Saul and Anna spent the rest of the morning sitting next to one of the small fires. Anna was conversing in Demonic with a demon that chose to join their firepit, while Saul sat back and took a serious look at the demon encampment, warming himself. The camp woke with the dawn, demons moving to the center in small groups of three or four. Some gave Saul glances, but mostly ignored him; it appeared there wasn't too much discontent on this side over the events of the last few days.

  Saul never noticed before, since he'd never had the time to look, but there was a noticeable difference between each clique's color and features. Each clique had differing traits: one group had rectangular pupils, another had talons extending from their fingers, and yet another had feathers sprouting from their brow, like a headdress from his hometown. And the colors! Each group had slight differences in coloration- all various shades of taupe.

  Saul was startled out of his reverie by Anna lightly tapping his knee. She smiled at him, and gestured to the demon she was chatting with (female, petite, with small talons and a row of raven feathers from her brow to her nape). "Saida wants to know how you make the flames have shape?"

  "Ah, you mean the small flaming horse I made yesterday?"

  "Yeah! I want to know too. Maybe I'll be able to impress ?hm?d and K?nül."

  Saul chuckled. "Well, start with a flame. Do you remember how you moved your memory?"

  "You mean with the marble? Yeah."

  "It's similar. You take a memory of flame- doesn't matter which- and push it past your boundary. Think of it like you're casting a stone."

  Anna closed her eyes and held her hand face-up, then remembered that Saida also asked to try. A quick flurry of words in demonic had the pair sitting down with their hands face-up. From that position, they slowly moved their mana towards their hands.

  Not ten seconds later, hazy apparitions of flames appeared over their fingertips. Saul was pleasantly surprised. He waved his hand over the flames, and didn't feel an ounce of heat, nor did the flames flicker with the wind.

  Saul tapped their knees, and when they blinked in surprise at the flames sprouting from their fingers, he laughed. "Congrats! The hard part is finished. To end the channel, simply 'yank' on the concept at your fingertips; your mana will stop feeding the concept, and the flames will stop."

  Anna nodded, snuffing the flame with a thought, and just like that, they had magic. Anna was over the moon, and Saul was a little surprised they picked it up so easily. Back when he was learning the ropes, his mana was a foreign thing for weeks, resistant to any push and pull.

  Now that he thought about it, when he first showed Anna the marble, she put a memory inside it without trouble. Maybe demons are more different than he realized?

  Saida hurried off to show her friends (completely forgetting what she had asked for) while Anna was waving her flame around, mystified. "?adar, how do you make it warm?"

  "That's a lesson for another time; it's better practice to make other things, like smoke. Once you're better at making your memories look real, we can work on that second step."

  Anna frowned. "That's not as cool as warmth, though."

  Saul smiled. "I know you wish to blanket the world in sunlight, little ?ad, but that will come later. Let's step lightly before jumping on the ice, yeah?"

  Anna nodded, albeit begrudgingly. "No fun..." With a thought, her flame was gone, and, as mana began to flow to her hand, she thought of smoke. Anna remembered the intensity of the memory of flame that she walked over that morning, and thought to emulate that intensity. She thought back to her strongest memory of smoke, and-

  --found herself swaddled in bundled cloth, hearing her b?w's hushed words as she covered her up. Kit?, mon ?al, kit?. Anna didn't dare make a whimper, seeing those warm eyes look into hers with such focused intensity.

  Her pa screamed his anger to the world outside while her b?w stifled their emotions, hurrying away with Anna on her back. She was so smothered in calm there was no room for fear- no room for terror- as they fled the roars and screams, a cacophony of lights and emotions driving them away from their yurts and into the taiga. In their frenzied escape, there was a face that stood out in her memory: his eyes were golden slits, scales covered his protruding snout, and his open mouth spewed forth a billowing cloud of smoke.

  The smoke flowed forward like a living thing, eating the distance between them like a predator on the hunt. As soon as it touched her, she felt empty, as if took whatever parts it touched, until--

  And, suddenly, she was surrounded in warmth. She came back to herself to strong arms encircling her, then to many more hands reaching out to touch some part of her, sending her their happy thoughts. Saul moved instinctively once he noticed the black smoke billowing out of her hand, but even before he had noticed, the other demons around the encampment were moving to surround the pair. Every demon that was aware of her trouble had come to her rescue, and once the danger had passed, had dispersed after a round of hugs, each whispering to Anna Kth'as, or, I hear you.

  Hiday?t approached Saul while it was winding down, fangs peeking out from his grimace. "Did you guide her to try that?"

  "I didn't mention a word about it. I... I didn't know."

  He deflated a bit. "Ah, apologies. She probably didn't know either. Memories can be fickle."

  Saul nodded, then leaned in, murmuring quietly. "I felt that smoke. Do you know where that came from?"

  "Nn. I only saw the end of it."

  "And, if we were to bring it up with her?"

  "Don't. You want her to live through that again?"

  "Of course not! it's just... every time?"

