Rhainnon grinned as Kaylar landed with her. “Look at you two!” she said as he helped Rosalea down. She closed the distance quickly and hugged Rosalea, who still reacted at first as if rather surprised by the attention before hugging back. “You look better. How are you doing?”

“I have been learning a lot about my magic, and I am feeling much better.”

“Is she coming back here?” Rhainnon asked Kaylar.

Kaylar made a soft musing noise, “What would you like to do?”

“Be here, but also still learn if I can.”

“That can be arranged,” Kaylar agreed.

Rhainnon grinned. “So… you want to come see what work we are doing on expanding the pasture for the spring? Think you can help?”

“Sure! I just need my boots and my gloves,” Rosalea as she followed her friend back to their… home.

Over the next few days, Kaylar visited every day, sometimes more than once a day. He spent time teaching her mastery of her essa magic so she understood it better, as well as how life magics worked in a more fundamental sense. She got more proficient with it and more at ease with her environment the more that she practiced. He also spent time with Rhainnon, and a little time with other people working in this area. She knew he was trying to divide up his time more or less as evenly as he could… but it was also painfully obvious that he had favorites. Rhainnon was a favorite of his. Rosalea knew that people had the impression she was also a favorite of his.

It was predictable really… the most interesting and troublesome people tended to be his favorites. As Rosalea got to know more people, she realized there was also a large portion of people here that had come from families that had been in place a long time. They had ancestors sometimes that had lived with Kaylar. They found Kaylar to be an everyday staple, and they usually were not troubled the way newcomers were.

Rosalea’s strength and health improved dramatically now that so much was resolved, and before long she was doing her usual allotment of work with no trouble at all. She found that she had a lot of free time because the working conditions were generally quite light with the number of hands around to do the work. She practiced magic in that time sometimes, and sometimes she just sat outside with a warm, fur-lined cloak and embellished people’s gloves or clothes with embroidery she had learned from the Ieshans and some of the bead work she had learned from the Uryans.

It was a quiet existence she felt like she could get used to, especially because Briar came several times a week to make trouble for Rhainnon, who he definitely liked flirting with because she didn’t know how to handle him, and he taught Rosalea more about plants. The extra chilly fall faded into a mild winter.

Then, one morning, Rosalea woke up feeling cold. She realized that it was about thirty minutes before the sun would formally rise, by the odd pale light in the room from the window. She sighed. I hate waking up before it is time to get up, she thought as she bent down and picked up her blankets from the floor and put them over herself. She could not even remember the dream that had prompted her to kick them off, but she buried herself in them and waited to warm up. She closed her eyes and rolled over onto her other side, determined to at least doze until it was time to get up.

She felt like her legs were full of energy. She felt stiff on her shoulder. Why did the bed feel like it had a weird lump in it? It didn’t last night. Grudgingly, she opened her eyes and stared at the wall, trying to ignore these sensations. They didn’t fade. She turned over again. She felt hot already, and really restless. I feel weird. She sighed, and she slowly sat up, kicking the blankets off again. She wondered what she must have dreamed about, because she felt unsettled. This is inane. I should just get up.

The room felt extra chilly, so she dressed herself in something warmer than normal. I should make a proper breakfast, but as she stared at the ingredients available, nothing appealed to her compared to the effort it would take to make it. Some bread then, she decided as she gave up on proper food. She did not feel that hungry anyway.

The sun’s light was peaking over the horizon, turning the sky a gray-blue near the mountains, but it was not even up enough yet that the mountains looked lit up, they looked more back-lit instead. Demias above radiated more blue soft light on the landscape than the sun did so far. It might be even earlier than I thought. She sighed, her breath misting out in front of her as a cloud.

She picked a direction and began walking. She expected to find something to do, but before she realized it, she had walked straight for the forest. This morning, she felt extra conscious of the animals both in the forest ahead of her and the barn behind her huddling in on themselves for warmth. She was aware of the warmth being emanated by the houses of people that mostly weren’t awake yet. I promised Kaylar that I would not wander away. I just… I want to walk, she thought to herself, venturing straight into the trees. I need to be wild for a minute.

Her walk picked up speed, and before she knew it, she was running. There was a pull on her that was eased by going deeper into the forest, away from the dragon, away from the uncomfortable situations caused by his mind magic. For a moment, she could just go into the trees. No one was awake yet, and it was not as though she was actually going to break her promise.

Her body was exhausted quickly enough by running with the heavy boots she wore and with the drag the snow had on her, but it just wasn’t far enough into the wild, so she didn’t stop. She ran until her body felt wobbly in her limbs, nearly tripping as she leapt over a fallen tree, and yet she kept going.

