“The sun is almost above the horizon. The next patrol shift should be here any minute now. Pack your stuff up so we can get going.” Bael swung down from the roof of the watch tower and onto the platform beneath, his feet landing with a thud.

“Do we have to head back? It’s so far to walk.” I moaned and stretched my arms, gathering the warm wolf pelt around me as the icy air caressed my face.

“You mean that you just don’t want to go back and see your mother has magically turned up. Come on, Aida. Threnchal and Soudal are pretty much at the base of the tower. We need to go.” He grabbed his sword and pack, heading down the ladder. I sighed and let the furs drop around me, gathering my things into my bag before grabbing my weapons and heading down after him. I was greeted by the sight of all three boys wrestling in the mud, their antics taking them straight into puddle with a thin sheet of ice covering it. It shattered and saturated them with frigid water.

“It’ll be your fault if you catch a cold. Don’t come crying to me to take pity on you if you do.” I wrapped my bear hide cloak around my shoulders before tightening the straps on my boots, securing the skins in place. “Get out of the water.”

I watched as they clambered out of the surprisingly deep puddle and onto the snow-covered ground where they tried to get rid of as much water out of their clothes as possible. “There’re extra furs in the coop and a fire just over by the river, cooking the fish I caught just before dawn for you two. Get the dry furs and put them on while your wet clothes dry by the fire. Just make sure you don’t burn them again.”

“When did you catch any fish?” Bael turned to me.

“You were sleeping like a babe. I didn’t want to disrupt your beauty sleep and I was hungry so I caught myself some breakfast and decided to catch some for Threnchal and Soudal as well.”

“And you caught nothing for me?” Bael looked from me to the fire and back, hope that I’d left something for him evident in his eyes.

“I didn’t think you needed anything. You were chowing down on your thumb quite happily.” I smiled and the other two laughed as they started to walk toward the tower to get the coats.

“Only babes who were just taken off breast milk do that.” Soudal teased. “Is that why you’re away so much? Because you’re away sucking on your mum’s milk?”

“Says the man who only moved out of his mother’s house a few months ago.” Bael countered. “If anyone was still being breastfed it’s you. And I’m willing to bet they’re the only pair of tits you’ve ever and will ever see in your lifetime. I mean, with a face like that, what sane woman is gonna let you near her?”

“Well isn’t that rich coming from the likes of you. You don’t even have the grace to deny what I said earlier. Must be true then. Why don’t you go request a leave again so you can run back to your mother and she can calm you with some nice warm milk.” Soudal placed his hands over his chest, pretending to cradle imaginary breasts and strut around, over swaying his hips. Threnchal keeled over in laughter and he barely managed to stay on his feet.

I giggled and grabbed Bael by the arm to drag him away before he decided to get into another brawl with them. “Get to work you two. We’ll see you back at camp later.” I waved, and they walked over to the tower, Soudal still acting like a woman.

We walked along the path in silence till Bael jogged ahead and turned around to talk to me. “I wasn’t sucking on my thumb…was I?”

I shrugged, “Were you?”

“Don’t play games with me. If I was that means that I can never sleep again and if I don’t know, that means I can never sleep again without the other guys making fun of me.”

“Well that’s your problem, isn’t it?” I smiled and blinked innocently.

“Aida…” Bael goes to scold me but he suddenly stopped midsentence and held a hand up. I stopped and looked in the direction that his eyes were pinned to. Nothing; at least nothing that I could see like this. I shut my eyes and open my mind, activating ‘the Gift’ before opening my eyes again and searching the forest for any signs of them.

The Q’el.