"Finally, now I am getting closer to home. I shall see her once more before she dies. The trip has been long. Soon it is over."
He felt the sadness in her words. And felt something else, something more foreboding.
A hint of a strange odor, a scent that he knew too well. The unseen companion was close, very close!
Even as she spoke a dark form emerged from the heavy bushes beside the path.
Unthinkingly he knew. This was the unseen companion!
Demo's mother slept fitfully throughout the night. Dreams, rather, nightmares, repeatedly aroused her. She saw, again and again, her son. And something else.
Something huge and grotesque, evil and deadly. Something with an unreasoning hatred for her son.
She arose before sunrise, sat on the edge of her bed in deep thought, spoke aloud to herself. "I could try to go to him. Sadly, I am old, weak. I would be but a further burden.
Rough sat at her feet, licked her hand. She reached down absently, patted his head. Her eyes widened.
"Rough, go to him. What I cannot do, you can. Protect him with your life. Quickly now! Find your master! Go!"