As evening approaches, the trees change from the ubiquitous pines to more varied kinds. I can hear more movement in the branches, and through the leaf litter that appeared out of the pine needles some time ago. The wind has died down too – or at least it no longer carries the icy chill of the mountains.

  “Keep going, I’m going to grab a bite to eat.” Nila whispers, mid-shifting and darting off the road. I took the pack off her a while ago, making it easy for her to disappear into the undergrowth.

  Smelling the air with my human nose I can still smell the leaves and the flowers. Even the dirt smells good. I can hear tonnes of insects buzzing, but there is a miraculous lack of flies. I’m searching through the pack for something to drink when I freeze – a blood curdling scream tears through the trees. I turn my head left and right ears peeled for the source of the terrifying sound. The forest has gone silent.

  Standing up, pulse racing, I back away from where I think the sound came from, towards the edge of the road. Its getting darker now, with the sun probably about to go over the mountains to the east and disappear completely.

  I spot movement a little way down the road and quickly move behind the nearest tree. It’s thick enough to hide behind, and I can only hope that whatever got Nila isn’t coming after me too. Despite the imminent danger, my clawed protector doesn’t seem to be worried.

  Holding my breath to hear better, I realise the figure has stopped in the middle of the road.

  “Lucy?” Nila calls softly.

  Sagging against the tree trunk, I blow out a breath. Oh thank god.

  “Nila?” I keep quiet too, in case she has sensed something I couldn’t.

  “Come on, there’s a place to sleep nearby.” I hurry towards her, grateful that she waited for me before moving off. Over her shoulder I can see something that look like a wallaby. Or a small kangaroo. Did that thing make the screaming sound I heard? That’s awful – I thought only foxes and rabbits made those freaky sounds!

  I’m so envious of her ability to shift at will. It’s so dark I can barefly see past my face. Only the sound of her footsteps guides me onwards.

  “Here, let me just grab this.” Nila’s hand on my shoulder stops me as she takes the pack.

  “Take my hand.” I feel around for her firm grip, marvelling at her soft skin. The touch sends a shiver through me as she pulls me forwards.

  “Here, sit.” I slowly lower myself onto a blanket spread over something springy

  “Thank you,” my whisper is loud in the silence. After a few moments, a fire lights, revealing a clever tent of kindling and sticks. With a few breaths, Nila stokes the flame until it is fully burning. Then she drags the wallaby off into the darkness. Thankfully, the crackling of the wood in front of me prevents any sounds from making it to my ears. I bet that sounds disgusting.

  She returns after a while with several sticks each one carrying a chunk of something on it. I can smell the fresh meat from metres away.

  “What’s that?” I point at the large lump of darkness in her other hand.

  “Oh, that’s the skin. I can salt it tonight and hopefully we can trade it at Rockvale.”

  “Doesn’t It stink?” I ask taking several of the makeshift skewers to hold over the flames.

  “Well, it won’t stink of fresh meat, which is what matters.” She replies casually. In moments she has settled nest to me, our shoulders touching.

  I’m surprised she’s sitting so close. I thought she would want her space after a long day on the road. I’m not complaining. Her shoulder is warm and her leg pressing against mine is wonderfully comfortable.

  “There, that should be enough.” She pulls her skewer away from the flames, giving it a sniff. In her human form again, she takes a careful bite. “Perfect. Now you try.”

  Its quite tasty, actually. She must have put some salt on it or something, unless I’m just so hungry anything would taste good.

  “Oh, and I found these.” In the firelight she holds up a pouch and I organise my two other skewers so I can open the pouch. Inside is a handful of berries. They look red, but it’s hard to tell in the firelight.

  They are tart on my tongue. I take a sip of water to wash them down.

  “Wow, that’s really tasty.” I announce, looking over at her. “Thanks.”

  She just smiles at me, quickly finishing off her bits of meat and the rest of the berries.

  ------

  While I was looking at her out of the corner of my eye, I noticed behind us was a outcropping of stone. Once the fire has died down, and we’ve burned the skewers, Nila pulls out another blanket and helps me up off our shared seat. The undergrowth which was holding the blanket up starts to spring back up. It might even be back to normal by morning.

  “Where do I sleep?” I ask with exhausting setting in. I can’t see enough space for both of us. At least the coals are warm. I can probably just lie down where we just were.

  She snorts, but it’s hard to see her face clearly. “I think you’ll fit.”

  I can barely stand now that I’ve been sitting for a while.

  I crouch down to fit under the chest high lip of the alcove, scooting in as far back as I can. The blanket underneath me is warm and soft from where we’ve heated it with our bodies.

