Name: Sen Malder
Date: 1.8.2101

1) What is the name of the stone that is capable of storing energies?
Auroch

2) When were these stones discovered on Octavia?
I mean, weren't they technically discovered when we discovered Octavia? But because I know that's not what you're looking for, I'll say 2044.

3) What is the name of the device that is able to purify the energies within these stones?
A pec. I don't remember what it stands for, but we all know what I'm talking about when I say pec, so is this really wrong?

4) At what frequency does the oscillator in the pec run in order to maintain a stable environment for your auroch?
This is so wrong on so many levels. I know what you want me to say something like 17.8 mhz, but if you look at the studies that many scientists have been researching for sometime now, you'd know that the oscillator does nothing but keep the machine cool and clean. Secondly, you need to reword this question. If I didn't study for this, I could look at this question and know the answer for questions 1 and 3. Like, they're on the same page. Seriously?

5) What technologies are involved in creating the weight minimizer? What is it's maximum?
Nobody is going to call it a weight minimization device for much longer, just start calling it the wemin and save yourself the trouble. It utilizes a pec, several gyroscopes, and a reverberator. No more than six aurochs can be held in it.

6) When was the wemin first discovered?
I rescind my answer from above.



The clock was ticking obnoxiously loud. It was taunting me, haunting my thoughts. How was I expected to get any work done like this?

Not that I think I was expected to get much work done on this test. Most of these questions were ridiculous! How could the professor have slipped up this badly making it? To be fair, it was probably mandated by the semi-local officials but they could've done a better job with it as well. This test was a a joke. I wanted to be out in the field studying, not learning about history or technology. I understand that these are important, but great scientists don't necessarily know how their machines work, they just know that they work. Do I need to know everything in order to specialize in the field?

I look at my taunter, 7:00. I still had another hour to finish the last fourteen questions on the test. Not that it took me an hour to finish the first six. No; I wasn't supposed to be here right now. I was supposed to be out with my brother and my father. They were scientists, and they were going to show me their next big discovery before they broadcast it to the world. They were supposed to be doing that, but they were late. That meant that I was here, taking this test about the history and technology of science. I couldn't stand it.

I looked around the classroom. I know that this was a school, but it wasn't at the same time. This was just a small building where children of various ages gathered to learn. And it wasn't too many of them either, about a dozen of them; a few for each age group. On Octavia, some cities were properly civilized, but many or even most were simple towns or even villages. We were starting from scratch with technology on our side, but even then that can only do so much.

There were three groups of students: Primary, Elementary, and young adults. The primary group focused on learning basics. Elementary focused on expanding the basics. Young adults focused on apprenticeship. In summary, you learn basic life skills, you figure out what you want to do, then you do it. The only one with an actual curriculum was the Primary students. Once you learn the basics you stay in elementary until you figure out what you want to do. There was no age limit to what group you were in; your group was based on your skill and desire.

Jacob was sitting in a chair in the corner of the classroom. He was the youngest in the class with Samantha. Jacob was in trouble because he was trying to cheat. More specifically, Samantha and Jacob were both cheating together, Jacob said something mean and Samantha told on him. Now, Jacob is sitting in the corner and Samantha has nobody to cheat off of. Neither of them seemed satisfied with their current positions. They were our only two primary students

The next age up was Ezra. She was all alone today because her group had a field trip, but her parents didn't want her to go. She had been alone for two days now, but she didn't seem perturbed. She came into school and drew pictures, and then went home. When I say she drew pictures, she took one piece of paper and filled the page completely in black ink. Then she turned it over and did it again. When she was finished she would walk up to the professor and place it on his desk and ask to go home.

She always brought her stuffed animal with her. It was a little clefairy doll. Most of the other students stayed away from her. There were rumors among the other students that she didn't go on the field trip because the other students were scared of her. While, I knew that wasn't the case, there was some truth behind it. As usual, Ezra was swaying methodically in her chair was her gaunt hands scribbled furiously across the paper. Her black hair acted as a counterweight to her head, and kept her centered in her chair. Not like usual, her stuffed animal seemed different today. Not that I would normally point it out, but something was off today. That was it for the elementary students.

Next to me was Joseph. He wanted to join the military and fight against the hematites. His test was about history, strategies and combat technology. His brow was furrowed, and he rubbing his hands through his extremely short curly hair. I say curly only because it normally is curly, but the last week or so he's been keeping it short. He was excited to join the military and prove his combat prowess. His father served in the military for his career, and was a major deciding factor.

A few seats ahead of me was Melissa. Melissa was more into theatrics and dance. There wasn't really any test for that, so she always had a few books to read of monologues, scenes, and tips from professional actors. Once every month we would host an evening that would serve as her test. She would put together a play, or a video, or a dance and show it off to the class. She was often working on that as well. She could often be seen running around town with a camera. Today, her head was buried in a book that was highly praised as a classic on earth. Her shoulder length hair was pulled back into a short red tuft.

She leaned back and had a prolonged stretch; we made eye contact and smiled at each other. We had made plans today. After my father showed me his discovery, I invited Melissa over to see it as well. She wanted to do a presentation on it similar to what my father and other scientists do. My father gave her permission which is rare. My father is often very secretive about what his research is.

A vast majority of people on Octavia are scientists. This was a scientific expedition at its heart almost fifty years ago, but civilization arose out of hardship. Now roughly roughly twenty percent of the population are scientists, or have strong scientific backgrounds. That being said, that number has gone down drastically recently due to large competition. Everyone is very secretive and trying to race to make history.

In fact, our family was attacked by a competitor. Our mother was kidnapped and murdered by a group dedicated to enhanced technology. My father creates magnificent machines, and many are highly sought after by developers and the military alike. Among those groups the hematites were bold enough to actually go after us. My father became much more secretive since then, and we've managed to move from town to town several times each year. We don't spend much more than a few months in each area, but each year our visits become longer and longer. Last year, we moved only twice in the year, and this year we have only moved once. We think my father is slowly trusting others again.

We've been in Vujade for almost six months now. With my father's recent discovery however, we might be moving again sometime soon. We might only have another month before we move further along the Kajili coastline. I've learned to live with this kind of life. I don't make too many friends, but I have a few very close friends that I keep in touch with.

I look back at the clock, 7:03. Please help me. The desk between me and my foe was empty. There was a new girl in town, but she hasn't showed up for school yet. Granted it wasn't required, but she was roughly my age and I was looking forward to a new face. Given how long we've been here compared to other towns, I've actually gotten comfortable with some friends like Melissa and Joseph. I wouldn't mind adding to that number. I sighed.

“The clock isn't going to move faster that way Sen,” the professor piped up from the front of the class.

“Yes professor.”

“If you are done, you can hand in your test and go home. You don't have to wait.”

“I haven't exactly finished professor.”

“Here, let me see it.”

I sighed again and brought my test to the professor. She glanced at it quickly and was struggling to hold back a chuckle. She flipped over to the second page and saw that it was indeed empty.

“Are these your real answers Sen?” she asked.

I looked down before I answered. “Yes professor”

She couldn't hold it in any longer, her smirk burst into a hearty laugh. “Sen, you're a smart kid. I hope you stay that way. You know the answers to the rest of these, just fill them in and get out of here.”

“But professor...”

“No. No buts. You can leave the most snarky or sarcastic answer you can think of. Make a game out of it. It'll help pass the time better than staring at the clock ever would.”

“You're no mad at me?”

“Of course not. You're not wrong. I make these up to mostly gauge where you are in your learning. I'm not going to get upset if you happen to know more about me. I don't know everything, I am just here to make sure you know what you want to do with your life.”

“Thank you professor.”

“You don't need to thank me Sen. Just make sure you don't make me look like a fool.” As she said that she handed my test back to me and winked knowingly.

I begrudgingly accepted my test and walked back to my desk. As I passed Melissa, she stuck her tongue out at me. As I was sitting down I noticed that Ezra was staring at me. I maintained eye contact for a few uncomfortable seconds, but she never wavered. I looked back at my paper fully aware that she was still staring at me.

I didn't get very far on the test. The door opened up, and everyone turned their head to look at the reason why. My brother, Lucas, had finally arrived.

“I'm sorry to barge in like this professor, but I'm looking to take Sen home with me a bit early today.”

“That's fine Lucas, he was almost done with his test anyway,” she smiled.

“Perfect! Sen,we're ready whenever you are.”

I looked back at the professor; she gave mean encouraging nod. I stood up from my desk and grabbed my test, but the professor stopped me.

“Just leave it on your desk Sen. I'll get it shortly.”

“Thank you professor. Have a good night.”

“You too Sen.”

It was then that I noticed Melissa standing up as well. “I think I'm done for today professor.”

“I understand. You could've gone home at lunch time Melissa.”

“I know. It's quieter to study here than at home.”

“Of course. It has nothing to do with the fact that you are leaving at the same time as Sen.” Melissa blushed slightly, and Jacob and Samantha both laughed. Melissa sent them both a menacing scowl to silence them. The professor laughed too. “It's alright Melissa, I jest. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night.”

“Thank you professor.” She turned and followed us out the door. I held it open for her. Once we were all outside and the door had closed, we both advanced on my brother. Melissa playfully punched Lucas' right arm. “What were you doing making us wait that long?”

I punched my brothers left arm. “I had to sit there and take a stupid test Lucas!”

Lucas laughed. “Sorry guys, something came up. Trust me, it's going to be worth it.”

“Ooh what happened?” Melissa asked.

Lucas grinned. “I know what you're plan is Melissa, so I'm not going to tell you now. I'll leave that for when you are ready to get footage. For now, the first person who's going to know is Sen.”

“Don't cut me out of this Lucas! That's not fair!”

“Don't worry Melissa. My father said you would be able to film it, I'll make sure you get everything you need.”

Melissa slapped the back of my head. “Don't call me that. It's so formal.” Melissa heavily emphasized 'formal' with exaggerated disgust. “Whatever, I'm going to get things ready at my place. See you soon Sen.”

“Bye,” Lucas and I waved her off, as she darted back towards her house. Lucas and I took a sharp right to head back to our house. I use the term house lightly. It was only a house on the outside; on the inside it was a laboratory. The ground floor was three small bedrooms and a kitchen with one bathroom. The basement was completely open and filled with tables, machinery and whatever notes my father happened to leave around. It wasn't a far walk home; we could actually see it from the school.

“Sorry for being late Sen. We found another one on the way back.”

“Another?”

“Yeah, this one was pretty resilient, that's why it took us longer to get back from our expedition.”

“I'd say, it's almost dark now.”

“Oh please, we still have another hour of sunlight at the least. Then the twilight hits. You'll have plenty of time to play with your friend.”

I stopped Lucas briefly. “We get to play first, right? You and me.”

“Of course. That's what I was talking about. Melissa is going to have an entire setup at home, we won't have to worry about lighting at all.”

“Fair enough. Hey, if there's three of them. Do you think Father would let Melissa name one? That would make for a pleasant surprise.”

“Beyond finding something else to study, that's partly why we went so adamantly after this one. Took us down to out last pec to. Thank goodness we had enough.”

“Woah, that must have been intense.”

“Well, not intense, but it was definitely resilient. That's for sure. It's not as exciting as we make it sound, you know. I mean, in it's own way, it is. But it's not like you see in a movie or book. I don't know how to describe it. You'll need to see for yourself.” He held the door open for me and we trudged inside.

Our house was a disaster. The kitchen cabinets were all opened and emptied, and I noticed that one of the chairs were missing from the table. All the bed room doors were closed and had numerous scratch marks on them. There were muddy footprints throughout the house, on some walls, and eventually trailing downstairs.

“What happened here?”

“Nothing exciting,” Lucas mumbled. I looked incredulously at him. “To be fair, this happened as I was leaving. Father said that he would be able to handle it.”

“I think he was wrong about that.”

“I think so too. Come on, let's go downstairs. This is where it gets exciting.”

I followed Lucas down the stairs into the laboratory; he followed the chaos and destruction. At the foot of the stairs we found a pile of objects thrown together like a fort. The missing chair, a cushion, a mattress, a few plants and some laundry made the lackluster fort in the corner. At the foot of the stairs I walked up to the fortress and heard some scuffling from within.

“Careful Sen. It just settled down,” my father said from within the lab.

“What is it?”

“You'll see soon enough. Come over here. These two are more sociable.”

I turned to my right and saw my scruffy lab coat-bearing father standing in front of a large drafting table. On the table were two unique creatures.

The first was a black feline with sleek fur. There were two blue rings of fur on its slightly fluffier tail, and one on each elongated ear. It's eyes were the color of sapphires. From what I know of earth creatures, it seemed like a medium-sized cat with rabbit ears. The second was a white ball of fur, with two eyes. Looking more closely at it revealed stubby legs, but that was it.

I walked over to the table as calmly as I could. My father told me before hand that I needed to make sure not to spook them. My father smiled at me, and he backed away. I reached out my hand to the black feline, and it calmly sniffed at it. It seemed indifferent, but the white ball of fur made some light whining noises. I reached down to it next, before realizing that the fur was almost entirely the creatures body. I felt that the body was slightly larger that I would comfortably hold in one hand, but the fur stuck out and almost doubled its size in each dimension.

“Woah,” was the only word that I could say.

