“Aha!” Merryway sounded like they’d found treasure.

“What?” asked Thyssa, trying not to sound too curious.

Merryway jogged off to a flat rock and sat upon it. Then they patted a spot on the rock beside her. “A nice place to sit down.”

Thyssa trudged along and dropped herself down on the rock.

“You looked like you could really use a break,” said Merryway. “You, uh, alright? Poison-wise?”

Thyssa nodded. “I was just thinking about your stories.”

“Yeah? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just…why do you have to go as far back as your grandmother for stories of Mount Three Trials? Didn’t any of you get sick since then?”

Merryway looked grim. “There was…another expedition. My grand-uncle. His son got sick, so up he went.”

“No…”

“He took his wife, his brothers, his cousin, and local mercenaries.”

Thyssa swallowed. “They all died.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Merryway nodded. “Nobody came back. My grandmother went out to save them. She didn’t return either.”

“Sorry.”

“What happened to them?”

Merryway shook their head. “Nobody knew. Maybe they died at one of the Trials. I think the malforms got them.”

“There are malforms here?”

“I’ve definitely seen quite a few in the area. They must have a nest or something up here.”

“Unlikely,” said Thyssa, a little too quickly.

“What makes you say that?”

Thyssa swallowed. “Well. The trials. How would they even get up here?”

Merryway stared off into the distance. “That…is a very good question.”

“That’s what you’re here to figure out.”

“No. I mean…I want to know. But my true mission is to retrieve the water of the Goddess Fountain. Nothing else is as important to the clan.”

“Not even the Matriarch’s eldest child?”

Merryway narrowed their eyes. “What do you mean?”

“They give your grand-uncle a whole expedition, with mercenaries and everything, and they just send you on your own?”

Merryway looked down. “They didn’t send me.”

“I thought you said –”

“I…didn’t want to correct you. I wish they had sent me, but they didn’t. They didn’t send anyone.”

“I thought nothing was as important as the Goddess Fountain.”

“It’s true. But the others…don’t all share my view.”

“So you went out on your own. To save your mother.”

“Yeah. Save her, and bring back my people’s hope. Make it so people don’t just despair and die when they get sick.”

“Like the boy.”

“Well, that was the thing…after all that, the lad recovered on his own.” They laughed a broken laugh.

Thyssa reached out a hand, then stopped herself. They didn’t need the embrace of a beast, she told herself. But…what did she know of what humans wanted? She rallied her courage.

“I…you’re hurt,” said Thyssa. “Do you…do you want me to hold you?”

Merryway nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that’d be good.”

Thyssa embraced Merryway, and they sat like that for a long, long time.