Tina felt like her heart was actually inside her ear drums, it was pounding so hard.

             “Are you done bonding?” Mr. Haspel asked with a small grin as he pulled up the branches.

             Ms. Porter glared up at Mr. Haspel and said nothing as she stomped over to the horses. She yanked the bridle reins out of the trees and swung onto the horse. Tina look around for some sign of struggle or monsters or anything to account for the terrible noises but didn’t see anything. She chose to stay silent and walked over to her horse.

             They rode for two more days without incident. They camped next to a small stream with a tiny waterfall and a cave. They were in the foothills. Ms. Porter mentioned that they were a short seven days ride from the nearest town. She actually smiled at Tina and told her it was more like a city. Tina did a little hop and dance step as she put up the tent but didn’t mention her growing excitement to either of her two traveling companions. Ms. Porter decided that they should rest and camp for a few days before traveling onward. Something happened in the woods and normally Tina would be dying for more information but the more she was quiet about it, the more it seemed to irritate Ms. Porter. She seemed to be waiting for Tina to ask some questions, any questions about what they were doing. The more she seemed to observe Tina, the more that Tina felt like she should just skip along and pretend like she didn’t care one whit how long they were there and were they were going. She loved the look of irritation on Ms. Porter’s face as Tina whistled and cleaned the fish and prepared the food, softly singing to herself. Tina realized that she was perversely pleased to get under Ms. Porter’s skin and irritate her.

            The next afternoon, Mr. Haspel went deeper into the mountains to hunt and Ms. Porter was tending the fire. Tina decided to mend her torn skirt and fix Ms. Porter’s torn cloak. She didn’t bother asking Ms. Porter but merely picked up the cloak and began humming to herself as she sewed by the fire.