“Here,” my father broke me out of my trance. He was holding a strange device out to me. “I have something for you.”

“What's this?”

“This is my electronic journal. An encyclopedia of all the creatures, and strange things we find on this planet. This is the public, scientific version; it's connected to the internet we have set up on Octavia. As soon as data is collected here, it gets sent to the public database. This one is mine, but as you can see,” he gestured towards the piles of notes on the various tables and even the floor, “I don't use it very much. And in fact, it's registered under your name.”

“Registered to me? But that means... That means...”

“That means that new data registered to this device is your scientific discovery.” My father put his hand on my shoulder and brought me close.

I looked up at him. “I'm going to be one of your assistants?”

“I'm taking you on as one of my assistants.”

I looked at my brother quickly, then back at my father. “What about Lucas?”

“Lucas wants to go abroad, I want to be a bit more of a homebody. He has everything he needs now but his own lab. That means I have an opening, that you might be able to fill.”

“Yeah! I mean, of course I will! I'd love to!”

“Now, before you get too excited, for now this is just going to be a trial run. The next few weeks you'll be allowed to come with us on our expeditions, and we'll see what you come up with.”

“Thank you!”

“As for the first part of your scientific beginnings, I want you to name one of these three creatures. Lucas will name another, and we've all decided to let Melissa name the third.”

“Where is the third? What does it look like?”

“I'll show you,” my father said. He pulled a small translucent diamond-like crystal from his pocket and walked over to the fortress in the corner. I heard the fort shudder, and my father tossed the crystal underhanded into the fort. A lavender light emanated from within the recess, and disappeared quickly. My father got on his hands and knees and started reaching inside. A few moments later he stood up with his crystal in his hand, he seemed to be struggling to hold it. It was now solidly black. He also pulled out his own encyclopedia.

“Oof, I forgot my gloves. This one isn't connected to the public database, this information is private. When I release this creature, I'm going to get a scan of it, if possible. It's more difficult than it sounds with this one.”

“I can attest to that,” Lucas chipped in.

“Ready.” I nodded. “Keep a keen eye. It's faster than you'd expect.” He plugged the crystal into the device he wore along his waist, and we saw the lavender light again as the crystal was drained of its jet black color. The same moment, a new creature appeared in the lab. It's body was pyramid-shaped, and it had four legs that supported it. As its figured came into clear focus, it appeared to be made out of stone. It was slightly taller than my father's knee, maybe two feet tall at it's peak. Before it was even fully materialized, it ran off behind the fortress again. Weaving it's way into any opening it could.

“It's like a stone spider.”

“Exactly, I still didn't get a read on it, it needs to be fully materialized first.” My father laughed. “We'll leave that one for Melissa. That will be some great footage.” We all laughed. That would be funny to watch.

“Why doesn't that one have a pec?”

“I told you already, Sen, it was resilient. We ran out of pecs trying to catch it, that's why we had to use plain aurochs. And even then, that was the last one that we had brought with us.”

“I'll get it into a pec eventually. It doesn't trust you yet, not even Lucas either. It was spooked. Two more things before you can play Sen.”

“What?”

My father handed me a device that was similar to the one he was wearing along his waist. It was a metallic box attached to a sturdy box. I knew what it was, and I eagerly accepted it. My father started talking as I hurriedly donned it.

“This is a prototype.”

“How is it a prototype? It's a wemin?”

“I promise it's a prototype.”

I ran my fingers over it, examining it for what could differentiate it from a normal wemin. There were six slots for pecs. I compared that exactly to my fathers. The slots in mine were slightly deeper, but that was because my wemin was larger. The biggest difference was that mine had a design painted onto the side. I ran my hand over the design. When I did, it opened up where the design was most intricate.

“A seventh?”

“This wemin can store up to seven pecs.”

“Mine too?”

“Yes Lucas. Yours too.” We both shared excited glances before our father continued. “This must be kept secret. This was found mostly on accident, and I haven't been able to replicate it since.”

“Then how did you get two of them?”

My father looked disappointed, and his face gave way to solemnity. “It happened during the creation process at some point during the symmetry design. Listen, if I knew how it happened, I would create more and publicly announce it. This is big. For now, nobody can know these exist. These are the types of discoveries we go in hiding for. The more people that know about these, the more dangerous it is for all of us. Please keep these secret.”

We both muttered our acceptance.

“Good. That said if your life is ever in danger, it's better to have seven guardians as opposed to six.” My father paced a bit, his face was filled with serious sorrow. “I'm giving these to you, so that I know that you will remain safe. Even in designing these, we don't know how they work yet. There is science at work that we can only speculate around. All I know is that I found a way to give you a little extra bit of protection. Use it wisely.”

My brother and I both hugged our father. He was shaking. He was clearly thinking about our mother.

“We will.”

“We will Dad.”

He patted our hands, wiped his face, and clapped his hands together. “Finally, the exciting part. Sen, Lucas, lets make history.” We turned to the table as he continued. “I've been watching the public database for any hints of these creatures; nothing. These are the first of their kind. Whatever you name them will be the top trending name, for the time being. You will be attributed for their discovery. This is one major step into the world of Octavia. This is history. I will leave it up to you. Go on, name them. Then you too can play with them.”

“Sen, I'll let you take your pick first. This is your big day.”

I looked back at the table. I wasn't going to be able to name that stone spider, but I had the option of the feline or the fluff ball. It wasn't difficult in my mind, which one I was going to choose. The feline was cool-looking, but this fluff ball was more interested in me. I reached down to it, and it struggled to hop into my hand. I brought it close to me and it shook excitedly.

“I like this one.”

“What are you going to name it?”

“I don't know. What are you going to name yours Lucas?”

“Is that one mine to name?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice, I already had a name picked out for that one. Nocturne. It's all on you Sen.”

I looked down at this white ball of fur in my hands; it looked back at me. We lost each other in our eyes briefly, and only one word popped into my head. Without thinking I blurted it out. “Spurf.”

“Spurf?”

“Yeah.”

“Why spurf,” my father asked.

“I don't really know. It's hard to explain. We had a moment, I guess, and that's what popped into my head.”

“Excellent,” my father shouted, “that's what happened whenever you obtain a new one. There's this bonding period. It's different, because you didn't actually capture it, but when you make your first capture, you'll understand. But now, scan it into your device, and properly name it. The world will know of your discovery.”

Over the next few minutes our father showed us, or more rather me, how to properly scan and upload these creatures. He went over the basics of our wemin manipulation, and he gave me my own pair of synthesizer gloves. Science aside, the aurochs or the pecs contain the creatures into a small size, but the weight remains the same. The gloves neutralize the weight briefly, and the wemin safely minimizes the weight for ease of carrying. For example, if I captured a creature that weighed 500 lbs, the auroch it's held in would weigh 500 pounds. The wemin brings it down to a proportional minimum let's say, for example, 50 pounds. And even that is wrong, my father says, but it's the easiest way to explain it.

My brother and I quickly walked out of the house, and towards the outskirts of town. We were going to go to the coastline. Even though we all knew we were playing, our father expected us to study and experiment with these new creatures. They were found in a cavern glen, so we were going to take them to a different ecosystem; we were going to play at the beach.

We were debating about taking Melissa with us or not, but we ended up agreeing to go alone. Especially with the new wemins, we figured that with all the excitement we wouldn't be able to keep too many secrets. We were just going to get Melissa on the way back home. Walking through town was relaxing at this time of night. The sun was going to be setting soon, many people were at home cooking. Each house we passed had a different dinner to smell. They were all fish, and berries or jams, but they were all prepared differently.

Just on the outskirt of town was when we reached our first difficulty. We passed by the last home on our way through the wooded trail. We should've been set for the five minute walk, until I wasn't able to walk anymore. I was cut off mid-sentence and dragged high into the air after a loud snapping noise was heard. As my body settled dangling from a tree branch, a loud gong was heard echoing through the trees. I had very clearly triggered someone's trap.

“Sen, are you okay?” my brother was able to manage between bursts of laughter.

I glared at him. “I think so. I didn't bump anything. I'm slightly dizzy, but nothing major. Feel free to leave me here.”

“Yeah, yeah, hold on.” Lucas said as he started looking for the device to let me down. He was searching the area around and circling his way outwards. “I don't see anything Sen. I only see the rope you are hanging from that leads away towards...the house. You triggered a trap.”

“Thank you for that. I was curious as to this feeling. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I was curious all the same.” We both looked around as we heard some approaching footsteps. “Come on Lucas get me down!”

“I can't. It's all out of reach and it leads into that house. I'll have to go ask them to let you down.”

“You can ask me now if you want,” a voice piped up. I struggled to turn and see my upside down captor about two feet above me. It was a young woman. She had her blonder hair pulled into a pony tail, and she was wearing all black. She had a walkie talkie in her hand. She was staring at me intently with her silver eyes. She was both surprised and disappointed. She held the walkie talkie to her mouth and said, “Borris you can let it down.”

I started to slowly rise to the earth, meanwhile this woman started to take an annoyed tone. She pulled the walkie talkie away from her mouth. “I spent all day on that trap.”

“I'm sorry?”

“I skipped school specifically for this.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry to ruin your trap. Maybe you should've gone to school and we wouldn't have this predicament.” I sarcastically mentioned. In free-rotation, I couldn't see her reaction, but I knew that I struck a chord when I heard her speak again.

“Borris, you can let go now.”

“No, wait...” I hit the ground softly at least. I heard footsteps as the woman started walking away. I rushed to remedy the situation. “I was only joking. I was looking forward to seeing you in school.”

The footsteps stopped. I could tell she turned to look at me, but I was focused on freeing my leg from the trap.

“You don't even know me yet.”

“I know that, but we move around often, so we know what it's like going somewhere new. I was hoping to show you around town a bit one of these days so you could get your bearings.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I've seen everything in the town already. There's a pond, and some houses, and a school.”

“Hey now, there's more than that. We were just on our way to the beach.” There was an awkward pause as I finally freed my leg and stood up like normal. I dusted off my shirt and pants, and looked again to properly greet this new woman. I reached out my hand and smiled. “I'm Sen.”

“Is that an invitation, Sen?” She looked curiously at me. I nodded. “Okay, I'll join you. But you owe me for the trap.”

“Didn't you enjoy my humiliation enough?”

She sighed and held the walkie talkie up again. “Borris, meet me outside. We're going out tonight.” I heard light grumbling from the other side of the walkie talkie.

“Who's Borris?” I asked.

“He's my grandmother's pet. We watch out for each other.”

“That's nice, I actually just got a pet of my own.”

“Oh, do you train?”

“Well, it's still legal right?”

“Of course. Despite what the antitrainers say, there's too much money involved. The government will regulate it sure, but it will never go away. Plus, it'd be too much hassle to differentiate between family pet, and trained defender. There's no point.”

“I agree. Plus, the government is only going to stop people who follow the rules from training. People who don't follow the rules will still train, and people who don't follow the rules aren't t he people you want getting stronger.”

“Exactly. I'm Alexis.”

“I'm Sen.”

“I knew that.”

“Yeah. I remember that now.”

Alexis finally smiled properly now, and laughed slightly. She took my hand in a delicate handshake. “I must have rattled you pretty good. I'll let it slide this time.”

“I appreciate it.”

We heard some rummaging through the grass and witness a large blue slug-like creature making its way towards us. We were both startled, but Alexis waved over to it. “Hey Borris, we have some new friends.” The creature, Borris, let loose a high whine and hurried over to Alexis. She patted its head and it grinned affectionately. “Alright, are we going to go to the beach or what?”

“Of course, it's this way,” I motioned as we started off towards the beach. I honestly didn't need to point it out; the path was well-kept and the beach could be heard in the distance. As we walked we noticed the Borris was often mumbling happily to itself looking from tree to tree and everything in-between.

“What do you two do around here?”

“We study.”

“Are you both in school, then?”

“No, Lucas, my brother, he's a researcher. I'm still in school.”

“Is there anything good to research out here, or is it just because of the ocean?”

“Well, I don't know actually. Lucas, where do you research?”

“There's a main mountain range in the middle of this island. We have reason to believe it used to be a volcano based on the passageways within it, but we have no proof of any volcanic activity. We go down deep into the mountain mostly,” Lucas finally spoke. He was staying oddly quiet, but I already knew why. He was upset that now we had another person with us.

“I'm jealous. I like a good spelunking. I like to study the history of a land, and most of that is buried underground.”

“Do you want to be a researcher as well?”

“Yep. Someday I'll get there, but for now, I live with my grandparents. My mom's mom. It's nice, but she's wary of me going out too much. Especially with the hematite uprisal two years ago. They have her spooked, and she's been protective ever since.”

“Where are your parents?”

“If you're trying to make a friend out of me, and show me a good time, you're doing a poor job with that.”

“Heh, I am. I'm sorry. The beach is just ahead. Just beyond those dunes,” I said as we finally left the woods. The beach was almost deafening now. “I love coming out here to think. All the sense just meshes together well in a calming way.”

“I love the sound of water, especially with an echo. No a fan of the beach smell though.”

“We didn't have to go to the beach.”

“You invited me. I said yes. So here I am at the beach. If I really didn't want to come, I would've left you hanging. I can see the trap from the window in my room.”

“Are you saying you wanted to talk to us?”

