 
                              LIRA’S HOME
 
Lira’s Home
 
A Fallon’s Resurrection Story
 
By Ice Phoenix
 
 
 
Chapter One
 
 
 
            Lira Anora looked out over the coastline.  It had once been
her home.  She could even see her old house from here.  House was a
little misleading; she’d been an orphan since the age of two.  Her
parents, killed in the Aspelian Invasion, had both been killed in some
of the last fighting done in their small country.  At least, that’s
what she’d been told.  Lira had no reason to doubt her home mother, but
she wouldn’t truly believe what she’d been told until she had some kind
of proof.  That it was unlikely she could ever get such proof was
completely irrelevant to Lira.
 
            The breeze blew her white hair into her face, and she used
her hand to pull it back.  She really should put it into a pony-tail,
she knew, to keep it out of her eyes when hunting, but she didn’t like
the feeling of having her hair pulled tight like that.  Her vivid green
eyes swept the landscape, looking for trouble, but seeing nothing.  For
the moment, all was quiet.
 
            Lira turned and jumped down from the rock on which she
stood.  She’d left the village of  Navanar of her own free will; no one
had even asked her to go.  In fact, most of her siblings, and her home
mother, had begged her not to.  Lira felt the call of the wild,
however, and she needed to get out on her own, fend for herself, and
learn what the war was all about.
 
            “But you’re only fifteen!” her dorm mother had cried, real
tears in her eyes.  Lira had not wavered, as much as it had hurt the
kind woman’s feelings.  It was just something she had to do.
 
            Lira felt the weight of her sword on her back, and smiled. 
She’d been training with a sword since the age of ten, and she was one
of the best in the village, besting even some of the older children. 
Her smile faded, as she knew some of those older children were already
dead.  The rebellion was necessary, but it was brutally hard on the
rebels.  The Aspelians were not a kind, or even truly civilized, race. 
They came, and they took, and they kept on taking, and if you
protested, you were likely as not to end up dinner for some rather
nasty beast.  Lira shuddered at the thought, knowing she would kill
herself by her own hand before being eaten alive but some creature of
Aspelion.
 
            She tried to drive these thoughts from her mind as she
wound her way down the other side of the hill.  She had work to do, and
none of these thoughts would help.  Lira wasn’t going to join the
rebellion.  She’d seen how futile that was.  Her hope was to remain
outside of Aspelian control by remaining in the wilderness, by hiding
as best she could, and living out her life in peace.
 
            Lira made her way along a game trail, hidden deep in this
part of forest.  She came upon her trap, and saw that she had, indeed,
caught dinner.  It was a rabbit, and its leg had been broken by the
trap.  Lira momentarily felt sorry for the animal, and drew her hunting
knife.  A swift blow to the back of the head killed the poor creature,
putting it out of its misery.  Lira did not reset the trap; the rabbit
would feed her for at least two days, and she had no need to kill more
game than she could eat.  Only assholes did that; the jungle was here
to serve the Fallons, but the Fallons were also here to care for the
jungle, and killing more than you needed was carelessness. 
Occasionally, she would trap two or three rabbits to take into town for
trade, and that was perfectly acceptable to everyone, because nothing
was wasted that way.  In truth, she wasted nothing, anyway.  Her winter
clothing was made entirely of rabbit fur.  Not that she needed it very
often, here in Syrmoar.
 
            Winters were mild in the subtropical kingdom of Syrmoar,
and Lira thanked whatever spirits might exist for that.  Her biggest
fear was the occasional hurricane that came in unexpectedly, at least
to her, since she was not near the village too often to get the
warnings.  Still, her shelter was high enough up not to get flooded,
and it was sheltered from wind and rain, so she was satisfied with the
way things were.
 
            Her dinner slung over her shoulder, Lira worked her way
through the jungle, careful to keep away from the territories of the
larger predators.  She wasn’t worried for herself; she could get out of
their way before they could do her any serious damage, but she didn’t
want to chance having to catch dinner again.
 
