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Kcrie. We could not have found him without your help. Thank you.”
    Kcrienalpralopar gazed at the young mage without expression, eyes flat. She stood suddenly. “I will set up the Boundary now.”
    Watching the Asrai walk off, Aya could not help thinking Kcrie a cold woman. But then Kcrie wasn’t really a woman either. Aya was apt to forget that sometimes.
    “Ah… she doesn’t mean to act hurtfully.” Agemeer remarked softly, “She is in a way like our Serrtin but even more so stuck in her ways. Blame her not for acting so, she has had a hard life.”
    “I know. And I don’t blame her.” Aya responded with a small smile. She settled down once again into her blanket.
    “That’s a good girl.”
    “Agemeer?”
    “Hmm?” The Wulf yawned, resting his head onto his paws.
    “I’ll try to be confident in my abilities and not fail my family, my team, my magic or myself.”
    Agemeer lifted his head, one ear cocked. He had no idea what had prompted her words but judging by her sincere expression it had been an important admission. He responded with a simple “I know you will.” But the Bren was already fast asleep.
    Kcrienalpralopar stepped lightly around the campsite touching a tree here, a plant there. When she finished the area seemed to brighten momentarily and then fade back into the shadows.
    In the beginning of their relationship with the Fae, Serrtin would stand watch despite the boundary wards Kcrie would set. The Yarcka warrior refused to believe in something she could neither see nor prove to protect her team while they slept. So night after night, the three would take turns at guarding as Serrtin demanded. The Asrai cared not.
    One night however as Serrtin stood watch, the light of Eleuin revealed a prairie badger- a perfectly harmless if pesky creature- wander near in search of a free meal. It blundered right into Kcrie’s unseen barrier. The badger felt nothing; it couldn’t have, for that’s how quick it disintegrated. The barrier glowed a pale red and the creature was gone. From there on, Serrtin decided that perhaps the Asrai’s magic could be trusted.

Chapter 4
    Morning came to Aya in the form of a large clawed foot that prodded her shoulder insistently. Slowly, the girl disengaged herself enough from her tangled blanket to sit up, blinking sleepily. When it seemed at last she was awake enough to be left to her own devices, the Yarcka moved off to retrieve the mage’s horse. Trinket looked about as sleepy as her owner and was much less willing to wake up.
    Though decidedly against beasts of burden, through her friendship with Aya, Serrtin learned how to care for the ill-mannered creatures called horses. Taking up the saddle and blanket, she placed it on the back of the mare easily and slipped the headstall over the saddle horn. Serrtin left that and the cinch for the Bren to deal with. The mare waited while the team finished their own breakfast of biscuits and sliced fruit (the Yarcka forgoing the latter) while partaking of her own grains.
    Kcrie returned from her nightly excursions looking exhausted as she usually did. Her form was quickly drifting back to its natural state. The Asrai held it only long enough to terminate the boundary ward before returning to the sanctity of her crystal flask without so much as a word to her fellows. It was now her turn to rest. None of her companions knew what she did in her nightly journeys and no one questioned her actions.
    With all members accounted for, the team packed up their diminishing supplies. The large duffel was hefted onto Serrtin’s capable shoulder and the saurian waited while Aya adjusted her saddle straps before taking the lead away from the campsite.
    Utilizing her inherent sense of direction, Serrtin put her feet to the unpaved path to Barda. The wooded lands became open pastures over the passage of the next day. The lands were not as lush as the grasslands of Indelsis, where rainfall came often, nor as hilly as lower Jade. Basically