FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

4

The Phranhikaf were gathered in the open space before Elderhall. Their tense faces were painted orange by the flames that encircled them. Terror rose in their chests with the dingy, brown smoke and the rumors of the dark beast that had encircled them; however, their fear remained an undercurrent to their wrath. After all, they were the fear of these grasslands; eighty-four warriors, each one blooded and proven in battle. Among their number there was not one frail or feeble frame, no teat-latched infant unable to hold a blade. The fire was their tool and their weapon, an inconvenience to be swatted away. The beast was another matter. Every member of the tribe was murmuring epithets against the useless girl who failed to satisfy the demon and allowed this cataclysm to occur.

"<Shut your mouths!>" roared the chief, casting off the heavy furs that signified his office. Sweat ran down the heavily tattooed skin of his massive frame and dripped from his low brow into his eyes. Thinking through a plan was hard with the constant jabbering around him; he was not chieftain by grace of wit. Capturing that weird, cursed, nomad brat and making her a slave had been a stroke of luck that put him in high standing with his clan and placed him within reach of his desire. He achieved that by killing the previous chief in his sleep; and he maintained it by making sure no one did the same to him.

Wiping the sweat from his eyes, he said, "<We all know who is to blame for this and perhaps she's out of our misery. The demon has destroyed the sacred grove, probably devoured the Ghel, and has trapped us. We have to deal with it first. Later, we can see if the slave escaped the demon's fire and make her pay for her failure.>"

A chorus of shouts responded and one voice rose out of the crowd, "<Yeah! First the hellbeast, then we punish that worthless bi-->"

"<That is enough.>"

Together they searched for the stern woman who spoke. Her voice had seemed to come from every direction at once, yet from no farther than an arm's length. A breeze blew in, fanning the flames into towering walls on all sides and reducing their world to the huts and hall on a rough circle of dirt. A voice cried out in their midst and the group turned to follow an outstretched hand. Where the sacred grove was crumbling in on itself loomed a dark silhouette. Four luminous eyes glared down at the crowd from a monstrous head.

_ "<You curse me as an evil thing, without knowledge of my nature or my intentions. I have seen, however, in the memories of the one you sent as a sacrifice, all of the cruelty and viciousness that your people have wrought upon her. It is you who are evil things and you have all earned a fitting punishment.>"_

The dark hulk glanced downward and the brigands followed its gaze. For a moment they could only see the fire; then a wavering shadow appeared in the flames. The shadow resolved itself into a human form, which strode slowly and confidently through the inferno. Cae emerged naked from the flames and paused. Her arms and legs were coated with a dark layer of soot and ash that cracked and fell away where the joints bent. Beneath the dust, her tarnished-copper skin seemed to glow faintly. The tattoo on her forehead had changed from the blueish-green they remembered to a bright red, like a blade freshly drawn from the coals of a forge. She surveyed the people before her.

"<Long have I lived among and unwillingly served you, the murderers of my people,>" she called to the assembled brigands. Angry, savage faces were the only reply. "<You tormented me for thirteen years, then cast me aside to be consumed for the safety of this village.>" She raised an open hand upward to Ishné and continued, "<You placed me upon an altar to feed her flames; but, as you see, her fires can harm me no more than yours could. Instead of destroying me, you have introduced me to an ally. Now, you shall all taste the fate to which you sent my mother, my father, and the rest of my people.>"

The furious flush of their faces deepened throughout her address. As she finished, one of the warriors lifted her spear and charged, shrieking unintelligibly. With reflexes born of long practice avoiding cast stones and other objects, Cae sidestepped the thrust and took hold of the haft. Smoke rose from between her soot-blackened fingers as the wood and leather cord beneath them smoldered. Her other hand covered the warrior's face, immediately searing the flesh. The woman's shrieks took on a desperate, frenzied tone as she released her spear and grabbed Cae's arm with both hands, which themselves quickly succumbed to the heat. Cae took a half-step forward and pushed, toppling the warrior backward onto the ground. The assembled mass murmured angrily but looked from the woman writhing on the ground to the strange pair before them with increasing uncertainty. Growing more confident, Cae glanced at the spear she still held, now burning in her grasp. The girl took a half step forward and hurled it over the heads of the crowd. Half of them tore their gaze away to follow the missile's arc. The tufts of decorative fur and braided grass which were wrapped around the haft below the point left a trail of fluttering sparks through the air. The blade lodged with a muffled thump in the thatched roof of the hall.

One of the elders shouted as the dry grass ignited and the flames quickly spread. With a roar the chief sprang toward Cae, followed immediately by the rest. They came as a whole; eighty-three men, women, and youths hellbent to destroy her. Sweating bodies jostled for forward positions in the crowd; each of them wished to be the first to push the point of their weapon through the girl. When the swiftest of them had marked half of the distance to Cae, Ishné stepped forward and stood over her, embracing the girl with her forelimbs. She planted her remaining legs to steady herself and sank the tips of her spread toes into the soil, stretching her wings to their full span. The splayed pinions blurred in the wavering air that surrounded them. Before the attackers could recognize their peril, the wings swept hard, down and forward. A wave of superheated air buffeted the Phranhikaf, knocking them backward, followed by a dual cyclone of flames drawn from the inferno that still raged behind her. Their clothes ignited moments before their bodies. Wrapped tightly in Ishné's embrace, Cae squeezed her eyes shut against the sight. The girl buried her nose and mouth in the crook of her right arm, trying not to smell the cooking flesh as the blast engulfed her tormentors. The sound of crackling fat and screaming assaulted her still-open ears. She couldn't find a way to block it all out at once, and no part of it failed to remind her of the last night of the Antsezi, the night she lost everything.

As the wriggling and wailing stilled, Ishné released the girl. Cae forced herself to survey the broader scene. The flames were encroaching into the village from outside and spreading faster through Elderhall. Over the roar of the fires and the rushing wind, little else could be heard. Whatever sense of closure she had sought had failed to wrest itself from the scene of horrors. There was no bringing back her people and no erasing the things that had been done to her in the village. The suffering and obliteration of a small tribe of murderous thieves would save the lives of many future travelers; but death was death and it would never be something she could feel wholly good about.

Ishné watched the scene impassively. She looked down when she felt the girl's shoulder rest against her forelimb. Relief, sadness, and fear warred with each other in Cae's mind. Ishné bent her head down and touched the tip of her dark muzzle to the smooth skin atop the girl's head, saying, "Perhaps it would be best if we departed, Cae." This earned her a weary smile.

