They kept riding as hard as Anaya dared push the horse for several more hours. Rue kept dozing off during the slower-paced moments, while Anaya finally had to acknowledge the creeping hunger setting in. And thirst. The horse would need water and time to graze and properly rest sooner or later as well.

 Finally, Anaya steered the horse off the road and, after making sure no one saw them, into the forest that surrounded it in that area. They’d come across various travellers up to that point, but it couldn’t be helped. Even if they had ridden cross-country instead of on the road, aside from being a bit slower it would also make them easier to track for the most part if their pursuers spotted said tracks, given that for the most part there wouldn’t be other hoofprints to hide theirs. Despite that being the case, now that they were stopping it would likely be too risky to get back on the road since their pursuers could catch up at any moment. The unfortunate fact was that they wouldn’t outrun anyone if they conked out from a lack of food.

 After carefully navigating deeper into the forest until she found a small clearing to stop at, she got off the horse.

 “So, what’s that big plan of yours to get us food?”

 “Leave it to me.”

 “Sure.” Anaya’s curt reply was filled with exasperation. The inconvenient level of cuteness aside, she really didn’t know what to think of this drunken witch who now walked off into the forest. Sighing, she turned her attention to the horse. For a while, she just watched it as it was nibbling on what little there was for it to eat in the clearing. Belatedly Anaya realized that there was a pair of saddlebags on the horse. She’d not even taken note of them when they’d first commandeered the horse. She walked up to them and took a look.

 There wasn’t much in them, other than a length of rope and a knife. Better than nothing, but more importantly at least they could bring things with them more easily. She didn’t really have anything to carry things with, and from what she’d noticed it didn’t seem Rue did either. On which note she wondered how the witch was going to bring back whatever food she was supposedly going to conjure up. She sighed again, detached one of the saddlebags and walked after Rue. Not like she had anything else to do.

 After a while of looking around and not being able to spot the witch in the surprisingly dense undergrowth, she heard rustling noises and a muted thud. Heading quickly in the direction she had roughly estimated them having originated from, she was soon presented with another puzzling and somewhat disturbing scene. Rue was leaning against a tree, looking pallid. Spread on the ground were various root vegetables and some other edible things, like berries and mushrooms, some spread out on Rue’s cape that she’d apparently been using as a sack of sorts, while others had spilt out from it upon being dropped. She wondered just how the witch had managed such a haul in a matter of minutes.

 The disturbing part, however, was that there was a skeleton on the ground. A moving one, at that – or rather, it was trying to crawl, but it was entwined in vines and roots. Rue’s handiwork, Anaya surmised. But why was there an active undead here? Before pondering it further, she stepped up to it and brought down her boot on its skull several times, hard, until it was in several pieces. She also broke its upper arm bones and spine for good measure, and finally, the thing was still.

 “Just what kind of penchant for trouble do you have?” she asked as she turned back toward Rue. But then her exasperation turned into a worried frown. The witch really wasn’t looking particularly healthy. From what she’d said earlier about the whole energy thing, Anaya suspected that immobilizing the skeleton had taken its toll on her already drained body. Rue grinned weakly as Anaya walked to her and kneeled.

 “Aww. You smashed up my new friend.”

 “Be serious for once,” Anaya chided. She set down the saddlebag. “Where did that thing even come from? I have not heard of undead in these parts since the Necromancer was defeated.” It had been just over five years from then, as it had happened a year before Anaya officially joined the guard. Not that they had knowledge of it at the time, since it had happened far up north, and word hadn’t travelled to Illion yet. But the undead sightings and encounters that had been common even this far south – enough so that her father and the rest of the guard had often needed to take action against them – had suddenly died down. She knew that there had been undead creatures around the world even prior to the rise of the Necromancer, at least according to stories, but she couldn’t recall ever hearing verified claims about them being seen this far south in the two decades that she’d been around, other than during the Necromancer War.

 “I don’t know. I felt that something was off, but couldn’t… well, I’m not exactly at my best.”

 “You don’t say.” Anaya shook her head as she gathered the spilt food supplies back onto the cloak. “Will you really be okay though? You don’t look so good. I would hate for you to go and croak after everything that already happened.” She tried to keep her tone light, but it was a lot to think about when you stopped for a moment to do so. Her room, and everything she had owned… all gone. Except for the armour and her sword. Her father’s sword.

 “No longer pretty, huh? That’s too bad,” muttered Rue, looking at least half-asleep. Anaya frowned but said nothing. She suddenly didn’t trust her voice. She picked up the bundled cloak and stuffed it inside the saddlebag and briefly wondered if the berries were going to get squished, but decided it wasn’t exactly a big worry right now. It was a bit awkward, but she then used the strap to roughly secure the saddlebag on her belt. As she looked at Rue, she noticed the witch had fallen asleep. With a sigh, she walked over and picked her up. She wondered if she was imagining it, or did Rue feel even lighter than before?