Kurt had not moved from his spot – the younger boy seemingly in a frozen trance, not reacting to Coopers questions or even taps on his shoulder. He didnt know if Kurt was waiting or if he was just stunned by the appearance of Blaine.

Questions buzzed through Coopers mind – emotions whirling around him: Blaine, he had finally saw Blaine again but his brother did not even react toward him at all. A sudden sense of dread pierced his heart; Kurt was right. Blaine wasnt exactly human, Cooper grimaced at the thought of his brother devouring the bandits head.

Speaking of bandits, Cooper stared at the pale boy in front of him, narrowing his hazel eyes; he was not amused by Kurts callous response to the bandit who had been bitten by the werewolf. What Kurt did was inhuman, almost as if Kurt was a beast himself.

Cooper shook his head, trying to clear his mind. The forest was eerily silent as he took in the surroundings, observing the vicinity. It was nothing but snow.

They waited for a long pause.

A sudden crack caught his attention. Cooper whipped to his left, guns poised, back against Kurt and he glanced at the direction of the noise. There was a soft coarse noise like a door creaking and Cooper raised a brow – that sounded way too familiar.

From the tall snow covered grass emerged a small bone pup, its black empty eye sockets fixated onto Cooper as it let out a happily bark that sounded like a door rasping. He stepped back slightly, guns still raised at the little creature who started to roll over in the snow, yipping in delight.

There was a shift from behind Cooper and he turned back just in time to see Kurt aiming an arrow at the smallish puppy.

"NO!" Cooper stepped in front of Kurt swiftly, blocking his aim.

Ice blue eyes were bitter and unfeeling as they latched onto Coopers ones. "No." Cooper ordered sternly, his voice curt. "Hes just a little puppy!" His voice wavered as the blue pools narrowed ever so thinly. The bow was lowered unhurriedly, lingering as Kurts defences were still up.

Cooper turned back to watch the bone pup who looked genuinely afraid, its bony tail down in between its legs, soft yips coming from it. He blinked – it looked terrified. Cooper eyed the bone pup interestedly, never had he seen a creature look so fearful of humans, in fact he thought they were only capable of feeling hunger or anger.

The skeleton puppy let out a soft bark, its ears pressed down and it dipped its head at Kurt faintly, before sitting on the snowy ground, looking quite restless. Cooper glanced at Kurt, who was apathetic as usual, an astringent frown upon his face.

"Were not going to hurt you." Cooper told the puppy sweetly, as he bent down to reach out his hand to pat it. He smiled at the excited wag of the tail as he slowly reached out his hand -

"Stop." Kurts rasp halted Coopers movement. "Its not wise to pat a bone pups head with your injured hand." He grabbed Coopers bag by the back and lifted him up effortlessly.

The bone pup let out a whine and started to chase its bony tail.

Cooper eyed Kurt, who dipped his head in apology to the little skeleton creature. He bent down and raised his hand out for the little creature to sniff. The bone puppy had stopped running in circles and waddled forward to whiff Kurts hand. It looked up at Kurt and to Coopers astonishment, nodded ever so slightly.

"Forgive me," Kurt whispered, loud enough for Coopers ears to hear. "I thought you were something else."

The skeleton puppy barked once and wagged its tail lively.

"We need a place to stay for the rest of the night." Kurt commanded bluntly, eyeing the bone pup, completely avoiding Coopers gaze. "I need to re-plan our hunt." He sounded unnerved and Cooper shivered by the lack of buoyancy in the younger boys voice.

"We have tents." Cooper turned to open his backpack, "We could camp here –"

"Are you honestly daft? That thing could come back here and kill us." Kurt growled, glaring at Cooper now as he turned to the chestnut haired boy.

Cooper felt a quiet sense of anger rising in his chest. "That thing is my brother." He hissed back. "And if you have a better plan where we can camp, by all means, lead the way."

Ice bitter blue eyes glowed with a distant resentment for a millisecond but vanishing into something more of a lackadaisical attitude as Kurt rolled his eyes. The younger boy pointed at the bone pup that was nibbling on its tail. "Were going to its home."

Cooper blinked and there was a happy bark from the ground as the skeleton puppy bounced on its bony paws, looking excited. Cooper never once thought the creatures were capable of emotion – rather yet understand humans. He turned to Kurt, who was gazing into the distance, an unreadable expression on the boys pale face. Inhuman. Cooper shuddered.

