Sage
I crept down the abbey path, my footfalls covered by the women’s voices raised in song—the nuns practicing for Vespers. At my back, the red sun sank below the stone wall.
As I climbed the stairs to the covered walkway, a flash of movement caught my eye. Normally, I wouldn’t venture to look beyond the abbey walls; the abbey had been my home since I was an orphaned babe, and everything I knew was here. But this afternoon something made me look further. Craning my neck, I went on tiptoe, leaning against a pillar to see over the wall.
A large bearded man stood on the edge of the field, just inside the shade of woods. He stood so still, I almost mistook him for a tree. Another figure slipped out beside him, a creature with thick brown and grey fur. A dog—but it looked too large and wild
