Ren started fading out so badly I lost sight of him completely at one point. It worried me. I knew Ren was like a chicken, he was a very social creature, I knew he would probably die of depression if he was stuck invisible with no one to talk to. On the other hand, while he outgoing attitude annoyed me to no end, I didn't want to lose him in such a way.

    That's when we knew we had to hurry up and find the bloody unicorn.

    "Can you see me now?" He asked, unfortunately I could still hear him.

    I glanced at him, waist up, he looked normal, except I couldn't really see his shoes, or his hands.

    "Your limbs are looking translucent."  I commented.

    His eyes widened. "That's interesting."

    He suddenly walked up very close to my personal space and wrapped his arms around me.

    "Yes, congradulations, you're still tangible, get off me." I breathed in, trying to stay calm despite his audacity.

    "Oh right, Galia doesn't like it when people touch her." He informed Lucille, who was silent during most of our squabbles.

    I honestly think she took secret amusement in the bouts of nativity and anger, but she had a poker face like no other person I had seen in my life. Which isn't that many people so my word doesn't throw around a lot of weight. 

    "Excuse me if I happen to dislike the feeling of other people's skin rubbing up against mine." I turned my head at his silliness.

    "The sun's setting." Lucille commented, completely ignoring us. "We should find a place to rest for the night."

    "We running a bit low on food as well." Ren commented, holding his dwindling knapsack.

    "Let me see it." I said gently, taking it from him.

    Then I gasped in horror. "You ate my waffle cone!"

    His face turned red. "Uh, I'm pretty sure you weren't going to eat that."

    I sighed. This was not worth the argument. How dare I succumb so easily to such a useless waste of my time. Ren however, started to look like a hurt puppy. I braced myself for the coming sappiness.

    "I'm sorry M'lady, I should have asked."

    I looked him straight in the eye. "Ren, it's fine. I was joking."

    He blinked. "Oh, wow."

    "What?"

    "You really stink at jokes."

    I screamed. "That's it!"

    "Children." Lucille interrupted. "Please, try to calm yourselves, we are approaching a farm house."

    I stopped myself from pummeling Ren to glance up and see a rather large blue farm house. It was a rather worn down looking house, very ancient and endearing.

    Ren hissed in pain and I glanced over to see him rubbing his forehead, he was getting more transparent by the minute. I could see him perfectly fine just a few seconds ago.

    "Are you alright?" I asked, momentarily forgetting our previous argument. It took him a few seconds to answer me.

"Uh, yeah. It's nothing, just a headache." He replied, obviously lying.

Well if that's how he wanted to play.

With the sun setting on our back, I watched as Lucille became invisible once more. We were by the front porch, Ren walked up to politely knock, when his hand passed right through the door.

"Lovely." He sigh, and gestured me forwards.

I smirked and repeated his action. In a few minutes I was looking at a rather tall woman, with a weathered face and silky thin brown hair she wore up in a bun. She was dressed all in black.

"Hello Madame, I'm sorry for bothering you, but I was hoping if you had a place for me and my friend to stay the night, we'll be out of your hair by morning." I took off my hat as a show of respect.

    She blinked at me, taking a few seconds to process my words. "Ah yes, if you don't mind getting a bit dirty, you're welcome to sleep in the loft in our barn, where is your friend?"

    Ren's smile faded, his shoulder slumped, they couldn't see him. He looked strangely even more depressed then usual.

    "Oh uh, did I say friend? Sorry, I was separated from my caravan a few days ago. It's been, um, hard adjusting to traveling alone." I said, feeling my face grow red.  What a ridiculous lie.

    She smiled sympathetically. "You poor dear, come in, we're just sitting down to dinner."

She turned to go inside and Ren mouthed what about me? In my direction. I'll get some food for you. I mouthed back, holding up the sack, then I waved my hand towards the large white barn they had behind the house. Ren sighed and started walking towards it.

I followed the woman into her house, and was immediately met by the smell of good old fashioned home cooking. Sweet honey, it had been a long time since I'd had a proper meal.

    The inside of the house was small, but very homey, she led me to a room with a small table with more people crowded around it. There was an older man, probably the woman's husband, the next oldest were two boys who looked like twins, and three more girls, each a little younger than the one before them. Each of them them turned to stare at me, and probably my hair, as I stood awkwardly in the doorway. I noticed they all had the same shade of stormy blue eyes, and they all looked very sad, and dressed mostly in dark colors.

    "Everyone, this is, what did you say your name was dear?" The mother asked, looking at me.

    "Galia." I answered politely, with a small curtsey.

    "Yes, Galia was separated from her caravan, she just needs a place to stay for the night. She is our guest." The mother introduced. "I'm Mrs. Droughtsbury by the way, and this is my husband and children."

    "We're Phil and Fred." Announced one of the twins, the one with darker brown hair, assuringly Phil. Fred nodded.

    "I'm Poppy." Announced the oldest of the girls, her brown hair had blonde streaks through it.

    "I'm Lucy, and the baby's name is Angelica." The second oldest daughter commented, pushing the baby's chair a little closer to the table.

    The baby giggled. I smiled softly and Phil instantly patted a seat right next to him.

    "You can sit next to me." He offered. I accepted, but what was really on my mind was the smell of food. It had gotten stronger now that I was closer to the source.

    Mrs. Droughtsbury left and came back with a steaming plate of rolls, then with a plate of ribs.

