The sun hung low on the horizon, enormous and burning a dark orange-red. It cast a merciless light across the Blasted Lands - the dunes glittered goldly and, at this time of day, cast great dark shadows across the waste. All that was visible for miles and miles was that vast sea of sand, unchanging and barren, and, strangely, a figure moving slowly across it on foot.

Moon had wrapped her tender feet in strips of cloth that she had torn from her clothing. She had been traveling for two days across the desert, staying in the shadows of the dunes when she could during the day and seeking shelter in shallow, rocky caves at night. When, in the city, she had become seperated from the people she had met - Jinn and Piper, kind, queer people who had helped her and seemed to understand her - she decided to go back out into the Blasted Lands. She had to go somewhere and she had the sense that there was something out in the sands, something that called faintly to her. Moon had no idea what it could be, good or bad, but she had decided to go, both to see what it might be and to discover more of the world. But after a few days out in the unforgiving desert, she was beginning to rethink her decision.

 

True to his word, as soon as Hunter finished speaking with Sophie, he put back on his seven league boots and took the few steps necessary to return to Mehrdadstan. He'd been gone long enough to meet a few people and acquire a gift for Scheherazade.

Armed with the purple box, he strode into the palace, seven league boots careful place in his pocket again. He knew to search for Scheherazade in her garden, and went for it immediately, ignoring the guards and advisors who still seemed to dislike him. He didn't care; they didn't matter. His queen did. He stepped silently into the palace gardens, smiling at her form seated near the jasmine. He smiled. "Sometimes I think I go away just to have to experience of coming home to you," he offered by way of salutation.

Hunter was in the Sleeping Woods again. He had been back in Mehrdadstan for some time since his interesting encounter with Cernunnos, but had been drawn back to the magical woods he'd lived in before he met the queen of the desert kingdom. He wouldn't be gone for long, he'd told her, only a few hours at most. Striding across Pentamerone in his seven league boots got him wherever he wanted to go in record time. So he'd gone to the woods.

He stood beneath the shade of a tree, smelling winter on the air. He held onto the scent, his eyes closing as he focused. Darkness behind his eyelids gave way to a shadowy form, a loping wolf. In his mind's eye, the hunter met the wolf, and the two regarded each other, as equals, as two halves of the same whole. They changed places, the hunter going to stand in the shadows, and the wolf moving forward, where the man had come from, into the light.

( Hunter felt prickles along his skin, but he didn't move. )

The conversation with Arthur Pendragon left Hunter a little unsettled. It had been quite some time since he'd seen Goodfellow last, and he wondered if it was indeed the same little green fey that had spoken to Arthur. Not only that, he was interested in seeing the preparations for war himself, as if to be certain it would not stray south, nor be too detrimental to his trading.

He spent the night with Scheherazade, wrapping her in his large warm body, as he'd begun to grow accustomed to doing, but the next morning, he dressed, and set out his seven league boots. After a conversation with the queen, assuring her he'd be back by evening, by the next day at the latest, he set out, taking only the few steps necessary to reach first the Sleeping Woods. It would be harder to find one lone fey than to see the city, so he thought he'd start looking for Goodfellow first.

His nose twitched at the smells in the woods. The smell of magic was a little darker, richer, than during spring or summer. But that wasn't all he smelled. There was an overpowering scent of nature itself, of the woods, but whatever it was wasn't just to woods. It was living, breathing, moving. Hunter took off his seven-league boots and tucked them away. Curious, and with his nose twitching, he set out to find the source of the scent. Goodfellow could wait.

After being instructed by the wizard Howl on how to use the castle's door to travel, Arthur stepped through the shop door into Mehrdadstan, and blinked in the bright sunlight for a moment.  After getting his bearings as much as he could, he made his way up the street toward the palace, intending to pay homage to the local royalty and possibly gain their loyalties.  At the very least he hoped to get them to pledge not to interfere. 

As he wound his way through the streets and the marketplaces, he thought of home.  His home.  Camelot.  There were so many things that were so very different about this place, and yet the same.  The treachery.  The intrigue.  The caliber of people who made up these lands. 

As Arthur made his way up to the gates of the palace, he hoped silently that the rulers of this land were just.

Hunter was not the kind of man who liked being cooped up. His spirit liked to travel, and lying in a bed - no matter how posh - while he recovered from his stab wounds was absolutely trying his patience. He had quicker healing than anormal man, but it wasn't quick enough.

Scheherazade made it better - and worse. She told him stories, her voice compelling, soothing, and entirely captivating. She teased him with kisses, touches, and caresses he couldn't quite follow through on, not without reopening his wound. She kept him wanting far more than she ever had, and it was maddening at the same time as entirely welcome.

( It didn't take long for her to ask about his affliction, how he came to be both man and wolf. )

Candy.

Delicious no matter what shape or color it may come in; candy is by far her favorite food to eat. Every kind of candy has it's own particular smell and texture, and while she may not have a tracker's nose, Red certainly has a nose made for smelling candy.

The market of Camlann was open, but not overly fresh. She missed the markets back home terribly, where people didn't seem to be in such a rush to move about. Everyone in this place seemed to have a place to go, and while Red couldn't argue with that logic, she was less enthusiastic about it today than she had been in previous days.

( She was walking with a tune on her lips... )

It would only take a few steps to cross the expanse of Pentamerone and reach the Southern lands of Mehrdadstan. It should have taken Hunter a week of travel, but the magic boots Howl had given him made his journey only minutes instead. It was evening, shortly after dinner, and Hunter knew Scheherazade would have slipped out of the palace and found her way into the jungles again. So instead of heading straight for Mehrdadstan, he headed for the Rajani Jungle.

Immersed in the plant life, he paused and inhaled deeply as he picked his way towards her favorite spots. As soon as he caught her scent, he'd move in and surprise her. He'd kept the magic boots secret long enough.