Eveline

The next morning, I woke up first to see that my father was awake, and that Sasha was still sound asleep. She had wrapped herself mostly in the blanket concealing her ears and her tail was tucked out of sight- at least from my father's perspective.

"Who is she?" he mouthed, pointing at her.

I walked over to him.

"Her name is Sasha- she is a Halfling wolf that wishes to seek refuge in Reytor and wants to travel with us. Can she?"

My father nodded. "A Halfling wolf asking help from humans... She must be desperate and she seems not to wish to harm us so yes."

I smiled. "Thank you."

"You are going to be a guardian after all, Eve, and you would be able to sense if she meant us harm."

Technically that part of my power hadn't been tapped into yet- I would learn how to sense it in my training at the castle in my special classes only open to angels and their offspring, but in my gut I knew this girl did not mean me, my father or Riana any harm.

"I guess you're right."

He glanced over at her again.

"When she wakes, grab a change of clothes from your saddle bags and go with her to the river. The ones she has now are too worn."

I nodded, also looking over at her. In the daylight her clothes hung off her more than I thought. Her eyes were sunken and her body angular. I felt bad for the tattered Halfling sleeping among us. She stirred, probably sensing someone or something was watching her, and sat up, rubbing the last bit of sleep from her eyes and yawned.

"Sasha," I said gently.

Her eyes fixed on me.

"Come let's get you cleaned up and get you some new clothes," I said, rising to my feet. She rose feebly to her feet.

"Clothes?"

"Aye. I have a spare change."

I walked over to my bags and grabbed a pair of my chore clothes and followed her towards the river only a short walk away from camp. She sat down, tugging off her boots and I left her the clothes before sitting a short ways off.

"What is wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing. I'm letting you wash in peace. I'll just sit a short ways off."

She nodded and I relaxed behind a tree where I could still see her from the corner of my eye. Whoever she was running from may show up and I didn't want her to have to fear that happening. As I sat there I began to doze off till I heard her speak.

"Twill," she said, surprised.

I looked over with my hand on my sword and stood.

"Sasha," he said.

The man, this Twill, had to be at least my age or older. He had dark brown hair, cut short, with jet-black wolf ears on top of his head and his eyes were a light ember brown. He was all muscle and wore no shirt but deer hide pants with wolf hind feet and a tail. His had a stern jaw and had a heavy battle ax on his side.

He sniffed her nervously before embracing her. "I've been tracking you for days!"

She wrapped her arms around him and I watched silently. If this man could track her, what would keep others from tracking her? Sasha looked over at me and Twill did the same, frantically grabbing for his ax.

"No," she said. "This is Eve. She is helping me make it safely to the capital."

I walked towards them.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"This is my older brother."

Looking at them I could see the resemblance, other than he more strongly resembled a wolf.

She turned back to him. "Will you come too, Twill?"

He looked at me then at her. "Aye."

"We should get going. If he could track you, so can the rest of your pack."

Twill nodded and walked back with his arm around his sister behind me. To see two Halflings in a space of so little time was unbelievable. It was rare to see Halflings outside the capital, but here they were. As I neared camp, my father stood up in surprise.

"Another?" He chuckled.

I glanced back to see Twill and saw he looked skittish and ready to take Sasha and bolt.

"Aye. Twill, it's fine," I said.

Even with this he moved closer to Sasha.

"Twill, we can trust them," she said. "Trust me."

He nodded and watched my father closely as they approached camp. Soon we broke camp and Sasha rode with me and Twill with my father as we made our way towards the capital.