  "Every time. She'll see it every time she looks inside herself, like a scar."

  Saul swore. "So she can never channel memories?"

  "She'll only fall into it when she's vulnerable. We have our ways of protecting ourselves, as you do."

  "I see; then I'll make sure to teach her my way."

  "Please do. Such a thing can only be good for her." Hiday?t paused. "I'll be heading out to hunt soon with some of my hunters... I've thought about it, and I realized this isn't the taiga I lived in most of my life, but even so, beyond that," he looked at Anna being comforted by the demons of his ?ar, "I forgot that you've proven yourself worthy of our trust."

  Saul smiled, following his gaze. "I know what it means to fight for your people, and to struggle against something that seems larger than you. When I saw Anna lying there on the ground, it was instant; I couldn't ignore someone in need, and I won't start now."

  Hiday?t just shook his head, his brow raised. "You're by far the strangest human I've met, and I've met a lot. Will you guide us in your forest?"

  "You have my support."

  "That's all I can ask. We'll leave when I gather my hunters."

  Saul nodded. "I'll wait for your signal then."

  Hiday?t nodded to Saul, and circled around the fires, touching base with most able-bodied men and women around the encampment. In quick fashion, he'd gathered a small hunting band of around 10, and with his signal, they headed out into Chaidon forest.

  For Saul, it was like coming home. As soon as he passed the wall of spruce, and his feet touched the forest floor, he filled himself with the mana of his surroundings and found the peace he was missing. To a man that was shunned from civilization for 10 years, the feeling of bark under his skin was more familiar to him than a cobblestone road.

  For the demons, the feeling was altogether different; there were no call-marks on trees, and unfamiliar creatures dotted the forest floor. They've never been to the warmer forests in the shadow of the mountains, and it showed.

  Saul stopped them at a creek. After glancing around for animal tracks, he turned to them, handing each of them a marble.

  He spoke to Hiday?t, assuming he'd translate. "We'll meet back at the encampment before the sun crosses the horizon. Head out in groups of 2, and avoid lightning-struck trees or trees with no bark."

  Hiday?t looked inside the marble, at the memories of the fauna that prowled the forest, and raised his brow. "This is incredible! So much in such a small space. These are all the creatures to hunt?"

  "All can be hunted, but there are also some creatures to avoid. The small dog-like creatures are territorial, and hunt in packs; other than those, most other animals are free game."

  Hiday?t nodded, relaying Saul's words to the other hunters, who were still looking into their marbles. After a quick discussion, the group split, with Hiday?t and Saul to a pair.

  The rest of them disappeared into the forest, almost soundlessly. Saul had to remind himself that these demons were in their element; even if the trees and animals were different, the way Hiday?t moved beside him spoke of years of practice.

  Saul had another thought. How old was Hiday?t, actually? He led the ragtag group of refugees without any resistance, and led their hunters back before they had to flee the ?a?s?as-?u?s?. That spoke of a breadth of experience, but he didn't look a day past 30.

  He moved to Hiday?t's shoulder as they loped through the underbrush. At his glance, Saul decided to just ask. "How many winters have you seen, if you don't mind a question?"

  Hiday?t kept his steps and his eyes forward. "In the north, there's no change in seasons, ?adar, only times of the year where the mountain weeps. Those times are where the ?u?t would go down to graze in warmer grasses, and when we would cut their fur and celebrate the coming of the winter. Before all this, I've seen the ?u?t fall... many times. Ten by ten times."

  "Ten by ten!?"

  Hiday?t shrugged. "After so many, it's hard to count. Besides, what good is an elder who looks and feels old?" He gave Saul a lopsided smile. "No offense, of course, ?adar."

  Saul chuckled. "None taken."

  They continued in silence, walking straight north at a quick clip. Around an hour into their walk, Hiday?t held up a hand, pointing to a clearing around a burnt tree. At the base of the tree was a family of silver foxes, lazily dozing, the cubs chewing on a piece of bark while the father kept her eye out.

  Saul's fear was so sudden and sharp that Hiday?t flinched, and the father's eyes moved toward the brush where they were hiding. Saul and Hiday?t gingerly stepped back and around, avoiding line of sight as long as possible, until they were well away from the group.

  Hiday?t turned to Saul, slightly miffed. "You shout your emotions to the world! Would that you had ears to hear how loud you are. Why do you tremble so?"

  "They cast lighting from thirty paces."

  "They- I'm sorry?"

  "They, when threatened, can cast lighting at you, from thirty paces."

  "... You didn't mention that when you said to avoid them."

  "In all fairness, they are relatively rare, and the signs that they live in a grove are pretty clear."

  "And if we had stumbled across the mother?"

  Before Saul could speak, they heard the sound of thunder in the distance.

  Hiday?t gave Saul an exasperated look, and Saul just shook his head. "If she's out, then she's hunting. They don't eat us, besides; we're too large."

  "You put a lot of trust in how the world used to work, sorcerer. I did, too, before all this."

  With that troubling thought, they lapsed back to silence.