I slip out of the inn, bare feet padding across the wet grass and bare earth toward the fire pit. Tashorr's asleep; his snores follow me, drifting to mingle with the night sounds of the village. There's a pale shape before me--the chief's tent--and I nearly trip over a log. I must have misjudged the distance. Blinking, I crouch down, hand on ( Read more... )

Fire sat cross-legged, watching her as she stirred the stew ( Read more... )

I don't like this place. My hands are busy, but I still have time to think. I lean forward, using my weight to force the shovel into damp, rocky earth. Another day, another hut. It's just past dawn, and already I'm hard at work. I like that part. It's just not as mind-numbing as I had hoped ( Read more... )

She reaches a clearing in the grey forest. At the center, amidst fallen broken trees, a narrow sharp-edged figure sits--not a troll, nor is he identifiable as any race she know. She can feel the power in him, sense it in the gentle breeze teasing at her skin and brushing across her bare scalp. He's at rest now, but she knows that if she angers ( Read more... )

She strides on, lightened, unburdened. Fire has given her passage through this domain, and if his power is weaker here, dulled by the whispering water all around, he's still strong enough to keep her from harm for as long as she can keep his interest.

It's grey here, and tree shapes shift around her, fighting to keep in the foreground. She ( Read more... )

Sunlight trickled through the leaves of the high canopy, dripping slowly down from bough to bough, running down trunk to root to mossy earth, moving as slowly and inevitably as the sweat prickling its way between Yunari's shoulders and down her back. Her forehead and arms were damp, too, the moisture not doing much besides plastering her shirt and ( Read more... )