"I'm glad you're here," the captain revealed. "I heard you just came through the gate and I was about to send someone out to get you."
"I was looking for Linda," Ryson revealed. "I thought you might know where she is. She's not at work, and…"
"We don't know where she is," Sy interrupted with a strained tone. Knowing the delver would want as much detailed information as possible, he continued quickly. "She walked out the western gate after you left for Connel. She was on foot and wasn't carrying any supplies. We thought she would be back quickly, but she hasn't returned."
"What?!"
"I know. It doesn't make any sense."
It was beyond not making sense for the delver, and Ryson grasped for reason.
"Was there anyone with her?"
"No, she was alone."
"Did you send someone out after her?"
"Of course I did. I have guards on horseback still out on patrol. There's no sign of her." Sy could see the panic growing in the eyes of the delver and he did his best to lessen Ryson's greatest fears. "I've had the patrols report back at standard intervals. There also isn't any sign that she was attacked. We've found nothing that would indicate she's been harmed. The road is empty."
The additional news did little to ease the delver's near incapacitating dread. With sheer force of will, he fought off the confusion and anxiety, shut out the shocking fear. He considered what he knew, reviewed the facts in his mind, and questions requiring answers flowed from his lips.
"She just walked out the western gate? Where was the guard? Didn't anyone try to stop her?"
Sy explained everything he learned from the report of the guard at the gate. As the captain expected, none of it satisfied the delver.
"She went into the forest?!" Ryson exclaimed. He couldn't believe it. The entire situation altered from unbelievable to unforgivable, and he was ready to blame everyone. "And you let her go?!"
The question wasn't a surprise to the captain. It was his first reaction as well, but he kept the sentiment to himself. He had went over the details with the gate guard when he received the first report. He wondered if he would have done anything differently if he had been there himself.
"My soldier didn't want her to go. He did everything to persuade her, but she insisted. There was nothing he could do."
"He should have stopped her!" Ryson insisted.
Sy understood Ryson's outburst, but he defended his guard.
"What could he have done? Arrested her?"
Ryson boiled with anger but couldn't afford wasting any more time. Arguing with the captain was irrelevant. All he could think of was Linda… alone in the forest. He raced from the office and toward the western gate.
As Sy watched the delver leave, he considered his options. In the end, he allowed the delver to leave Burbon without interference. If there was anyone within the town's borders that could find and help Linda, it was Ryson. He would let the delver do what Ryson did best, and prepare to help him if necessary.
The captain sent a message to the guards to step up their patrols outside the gates and be prepared to assist Ryson if any request was made. It was all he could do.
Ryson bolted past the guards at the western gate and down the road towards the edge of Dark Spruce. As he ran, he scanned the numerous tracks in the dirt. It was a myriad of wagon wheel trails, as well as soldier and horse tracks all mashed together.
Still, finding Linda's initial trail was not difficult for him, not for a delver. He could still catch a faint trace of her scent and he quickly found the tracks in the dirt road that led into the forest. He followed them with a flicker of growing hope, but when they turned off down a small trail, Ryson felt as if his heart was going to explode.
His gaze followed her tracks deeper into the forest. He understood why the guards didn't find her. There was no sane reason for her to make that turn. And since she did, there was probably very little they could do to save her.
Could he save her?
He wouldn't answer the question in his mind. He couldn't. The obvious answer was too painful. He had explored that section of the woods many times. He knew the dangers. He could avoid them. He was a delver. But what chance did Linda have?
#
The shag stepped directly up to the female and looked her over with a mix of feelings. On instinct alone, it wanted nothing more than to grab her, snap her spine, and bring her back to its den. She was much larger than a goblin and would serve to feed the monster for several meals.
Confusion, however, initially overrode the beast's more basic instinct. It continued to sense the strange aura around the human, an emanation that served as a warning. The radiating field puzzled the shag. Not quite a glow or a cloud of smoke, it could not be seen by the eyes, but its existence could not be denied. It was like a shroud of minute dust particles that avoided detection even in a sunbeam.
The unique and intangible covering didn't necessarily protect the potential prey, like some magical suit of armor, but it cast a shadow of admonition. It was almost as if the human had been claimed, much like the territory the shag protected, and the female had been marked in such a way that predators would recognize.
Once more the beast considered turning away, but the aura slowly began to fade. Portions of a small cloud continued to float around the woman, but that was dissipating as well.
As it did, the shag sensed yet another perplexing attribute. It could not dismiss the absence of magic within the human, yet it seemed as if a very small pocket of strange energy existed within the woman's center. The immunity could not be ignored, and while it angered the beast, the entire situation left the monster bewildered.
Beyond the magical immunity, there was the action of the prey herself. The shag could not comprehend why the human dared to defy it. It expected the female to attempt to flee or cower in fear. She did neither. The woman stared at the shag with contempt, daring the beast to attack her.
And contempt was exactly what Linda felt. She locked her gaze upon the eyes of the hairy beast before her. She sneered at it even as the beast towered over her. There was fear deep in her consciousness at facing such a monstrosity, but it was completely submerged in boiling anger. So much so that she did not waver in her stance. Her back remained straight and her knees stable. She kept her arms at her side, but her hands were clenched into tight fists.
"Well?" she growled.
The shag growled back in response… not a roar, but a subtle snarl.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Linda demanded.
Her head pounded, the pulse of her blood thumped against her skull. All of existence around her narrowed into tunnel vision of the shag. Everything else faded into a seething desire to strike out at the creature.
And she did.
Her right hand came up quickly and she threw a straight punch into the center of the beast's chest.
The shag felt no pain, but it actually stepped back in apparent amazement.
Linda took not one, but two steps closer, reducing the distance that was initially between them. She had to bend her head back to look up into the creature's eyes.
"What's the matter?" she demanded in an even more vicious growl. "Don't you know what to do?"
She didn't strike the shag again. In fact, she dropped her hands back to her sides. She left herself completely vulnerable, but she never, not for one instant, believed the beast would lash out against her. She didn't know why-she could not feel anything other than the anger and could not see anything beyond the shag in front of her-but she remained absolutely certain the monster would not dare attack. Logically, she should have expected to be killed in an instant, but logic could not break through the crowded emotions at the center of her being.