She mumbled, "Carter," as her eyes began to water, and then she collapsed to the ground in the woods.

Taki hadn't given much thought to the afterlife before. She believed that whatever would occur will occur. There wasn't much a monster could do to control where she traveled or even if she got to go anywhere if the gods were really in charge of everything.

Even so, the ache she felt from the wound in her chest as light flooded her eyes proved beyond a doubt that she was still alive, what looked to be a plain tarp erected over her, the feel of a blanket under her. The mystery of the afterlife would remain. Now for other matters. Namely figuring out just how she was alive.

“Aryana, she's waking up!" a male voice cried out.

Taki was inwardly surprised. Aryana... that was the name of neighboring centaur she had recently chatted with. Her husband was named Clark if she recalled right.

Sure enough, she saw the stately, blue-eyed centaur stride into view as she sat up, a muscular young man with reddish hair beside her. Both bore a quiver of arrows and a longbow on their backs, while the pony-sized equine portion of the centaur had a saddle with supply bags hanging on either side.

“About time," Aryana stated, her tone slightly irritated. "Clark was getting annoying with how he fretted over you."

“I don't care how tough she is," Clark countered as he knelt to give

Taki some water from an animal-skin bag, “it is only natural for a man to show concern for an injured Lady.”

“It's tolerable when your concern is for me, not when it's for a woman you've never met before."

“Hey, any friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

"You're too friendly for your own good. If it weren't for my vigilance someone would have taken your naive kindness as an excuse to seduce you by now."

“Hey now, none of our friends would go that far."

“Of course not, as I've made sure they all know that I would skin them alive if they did."

Taki realized she was not going to learn anything from just Listening like this. The man and centaur seemed in their own world. She noted the stitched wound on her chest, it had been done quite well. She could detect the scent of her personal healing herbs in her bandages as well.

In her peripheral vision she noticed that the Little camp she was in had been set up next to her tree house.

“You saved me, and took me here," she stated more than asked.

“We are allies now are we not?" Aryana stated.

“Admittedly this is not how I wanted our first visit to go..."

“How did you find me, how did you find my home?"