Serru paused to look at the sky, then at the shelter ahead of us. “It’s not in use, they’d have the lights on by now if it were. Shall we stop here or find another pce?”

  “I think we can probably stay here,” I said. “If anyone else shows up, I’ll just stay quiet a lot. Even though that might not come as naturally in this form.”

  “I can talk enough for all of us,” Aryennos said cheerfully. “Shelters are kind of better than not, when we have the choice.”

  Serru nodded. “This is quite a striking one, too. I think you’ll like it.”

  Fundamentally, it was a structure of wooden pnks with a wood-shingled roof, the usual sort of thing in the Forest. The four brightly-coloured oversized pinwheels on the corners of the roof were unusual, though.

  The walls we could see each had a gss window that ran from the roof to the ground, offset to the right in the mirror of the door, but there was something odd about it. Motion?

  The windows were, we discovered, two panes of clear gss, and water ran down between them. It couldn’t be that simple, though. Between the panes of gss there were shelves of fine metallic mesh, and on those, vibrantly green pnts grew. Oval openings in the gss, bordered with protective bright-yellow metal, allowed access to them from both outside and inside.

  “Edible?” I asked Serru.

  She smiled and nodded. “Each of the four walls has a different type. All are tasty and much more common in the Shallows. We can have a very good fresh sad tonight, with the greens outside and the ones in the water.”

  “Sounds yummy. Well, not so much right now, but once I switch to human or centaur it will.”

  I wasn’t in a hurry to do that. The high energy of my felid form felt good. I could wait and switch when food was ready. Meanwhile, there was wood to gather and water to put on and, well, just generally settling in.

  Serru squeezed a kind of fruit we’d found while walking, producing sharp-smelling juice, which she mixed with oil and seeds and set on the fire to heat; once it came off and cooled, it had a savoury scent. It tasted delicious on the crispy-fresh sad we had with our soup made of gathered mushrooms and roots and various other parts of pnts.

  “We eat really well, travelling with you,” I told Serru.

  She chuckled. “I’m not actually a very good cook. I just know a few tricks for staying fed on the road. You two are easily impressed.”

  “It’s different from what I’m used to in settlements,” Aryennos said, “but it’s good and it’s varied and I like trying something new.”

  “It’s even more new for me,” I said. “I don’t even know if there’s anywhere in my part of the world you could have healthy delicious meals just out of things you’ve found. Compared to the unhealthy food I usually have time for, I’m really enjoying this.”

  That hint of pink touched Serru’s cheeks. “Living on travel bars gets incredibly monotonous after a while, and it’s useful to not depend on them when you aren’t always near a road or settlements. It’s a useful skill for gatherers.”

  “Well, a useful skill for someone who travels with someone with that skill is being able to clean up afterwards.” I stretched, and switched back to felid. Getting my hands wet washing up in the sink next to the toilet wasn’t all that bad, really. I hummed the melody of Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ to myself while I worked, leaving Aryennos to help Serru with the rest.

  Extra voices, raised in greeting, prompted me to come to the door to investigate.

  Two other people had come into the shelter—an adult cervid I thought might be a woman, judging by facial features, and a cervid child whose gender I couldn’t begin to guess. The adult wore an asymmetrical draped wrap, like a shawl or poncho, fringed and striped with soft earthy colours; over soft-brown deer shoulders, secured by wide woven straps, rested a two-sided bag with a compartment on each side. A wide stripe of short shaggy milk-chocote hair had been dyed pine green, and matching stripes ringed all four legs.

  The child was wearing a simpler tunic, in a pink and blue pattern, but I didn’t figure that meant much, and neither did the string of bright painted wooden beads that served as a neckce. They had a very small backpack high on their human back. I’d have guessed age in a human at around eight or so.

  The adult, while removing her wrap and exposing a bra-like top in simir earthy colours that offered some support and maybe protection to her moderate breasts, introduced herself as Jilsha and the child as her grandson Merro.

  Serru did introductions from our side, and I stayed long enough to say hi before excusing myself to finish cleaning up.

  It was bound to happen sooner or ter, despite all efforts to avoid it. I’d been here for... how long? I counted back as best I could, and came up with something like two weeks, although I’d lost a substantial percentage in the two Quincunx sites. For that long, contact had been brief and superficial with anyone but Serru and Aryennos—shopping, tavern meals, the ferry ride.

  Frankly, small talk isn’t my forte under any conditions. Flirting in high school had mostly involved a guitar, and since then had mostly involved online chatting in some form before meeting in person. Lee had been the exception and had the social skills to compensate for mine. Friends were all cssmates or, more recently, co-workers. I’d really much rather talk about something. Talking to patients to calm and distract them and elicit the information I needed was stored in a completely different mental compartment.

  Small talk when trying not to reveal myself as an alien was an arming thought.

  I really hoped Aryennos was right when he said he could talk enough for all three of us.

