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Chapter Forty Five: In Three Days.

Ten. . .

Esau forced himself to breathe, his fingers folding into the seams of the clothes hanging off his arms. The basket sitting in front of him was filled with strips of clothes he and Edythe had prepared days ago, clothes they had made impervious to the fog.

Clothes they would need in three day's time.

Eleven. . .

With a burst of anxiety he shoved his hands back into the basket of linens, relishing the coolness that dug into his fingers as he threw a stare at the soldiers. Why isn't she back yet?

It was all he could do to calm his nerves and yet each second that passed made it harder for him to breath.

Where are you?

Time seemed to roll on without pause even though he had taken great pains to count it slowly. Edythe was taking too long to get back from the forest and now it had been twelve minutes since she had left.

Esau hadn't expected both soldiers to wake up before she reached the workshop but a part of him was grateful for her absence. At least now he didn't have to worry about upsetting her again.

What if 'he' woke up? The nine year old swallowed down the thought. Edythe had told him. . . she was in no condition to fight again.

I've got to help her! Esau threw a hasty glance at the door, at the soldiers, then looked back to his hands. He was shaking.

The boy was about to be consumed, completely taken over by the the fear in his heart, but then he paused.

It was instinct that warned him, the familiar tickle—like a feather against his mind—that alerted Esau of another presence, one that didn't belong to his sister or the two men he had been talking to.

What are you doing here? He shifted his gaze from his trembling hands to the door behind the soldiers.

"What are you doing here?" He repeated, out loud this time, under his breath.

The warmth of a thought brushed against Esau's doubts, tempting them to vanish. But the string of badly worded ideas that bombarded his mind were not his. He knew that from experience.

The boy's eyes narrowed at door as it swung open, not at all convinced that no one was there.

"Oh, just in time." The words repeated in the Esau's head like an echo. "It looks like his time is up."

Get out of my head. He hissed silently as he watched Aleron Alun breeze past the soldiers and come to stand next to him.

"I came to see you, of course." The serpentine boy said with a chuckle, answering the question Esau had asked moments before.

The nine year old stared at his friend, silent as he took in the new features in front of him. Three horizontal lines marked each side of Aleron's face, resembling whiskers as they twitched with each change in the boy's expression.

With mousy hair drooping down the sides of his head and curling around his ears, a gentle face and permanently sly smile, Aleron Alun was the picture of beauty, especially with his hazel eyes dancing across the room in excitement.

"You look different," Esau said at last, dragging his gaze from the boy to the two soldiers. The one with blonde hair looked like he was about to pass out, his chest heaving and eyes closed as he leaned against his comrade.

The boy's eyes moved down the man's bandaged chest till his gaze caught the spot of red seeping out his sister's hardwork.

"Well," Alun pulled on his shirt, the black material contrasting strongly with his pale skin. The scales on his neck shimmered, almost transparent as they crept up to the base of his jaw.