            Eventually, she made it to her home.  Lira lived in a small
cave, about midway up a tall hill, that faced to the north.  The wind
that blew in was sometimes cold, but that was better than the storm
winds coming off the sea that would drive in rain and debris.  She
dropped the rabbit next to her fire pit, and then settled down to the
job of skinning the creature.
 
            As she worked, Lira thought back over her life.  This was
her usual meditation while doing mindless work.  She’d not had an
unpleasant childhood, being raised by a caring woman, having plenty of
brothers and sisters to play with.  Still, she’d been a little
different.  Around the age of seven, she’d started noticing a
difference in the world.  It wasn’t something she could explain, and no
one else seemed to see the same thing, which puzzled her even more.
 
            The world became stranger, day by day, until the day that
Lira had broken her favorite glass.  It had been hand-crafted by one of
the craftsmen in the village, and she loved it.  She had knocked it off
the table by accident, however, and it had broken into several pieces,
even as thick as it was.  She’d sat on the floor crying, the pieces in
her hands.  She’d assembled them back together in their right shape,
and was holding them that way as she cried.  Her home mother had come
to see what the fuss was, and was just about to console Lira, when she
noticed the light coming from Lira’s hands.
 
            Lira had felt the energy, as well, and had stopped crying
long enough to look down.  She carefully opened her hands to see her
favorite cup, fully restored, without any sign of breakage.  Lira
didn’t understand; it had been broken.  How had she fixed it?
 
            Her home mother knew about magic, of course, but she’d
never seen anyone wield it in this manner.  Before the Aspelians had
come, magic was only wielded through the use of special objects,
mostly, for the normal folk, through the use of power gems in their
devices and tools.  But here was her little girl, Lira, no more than
seven, and using magic straight from the air!
 
            Lira had become something of a celebrity for a short time,
before other children started to show signs of magic usage.  The
village was confused, lost as to what was going on, until the day that
Sioran came to their village.
 
            Sioran was known to the villagers.  He had traveled this
part of the world extensively as part of his training.  Sioran was a
psionic: a mage of immense power and considerable knowledge.  The
psionics were trusted and revered by the people of Fallon; never had
the psionics harmed anyone, and their counsel was universally listened
to.
 
            “Your children,” he had said on that day, “are experiencing
a new awakening.  The mages and warrior-mages of the old way have been
destroyed by our enslavers.  But the magic must be used, otherwise
there is an over-abundance of it, just like any other element.  Since
the magic cannot be used by those who would normally have drained it,
it has found a new home.  Encourage your children to learn how to
control their magic; it is a new step in their development.  It may be
the savior of our world, someday.”
 
            He had left soon after, but he had spent a little time with
Lira, teaching her a few small things.  The young girl had been
overwhelmed by the presence of this fascinating man, but she had never
forgotten his lessons.  To this day, that special cup sat on a shelf in
her cave.
 
            All these things ran through Lira’s mind, as they usually
did, while she skinned her dinner.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            Lira was following a larger path through the forest.  This
was a man-made path, and one she wouldn’t usually use, but her bundle
was too bulky for the game trails.  She’d just spent time in the
village, trading rabbits and deer meat for supplies she needed.  She’d
gotten word of an approaching storm, as well.  It was the time of year
for them, and she was ready, but that didn’t mean she had to enjoy it. 
The bad weather would mean she’d have to live on stocked up supplies
for at least three days, rather than trying to trap food.  It would
take that long for the storm to build up, blow over, and then for
anything in the forest to start moving again.  She hated storm season,
even though it was only her second one in the wild.
 
            She was humming very softly to herself as she walked along
the path.  A raven had been following her since she entered the forest,
hopping from tree to tree, flitting down past her head every now and
again.  She would feed the bird when she got home, and it knew that. 
It always accompanied her on her travels along the man-made paths.  And
she fed it because it had once saved her life...
 
