The following days dragged by far more slowly than she would have liked. She gradually stopped feeling dizzy and weak any time she sat up or stood, and was soon able to walk around, but she knew she still wasn't back to full strength. But after four days she could wait no longer. Damien was reluctant to let her go, but she was insistent, and he didn't know how he could stop her anyway. So on the fifth day she set off from the monastery. Radu had promised her help, but he still had not woken, and she wasn't going to wait around until he did, so she went on her own.

She was feeling much better, but she wasn't sure she was up to flying. Any mistake could lead to a crash, and to serious injury or even death. So instead she took her own natural form and loped down the road on four feet. That first day she made fairly good time, following the road through the forested hills. But when she stopped for the night, she realized that she had probably pushed too hard. She was trembling, exhausted. She found a hollow to curl up and slept without bothering to make any kind of camp. When she woke the sun was already well up. She stretched, feeling sore and still a bit weak, but rested. She set a slower pace now as she continued onwards.

The second night she wasn't quite so exhausted, but she judged she'd gone only perhaps a third of the distance she would need to cover. She wanted to go faster, but didn't want to kill herself getting there. Feeling frustrated and impatient, she once again curled up and slept.

She hadn't bothered with a fire this second night either. 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 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. He fire immunity would protect her from the heat, but it did not extend to immunity from the problems associated with smoke inhalation, so she would have to be quick.

She made her way through the lower floor, 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 in the rooms beneath the eaves upstairs the flames were still getting a foothold, though the smoke was bad. In one room 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. They were licking upwards and very soon the upstairs would be similarly engulfed. 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 at the edge of 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.

She set off the next morning through settled lands. But now there were signs of traffic on the road. 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. Then he grabbed his bow and set an arrow to it. Flame spun and darted off the road. She leaped over the low hedge that ran along it here. The first arrow thudded into the dirt, but a second followed after it, and then the archer jumped his horse over the hedge after her.

It took her far too long to lose him, and when she did she was exhausted again. She dropped down in the middle of a field of something or other, she didn't know much about crops, that was high enough to hide her while lying down. Once she had caught her breath she realized what must have happened. She'd been mistaken for her double. She was still two days' journey from the castle, but that was close enough that the other had probably terrorized the people here at least a little. Though obviously not enough to make them fear her more than they hated her, or she wouldn't have been shot at. So she couldn't continue in this form, and her human and aerian forms were both out as well. What else? She sighed. In farm country, with the size restrictions she had, there was only one form that would pass unremarked and without any serious attempt to kill or capture. So she wore canine form when she took to the road again. She went slowly, already tired and worn before the day had properly begun. She made it through the small village nearby and out into open fields again, but that was half the distance she'd meant to cover. And to make things worse, as the sun started to sink down to the horizon, it started to rain.

She had seldom been so miserable in her life. She was wet, she stunk of wet dog, she was utterly exhausted, and she was worried and afraid for her husband. She was also still coughing, 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 her during the night. She was far too tired to deal with any further attacks.

But when she woke in the morning to see the rain still coming down she found she’d spontaneously changed back to her natural form. That was not a good sign. She felt even worse than she had when she’d fallen asleep. She tried to shift back into a dog’s shape, but nothing happened. She tried human form, and felt something start to happen, after all these years human form was nearly as natural to her as her firecat shape, but still she stayed unchanged. She tried to get to her feet, but a violent coughing fit hit her and she collapsed back onto the dirt floor of the shack. No, this was not good at all.

She coughed again weakly and shivered. She prayed that nobody would find her, sick as she was. She would be easy prey for any irate farmer that stumbled onto her hiding place. She couldn’t think of anything to do to prevent it, though, so prayer was the only option she had. With that happy thought to keep her company she put her head on her paws and fell into an uneasy and feverish doze.