A/N Here's the new chapter, I've already added it to my blog, with a special feature, so please pop over and leave some feedback!

"Ok sitting down." When we got back I had to sit down and get my bearings before I fell over.

"I shall leave you now, but I will be back soon, you are so very fun." Pythia smiled then disappeared.

"How can she do that?" Eric asked bewildered. "I thought she was just an oracle."

"That's what she wanted you to think. She's not just anything. Still waters run deep, hers deeper than most. Is it just me or is it really noisy?" There was lots of rustling, but no wind.

"Can you hear me?" Eric asked.

"Of course I can hear you."

"It seems your hearing has improved."

"Ok, that'll take some getting used to. Pam's coming." He gave me a look to ask how I knew.

"My new ears, my telepathy, and your bond with her. I heard running, a void, and I'm still in your head enough to keep an eye on your bonds but nothing else. Hi Pam." She looked at me for a few seconds, then held her hand out to Eric.

"What now Pamela?"

"I've been running everything for the last few days, and she needs new clothes. She won't fit the others nor would they suit her colouring, and she cannot wear that forever." That was the white jeans and strappy top that Sookie had been wearing, that was a little green and brown in patches from the forest.

"Oh, no! Pam, no denying you have great fashion sense but you are not shopping for me! You can shop with me but not for me. Sorry but you don't know my tastes yet. And don't worry about a reward for him being gone, there's a couple drainers need sorting, thought you might like the fun." She stared at me for a few more seconds and then turned to Eric.

"Fine. She can stay." I never did find out what she did with the Rattrays.

"I was staying anyway Pammy. And don't try anything with me you won't win." I was feeling better by this point, so I bounced up off the floor. "Let's go, I want to run." Pam snorted.

"You don't know what real running is little girl."

Eric.

Yes bråkmakare.

That whole 'warning first' thing, does that cover her too?

No, what are you planning?

A little light show, a loud noise, the shock of her life, no lasting damage.

All I got in reply was mental laughter.

I created a bubble around us so no one else would see,lit her skin with harmless fire, rose three feet in the air and made lightning spark around us, then spoke.

"And what do you know about me, brat? I warned you not to mess with me." I lifted her high in the air and began to spin her. Eric was openly laughing by this point.

"She can do more than you or I can imagine my child. Do not judge too quickly. Let her down now Maya."

Can I drop her?I asked hopefully

No.

Damn.

I stopped spinning her and slowly put her down. I liked Pam, but she had a tendency to judge too fast.

Suddenly, something caught my attention. I stopped the magic and took off running. Eric kept pace and mentally asked me what is was.

Are we still on your land?

Yes, whatisit Maya?

Just keep running.

I sped up.

Once I got closer to the pull I was feeling, I slowed down. When I saw what was there, I simply stood speechless, as did Eric.

"What is that? That's the biggest mutt I've ever seen! And where did the tree come from?" Pam. Such a city girl.

"Pamela, that is no mutt. She is a direwolf. The tree is a weirwood. They're from another world, and they're bound to me. Or I to them.I can't tell which."

"There was a tree like this near my village. It had no face but I remember climbing those branches." Eric was still stunned.

The tree was white as bleached bone, with leaves as red as dried blood, and with a strong male face carved into the bark. The wolf had just been watching us. She was a deep russet brown, strange for a direwolf, they were natives of the frozen lands north of the Wall, but there was no mistake she was a direwolf. Four feet high sitting down, this wolf would tower over others. I walked forwards and stood in front of her. Eyes so dark they were almost black started back at me. I must have passed some form of test, because she nudged me with her head, then picked up a dagger I hadn't seen. I took it from her mouth, then took the knife from the sheath, which felt scaly, like snake skin. It was a 7inch blade, with a 3inch flat handle, perfect to slide into a boot, and the blade itself was dark with ripples in it. Once it registered why it looked familiar, my eyes flew to the wolf. Again, I was stunned. Not snakeskin. Dragon skin. This was Valyrian steel. I closed my eyes and silently thanked whoever had sent this to me. To us, as the tree obviously held meaning to Eric too. He'd walked to it and was running his hand over the bark. The wolf walked over and nudged his other hand. All of a sudden, we were in the forest, next to Eric's tree, where a miniature Eric was sitting in the low branches watching the road just visible through the trees.

It was his son, looking for his father to come home.

Eric fell to his knees, and as his hand slipped from the tree we were back in Louisiana. Pam and I rushed to him, to find a red tear trailing down his face.

"Master, who was that?" Pam asked softly. "He looked like you."

"That was his son. The morning after Appius came." Eric simply nodded. "Come on, let's go home. Longshadow can wait." We got up and walked to the house, which was surprisingly close.

As we got there Eric said "I'll be fine Pam, Go close the bar and we shall meet you there tomorrow."

After she left Eric pulled me to one of the side rooms (that was a library) and pulled forwards a bookcase to reveal a flight of stairs. If I hadn't been concerned about him, I would have commented on how very cliché it was.

Eric?

Come, stay with me, please.

Ok.

We walked down, through another door and into a living room like the one upstairs, on a smaller scale, with a door off of it.

Eric shut the bookcase-door and scanned his thumb, then the lower door and did the same.

"The doors will open from the inside, and will work like airlock doors until my thumb is scanned again after dark. Will you set a fire for me?"

"Any preference on colour?" He shook his head, so I made it green with flecks of other colours in, like the northern lights. I figured the lights of his homeland might help soothe him.

Eric laid down on the sofa and pulled me to him, while the wolf laid down in front of it.

"Thank you Maya."

"For what?"

"Because of you, I saw my boy again. For a long time I worried Appius had killed my family before coming for me. Now I know he didn't. Thank you."

"Thank the tree. I think that was as much for you as me. Why didn't Pam understand though?"

"I never spoke of my family. At first, it was because it was too painful. Then I fooled myself into believing they were long dead and didn't matter."

"Would you like to talk about them now?"

"No, but thank you. I will soon. Will this fire burn anything or have any strange effects?"

"No, I made sure it wouldn't."

"Then let's just rest and watch it."

We lay there watching the fire for a while, and eventually I drifted off to sleep.