Magdy flashed his pocket light at Enzo and seemed ready to say something sarcastic, then caught the expression on Enzo's face in the pocket light's circle. "What is it?"

"The fanties didn't run off because of us," Enzo said. "I think there's something else out there. Something that hunts the fanties. And I think it's coming this way."

It's a cliché of horror entertainments to have teenagers lost in the woods, imagining they're being chased by something horrible that's right behind them.

And now I know why. If you ever want to feel like you're on the verge of total, abject bowel-releasing terror, try making your way a klick or two out of a forest, at night, with the certain feeling you're being hunted. It makes you feel alive, it really does, but not in a way you want to feel alive.

Magdy was in the lead, of course, although whether he was leading because he knew the way back or just because he was running fast enough that the rest of us had to chase him was up for debate. Gretchen and I followed, and Enzo took up the rear. Once I slowed down to check on him and he waved me off. "Stay with Gretchen," he said. Then I realized that he was intentionally staying behind us so whatever might be following us would have to get through him first. I would have kissed him right then if I hadn't been a quivering mess of adrenaline, desperately running to get home.

"Through here," Magdy said to us. He pointed at an irregular natural path that I recognized as being the one we used to get into the forest in the first place. I was focusing on getting on that path and then something stepped in behind Gretchen and grabbed me. I screamed.

There was a bang, followed by a muffled thump, followed by a shout.

Ezno launched himself at what grabbed at me. A second later he was on the forest floor, Dickory's knife at his throat. It took me longer than it should have to recognize who it was holding the knife.

"Dickory!" I yelled. "Stop!"

Dickory paused.

"Let him go," I said. "He's no danger to me."

Dickory removed the knife and stepped away from Enzo. Enzo scrambled away from Dickory, and away from me.

"Hickory?" I called. "Is everything all right?"

From ahead, I heard Hickory's voice. "Your friend had a handgun. I have disarmed him."

"He's choking me!" Magdy said.

"If Hickory wanted to choke you, you wouldn't be able to talk," I yelled back. "Let him go, Hickory."

"I am keeping his handgun," Hickory said. There was a rustle in the darkness as Magdy picked himself up.

"Fine," I said. Now that we stopped moving, it was like someone pulled a stopper, and all the adrenaline in my body was falling out from the bottom of my feet. I crouched down to keep from falling over.

"No, not fine," Magdy said. I saw him emerge out of the gloom, stalking toward me. Dickory interposed itself between me and Magdy. Magdy's stalking came to a quick halt. "That's my dad's gun. If he finds it missing, I'm dead."

"What were you doing with the gun in the first place?" Gretchen asked. She had also come back to where I was standing, Hickory following behind her.

"I told you I was prepared," Magdy said, and then turned to me. "You need to tell your bodyguards that they need to be more careful." He pointed at Hickory. "I almost took off that one's head."

"Hickory?" I said.

"I was not in any serious danger," Hickory said, blandly. His attention seemed elsewhere.

"I want my gun back," Magdy said. I think he was trying for threatening; he failed when his voice cracked.

"Hickory will give you your dad's gun back when we get back to the village," I said. I felt a fatigue headache coming on.

"Now," Magdy said.

"For God's sake, Magdy," I snapped. I was suddenly very tired, and angry. "Will you please just shut up about your damn gun. You're lucky you didn't kill one of us with it. And you're lucky you didn't hit one of them"—I waved at Dickory and then Hickory—"because then you would be dead, and the rest of us would have to explain how it happened. So just shut up about the stupid gun. Shut up and let's go home."

Magdy stared at me, then stomped off into the gloom, toward the village. Enzo gave me a strange look and then followed his friend.

"Perfect," I said, and squeezed my temples with my hands. The monster headache I was on the verge of had arrived, and it was a magnificent specimen.

"We should return to the village," Hickory said to me.

"You think?" I said, and then stood up and stomped off, away from it and Dickory, back to the village. Gretchen, suddenly left with my two bodyguards for company, was not far behind me.

"I don't want one word of what happened tonight to get back to John and Jane," I said to Hickory, as it, Dickory and I stood in the common area of the village. At this time of night there were only a couple of other people who were loitering there, and they quickly disappeared when Hickory and Dickory showed up. Two weeks had not been enough time for people to get used to them. We had the common area to ourselves.

"As you say," Hickory said.

"Thank you," I said, and started walking away from them again, toward the tent I shared with my parents.

"You should not have been in the woods," Hickory said.

That stopped me. I turned around to face Hickory. "Excuse me?" I said.

"You should not have been in the woods," Hickory said. "Not without our protection."

"We had protection," I said, and some part of my brain didn't believe those words had actually come out of my mouth.

"Your protection was a handgun wielded by someone who did not know how to use it," Hickory said. "The bullet he fired went into the ground less than thirty centimeters from him. He almost shot himself in the foot. I disarmed him because he was a threat to himself, not to me."

"I'll be sure to tell him that," I said. "But it doesn't matter. I don't need your permission, Hickory, to do what I please. You and Dickory aren't my parents. And your treaty doesn't say you can tell me what to do."

"You are free to do as you will," Hickory said. "But you took an unnecessary risk to yourself, both by going into the forest and by not informing us of your intent."

"That didn't stop you from coming in after me," I said. It came out like an accusation, because I was in an accusatory mood.

"No," Hickory said.

"So you took it on yourself to follow me around when I didn't give you permission to do so," I said.

"Yes," Hickory said.

"Don't do that again," I said. "I know privacy is an alien concept to you, but sometimes I don't want you around. Can you understand that? You"—I pointed at Dickory—"nearly cut my boyfriend's throat tonight. I know you don't like him, but that's a little much."

"Dickory would not have harmed Enzo," Hickory said.

"Enzo doesn't know that," I said, and turned back to Dickory. "And what if he had gotten in a good hit on you? You might have hurt him just to keep him down. I don't need this kind of protection. And I don't want it."

Hickory and Dickory stood there silently, soaking up my anger. After a couple of seconds, I got bored with this. "Well?" I said.

"You were running out of the forest when you came by us," Hickory said.

"Yeah? So?" I said. "We thought we might be being chased by something. Something spooked the fanties we were watching and Enzo thought it might have been a predator or something. It was a false alarm. There was nothing behind us or else it would have caught up with us when you two leaped out of nowhere and scared the crap out of all of us."

"No," Hickory said.

"No? You didn't scare the crap out of us?" I said. "I beg to differ."

"No," Hickory said. "You were being followed."

"What are you talking about?" I said. "There was nothing behind us."