Anton couldn't help feel a little nervous about what he had planned for the day.  Not that he hadn't planned for it, indeed he'd made an effort to think it through and in general try and make sure things went well.  But, there was only one way to find out and that was why he was walking to the main settlement.  While he didn't care for being around many people these days, he did occasionally make allowances, like meeting with his fellow leaders in person to discuss matters in council.  Then there were the times he brought new cubs to the stedding, people in need of Miryana's guidance to find their place in the Stedding and the world.  Then there was visiting particular people, in this case because he owed someone something.

 

It had been quite sometime since the tracking exercise that Aleeza had gone through, and while he hoped that time dimmed some of her anger with him, he wasn't entirely sure.  She hadn't said or done anything to hint she was still angry with him when she'd returned her truant student Korrena to him awhile ago, but maybe she'd just hidden her feelings too well for him to sense.  He knew he was good at certain things, but he knew that there were times he miscalculated or didn't know something nearly as well as he thought.

 

He did know that he wanted to make amends though.  She'd been tracking him and was about to stumble upon him in the rosebushes, he couldn't help himself as he made her think there was a snake there.  She'd been so angry with him that she'd managed to injure him rather badly before leaving, completely furious.  He hadn't felt he'd quite deserved that, but when he'd heard the news later he found out that she'd managed to hurt herself nastily not only with the rosebushes but had also gotten sick from the cold after having searched the waters he'd led her to for over an hour.  Not that he didn't think she could have done better, but he still felt bad about it.

 

And helping him with Korrena had also been a good turn she'd done him despite it all.  Maybe she had forgiven and forgotten, but that didn't stop Anton either way as he found and entered the infirmary.  Miryana was a little surprised by his question of where Aleeza was but she was more than happy to direct him to the herb garden.  It was there he found her, on hands and knees where she looked to be weeding and she hadn't noticed him yet.  Leaning on his stave, Anton was tempted to leave before she did but instead he called over to her.

 

"Aleeza, mind if we talk a moment?"

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

For someone as shy as Aleeza, begin approached by a completely stranger took her completely off-guard.  In all fairness, he wasn’t a complete stranger, she had passed the troublesome Korrena off to him yesterday but how did that bare dozen words warrant a follow-up conversation?  And blood and ashes, she had heard him coming, but not expecting his destination to be her, he had nearly scared the wits out of her when he spoke.

 

Instinctively she had gotten her hoe out in front of her to stave him off.  This should have earned some amusement, but instead it seemed to double the faint scent of nervousness wafting from him.  ‘What on earth?  I couldn’t have scared him that bad.  It’s only a bloody hoe.’

 

“Umm... alright.” said the young woman warily.  “I’m afraid I’ve forgotten your name, you told me the other day didn’t you?  Ah, Anton.  That’s it.  Hello, then.  What was it you wanted?”

 

 

Aleeza

~Dark Sun Rising~

"I just wanted to thank you for the other day, for bringing Korrena back.  She wanders a bit, and she could have been in a great deal more trouble if you hadn't stepped in and brought her to me."

 

Reaching into his jacket, Anton almost fumbled the small packet but he had it in hand quickly enough and handed it over.  Brown cloth tied with twine, it was a little larger than his hand and had been fairly expensive all things considered, but he'd seen the chance and had gone with it.  "Its Tremalking Black, the steam from it is good for clearing the lungs and nose as well as relaxing."  It was also hard to get inland but he didn't mention that.  She was a Sage so she probably knew that herself from the top of her head.

 

Before she could say anything, Anton averted his eyes as he added.  "Its, uh, its also to apologise."

 

There was a pause before she asked him what the apology was for.  That didn't bode well, and it only took a moment for Anton to realise why.  She hadn't known that it was him in the rosebush, his scent must have been covered so well than that she hadn't gotten a decent whiff of it, save for the smidgeon he had left as he'd left the false trails.  That was why she wasn't angry with him, she didn't know!  And now he was going to have to tell her, not that he wouldn't have anyway, but the thought he might have simply been able to let it slide was a wasted one now.