“I wouldn't go that far, but I didn't want you to completely disassemble my trap.”

I stopped. “Really?”

Alexis turned around, grabbed my arm, and dragged me forward. “No, not really. Now come on, Borris is halfway there!” Borris was sludging through the sand rapidly gaining on the coast. It let loose a few cheerful whines and splash giddily around the frothy waves. We laughed as we chased after him. Alexis charged into the ocean and flopped onto Borris' back. She turned around and yelled, “Come on you two!”

Lucas and I were both stand knee deep in the waves. We looked skeptically at each other and shook our heads in agreeance. “We didn't want to go into the beach! We just wanted to relax at the beach!” I yelled back. I made sure to emphasize 'at'.

Alexis made a face and then climbed onto Borris. She lied down facing the sky as Borris drifted along the waves.

“Sen, let's see how our friends like the beach.”

Of course, I forgot about Spurf. “Yeah, one second.” I walked out of the water and touched the pec on my hip. “Come on out Spurf”. The pec glowed briefly and Spurf materialized shortly in front of me. It made a 'brr' sounding coo, and waddled over to Nocturne.

Nocturne casually sniffed at the ocean with the fur on the back of its neck extended.

“What is it thinking right now Sen?” Lucas pointed out Nocturne to me.

“What do you mean what is it thinking?”

“Well, if you want to be a researcher, you're going to have to analyze actions such as this.”

“Ohh, I see. Well, it clearly is skeptical of the water, but it's not outright afraid of it. My guess is that it's not used to water to this extent. It's probably used to ponds, or puddles, not the ocean. It acknowledges that this is different. What do you think?”

“I asked you first, just to help you remember why we're here.”

“Wow, you think that just because I invited Alexis along, I'm going to be distracted?”

“It did cross my mind. Just remember that we're here playing, yes, but we're also working. It's not all fun and games.”

“Yeah, I know. This is just a trial. I get it. But it's also a week long trial, so I don't have to finish it all today.”

“You're just as bad as Dad,” Lucas scolded.

I laughed. “Well, he had to give it to one of us. At least we know you'll be successful,” I taunted.

Borris and Alexis had finally drifted back to shore. “You two don't know how to have fun at the beach, do you?” She sat up and looked at our pets. “Ooh, I knew you were trainers! What are those?”

“We're researchers, not trainers,” Lucas corrected.

“At this point, they are the same, what are they?”

“These are Spurf and Nocturne. They are the first of their kind according to the database. We're researching them.”

“Two new species, that's pretty cool. What can they do?”

“I don't know yet. It's their first time that we have taken them out.”

“Why didn't you say so? Let's let them play a little.”

“We're not going to have them fight, if that's what you're implying,” Lucas said.

“Well no. But pets can interact willingly too you know. I'm not suggesting we fight. They're safe.”

“It didn't sound that way Alexis. You seem awfully excited about battling. Are you a trainer?”

“I wish. I want to travel the world with my guardians, explore, live, learn, and grow. In order to do that, I would need to make sure that I am safe. We have this technology to use, but we are afraid to use it. That is what I fear the most. Being unable to act, because I am afraid.”

“I think it's still barbaric. Fighting for the sake of training. There are other ways to train, that don't involve injuring others.”

“You're not wrong Lucas, but I'm going to simply concede. No need for politics among friends.”

“I second that.”

“I third that,” I added. Although I admit it seems weird, but I agree with Alexis. I wanted to become a researcher, not only to work with my father, but to see what the limits of this technology was. I wanted to test my limits to see how far I could get in life with a team of guardians at my side. Guardians are what trainers call their pets.

I hadn't noticed it much until then, but Nocturne was calmly sitting at Lucas' feet, and Spurf was calmly sitting on my foot, just out of reach of the lowest waves. I wouldn't dare use the word trust, but it was clear that even at these very early stages there was a bond between us and the creatures we agreed to care for. It had been less than an hour, and some semblance of a bond had formed. I shouldn't be too surprised, as that happened with us and Alexis as well, but we were openly communicating with each other. These creatures weren't necessarily communicating with us.

I turned to watch the sun as it began to set over the ocean. The usually blue sea, was turning an illuminating shade of orange. And at just the right angle, the sea was ablaze with light. Alexis was facing away from me, watching the sunset, but I could tell that her mouth was open. Her slightly dampened hair was now adhering to her clothes and shoulders rather than blowing in the breeze. She turned to look at me.

“Thanks for inviting me out Sen. This is beautiful. We should get together again so you can show me some of the other finer points in town.”

“Of course. You should come to school tomorrow and meet some of the other students.”

“I might pass on that,” she laughed, “but you can come over afterwards. My grandma won't mind. She's been wanting me to make friends since we moved here.”

“Sure. I'll double check with my father, but it should be fine.”

She smiled and turned back to the sunset.

“I love the end of a sunset. Where the sky itself becomes a rainbow. A faint rainbow. A dark rainbow. But I love the colors nonetheless.”

I was about to agree when a loud explosion shattered the moment into oblivion. We looked around startled. Lucas was pointing behind us, over the treeline. A large ball of smoke and fire was quickly disappearing into the sky.

“Is that in town?” Alexis asked, but Lucas nor I really heard what she was saying. We were running back towards town. “Hey, wait for me. Come on Borris.”

“Sen, put Spurf back into its pec,” Lucas called to me. It was then that I noticed that Nocturnes pec was glowing from a recent deactivation. I saw that Spurf was clinging desperately to my shin as I ran through the woods.

“Right! Sorry Spurf.” I touched Spurf's pec and it slowly faded from view filling his pec with the lavender luminescence. We heard Alexis and Borris behind us, but we didn't think to wait up for her. What was going on in our town?

Quickly reaching the outskirts of town, we could see that one of the homes at the very opposite side of town was in flames. We could see why. We stuck to the wall of Alexis' house to watch in relative safety. A group of people dressed in black and red uniforms were outside a house jeering and shouting.

“Lucas,” I asked. He held his hand up to silence me. I continued, “I think that's our house.” I could see his shoulders slouch in disappointment.

“What are the hematites doing here,” I heard Alexis whisper from behind me.

“Lucas, that's our house, we have to do something.”

“I know that Sen, but what can we do?”

“Lucas, we have Nocturne and Spurf. Let's use them to scare these hematites off.”

“What do you think they are looking for Sen?”

“Just how famous are you two?” Alexis asked.

“Our father is Professor Malder.”

“Professor Malder? The professor? You two are Malder's kids?”

With that, two hematites burst out of the front door dragging our father with them. I couldn't see any of their faces, because they were hidden behind hoods, but they each had a symbol stitched onto their shoulder. One of them, had a large stylized capital E, and the other had a small circle with a line going straight from the top to the bottom. Another one took our father and threw him harshly against the wall. That one had a symbol that look like a lower case y and u had been combined.

“There's sigma, phi, and mu. These are three of their top leaders. Why are so many high ranking leaders from the hematites here though? This is a premeditated attack.”

“Will you stop talking Sen, I'm trying to listen.”

“Lucas,” I went to talk more, but Alexis grabbed my arm and held me back.

“Sen, the hematites are dangerous. You can't go. Let Lucas listen.”

I grumbled, while Lucas was whispering to us, “They're going to kill Dad, unless he tells them where the other two creatures are.”

“This is over the new cre...”

“Shh! … they're going to burn the village regardless. They have a gun.”

I focused on a new person that had appeared. They had a hood, but tufts of red hair were poking out from within. They were brandishing a gun, but only to give it to the larger person with a sigma on their shoulder.

A shorter person stepped in front of the mob,they pulled their hood down. A young woman with red hair was revealed.

“They don't want to kill Dad, but they want to know where we are. This woman is explaining that he is worth more alive than dead. She's not winning. Hey, we should leave.”

I glared at Lucas, “What do you mean we should leave? We can help.”

“We really can't. Sen, they are looking for us and what we have. We need to make sure that doesn't happen.”

“I'm not leaving Father.”

“Sen, we have to. We can't do anything to stop all of these hematites.”

“No.”

“Sen.”

The next noise threw me into a deep trance that I couldn't explain. I knew what had happened, and yet it didn't seem real; it couldn't be real. I saw that my father was no longer held against the wall of the house. The hematite mob was scattering throughout the town. I felt myself being pulled away from the scene. I didn't fight it; I couldn't fight it. I could see and feel that the others were talking to me, but nothing was registering.

I turned back as I was being dragged away. My father was slumped along the ground now. More buildings were being set aflame, and soon the town became a candle in the distance. Further along the road I was slowly regaining my senses. First was whimpering. Second was wetness on my face. Third was my brother stopping to look at me.

“Sen? Sen? Sen? He's still out of it.”

“We should do it Lucas. I'll watch out for him.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

“Good. I'll take the train further down. We'll loop around the island and meet at Delknap. You two should get there first. Wait for me.”

“I understand.”

“Wait.”

“What, Sen, are you back with us?”

“What are we doing?” I asked.

“We are splitting up. I'm going to Bellington via the train. You two are going to Asperthe via the ferry.”

“Why though? We are stronger together.”

“Sen, no arguing now. They can't catch both of us. Stay safe, and meet at Delknap.”

He turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm. He opened his mouth, but instead of saying anything wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him back. “What about Father?”

“Sen, I love you. Dad loves you too. We need to leave now.”

“I love you too Lucas.”

“Good. Good bye you two.” Lucas finally released me and turned back to the road. He ran into the darkness as we ran into the ferry terminal. The ticket booth was empty with a scrawled letter on the window, 'Free rides due to emergency'. We ran straight through and onto the pier. The ferry was filling with people from the nearby villages.

Alexis and I weaved through passengers towards the upper decks. All of the seats were taken, but we huddled together next to a support beam. Alexis had worried tears streaming down her face. It was then that I realized that Borris wasn't with her.

“Alexis?” I started. Before I could finish she embraced me and began to cry into my shoulder. I patted her back soothingly. “I'm sorry Alexis. Where's Borris?”

She squeezed me tighter. “He's safe. I have a wemin too,” as she said this, she grabbed my arm and brought my hand to her waist. Indeed, she had a wemin like me. She pushed herself upright still sniffling. “Sorry. I didn't mean to cry on you.”

“Don't mention it.” I heard a speaker crackle to life, and an announcement from the captain.

“Ladies and gentleman. We are holding to port a while longer. There is no immediate danger to the ferry and we want to make sure as many people are able to reach safety as possible. We will be departing shortly. Please remain calm.”

We stood in silence observing the other passengers on the ferry. A few minutes later the ferry engines hummed to life. Alexis walked with me over to the window. We watched as we pulled away from the shore. As the boat pulled further away from the shore, we could see another village that was up in flames. Alexis brought her hand to her mouth.

“How many other villages did they hit?”

“At least two now. That one is Conch Cove. They hit Vujade. There's Asperthe, Bellington, Delknap, Knuckleton, and Alpine Grove. I assume they hit the coast line based on the ferry, but we won't know for sure yet.”

The boat drifted further from shore and started to loop around such that the fires were little dots on the horizon. When the ferry reached what would be considered its max speed, the speakers came to life again.

“Ladies and gentleman we have a special announcement for you tonight.”

“Yeah yeah. Hello! This is hematite Delta. We are about a mile out from shore, I hope a little bit more. Simply put, more than you are going to want to swim in the dark. Now you might be wondering why we are announcing this. We have a prize for everyone on this ferry. We are looking for something, if we get it, you'll survive the ferry ride. If we don't get it, you won't. It's time to play some hide and seek.

“We have heard that we are looking for two children. Two young men. Now, I'm not heartless. We know you are all scared for your lives, so we'' make this easy for you. We don't want to kill you, we want to leave you alone. Get us these boys, and we'll leave. Short, simple, painless. If anyone objects, we'll be up top awaiting you. If we don't get the boys, people get hurt. Thanks for listening.

“I forgot one thing however,” the man on the other end laughed, “how could I be so thick? Here's what they look like. Happy hunting.” The man, Delta, left us with his demeaning laughter, while my brother and my pictures were plastered over each tv screen in the ferry.”

I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. Everyone on the ferry was going to be looking for someone who looked like me. I shivered a bit to make, putting my hood up look more natural. I had never felt so alone in my life. I was surrounded and isolated by people who wanted to find me, to throw me over to the group who so callously murdered my father. I was scared.

“What are we going to do Sen?”

“I don't understand what you mean by we. They don't care about you,” I whispered; my eyes were stuck to the television screen. “You can do whatever you want.”

“Please, I'm not selling out my friend to glorified bullies.”

“The hematites are far more dangerous than typical bullies. They are not afraid to kill.”

“I am a decent human being you know, despite some earlier mishaps. Please don't write me off so plainly.”

“I meant no offense Alexis, I just don't want you sacrificing yourself for my sake.”

“Then let's stay safe, and we won't have to worry about it. Okay?”

Her last question was rhetorical, but I answered it anyways, ”Thank you.”

“Now what do we do?”

“Well, do you think they are going to let the ferry go?”

“I find that doubtful. These are bad people; hematites can't be trusted. I doubt they would ruin their own fun so easily, but putting it into the hands of the fearful.”

“They are probably playing on that though. This is so frustrating. We need to hide.”

“We're on a boat Sen, Where are we going to hide?”

