Ashley

Finally, I let out a deep sigh of relief. I've gotten away from the dekes. I've been desperate for some alone time to sort out my thoughts. I'm ace, I can acknowledge that now, but how do I feelabout that? And then there's Axon. He looks at me as if I were a prize to be cherished, but when I accidentally fell on him, he ran away instead of helping me. Is my touch so horrible that he had to run from it?

Just as I start to sort out my feelings, disaster strikes and I'm no longer sure leaving the dekes on my own was a good idea

Axon

How can I make things up to Ashley? It's killing me that she won't even look my way. I deserve her ire, but I want to make things right. I'm so consumed with these thoughts that I completely missed the fact that she left the mountain and the clearing. No one can find her and even my heightened senses can barely pick up her fading scent trail.

Why did she leave? What if she's hurt or worse? What if the other dekes took her? My blood runs cold at the thought. I have to find her, I have to find her now!