[Mithalwen]

On the Downs

At first Jessamy tried to keep pace with the dog but his four legs had more energy left in them now than her two and after a short while she stopped running, let Duke go ahead and paused to waiting for the man to catch up.

Though the snow seemed to slow the fading of the light the Downs was still an eerie and greying world and looking back the glow of the lantern, small in the vastness of the landscape, made Karl’s talk of willow the wisps seem plausible.

“It don’t know what I expected to find here... I didn’t really think the stories were true ... until I was up here on my own” she added trying to convince herself and chosing to ignore the fact that she had had nightmares for a week after Seth had responded to her demand for a bedtime story with a particularly gruesome version of the legend of the old kings. After all she had only been seven at the time.

“Though treasure would have been nice ...” her voice tailed off as her mind wandered to the old story of the fairy princess and the magic necklace and Jessamy imagined what it would be like to have such a thing. Then she remembered that that story had wolves in it too. But it also had a brave and loyal hound and she turned her gaze back to Duke lest she lose sight of him as the snow fell thicker. The large soft flakes were settling on her cloak hood and she wrapped the ends of her sleeves around her hands. She hoped that Duke would find the others soon or if he found nothing maybe that was a sign that the others had already gone back to town and they could head back with a clearer conscience.

Karl might be an unlikely representative of her normal world but having been found by him she was no longer strictly speaking lost - though her relief was tempered by the certainty she wouuld face punishment on her return. She knew the later she was back the more severe it would be but it couldn't be helped. She couldn't have let Karl see her safe home without a thought for Edwin and the others.

She briefly wrapped her small cold hand around Karl's. "I am sorry to be a nuisance - but I am so glad you found me"

Then before he could react Jessamy remembered something he had said earlier and added "Did you say Duke found a skunk... we did too in one of the Barrows - that was how we got separated running away from the smell - I didn't get squirted 'cos I had alreday fallen over out of the way... but the others might have... and unless there are lots of skunks up there we might not be so far away after all. I don't think I went so far but it seems hard to keep people in sight up here" she added.