Alice hid behind the sacks of flour stacked next to the back door of the local bakery. It was the early morning and she really didn't want to get caught. Today was supposed to be her free day. Father had said you should spend at least one day per week not working, though if mother caught her she would be made to work regardless. Her mother despised laziness, in her father and in her. Normally Alice did work, in the fields plowing land, feeding the beasts of burden, cleaning their stalls, making food, cleaning the house.... Her mother would always find something for her to do. It didn't seem to matter how much she cleaned; even though she already cleaned her room and the kitchen, her mother would just make her do it again. Sometimes she wondered if cleaning wasn't just meant to keep people busy with no practical use.

But not today. Today she would sneak out, brave the wilderness full of magic and spirits. It was her free day to do with as she pleases and while mother would not approve, there was little she could do about it. Until she got caught, but surely it wouldn't come to that.

Alice watched the town exit carefully. It was always guarded; there was always a chance wild spirits would decide to stroll in and break whatever they felt like or even hurt people. Bigger towns had walls with formation arrays that would keep spirits out or at least delay them long enough that guards and the head priest could be called in to deal with them, but her town just had regular walls that would barely keep the occasional nosy spirit out. It was enough, even though now and again the guards would get distracted by arrivals or departures.

Of course the guards would also stop her. It was dangerous outside. Those spirits and mundane wild animals could rip a grown man apart and she had no weapon to fight with and no training to use one either. She was told many times how dangerous the wilderness is. She was, however, never explicitly told not to go into it. Mother would be furious if she ever found out and even father would be very angry with her if she got caught, so she better not.

Finally her patience looked like it might pay off. A wagon came, pulled by a big horse, slow moving despite being empty. One of the surrounding farms must have delivered their goods to the town to be sold in the market, a fairly common occurrence. The guards would talk to the farmer for a bit to stave off their boredom, pretending to check for illegal goods or whatnot. Of course nobody cared to bring anything interesting into this small town at the edge of the jungle, but people liked to keep up appearances. Like the priest insisting on his title of head priest even though he was the only one here.

The guards started talking and Alice took a hesitant step towards the gates. If any, now would be the time to sneak out, but it was one thing to see the guards talk to the farmer, another to find the guts to actually risk trying to slip past. If she got caught....

"Hello Alice. What are you doing?"

Alice jumped in panic, spinning to the back door of the bakery where a grinning fat man stood, clearly enjoying having startled her. She frowned at him.

"I'm hiding as you can see. I'm playing hide and seek with Ron." It was a lie of course, but she did intend to meet him outside the gates and since she did spend a lot of time with him nobody would question her. Alice watched the sweaty man take in her pretty face, then lower his gaze towards her budding breasts that seemed to be getting an increasing amount of leering since she tuned 16 a while ago, down further to her naked feet which stated to shuffle with nervousness. "You're giving away my position" she complained at him.

"I see." He stepped forward, making Alice take a step back. "Sadly I'll have to be even more rude and remove your cover" he said with his eyes a little higher again, but then turned and picked up the sack of flour she had been hiding behind. He huffed with noticeable effort and stumbled back towards the bakery. "Don't get into trouble Miss, or I'll have to tell your mom!" She glared at his back, trying her best to set his stupid shirt on fire with her gaze. Alas, the shirt proved immune to her powers. Just like everything else.

"Of course not Mister Evans. I never do." He just gave a short strained laugh before closing the door, leaving her standing out in the open. It would be a problem if she was actually hiding, but of course they didn't play such childish games anymore. Not that Mister Evans would know that, but in her experience it paid off to appear a little childish or naive sometimes.

She turned towards the guards. It wasn't actually that bad to get caught by those either yet; as long as nobody knew her plan to sneak out she could always find some excuse to be where she was, considering it was her day off. But once seen they were more likely to notice her sneaking around and that wouldn't do. The guards though hadn't taken any interest in her and were actually engaged in some gossip about some girl in town acting like a hussy. Why people did such things was beyond her, but as the discussion went into detail the guards and the farmer huddled closer together and spoke quieter.

She resisted the urge to eavesdrop and instead took her chance to nonchalantly pass the wagon on the other side of the guards, trying hard not to look like she was sneaking in case she was seen, until she passed the gate through the town walls and darted along the outside wall away from the gate. Once far enough away she ran into the jungle. A quick look back showed the wagon having moved on and the guards actually standing guard now, none of them seemingly having seen her. She smiled to herself and walked out to the nearby clearing where Ron would be waiting for her.

