The bird bent his little head in an adorable bow, as if acknowledging the praise.
I gathered up my skirts and lifted them so they wouldn’t drag in the water while I climbed over chunks of ice along the bank, and I hopped onto a stone at the edge of the stream. A series of big steps and small hops from one rock to another finally took me to a stone directly in the middle of the stream, facing upriver. I kept hopping from one random rock to another, making my way up to the stony entrance that hid the rest of the stream.
But then I hit a problem.
There were no stepping stones where the water rushed out of the cliffs. If I wanted to hide behind those walls, I’d have to stepintothe water. And that would be really cold.
I balanced on the rock and debated. I was right in front of the cave-like entrance, and I still couldn’t seewhat was on the other side. If I stepped into the water and hid on the other side of those walls, nobody out here could see me. It might be worth the time to hop back to the banks of the stream now, take my boots off, and wade up the stream so I could get behind the safety of those stony cliffs with dry boots.
A shout stopped my heart. “There!” I looked over my shoulder. Two elf soldiers were just close enough that I recognized their shape and armor. One pointed at me.
That did it. Cold was better than dead.
I hiked my skirts higher and plunged my boots into the stream. Freezing cold water soaked through the soft leather, but the stream water only came up to my knees. I pressed against the shallow current, splashing into whatever safety the cave-like cliffs held for me.
Every step splashed water up on my arms, but I was too frantic about the soldiers following me to care. The world darkened as I stepped between the two cliff walls, and I realized why I hadn’t been able to see anything past the cliffs: The cliffs formed a slot canyon, camouflaged as another pile of stony boulders.
I couldn’t tell if the illusion of a simple pile of boulders was created by the shape of the mountain or magic, but as I marched into the illusion—sloshing through the stream that filled the bed of the canyon—the reality unfolded in front of me. A short slot canyon twisted away from the cave entrance. I rushed along it for fifteen or twenty seconds, hoping the elves would not find the entrance I’d used but fearing they would,until the little canyon abruptly opened up to reveal a waterfall.
Like walking from a dense thicket of trees into a meadow, the stones’ layout shifted from a slot canyon into a stunning grotto. Cliffs a hundred feet high surrounded me with a waterfall cascading down one wall.
The waterfall explained the stream. The water poured down the rocks, landed in a pool, and then rushed out in a little stream controlled by the slot canyon and other stones along its path. The waterfall glistened with magic so strong I felt it dancing across my skin.
So much magic! The only magic I’d felt before, as a human, was magic an elf was directing at me. And that had always been awful magic. This magic, though…
This magic sparkled. I wanted to touch it. I would have run up to the waterfall and thrown my hand into it if a giant bear hadn’t been standing in front of it.
Chapter 3: Auria
The bear was taller than me, even while standing on all four legs. If I stretched, I might have been able to reach the lowest part of its shoulder with my fingertips. We faced each other on opposite sides of the grotto, and my heart started pounding again.
I usually waited for animals to give me a reason to fear them. A great big, white bear with a spiral horn on its head (a horn!) might just be here for a drink. Or maybe its horn needed the magical water? Or maybe it, too, was hiding from someone.
But as the moments passed, I began to worry about getting caught between soldiers who were strong enough to grab me and carry me back to Hemlit and an unusually large bear that I was not willing to hide behind to avoid the soldiers.
And my toes were turning numb.
A soft rumble came from the bear, as if it were clearing its throat, and the horn on its head disappeared.
While I tried to make sense of that (Was it a magical illusion? Did the bear…retract it somehow?), the bear shocked me even more by speaking. “Why have you invaded my privacy?”
The bear…spoke?!
I clutched my skirts closer to my waist to keep from flailing my arms and screaming. Did this grotto belongto the bear? Was the bear really a bear or was it some cursed human? Or elf? Or…something else? Was there a punishment for invading its privacy?
My mind only spiraled for a few seconds before the bear huffed. Clouds formed where the heat from his nostrils hit the frigid air. “Well?” he asked, his voice rumbling deep and low as if it had never been used before.
He did not sound pleased. I was tempted to curtsy to convince him I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I didn’t want to lose my balance on the uneven stream bed. So, no polite gestures. Just words.
“I’m sorry for invading your privacy, sir.” My voice was more winded than I’d expected, but I didn’t have time to do anything about it. “I’m running for my life, and I was hoping to hide inside these cliffs. I didn’t realize you would be here.”
Should I have realized he’d be here? Hopefully my ignorance wasn’t as offensive as my presence—
“Explain,” his low, grinding voice demanded.
“Explain what, sir?” I didn’t want to be insolent, but I wasn’t sure what he meant.
“Why are you running for your life?” His unhurried answer contrasted with my rushed, breathy one.
