For some reason, today felt longer. Maybe it was because she started earlier, but Brina felt like time was going too slow, or maybe it was the wobble in the world from the Feywild veil, she wasn't sure. Ro-Ro said that could stretch time out.

There was no more food to find. There was no more dew to drink. Brina was afraid to drink anymore river water, she knew the high water was dirty and she didn't care this morning but she cared now. She wept to think about it. If she hadn't been having a poison magic day, she'd be sick and probably dying right now. 

That was too easy to imagine, too. Just falling into the leaves, surrounded by the trees, Little Brina in her purple dress with the puffy sleeves she liked so much, curled up small and cold and throwing up and falling asleep. 

Walking was so slow…

She had no idea how far down she'd washed, and she couldn't see that well over the fog of noise across the river, but she couldn't hear or see any noises from her family, and she was more and more sure that Ro-Ro hadn't come home and they didn't even know she was at the river yesterday at all, let alone that she fell in and got washed down. Or maybe they did and they were already trying to find her body in the ocean, they didn't know she got washed up. Would they check both sides of the river before they started looking in the ocean? Would they really look in the ocean for her? Did they need her whole body to get her raised from the dead? Could you raise a drowned corpse?

That didn't matter, really. She wasn't a drowned corpse. She wasn't sure if you could raise an eaten corpse, either. She didn't think so. She was too tired to think about it. 

Why was thinking so hard? Did she poison herself for real and it was just taking this long? Did being hungry and thirsty and tired make it hard to think? She'd never felt this bad before. 

It felt like forever. And ever. Brina wept off and on, but no amount of weeping was long enough to finish the journey. She got bored and ran out of tears every time. She tried to sing, but all the songs and more, all the time she spent singing them between weeping spells, and she was still just walking upriver.

The day was going on and on. Brina kept being sure it was almost nightfall, but every time she looked, it was only midafternoon. The trees changed but Brina hardly noticed anymore. She hardly noticed anything anymore. She watched the ground in front of her and trudged on. She didn't want to get lost from the river again, and if she kept walking, she'd get to the inlet and find her family there, or get to Tinian. She wondered if she'd passed the inlet already and hadn't noticed.

The wolves were either gone or waiting and she couldn't hear them anymore. The sky was clear, still, and the river was loud and the songbirds sang and Brina was so hungry and so tired. Her legs felt like jelly. Her feet were numb, and she remembered all the stories about people losing their toes and fingers to cold weather. She thought about tying her ribbon around her toes, but she wasn't sure that would help at all. She sat down twice but decided that it wasn't going to get her anywhere, especially if Ro-Ro hadn't come back yet. 

Where were they? Why weren't they looking for her? They were, right, and she just couldn't find them, either? Did they give up? Did they forget? Were they punishing her now by letting her be lost? Would they do that? Like this? Even now?

She had been so sure Aunt Eupa or Ro-Ro was following her. She was so sure she'd wake up and they'd be here, and they'd take her home, and she could go cut wood all day and take a bath and go to bed, warm and safe and full and tucked in, she would never whine about eating broccoli again, she would never whine about being stuck in the house when it rained, she would never whine ever again. 

She couldn't remember anymore good stories. Or long stories. She could hardly hear her guardians 'talking' to her anymore. She had stopped saying the things they said to her, and so she wasn't hearing them. No more 'you got it', no more 'you can do it', no more 'it's hard, not impossible'. Just Brina stumbling along in the forest, wishing she had something besides her family to wish would save her. She knew they were trying, but she'd never seen their limits before, and getting washed down the river was bringing everyone's limits into painful focus. 

She still never found any more food, but she felt the hunger again. Brina wondered if eating dirt would make her feel less hungry before she got to the part where it hurt again. She wondered if she could eat trees, Ro-Ro said there were kinds she could eat but she couldn't remember. The water had washed away a lot of the things that bugs would hide under, she guessed.

Ro-Ro was gonna be mad. Aunt Eupa was gonna be happy to see her. Daddy was gonna do both. If she ever saw them again. She was starting to think that it really wasn't going to go well for her, that she really was lost forever and just gonna die here.

Nah. She couldn't die. 

Oh yes I can. I can, and I've finally gone and done it, that's what I did. Stupid Brina.

Nu-uh, kiddo. You don't get to call you stupid. You're not stupid. You fucked up is all. It happens. Keep going.

Huh. She could still cuss herself in Aunt Eupa's voice. 