“Just stay away from me Alexis, you have no reason to hover around me. You can be safe if you're not around me.”

“That's not happening Sen. Think of another option.” By this time we were wandering around the outskirts of the ferry. The waves smashing against the hull were leaving trails of spray in the air almost reaching us. I hadn't noticed it before, but the ferry was no longer moving of it's own accord. We were roughly in the middle deck of the ferry, there were two below us, and one above us, plus the bridge that was above that.

Of all the passengers we passed, one topic was the main discussion; the hematites. Murmurs and whispers of what should be done. 'What should we do?' 'What happens if they're not here?' Should we look for them?' Are we honestly free if we comply?' How many do you think there are?' Can we take them?' These are all the conversations we heard to some degree. It was frustrating having so little power in a situation like this. I pushed a few loose windswept strands of hair from my face, to disguise my disappointment with myself.

“Alexis, I don't want you to get hurt for me. You hardly know me.”

She grabbed my and pulled me to face her. Her eyes were filled with a fire that didn't previously exist. Her tone was stern when she said, “No, that's not happening. I'm sticking with you, so think of something else.” Her voice was more than stern, some desperation was there as well. I tried to wriggle my hand away, but in turn Alexis tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

I looked away before responding, “I understand,” she smiled and gave my hand back. “Do you have any suggestions?”

Alexis gestured towards the cabins we occasionally passed. “I think we should find an unoccupied one of these and hole up inside.”

“We can hide, yes, but what happens when my brother and I aren't found? They'll start attacking people.”

“Sen, I think that's going to happen regardless. They are looking for both you and your brother. Only one of you are on t his boat. They don't know that. We don't know how many there are on the ferry. We need to hide before any hematites come looking for you.”

“You mean us.” Alexis smirked. “Seeing as we can't see in from this side, are we just supposed to...” Alexis opened the nearest door, before I could finish. People inside looked at us with startled expressions.

“Sorry.” Alexis closed the door and trotted to the next one, pushing the door open. “I'm sorry.” And the next door yielded the same result. “Come on Sen; we're running out of time.” I followed her and together we opened alternate doors, but none were available on this deck. We were at the staircase to go either up or down.

“Let's go one deck up.”

“But that's where they are Alexis.”

“We'll have to be quick, but that's why we'll find more up there than down below.”

“Good thinking, just make a hairpin and start searching for rooms.”

We climbed up the grated stairs just enough to poke our heads over the deck between the railing. There were some straggling passengers huddled together in small groups, but no one dressed like a hematite. Obviously, we knew some hematites could be disguised, but nothing stood out to us. Alexis and I quickly went the rest of the way and turned around to start opening doors. Alexis opened the first one, “Oops.”

I opened the second one, nobody was in the room. I closed the door instinctively expecting a response. I opened the door again in the absence of a response, and gestured for Alexis to enter. We closed the door and locked it. The room was pretty empty, except a few chairs and a desk. Together we slid the desk in front of the door, and place some chairs behind it We knew that wouldn't last very long, but for now we had our own room. Or so we thought. A door opened behind us. The bathroom door. The bathrooms are small on the ferry, you could only fit two people, maybe three if one person stood on the toilet. We didn't think to check the bathroom first.

A single man walked out of the bathroom sullenly. His face studied us briefly, and grew into a smile. He had dark brown hair that covered the back of his neck and his ears. Half of his forehead was covered by his hair, until he brushed it out of his face. His eyes were dark brown, almost black, and they were filled with excitement. His chin was covered with a short beard. His excitement was reflective in his smile from ear to ear. “Finally!”

Alexis backed into the desk, and I stepped between this man and her. “What is that supposed to mean?” The man chuckled softly. I reached down to my wemin, ready to bring Spurf to action.

“You can relax, I'm not here to hunt you. Well, I was looking for you, but not for the hematites.” I glared at him heatedly, he didn't seem perturbed. “Sen, I'm here to help.” I didn't changed my threatening stance. “I'm a trainer as well. I'm from Alpine Grove. We heard what has been happening the last few hours, and some of the strongest trainers scattered to try and stop the hematites. Unfortunately, we underestimated how serious the situation is.” He pointed at me. “The hematites aren't just looking for you and your family; they are attacking the entire island as well.”

“What do you mean?”

“They are fighting for this island as we speak.”

“Just like before in Frigid Cove.”

“Yes, this time, rather than a malnourished and desolate land, they are attack a populated island. We presume that they were driven by the search for your family, but had the numbers and ability to lay siege to the island. Asperthe and Bellington are already destroyed, as is Conch Cove, and Vujade. Everyone from Knuckleton was able to escape to Delknap thanks to the geography, the same is true for Alpine Grove. The only one that was left relatively untouched is Delknap.”

“They are attacking everywhere except Delknap?”

“Not exactly, but they are definitely funneling more resources into the rest of the island. Theories have started that they are routing us off the island.”

“Which means they are trying to gain control of this island.”

“Exactly.”

“What do we do in regards to the ferry?”

“I believe that if they capture Sen, they will leave the ferry alone and retreat.”

“Hey!” Alexis and I shouted in unison.

“Relax, that's not happening while I'm here. I have an alternate method. I have a history with the hematites. I know that Mu is a great strategist, and will stop at nothing to conserve strength and resources.”

“What does that imply?” Alexis asked.

“I believe that if given the chance to leave this ferry alone, and help attack the rest of the island, she would. Hold up there, I'm not giving you out. However, if we can challenge Mu one on one, she would rather have two people fight to determine a battle's outcome, than entire garrisons.”

“You're willing to risk everything for a gamble?” I asked.

“I'm not, but she is. If you look at it as a gamble then yes it seems strange. However, when you consider how it minimizes casualties, and the fact that she doesn't lose often, you can start to see where she is coming from.”

“How often are we talking?”

“Do you want to know that answer, or do you want to think you have a chance other than surrender?”

I glared at this man. I could feel Alexis quivering behind me. Her left hand had been gently resting on my back this entire time. I changed my threatening stance to be slightly less imposing. “How are we supposed to trust you?”

The belly-laughed and tapped his wemin. “I have a full team of six if you'd rather fight me.”

I ground my teeth unhealthily. Alexis' hand slid up to my left shoulder and she leaned into my right ear and whispered, “I don't think we have a choice. He hasn't harmed us so far. We have no reason to suspect he's lying. If this works, it benefits everybody.”

“I don't like this.”

“We can ask Mu and find out if she agrees to our terms.”

“How?”

The man released a creature from his wemin. A humanoid fox creature with tan fur stood before us. It's whiskers were thick and bushy, almost like a long moustache. Its body was covered with a thicker mane-like fur that was gary-brown in color.

“What is that?”

“Check it out yourself. I presume you have access to the database?”

“Yeah, but it's empty.”

“It is, and it isn't. It acts more like a history, than a search engine. It scans the subject, pulls the data from the database, and then your machine keeps it on file. It helps maintain a stable connection, without unnecessarily bogging down that connection.”

I pulled out my scanner and pointed it at that creature. A yellow light appeared at the top, and a few moments later it turned green and several pictures of this creature popped up on the screen.

“Alakazam.”

“Yes. It has a strong connection to the psyche of creatures and humans alike. I could send our arrangement Mu right now, from the safety of this room.”

“If Alakazam can do that, why not have it attack them that way?”

“I'm sure 'he' could. I honestly doubt we know the true potential of any of these creatures. But they have some restrictions whether self-imposed, or not. He either can't, or refuses. Either way, I wouldn't do that. These are creatures, no monsters.”

“These are the hematites we are talking about!” Alexis outburst.

“And they are people.” This is the first time this man seemed to be angry. He quickly shook the anger from his face. “I wont do that. Hate me all you like. Do you agree with my terms? Shall I inform Mu?”

I turned to face Alexis so we could have a more private conversation. “I dislike it, but it's better than anything else we can arrange on our own.”

“I know.”

“It's better than waiting.”

“I know.”

I turned back to this man. Alexis whispered one last thing.

“I don't like this.”

“I know.”

I nodded at this man. “We agree.”

“Good, she's already ordering the rest of the hematites to withdraw. She'll waiting for us in the front of the ship.”

As he said that, the speakers came to life again.

“Congratulations, the boys have been found. You are in luck, we will withdraw. However, we need to figure out the fate of the ferry. Will you send a champion among you to challenge me? Or will the ship fall I wonder. See you soon.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Don't worry about it. She won't be able to defeat me.”

“How are you so sure? Who are you?”

“I am Phillip. I'm the only person who beaten her that she's admitted. She kind of knows me.”

Listen, I know you might not trust me right now, but I'm the best shot you've got to getting out of this alive Sen. I suggest you take it. I wouldn't ask questions either. Right now is not the time.”

“I understand.”

“Good, now lets not keep Mu waiting.”

Together we moved the desk away from the door, and walked out to the front of the boat. There was already a crowd gathering. Several people were shouting about wanting to fight, but Mu was simply waving them off. As promised, there were several large sea-faring creatures holding hematites and presumed hematites on their backs. We followed Phillip through the crowd, until we reach the empty space between the crowd and Mu.

We could tell it was her by the way her eyes sparkled when she saw us, and also because she was adorned in the usual hematite cloak; it had the mu symbol embroidered on the back in gold stitching. She had short curly black hair that was green at the tips. She waved to us theatrically and shouted, “Ah, the man of the hour!” All eyes were on me. “How fitting that you have come to fight for the safety of these people.”

“I think you mean to talk to me, Mu.”

Mu laughed. “No, no. I'm talking to Sen here. I've come up with a different wager, same stakes.”

“Hey,” we all shouted.

“Ooh, fiesty. Phillip dear, we both know that if we fought this ship would end up wrecked anyways regardless of who won. It's still the usual, but I'm scaling it down a bit.” Phillip nodded. I wasn't so sure, could Mu be trusted? “Good. I have someone who needs training, and I think that your friend there would make for good practice. My new wager is this; instead of us fighting, we'll have them fight instead. Is that a deal?”

“Seems fair to me.”

I was about to speak out, but Phillip raised his hand to silence me. I didn't like this. I had never fought before. I don't think that Phillip fully understands what he is doing.

“Good,” Mu turned to her side and motioned to a young woman beside her, “Princess Felicia dear, I want you to fight on our behalf.”

The young woman nodded and stepped forwards towards me. We were less than twenty feet apart. She had red hair that wove down to her waist.. Her eyes were silver and drawn into a scowl. She didn't look very happy. Freckles lightly lined her face to make a nice contrast to her fair skin. She had a bandana to keep her hair out of her face that was the same color as her mini-skirt and half-top. She had boots with crimson frills that covered her shins. With her navel showing, it almost seemed like she was wearing a bathing suit except for her shoes.

Phillip stepped aside, “You're up Sen.” I didn't get to answer before he pushed me forwards.

Mu continued to speak, “Now, the the rules have been set, if anyone interferes, the ferry and everyone on it will die. Advice is fine, assistance is not.” People around us started to murmur for a few moments. When it died down, Mu said, “I hear no objections. You two are free to start whenever you are ready.”

Felicia folded her arms and looked me up and down. “So you're Sen, huh? I hear that you're new to this, so I'll tell you how this works. When I beat you, you are going to come with us, and we will consider only sinking the ferry so that your friends can escape. If you try to resist, things get more difficult; people will die.”

“And what if I win?”

Felicia laughed and put her hands on her hips. “Let's just get started,” she sneered. “One versus one seems fair. No need to complicate this.” She tapped the side of her wemin and the typical lavender light appeared in front of her. It quickly turned into a shape I had seen very recently. It was like a stalagmite with legs; it was my father's third discovered species. My mood darkened instantly. Beyond the fact that this was stolen from my now deceased father and being used against me, it was basically pure stone. What was Spurf, a fluffball, going to do against that? It was already over before it started.

Alexis gave wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed tightly. While she did that she said, “Good luck Sen. We're depending on you.” When she let go, Phillip brought Alexis back a few steps to give me some space. I tapped the side of my wemin to release Spurf, and I also used my scanner to scan Felicia's creature. Sure enough, there was only two pictures of it, one in the cave attributed to my father, and one in our house attributed to Felicia. It had been called Stalag. Once the lavender light faded away, I was surprised to see Borris, not Spurf, in front of me.

When Felicia saw Borris, she grimaced and turned back to Mu. I looked down at my wemin, confused. I had two pecs in there now, while I previously only had one. I looked back towards Alexis and she smiled and lightly waved at me. She had swapped my wemin around, and also given me Borris to use. I turned back to Felicia who was back to scowling. “It seems you know a bit more than I thought. I won't make that mistake again. Hmph, I was going to go easy on you to. Spurf didn't do anything wrong.”

“Sorry Sen,” I heard in my head. It was Alexis, even though it was my own thoughts.

“Alexis?”

“Sen, don't draw too much attention to this, but correctly remember that I never returned Alakazam to its pec. It's letting us give you a few pre-battle tips. I'm going to stop the connection during the battle so we don't distract you, but see as you're using Alexis' defender. She'll let you know what it can do.”

“Listen quickly. Borris is used to more rough housing, but it also has the ability to shoot blasts of water from his mouth. Borris is slow, but powerful. If he gets into too much trouble, sometimes he'll swing in for a head butt. Just try to make sure her defender doesn't get behind Borris, otherwise he won't be able to deal much damage. He is best at a full frontal barrage.”