"Yes, perhaps so." She wiped at the soot, ash, and tears on her face with her forearm, stood in thought for a moment and muttered, "First, I need to gather some things."

Cae dashed into the burning hall and across the main chamber. All along both sides were the sleeping quarters of the clan elders; she passed the doorways without a spare glance. At the back wall were the entrances to the chief's quarters and a separate chamber for his wives. Between the doors sat a raised dais where the chief stood for clan meetings; above it was one her objectives.

A long, thin bow and a quiver of arrows hung crossed upon the wall. They had been a gift to a past chieftain by a warlord who hired the clan to stop his enemies' forces from reaching his coastal estate during some long-past war. The bow and quiver were forged in far off Nifa. They were a splendid example of Nifal metal craft: heating and fusing a light, pliable metal with a heavier, stronger alloy, which were then repeatedly hammered and folded until they formed a single, marbled blank from which to forge tools and weapons. The light of the growing inferno around her rippled beautifully across the variegated surface of the metal. Inside the quiver were a dozen thin arrows, whose shafts were steel but the heads and fletching were also intricately wrought from Nifal alloy. To the girl's delight, the bowstring itself was made of a sturdy, braided wire. The set was meant to be a decoration, symbolic of the war-like recipients. As far as she knew, they had never been used. Cae grinned as she ran back out of the longhouse, clutching the weapons to her bare chest. Perhaps they were meant only as decorations, but under the circumstances tools that could not burn may prove useful to her.

Inside the village pantry she tossed a small knife, some dried meats and fruits, flatbread, and nuts into a small metal box with a thick glass lining. The lining was deceptive, for within the glass was an open space, a vacuum that served to insulate the contents. She closed the clasp and stared at the deeply engraved image of a rising sun with five rays that adorned the top of the box. Thin, trembling fingers brushed across the grooves, turning the etching black with soot.

Cae returned to the the yard, clutching the items that she had grabbed. Stooping, she picked up the pendant that she had dropped when she fended off the spear and added it to the box as quickly as she could, to avoid exposing the things inside to too much heat. She looked up at her new friend and asked, "Where will we go?"

"I have slept through many changes to this world. I do not yet know the full lay of this land or where would be safest for you. Also," a flicker of embarrassment reached the girl, "_I know little of what your kind needs in the way of shelter and food. There are areas in the mountains where plants grow sparse enough for me to move without causing excessive fire and bringing attention onto us. But there may not be food to sustain you." _

Cae pondered that. She had gone hunting with her family as a young child and was taught how to make traps. These skills were necessary for long caravans, where weight of supplies had to be carefully balanced against their merchant cargo. She had learned about edible and toxic plants in much the same way. While living in this village, she was forced to construct and maintain household items, like baskets and utensils, as well as the warrior's hunting tools and weapons. Between traps and the bow and arrows, she should be able to manage meat. Fire for cooking and warmth wouldn't be a problem now, would it?

The girl chuckled softly at that thought and said, "I can find what I need to survive. The mountains sound fine to me. Being near other people isn't something I am ready for anyway. I also secured enough food to sustain me for a few days." She lifted the box for Ishné to see.

Ishné blinked down at box dubiously. "Are the contents safe from my heat?"

"I think so," Cae said with sad smile, pointing to the emblem, "it is one of my people's insulated storage boxes. They would keep important things in these to protect them from damage by fire or cold. The villagers here used them as simple containers."

Now that the girl had the supplies that she needed, the pair struck off quietly, leaving the village to burn. Rather than exhaust energy by flying, they walked back through the grassland to the circle where they had met, unconcerned about the wake of wildfire that spread behind them. They passed by the decorated post close enough that Ishné's heat ignited the wood. Cae glanced at it and shuddered, thinking of how things were supposed to have gone.

The girl looked up and said, "Ishné, thank you," earning her a pause and a nod.

The pair walked on as night fell and shrill calls echoed from the long grass. The insects and birds were forced to take flight, and the rodents and frogs retreated into their burrows, as the grassland burned in the wake of the mismatched couple. The trek took days at the human's slow pace. At times, Ishné would kneel to allow her up onto her back, but the girl would not suffer such treatment for long. She preferred her feet. Cae acquiesced to crossing the cold river on her companion, gasping at the fresh steam and fog that billowed around them.

They reached the rocky security of the mountains and located a shallow cave, within which was enough space for both of them to fit. The little box of supplies, beginning to warp on the outside from its constant exposure to heat, was left outside the cave to protect it and its dwindling contents. The girl was exhausted from the events of the past few days. Her large companion lay upon the floor and beckoned her to lie close. Cae curled close against hot, dark skin and quickly succumbed to sleep. Ishné remained awake, still fresh from hibernation. She listened to the girl's steady breathing and to the faint singing of the universe.

---

5

Morning found Ishné basking in the sunlight once more, as Cae set to work making a handful of traps and the tools she would need for securing food. She had a little fire burning for warmth. Cae had quickly learned that she couldn't work too near to her companion. The wood she had gathered for trap-making materials ignited when she moved close to Ishné for heat. Amused more than frustrated, Cae repurposed them into a less destructive heat source and returned for more wood. She had recognized some of the shrubs farther down the slope as water-loving varieties and found a thin, spring-fed stream, where she slaked her thirst. At least that was one need satisfied. Traps would have to take care of the rest, until she built up the strength necessary to try the bow.

Cae dropped the split rock that she had been using as a rudimentary ax next to her knife and sighed. She flexed her sore, scraped fingers and shook off the building exhaustion. On top of fatigue from hunger and labor, she was still tired from a restless night's sleep. Memories from her captivity in the village--and her retributive visit there--frequently woke her throughout the evening. The dreams reached such an intensity that they effected her companion, as well. Without the need to search the girl's mind, Ishné could see the same visions and feel the same emotions that troubled Cae's sleep.

Each time she woke, shuddering in the darkness of the shallow cave, she would feel Ishné's heat wrapped around her and see her eyes shining. With no moonlight to illuminate her surroundings or sunlight to send shifting colors dancing in the abyssal darkness of her skin, Ishné was all but invisible. Only a quartet of bright eyes could be seen hovering in the gloom. While the sight was unsettlingly alien, the heat of Ishné's body was a welcome blanket around her. Cae had spent so many years shivering in odd corners of the brigand village that she had forgotten what it was like to feel warmth at night. Ishné would touch her gently on the shoulder with her chin and hum a gentle, strange melody in her mind; her hot breath feeling and smelling like desert stone after a midsummer sun-shower. After a few moments, Cae's heart would settle in her chest and she would stroke the unseen cheek. With a whispered, "Thank you. I'm okay now," she would lay back against Ishné's broad side and drift off again to the slow rhythm of her companion's breathing.

