“I'm going to have a whole covey trussed up before you've even caught your first rabbit,” Sam declared, rummaging through the tall grass to find the best place to set his snares. “Just you see, Master Elf.”

“I don't see why it is that you're so proud of your ability to slaughter defenseless creatures,” Kurt scolded, wearing his swords on his back, looking for only one kill so he can take part in preparing the evening meal for Blaine, “especially ones that are so much smaller than you.”

All the Dwarves ceased their work and stood to look at Elf and Dwarf. They had to agree that Kurt had a valid point. Though they were proud of their abilities to provide for their company, they had never looked upon it quite that way before. And Kurt, being a creature more of nature than they perceived themselves to be, would have the right, obviously, to say so.

“Well, I…” Sam stuttered. “You see I…”

“He's got you there, Sam,” Blaine chuckled, replacing the tension of the moment, and the guilt on his friend's shoulders, with humor. And it worked, for first the Elf laughed, and then the Dwarves followed suit, including Sam, and all went back to their toiling over dinner. Blaine settled into his spot at the base of a nearby tree, and folded his arms behind his head.

“I see our clan handling dinner,” Cooper said, occupying the seat beside Blaine, on the opposite side to where Kurt normally sat, since Cooper knew it would be a sin to take Kurt's place. “Even Kurt has joined the fray. And what are you doing sitting in the grass, little brother? Hoping the rabbits will leap into your lap and give themselves up to death willingly?”

“My knee is acting up,” Blaine explained, giving his sore joint a rub. “Just a twinge,” he clarified to ease his brother's worried gaze, “so the lot of them have decided to do the hunting without me, and Kurt offered to help.”

“He's not much of a hunter, is he?” Cooper remarked – not with any condescension, just a statement of fact.

“Well, he'd never hunted rabbit before this trip,” Blaine said. “He may not be too adept with a bow, but I promise you've never seen anyone more sure with a blade.”

Blaine watched Kurt, toeing through the grass with a hand on the hilt of his sword, the sun setting behind him, throwing highlights in his hair, and the Dwarf sighed.

“You know, I'm happy for you, brother,” Cooper said. He kept his eyes fixed on the Dwarves picking through the grass, setting traps for their meal, while the Elf wandered among them, trying his best to manage the capture of just one poor animal, which he'd need to turn over to Blaine for skinning anyway.

Blaine didn't turn his eyes from the Elf, and swallowed hard, knowing what his brother meant.

“Thank you,” he replied, “but there's little to be happy for than a heart that's soon to be broken.”

“And why do you say that?” Cooper asked, this time with a bit of teasing since he fancied himself knowing something that Blaine did not.

“Because once we reach the Realm of the Elves, our journey will be at its end, and we will have to leave.” Blaine plucked a blade of grass from the ground and rolled it in his fingers, releasing the scent of green earth into their small corner of the meadow. “I don't know when I'll see Kurt again…if ever. I dare not hold on to any hope.”

“You know, you're such a sour Dwarf for one so young and beardless,” his brother said, jabbing an elbow into his brother's arm. “I don't know what that Elf of yours sees in you.”

“The same thing you see, I suspect,” Blaine answered sadly, remembering how Kurt treated him when they first met. He understood why, and had long since forgiven Kurt, but there was an insult or two that were difficult to forget, “which is why you feel so free to mock me.”

“Now that's just not true,” Cooper said, taking hold of a handful of Blaine's curly hair and tugging it fondly. “I see a great deal of wonderful things in you. And I know that that Elf, staring at you since this hunt began, sees them, too.”

Blaine's gaze darted up as Kurt's did the same, and their eyes met over the stretch of grass, the fading light, and the Dwarves arguing in between.

“Dave, I don't think you should be messing with Kurt's bow…”

“I'm just borrowing it.”

“But you don't know how to use it.”

“Dave! Put that down!”

Thwang!

“Sam! Look out!”

Kurt's eyes barely flicked away from Blaine's face, and he had his sword, Riverdancer, in his hands. With a single slash, faster than lighting splitting the dry night sky, Kurt swiped the arrow away, barely an inch before it would have penetrated Sam's forehead. The arrow fell harmlessly to the ground, split down the middle, and Sam almost went with it, nearly fainting dead away.

Blaine sat straight up, first in horror, convinced that he was about to see one of his oldest and dearest friends decapitated, then in awe as Kurt rolled his wrist, flipping his sword once before returning it to its sheath. Cooper looked from the gathering of stunned Dwarves, every one of them pale faced, to his smitten brother, and laughed out loud.

“Aye, say what you like, but one way or another, I have lost you forever, brother!” Cooper laughed, clapping Blaine on his left shoulder, avoiding the injury to his right. “Just, be kind and remember to invite me to the wedding. I am family after all.”