She didn't realize until Ellie was long gone that she still had her dried gourd with her. Insurance that they'd meet again. Ellie may have been more clever than she gave her credit for. How Shreya was going to explain how she lost her gourd to her mother, she had no clue. She knew she was going to be in for a long night.

Making it back to the place that Ellie called Ianes' Wall didn't take Shreya long at all. She didn't have a human or conversation to slow her down. She was in the tall grass, back on her people's side when she ran into the last wolf she wanted to see.

Her sister.

Shanti's dark blue eyes had a glint to them, the kind she got when she was hunting. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She showed her teeth in a wicked grin, fangs gleaming. "My, my, my. What do we have here?"

After spending so much time speaking in the much stiffer Casternian Common language, Shreya was glad to switch back into her native tongue. "I took a walk."

Her nostrils flared. "Not alone. Where'd they go? Did you kill them?"

"Get your nose checked." Shreya glared right into her eyes.

Shanti didn't back down. Her ears twitched. "Of course you didn't kill them. There's no blood. So what were you doing out there, dear sister?"

"I'm not repeating myself." Shreya tried to walk past her. Shanti stood in her way. "Move."

"Mama's going to smell that stink on you. You should do something about it."

Oh, the arm pat. Shreya tore off some of the tall grass and rubbed it where Ellie had touched her. It wasn't the best cover-up against an expert's nose, but it was better than nothing. "Is that better?"

"Ooh, that confirms it!" Shanti laughed to herself. Great, once she started cackling it was hard to get her to stop. "You were with a human. Close enough for them to touch you. What happened?"

"I helped her get home."

"Where's home?"

"Stockbrunn."

Shanti laughed harder. "Stockbrunn of all places!" Shreya must have missed the joke.

"She says she's important to them. I don't know about that." Shreya said. "Shanti...I don't know what's so funny but don't tell Mama about this. I might go see her tomorrow."

"You plan on seeing her again? Why's that?" Shanti sobered up, amusement still flaring in her eyes.

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Shreya sighed. "She took my gourd. I need to get it back."

"Who cares about a stupid gourd? We make 'em all the time."

"It was Papa's."

"Why the hell did you have his gourd?" Shanti shoved her shoulder.

"I don't know. Just don't tell Mama, okay?" Shreya said. "I'll be in enough trouble for being out here. She doesn't have to know I met a human on top of all of that."

"But this is my chance to finally see you in big time trouble. I never get to see what it's like from the other side."

"Don't tell her. I'm..." Shreya had to come up with something fast. "I'm going to use the girl for info. Okay?"

"What info?"

"Stockbrunn info! If she's that important, I can get some info out of her that'll be helpful to Mama. Then she won't be so mad. But all that's going to get messed up if you tell her anything, Shanti, so you better not."

Shanti's expression was too difficult for her to read. "Okay. You wanna get Papa's gourd back and you wanna be a spy. And you want me to keep your secrets for you...but I want to see you suffer. This could be my only chance. You're puttin' me in a real tough place."

"You'd be doing me a favor," which was rather dangerous, seeing how it was Shanti. Nothing good came out of owing Shanti a favor. Paying her back was going to be a pain and a half.

"Ha, I'll think about it." Shanti said. "C'mon, let's get home before Mama gets the both of us."

Shreya could only hope that her sister would buy the spy idea.

Who knew what would happen if she didn't?

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A/N: This is an interactive fantasy serial. Voting takes place on Thursdays through Sundays on the story's main site. The most up-to-date chapters can also be found there, but uploading will happen in parts on RRL as well. The next RRL update will be Chapter 2 of the story.