---

Lyanna offered aid, and the pale girl could not see any point in refusing it. She nodded, too tired to speak, and allowed the glittering darkness to envelop her. Breathing it in was like inhaling the very night itself; it was cool and refreshing, brought to mind starlit waters and dripping forests from ages past, whispered conversations long forgotten, like the memory of a dream she'd had but never recalled until now. Her breathing slowed and the dull, throbbing ache in her legs eased, until she felt as though she'd had a full nights rest.

Breathing out a slow sigh of relief, she smiled at the friend over her shoulder, far more grateful that Lyanna had come along than she could ever say. "Thank you, Doctor" she smiled nevertheless, a whisper of laughter to her voice; "I'm glad you're here. If not for you..."

But the scream cut her short, and Erthë forgot what she had wanted to say. Tensing up until all the knotted muscles in her body felt as though they would never untie themselves, she stared into the looming blackness that surrounded them, breath forgotten as she listened. A glimpse of movement in the underbrush made her jerk the head in that direction, the whites of her eyes gleaming in the soft light. Over the sound of her own pounding heart she heard it again, and... and then she saw it.

Before Erthë could understand what she saw, she nearly bolted. But as the fox crossed into the light and turned its head to stare at them, she nearly laughed out loud; a fox! A mere fox, and there she was almost peeing herself from fright.

For a second she returned the gleaming, lamp-like stare of the small predator, and the moments stretched out into what felt like an eternity... then it bounded off into the darkness, and when no others followed the young apprentice breathed out a long, slow sigh.

"A fox..." she said, feeling the need to confirm this to herself as much as to Lyanna. "GODS, that took years off me."

She shook herself, realizing she was close to tears with relief. If it had been a wolf...

But it hadn't been, she told herself. And they should hurry, before something worse really did find them. This had been a good reminder, and suddenly Erthë was overwhelmed with regret for having dragged her friend into this mad undertaking.

"Come on" she said, averting her face from the teal-eyed healer as she picked up the rock. "Let's move... Hopefully you're right, and we'll end up where you said... really wouldn't mind seeing the Falls by now... or anything else for that matter.."

For a long time she led them on in silence, marking the trees with notches in the bark every so often, but as the guilt grew steadily stronger she couldn't keep it in any longer;

"I'm sorry for this, Lyanna."