Will was worried. There was no two ways about it. The strange girl definitely wasn't from around here. Definitely not from Araluen, but Will felt like she was from and even more distant place. Her clothes, attitude, and accent were all unfamiliar to him. Tug whinnied and tossed his head.

You're such a worry wort, who cares if she isn't from around here, it's not like she'll do any damage.

"That's what I'm worried about, that she will do some damage."

From what you tell me, she barely escaped the inn intact, believe me, she's not going anywhere. She'll probably break off somewhere to go find a good camp spot soon. And aren't we following her because she looked like she needed help?

"Yes."

Then keep your eyes on the road mister.

Will snorted, but true enough, before long the tracks they had been following cut off into the brush to the left. Will sniffed the air.

"There's a stream or river nearby, you can smell it, and the dirt is moist."

So she knows how to find a water supply, she can't be totally helpless.

"That's a good sign." Will said. "Come on, lets go." They followed their tracks until Will could hear the sound of running water. Dismounting, Will tied the reins to Tug's saddle. "Stay here, I don't want her horse smelling you and alerting her."

Oh please, that horse couldn't smell me if I was right under his nose.

Will shot a look at his horse. "Stay here."

Fine, Tug seemed to say, sounding rather put off. Bow slung over his shoulder, Will crept forward until he could see the stream and the person and horse by it. He got there just in time to see the girl hop down from the tree with a branch in her hand. Will was just a few yards away from a tree that the saddle was leaned up against. Will looked at it carefully, it was unlike any saddle he had ever seen before. He wanted to study it more closely but he instead turned his gaze to the girl and her horse. The girl looked to be about fifteen, same age that he had been when he started his apprenticeship. She had bright red hair, braided down her shoulder and large brown eyes. Her face was covered in freckles and her skin was rather tanned, more like the Ariddi, except of course, for the hair, than any Arulens. The horse was taller than Tug, but smaller than Kicker, though he looked to be a well worked horse. He watched as the girl fed her horse the branch of leaves. Leaving him to eat his branch, she went over to the stream to splash water on her face and try to clean herself up. Her horse started whining, and Will realized that they were downwind of where he had dismounted Tug. He hoped that the girl didn't realize what kind of whinny it was.

"What, do you want another branch? Because I am not climbing up that tree again, mister, you go climb it yourself." The girl said. Then she started walking towards where Will was crouched. Trust the cloak, he told himself as she neared him. She stopped a few feet away and started sorting through the contents of her saddlebag. The assortment of items were extremely odd, Will had never seen anything like it before. There were containers and packaged things that were completely foreign to Will. There were some things that he recognized, like bandages, matches, brushes, rope, and scissors, but there was a small tube of something, small little rectangular packages of what looked like food, and a large pair of what looked like glasses, but they were big and so dark it looked like you wouldn't have been able to see out of them if you had put them on.

"Blast," the girl frowned. "No bugs in Texas, that means no bug spray. Sorry boy," Will noted that she was from Texas, but where that was, he had no clue, he had never heard of it before.

"What do you think boy, should we make a fire?" she asked her horse. Her horse didn't respond. "Ah well then, be that way," she continued. She was silent for a moment thinking, before she started talking again. Will knew she shouldn't make a fire, with all of the smoke so close to town, it was sure to draw people. "A very, very small one maybe? But what if I waste the matches? Colorado you are no help at all." the girl said. Will noted the horses name was Colorado, another odd name.

"Maybe I should have just stayed at the inn," the girl was talking to herself again. Aw who am I kidding, I wouldn't have lasted five more minutes in that place. Blast it, I wouldn't have lasted one minute. Not that my chances out here are that much better. Probably all sort of creatures out here at night. Wolves, bears, coons. Oh! Bears! Food, food, food! Rope? Here it is," she had been searching through her bag, and she now pulled out the extra rope. Looping it through the bag, the pulled it up into the tree and tied it. Smart, thought Will, but useless. He knew there were no animals around here that would come and eat the food. There were no bears or wolves around.

