Emily squints her eyes tightly, turning the map in her hands this way and that way before bringing it even closer to her face. She stares daggers at a spot, her eyes flickering from one side to the other, before she brings the map out from her face again and repeats the process in a different place.

  Her mouth is squeezed shut in concentration, a confused “hmm” vibrating out of her throat, in a tell-tale sign that –

  “Darn it. I’m lost.”

  She lowers the map with a frustrated, violent groan, staring up at the canopy as if it was personally responsible for her current conundrum.

  “How am I lost?! I was following the path!”

  She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, before letting it out slowly in an attempt to calm down.

  “It’s only been a week! Did I get turned around near that owlbear? … Did it happen yesterday?”

  She takes another breath, when the attempt fails entirely. Then a faster one, when that attempt does nothing as well. And a faster one, and a faster one, until her breath comes out faster and faster and faster her heart racing in her chest and her mind buzzing oh God she’s lost how is she going to get out of here now?

  “F… Fuck!”

  Emily starts to glow as she holds her hands up into the air, letting out a massive blast of wind that shears through the thick branches and disappears into the sky. She takes a few heaving breaths, her head feeling light and buzzy. The air she’s breathing just refuses to go down her lungs, it feels like, and her body starts to tingle all over. Air. She needs air. She needs to breathe harder. It’s not going down and she needs more –

  Something massive slumps out of the trees and lands with a hard crash against the ground next to Emily, causing her to jump away with a shrill scream and shoot off the fastest spell that she has on instinct. A small blade of wind slices deeply into the thing’s side, causing its already-bleeding form to gush blood ever faster than before, and flopping it over to its side, revealing the sharp, deep gouge that’s already been taken out of it.

  Emily finally finds that breath that she was so desperately looking for, the shock and adrenaline of something dropping next to her out of nowhere having snapped her out of it. She feels the tingles retreat and the buzzing in her head disappear, and she lets out a relieved sigh, glad that she at least isn’t dying.

  Yet.

  Crises over, she whispers a quick apology to her mom for swearing - again - before approaching the corpse. It looks like another one of those massive lizards, with the seven-inch long nails and the massive tail. With a bit more effort, she manages to kick it over to its side, revealing its sharp teeth and dead eyes.

  Emily lets out a sigh, followed by a chuckle. That thing came out of nowhere. It’s just bad luck that it ended up in the pathway of her little outburst. She didn’t even know those things could climb, and yet she hit one dead-on in the guts. Just imagine how many… Could be… Up there… Right now…

  Emily gazes upwards at the canopy once again, a shiver running down her spine at the thought of one of those massive lizards dropping down from the canopy to pounce on her, sinking their knife-like claws deep into her chest.

  That awesome nightmare added to the pack of other ones that haunt her every step in this accursed place, Emily shrugs off the feeling of being watched and looks back at the map in her hands once again, stepping away from the corpse and re-trying to find where she is with a clearer head.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She takes out her compass and checks her heading, ignoring the new crack in the glass that she’s already given it by leaving it in her pocket while she went on one of her “Blue rides” and landing on top of it when she dismounted.

  It’s only been a week and the stuff she “acquired” is already seeing some wear and tear.

  “They just don’t make things like they do in Greenbarrow.” Emily says, as she shakes her head in mock disappointment, before getting back to staring at the map.

  “So we traveled south for those first few days… Then we passed the screaming cave over here.”

  She feels a shiver run down her spine as she recalls that ear-piercing screaming. It seemed to never end. Blue and her did not stick around to find out what was causing it.

  “Then we went west, and kept going for a few days…”

  She traces a finger across the map, trying to figure out how far they might have traveled in that time. Blue is really fast, and his stamina seems to be growing by the day. So they cover a lot of ground while on his back.

  “So I’m either here… Or here.”

  Her finger taps between two spots on the map. One that’s marked ‘Deadly Mind Mage Pixies’...

  And another that’s been circled by the map’s previous owners.

  Emily isn’t sure which one she’d rather be close to. On one hand, everyone knows about mind mages and how dangerous they can be. There’s been a long-standing “death on sight” policy when it comes to handling them in the kingdom. So she doesn’t really want to go into an entire area full of them…

  But on the other hand, she really doesn’t want to run into the enemy’s army, even if she’s wearing their uniform. All they’d need to do is ask her a few questions, and the jig would be up. And if the jig was up, she might have to fight for her life…

  And she’d much rather take on mind mage pixies than another person.

  Either way, she’s going to have to keep going if she wants to get out of here. And if she bumps into Mind Mage Pixies or an entire Wrenfall army, at least she’ll know where she is.

  Satisfied with her decision to just fuck around and find out, Emily lets out a shrill whistle, calling her ride back to her. He’s been getting more and more used to having her on his back, over the last few days.

  At least, Emily likes to think that he is.

  He does still try to maim her every time she hops off of him. But she can still dodge his tired swipes, so it’s not really a problem. She still can wrestle his beak shut if need be.

  For now…

  Emily stands there and waits for Blue to arrive like he always does, thoughts of the rapidly growing baby growing stronger and stronger each day swirling through her mind as she does so. Maybe she should try and find a way to direct him without bringing her vulnerable fingers near his beak… Would a makeshift rein work? Or some kind of harness?

  As she imagines what that would look like and how she’d make it herself using what she has on hand (mainly leaves, vines, and lots and lots of twigs), she hears a rustling in the foliage nearby and turns towards it, expecting to see Blue’s deadly form slinking through it with the predatory grace that has recently replaced his once-clumsy footsteps.

  But instead, her heart seizes as she spots the lithe form of a man breaking through the foliage. The two lock eyes for a moment, Emily’s wide with surprise and fear, as the stranger pauses his steps to give a good, hard look at Emily.

  His eyes roam up and down her form, before he parts the foliage before him with a swipe of his wickedly-sharp looking sword, hurrying his pace towards her.