  I stopped worrying about that quickly. He engaged without any hesitation or shyness, and told Jilsha that we were travelling to Coppersands because Serru had a good friend there and we wanted to visit the library and do some shopping; she ughed and agreed it was a good destination for both. He learned that they were going the opposite way, which I found an immense relief. Jilsha was a gatherer but her daughter lived in Coppersands and her son in a vilge not far off the ring road, near enough for regur visits. Merro was curious about how farm life was different and Jilsha was showing him the Forest’s bounty on the way instead of taking him on a quick coach ride.

  The fire from our own meal was still going, and there was extra wood piled beside it, which Serru invited them to use rather than going out at this hour to gather more.

  With the fire built back up, Jilsha produced a pot and a kettle, folded all four legs under her at the edge of the firepit and began to prepare food for herself and Merro, still chatting amiably with Aryennos.

  I couldn’t get away with the excuse of washing dishes all night. I brought our assorted vessels back out and kept myself busy drying them with a corner of my triangle scarf.

  “I think perhaps the catsear tea,” Jilsha said thoughtfully. “Shall I make enough for five?”

  I took a breath to decline, but Aryennos caught my eye and gave his head a quick small shake, while Serru said, “Yes, please. I haven’t been deep enough into the Forest on this trip to collect more.”

  Jilsha ughed. “Yes, what gatherer will buy anything we can just go get for ourselves? But life does have that way of interfering sometimes.”

  Probably there was some courtesy thing happening here that I was missing. I went along with it.

  Fortunately, no one seemed to mind if I wasn’t very talkative.

  Humming to herself, Jilsha cut a mixture of gathered stuff into her pot that I doubted was identical to Serru’s recipe but looked simir at least. She expined each to Merro as she worked.

  I heard the sudden catch of breath and felt muscles tense in response even before Merro cried out, “Grandma!”

  I’d only picked up that smell with human senses before. It was a whole lot stronger with a felid nose.

  “I’m all right. It’s just a cut. Knives slip. Hand me my...”

  I caught hold of her hand and pressed part of my new navy-white-goldenrod-maroon triangle scarf over it firmly. No gloves. Had to remember I didn’t need them here, but avoiding blood contact was deeply ingrained.

  Jilsha gnced from her hand to my face, and made no move to escape. It was in an awkward spot, very low on her thumb.

  “It’s all right, Merro,” Serru said reassuringly, getting up and scooping up my backpack on her way to me. “Nathan’s an alchemist with paramedic training as well. It’s not uncommon to slip when using a knife.”

  I could see blood soaking through the scarf past my hand, though. I could see Jilsha realizing it, too. A sharp knife, even if only intended for food, can do some significant damage.

  No Diagnosis spell without changing to centaur, and I really didn’t want to do that. That was okay, I could do this. Everything was still attached, and that meant this was not a big deal.

  Merro wasn’t seeing it that way, and was on the very edge of crying—I could see tears bubbling up, and hear the catch in his breath that was headed fast for all-out sobs.

  “I’ve fixed up much worse than this, I promise,” I told Merro. “Serru? Quick... never mind.” She handed Jilsha a Quickheal, open, even as I asked, and set the two medical kits on the wide edge of the firepit.

  Jilsha downed it in two swallows. Her breathing was speeding up, but then, you might not feel the pain from a sharp-enough knife until well after you see the blood. “Merro, it’s not so bad,” she said. “It’s just messy.”

  “I don’t want you to leave like Mom!”

  I saw Serru and Aryennos trade gnces that I couldn’t read.

  “I’m not going to leave you, sweetheart, I promise. Not just from this.”

  “I have a monitor in my bag,” I told Jilsha. “Can I use it to show him?”

  She nodded immediately. “Anything. He’s been through enough.”

  ‘Through what?’ was a question that could wait.

  Once Serru took over applying pressure, I fished out my monitor and slid it out of the case, then the Wipes and took one out. “This isn’t enough to kill anyone,” I told Merro. “But just in case, we’ll keep track of everything, okay? That way we’ll know right away if your grandmother loses enough blood to be in any danger at all. These go here...” It took me no time at all to clean and apply the five basic sensors, then set it to Cervid Adult. The screen helpfully reminded me of the locations for the three auxiliary ones for six-limbed patients, one just below human-ish waist, one below and behind deer armpit, one just behind deer ribcage.

  The monitor blinked into life. Everything came up green—although her pulse rate and breathing were perceptibly elevated.

  I took it over to Merro, careful not to touch him because he looked like he might spook and run if startled, and held up the screen so he could see it. “See? This shows all the stuff that everyone needs to stay alive. As long as it’s in the green part of the scale, it’s safe. So suppose you keep an eye on this for me, and Aryennos can help you do that, all right? If you see anything change from green to yellow, tell me right away. Go ahead, take it.”

  His slow reach for it turned into a grab when I held it towards him, and he retreated a step, his gaze never leaving the screen.

  “What do all these mean?”

  “Got it,” Aryennos said to me.

  Odds were good that he’d be able to at least give definitions and a basic idea of what the various stats meant, so I left him to it and turned my attention back to Jilsha.

  “Thank you,” she said in an undertone. “He’s been feeling... well, his mother has been away for over half a year, and...”

  “Understood,” Serru murmured.

