A/N: Obviously I don't own anything. Well, OK, I made up Jade's name and the details of her personality, although we all know that Felldoh's mother had died sometime before the novel began. I certainly don't own any of the really important things in this story. :)

Nobeast was there to meet me when I arrived at the Dark Forest Gates. I don't have any family who died before me—or rather, none that I know. Noonvale was lucky during the entire time I was growing up: there were no major sicknesses and no fatal accidents, and all my relatives were either still alive or had died before I was born. All my friends in the Forest had come from the Battle of Marshank, and I assumed that they had dispersed to reunite with their own families.

So I wandered alone for a few days along the gloomy paths that wound through the mist. The nights were cold and dark and the days were foggy and dim. I wasn't hungry or thirsty, but I would have welcomed food or drink for comfort. I didn't encounter anybeast, except for strangers. They would either avoid my eyes and hurry on their way, or straighten up with eyes bright and welcoming at the sound of my footpaws, then slump back and turn away when they did not recognize my face. I cried myself to sleep most nights, curled up in small misty hollows with nothing for a blanket but the old torn and blood-stained cloak Martin had given me before the battle.

After a few days I ran into Felldoh. At first he was just another one of the strangers in the gloom. When he caught sight of my face, however, his smile grew wider and he hurried forward to clasp my paws in welcome. The sight and embrace of a friend was like the warmth of a fire on a cold winter night, and even though I don't often cry in front of others if I can help it, I confess that I had to blink back a few tears.

Maybe he noticed, because he immediately offered to introduce me to his mother, Jade. She had, Felldoh explained, been encouraging him to bring home any friends who found their way to the Forest from the battle—"because she said so many of those poor young slaves might not know anybeast in their own families. Well, you weren't a poor young slave, but if you're alone here—" He grinned at me again.

Jade resided (sometimes it's hard to remember that I can't use the word "lived" anymore) in a hut that somehow managed to be well-lit by something that resembled daylight. She was a frizzy-furred, blue-eyed squirrelwife with a radiant smile. Her clothes and paws were stained with a variety of paints and dyes, and her small hut was a riot of color from the paintings hung on every wall. The first thing she did was to give me another friendly embrace. That almost made me cry again: the smell of the paints that covered her and her canvases made me think of my grandfather, who lived next door to us in Noonvale and painted nearly as much as Jade seemed to. Then she sat me down to show me how to take a piece of mist and use the ghost's magic I hadn't even known I possessed to conjure myself a cup of tea and a good meal. She let me ply her with questions about my new home as I ate and she mixed paints.

"Well, Rose, m'dear, I believe you'll find that it's no easy matter to leave the Forest to look after your Martin just yet. Your spirit didn't expect to leave life just when it did, so to be outside the Gates without a body may be painful just yet. I recommend you rest up before you try and be his guardian."

"Painful?"

"Nausea, dizziness, weakness. Like the flu. Like I said, it'll pass. Give it a few seasons. One or two for some, longer for the ones who especially loved life—four or five."

"What about that magic you just showed me? Couldn't I use that to help?"

"That? No, I'm afraid it won't help. It's just a trifle, really. Some're better than others at it, but we can all do it. You can fly, too, and be in different places at once, and see the future. You'll learn." She grinned.

Felldoh popped his head in. "Rose? I think I've found you someplace to stay near here. If you'll follow me, I think I can find it again."

Jade chuckled. "Aye, that's the other thing. Your sense of direction may be off for a while in all this gloom." She waved a paw in cheery farewell as I got to my footpaws. "You drop by anytime you want to, missie, d'ya hear me?"