The thick green moss was wet and spongy beneath M's bare feet. It squished between her toes, making the smooth rounded boulders she was making her way across dangerously slippery. But this wide, rock strewn stream bed had none of the clinging vines that tried to wrap around her ankles. Even better, the cool air that flowed down the stream bed was clean and fresh tasting, laden with a gentle mist. And she would be easily be able to follow the rocky stream bed up through the dense jungle without getting lost.
Not that M ever got lost.
Aniola flittered carelessly from rock to rock, occasionally landing on the top of a jumble of boulders, or at the top of a moss covered waterfall and peering down at M as she hopped from rock to rock. A bright spot of scarlet against the cool greys and lush greens. While the footing was treacherous, there was one additional benefit of following this route instead of forcing her way through the jungle. The trees rose like emerald walls on either side of the mossy stream bed, screening whatever might be in the jungle beyond. At least here, M could see for several meters in any direction. With the trees crowding around her and the vines clinging at her, it was much harder to see anything.
And she was being followed. She wasn't certain when she had first seen her shadow, but it had been over an hour since she had glimpsed the dark form from the corner of her eye. Whenever she stopped and looked, the jungle had seemed empty and quiet. But occasionally, as she would turn her head or round a tree, she would catch flashes of movement. M had happened on the stream bed shortly afterward, and been following it since.
Aniola was seemingly oblivious to the shadow, singing to herself in her high, almost chirping tones as she fluttered about. But while the Fae was carefree, M had been watching the jungle with narrowed eyes. And between hopping over rocks, her pale hands had been resting on Kress, the black bound katana slung across her back.
Kress was shorter than most blades of its kind, but far lighter. And instead of the clean, smooth finish of most folded blades, Kress's surface was rippled with bands of light and dark metal. The Damascus steel of its length was broken only by two simple characters, etched into the base of the slightly curved blade. They were dark now, as Kress lay quietly in its sheath. Like many of its siblings, blades like Kress were only usable by their owner, and the hilt-less katana, while unassuming in appearance, was very much hers.
Still, only a fool would attack M. She smiled to herself, landing on a wide boulder in a crouch, fingers pressing into the spring wet moss. If Kress, laying along her back wasn't enough to warn away unwanted attention, there was the fact that she was accompanied by a Fae. The magical creatures were often viewed as a sign of bad luck, or danger, and those they traveled with were thought to be cursed. M's smile faded, her lips pressing into a thin line at the thought. Aniola was her friend, and just because people were afraid of things they didn't understand....
The thought was never finished.
Aniola's surprised gasp, more of a squeak, pulled M from her reverie. She looked up just in time to see black gloved fingers curl around the Fae.
M had found her shadow.
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