"Why are you standing still!" Dorothea shrieked. She leaped off the lowest branch, sailed over Sam's shoulder and landed in a heap of dead leaves. She shuffled through them until she was able to clamber onto a fallen log, and she resisted the uncomfortable urge to lick her fur. "The Jockal or the Marshal will be back any moment, There's no time to be [i]polite[/i]. RUN."

The princess chose the direction of the castle she'd seen from the top of the tree, and she bounded ahead, tail high. "If you are still when you should be moving as quickly as possible -- if you continue to do nothing unless you are told -- I promise I will yell until I am hoarse," she called, breathless, her voice bouncing every time her paws hit the ground. "I am in no position to help you otherwise. [i]Yelling[/i] is the [i]only[/i] thing I am currently capable of." She was very, very perturbed now. Not only was she a cat, far away from home, running from her own stepmother and a very dangerous man who had once been a friend, she had to somehow make sure this young woman didn't walk off a cliff. The gravity of her situation was crashing down on her, she'd nearly died several times, her friends didn't even know she was gone, her stepmother was even more horrid than she'd ever expected. She had no idea what to do or how to solve any of it, but she had to try, she had to keep going, no matter what. Dorothea needed [i]help[/i].

She didn't dare look behind her, even to see if Sam was following -- but the Marshal was on his way back toward the tree, making his slow way through the debris left by the Jockal.