            ...as it did now.  She suddenly noticed that the bird was
gone.  It *never* left her before she made it home, and that could only
mean one thing.  *Trouble.*
 
            Lira’s body tensed just as the two men jumped out onto the
path.  They were in their early twenties, and both looked fairly
stocky.  They weren’t Aspelians; these were Fallons.  She knew that
some Fallons had taken to robbery to try to live.  She was far too
young to know that some Fallons had always lived this way.  It wouldn’t
have mattered to her, anyway.
 
            “What’s the little girl got in her sack?” the one on the
left asked, brandishing a knife.
 
            “Something good for us to eat, I imagine,” said the other,
wielding a club.
 
            “Give us the sack, little girl, and we won’t have to beat
you to death.”
 
            “Or something more fun,” the man said, looking lasciviously
at her.  Her insides crawled at the thought of him doing *that* to her.
 
            Lira looked back and forth between the two, and then backed
away from them.  She knew this part of the forest as well as anyone
would know their living room, and she wasn’t trying to run, only to
maneuver.
 
            The two hoods followed her, until they stepped around a
bend.  She’d frozen in the middle of the path, and they spread out to
keep her from running.  Lira had no intention of running, but she
didn’t want to chance fighting these two, either.  They were much
bigger than her, and even with her skill, they might get lucky.
 
            *Better to try to scare them off.  If it doesn’t work, at
least I’ll be ready for a fight.*
 
            Lira let a growl slip from her lips as she simultaneously
dropped the sack and lunged at her attackers.  Both of them shied back
in surprise as this young girl was... attacking?  No, they realized
when it was too late, she wasn’t aiming for them, but there was a large
boulder set at the turn in the path, and she made straight for it.
 
            Lira was intent on casting a spell as she ran.  She
finished the spell as her feet left the ground.  Her front foot landed
solidly on the rock, and she pushed off, her magically-augmented
strength launching her ten feet into the air as she flipped well above
her attacker’s heads.  As she was coming down, her hand reached up to
grab her sword.  As her body fell, her arm straightened, and her sword
twisted, until by the time her feet touched solid earth again, her
sword was held high over her head.
 
            There was an almost feral gleam in Lira’s eyes now, and the
men could see the pulsating energy crackling over the extremely sharp
edge of the sword.  Both of them backed away until the one stumbled
over a root.  That panicked both men, and they ran, terrified, back
down the path.  Lira heard them continue to run for several minutes,
before she would put her sword away.  It had been a risk, but a
successful one.  Someday, she’d have to actually fight for her life,
and she wasn’t looking forward to killing someone.
 
            *Still, that’s the way of things in the wild.*
 
            She turned to her sack, gathered her bundle back up to her
shoulder, and continued on her way home.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            The storm came two days later.  It was announced by a
rushing wind, and Lira was at least a mile from home.  It would be a
tough walk, but she couldn’t afford to rush.  The wind was already
blowing in gale-force, which told her how bad this storm was going to
be.  She pulled the hood of her cloak up over her head, but it was of
almost no use.  The wind still buffeted her cheeks, stung her eyes, and
dried her lips.  The rain wasn’t long in coming, and it felt more like
she was being pelted with tiny stones than with drops of water.
 
            Lira hunched, leaving her search for food, and returned as
quickly as she could to her cave.  But the time she got there, she was
soaked through, and chilled.  Luckily, she had taken the time to bring
in firewood before the storm.  Her magic wasn’t very good at things
like fire, having focused far more readily on her fighting skills.  She
was also a good healer, but that was just part of fighting, wasn’t it? 
If you weren’t well enough for combat, you were useless, and probably
soon to be dead.
 
            Lira started a fire going, kicking it up to a full blaze. 
She wouldn’t keep it like this for long, but she needed to get herself
warm and dry in a hurry, or she might get sick, and she couldn’t afford
that, either.
 
            Once the fire was going, Lira stripped off her clothes. 
She set them against a large rock, a good distance from the fire, but
facing it.  Having taken care of her clothes, Lira went and stood by
the fire.  She turned her nude body so that it would be warmed evenly,
drying her off quickly.
 