  I curl up to make myself as small as possible. I don’t want to take up too much space.

  I freeze as Nila wraps her arms around me and pulls me close to her chest. Her breath in my ear, and the pillowy softness of her curves makes me feel safe and comfortable. My snow leopard purrs happily as darkness swallows me.

  -----

  Warm, with a scratchy blanket over me, I snuggle against hard stone. A gentle breeze teases my hair, blowing it into my face. Blowing it out of my face, it quickly falls into place. Annoyed, I brush it out of the way, Wait, was she ...

  Looking out of the small shelter reveals the morning light shining into my eyes.

  "Ah shit!" holding my hand up to block the cruel rays, I pull the blankets out behine me. With my face away from the sun, I can see Nila sitting nearby with a fresh fire going. She somehow has a pot, and had rigged it so that its hanging off a piece of wire over the flames. I'm too asleep for this.

  "Good morning," she chirps, beaming at me.

  I grumble back at her, hugging the blankets in my lap. I used to be a morning person. I did walk all day and go swimming yesterday though, so I'm going to give myself a little slack for that. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up faster.

  "Sleep well?" She looks effortlessly comfortable, evening crouching next to the fire. I feel like I'm falling apart.

  "Yes, thanks. It was really warm in there." I gesture vaguely at the rock mound.

  She smiles, features softening as her eyes flick to it.

  I reach for the pack, grabbing a drink out of one of the waterskins. The cool water erases the scratchiness in my throat.

  "How do we refill the water?" I don't want to drink it all and then have nothing to drink for the rest of the day.

  "We can refill them in a few hours. I know a place." I shudder, remembering how it went when I drank from the stone trough by the old road in the national park. No, I don't think I will refill the water from some hole in the ground.

  "Okay. Thanks."

  I catch a whiff of what's in the pot, mouth watering at the barest whiff. To keep myself busy, I fold up the blankets. Using my hands helps me calm down, and I like seeing things neatly folded. It helps that its the easiest way to transport the bulky items too. The sun climbs higher, out of my eyes, but heating up. The clearing we're in makes it even hotter. At least once we're on the road again, we'll be able to keep to the trees. Taking in my surroundings, I stretch out, feeling the pleasant ache of well used muscles.

  Without a watch, I can't tell how long I've been sitting in one spot, but it feels like a long time.

  "What can I do?"

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Nila uses a wooden spoon to stir the pot, lifting the crossbar stick off the fire and putting the pot on the ground.

  "You can eat." she grins, pulling out a second spoon from somewhere. Sitting next to me on the mostly folded blanket, she uses the other blanket as a sort of heat mat. "Here, smell good?" Inside the pot is some water and a few chunks of meat and vegetable. It smells incredible. I don't know how she managed to get salt and spices in the pack, but I can't get enough of them. On top of that, her closeness brings a whiff of her own crisp scent.

  "Um, yes. It smells good." I gulp, taking a shallow breath to steady myself. Using the spoon, I grab some of the morning stew, blowing on the steaming portion before I tentatively take a bite. It cools quickly. It's a bit chewy, but I'm ravenous. I'm used to being hungry, but I'm not used to food tasting this good!

  Moaning through the mouthful of food, I slump down with a sigh, closing my eyes to better savour the sharp flavours.

  "How did you do that?" I whisper wonderingly.

  When the food is done, Nila washes out the pot with a dash of water and tips the heated water over our wooden spoons. Once she is satisfied everything is clean she somehow folds the pot into a cube. In a matter of moments, she tucks the folded pot and the wooden spoons into the pack. She takes the blankets, inserting them too before standing up and hefting the pack over her shoulders.

  I look up at her, jaw on the floor. "What was that?"

  She looks behind her scanning our surroundings.

  "What was what?"

  I pull myself together as quickly as I can. It was probably magic. Nothing to worry about.

  "Oh, nothing. Ready to go." springing to my feet, I'm surprised to find I'm feeling better. It's been a while since I felt this good in the mornings. Just because I wake up early doesn't mean it always feels good. In a cosmic miracle, I'm not suffering from coffee withdrawals either. That would be hugely unfair.

  -----

  "How far till Northern?" It took a few hours for me to work up the courage to ask, but her eyebrows lift at the question.

  "What did you say?" Her lips quiver as she stops.

  "How far till Northern?"

  "It's Nor Van not Northern." she explains. "And at this pace we'll be there noon tomorrow, I'd say."

  "You just said the same thing twice," I protest, narrowing my eyes at the prank.