“I understand.”

“Sen?”

“What?”

“Don't lose.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence Phillip.”

“Really though, don't lose. Otherwise this gets far more complicated.”

“I understand.”

“Good luck.”

The voices in my head stopped, and it was then that I realized Felicia was in the middle of mocking me. I stopped her by shouting, “You talk too much. I think you're stalling, because you don't want to lose.”

She gritted her teeth. “Stalag, charge!”

Stalag ran straight into Borris and jumped with it's pointed back. Borris grunted its discomfort, but then swung wide with its neck, but Stalag gave him a wide berth. Borris roared and shot a jet of water at Stalag, but it was dodged. Stalag was a lot faster than Borris. I remembered what Alexis said about not letting Stalag get behind Borris. That looked to be impossible, but I needed to make sure that Felicia didn't figure this out.

The crowd was giving way around us. Stalag was running circles around Borris. I needed Stalag to stop running around. How could I do that? I looked around me and found what I was looking for. There was the wall of a cabin, and a rail to the side of the ship; Stalag wouldn't be able to move in more than a forty five degree angle. The problem was that there were too many people. It was too crowded. Meanwhile, Borris was keeping his head down threatening to bat away any advance by Stalag.

I turned to face the crowd. “Excuse me, I'm going to need some more space. Please move.”

The crowd slowly parted, but I had to redirect my attention to Felicia.

“No asking for help.”

“I didn't. Borris give it a bit of water.” Borris shot another jet of water, but again the Stalag was too fast to hit. The crowd was taking its time to clear away. I slowly have Borris work his way back towards me. “Borris, give it a good tackle.” Borris reared up and jumped towards Stalag. He missed, but when he did the ferry quaked a little. The crowd started shuffling further back. Why did they want to watch so badly anyways?

“Hey, keep that gluttonous slug under control.”

“He's not gluttonous,” Alexis shouted from behind me.

“Heh, struck a nerve. Stalag, chip away at it.”

When Felicia said this, Stalags legs started moving in a scissor-like way. It moved closer to Borris in an unsettling way. Borris swung its head in a heavy arc. Stalag, instead of dodging it, grabbed its ear and made a cut. Borris whined and swung violently, but Stalag got away again.

Felicia laughed, “This is over, you have no idea what you're doing. You're pathetic. Stalag, blast it.” Stalag roared, and started shooting shrapnel from its mouth as Borris would shoot water. The blast caught Borris in his face, and he flattened his head to the deck. Borris was clearly going to loose the fight if I kept this up. At this point,the entire boat shook violently and waves began to crash harshly against the ferry. Some things were starting to crash to the floor on the ferry, it was apparent that some shelves and ligths were falling over.

“What's going on?” Felicia asked.

Mu looked over the edge of the boat. Based on the shouts in the distance, the hematites in the ocean were in a state of distress. Regardless, everyone was thinking the same thing, what was going on? We didn't have to wait long for an answer.

Behind the hematites, a large blue serpent lunged out of the water. It flung itself backwards and landed on top of some of the hematites that were adrift. The shouts of distress were louder. Mu turned to Phillip, but it wasn't very necessary as Phillip ran over to the edge of the boat as well. “I said no interference Phillip!”

“That's not me,” he replied quickly.

They both looked out as the beast breached the surface again. This time the beasts mouth was open, and inside a person could be seen standing alongside several rows of sharp teeth. The beast had yellow scales on its belly, but was blue on its back. It had several sets of fins set along its body.

“Good heavens, it's Anarx again.”

“You're on your own Mu.”

“As are you Phillip.” Mu turned to face the crowd, which was now further behind me than when we started. “Are rules were broken as such, our previous arrangement is,” Mu stood clinging desperately to the railing as the ship shook rapidly. More crashing nosies from throughout the ferry. “It's moot. The boy would've lost without this interference, and seeing as he won't come with us, we are obliged to sink the ship. Toodles.” Mu jumped over the railing, as panic spread throughout the passengers.

Alexis' hand was on my shoulder. I went to yell at Phillip, but a large rock landed in my ribs. “Hey moron!” It was Felicia, who was straddling the rail. She pointed at Borris and said, “Take care of that thing!” After that, she flipped off of the rail and dove into the ocean.

We ran over to Borris who was whimpering. Alexis leaned over Borris running her hands through his whiskers and antanae. “Hey Borris, I'm sorry for the rude awakening. Sen, is new to this.” Borris squeaked in response. A small container rolled into my boot. I looked down to see it better. It was a small spray can with a large red cross on it. I quickly bent down to pick it up. The label on it said, 'Potion'. I turned it over in my hand reading the label.

“Hey Alexis, I think this will help. Hold over inflicted wounds, and spray for four seconds. Safe for eyes and ingesting, though not recommended.” Alexis took it from me and began use it on Borris. I turned on Phillip. “What are you doing letting them get away? We could have stopped them right here.”

“Sen, now's not the time, and no we couldn't have.” The ship began rocking again as explosions were heard throughout. More noises like shattering glass filled the ferry, as the screams of the hematites filled the night. The roar of the sea monster could be heard above it all, as it routed the hematites away from the ferry. “We need to get the passengers calm, and get them off the ferry. You and Alexis use Borris, I'll keep track of the passengers. Get to the shore, we can talk later.”

Phillip ushered us to the edge of the boat before rushing off. Borris, with some difficulty, scrambled over the railing and flopped into the ocean. If it weren't for the dire circumstances, it would've been entertaining. I looked at Alexis, and noticed our danger behind her. The ship had cracked in the middle and we were about ten feet higher than the middle of the ferry. It was going to sink.

“Come on Sen, we have to go.”

I nodded and we both flipped over the edge. The rushing air was a nice distraction from the terror around us; brief, but soothing. The water was a shocking reminder. I flailed my arms to reach the surface, and I looked around to see where Alexis and Borris were. To my left, Alexis was already scaling Borris' shell with assistance. I swam over to them and started to climb on as well. Alexis helped pull me up onto his shell. We were both shivering crazily.

“Alexis, we would stay warmed if we huddled,” was all I could get out before Alexis smacked me gently.

“Don't make this awkward,” she sad as she leaned into me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I wrapped my right arm over her shoulder. I turned to look at the scene of destruction. From the water's perspective, the ferry would definitely not make it. The bottom of the ferry was almost completely missing in the middle. It was as if someone had reached in and gutted it. However, beyond the ferry a titanic battle had erupted.

The monstrous blue sea monster was writhing around shooting enormous streams of water into the air. I couldn't see what at first, but soon a large three-headed dragon was flying around the sky. It's scales were dark blue, and it's belly was a deep violet. It had an inky black coat-like fur that covered most of its body, otherwise I would've acted like a mane. That was why it was difficult to see it before against the darkness of the sky.

The dragon was using energy from the air and turning it into a crackling beam aimed at the sea monster. A few other indiscriminate forms were attacking the sea monster from the water, but a large tail erupted from the sea and flung them far away. At this point, we couldn't hear the battle it was so far away, except for the few times large bursts of energy was used from either side. Again, if it weren't for the circumstance, it would have been exciting to watch; now, it was just terrifying. That could've happened to us.

I gently rubbed the shell of Borris, who was dutifully taking us towards the shore. “I'm sorry Borris. You did great.” Borris squealed affectionately, and Alexis leaned just a little bit closer into me.

“Borris isn't mad at you Sen, he gave me permission to let you use him. He understood it was your first time. I'm sorry we didn't tell you. It was very last minute once I saw what she was going to use.”

“What made you think to lend me Borris?”

“Spurf would not have lasted long against that creature. Borris had an advantage in its element, but a disadvantage in its training.”

I nodded again. “That makes sense. Either way, thank you. I appreciate it.”

The shore was still several dozens of minutes away, but we stayed silent the rest of the journey. Even huddled together we were still shivering. We needed to find a way to get out of the open, otherwise we would freeze. Every once and a while I would peek behind us; no more scene of a sinking ferry. Instead, I could see several dark forms floating along behind us. Some of them had lights to illuminate their way, most of them, like us, did not. All we could do was head towards the looming darkness that was Kajili island.

A few minutes before we reached the shore, I saw the light of a fire start somewhere close to the beach. Surrounding it was a few people who appeared to be shivering as well. I thought we would be the first ones, but I guess I wasn't focused on what was ahead of me, as much as what had happened behind me.

As we got closer, we could see that other people were joining in and adding wood to the fire. The fire grew considerably in size, in the brief few minutes it had been alive. Once Borris finally reached the shore, Alexis and I jumped off and ran to the fire. Alexis put Borris back into its pec. People were gesturing to us towards the fire, but I didn't need any telling. As we neared this bonfire, it became apparent that these people weren't from those that were on the ferry.

“Who are you?”

“We're from Alpine Grove. Phillip radio'd to us that people would need to get dry and warm, so we came down to help.”

“Is there any way we can help?”

“Stay by the fire kid, it's gonna be a long night. We'll handle the fire.”

Alexis and I remained huddled by the fire. I was going to tell her that we didn't need to keep huddled together now, but she was huddling with me, and I didn't want to seem dismissive. I had no idea what was running through her head, but she was very quiet; I was slightly worried. The fire grew in size as people grew in attendance. Soon there were several fires built accommodating everyone.

I didn't know how long it had been, but I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. I turned to find Phillip standing behind me. “What do you want Phillip?”

“We need to go.”

“Why us?”

“Just you and me. Alexis can stay here.”

“I thought I made this very clear. Sen and I are staying together.”

“Fine, then all three of us need to go. These people are in danger as long as you,” he patted my shoulder and overly emphasized his next word, “Sen, remain here.”

“Where are we going?”

Phillip pointed up the mountain. “We know Alpine Grove is safe, we're going to climb up there, and sail down to Delknap. That will get you to the mainland, and it will keep these people safe.”

“How do you know that?”

“The hematites only attacked that ferry looking for you and your brother. Without you here the hematites have no reason to attack them.”

“How do you know all this? You seemed rather comfortable with the hematites for a person who is currently asking to take us for a walk.”

“I'm not asking you to trust me based on my actions, I'm asking you trust me based on the fact that these people are endangered while you are here. If you want to go alone, that's fine by me, but I don't think you have any idea how to get there from here, nor do you have a way to get down from there to Delknap.” Phillip paused, he was apparently satisfied with his argument. Until he added one more, “Nor do I think you have a light.”

I grumbled to myself, but I looked at Alexis. She was solemn, but nodding. “I'll go if you go.”

“Fine. We'll go with you.”

“Good. Any longer and I was going to have to drag you. I got these people off that ferry. I'm not going to sit around while you endanger them again.”

Phillip took the lead, and Alexis and I followed closely behind. Now that our clothes had dried, and we weren't in the middle of the ocean, the night was significantly warmer than it had been. Phillip released a lavender feline with an eye sized ruby adorning its forehead. It lead us with an illuminated jewel the entire way up the mountain. The first few minutes of this journey were the most talkative.

“How long are we going to be hiking for?”

“I don't think it'll be longer than two hours, maybe three based on your conditions.”

“That's it? If it's so easy to get to, why haven't the hematites attacked it yet.”

“I know where I'm going, and the hematites tried. They failed.”

“How?”

“You've never been to Alpine Grove, have you? It's basically a fortress. I'm glad the good guys got it.”

“Speaking of that, why are you so comfortable around the hematites?”

“Yeah, you seemed awfully close to that Mu woman,” Alexis chipped in.

Phillip laughed. “First of all, I wouldn't use comfortable. I was confident that I would be able to out-ploy them, yes. I'm not comfortable. Secondly, just because the hematite organization is bad, doesn't mean they are all bad. Like I said, Mu would've let us go had we won that battle, or if Sen went with her. It's not about comfort, it's about respect.”

“You respect them?” I asked incredulously.

“I respect all of my opponents. Just because we are in a war now, doesn't mean that we will always. The survivors are going to have to live together eventually. That's the real reason why Mu doesn't like fighting. She understands that as well.”

“How can you say that? These people killed my family and are hunting me down.”

“Listen kid...”

“I'm not a child.”

“Listen Sen. You have a lot to learn about how this world works. Nothing is as black and white as you make it seem. Who was there? Who was the one that killed your father?”

I thought back to that event from earlier in the evening. “The leader was there, and Phi, and Sigma, and Omega. Sigma had the gun.”

“Then maybe Sigma is one of the bad ones. Mu, however, is not.”

“Felicia was there too,” I recalled to myself. “She was trying to stop them from killing my father. But she was so rude on the ferry.”

“Like I said, nothing is black an white.”

I stayed to myself the rest of the journey. We only stopped to assist each other up difficult parts of the cliff, or to catch our breath. By the time we had finished climbing and reached a large open mountainside, the night was at its fullest. Across this mini plateau, partially up another cliff, we saw a large landing with what looked like a castle. There were a few lights on inside, and we could see that it would take at least another hour to reach it.

“It's a little after midnight I would say. Maybe one. Either way, we're almost there. Let's keep going you two,” Phillip said with more energy than anyone should have in this time and situation.

Alexis sighed beside me. “This isn't a very fun date Sen.”

