The chanting stopped. The darkness vanished, and in an instant, Ayn was back to staring at the farmhouse’s walls. She spun, ignoring the snarl from the wolverine, and froze with her sabers halfway unsheathed.

  Kalduk was in the middle of re-tying the white cloth around his eyes. He grumbled something about youth and impatience, then moved back to his chair.

  Kayara moved as well. Color returned to her skin, the waxy blue giving way to light tan. The Kaneake feather laced into her belt flared red for a second, as if remembering it had a job to do, then dulled back to normal.

  “Let’s not do that ever again,” Kayara said. She stood, stretching her arms above her head.

  Ayn had her in a hug before she finished the motion. Kayara tensed, but Ayn held on. She just needed a moment more to ensure Kayara was alive and okay.

  Kalduk cleared his throat, making Ayn realize how awkward of a position she’d put herself in. She let go and stepped back quickly, almost tripping over the wolverine in the process. The beast growled and shifted out of the way.

  Kayara caught sight of it. Her skin paled once more. “The hell is that thing doing in here with us?”

  “Saving you,” Bren said. “That thing led us here so you could get cured. Without it, you’d be an icicle right about now.”

  Kayara’s eyes narrowed. She stared at the growling mass of fur and muscle, clearly deciding the next best move.

  Kalduk cleared his throat again, and all the tension in the room shifted to him. He grinned, showing off a mouth devoid of all teeth except for his canines. “As brave as that animal surely is, I am the one to save you, Ranger, and you,” he pointed a wrinkly finger in Ayn’s direction, “made a deal.”

  “I’m sorry for doubting you,” Ayn said. The words rolled easily off her tongue. She’d apologized plenty, in truth and lie. Having Kayara healthy again made her willing to say just about anything.

  Kalduk frowned. “No. Not like that. On your knees.”

  “Hey!” Kayara said. “Look here, you—”

  “It’s fine,” Ayn said. “I made a promise.”

  “But—”

  Ayn dropped to her knees before Kyara could protest further and hung her head. “I’m truly sorry for the trouble I caused you. You were trying to help, and I was rude. It’s shameful, and I hope you can forgive me.”

  “Hmm.” Kalduk crawled down from his chair and made a slow circle around Ayn.

  Ayn could feel all eyes on her. That was fine. It was hardly the first time she’d been a spectacle. As long as Kayara’s opinion of her didn’t sink too low, it was okay. No. Ayn dug her nails into her pants. Kayara had been cured. That’s all that mattered.

  Kalduk finished his circle. “Apology accepted. You may rise.”

  Kayara grabbed Ayn’s arm and pulled up hard, leaving Ayn scrabbling to keep up. Kayara glared at Kalduk. “Spiteful little—”

  Bren clapped his hands, drowning out Kayara’s next word. “Thank you very much for your help, Mister Kalduk,” he said, a bit too loud and a bit too cheerfully. “We shall not forget your skill in healing and your hospitality. However, I believe it is time we continued on our journey. Wouldn’t you agree, Ayn?” He shot Ayn a strained smile and motioned toward the door.

  “Uh, yes. Thank you again.”

  Kalduk made a vague noise of affirmation. Kayara’s grip on Ayn’s arm tightened. She used that grip against the ranger as she pulled her out of the farmhouse. The door hadn’t even closed before Kayara went off.

  “How could you let that little bastard humiliate you like that? Thinks he’s something special. I’ll send him back to The System for a re-roll.”

  “He’s just and NRC,” Ayn said.

  “So? Doesn’t give him the right to be so stuck up.”

  “He saved you. I couldn’t. I never can.”

  Kayara’s brows furrowed as she went silent.

  Ayn wasn’t speaking solely of her, and she was sure Kayara knew that. But that didn’t make it any less true.

  They trekked back up the frozen cliff face to the knot of pathways in awkward silence. Ayn knew part of it was due to what happened in the farmhouse. Sheyric and Bren had caught the tail-end of her and Kayara’s conversation, and Bren seemed oddly unwilling to talk since. The other part was undoubtedly from the same reason they had yet to run across any more snow snakes. The wolverine had followed them out of the farmhouse, and now plodded along behind them, snuffling and grunting all the way.

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  Kayara kept side-eyeing the beast, a frown etching its way deeper into her face. Sheyric had noticed Kayara’s looks and did his best to block her view.

  When they stopped in the clearing between paths, the wolverine closed in, and Kayara couldn’t take it anymore. She slipped her daggers from their sheaths and yelled. “Get out of here. Quit following us, damn it!”

  The wolverine halted at Kayara’s outburst. It cocked its head, managing to look cute in the process, then plunked down in the snow like some sort of fur rug.

  “I said, go away.”

  “It's keeping the snow snakes away,” Ayn said. She knew better than to appeal to Kayara’s compassion, and she wasn’t a hundred percent sold on the toothy carpet herself. But the annoyance of the snakes outweighed any misgivings she had.

  “How do you know that?” Kayara asked, doubt on her face.

  Right. The ranger had been mostly frozen when the wolverine came to their aid. If she didn’t remember that, it meant she didn’t remember sliding down the cliff side, either. Ayn shook her head. Definitely for the best. “It was after you quit responding because of the curse. It practically ate one, then the others decided it wasn’t worth the fight.”

