And so she went. She spent two days regaining her strength and set out first thing on the third morning. She chose to travel in her natural form, thinking she would make better speed while conserving more energy that way. She set off at an easy lope, making good time down the hard-packed road that led south from the monastery. Before long she reached the forest. She kept to the road, sparing a moment to wonder if this was the spot where that poor bard had been killed. When night fell she decided to stop and rest. It would delay her journey, but she would do Aidan no good if she arrived utterly exhausted. She found a sheltered spot and curled up to sleep.

She didn’t bother with a fire. Though the night was chill her thick fur was more than sufficient to protect her. So when she woke in the morning and smelled smoke she knew it wasn’t from her little campsite. For a moment she thought about taking a winged form and looking for the source of the scent, but she was in too much of a hurry. So she continued down the road.

She hadn’t gotten far before a distant sound caught her attention. It was a human sound, and a distressed human sound at that. Flame debated with herself whether she should do anything about it. Time was of the essence and she was going to rescue her husband, but somewhere nearby somebody needed help, and in the end Flame couldn’t just pass them by. A narrow track turned off of the main road in the direction of the cries she had heard, so she followed it deeper into the woods.

Soon she could hear a second sound underlying the first. It was a roaring crackle of flames, and the smoky scent was getting stronger by the second. She could make out words now; a man’s voice was calling for help alternately with shouting someone’s name. Then Flame Song came around a corner and saw the scene. There was a house, that caught her attention first, and it was on fire. It was a cottage, really. Small and no doubt cozy before the fire ruined that. Flames licked out the lower windows and crept upward. In front of the house stood a young man. He looked disheveled and distressed. His clothing was marked with burns and blackened by smoke, but he didn’t seem to care. All of his attention was directed toward the house.

Flame Song didn’t need to see anything more to guess what was going on. The man had noticed the fire and gotten out, but someone he cared for was still inside. Perhaps he had tried to go in after whoever it was only to be driven back by the unbearable heat of the flames. She dashed up to the man and said, “Is there someone still in there?”

He was so upset he wasn’t even startled by the appearance of a huge white and orange cat, he just said, “Yes! My wife is in there!”

Flame didn’t wait to hear more, she launched herself at the burning house. As she entered the flame-filled doorway she held her breath. She was a firecat, and to her people fire was a friend, not a foe. A part of her heritage was a natural immunity to heat and flame. It did not, however, extend to immunity from the problems associated with smoke inhalation, so she would have to be quick.

She made her way through the lower floors, checking every room and pausing every so often to put her nose to the ground to breathe in the clearer air found near the floor. The lower part of the house was filled with fire, but upstairs the flames were still getting a foothold, though the smoke was bad. In a room upstairs Flame found the woman she was looking for. She was out cold on the floor, probably a victim of smoke inhalation herself. Flame coughed a few times. Up here there was no clear air by the floor. She would have to get out fast.

Flame Song quickly ran her options through her mind. She couldn’t take the woman back the way she’d come. Flame had no way of sharing her fire immunity, and the downstairs was full of flames. So, out a window was her only option then. She shifted into aerian form and scooped the unconscious woman up in her arms, glad that the woman had a small build. Then Flame went to the window and, spreading her wings, jumped out. With the doubled weight she couldn’t actually fly, but she managed a kind of controlled fall that saw them both safely to the ground.

The man rushed up and took his wife from Flame’s arms. Out in the fresh air she was already starting to come around. She coughed violently several times before opening her eyes. Flame Song too was still coughing. She’d inhaled more smoke than was good for her. She sat down wearily on the ground. All that excitement hadn’t been good for her weakened system either.

The young man came over and began thanking her profusely. Flame Song shook her head. “I only did what anyone would have done if they could have. And she’s not safe yet. You’re going to want to get a good healer to see to her. She inhaled a lot of smoke, and that’s not good.”

The man nodded and thanked her again. Flame felt a little bit uncomfortable. She really hadn’t done anything that unusual! She got to her feet, saying again, “I’m sure you would have done the same thing in my place. But I need to get going. Don’t forget to see a healer.” She waved and set off into the woods, shifting into firecat from as she went.

When she stopped that night she was still in the forest. She took the time to give herself a thorough grooming. Her fur was stained with soot and smoke. It took a long time before it was clean and white again.

When she awoke in the morning she still felt tired and drained. She knew she should rest longer, but she couldn’t bring herself to. It had been far too long since she’d left her husband behind at the doubles’ castle. Anything could have happened in that time.

It was not long after noon when she came to the edge of the forest. Ahead were settled lands with fenced fields and small farms scattered here and there. A little village was just visible in the distance. Flame had hardly emerged from the eaves of the forest when she saw a man on horseback coming her direction. The bow slung behind his back identified him as a hunter, probably headed for the forest in search of game. He pulled his horse to a halt when he saw her. Her keen ears picked up his whisper of shocked alarm. “By all the gods! ‘Tis the devil cat!” He whipped his bow off of his back and knocked an arrow. Flame, confused at his reaction but not wanting to stick around and get shot, dodged off of the road and into the hedge that lined it. An arrow whistled after her. She raced across the field, a second arrow and then a third chasing after her but fortunately missing before she made it over a low rise and out of range. She stopped, panting.

It didn’t take her long to figure out that she’d been mistaken for her double. This close to the dark Flame Song’s castle the people were probably wary of her depredations. Flame sighed. This was going to be very inconvenient. When she poked her head over the rise to see if the hunter was going to follow her, she saw a trail of dust disappearing toward the little village.

Apparently the hunter had raised the alarm, for she spent the rest of that day dodging armed villagers. She shifted forms a dozen times, but the size limitations that kept her from assuming any form much smaller than human made things difficult. Deer, ponies, wolves, and other such forms were all far too conspicuous to pass through town in. At last after being chased up and down half the countryside she hit on a shape that worked. In the form of a large mongrel dog she snuck through town and headed down the road. She didn’t like canines, but a cat had to do what a cat had to do. And as if to top off her wonderful day, as she finally left the village it began to rain.

She was still miles from the castle when she stopped for the night. She was wet, she stunk of wet dog, she was utterly exhausted, and she was utterly miserable. She was still coughing too, and that worried her. By this time all the smoke should be out of her lungs. She tried to find a dry place to spend the night, at last finding an abandoned shed with a mostly intact roof not too far off the road. She curled up inside, still in canine form. She didn’t want somebody to stumble on the “devil cat” during the night. She was far too tired to deal with any further attacks.