 

"Well, when you were doing your tracking training, it was me in the Rosebushes.  It was a stupid idea to hiss when all those thorns were around you, I didn't think it through and I heard afterwards that you had a lot of cuts on you afterward.  I am really, really sorry."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

If this was about Korrena, why was he so nervous?  It wasn’t like he was young enough for it to be simply nerves about talking to a girl.  Light, he was older than she was.  So what was this really about?  The little girl wasn’t the end of this.

 

Most of her confusion was thrown to the wind when he handed her a tiny pouch.  “Tremalking Black?  For Light’s sake, where’d you find this?  It’s next to impossible to get up here!”  Even her shyness was set aside for her love of herbs.  So what if she was a little obsessive about herbs?

 

In her fascination, she almost didn’t hear his admission.  “An apology?  For what?”

 

When he answered, Aleeza was dumbstruck.  At first she just stood there, herbs forgotten.  “You... It... What... I... That was you!”  Absentmindedly, she clutched her arms that were still covered in half-healed scabs, despite the multitudes of ointments access to the infirmary had gotten her.  “You bastard!” she hefted the butt of her hoe as if to hit him again but he responded in kind with his staff and she thought better of it.

 

“Blood and ashes, I... You... Gah!”

Anton had expected a violent reaction, he hadn't thought that he would need to lift his staff up just to get her to lower her hoe back down.  Not that she had exactly lowered it, but he didn't think she was going to hit him with it.  Lowering his own staff regardless, he wasn't going to hit her.  He'd gotten her hurt as it was, he didn't want to then go and revisit the wounds he'd caused her.  If he'd realised she would have hurt herself so badly he wouldn't have put her through it.  Most certainly wouldn't have hissed at her.

 

"I'm sorry, alright!"  That much was true, she'd be able to sense the truth of it for herself.  "Look, I didn't expect you to spend an hour in that pond!  It was so cold that I thought after a couple of minutes you'd realise I couldn't be hiding in there, I would have frozen to death.  As to the Rosebush, there is a trick to getting in there without hurting yourself, I thought it might have come to you before you ventured in but it didn't, and I'm sorry you were hurt as badly as you were.  I don't intentionally go out of my way to hurt people."

 

Feeling wretched was a feeling that Anton was unaccustomed with, and he tried to shove it aside as he continued.  "Look, I just wanted to say I was sorry and make it up to you.  I was thinking that if you didn't know how to get into the Rosebush, you might get hurt foraging for other herbs.  Its a simple enough trick, and I thought I'd show it to you so you didn't get yourself hurt again."

 

He had better people skills than this, Anton was a tracker after all, he was used to dealing with wanderers.  But then, that was the point, that was what he was used to dealing with now, but his time spent traveling as a Wolfkin and hiding his presence from other people had made him increasingly a loner.  He didn't like letting wolves into his head the way that others did, and in some way that unwillingness had come to him in regards to people.  Only his fellow trackers, some of the others he had gotten to know over time at the stedding and a few from his previous life were the ones he felt comfortable with.

 

"Look, I'll go.  I'm sorry."  Turning, Anton began to walk away.

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Aleeza bit her lip as he turned his back and began walking away.  Anger was replaced by guilt as she thought how much he looked like a wolf slinking away with its tail between its legs, she could feel remorse wafting off him in a scent as strong as the rosebush.  The young woman was in no ways a people person; people scared her or maybe it wasn’t that she wasn’t a people person, she might just be paranoid.  A combination of the two perhaps?

 

She had never been particularly decisive or impulsive either and so by the time she decided to run after Anton, he was already on the other edge of the tiny village.  “Hey Anton!”  Her shout stopped him in his stride, giving her time to pull even with him.  “I uh…” she hadn’t gone so far as to plan what she would say to him or how she would phrase her own apology.  Embarrassed, Aleeza shifted her gaze to her boot.  “I’m… I’m sorry for going off on you like that.”  A moment of silence.  “Umm… both times.  It’s just that… ah… well… I’m generally rather shy and… it scared me… err…”  She was prattling.  Damnit, her people skills sucked.

 

Calming herself down, Aleeza took a deep breath and tried again.  “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.  But I did get hurt, but that’s no excuse for how I acted.  I’m sorry.”

