Aliceawakes to Danahlia sucking on her ear. She starts, bumping the largergirl's chin, waking her up too.
"Agh,uh? Ugh, gross!" Alice exclaims, feeling the warm moisture left onthe very tip of her right ear.
"Wha,what's wrong with you?" grumbles Danahlia, shimming back undersome clothes.
"Youhad my ear, in your mouth!" Alice complains, using someone'sshirt sleeve to wipe the slobber away.
Danahliascrapes her tongue over her upper lip, "Ugh, I thought that dreamtasted fuzzy."
Twinkaleni,awakened by the commotion, wiggles free from under Danahlia's otherarm and scampers over to the window to announce, "The sky hasfinally cleared!"
Alicegets up, walking over damp floor boards, to open the door. Waterstill drips readily off every exposed surface but the clouds have allmoved on, making way for the shining sun. Alice takes a deep breath,enjoying the freshness of the damp air.
"Guessthat means we can finally get movin'," says Danahlia.
"Yes,at last we can- ugh, Danny, some modesty, please," says Twinkaleni,turning only to avert her gaze.
Alicelooks over to find Danahlia, who's risen from the pile of clothescompletely nude. She laughs and looks away as Danahlia stretches,"You guys are too bashful."
Thegirls pack there things and Danahlia dresses, eventually. Alice findsthe leg meat left in the crab shell bowl has been smoked fairly well,and with a little scraping, doesn't taste half bad. On their wayout, Danahlia gives the weathered shack's door frame a pat, saying,"Thanks for protecting us from the storm and junk."
Thepath they took to the shack has been entirely washed away butTwinkaleni suggests they try to reacquire it, thinking if this endled to the shack then the other end must lead to a larger path oreven a village.
"Ifwe can find a settlement of some kind, we'll be able to get an ideaof where we are, perhaps even acquire a map," the little mousebubbles, clearly very pleased to be on the road again.
"Yer,gat hounds goth," agrees Alice, munching on some of the dry, smokedmeat.
Danahliaswallows a mouthful herself and gives the bit left in her hand ashake, "You did good takin' this thing down for us, Twinkie.Maybe we can bag another one before we get too far." The Muringrins widely and starts to nibble on her own breakfast.
Mudsquishes under their feet, and the girls soon make a little game ofhopping to the driest patches of earth they can find. As they hopalong, Alice picks up a strange noise, a sort of high pitched humjust on the edge of her hearing.
Danahlialands nearby and Alice gently tugs on her tail, "You guys hearthat?"
"Hearwhat?" the Liguna asks, looking around for her next dryish patch.
Twinkalenicomes to a stop, tilting her head to listen, "That humming sound?"
YOU ARE READING
On The Run
FantasiVolume 2 of the Alice Dippleblack series. Learning of an agent sent after Twinkaleni from the dreaded Order of Thermathrogi, Alice and her friends have left the pixie forest in an effort to put as much distance between themselves and the mage hunter...
