Caius felt more than a little guilty. He hadn’t quite thought through all the implications of Idunnir’s ability after she had told him about it. Internal chaos was his lot in life, but inflicting it on others wasn’t right.

  And of course there was the small but everpresent concern that she was only tolerating his presence because she needed to. That particular insecurity had been cemented into the foundation of his self-image by… Caius forced himself to abandon that train of thought.

  Turning his attention to Idunnir, he once again marveled at her herculean strength. That jump up onto the boulder had cleared almost her own height vertically. Not to mention the rabbit.

  Said rabbit was currently roasting on a spit over a small fire. The wood they found on the bank of the stream burned… enthusiastically… almost like they had been soaked in paraffin. Which gave Caius the clue he needed to plausibly explain the unnatural warmth of the water.

  Maybe whatever firey energy… Caius sighed. He was going to have to actually name the stuff. Books he read immediately brought terms like “mana” or “chi” or “vital aura” to mind. In an academic sense, one of those would do.

  But Caius remembered the burning tree. It had been a glorious sight, but what really stayed with him was what he had seen under the effects of the flower. It had apparently allowed him to perceive whatever this energy was.

  Seeing the tree with that other sight… it had been the most awe-inspiring thing he had ever witnessed. If he hadn’t been occupied with Idunnir’s condition, he could have stared at the tree for hours.

  His mind jumped to Latin. It was quite interesting to him that a language that had once been as mundane as English in the modern world, back home, had taken on such a weight of history and significance. In media, using Latin often invoked some form of supernatural power.

  His own name was Latin, and had stood out all his life. Despite the fact that it had once been an ordinary name. The name had been chosen for him because… because his mother had four unsuccessful pregnancies before him. According to his mother, he would have been named Joy if he had been a girl.

  “The meat is ready. Are you alright over there? You seem a bit out of it.” Idunnir interrupted his wandering thoughts.

  Caius gratefully accepted a portion, pausing to silently give thanks for it before starting to eat. After a few bites he remembered to answer Idunnir. “I think I need to give whatever these colors are a name. But after seeing that tree… I feel like the name needs to be impressive.”

  She had seen the tree, of course, even if she hadn’t gotten the supernatural view he had. “I know what you mean. Something special. But not too long.”

  Coming up with something appropriate would have been much easier if Caius knew more than a dozen words of Latin. Something tickled the back of his mind. A word he only knew because it had appeared in a video game and he had looked it up out of curiosity.

  “Numen.”

  Idunnir tilted her head back and forth, appraisingly. “Numen. Not too long, easy to say. Does it mean something impressive?”

  He nodded. “Divinity, or connected to the divine.”

  She gave him a bit of a look, which he couldn’t interpret, but nodded. “Having seen that tree, I can believe it. It was… impossible. Numen it is. Kind of odd to think of it like I’m taking your ‘divinity,’ but then again it would be just as strange to think of blue tea as having ‘divinity.’”

  Caius sighed. It was an imperfect name, but in his mind it was already fixed in place. “Let’s just think of it as a fancy name for the colors that I stole from something more impressive.” It wasn’t the best joke, but it did make Idunnir smile. Good enough.

  Her brow furrowed, and she turned to stare off into the forest. “Ugh. Feels like something is watching me, but I can’t see anything.”

  That was a valid concern. Just because they hadn’t encountered anything dangerous recently didn’t mean nothing was out there. The pessimist in Caius thought that perhaps they hadn’t found danger because something very dangerous had driven lesser threats away. That was… disturbingly plausible.

  Idunnir turned to him. “What was that sudden worry you just felt?”

  Right, his mind wasn’t entirely private. “I was suddenly worried that, perhaps, something really dangerous scared away everything else. Which is why we haven’t encountered anything so far.”

  She nodded slowly, scanning their surroundings again. “Let’s stay alert. Just in case.

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  Concerns aside, Caius could only stay tense and alert for so long. Around midafternoon he was already back to paying more attention to the ground than their surroundings. His earlier fall had rattled him.

  Whenever he started taking something for granted, it failed him. Like the stairs at his old apartment. Two years of living there? Nothing. The one time he was in a hurry, he’d fallen.

  Or relationships. Throughout school, there had been one other boy who had been his best friend. Caius had never questioned that friendship, and worked hard to maintain it. Then when they went to different high schools? Victor had cut all communications. Cut was a strong word, Victor just stopped responding.

  Caius had bumped into Victor’s parents a few times over the years. They still lived in the same house and remembered Caius fondly. Apparently Victor was happily married and living in a different city.

  Lost in his thoughts, Caius simply followed Idunnir and watched his footing. Naturally, that was exactly when everything happened at once.

