Page 51 of The Soul of the Dragon

"Ensleyleft us a while ago. She complained that we moved too slow and said she would meet us at the waterfall after dark."

"How does she do that?"

"What?"

"Move without noise and randomly disappear without anyone noticing?"

"It is the way of the imp. They are special creatures of the forest and in addition to being known as master manipulators, they seem to have some sort of camouflage skills that no one besides them understands."

"Well, that explains a lot. But it gives me the fucking creeps the way she sneaks up on us all the time."

"Dare I say it again that maybe if you quit scaring her every time you see her then she wouldn't have to sneak around."

I frowned. "Somehow I doubt my behavior either way would change a thing. I think she likes surprising us in the same way I enjoy taunting her."

She shook her head and turned away from me again. But not before I caught the little snicker sound she made as she moved. But when she suddenly stopped and I nearly crashed into her, my attention went in a totally different direction.

"What's wrong?" I demanded.

"Nothing," she said, pointing at a bush just off the path. "You said you wanted food and I spotted berries."

I wrinkled my nose. "That's not food. At least not enough to sustain a dragon."

"What do you suggest then?" she asked. "I don't see a kitchen anywhere nearby where someone can make you something a little more acceptable. Out here, beggars can't be choosers."

"I am not a beggar." I lifted my pack from my back and dropped it to the ground in front of me, and then bent over and rummaged through it. "I am, however, prepared." I pulled several bricks of cheese and hunks of bread that I'd wrapped in cloth and thrown in my bag the night before.

However, before I could hand them over to her, I picked up sounds that didn't belong. I froze, bringing my finger to my lips, and strained to hear more. At first it was only some breaking twigs that alerted me, but soon thereafter I heard whispers.

"The King's guard," I said quietly.

"They're here?" she whispered.

"Probably a mile or so behind us. They're likely tracking us."

"What do we do?" She looked ready to run, and I grabbed her arm to keep her still.

"It's almost dark. We only have to keep ahead of them for a short while longer and then we can disappear."

"Do you think Magnus is with them? We won't be able to escape him."

"I would say no because of the effects of the poison, but if Sprite had the magic to get me free of the poison sickness then I can only assume the other imps do as well. So yes, we may discover the dragon is right back on the hunt as well."

"So what now?"

"Eat and move. Here." I handed her a large chunk of the bread and I swallowed down some of the cheese. I wasn't going to tell her that the dragon had hunted earlier and I probably wasn't as hungry as her.

We traveled in silence but moved off the trail and instead traveled through the brush that ran parallel to it. That way we were still going in the right direction but if someone waited on the trail up ahead, we would not get ambushed.

As the sun set behind the trees, I grabbed her hand and urged her to stay close. With the dark shadows of the forest making it darker than it was in the sky, her vision would be impaired. Mine would not. Shifters were granted with heightened senses even when not in their shifted form.

When the sky fully darkened and the stars winked above us, I searched for a clearing big enough to accommodate the dragon.

"This could get dangerous, Princess."

"Everything I've done since my mother's death has been dangerous. Let’s just do this and get it over with. I've lost track of where we are so I have no idea how much ground we covered. I just hope it’s enough and we don't have to spend too much time in the sky."

"Nervous about riding the dragon, little beast?" I softened my words to a near purr and her head jerked up at the sound.

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