Cae finished work on her last trap and looked over at the huge beast, languidly sprawled across the stone of the mountainside. She couldn't help but chuckle at the similarity struck between Ishné and the large, sleek cats that prowled the savanna and forests of the eastern provinces. She had occasional seen them at a distance while traveling with her tribe. Once, she saw some much closer in a park in a large city to the north. They were well kept and had no need to hunt, so they would while away most days rolling in the grass beneath the shade trees in their pavilion.

The analogy didn't stretch much further. Ishné could hardly have fit in the pavilion and would likely have set it and the palace ablaze just being there. Also unlike the cats, she had three pairs of strong legs and two pairs of wings. In the light of the sun, the moving colors highlighted her strangeness.

Ishné's body, though enormous, was proportionately slender. Thinking about it now, as she watched the beast lounge in the sun, Cae likened the shape of her body to that of a particularly long stoat. Her legs were strange, seeming somewhat like those of a horse, if more thickly muscled; but, her feet were far stranger. The three long fingers and three shorter ones on each of her fore and middle limbs could grasp and manipulate objects like the hands of a person. The three shorter fingers counterposed the longer ones, and all were held tightly together at full extension when she walked. The prints she left behind were almost deer-like, though alien and bizarre. Her wings splayed out to the sides beneath her as she lay, holding her body still with the belly facing the full sun. The long tail that stretched away from her rump swept back and forth across the stone at intervals.

She did not have fangs or teeth of any sort, just a broad upper jaw whose shallow cleft split the roundness of her snout before fading away at her lowest pair of nostrils and a queer lower jaw that seemed to have three segments. Each side of the lower jaw was attached to the middle segment by strong, elastic skin. When the Ishné yawned or laughed, her jaws described a wide cone or dish, whose inner lining was even more light hungry than the rest of her; no hint of rainbows or reflection showed there. Her mouth didn't seem serve any purpose that Cae could guess. She never ate or drank with it and always spoke directly to the girl's mind.

"Ishné?"

_ "Yes?"_

"When we met, you told me that you do not feed. How can a living creature have such strength and vitality without eating? Are you magic?"

Ishné remained on her back; but she shifted her head and opened her eyes to look at the girl. The eyes seemed to be questioning.

_ "You misremember, Cae. I told you that I do not feed in a manner with which you would be familiar. Why, I'm feeding now, little one."_

Cae crinkled her nose at the diminutive term. She could hardly argue with the contrast, however; so confusion quickly supplanted offense and she looked at Ishné with a raised eyebrow. This earned her a brief titter.

_ _ Ishné explained, "My kind do not take in solid or liquid matter like all of the life that you know. In many ways, we are like the plants of this world; though, they still require nutrients from the soil. We absorb the energy given off by stars, including this world's sun, and our bodies change that radiation into whatever they may need. Some energy is converted to matter to grow our bodies and some is used to fuel us. What isn't immediately used is stored within us: rather like when animals grow fat to store their unused energy. The heat we give off is waste, unusable energy."

"It does sound rather like magic." The girl nodded in a matter-of-fact manner. If she had heard something like this a week ago, it would have sounded strange and ridiculous, even for magic; but she could not argue with the things she had seen.

_ "That word again," Ishné said, squinting at the girl. _"'Magic'. My kind do not seem to have a concept that matches it. What is it?"

"Magic is--" Cae trailed off. What was magic? She thought back to the tales her mother had told her and to stories whispered around the center fire of the brigand village. "It's a sort of power or force that exists in the world around us. Very special people and animals can tap into it, and use it to make things happen that couldn't otherwise be done."

Amused and curious, Ishné probed further. "Such as?"

"There are stories of people who could change their form, becoming animals. Magic could be used to heal the sick and wounded. Some magic users can make water appear from dry ground or," she paused and looked at the lounging creature, "or create fire without flint or tinder."

"Have you seen magic?"

The girl shook her head. "No. Before I saw you, I had never seen anything I could have called magic. In the cities and towns where we traded there were street performers who would play-act as magicians; but their crafts were all illusion. They were wise men who learned about substances which react together to make fire or smoke. Healers were much the same. They simply knew of the healing effects of plants and minerals."

_ "So, is it then that 'magic' is what your kind call something that you cannot explain with your current knowledge?"_

Cae paused then replied, "I suppose so, yes." She hadn't thought of it that way before.

"I rather like that. Your kind manage to make it sound so much more exciting than 'the Unknown'." Her eyes grew serious. "However, it comes dangerously close to simply accepting the unknown as unknowable."

Cae crossed her arms over her chest and frowned pensively. "So, the things we see as magical should be explored until we understand them?"

_ "Indeed!"_

"Then, I should explore you thoroughly!" The bright laugh that followed broke with a hiccoughing squeak and clapped her hands over her face which had abruptly turned red and become hotter. "That came out wrong," she whispered behind her palms.

Ishné watched her, puzzled. Cae's face had gone unusually hot, as though she had a fever. However, the girl was radiating embarrassment so strongly that Ishné began to feel self-conscious, too. There had been only a flash of a thought before the blush, so brief that she did not grasp it. The girl's mind had then slammed shut behind a wall of embarrassment. An explanation would have to wait. After several awkward moments of silence, the girl calmed down and changed the subject back to feeding.

"So, you don't eat meat or plants or souls, you eat...light?"

A soft chuckle danced across the bond between their minds. "Yes and no," Ishné said. "There is much more that comes out of stars than what you call 'light'. Come here and sit next to me. Then, look at the little tree west of the opening of the cave in which we spent the night."

Cae stood up and approached Ishné. She sat cross legged on the ground and absentmindedly ran a hand along Ishné's neck, enjoying her heat and eliciting a happy rumble. Just like a cat, she thought to herself, amused. She looked over at the stunted juniper tree. The mountain winds had not been kind to the poor plant. It was barely taller than she was; and its grey trunk and branches were contorted. Ragged patches of dull, blue-green, scaly shoots stubbornly hung on in the midst of otherwise bare twigs. Despite its rough life, the living branches were brimming with clusters dark blue berries. All in all, it was like many other mountain trees.

