He allowed himself a few minutes to soak, but he knew he couldn’t linger, even if Leelo was right and people rarely came here. Rarely wasn’t never. Naked, he climbed out of the pool and took his clothes downstream a way, not wanting to wash his clothes in water that might be used for bathing or drinking. Leelo had brought him a little chunk of soap to use on his body and clothing, and he gave himself a cursory sudsing before thoroughly scrubbing his tunic and pants and rinsing away the soap in the stream.

When he’d finished, he wrung the clothing out and laid it out on the rocks to dry, then filled his waterskins and glanced around for something to eat. He’d gotten so desperate yesterday that he’d picked a few petrified crumbs from the smashed strawberry cake off the blanket and sucked on them until they disintegrated. There were more berries now than the last time he’d been here, but he ate them as fast as he picked them, leaving himself with nothing for later.

He looked up into the trees and spotted a red squirrel with impressive ear tufts, blithely grooming its bushy tail and chittering away as if it knew he had no way to catch it. A deer who had been watching from the trees eventually established he wasn’t a threat and made her careful way to the pond to drink. He knew that even if he’d had a bow with him, he wouldn’t have the heart to kill her.

With a sigh, Jaren settled for some wild asparagus and chanterelle mushrooms that he would have been far more excited about if he’d had a means of cooking them. With his clothes mostly dry, he headed back to the cottage, trying not to think of the long, hot night awaiting him.

When he reached the cottage, he froze. The front door was wide-open.

He knew he had closed it when he left. He remembered it distinctly because he’d had an argument with himself about whether or not he should leave it open to let the place air out. In the end, he’d decided that he didn’t want to risk any snakes or insects finding their way into the cottage while he was gone, or worse, one of those bird-eating roots, though he hadn’t seen anything like that happen since he first arrived.

So if the door was open, it could only mean that Leelo had finally come back.