Brina walked. And walked. Her legs hurt, her feet hurt and were numb at the same time, which wasn't fair! And she walked. And she walked! It was forever! And ever!

And she'd already found where she washed up! She hadn't even gotten back to the inlet, yet! How far was Tinian?! Did the river curl funny?!

Where was Ro-Ro?

Maybe Ro-Ro was in the feywild and had no idea she needed to come home. Maybe she was wrong about Aunt Eupa and Daddy looking for her? Would they look in town? Could Aunt Eupa track well enough to find her again? Aunt Eupa wasn't that good at tracking…

She imagined Aunt Eupa and Daddy and Daemon all in the woods, calling for her, looking, sniffing. Daemon said she smelled very strong to him, in the way her magic smelled, but she didn't leave scent trails. 

The more she walked, the more sure Brina was that her family had given up looking for her. She wished she still had her school bracelet, but she was too big for it, now, and it would only have told the grown-ups that she was in trouble, not where she was.

Well, no, she couldn't use it. 

But at least then Ro-Ro would know to come home, they could use theirs…. 

A cold wind blew and Brina whimpered as she curled herself against it. Her feet were going to fall off, she was sure of it. She wasn't even sure she still had her nose, and her lips hurt, and so did her cheeks, how could anyone be so cold and not be hurt? She was just hurt, that's what it was, and she was too cold to feel it. 

Well. Her red little toes were still attached. Her legs were still going. Her hands were all red, now, too. How cold was it? How cold could it get? How cold could she get?

The wolves howled in the distance, and Brina ran until she couldn't. Her "couldn't" was getting worse. Her legs were barely moving anymore, she was shuffling faster, and she could get to a run but it took so long… the wolves were winning…

At least she was warm again….

Where was Ro-Ro? Where was Brina? Tinian couldn't be that far, could it? A whole day of walking? It didn't even take them a whole hour from the cottage to the gate, where could she be that she hadn't even found the inlet? How far did she get washed down the river? How far did she go backwards?!

They were never going to find her.

Brina could already imagine it. Daddy swimming out into the ocean and being a buoy for Ro-Ro. Uncle Peck's entire flock flapping out over Tinian en masse. Aunt Eupa's agitated pacing in the forest. They had stopped looking at the river and started elsewhere. Ro-Ro vanishing to and from the feywild and the swamps on the other side of the veil that Ro-Ro guarded. 

Brina's heart grew cold as her feet when she realized how far she could have gotten and where her family could be looking for her. She knew where she was, but they didn't have any ideas. The last thing any of them knew, Daddy had just told her not to go to the river, and she went to Ro-Ro's hovel, which was toward the veil, which meant they might even have started in the feywild until Ro-Ro found them.

But if she got to Tinian, it would be okay. Right? She could get to Tinian, even if her family didn't find her. That's probably what Ro-Ro was waiting for before they rescued her, they were waiting for her to save herself, to see if she could. That's something Aunt Eupa and Ro-Ro would do, too. Uncle Peck wouldn't, though. Daddy wouldn't, either. 

Brina kept going. And going. Her feet stopped picking up off the ground. She couldn't pick them up anymore, her legs were getting stiff, now. 

Oh no. 

It was getting dark.

Brina took too long to notice the fading light, and only realized how late it was getting after the orange light made her hair a funny color from behind. She looked eastward at the orange and dipping sun, and dread filled her. How had she not even gotten back to the inlet? How could she have been so far away? If she wasn't at the inlet yet, she was at least an hour from Tinian, and that was if the river didn't curl funny...

She needed to find somewhere to sleep again…?

She needed to get home. She got lucky today, she got really lucky today, she had a poison day today, but she couldn't trust that tomorrow. She was going to lose her toes to this cold because she didn't have the magic from yesterday, she was going to make herself sick and die if she tried to go tomorrow without poison magic to help her.

She couldn't wait 'til tomorrow. She had to get home.

The wolves howled again. Brina ran, following the river and beyond hope. She tried to stretch her hearing as much as she could. That wasn't something the magic could do, she just imagined it was, and sometimes it would help. This time, it didn't. This time, Brina just felt more alone and hunted. 

Cold wind escorted evening, and Brina was too cold to feel it anymore. She could feel her skin starting to sting as her own blood warmed it after the cold hit it like that.

The sunlight had faded to pink when, finally, Brina saw the familiar tree that she'd fallen from yesterday. She wasn't sure that was it, but then she saw the Sunning Rock, and when she climbed onto the rocks on this side, she could see the path going from the river into the trees on the other side--she finally found the inlet! 

