The Missing Stone

Caught

"So what do you remember? Perhaps your favorite food? Favorite color?"

Mildred has never seen Annette this excited before. She sips her tea quietly, enjoying the peace that comes with being with her friends.

"I remember where I used to live, near the monastery. My favorite color is light blue-green, like cyan, and I love high places." She tilts her head in thought, tail swishing behind her. "I enjoy all manners of food, but I especially love seafood." Annette giggles at the last one, finding it fitting that a cat hybrid would like seafood.

"Do you remember your birthday?" Mercedes asks serenely, most likely greatly satisfied with this new information. She looks to be planning something...

Mildred shakes her head with a frown, "Sadly, no. I'm remembering bits and pieces as I go." Ashe nods in understanding.

"Well if you need to talk about anything really, you can come to us!" He offers, and though it is with kind intentions Mildred can't help but shy away, Chester's warning ringing in her ears.

"Thank you, but I think I am fine for now," Mildred says instead, bidding them a good day before leaving. Guilt forms a hole in her stomach, but she ignores it in favor of signing up for hunting patrol again.

I wish I could tell them instead of pushing them away...

"I'm sorry," Chester apologizes, floating beside her. "But it's for their sake; if they know what is really going on, the outcome will be worse than imaginable." He's referring to Glenn. Mildred's shoulders slump as she follows her prey's tracks. As she walks the breeze grows stronger, the ground dissolving into fine grains of wet sand.

She follows the tracks to the beach. Mildred can't afford to get lost; they're one day's worth of travel to Deridru. When she turns back towards the way she came, something catches her eye. Not food but...

Are these weapon filings?

The small, almost invisible pieces of metal scattered in a small pattern in the sand, just far away from the tide to not get washed away, but close enough to where the sand has obscured most of it.

"What the hell?" Mao says, floating over her shoulder with a confused Aelura beside her. "Someone was here but it appears they're already long gone." Mildred hums in thought, turning to look at her surroundings, spotting Castle Fhirdiad in the distance, its banners waving proudly. Wait...

Steel weapon filings, a clear view of Fhirdiad...

"I mean this is probably just a coincidence?" Aelura suggests, but her voice raises towards the end, making her statement sound like a question. Chester shakes his head.

"Steel filings from a steel lance. Glenn has a steel lance," he says, thinking aloud. "He's been here."

Mildred faces east, noticing the rising sun has almost reached its apex.

We've got time.

She allows Chester's power to wash over her, making her eyes glow yellow. A trail of footsteps outlined in gold dust shines clear and bright to her borrowed vision. She follows it, bow drawn just in case. The trail stops short some hundred yards away, leading to nowhere.

Now what?

Mildred looks around, noticing the barren sea except for a small speck of land in the distance and the barest shadow of Deridru on the horizon.

"He must have warped here," Mao says, shuffling her wings. She contemplates for a moment before raising her brows and whispering something to Chester. Mildred is curious. Aelura leans in, her mouth parting in surprise when Mao pulls away. Chester is thinking.