“A bribe from a god? Oho, it sounds like you will be a hero, a vilin, or a very tragic story. Maybe all three.” Fuyuko frow the chortling Gil, but he seemed sincere as he tinued. “But I think you will need food and drink first. And I think you will be happier if we get you dressed first.”

  “‘We’?” she asked skeptically.

  Gil snorted. “Girl, you are injured and ot use one arm. Unless you want to wiggle about on the ground like a nded eel, you will need help. Even if you were a woman instead of a near-child, I would just simply be helping. Now, you were wearing clothes over your armor. The shirt is beyond my skills to repair, it was not so tough as your armor, but I have ed it as best I a aside. But your skirt is still usable, and I have a shirt that should be bulky enough to go over your left arm. We’ll o roll up the right sleeve a little I think.”

  Fuyuko blinked in surprise, then tilted her head slightly as she tried to get a better perspective on the man. Was he actually taller than her? It had been more than a year since she’d met someoaller than her, which was why she slouched so much. Her examination as he moved around the campsite let her get a better look at him as well. He was duskier than most in her homend, so he probably from the south or the east, or both. If he was from this ti at all. Gil sorted through his pack to get a shirt and theched her skirt before he stood o her, holding out his right hand. “e, let me help.”

  She hesitated a moment more, then sighed and csped his forearm, letting him help her to her feet, aing the b slide down. Fuyuko gasped in agony and her legs quivered a moment, the bruised muscles not wanting to cooperate while pain shot through her from her other wounds. When she was steady, he temporarily draped the shirt over her shoulder, then shook out the skirt and k down while holding it open. She put her hand on his shoulder and then carefully stepped into the skirt, a him pull it up a it around her waist while she looked off into the woods. He then helped her get the shirt on, and he proved to be correct that the sleeve o be rolled up.

  When they were done, she looked up to meet his eyes. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “You are quite wele. Now e, I have a log you sit on, and I have chopped some wood that you use as a small table. Ah, assuming you do not miing the peryton?” She eyed the stew pot for a moment, then shrugged her assent with her right arm. The fact that it had talked to her was off-putting, but it had looked like an animal and behaved like a beast. She’d treat it as one.

  “Yeah, thanks.” She said, letting him escort her to the log and help her sit down. Fuyuko did not like feeling this helpless, but until she healed, she was stuck with it.

  “It is unfortuhat you do not heal as well as the ly half of your bloodline. But you are young, who knows what you will awaken iure. Now, normally I would only offer watered wine for one ye, but I think you may want the pain-killing effects. Shall I give you a strong wine?”

  Fuyuko sidered the offer for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah.” She was still having trouble rexiirely, but that was fear speaking. She knew most men had no i in taking advantage of any woma alone one as young as her, but there were enough of them that as a girl without any reized prote, she knew she was vulnerable. She was exactly the sort of target svers liked to find outside of official els.

  As her host began pg food and drink near her, Fuyuko started her story. “I don’t remember everythin’. There’s something fuzzy with my memories since I was eight, since my home burned down.” She paused to eat some of the stew. It was tasty, though she could see the gaminess being off-putting to some. It erfect for her.

  “My memories bee clear again about a month ago. I know I only had the stuff for a couple of days before that, I think I was offered choices, and I talked ta someone important about those choices. I do remember clearly a girl’s voice tellihat the bag didn’t belong ta anyone. And after I made my choice, I was given this amulet, and a letter, and the letter helped me get out of the city with someone who had met the dy who gave me the amulet aer.” She shrugged. “I guess what my options were. Stay iy, head north to find my kin, or take this third ohat the girl obviously was hoping I’d take. As fer the city…” She took a big gulp of the wine, and tried to not choke. She’d only occasionally been served watered-down wine or beer, this was much stronger. “I don’t know why I couldn’t stay in the safe pce, but the rest of the city, well, no pe there that wasn’t gonna lead where I don’t want to go. No one else like me in the pce, had no patron, had no i in ‘earnin’ the sort of patron that would keep me safe from the others.” She took a smaller drink from the wineskin and then turned back to the stew. “Assuming any of them wanted a girl like me to begin with.”

  “As foing north, sure, I take the cold, but finding food is harder, and I don’t really know where to go. The empire ain’t at war with us, but they sure ain’t prote’ my kin. And from what I remember my parents saying, the s are good at keepin’ themselves hidden. So I don’t see me finding the likes of them very easily if I don’t know what to look for. And that’s still me traveling all alone. So heading south it is.”

