The air steamed around them like a warm blanket, filled with the scent of sweat and horsehair. Sasha hadn't been to the jungle in a long time. The tall grasses of the plains she'd grown up in split and gave way to tuberous growths of green that exploded from every direction, so thick they'd nearly missed the path when they entered. She seldom found a reason to travel out this far, even to escort. Rannok swayed in front of her, so tired he barely held his head up while Chesnut plodded along, indifferent to anything other than the sight of Patches' hind end in front of him. 

She had nearly forgotten her aching back and soaking clothes by the time Erean shouted for them to stop and make camp. It had taken nearly all the energy she had to keep Driver from running off with her, or spooking at a poorly placed stump, or rearing and throwing her to the ground again.

"Nearly enough for you to admit they were right," the bird said while it perched on the back of her saddle, echoing thoughts she didn't even know she had. She scowled and clutched the reins tightly in her hands as she slid from his back, the bird rising with a flurry for only a few seconds before settling down again in the same place it had been before.

"Funny you even want to keep him, honestly, after what he did."

She yanked at Driver's face without meaning to; he pulled back and snorted his indignance.

"It wasn't his fault," she said. "He was just being a horse."

"Sure, you tell yourself that. But would Patches have run? Or Chesnut?"

Sasha set her mouth in a hard line as she fished Driver's hobbles from his saddlebag. Neither would have noticed the snake prowling on the edges of their path, or reacted to it so violently. They would have spooked, maybe. But they would have listened. They would have stopped.

She loved Driver even when he reared or bucked or danced. And after she stuck to him enough times, Driver began to listen. And that was enough for her, for him to listen when no one else did. When no one else wanted to.

"You are a terrible liar."

She ignored the crow as she undid the cinch and slipped the saddle from Driver's back so he had to sit on the horse's rump, instead. Driver's eyes went white-rimmed. He let heady snorts out of his nose. She made a shushing noise and stroked the white snip that curled around his lip while she slipped the bridle from his head. She fished the hobbles from her bag and fastened them around his legs. The others wouldn't go far, but Driver she still couldn't trust.

Not that her parents would ever let her come out here. She wished she'd never gone out with Damien that day. Maybe then she could pretend he was still missing, or that he'd wandered away from home, and she wouldn't be forced to tell the same story to travelers fifty times a day while serving cheap ale she was equally sick of. 

Right now they were probably worried sick about her, which is why she'd had them wander in contrary directions for a while, so Driver's footprints would intertwine until they were impossible to follow. Rannok had been too stupid to notice, and Erean didn't seem to care much, though he'd given her a knowing smile the third time they looped around the same big rock.

"What kind of place is this?" Rannok asked. Sasha rolled her eyes where he couldn't see, then slipped an effortless smile back onto her face. She turned toward him while she finished the knot in the hobble. He fluttered his wings and spun around like a lost child searching for its parents. 

"It's a jungle, we'll be fine as long as you don't wander off. There are animals."

She watched his face drop and resisted the urge to burst out laughing as he shrank down toward a large tree. "What kind of animals?" 

"Nothing too dangerous, just don't touch anything." She turned away from him to stroke Driver's shoulder and smirked. "What kind of animals did they have where you're from?" She turned back and let the smile fall off her face. "Were they dangerous? Did you have to watch for them at night?"

"They were animals," Rannok said, He picked at one of his feathers and turned away from her. The crow watched them from a position on his horse's rump while pretending not to watch. 

"Were they big? We have snakes and stuff but they're not that dangerous."

Rannok's face drained of color and became an ashen grey. His eyes glazed over and he bit his lower lip for a moment, then scowled. His fists clenched, and something flashed in his eyes. For a moment she swore he would hit her, and she flinched. It faded just as quickly. She watched him as he stepped as far away from his horse as he could muster.

"Stop asking."

What was left of a smile fell from her face. "Is there any particular reason you act like I kicked your dog when all I'm doing is asking you a simple question? It's not like you have a home to go back to."

Rannok's eyes went red. He clutched at the air in front of them, chest huffing with air, then got right in her face. Sasha did not flinch, just stared at him, completely unmoved, and folded her arms.

"Don't you ever try to tell me about home again."

"Oh, right. Running from something, I forgot," she said. "Can't really expect more from a horse thief." The corners of her mouth turned up just slightly as his eyes grew darker. He drew his face away from her again.

"You mean like running away from home and pretending you know where the map goes when you really don't?"

"I know exactly where it goes!" 

Suddenly it was not so funny anymore. She did not realize how loud her voice was until it left her mouth, and Driver spooked violently, even though he was still standing several feet away.

"Oh? Then how long will it take to get to the crow's nest?" Rannok asked, his voice deadly quiet.. "How far through the jungle are the rock bluffs? Do you think we can rest a few days, or do we need to settle the horses so they don't die of exhaustion because you don't know where you're going?"

"Maybe if you learned to read a map you wouldn't need to worry about it!"

"Stop shouting," Erean said, and Sasha whipped her head around, ready to rip his head off, too. She opened her mouth up to say something.

"--You'll draw animals."

She shut it again and walked toward the opposite end of their small clearing and began hacking away at the foliage with her sword. She had to feed the horses something, and the sooner they started a fire the better.

Erean fixed her with a look. "You went a little far, don't you think?"

 Sasha said nothing. She heard Erean removing his horse's saddle, but there would be no need to help him--unlike Rannok, he was not afraid of his horse. In fact, she'd have Erean help him, too. She fixated on the work in front of her and lost herself to it. Her stomach felt like lead.    

"I told you that you were a terrible liar."

Sasha resolved to roast the bird for dinner, when nobody was looking.