The Destiny Detour

Caught

Rosaliy

Rosaliy's thoughts were tumultuous, and she needed to be alone with them. Every time Rosaliy thought Drake seemed on the path back to normal, she caught him staring at her, and then she was less sure. Of course the only man attracted to her was under a spell. Not counting Matias, anyway, which she did not.

She kicked over a useless, damp, rotting log. She needed dry wood. Even though Daniella was almost certainly tracking her, there was no need to add stupidity to foolishness by lighting a magical fire. She was already headed straight to Taragon, after all, right into Daniella's waiting hands. How long had it been since Rosaliy had taken the masking potion? She had best do that when she got back to camp. In a while. She needed a break from the Drake she had accidentally created.

She was having to work pretty hard to avoid taking advantage of Drake's new-found devotion. For example, even though she was sure he would tell her anything she wanted to know, pressing him for information seemed like taking advantage of a spell that was her fault anyway. Besides, every time he was confronted with his deep, dark past, he flew into a feverish panic. She wished he would hurry up and get back to normal. In an odd, nonsensical way, she missed him.

Dry kindling was easy to come by, but Rosaliy needed a decent-sized branch if their fire was going to burn for more than a few minutes. That search and stalling her return to camp took her farther than she should have wandered, but she was still roughly within screaming distance. Soon, she had a decent armful of twigs and dried underbrush, but she did still need some burnable wood, so she ventured a little further.

The sound of skittering interrupted her thoughts about what questions she could safely ask Drake in his current state, and her heart leapt to her throat. She spun to find a fat squirrel clinging to the tree trunk next to her. With a double bounce, it leaped onto a branch with a clatter. She exhaled a shaky breath. These forest animals. She was a walking fairy tale princess right now. To prove her point, the squirrel chattered and chucked an acorn at her.

"Thank you," she sighed, as the squirrel seemed quite proud of itself. Really, Drake was admirably together if this was her effect on local wildlife.

A faint crack sounded in the air next to her. Tense with a reason this time, Rosaliy scanned her forest surroundings and backed toward a large tree. More cracks followed, like invisible popcorn. Gray fog rolled in, and that was enough evidence for Rosaliy to drop her kindling and take cover. From behind the tree she felt a gust of air and then quiet. Someone was here.

"Come out, come out!" a woman's voice called in an accent that was thick and unfamiliar. "We know you're here, tertiary Sorceress."

Rosaliy pressed her cheek to the bark of the tree. Maybe it would absorb the sound of her madly beating heart. Surely anything with ears could hear the pounding for furlongs. The woman was too close for Rosaliy to run, and she had nothing useful. Even her dagger was in her bag back at camp, the little good it would do against a magical enemy.

Two male voices conversed in an unfamiliar language. There were at least three people here.

"She's here, whiners," the harsh female voice interrupted. "If you have a faster way to travel than the fog, I'd love to see it."

"Tracking people would be simpso if they didn't run from us before we got there," griped a scratchy male voice.

Someone clapped twice and hissed, which seemed like an odd response until a large, dark animal bounded around Rosaliy's tree, snarling.

An unbidden cry escaped her lips and she backed off the tree, her body preparing to run even while her brain said running was pointless.

The furry animal who looked a great deal like Pepper with a lean, snarling face blinked at her and relaxed, jowls sliding back into place over sharp teeth, expression in the yellow eyes widening from tracking of prey to curiosity, and flattened ears perking up. He padded forward, and despite this change in behavior, Rosaliy took another two steps backwards, running smack into another obstacle.