-Chapter Two-

The first lights of dawn settled on Dandelien’s eyelids, pulling her out of a fuzzy dream. She struggled to cling to it for a moment before giving up, blinking her eyes open and looking around in the dim light. The last embers of the fire glowed softly.

Someone was whispering off to her left. Dandelien’s head snapped in the direction as she recognized the voice.

“Blue!” She yelled, scrambling out of her blankets and smiling a warm greeting to the man who was sprawled out beside the remnants of the fire. The shadows lengthened his sharp features.

“Hey, Sprout. Better not be too loud, wouldn’t want Luke to lose his beauty sleep. You been watching after the group for me?” Green eyes sparkled from his scarred face.

“I went hunting and brought down a whole sparrow!” The excited girl struggled to keep her words quiet.

“Finally getting a hang of that bow? ‘Bout time. Hana’s the only one of us you haven’t hit with one of your stray arrows.”

She hasn’t hit me.

“Shut up, steel face, you don’t count.” Tor fell into an offended silence.

“Dandelien learns quickly,” The pungent smell of onions gave away the identity of the second speaker. “This time next week she’ll have downed five sparrows and a deer.”

“You really think so?” Dandelien looked over at him hopefully. An unruly mass of brown hair sat on his head like a decomposing bird. His elongated nose could very well have been its beak.

“I’m sure of it. Why, I remember my first bow-”

“Ain’t no deer around here,” Blue snapped. “These are dying lands. Sorry Sprout, maybe when we hit the border there’ll be something worth shooting. Sure as hell won’t be a deer.”

Watch your language around children.

Blue grunted and poked the fire with a stick.

“I found a living area yesterday,” Dandelien said dreamily, “It was a meadow. There were flowers and green grass and birds…”

“It’ll be swallowed up soon enough.” Blue studied the embers as if they held the answer to life.

“I know,” Dandelien said, wrapping her arms around herself. “That’s what I like about you, Blue. You always tell me the truth without sugar coating. Like when,” she faltered for a moment, “when Jake died. No one else would tell me, but you did.” She bit her lip uncertainly. “You think…someday…I’ll be good enough with my bow to help you with fighting?”

A scowl flickered over his face, pulling his features into an intimidating mask. “No. I work alone.” Blue threw down the stick and stood up. “Tell Luke I’m going to scout east. Pack up the camp. We’ll leave at midday.”

“But-” She held out her hand beseechingly, as if she could physically make him stay.

“Tell him,” Blue ordered. Ragnick frowned but kept his thoughts to himself.

Dandelien asked the first question that popped into her mind. “Don’t you ever sleep?” It occurred to her that she had never seen Blue so much as close his eyes. There were times when he hardly seemed human.

“No. Sleep is for weaklings,” Blue replied as his figure vanished into the brown foliage.

The camp was beginning to rouse. Sleepy murmurs came from blanket covered lumps lying on the ground. Nalita sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Morgen iz it?” she asked. Even half asleep she managed to look sweetly pretty.

Hana’s paw twitched as she mumbled in her thoughts about carrots and foxes. Ragnick threw water on the fire and began taking down the tent. Dandelien folded up her bedroll, tied it with a string, and then picked up Hana.

“Hey, sleepy head. It’s time to go,” she said, scratching the rabbit behind her ears.

I’ll wake up when I want to and not a moment sooner, Hana replied haughtily.

Dandelien shook her head and set Hana back down.

Luke sat up and cast a sour look at the world in general. “Where’s Blue? I thought he was supposed to be back by now. Did he get himself killed?”

“You missed him,” Ragnick said, “He’s gone to scout.”

Luke’s mouth twitched with distaste as he looked at the onion-scented farmer. “What is he, a demon? Doesn’t he stop to rest like normal people?” Luke complained, “I think we should get rid of him next chance we get.”

“No!” Dandelien jumped up. “He’s my friend!” When everyone’s eyes turned toward her she blushed and hastily sat back down.

He isn’t anyone’s friend. Hana’s thought felt sad. He doesn’t know how to be.

“He’s still my friend,” she whispered. Ever since she had met the thief, he had taken care of her. Without him she wouldn’t be alive right now and she certainly wouldn’t know what was going on. The rest seemed to think she was just a child who should be led. Blue was cold, but Dandelien liked to think he cared about her in his own way.

“Whatever he is, he’s the one who’s been taking out the guards,” Ragnick pointed out, “You can’t say he isn’t useful to have around.”

Luke didn’t deign to reply. He got up and marched into the dying forest, axe in hand. Someone always did the work of packing up for him. An awkward silence descended on the group.

There was a crash from the foliage in front of them and Blue came hurtling through. The dagger in his hand was coated with blood and Blue was gasping for breath. “Raiders,” was all he managed to get out, but that one word stole the breath from Dandelien’s lungs. The camp burst into a frenzied panic.

Nalita screamed. Ragnick cursed and dove for the half-deconstructed tent where his weapons were. Hana jerked awake and hopped in anxious circles. Tor was trying to bellow orders but Dandelien ignored him and the others seemed to be doing the same.

Dandelien spilled out the contents of her neatly packed bag and found her bow. Searching frantically for a quiver of arrows, she began shoving her assorted items back into place. Blue roughly grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet.

“No good. There’s too many to fight. We run.”

