When Didi woke up in the early morning, Dominic wasn't there.

At first she wasn't worried. He was probably in the bathroom, sneaking in an extra shower. She opened her book to get in another chapter before she had to work. When the sun was up and Kaylessa was pounding on her door, she started to worry.

"Have you seen my brother?" Didi asked.

"Not since last night. Make your bed and get downstairs; the guests 'll be up soon!"

She did as told. She could only assume he'd gone off in search of the wanted criminals. He'd give up when he realized how unlikely he was to track someone down in half a night. He'd probably sneak back in during the afternoon lull. Kaylessa usually allowed them an hour's break then.

When that time came and went, and he STILL wasn't back, Didi began to worry.

"My brother's not home yet," said Didi. Kaylessa was wiping the lobby floor, a never-ending job, as more mud was tracked in every time someone came in.

"I noticed," Kaylessa said unhappily. "Those stables smelled like... well, like uncleared stables I guess. Had to muck 'em myself."

"I want to go look for him," said Didi.

"Well, then I guess you best get to prepping for dinner so you can get done early. Gonna be a busy night again."

She considered just leaving, but she wasn't quite worried enough for that yet. What if Dominic was still waiting for a chance to sneak back then? Then, she would have gotten herself in trouble for no good reason. And as much as didn't like being a maid, she didn't want to be fired and suddenly homeless again, either. Those first few months after running away had been horrible. Didi and Dominic had been thoroughly trained for combat and pillaging. They had not been trained to live off the land. It had been awful, going from place to place, never knowing where their next meal would come from or whether anyone approaching would be someone they could trade with for food or their mother's scouts coming to get them.

What if their mother had found Dominic? Didi had started to feel comfortable in Red Larch, but maybe they had been stupid to stay there for so long. It was a small town, but people passed through. Rumors spread. People saw them and people noticed them. By herself, Didi might have been able to pass for a full-blooded human, to someone who wasn't expecting otherwise. Her long, thick hair hid her ears, and she had adapted to human culture more readily. She was more fluent in both Common and Chondathan, and she had inherited the stereotypically human traits of friendliness and drive. But Dominic's hair, though long, was usually tied back, so it accentuated his elven features rather than hide them. He was aloof, outwardly uninterested in most people he met, and, from his accent, noticeably unaccustomed to human tongues. Together, it was obvious what they were.

So, if her mother had bothered to put a bounty on them, and bounty hunters had gone around asking if anyone had seen a pair of half-elf siblings...

She tried not to think about it. She did her chores, telling herself he would be okay; he could have probably taken a bounty hunter if that was what held him up, and their mother didn't care about finding them anymore. If she cared she'd have found them by now. But the more she worked, the more her imagination tortured her. The oven in which she baked the crumblecakes became her mother's dungeons in her mind; shredded poultry became flesh ripped a living person; sliced tomatoes became blood and mashed peas became battered heads splitting open and worst of all, peeled potatoes in the pot became waterlogged bodies, bobbing slowly, drowned.

She'd made herself so anxious that she leaped halfway into fighting stance when the kitchen door opened behind her. Her hand closed over the nearest knife and her mouth prepared itself to sling a magically-laced insult before she could process that it was only Kaylessa. She dropped the knife and closed her mouth.

"You still ain't seen that brother of yours?" Kaylessa asked.

Didi shook her head.

Kaylessa sighed. "He ain't shown himself to me either, but I'd hoped he was around and just hiding. Now, listen, Didi. I don't like prying into you and your brother's personal business, but I'm gonna head down to the Sheriff's place and let him know to be keepin' an eye out for him. If you have any notion of why he might have wanted to run off... it could be helpful."

"He wanted to be a bounty hunter," Didi said, though she felt a little guilty for snitching. "He asked if I would come and I said no."

Kaylessa let out a breath. "I see. Well... I suppose that explains it." Her words had an odd weight to them, too final. Kaylessa had misunderstood.

"Not that he wanted to leave. He said we didn't have to leave. He said we'd come back in the morning. Maybe he just wanted to keep looking until he finds them but also, maybe... he might have gotten in trouble. That's why I want to go look for him."

Kaylessa put her hand to her mouth, thinking. "Didi, bounty hunting isn't something you can do in a night. I'm sure your brother knows that."

"He doesn't know that!" Didi insisted. "That's what he wanted to do. Sneak out, find a criminal, and sneak back in. I told him it was stupid but that's what he suggested."

