She catches her breath, but – what’s that sound?

Lux spends a bit of time getting her breath back, the white noise of the rushing river filling her skull. She coughs and spits out some residual water – gagging at the last traces of an indistinct but vile aftertaste at the back of her throat. Finally, she sits up to try and see where she’s ended up.

Besides the river, there’s not much around her but trees and mist – just like everywhere else she’s been in the Valley, though here there are denser thickets of small, bristly conifers and patchy shrubs bearing unappetising black-green berries. It’s surprisingly comforting to see Minn, the only familiar sight around. Then she realises that she’s completely naked, and Minn is gleefully drinking in the sight. She huddles up in a ball, trying both to cover herself and to ward off the sudden cold.

“Where am I?” Panic starts to creep in as her recent memories fit uncomfortably together. “Minn, what – what just happened?”

“Mites,” Minn says, breezily. “Sneaky little shits, am I right? Should probably get moving before they catch up.”

“The mites?” Lux feels a jolt down her spine as she half-remembers the fight, the swarm coming at her, their curse – but nothing clear after that. “They took my clothes?”

“Yep!” Minn sounds predictably cheerful about that. “Lucky you had me to help you out, huh?”

Lux is silent for a moment, hugging her arms to her shaking body. Parts of her strange dream flash through her mind – the dryads warned her that the imbalance in the Valley was making everyone and everything horny. And the mites are technically part of “everything”…

The very thought of that one mite that tried to **** her makes her skin crawl. Surely nothing more could have happened, without her even noticing? She aches all over, inside and out, but – she did just get dragged along a river, maybe that’s all it is. That has to be all it is.

She takes a deep breath, and pushes those thoughts – along with the dreams that surely have nothing to do with them – as far out of her mind as possible. Even if that means facing a whole different set of thoughts and problems about what in all the hells she’s supposed to do next.

“Well, time to get going!” Minn chimes in briskly. “C’mon, we’re only a little way off the path, and we don’t wanna wait around for – ”

“What?” Lux shakes her head, staring up in bewilderment at the impatient sprite. “Minn, I’m – look at me. My supplies are gone, my clothes, I just – I’m in no shape to rescue anyone. I need…to…”

She trails off. Suddenly aware of a sound that’s crept in at the edge of hearing.

Music, singing. Her heart lifts. Dryads – she can find shelter, a safe place to recover and figure out her next step.

Minn is calling her name, but she doesn’t want to listen. She wants to follow the music.