Darin absently pet Mitaja. She figured that Ridahne was correct. This was a hunting cat. The human was fairly positive that hunting cats should not be this friendly to strangers. Her handler’s words only proved that. Darin liked animals, and they tended to like her. Still, this went beyond that. This was something more. This was something the human didn’t quite understand.

Darin had one hand on Talbot and another entangled in Mitaja, “Animals like me better than people do, and I like animals better than I like people. In fact, I strongly dislike people though there are certain persons I like.”

That may not have made complete sense, but it was true. Darin only liked select individuals. Her mother, Milla, Thomas, Rolland, maybe Ridahne, but definitely the farmer from Greyrock. That was less than ten. On the other hand, Darin had only meet one animal she disliked, but that dog had been trained to be a bully and abused by their person. That was the first time since her father left that Darin had spent time with people her own age. The dog’s human was an older man and the teenagers of the village had worked together to get the creature away from the abuse. It had bit all of them at some point. Darin had to fight a smile. George still had teeth marks in an unfavorable location. Darin was lucky she did not. Her bite marks had healed nicely. So, there was that.

Darin shook her head, “But this is new. I think they all know. I haven’t been attacked by any animals in areas where I should have given the fact that I’ve been traveling alone. I know Talbot told his person about it. Which means other animals can tell as well, and they could tell their person. Which may not be a good thing.”

There were other people like Mark out there. There might even be people worse than Mark out there. They had to have horses and dogs and maybe even cats. Animals were loyal. They might not be able to communicate the same way Talbot seemed to be able to do, but Darin knew better than to count on that. This whole journey was making Darin a paranoid mess. She had to resist the urge to rub her hand against the band on her thigh. Ridahne hadn’t asked to see The Seed yet, and the human didn’t want to give her a reason to do so.

Talbot pressed closer to her. Darin smiled over her shoulder at him. It was clear that the horse was trying to offer some level of comfort. Darin removed both her hands from the pair of animals. She looked around for her sickle. She had lost in when Talbot all but tossed her. Talbot trotted over to a spot. Darin moved with him to see her weapon on the ground. She bent down to pick it up. Talbot blew at her hair as she stood back up. Darin looked at the horse. Once Talbot was sure he had the girl’s attention he looked at the sky.

Darin smiled and let out a small laugh, “You’re right. It is about to rain.”

The farmer could smell it, and the clouds in the distance were a sure indication. The undersides were steadily becoming a darker grey. They were also moving this way incredibly fast. Darin tucked the handle of the sickle into her belt so she could use both hands to grab on to the reins so she could get back on top of Talbot. Talbot decided to be kind and bent down so Darin wouldn’t have to climb so high. The human figured that the horse wanted to get moving just as quickly. This was going to turn into a storm; not the kind of rain anyone wanted to be caught out in for any reason whatsoever. As soon as Darin was upright Talbot unbent his knees.

The human told Ridahne, “We might want to find a place to wait out the rain. We have an hour or two at most before it hits us.”

Darin had no idea why she was telling the Elf this. Ridahne was the well-traveled warrior. Darin was just a farmgirl. Ridahne probably knew better than her. Maybe it was because Darin wanted to make it clear that she did know somethings; like weather. Her livelihood depended on the weather. Darin had learned to read the sky quickly. It was one of the few things her father had taught her. It was something everyone in the village had known how to do. If Darin was back home the whole village would be finishing up their outside work, or at least finding a stopping point, and preparing to start work that could be done in doors. That was just pure common sense.