---

The clearing wasn't too far away. Strolling along the small path that was used every once in a while by the head priest to honor the jungle spirit in order to keep it from ransacking the fields, as well as the townsfolk for all sorts of festivals to celebrate the new year, the harvest, or some spirit. She was told you could hear spirits calling out sometimes, even promising riches to children in order to then eat them if they left the safely of the village. Alice had never heard any such whispers and was fairly sure the adults made that up to keep her from wandering out.

Once near the clearing she spotted Ron sitting on a fallen tree with a long stick in his hand that he kept breaking pieces off of and throwing them into the grass below. She considered sneaking up on him to scare him, but after the debacle earlier she wasn't too confident in her sneaking abilities anymore. Also it was kind of mean and she liked Ron. He would actually take her seriously and do things with her, not like the rest of the town who'd dismiss her as still a child or just stare at her developing features.

"Hey Ron. What's the plan today?" she called out and saw Ron jump and then pretend he didn't get startled. Maybe she could have snuck up on him after all. "Hi Alice. I though you got caught or something and wouldn't come. I've been waiting quite a while."

"Why would I get caught? I'm good at sneaking" she boasted. "I just had to wait for the right moment for the guards to be distracted." Technically she did successfully sneak past professional guards who were meant to keep her in as well as sneak up on Ron, so it wasn't exactly a lie. She hated lying, but sometimes it was necessary and there was some amount of truth-stretching that she allowed herself.

"Why would you go through the gate when you can just jump the wall?" Ron asked. She blinked. She had always gone through the gate and never over the wall. Wasn't the wall meant to prevent exactly that? "I ... liked the challenge? Besides, the wall is quite high and I'm wearing a dress. What if someone saw?"

Ron just shook his head. He never called her out on her truth-stretching. It was one of the reasons she liked him. "Well, you're here now." Then his mood shifted to excitement. "Today we'll hunt for spirits! The jungle spirit is a stag. At least that's what the head priest said. It's the most powerful spirit around and we're going to make an offering to appease it" he declared matter of factly.

Alice stared at him in bewilderment. Making offerings to spirits was the job of the head priest and quite complicated. You had to offer the right things at the right time and say the right words or you had a powerful angry spirit on your hands who might even endanger the whole village. The stag in particular had to be kept appeased to not rampage through the fields and reclaim it as jungle. Could they really do that? Of course she couldn't let her doubt show.

"You should have told me; I didn't bring anything to offer" Alice complained. Ron just waved her off. "You can offer anything. I overheard people talking about spirits and offerings. You can even appease them with a song! We'll think of something" Ron said with confidence.

"So ... you don't actually know what to offer either?" Alice asked incredulously.

"You have to be flexible, read the mood, listen to what the spirit wants. You can't just prepare a song and go for it. What if the spirit doesn't like songs?"

"What if it does? Can you just make up a song on the spot?"

"Well ... no. But I'm pretty resourceful! Let's go!"

Alice bit her lip, but she was called out by Ron for being unable to do anything without a proper plan too often to insist on them knowing what they are doing before doing it. Also whatever Ron got himself into had always turned out well in the end so far. No, this time she would just go with the flow and have an adventure instead of taking all the fun out of it by making a detailed plan and following it. "Alright, lead the way." Ron grinned, apparently happy with her not arguing about proper procedures for once and jumped off the fallen tree. "Alright! Time to meet the spirit of the jungle!" He started marching through the clearing deeper into the jungle. Despite her earlier trust she really hoped he knew what he was doing.

---

The trek through the jungle was exhausting. It was hot and humid, and the dense vegetation was clawing at her clothes and body. Normally someone went ahead and cleared a path if a procession was to go into the jungle and traders just kept to the road. Now Ron was going ahead, but he was just struggling through the foliage instead of clearing a path. Around her the jungle was quiet, no animals or spirits to be seen. She was getting tired and started lagging behind, but Ron would periodically turn around and encourage her to go just a little bit further.

