You can't have him

chapter 21

The next morning Arjic and Maverick joined the others except for Kai. Kai hadn't been around them at all since their escape. The baby was crying again, and Bruce was trying his best to calm her down again. The baby was hungry, but unfortunately he didn't have any food for it. The wolf that was with the one they called Nasha came up to the baby and licked her.

Bruce pulled the baby away and said, "get away from her you dumb mutt."

"That's not the way you should talk to Reign. This is her home, and you're the unwanted visitors." The woman called Nasha said from the entrance to the cave they were gathered in.

"Oh I'm so sorry I offended the mutt." Bruce snapped.

The woman sighed and held out her hands towards the baby. "Give the child to me, and I will feed her." She said.

Bruce just pulled the child closer to himself. He didn't want to trust this woman. He had heard stories of people that could talk to animals and control nature, but he had never met one until now.

"You can trust her. She won't hurt the baby." The red haired woman said.

"Oh and I'm supposed to trust you? Who are you exactly?" Bruce asked.

"I'm Leah. I'm a friend of Kai." She said.

"Bruce maybe you should trust them. I mean it couldn't hurt any. The baby needs to be fed." Arjic said.

"What we're supposed to trust a witch, and someone that's most likely a thief to be good to a baby?" Bruce asked.

"I am not a witch!" Nasha snapped.

"I know these women, and I can tell you they won't hurt the baby. Nasha here is one if the sweetest druids I've ever met, and Leah risked her life to save yours." Kai said. He was standing next to Leah with his arm around her.

"Well I still don't trust them." Bruce said.

"Look, if you don't start to trust us soon than you're not going to live long at all, but first you'd have to watch your child starve to death. That's not what a loving parent would do." Leah said.

"I can find things to feed her."

"You're out of your area of expertise here. You I'm sure don't know what is edible or not, but Nasha does. She will guard your child as her own I swear it." Leah said.

Bruce looked down at his crying baby again, then handed her to Nasha. She told him she'd return the baby after she was fed and left with the wolf following behind her. "She better bring her back safely." Bruce muttered.

Leah and Kai turned to follow Nasha, but Menju asked, "how exactly did you know about that passage into the palace?"

"I specialize in finding ways into places without being seen. It's part of my job. It also comes in handy when you're trying to help an old friend escape from certain death." Leah responded.

"And when you're a thief." Bruce said.

"Then too. Which if I'm going to be totally honest I do dabble in thievery." Leah pulled down her shirt a little, and showed them the beautiful diamond necklace she was wearing. "This is my favorite item, and it was stolen years ago from one of the places I snuck into."

"I told you she was a thief."

"Bruce that's enough." Kapa said.

"No I'm done just sitting around here with this thief, and the witch. I'm going to get my baby and go home. I can find someone there that can help me take care of my child."

"If that's what you want I'll lead you there. In fact I'll take you all home. Nasha is still mad at me for bringing you here in the first place because she feels that the necromancer is going to hunt you all down, which means that we're now in grave trouble." Leah said.

"Why would he be hunting us down? We didn't do anything." Menju said.

Nasha came back then carrying the now sleeping baby. She handed the baby back to her father, and he  held her in his arms and kissed her head. "Thank you for helping." Bruce whispered.

Nasha nodded. "I'm not heartless as some would want to believe. I'm not sure why he wants you, but I can feel his presence in the woods. He is headed this way, but his progress is slow."

"So there's no way to escape from him? He'll just follow us until we finally die."

"There are ways to kill him, but we'll need more help for that. I don't have the power myself to do so, but I'm sure you can find someone that can help you. You all seem to be able to find others that will help you when you need it." Nasha said.

"So basically our best hope is to keep moving until we find a way to combat him?"

Nasha nodded.

....

They had come this way, and he would find them soon. No one could escape him. He sent his minions in the forest ahead of him. They were weaker than he was, but they would easily flush out his prey. The men must suffer the way he suffered. It was because of them that this had happened.

.....

Leah brought the horses to the cave for them. Kapa had decided that staying even one more night was too dangerous, so he wanted to leave as soon as possible. It took quite a bit of pleading, but they finally got Nasha to agree to go with them.