Chapter 3

The lithe woman turned unceremoniously and waved her hand to beckon Myre and Leya. “Come along now, this way.” She gestured to Leya’s torn tunic and Myre’s torn sleeve laying on the ground. “You should pick that up too. We wouldn’t want to leave any traces here.”

Myre and Leya scrambled to pick up their pieces of torn clothing, as the woman started walking away into the woods. Holding hands, Myre and Leya followed after her.

Sensing that the two were following her, the woman gave a short laugh that sounded melodious, and increased her pace. In fact, it seemed as if she was bounding through the woods, and the undergrowth was no obstacle for her. In contrast, Myre and Leya had to fight through the brambles and shrubs that seemed to be everywhere.

A short distance later, Leya commented, “If the trackers managed to follow us earlier, wouldn’t they be able to follow us to wherever we’re going now?”

The woman abruptly stopped and turned around to face Leya. Smiling, she said, “I was wondering how long it’d take before you wondered about that.” Gesturing to the woods around them, she continued, “But fear not, the woods will take care of us.”

Leya was confused, but glanced around as the woman gestured. It seemed as though the trees and shrubs had shifted slightly with the woman’s gesture, almost like they were obeying her words.

“Leya, look!” Myre exclaimed.

Leya turned around and gasped. The bush behind them, which they had just squeezed through, looked completely undisturbed and almost pristine. To their untrained eyes, it looked like they had never gone through it.

“There will be no tracks for anyone to follow,” the woman declared. “Come along now, there is more ground for us to cover.” With that, the woman continued on her way without a glance at the two.

Sighing, Myre followed after the woman, and pulled Leya along, who was still dumbstruck by the lack of tracks behind them. Myre secretly wished that the vegetation would part for them as they walked. That would make it much easier to walk through the woods.

They carried on their way for quite some time. The woman’s movement seemed almost whimsical, as she would skip from place to place, then abruptly change directions. Over time, Leya noticed something odd. The woman seemed to dart around the splotches of moonlight that shone through the trees, almost as if she was avoiding them. Paying extra attention, Leya caught a moment when the woman’s arm was lit by moonlight. Leya wasn’t sure, but she thought she caught a glimpse of bluish skin, and roughness on the arm. Maybe even scales?

Leya pulled Myre along faster and tried to catch up with the woman. As the woman continued bounding and darting around, Leya tried to position herself so that the woman would have no choice but to enter the moonlit regions. The woman seemed to be able to predict where Leya was going, and effortlessly avoided Leya’s traps. As the woman jumped past them again, Leya thought she saw a smile on the woman’s face. And wait, was that a ... tail? Leya saw something moving behind the woman as she had bounded past. Her body had avoided the moonlight, but Leya had seen the edge of something bluish lit by the moon, although it had been unconnected to the woman. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.

“Did you see that?” Leya whispered to Myre.

“See what?” Myre asked.

“That ... tail, or something! In the moonlight,” Leya continued.

Myre looked surprised. “Is there something coming for us?”

“No, no,” Leya answered. “I think the woman has a tail, but we can only see it when it’s under moonlight. Look how she’s avoiding the brighter regions.”

The woman abruptly stopped, and said, “I can hear you, you know.”

Myre gasped. Leya grasped Myre’s hand more tightly and readied her body to spring into action if necessary. Whether to run or fight, Leya wasn’t sure yet. But she hoped that it wouldn’t come to that.

The woman turned around to face them again. She had a big grin on her face, as if she was extremely happy about something. Leya gulped and hoped that the woman wasn’t being happy because she was about to eat them, or worse.

“Get ready,” Leya whispered to Myre urgently.

“For what?” Myre replied.

“I don’t know!” Leya exclaimed. “Just be ready.”

The woman stepped calmly towards them and laughed. Even her laughter had a melodious tone to it. Leya couldn’t tell if it was an ominous sort of melody, or an innocuous one.

“Don’t you think that if I wanted to harm you, I’d have done it back there?” the woman asked.

Myre tensed up, and pulled herself closer to Leya, using her other hand to hold onto Leya’s torso.

Sensing Myre and Leya’s fear, the woman continued, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you or anything like that.”

“If that’s true, then tell us who you are, or what you are,” Leya said with as much bravado as she could muster.

The woman laughed again. “I will give you the answers you seek soon. But not here, where others may overhear. Come along, we’re almost there.”

Myre and Leya traded glances.

“I suppose we don’t have much choice,” Leya said. “We’ve already made it this far.”