Fire had been Lilau’s constant companion for longer than she could remember. Wrapped around her heart, her lungs, her bones. It alone stayed the same as all reality shifted. Maybe it was the afterlife. She couldn’t be sure. She’d grown to love the heat. When it shattered, it left her hollow. When it returned to settle on her skin, her heart leaped for joy.

As the fire on her skin grew, her other senses awakened—slowly, sluggishly, like an aged sleeper struggling to rise. An echo of panting. The ground shifting below her. With each rise of the earth, her legs followed, her upper body sliding at odd angles. A large bump twisted her torso, and she grabbed at the ground on reflex. Soft, fuzzy, full of the musky scent of Makotae and sweat.

Makotae?

Her memories of the mountain and lake oozed back. Tirijuki throwing her into the wound. Nearly drowning in the glowing water. Makotae’s rescue. That was right. She’d tied herself to Makotae’s saddle. The rises and falls were him, fleeing the mountain and its dangers.

Light shone through her eyelids, bright and indistinct. An attempt to open her eyes failed. They were swollen and glued together. Lilau eased a hand from Makotae’s fur and scraped it across her eyes. A dull ache bloomed within her skull. The heat on her skin had reached an almost unbearable level. The heavy clothes so welcome in the cold air of approaching winter now clung to her, weighed her down.

Another swipe across her eyes and the glue released. Lilau opened her eyes to a new world.

Earth’s Blood laced an intricate pattern, star-bright blue shooting across shining white land. Pools of color, every shade of the rainbow, dotted the white in many shapes and sizes. One pool darted away from Makotae. Its colors solidified into a multi-layered creature of light with long ears and feet like paddles.

A rabbit?

The dull ache in her skull deepened to a stabbing pain.

The rabbit darted across an undulating rainbow laid across the gleaming ground. The rainbow was strangely pale, as if at a distance. Lilau looked up.

Pain swallowed her eyes as tears filled them. Where the ground shone, the sky was like looking directly into the sun. Within it, the Sky-River writhed, glittering as if full of crystals.

Lilau’s head spun. She looked at her hands, at Makotae’s neck, seeking something normal, and calm. She didn’t find it. Every strand of Makotae’s fur shone like a star. Lilau clenched her jaw and closed her eyes as a wave of nausea rose.

This wasn’t the world she knew. Was this the Spirit World? Had they both died? No. That didn’t make sense. When you died, your essence returned to its true form and left behind the physical. The you that had existed was no more. All that remained were the building blocks of new life.

We’re not dead, yet.

A thin layer of comfort came with Makotae’s thought, failing to conceal the exhaustion and uncertainty taking up most of his mind. His emotions spoke louder than his words. They weren’t dead yet, but it was still a likely future.

Are we still in the mountains? Lilau asked.

No. I passed the boundary between the mountains and this new land not long ago.

Lilau tensed. Are you hurt? Were there Sentinels?

If there were Sentinels, I did not sense them.

Some of the tension eased from Lilau’s muscles. Even though she’d never seen a gleaming land before, her travels had exposed her to many new things, so why not a land of light and rainbows? Although she couldn’t fathom how Makotae could see. She pointed the question at Makotae.

Rainbows? Concern for her welled up. While the sun is certainly bright, I would not call this place colorful unless your rainbow is made in shades of tan.

Tan? Of all the colors she’d seen in the landscape, tan wasn’t among them, nor was any shade of brown. Show me.

As he’d said, shades of tan replaced the swatches of rainbow and light. The land was flat, much like the grasslands, yet the loose, pale ochre dirt contained almost no plant life, dead or otherwise. A breeze came through, kicking up swirls of dust which danced for a time before collapsing back to the ground. Far away, a spindly legged antelope-like animal, as tan as the dirt it stood on, stared at them as they passed.

Two opposing ideas clashed in Lilau’s mind. The land’s borders seemed to have no Sentinels, the dirt seemed to hold little life, yet there stood an animal, alert and ready to run. How was that possible?

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I’ve seen more of them than I’d expect, Makotae said. But they seem to be thinning out as the sun rises. As hot as it already is, I don’t blame them.

His words brought her attention back to her boiling skin. Perhaps this was what being cooked felt like. I need to get rid of some of these clothes.

The difference in Makotae’s and her sight remained an enigma, but for now, not dying from overheating took priority. The hotter her body got, the dryer her throat became, and the dizzier her head.

Water first, Makotae said. You’ve been feverish and without food or water for two days.

Lilau’s eyes widened, an action she instantly regretted as the land’s radiance pierced her skull. She clamped her eyes shut again. Two days! Then, I truly need to lose some layers. So long without water, and I’ll die from the heat that much quicker.

No. We are almost there. I smelled it on the breeze, and now I see animals on the horizon. In such a dry place, it must be the water they are drawn to.

Lilau didn’t argue. Something tugged at her senses, approaching quickly from the rear. She resisted the urge to look, instead focusing on the noise beyond Makotae’s strides.

