Annan and Lemon picked some wildflowers nearby and placed them before the crooked gravestone.
When he looked up, he saw that Lemon still had blood on her body. He sighed. "Don't put everything inside your body. That's not good. Spit it out."
Annan set off again with Lemon. Perhaps because he had done a good deed, or because Lemon was keeping him company, his steps felt much lighter. The Forest could no longer weigh on his mind.
Dusk approached, and the Clouds on the horizon washed the Forest in the Crimson Princess's favorite color.
The Forest was growing dark. If he had a Fire Elemental, he could still travel at night—then Annan realized a Fire Elemental would leave him with a burning Forest.
He needed to find shelter before nightfall.
Annan remembered Dade saying that hollows in large trees made natural shelters. He had the Water Elemental climb into the canopy to find the largest tree, then headed toward it.
Before the darkness blurred his vision, Annan and Lemon reached the shelter it had found: a banyan tree nearly two meters across. Its distinctive aerial roots hung from the trunk and branches like a ghostly woman with her head bowed, while its trunk had been hollowed into a dark cavity.
Lemon circled the banyan tree. The place was clean.
Reassured, Annan crawled into the hollow. It was fairly spacious, with just enough room for him and the Water Elemental. There was little smell and no excrement.
The last glow of daylight was about to vanish below the horizon. Annan tucked himself into the tree hollow and had Lemon block the entrance.
They were in the wilderness, with nothing to eat, but that was fine. Annan knew how to make use of everything around him.
"I'm thirsty."
Lemon thoughtfully brought a