There was a quiet pause before Kurt shifted his faraway glance back to the puppy. "Lead the way please." He told the skeleton puppy and to Coopers amazement, it seemed to understand and started to waddle forward, looking back from time to time to make sure that they were following.

They trudged forward. Cooper noticed the younger boys defences were still up, him holding his bow and watching the forest night with cautious eyes. The forest seemed to have calmed down, if that made any sense – it was quieter and there were no more other creatures to be seen around. It was starting to look like an ordinary forest.

He followed the tiny skeleton puppy forward, finding himself nearing more snow and lesser rocks. The terrain seemed easier to walk through and he wondered if they were doing the wise thing to be trailing after this creature. The bone pup turned around and barked a few times.

Cooper glanced at Kurt, who was eyeing the creature with an indecipherable expression.

They stopped walking and Cooper raised a brow questioningly at Kurt, but he was ignored by the other party.

Annoyed, Cooper glared at the younger boy. "Why are we stopping?"

Kurt turned to him lazily, scoffing slightly. "We are here." He raised his arm out and pointed to the west, where a small cave stood, covered in thick snow; hidden by the foliage of the forest. If one didnt look hard enough, he would miss the sight of a small cave entrance.

The small skeleton creature bounded forward, only pausing to bark back at them once before continuing to head straight ahead.

Kurt trailed after the creature, lowering his bow and not even looking back to check if Cooper was following him. Cooper let out a huff and warily entered the cave, only to be greeted by bones – the cave was surrounded in bones.

The brown haired man stopped in his tracks, the stench of rotting bones hitting his nostrils and he froze when he saw the movement within those bones on the cave floor. He looked up nervously at where Kurt was standing, in the pile of bones (human bones, Cooper deduced, fear rising in his throat) glancing amusedly at Cooper.

"We are safe here." He told Cooper, and to the bone pup that was gleefully prancing around the younger boy, "Thank you."

"Safe?" Cooper murmured in bewilderment, we are surrounded by rotting human bones! Cooper moved forward carefully, noticing more bone pups emerge out of the bones on the cave floor. He hastily walked over to Kurt, feeling his face burn in embarrassment when Kurt let out a sardonic chuckle.

"Set out the tent if you dont want to sleep on bones." Kurt told him and without warning, plopped onto the bones with a loud clang, the noise echoing around the cave. There were barks of curiosity and Cooper felt his heart skip a beat when bone pups started to surround Kurt, all yipping quite animatedly.

Hastily, the brown haired man turned to his backpack, pulling out an old greying tent that Burt had passed to him earlier in the evening. It smelt liked mouldy cheese, but it was a comforting scent – something human other than blood and bones. Glancing at the cave floor, he charily pushed the human bones aside, making a space for his self to set up the tent.

He looked to his left to see Kurt resting on a pile of greying bones, surrounded by small bony creatures all sniffing him and inquisitively nudging the younger boy. Kurt looked distant, his normally detached face now filled with unease as he picked on a bone with his hands, staring up at the cave walls.

The brown haired man laid a groundsheet on the cave floor, still observing the other party whilst slowly assembling the tent. He saw Blaine – he saw Blaine? Cooper heaved the poles of the tent, his heart in disarray at the image of his younger brother guzzle the bandits head. He shuddered slightly, sighing as he continued fixing up the tent.

"Your hand is hurt." Came a bored declaration from Kurt.

Cooper turned to the younger boy, his blue eyes watching Cooper indifferently. Nodding, the brown haired man looked down on his bloodied hand then back to Kurt, who was raising his eyebrow.

"I didnt get bitten. I told you already." Cooper snorted, rolling his eyes, but feeling less tense at the boys remark for he was starting to feel a little uneasy with the silence between them.

Kurt blinked a few times before shooing the bone pups around him away and stood up. Cooper watched warily as the younger boy walked toward him, his pale arm darting out to grasp Coopers right hand.

The brown haired man gasped at the cold fingers of Kurt as they trailed along his dried up bloodied mess injury – he grimaced at the sight, hes been through worse but it was definitely a first of a werewolf scratch.

"Its not too deep. A minor scratch is all." Kurt was mumbling to himself, lifting Coopers hand up and staring at it as if it was a specimen to behold.

