Rio brought her hand to the warmth of his mouth, pressed a kiss into her palm. “Just a short distance. You haven’t been able to bear any weight on the leg and I don’t want you to overdue it. Tama’s potion will only help so much.”

“I know.” Her ankle and calf were throbbing, but she was never going to admit that to him, not if she wanted to walk on her own. He had a stubborn jaw, and his eyes could go from shimmering fire to ice cold in a heartbeat. Rio was a man who could get bossy very quickly given the right circumstances. She smiled to herself and took the first step, tugging at his hand. “I can’t wait for a hot bath, come on.”

He frowned but he went with her, keeping a watchful eye on how she walked. “Out here, Rachael, you always have to be alert to your surroundings. The birds are going to sound a warning and you have to notice, you have to hear the different notes. They’ll call to you, and depending on what frightens them, you can pick up what’s intruding into our neighborhood.”

“I’ve caught it a couple of times.” She tried not to limp. Walking on her own seemed a miracle to her. She looked around at the trees laden with fruit. Everywhere she looked color exploded. The massive tree trunks came in all colors and were covered by life-forms. Lichen, fungi, fern and orchids grew on the trunks. Creeper vines hung down everywhere. At first there was quite a bit of light, the shorter trees along the river allowing the sun to blaze down, but as they went deeper into the interior, the taller trees sheltered them with denser canopy.

“Look at these tracks, Rachael.” Rio crouched down to study the myriad of tracks near a shallow pool. He touched a larger paw print with four distinct toes. “This is clouded leopard. Probably Franz watching our backtrail. They started following me when I went to work, even when I crossed borders, so it was safer to train them. I couldn’t stop the silly things from following me everywhere.”

“Are you worried about Fritz?”

“No, he’s had wounds before. He knows how to hole up in the forest. He’ll come back when it’s safe. I didn’t want him at the house alone. If the spotted leopard found him, it would have killed him just out of sheer meanness. Look at this one.” He pointed to a very small track much like the clouded leopard track. “This is a leopard cat. They’re about the size of a domestic cat, usually reddish or yellowish coats with black rosettes. This was a busy place this morning.”

“What’s that strange track? It looks like it has webbing on the feet.”