Though obviously not comfortable with the idea, Aryennos did agree to riding again, once I made it clear that the other options were for all of us to stay there for a couple more days or for him to stay behind.

  I was in a distinctly good mood as we left Iguana Meadows. I’d had good sleep and two good meals. I had cool healing magic, but also, stored in my bag were two useful boxes of treatments options and a very efficient device to help me assess a situation, which was going a long way to helping to stabilize my sense of identity and confidence. I had drawn no attention from anyone except Aryennos, who was recovering rapidly. And Aryennos’ information supported Serru’s hypothesis that the Quincunx was the right path to take.

  Now we just had to get there.

  Aryennos, we discovered, liked to talk.

  Fortunately, he knew interesting subjects and stories, or at least I found them interesting, and rattled on cheerfully in a loosely-connected stream-of-consciousness flow. Interrupting him with questions didn't bother him in the least, only sent him off on a new track. Serru wandered away at moments to gather pnts, and possibly to gain a few moments of quiet. I considered helping her, but I was reluctant to have Aryennos walk at all today. Tomorrow, he could probably manage short stretches.

  I was also unsure how Serru would feel if my efforts at assisting her lost her that quiet time.

  So I stayed with Aryennos, and got an education in more aspects of life here.

  When we stopped for the night, avoiding an occupied shelter, he did at least obey her directions. Firewood was limited, so we didn't keep feeding the fire after the food was cooked, just let it die down while we ate. We cleaned up and set up the tents by the light of the moons.

  Travelling was much easier as a centaur, even though logically having to keep four feet moving should probably have been more tiring. Sleeping, on the other hand, was unquestionably more comfortable when I could actually roll over, instead of having my position constrained by impractical anatomy.

  Yet I found myself strangely reluctant to change in front of Aryennos; after an absurd amount of time angsting over it, I finally just set up my tent in centaur form, went inside, and switched once I was alone. I had no idea what was making me feel like that. It kept me awake for a while, in fact. I liked Aryennos, even if he probably could learn the value of simply being together without talking; at least it felt more like exuberance and enthusiasm to share the wonders he saw in the world than any attempt at showing off his admittedly-broad knowledge. So why didn’t I want him to see me in my own proper form?

  I still didn’t have an answer by the time I fell asleep.

  * * *

  Mid-day, we left the road to reach a rge fruit tree Serru had spotted. Directly under it there was only short grass, but sure enough, half-hidden by the knee-height vegetation nearby, there was a spring of cold water. The density of useful pnts in the immediate vicinity was much higher than we’d encountered since Iguana Meadows, including some roots Serru said were tasty even though they were too common in many areas to sell well, and she’d been straying more frequently than usual through the te morning. We had a brief discussion and decided to stop to do some gathering before pausing for lunch.

  I kept a close eye on Aryennos, but his limp was barely perceptible. He listened attentively to Serru’s description of what to gather that was the most useful, and while he did have questions for her about some other pnts, he collected exactly what she’d said.

  With the satisfaction of having accomplished something other than walking, we settled down next to the spring to eat some red berries and an apple-like fruit each and refill our water fsks.

  A bird with a wingspan at least as wide as my spread arms spiralled down and nded in the tree. I had no idea what kind it was, or whether it even reflected anything from my world. Grace would know, at least generally, if she were here.

  Serru’s voice cut through my wave of homesickness. “Back away from it,” she said, suiting action to words. “Immediately. Do not let it in reach.”

  “What?” I took a closer look, but I trusted her and I was already in motion as I did so, pulling Aryennos to his feet.

  How could that thing even fly, with all that moss growing on its feathers?

  But why was it carrying something white?

  It tilted its head and looked at me. “Newcomer,” it said hoarsely.

  “What do you want?” Serru asked it, her voice tightly controlled and her staff in her hands.

  “Newcomer. Mail.” It reached down with its beak to retrieve the white rectangle gripped in one foot and held it towards me.

  “Is it safe to get that?” I asked Serru.

  “Probably,” she said, watching the bird warily.

  “Aryennos?”

  “The Moss Queen seems to be aware of you, and she definitely could be interested in the presence of another newcomer,” Aryennos said, his eyes on the bird. “It’s possible she’s just genuinely trying to make contact. Metaphorically. Obviously, physical contact is absolutely not a good thing.”

