Of course, sayin’ that was one thing, doing it was gonna be a whole ‘other one. Meri was still healing, and he was still tired, and they were both still upset. With little else he could do, he just kept brewing tea for the two of them, and tried not to dwell on his old tribe too much. At least I’m safe from’em here. Warriors or not, nobody likes coming in here. As it was, he was edgier than he’d like to be. He couldn’t see the sky here, but it felt like rainclouds were gatherin’ over him.

Having to plan this whole mess didn’t make him feel any better. True night will fall soon, so all the nastiest monsters will be hunting. Ugh, the ones that didn’t get woken up earlier. Timothy could sneak through the night, and he’d had to before plenty of times, but with Meri behind him they’d be easy prey. It’d be easier if he could just keep the dragoness here for the night, but that had problems of its own. Mostly, he couldn’t feed a second mouth that long. Heck, he couldn’t feed his own! Damned drought. But it’s not just that, either. If I have her stay the night, her family might come looking for her… and get lost too, or worse. The longer this situation sits, the worse it’ll get.

More missing people meant more riled up monsters (and, y’know, more loss of life. He couldn’t shelter everyone here.) And if enough ruckus got raised, the Voltcage would wake up, and then they’d all be screwed. It was bad enough he’d set off a bomb to escape the ‘ganths, without knowing where the fae eater was sleeping. So no, somehow Meri had to get home, tonight, and he was going to have to somehow make that happen without being seen in the process. In short, he felt a headache coming on.

Soon, Timothy cleared away the dishes from lunch, washing them out outside. The dragoness followed him. “So, um… How bad is this gonna be?”

“Ugh… it’s like this. If we could march at my best speed the whole way, it’d take a little under half a day to make it to the forest’s southern edge.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem so bad…” The dragoness had hesitated.

He floated the bowls back to where they belonged before continuing. “Yeah, but we’re both already tired, and we probably woke up acres of forest with that fight. Then those might have woken up more and more trouble. We’re going to need to waste a lot of time sneaking past monsters. And it’s already past noon, so we’re gonna be trying to outrun nightfall.”

“But there’s no day or night in here, right?”

“Yeah, but critters still sleep, and most of the strongest here are nocturnal. When true night falls, this forest gets deadly.”

Meri gasped. “Ooh!” Timothy whirled to see her holding up her wounded arm— no, her bracelet. “I could just call my big sister! She can pick me up!”

“Wait, what?” That was what he was trying to avoid! “No, y’can’t!”

“She can come fly here and just grab me!” And before he could do more than stammer a protest, she slapped the bracelet hard. “Valencia!”

Timothy froze, half-expecting one of the dragons the tribe had told stories of to crash out of the sky, flattening his house and smashin’ him into wolf jelly. Instead, her bracelet grew hot against her scales, and spat a few elemental sparks. …That was it. “Um…?”

“Valencia! Valencia Ashborne-Murphy!” Meri’s voice grew high and anxious. “Please?”

Murphy? The witch raised an eyebrow. What kinda name— no, wait, bigger issues. It only took him a moment’s thought to realize the problem. “Uh, Meri, that’s the arm that got slashed.”

“Yeah?”

He tried to leave a bigger hint. “The one an humoganth slashed.”

“Yes.” She wasn’t getting it. Timothy stifled a sigh.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Humoganth claws suck the energy outta stuff.”

“Wh— aw, no!” Meri squeaked, and tore off the bracelet. Timothy snuck a quick look, using a little eye enchantment. The anima core of the bracelet was set in a small blue jewel, and it was mostly intact, but the braided cords of enchantment that ran through the rest of it were mangled so bad, he couldn’t even really tell what it was supposed to do. It was also leaking invisible spectral energies, so mangled was putting it lightly.

”Yeah, um, that thing’s totaled. I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it.”

Meri bit her lip. “Well, you’re a witch, right? Can’t you fly us back?”

“I live under a pretty thick canopy.” Timothy rubbed his neck. “I never bothered learning. Come to think of it, couldn’t you fly up and out?”

