Her ankle went on a loose rock at the third hour of travel and she heard the small wrong sound it made and she thought: do not let him see your face right now.
She caught herself. It was not a fall. Her foot came down wrong on a rock that was slightly tilted under the surface dirt and her ankle rolled and she felt the specific heat of it, the kind that said: that was something, you are going to know about that later. She did not fall.
She kept walking. She shifted her weight to the left in a way that was not obvious from behind and she breathed out slowly and she thought about the road ahead and not about the ankle.
She had walked on worse.
This was fine.
She was completely fine.
— — —
Vaelor was walking beside her.
