What Bree currently lacked in resources she more than made up for in inventiveness. She’d been threatened with death, a lifetime in prison, and, more recently, torture. None of those were particularly appealing ideas, so Bree figured it was about time to make her escape.

She sang. Madonna, at first. Then Michael Jackson. Phil Collins, too. It didn’t matter what she sang, she simply kept on singing whatever came to mind until the guards stopped coming to her cell to complain. Once she was sure she’d not be bothered any longer, Bree moved on to the real songs.

In the past, Bree had learned many songs from her grandmother. Those were special songs. Incantations. And the girl knew of one which was perfect for that sort of occasion.

Bree got up and walked to the wall opposite to the cell bars. She sang to the stone slabs that made up the wall.

It took her a few attempts. It’d been so long since she’d last heard it, and Bree had to rack her brain to remember the exact words and melody. But she did so, eventually, for it seemed that Grandma Mary’s words had been etched deeply inside her memories. One of the stone slabs in the wall rattled of its own accord, to Bree’s delight. She kept on singing, and one by one several more slabs came to life. Arms and legs of rock sprouted out of their bodies. They climbed out of the wall and stood in the cell with Bree, surrounding the girl. Their eyes opened, and so did their mouths. Ears popped out of the sides of what should probably be called their heads. Bree grinned. She did it, just like her grandmother had taught her, many years before. Bree had brought trolls to life.

“Okay,” said the girl. “What do you guys say we get out of here and have some fun?”

---

Evelyn, Cat, and Oliver rode southward through the night. Riding a horse with a wounded leg made the pain that much worse, but the idea of having to fight another wyvern was enough to keep her going. Luckily, it got better after a short while, and Eve assumed it must have been due to Oliver’s medication starting to take effect. She touched her leg and found it numb to touch, much like how your cheeks feel after a trip to the dentist. Oliver’s balm must have some sort of anesthetic in it, she realized.

The girl was on edge the entire time. They never came across another wyvern, but every once in a while she could spot some movement and some very creepy-looking creatures roaming about in the distance. Eve couldn’t imagine that it would be fortunate to cross paths with any of those. They traveled in silence, trying to keep a low profile, and limited all conversation to the strictly necessary. Perhaps because of that, neither Eve nor Oliver had any idea of how bad Cat’s state was until the very moment she collapsed.

It happened as they were crossing through a wide valley. The dark sky overhead was starting to turn lighter in the distance, announcing the coming of dawn. Eve was feeling almost hopeful… until she heard a thump and looked to her side to find Catherine fallen on the ground, with Sirius standing still by her side.

“Cat!” Eve yelped. She dismounted Antares and rushed over to the girl, kneeling to take Cat in her arms. Oliver came over a moment later, and crouched beside them. Cat was unresponsive, and her cheeks were flushed. Eve placed a hand on her forehead, and was surprised with how hot her skin felt to touch. “She’s burning up!” she told the boy, alarmed.

Oliver looked around. “All right, let’s make camp,” he said.

“No!” Eve exclaimed. “Catherine’s sick! She needs to see a physician!”

“She needs to rest,” Oliver argued. “And it’s not like we can go anywhere with her in this state, can we?”

Oliver had a fair point. Even if they could ride, which would require leaving Sirius behind, it’s not like there was any place they could go to for help. Catherine had very clearly said that she was considered an enemy of the state. The party would be arrested by the royal guard as soon as they decided to show their faces in one of the cities.

Eve hesitated. “Still... what about the wyverns, and those other creepy things too?”

“It’s almost daybreak,” Oliver explained. “Most of those creatures don’t hunt under sunlight. We should be fine, so long as we don’t provoke them and stay away from the nests.”

Eve sighed, admitting defeat. “All right. Tell me what to do.”

In the half-hour that followed, Eve and Oliver set up an improvised tent under a large tree on a hill. Oliver carried Cat inside, and laid her down on a blanket. Then he left, telling Eve he’d go try to find a source of water — one not currently inhabited by murderous monsters, that is — and Eve stayed behind to look after Cat.

Cat shivered in her sleep, and her breathing was ragged and uneven. It pained Evelyn to see her in that state. She leaned down beside her, and caressed the side of Cat’s head.

“Hang in there,” she whispered to the girl.

As soon as she said it, Eve felt exhaustion kicking in. She was was overtaken by a powerful drowsiness, and fell into a deep sleep without even realizing it was happening.