_ "Now, concentrate on what you see. The tree at the center, the stone around it, even the sky and the edges of your vision where it goes blurry. Let your sight occupy as much of your thought as possible."_

"Okay," the girl said, focusing. "Now what?"

"Now, I can see what you see." The voice in her mind felt suddenly closer, more intimate even though neither of them had moved. Ishné's tone was strangely sad. "Some of your memories poured into my mind when we embraced the first time. Memories are never as vivid as immediate perception; but, it is strange how little your eyes see. It is no wonder you are confused."

The girl beside her shifted uncertainly and glanced over at her. Ishné could now see herself from Cae's perspective. A huge creature filled most of her limited field of vision. Her smooth, dark skin caught the sun and sent it shifting in delicate rainbows through its surface. She looked herself in her own eyes for a brief, unsettling moment before pulling back fully into herself.

"I am," Cae said. "You talk of energy from the sun; but all we witness is its light and heat. What else is there to see or feel?"

_ "Would you like me to show you?"_

"Please! I want to understand everything that I can about you."

"Very well."

Ishné shifted her head to look directly at the juniper. She closed the smaller eyes that sat forward on her head and focused on the tree with the larger pair. After a moment, the girl gasped. She had also been looking at the tree and her vision suddenly flipped upside down and broadened to match Ishné's perspective and wider field of view. The colors intensified and were joined by new colors she had never seen nor could name. The green shoots and deep blue berries had a strange tint over them. The trunk and branches were now different colors where the wood was living and where it was dead. The stones of the mountainside fluoresced and sparkled in ways she had never seen. Even the air wavered with strange new light. She wished she had names for these new hues.

Then, she noticed herself. Sitting off to the side with an expression of absolute amazement. A blush crept across her face and ears as she took in the sight of herself. Her skin radiated strange light, much like the sunlit rocks did. That radiance seemed stronger across her cheeks and ears; and an intense brightness wavered over the blue-green pigment of her tattoo. Her eyes, which had always struck a tenuous balance between black and brown, were shot with sparks of brilliant color. The hand that had been casually stroking Ishné's neck reached up and delicately brushed her cheek. She could feel Ishné's lingering heat on her fingers and palm; but the sight of them as they moved to her face took her breath away. Her hand, particularly the palm and fingers, glowed with the same light as her skin and the rocks, though greatly intensified. A trail of that light followed her fingertips across her cheek and she quickly realized that it was heat. The heat that transferred from Ishné to her hand, to her cheek was now fading slowly. But, her entire body was gradually glowing brighter with it. Because I am near her! She reached up to the tattoo, finding it warmer than the skin around it. She also noticed some parts of Ishné that were within the creature's field of vision; these shone so intensely with the same light that it was like staring at the sun.

Ishné smiled as she watched the girl take in the new experience. Just as Cae seemed to adjust to the change and began to find her voice. Ishné closed her eyes. The girl made a small disappointed moan.

"Cae, that was merely two of my eyes. Look back to the tree again."

The girl whispered, "Gods! There's more?"

Smiling, Ishné didn't answer. Instead, she opened her smaller pair of eyes, focused them back on the tree and let their vision flow across the mental bond. The girl made a small squeak and covered her mouth with her hand.

"Oh, Ishné..." she said breathlessly.

There were no familiar colors at all. Everything was eerily translucent and bathed in strange, pale hues. The tree had its familiar outline, but now there were structures within the trunk and branches that she recognized as normal of trees, but had only ever seen in flat cross-sections when wood was cut. There were shimmering layers of old growth with bulges and ripples where young branches had snapped off only to be covered by the tree's continued expansion, all previously concealed beneath the bark. Glints and sparks drifted slowly up the trunk and along the branches, into the shoots and out again. They followed tiny tracks like the streams that gather into a river. The roots that gripped the stone surface of the mountain now reached deep into cracks filled with loose soil that showed up dark beneath the rock, which itself was now a mist of glinting sparks. The darkness within the cave was replaced with a clear view of the interior walls. Cracks and fissures ran through the stone like the veins in quartz crystals she had seen in trinket shops.

Oh, but her body! Her bones reflected a strange light, shining softly. She could see faint outlines of her muscles and the softer things within her. A fluttering wisp appeared just behind her ribs, its movements in rhythm with the pulse she heard in her ear. Thousands of tiny rivers and tributaries branched out in all directions within her, thrumming with the same rhythm. Hovering in front of the bone of her forehead was the tattoo, faint and glittering like the rock-mist. Her teeth glinted in grinning jaws that would have seemed gruesome if the amazement was not so strong upon her. Again her hand passed across her face, tracing her lips as she followed the motion of the tiny bones in her fingers. The spaces where Ishné's body entered her vision were now blank voids with only faint wavers of weird hues.

The vision changed again as Ishné opened her other set of eyes, bathing everything in view with the familiar and new colors she had seen just moments ago. Now, she was seeing things as fully as Ishné could. The two types of sight blended and shifted as Ishné focused so that Cae could see the surface of things with hints of what went on below. Then it went dark. Cae blinked, her vision was back to normal. Everything seemed dull and faded. She was about to comment on her disappointment, when a sudden pain slammed through her head. She pitched over to one side, landing against Ishné. She lay there, cradling her head in her hand and breathing raggedly. Through the pain, she could just make out a faint song. It seemed almost like a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her; but the words, if there were any, were unrecognizable. The sun had risen quite high above them before the pain finally subsided.

Sitting up, she groaned weakly, "What happened?"

Ishné answered with a tinge of guilt, "Seeing through my eyes may have been more than your mind could handle, especially since you are already weak and weary. I'm sorry I have again hurt you."

Cae shook her head at the swell of remorse building in her companion's thoughts. She took Ishné's head in both of her hands and kissed her on the chin.

"Do not blame yourself, Ishné. We did not expect that result and it is better that we did not. Seeing with your sight was incredible and I would never wish to have missed it! One day, perhaps when I am stronger, I would like to share it again. I think I understand now how much more to sunlight there is; but, what kind of energy accompanies it?"

Ishné chuckled at that and rolled over onto her feet. She stretched her front legs out in front of her and arched her spine between her middle and back legs, describing a sinuous 'S' shape with her body. She then stepped forward, stretching her back legs out and arching between her front and middle legs. The process was so much like the post-nap stretching of a big cat that Cae laughed, clearly feeling better.