It was as he pulled away from the village that Anton heard someone calling after him.  Turning around, Anton frowned as he saw that it was Aleeza, what did she want?  Apologies?  Listening, Anton was openly surprised as Aleeza began by apologising for how she'd gone off at him, then apologising for kicking him in the crotch, then apologising in general.  That hadn't been what he'd expected, he'd been thinking it would be more along the lines of another kick where it was tender.

 

He wasn't really sure what to say to it, surprised as he was.  You're welcome didn't quite sound right, and he'd already apologised and apologising back and further over and over was going to do nothing more than make them feel like even bigger idiots.  Instead, he stalled for time as he nodded slowly, trying to think of something to say that would quite cover it all.

 

He couldn't.

 

Failing that, Anton decided to try and move past it rather than embaress both of them further.  There was another part of his apology to give after all, sort of.  "I, uh."  Good work idiot.  "I could still show you how to get past those roses with getting yourself hurt, if you're interested.  If you're looking for herbs, could be something handy to know."  It was true, and if they weren't just roses, something with a little poison in its thorns, not knowing how to get around it would be fatal.

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Well, at least she wasn’t the only one stuttering over her words.  Mind you, he stuttered once in the same amount of time it took her to stutter some seven times with much looking at feet, scratching of head, glancing around and general foot shuffling.  To top it off, she let a good minute or so of dead air hang between them while she tried to think up someway to reply.  Somehow just “thanks” or “sure” wouldn’t cut it.  Should she apologize again?  Or would that just reinforce how redundant she was?

 

“Umm… Yeah, sure… thanks.”  Oh great, rather than use one lame response, she used both.  Double the lameness!  Honestly, she really needed to work on her people skills.

Anton wasn't exactly heartened by the way that Aleeza took her time to answer, but he was beginning to get a better inkling of her now.  Shy.  Very shy.  He'd misread her from when he'd given her the herbs, her guard had been down but now he could see it clearly enough.  Much like some of the wanderers he found, though why she was that way he couldn't have said for the life of him.  She was a full wolfsister, she had wolves running about in her head yet she was nervous of people?  Well, it could still make sense and in fact probably did, but Anton didn't particularly want to see it at that time.

 

"Well, come with me then.  We'll need to go to my hut first so we can retrieve a couple of items."  Turning, Anton led the way as the pair of them made their way from the Stedding towards the place that he called home.  It would be quite a walk, but Anton was used to travelling a good deal of distance as a Tracker so he didn't even think about it.  Besides, distance was a good thing in his mind, he didn't want to live within the Stedding with everyone else, he wanted his own space and his own home.  Well, when he was within the area at all that was, travelling was his first love still.

 

As they walked, Anton decided to make some conversation.  It wasn't that the silence wasn't comfortable, indeed he often preferred it these days because he rarely got any.  But he didn't think it would be quite so comfortable for Aleeza, besides which he didn't really know her at all.  This would be a chance to remedy that problem.  "You're one of the Sages aren't you now?  What made you decide to become a Sage instead of, say, a Tracker?"

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Nodding, Aleeza followed him into the woods.  After a good fifteen minutes, she began to wonder how far it would be.  For the most part, the Wolfkin clustered their houses around their little village.  However, there were a few who preferred the solitude of the deeper woods and mountains.  Anton appeared to be one of those- not that different from Aleeza herself who one day hoped to build a house a little ways up the mountain.

 

Since their walk didn’t seem to ending any time soon, the young woman took advantage of the silence and studied the beauty of the woods around her.  For the most part, their past was shaded by the thick forest canopy, giving the woods a serene, dusky feel.  When the canopy did break to allow a few rays of sunlight down, she caught sight of an eagle soaring high above them, out of sight from normal eyes.  She watched a jackrabbit break loose from the underbrush at their scent and dart off to a thicket of brambles across the path.  Idly, she wondered what the chances were of that self-same jackrabbit ending up in some wolf’s belly tonight or in one of the Wolfkin’s stews.

 

Anton’s voice made her jump as it cut across the stillness of the forest around them.  “Almost, I still have to complete my weapons training.” Aleeza winced at that.  She was not looking forward to explaining to Owen her hatred for weapons.  “I wanted to be a Tracker once”  when she had first come to the Stedding, she had been eager to shed herself of her past and the painful memories that came with it “before I ran away.”  She had come to terms with her heritage and her new life since then.

