A/N: Here it is... Chaper Three! Thanks to:
TheWildWind, Nightshade-013, Acesha, vreader, wind, and Fireblade K'Chona for reviewing chapter two!
The day was crisp and cool, and before long I was quite grateful for the borrowed clothing, and I was sure my cheeks were burned red and raw from sunlight and harsh cold as well. My forelock- my hair, was long though, down to my shoulders and it helped shade me from the bright rays that hadn't bothered me the night before.
It seemed like ages of trudging, well a trudge for me anyway- it was more like a heavy brisk walk for a human, before I came upon the spot that had worked my change. The area looked undisturbed, and it wasn't unlikely that no one had been along since I had.
My tack was still there, and after uncovering it I sat by the road rubbing off the dirt, wondering what I was to do with it. I could easily find a way to cinch the saddle around my body and carry it with the bridle slung over a shoulder, but I really didn't want to have to answer questions about what a commoner was doing with Companion's caparison.
Of course… I thought with a glance around the chillingly empty landscape, I could disguise it as a pack. Companions usually only disguised themselves, in small ways, like eye color and the such, and I had never worked such magics myself, but it could be done. I sighed and stood, pulling up the saddle and wrapping the girth around myself and playing with some ropes a bit until it was snug enough across the chest before pulling the breast color over and tying it up with the girth. It was as secure as I'd like, and it twisted some fine tack around in ways I didn't like, but it would stay. And with a touch of a Companion's magic no one would ever notice it.
With that, I was almost ready to go. First things first, I was going to check this place out. It looked normal enough, but someone, or something, had changed me from a Companion into a body I hadn't expected to entertain for several lives. This sort of thing doesn't happen normally, and I intended to figure out what had happened. The farm side of the road looked average enough, and no further scrutiny was necessary but the tree line… It could be hiding much more than the dirt and a chill ran up my spine that had nothing to with the cold. I was totally alone here... what if what had changed me had come back and was hiding, lurking in the tree line?
However, upon closer look and after an hour's of pushing through thorns and overgrowth in the small area, I realized there was nothing here. There just wasn't. No matter how impossible it seemed… It would appear that I had randomly turned from my true shape with no outside help at all. I prayed Darkwind and Elspeth and the Gryphons and the Tayledras and whoever else that was a Mage and hanging around could figure out what had happened, because I sure couldn't.
I set out at a run, moving at a fast paced jog that a normal human wouldn't be able to keep up all day but as a Companion in human form I could do with ease. At this rate, it would probably take me two weeks to reach Haven, opposed to the nine days it had taken me to get here. I quivered at the thought of time wasted. At this rate, my Chosen would be eighty by the time I got to her! Or him.
The day slid by. I spent the night in a way station, half hoping to find another Herald and Companion there that could help me from my dilemma, or at least could listen to me and know that I wasn't human. But no, there was never anyone. This part of the country rarely had Companions traversing it, and the way stations were only used once a year and sometimes less by the circuit going Heralds. I wasn't actually going back directly the way I had came. My original path was a bit winding, and spiraling as I searched for the one to make a Herald. The path I took now was much more straightforward, and led me almost directly to Haven.
And then, just when I had started to relax into the routine and my hopes were leaping at the thought of being back into my old, faster moving and versatile self, disaster struck, much to my despair. Humans were so… weak. Not that I didn't miss hands sometimes, but right now I was supposed to be a Companion, and that biased my opinion some what.
The disaster was this: a winter snowstorm. It hit on my fourth day of running. The day had started overcast and a little warmer than usual, but still below freezing and by late afternoon fat snowflakes had started to drift down from the sky. At first I paid it no heed, and kept jogging, but before I knew it the temperature was dropping rapidly, chilling through my sparse layering and snow layered a few inches thick, muffling the noises and creaking under my feet. A wind had picked up, and I heard the eerie moaning of trees cracking against each other, yet my line of sight was gradually growing smaller and smaller so I couldn't see those trees and my paranoid self conjured up images of dark Wizards and wyrsa. Was that only the wind or the howling of a Mage construct? My steps quickened and my eyes were wide, straining to peer through the snow at shapeless shadows and figures that blew away in the snow upon closer scrutiny
But as the weather grew worse I finally realized I couldn't continue in this, I'd only get lost and freeze myself to death. Yet I couldn't recall if I'd past a way station recently, or if there was another one near by and I felt a twinge of fear as I knew that I didn'tknow where the nearest shelter was. But I didn't let panic hold me and I simply slowed to a walk and pulled the scarf of my outfit tightly around my face, keeping a careful eye on the road and watching out for the telltale path that led to a Waystation, ignoring my fears of enemy Mages. But anyone that could turn a Companion to human could certainly follow me in this weather...
The temperature dropped more as the sky grew darker and I hugged my things tighter to myself, glad for the heavy warmth and protection of my saddle tied to my back, and glad that the layers of clothing I wore padded it from digging into my skin. Soon the only thing that kept me on the road was the tree line, still following along the road until- I groaned. It disappeared. Or rather, it stopped. I squinted through the falling light and looked back. Sure enough, it just stopped. What farmer had decided to rid themselves of the windbreak and save themselves the space? Whoever it was, I cursed them, and then backtracked to the trees and dropped down by a particularly tall oak. I would have to wait the storm out.
It was better to stay where I knew I was on a road, and civilization might be near, then wandering all night until I was lost inside the Pelagirs. Shivering, I pushed away the quickly deepening snow between the Oak and a younger tree and then pulled off my saddle, leaning it between the two trees such that it provided a small amount of shelter, giving me somewhat of a three sided lean-to, if only I was as small as a dog.
As it was, the best I could do was dig down, shoving past the leaves to the dirt, and then pile the excess snow up around me, but not touching me, forming a tiny snow fort. I would never again doubt the usefulness of the winter survival classes I'd taken as a heraldic trainee in my past life, even though I never used the lessons until now.
That night, I had very strange dreams. I dreamt the Oak came alive like the druids of old and she stood beside me, whispering soft words into my ear and melting the snow to spring. Green leaves sprouted over the trees around me and the color was so bright I thought it'd burst my eyes and far off in the distance I could hear someone singing.
When I looked, I saw it was another druid, this one of the fields, naked as the day I'd became human with long blond hair with streaks of red twirling around a lithe body. Her feet touched the unplanted ground of the fields, and where they did, wheat and corn and potatoes sprouted, growing swift and strong and I had the strangest feeling that I'd slept here for months, and now I was watching spring and summer occur- as if time were no longer a thing I was prone to, and thus I could see the workings of the spirits.
"I was walking with a ghost," she sang, ignoring all around and whirling across the field,
"I said please, please don't insist. I was walking with a ghost..."
The Oak druid wrapped her arms around me, hugging me with warmth and gradually the meadow druid's sweet singing voice drifted off and all I could hear was the gentle blowing and creaking of tree branches next to each other. But no…That wasn't quite right. I looked up and saw the branches were covered with ice, not leaves and the Druid was gone.
A/N: I swear in the next chapter the plot becomes more complex... slow beginning I know... but keep with it! Next chapter should be up around Monday or Tuesday ish depending. XD. If you got this far I thank and applaud you! hug! Oh yeah, and if you don't know and as a disclaimer the song she was singing is Walking with a Ghost by Tegan and Sara. I assume that doesn't count as the song fic stuff they banned? Quotes are okay, right?