"Ahead," said Kai, touching Hina's shoulder and nodding forward. "Beasts. On the road."

Dark brown shapes moved through the trees in the distance, near the center of the road.

Hina and Kai were walking along the edge of the road. The risk of being spotted by a passing caravan was lower now—this far from Grambe they could be anybody.

Of course, they still hid in the roadside vegetation when they heard other travellers go by, but that hadn't happened in a while. Not since they'd left the campsite where they'd met Gerda, yesterday. And that was strange. Until now, they'd been passing several groups of travellers every day. Now that they were approaching Brampton, a minor city that sat at the intersection of four separate roads, the road should be more heavily traveled, not less.

Perhaps these creatures were the reason. Or part of it.

Hina stepped onto the road and squinted through her glasses to try to make them out. One paced back and forth, and others were lying down. The moving one was a big, dog-shaped thing. It was hard to tell how big from where they were, and she didn't want to get closer. "Our friends from last night?" The howling had kept her awake for hours.

The standing beast paused in its circuit and lifted its nose into the air like a dog.

"Back up a bit," said Kai. "I think he can smell us."

Hina followed Kai up the road until they were a hundred meters further away. The creatures were a blur from this distance, but they hadn't moved.

"Thoughts?" said Kai. "Can we wait for 'em to leave?"

"Who knows how long they'll be there. We could cut around through the woods?"

"Don't wanna cut too close, though."

"Yeah. And this is our road, unless we want to double back to the fork and head towards Knaton and Ormsfield. Going to take a while longer if we do that."

"How much longer?"

"A week, maybe?" Hina crouched down in the dirt and drew a few lines. "We're here." She pointed. "And the road goes along here to Brampton, and then around—south—to Blandmanch, which is where we want to be to continue on to the city." She drew a long curving line from the road that they were on that swung around to the left. "And all the way down here is Ormsfield." Her finger traced another line from near Ormsfield connecting to Blandmanch. "So we can go that way instead, but then there's no road between Ormsfield and Newbury, or at least not on the maps I read."

"We'd cut through the forest?" Kai sat down cross-legged in the dirt and leaned forward to peer at her makeshift map. "It doesn't look far."

"Maybe we could find a guide, I don't know. We'd have to ask around when we get there. But it's a long way out of our way for a bit of a gamble."

"What about to the northeast?"

"If we head back to Atherton and then on to Bortonby, we might be able to find someone to take us south through the wild to Brampton, but they say that's a dangerous trip."

"Hmm. Great big caravan comes through here, and they're gone, right?" He shrugged. "We just have to wait long enough."

"Sure, but we don't know how long that'll be. And what if they aren't killed? What if they come back before we get clear?"

"Okay, how about this—why can't we head south?" He mimed drawing a line from where they were that went straight to Blandmanch. "Circle round the beasties, keep going."

"Risky. We don't know what's in there."

"Worse than these things?" He nodded backwards. "What do we know about this wood?"

"I don't—they do say that it's is pretty tame around here." Hina frowned. "And it would save a lot of time."

"If we got turned around, we'd hit one of these roads to Blandmanch, right?" Kai pointed. The woods were surrounded by roads on almost all sides.

"Right. So long as we don't run into anything worse. Or head in completely the wrong direction."

"How far is it?" Kai said. "How long? If we go through?"

"Two, three days of walking? Maybe. It'll be slow going. Slower than what we've been doing."

"And through Brampton? If we got past these things?"

"Four or five? Maybe more. The road goes wide around the trees." Walking through the forest might even save them a day or two.

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"And we've got the barrier."

Hina made a face. "Maybe. I can try it, but I'm not sure I can make it work for a whole campsite. Maybe just enough room for both of us to sleep. Like logs—no moving."

"Let's do that then. And also, that means—never mind."

Hina was thinking about supplies. "We were going to stop in Brampton, and we'll have to skip that. We've got dried beans for a few more days."

"We're fine for longer. Even if it's a week, we'll be fine."

She rolled her eyes. "In an emergency, sure. If we're running from beasts, I want to be well fed."

"We'll be fine." He grinned. "It's an adventure."

"Okay, fine. We'll cut through."

"Yes!"

"We'll have to be extra careful. Move fast, stay quiet, keep our eyes open."

"Of course," Kai said. "No problem. Lead the way."

Hina led them back along the road until the dog-things were entirely out of sight. And then she turned and led them into the trees.

* * *

The forest was dark and shadowy, the brush soft and spongy underfoot, a mat of dead leaves and decomposing branches. Light pooled in the gaps where the canopy was thinnest.

There was a risk here, that without being able to see the sun they'd end up going the wrong way. They could walk in circles if they weren't careful.

Pausing by the base of a tree, Hina took out her knife and carved an arrow into the bark, showing their direction of travel.