Brina called squeakily across the river, her voice squawked uncontrollably as she tried to get louder, tried to put the power into her lungs to make her shout so she could be heard over the water…

But no one was there. Nothing. She saw nothing moving, she heard nothing but roaring water, she saw no voices filtering through the fog. They weren't there. They hadn't even left anyone there to wait for her if she returned there, not even Uncle Peck.

No one?

Brina wasn't going to make it to Tinian. She barely made it back here. She was going to freeze tonight. She hadn't found anywhere safe, she hadn't found food or water almost all day, everything hurt so much and she was so tired. And none of her family had any idea where she was, not even a little, not if they didn't put someone at the inlet to wait and see if she came back to it. 

Brina collapsed to the ground and curled up, burying her head in her arms. She couldn't cry anymore. She was too tired, she didn't have enough water for tears, she was so thirsty and so tired and so hungry and everything and no one was waiting for her, she was going to die alone and cold and they were gonna find her after that, finally, way too late, and the wolves would have eaten her and--

Brina wouldn't have noticed anything if it wasn't for her magic. White lines of noise snaked toward her, swam in her vision. She shot to her feet and searched the fading light desperately. "Who's there?" she whimpered. "Daddy? Please? Ro-Ro?"

Something moved, something black in the blackness, and Brina knew it wasn't Aunt Eupa already because it was close enough to see her and hadn't approached yet. 

Slowly, the figure emerged from the trees. A black-clad man with dead-white skin and stringy black hair. He moved like a predator, something Brina had seen a million times with her aunt and Ro-Ro. The man's head remained still while the rest of his body moved around behind him to get him into position to attack.

Brina swallowed the gasp, and the only spell she could think of was the shout she had just been trying, the magic wasn't working, still wasn't, she couldn't even feel anything when she tried to kick it with the fear, she couldn't--and--

The man lunged at her, and Brina shrieked in terror as she tried to leap away. The magic finally got into her voice and the sound shoved the man back, sending him stumbling away from Brina.

He made an angry hissing noise and Brina watched in horror as the man twisted and grew, expanded and melted. His arms joined his sides and his head shrank to his neck before the rest of his body followed suit, legs melting together, giving rise to a snake nearly sixty feet long and as big around as she was. He rose up to get better aim at her, and she tried to run but he was so fast! He came at her so fast! He bit her and his fangs, they were so long, buried inches into her body, into her shoulder and chest and back, and he wrapped around her, keeping her upright as he twisted them together. 

At first it was almost nice, he was cold but warmer than her, and the scales actually felt good sliding on her skin like that, but then the squeeze got tighter and tighter, and Brina's legs were crushed together and she became more sure they were going to break, and her ribs were crushed, and he let go with his teeth. Was he poisonous enough to get through her magic…?

Brina felt her head spinning, she couldn't breathe, the snake was looking at her now and she barely got her eyes open enough to see his stripey brown eyes staring into hers, and she dragged in a painful breath before she squeaked, "Help!"

The sound was pathetic and fell short. Brina saw the plea fade to nothing before it got past the snake's head.

"Help!" she tried again, and she got some energy into it. The snake loosened and tightened and loosened as he repositioned, twisting around her.

She dragged another slow breath in, and the snake actually helped her scream louder by squeezing her at the same time she tried to scream. He held her pressed like that so she couldn't breathe in again.

It hurt! It hurt so bad! Brina struggled futilely, she was no match for the enormous monster holding her, her vision swam and her body hurt all over, her legs were numb and so were her hands, and her chest hurt so bad and her head hurt and her chest hurt…

Her mouth barely moved as she tried to call for help again. 

The snake was going to kill her!

The blackness edged around her vision, Brina couldn't hold her head up anymore and it fell against the scales, and she felt the snake's breathing waver as he chortled.

It hurt so much. Brina was so tired. She couldn't keep it up. She couldn't even act like she could keep it up. She was done for. The snake had already killed her, she was just waiting to die, now. The heat from her blood flooding her head made her feel better, at least, and Brina felt the warmth and the dark swallowing her.

Brina heard the shriek of "HELP!" before anything, and the sound itself alarmed her. She wasn't screaming, was she?

"HELP!" it repeated, and Brina remembered where the sound came from.

The girl tried to sit up and then didn't, and continued lying where she was. Everything hurt so much, her head hurt so much. She got her eyes to open just in time to see the snake striking down at something that Brina couldn't see, and then striking again and biting its own tail, and then again, and when it withdrew, it was bleeding on its head so badly that Brina could only marvel that it hadn't cut to bone.