The girl had troubled dreams, with painfully vivid imagery of the fight against the wyvern mixed with scenes from her own world, a lot of those involving Bree. She dreamed that she lost that fight, over and over. Sometimes the wyvern would take Cat away, other times it took Bree. Eve even remember dying in those dreams, several times, only to come back into the beginning of the battle all over again.

Then Eve heard someone calling her.

“Evelyn?” said a familiar voice. But whom did it belong to?

“Bree?” Eve whispered into her dreamscape.

“Evelyn, please wake up,” the voice said again.

Eve opened her eyes.

Back in the real world, Evelyn found herself lying down inside the improvised tent that she and Oliver had set up for Cat to rest in. It was daytime, and sunlight seeped into the tent through any openings it could find. Cat was sitting down beside her.

“Cat?” Eve asked. Was she the one calling my name? she wondered.

Catherine smiled, coyly. “How are you feeling, Evelyn?”

“I should... be the one asking you that,” said Eve. She sat up, and tried to assess Cat’s health state. When she placed her hand on Cat’s forehead, the taller girl flinched under the touch. Eve retreated, hastily. “Sorry.”

Cat shook her head. “No, it’s... okay,” said the girl. She took Eve’s hand in hers, and brought it back to her forehead. Her skin was definitely warm to touch, but nowhere near as warm as it had seemed earlier that day.

“Is your fever gone?” Eve asked.

“I suppose so,” Cat replied. “I woke up all sweaty even though it’s so cold out today. I don’t know. Oliver said I passed out, and you two carried me here, or something like that. But honestly all I remember is that we were riding together, and the next thing I know I’m waking up here with you.”

Eve sighed, letting out a breath of relief.

“Goodness, Cat, I was so worried.” A single tear ran down her left cheek. “You... fell from Sirius, and you were feverish and unconscious... I was scared.”

Cat smiled gently at her. “Hey, I’m tougher than that.”

Cat’s boastful remark made Eve chuckle. Eve shuffled around, trying to get to her feet, and noticed that the bandages on her leg had been replaced with clean ones. Cat got up as well, and offered Eve a hand to pull her to her feet.

“How’s your back?” Evelyn asked her.

“Not bad, actually,” Cat replied. “You told Oliver that my wounds were worse than yours, but that was a lie, right?”

Eve smirked, because it was a half-truth, yes. “I guess I was just worried when I saw it. There was a lot of blood,” she said, before pulling aside the canvas of the tent, in order to get out. Evelyn immediately noticed that the sun was near the horizon to the west. But that couldn’t be right. Shouldn’t it rise from the east?

Unless…

“How long have I slept?” the girl wondered.

“Ten hours, give or take,” said a voice beside her. She turned around to find Oliver standing next to a campfire, cooking fish.

Evelyn nearly choked. “Ten hours?!” She exclaimed. “But... Bree’s...”

Oliver got up, walked over to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I know you’re worried about your sister, but don’t push yourself too hard. You’ll make yourself sick, just like Catherine did this morning. And it’s not like you can break into a prison if you’re falling asleep on your feet, eh?”

Eve pursed her lips, annoyed at how much time they had lost. She couldn’t even bring herself to calm down until she felt Cat place a hand on her shoulder. She immediately glanced over at the taller girl, surprised.

“She’ll be fine,” said Cat.

Eve sighed, and nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Here, drink this,” said Oliver, handing her his leather canteen. “It’s just water, really. I figured you might be thirsty after sleeping for so long.”

Eve looked at the canteen, and realized she really was parched. A simple fact that she’d managed to overlook so far. She drank about half of the water in the canteen, before handing it back to him.

“So you found a river,” Eve pointed out. “No monsters or anything?”

“We’re actually out of the Wilderness,” Cat explained. “See these mountains?” she gestured at the two mountains that formed the valley they were in. “This is called the Lion’s Pass, and it’s already a part of Skeleton Range. We know it’s safe because this is in the middle of a trade route between the eastern kingdoms and some Terran cities, to the west. There are no wyverns here, and no other dangerous creatures, either. Just your regular wolves and bandits.”

Eve chuckled, realizing that Cat’s definition of “dangerous” was very different from her own.

“So... when do we leave?” she asked.

“Well, tomorrow, actually,” said Cat. “It’s almost sunset already, and we can’t cross the range without sunlight. One misstep and any one of us could fall down a cliff a hundred meters tall. We’ll just have to hope Bree will hang in there until we arrive.”

“Sit down, Evelyn,” said Oliver. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

Cat and Eve moved to sit around the fire with the boy. This time, rather than telling each other stories, Cat spent dinner filling the others in on everything she knew about the fortress, and, together, the three outlaws began to elaborate a plan.