As Finn and Leonid followed the road that the caravan had traveled over, Finn slowly recovered some of his strength. He caught Leonid watching him carefully to make sure he didn’t slip from the saddle. Right after Finn had confronted the creature and communicated with it or controlled it--he wasn’t sure which--Leonid really had to lift him up on Sweetfire.

Finn kept going over what had happened. Instead of drawing energy as he had with Marikoth, he had expended magic with the creature. The exhaustion wasn’t unfamiliar to him. It was what he had felt when he made Tanglewood bloom. He assumed that he would regain his strength in time again.