"Do you actually know where you're going?" she finally asked. "Well, yes. I'm going into the jungle and looking for the great spirit. If you're asking me where exactly the spirit is, well..." he trailed off. Alice stopped. "Do ... are you saying we are lost?" Ron turned around, looking hurt. "Of course not. Look, finding a spirit isn't exactly easy and it's not like I can just ask the head priest for a map. But..." he looked around as if making sure nobody was listening. "I can hear the whispers of the spirits. They were calling me out to visit them, I think."

Alice stared at him in disbelieve. Why did she trust him again? Why did she not insist to know his plan before joining him? "This is how people get lost in the jungle to never come back. Lured in by some spirit and eaten. How do you not know that?" Alice burst out. Ron waved her off dismissively. "That's just what the townsfolk made up to keep us out of the jungle." Alice wasn't so sure anymore. While it might be true, there probably was a reason they made up stories to keep them out. "Besides, if an evil spirit really wanted to lure me out they've been terrible at it. I haven't heard any since yesterday which is strange. Usually they are all around the village."

Ron now looked a little unsure himself and of the whole endeavor, swinging the stick he used to cut a path through the jungle, mostly unsuccessfully. "I'm sorry Alice. I thought I could be like one of those immortals, talking with spirits, gaining their favor, fighting by their side... I have the talent too, the head priest said it himself. I can hear spirits and feel ki, I think. If someone gave me a nudge I might manage to ascent, become the lord of our town, be someone important and one day marry ... someone." He looked away from her, his cheeks reddening slightly.

Alice looked at him a little suspiciously but could empathize with someone aiming for something. "That's a good goal at least" Alice allowed, not wanting to discourage her friend. Her own path though was clear. Work, marry someone from her town or a nearby one, be a better mother than her own and-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud bleat. Ron and then her saw the otherwise quiet foliage rustle some distance away, then the rustling came closer and finally a huge black stag with glowing antlers broke through the line of trees, somehow jumping through the gaps despite clearly not fitting through, but doing it anyway.

They fell on their knees and bowed down, their heads touching the ground like they were taught, as the stag stopped in front of them. Alice shivered in panic. She did not expect them to really find anything, especially not the spirit of the jungle and now that they did she had no idea what to do. Ron on the other hand spoke with a wavering but clear voice. "Honored great spirit of the jungle! We are here to offer our humble-"

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A loud bleat interrupted him, but it was not just a bleat. With it came ideas, feelings, some of which she actually understood. Violence. Flight. Death. There was more communication in there, but those emotions were more complex and drowned out by the simple ones she understood.

Even without understanding the details there was no mistaking the message. A violent death awaited them, that much was clear. Whether fleeing would help or hinder said death she was not sure, or what exactly they would flee from or where to. Alice closed her eyes, knowing they were entirely at the spirit's mercy. A moment later the stag darted away, continuing its way through the jungle.

After a while Alice dared to open her eyes and look up. The stag was gone, but dark liquid had dripped down where it had stood.

"Is that ... blood?" she asked and Ron looked up as well, fear clearly displayed on his pale face and stepped forward, putting a fingertip into the dark liquid. "I didn't know great spirits could bleed" he admitted. "We have to do something!" Alice said in panic. "We have to get help! The head priest will know what to do." Ron grumbled. "And how will you explain why we know that the stag got hurt, huh?"

"It doesn't matter!" Alice wasn't looking forward to dealing with her parents' fury either, but sneaking out to stroll through the jungle was one thing, endangering or angering a great spirit was completely different. She could deal with cleaning the kitchen a few more times. She didn't want the whole village to suffer hunger or worse because the stag decided to destroy all the fields because she didn't say anything.

Having made up her mind she turned back to where they came from, cursing at how difficult it was to find their tracks since they didn't cut a proper path. "Alice, wait!" She kept walking, not interested in hearing why it was a bad idea to tell everyone what they had been doing. She could always say she went out alone if it was that important to Ron. "I said wait!" Ron grabbed her hand and recoiled when he saw her face contorted with a mix of fear, anger and worry. "Uh... The village is that way" he said, pointing more towards the right. She had lost count of how many turns they had made and the sun had wandered, not to speak of the difficulty of keeping track of it at all from under the canopy of the jungle. She would never find the way by herself, so she motioned for Ron to go ahead and followed him back towards the village. It was visible from unusually far away due to the columns of smoke rising up from it.

---

With wide eyes they both ran towards the smoking town, their panicked arrival unnoticed in the general chaos in the village. The gate lay on the ground, broken at the hinges. The guards lay in a puddle of blood, unmoving. Screaming and shouting was heard from further inside the small village and they made their way towards the noise.

