…The red-bearded man recovered quickly, moving his hand from his blood-stained wrist and onto the hilt to his sword. He signaled his underlings to form a semi-circle around the retreating pair and Merridias leveled his tiny dagger their way. The floor between them cleared quickly and Merridias stopped backpedaling as Shasta pressed up against the wall behind him. The common room fell silent and the red-bearded man strode forward cautiously, his knuckles white on the hilt of his sword.

“You’re out of your depth here little man,” he said, scowling towards Merridias. “Get back to your table and order another drink.”

Merridias smiled easily, taking a moment to enjoy the tense silence and the dozens of eyes that were fixed squarely on him.

“I’m afraid I’ve had my fill for the evening,” he responded eventually. “Why don’t you run on home and leave the girl alone?” 

The thug stopped, well back from Merridias, and drew his weapon slowly and calmly.

“Have it your way. Draw your sword.” …

…Who’d have thought a desert sunrise could be so beautiful? When I get out of this, I’ll make sure to appreciate more sunsets.

Patri will be giving birth to our child in a few months. We were hoping to be back in Arvair by then. Patri’s sure it’s a girl, so we already have a name picked out. The plan was to raise her in the city for a year or two, until she was old enough to travel. Then we could rejoin the caravans and she could grow up on the road. Like I did.

But maybe that’s not such a good idea. It certainly doesn’t feel like it at the moment.

The goanna’s still there. And soon I’ll be wishing I was still cold…

…“What did it look like?”

Rider sits back in his chair, his head tilting towards the ceiling. His eyes are looking elsewhere, elsewhen.

“Only saw the arm at first. Thought it was a human wearin forest-dress for a blink or two. Nope. It was like a branch, wrapped tight with vines and leaves. The fingers were smooth twigs and bark nibs where they bent. The arm started fallin back into the moss and I followed it up and saw eyes lookin at me. Not human eyes. They were – well can’t say I’ve ever seen anythin’ quiet like ‘em, but they reminded me of water-lilies floatin on a still pond. There was white, and pink, and orange and red too I think. Loveliest things I’ve ever seen.”…

…“Begone!” she snapped, swiping towards their tail-feathers as the horse-sized scavengers hopped away, struggling to get airborne. She barked out another puff of flame and glowered as they finally got some wind under them and flapped hastily over the tree-tops, still croaking in anger.

When they were out of sight Raven let out a long breath and dropped to her haunches. She craned her neck down to peek into the crevice beneath the boulder-tumble.

“It’s safe now,” she said, taking care to speak as quietly and gently as possible. “You can come out, I won’t hurt you.”

Raven could just barely hear the girl breathing and knew from the scent of blood that she must be injured, but how badly she couldn’t tell.

“Are you hurt?” she asked. “Are your mother or father nearby?”

“No.”

Raven cocked her head to the side – the girl spoke quietly but her voice was strong enough that she doubted the child was badly hurt.

“What’s your name child?” she asked, dropping down to her stomach so that her head was as low to the ground as possible.

“I’m Vetra.”…