Ishné smiled at Cae and said, "The light is the energy. It comes out from all things in waves. But, like the waves caused by different sized stones dropping into a pond, the light waves have different power. Some are stronger than the light you see, some weaker. But all of it is energy. When the waves from a pebble reach the shore, they move grains of sand. When waves of light reach this world, they give their energy the material that makes up everything on it."

"Oh!" exclaimed the girl. "Like when stones become warm in the sun or water rises up as steam after a rainstorm?"

_ "Yes. You probably saw that your skin glowed brighter where you touched me. That is the same energy with which the sun heats the rocks and water."_

"Wait--" Cae trailed off, with an odd expression on her face.

_ "Yes?"_

"Heat is," she paused, a smile and a grimace struggling with one another, "You said that heat is the energy that your body does not use."

Ishné looked down at her, puzzled. "Yes."

_ _ "Heat is your...poo?" The girl wrinkled her nose and snickered.

Ishné laughed one of her genuine physical laughs, clearly amused by the comparison. As ripples of fire wriggled across her form, she answered, "That is a close analogy, but not entirely accurate."

The girl sat for a bit, smiling and wondering--not for the first time--just how alien her new friend really was. Was it even possible for the two of them to truly understand each other? A low growl from her stomach broke into her reverie.

"Are your devices ready?" Ishné asked.

"Yes. Though, I must let my hands cool before I handle them." She smiled, holding her hands up for Ishné to see. The heat still clung to them from holding her companion's head a moment ago. "Afterward, I'll place the traps down in the wooded areas of the slopes and check them later."

"Very well. I hope that you are successful at obtaining food. I do not wish to watch you starve. Having discovered loneliness and dispelled it, I would not wish it to return so soon. Clearly, I cannot accompany you, else my fires frighten the game and destroy you hunting ground. While you are gone, I will go up to the summit and observe the continent. Knowing that there is a race of intelligent, self-aware beings on this world--" Ishné trailed off pensively. She shook her head and concluded, "There is much that I must think about."

Puzzled, Cae nodded and with that the pair parted ways. Ishné began her ascent to the peak and Cae walked to and fro in their makeshift camp, waving her hands to cool them.

---

6

The girl's first goal was to return to the stream for more water. The traps and sundry she tied together with supple roots and slung over her back. These she dropped beside the stream when she arrived. She knelt by the burbling water, cupped her hands and drank deeply. The water felt like ice going down, just short of painful; but it cleared her head and woke her up. She filled her hands and dashed water onto her face a few times. It was the closest she would get to a bath in a while.

Her thirst quenched, the girl then scoured the ground for animal tracks and droppings. After a while, she found sign of small mammals and ground birds. She set snares on the trails to catch animals as they travelled to and from the water. There were also a handful of weighted baskets that she could rig to drop over small piles of seeds and berries. These she placed near patches of brambles where she found bird tracks entering and leaving. Finally, she took two forked branches--on which she had loosely woven thin strips of bark to create flat net-like paddles--down to a shallow pool where the deepening stream slowed around a bend.

Flying insects dipped and weaved over the surface of the water. Beneath the surface there were fish who split their time between treading the slow current and nipping at whatever insects chanced to land on the water. If she could catch some fish, she could hold out until she met success with her traps.

Gritting her teeth against the cold, Cae waded into the pool up to her thighs. She used both paddles to slowly coax a trio of fish toward the edge of the water. The paddle in her right hand darted forward and swung upward, carrying two of the fish out of the water and onto the grassy bank. Content to let the third fish go for now, she removed the thick moss from one of the large stones at the water's edge and quickly stepped out of the pool. She ran the moss over her legs to remove excess water before she became too cold. Under the circumstances, she could not risk illness.

Cae took the small knife that she brought from the village and gutted her catch. She buried their innards beneath a large rock, away from where all of her traps were set. No sense attracting scavengers and predators to her prey. Finished, she rubbed her hands clean in the frigid stream. The gutted fish would need to be kept moist and cool until she could cook them; so, she dipped the pad of moss that she used to dry herself into the stream, then wrapped it around the fish and tied the bundle with a bark strip from one of her paddle nets. She then made her way back toward the cave, passing her traps to reinforce their locations in her memory. If things worked out, she would find something caught in them by the morning.

On her way back up the slope, she caught sight of Ishné brooding upon the summit of the mountain. She paused in her ascent. While she was searching for food, she had been distracted from thinking about her new companion. The last few days had been a whirlwind of activity and she hadn't been able to process all of it. Now, she was free of the murderous clan who robbed her of her tribe and her family. She would manage to secure food and eventually could make her way back to civilization. But, was that what she wanted? She sat down on a flat stone and set the fish bundle next to her.

"I am without a people," she muttered to herself, wrapping her arms around her body and rubbing the gooseflesh from her skin.

Her fingers brushed the inverted sun on her forehead. Thinking of the brigands, of the slavers farther north, of the dishonest and cruel things that humans would do to their own kind. Could she risk going back if it might mean falling prey to such people again? Cae felt anxiety rise into her chest at the mere thought.

Her gaze turned back up the slope to the black shape perched on the peak. Could she even be sure of this new acquaintance? So far, she had only received kindness and compassion from Ishné. What if that changed? She shuddered. She couldn't withstand any more torture, especially not by some enormous creature from the stars. She raised her hands to her face to stop herself from crying out, a habit she had learned under the heavy hands of her former captors.

Don't let her hear you, the girl thought to herself as the anxiety rose to her throat and the noose of panic tightened. Don't draw attention; you'll be hurt again. Keep quiet!

Tears burned in her eyes and she slid off of the stone. She hugged her knees to her chest with one hand, keeping the other tight over her mouth. Quiet sobs wracked her body. A small but stern voice in her mind, her own voice, told her that these thoughts were nonsense. Ishné had only been good to her; and Cae didn't want to think of her in this light. But, they had only just met, asserted the stronger voice of panic. She didn't know where this strange animal really came from, what it was, what it wanted, or if it was an animal indeed. Perhaps the Ghel was right and Ishné was in truth a demon.

She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing. As long as she stayed quiet she was safe. No noise. No movement. Sound would bring punishment. Move and be beaten. Quiet. Still. Don't draw attention. She could stay safe inside her thoughts like she had through so many hard nights.

