Her look spoke volumes, said if he was such a good hunter he wouldn’t be in the predicament he was now.
“I’ll have you know, no one sane enters Wonderland, especially not to hunt. I’m only here to help a friend.”
Her brow tipped.
“And why am I bothering to explain myself to you anyway? Thank you for saving me, I can take it from here.”
“You are most vexing. Do you know that?”
“Me?” The audacity of this creature made him want to laugh in frustration.
“Tell me, man, do you even know where the fairy springs are?”
His nostrils flared. “I’ll have you know that I do.”
“Good.” She nodded. “Then you’ll know to get there you’d have to cross the ogre’s bridge. I hope you’re good with riddles.” With a sweet as sin grin she turned to go.
“Wait.” His hand shot out, grabbing hold of her tail. Which didn’t stop her at all, as her tail wound through his hand like vapor.
All the same, she hissed as if he had yanked on it.
“What ogre? There’s never been an ogre.”
Her nose curled. “How long has it been since you’ve been here, Hunter? That foul smelling creature set up shop ten years ago.”
Shaking his head, he realized it had been a while. A long while since he’d been back. At least fifteen years, if not more.
Plopping his wrist over his eyes, he realized he might be stuck with this creature, at least until he could get to the spring.
Why hadn’t Danika warned him about any of this? Or at the bare minimum given him a map to follow?
Then again, perhaps this was all part of his ‘ruing the day he ever mocked her’ bit. He sighed, peeking at the cat woman from between his fingers. She was gazing down at him, her tail swishing back and forth.
“What are you really? Cat or woman?”
“Does it matter?” she asked again.
“I’d just rather travel with whichever form is truly yours. It’s hard to focus when you’re both.”
Her lips twisted, but she didn’t speak again. Instead the black cloud covered her once more and this time when it parted she stood before him a woman.
He sat up, staring at the mile high length of her slender legs. The smooth expanse of her flat, ivory stomach, and the firm mounds of her rosy tipped breasts. Those obsidian eyes of hers blinked at him as if waiting for him to say something.
It wasn’t shocking that she was nude. Of the few shifters he knew or heard of, none of them could shift with clothes on. It was a fable told by puritans to make the truth less shocking. And besides, his years of traveling in between realms and meeting nymphs and maidens of the sea, nudity had long since stopped being shocking.
Although he could admit, at least in the privacy of his own head, that her nudity was most assuredly affecting his…parts, even if both her arms were currently invisible. She seemed to have a problem reforming completely.
The waves of her hair spilled down around her shoulders like vivid blue ink.
“What is your name?” she asked after allowing him time to study her.
And he supposed that if she was willing to stay in her true form with him, then he at least owed her that. “Aeric. Yours?”
“Aeric. Aeric. Aeric,” she said his name three times, each time growing louder until finally nodding and smiling brightly. “Yes, that will do Aeric. You may call me Lissa.” She emphasized the double ‘s’ with a sibilant hiss.
“Lissa? Are you sure it’s not Lisa, Lissa sounds wrong.”
She looked offended, her face screwed up into a tight scowl as she said, “And who gets to decide? You are not my parent.”
He rolled his eyes, that didn’t even make sense. “As you say. Now how am I supposed to walk with this thing on?” He pointed to his stone booted foot.
“One step at a time.”
“Bloody hell.” He was beginning to suspect she was related more to the Cheshire than to a human, but it wasn’t worth arguing over.
Standing to his feet he expected his walking to be hindered by the stone, but he could step down without much of a problem, blessedly, there was no pain either.
“Don’t run though,” she cautioned. “The stone isn’t as solid a mass as it might appear, should it split apart the toxin will spread even quicker than before.”
“Lovely.” Retrieving his pack, he shrugged it on, only just remembering that Chrysalis had stolen his pouch with the tool necessary to capture her.
Lissa stood beside the empty stump of the leech tree frowning as she peered down its cracked opening.
“What?” he asked, wondering if she saw something inside.
“I do not understand how this tree attacked you, it’s been dead a long time.” With a gentle shudder, she turned away from the stump and headed back toward the tree line, away from the brook.
“How did you know which tree attacked me?” he asked slowly, something wasn’t adding up here. “Were you following me?”
She shrugged. “I heard the scuffle. We all did. I came just at the tail end of it and saw her very nearly defeat you.”