"BRINA!" roared Brotz's huge bass voice as he shot out of the river as though something had thrown him, and he landed on the snake's head. He wrapped his arms and legs around its neck, and squeezed. "EUPA!"

Brina felt strong, warm arms scoop her up, and her view was cut off as a wall of treeroot and dirt and stone rose between her and Daddy and the snake.

"I gotcha," said Aunt Eupa's voice softly, and the salty, meaty, metallic smell of Aunt Eupa enveloped her as she wrapped her cloak around them both and folded her arms and legs around her tight like she did when she was trying to protect Brina. Her sword was in her hand. Brina almost never got to see it out. It was keener than a razor. 

"Shithead, you scared the shit out of all of us," she continued, rocking Brina back and forth.  "When they get the snake handled, I'll carry you back across, but they have to handle the snake, I can't do bot--shit."

Ro continued to hit the snake with her spear, but she could only aim for his lower half, instead of anything useful. He was big enough that he took the damage with only minor thrashing. He was also busy with Brotz, who had been bitten several times but was not dying, yet, and Daemon hurled fireballs at the snake repeatedly, until, finally, he threw Brotz to the ground and slithered into the forest, disappearing into the darkness in moments.

Brotz got a flying leap over the wall Brina and Eupa were hiding behind and he almost landed on them in the process of snatching Brina up and holding her tight. "BRINA!"

"DADDY!" It hurt to talk, but--DADDY!

"Eupa, no!"

Aunt Eupa narrowly pulled the swing and she drew back from the wolf that had gotten close to them. She had cut some fur, but the wolf backed off rather than get aggressive.

Daddy stood up with Brina, and they looked to see Ro standing in front of her family with her spear held like she was holding her ground, point-up and looking broad and strong. That didn't stop the wolves from circling the area and the family. More than ten surrounded the four. 

"We're not fighting them, we're going to leave," Ro said, and she picked out the second-biggest wolf of the lot to make eye-contact with. Brina could hardly see him in the blue light, but the wolf was wearing a bracer and baldric. "I'm sorry for the intrusion."

The addressed wolf took a few steps forward, and the biggest wolf suddenly made a horrible crunching sound in his body as he transformed from an enormous dire wolf back into what looked like a half-elf man clad in a fur sarong and leather jacket with fur and leather wraps. Ro didn't look at him, however, she continued looking at the other one. "Translator?" she asked.

"Indeed."

Ro frowned slightly, then looked around the bunch of wolves, glancing over the humanoid, and she looked to the humanoid and back to the main wolf. She opened her mouth twice, then closed it and said, "Sorry for the intrusion," again.

"It was no intrusion. Hunt your own where you will."

"I meant her intrusion," Ro said softly, and the anger in her voice made Brina want to bury herself under Brotz's armor. "I know where I'm not wanted." She looked to Brina narrowly. "In any case. Thank you for keeping her from killing herself entirely, I saw the work you put in for me."

"We thought it better than the alternative. Your packmates have quite a capacity for destruction."

Ro smiled weakly and she nodded. "Thank you. You keep north side, I keep south side?"

"As we've been living for a decade," chuckled the half-elf man. "I suppose our territories are put forth and accepted, then. The snake does not abide by these, and he is not above slinking around in your forest, either. He wanders freely and eats freely."

"I knew he was around, but he prefers the east side of Tinian and the north side of the river," Ro said, and she looked amongst the wolves again. "I thank you a final time, and we're going to return to my side of the river."

The wolves slowly eased sideways and out of the way as Brotz, Eupa, Ro, and Brina eased toward the river. Brotz had to swim a ways through, let Eupa carry Brina to jump and land on him, and then let Ro-Ro take her from Eupa to the sunning rock. Brina felt the anger in Ro-Ro the moment she was taken from Aunt Eupa's protective grip. She could feel Ro-Ro's heart pounding hard and steady, she could feel the trembling rage, even as Ro-Ro stood on the sunning rock and waited for Daddy to swim across and meet them.

"Brina, dear one," Ro-Ro said in a voice that made her lungs freeze. The mage slowly looked up to see Ro-Ro staring across the water with a maniacal light in her eyes and tightness in her jaw. "We're going to go home, we're going to make sure you get a very good meal and a bath and we're going to do your hair and…." The mania did not leave Ro-Ro's face nor voice as she turned face to face with Brina. "Then we're going to go camping."