Meri scowled and crossed her arms. “My wings aren’t big enough yet.” Her eyes widened. “Oh! You could teleport us! Or have one of your animal friends help us?”

“I don’t know how to teleport, either.” The witch was starting to get a little embarrassed. “And I don’t boss’em around, I just live with’em.”

The girl just sat back down, defeated. “So we just gotta walk? All the way back?”

“Looks like.” Well, I wasn’t expecting an easy way out, anyway. “Hey, at least you can brag about having survived an ‘adventure’ in here, right? D-don’t look for more of them, though.”

Meri giggled, just a little. “I know, I know.” It seemed she’d gotten the point, though, as she seemed to get serious much quicker. Well, good— this wasn’t gonna be a frolic.

They didn’t talk much for a while, as he prepped for the journey. The hardest part was scraping together provisions, since his cupboards were mostly bare. He brewed another pot of greyleaf tea, and filled a few clay bottles for later, since the drought had dried the creeks. He wrapped up what little food he had left in leaves for the journey. The way he’d been forced to ration lately, it represented several hungry days, and he had to figure it’d be gone by evening. Maybe I can find something to hunt along the way. I won’t have time to prep it, though, He thought glumly.

He thought about bringing some potions, but he didn’t really have anything that would help right now. He tended to keep his alchemy as raw ingredients, for more flexibility. He always carried a halana draught in his bag, along with a basic antidote, but other than that… ugh. And of course, he couldn’t use blood tinctures on her that came from his blood, so that was out.

Well, no point in whining about what you don’t have. What else… protections. His magic dagger, Mandible, was strapped to him as always. He had staves. His mind ward was fully charged, as always. “Meri, you wearin’ any mind talismans?” He asked. The little dragoness gave him a funny look.

“No? Um, are you?”

“Yeah.” He slipped a small wooden pendant out of his shirt. “Last thing you want out here is a monster getting in your head.” He hovered a similar pendant from a small box by his sleeping mat. “I’ll spot you this one, it’s my spare.” It was a simple circular token, about as wide around as one of Meri’s eyes and only as thick as a trichip. It had a circle glyph carved in its front and back, and hung off a cord of woven plant fibers. He didn’t need to look to see the very simple, shapeless enchantment attached. Meri giggled. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re not supposed to take magic from strangers!” The dragoness’s laugh rose up loud and strong, startling Timothy. Still, despite a small chuckle, he kept serious.

“Oh, what, you’re gonna walk into a cursed forest and then start worrying ‘bout safety?” He stuck his tongue out at her.

“Yeah, yeah.” Meri flung it around her neck, and shivered at the brief sensation of its powers. He was used to the feeling, by now; when you put it on, it felt like a pitcher of cool oil getting dumped on your head.

“There, now. That’ll give any psychic jerk a real headache.” Timothy nodded sharply. “You’re still not to go lookin’ for trouble, mind.”

The dragoness sniffled, and Timothy briefly worried he’d made her cry again. But, to his surprise, she ran over and threw her arms around his stomach. “Thanks, Mr. Timothy. I mean it.”

Awk! Timothy wheezed and squirmed, because she was strong! Well, that and he was brittle, but still! He felt like she was gonna squeeze his lungs out through his mouth. Nope, nope, he didn’t like this! “A-aw, it ain’t anything big…." He croaked, hoping to disengage her that way. “Let’s move.” He took in a huge breath when she let go. Geez, he could see where her overconfidence had come from. Dragons really were strong! The little dragoness gave a sheepish chuckle.

After a moment to catch his breath, the witch stuck his head out the door. The clearing seemed as peaceful as ever, with the magorons softly croaking or splashing in the water, and the same quiet hum of wings. No sign of any monsters from earlier. Still… there was a tension in the air, he felt.

"Alright. Let's be off." Timothy said, “We need to make a few quick stops before we can really haul, anyway— I have a bad feeling about tonight."