“But-”

“RUN!” She slung the pack with the bow across her back, scooped up Hana, and ran. Dead leaves crunched under her feet as she took off on her frantic flight. After the Occurrence she had done nothing but run. Run here, run there, avoid this, avoid that. The Occurrence had given her the ability to mentally communicate with Hana. Now she was classified as one of the “mentally wrong,” to be destroyed on sight. All because she could talk to a rabbit.

It wasn’t fair. If she didn’t run fast enough she would be dead like Jake, her parents, and all the other poor souls who had been slaughtered in the panic after the Occurrence. It just wasn’t fair. Tears stung her eyes. She could feel them rolling over her skin.

I’m sorry, Dandelien, Hana whispered softly in her mind, I’m so sorry.

Ragnick got out his bow just in time to see the raiders storm into the camp. They wore an assortment of rusted mail on their differing bodies. The one that seemed to be leading them wore a bit of plate on his arms. For the most part he was a burly man wielding a battle-axe. His head was hideous to behold. It was a twisted mockery of a moose. Beady black eyes peered out of the shaggy brown fur.

The Occurrence had done more than let little girls talk to their pets. It had morphed unfortunate souls, combining them with the body of another. Sometimes the other was humanoid, but more often it had been a creature. All of them were driven mad. The ones that survived the initial slaughter had taken refuge in the wild and become raiders. There was no honor left in them, no compassion, no sanity.

The beast was on Ragnick before he could fit arrow to bow. He tumbled to the ground to avoid the swipe directed at his head, but the onion farmer from Trag wasn’t as agile as Blue. He wouldn’t get away from a second blow. As light found a patch of steel to glint off on the mud and blood spattered surface of the battle axe, Ragnick knew he was dead.

Just as he was preparing for the final blow, an inch of steel grew out of the creature’s neck. It fell forward with a gurgling roar and Ragnick rolled out of the way. Blue stood, dagger still upraised, blood running down his arms and face. “I said run, you onion-sniffing lunatic!”

Ragnick lurched to his feet. The bow still clutched in his hand was snapped in two. He would have to make a new one. Blue grabbed his arm and half dragged him away. The raiders had found a food stash in the camp and turned on each other. The wild yells of their brawl rang through Ragnick, shaking him to the marrow.

“What about the supplies?” he demanded.

Blue shook his head. “Gone. Almost everything is gone. There’s no way we can go back. This is going to cost us,” Blue said irritably.

“Better things than one of us,” Ragnick pointed out. “Where are we meeting the others?”

“They all went this way,” Blue snapped. Dread overwhelmed Ragnick as the meaning of the answer occurred to him. Blue did not know. What if they couldn’t find the rest of their group?

Fate will bring you together, Tor intoned with certainty.

Ragnick noticed the sword strapped to Blue’s back. “I thought you were getting rid of him.”

Blue gritted his teeth. “We find Dandelien first,” he said, ignoring Ragnick’s inquiry.

Dandelien took a last stumbling step before falling to the ground. Her muscles gave up and Hana tumbled out of her arms. “I can’t go on,” she said, her voice thick with surrender and exhaustion.

Hana hopped an impatient ring around her. Just a little further. Then we can rest. Dandelien shook her head. Tears stung her eyes. Hana looked up at her face. Dandelien?

“It’s no use. We’re lost.” A sob broke her words. “We’ll never find the others and we’ll be eaten and…and…”

I’m not lost, Hana smugly pointed out, your weak human senses are useless.

Dandelien took a deep breath and scrubbed her face with the sleeve of her shirt. “You’re right. I have to be strong like Blue.”

No, Hana scoffed, like me. A giggle sprang from Dandelien. She reached over to pet Hana but her friend bounced back in disgust. I’m not a kitten to be patronized.

“But you’re cuddly,” Dandelien teased.

Hana lifted her little pink nose in the air. Humans. Dandelien laughed. Hana’s ears shot up. Her gaze fixed on a point behind Dandelien. Get up!

“What?” Dandelien surveyed her surroundings, confused.

Up! Hana jumped past her, teeth bared and fur standing on end as if she was about to growl. Dandelien scrambled to her feet and pulled out her bow.

“Where?” By the time the question left her lips, there was no longer a need to answer. The thing trundled out from behind a dying tree, foam dripping from its malformed snout. It was almost a dog, but dog’s eyes didn’t glow red. “Get back, Hana.”

The rabbit did not listen to her. She advanced slowly, paw by paw. Dandelien fitted an arrow to her bow. Her hands shook as she took aim. The dog-thing lunged as Dandelien let loose an arrow. It hardly noticed the shaft now protruding from its side. Hana sprang and landed on its back, scrabbling for purchase. Dandelien drew her bow for a second shot but stopped, terrified that she would hit Hana.

The thing howled, craning its neck to snap at the rabbit on its back. A piece of its leg fell away and blood followed slowly after. Bile rose in Dandelien’s throat. The dog was rotting alive like the wilderness around it. Hana bit into it, her little teeth gnawing at its neck.

“No!” Dandelien cried, sending the arrow on its way and praying it would not hit her friend. It flew true and whacked into the dog’s head with a dull thud. The thing fell prone to the ground. Hana hopped off and rapidly began cleaning her tongue with a paw. Dandelien stood frozen for a moment, paralyzed by shock. “But… I thought only the land…”

The magic is having more effect than we anticipated, Hana observed. Let’s get out of this place.

Dandelien nodded and started off blindly. Thinking would make her stop and consider the implications of this new information. If the rot happen to animals, it could happen to humans.