11

~Aspen

We return to the same area first thing in the morning.

The same internal tugging feeling has me leading Kastriv through the forest. The difficult terrain has it taking a while, but Kastriv insists it's part of the test for me to lead him there.

"Can you sense it?" he asks after a while of walking.

I wipe sweat from my brow, squinting to look through the trees. "It's around here."

It feels like I'm being drawn to something, that there is a tether between it and myself, that is pulling taut with each step I take in the right direction.

"I go where you go, Aspen," Kastriv says from behind me.

"Do you really not know where it is? Or are you testing me?" I question, looking over my shoulder, giving him my best accusatory stare. He's told me he's testing me, but how much of this is really necessary?

"Genuinely, I don't know exactly where the site is. I just have a general idea," he tells me.

He hasn't made any comments that I've been heading in the wrong direction, so I continue.

"Gre