Saul was stalling. He knew it. The day after Johan delivered his message, Saul prepared his pack for travel and gathered his things for the trip to Foulden, where his viscount's castle was located. All that was left to do was prepare Anna for the trip.

Anna, who at that moment was sitting next to the fire pit, humming softly while she whittled away at a piece of wood with a small knife she'd taken from Saul's table. "I'm old enough to use it," she'd said when he'd commented on it, "and it's either this or the hatchet!" She'd given him one of her trademark smiles, before Saul laughed, cuffing her lightly on the head, and leaving her to it.

That was thirty minutes ago. He'd spent ten minutes preparing a braided necklace with threads from her pillow, and twenty minutes spinning it in his hand, unsure how to break it to her.

He finally bit the bullet. "Anna? Come here a moment."

She looked up, hiding what she was making from him with her hands and walking over. "You can't see it yet."

"I know. I have a gift for you."

Anna looked at the necklace, confused. "Gift? For me? Like thing-giving?"

Saul smiled. "Yes, like thing-giving." Saul motioned her closer, and she happily obliged, looking on curiously as he placed it around her neck. She twisted, trying to see it on herself, and Saul pulled out a bowl and conjured water into it with a murmured word and a twist of mana. Anna started, staring at herself like she didn't recognize her reflection, touching her horns softly, then touching her necklace.

She stood that way for a long moment, her wooden toy forgotten, hand clenched around the necklace.

"Anna?"

She blinked, brushing a tear from her eye. "In my old home, my... girl-elder?"

"Grandmother?"

Anna nodded. "My grandmother wore something like this... she said it was for good ʡüš, or a good rest."

Saul looked at her closely. "You can feel it?"

Anna nodded, closing her eyes. "It feels like me... but resting." She opened her eyes and looked at him, smirking softly. "I am no grandmother, ħadar."

"I know. It's for your rest. We'll be sleeping in noisy places for a while, and other men like Johan will be everywhere."

Anna wrinkled her nose. "Loud, smelly men!"

"Very loud, and very angry men." Saul looked at her seriously. "There will be a lot of words that you won't understand; I'll teach them to you after, but I need you to be silent around other men, ok? Act as though your ears don't work."

Anna's smile vanished, and her tail stilled. "...I understand. I will be quiet."

Saul smiled uncertainly. "Good. There's more lessons to learn, but we've waited long enough. Let's be off."

After another few minutes making sure everything was ready at home (Anna took a moment to remember where she dropped the knife), they set out from their cabin, packs in tow. Anna tried to badger Saul into letting her carry the pack, and he gladly obliged, to her surprise.

Most of the first day was spent trekking through forest they were familiar with. They followed game trails mostly, keeping to easy paths to spare Anna's legs (and then Saul's legs when she gave up on carrying the pack).

As soon as the trees grew more sparse, making way for grassy hills and warm breezes, Anna relaxed. To Saul's prompting, she simply responded, "It feels like home." She spent most of the afternoon running through the grasses, chasing birds, rabbits, and whatever other animals she could shake up from the ground.

And the questions! Anna was intensely curious about every new thing. She saw a bison at a distance for the first time, and the questions came flowing in: "What is THAT?!" "Is its fur soft?" "What do they eat?" "What are those horns for?" "No, really, what do they eat?" She couldn't wrap her head around a creature that large eating nothing but grasses. Saul was pleasantly exasperated.

"Anna, please! Yes, they eat other things than grasses."

"I knew it! Do they strike with those horns, to rip and tear? What else do they eat?"

"...shrubs and tougher plants."

Anna was crushed.

While they walked through rolling fields of grass scattered with copses of trees, Saul persuaded Anna to wear her hood up, in case they happened upon any humans. She obliged, and took to turning her head to look at everything like a meerkat. Most of the day passed this way, until late that afternoon, when they decided to make camp at a copse of trees between two hills. Saul figured poor sight lines would only benefit them, and Anna preferred having trees to climb.

Saul pulled out some jerky, and handed some to Anna. "This will do you good."

"You say that about everything you give me."

"I haven't been wrong yet, have I?" Saul chuckled, glancing at the shrubs nearby while Anna pouted. "Oh! I didn't notice these shrubs because the light is so poor. Come here, Anna." Saul conjured a flame with a twist of his hand, and it moved until it hovered over him like a magic lantern.

