“Here,” he said. “Let me help.” Gin looked at him, her eyes wide with curiosity—and fear. Her lack of ability to heal herself was ramping up her anxiety. It was not doing wonders for him either, truth be told. He reached to smooth it onto her wounds, but Gin flinched away at the last moment.
“Did that come from the wizard at the Outpost, too?” she asked warily.
“No, this was a recipe of my mother’s. Put it on the scratches, it should stop the bleeding almost immediately,” he said, holding his finger out to her. Gin did as he said, amazed when the bleeding stopped, and the stinging pain faded away.
“Thank you, Sath,” she said. “I’m sorry that I -” Sath held up a hand to stop her. She nodded, sadly. “I ran into Josiah Dawnshadow as I was waiting for our food to be ready. I don’t think that he knew that I recognized his surname because he didn’t seem to recognize me at all. But I tried my best to get away from him as soon as possible. He has to be Dorlagar’s ancestor, they have the same face, though his eyes are dragonkind.” Sath growled. “Yes, before you ask, he got close enough that I could see his eyes.”
“I knew that he was the human’s relative,” Sath snarled. “You smell of him even now.”
“Do you think this was a coincidence that we should come here when a cousin of Dorlagar’s is here as well? Or is this another part of the Mother Dragon’s revenge?” Gin asked, ignoring his reaction as best she could. He continued seething and did not answer her. “Sath, really? I know you still hold it against me that I stole that kill from you, but you’ve got to get over it.”
Sath cracked his knuckles. “That’s what you think, that I was upset by that because you stole my kill? You really think that?” He crossed the room and stood against the wall, in the hopes that the distance would make the scent fade. It did not. “Seriously?”
“I…guess?” Gin looked at him, puzzled. “Can we talk about something else? It was bad enough to be near Josiah because he reminded me so much of Dor. I’d prefer to not think of what happened when I…when I did what I thought was right. Anyway, I think you wanted a happy story, didn’t you?” Sath fiddled with a string on his tunic, not looking at her. “Fine. I’ll tell you one anyway, like it or not. Here, eat your food.” She tossed a parcel to him, and he inhaled deeply, his mouth watering at the smell. After sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, he ripped it open with one clawed finger and dove into the food inside—roast meat of some kind with similarly roasted vegetables and gravy. Gin grimaced and sat on the bed, carefully unwrapping her food once she got settled. The small bowl of vegetable stew had a lid on it, and she could barely wait to taste the fresh bread.
“Well?” Sath said, his mouth full of food. “I can’t believe you haven’t started talking yet.” Gin looked up at him, and he beamed a toothy grin at her, making her giggle.
“Swallow your food, you beast,” she replied, grinning at him. “This story takes place a long time ago and though I am not sure you will see it as happy, I think you will understand why I have chosen it.”
“There it is,” Sath said. “Now she’s off and running!” Gin laughed and then put another bite of food in her mouth. “Well?”
“I was a young druid, barely through my tenth season of training, when I decided to strike out on my own and see more of the world. . .”
Seventeen
Into Gin’s Memories
“This is insanity,” Gin said as she crept along behind Nelenie. Taeben was several paces behind them, keeping watch from behind. “We should NOT be in here. You know what we’ve been told about this part of the Forest.”
“As long as we avoid the southwest, we should be fine,” Nelenie replied. “This is what explorers do, Ginny! We don’t go off on hunts that are always safe and predictable. We seek out new places and new things. Don’t be a baby.” She sprinted along the forest floor with Gin and Taeben scrambling to keep up with her, and Gin took note of how much more to cover the trees provided at this end of the forest. It was physically darker, and though she felt anxiety crawling up the back of her neck, Gin pressed on.
“Ben, don’t get lost back there,” Nelenie said, holding out one of her hands to him. He took it, and Gin could almost feel the heat coming off Nelenie’s cheeks in response. Taeben squeezed the high elf’s hand and smiled. The two of them had been friends since childhood, and Nelenie had fallen hard for Taeben’s good looks as soon as she was old enough to notice. The feeling was clearly mutual.
The telltale sounds of a spell being cast caught her attention, and as Gin turned to look behind her fear gripped her heart when she could not spot either one of them. She was alone! “Nel!” she hissed. “Ben?” The fear crawling up her neck seemed to wrap around it like a disembodied hand, compressing her windpipe until she began to find it nearly impossible to breathe. She bent over as she started hyperventilating, trying desperately to take a deep enough breath. Finally, she was able to relax a bit, but rather than remaining still, she headed toward the nearest group of trees and quickly cast
