“Tabitha! Stop! It is Anna!” she cried again.

When the young woman still would not relent, Anna surged forward, looped her arms around Tabitha’s waist, and yanked her body back against her own. Tabitha fought like a wildcat, screeching and kicking. But Anna held tight. She had long ago learned how to restrain creatures that did not wish to be caught.

When the outburst had exhausted her, Tabitha sagged and slid to her knees.

“Easy, easy there,” Anna said and turned the Sister around to face her.

Tabitha’s entire body was shaking, her eyes widened in shock, her breathing shallow and quick.

“Deep breaths, take slow, deep breaths,” Anna urged. Tabitha’s clipped breathing reminded Anna of Peter’s affliction. In all the years she had known Tabitha, she had never noticed that she suffered from the same symptoms.

“Oh Anna!” Tabitha cried, grabbing the shepherd’s tunic in her fists.

“It is all right now,” Anna told her. “You are with me. You are safe.”

When a sudden swirl of wind whipped at the ground, Tabitha cringed and tried to dash.

Anna held her fast. “It was just the wind!” she said.

Tabitha held still, trembling. “But I heard him,” she whispered, her eyes darting about.

“Heard who?” Anna asked, puzzled.

“A man,” she said. “I heard him grunting.”

Anna glanced over her shoulder. “No one is here, Tabitha. I have held watch the entire day and the only thing I have seen—” She stopped short, her mind making the connection.

Perhaps Tabitha had seen the wolf?! Or heard it rustling about?

She was about to offer this explanation to her friend when she thought better of it. Knowing she had encountered a predator was unlikely to make Tabitha feel more secure.

The wind’s pace increased. Its bursts coming with more frequency. Glancing up at the sky, Anna said, “Let us get you home.”

“But what about the—”

“I think you heard something else,” Anna told her. “There is no one here but us.” As she was saying this, the wind drove past. Anna’s head snapped up. She had caught an odor in the breeze. Not like the earlier scent of salt and iron. But something entirely different. A scent that was strange, yet familiar. Without warning, shivers shook her spine.

Whatever it was, it had gone too quickly for her to identify it.

“Let us hurry,” she told Tabitha.

The two bent against the oncoming wind, lifting their tunics to protect their faces.

As they made their way, Anna felt a hum rising through the soles of her feet. It rose gradually to nibble at the skin of her bones.

She turned to look behind, toward The Narrows. Though she could perceive little through the gritty wind, she sensed a great storm billowing overhead.

“We have to go faster,” she told her companion.

But Tabitha was drained from her imagined calamity and began to stumble at Anna’s quickened pace.