The birds were loud. Louder than they had been by the road. A continual background chorus of chirping and song. Hina caught sight of them every now and then, small dark birds foraging in the leaf-litter. And splashes of blue and yellow in the canopy overhead.

As the day marched on, Hina carved arrows every ten or twenty trees.

She wasn't sure that they would help—there were enough trees that they could get lost without ever crossing their own path—but it was almost meditative to carve a direction into a tree.

The marks would be grown over in days or weeks, but for now she was carving their path upon the world. Carving it upon living things that were older and more fearsome than Hina was. Things that, if they died here, would eat them and grow over their bodies.

Somehow the arrows helped with that feeling. And with the feeling of being toothless.

The back of Hina's neck prickled, like they were being watched.

The shadows were all moving, all of the time, swaying in response to a breeze that Hina couldn't feel.

Nothing.

Ahead, something moved out of sight behind a tree at ankle height. Ordinary animals, or at least something small.

And of course animals lived in the forest, or what would the beasts eat? And there were beasts somewhere here, Hina was sure of it.

A black bird winged past her, wing beats loud. It flew close enough that Hina could have reached out and grabbed it. The bird flapped up towards the canopy.

They followed it onward. Hina paused to carve an arrow into a nearby trunk.

The sky grew darker, deepening the shadows, reducing visibility. The rocky ground rose, and Hina picked her steps among the tree roots.

A pressure built in the atmosphere, a tension.

The birds stopped singing. Had stopped some time ago. The undergrowth was shifting and dark.

Rain began to fall into the silence. Rivulets trickled down tree trunks, raindrops filtered through the canopy to fall in streams, splashing down on Hina and Kai as they walked.

The leaves grew slippery underfoot. Hina took smaller steps, keeping her sandalled feet under her shoulders for balance on the slope.

The trees parted onto a ridge. The ground dropped away before them and the greenery continued below. A tall grey building poked through the trees—a mossy stone tower that narrowed as it rose to a flat peak. A spire.

Light flashed and thunder roared from somewhere off to the right. A trickle of rain-water ran past Hina's feet and down the steep slope.

"Spooky." Kai's voice was quiet under the sound of the rain. He wiped curly dark hair out of his face. His eyes were wide.

Far ahead the trees ended and clear grassy hills rose towards pale mountains. The sun was hidden by the clouds, but Hina thought they were facing south-east. Near enough to the right direction.

"Down and across. We'll try to skirt around the spire."

"The spire?"

"The tower."

"Ah." Kai nodded, rain trickling down his bare chin. "Me first."

Hina watched as Kai moved backwards down the rocky slope. He tested the ground with every step, and sent loose rocks tumbling far below as he climbed down and out of sight.

Then it was Hina's turn. She put her hands and feet in the same places that Kai had for the first few steps, but she quickly lost track. Her feet hurt and her arms ached. The strap from her heavy bag cut into her shoulder as she descended.

The path down was muddy and narrow, cutting close to the ridge and down under the rocky cliff face. A channel of water streamed down the middle, splashing and cascading down to a river below.

It was a long way down.

Hina lowered herself down with hands and feet on the dryer rocks and mud beside the water, moving from one slippery handhold to the next.

A wet stone shifted when she put her weight on it, and her hands slid free. She squeaked and scrabbled to catch her balance and grabbed at a rocky outcrop, but the rock came loose.

Hina's chest came down hard on the slope, her face spashed into the muddy stream of water, wet stones scraped against her face. She picked up speed.

Her hands grabbed at the rocks and stones and the mud, slipping off and over one after another before she caught hold of a solid outcrop and held on tight. She held on with all of her might. Her other hand caught a jagged stone that cut into her palm, but she ignored the stinging pain and held firm.

She clung to the rocks, panting. To her left was a drop of two meters or more onto wet stones at the edge of moving water.

"You okay?!" Kai's voice came from below.

"I—" Hina gasped. Blood dripped into a tiny puddle on the rock below her face. "I'm okay."

She breathed. One gasping inhalation after another. By reflex, she drew a trickle of potentia in with the air. Her heart slowed, her shaking muscles felt stronger.

"I'm coming down!" she said.

"You're nearly there!"

One hand-hold at a time, Hina continued down the slope until her feet touched solid ground.

Kai gave her a worried look, standing at the edge of a river of rainwater. "You okay?" He touched his forehead.

Hina's face stung when she brushed the same place. The red on her fingers washed away in the rain. "I'm fine! Let's go up!"

The knee-deep water tugged at Hina's legs as she splashed across the river. Mud squelched and pulled at her sandals until she climbed up the bank and into the trees, where the soil was dry only by comparison. She held on to a blackened tree branch while leaning down to give Kai a hand up.

They walked on—wet, dirty and tired. But still moving forward.

Behind them, something howled.