 

“I want to fix people; help new Wanderers through their Howling and any other problems they might have readjusting,” Light knew she had had enough of her own problems after her Howling to empathise “and to reverse the damage swords and weapons do.”

 

Silence returned between them for a few minutes.  Remembering that it was courteous and expected that she should return the question, it was difficult to remember the unwritten laws of social conduct when one spent three years in solitude with only wolves as companions, it took her a few moments to build up her courage enough to break the comfortable silence.

 

“What about you?  Why the Trackers?”

Listening to Aleeza, Anton found himself regretting that Aleeza hadn't chosen Tracker.  She might have been prone to fits of rage when startled in rosebushes, but her words were...  Well, they reminded him of a Tinker more than anything else, though the shyness was very unusual for one of the Tuatha'an.  Then again, everyone changed when they become Wolfkin, how much always varied, but it was certain that everyone changed.  It also didn't escape him that she had run away at some point, maybe he would ask why later on.

 

"It was an easy enough choice for me.  Ever since I was young I've been traveling around the world, doing various jobs along the way to pay for my board and the like.  Thiefcatching in particular was one of my main professions, dangerous work but I was good enough at it.  Allowed me to build up a fair few contacts about the world in my time, also gave me the opportunity to see whats over the next hill.  I'd even come to the Wolfkin Stedding before my howling had manifested, which was a problem because then when it did come, I thought I was going mad because surely someone here would have picked up on it beforehand."

 

"But then, things changed...  I doubt my howling was the worst, but it was bad and I almost ended up killing Janna before she brought me to my senses.  Ever since then, I've just wanted to get to people before they're that far gone and help them out.  Plus I get to travel about, put my skills to use and it gives me time away from, well, all of this.  Sometimes I wonder if the stedding sometimes forgets what it is to be human with how they've cut themselves off from everyone else."

 

"But, you said something about undoing the damage of weapons."  Anton looked to Aleeza with a smile.  "You wouldn't happen to be Tuatha'an would you?"

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Aleeza looked away, hiding the tear that traced its way down her cheek.  Light, they had been her family!  How could they have abandoned her in the drop of a hat?  Families were supposed to love each other no matter what happened!  So what if she had gold eyes and dreamed of hunting and killing?  Could she help that?  It wasn’t her fault so why had she taken the fall?

 

Unable to keep her emotions in check enough to speak, not that her pain and grief wouldn’t be obvious through her smell, she simply nodded.  Struggling to collect herself, she managed a few choked words before her eyes threatened to explode with tears.  “I was.  Until they… made me leave when my Howling started.”

 

That was why she had run away the first time.  Despite this new-found home, this wasn’t her family and she resented that, even if it wasn’t their fault, they had taken her away from the only life she had ever known.  It was the reason she avoided most of the Kin.  She was afraid they would smell her unjust resentment towards them and while Aleeza might resent them for stealing her away from her family and her life, neither was she ready to lose her new home and have nothing again.

Anton didn't need to be a Wolfkin to know that Aleeza had become upset at where the topic had turned.  It seemed the Tuatha'an hadn't been nearly so kind to their own daughter as they purported to be, but then, it was a mistake to think they were friendly and accepting.  Friendly and pacifist perhaps, but certainly not accepting.  Those that carried violence upon them, weaponry in particular, were not nearly as welcome as their ritual greeting hinted.  For Aleeza to have come into her howling, maybe they had simply been afraid of what she had become, perhaps it was something else, but it seemed they hadn't been able to accept her changes.

 

It was at times like these that it was difficult to find the words to say.  He could say that the Tuatha'an were bastards for having done it, but it was clear she was attached to them and their memory still.  He couldn't say they'd been right to do so, because they most certainly had not been right to force her away.  But, sometimes words weren't what was needed, no, in this case it was a song.  Picking a simple yet upbeat song, Anton knew his voice wasn't the sort to make ladies swoon but he sang anyway.  It wasn't long until Aleeza joined in, and soon enough he had her out of her mood as they made their way through different songs that they knew.

 

Reaching his hut, he disappeared inside for a moment so he could retrieve what they would need, a pair of heavy leather cloaks.  Tossing one to Aleeza, Anton slipped his own on as he spoke.  "These are essential, throw it on and we'll head to the rosebushes, no?  Come on, and how does that song go that goes Daaa dee da de da da deeee?"