Her eyes snapped open. Her thoughts! Gods, Ishné could see and hear her thoughts! There was no silence. No hiding. No safety. She heard. She definitely heard. Punishment would come. The pain would come again.

No! She could fight back; she could flee. Cae jerked out of her balled-up position and crouched on the ground, legs bent and tensed, ready to run. She gripped the knife tightly in her right hand. Her wide, panicked eyes darted back up the slope to the peak.

Ishné was still there, almost as she had been. However, her eyes were now turned toward Cae. The girl flinched. Waiting for the strike. Waiting for Ishné's wrath to descend upon her like a meteor. Knowing that the pain would come again.

Suddenly the anxiety broke, the feeling of danger evaporated in a wave of stronger emotion. Ishné's thoughts rushed through. There was no anger, no cruelty; but, there was pain. The eyes closed and Cae could feel it. Pain came, indeed; but it was Ishné's, not hers. Her adrenaline faded as the flood of Ishné's sadness washed over her. There were no words. The soft speech in her mind that she had become used to was absent. There was only grief and pain.

The moment seemed to last for an eternity before Ishné turned away and shuffled off of the summit. The girl shot to her feet and shouted; but the black form vanished behind the peak without glancing back.

---

7

Ishné looked out over the landscape. She would need to exercise more care when traveling about the world now. The fleeting memories she had received from Cae showed that there was a considerable population of these humans. Most creatures she had known of on this world had the survival instinct necessary to flee her fires. Humans were something else entirely. They didn't have an instinct to escape her. Instead they put themselves in her path, knowing that they would likely be destroyed or refusing to know. She shook her head. She had to steer clear of them for their own sakes. Cae may not be the only one of their species that could withstand her heat; but, that was not something that she was willing to test. Then, there was Cae's treatment in that village. No other animal she had encountered had such capacity for cruelty. To kill something for food or in defense was one matter; systematically injuring another creature for one's enjoyment was an appalling concept to her.

_ They are dangerous,_ she thought to herself. Dangerous to themselves and to one another.

She sighed and continued her survey. Now that she knew what she was seeing, towns and villages dotted the land. Some were far apart and other were clustered, particularly around rivers and coasts. She could see large cities planted near the great gulf in the east and make out strange wooden crafts on the waters. Ships, was the term for them--floating houses that carried the humans across the seas to other continents. She rolled her eyes and huffed. They are also on other continents! Is there anywhere I could go that these creatures have not colonized?

She searched around and finally started to notice places where human civilization hadn't managed a foothold. At least, not yet. Far to the south was a vast desert. The lack of water and shelter there would make it ideal for avoiding people. But, if Cae wished to remain with her, there would be nothing for her there. Cae would be best served by returning to people of some sort; though, the thought of parting was an unhappy one.

Ishné's gaze followed the mountain range north from the desert and past where she sat. Farther north was a region where the mountains ringed a high plateau. There was greenery there, interspersed with stone outcroppings where she could tread without harming Cae's prospects for food and shelter. The plants there suggested a source of water. Perhaps there would be prey animals for her. Ishné chuckled to herself.

It seems like I have already decided that she will be with me, though the choice is ultimately hers. Just how attached have I become?

She had been alone for billions of years. She was alone when she happened upon this solar system as it was beginning to form; and when she descended upon this planet in its molten infancy. The wide universe had expanded to such an extent that she could no longer sense the presence of others of her kind. Their thoughts and voices had long since been drowned out by the symphony of the cosmos between them. She had no way to know for certain that the others were even still there; though, they must be

If she wished to avoid humans altogether, she could simply leave the planet. It would take a great deal of energy to escape its gravity, but she would replenish it all once she was free of the atmosphere. If anything, the open exposure to the sun and stars would make her orders of magnitude stronger than she would ever be down here. It would take her eons to find any hint of her kind, if she ever wished to.

Cae.

They had both been alone, but did not have to be any longer. It was nice to have another mind with which to converse. Ishné had not realized how much she had needed it. Perhaps that had been the reason for her over-long hibernation. Perhaps stagnation and solitude had left her with no reason to wake. Of course, she did wake, though. She shrugged, it was a strange concept that did not coincide with any memories from her kind.

Oh! she thought as a ripple of emotion reached her from the girl. She's happy. She must have found food. Good. A broad smile stretched across her face and she looked back up at the sky.

She returned her focus to the plateau in the north. She would talk with Cae and determine what the girl wanted. If she wished to stay with her, Ishné would suggest the plateau as a place that the two of them could live safely. They could find a path that would not be to hard on the girl. Maybe fly there, if the chance of encountering more violent humans was too great. If Cae wished to part--a sad thought to ponder--she could take the girl close to civilization and then make her own way to the desert. There, at least, she would do no harm. Maybe, after some time, she would consider departing to wander the stars again.

Ishné continued to mull over various possibilities, until something jolted her back to the present. Something was not right. The satisfaction she felt from Cae had dropped into something that felt more like fear. She stretched her mind out to the girl and caught her talking to herself. She was frantic. Terrified.

Why? Did she get hurt or attacked? No. The object of the girl's fear became clear and Ishné's breath caught in her chest. Me?

There was no doubt. Cae was gripped with fear and the thing she feared was Ishné. She heard the words in the girl's mind and turned to look.

"Don't let her hear you."

Why? What had she done to frighten the girl? Ishné wracked her brain to determine what could have triggered the terror.

_ "_Don't draw attention; you'll be hurt again."

Why would she think that? "No! I couldn't. Not you."

"...No safety."

Absurd! "Of course you are safe with me! I--"

_ "_She heard. She definitely heard."

"I did, but--"

_ _ "The pain will come again." Cae's shaking and tears threatened to pull Ishné apart from the inside.

"NOT FROM ME!"

_ _ It was no use, everything was flowing out from Cae, nothing could get in. Panic and terror buffeted Ishné's mind. She was crushed. She looked down the slope to the girl. Cae was crouched like some cornered animal, desperate to flee. Something snapped in Ishné's mind.

There would be no discussion, no joint journey to a safe place. The would be no further conversations about each other's experiences and thoughts; or learning more about each other's kind. The first friendship she had ever experienced, the first time she had felt love toward another being, had ended in a blink. She had done something. She had to have done something that she never realized would impact her new friend like this. She couldn't say anything. Nothing would reach the girl. Despite her awareness of the broad, full universe around her, isolation once more found Ishné. The void of loneliness came crashing back in around her. It was no longer a familiar and unnoticed thing; it hurt and everything went colder than she had felt in her life.

