I was frozen in shock for a good thirty seconds before I leaped towards her, helping her sink down to the floor as she stumbled back. Onyx wailed and growled in alarm, nudging her hair with his nose, occasionally shaking her with his paw.

"You-you, what in the shadows have you done?" Sarphi asked with an accusatory tone. Now, I'd support her fully if we weren't facing a deity with a bow in their hands. As it were, I wanted to glue her mouth shut. "Why did you do that?" She took Prin from my arms, slapping my hands away and immediately began looking at the wound.

I resisted the urge to scold her, because she looked like she was about to cry. I glanced between Aknon and Roseo. Aknon looked like he wanted to punch something, he'd always been protective of those like Prin, even if he didn't show it. Roseo looked over at us calmly, as though everything was going to plan.

"She'll wake up in a few hours," Roseo informed us dismissively and began to walk away. The sunlight which brightened their form, began to mould into various kinds of animals. It made them look even more majestic as they walked away from us.

"Prepare yourself Acer, we need you."

I jumped and looked around with a startled expression, blinking rapidly. "What?" I asked aloud, I looked like I was crazy as my eyes moved from person to person and I spun on the spot. "Did they say something?"

"They said she'd wake up; she's not waking up." Sarphi shook Prin's shoulder, which didn't cause any reaction from her. "Aknon, we have to heal her. We have to do something."

"No." Aknon shook his head. "We can't do anything."

Sarphi looked up at him as though he was stupid. "But you know healing spells. There's no bleeding so the wound has to be inside her head, or she must be in shock or something." Now she was actually crying, tears slipping down her face and hitting Prin's hair.

Aknon sighed. "I know that, but we can't do anything." He crouched down beside us and moved her collar out of the way, seeing where the arrow had hit her, which looked like nothing had happened. "They're a deity, I can't go against them or do anything about it."

"Why? Because you don't know how? Or because you're a coward who doesn't want to go against the gods?" Sarphi snapped, eyes full of lightning as she hugged Prin and pulled her up so that the girl was sitting on her knee.

"Sarphi, there's no need for that," I scolded. "You know that Aknon would do whatever it takes to cure Prin if she was injured, and if he was able."

She just turned her glare in my direction, her fingers running through Prin's hair. "We're not moving until she wakes up."

There was no room for arguments, and I wasn't even tempted. I Agreed that we shouldn't be moving anywhere quickly. But I also wished that Roseo had summoned some food for us, after we survived their little hunting trap.

"At least it's cooler now?" Senka said in a meek and quiet voice, looking up at me nervously. I wasn't too sure why she was nervous, even though we had been pretty rough on her. I didn't think that she was waiting for an apology either. She was slightly shaking, which made it rather uncomfortable to keep her where she was, but I ignored it and tried to settle down on the ground.

"That's a positive," I mumbled and put my shirt back on. I wondered when we'd be able to make it to the next town, but I also supposed that there wouldn't be another town. It was clear that we were quite close to the corner of the map, at least we assumed we were. The next city would be Daefocer. I wondered if we'd be able to stop by an inn, but I somehow doubted that. Whenever I wished for something, it didn't happen.

I settled next to Sarphi and Prin, whilst giving Onyx a small stroke, even though my palm was wet from sweat, and I really didn't like him. He was still trying to nudge Prin awake, and I wanted to show at least some comfort towards the poor dog.

Aknon stood and began pacing along the road, before he got his book out and looked at the sun through one of the pages. "Yeah," he whispered to himself as he put it away, his expression solemn.

"What was that?" I asked quickly, frown deepening even more. Any other day I would make a comment about wrinkles, but I was far too tired with the day's messes, or this week's messes. "What did you read?"

"Nothing, really." Aknon shook his head and continued to pace. "Nothing close to what I wanted it to tell me."

"What did you want it to tell you?" I asked at the same time Senka commented, "yeah, it'll do that."

I tilted my head down to look at Senka. "What do you mean by that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. I knew that she would know more about this book then Aknon and I did. She'd come with the book, something I still didn't understand. She hadn't told us anything about how she got to be at the inn when we were there.

"The book will never give you the answer you're after," Senka said with a shrug. "I've told you this before, I'm sure of it. It'll give you the information it thinks you should know." She then looked down and hid her face before crawling down to the floor and crawling over to Sarphi and Prin, crawling up Prin's arm and sitting on her chest. I thought that I heard Sarphi scolding her to get off, but Senka stayed there, just hugging Prin the best she could.

"So, the deity of the hunt and intimate matters," I said to Aknon after a while. "What do you think they did?"

Aknon huffed, like he couldn't believe I actually decided to open my mouth. "I don't know." It sounded like he didn't think that Roseo had done anything good. "They shot her in the chest and caused her to pass out." He gestured to Prin lazily.

"I can see that." I shook my head and lay back, staring up at the blue sky with my hands acting like a cushion. "But why? They said that they were helping us, and that we'd achieved something."

"Can we just wait and see?" Aknon asked with a pleading voice, something very unlike him. He didn't usually whine, unless he was really desperate for something, but even more worrying was the fact he wanted to wait. Aknon was the kind of person who hated waiting for the answers, he'd rather go and strangle the answers out of a library by draining it dry of knowledge.

"If that's what you want." I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't going to argue with him right now. We were all tired, and I was keeping an ear out, listening to Prin's breathing. She seemed perfectly fine, other than the fact sh3e was unconscious.

I suddenly felt extremely sleepy, being unable to keep my eyes open as I fell asleep on the dirt road in the middle of a deity's hunting grounds.

I woke up to the loudest scream I'd ever heard. The sound made my ears ring and my body feel like it was struck by lightning.

I jolted to my feet and took out my dagger, eyes darting around the now-dark road. I had been the first of my siblings to react, as they all scrambled to their feet and looked around wildly. The grass had grown around us so that it looked like a large maze, but the area was otherwise quiet, save for the scream.

Onyx didn't seem worried at all as he ran around happily, panting like any other dog would. Senka didn't say anything, which was something else which stood out to me.

But my first instinct was to detect the sound. The screaming was obvious, but I needed the origin. I'd accounted for everyone apart from Prin. The idea caused a pool of worry to overflow in my stomach, but I didn't need to search for long, as she was right beside the alert Sarphi.

She was the one screaming.

Her eyes were wide open, her left hand at her throat, and she was jumping up and down on the spot as she looked around with fear. She was giving me many mixed signals, and I couldn't tell if she was conscious or not.

The fact that noise was coming from her mouth wasn't unusual, but she was acting as though it was the best thing ever. She was waving her right hand in the air frantically. It was almost as though she was choking.

I rushed forward, dropping my dagger and looking into her mouth. "Aknon, I need a light." My voice was harsh and cold, but I didn't care as I looked into her open mouth.

"What's happening?" Sarphi asked, voice still tired from sleeping, she didn't seem to have understood the situation yet.

But Aknon quickly followed me and created another ball of light. It wasn't very effective, since it caused me to squint. I was usually good at seeing in the dark, but I really struggled to understand what I was seeing.

Her throat looked like it was swelling inside.