"I've decided that you are not necessarily crazy," Shenian said to Hewin while they walked a narrow path lined with meadows.

Hewin raised an eyebrow: "That's very noble of you, Shen."

"No, I mean it. It looks like I am the one who was too skeptical. I didn't believe that dad's sword was magical, yet it did shine in the night. You have memories of Enyar, whom nobody knows. You speak a mysterious language that you thought was Lynxarian. But, then again, you did create a new leg for my dad, and you did create THIS," she pointed to the shadowy creature crawling next to the path, its limbs resembling tentacles grabbing stems of grass.

"I call him Ash," Hewin said and smiled awkwardly.

"You gave it a name!?" Shenian stopped walking.

"Well, he kind of asked for it," Hewin shrugged.

"What now?" Shenian started to pull at her ears.

"I sort of sense him in my mind, it feels like he is dependent on me, but he is also curious. He is somehow alive Shen," he explained.

Shenian took a deep breath: "Wonderful. But I guess you are proving the point I want to make here. All this nonsense...," she pointed her paw at Ash, "...is somehow real and apparently part of the world."

Hewin scratched his neck nervously.

Shenian gave Hewin a determined look: "What I am getting at, Hew, is that once we accept we are not crazy, and that all this is really happening, we can deal with it better. Everything has some rules. The sun comes in the morning, birds migrate based on seasons, and this mysterious stuff must have some order as well. So instead of questioning your sanity when you talk about Enyar, I am now prepared to hear what is Enyar trying to tell us."

Hewin didn't know what to say so he nodded but it obviously helped Shenian and she skipped forward to catch Falyar.

I am happy for you Shenian but I guess it is more difficult for me since it is my head where the "nonsense" happens, he thought.

***

At the end of the day, they were close to Varnutum. Hewin remembered the hamlet was in the next valley, an hour away. The rotten smell was thick at that point. But it was close to nightfall and they agreed it would be most unwise to enter Varnutum in time when the puppets wander around.

"So, another night, another tree! After so many nights we spent on branches, I don't think I'll be able to sleep in a bed ever again," Falyar joked but Shenian only rolled her eyes up. Hewin chuckled at that and took a turquoise pebble out of his pocket. He had found it on the path earlier and it soothed him to fiddle with it. Hewin looked around and saw a spot darker than the night at the end of his branch. He knew it was Ash, probably observing the bark and playing with the leaves. Hewin felt Ash was curious as a squirrel, he only wished Ash would look like one too instead of this tangled mess of shadowy legs behaving like tentacles.

Give it, give give, Hewin suddenly sensed in his mind. What, Hewin was confused. Then he felt a tug in his closing wound that he made earlier with the Voidsword. Give, please, give it, the strange mental voice pleaded. Ash, what are you doing! Hewin thought back, startled. Then the wound released a puff of shadow and pulled again. The turquoise pebble suddenly shot out from Hewin's claws and disappeared inside his wound.

Hewin heard the pebble fall at the wood at end of the branch then it tumbled down from the tree. The dark spot jumped wildly. I haaad it, sssss, and lossst it, Hewin sensed Ash's frustration.

Most interesting, Hewin thought but wrapped his paw in cloth to avoid any other surprises during the night.