"There we go. Don't want those bears eating our granola do we?" the girl said to Colorado. Colorado snorted. "You my friend are a horse of few words, aren't you." the girl smiled, and Will smiled too, remembering when he had said that to his horse. Then, pressing her back up against the trunk of the tree, the girl slid down to a sitting position. "There, the food's safe. 'Course now they'll just eat us." she said in a more depressed tone.

"Lord help me. I'm here lost in this god-forsaken land of... I don't know where. I'm stuck here, for all I know. I have practically no supplies, no friends, no help coming, no money, and no place to stay. Great job Jess. Just a stellar job. Why don't I just give myself a pat on the back. And you know what Colorado, Jonny's probably happy right now, he probably thinks I got myself lost."

Will was pleased that he now knew the stranger's name, Jess. It would give him an advantage when he confronted her. But he wondered who these other people were. All the names she was saying were uncommon names, at least to Araluen.

Jess continued, "He's probably telling Dad right now all the reasons I shouldn't be on the cattle drive. 'Girls aren't meant to work on ranches, girls aren't strong enough, girls can't wrestle the cattle, girls are too dumb. Lord I hope he gets fired, he makes me so mad."

So Jess was on a cattle drive, whatever that was, and Jonny thought that she shouldn't be on it because she was a girl. Will grinned at the thought of this Jonny person telling Alyss or Evanlyn that they couldn't do something because they were girls. Both Alyss and Evanlyn would have put him in his place quickly. And apparently Jonny worked for Jess, or at least her father. So he wasn't her brother. Jess continued her rant. "Stupid Jonny, telling me what to do. Thinks I can't handle myself he does. It's all his fault." she was standing now, and she kicked the dirt. Will felt rather odd and invasive as he saw that Jess had started crying.

"What if he was right? Huh Colorado, do you think he was right?" Jess stated sadly. Shuffling over to her horse, she grabbed hold of his mane and pulled herself easily onto his bare back. She did it fluidly, and Will could tell she was an experienced rider. Jess reached down and hugged her horse. She stayed there for a little while, apparently just enjoying being with her horse. Will could relate, Tug was one of his best friends.

When she sat up she was different. Her face was dry and there was a determined look set into her face. She muttered something, then in a louder voice she said, "No more feeling sorry for myself. Cowgirls don't cry." Colorado shook his head enthusiastically, pawing the ground. Jess slid off his back and landed neatly on her feet. "Okay now where to sleep? Not by your tree, with those clunking hooves by my face all night? No thanks, and I'm not sleeping by that tree," she said pointing to the tree that the food was hanging from. "Bear paws are worse than horse hooves. How about…" she trailed off and started walking around the small area looking for a good spot. "Here!" she said, reaching a fallen tree, some twenty meters off to his right. It was a fallen tree that would provide good shelter.

"Perfect!" Jess exclaimed, kneeling down and inspecting the area. It was well and truly dark now, and as Jess settled down, Will slowly crept back into the ever lengthening shadows. He was creeping away no and just had time to hear her say, "'Night buddy," to her horse before he lost sight of the camp.

Will made his way back to where he left Tug, making sure he made no noise until he was almost there. When he reached Tug, who was standing exactly where he had left him, he stopped to think.

So what'd you find out? Tug asked.

"I thought you always know what I know?" Will retorted.

I do, but it will help if you talk yourself through it, you'll find an answer to your question faster.

"You're always a step ahead of me aren't you?"

Always.

Will shook his head, exasperated. "Fine. the girl's name is Jess, she's from a place called Texas, her horse's name is Colorado, and she's lost."

And what are you going to do about it?

"I think I'll approach her in the morning, let her know that I won't hurt her, then take her to castle Araluen to she what King Duncan thinks. Evanlyn, Horace, Alyss, Lady Pauline, and Halt will want to hear about this too. I bet that even Halt has never heard of Texas before," Will smiled to himself, he rarely, if ever, showed Halt up.

Sounds good to me, we sleeping here?

"This is as good a place as any, unless you want to go upstream a little and get a drink."

I'm good.

"Okay." Will loosened Tug's girth and replaced his bridle with a halter. Hanging the rope over a branch, he tied a quick knot. Then he found a good brush pile and settled himself into it. Extra camouflage never hurt. He knew that Tug would wake him if anyone or anything approached him, so he drifted off quickly.