Dawn let go of her stealth skill and picked up Echo, taking care to keep her hold on an entirely too limp Chaos in the process. The cub hid her face in Dawn’s armpit and gave her best to try crawling inside her shirt. Poor Echo was completely traumatized.

The company of soldiers had just vanished in the distance, leaving the corpses of the demons behind. Behind her the Kharlins slowly came out of hiding and Ankou clambered down the mountainside.

“Apparently you cannot follow orders,” Dermo told her angrily as he strode over to her. His face was hard, ears flat against his head. “You almost betrayed our presence here with your foolishness. And all because of an animal.”

“At most I might have betrayed my presence here. That wouldn’t turn out very well for me, but has nothing to do with the Kharlins. I am human and the other humans would hardly suspect that I live among you.” Dawn retorted, a bit impatient.

She was tired, still afraid that Chaos might not survive and her nerves were shot from the nerve-racking threat of being detected by the human soldiers and watching the battle against the demons.

In a way she could understand Dermo’s anger. The Kharlins took their safety very seriously. And for them safety meant primarily secrecy. But he didn’t understand that for her it hadn’t been a choice. For her, the cubs were not simply animals, but a part of her family. If Chaos had died with her standing by and doing nothing to help she would never have forgiven herself.

Ankou pressed himself against her leg, anxiously watching Chaos and asked:

[Will he live?]

Dawn sent back: [I cannot say. We have to hope for the best.]

The others passed her and Dermo, their sidelong glances at them uneasy and awkward. Dawn sighed and simply said, “let’s get back to the village.” She had no strength left for an argument.

The group arrived in New Haven without further mishaps and was welcomed with great relief by the villagers who had been worried about their safety when the human soldiers arrived in the vicinity. Nuala embraced Dawn fiercely, though she was still carrying both cubs and had blood from Chaos’s wound all over her. Dawn felt a measure of calm returning to her in Nuala’s company.

Afterwards she delivered the dead deer and the trouts to Verene whose face brightened as she saw the proof of their successful hunt.

But it became rapidly apparent that there had been a falling out between the hunters, especially Dermo, and Dawn. The story of the attack on Chaos, and Dawn rushing to his aid against his orders soon was making the rounds in the village and resulted in several of the villagers treating Dawn coldly.

She for her part didn’t care about the reactions. She had taken Chaos to Samya who told her what she had already known herself. They would have to wait and see, there was nothing more to be done for the cub at the moment.

“He needs a lot of fluids. Feed him some broth and keep him warm.” Samya advised her and laid a comforting hand on her arm. “He’s a cat. They are tough. So don’t lose heart.”

She left the healer still cradling both cubs in her arms and holed up in her hut together with Ankou. She didn’t want to talk to anyone just now. Somehow, they had all four managed to fit on her narrow bed. Dawn just lay there stroking the soft fur of the cubs and Ankou in turn and listened anxiously to Chaos’s laboured breath for a long while.

In spite of her worries, she managed to drift off into sleep eventually.

In her dream she found herself in a comfortable room. It looked like a small library, the walls were completely plastered with bookshelves. Dawn was sitting on a small settee and watched the crackling fire in the fireplace.

The door opened and the bright figure of the Trickster entered the room. Wordlessly the god sat down on an armchair opposite her. He was wearing elaborate clothes in a dark green colour with bronze embroidery and a rakish hat in the same green with a black father sticking up on one side. The Trickster scrutinized her critically and frowned in perplexion.

“I thought I’d take a look at you to see how you are progressing, little rabbit. But you surprise me.” He shook his head and pointed to her shoulder with raised brows.

“What do we have here? A boon from the Vixen? Why in all the universes did she meddle with one of my chosen? That simply is bad form you know, trying to pilfer the follower of another.”

He snorted and tipped his index finger against his lips. “And she’s not even the only one. That guardian of the wild gave you a boon as well. Though at least he has a reason for his interest in you with your path. Adopting two lynx cubs, interesting choice.”

He stood up with verve and started to pace in front of the fireplace, apparently talking to himself.

“And a mark from the demon queen. Really, you should have avoided being marked by that lunatic.” He stopped and raised a finger in admonishment. “I see nothing but trouble resulting from that in the future. Hmm, a human one too. And such a devious one. There’s a breath of normalcy. A dreamkiller? Interesting. Their remains can be used to prepare a very aggressive paralytic poison, you know. Wonderfully effective really. I rather thought those were extinct. Must have missed some the last time I went looking.” He muttered.

Then he laughed loudly and put his hands on his hips as he addressed her.

“Ho, and here’s the grand prize: the Lady. How on earth did you manage to stumble upon her little pond in the mists? At least you were sensible enough to reject a wish, that’s one thing you did right after all.”

He sat down again and looked at her intently. “Seems I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute, rabbit. What have you done? Decided one day to start a collection of spirit marks out of boredom? You’ve collected more of them in a few weeks than other people see in their whole lifetime.”

Dawn replied somewhat huffily. “It’s not as if I planned to collect these, what did you say, spirit marks. I don’t even know what they are. And I certainly didn’t have any opportunity for getting bored. Things just happened and I was swept along in their wake.”

She hesitated for an instant, then asked with a look of reproach: “Did you really send me that quest to eliminate the demons? The lady seemed to think that you manipulated me into fighting them. One could almost suppose you wanted me to die.”

The trickster grimaced and cocked his head. “What’s with the complaining, little rabbit? I gave you a grand opportunity with that quest. Practically dropped a mountain of free experience in your lap. It’s not my fault that you did it all wrong after all. You’ve really got to make better use of your class driven stats. What did you think they are for?” He twisted his lips in exasperation and continued his tirade.

“I’ll give you a hint. Perception and agility are not the stats of a melee fighter!” he paused for effect and rolled his eyes.

“Fight smarter not harder! Any idiot can wave a sword around. But really, that’s a remarkably ineffective method to win a fight against a stronger enemy. Where’s the trickery and deviousness? And you seemed to show such promise when I first met you. Thumbing your nose at the traditions my sister sets such store on. Sneaking out at night behind the back of your family. Trying to bend the rules and get your path early. Secretly grabbing the equipment of your father. And did I not aid you with granting your path? Alas, now you’re complaining because it didn’t all come up smelling like flowers. How perfectly maudlin of you.”

He shook his head in mock sadness and sighed.

“I’ve got to arrange some lessons for you. Can’t have such a straitlaced chosen. Simply not the thing for a trickster. You need to attack from ambush, trap your enemies, blind them, paralyze them, poison them. Where’s your imagination? Maybe that’s something that pointy nosed interloper can teach you at least. Her followers have halfway decent abilities in that area.” He stood up once more and said.

“Guess I’ll go and have myself a little chat with miss fur-face.” He turned and pointed a finger at her.

“And you, pull yourself together and in the future use your head instead of your not existing brawn. I’ll drop by again sometime in the future. Make me proud, little rabbit.”

With these parting words he left the room and closed the door behind himself. Dawn found herself watching the closed door in a daze. She had hardly managed to get a word in between his admonitions. Had he really called her his chosen one? Though from the way he acted, he had seemed all but pleased with her actions. Why choose her of all people, then?

She shook her head in confusion. Who could make sense of the actions of the gods. Not her certainly. For a while she sat and watched the fire. Then the room faded and she slept on dreamlessly.