I was shocked, “Did you think this was a date Alexis?”

She smiled, “No, but it wouldn't have been a fun one if it was.” I didn't know what to do. I was stuck in a half laugh, half smile. Alexis put her hand under my chin. “There's the smile. Keep your chin up Sen. We'll make it through this.”

“Thanks Alexis. But why are you trying to cheer me up?”

Alexis paused, and turned to follow Phillip. I heard her mumbling over the sound of rocks, “I know what it's like to go through this.”

Without anything else to say, I followed the both of them further up the mountain.

Without anything else to say, I followed the both of them further up the mountain. Climbing boulder upon boulder at this time of night after everything we have experience was difficult. My muscles were screaming, my mind was trying to sleep, but I had to keep going. I was exhausted, but in danger. Phillip and his guardian, Espeon as I found out, was guiding us quickly up the mountainside. The fortress growing in our vision as we neared it. Finally, we were just outside the large fortress of a city, and we found ourselves waiting just at its ominous gates.

Espeon chirped lightly, and Phillip put Espeon back into its pec. A few minutes later the muffled voice of a man was heard on the other side of the wooden gates.

“Gimme a moment Phillip. Almost done.”

“No worries, sorry for the hassle!” Phillip yelled back.

Shortly after, the gates slowly creeped open and Phillip ushered us inside.

“What do you need Phillip?”

“I need you to temporarily lower the shield. We need to get to observation.”

“Oh please, I let them rest for a bit. The hematites already tried attacking tonight. They won't try again for a while.”

“Perfect, Sen, Alexis, follow me.”

“Good luck the old man shouted after us as he started closing and relocking the gates. The city was dimly lit, only every other building was lit, if even that many. We slowly made our way through the city, slowly increasing in elevation. I liked how the city was layered, it was an interesting dynamic. However, as we increased in elevation, we grew closer to the walls of the fortress. Soon, we were above the cityscape altogether, and walking along the wall protecting it.

Atop the wall, there was one more tower with a flat roof for use to scale. We climbed the steps to reach the highest point that was still considered part of Alpine Grove. I walked over to the edge and look at the landscape below me. The entire island of Kajili was dark except for two areas. The first was the remnants of the fires on the beach from where we came, the second was our current destination, Delknap. It was brightly lit, a homing signal for us to aim for.

Phillip released a new creature from his pec. It was a large bat-like creature with a large claw at the end of each wing. It had a scorpion-like tail that was dragging along the ground behind it. It was a little shorter than me when it stood up properly.

“This is Venom. He can't fly, but he can glide. He is our ticket to Delknap.”

“Aren't we going to weigh him down too much?”

“I know he can carry me far enough that I'd end in the ocean, with all three of us, we might end such that there will be a light hike to Delknap. Either way, it's our fastest way there, and I think we'll make it from here, unless you'd like to climb further up the mountain?”

“I think here is fine Phillip.”

“I don't think hiking any higher will be necessary, either.”

“Good. I have something to make us seem lighter as well at any rate.” Phillip reached into his bag and pulled out a large black canvas. “This sheet uses the same wemin technology that the gloves use. It won't make us completely weightless, but it will make it easier for Venom to carry us.”

“Why do you have something like this? Do you need to use it often?” I asked.

“Often enough. It's largely beneficial in my line of work. It makes it easier for Venom at least, that's good enough for me.”

Alexis and I watched as Phillip unraveled the canvas and held it up to Venom. He gestured for us to sit in it, we obeyed. Phillip climbed into the top of the canvas. There was a minor seat in it for one person.

“This is going to be a rough start, but once we stop swinging it will be easy enough,” Phillip patted both of our shoulders. “Are you two ready?”

Alexis and I glanced uncomfortably at each other, but we both gave the same answer. “Yes.”

Phillip laughed and said, “Alright, Venom, if you would do us the honors, please?”

Venom gave an acknowledging nod and jumped over the edge of the tower. For a brief second everything was fine, but once we started moving we were immediately jostled around like a rag doll. The bag that were were holed up in swung left and right violently as it tried to right itself. Phillip, sitting at the top, had the least impact of it, compared to Alexis and me. At the base of this bag, we were lolled across a larger distance. However, as Phillip promised, everything calmed down after the first few moments of flight.

“Feiv's Phillip, that was a rough start!” I shouted. Alexis was nervously laughing it off, but I was uncomfortable that we both just got spaghetti'd together.

Phillip laughed again. With the breeze in our ears it was a little more difficult to hear him say, “Normally, this is just for a passenger and some equipment. I don't normally have to deal with complaints.”

“Still.”

“Calm down in there. The more of a ruckus you create, the shorter we'll glide. If you want to hike some more later, by all means, cause a stir.”

I folded my arms indignantly,but said no more about it. Alexis leaned back and began to watch the stars from under Venom's wings. Having nothing better to do, I leaned back as well and joined her. It was fascinating how Phillip interacted with his defenders. I initially thought of them as pets or wild animals, but over the course of the evening, they seemed far more human. They were easy to communicate with, and were able to do much more than what any ordinary animal on earth would've been able to do.

My father taught me about earth, even though he had never seen it either. He told me that the animals there were similar in appearance to the ones here, but different in nature. The animals on earth had very limited communication skills, and took years of effort to train. These animals seemed to have almost an instant bond with you, and were easily trainable.

My father always assumed it was because of some aura these animals had. While it was difficult to find concrete evidence on this fact, some remained. These creatures had some otherworldly connection to energy that allowed them to do some wondrous things. My father theorized that this was in part how the aurochs worked. The aurochs could hold these creatures based on their aura. There was an accident once where a scientist, Denny Heirol, was pulled into an auroch. Even though he was released seconds later, he was already dead. He had been completely drained of any semblance of energy.

It's also what led to the theory of the aura, is because this happened in experiments with weakened creatures. Normally, the aurochs can safely store and contain a creature, but if that creature is in a coma, or unconcious, when brought into the auroch, it also becomes drained and dies. The pec technology helps minimize that chance, but it can still happen periodically. The pecs are designed to recognize this aura, and refuse to trigger if it would kill the subject. It still causes issues if people use the base auroch stones, but that's rare these days.

I didn't even realize that I had spaced out until Phillip jostled me back. “We're getting ready to land in about a minute. It won't be as rough as the start, but it might hurt.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“Don't thank me yet.”

Alexis was already bracing for impact. I remembered how rough the initial swing was, and spread out like a starfish. I wanted to minimize the amount of movement I was going to make. I didn't dare look over the edge to anticipate the landing, I used the bright lights that shined on Venom's underbelly to know we were close to Delknap. I also heard a lot more hustle and bustle of a city coming from all around us. It looks like we landed inside Delknap after all.

I saw Venom's belly light up more intensely, and I hear shouting from beneath us. We had been spotted, but I couldn't quite hear what was being said. We must still be pretty high up. The noises below steadily increased until I could figure out that they were helping us land. I could recognize the smell of the ocean, and I could finally hear the sea. I felt something soft touch the bottom of our canvas, and we were slowly lowered the last few feet to the ground.

“Well, not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm glad they were expecting us.”

I couldn't quite see what was going on yet, as I was still tangled within the canvas. I could only hear voices.

“Phillip, what are you doing here?” we heard a female ask.

“Relax, Tiffany, I'm here to help.”

“We'll see about that,” a female looked over the canvas and spotted both Alexis and me. She had a bandanna interwoven in her long blonde hair, that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her concerned blue eyes turned soft when she realized what she was looking at. “Hello there, you two.” She looked up at Phillip, who was now climbing out of the back of the canvas. “Who are they?”

“Two persons of interest to the hematites.”

“Of course. Minors?”

“Yes.”

I started to stir to get out of the canvas. “Now hold on, we're not minors,” I started, but I was interrupted.

“Can you fight?”

“Well, no.”

“Then you're minors. Follow me,” this woman, Tiffany presumably, said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me out. I instinctively grabbed Alexis' arm and helped her out as well. Tiffany was walking briskly towards a boat, another ferry. I was trying to pull away, but Tiffany wasn't letting go.

“Hey, I don't want to leave. I need to wait for my brother.”

“Sorry, we have orders to evacuate all minors. As said before, anyone who can't fight,” she called back without turning around.

“But I was supposed to meet my brother here.”

“Can your brother fight? I don't know.”

“Then he's probably on the ferry too. If not, wait at Avacor, we'll be ferrying people all night.”

“But...”

“Listen,” she said as she turned around to face me this time, “I'm doing my best to make sure the most people remain safe. Right now, that means I need you both to get on this ferry and maintain order. If you want to fight back, I can use force.” She smiled with that last comment. I assume she meant it as a joke, but I wasn't in the mood. She sighed. “Yeah, I was kidding. What's your name?”

“Sen.”

“Okay Sen, nobody wants to treat you like a child right now, but we have orders, and I'm going to follow them. You can't fight in your condition, even though I know you want to. If you want to fight, take this,” she said, as she pulled a pamphlet from her inside pocket. “We, of the military, are looking for help to contain the hematite threat. Get to the mainland, and look us up. If you want to fight, that's your best option. But right now, get on that ferry.”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Ugh, just call me Tiffany. Ma'am makes me feel old.”

With that, Tiffany ushered us on to the ferry with a little more force than was necessary. At this point, Alexis was more guiding me than the other way around. I was led to the oppostie edge of the ferry, brushing through people as I walked. I wasn't paying attention until Alexis spoke to me. Or maybe she was talking the entire time and this is just where I came to. “This ferry is children and young adults.”

I looked around. Sure enough, the ferry was completely filled with people who were obviously younger than me, or just about my age. They were shipping the children off first to make sure they were safe. This ferry was much smaller than the last one, it was just two decks total, as such it was fairly full. I looked back to the island and saw a few stragglers being ushered onto the ferry. Some parents were waiting at the pier waving, some were crying. Regardless, the military were coldly following orders.

Tiffany raised a walkie talkie to her mouth and waved at the ferry. The engine roared to life and within minutes the ferry had taken off. I didn't even realize that Alexis was still holding my hand, until I turned around and felt the weight of it holding me back. She let go, and leaned on the railing facing the lights of where we were going. I leaned on the rail next to her.

“Do you think they are going to be alright Sen?”

“Who?”

“Everyone.”

I patted her shoulder, “Of course. The military is involved, everything will be fine.”

“Then why are they sending just kids?”

“They want to make sure that there is as little panic as possible if something goes wrong. With us safely out of the picture, that is accomplished.”

“That still means that they are planning on something going wrong.”

“That doesn't mean that it will.”

“What are you going to do when you get to the mainland?”

“I'm gonna wait for my brother.”

“I meant afterwards.”

“I dunno. I'll rest up and see about this pamphlet.”

“You're going to fight?”

“Of course. They killed my father. I'm going to make sure that they pay.”

“Do you mind if I join you?”

“I don't mind. I can't promise that it will go any smoother than today. Based on how you acted, I feel like I should be asking you.”

“Seriously, you lost your first battle. That's fine, you could only win or lose. But if we travel together, we'll be able to watch each other's backs. That way, if you lose, I can step up. Or vice versa.”

“I'd like that.”

“Good, because if we're waiting for your brother at the mainland, my grandmother is going to need to believe that I'm in good company.”

“You're not just going to start right away?”

“I wouldn't do that to my grandparents. If they didn't get confirmation that I survived, they would be heart-broken. If I tell them that you are the reason I stayed alive, they'll let me travel and get stronger with you.”

“But Alexis, it's not because of me that you're still alive.”

“They don't need to know that part. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Of course. We have a deal.”

Alexis had an almost devilish grin. “Perfect. I'll go shopping for supplies while you wait for your brother.”

Alexis had an almost devilish grin. “Perfect. I'll go shopping for supplies while you wait for your brother.”

As the ferry drifted closer to the main land, I looked longingly at the island that had recently been my home. As it faded into the darkness, I lost myself in the memories of my friends. Simple things, mundane things, and even boring things with my friends became precious to me over the course of the night. Things that I had taken for granted, now seemed more important than anything else in this world. The rest of the ferry ride I spent in somber reminiscence.

As we docked, we found more of the military waiting for us. Some were helping gets us off the ferry and to a rest spot for the evening; others were loading the ferry with supplies and other military personnel. Once we were off the ferry the military left us alone for the most part, we were old enough to take care of ourselves, they were more helping the younger children.

We still followed their suggestions, as we didn't want to spend money on a room. At the shelter there was a small dining hall that was almost barren, and a line of children going up the stairs. Alexis and I sat down at a table and had a bowl of soup each. It was a simple vegetable stew, but this was the first thing we had eaten in hours. It was warm and relaxing despite the circumstances. While we were eating we were assigned a room together, because Alexis claimed we were siblings. It was room 35 on second floor.

Once we finished our bowl of soup, we wandered upstairs to find our room. It was small, a bedroom, a closet, and a bathroom, and it only had one bed. I didn't mention anything as we shambled over the threshold.

“I was kind of hoping they'd still give us two beds,” Alexis muttered.

I looked at the clock on the bedside table, it read 4:39. I grumbled, “I'll sleep on the floor if you want.”

“If you sleep on the floor, I'm going to punch you until you get in that bed. You might as well save yourself the trouble.”