Before Cooper could pull his hand back or make snarky reply about how it was obviously a minor wound, he froze at the sight of a faint light bluish hue that was surrounding his right hand. Like a bright light pulsing through his fingertips, slowly seeming to close the open wound of his hand. Cooper gasped in incredulity, was this magic?

He glanced up hurriedly at Kurt, who was eyeing Cooper, a complete look of detachment on his pale elfish face.

"Its always better not to have an open wound." Kurt explained boredly, pulling his hands away from Coopers, rolling his eyes and at once the bluish glow disappeared.

Cooper hastily scrutinized his own hand. It was healed – it looked as if nothing had actually scratched him. He glanced at Kurt, who was moving back to his spot. The boy isnt human! He knows magic – was he a witch?

"Youre not human." Cooper announced loudly before continuing his setup for his tent. "I knew it. You had that fire arrow thingy; your eyes are too goddamn blue to be natural and this! Healing magic!"

"I knew it." He repeated proudly, pegging the poles of the tent before turning to Kurt, a smug grin on his face.

Kurt didnt seem fazed. In fact, he seemed as uninterested as always. There was a long pregnant pause before he spoke, his voice solemn and low.

"I told you before - if you have hunted as many beasts as I have – whether I was forced to kill or not – you start becoming inhuman yourself."

The familiar sentence rung in Coopers head and he stood, watching Kurt as the younger boy rested on his back against the bones on the cave floor. An epiphany hit him.

Voice shaking, he spoke out.

"What if that happened to Blaine?"

There was a full minute of silence, the only sounds heard was the shuffling of bones and the barks of the skeleton puppies, moving around.

Kurt cleared his throat.

Your brother," He began, and Cooper was stunned to hear the uneasiness in the usually confident sardonic boy, "is something Ive never encountered before."

Before Cooper could retort something, Kurt cut in, "I have researched on Wendigoes. I have seen Wendigoes. Wendigoes dont take the form of a human – they can imitate voices but no. Never have they been able to take the form of a human." He was muttering hastily, his blue eyes wide and bright.

"Blaine is still alive," Cooper summarized happily, grinning.

"Even if he did turn into a Wendigo, he cant take the form of his old self." Kurt shook his head, sighing and rubbing his eyes.

"Blaine is still alive!" Cooper repeated himself, nodding at Kurt.

Blue eyes glowered at his brown hazel ones.

"Your brother just ate a bandits head." Kurt hissed, his eyes narrowed dangerously, "Your brother can run inhumanly fast." He emphasised on the words your brother scowling darkly at Cooper. "Your little brother might be alive but he is a monster."

Cooper frowned and broke eye contact with Kurt before entering his tent. Kurt was mean, but he was right. Blaine wasnt Blaine anymore. The boy he saw in the woods looked like his little brother but that was all.

He sat in his tent for the longest time, unable to sleep.

"Kurt?" He tried.

There was no reply and Cooper almost decided to try to sleep – though it was probably highly impossible to do so with the idea of him sleeping in a cave of human bones – when he heard Kurts voice.

"Im not a witch." The young boy declared from outside the tent, sounding slightly annoyed. "Witch magic is different from what I did."

There was a long pause.

"What magic did you do?" Cooper questioned bluntly, imaging Kurts face curve into an angry grimace.

"Elf." Kurt replied swiftly, staggering Cooper suddenly at his honest reply. He didnt think Kurt would even reply. In fact he thought he would receive a sarcastic remark about how he should mind his own business.

"You are an elf?" Cooper probed gently, thinking about Kurts elfish features, the bright blue eyes, the unblemished pale skin and the ability to connect with the creature of the forest: it was all elf like. Kurt was an elf, no doubt about it.

He heard a snort from outside.

"God no," was the reply and Cooper furrowed his brows. There was a sudden halt there of their conversation and Cooper couldnt help his curiosity that was building up. Quickly he peeked outside his tent door, seeing Kurt still in the same position as he was before.

"But you did elf magic!" He stated stubbornly. "And your eyes and your elfish features – then what are you?"

Kurt turned his head to face Cooper, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement.

"I dont have to be an elf to do elves magic." He grunted, rolling his eyes, sounding more relaxed then Cooper had ever seen him before. Those eyes fixated their gaze at him coolly.

"My mother taught me magic." He told Cooper, a sudden look of despair washing through those ice blue eyes.

"I look like an elf because my mother was an elf."