Aluanna awoke at dawn the next morning, as she did nearly every day of her life. It seemed somehow wrong to her to allow the sun to rise without her greeting it. She had only had a few hours of sleep the night before, but her mind was alert, and her senses clear. As usual, she would find time to clear away the rest of her weariness later in the day with a late afternoon nap. It was a habit she had inherited from her mother.

Though Aluanna had stayed awake long into the night, she knew she had retired much earlier than the majority of her band. The satyr triplets in particular always stayed awake nearly the entire night, playing their music to keep the dark forces of the forest away. She was grateful for their cheerfulness and strength, but she wondered if anyone in the band knew just how tenuous and fragile their hold on the forest really was.

Her band was loyal, but their numbers were not great. Members of her band came and went as they pleased. None were obligated to stay indefinitely, and many would come and go depending on the season, individual needs, or just on personal whims. In the last couple of years, her band had never been smaller than twenty musicians, but it also never grew much larger than fifty members at one time. How many henchmen did the enemy have at his disposal? A hundred? A thousand? It was impossible to know for sure, but Aluanna was certain that she and her loyal followers were far outmatched.

So why hadn’t they been wiped out already? Did the enemy really fear some kind of power she possessed? Or was he just playing with her because he knew he could finish them off whenever he wanted? Whatever the answer, Aluanna told herself that she had to remain confident and strong in front of the others. If any of them guessed at the fear she kept to herself, the entire band would fall apart overnight. And she was certain that her woods would be far worse off if that happened.

Aluanna looked across the clearing and saw the tall dark-skinned man her band had rescued the night before. He was one of the few people also awake already, and although he was obviously still exhausted from his encounter with the vampire, his back was straight and his expression was determined. There was something about his countenance that gave her pause, though she couldn’t quite place what it was.

Huddled in a large sleeping bag near the ashes of the campfire was the pale, bald young man that had also encountered Laronius. He was so pale and cold when they found him that she was surprised he had survived the experience. As Aluanna watched him sleep, she noticed with some puzzlement that he slept in his sleeping bag with his traveling cloak still on, and the hood pulled up over his head. Perhaps it was the only way to keep such a bald head warm in the night?

It was clear to Aluanna that the young man had powerful magic within him. One of her gifts was that she had always been able to sense the magic in others. She considered the talent a gift from her father, and it was one of the ways she had been able to gather together a band such as hers, where so many had unique gifts to contribute, like the satyr triplets. Aluanna suspected that the young man had little understanding of how to use his magic, but his potential was unmistakable.

And then there was the other man that had been with them. The one with light brown hair and eager eyes like a wolf pup. Aluanna didn’t know what to think of him at all. His story was unbelievable, but his every word was so sincere it was heartbreaking. He certainly didn’t have the confidence and strength of his dark-skinned friend, yet he seemed every bit as determined. He was not self-assured, but he was sure of… something. More than once when Aluanna had been falling asleep, she had asked herself what could drive him this way if his story wasn’t authentic.

Even stranger than the man’s demeanor was the curious sensation Aluanna had experienced while feeling the magic surrounding him.

Aluanna had always struggled to describe to others what it was like to sense magic in others. They always wanted her to describe it in terms of sights or sounds or physical touch, but that was about as useful as trying to explain the color of an itch or the sound of bitterness. The closest she could come to helping others understand was comparing it to the undefinable sensations one felt in different weather.

Most people felt like a calm overcast day, like there was nothing out of the ordinary to notice. Those with powerful magic, like the bald young man, made Aluanna’s breath shift rhythm and her skin tingle just below the surface, as if a thunderstorm was approaching. But the man with brown hair was different. Sensing him felt like there was some strange, clear pull coming from somewhere not quite behind her and moving upwards, like standing on a high, wind-swept mountain where the air just seems to disappear above you.

Aluanna didn’t believe everything he had said the night before about his quest and who it came from, but she couldn’t deny that there were things about him that left her intuition abnormally unsure.

Who were these three men? What were they really doing here in a forest plagued with the supernatural, and why hadn’t they been killed by Laronius? Others had come along in the past who would join her band and take up her fight against the necromancer, but ultimately they merely added to the strength of her fight. She knew that if she fell or gave up, the rest of the band would leave the fight within days.

These three seemed to bring a new fight all their own. The thought that there were others who could make a difference if she were gone was both a relief, and a concern. She did not know these men, and they did not answer to her, and even if their intentions were good, their disruption could shatter the semblance of balance she had fought so hard to maintain.

Aluanna was pulled from her thoughts as she heard the patter of raindrops on leaves a moment before the drops made their way to the forest floor. As quickly as dignity would allow her, she hurried back to her tent to put on her hooded traveling cloak. She may be attuned to nature as the Lord of the Forest’s daughter, but that didn’t make her immune to wet hair.

***

“Where’d this awful rain come from?” Shon spluttered as he tried to wipe large droplets from the top of his bald head. He was still recovering from the rather rude awakening of water falling on his face, followed by stepping in a puddle in his rush to stand up and put his boots on.

“I think it usually comes from the sky, Sir Soggy Socks,” said Roj, and the short satyr bleated a loud laugh.

Shon fumed at the sarcastic remark, but suppressed an angry retort that could cost him his spot under the canopy that some of Aluanna’s band had quickly assembled to stay dry. It was clear to Shon that many of the others standing under the canvas covering were feeling frustrated about the unexpected rain, but none of them had gotten nearly as upset as he had. After taking a moment to calm down, Shon said, “What I mean is, I didn’t even see any clouds last night. How could a rain storm just start up out of nowhere?”

“I would hardly call this a storm,” said Soj as he tipped his tall head under the canopy to join them. “This is just a normal early autumn shower. It may have come along a couple weeks before we expected, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. And I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the next several months.”

“Several months?” moaned Shon. “How many months can rain keep going for?” The prospect of rain continually pouring from the sky nonstop for months on end filled Shon with a dread hopelessness that seemed to suck all the heat and happiness right out of him, right through the bottom of his wet foot.

As if sensing this, Roj spoke up again. “Relax, Sir Soggy Socks. My brother doesn’t mean you’ll never see a dry day again until spring. He just means you ought’a get used to it because a lot more rainy days are on their way.

Just then, Tarun and Seth stepped under the canopy and out of the rain. “We got the flaps all tied down on the wagon,” said Seth, “but I’m afraid quite a bit of water got in already, and most of your clothes got wet.”

“Well that’s just great!” shouted Shon. Panic started to set in as he wondered if he would ever feel warm and dry again. “And who asked you to go messing with our tent anyway?”

“I did,” said Tarun. “It would’ve taken a lot longer with only one person doing it, and it would have gone even quicker if there had been three.”

Shon felt his face go hot red as Tarun’s words sunk in. Shon had been so frantic about finding shelter when he woke up that he didn’t even think to go help Tarun with the wagon and their supplies.

Then he remembered something, and he smacked himself on the forehead in supreme embarrassment and frustration. “Oh no! I forgot to pick up my sleeping bag. It’s still lying in the mud!!”

“I, uh, noticed that,” Seth said quietly. “I grabbed it and threw it into the wagon before we started tying it down.”

“Oh,” said Shon. “Thanks.”

For a while, everyone was quiet around them, and the only sound was the raindrops hitting the canvas above them. Shon turned to Seth to apologize, but he never got the chance to start. Toj had just walked under the canopy and he was looking much more serious than his two brothers. The satyr gestured to Shon, Tarun, and Seth and made a jerking motion with his horned head.

“You three had better come with me,” said Toj. “Lady Aluanna would like a word with you.”