They stopped some distance from the center, shocked at what they saw. There was one of the villagers, his back towards them, holding a sword he must have taken from a guard. In front of him was a family, a man tightly gripping a staff in a defensive posture in front, his wife behind him trying to keep their two children calm. It was clear they were fighting, but she didn't know why and why like this. She had seen all of them before at some point, the village being small enough that strangers stood out. Fights were rare and they never involved weapons, but something had changed and the sword wielder charged with a cry.

The staff wielder used his superior range to take a swing at the sword wielder who managed to dodge to the side, but then stumbled trying to twist his body around quickly. This blunder allowed the follow-up thrust of the staff to impact his forehead with a cracking sound, making him fall over. The sword wielder twitched and shook trying and failing to get up, then stopped moving. The man with the staff glanced at Alice and Ron, fear in his eyes and turned around to usher his family forward, only for him to suddenly freeze. As his wife came to help him she was greeted with a staff smacking into her head, their children screaming and fleeing from their father.

"Spirits..." whispered Ron. Alice stood in shock, unsure of what to do. Should they flee back into the jungle? She didn't want to fight her fellow villagers. What if they possessed Ron? It didn't even matter who won or lost, she'd either die or get possessed until she would eventually die as well. It seemed unlikely she would be the last one standing and didn't really want to either. As the father was challenged with a loud grunting sound and immediately answered it with a staff-swinging charge off to the side, Ron took Alice's hand and shook her out of her shock. "We have to hide. We can't let them find us, it's our only chance." Alice nodded and they fled to a ruined house near the gates, hiding in the leftover rubble.

There was nobody in view from their hiding spot anymore. Ron kept watch, but Alice just stared at nothing in particular. It didn't matter much if they saw the spirit-possessed people coming, at least in Alice's opinion. A few people tried to run out the gates, but as soon as they got near they would stagger, turn around to kill anyone who came along and then returned to the center, so they decided to stay put. They waited for a long half hour as things slowly quieted down, likely because the village ran out of people to possess. Before it went completely quiet they saw the arrival of a carriage, curiously from outside of town.

The carriage was made from a shiny metal that she had seen the military use for their equipment, some kind of steel perhaps, but mixed with something to give it that bright reflection. It was pulled by two horses with two guards in full plate armor and a shield of not quite matching material sitting in the driver seats. Whoever was inside was not visible through the thick curtains in front of the carriage door's window. Alice tried to get up to run towards them, but Ron put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. He was right she supposed, they would either be able to deal with the spirits or not, she would only stand in the way. She wondered how the military learned of the attack and how they managed to react so quickly considering the next military outpost was at least half a day away, but when it became clear that there were no more troops accompanying the carriage she wondered if they were even sent to deal with the situation and not just passing through.

The carriage soon stopped and the two armored guards jumped down from their seats, one to turn towards the carriage door to open it. A third knight stepped out, but this one seemed different. Alice didn't know why exactly, but she could tell that one had more grace somehow, not being weighed down by the heavy armor and instead wearing it like a shirt on a summer stroll. One of the guards suddenly turned around and drew his sword. Alice followed his gaze towards one of the villagers charging at him. "Hold!" he called out, but the villager didn't even slow down. He was clearly possessed. "In the name of Lady Veis, stop!" The warning ignored once again, the guard got into a fighting stance, his sword making small circles in the air, ready to slice the poor villager apart. Once the villager got in range he instead moved his shield arm up and bashed the villager across the face.

The third knight had watched the scene unfold, unmoving like a statue. The guard sheathed his sword and held out a hand to help him down the small carriage ladder in what seemed to be purely a token gesture, and stood next to him, surveying the chaos once again. To Alice's horror the guard who had smacked down the villager suddenly staggered. Before she could decide what to do Ron acted. "Watch out! The guard is possessed by a spirit!" The guard and knight turned to look at him and Alice, then to each other. The guard shrugged and pulled out his sword once more, readying himself to engage the knight. Before he could even take his first swing, however, the knight struck him with an armored open palm to send the guard flying and landing with a thud in the dirt.

