The first thing that Priscilla noticed as they entered the Emerald Forest after following the path east for an hour, was that the trees had massive trunks, so thick that she wouldn’t be able to wrap her arms around it. Vines wrapped around most of the trunks, growing against gravity to try and have their tiny white flowers reach the sun. The canopy blocked the sky with only small sunbeams breaking past the leaves and branches to gently warm Priscilla’s skin. The scent of earth and nature was one that she hadn’t had much time to appreciate in her first life, but as she took a deep breath in, Priscilla could understand the appeal of leaving civilization behind and becoming one with the world. It was beautiful and serene and filled her with a deep sense of calm.

The path they followed was well-worn and wide enough that a wagon could pass travelers without having to worry about getting tangled up in the underbrush. Carved rocks along the side of the path served as travel markers, letting travelers know how far it was to the edge of the woods and nearest rest station. This was the main path that people took through the Emerald Forest that didn’t go too deeply where the monsters made their homes, and there was a certain level of maintenance that had to be done on a regular basis so merchants didn’t decide it was too much hassle to cross.

She didn’t know much about this forest from the story except for the fact that it was massive, being nearly five-hundred miles long at its widest point, though most of that was to the north of them. They luckily didn’t have to go very deep into the forest and would leave it behind after three days of travel.

Because of the massive size, there were several small towns that served as rest stops for travelers, so Priscilla and Sulaiman wouldn’t have to sleep on the hard ground and have to keep watch. Hopefully. Priscilla believed she did her travel calculations right, but now that she was in the forest and took in its size, a sliver of doubt wormed its way into her mind.

She shook her head to rid herself of it and noticed that Sulaiman was looking at her again.

“You…” he trailed off and didn’t finish his sentence.

Priscilla debated about engaging with that before deciding it was better to get it over with sooner rather than later. He already hates her, it wasn’t like she could get him to hate her much more.

“Yes?” she said in the brightest and cheeriest tone she could muster. “Did you want to ask me something?”

Suliaman glared at her and she gave him a toothy, sarcastic grin.

“Either speak your damn mind,” Priscilla continued in the same bright tone, “or shut the fuck up! You don’t have to be polite or pussy-foot around, but you do have to open your mouth and speak if you want answers.”

Sulaiman’s glare deepened and Priscilla looked forward, knowing that if she kept looking at him, it would make him less likely to say anything.

“You’re acting strange,” Sulaiman finally said, his voice sounding like he was caught between confusion and derision.

“Everyone changes,” Priscilla said with a casual shrug. “If people were only meant to stay the same, then we’d better off being fucking statues; frozen, immortal, and unchanging for eternity.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment and she decided to take a chance.

“Don’t give me that look,” Priscilla chided.

“You can’t even see my face.” Sulaiman sounded irritated and she laughed, glancing back at him. The pinched look of irritation faded as soon as she looked at him, but she did catch it and smiled at being proven right.

“I don’t have to,” Priscilla said, “I can feel you radiating judgment from here.”

His face was stony and blank, and it seemed he was done with the conversation. Unluckily for him, Priscilla was filled with the urge to continue it.

“What makes you say I’m acting strange?”

He gave her a glare, clearly hoping that she would keel over and die instead of keep pestering him but what was the fun in that?

She shrugged. “If you don’t want me to answer your questions, then I’m not afraid to ask a few of my own.”

“I’m not afraid,” Sulaiman said, tone tightly controlled, “I just don’t feel like putting up with your idiocy.”

“Youch,” Priscilla said, miming a heart attack, “you sure know how to charm a girl.”

“I don’t want to–” Sulaiman cut himself off and took a few deep breaths in. Priscilla was impressed with his self control.

“I don’t have any more questions,” Sulaiman lied carefully, his knuckles clenched tight around the reins.

“Are you sure?”

He let in one deep breath in and let it out, the emotion fading from his face as he stared forward.

“I’m certain.”

Priscilla watched him for a lone moment before deciding that she had needled him enough. If she pushed much more right now, there was a chance Sulaiman might decide he was too fed up with her bullshit and turn around to go home. It wasn’t likely, due to his incessant need to be responsible and fulfill tasks assigned to him to the best of his ability, but she didn’t need to push him too much on the first day. They were stuck together for a while after all.

