Sleep did not come easy, even with the blankets and the warmth they provided. The house shook with lightning. Sasha felt him flinch every time a bolt flooded the small room with light. They'd gone too long without sleep, both of them. It weighed on her eyelids and sagged her shoulders with its weight. She did not think this journey would be so hard, or that he would make it so much harder.

But she couldn't help but think it was nice not to be so alone, anymore. She'd hidden that secret so long it had become an entirely different sort of weight, one that attached around her ankles and refused to let go until it nearly drowned her. And so she almost didn't mind when the sun came up over the ridgeline and started to spill into their hiding spot. She almost didn't mind that he'd kept her from sleeping.

They'd crept downstairs without a word from anyone, save a knowing look from Erean that she elected not to answer back at. Rannok followed behind her and grabbed one of the saddles without a word. Her heel ached terribly, but gone was the awful sting that kept her from walking.

A cloudless blue sky greeted them, like a friend Sasha didn't know she'd lost. She breathed a sigh of relief; there would be no more storms today. The crow settled onto one of the horse's backs as they went outside. It eyed her warily as she tossed the saddle up onto Chestnut's back and wound the cinch tight around his belly. He flattened his ears against his head and turned around to nip her.

Rannok gestured the other saddle at her. She took it from him and tossed it onto Patches' back as easily as if it weighed nothing. He stared at her while she did up the cinch. She eyed him back, then patted the horse's neck.

"Did you need something?"

"When you talked about me in Ascaran...what were you saying?"

Sasha bit her lip and dug back into her memory. She could scarcely be expected to remember what she said to him, and which time. 

"You called him a deer," the crow reminded her. She arched her eyebrows in recognition.

"Do fa sagran," she said. The words rolled off her tongue. She'd forgotten how comfortable they were compared to Terrean, and how easily they slipped from her mouth, like marbles down a hill. 

"What did it mean?" His expression was hard to place, his eyes unreadable as they gazed off into the mountains instead of at her. His wings caught in the breeze. The feathers fluttered as the air moved through them.

"It's a nicer way of saying someone's an idiot," she replied. "I was only teasing. It's not meant to be mean. I don't understand why this is important."

"I can't go home either." His face crumpled a bit, like a piece of fabric left out in the morning dew. Suddenly Sasha felt bad for having made fun of him. They had a long road ahead, both of them, and she wasn't at all sure where it led. That almost managed to scare her more than being lost did.

"Most people don't speak Ascaran, either. Only people in Horizon do, and we're in the mountains, now." She swung up onto Chestnut's back just in time for Erean to limp outside. He leaned his entire body weight onto a thin branch he'd cut from one of the many trees. Rannok watched him as he mounted Patches and pointed him down the trail.

"We need to make time away from this house. Your father will be back with the dogs soon. I've made out the rest of the map, if we head around the mountains it should only waste us a day or so." He wasted no time before giving Patches a little kick. She took off at a brisk walk, Chestnut ambling behind her automatically.

Rannok kicked off the ground and flapped his wings once. He caught an air current just high enough that he could follow them down the valley without getting caught in the crosswind she could see pulling at his shirt. 

He circled overhead a few times to keep pace. She couldn't help but stare at him as he caught another breeze and banked hard toward the cliff face, catching it just short of an accident. Sasha turned her head so she wouldn't have to watch him crash into it like a bug on a window.

"He does not want company. He did not want company when you followed him the first time," the crow said, in that echoey shadow-voice meant only for her. It fluttered up and rested on the pommel of her saddle, then pecked at her hand.

"I know it's none of my business," she said. Her father haunted her from the corners of her vision, but not in the way whatever he was running from did. She didn't hide from loud noises, or wake in the middle of the night, muttering under her breath. She didn't watch the shadows as if she were sure something would spring from them at any moment. She didn't know anyone else that did.

"He's afraid," the crow said. "Fear from the things he's seen never leaves. He knows he cannot go home. He knows he cannot stay here. He is stuck, like you are."

"I'll find something," Sasha said, though she had no idea how. Before long, they would venture into lands outside her father's jurisdiction, though she doubted that would stop him. Lands where the people spoke a language that erupted from their mouths in guttural growls and soft whispers she did not understand. Lands where bears roamed the mountains and lawlessness extended even further than it did in Horizon. Outerlands that did not have names, whose people did not have homes.

"He is not sorry you stayed."

Sasha was sorry she followed. It had meant another sleepless night, and more yelling. She should have left him and slept downstairs, where she wasn't hunched into a corner and her back didn't hurt. Where he didn't start every ten minutes and wake her. She wasn't sure why she'd done it.

"Because you did not want to be alone. You feel the night like he feels thunder, only less."

Sasha's face got warm. She didn't want to think about the sinking feeling in her stomach that came as the sun went down. The creeping feeling that someone was watching her. It was subtle, and easy to ignore if she tried. She could pretend that she was okay. That nothing bad had ever happened to her.

"Ignoring it will not make it go away."

"I can take care of myself," she muttered under her breath, though she was less sure of that than she had ever been. She shooed the crow from the saddle, then gave Chestnut a gentle kick. He picked up a trot and caught up to Patches' tail. His ears flattened in protest of the extra work, but she spurred him on anyway.