Lake Rodney Life was so much better with you there

Shemesh pressed her lips into a thin, dark line and swallowed a sigh. Woods, meadows, and rivers, then wetlands and mountains? She guessed she could work with that. ”It’s okay,” she reassured Alaric. ”They’re everywhere out there, just… Not in the wilderness.” Human roads cut through wild places, marking lines of travel meant for machines and not animals; they weren’t like hiking trails that meandered through the forest without really interrupting it.

Shemesh nodded. ”Sort of. I came here with my master by road. A long, windy one to the south… East?” She glanced up at the sunlit sky to get her bearings, trying to figure out which way the rays were pointed. ”And if you follow a road far enough, you’ll eventually find humans. That’s why I need to find one — if I can find humans, they can help me find my master,” she explained. At least, Shemesh hoped that was how it worked; that was what happened when she got out and lost in the woods around Marion.