 

Getting a laugh out of Aleeza at the way he butchered a perfectly good tune, the pair talked and sang more as they made their way to the site of their first meeting.  By the time they reached it, Anton had a few catchy songs stuck in his head that he was sure wouldn't disappear anytime soon.  Walking over to the space where one could crawl into the centre of the rosebushes, Anton squatted down next to it as he gestured for Aleeza to come over.

 

"The secret to getting in unharmed is simply having the right tool.  When you found my clothes, you would have noticed that a cloak was conspicuously absent.  All you need to do is this."  Slipping the cowl over his head, Anton took hold of the wings of the cloak and curled them around so his fists were on the inside.  Holding them wide as he fell forward onto his chest, he began to worm his way through the opening, letting the the cloak bear the thorns as he passed under, leaving scratches on the cloak but himself unharmed.

 

"Come on!"

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Out of nowhere, Anton burst into song.  A lively, if not exactly in tune, version of “My Lady Went Down to the River” assaulted the previously silent canopy, sending a number of birds soaring to escape the racket.  Despite her former bitterness and melancholy, the song earned the Tracker a small smile.  When he missed a particularly high note, she giggled like a little girl watching her mother dance the tiganza for her father.

 

Besides her family, that was what she missed most about leaving the wagons- the music.  Every night for the first nearly eighteen years of her life she had gone to sleep with the sounds of drums, fiddles, tambourines and sometimes even a harp or lute playing out some tune for the Tuatha’an to dance to.  Her especial favourite had always been the slow beating of the drums that announced the tiganza.  Aleeza would sneak out of bed at night to watch the woman move their feet to the drumbeat while their hips swayed to the crying of the violin.  When she had been older and able to participate, the ability to make a man sweat while he watched her dance was always secondary in comparison to being able to dance.  Until she met Nathan, of course…

 

But thoughts of her ex-husband couldn’t spoil the joy of hearing songs she had grown up with as a child ring through the treetops.  When Anton destroyed an entire line of a song, she joined in to correct him.  Timidly at first, simply humming along, and then by the time they got to his house- they were there already, Light time flew!- she was belting out right beside him in a breathy alto.

 

Suddenly, all awkwardness and social ineptness on her part had suddenly vanished in light of what seemed to be a common interest- music.  Aleeza was able to forget that she was trying not to get hurt by anyone else like her family had hurt her.  She was chatting and singing along with Anton as amiable as if this had been ten years earlier and she had never even heard of the Wolfkin nor the Howling.

 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until they actually got to the rosebushes, that Aleeza remember just how painful those thorns had been and how embarrassed and furious she had been.  Suddenly she was back to blushing and shying away from both bushes and Anton.  Then, as if her misgivings about this particular venture weren’t enough, something he said caught her attention.

 

“Oh Light!” she whispered, turning a deep shade of crimson that completely clashed with her golden hair.  “You weren’t… You were… That cloak…  Oh Light!”  Aleeza moaned, thoroughly embarrassed.  “When I kicked you… you… there was nothing in between…”  Tears began to form as mental images inflamed her cheeks until it felt as if her entire face was likely to melt any moment.  “I’m so sorry!”

Quickly shimmying out from under the rosebushes when he realised that Aleeza wasn't following, Anton began to encourage her when she suddenly stepped away, her face brighter than the sun and more embarrassed than a child found with their hand stuck in a jar of sweets.  It took a moment to understand as the words stumbled out of Aleeza, but when he did he fell on his back laughing.  He had thought she would have realised about his state of dress inside the rosebushes, she'd seen all of his clothes folded and piled neatly after all.  To think that she was now only just realising it, a new bout of laughter took him.  It was made worse by the fact that she now seemed confused.

 

"I thought you knew.  Let me tell you, I never thought that having pants would really help soften the blow, but I was very very wrong.  It was awhile after you left that I crawled out of those bushes."  Seeing that she was about to apologise again, Anton waved his hands at her.  "No no, its alright.  Its been made completely worth it now, I don't think I've ever seen anyone with such a blush before.  Are you sure you're not going to burst into flame?  Even your ears are blushing!"