“Heh. Sorry it didn't work out the way you anticipated,” I mumbled. I threw myself onto the bed face-first; it was heaven-sent comfort.

“Yeah, that's my side.”

“That's fine with me,” I said as I rolled over onto the left side of the bed. “I'm just glad I don't have to sleep on the floor.”

“Don't let it get to your head. I was just trying to make it easier for them. I'm too nice to let you sleep on the ground, but I'm too tired to think of anything clever.”

“I'll take what I can get.” I was stretching my arms and legs and getting comfortable on my new side. I closed my eyes.

“Sen,” Alexis said as she sat gingerly on the bed. She put her hand on my back.

“What is it?”

“Thank you for tonight.”

I smiled into the pillow and turned to face Alexis with my eyes closed. I opened my eyes just enough to find her face. “You don't have to thank me Alexis. It was all Phillip anyways.”

She chuckled a bit. “You're right.” She laid down onto her left side, away from me. She turned her head just enough to look back at me through the corner of her eye and said, “Goodnight Sen.”

“Goodnight Alexis.” I closed my eyes and went to sleep shortly after.

I woke up gently. I realized that Alexis wasn't here, and I sat up. I went to the bathroom to freshen up as best could. This wasn't a hotel with complimentary additions, it was a bare minimum room for some sort of accommodation. I was about to leave the room, when I saw a note just in front of the door. It was from Alexis.

“Please meet me back here with your brother.”

“Simple enough. I can do that.” I looked around the room for any kind of writing utensil; I didn't find anything. I carefully used my nail against the table to engrave 'Yes' into the paper. It wasn't much, but it would do. I left the room with the paper, and slid I under the door. I went downstairs. The sun was shining brightly through the windows of this warehouse-looking ground level. There were a pile of sandwiches on a table. Nothing fancy, but it was free, so I took one. I didn't know what time it was, but it had to be noon or a little bit later.

I walked just outside and felt to warmth of the sun fill my soul. Compared to last night, this was great. Outside the warehouse the was a table with a clipboard with a list of names on it. According to the instructions at the top of the page: The names were on the left, the middle column was very small, meant only for check marks, and the right column was for parents. Basically, whenever a parent was looking for their child, they would look here, find them, and mark them as accounted for. If you were old enough to be on your own, you'd check yourself out and write 'self'.

I went down the list to look for my brothers name. It was a fairly long list, it spanned two pages, and it was first names only and handwritten. As I got further down the list, I found Alexis' name and my name right after. I flipped the page over to continue looking, but I didn't succeed. Lucas wasn't here anywhere.

That said, I wasn't worried. That just means my brother used a different name to check in. It was a great precautionary measure, but it made things more difficult for me now. How was I supposed to find him now? I don't know what name he used, we didn't plan this far in advance. I didn't know what to do. Instead of pondering my problem here, I decided to walk around the town. That way I could think while I looked for him.

I went to different shops and locations in and around the town. I haven't been mainland in a few years, so it was all new to me again. I wasn't looking to buy anything as Alexis said she would do that, but I just wanted to go to places I thought my brother would go as well. It turned up nothing, but it kept me occupied during the day.

As the sun began to get lower in the sky, I headed back to the shelter. I saw that it was significantly emptier than it had been earlier, but I ignored that and went straight to my room. Alexis was already there, but there was no sign of her having actually gone shopping.

“Where's all the stuff you said you'd buy,” I asked as I walked in the room.

Alexis walked towards me and grabbed my arm. She was dragging me back out of the room. “You're coming with me Sen. My grandparents invited you over for dinner.”

“What?”

“Just go along with it please.”

“Wait, what?”

She stopped and turned to me, “They want to meet you.” She looked down and said, “They want to thank you for keeping me safe. Besides, all of our stuff is at their room. They are in room sixty-two. I took a new room with them, so you and your brother could have room thirty-five. Where is Lucas anyways?”

“I wasn't able to find him, and he was not in the list of names when I checked. He either used an alias, or he went off without stopping here for the night. I think he just went off on his own. I know he has connections somewhere near here. After we weren't able to meet at Delknap, I wonder if he threw everything to the wind and went solo?”

“You think you're brother would just abandon you?”

“I never said that, but I know he has friends somewhere neighboring this town. That beats our room exponentially. I think he just assumed that I would do what I'm doing now.”

“What is that?”

“Going off on an adventure to get revenge. If he saw these pamphlets too,” I said touching my pocket. “He knows that that's where I'll be heading. My guess is, if we follow these instructions, we'll find my brother.”

“I would've just waited at the next available town myself. It seems logical to me.”

“Logical, but not productive. My method is far more productive, and we come from a family of results.”

“Well, there you go, we have our destinations. Now, lets talk to my grandparents so we can go.,” Alexis said pulling on my arm desperately.

“Fine, fine. I'm coming Alexis.”

Alexis smiled and let go of me. Together we finally walked to meet her grandparents. The meeting was brief. I told them that I had already had dinner while I was out, but that I would squeeze one bowl in to be polite. They kept thanking me and asking me questions. I was fairly uncomfortable the entire time, but I told myself that I was doing this for Alexis

As the dinner ended, I helped clean up. Alexis showed me all the gear she bought, including a new backpack for me. She put some stuff in it and gave it to me. Her grandparents waved us off after Alexis told them that she was going to walk me back to my room. As we walked around the corner Alexis initiated our conversation. “Not as bad as you thought, right?”

“I never thought it was going to be bad.”

“Heh, well, whatever it is about you, they like you enough to let us go together.”

“I'm glad they think so highly of me.”

“Oh they don't, at least, not yet,” she said grinning, as she took out a spray container. “They gave me this, and told me that if you gave me any trouble, I should spray you and run away. Hahaha, she laughed and handed me the spray can.

I already knew what it was, a defensive spray. “Great,” I muttered to myself.

“Hah! Like I would need 'that' when I have Borris,” she said as she tapped the wemin at her side.

“Great,” I mutter louder than before. I opened the door to the room, and held it open for Alexis.

“Oh no, I'm sleeping with my grandparents tonight. They'd kill me if I picked you over them. Sorry Sen.”

“No worries. I assumed that was the case, but didn't want to be rude if I was wrong.”

“Hey now,” she whispered in my eye as she hugged me, “at least you get the bed to yourself now. Heheh. Get some rest. We'll leave sometime tomorrow morning. Goodnight Sen.”

“Goodnight,” I responded as she smiled and walked back towards her grandparents room just down the hall and around the corner. She wasn't wrong, I did get the entire bed to myself tonight. I took my backpack off and put it on the side of the bed. I plopped down, face-first again, and I was asleep almost instantly. I was going to be making up my lost sleep for a few days now.

Alexis had an almost devilish grin. “Perfect. I'll go shopping for supplies while you wait for your brother.”

As the ferry drifted closer to the main land, I looked longingly at the island that had recently been my home. As it faded into the darkness, I lost myself in the memories of my friends. Simple things, mundane things, and even boring things with my friends became precious to me over the course of the night. Things that I had taken for granted, now seemed more important than anything else in this world. The rest of the ferry ride I spent in somber reminiscence.

As we docked, we found more of the military waiting for us. Some were helping gets us off the ferry and to a rest spot for the evening; others were loading the ferry with supplies and other military personnel. Once we were off the ferry the military left us alone for the most part, we were old enough to take care of ourselves, they were more helping the younger children.

We still followed their suggestions, as we didn't want to spend money on a room. At the shelter there was a small dining hall that was almost barren, and a line of children going up the stairs. Alexis and I sat down at a table and had a bowl of soup each. It was a simple vegetable stew, but this was the first thing we had eaten in hours. It was warm and relaxing despite the circumstances. While we were eating we were assigned a room together, because Alexis claimed we were siblings. It was room 35 on second floor.

Once we finished our bowl of soup, we wandered upstairs to find our room. It was small, a bedroom, a closet, and a bathroom, and it only had one bed. I didn't mention anything as we shambled over the threshold.

“I was kind of hoping they'd still give us two beds,” Alexis muttered.

I looked at the clock on the bedside table, it read 4:39. I grumbled, “I'll sleep on the floor if you want.”

“If you sleep on the floor, I'm going to punch you until you get in that bed. You might as well save yourself the trouble.”

“Heh. Sorry it didn't work out the way you anticipated,” I mumbled. I threw myself onto the bed face-first; it was heaven-sent comfort.

“Yeah, that's my side.”

“That's fine with me,” I said as I rolled over onto the left side of the bed. “I'm just glad I don't have to sleep on the floor.”

“Don't let it get to your head. I was just trying to make it easier for them. I'm too nice to let you sleep on the ground, but I'm too tired to think of anything clever.”

“I'll take what I can get.” I was stretching my arms and legs and getting comfortable on my new side. I closed my eyes.

“Sen,” Alexis said as she sat gingerly on the bed. She put her hand on my back.

“What is it?”

“Thank you for tonight.”

I smiled into the pillow and turned to face Alexis with my eyes closed. I opened my eyes just enough to find her face. “You don't have to thank me Alexis. It was all Phillip anyways.”

She chuckled a bit. “You're right.” She laid down onto her left side, away from me. She turned her head just enough to look back at me through the corner of her eye and said, “Goodnight Sen.”

“Goodnight Alexis.” I closed my eyes and went to sleep shortly after.

I woke up gently. I realized that Alexis wasn't here, and I sat up. I went to the bathroom to freshen up as best could. This wasn't a hotel with complimentary additions, it was a bare minimum room for some sort of accommodation. I was about to leave the room, when I saw a note just in front of the door. It was from Alexis.

“Please meet me back here with your brother.”

“Simple enough. I can do that.” I looked around the room for any kind of writing utensil; I didn't find anything. I carefully used my nail against the table to engrave 'Yes' into the paper. It wasn't much, but it would do. I left the room with the paper, and slid I under the door. I went downstairs. The sun was shining brightly through the windows of this warehouse-looking ground level. There were a pile of sandwiches on a table. Nothing fancy, but it was free, so I took one. I didn't know what time it was, but it had to be noon or a little bit later.

I walked just outside and felt to warmth of the sun fill my soul. Compared to last night, this was great. Outside the warehouse the was a table with a clipboard with a list of names on it. According to the instructions at the top of the page: The names were on the left, the middle column was very small, meant only for check marks, and the right column was for parents. Basically, whenever a parent was looking for their child, they would look here, find them, and mark them as accounted for. If you were old enough to be on your own, you'd check yourself out and write 'self'.

I went down the list to look for my brothers name. It was a fairly long list, it spanned two pages, and it was first names only and handwritten. As I got further down the list, I found Alexis' name and my name right after. I flipped the page over to continue looking, but I didn't succeed. Lucas wasn't here anywhere.

That said, I wasn't worried. That just means my brother used a different name to check in. It was a great precautionary measure, but it made things more difficult for me now. How was I supposed to find him now? I don't know what name he used, we didn't plan this far in advance. I didn't know what to do. Instead of pondering my problem here, I decided to walk around the town. That way I could think while I looked for him.

I went to different shops and locations in and around the town. I haven't been mainland in a few years, so it was all new to me again. I wasn't looking to buy anything as Alexis said she would do that, but I just wanted to go to places I thought my brother would go as well. It turned up nothing, but it kept me occupied during the day.

As the sun began to get lower in the sky, I headed back to the shelter. I saw that it was significantly emptier than it had been earlier, but I ignored that and went straight to my room. Alexis was already there, but there was no sign of her having actually gone shopping.

“Where's all the stuff you said you'd buy,” I asked as I walked in the room.

Alexis walked towards me and grabbed my arm. She was dragging me back out of the room. “You're coming with me Sen. My grandparents invited you over for dinner.”

“What?”

“Just go along with it please.”

“Wait, what?”

She stopped and turned to me, “They want to meet you.” She looked down and said, “They want to thank you for keeping me safe. Besides, all of our stuff is at their room. They are in room sixty-two. I took a new room with them, so you and your brother could have room thirty-five. Where is Lucas anyways?”

“I wasn't able to find him, and he was not in the list of names when I checked. He either used an alias, or he went off without stopping here for the night. I think he just went off on his own. I know he has connections somewhere near here. After we weren't able to meet at Delknap, I wonder if he threw everything to the wind and went solo?”

“You think you're brother would just abandon you?”

“I never said that, but I know he has friends somewhere neighboring this town. That beats our room exponentially. I think he just assumed that I would do what I'm doing now.”

“What is that?”

“Going off on an adventure to get revenge. If he saw these pamphlets too,” I said touching my pocket. “He knows that that's where I'll be heading. My guess is, if we follow these instructions, we'll find my brother.”

“I would've just waited at the next available town myself. It seems logical to me.”

“Logical, but not productive. My method is far more productive, and we come from a family of results.”

“Well, there you go, we have our destinations. Now, lets talk to my grandparents so we can go.,” Alexis said pulling on my arm desperately.

“Fine, fine. I'm coming Alexis.”

Alexis smiled and let go of me. Together we finally walked to meet her grandparents. The meeting was brief. I told them that I had already had dinner while I was out, but that I would squeeze one bowl in to be polite. They kept thanking me and asking me questions. I was fairly uncomfortable the entire time, but I told myself that I was doing this for Alexis

As the dinner ended, I helped clean up. Alexis showed me all the gear she bought, including a new backpack for me. She put some stuff in it and gave it to me. Her grandparents waved us off after Alexis told them that she was going to walk me back to my room. As we walked around the corner Alexis initiated our conversation. “Not as bad as you thought, right?”