The trip continued quietly as Sulaiman continued to pretend she didn’t exist and Priscilla enjoyed the simple joys of nature. She spotted a squirrel-like creature with wicked sharp teeth and an extremely fluffy tail ambush a pigeon and damn was it morbidly fascinating to watch the bloody creature drag its prey up the tree to its little hidey-hole.

Priscilla’s stomach growled after a few hours of traveling and she pulled her horse to the side of the road.

“Lunch time,” Priscilla called over her shoulder as she dismounted. She tied the reins around a tree branch near a patch of grass for the horse to graze at as Sulaiman got off his horse as well.

She pulled out the container of food and rejoiced at the sight of two, thick sandwiches packed with lettuce, tomato, some sort of white cheese, a hell of a lot of meat, and an orange sauce slathered over everything. Priscilla didn’t hesitate to turn to Sulaiman and held out one of the sandwiches.

“Here,” Priscilla said. When Sulaiman eyed it warily and made no move to grab it, Priscilla rolled her eyes.

“Bella made it for us to eat,” Priscilla said slowly, as if explaining it to a child, “and, no, I did not poison it – it’d be a sin to ruin food as good as this just to kill you. If you don’t want it, well, more for me then.”

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It seemed that her claiming she’d eat it instead was what really convinced Sulaiman she hadn’t poisoned it. Priscilla turned to hide her smile and sat near the edge of the road to begin chomping down on her food. It was incredibly tasty and it was gone all too soon, save for the sauce that she gleefully licked off her fingers.

Stomach full and satisfied, Priscilla decided to go through a series of stretches to loosen up her body and get rid of some of the aches from horseback riding. Sulaiman watched her the whole time, which was a little awkward, but Priscilla didn’t mind it and finished up as if he wasn’t even there.

It wasn’t until another hour of just riding and watching nature that Priscilla found herself getting a little bored of just having her own thoughts for company.

“Do you mind if I sing to myself?” Priscilla asked, looking over to her stoic traveling companion. “I won’t be too loud that I attract magical beasts, I swear. Just a little humming.”

His face was the perfect combination of disgust and bafflement.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Priscilla said in a sing-songy voice.

“What sort of drugs are you on today?” Sulaiman asked, as if keeping the words inside him was painful.

Priscilla let out a startled laugh.

“None, I swear,” Priscilla said, her smile wide enough to strain her cheeks. “I’ve just decided that I don’t care about keeping up appearances anymore. The Priscilla Thornewood you knew is no more!”

She knew it was a mistake to say the girl he knew was gone the moment the words left her mouth. Priscilla coughed roughly, raising her hand to catch the blood before it spilled over her lips.

It wasn’t until she felt Asha’s sharp distress that Priscilla realized she used her right hand.

“I’m okay,” Priscilla hurriedly whispered as she wiped the last drops of blood off her lips. Asha’s distress faded, but didn’t completely disappear – instead it radiated dissatisfaction and unhappiness through their bond.

She turned back towards Sulaiman, who was staring at her with narrowed eyes.

“What do you mean by that?” Sulaiman asked.

Priscilla slowed her horse to a halt because this felt like the type of conversation that was best done face to face.

“I mean that I am no longer Priscilla Thornewood,” Priscilla said carefully, as that was technically the truth. “As of yesterday afternoon, I am now Priscilla Sunscarre and I’m no longer a part of the Thornewood family.”

Sulaiman pulled his horse to a stop, his intense gaze never wavering from hers.

“Why would you do that?” he asked, something like anger pulling at his lips. “Are you just going to dump all your responsibilities onto Illnyea now, is that it?”

Priscilla couldn’t help the sardonic laugh that escaped her.

“What responsibilities?” Priscilla asked. “I’ve never been trusted with anything more important than my own allowance and Mister Thornewood was more than happy to get me to sign over my inheritance when given the opportunity.”

Sulaiman stared at her uncomprehendingly.

“Let me put this more simply,” Priscilla said, a rueful smile on her lips. “I’ve been disinherited because my parents would rather me go fuck off into the wilderness with a single guard than even consider treating me like their fucking daughter.”

The emotion drained from Sulaiman’s face, though Priscilla could see his eyes flashing as he thought deeply about something. She had a gut-feeling that she knew just what plan he was cooking up and sighed loudly.

“Are you trying to figure out if you even need to stay with me if I’m no longer a Thornewood?” Priscilla asked tiredly. “You’re free to go if you’d like, I only asked for a guard to come with so I wouldn’t be mugged on the road, but I’m sure I’ll be fine if I make a big enough nuisance of myself.”