Cae was looking at her with terror and defense in her eyes--a wild, trapped animal. She had to go, to get away before she hurt the girl more...before she herself could be hurt more. She wanted to fly, to escape; but knew not where to go. Her strength and fire failed her. She couldn't move her wings; there was not enough fire in her to get off the ground. Tears burned in her eyes and hissed where they found the ground. She turned and shambled awkwardly down the slope away from Cae.

---

8

Cae fell to her knees on the mountainside just over the summit. Her chest heaved, out of breath from running and scrambling up the peak to catch up to Ishné. Her eyes burned with tears and her throat ached from calling out to the black shape that receded toward the woods. She wanted to stop her and apologize. She had to make her understand that those weren't truly her thoughts.

_ Weren't they?_

No, she answered herself, they were her thoughts but they did not express her true feelings. She had spent so many years trying to keep herself safe under the fists, stones, and whips of the awful people who enslaved her that her panic had become reflex. Even at the thought of a betrayal by her friend, of falling into abuse again, she had been crippled by fear. However, she did not truly believe it possible of Ishné.

"No," she whispered hoarsely. "Not you. You have been nothing but kind to me, Ishné. You saved me!"

The only response she heard was wind whistling across the rocks. She saw Ishné reach the forest and pass into it without pause. She vanished with such quiet finality that it took a few beats for Cae to notice the the bizarreness of the beast's passage into the shadows: the trees around Ishné had only blackened. If there were flames, they only touched the branches that brushed directly against her skin. Something was very wrong with her friend. She had to catch her, to stop her and help her.

Hunger and fatigue defeated her. On the way to the mountains she had exhausted the meager food supply that she raided from the brigand village. Cae tried desperately to stand again, but collapsed back to the rocks. Her vision blurred and she retched. Her stomach was empty and the convulsions couldn't even bring up bile. Laying on her side, she cried between spasms until darkness consumed her.

When Cae woke the sun was nearly below the horizon and she was shivering. She crawled back over the peak and slid down the slope to the cave where she and Ishné had sheltered during the previous night. She approached the fire she had built in the morning and was relieved to find a handful of embers were still hot. She added brush to it from a pile laying nearby and blew on the coals until flames crackled to life. She lay next to the fire, lost in guilt and sorrow.

What was she going to do? She was alone on a mountain in lands she did not know. She could find her traps and the stream. But beyond this small area everything was foreign to her. Could she risk wandering alone in the wilderness? There was no telling what predators wandered these mountains. Worst of all, there was no way to know what sorts of people she might find.

No, she couldn't just blunder about. She needed a goal to reach and she had one: Ishné. She wasn't going to abandon her friend and savior, especially when it was obvious that she was ailing. Cae felt certain that whatever had diminished Ishné's fires was her fault. That sudden wave of depression had to have been brought on by her thoughts during her panic. She had to make things right again.

Warmed by the flames, Cae found that she could move freely once more, though her strength was still lacking. She got up unsteadily and shuffled down the slope in the dark. She held a burning brand above her head for light and safety. It was difficult to pick her way back to the little stream; but she managed. She drank the freezing water and splashed it on her face again, risking the cold for the clarity of mind that the shock gave her. The girl sputtered and gasped, then stood up again and looked up at the sky between the branches of the scrubby trees. Icy trails traced their way down her body as droplets made their way from her face down her neck and chest, raising goosebumps down her sides and over her grumbling stomach.

The stars winked dispassionately above, oblivious to everything. She knew, from the memories Ishné had shared, that the shimmering lights were just orbs of fire. Suns with and without planets that spun purposeless in the void. They weren't messengers. They weren't gods. Their accidental alignment didn't mean anything. She was not like them. She had a purpose and she meant something to someone. That someone meant an awful lot to her, too. She knew what she had to do.

Picking up the her makeshift torch from the rock on which she had laid it, she retraced her steps up the slope, collecting fallen branches along the way. Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to find it, the moss bundle with the fish appeared on the ground just above the tree line. Cae piled small branches on top of the rock on which she had sat earlier and lit them with her torch. The tiny fire would help her to find her fish again after she brought the firewood she had collected along the way back to her camp. On her return to the rock, she extinguished the little fire and lifted the bundle, cringing slightly at the smell. She took it to the stream and soaked the moss thoroughly. Satisfied, she made her way back up the slope.

Back at her camp, the girl used her hands to separate her fire into two smaller fires with a narrow, ember-lined trench between. She settled the moss-wrapped fish into the trench and moved more coals from both fires to surround the bundle. The fish had not quite spoiled, but it would take a lot of time under the heat to make sure she did not get ill. While her dinner cooked, she busied herself gathering more and more branches. It was going to be a cold night and she wouldn't have Ishné wrapped around her for warmth. Inside the cave, she piled as much wood as she could find into a wide ring with an opening for her to enter and for air to pass through. When she was finished, the pile reached above her waist on all sides. She tossed dried moss, pine needles, and leaves into the pile to filter into the gaps between larger branches.

The moon was shining down from mid-sky when she finished and returned to the fire. She could tell by the smell that the fish was as done as it could be without burning completely. It wasn't the best meal she had ever smelled; but she was starving and it would do the job. She reached between the flames and pushed the coals aside. The moss had all charred and the bark strip that tied the bundle together had burned completely. Peeling the moss apart, she uncovered the fish. The pink meat steamed furiously and grease dripped through the moss beneath. Risk or no risk, she was famished. The first fish proved difficult to eat. She had tried to tuck right in to it; but the bones quickly got in the way. While the flaky meat was moist and savory, every mouthful seemed to have a dozen sharp bones to stab her gums and catch in her throat. She slowed down and figured out how to peel away the meat so that the bones remained behind. Pausing between fish, she grabbed another branch from the fire and returned down to the stream for another drink. She would need to figure out some way to carry water with her before she could travel again.

Cae stopped just inside the woods to relieve herself beside a tree. A twig snapped in the darkness, startling her. She raised the torch and looked around nervously. Nothing seemed to be moving. She finished, cleaned up, then carefully made her way down to the stream. Listening closely, she set down her torch and crouched to wash her hands in the cold water. Pausing to look around after every sip, she quenched her thirst without incident. The wavering firelight made every shadow seem alive. The girl retrieved her torch and hurried back to camp. She panted beside her fire, wincing at the toes she had stubbed on rocks along the way. She sat down again beside the fire and picked up the second fish from the still-warm moss.

