The light is much brighter on this side of the gorge. The sky is similar to Earth's vivid cerulean blue with frothy corn-silk clouds, although there are still two moons. The dimmer moon is somewhat more visible and so are the dim purplish outlines of the other planets. It's not exactly like Earth, but it's comfortingly familiar.

We're on a dirt path in a meadow at the top of a hill. In the distance is a liberal smattering of farms and houses dotted over the rolling hills, connected by intersecting, tree-lined cobblestone streets. The trees and grass are an intense green. Are they truly more vibrant than normal trees or do they seem more brilliant because I've been in such dim light for so long? Paved roads and blue skies..."I like this place."

Dathid is sitting on a tree limb with his back against the trunk and his head in his shaking hands. I don't know what's wrong, but I'm guessing the trip through Gwa Twouroch was rough for him, too.

Lenox lands in front of me and starts his inspection. He thoroughly sniffs my hair before giving me a good thump to the face with his nose.

"I wish you would stop with the head bashing." I try to be stern, but I'm just too happy to see him. However, some of my exuberance soon diminishes when he gives my face a big sloppy lick. Once he's satisfied that I'm in good shape, he checks on the other members of our party, and Jonah removes the packs from his back.

"Let's make camp here," he shouts over to Dathid. "We saved some time by going through Gwa Twouroch so we don't need to hurry."

"No," Dathid says in a gruff voice. "I can go on." He jumps down from the tree and slowly walks toward us.

"Well, let's at least take a rest. We could use one." Jonah says it in such a way that we know it's an order, not a request.

I can't face Dathid. First I showed him what a monster I thought he was, and then I bared my soul.

"Agatha, ask Lenox to catch us some lunch, and then go ask the trees for some wood."

I should be happy that Jonah gave me the excuse I needed to leave, but seeing how shaken Dathid is makes me want to stay. I give Lenox his instructions and slowly walk to the trees; Jonah never said I couldn't listen to their conversation.

I watch as Jonah puts a reassuring hand on Dathid's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I am. That giant was just...bizarre." He shakes his head like he's trying to clear it. "It was like contemplating suicide. Do I have what it takes to kill myself? That thing...that was me. Was it me? Would it kill me?"

"I can't comprehend how that was for you. I'm sorry you had to endure such a trial."

"I've fought in many battles and have killed more enemies than I care to remember. I've held my dying friends in my arms..." Dathid's words trail off when he gets lost in his memories.

He raises his stricken face to Jonah. "Was that me? I mean, it fought like me. I had a difficult time trying to figure out how to outmaneuver myself. I couldn't control my thoughts." He's talking rapidly, but then he abruptly stops and glances pleadingly at Jonah.

Jonah stands with him in silence while Dathid relives the encounter in the cave. When Dathid returns to the present, Jonah whispers, "No, that wasn't you. That was a little girl's interpretation of you."

"That's just it," Dathid says loudly, becoming more animated. He pulls away from Jonah and paces. "It wasn't all her. Initially it was. She made it appear, but I fueled it! I made it attack. Those were my thoughts. That was my violence!"

Jonah lets him pace. Only when Dathid slows his steps does he speak. "Dathid, you're a warrior. You've been through a lot and you are under tremendous stress. You have fought in countless battles over countless years. You swore an oath to protect her. You did just that, even if that meant battling yourself."

Dathid stops moving and stands with his head down. Jonah puts a hand on the back of his neck. "You did what you had to do in an extremely abnormal situation. You would battle anything she thought of, including yourself. You did the right thing."

Jonah gives Dathid a push to start him walking. They slowly make their way over to the pile of packs on the ground. Jonah digs through one and pulls out a small flask that he promptly hands to Dathid. He takes a long swallow, then follows it up with a short gasp of air.

Dathid passes the flask to Jonah. "I had a moment of blind panic when she locked you out. I think she forgot I was there. I wasn't sure I could get her back. Never had to do anything like that before."

Jonah takes two swigs from the flask. "I could hear you guys, but I couldn't get through. It was an impressive feat of mind control that she could so completely lock me out. You did well battling that."

Dathid shakes his head. "Have you ever eaten a French fry? The smell of the food overpowered the smell of whatever that place was."

"That was her home?"