Anna moved over at his prompting, watching as Saul pulled a small black berry from a particularly blackened bush. Saul handed the berry to her, but with a warning. "These berries are poisonous, but useful. Look at it, like you looked at your necklace."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Anna nodded, wrapping her hands around the small berry. She closed her eyes, and almost immediately opened them, yelping as she dropped the berry onto the ground.

"That's so hot! What was that?" Anna carefully picked the berry back up.

Saul chuckled. "It's called a popbush. They only grow after a fire. It has something to do with the seeds, I guess, but all it knows is heat. If you're ever cold, hold one, and softly listen to when it was burning."

Anna took the berry and put it in a pocket for later.

With the last of the daylight, they cobbled together a firepit, and Saul decided to distract her with stories. Under a full moon, surrounded by flickering shadows and shivering bushes, Saul began his tale.

"On a night much like this, four intrepid heroes-"

"Intrepid?"

Saul paused. He didn't think this through. "...brave? no-fear-feeling?"

"So then a hero is like... a hunter?"

"In this case, yes. These four heroes arrived at a village to drive off a wyvern. These are as large as three bison, and ten times as long!"

"They don't eat grass too, right?"

"Right. Anna, don't interrupt." Saul frowned to hide a smile. "Think of a snake with wings and four feet, and large, cutting teeth."

Anna's eyes widened. "I may have seen one like that! It was green, and really long! Our ʕarčaban -- many-eyes -- saw it, and my old ħadar had us hide in our animal-home until it passed."

"It may have been the same one. We never did kill it."

"You fought it?!" Anna was fit to explode with questions.

"We did! Now, before you ask anything else, let me show you something."

Saul opened a pouch over his heart, and pulled out a small glass marble. He clenched his hand around it, and focused, his mana swirling around the small bead, leaving an impression of size and strength behind. Saul then handed the marble to Anna. "Here. Listen to it."

Anna focused, and it was as if she was there: a cold breeze blew through flat, empty farmland, and a massive green wyvern roared out a challenge to the four humans in front of it. She could feel Saul's fear, as he pulled back his bow, aiming his pointstick at the wyvern's left eye. She could feel Saul's triumph, as the arrow pierced its eye, the wyvern screaming in agony as two of the party ran forward to drive it off. She could feel Saul's horror, as yellow flames -

The memory cut off. Anna could taste ashes on her tongue, and felt the edges of a missing thing, but couldn't describe the whole of it. The whirlwind of adrenaline and emotions halted without warning. "You were... afraid?" She fidgeted with the glass orb.

"Very. The wyvern was the first of its kind to travel over the mountains. The four of us were the only ones to pick up the job." Saul sighed, his mind far away. "It was so big up close. And the teeth on that thing..."

"What were the flames?"

"What?" Saul looked sharply at Anna, but she didn't notice; she was listening to the marble again.

"At the end of the memory, there's a-" She gasped, disoriented by a sudden shift to reality. The memory was gone? She belatedly realized she was sitting on the floor, and the marble wasn't in her hand. She glanced up, and found Saul holding the marble, hands clasped tightly around it, brow furrowed.

"Saul?" Anna got back up and nudged him, but he paid her no mind. "Saul!"

She could feel it from here: a massive influx of mana pouring over the marble, wiping all hints of the memory clear. Saul only stopped once the memory was completely erased, breathing in relief.

He opened his eyes to a worried Anna, looking at him reproachfully.

"What was that?"

Saul looked away. "It was nothing a child should see."

Anna glared at him. "ʡüj. Who are you to say what I can or can't see?"

"I..." Saul paused, collecting himself. He turned to Anna, his hand clenched around the marble. "In a memory, I cannot separate how I felt from what happened. Some things, after you feel them once, sit with you for the rest of your life, and I... I don't want to give you both my wounds and my lessons."

Anna looked at him, really looked at him, and Saul shuffled a bit under her gaze.

She finally spoke. "You've given me so much... I'll trust you on this. But! Next time I ask about it, will you answer me?"

Saul nodded, his face grim. "After you see those flames next, ask me."

Anna tilted her head. "You're so sure. Are we going off to fight wyverns?"

Saul shook his head and smiled tiredly. "I wish. That's all I'll say on it tonight. Time for rest. I'll take first watch."

Anna yawned and nodded, walking over to her bedroll and sliding in, using her pack as a pillow, listening to her memory of a softer bed, and a warmer place.

Saul sat, back to the fire, and opened his shaking hand, sending the tiniest sliver of mana to his palm, knowing what he'd see, and hating it.

In his palm, a yellow flame flickered.