    I ate delicately, even thought all I wanted to do was tear right into the bitterly deliciousness of the bread, and rip through the tender seasoned meat of the ribs, but I forced myself to eat slowly. It wasn't healthy to consume large amounts after one has had so little. It was a fabulous meal, I saved two rolls and four ribs for Ren. He would thank me later for sure, this was a very fancy meal, very fancy for a little town house out in the middle of nowhere.

    "That was fabulous." I said after I was done. "What was the occasion to cook something so divine, surely you didn't foresee my arrival." I joked, trying to be funny, and prove Ren somewhat wrong.

    It had the opposite effect. Mrs. Droughtsbury along with her entire family seemed to fall into a deeper sadness, although it was clear they had been pretty put out already.

    "It's a memorial dinner." She explained. "One of my sons died a few weeks ago."

    I felt my skin grow hot with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

    Nobody would meet my eye. Mrs Droughtsbury sighed. "It's alright, we're getting though it. Phil, can you show Galia where she is to sleep tonight? I offered her a place in the hayloft."

    Phil bit his lip. "Thomas's bed is-"

    Halfway through his sentence I realized he was offering to give up his dead brother's space to me.

    "Oh no, it's quite alright." I interrupted. "I quite like haylofts."

    He led me out the door and I reveled in the fact there would be no more awkward situations for the night. Or so I thought, because Phillip seemed to lift out of his momentary grief, he turned to me once we reached the pale white barn, I saw the dirt around the door had been disturbed. Ren was already inside.

    He pulled aside the door, and I walked into a large, surprisingly well-lit space with a massive ceiling, the walls were lined with stalls, some had cows, pigs, three had horses. I admired the simple beauty of it, and ignored the smell. There was a ladder leading up to a platform, yellow straw draped over the edge, to my relief I saw Ren's face peek over the wood.

    "Oh, well, good night. I'll be leaving bright and early tomorrow and need a good night's rest-" I started, but shut my mouth immediately when Phil laid a finger on my lips.

    "It's pretty cold up there at night, and there are rats. Do you need someone to keep you company?" He asked, his voice deep and seductive.

    Oh sweet savory biscuits no. I pushed aside his hand and frowned. "No, I can manage just find on my own."

    I tapped my dagger on my waist for emphasis. Phil got the wrong message and put an arm around my middle.

    "Can you dance?" He inquired, seeming almost bloodthirsty.

    My mind whirled with possible excuses while my face turned red. Phil was handsome, for a farm boy, but I felt about as much attraction to him as I did with a tomato. Ren was climbing down the ladder when I blurted out the worst possible excuse I could have thought up.

    "I can dance perfectly fine, but I already have a boyfriend." I spat, regretting my words instantly.

    Ren slipped and nearly fell off the ladder, turning to stare at me in pure astonishment. Phil didn't see him of course, but he looked disappointed.

    "Oh, really? What's his name?" Phil asked, suspiciously.

    "Er." Nothing came to mind immediately. "Ren."

    Ren fell off the last few rungs of the ladder and landed on his butt in the dirt. He was giving me the strangest look. It was cross between 'Can you repeat that please?' And 'I can not believe you just said that.'

"Oh, well. Next time you see this Ren, you had better tell him he's a really lucky guy." Phil sighed and walked out of the room.

"Oh I will." I assured him. Ren would be lucky if he never mentioned this ever again.

"Gaaaalia?" He asked, pointing at me. "Is there something I need to know?"

"Oh please." I snorted at him. "I'd think you'd know if I were your girlfriend you moron."

He sighed as I waited for him to get up and climb the bloody ladder.

"Oh I know, don't you worry about that M'lady."

The next morning the Droughtsbury family insisted they say goodbye to me before we go. I could see Lucille standing otop one of the hills, waiting for us as each of the family gave me thier personal fairwell.

Ren had woken up with a really bad headache again. I didn't really know what to do about it, I would ask Lucille when we caught up to her, but he stood staring at the family as they went back inside the house. There was something off about him today.

"Come on, let's go." I said, pulling him by the arm.

Surprisingly, he didn't budge.

"Come on Ren what's the matter?" I questioned, he bit his lip.

When he talked, his voice was shaky. "There's something about this place Galia. I didn't bother you with it yesterday but, I don't know. I feel like I'm forgetting something important." He sighed, miserable.

"It's just the headache getting to you-" I tried, he started walking away with me.

"No it isn't, seeing those people, it makes me happy, but very sad for some reason. It's like waking up from a good dream you don't remember."

I frowned. Seeing Ren distressed was never a good thing, his chipper mood kept me feeling breezy even if it was annoying sometimes. We were going to start having an existential crisis here pretty quick.

"I think." He started, grasping the words like they hurt him. "I think that might have been my family."

I blinked at him, part of me hurt, I wanted to know what it felt like to have a family. "Well, we have to go back then, they need to know you're still alive-"

He dipped deeper into his sorrow, looking ready to shed tears. "I can't Galia, not as this half-living spirit. not until we remove our curses."

I bit my lip and realized it was true. He wouldn't be able to function properly in life for a long time.

I reached for his side and carefully, hesitantly, clutched his skinny hand in mine. He blushed, I don't know what the state of my skin color was but it sure wasn't it's normal pale tone.

"We're going to make it through this, you'll see your family again."

He smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem."