And then, once more, he took off, Perfidy hot on his heels.

Perfidy’s entire body felt like it was shaking when she finally stepped back into New Dawn, with Gruff staggering by her side. Considering the dwarf’s haggard appearance, his beard and hair tangled with leaves and twigs, his eyes bleary and sagging, she feared what she must look like.

It was like her body was balancing out the endless surge of energy and power she’d experienced with an equally endless period of extreme fatigue. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for the next, oh, forty-eight hours or so.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen without at least a bit of resistance from the others, who’d noticed their return. Jereb was the first to stride into their path. “Where have you two been?”

“Out an’ about,” Perfidy drawled.

Jereb frowned. “Something is different about you…”

Perfidy tensed, and she could tell Gruff was experiencing the same beside her, though he was able to disguise it as a part of his normal grumpiness. “Different. Don’ think so.” Even to her own ears, the casualness she’d tried to infuse into her tone had failed her miserably.

“Your hair,” Jereb said, nodding to himself. “Yes, that’s it.”

Perfidy subconsciously raised a hand to her hair, picking out bits of leaf and bark from its tangles. “Well we had a run in with an ornery bush or ten…”

“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean you’ve cut it. Rather terribly I’m afraid. Did you do it yourself? Clemmy is a decent barber, I’m sure she’d be happy to even things out for you.”

“Whut do ye mean, cut—” Perfidy started to say, but stopped short when her hand located the problem. Half her hair was boy-short and the other half was down to her shoulders. She cringed, remembering that moment of madness when she’d said something along the lines of, “I don’ need all this hair, do I? Cut it fer me.” At which point Gruff had borrowed her knife and hacked away until…

She glanced at his grubby fist hanging at his side. Her hair was still gripped between his fingers, dangling like a prize he’d won in a contest. His eyes met hers, and for a moment he actually looked sheepish as he said, “Oops.”

“Wait, you let Gruff cut your hair? Are you mad?”

“’Parently,” Perfidy said. “An’ also dead tired. Walked farther afield than we’d planned to. Need to sleep.”

“Yup,” Gruff said with a yawn, pointlessly hiding Perfidy’s locks of hair behind his back while the rest of the group stared at them. “A little nap is just the thing.”

“Wait a minute,” Jereb said, making both of them freeze. “Gruff, did you get a fourth gold leaf?”

Perfidy answered for him. “Course he didn’t, don’ be ridicu—” She stopped, because her eyes had finally spotted the extra bit of gold peeking through the tangled foliage of his dark beard. “Wait, ye did? Why didn’t ye tell me?”