  “Maybe they’re not here at all, now.”

  “Maybe not, but I’d rather not deal with them. Their poison isn’t strong, but it stacks really fast.”

  A series of growls erupted around them. While the four of them stared at the wolverine, another pack of hairless dogs had caught their scent. Six stood in the entrance to a path they hadn’t yet taken.

  Kayara cast a wary glance at the wolverine, still pancaked in the snow, then turned her attention to the new arrivals. “I remember these guys. I didn’t get to greet them properly the first time. Do me a favor? Keep an eye on the carpet.”

  At Ayn’s nod, Kayara darted into the pack of dogs. The wolverine stayed put, and Ayn found herself caught between the promise she’d made and the urge to join Kayara in the fight. The ranger was doing well enough. A dog was already down, but five against one was still a tall order. As another dog fell by Kayara’s daggers, Bren stepped forward, drum in hand. Ayn relaxed—too soon. Growling barks echoed down the path, and eight more dogs joined the fray.

  In an instant, Ayn was on the back foot, jaws snapping in her direction as she twisted out of the way and freed her sabers. A few dogs kept going toward the most vulnerable of their group.

  Bren’s drumming stopped as he yelled. Ayn tried to push towards him, only to have the mobs cluster around her. She had to deal with them first. The growling grew louder. Ayn went on the offensive. Her Aegis went up, and her blades went out. She met a dog’s lunge head-on, pushing her weapon past its jaws until it shimmered away. While she fought with one, others attacked from behind, chipping away at her shield. Three more fell before it did, and none took the mobs’ place.

  The loudest growling, and shouting, came from where the mages were. Two dogs harried them, one snapping at Bren’s arms as he backpedaled, and one firmly gripping Sheyric’s leg in its mouth, shaking its head as if trying to free a chew toy from its owner’s grip.

  Bren was closer. Ayn shut out the noise. Refused to think about the damage their healer was suffering while she dealt with Bren’s attacker. Efficiency. She could take this one out, then the other before Sheyric died. She would.

  She chanted those words in her head as she diced apart the first dog. Blood trailed down Bren’s arms. She didn’t let the sight sink in, instead letting her momentum carry her past the mage to Sheyric. Her blades angled down at the brown mass in front of him.

  “Wait!” Sheyric yelled. He stumbled, half covering the mob as he fell.

  Ayn pivoted mid-strike, pulling her sabers up and away from her party member. The motion tangled up her legs, and she hit the snow shoulder first. She fell flat. It turned her usual roll into a frantic, confused scramble to stand. The extra time let her brain catch up with the adrenaline. Sheyric wasn’t shielding a dog, but the wolverine. Ayn spun in place. There were no dogs at all. Bren held his arm, a pained expression on his face while blood dripped into the snow. Kayara still had her daggers up, eyes locked on Sheyric and the wolverine. Someone had killed the last dog. Maybe Kayara had shot it. Ayn shook her head and sheathed her weapons. It didn’t matter either way.

  “Sheyric,” she said. “You need to heal yourself and Bren.”

  “Don’t kill.”

  “I wasn’t—Oh.” Ayn stepped in between Kayara and the wolverine Sheyric was protecting. “Did it attack one of us?”

  She aimed the question at the agitated ranger, knowing a direct don’t do that would work about as well as it would for her.

  “…no.” Kayara straightened up, her daggers dropping to her side. “It…attacked a dog.”

  Ah, so that’s where the last dog went. The wolverine wriggled out from beneath Sheyric with a growl and shuffled away a few steps. The healer followed. Bren, clearly tired of waiting for the distracted healer, grumbled about drama and drank a health potion. Ayn sighed. She was pretty sure that was the only one he’d had, not that she blamed him for not wanting to bleed out while they talked Kayara down.

  “So, it helped us,” Ayn said. “Like it did with the snow snakes. I know it’s big and looks mean, but I think it wants to help us.”

  Ayn intentionally avoided the word “friendly”. Not only did the word not match the wolverine, but she was also sure such an idea would shut down any progress they could make in the conversation.

  Kayara watched Sheyric slowly chase the rumbling beast around the clearing, leaving red in the snow. As noisy as it was, the wolverine didn’t try to stop Sheyric, or hurt him.

  “Fine,” Kayara said. Her daggers clicked loudly as she slammed them into their sheathes. Her voice rose, echoing off the rocky terrain. “I still don’t like the thing, but as long as it doesn’t attack, or act like it’s going to, I won’t attack it.”

  The wolverine tried to stop to look at Kayara, but Sheyric closed in, and they continued their dance.

  “I said I won’t kill it right now, so quit following the damn thing and heal yourself.”

  Sheyric froze. He shuffled a few steps away from the wolverine and hung his head, a blue light shining from his hands as he obeyed.

  “Seriously. Everyone in this party has a death wish.”

  Bren’s face contorted, but Kayara was already moving away from any rebuttal he had. She disappeared around a bend down the same path the dog packs had come from.

  “Rich, coming from her,” Bren grumbled.

  Ayn didn’t bother trying to argue. She wasn’t sure either of them was wrong.