CRICKETS CHIRPED FROM below the canopy and a wind was blowing in from the east. Peaceful as it was, the night passed gruesomely slowly for Nahtaia. The fact that sentries guarded her home’s exits did not make it any easier.
“This is absurd,” she muttered. “Of all the stupidity.”
Suddenly one of the men snored at such an impressive volume, the windows rattled, and they continued clattering with each breath. Nahtaia sat up in bed, startled, then made her way to a window. She slowly pulled back the curtain and peeked through the glass.
There he was. The pine faery Fromm’s enormous figure, slumped on the ground. Nahtaia grinned. Darting to the door and looking through the smaller window beside it, she saw the other sentry was gone...but she could hear his footsteps around the farther end of