            Once she was fully dried, Lira went to lay down on her
bed.  Made of furs and pine needles, her bed was very comfortable,
though rather maintenance-intensive.  She lay back, still feeling the
warmth from the fire as it filled the cavern.
 
            As she lay, listening to the howling wind and the beating
rain, hearing the crackle of the fire and feeling its heat, Lira
allowed her mind to wander.  She thought of all the things she might be
doing if she were still back in the home.
 
            She remembered fondly her siblings, and also remembered two
or three of them that had an intense fondness for her.  They were all
older boys, of course, and the oldest of them had once offered to take
her, but she’d not been ready.  He’d been polite about it, and she knew
that all she ever had to do was say yes, and those pleasures would open
up to her.
 
            Thinking these things, her hands began to wander across her
body.  Her left hand cupped her tit, fondling it and massaging it,
causing her breathing to deepen.  Her right hand wandered across her
abdomen, straying ever closer to the spot between her legs.
 
            Her fingers eventually found her nipple, and she twisted
and pinched, causing waves of electric tingles to radiate throughout
her body.  She cried out with the sensations, and twisted even harder.
 
            Her other hand soon found its way between her thighs, and
her fingers spread her pussy lips.  Her middle finger stroked against
her clit very gently, but even that slight pressure sent chills along
her spine.  Lira’s arousal intensified as her body responded to her own
touch.
 
            Soon, Lira’s middle finger was sliding in and out of her
cunt, the slight squishing noise lost amid her moans and the storm. 
Faster and faster the digit moved, until it was joined by another. 
Lira’s hand became a blur as it pistoned in and out of her pussy.  Her
other hand was torturing her nipple, twisting and pinching fiercely. 
Lira loved it all, and it wasn’t long before she came in a loud orgasm
that seemed to rival the thunder outside.
 
            Lira, lost in a wave of ecstasy and contentment, allowed
her body to calm, and she slept.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            When Lira awoke, the rain was still coming down hard and
heavy.  This was no tropical cyclone, but a summer storm off the water
three times as large.  It wouldn’t do as much damage as a hurricane,
but it would last for a long, long time.
 
            As Lira sat up, she heard a whimper.  Her head swiveled and
her eyes locked onto the spot; it was a small fox.  Apparently the
animal had come in out of the rain, drawn by the warmth of the
now-dying fire.  Lira nodded to the animal, which stared intently at
her, skittish and wary of her movements.
 
            Lira got up slowly, and circled around the fire to the
opposite side of the animal.  It took her a while to realize the poor
thing was lying on her tunic, and so she’d have to disturb it
eventually.
 
            *One thing at a time.*
 
            Lira’s earlier activities had left her feeling a little
sticky.  She decided to take the opportunity of the storm to take a
shower.  The entrance to her cave was secluded enough that she merely
stepped out of the entrance, still nude, and let the rain water wash
over her.  The storm was as harsh as it had been when she’d fallen
asleep, but it still felt good on her body.  She spent many minutes
allowing her body to be cleansed of dirt before she returned to the
cave.
 
            The fox had not moved while she had showered, and it stared
at her now, as she walked, still on the other side of the fire, to get
a towel with which to dry off.  As she wiped the water off her body,
she studied the animal.  It didn’t appear to be fully grown, and she
wondered what might have happened to its mother.  During a storm like
this, any baby that was lost would not be found by its parents.  It
wouldn’t even be seriously looked for.  Still, Lira had little use for
a pet fox.
 
            Finally dry, Lira added some wood to the fire to warm the
room, and then, having no more excuses, moved toward the animal.  She
expected it to scamper away, but it didn’t.  It stared at her as she
put on her undergarments, and then her dark blue tights.  She stared at
the creature for several moments before deciding that she simply had no
choice, and reached down for the animal.  

            The young fox didn’t even flinch as Lira’s hands cupped it,
lifting it off the tunic.  She held it up, holding it to her chest for
a few moments, before stepping over to her bed and setting it down
gently.  The animal turned twice before lying back down to stare at her
again.
 
