She came.
The owl flew farther away, past a hill, towards the mountains, still shouting its command. Saig wondered absently why no one else paid the bird any attention, but there wasn’t any real emotion accompanying the thought. There was nothing but the call of the bird. Nothing but each next step forward.
She followed until night became day again, and continued through the next night. Sometimes she scrambled over the rocky landscape, sometimes she walked on steady ground. The bird was always just beyond her, but never too far away.
She walked. She climbed. She descended. Light and dark kept switching places, but Saig didn’t feel like time passed at all.
Then one moment, the owl disappeared. Saig gradually realized she was soaking, as if she’d been in the rain. Her boots had sunk i