A multitude of soft-padded paws striking loose soil spread out behind them in a fan pattern.

Makotae, I think we’re being hunted.

Then let’s lose ourselves in the crowd and hope an angry Great Wolf is less appealing than their other options.

Lilau almost told him to go past the water, but stopped. Knowing Makotae’s single-mindedness toward her safety, it was likely he’d had very little to no food or water since she’d gone unconscious. They’d both collapse if they didn’t stop.

Sour, salty musk hit hard. The smell of sweat and too many animals in too small a space. Lilau’s stomach heaved, and this time she couldn’t stop it. She leaned out and gagged over Makotae’s shoulder. Nothing came out despite her stomach’s attempts.

The smell only grew stronger, but another smell creeped up beneath it, bringing with it a tingle of coolness. Mild, yet distinct, like dew on a leaf. Water.

Makotae splashed as he hit the surface, throwing droplets onto Lilau’s face and driving her thirst into overdrive. She leaned farther over Makotae’s shoulder and scooped blindly. Her arm sank to the elbow. The water soaked into the thick fur lining of her clothes in an instant. She pushed a wet, gloved hand against her mouth, yet barely any moisture escaped the cloth. She growled, ripped the gloves from her hands, and scooped again.

This time, water filled her palm. Lilau sucked it greedily, the taste of earth and the feel of grit barely registering over the desire for the life-saving liquid.

She’d shoved five more palmfuls into her mouth when a massive shape materialized in front of them. Despite not seeing it, she knew it was there, and it wanted to eat them.

Makotae jerked back before she could warn him. Loud splashes, a snap, animal calls and trumpets, and more jerking, forcing Lilau to cling to the saddle.

Giant lizards! Makotae practically yelled in her mind. There are giant lizards in the water!

He trembled beneath her. She patted his neck, knowing full well she was in no position to comfort him. Great Eagles in the sky, maddened Fokla on land, even glowing water tried to kill them. Giant lizards hardly surprised her.

The soft-pawed pursuers pressed in on Lilau’s senses. They’d arrived at the water.

Makotae, the hunters are here.

The raucous noise of the surrounding animals grew a hundred-fold. Calls of alarm merged into one harsh note, rattling around Lilau’s head and taking her headache up a notch. A tremble. Wind and dust blowing past as hooves thundered away from the hunters.

Makotae rumbled a warning. The cacophony drowned it out. He jumped, jerked, and swayed as he dodged the stampede. Something hit Lilau’s leg, a quick shift in Makotae’s weight the only thing keeping her from being taken to the ground and crushed.

A chill tickled Lilau’s back. If the animals were desperate enough to drink from water filled with hungry, giant lizards, why were they running from a handful of hunters? Were they that much worse? The chill solidified to ice. We should run!

Another rumble rose from Makotae, which she felt more than heard, as he continued his dance. Dust filled Lilau’s nose and caught in her throat, tickling until she coughed it back out.

Makotae’s movements stopped. His muscles tensed up, the fading sounds of the stampede mixing with his now very audible snarl. Running won’t help us.

The sudden chaos had knocked her focus away from the hunters. Now, it was all she felt.

Half a dozen formed a loose circle around her and Makotae. A memory of a similar situation in Horse Tribe lands returned. Curious, Lilau opened her eyes before thinking it through.

Innumerable stars formed silhouettes of giant cats, each one nearly twice the size of Makotae. Fire burned within each, the light refracting through its neighbors in a dazzling display. Pain shot through her eyes. Lilau cried out as she tried to shield her face with her hands.

A scattering of gasps, then another language she didn’t understand. People?

The language flowed around her like loose soil, full of clipped exclamations. Lilau frowned. It seemed like she and Makotae had found the new land’s tribe and Great Beasts. They sounded surprised where she was not. A strange girl on a strange animal seemed to have that effect on those she met. The biggest question remained—how would this tribe treat them?

Makotae snapped at air, his jaws clicking together as he snarled.

A man’s voice came from in front of them. “We mean you no harm. We are here to help. Please tell your Great Beast to stand down.”

Makotae went silent without her command as she tensed. The man had spoken in Wolf Tribe tongue. Of all the people she’d met, Wolf Tribe was about as likely to help as the Great Eagle’s rider.

Against her better judgement, she opened her eyes again. She had to know who these people were. Was it possible Wolf Tribe had spread so far from where she’d been raised? If so, would they recognize her?

Her heart drummed against her ribcage, each beat resounding in her head and sending buzzing pain down her limbs.

Color stung her eyes. Light with a person’s shape mingled and blurred together with shining threads that coiled in the center, stretching out into the limbs and head.

The fire, forgotten in the chaos, flared, then retreated under her skin. It thrummed in time with her heart and her head, its flames stoked higher and higher, the world growing brighter and brighter.

Muffled yells absorbed into the impenetrable glare. Light engulfed all as a woman’s slow lullaby whispered, a drop of water in an inferno.