“I don’t want to go back there,” he said. Anni spun around to face him, lightly tapping her drum as she did so. “I feel like you want me to want to, but I don’t yet.” He took her in his arms, pulling her close and making it impossible to reach her drum. She frowned. “I want to go somewhere that feels more like home, Anni, somewhere that you and I can…get to know each other better. What do you say?”
“You want me with you?” Without her magic compelling him? “Of course, Sathlir, you have only to ask and we will go.”
“Let’s stay here for now,” he said, turning her back toward the center of the Outpost. “I know a guy, a halfing, actually, who might rent us a room above…”
“Not here,” Anni said, humming the tune under her purr. “Anywhere but here.”
Sath blinked a few times and then looked down at her. Anni found that the vacant look in his eyes began to pain her. “Where would you suggest then?”
“Not the palace, but the coast of Qatu’anari, our home. What do you think? We make our own dwelling. We hunt our own food. We are just us. Yes?” she said, humming a bit louder.
“Excellent idea,” Sath said. “I don’t know why I hesitated at all.” Taking her hand in his, he led her out the gate and out of the Outpost, without a single look backward toward the grand hall or the tavern…or his life with the Fabled Ones.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nancy E. Dunne is the alter ego of Ginolwenye, and is an avid gamer, adventurer, reader, language nerd and all around geek girl. The Nature Walker Trilogy is a love letter of sorts to the various worlds in which she has found herself immersed over the years, and the lifelong friends, memories, and wild tales that have come along with them. When not writing, Nancy is an American Sign Language/English interpreter and spends her free time drawing inspiration from her dogs and her husband as well as dreaming of visiting her second home, the United Kingdom.
Follow Nancy on Social Media:
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Visit her website:
http://nancyedunne.com
Books in the Nature Walker Trilogy
Wanderer: Origin of the Nature Walker
Tempest: Fall of the Nature Walker
Guardian: Rise of the Nature Walker (Summer 2018)
Wanderer Page 37