  From across the stream, something flashed in his peripheral vision. It caught him in the neck, his vision briefly blocked as his amulet wrapped a barrier of golden… Numen… around him so dense it was opaque.

  Despite the protection, Caius was sent flying. Launched with such force that he briefly pinwheeled through the air before crashing into a tree. Caius could feel his limbs freeze like they had been wrapped in metal, probably his amulet preventing them from bending wrong.

  Over the sound of his ears ringing, he thought he heard someone screaming. It sounded like… Idunnir?

  “CAIUS!” She sounded extremely distraught.

  That wasn’t good, he’d have to reassure her. At least that meant she actually cared about him? But that nagging voice at the back of his head insisted she only cared because she needed his power.

  Managing to deduce by process of elimination which side was up, Caius rolled over and tried to get back to his feet. The whatever-it-was hit him again, right on the back of his neck. Probably trying to break his spine. Regardless, it resulted in him crashing to the forest floor face first.

  Idunnir was there moments later. Her hands were full, sword in one and shield in the other, but she managed to shove the rim of the shield under him and hoist him to his feet. Caius felt like a human pancake, complete with a spatula to flip him.

  “You’re alright, thank the waves. I got a glimpse of it, looked like an eagle or something.”

  She rushed him over to a nearby tree and pushed him up against it, limiting the directions an attack could come from. She put her back against him and kept her head swiveling back and forth to look for the enemy.

  Caius was more than half befuddled by all the rattling around. The first thought he had spilled out before he could catch it. “Falcon. Probably a big falcon, not an eagle.”

  Idunnir barked “What?” at him, which was an expected response. Caius couldn’t stop himself from answering the question. “Eagles like to grab prey with their talons. Falcons kill their prey by smashing into it at high speed.” At least that’s what he thought he remembered from the documentary, it had been a while.

  Idunnir spun around and stared him in the eyes. Probably checking that his pupils were the same size. He was definitely babbling like someone with a concussion.

  Clutching his amulet, Caius tried to force his scattered mind into order. Suddenly, he had an idea. “Idunnir, do you think you could kill it if you knew where it was going to be?”

  Whatever she saw in his face or felt from his emotions, Idunnir apparently decided he wasn’t suffering from a traumatic brain injury. “Yes, I think! Why?” she bellowed, clearly caught up in the adrenaline of the moment.

  Wincing, he really wished she would lower her voice. But he had to focus. “It seems to be after me, specifically. And it’s aiming for my neck. I’ll cover the front and sides, so it will have to hit me from behind.”

  Thankfully, Idunnir didn’t express her thoughts about Caius’ stupid plan. She allowed him to step away from the tree as she turned to stand with her sword raised overhead and ready to chop down.

  Caius tucked his chin against his chest and raised his arms to rest his forearms on top of his head. Turning so Idunnir was at his right, he stood as still as possible. If whatever was attacking them struck at his neck again, it would almost certainly have to come from behind with the other tree sides covered.

  All that was left was for Idunnir to kill it.

  It had to be a relatively small target and was extremely fast. Hopefully, knowing exactly where it would strike would give Idunnir the edge. Also, extra hopefully his amulet would hold for another hit. Caius had no idea what its limits, if any, were.

  Just like before, the impact was sudden and overwhelming. Caius was sent crashing into the snow again, but this time he felt something tumble past him.

  Idunnir was there to help him to his feet again. This time, she dropped her shield to do it more gently. From that and the object that had passed him when he fell, Caius assumed that she had been successful.

  His legs were rather wobbly by that point, but she tucked herself under one of his arms for support. “Your plan worked, you lunatic.” She simultaneously praised and admonished.

  When the world once again resolved into clarity, Caius could see the dead bird that had plowed a trench into the dirt. Idunnir’s blow had severed most of both wings, and the tree at the end of the trench had a large dent in the side. Clearly that impact must have finished the job.

  Upon further examination, the bird probably had been an oversized falcon. Its beak and claws were relatively small, so it probably relied on the sheer impact of its attack to kill.

  Near death experience, being tossed around like a doll and the lingering exhaustion from his breakdown earlier all combined to leave Caius badly wanting to lie down.

  Idunnir noticed and provided him with a face-saving gesture. “Those feathers are pretty, we should stop for the day so I can collect them. Might be able to trade or sell them.”

  Caius smiled at her as she carefully withdrew her support to leave him standing under his own power. “Thanks, Idunnir. For everything.”

  She raised her sword, showing it off, and gave him a smile. It was that beautiful smile of hers. “Thanks for what you did to my sword. Went through that thing like thin air.”

  Caius sat down with his back against a tree, his arms and legs trembling just a bit after the various stresses of the day. And it was only midafternoon. He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew was Idunnir shaking his shoulder to wake him up for dinner.