"Didi... honestly, if you didn't want to leave and he did, that was just him trying to make a compromise, I reckon. Sounds like he figured you wouldn't be convinced, and up and left without you. You ain't checked your room for a note, have you?"

"He wouldn't do that!" Didi protested.

"Maybe not. But knowing what I know about young boys... they get to that age, sometimes, it's like they turn into different people altogether. They get that itch to go out and see new things, get away from their families. And they ain't that good with feelings, either. They don't always say goodbye."

"Dominic wouldn't leave me!" Didi snapped. "Do you want these vegetables cut or not, because I'm trying to finish this and it's taking me long enough already!"

Kaylessa looked around the kitchen from the boiling potatoes on the stove to the celery stalks on the counter, folded her arms across her chest, and sighed. "You've done enough. I appreciate you taking care of your responsibilities. Tell you what - you head on out down the trails and try to catch up with your brother, and I'll cover for you in here for tonight. But you come back before dark, understand? Don't wander off the path, and don't go causin' trouble!"

Didi did not have to be told twice. With all the terrors of her imagination at her feet, she bolted out the door without saying good-bye.

She heeded Kaylessa's warning to stick to the path, not out of obedience but out of lack of other leads. Occasionally she called out, "Dominic!" but even using magic to amplify her voice, no response ever came but the flight of startled birds.

She couldn't get far fast. The overnight rain had turned the path into a swamp. Several times her boots got stuck in the mud and she had to pry them out, and more than that she slipped and fell. By the time she'd been out for several hours, she no longer recognized her surroundings. Would Dominic have come this far? Had he gone the other way? Had he strayed in one of the endless possible directions from the path?

It had been raining all night; the road would have been slick for Dominic, too. And he hadn't been gone long before morning - she'd slept for only about four hours. If he'd been traveling along the path in this direction, she would have caught up to him by now, unless he'd continued wandering past daybreak. And why would he do that?

Even with this rationalization, she hesitated to turn back. What if he was just a bit further ahead, and she turned around just a bit too soon and lost all her progress? She didn't want to come this far again. But when she saw a carriage coming down the path towards her, she slowed. When it got close enough, she waved it down.

The driver seemed to wait for the last possible second to stop his horse. It finally came to a stop with a jolt and in a position that left her several paces behind the driver. She caught up to him with a burst of speed she probably couldn't have mustered if she thought she'd be walking back the way she came and peered up at him, angling her head to see into the covered coach.

"What do you want?" he asked, peering down at her with a scowl.

"Are you going to Red Larch?" Didi asked. "Please, can I ride with you?"

He looked her up and down. "You'd get my wares all muddy. No."

"I won't!" Didi promised. "I won't touch anything! And if I do on accident I'll pay you back for it! Please, my brother is missing and I have to get back and look for him and –"

"I said no!" the man said gruffly, taking out his whip to start his horse.

"I'll pay you!" Didi insisted. "I don't have any money on me right now but when we get to Red Larch I'll–"

"Do I look like a coach for hire? I said no!" He whipped his horse and the carriage took off.

She held back for a moment, angry tears building. She had tried to accept the fact that in this place, outside her mother's sphere of influence, people thought they could get away with disrespecting her. She couldn't bring her reputation with her when she left. She had to pass for an ordinary street urchin. But this was not something she could just let go.

As the carriage grew smaller, the magic in her fingers built. When there was enough, she whistled sharply. The magic flowed into her voice, magnifying the sound into something resembling the whistle of a furnace, and she flicked her hand at the carriage.

Smoke and flames encircled the wagon's cover. The driver screamed, the horse stopped, and Didi withdrew her spear from her belt as she charged. By the time he realized the fire wasn't hot and the wagon cover was completely intact, she was close enough to jab at him.

She missed. The man cursed, "You little–" and she jabbed again. He ducked back, retreating into the wagon, but that wouldn't help him. Oh, I'll ruin your wares all right! she thought as she jabbed through the wagon cover–

And missed again. She'd hit the wagon's wooden frame. As she jumped onto the side to yank her spear out, the man came at her from the side with a sword. He did not look as though he was at all familiar with using the weapons he sold, but a sword in an inexperienced person's hand is still dangerous to an experienced person trying to balance on the side of a wagon to dislodge a stuck spear. She leaped down just in time as the sword swung at her, and as she regained her balance he swung again. She jumped backwards, out of his range. Her spear was a lost cause at this point; she'd get it out when she'd incapacitated the guy. The stupid commoner swung a sword like he'd never had so much of a fist fight in his life; it would probably take only a few vicious words, along with a little dose of magic to knock him out.