 

Anton laughed as Aleeza proceeded to turn an impossibly redder shade of, well, red, but she was laughing too at least.  It was a few minutes before they managed to settle down, but by that time Anton was able to contain himself to a grin at least.  "Come on, lets conquer these rosebushes already.  Watch.  Grab the wings of the cloak like this, lie down on your chest and turn the wings of your cloak so they protect your knuckles.  Keep close to the ground, and use your elbows to move forward, your cloak will handle the rest.  You can do it, follow me.  Come on."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

Aleeza was completely baffled by his laughter.  Shouldn’t he be furious?  Or maybe embarrassed?  What in the Light was he laughing about?  Upon hearing his comment about her blush, which was easily sustained when the image of naked Anton in the rosebush kept popping into her head, her face heat up even worse.  She laughed though.  He seemed to have that effect on her now that she was comfortable around him.

 

That didn’t exactly change how she felt about the rosebushes though.  Just thinking of crawling back through those brought all sorts of nightmarish visions and the feel of those thorns tearing at the flesh of her face were so real her hands shot up to protect herself.  Anything but those thorns again…

 

But his gentle encouragement seemed to make her fear seem like a five year-old senseless surety that monsters lurked beneath her bed.  Before long, she was on her knees, staring after him through a tangle of thorny branches that seemed to reach out and snag anything she dared let close.  Curling herself in a ball and whimpering, Anton’s persistence urged her onwards so that she finally got down on her belly and crawled.

 

It was painfully slow going.  Aleeza was overly careful about making sure the cloak covered her entire body so that she wouldn’t end up all scratched like last time and while there were many times she would have tried to turn around and give up, words from up the tunnel egged her on.

Encouraging Aleeza as she made her way through the rosebushes, Anton could smell her fear rolling off the woman as she did so.  It was a big ask for her to confront her fear so, but she was doing it nevertheless.  If there was any proof that Tuatha'an weren't cowards, it was in this.  They might not stand up to someone, but it took a little of courage and discipline on their own part not to lash out, not to attack.  In the same way, it took a great deal for Aleeza to put herself in harms way like this, at least in her mind.  Anton was confident that she would be fine as long as she did the right thing, and she was so far.

 

Reaching out for her as she got close, Anton chuckled as she made her way through.  "Thats it, see?  You could do this all along, all you needed to know was how to do it.  Come on, thats it, you're halfway out.  Don't get up just yet, thats it, little bit further.  There we go."  Helping her up so she was on her knees, sitting on her heels, Anton knew it would take her eyesight a little to adjust.  Very little light penetrated this hollow, and their eyes only caught so much of it.  Much better than what a normal person would have been able to make use of, but it was still dark nevertheless.

 

At least now she was a good deal calmer, he even sensed a bit of pride coming from her from having managed to do it and do so unharmed.  It was all about doing things smart and having the right tools.  Clapping her on the back, Anton was impressed with her managing to do it on her second go.  "See?  You can use this to get through many places that would otherwise leave you shredded, if you're ever out and about, be sure to have a cloak like this.  Not as warm as wool, but it'll keep you safe.  Now that you know the trick of it, want to lead the way out?  I'll follow and we'll get you back to the stedding."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

She had made it!  One moment the thorns were pressing down as if they would tear straight through the leather despite Anton’s insistence she would be fine, and the next there was open space above her head and the claustrophobic tunnel was gone.  Repeating “I did it” as mantra in her head, her breathing began to slow.  Anton couldn’t see it through the gloom, but she was grinning proudly at him as if a wolfcub were showing off the fruits of its first hunt.

 

Of course, going out she experienced the same terror.  Once again, she moved painfully slowly, wriggling through the thorns whispering “I can do it.  I can do it.  I can do it.”  The entire tunnel turned into a green hell which she shut her eyes against as if that could make it go away.  It didn’t make the thorns go away, but it did make the crawl a little more bearable.

 

Aleeza didn’t realize until Anton began laughing that she was already out of the tunnel and wriggling along the bare ground.  Getting to her feet with a sheepish smile, the impulse to hug him flew across her mind and was quickly discarded when a hint of pink showed on her cheeks again.  “Thank you, Anton.  I don’t think I’d have ever been able to look at a rosebush again.”

 

And with a final smile in his direction, and a laugh on his part, she headed back to the infirmary, humming