“I never thought it was going to be bad.”

“Heh, well, whatever it is about you, they like you enough to let us go together.”

“I'm glad they think so highly of me.”

“Oh they don't, at least, not yet,” she said grinning, as she took out a spray container. “They gave me this, and told me that if you gave me any trouble, I should spray you and run away. Hahaha, she laughed and handed me the spray can.

I already knew what it was, a defensive spray. “Great,” I muttered to myself.

“Hah! Like I would need 'that' when I have Borris,” she said as she tapped the wemin at her side.

“Great,” I mutter louder than before. I opened the door to the room, and held it open for Alexis.

“Oh no, I'm sleeping with my grandparents tonight. They'd kill me if I picked you over them. Sorry Sen.”

“No worries. I assumed that was the case, but didn't want to be rude if I was wrong.”

“Hey now,” she whispered in my eye as she hugged me, “at least you get the bed to yourself now. Heheh. Get some rest. We'll leave sometime tomorrow morning. Goodnight Sen.”

“Goodnight,” I responded as she smiled and walked back towards her grandparents room just down the hall and around the corner. She wasn't wrong, I did get the entire bed to myself tonight. I took my backpack off and put it on the side of the bed. I plopped down, face-first again, and I was asleep almost instantly. I was going to be making up my lost sleep for a few days now.

“Sen.”

I grumbled.

“Sen, wake up.”

I rolled away. Someone grabbed my shoulders and shook me awake.

“I said wake up.”

Still startled, I was piecing together who was in my room. Once it stopped spinning, I was able to see Alexis standing next to my bed. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I'm waking you up, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah. Yeah. But how did you get in?”

“We both have a key, remember? Now get up, we have a bit of a hike today.”

“Where are we going?”

“Well, because of the recent happening, the military is spread out fairly thin. They used to have a recruitment center, but all the officers agreed to split up in lieu of a training regimen. Basically, we are training as we travel. Each training officer is in a different direction in the mainland. North, south, east and west. In order to join the army, we need certification from each of them.”

“That's great, now where are we going?”

“Sorry for mapping it out for you,” she rolled her eyes as she continued. “First we are going to Yorr, just east of here. That's where we will meet with Kristina. South of that we'll go to Naviro and meet with Keith. If we hurry, we might be able to do both today.”

“What time is it that you think we can get both done today?” Alexis opened her mouth to answer, but I answered for her. “Nevermind, I don't want to know. ”

She tossed me my bag. “Good. Here's your stuff, I'm ready whenever you are.”

I sat up in bed, and I rubbed my eyes. I put my shoes on tightly so that I wouldn't have to worry about tripping at all today. I threw my arms into the straps of the backpack and stood up. We were ready to go. Well, my body was, my eyes were not. I was still squinting at the slightest bits of light.

“Hey Sen,” Alexis started, but I waved her to silence.

“Don't. Don't talk to me until the sun's up.”

Alexis nodded, I patted her shoulder, and we officially started our journey to Yorr.

It was chilly as we left this morning. While I didn't know exactly what time it was, I knew that it was early enough to still be dark. At this time of the year, that meant it was really early. We would be arriving at Yorr an hour or two before lunch, and we'd be arriving at Naviro when it gets dark again. Not my favorite plan for a day, but it met both of our goals, so it was worth it.

It was interesting walking out into the world as dark as it was. I hadn't done this since my brother and I would spy on my father when he went on his expeditions. We never did it often, but once and a while our curiosity was peaked, and we would tail him as he traveled into the woods. Thinking back on those excursions of ours, it was very clear that he knew we were following him. We were kids, and I'm sure silently walking through the woods was not our forte, but our father ignored us blissfully as he went.

He would often talk to us, through himself. It wasn't until later that I realized that he wasn't actually talking to himself, as much as he was informing us to what he was doing or looking for. Our late night adventures stopped when my brother joined my father. Going out alone to trail my family was less entertaining than going out with my brother. But once this change happened, was when I realized that I wanted to become a scientist like them.

Traveling in the dark alone was probably what scared me the most. The dark had a way to make you feel weak an insignificant. I couldn't feel that way now. The world was making me feel that way, the dark's potential had nothing on the world's reality. That attack on Kajili was going to leave a scar; a scar that wouldn't heal for a long time. This was one of my first steps towards growing out of naivety.

Traveling with Alexis was nice. We hardly knew each other so we had a lot to talk about. I know I told her not to talk to me until the sun came up, but we both knew that was a lie. She was eager to grow in power in order to protect herself and others from the atrocities of the hematites. She also just wanted to be able to lounge around wherever her and her defenders were able to get. She wanted an adventure. I found out that she was rather crafty as well. She liked to design and engineer things.

As the sun started to peek through the canopy of the trees, we finally took a break for breakfast. We were getting a nice fire going to boil some water for some oatmeal and berries. We brought our pets out with us to share, and they happily agreed. This when I noticed that Alexis had a second pec in her wemin.

“Hey Alexis, when did you get another defender?”

“Huh,” she looked down, “Oh, I always had two, but I can only use Borris right now.”.

“What's you're second?”

“It's my pet fish, Venus. I know that when she grows, she'll be able to fight out of water, but right now she is water-bound.”

“Oh, well that explains it. You should show her off sometime.”

“She can't do much yet either. This is part of why I wanted to train and become stronger. The more she grows, the more she can do. You'll see. One day, when I'm famous, you'll see her true potential,” Alexis said as she smiled at me.

Spurf was happily lapping the oatmeal from my bowl during our conversation, but it suddenly started to look around. It looked off towards my right and started to growl. When Spurf growled, Borris looked up as well. Borris' face change as it looked where Spurf was looking.

“What's wrong Borris?”

Borris yapped a response.

“Ooh, we have company Sen.”

“What?”

“You can watch your first real battle Sen, I'll show you how it really works.”

I turned to face where everyone was looking. I could see anything, but I could here the sound of rustling leaves and branches. Spurf's growls became more apparent, and I could finally see some low bushes swaying in tune with the rustling.

“Borris, spit some water at it.”

Without hesitation, Borris shot three bursts of water into the bush. Two figures burst from the bush, one from the left and the other from the right. I couldn't see exactly what, but Alexis perked up a bit.

“There's two Sen, one for me and one for you. You ready?”

I shrugged. I looked down at Spurf, who was still growling menacingly. “Are you ready buddy?”

Spurf stopped growling, looked up at me, and growled. I picked him up and placed him onto the ground. I turned to face our ambushers. There was a small brown and beige cat with long ears and a bushy tail. And there was a small blueish face, with a red chin. It looked like the head of a shark with stubby legs and arms.

“Oh, it's so cute!” Alexis squealed as she pointed at the shark face. “The blue one is mine Sen, you can have the brown one.”

“That's fine with me.”

“We'll fight together, I think that will help you learn better,” Alexis said while she was gesturing for me to come next to her. “Besides, Spurf can cover Borris' back. Borris, more water please.”

Borris launched a few more jets at the shark face, which jumped to dodge each one. IT responded by running up towards Borris' back side.

“Sen, protect him.”

“Spurf, get sharkface away from Borris.”

Spurf was already charging at sharkface before I finished my sentence. He jumped headfirst into sharkface and bounced back. Sharkface didn't seem to mind that much, but it did slow it down enough for Borris to meet it head on. Borris swung its head into sharkface and knocked it back away from our food.

The brown cat launched at Spurf and bit down into its fur. It clearly wasn't expecting to meet so much fur, as it bit a few times and missed Spurf's actual body. Spurf shook himself out of the mouth of the cat and headbutted it in return. Borris launched a few burst of water at the cat to get it away from Spurf. Meanwhile, Spruf and sharkface were on a collision course behind Borris. This time they both headbutted each other, but sharkface used its teeth.

Spurf was properly injured by this, and cried in pain. Borris glanced backwards, and instinctively jumped back and landed on top of both creatures. Borris shrieked and bit down on the tail of sharkface and pulled it off of Spurf. It slammed it down into the ground and then into a nearby tree.

The cat took this time to jump onto Borris' back and dig its claws in and bite into his neck. Borris' body shivered rapidly and made it impossible for the cat to maintain its grip. Spurf tackled the cat off of Borris and bit it back. Borris shot water at it, this time connecting with it with enough force to send it rolling in front of the bush.

“Now's your chance Sen,” Alexis shouted me out of my trance. She sounded winded. I noticed that she was sweating and breathing heavily.

“What? What do you mean?” I was surprised at myself. I sounded winded too.

Alexis didn't respond, but she took a pec from her backpack and threw it at sharkface. I ruffled through my bag to find a pec as well. I looked back at the cat and threw the pec at it. The pec glowed lavender, and the color quickly filled my entire world.

Everything stopped moving and was covered in an eerie violet hue. Everything, except for me and that cat. It was staring at me softly. It sat down on the ground and watched my every move.

“What are you looking for?” I asked. My voice seemed muffled and distant, I was struggling to hear myself.

“What are you looking for?” I heard back in an equally distant and muffled voice. It wasn't mine, and it wasn't one that I had heard before. It sounded fairly femine, but it wasn't Alexis'.

“Is anyone here?”

“It's just you and me.”

“Who though?”

“Me.”

At that, the cat stood up and approached me a few steps.

“What's going on?”

“I was hoping you could tell me.”

I thought to myself. I had thrown the pec, and as soon as that lit up, this happened. Was this part of the bonding process that my father had told me about yesterday?

“I want you to join my team of friends.”

“Of course.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Isn't this supposed to be difficult?”

“You have food that I want, and I don't want to fight for it. It's not that complicated.”

“You're joining me so you can eat?”

“Does that bother you?”

“A bit, I thought this was supposed to be a bonding moment between us.”

“We did. You agreed to feed me, and I agreed to stay.”

“That seems rather superficial.”

“What is superficial? I don't understand,” this cat asked me. I hadn't realized it, but it was now sitting immediately in front of me.

“Well, it means that it seems like you are just using me.”

“Did you expect me to say that I trust you? You just attacked me for trying to eat.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Hmph. I think we are agreeing to use each other. Is that what friends do?”

“Friends are nice to each other. They don't use each other.”

“Are you not going to be nice to me?”

“I didn't say that.”

“I think feeding me is a nice thing to do.”

“You're really hungry aren't you?”

“I am. I'm starving. The blue berries that you added to your oats smell delicious.”

I sighed. “You're just joining me for food...”

“You asked if I wanted to join your friends. If I was just going to join you for food, I would refuse, steal some food, and then run away. I want something more. I think these friends is what I want. If that is what you offer, then that is what I'll accept.”

“Yes. I want you to be a friend of mine.”

“Then I accept.”

“What do I call you.”

“I am Olive. You are Sen, I presume.”

I nodded. “Welcome to the team Olive.”

As soon as I said those words, all of the purple faded from the world encased within the pec laying on the ground. I looked over at Alexis, she and Borris were still fighting with sharkface.

“What, you are done already Sen? Nicely done. This one is stubborn.” Borris launced another blast of water at the sharkface. It connected with sharkface and blasted it back some distance. I took this time to whisper to Alexis.

“Mention food. It might listen a bit more.”

Alexis glared at me. She took a pec and threw it at sharkface. It was only a split second, before the pec turned black, signifying a successful connection. Alexis patted me on the shoulder. “There you go Sen, no mention of food.”

I shrugged and laughed. “It worked for me.”

“I hope that's not the only reason why it agreed to join.”

“Trust me, we had this conversation.”

Alexis laughed as well. She went over to pick up her pec, but she walked over with three empty ones as well. She tossed them into the fire. She stuck the filled pec into her wemin, and tapped it to release her newfound friend.

“Why'd you destroy those other three?” I asked.

“They only work for one connection. If that connection doesn't work, those stones will never be able to work again. They've been expended. You didn't learn any of this?”

“I knew they only worked once, but I assumed you'd be able to recharge them, like a battery.”

“None that I have seen,” Alexis said as she knealt down to her new friend. “Welcome Chomper. This is Sen and Borris and Spurf. You'll have to meet Venus later, but this is the gang for now.”

Chomper glared at me and Borris, but turned back to Alexis and grinned. I walked over to my pec, and placed it into my wemin. I released my friend, Olive. She instantly ran over to my bowl and started lapping up its contents along with Spurf.

“This is Olive. Olive this is everyone.” Olive looked up while taking a moment to swallow and lick her lips, then she went back to eating my breakfast. I smiled sheepishly at Alexis. “She was very hungry. I think that's why they attacked us.”

“That's partly why I wanted to leave as early as we did. The more you cook out in the wild, the more creatures you'll encounter. If we were too close to the city, this might not have happened.”

“This was all planned?”

“Yup.”

“You're good Alexis. That was very smart.”

“Please,” Alexis said as she rolled her eyes. “Don't flatter me. Just finish breakfast and lets head out. I want to have lunch after we get our first certification.”

“Deal. Does that sound good everyone?”

Borris and Spurf smiled and nodded. Chomper glared at me silently, and Olive just purred while finishing my bowl. That was as good a confirmation as I was probably going to get.