She yowled in surprise when her leg suddenly fell way deep into the snow she had been slogging through - there was a hole where something had been digging, and instead of dipping down into it, the snow had accumulated along the top. She came to a harsh stop as she fell off balance and slammed face first into the ground. There wasn’t nearly enough snow to cushion that fall. Ow, she moaned to herself as she slowly tried to sit up, her hip aching and ankle feeling irritated. She rubbed over her leg as she started to cough. After running in the freezing air, her lungs almost felt like they were burned. The coughs came from deep within her, clenching her whole body up and tasting faintly coppery.

That hurt. She flopped on her back and just lay there for a moment all the same, her nose flooded with the smell of dead leaves and dirt and snow. What am I doing? She was conscious of her pulse in her legs and fingers. What am I doing?

She sat up, looked around, and realized she did not know where she was. For a moment, she just sat there and tried to take in the fact that she was somewhere deep in the middle of the forest, somewhere near Kaylar’s shepherd fields. Which, actually, I also do not know where that is either. Her heart was beating hard from a spike of panic in addition to the exertion. I do not even know where the fields are in relation to the castle. She picked some leaves and snow out of her hair. When the glove pulled on her hair, she took it off.

The brand caught her eye, and she stared at it. Mountains, probably dragon script for property of Kaylar or something like that, with a symbol for each of her magics on the base of each mountain. I could run away. He is a dragon, and he thinks he owns everyone there. He brands each of us like property. She pulled her other glove off with her teeth, rubbing her left fingertip against her palm, tracing over the mark with fingers that were rapidly becoming chilled.

On the other hand, I just ran to who knows where without any supplies except a utility knife. She looked down at her dirt smeared dress, and started feeling really cold as her body’s temperature plunged in response to her being still after exerting it so much. She shivered and looked back the way she came. But no one there minds that I am a changer and no one calls me a demon, except Briar when he is teasing me. No one there cares about who I was supposed to be, and maybe I could decide what I want to be. No Ieshan is going to take on a dragon, right?

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The wisest thing to do would be go back. It was not perfect, but really, nothing in life could actually be perfect could it? She got up shakily. She wasn’t really hurt, which was good, but her legs felt watery. This feels wrong. I wanted all this time to be free of everything. I did not want to be the answer to any prophecies that might be lurking out there, and I did not want to answer to Ieshan or liana or dragon whims either. I have never gone back to anywhere before.

She looked down at the brand on her hand. The sun had come up enough that she could see it more clearly. She stared at the open circle.

I know what is going on, she realized as her eyes grew huge. She looked around, scanning the trees with her magic, trying to sense anything there.

She saw it happen in the Uryan camp once, someone that had seemed perfectly fine, and then off he went without a word deep into the woods. He didn’t come back for more than a day, but when he came back, it was with a large badger in tow.

“All right, whoever you are!” Rosalea called out into the trees. “You got me out of bed! I came looking for you! Where are you?”

There was only silence. Her emotions were solidly caught somewhere on a spectrum between a sensation of feverish elation and intense trepidation. She took a deep breath and realized that she hadn’t been breathing much as it brought relief. I cannot go back until I have whatever liana is waiting out here and called to me.

She suddenly wished she had a good bit more to eat for breakfast than bread.

***

The wolf stood silent on a hilltop, watching the human making her way irresistibly toward her. The wolf was large for a female, even a little large for a male. She had been called late in life to the task of liana compared to most. In fact, she was one of few that had been able to volunteer for the role. Otherwise, she would have grown up like most mystics to become a forest god.

Yellow eyes glinted as clouds fitfully passed over and blocked out the sun, coating the evergreen hilly landscape in temporary shadows. “Once you are one,” Voices got her attention. The she-wolf flattened her ears to her skull. Their voice always made her feel like her brain was about to burst into flames, but she knew she was one of the few creatures in the whole world who could withstand the Voices of the Gods. “Make her return to the dragon. Her knowledge is still lacking.”

The wolf bowed to the air, her hair prickling up over her shoulders from the sensation left over from being spoken to. “Yes, my lords,” she said. Those will probably be the last words I ever speak with my own voice, she thought. She sat down and waited.

***

The sun came up, Rosalea began to feel that people were going to notice that she was gone. She felt her brand light up beneath her glove, the warmth spreading through her hand. He noticed I wandered off. She imagined the trail she left into the forest was obvious. If nothing else, he could have Yelena follow it easily. Or one of the dogs. She closed her fingers in a fist and pushed back on the magic, not sure she could make anything felt through this connection to Kaylar, but she would come back, just… not yet.