Priscilla urged her horse to continue down the path. If Sulaiman chose to turn around, that wasn’t ideal, but her plans had always been flexible. If the stars aligned, Priscilla might encounter an unbound mercenary at one of the rest stations, but trusting them with her life would be hard even if she had enough gold to hire one. She’d just have to go back to her original plan of sneaking in and attempting to take the bandit’s leader captive to make them stand down – all she had to do was get Asha near his jugular and things would unfold from there.

She held her head up high, trying to hide just how much Sulaiman’s rejection stung. Priscilla understood why, but emotions were illogical things.

The sound of hoofsteps made Priscilla freeze, trying to not raise her hopes until Sulaiman pulled his horse up next to hers.

“I don’t like you,” Sulaiman said bluntly, “and frankly, I don’t understand you nor do I want to, but I won’t abandon you.”

Priscilla’s pesky hope was rising up again and she pushed it down to ask, “Are you sure? There’s still enough daylight left so you can return to Meadowyar and wait for Illnyea to return.”

“Don’t talk about her,” Sulaiman said sharply, before taking in another deep breath. “I meant what I said when I won’t abandon you. I’ll escort to wherever the hell you’re going, and then I’ll escort you back home.

“In return,” Sulaiman said, turning to glare at Priscilla, “leave Illnyea out of whatever plan you have cooked up. She doesn’t need you bringing her down.”

The words hurt, hitting harder than Sulaiman probably intended them to, but Priscilla couldn’t bring herself to fault him. He acted this way because he cared about Illnyea and Sulaiman didn’t trust Priscilla to not hurt her.

“We have ourselves a deal,” Priscilla said, maneuvering her horse so she could stick out a hand to shake on it. Sulaiman gave her a look that clearly told her he thought she was an idiot, but shook her hand all the same.

The rest of the ride to the rest station passed in complete silence, with Priscilla not feeling up to being playful when Asha’s distress was still clear and present in their bond. When Priscilla took a look at the glove, all traces of blood had disappeared.

The rest station had a small inn and stable, and it didn’t look terribly busy at the moment.

“Don’t let your pack leave your sight,” Sulaiman said as they dismounted. The nagging brought a half-smile to Priscilla’s face, because that was the closest thing he had to a catchphrase. Sulaiman said it often enough during the story the other characters teased him for being so paranoid.

Priscilla just nodded and they entered the inn, renting two rooms for the price of six silvers, netting Priscilla four pieces of silver after she paid a gold piece. They picked up some dinner from the diner part of the inn for the remaining four pieces and took it upstairs with them on a dining tray.

“Let’s get ready at dawn,” Priscilla said as they reached their rooms. Sulaiman gave her a look but nodded as he entered his room.

Priscilla locked the door behind her and set the dinner down onto a table before letting out a loud sigh and rubbing her temples.

“Why did you cough up blood, master?” Asha asked, tone serious. “I know enough about humans to know that blood is supposed to stay on the inside.”

She walked away from the door and tossed her pack carelessly on the bed before sinking onto it.

“I don’t think I can tell you why,” Priscilla said as she stared up at the ceiling, “but you can think of it as a god’s punishment.”

There was a brief jolt of terror from Asha, and then a steady determination.

“Tell me which god,” Asha insisted, “and I will make them pay for their transgressions.”

“Easy there on the murder train, Asha,” Priscilla said, unable to help the smile spreading across her lips. Asha was willing to fight a god for her and that was the sort of devotion that was hard to find in life.

“But, master, please –”

“Hush, Asha,” Priscilla said, “there’s no way for you to solve this for me. This is a problem that can be managed, as long as I watch what I say.”

Unhappiness radiated off Asha, but she felt its reluctant acceptance.

“Now, I’m tired as hell after riding all day,” Priscilla said, sitting up. “What do you say to me reading you some more of the bestiary while I eat dinner? After that we can go to bed and I’ll read until I fall asleep. Do you remember where we left off?”

Asha was quiet before saying, “We were halfway through amphibians.”

“Right,” Priscilla said as she flipped it open. “So, the three-headed venomous newt’s capabilities are right there in the name. They have three heads that all move independently and each mouth is packed full with venom sacks and way too many sharp teeth, but the most annoying part of them is that their skin is toxic to the touch too…”