            Lira sighed as she lifted the tunic over her head.  Any
animal that trusting of people... *Where do you come from, little
one?*  Lira pondered the question as she began to prepare dinner.  The
rain would not end for at least another day, and she was fully prepared
to wait it out.  She wondered if her little friend would stay
throughout, and figured that he – she? – probably would.  No animal
loves the rain, and if you can be fed *and* stay dry, why not?  Of
course, it meant staying near a human, but this little fox didn’t seem
to mind that at all.
 
            When Lira had finished preparation, she made her own plate
to eat.  She watched the animal as she ate her dinner.  She wasn’t
being cruel; she had every intention of feeding the poor creature, but
she wanted it to understand that it would not eat until she was
finished.  The fox stared at her, not a sound, and it did not move from
its spot.
 
            Her meal finished, Lira took out a bowl from a small box
and put some of the rabbit meat into it.  It was still quite warm, and
she wasn’t sure the animal would eat pre-cooked food.  She set the bowl
down on the floor, and stepped away.
 
            Before she had even managed to remove her hand from the
bowl, the fox was on its feet.  By the time she’d taken a step, the
animal was at the bowl, sniffing.  It didn’t take long to figure out
that, not only would the animal eat cooked meat, but that it seemed to
truly enjoy its food.  Lira hoped she’d given it enough – how much food
does a young fox eat? – but she couldn’t risk running low on her own
supplies over the animal.  She settled down onto the bed, her back
against the cave wall, and she watched the fire, and the rain beyond.
 
            Lira was a little startled when the fox, having finished
its dinner, hopped back onto the bed and then climbed into her lap. 
Before Lira could even utter a gasp of astonishment, the animal was
curled up, and gave every impression of being asleep.
 
            *Well, well.  Either you really like me, or you’ve been
around people before.*  Lira didn’t really know, or care, which was the
case.  For now, she would care for the animal.  If and when it left,
she would stop caring for the animal.  Her life had little room for
such frivolous worries.  Like the raven, the fox could be a useful ally
to her, and so she would share with it what she had, in return for what
it could provide.
 
            As Lira pondered these thoughts, the rain and the thunder
outside the cave continued to drone on.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            It was another two days before the storm eased off, and
then died away, leaving behind it a sighing wind and a lot of
wreckage.  Lira and her four-footed friend had done very little during
the rain.  Lira had taken to singing to the animal, and it seemed to
enjoy that, its ears perking up when she started, and it would usually
fall asleep listening to her.
 
            She had, rather unimaginatively, named the animal Kit. 
She’d taken the time to learn it was a female, but what else could you
know about a fox?  It was a young girl, just like Lira herself, and
lost.  While Lira was not lost, she wasn’t exactly where a
fifteen-year-old girl was likely to be found, either.  That didn’t
bother Lira any.
 
            Lira strapped on her sword, her hunting knife, and some
other tools, and she was ready to head out.  She needed to see what
damage had been done to this part of the forest, and she needed to set
a trap for dinner.  At least, she thought, if she wanted to eat, she
did.  Lira had never been any good at actually *hunting* food, but she
was a skilled trapper.  She’d learned that skill from a summer with one
of the elders of the village of Navanar.  That man had been killed for
resisting the Aspelians just last winter.  Lira’s heart burned with
anger at that, but there was nothing she could do about it.  She was
just a girl.
 
            “C’mon, Kit,” she called, stepping out of the cave.  In a
flash, the fox was at her side.  It led her into the forest, as if it
knew where she was going.  She didn’t exactly follow it, but it did not
deviate from the path she would have taken alone.
 
            After two hours, and three traps set, the pair were ambling
along a path in a part of the forest that had gotten badly damaged. 
Lira thought she heard a noise ahead, and Kit was soon at Lira’s feet,
standing behind her for protection.  That told Lira all she needed to
know; whatever was ahead was a danger, at least to the fox.
 
            Lira’s curiosity would be the end of her, she was sure. 
Even knowing there was danger ahead, she could not avoid going
forward.  Not knowing, to her, was worse than dying in the attempt to
find out.
 
