Emily excitedly skips through the forest, her legs screaming in protest and pain at the excessive movement and her every scratch and scar and muscle-deep gouge pulsing with pain at every impact with the ground.

  But Emily couldn’t care less right now. She’s finally gotten everything she could have ever wanted.

  She leaps up into the air again and feels her calf cramp and seize, causing her to misstep and almost roll her ankle. She falls to the ground with a cry, the heavy pack on her back falling on top of her, the inertia carrying it forward and rolling it over her head and smushing her face into the ground.

  She lets out a highly undignified sound as sticks and other detritus digs into her cheek. Her legs lift up on their own account, scorpioning for a moment before falling back down on the ground with a final impact.

  Emily lies there for a moment, feeling her muscles relax and her bones go from aching pain to mildly uncomfortable, which is a pleasant but very unusual experience for her. She doesn’t know if her bones are supposed to ache like that, but it’s just another thing to add to her list of things she should probably sort out at some point.

  “And that point is finally, finally here!” she exclaims excitedly, her voice muffled by the pack that is still smothering the back of her head. She rotates onto her side with some effort, freeing herself from the suffocating confines of the pack. She takes a moment to let out a huff of air from the exertion, wishing that she could just lie there for a while longer, but just as she starts to look at different piles of leaves and considering how comfortable each one would be to lie her head on, her stomach growls.

  She sits up from the floor with an aching groan, looking around at her surroundings and seeing just where she ended up. She’s pleasantly surprised to find that she’s actually crash-landed in a rather pleasant spot underneath an old, massive tree. She runs her fingers through the soft, squishy moss and the warm, cushioning dried leaves. She glances around at the lack of ferns or anything that could hide ambushing predators for a far enough distance that she’s marginally confident she could prepare her mana and fire a spell in enough time before anything could cross it.

  “And… I’m only a short skip away from clean water!” She exclaims excitedly, “Well… At least I think it’s clean? I guess I’ll find out…”

  Pushing aside thoughts of what havoc could be happening at this very moment in her stomach, she impatiently grabs the overstuffed pack and drags it over to herself, flipping it open excitedly and staring at the amazing windfall that practically just landed on her lap.

  “More like landed on my head. Hehe…” She mutters to herself, as she pulls out the map and the compass and lays them down on the ground next to her carefully. “I’ll take a closer look at you two, soon…”

  A pack of apples comes next, of which one immediately goes into her mouth, the juices bursting in delicious sweetness that elicits a soft, satisfied moan from her. A few hunks of hard tack that she’ll consider once the apple is done. Some dried ration food that she’ll keep for last, if she’s still hungry. Four (four!) whole canteens, full of water, as well as that skin of wine that the group was about to crack open, and finally, a bag of dried, salted meat which Emily plans on devouring directly after the apple.

  She finds a nice, weatherproof tarp with string tied to the corners underneath the food and lays it down on the floor, placing her food and goodies on top of it before sitting down. She’ll string it up later and use it as a tent, but for now, it makes for the perfect picnic table.

  “I even have fresh clothes!”

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  She holds up a fresh, dry and clean set of the Wrenfall Scout’s Uniform excitedly, sizing it up against her. It looks like she was lucky, it was only slightly too big, so it looks like she grabbed one of the women’s packs.

  Not wasting any more time, Emily changes into them, finding them warm and comfortable. She looks the clothes over up and down, surprised by the quality of them and the advanced techniques used to make them.

  “How did they get these stitches so regular and strong…?” She asks herself, as she stares at them with amazement. “Mom’s stitching never looks this clean, and she’s been making clothes since I was a baby…”

  Either way, she’s more than satisfied with how they feel on her. And, if she’s fully honest with herself, with how they look, too.

  “I must look so badass…”

  She turns from side to side, enjoying the feel of her new cloak flapping around her. With her short stature and… ‘Petite’ frame (because she refuses to call herself flat, Alastair does enough of that himself), they hang a bit loose and a bit lower than they should, the cloak just barely staying above her shoes. But the cloak was designed to be dragged through thick brush and thorns, with a pliable leather bit halfway up it, so it works out well for her anyways.

  Satisfied with her preening, she sits back down on her impromptu picnic blanket and digs through the pack once again in order to see what else she has there.

  She pulls out a bedroll, a warm blanket, and most importantly:

  “A firestarter!”

  Emily holds up the flint and steel with a gleeful expression on her face, happy beyond belief that she can have a fire once again. Fire tends to keep the nastiest of the predators of the night away, so with this, she might be able to finally get a good night’s sleep tonight.

  “It’s just too bad that I didn’t grab any cooking supplies… Darn, I really should’ve thought of that…”

  With a shrug, she decides that it’s not too important. She has plenty of food for now, and as long as she keeps killing things for Blue to eat, it should last her quite a while.

  That taken care of, Emily takes the rolled up blanket and places it behind her head as a pillow, lying down on the tarp and staring up at the canopy.

  “I’ll just rest here for a few hours, heal up from all of… Everything, and then make my way out of here with that map.”

  Emily lets out a yawn, as she feels her aching body relax, finally full and fully sated.

  “Yeah, I just need a few hours.”

  She drifts off, watching the leaves above her sway in the wind and the branches creak and groan. Occasionally, the leaves part in just the right way and she gets to see the bright, blue sky for a moment. She wonders if her mom’s staring up at the sky right now as well, and whether her mom’s wondering about her. She’s probably hoping that she’s safe and happy, with Alastair and Nora.

  Emily wonders if anyone else she cares about is looking up at the sky at this moment. She thinks of her uncle, hoping that he’s safe and secure, wherever he is. She thinks of Nora and Alastair, hoping against hope that they’re doing alright without her. She thinks of Blue, the fluffy little baby who’s not really that little anymore –

  Emily gets up with a start, her eyes wide in realization.

  “Oh, darn! Blue! Where did he go?”

  She looks around herself but doesn’t see anything, a slight worry starting to build in her chest.

  She places two fingers to her lips and whistles, the sound loud and shrill, piercing through the peace and quiet of the forest. She holds the note for a second, two, three, and then stops, looking around again for any signs of the little guy.

  Nothing stirs, as unbeknown to Emily, Blue is still far away, preening her scorched feathers and picking out the most damaged ones carefully with her beak. Blue faintly hears Caretaker’s whistling, taking note of the direction that she heard it from, but not bothering to start moving just yet.

  She has to take care of her feathers first, after all. And using what she learned from fighting the other fleshy thing can wait until after that.

  Emily considers whistling again, but decides against it. Blue is never too far away, after all. He’s probably just busy preening his feathers, or hunting for dinner again. And if it’s been too long without any signs of him, she can always whistle again.

  It’s not like anything else ever answers her calls.

  But another thing does hear the shrill whistle, as well. Something powerful, something in a hurry, and something that Emily would recognize in a heartbeat, even though it’s been many, many years since they taught her her first spell.