  She gives me a long, measuring look.

  "N-o-r, v-a-n. Norvan." I hmm at her spelling.

  It sounds like she's saying it with a lisp. Either way, it's not Rockvale.

  "Okay, okay. But can we get rid of this animal skin there? instead of traipsing it all the way to Rockvale?" I gesture at the pack where the skin has been fixed to the top above the shoulder straps.

  "If they're not already hip deep in 'em." she says, waving a hand at the environment around us.

  Supply and demand. Makes sense.

  Sighing, I look at our shadows, finding mine close to my feet despite the cloud cover. Gotta be near midday then.

  I was initially surprised that I was able to get into a groove on the road. I used to stride with purpose when I was going anywhere, but this extended walking with half a day of wearing a pack is much different than that. Especially when we need to make a fire for breakfast and dinner. And hunt on top of that. If it wasn't for Nila's knowledge of bush tucker and hunting prowess, I would have starved mid-afternoon yesterday. Water only goes so far when you're spending all day on your feet.

  A low growl crawls out from behind a tree a dozen metres away. Brow furrowing at the intrusion, I keep walking towards it, searching for its origin. Focussed on the shrubs and tree trunk, sudden hands on my shoulders elicit a shriek of surprise.

  "Shh! Get down." Nila hisses, pulling me off the road away from the sound.

  Another growl pushes into the space, a low form moving with a strange hopping and crawling gait. Its front legs are narrow, tipped with claws, and its back legs are thick, with one long point in the middle. Its head is anrrow, with long tapering ears which are trained on our location.

  "Is that a fucking kangaroo?" I whisper through the hand over my mouth. I can't believe they have killer roos. That's incredible!

  Even my whisper sets it off, rearing up onto its tail and hind legs to get a better vantage of its prey. Its mouth opens wide, the gentle herbivore teeth I'm familiar with replaced with the sharp cutting teeth of a predator. My breath catches in my throat as it bounds forwards, crossing half a dozen metres in moments.

  "Go, go!" Nila pushes me ahead of her, keeping trees between us and it. As I set off, using the momentum she gave me to get my act together, the roo lands on the ground behind me, but it's unable to turn in time, twisting with its jaws and cruel front claws for Nila as she ducks around it. Looking forwards again, I narrowly miss a tree, which would have brought me to an abrupt halt.

  "You worry about running, I'll worry about the bouncer!" how she manages to sound calm is a mystery. The roo growls with surprising ferocity as it bounds after us.

  Thankfully Nila is able to call out when I need to duck left of right as the roo covers ground quicker than we can. It is slower up the hill, but so are we. My Leopard is scared too - this thing is beyond the brute force it is accustomed to. Fighting off a group of humans who are face to face with it is completely different to fighting something with claws nearly as large as hers.

  "There! The rocks!" I shout, making a beeline for a pile of rocks that looks like it fell from a combination of wind and rain. Maybe the rough footing with hinder the macropods movement.

  "Left!" I throw myself that way, ducking behind a tree trunk and continuing forwards. The roo screams, causing me to turn my head. Nila's mid-shift has scored a line of red along its side, as it sprang past her. Now it seems to be enraged - its muzzle dripping wtih saliva, eyes burning with rage. Bouncing up onto its tail, the vicious creatures hind legs and claws flash through the air at Nila. She ducks out of the way, its physiology preventing it from turning as quickly as she can move sideways. Its huge body seems almost impervious to her attacks, preventing much more than shallow gouges on its flanks.

  "What if I jump onto its back?" I yell, hoping my voice will confuse it while it's trying to deal with Nila.

  "What?" she shrieks, daring to glance my way as she dances away to safety again and again.

  I search for something to throw. Normal kangaroos back home are incredibly susceptible to breaking their necks. If I can distract it and make it land wrong, I might be able to save us both. Except that I'm not sure how good I am at throwing. And Nila's knife in the pack with her.

  Picking up several of the smaller stone from the rubble above me, I turn to watch the unfolding struggle.

  Nila has been leading the roo higher up the slope, dragging it after her with her dodging and weaving. It somehow hops sideways and up the slope with ease, something I wasn't aware they could do. If it starts walking backwards I'm going to fucking scream. That's the one thing about kangaroos, apart from being herbivores - they can't walk backwards. Because of their legs.

  "Get up into the rocks," Nila shouts, keeping her eyes on her relentless foe.

  My leopard growls, the prospect of a stand up fight on the horizon. Nila's mid shift looks regal in the bright sunlight through the leaves above us.

