For several more days, the group traversed the forest. The weather grew cooler, despite summer being in full swing.
Mia and Ford avoided serious conversation, both falling into an unspoken status quo.
He didn't like the lack of communication between them, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
Seeing in her eyes that she worried about his increasingly tired state, he just smiled and assured her he was fine. They were almost out of the forest. On one or two more occasions, the 'changers' had watched them from a distance but not interacted with the humans.
Those made Ford nervous, but Daniel was convinced the creatures weren't dangerous.
Ford had expanded on his theory that the changers were different kinds of wights, confusing the boy but giving him enough to think about that the child didn't stop chattering for a couple of days after that.