Masquerading

8. Song of the Mermine

WAKING up under the deep purple umbrella leaves was both disconcerting and oddly comforting after several days of traveling the Wilds. Leif breathed in the damp, earthy smell as he stared at the stunning magenta veins on the underside of the leaf for a sleepy moment. The loud calls of singing birds and screeches of the tree frogs pierced through the relative quiet. He hadn't wanted to be the one to wake the others, but he sat up with a sigh and kicked the rock off the tip of the leaf he slept under so it sprang back up.

The sun was high enough in the sky above the tree canopy that a bright green glow filtered down. They had slept too long. Or, it appeared, he had slept too long and no one had woken him. The horses were still tied, and drinking from a trough formed of a large, curled leaf. The others had woken and been busy, it seemed, collecting water and preparing some sort of meal that rested in wrapped bundles on a still-warm pile of ash. But no one was around.

Assuming they'd return soon with something else edible or of use, Leif occupied himself with caring for the horses. Kyden's birth-blessing, he'd found out, had to do with animals and an ability to communicate with them in some manner. It certainly would have made his life in the vlamhok-infested Faladrine mountains easier, as it had so far on their journey. Bored witless, Leif occupied his time with—according to Kyden—Tygo, Wella and Frix's tails. His fingers combed through, separating the coarse hair into sections that he twisted and knotted absently.

"Where are they, hmm, Tygo?" Leif patted the tall black horse's haunch and then flank. "Do you know where that friend of yours went?"

Tygo's only form of answer was his big head swinging to nudge Leif's cheek. It had been too long, and Leif worried now that something had befallen his companions. But without knowing which way they'd gone; he didn't know where to start looking. A bothersome thought halted his departure; a fear of leaving to find them, only to miss their return to camp and become lost himself.

As he pondered what to do, he noticed a broken branch of a tree, like the many that lay throughout the Wilds forming a carpet of fallen debris. It was no wider than the palm of his hand, and a section as long as his foot poked out from under one of the low leaning umbrella leaves. Leif could swear he saw a flash of silver at its side. Blinking, he glanced around the camp and noticed similar bits of wood; some leaning against trunks of trees and others laying unassumingly under the umbrella leaves that his friends had occupied that night.

Leif found it funny that the branch he'd seen first was now completely hidden, and he casually pushed the leaf up. At first glance, it was only a branch, but Leif knew better. Tiny eyes hid under closed lids, and arms and legs were held perfectly still as if bound together to the trunk of a body. As Leif suspected, a poorly concealed thumb-sized blade was tucked under an arm.

It wasn't often one got to witness such a creature, as they were usually glamoured to go unnoticed, but as Leif looked around, the glamour was broken by his knowledge of their presence. Pecks tittered and squealed all around him; little calls he hadn't noticed before were attempting to draw him away from camp.

A shiver ran up his spine as he realised why his friends had deserted. With a scowl, he yanked up the branch and tossed it away. "Begone Eeries!"

Giving up on luring him from his safe space, the pecks ran—likely to deal with those they'd already captured. There wasn't much to fear with them really; they were mischievous and troublesome, but rarely caused any great harm. Disorientation and exhaustion from running circles after them, yes, but no harm. Leif would likely find the others tied up or passed out, their clothes and anything shiny stolen as the sole manic fixation of pecks was collecting treasures.

But Leif realised with a shudder, this was the Wilds and he may not find them; humans were likely to be digested by larger eeries or even the plants themselves. With the Princess to save, and the others already possibly doomed, he didn't have time to waste on figuring out what to do.