"You talk tough, but –" Didi started, and reached for the magic to finish her sentence. The man pressed a foot down on the spear, loosening it. The magic trailed through Didi's veins, through her vocal cords. "Next time, think twice before you –"

Thud! The blunt end of her spear came down on her head. The magic she'd been gathering fizzled away. She fell to the ground. The spear fell beside her. The last thing she remembered was it hurting way more than it should have when her head hit the mud.

When she woke up to the sensation of falling rain, her first thought was that she was back in those months of running. Her head was muddled like it was in those first few days away from home, subsiding on as little sleep as they could manage, knowing their elven mother needed none. She had a split second of thinking that she should wake Dominic so they could get moving again, then a sadness and which was inexplicable for another half second before she remembered.

She sat up. Her head still ached terribly, and her vision took a few seconds too long to clear. It was dusk. She took her spear, which was laying beside her, and forced herself to stand.

Dominic might be back by now. He'd be worried. She had to get back to Red Larch soon, so he wouldn't get himself lost again, looking for her.

The walk was miserable. Every step she took sent another ray of pain through her head. She couldn't focus well enough to tune her head into the Weave and heal herself. She couldn't do anything but take one step at a time, using her spear as a cane so she wouldn't slip so easily on the mud.

She'd really messed up. What if the guy she'd attacked boarded at the Swinging Swords? It wouldn't even have to be the Swinging Swords. If he told a single soul in Red Larch that a half-elf hooligan had distracted him by making him think his wagon was on fire and then attacked him, it would not be long before the whole town heard about it. If she was lucky, Kaylessa would let her gather her things before kicking her and Dominic out. If she was unlucky, the town would form a mob, capture them, and ship them off to the dungeons. And as powerful as Dominic was, he could do nothing against a whole town. They hadn't managed to evade capture the first time, and Didi was in no condition to fight back now. They could all be lying in wait right now, ready to pounce when she set foot back in town, with Dominic as hostage.

But she had no choice but to go back. That's where Dominic would go.

If he could.

If he hadn't been stupid like her and picked a stupid fight and lost.

It was long past dark when the outline of Red Larch came into view. She could see in the dark, but the colors had faded with the sunset, everything becoming gray except the squares of yellow light from the windows in the Swinging Sword.

The town was still. No one came to arrest her. She quickened her pace as she approached the inn; maybe one those windows with the light on was their bedroom's, and Dominic would be up waiting for her. Maybe she could just sneak up and everything would be okay and she could forget this ever happened (after making Dominic promise he'd never sneak away like that again.)

She swung the door to the inn open, expecting to find the night shift clerk fighting off drowsiness at the front desk. Instead, she found Kaylessa at one of the sitting tables, one hand holding a cup of tea and the other hand on her temple.

Kaylessa stood up. "Didi! What in the –"

"I'm sorry!" Didi interrupted. "I know you're going to be mad, but I got into a fight, and if you're going to fire me and kick me out I understand but I –"

Didi fell silent as Kaylessa's arms wrapped around her so tight she couldn't move her arms. At first she was confused and tried to step backwards. But Kaylessa pulled her in closer, so tight Didi didn't have to support her own weight anymore, and Didi stopped struggling.

"Goodness gracious, child. First that brother of yours disappears on me, then you don't come back 'til gods know what hour it is, now –"

"Is Dominic back?" Didi interrupted.

Kaylessa's silence was her answer.

Tears spilled from Didi's eyes. What could she do? She had to go look for him along the other path, of course, but how could she? She couldn't move, she couldn't try, and now that she was restrained, unable to force her blood to flow by stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other, she was lightheaded. She thought she might faint –

Instead, she vomited on Kaylessa's sleeve.

Kaylessa gasped, shifted Didi to lean further out over, muttered a bunch of half-sentences that Didi barely heard: "Oh my–what in the–!? Are you okay? Oh, goodness gracious – and I just rinsed the mop out – oh, all right now. Let's get you to bed."

Question of the chapter: Anyone want to guess how old Didi is? How about Dominic?