Slowly he got up, apparently not hurt much from the impact but struggling a little to get up in his heavy armor while his hands were occupied with his shield and sword he wouldn't let go. Meanwhile the knight drew his own sword. Alice watched in awe as the sword started to shine with a brilliant light and grew to a massive size. Once the guard barely got up the blade of light sliced through his torso and Alice heard an inhuman screech as the air around the guard wavered. A similar screech then echoed throughout the village and a minute later a trail of villagers charged at the knight. Alice kept a lookout for her parents but didn't see them. She wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad sign. The first villager to arrive got cut down by the knight right away, but Alice now noticed the distinct lack of blood and wounds that someone who got cut in half should have as they still fell to the blade of light.

The remaining group of about 10 villagers stopped. "Who are you?" the knight called out and to Alice's surprise it was a woman's voice. There was some sort of noise coming from the villagers that Alice didn't understand. "Your deaths were a tragedy. I am sorry. But your time here has passed. Rest now." There were more noises coming from the villagers, a weird sort of screeching that was hardly a language. "You *will* return to your graves, one way or another."

Behind the knight the guard that was cut down earlier started to get up, struggling much less in his armor this time. He looked around for a moment and then took his place beside the knight lady, sword and shield in hand. "So be it" the knight answered the latest on the noises and suddenly all the villagers fell to the ground unconscious. There was wavering air above each of them and it all collected into a slightly darker sphere in their center. "Are you seeing this?" Ron asked and Alice just nodded. The knight held her still massive and blinding sword horizontally, bent her knees getting low to the ground and a moment later she stood on the other side of the villagers in the same pose. The light of her sword faded and she sheathed it.

The weird air dispersed and the villagers started groaning, one by one getting back up, then falling onto their knees, their heads on the ground, begging for forgiveness for having attacked her. She could tell they were no longer possessed but just as scared of her as the spirits. "You there, come out!" she demanded and it took Alice a moment to realize the knight had pointed in their direction. Ron and Alice looked at each other for a moment and then went to kneel by their fellow villagers, bowing down like the rest and keeping quiet.

"I am Lady Veis. Your village has been attacked by vengeance spirits. Where are your priests?" While the villagers started poking each other to not have to be the one to answer, Alice thought about what she knew. There were nobles and they ruled. The reason why they ruled was because they usually were powerful immortals. Powerful enough to take down vengeance spirits apparently, but also powerful enough to just finish off the rest of the village if they were offended. Nobody wanted to risk it. And the knight was losing patience.

"You, boy" she pointed at Ron. "Get up. Look at each of the villagers and tell me which ones are priests." Ron got up as told, turned around and bowed to her again. "The head priest is not among them, Lady Veis. He is the only priest we had." There was no motion in the knight, not even breathing. "Everyone, gather the dead. The bodies must be burned to prevent more spirits rising. Kriston is lost for now. We will move to Ariston, about a day's travel away and they will take you in." There was silence as it sunk in that they were the only survivors of over a hundred people. And then they realized that everyone not present was dead. Alice's parents were dead. "Now!" Lady Veis yelled at them and everyone sprung to action, scattering to drag nearby bodies and broken wood to the center to make one last bonfire before abandoning the town. They would have to grief later.

"You there, boy. Are you Ron Krin?" she asked Ron. "Yes Lady Veis" he said, still bowing down. Alice wanted to stay with Ron, but she also had to check on her home. Maybe her parents weren't dead after all. Maybe they were merely unconscious and the spirits lost interest in people that didn't move. "You will come with me. Your talent has been divined. You are to be trained as an immortal. Congratulations." Alice looked back towards Ron with wide eyes and he quickly glanced in her direction, his bow becoming even lower. At least someone would have their dreams come true today, even if that was not how he envisioned it. Alice though confirmed that there were no other survivors and broke down sobbing.

---

Alice helped with the cleanup as well as she could, at least in the beginning. She avoided dragging bodies, she wasn't strong enough for that anyways, but collecting splintered wood was something she could do. It was mildly useful, probably, and for a time it helped not having to think. Carrying the leftovers of a wooden beam almost let her forget her parents, the fat baker, the guards she snuck by at first, now lying in a puddle of their own blood... Alice dropped the wood and sat down. She wasn't crying anymore. She just stared at nothing. Someone took her wood splinters, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Not far from her, smoke started to rise from the center plaza, first with the smell of dusty old wood and then of corpses. Nobody spoke.