  “Right.” I edged cautiously forward and reached out to take the offered note. The bird didn’t move, but it did let go. I retreated again, keeping an eye on it while I unfolded the note by touch. Looking away from the bird to read the note went against every instinct, but Serru and Aryennos seemed rather unlikely to stop watching it while it was close.

  “Fellow newcomer, welcome to a new world. The popution is much lower than it is at home, and the environment is rgely pristine and uncontaminated. The locals would not understand pollution and extinction the way we do, and power and authority are drastically different. Integrating with the local economy and culture is more complicated than it looks, as I’m sure you’ve discovered, and there are some extremely important broader issues unique to newcomers that it is essential you learn. I’d be happy to offer my experience. My messenger will guide you to my home. I promise you’ll be safe and all needs...” I lowered the letter. “I don’t think I really need to finish.”

  “The mosslings are a collective consciousness,” Serru said. “And she’ll be paying attention here right now. If you have a reply for her, just say it where the bird can hear and she’ll hear it.”

  I took a deep breath as I faced the bird. “Thank you, but I’m doing okay. I already found local friends who are helping me look for a way to get home to the things that matter to me.”

  The bird ruffled its mossy feathers and spread its wings a short distance. Somehow it looked less amiable and a lot rger. “Come.”

  “No. I don’t think you and I have compatible philosophies about, well, possibly a lot of big things, so I can’t see any chance of friendship there. I’m going to keep travelling with my friends and, with any luck, I’ll be out of this world and home in a month or so.” That sounded like an excruciatingly long time, but it was better than never. “So thank you, but I’m going to have to decline the invitation.”

  The bird screeched, “Bad,” and unched itself into the air. I halfway expected it to attack one of us, and wished I hadn’t left my gathering staff in my bag and my bag on the ground next to the spring, but it circled up and away.

  I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Okay, should I consider ‘bad’ to be a threat?”

  “I have no idea,” Aryennos said. “To the best of my knowledge, the Moss Queen does not normally try to interact with anyone on an equal basis.”

  Serru spread her hands, moving back over to the spring and our belongings. Aryennos and I followed. “Her motivations and intentions are her own. The process of ciming mosslings is known all too well and most of us don’t care why she does it, we just wish very much that she would stop. Beyond that, both of them do whatever they do and no one really expects to understand why.”

  “Right.” I sighed, carefully folding four legs under me again. “I really hope I’m not putting you two in danger just by proximity.”

  “Everyone is always at some risk from her and the Zombie King. It’s negligible under some conditions, more acute under others, but they have been a part of life here for, well, for lifetimes.”

  “She has been,” Aryennos said. “I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been here as long as she has.”

  Serru nodded. “At most, we may attract her personal attention, which is certainly not ideal but different only in scale from every other day. There must be things from your home that are like that—background dangers that always loom over everyone, but since constant fear is unsustainable, everyone simply accepts that and goes on with their lives?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “There are... a few things like that. Some of them, you can reduce the odds, especially if you’re also putting others at risk, but life is just inherently full of uncertainty.”

  “We’ve talked about this. Early death is inconvenient, more for some than others, but rarely a disaster. Falling into the power of the Moss Queen or Zombie King is problematic and much more unpleasant but cannot st more than two years. Risk is on a different scale than you’re accustomed to. Let us decide what chances we’re willing to take, hm?”

  I nodded. “Fair enough. But I still can’t help hoping that my presence and you deciding to help me doesn’t mess up your lives too badly.”

  “We’ve discussed that before. Now. We should reach a river tonight, another of Evercloud’s, and while it’s not technically the Greenelk Forest province on the other side, the Forest itself does reach towards the river so we’ll be effectively out of the Grassnds. Tomorrow we should be in the Forest proper and that means we’ll be halfway to the next site. Perhaps... three to four cycles in the Forest, if there are no interruptions, and we’ll reach it.”

  “That’s not so bad,” I said.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been slowing you down,” Aryennos said. “I disrupted everything for you.”

  “I don’t think you have, or not by much. We needed to stop somewhere for supplies, we just did it early. Nathan moves at about the same speed carrying you as alone. We’ve worked out a bance as far as speed and gathering, which slows us but provides the funding for supplies. Adjusting a little around your injury hasn’t been any greater an issue. But for the moment... I think I would prefer to move out of the immediate area, if we’re done eating. Make sure you have water. I don’t recall anything close to the road before the river, so we would have to go some way afield to refill before then.”