CIRCE

i

The leaves shake as Lonan leaps from tree to tree. Here in The Eijoa, a rainforest nation, the trees extend far above her head and canopy the world below. Massive and solid, they're strong enough to build homes suspended between them, and to travel by branch just as one would a pathway. She leaps to the next tree, the bark of the branch scraping against the cloth that wraps her feet.

The wet season brings an eternal mist that nourishes the forest. To her, it's comforting. It always has been as a woman born and bred for the trees, Eijoan to her core. Though it does make her joints ache as her body fights her magic. Her fingers dig into the bark as she hoists herself up higher.

Climbing is a comfort to her too. Her mind has no choice but to clear as she sprints between trees, a tepid breeze toying with her charcoal colored hair, fluttering against her freckled ochre cheeks and pointed ears. Even with her chronic pain, Lonan finds climbing to be pacifying, her focused switched to nothing but her movements.

A cluster of leaves rustles.

Lonan falls still where she stands, eyes darting to the cluster just two trees away. She should be alone. She had come with no one, and her position as Pathfinder of The Eijoa is enough to frighten most away from casual interaction. Her eyes narrow on the cluster, and though it appears to be nothing but rich green leaves, she is certain there is a pair of boots that peek through.

It has to be a human. They had come a year ago on behalf of an organization they call UNISED. With their arrival, they had brought a promise of prosperity, but all Lonan has seen is cloaked figures in the trees. Spies watching her, even now.

The cluster is unmoving as she stares it down, which she takes to mean that whoever within it knows they've been caught. Maybe this is her chance to catch them, the attempts before having failed.

"Lonan?"

Shit.

She glances down to see Tannier below, easy to pick out from the forest floor with his head of auburn curls. Though the moment she looks away, the cluster rustles again. It draws her and Tannier's attention, his head swiveling, her eyes returning to it. The peep of boots is no longer there. Lonan curses beneath her breath.

"Lonan?" Tannier calls out once more.

Carefully, Lonan makes her way down the tree, leaping down the last few meters. She lands into a roll to diffuse the pain away from her knees, drawing Tannier back around. He's always been alert, even to so small of a noise, her dutiful guard whose awareness never wavers. However, he's never shared her affection for climbing, in part because of his size, a head taller than her and broad in the chest. Not that she blames him. He did fall on her first and only attempt to teach him how to climb.

"What is it?" Lonan asks.

"The humans are ready to head out."

Tannier speaks the word 'human' with unabashed distain. He has never liked them. Their arrival had planted the seed of detest into his heart, and their continuing presence is slowly feeding it. Lonan would say that she understands, however, she is reluctant to echo such feelings. To her, UNISED is like a beetle; pesky yet not harmful. UNISED has done nothing but trade, exchange, and explore, and though Lonan is aware of how swiftly that could change, she delights in remaining optimistic. It's more comfortable.

"I thought we still had another hour?" She asks.

"As had I, but that human commander had contacted us, saying that her party was ready," Tannier responds.

Irritation sparks in his sea blue eyes. She's learned that, to him, these small changes are instead small insults to her as Pathfinder, The Eijoa's infallible leader. To her, they are more so inconveniences. Lonan hesitates to label it as disrespect, knowing that it could stress the already tense allegiance between UNISED and The Eijoa. Still, it irritates her as well. The additional hour had been why she had went for climb through the forest.