Once again Dawn had spent an uneasy night. Apart from her haunting dreams of the underground city, she was worrying about the presence of the hunters. She would have liked to forget about her dealings with the first batch of those. The memory of her mindless rage-fueled attack filled her with guilt and shame now. No matter what kind of men they had been, it was inexcusable.

Now their friends were searching for the dead hunters. That certainly didn’t bode well. They might find the bodies they had rolled into the ravine. Then it would be clear that the hunters had been killed by someone. Or they might not find the bodies and keep searching in the vicinity. In both cases Dawn would have to stay in the village all the time or risk discovery. She didn’t much care for either option. Not that she had any choice in the matter.

She was sitting on a bench in the common area of the village with bleary eyes and drank her morning tea. Would stealth be enough to hide her from the hunters? They might not see her directly, but she would still leave footprints on the ground that might be tracked. Nevertheless, the thought of sitting in the village not knowing what was going on outside made her itch with restlessness.

“It would be stupid to go out, when these men are roaming around in the area,” Dawn muttered. And hadn’t she promised herself she would make more intelligent decisions? Keeping that promise wasn’t easy right now.

Rubbing her hands over her face she decided to train with her sword for a while. During the last few days she had almost forgotten about weapons training, in between setting up in the village and starting to study alchemy. She needed some consistency here, she reproached herself. The next time she encountered some beasts she better be skilled enough to put up a good fight. She couldn’t count on being rescued by Ankou all the time.

Ankou huffed at her and trotted to the exit. “Please be careful, these hunters might go after your pelt if they see you.” She called after him. But the lynx just flipped his ears at her contemptuously, unaffected by her concern. Then he was gone.

Dawn chose an empty area and limbered up. After a few minutes she gripped her sword and practiced low and high strokes. Though she hadn’t trained for some days, she held the sword easier, her strokes more controlled and her body positioning less clumsy than she was used to. It astonished her, but she accounted for it with her increased agility as well. All the same, she would have given much for a trainer. Studying everything on her own was simply not effective. Despite that lack she was gratified to earn a new level in sword fighting after she had practiced diligently for an hour.

Afterwards she retreated to the common area and once again took out the echo stone. She had stopped last time after the entry where the man had saved his wife’s life. Dawn wondered if there was still more information on it. First she had to listen to all the entries she already knew. If there was some mechanism to skip some of these she didn’t know how it worked. At last, a new entry, the brown-haired man talking earnestly:

“24th of Daram in the eighth year of the reign of King Rakna the seventh. We are preparing our journey, sorting and packing the things we will need. Saida has regained her full strength now, but she has been complaining increasingly of nightmares. Understandable, after all she has been through during the last months. A fraught moment came when she realized that she will never be able to have children with that new body of hers. The topic didn’t come up in the manic race to save her before she died of the disease. Saida was distraught by the news, but that is the price we pay for her life. We can always adopt a child, there is never a lack of children looking for a good home.”

Silence followed, and then the next entry.

“29th of Daram in the eighth year of the reign of King Rakna the seventh. Saida has been silent and withdrawn during the last days. I don’t know what is going on in her mind. Is it still the question of children? Last night I awoke and she had left our rooms and was roaming around the caves. I was badly frightened by her absence and angry when she came back. If anyone sees her outside all our plans are in danger. But of course she feels confined, after she hasn’t been able to leave our rooms for months. First because of the disease and now because no one can know she is still alive. I need to be more sympathetic. But she has only a few more days of this to go through. We will leave in five days. It is the festival of eternal light, one of our biggest holidays, and everyone will be in the upper city for the festivities. The perfect time to leave without anyone making a fuss.

After an interval the man appeared again. This time he looked worried.

“1st of Chamzim in the eighth year of the reign of King Rakna the seventh. Something is going on with Saida. She leaves our home every night now, and doesn’t care if she endangers our future with her behaviour. When I pleaded with her to stay inside, she told me she could not sleep because of her nightmares and needed space. She keeps me at a distance now. I don’t know what I have done that she doesn’t want to be in my company anymore.”

The next entry followed seamlessly.

“3rd of Chamzim in the eighth year of the reign of King Rakna the seventh. Tomorrow is the day we had intended for our journey away from here. But I don’t know if we can go through with it now. This morning I saw black veins creeping up Saidas arms. She tried to hide it from me, but when I confronted her after she was gone all night once again, her sleeve fell back and her arm was criss-crossed with black streaks. She is afraid the disease has come back, but that is impossible. No disease could transfer to this body. But something has to have gone wrong. I’ll have to find out exactly what it is. We will put our travel plans on hold for now. I have all the magic and alchemical tools here at my laboratory. I just hope I can correct whatever it is that went wrong.”

