No answer. A bad sign. Samo kept low to the ground in an effort to make himself a smaller target. He crept cautiously through the underbrush, muscles tensed, hazel eyes wide. He tracked the sound of quicker, shallower breaths of the stranger, trying to keep downwind—
Yet when he sighted her through the branches, he realized his error. The stranger was not a Roman legionnaire, but a small, pale-furred slip of a girl. Frightened into silence.
At once, the knot of tension and fear in his stomach eased. Guilt trickled into its place.
I do not mean harm,Samo said quickly.
I thought you might be a soldier. I am sorry.