After a little while, the warm feeling faded and the brand stopped being active. She doubted she had left the range of it, so she could only hope that the dragon figured out what was wrong with her. He certainly seemed to understand shapeshifters well enough.

***

Rhainnon summoned Kaylar in a frantic manner, her pull on the brand going off several times in succession until he flew to her. She was very upset, “Did she run away? Did she make us all feel like everything was fine and then sneak off?”

It confused him for a moment; her thoughts were a jumble, and her eyes were watery with unshed tears as she felt definitely betrayed. “Rosalea is missing?” he guessed.

She gulped and nodded. “I have looked all over for her, but no one has seen her this morning. She must have snuck out this morning or last night.”

His heart skipped a beat. What has she done now? But, Rhainnon was relying on him to be calm. “Let me have a look around, I am sure that there is something that will explain what has happened,” he reassured her. She nodded anxiously, and he levitated himself up so he could take off.

He was worried, so he tried calling for her through the spell on her hand, and he was relieved when there was a connection made. It couldn’t tell him how she was doing, but it would not function if she was not alive for it to act on. It also told him she had gone a long way into the forest south of the fields.

He felt distinct surprise when she “answered” him by pushing back with her own mind magic. I should stop being surprised; she is the most unusual human I have ever been around. Of course, she uses her magic and traces the spell back to me to tell me no. What else would she do? The surprise shook him out of his worry, and he couldn’t help but smile a little to himself and shake his head.

There wasn’t any animosity in her answer, more a sense of “not now.” Well, this is pretty easy to guess then, I think. She is about the right age for a liana to want to call out to her. Hopefully, it isn’t too far off from the estate and it will be easy for her to make her way back.

He flew a fairly broad circle around the fields; he could now pick out her trail through the snow that pretty well went straight from her home into the woods. It had to be her familiar calling for her. I will just have to explain to Rhainnon what this is. She will feel better. It is also important that she understands it will also eventually happen to her.

***

After hours of slogging through the snow, she was tired, exhausted, and cold. I do not want to spend the night out here in the snow. She was tempted to just find a large tree and shape it around herself as a shelter, but it felt wrong. She kept thinking it was only a little further, but the longer she slogged and thought that, the more of the day had slipped away and the more exhausted she felt.

After wandering a bit, she found a plant she knew to grow berries that were edible. She invested a lot of plant magic into it, reaching into it, waking part of it enough that she was able to focus the branches back to temporary life. The plant was slow to cooperate with her demands, but intoxicated with her magic. After a moment, a few berries began to show slowly on the ends of the twigs. She let the magic go, and the plant returned to the business of sleeping through the winter.

Rosalea ate all of the berries, but they weren’t anything near enough. Rabbits are generally easy to kill, she thought looking at the sky that was turning a soft gold as the sun prepared to set. She wished she had brought more supplies with her or had eaten a real breakfast as she wandered deeper into the woods.

“Did you know that your name is really Nadia?” Rosalea jumped, looking for the source of the voice, but did not see any animal near her. “You were… are… destined for great things.” Rosalea was feeling prickly all over. Despite the earlier exhaustion, she was also feeling oddly… energetic.

“Who are you? Where are you?” Rosalea mind-whispered back.

“Do you really not know me?”

Rosalea stood up, and began looking about her, but still saw nothing. “How could I know you when we have never before met?”

Whoever owned the voice laughed at her. Rosalea felt teased, and that mixed a little annoyance into the overly energetic off-kilter feelings she was struggling with. She walked forward to where she thought she was feeling the voice originate from. “Are you so anxious to find me? Have you figured out where home is?”

Rosalea frowned. “Were you waiting for me to figure it out or something?” Rosalea pushed her way around a thick juniper brush, still feeling teased.

“Is the dragon really so bad?” the voice asked, moving to stay out of sight and reach.

“I am not sure I understand what you mean,” Rosalea said, jumping a small stream-cut gully. “He is the most terrifying not-Ieshan mind mage that probably walks this earth, and he is not that judicious about how he uses it.”

“He brought you to a place where you are warm and sheltered, taught you magic, and catered to your every need. No one is all good or all bad.”

Rosalea picked up the pace; she could feel that the source of the voice was very near. Rosalea came around a large tree, and there was a wolf sitting placidly in a patch of fading sunlight. The wolf was large and had a mixture of brown for her colors. She was nearly black along her back, and then mixed brown all along her sides, but her underbelly was a pale almost cream color. Her face had a small stripe right down along her nose, and her eyes were dark yellow.

The brand on her hand felt warm. Rosalea felt a sense of familiarity with this creature that ached in the center of her being.

“Who are you?”

“I am Fen, little one. And I have waited a long time to see you.” The wolf raised her eyes to meet Rosalea’s.