31

A curious red squirrel nosed around in the underbrush, rattling in the soggy leaves kept snowless by the dense evergreens above. Something caught its attention, something out of place, which of course meant that investigation was in order. It sniffed at the pile of soft stuff, and smelled something that wasn't quite like the scent left in a campground nearby, but wasn't quite part of the forest either; it smelled something tasty, too, so it began to gnaw at the soft barrier, which yielded delightfully easily.

A large black rock, mostly invisible in the shadows cast by the light of the setting sun, stirred, and divided into two smaller mud-splattered black shapes. One raised its head, snarled, and lunged to its feet, directly after the squirrel.

Indignantly, the squirrel bolted up a tree and sat on a branch to scold the wolf, tail flicking.

Aindry yawned, got up and stretched languorously, while Jaisan padded over to examine the damage. He shifted to human, growling in annoyance.

“You're breakfast,” he called to the squirrel above them. “You set one paw out of that tree and you are food.”

The squirrel, unimpressed, chattered at him a little longer, then went bounding away through the tree branches.

Aindry changed to human, and came over to untangle her clothes from the pile. “That's what you get for leaving a bag of trail mix where they can smell it,” she commented.

“How many animals are stupid enough to come that close to two wolves? And it chewed a hole in my backpack!”

“So fix it, just like you fixed the other holes in it. Come on, get dressed and let's move.” She tossed him his faded, many-times-patched blue jeans, his ragged navy sweatshirt. Still grumbling to himself, he caught them neatly. Her own camo pants were under that, and an equally tattered sweatshirt she thought had once been red but was now a sort of dull pink. Winter coats and boots lay beneath.

Looking more or less human again, they scooped up the two packs that held everything they owned, and made their way back to the highway.

Occasionally, a car drove by, a brief blinding glare of headlights, then the distant glow of tail-lights. Otherwise, the highway was silent, bathed in silvery light by a moon just past full. They didn't bother trying to hitch a ride; at night, on a mostly deserted stretch of road, who was going to stop and pick up a wild-looking pair like them? They just walked quietly, not talking much. The next town would still be there, whenever they reached it.

She saw Jaisan toying with something in one hand, but didn't have to ask what. He'd bought the cherry-sized amethyst in a lapidary shop for a dollar a few weeks ago. It wasn't the first, and she doubted it would be the last; amethysts were simply irresistible to him. He said they gave his luck an extra boost, but that wasn't what she figured the attraction was. She had to get his mind back on the present; left too long to brood, he'd slip back into that frightening depression.

“Jais? How are we doing for money?”

“Hm? Oh. We've got the twenty that guy gave you a few nights ago for fixing his car, and some spare change.”

“Maybe we can find a bar between here and Falias that won't ask for ID,” she suggested. “Complete with the usual fool who, in all his macho confidence, just knows I can't possibly drink him under the table.”

That got her a quick smile. “Maybe so,” he agreed. “Or maybe something else will come up. Even if nothing does, at least we won't be wandering into Irminsul as broke as usual. I don't care how good an actual meal tastes, I hate begging for it.” His expression turned distant, wistful. “Maybe, one of these days, we'll find him...”

No need to ask who he meant by “him”; she heard the prayer at least once a day.

“We'll find him,” Aindry assured him, as she always did. “Demon-luck is weird stuff, it might take us a while, but we'll find him. And you know Jess. One of these days, we'll come around a corner and he'll be there. Probably asking what took us so long.”

“Maybe.” He shook himself out of that mood, back into the here-and-now. “Wonder how everything's going in Irminsul. Should be interesting to find out what we've missed since we were through Endor.”

Aindry hugged her brother with one arm. “Just think, another day or two, and we can have a warm bed, and hot showers, and real food, something other than fresh-killed and junk food. Hey, I think I see lights up ahead. Look.”

Jaisan looked. “I think you're right.”

Quiet again. Aindry relaxed. Jaisan would be too busy thinking of ways to part fools and money, he'd be all right now. For another night, at least. It was growing harder all the time to keep him out of the melancholy, though. What was going to happen when she could no longer help?

I wish I still believed in something I could pray to, that Jaisan's right and Jess is still alive, and that we'll find him before Jais goes too deep for me to reach him. I don't even want to think what being apart is doing to Jess, too...

The lights proved to belong to a village of reasonable size. They scouted around it, and found it generally average. There were, in fact, three restaurants, and one advertised a bar on the sign.

“Still too early,” Aindry said; the clock on the bank said it was only a little past nine. They'd be more likely to find the kind of sucker they wanted more towards midnight.

Jaisan nodded, counting through a handful of coins. “What've you got?”

She turned up two tens, a toonie, a loonie, three quarters, two dimes, and a few nickels and pennies.

“If we use the change, we can get fries and a drink to share at one of the other restaurants, and we'll have twenty dollars to bet,” Jaisan suggested.

“Sounds good.”

* * *

Morning found them some distance farther along the highway, with forty dollars between them, thanks to a farmer who couldn't believe that a slender girl would be able to out-drink him, and his friends who had been more than confident about making bets with Jaisan.

They left the road, wandered into the woods, and found a comfortable-looking place to strip and shift to wolf. Together they hunted a porcupine, enough meat to give them both a heavy meal, then they returned to where they'd left their belongings and curled up into a single heap of black fur to sleep the day away.

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