Dawn let the echo stone go. She had hoped for more upbeat entries. It looked like the perfect ending had taken a dark turn and his wife would die in spite of all he had done. Poor man. She didn’t want to listen to any more sad stories at the moment and put the stone away.

She kept busy during the rest of the day with meal preparations, her study of alchemy and the attempt to delve deeper into the book of runic magic. But she found herself unable to sleep that night, restless and uneasy not knowing what the hunters were up to. Ankou had not returned and his absence scared her. She knew the lynx was very capable in his own right, stealthy and a practiced fighter. But she couldn’t get the image of Ankou trapped or killed by the hunters out of her head.

Finally, she stood up abruptly. If she couldn’t fall asleep anyway she might just as well look for her missing companion. She had wanted to stay safely inside, but she expected the hunters would not roam around in the darkness. She just would have to be very careful not to leave any traces leading to the village entrance.

Dawn enjoyed the night air outside, breathing deeply. The caged feeling that had stuck to her during the last days fell away. Grateful for her stealth skill, she moved quickly up the rocks to look at the surroundings from above. The strong breeze tousled her hair, nightbirds were singing and hooting. A moving shadow beneath her turned out to be a striped fox looking for his next meal.

She didn’t know where to start looking for Ankou, but decided at last to walk in the direction of their last camp. They had stayed there the night before they had settled into the former Kharlin village. She tread warily, listening to the sounds all around her, and kept her eyes roaming around in all directions. As she arrived in the vicinity of the campsite she saw the weak glow of a banked fire. Stock-still she held her breath and listened. Deep breaths announced that the hunters were sleeping soundly. Their horses were hobbled close to the camp and grew restless now. Maybe they could smell her. Without a sound she gave the camp a wide berth. No sign of Ankou here. Where had that lynx gone to? She left the hunter’s camp behind and went deeper into the forest. A few minutes later she almost stumbled over a snare. Cursing under her breath, she stood and examined her surroundings more deeply. Of course the hunters had set traps. She had a bad feeling about this. Hunter’s snares and a missing lynx.

She felt faint suddenly. And then realized it wasn’t just her fear for Ankou. Her stamina was running low after she had been traveling in stealth for quite some time. Well she had covered a distance from the hunter’s camp, they should not be able to see her. With a sigh she let go of stealth and paused for a moment. Carefully looking at the ground beneath she advanced further into the forest.

She traveled for a while and did find no sign of Ankou but several snares, some empty, some entrapping some rabbits. Finally she sat on a stone near the river and rested for a minute. She would have to go back soon or she would still be in the open forest at daybreak. She gnawed her lip as she pondered what to do. Just as she noticed the forest around her had fallen silent, the only sound still remaining the burbling of the river, she felt cold steel at her throat. She froze, her breath caught.

“Now, who do we have here?” asked a calm female voice. “Turn around slowly.” Dawn awkwardly turned around, with the knife still at her throat. She was looking at a woman clad in green and brown leathers, with short grey hair and a square face dominated by a prominent nose. She was carrying a bow and quiver. Behind her, quite a distance away between the trees she saw the dark silhouette of man, bow at the ready.

The woman mustered her for a long minute and then removed the knife from Dawn’s throat. “You must be Dawn, then.” She remarked casually.

Dawn was taken aback. How did that stranger know her by name? “Yes, I’m Dawn. Who are you? How do you know my name? I don’t know you.” She asked guardedly, gingerly feeling her throat.

“My name is Grinna, I was sent to look for you by a mutual acquaintance. Nathan was a bit worried about the young girl he left alone in the wilderness. He went out of his way to send an urgent message to Atelang, additionally mentioning some possible spider-demons running around here. Sounds more like a fairy tale to me. So here we are, Teren and me. Though I have to say I didn’t expect to find you wandering around the forest in the night.” She sounded amused now.

“I was looking for Ankou. He didn’t come back to the village this evening, and there are some hunters in the vicinity. I was afraid he had ended up in some snares.” Dawn explained softly.”

“And who is Ankou?” Grinna asked with raised brows. “He is a mountain lynx and my companion.” Dawn retorted.

“It seems to me it would be simpler to talk to the hunters,” the woman remarked. Dawn grimaced. “I’d rather not meet them in person. I don’t think they are very friendly.”

Grinna looked at her sharply for a moment and nodded. “You may be right. For a young girl alone in the wilderness it might not be healthy to approach unknown men. Come back to our camp with us, we can talk more comfortably there. We just wondered what was making a ruckus in the forest at night. Might have been dangerous, so we decided to take a look at it.”

Dawn was stung. Surely she hadn’t made a ruckus, she had been very careful to move silently. Grinna laughed at her indignant expression. “Never mind. Ranger standards for stealth are a bit higher than those of average people.”

She led Dawn into the forest, her silent companion trailing after them vigilantly.