  I flipped open the basic kit so I could have what I expected to need avaible, retrieved one of the metal ptes to set it on the edge of the firepit, and then eased the scarf carefully off the wound just far enough that I could check on it.

  “Still bleeding,” I said. “We need that to stop before I can do anything else. Is it hurting yet?”

  “Beginning to,” she admitted.

  That was what Anodyne was for. Serru, who had both hands free again, passed her one, uncorked.

  “Thank you. I do have a full kit in my bag.”

  “We can think about that ter,” Serru said firmly.

  She wasn’t likely to go into serious shock from this, but I used one hand to pull the extra bnket Serru had bought me out of my bag. Serru helped me wrap it around Jilsha’s human shoulders. I really had no idea what, if anything, to do about the fact that it didn’t cover most of her, but she thanked us with a smile and drew it close with her good hand, then sighed. “This is annoying. One would think that at my age I’d know how to cut around seeds and not let the knife twist.”

  “It happens,” Serru said. “My grandmother taught me that experience and skill make accidents happen less often but they can never bring it down to ‘never’.”

  “Wise, your grandmother.”

  I was worried that the bleeding could take a long time to stop, but when I cautiously checked again, it was slowing. Maybe that was the Quickheal, because there are plenty of vessels in the hands. I resumed pressure for the moment. “It shouldn’t take much longer.”

  “That catsear tea is going to be unbearably strong if you don’t do something with it,” Jilsha said.

  “Something hot to drink wouldn’t hurt,” I said. Probably it would help with distraction as well, and maybe even some degree of comfort.

  Serru nodded, fetched three cups from our collection and the two Jilsha had already set out, and poured tea into them. She set one in Jilsha’s reach, took two to Aryennos and Merro, and returned.

  I took a cautious sip. It tasted a bit like vanil, a bit like caramel, and altogether had a richness I didn’t normally associate with tea. I took the rgest swallow I could, considering the temperature, and then checked Jilsha’s hand again.

  “Much better. All right. Let’s get this cleaned up and bandaged. Right over this bowl so we don’t make too much of a mess. Looks like that knife went pretty deep. It’s really sharp.”

  “Yes. It is.”

  Cleanse poured over it to clean it up, Ointment on it for a targeted Quickheal-Anodyne combination, Bandage for a targeted Quickheal-Cleanse combination. Jilsha did her best to stay still and patient, but despite the Anodyne, I did see her wince at moments. Given the location, I could only cover it securely with the Bandage wrapped around her palm, pinning her thumb against the rest of her hand. She wasn’t going to want to flex that thumb anyway. I loved these Bandages: no dressings underneath, and the end sealed neatly into itself when I was done.

  “All done,” I said, making my tone cheerful. “No more bleeding, and that’ll heal up fast. It can’t hurt to get a doctor to take a look at it, though. Just in case.”

  “My son’s settlement,” Jilsha said, “has a resident paramedic and shares a doctor with another vilge. We’ll be there tomorrow, even if we don’t rush. And it’s my hand, not any of my legs.”

  “Good. I don’t think you’ll need anything more, but better to make sure someone’s staying on top of it. Merro? Still all green?”

  “Still green,” he confirmed.

  “Good. Can I have my monitor back so I can put it away? We don’t need it any more.”

  He nodded and brought it to me. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” I stripped the sensors off Jilsha, gave each a further wipedown, and tucked them back into their spots.

  Okay, so I hadn’t really needed to check Jilsha’s vitals, but it had helped keep her grandson from panicking, so good enough. Not all care is the obvious kind.

  “Merro?” Serru said. “This shelter has something special. Would you like to help me make a fresh sad for your grandmother? I imagine she could use a small treat after that, and it would be hard to do with one hand.”

  “Sure!”

  Sometime ter, we all wound down for the night. Serru and Aryennos and I took our tents outside, since there wasn’t really enough room inside for their rge one and our smaller ones without edging towards crowded.

  “Where’s his mother?” I asked Serru quietly.

  “Away for over half a year,” Serru said, methodically setting up her tent, “means that there is evidence or at least good reason to believe that his mother is currently a mossling or a zombie. Jilsha may have taken time from gathering to stay with him while they wait for his mother to return.”

  Well, that was bad, and not any of the things my mind had immediately leapt to.

  “He’s really young to have to find a way to cope with that,” Aryennos said sadly.

  “Yes. Nathan, thank you for not refusing when she insisted on repcing the supplies you used from her own kit, and accepting the scarf and tea she gave you. She wanted to cost us as little as possible and to thank you for your care.”

  “Apparently I’m going to be hard on scarves,” I said ruefully. “Although I see why triangle ones are associated with healers.” The one she’d given me was pleasant nature tones of soft greens and browns and greys.

  “Yours will be fine, once it dries. That soap is strong and the scarf will try to go back to its proper condition.” She smiled in the moonlight. “And clearly you do not need your centaur magic to help people.”

  “This wasn’t complicated.”

  “I’ve seen experienced travellers turn pale and suddenly find their minds bnk, when they see that much blood. Sleep well, both of you.”