The knight told a few of the villagers to dig out some more bodies. How she knew they were under the rubble Alice could only guess. The knight's guards were doing most of the work, using inhuman strength to dig out bodies. It was around mid day, the moist air from the jungle uncomfortably warm and the fire made it even worse, seemingly also too exhausted to properly burn. How one could stand this oppressive heat with heavy armor on, Alice had no idea. Slowly she forced herself to pay attention to the gathering around the fire.

"May you rest in peace" was all the eulogy the departed got. That her parents got. She still held back her tears. It was no time to break down crying again. Would they just leave her to die if she did? It seemed the answer was no, because the knight would not let anyone rest. "Gather what items you can carry. Valuables, food for a day, tools. You need to rebuild your lives. The dead have no need for material wealth."

Slowly, almost disobediently, people started to halfheartedly rummage through the rubble once more, but they knew there was not much to loot. Their village wasn't particularly poor or rich in Alice's opinion. They had enough of the basics for everyone, food, shelter, clothing and some tools. That was about it. Gold and jewelry wasn't particularly useful in a jungle outskirts village.

Soon people gathered in the center again, some having picked up a loaf of bread, the rest of the weapons from the town guards and some other items. The knight returned to the carriage followed by Ron who looked like he might get problems with his back if he didn't stop bowing all the time. At least he had a future.

Life was unfair. Why couldn't she have potential and get taught in the way of the immortals, be rich, throw fireballs at anyone who'd dare disagree with her and live hundreds of years? It wouldn't make her misery go away, but it would help. Maybe she did? Her desperation gave her courage. She would just ask for tutelage as well. If the knight lady decapitated her for her insolence, well, maybe joining her family early wasn't so bad.

Before Lady Veis could get back into her carriage Alice caught up with her, bowing as was proper. "My Lady, a word please? I have a request." Ron's eyes widened, but he kept quiet. It was difficult to perceive the reaction of her addressee. The knight stopped walking, no longer moving at all. Bowing down with her eyes on the ground she couldn't see well, not that it would have helped, the helmet making reading an expression impossible. It didn't even seem to have holes to look out of. Supposedly immortals didn't really have expressions anymore, but that surely was an exaggeration. What they did have was an aura that caused uncomfortable feelings, like a pressure trying to crush you, especially when they paid attention to you. Seconds crawled along in a very awkward silence as Alice endured, muscles starting to hurt from cramps forming to withstand the pressure.

"Speak" the lady said and Alice quickly got her thoughts together. "You are training Ron, are you not? Would you ... can I join? I would be very grateful." More seconds crawled. She expected the other villagers to be staring at her too, but the feeling of that was drowned out by the pressure of the knight's gaze. "My orders are to bring Ron Krin. I do not have time for an apprentice, nor would you be a viable candidate." She turned back towards the carriage. No, this was her only chance! Waiting in Ariston to have it get overrun as well was not an option!

"Please! I'll take anything..." She couldn't even bring herself to continue as the pressure was on her again, but this time much worse. She couldn't breathe, her sight turned dark like she was dizzy and in her bowing position she would soon lose her balance and fall on her face. "Follow, or don't. It is the same to me. I only train officer candidates at the Iron Academy."

Alice gasped and fell to her knees after the knight lady turned around once more and she just didn't have the strength to beg again, nor did she think there was a point to it. If persistent begging was all it took to become a powerful immortal there wouldn't be any beggars. The carriage started to move and the villagers followed. Nobody helped her up. Normally their small community meant everyone helped everyone, more or less, but if you angered an immortal you were on your own. She understood that. It still stung a bit.

Technically she was given permission to stay behind. Maybe she could scavenge food from the ruins, make a house, maybe bandage up the stag and have it protect her. But it was just a silly thought. Her life hadn't actually changed much, not really. Marry someone, have children, die. That was her destiny. Doing it in Ariston instead of Kriston was just a minor detour. There was no point in throwing away her life in a pointless show of defiance. She looked up to see the last of the villagers disappear behind the winding path deeper into the jungle. She would need to get going soon. Now that the wall was broken down and with the town guards dead, something would come from the jungle and try to eat her earlier or later. She staggered to her feet and started jogging after the carriage. Maybe she could try her luck again on the road and involve Roy? Would he side with her and risk his good standing?

In front of her the air wavered in a now familiar way. "Oh" was all she could say before it rushed into her and her mind went blank.