  Gil had been nodding to her story. “Sounds like you were in a Sanctuary. The memory is fuzzy to protect them. You said you are fourteen? Most ’t stay that long, you must have been desperate.” He gestured toward the medallion on her neckce. On one side, the disk showed the front of a rat holding a with a rat’s tail on it, the other side of the disk showed a rat’s backside with its tail curled around a that showed a rat’s head. “I saw you looking to The Wanderer as well. Most children who worship Li are those raised in a Sanctuary. As for your memories, when you are truly an adult and truly make your own decisions, they will be clearer. But to actually find it again, you must be ready to be a Caregiver.”

  That felt right, but, “How do you know that?” Fuyuko asked with a frown.

  He gri her. “You are a little bit older than you look. I am a lot older than I look, and have made many friends, and learned many things. It is why I am here in fact, I have been searg for an old friend of mine. I do not suppose you’ve heard anything about a Tengu named Seb? Greenish feathers? No? Ah well. I heard a rumor that sounded like him, but it is hard to know. her of us is good at sitting in one pce.” He chuckled. “Though I am more likely to find him in a warm bed with a woman than any other pce. The question is which bed, and whian?” Gil shrugged. “Most non-tengu do not care for so mahers, but he has a knack for being the right sort of charming.”

  That made Fuyuko wrinkle her nose. She wasn’t ied in ‘sharing a bed’ with anyone, but even just for actual sleeping, a giant birdman seemed awkward. Especially with those feet. She dined in silence for a bit while Gil finished banking the fire and served himself a bowl as well. “So, you said something about bein’ ready to be a Caregiver. What does that take?”

  The tall man smiled as he sat down. “Well, I’d like to tell you, but I am not sure, and I do not wish to lead you astray. I guess that keeping your Faith in the Shattered One is important, but that seems obvious. Beyond that, I do not know.”

  She took a moment to muse over the fact that her of them had used his name. Most seemed relut to say it out loud, but then, if any god would happen to respond to a casual use of their would be him. And even a god’s faithful usually does not wish for too much attention.

  After they had fiheir meal, Gil collected the dishes and pulled out a bucket from his pack that did not look like it should fit. He did seem quite the experieraveler, and she’d felt his strength when he’d helped her up, so he robably a petent warrior as well. He also seemed to have a lot of magic stuff. Like the bucket, which filled itself to the brim with water wheapped a quick rhythm on it. While he washed their bowls and spoons, she asked “How did you find me so fast?”

  “You were lucky. We are not too very far from where you fought, I just did not make it in time to help after I heard it howl. And even without the fight, maybe we would have met. Or maybe you would have avoided my campfire, and I might not have noticed you if you crept by far enough away.” He shook off the water, then id them out on a couple of rocks he’d pear the fire. “Now, I nning on going north before we met, but I do not holy know if my friend is there. And you are in no dition to travel by yourself. So I think I will travel with you until you are in safer nds.” He looked in the dire of the road that Fuyuko had been paralleling iravels, to not get lost. “Danuana? Or maybe Kuic?”

  The luponi girl hesitated for a moment, scratg at her ear thoughtfully, before she decided to answer pletely. “Danuana first, then south before I crossed the river. I have a map, a city called Riverbridge looked like a good pce to cross. I thought that might be easier than trying ta cross the river in Trionea, and I could maybe learn more about my destination on the way, and decide if I really want to go.” She sighed. “Is it really safer? I’ve heard so many things. Many good, and many bad.”

  Gil nodded. “For someone like you, yes. Oh, people will stare, and no pce is perfect, there is always some risk. But it is better, aher of them even allow private iured servants. If a person be proved to be a willful deli debtor, they pay off their bors to the state, and priests have indepe ht. The elves were not always quite so systematic about it, that they adopted from their young neighbor. Now where could you be headed past Riverbridge? I do not think you are joining the Azeria kitsune .”

  That made her blush. Fuyuko had heard a lot of things about kitsune. Most seemed unlikely, but for there to be so many dirty stories about them... “No, no, nothing like that, no.” She took a deep breath a out slowly to calm her heartbeat down. “No, it seems there is a new dungeohere, between them actually. I don’t know what is wanted of me though. It was just suggested as a pce to go.”

  “Iing. Hmm. You said between Riverbridge and Azeria? Hah.” He grinned broadly. “I think I will travel with you to see this baby duhen. It will be nostalgic.”

  “Nostalgic?”

  “Yes. You see, I onew a beautiful woman who lived here. She had such long, bewitg hair, and I mean that part literally. And it was a lovely shade of purple. This made me think of her.”

  Zagaroth