When the three returned to the room they shared, the rain was still pattering down in a dull stoccato. The air was cool and damp, the scent of their small fire in the hearth filling the room with a gentle fragrance of sandalwood. Tynan was apparantly asleep on his bed, his hair falling carelessly over his closed eyes. He lay on his side, his body curled up with the blanket half kicked off. "It's a bit early in the day for a kip," Arum noted, despite the fact that Ransik was asleep too, though much more quietly than the thunderstorm the night before. "Is he ill?"

Adam padded up to the bed and touched Tynan's forehead. "He's just out." he told them nonchalantly. He caught Arum's confused look. "Like, his mind is out for a walk? I mean in an animal!" he added quickly when Arum snorted in laughter. "He's gone Borrowing. He does it sometimes when he needs to get away."

"Guess he really is a druid." Arum said, sitting down on his own bed.

"Yes," Adam replied, patting Tynan on the arm fondly as his eyes softened. "He is."

===

Tynan's mind jumped from creature to creature, from sparrow to dove to the fierce falcons of the sky, reveling in the sheer joy of flying untill he was miles away from the town. Up here above the clouds, above the rain, the sky shone a brilliant blue, clouds rising below him like whales at play. The sun warmed his feathers and with a fierce cry to the heavens, the falcon swooped and barrel rolled in the sheer delight of flying.

However, after a while, he started to feel the urge to swoop down and kill things. He descended to a hundred feet in the air and eyed the trees. Amidst the gaps of the leaves, ghosting through the undergrowth, was a wolf. His mind jumped again, from falcon to wolf. Wolves were his favourite. While there was a fierce joy in flight, few things rivaled the intelligence and stamina of a wolf. He bounded through the trees, contenting himself in chasing fawns and partridges from the bushes. His tongue lolling out of his mouth, he ran through the woods at play.

It came as a surprise to him when he caught the scent of blood. He paused and sniffed the wind before bounding off in the direction of the blood. The trail in the breeze led him to a clearing, through which five people walked. They looked like people, they sounded like people, but they didn't smell like people at all. They smelt of death. Keeping his distance, he ghosted by them, his initial curiosity crystalizing to intrigue.

He had taken the form of the wolf many times, and he knew the intricacies involved in stalking prey. Which was why he was quite stunned when one of the people turned and looked squarely at him as Tynan was concealed in the bushes. A vicious grin splitting the man's face. "Danger!" he growled with glee as he broke from the group and rushed in an animalistic run towards Tynan, hands extended low like claws.

It happened so fast that Tynan's growl barely got to his throat before it was cut off into a yelp of pain.

===

Back in the inn, Tynan's body stilled, a tiny almost unnoticable trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his lips onto the pillow.