"Close Call" Excerpt

We had our first truly close call a few days later. We had just scrambled over a bulge of rock ribbing the mountainside, pocketed with patches of moss and fringed with dense azalea thickets. I was correcting my bearing; the siblings were behind me, holding some discussion. I found my landmark and was slipping my compass back into its pouch when the slightest noise filtered up the rock face.

“Hush, all of you,” I said sharply.

Mona and her brothers quieted. It was a sign of how much progress we had made that they followed my instruction, willing to assess my concern before jumping in with questions. In another moment, my fears were confirmed. I beckoned frantically to the three of them, pulling them into the closest tangle of azaleas.
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“Pull your cloaks over you,” I whispered, stuffing them into the bushes. “Hold still. Don’t make a sound.”

Woodwalker releases in 24 days! I am developing a lot of new illustrations for the website, which will go live after the e-book launches on May 17. I wanted to put something up in the meantime, though, so I finished this piece I started a while ago. It quickly became both overworked and lazy (somehow), and no closer to achieving the loose, dynamic style I keep aiming for, but here it is nonetheless.