The Forest Keeper

Chapter Nine: IN WHICH Leonas Returns, and a Foe is a Friend to Milaya's Chagrin

Sunday, October 21st

It was too early to be awake. The sun didn't quite peek its light above the horizon when Kea heard her name called out from the forest. "Kea... Kea, help..."

She opened her eyes and sat up straight, pushing herself off the tree trunk she had been sleeping against. She groaned and ran her hands down the sides of her cheeks. "Who's there?" she whispered, careful not to disturb Petri, who was sleeping right next to her in a bed of dewy grass.

"Kea, please..."

She looked all around the clearing. The voice was getting closer by the moment, and it sounded like...

She jumped to her feet. "Leonas!" she breathed. She started walking toward the voice. "Keep talking to me. Leonas, can you hear me?"

"Yes... barely."

Her walking morphed into jogging, and then the jogging into sprinting. "Leonas, are you alright? Where are you?"

He tumbled through the undergrowth and fell to the ground at her feet. He let out a breath and whispered, "Right... here..." His gill flaps were flapping furiously, like he was a fish out of water. Like he was suffocating.

She turned him over and picked him up, holding him in her arms for a second. "Leonas... Where have you been?" she asked as she hurried to the lakeside. "You've been gone for nine, almost ten days!"

He chuckled and rested his hands on his stomach, which heaved up and down with every breath he managed to take. "Has it... been that long?" he rasped. "I hadn't... noticed. Must have... lost track of time." He groaned, and his thin smile disappeared. "Water, now. Please..."

She knelt by the water and slid him in. He gasped and spluttered, taking in water like it was air. He lay in the water for a long time – longer than Kea wished he would. After a moment... he stopped moving.

Kea moved closer to him and prodded his shoulder. "Leonas..." she whispered, panic settling in as she took his hand. "Leonas, can you hear me? I need you to wake up."

"Lady Keeper."

She stiffened. A new voice, right behind her. It wasn't Milaya; this was a man's voice. One she hadn't heard before.

"My lady, I'm not here to hurt you. If I were, I would have already killed you by now. I need you to stand up and turn towards me."

Heart pounding, she let go of Leonas and rose to her feet. She raised her hands and put them on the back of her head.

The man chuckled as she started to turn. "No need for that. I've been arrested before; this isn't anything like that."

She turned a little faster, dropping her hands to her sides. When she faced the man head on, she looked him over twice. Tall, with skin darker than hers and bright green eyes, almost neon in their color. His hair was almost completely grey, peppered with dark brown. His arms were covered with thick, almost black hair. With the exception of the eyes, he looked completely human.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" she hissed, taking a step back toward Leonas. "And don't even think about coming closer or using mind tricks."

He chuckled, and the sound made her shudder. "You know who I am. Don't play stupid, Keeper; it's unbecoming of one of your... elevated status."

"Humor me."

Rolling his eyes, he sighed. "I am Abaddon Timbercol, alpha of the wolf pack in the Dark Quarter."