Darin wasn’t sure where she was supposed to be holding on to, so she held on to Ridahne’s waist. At first, she kept her grip loose. Then, when the galloping started, she let out a shriek and gripped so tight she couldn’t feel her fingers. When they stopped Darin had to force herself to let go. Even with Ridahne helping her down she still fell more than she dismounted.

She nodded as the Elf told her the plan, “Sounds like a plan.”

Darin was still shaky, so she didn’t make it to the inn right away. Instead she found a place out of the way to sit down for a moment. She put her head between her knees and tried to focus on breathing. She had not liked riding the horse one little bit. She liked horses just fine. Heath, who was Rolland’s plow horse, was a complete sweetheart. Darin had never ridden a horse before. Heath would let riders on his back, but that wasn’t what he was meant for. She was willing to bet that Ridahne’s horse was nice, but Darin preferred walking beside her horse rather than being on top of it.

She muttered to herself, “I can’t walk all of Astra though.”

“No, you can’t. Few people could.”

Darin’s head snapped up to see a man she didn’t reconigize. His clothes were neat, his smile was warm, and he seemed to be a pleasant sort of character. That didn’t change the fact that Darin looked in to his teal blue eyes and want to scream. She didn’t know if she wanted to scream in terror, scream for help, or scream in warning. Something inside of her didn’t like this man. That didn’t make any sense. It was true that she wasn’t trusting anyone, but there was a difference between not trusting someone, and deciding that they were evil just because of some vague reason. She thought he was evil and not evil like the bandits had been. They had just been trying surviving in a less than moral way. Darin thought that the man in front of her of evil for the sake of being evil. She tried not to let it show on her face.

His voice was full of concern, “Are you alright boy? You look kind of shaky.”

She struggled to come up with an answer that wouldn’t raise any alarms, “I’m just not use to riding.”

The man nodded as he smiled at her, “That makes sense.” He held out a hand to her, “You need to keep moving. If you stay still too long you’ll get stiff and riding will be even harder.”

She didn’t want to touch his hand. Especially after what Ridahne said about her hands. She couldn’t see a way out of it. She forced her hand into his so he could help her up. She let go of it as soon as she could. She hoped that her face hadn’t shown the fact that as soon as she touched him her thigh, right under The Seed, had started to burn. What was that? The Seed had never done that. It stopped as soon as she let go. Where was she getting these thoughts from? It wasn’t like she could read the hearts of men. Could she? She needed to get away, quickly.

She forced a smile to her face, “Thank you. I best go find my traveling partner.”

The man nodded, “I’m sure I’ll see you around. Safe travels.”

That sent so many shivers down Darin’s spine that she couldn’t say anything. She just ducked her head in a bob before scurrying away. She wanted to see if he was watching her but didn’t dare look over her shoulder. She needed to find Ridahne. She knew the Elf about as well as she knew the man. Logic dictated she trust the man more. Outwardly he had nothing but charming and his hunting cat hadn’t pin her on his command. That didn’t change the fact, that for some reason that had to be connected to The Seed, she was terrified of him. At least Ridahne hadn’t made The Seed react anymore than it already did.

Since Darin didn’t look back, she didn’t see the dark-haired man stare at her as she hurried towards the inn. The look on his face was calculating; like he was figuring something out. When he did a cruel smirk of triumph graced his features. It didn’t destroy his good looks, but it didn’t enhance them either. He quickly replaced the look with one of bland of indifference.

As soon as Darin found Ridahne she would rush over to her, “Ridahne!” Her eyes were blown wide with terror, “It followed us! It’s not good!” It was clear the human was close to freaking out, “What do we do?”