  This time, as the roo rears up on its tail again, Nila darts between two trees and sprints up the slope towards me, leaving the confused roo behind. "Get in there," she pants, pushing me ahead of her through the stones. They grow in size the further up the rockfall we get, giving us better purchase for climbing. Turning, I look back to find the roo bounding up the rocks as well. I guess if we're climbing more easily, it's bounding more easily.

  "Oh fuck off," I grumble, tossing a stone in its direction. Oh, that got a reaction. Good to know.

  "Did you see that Nils?" I grunt as Nila leaps up onto a tall boulder and reaches down to pull me up.

  She grunts an affirmative, watching behind us.

  I can see a trail of broken stone travelling up and around the next barrier to our passage, seeking it out in the hope that it will allow us access further up. once again relieved to not have to carry the pack too, I try my best to climb up the rough stones to the next ledge.

  A hideous yowling from behind me makes my heart stop for a moment before I realise it's Nila's voice. Her mid shift sounds ferocious - at least as bad as the roo.

  "Um, Nila? There's another one!" I catch a glimpse of a mean looking roo's ears as it steps towards the lip of the cliff i'm trying to get onto. I hope It can't just hop down on top of me.

  A deeper roar - more dominant, I think - resounds across the slope. The dark shape, lit from above, descends onto the one chasing us, the bodies colliding with a heavy thump. I watch incredulous as they bite and scratch each other, punching and kicking when they get the chance.

  Nila appears from below me, pointing to the side. "Territory dispute, lets get out of here."

  Now that we're not being actively hunted, I can think better. It's easier to travel sideways across the loose rocks, the cliffs above us looming precariously in my mind. My pulse doesn't settle until the sounds of fighting are a whisper on the breeze.

  "Holy shit, that was fucking insane!" I pant, but quietly, in case there are more of them.

  Even Nila looks like she's at the end of her rope.

  "Lets hope we can find a better shelter tonight. You can see why Norvan might not want our bouncer. They have plenty. And ours is a small one."

  I can only nod with new understanding.

  -----

  Nila sees things I don't. I can tell she's looking at the ground in places, moving carefully past branches and shrubs as we move. It getting harder to feel like I should be here. I'm obviously a liability. For now. Can I learn what she's doing? If I can contribute something to this trip, I'll feel better about myself.

  I speak up before I can lose my nerve. "Nila, Can you teach me what you're doing?" she looks up from the patch of ground she was studying.

  "Absolutely, come here." I step cautiously, scanning the ground for anything of note. "See these indents? They're a clawed foot, with claws that can't retract. See how they leave a small indent in the leaves here?"

  It makes sense. It's something that I can memorise and apply when needed. I'm so glad I asked. It takes us longer to get anywhere, but now that I'm applying myself to something, it feels like less time has passed. Once we chew on some lunch, sitting down for a break, the wind changes. I sense something new on the wind a moment before Nila sits up. Sniffing the wind she points up the slope.

  "Look, turn, slowly." following her pointed finger, I can see a crouching figure against the green of the leaves near the ground. Its nose twitches as it nibbles at something. Its hare, or something. Long ears and coiled legs. The longer I look, the more of them I can see. Although their brown colouring makes it easier to see them in some situations. Although they would blend better into grasses.

  "Do we eat some?" I ask quietly, moving my head slowly to face her again.

  "They've seen us now. We would have to set a trap or try to creep up on them if we wanted to do that. Maybe tonight.

  Staying off the road after that last encounter is safer, but its slower. "Okay. Should we get going again?"

  There is one particular downside to learning from her. And that is spending so much time pressed up against her as she shows me what to look for. I had hoped it was all in my head, but her touch sends tingles through me. When she pulls me close to her, pressing her face against my cheek, my breath catches as she peers into the distance. It's hard to think when she's that close.

  How does she do it? I'm falling apart and she's cool calm and collected! Clenching my hand, my fingernails digging into my palm gives me something else to focus on that isn't her soft skin and her soft voice.

  She's not interested, remember that. This is a trip to find out why she was held up at knifepoint. Leave her alone, you creep!

  The extra strain of trying to suppress my attraction to her tires me out faster. By the time we set up for the night, I'm shaking from exertion. As Nila shifts and darts away to get us some dinner, I slump against a tree trunk. Thank god that's over for today.

  She has to wake me up from my nap to get me to eat. Unfortunately, there isn't a shelter for us to use, forcing us to sleep in the blankets out in the open. Maybe think about asking her on a date after we're not in as much danger. Yeah, good idea.

  "Goodnight Nila."

  "Goodnight Lucy."

  I fall asleep with a smile on my face.