“I think I might hate trees,” she muttered under her breath, and he felt an incongruous desire to laugh, despite their perilous situation. “We’ll move closer to the plains if you like,” he offered, helping her around a fallen tree trunk. “You’ll need space. And your own herd of horses, I imagine.” He glanced at her. With his heightened eyesight, another side effect of the Trickster’s “gifts”, he could see her clearly even in the darkness under the trees. The smile of pure pleasure that lit her face nearly brought him to his knees. “You’d do that for me? Move away from your home? You’ve lived here for centuries, haven’t you?” He had to turn away from her to watch the path, but her smile still glowed in his mind’s eye. “It’s time I had a change of scenery,” he said and was rewarded with the sound of her quiet chuckle. He felt the spells around his cabin disintegrate just as they reached the stones. The circle was no more than forty feet in diameter.