            Stepping forward gingerly, Lira heard another noise; it was
the noise of a horse snorting.  *A horse?  In the forest?  They don’t
normally run here... especially not in a storm... I suppose it could be
a unicorn... yeah, right, Lira.  And the Sphinx really lives somewhere
in Erollia.*
 
            Taking a deep breath, Lira parted the ferns.  She’d noted
that Kit had remained back on the path.  She looked back at the fox and
smiled, but did not beckon her forward.  If the animal didn’t want to
follow, that was her prerogative.  Lira stepped through into a small
clearing...
 
            ...and nearly had a heart attack.  Standing before her was
a large animal.  Lira’s head barely came up to the top of its back. 
Its large, horse head was very near her, and she saw, rising from the
center of its forehead, right between its eyes, a gleaming, twisted,
golden spire.
 
            *It *is* a unicorn!*  The animal was huge, and upset.  Lira
tried to get her heart rate to return to normal, which was not an easy
task.  She took several deep breaths, and looked over the situation. 
The animal’s unhappiness was easy to explain; it had, apparently,
gotten caught during the storm, and its leg was wrapped tightly in some
vines that had caught it when a tree had fallen over.  The unicorn’s
attempt to free itself had only made matters worse.
 
            The animal had stood nearly motionless while Lira had
looked over its situation.  It turned its head to follow her movements,
but that was the only motion it tried.  Lira kept her hand firmly
against the animal, to let it know exactly where she was, even if it
wasn’t looking at her.  This was how she had been taught to deal with
animals, and she wasn’t taking any chances with this one.  If it wanted
to stomp her into the ground, she wouldn’t even make a good meal for
the jackals.
 
            She tentatively pulled at the vines, but they were wrapped
far too tightly to get off by hand.  There was an alternative, but it
was risky.  What little was known about unicorns suggested that they
did not trust man very easily.  There was also a lot of debate over the
level of their intelligence.  They were magical creatures, to some
extent; their horns were known to purify putrid water.  Beyond that, so
little was actually *known* that most of what Lira remembered was
conjecture.  She only hoped the animal had some amount of intelligence.
 
            Walking back up to the front of the animal, she patted it
gently on the neck.  She could see the eye looking at her, and she
tried to judge the level of intellect, but that was a losing game, and
so she decided to just press on with her plan.
 
            “Okay... I can get you free, but in order to do it, I’m
going to have to use a metal tool.  I know you don’t like metal, or at
least you’re not supposed to, but I don’t have any other way to get you
free.”
 
            Lira very slowly pulled her hunting knife from its sheath,
but she held it by the blade, rather than in an actually useful
posture.  “This is a knife.  I can cut you free with it.  If you move
too much, I might accidentally hurt you, and I don’t want to do that. 
Will you stand still for me?”
 
            Lira almost had a second heart attack when the animal
seemed to nod, its head moving up and down once in a very human
gesture.  Lira sucked in her breath.  “Okay, here goes,” she said to
herself.
 
            Moving back to the animal’s back legs, Lira slipped her
knife beneath the first vine.  It wasn’t a tough vine, but without
being able to saw on it, for fear of hurting the unicorn, she had to
use brute strength.  It was good that she kept her knife sharp, for it
made easier work of the tough job.
 
            One by one the vines parted.  The unicorn did not move an
inch as Lira worked.  She was amazed at how well the animal seemed to
understand what she was doing as helpful, rather than dangerous.  Even
horses weren’t readily willing to let you mess around behind them.
 
            It took her twenty minutes to get the vines completely
untangled.  Lira looked the animal’s back legs over without touching
them, and could see nothing wrong with the animal.  She stood,
sheathing her knife, and walked back to the animal’s head.
 