Dathid grimaces with disgust. How far down into humiliation can I sink? Not only did he see my paintings, but he saw how I lived and how Auntie and Uncle treated me. He doesn't even like my favorite foods.

"I was ready for spiders," Dathid announces.

"Is that what that thing was in the beginning? I thought I saw a giant spider."

"Yeah," Dathid says with a laugh. "I was preparing for it and then there it was. I'm glad I made it disappear before she saw it."

They both laugh and then Dathid lifts the flask and shouts, "Happy spider!"

I'd been watching from the shadow of the trees. I turn away, sad and embarrassed. This is what I deserve for eavesdropping. I sulk over to the trees and choose one that has some dead wood. It's not singing, so I'm self-conscious when I have to speak to it.

"Excuse me," I whisper.

The tree doesn't acknowledge me. Dathid and Jonah are sitting against the packs and Jonah is drinking from the flask. They're not paying any attention to me, so I get a bit braver.

"Excuse me," I repeat in a firmer tone.

"Agatha Stone!" the many-voiced tree says.

I'm taken aback that it knows my name until I remember that the village knows I'm on the way. It's reasonable to assume that the tree would know too, but it's still unnerving.

"Hi, um." I stop when I lose my nerve. Demanding wood might be rude, so I decide to make conversation first. "What kind of tree are you?"

"What kind of tree are you?" the tree repeats.

"I'm not a tree. I'm a human."

"I'm a human too."

I understand Dathid's judgment of trees. I'm already getting tired of this.

"You're not human. You look like a maple."

The tree gasps and the other trees laugh.

"I am no maple!"

The tree's indignation would've been more intimidating if its voices weren't so high pitched. It almost makes me giggle. "Well then, what are you?"

"I'm a palm tree."

"You are no palm. I once knew a Yucca that was very good at world history. I know you're no palm."

"I'm a palm! In fact, I'm a Royal Palm," it says, shaking its branches theatrically. The other trees erupt in laughter. "Make that a Queen Palm."

Just my luck. I pick the tree that wants to be a comedian. I turn to see if Jonah and Dathid can see me, and I'm horrified to discover them watching me struggle with this useless tree. I'm already irritated, but now a hot flash of pink stretches across my cheeks.

"Give me your deadwood, you stupid maple, or I'll grab an ax and chop all of you down!"

The laughter abruptly stops and the tree next to the one I've been talking to drops all of its deadwood. It's a lot more than I need, so I gather what I can and leave the rest. I thank the tree that helped me and make a face at the rude one.

When I return, Jonah has me stack the wood in a neat pyramid, and I help him light the fire. I'm proud of myself for doing another thing on my list of things I thought I'd never do.

I sit with my back against one of the packs, hypnotized by my fire until a dead animal drops at my feet with a loud splat. I jump up in revulsion as Lenox lands noisily in front of me. I barely acknowledge him because I can't stop staring at the nauseating carcass. It looks like a sheep, except that it's almost perfectly round and doesn't appear to have legs. Its overabundance of wooly fur is impossibly white without a trace of black or beige on it. I think the head might be different too, but I don't know enough about sheep to say for sure.

Jonah and Dathid are more shocked than I am when the sheep thing plops in front of us. They both look around and then at each other. "It's already dead," Dathid says with a shrug. Then he drops to his knees to clean it.

Jonah turns his attention to me. "You need to explain to your pegasus that if he poaches domesticated animals, the farmers here will put a bounty on his head. His kind aren't welcome here."

"What is it? Is it a sheep?"

"No, it was bred with sheep a long time ago, which is why they're so similar. It's a kaddamoll. The farmers here breed them for their wool."

I don't ask any more questions because he wants me to talk to Lenox right now. It takes a while for me to get Lenox's attention because he's a good distance away, watching something flying through the trees. I explain the situation to him, but I'm not sure he comprehends or cares about what I'm saying.

When I rejoin the group, the sight is so gruesome that a bit of vomit rushes up my throat. Dathid has removed the head of the kaddamoll and has hung it by its back legs over a tree limb. There's a bucket under the deflating kaddamoll, collecting the muddy brown fluid that's leaking from the stump of its neck.

I turn away to find Dathid digging through the packs. After some serious searching, he removes two cups. He dips them in the bucket and then casually strolls over to me. "Here," he says, holding out the cup to me. I can see the light brown chunky liquid sticking to the side of the cup and I'm afraid to grab it.

