As night approached we made camp on a bare patch of ground beside the road. The place had been used by previous travelers, as indicated by the circle of stones for a fire pit and a small pile of dry wood tucked under the low branches of a nearby tree.

  I gladly dropped my knapsack and plopped my butt on an ancient stump. My legs tingled and I vigorously rubbed my calves.

  “Are you in pain?” Arian asked me as she set her bag down near me.

  I furrowed my brow as I massaged the muscles. “I think I’m just a little out of shape. Being bedridden for almost a week isn’t helping this hike.”

  “Then allow me to build the fire,” she insisted. My friend didn’t wait for a reply but hurried over to the pile of wood. Arian soon had a nice teepee built in the pit and she fetched a flint striker from her bag.

  I leaned down and snapped off some dried bits of grass and twigs which I held out to her. “Use this.”

  “These will work nicely,” she complimented as she took the dried material from me.

  Arian knelt in front of the pit and stuffed the dried bits inside her little building. I was glad to see the sparks from her flint land on my goods and consume the wood. Not only because I’d helped in my infinitesimal way but because night fell all around us. The warmth from the sun vanished and was replaced by a foreboding chill.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. “Sure is quiet out here.”

  Arian tilted her head back and studied the stars that twinkled one by one above us. “Yes. I had forgotten how calming the night could be.”

  There was a tinge of longing in her voice. “You’ve been away a while, haven’t you?”

  “About three years,” she admitted as she stood and brushed herself off. She turned to me with a smile and a tilt of her head. “But now I am returning and I have a friend with me.”

  “Are you sure you can talk freely about me in front of your people?” I wondered as she took up a spot on a nearby fallen tree. “I mean, I am a wanted person.”

  She curled her legs up against herself and set her chin atop her knees. “I am sure the news from the heavens will not have reached you. Well, except Jin, and I made him promise me that he would say nothing about your unusual arrival.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Why did you do that?”

  Arian curled her legs closer against her and tried to dig her chin deeper into her knees. A sheepish smile spread across her lips. “I had hoped even then that we would soon go to my homeland and I did not wish for you to be treated differently than any other heaven god.”

  I toyed with a lock of my silver hair. “Are they treated differently by your clan?”

  “Lord Yushir is an honored guest to our ruler but many of my people have rarely seen anyone besides him,” she mused as she glanced at the knapsacks that lay between us. “But are you not hungry? I could cook something for dinner.”

  My grumbling stomach answered for me and I laughed. “I think I am but how can I help?”

  Her eyes twinkled as she stood. “You might conjure a dessert for us. I am not very good at cooking those.”

  I lifted my hands so they hovered opposite each other and wiggled my fingers. “Two bars of chocolate coming up.”

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  I made some magic, quite literally, while Arian brought out some greens and a hunk of meat carefully wrapped in a bundle of damp clothes to keep it from spoiling. We had ourselves a feast under a sky filled with twinkling skies.

  I munched on my bar of chocolate with an empty plate at my feet. My eyes lay on those dazzling lights so high above us. I couldn’t take my eyes off them. “This reminds me of the night when Dadan caught me on his private island.”

  Arian paused in her eating and cast a curious look at me. “Caught you on his island? When did that happen?”

  My cheeks heated up and I turned my face away. “It, um, it happened when I was a cat.” I held up one arm and turned it over. “I was dragged there by my magic again and it had a starry sky like this one. It also had a moon, and I think that changed me back into a human.”

  My friend froze before she blinked at me. “But how is that possible, Anna? You were always a cat to me before the creature attacked you.”

  I scratched the back of my head and sheepishly smiled at her. “To be honest, I don’t know myself. I just know that standing in that moonlight gave me a kind of shadowy human form. Like I projected a light image of myself. I became a cat again whenever I walked into the shadows.”

  “And Lord Eastwei discovered you in such a state?” she wondered.

  “Yeah. . .”

  Arian leaned toward me and a sly smile slipped onto her lips. “And then what happened?”

  I leaned away from her and frowned. “Not what you’re thinking.”

  “What am I thinking?”

  “That there was some kind of smooching going on between us. To tell you the truth, I tripped into the pond and hid myself in the reeds until he left.”

  Arian’s smile drooped into disappointment. She let out a sigh and returned to poking at the fire. “I see. I had hoped your relationship with Lord Eastwei had progressed further than your being his pet.”

  My shoulders slumped and I stared at the nibbled bar of chocolate in my hand. It reminded me of the one I’d left in the basket. “Yeah, me, too.”

  “Perhaps you will return to the heavens soon and be reconciled with the king,” she suggested.

  I snorted. “I think I’ve met him enough to know he doesn’t like anybody sneaking off without his permission.”

  Arian prodded the wood and I noticed the dancing firelight glisten off the faraway look in her eyes. I scooted as close to her as my seat would allow and nudged her with the tip of my foot. “You okay?”

  She shook herself out of her thoughts and bowed her head. “I. . .I had hoped we could both return to the heavens in a few months. A year, at most.”

  I settled my gaze on her knapsack and imagined the keepsake tucked safely in a bundle of her clothes. A sly smile slipped onto my lips and I leaned in close to her. “You really like him, don’t you?”

  Her cheeks blushed red and she whipped her face away from me. “I-I do not know what you are talking about. I only wish to return a few items to their owners.”

  “Namely a certain gemstone?” I suggested.

  Her eyes flickered over the cloth still wrapped loosely over my shoulders so that I could see all of my body. “There is the cloak.”

  I laughed and pinched the cloth between my fingers. “You really want to meet that lord again, huh?”

  Arian’s head shot up and her eyes widened. She jumped to her feet and lifted her nose in the air. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I rose.

  “What is it?” I asked her as my frail human eyes scanned the area. How I missed my cat eyes.

  She shook her head. “I am not sure. I caught something on the wind, something foul and-watch out!” She leaped at me and pushed me out of the way as something came charging out of the brush to our left.

  The creature slammed into my friend and knocked her to the ground beside the campfire. Arian’s head slammed against the hard-packed earth and she lay still but breathing. Her attacker stood over her, a hunched figure with a bristled back and a short, hairless tail.

  “Arian!” I shouted as I tried to rush to her aid.

  Her attacker whipped its bulky head around and glared at me with hideous tusks. The thing spun around and raced toward me. I threw myself out of its path and rolled across the ground before stopping on my side. Dust and soot covered me as I looked up at my attacker.

  The hog skidded to a stop and spun around to face me. My heart skipped a beat when I recognized that blood-thirsty madness. The terrible look in its dark eyes brought back horrible memories of my cat self being chased through that rotten tree. It seemed the beast wasn’t done with me yet.