well, that seems... welcoming, I guess?" Hamish said. "Should we go inside?"
"We are visiting, so I guess so." Slone pushed the door open and then paused halfway inside. "Uhh..."
Hamish shouldered past him and then startled when he saw what had caused Slone to hesitate. One of the scarecrows had been set up behind a counter, as though it were a store clerk.
"Okay, I'm starting to get a little freaked out," Hamish admitted. "Slone, you smell anything?"
"People come through here sometimes, but... I dunno. Doesn't really smell like a lived-in place, y'know?"
Duran went to inspect the scarecrow while Hamish headed towards another door on the other side of the room, which had the word 'tradeing' written on it in the same blue paint.
Hamish was just reaching for the doorknob when Duran let out a cry of surprise. In a split second, Hamish retrieved a hidden knife from beneath his shirt and whipped around. Duran had taken several steps backwards and was staring at the scarecrow, an expression of wide-eyed shock on his face. Had the scarecrow's arm been up like that a moment ago?
"It moved," Duran said, his eyes fixed on the scarecrow. "I think it tried to touch me. I think it might be alive."
"Oh, huh," Slone said, remarkably unconcerned. "That's weird."
"You're being awfully casual about this," Duran said, eyeing the scarecrow warily.
"Well, it ain't the first weird thing I've seen, and it doesn't look too tough, so I ain't worried," Slone said, approaching the scarecrow and holding out his hand. "I'm Slone. Nice to meet you."
Straw rustled as the scarecrow reached out a hand covered by a dirty white glove stained with dry blue paint that matched the signs. Slone carefully shook the offered hand.
That seemed to have sealed a kind of peace. The scarecrow came out from behind the counter and approached the door to the 'tradeing' room on unevenly proportioned, crunchy legs. It managed to open the doorknob with greater ease than Hamish had expected and then waved them all inside.
The room was full of stuff — sacks of produce stacked to one side, an old armchair piled with clothes, a bowl full of old coins, books, pots and pans, and a painting propped against a wall.
The scarecrow approached Hamish and prodded at his coat with its weird gloved hand,
"You want to trade for it?" Hamish asked.
The scarecrow rustled as it nodded. It grabbed one of the sacks, dragged it over, and opened it to reveal that it was full of potatoes.
"You want to trade my coat for the potatoes?"
The scarecrow nodded again.
"A generous offer," Hamish said, "but we're traveling, so an entire sack of potatoes might be a pain to lug around."
The scarecrow abandoned the potatoes on the floor and hurried off to dig through the piles of stuff. It was more agile than Hamish had initially assumed. Stronger, too, considering how it had dragged the sack of potatoes around. It returned with a pair of boots.
"I don't think any of us need new boots," Hamish said. "Well, maybe Slone, since his are borrowed, but these ones wouldn't fit him anyway."
The scarecrow set the boots on a nearby table and went to dig around again. It returned carrying an egg — a large egg the colour of the night sky with gold flecked across its surface that it had to use both arms to carry.
"This is... an interesting offer," Hamish said as the scarecrow carefully set the egg down on the table. "Is that an actual, real egg, or is it some kind of weird decoration?"
The scarecrow, of course, didn't answer.
"Can't say I've seen anything like that before," Slone said. "Awful fancy looking."
"Even if it is real, it probably isn't alive, right?" Duran pointed out. "Eggs usually need to be incubated."
"They do, but even a chicken egg can go days without being incubated before it dies," Hamish said. "This thing looks a bit more robust than a chicken egg."
Slone leant down until he was level with the table and pressed his ear against the egg. They all went silent as he listened. "Huh. Well, whatever it is, it ain't dead in there."
"A very interesting offer indeed," Hamish said, pondering the egg. "It's alive now, but if it does need to be incubated and nobody does that, it will die." Hamish turned to the scarecrow "Why do you have an egg?"
The scarecrow stared back with its empty, button eyes, saying nothing because its mouth was only thread stitched into sackcloth.
"Would kinda be a pain to lug around, 'specially if it needs to be kept warm," Slone said. "An' then if it hatches..."
"But if you don't take it, you'll never know," Duran said. "You'll never know what it was. You'll never know if it lived or died."
Hamish pulled his coat off where he'd slung it over his bag and held it out to the scarecrow. "The egg and four potatoes. Final offer."
The scarecrow took the coat.
Hamish picked up the egg, tucked it under his shirt, and hugged it against his body. "I guess I'm going to be a father."