            “All done,” she said quietly, and took a step back.  The
animal turned in a circle slowly, checking to see that all of its parts
were in working order, and that it was all right.  Once this had been
accomplished, the unicorn turned back to Lira.  It approached so close
that she had to look up to see its eye.  Then the unicorn dipped its
head, and brushed her cheek with its horn.  She felt a strange tingle,
and then the animal was gone.  She must have blinked, because by the
time she caught sight of it again, it was already through the first
thicket, and well into the forest.  *It moves like lightning!*
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            Kit was waiting for her just where she’d been.  She’d taken
the liberty of lying down, but was still in the middle of the trail,
staring at the spot where Lira had disappeared.  *She’s probably afraid
I’d leave her, too.*  Lira knew she wouldn’t do that.  If the animal
left on its own, that was one thing, but she’d spend quite a bit of
effort to rescue the little thing if it got in a jam.
 
            Kit sprang to her feet as Lira passed her on the path,
heading back the way they had come.  They turned down a different path,
and it took Lira a second to realize that Kit was not with her.  She
worried for just a second until the small fox showed up ahead of her,
with something in her mouth.
 
            It was a mole; not big enough for Lira to bother with, but
it was a sufficient meal for Kit.  But Kit was not eating it.  In fact,
Kit seemed to be waiting for Lira to take it.  This was extremely odd
behavior; foxes are notoriously territorial about their food.  Once
Lira was within a few paces of Kit, she dropped the mole onto the
ground and whimpered.  It was clear that Kit wouldn’t eat the animal
here.
 
            “Okay, okay.”  Lira picked up the dead animal with a smile
to Kit, and dropped it in her game pouch.  Kit, seemingly satisfied,
trotted off in front of Lira again, leading the way down the path. 
Twice Kit stopped, her ears perked up, as if listening to something. 
When that happened, Lira would crouch, dropping down to one knee, her
hand on the handle of her sword.  Both times, the fox listened for
several seconds, and then, looking back at Lira, she would continue on
the path.  Lira, too, was beginning to feel a bit strange, as if there
were eyes on her.  She didn’t like that sensation, and hoped it would
go away soon.
 
            They were within half a mile of home when the fox stopped
dead in her tracks, and then darted off to the side of the path.  Lira
could still see Kit, with effort, but no one who didn’t know she was
there would have.  That could only mean that whatever it was, wasn’t
hunting Kit.
 
            *So, is it hunting me?*  Lira considered, and then she
climbed the nearest tree.  She was sitting on the lowest limb, but that
was a solid fifteen feet in the air, which was nearly three times her
own height.
 
            Soon, she heard it.  There were two people approaching. 
Were they the men from earlier?  Surely they’d not be bluffed away this
time.  Her hand was on her sword continuously now, and she was tempted
to draw it out completely.  Drawing a sword does make *some* noise,
however, and right now silence was her best friend.
 
            The two men came around the bend, and it was clear that
they were tracking her.  They stopped once to check her footprints. 
They weren’t the men from the other day, though.  These were different
men, an older man, and a young one.  The man looked to be in his
sixties or seventies, the boy barely older than Lira.  She wondered if
they were tracking her merely as an exercise, or if it was something
more sinister.
 
            She’d doubled back slightly on her path, and so the two
passed beneath her without noticing her presence in the tree.  The
elder man did cock his head slightly as he passed by, but he said
nothing to the younger one, so Lira didn’t know what he was thinking.
 
            Soon, the men came to the spot where she had left the path.
 
            “Master, I don’t see further steps.”
 
            “No, Darren.  She didn’t continue on the path here.”  *So,
they know I’m a girl.  That kind of tells me they’ve seen me.*  Her
footsteps were light, but she could have been a young male just as
easily.
 
            “Where did she go, and how will we find her now?”
 
            Lira’s sword was clear of its sheath now.  Their talking
covered her movements.
 
            “Patience, Darren.  I have a feeling that the lady is
closer than we expect.”
 
            “Master... do you know where she is?”
 
            Lira slipped down out of the tree.  Her footfalls, thanks
to her magic, were completely silent.
 
            “Yes, Darren, I do.”
 
            “Where, Master Orin?”
 
            “Right behind you,” Lira said.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
