“I don’t know. To me her stories were just that, stories. I don’t even know if I have the stories right, Rio. I probably filled in the blanks with my own versions. Does it matter? Do you really think there’s truth in the stories? In the light of day it seems a little silly to think a man could be a leopard as well as a man. Or a mixture of both. What, the head and torso of a man and the body of a leopard?” She couldn’t look at him without having the impression of a dangerous cat. Without thinking of the way his face had changed from a human warrior to that of a dangerous animal.

“Does it? Here in the forest, it seems anything is possible. You have to have an open mind if you’re going to make your home here.” He stood with his back to her and wondered how he was going to let her go.

A soft one-two note, much like a songbird, reached his ears. He turned back to her. “Rachael, Kim Pang is approaching the house.”

“That’s not possible, he was on the other side of the river. It was already raging, and with the storms and so much rain, it can’t have gone down this fast.” Just like that her world was shattered, gone, and the running started again. The lies. She turned her face away from him, not wanting him to see the sheen of tears burning in her eyes. She knew the day would come eventually. It made her angry that she never wanted to accept it, that she pretended she would find a home.

“Kim is capable of getting across the river in the same manner I use.” He searched for the right words to make her understand. “He’s the closest thing I have to a friend outside my unit.”

Rachael shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Give me time to get dressed and get out of here. Go meet him before he gets here.”

Something dangerous shifted inside him. “I don’t think so, Rachael. You can’t even walk on that leg. If you try running around the forest with those puncture wounds, believe me, you’ll pick up another infection fast. Just sit there and let me work this out.”