Still nervous, Cae turned her back to the fire and faced down-slope before directing her attention to the fish. When she looked down, the moonlight struck the steaming scales and illuminated a stripe of shifting hues that ran the length of the fish's side. Purple, blue, and green flashed dimly in the wan light. The partial rainbow called to mind the sunlight playing through Ishné's skin. Tears joined the moonlight on the fish's scales. She ran her fingertips along the stripe and stretched her mind as hard as she could toward her friend.

"Ishné," she called out with her thoughts, "can you hear me?"

No answer came. Of course not, she chided herself. Even if her thoughts could reach Ishné, wherever she was now, it probably was not even called "hearing". What was it then? Thinking?

"Ishné, can you--" she squirmed, feeling awkward, "--can you...think...me?"

Oh, gods, that sounded ridiculous! Cae sighed and shook her head. She had no idea what in all of the hells she was trying to do. She wasn't even sure any longer if there were gods and hells. None of the tales she could remember had said anything about flame-cloaked, mind-reading, star creatures who ate light and lived for what seemed like an eternity. Human stories could hardly even capture a blink of the time that Ishné had been asleep, much less her lifetime. She nibbled on the fish and absentmindedly began to hum.

Halfway through the fish she recognized the melody she was humming. It was the same one that she had heard when she collapsed after overloading her mind with Ishné's sight and that Ishné had hummed to her when she woke from nightmares during the night before. She stopped humming but the melody was still there in her mind, ever so faint. She matched it in thought. Silently following the song in her mind and harmonizing with it. The two musical voices began to weave in and out of each other. Her own voice added lilting embellishments to the notes of the main theme. All at once, the faint voice stopped. Cae continued, humming out loud along with the song in her mind and focusing her thoughts on her love for her friend.

There was a tugging at the edge of her mind that made her falter. It resolved itself into a quiet, timid voice.

"Cae..."

She dropped the fish and jumped to her feet. "Ishné?" Her breath caught and she choked on her relieved laughter. "Ishné, you heard me!"

_ "I did."_ The voice was so small, so cold. Sadness crept through Cae's mind like the icy water of the stream. It threatened to drown her.

"Where have you gone, my friend?"

There was a long pause. Cae was left alone with the sorrow, until the reply finally came. It was an response to the thought behind the question, rather than the question itself.

_"It is necessary." _

"What is?" She already felt the answer in the pit of her stomach and fought for the words to combat it.

"I cannot stay with you, Cae. Your fear of me--" her voice broke of in a new wave of grief that brought pain to Cae's chest.

"No, Ishné, it wasn't--" she tried but Ishné interrupted.

"It was me! I heard your words to yourself. I wasn't listening on purpose but I could hear. Our minds are tuned to one another. I feel what you feel and I hear the thoughts in your mind. I felt your fear of me. I cannot continue to inflict that fear on you! I could not bear feeling that from you again. Not toward me. It hurt far worse than loneliness does."

"It was not you, Ishné," she shouted sternly. She had clambered her way up to the peak by the moonlight and now she stood, facing south where she felt her friend the strongest; and hurled the words at her, both aloud and in her mind. "It was not you. It was them. You destroyed their bodies but their memories are still inside me. You share this mind, you know it is true."

She could feel Ishné's sadness and uncertainty. She had to break through and make her understand.

"I know you would not hurt me. I can feel that from you. But, I was captive and abused for twice as long as I was free. There were days where my life as a child seemed like a dream; it conflicted so with the reality of being a slave. You saved me from that!"

_ "Cae--"_ Ishné tried to respond, to argue.

"No! You did. You saved me. You spoke to me in my people's tongue; the tongue that should have been dead. You reminded me that it was real. You broke my bonds. You avenged me against my abusers. But...it isn't so easy to break their memory.

"It's not you I fear, Ishné; it is the unknown. Because the unknown can turn out to be anything. I could live the rest of my life in security and happiness; but I could also end up again in chains, under whips, kicked, beaten, locked away. When that thought rose up, my every instinct for protecting myself tore at my mind. I fell into every old habit that I had learned over thirteen years of torment. It was not you. It was them and it was me. Please, see in my mind that this is so. Do not abandon me when I have just found a family again." Tears streaming down her cheeks, she waited for a reply.

She sat in silence for minutes that seemed to stretch for hours. As far as she could tell, the moon had stopped wheeling across the sky all together. It hung among the stars, halfway down toward the horizon. She listened as hard as she could with her mind and her ears, straining.

Finally, Ishné spoke again. "Cae, I am sorry." Her voice was still small, still sad.

"You've done nothing wrong! I am the one who needs to apologize. I hurt you and I would do anything in my power to make things right."

"No, Cae. I am sorry that I cannot return to you. I am afraid," she said. "Afraid of feeling that kind of pain again. I have been alive for so long and never have I encountered something that I wanted to hold close as much as I do you. But if I hold you it is no better than the captivity I rescued you from. Then I would become the very thing that you fear." She paused and a wave of affection rippled through the sadness. "I must let you go, even if it means living with this sense of loss."

"All right, Ishné," Cae said after a pause, "you can go if you must."

"Thank you for understanding, Cae." The sadness once again overwhelmed all other feelings.

Cae clenched her teeth and stood up. Blood rushed to her face and burned in her ears. "But!" she shouted toward the forest, frightening birds from their roosts. "You are now as much a part of me as I am of you. You can go, if you want; but I am coming with you. I do not care if it takes me the rest of my life to catch up to you, but I will."

"Cae--"

"I will find you, Ishné. And, when I do, I will take that big beautiful head of yours in my hands once more. I will look into your eyes--eyes through which I have seen wonders I could never have dreamed of--and I will find some way to make you understand how wrong you are."

Ishné only sighed. The girl grinned and hoped that Ishné could feel her confidence. The goal was set and she would see it met. She scrambled back down from the peak and ran to her camp. She would need light to follow her friend's path and rest if she wanted to make it very far. A way to carry water, some food for the trail. She was going to make good on her promise!

She stooped over the fire and grabbed a handful of coals and burning branches. Walking into the ring of wood in her cave, she sat down on the dusty stone floor and scattered the fire all around her. The ring ignited quickly and soon she had a hot wall separating her from the cold night. Sleep, if it would come, would help fuel her through the coming days preparing for the trek ahead.

---