"Here," he repeats, bringing the cup closer to me.

I force myself to reach out and take it. My fingers touch the warm, gummy slime and I almost drop the cup. I stand with the tepid cup of sludge in my hand, and Dathid nonchalantly walks away. He picks up the bucket and gives it to Lenox, who dives into it with loud slurping noises. If I vomit, it will match what's in the cup.

He returns to find me still staring at the cup. "I take it you've never eaten an herbivore before."

I stare blankly at him with wide eyes that refuse to blink, and shake my head.

He smiles at me for the first time. He's a handsome guy even when he frowns, but when he smiles it's disarming. Dathid being nice makes me feel wrong for keeping my guard up around him. The smiling is much more disconcerting than the frowning.

"They don't have meat or bones like the carnivores. They're just fluid."

I shake my head again. The camel-colored muck inside the cup has swirls of teal and pink with small brown chunks floating just below the surface. I don't want an animal to die for nothing, but I can't bring myself to bend my elbow.

"It tastes really good," he says, trying to be encouraging. "You probably ate something similar to it at the Feast of the Faeries. I guess no one told you what it was."

I continue to stare at the cup, trying to will myself to drink its contents. I appreciate his efforts, but I can sense his growing discomfort. I want to end the awkwardness between the two of us and drink the putrid swill, but my arm refuses to move.

"I don't understand. Is it the fact that it's raw, or that it's a liquid?"

Just the question makes my stomach flip. I want to answer. I want to try to have a conversation with him, especially after the incident in the cave. I can't believe he's being so nice, particularly now that I've shown him that I think he's a monster.

He puts his hand over mine and we hold the cup together. "If I held the cup for you, would it be easier?"

The contact shocks me out of my stupor. "No," I say meekly. "I can do it."

Dathid lets go. I close my eyes and raise the cup to my mouth. Drink! I command myself.

I take a sip and prepare to throw it up, but it's delicious. Dathid's right, I ate something similar to it in Manahata. I'm really glad no one at the party told me what it was. It's sweet and creamy, with a caramel nutty flavor that's similar to drinking a caramel sundae.

He smiles wide. "I told you it's good."

I finish the rest of the cup without incident until I glance up and see Lenox licking the decapitated corpse hanging in the tree.

"Lenox, stop that!" I yell, but he ignores me.

Dathid casually cuts down the shriveled kaddamoll and brings it back to the mound of packs.

"We're taking that with us?" We've never taken any other remains with us before.

"Yeah, the farmers here primarily breed them for the wool. Although this one was killed, its wool is still valuable. We will take it to the village and find its owner."

As I watch Dathid work, I'm ashamed by what I did to him in the cave. "I'm really sorry about what happened earlier," I say to my feet.

He looks up in surprise and then shakes his head. "You've got nothing to be sorry about. You did quite well. Many people go into the cave and never come out. Or if they do manage to get through it, it haunts them forever. So no harm done, you did fine."

It's surprising he can be so calm. I'd be devastated if someone thought of me that way. Maybe Dathid is just a quiet guy with an unfortunate propensity to frown. I'm ashamed to admit that he has, in fact, been rather nice to me. He's done all of the cooking and most of the cleaning and has never asked me to help. I'm embarrassed to remember that I never offered my assistance, either. He's actually never done anything mean to me, except maybe be a little impatient. But I've been comparing him to Jonah and that's unfair; Jonah is the personification of patience and calm.

"Thank you," I say shyly.

"You're welcome." He nods and walks away.

"I just want you to know..." I blurt out but then lose my nerve when he turns back around. I take a deep breath and force myself to speak. "I want you to know that I don't think of you that way. I mean..." I pause again because my courage is waning. A few tears threaten to seep from my eyes, and my embarrassment amplifies. "I mean, I don't think you're mean. You've really been very kind to me. I want you to know that I did notice. I'm not used to people taking care of me. And, well, I want to thank you because you've done a lot and I shouldn't have thought what I did and I'm sorry."

Now it's Dathid's turn to be self-conscious. "You're welcome. You don't need to apologize for a random thought. I was also having some trouble, so I guess we're pretty equal. I'm not good with people in general and I've never had any dealings with humans."

He slides a hand across my back to give me a sideways hug then pushes me forward a few steps. "Come on, you can help me pack."