---

---

“Ain’t feel dangerous, oke. Back dat way though? Koud as fok.”

Xell suppressed surprise hearing the boy’s raspy voice crackle quietly not far from him. He also noted him standing back somewhat, still doning the headlamp as if to cover more surface area with it.
‘So he can talk?’ Xell scratched his head ‘what the hell is that dialect though? The way-upward mountains or something?’

The Draconi turned back to the source of the voice in a slight daze. Perplextion washing over his face as he noted a strange hybrid like creature emerge from the shaded foliage. Her form outlined from the light coming off the Youth.

The newcomer appeared to be mostly canine but had feline traits. Even doning a pair of wings which didn’t look particularly fit for flight or other heavy duty aerodynamics.

“Ha.” Xell drawled curtly “you remind me of one of hell’s oil feathered serpents! I'd say that's why you survived this long in the Fall
without getting eaten.”
‘Oh God, did I just say that out loud.’ he bit his lower lip after his comment was met with silence.

“Where exactly are you trying to get to?” He said, adopting a friendlier tone. He’d give what the Youth said about the newcomer the benefit of the doubt.

---

---

What the fucking fuck?!

Max tensed, his free hand nearly jolting for his revolver on instinct. He had heard of the mutants that inhabited The Fall, but he thought they were boogeymen, ghost stories, fables, and paranoid bullshit. But what he saw in front of him didn’t look any Novan he had ever seen and it unnerved him to see such a creature emerging from the darkness of the forest. In fact, had she just came out of the bushes without calling out for help he would’ve probably shot her. He was pretty glad that was not the case. As he looked to the girl and the group, gauging the reactions of all involved parties, he listened on—choosing not to talk or show his wariness or genuine surprise of the girl’s appearance.

That is, until the Draconi said what he was thinking.

Max didn’t particularly care if the Draconi’s words insulted the… whatever it was that stood in front of them, but realistically if the other pirate had “noped” out of his plane like he had there was a particular threat that could be looming in the forest. They didn’t have the time to dwaddle and make smalltalk; they needed to keep moving. So with that in mind Max decided to take leadership and support Taffy’s initiative to move away from the crashsite.

“Eh, can we keep moving? I don’t think standing and talking in The Fall is good for our health. We can talk as we get on, yeh?”

---

---

Finally, words that actually make him sound he's got a real brain inside that prickly skull of his! thought Taffy as Max suggested the group move along. She had started to get annoyed enough with Xell's veiled stabs that she was glad the Draconi was keeping his distance from the group proper, or she might've tweaked his ear rather soundly...or worse.

Not that she hadn't had her own heart leap into her throat the moment that the newcomer stepped out of the underbrush and trees. Her own experience with the Fall had left her less superstitious than most, but it also put her on edge in case she ran into that thing again, and the newcomer had been big enough with her wings wrapped around herself to give Taffy a momentary flashback that made her want to stab something.

Fortunately, very fortunately, the moment passed quickly, and Taffy was almost relieved to see the mutant wolf girl there instead. Medically speaking, such hybrids were still quite rare among Novans, whose genetics usually tended to firmly favor one of the parents' species or another, rather than muddle the two up. But the hybrids occurred with enough frequency that it was a requirement of study in case a doctor needed to treat one - and that could be tricky indeed, since more often than not, the hybrids had quirks that made their innards as much a hashmash of features from different species as their outer selves showed.

As far as Taffy could tell, though, the new arrival looked fairly harmless in the flashlight beams leveled at her. The fact that she held onto what looked like a map also indicated she was probably lost, which further tempered Taffy's reaction.

The raccoon girl opened her mouth to say, "Max is right," but her teeth ground shut the instant she tried to say that, and she sort of gurgled instead. Then she unclenched her teeth and changed her tack by saying instead, "Come along with us, we can figure out how to help you find where you're going once we get to safety. My name is Taffy Tanner - what's yours?"

Some more introductions were shared, and Taffy got the impression that the demure newcomer, Sashrya by name, wasn't going to be causing any trouble for the group directly. She seemed nice enough, and Taffy felt automatically a little protective of her, though she couldn't quite put her finger onto why. Nevertheless, Taffy continued to lead the way, as the night's darkness seeped through the leaves of the thick canopy above them. A small worry at the back of her mind nagged at her that the group was making far too much noise and attracting too much attention, but there wasn't much she could do for the time being - at least, not without screaming "SHADDAP!" and that would just be counterproductive, so she grumbled to herself instead.

It did not take long for the group to arrive at a small clearing Taffy had run across before. A peculiar set of sculptures dominated the middle of this clearing, lit enough by the moon to cast long shadows across it from each sculpture. These vaguely humanoid statues were crafted by some unknown hand long ago out of a mix of metal scraps and woodwork, and were a bizarre enough landmark that Taffy knew where the group was exactly just by seeing them.

A chill ran down her spine, though; seeing the statues with their bizarre, almost meaningless poses in the dark made her feel a little on-edge despite herself. Some of them were posed like dancers, while others merely stood at attention or squatted in place. Some of the statues had tails, while others did not, further obscuring the original artist's possible identity as to whether they were Miran or Novan. A breeze whispered through the chinks in the framework of the sculptures, creating an eerie noise that whistled and moaned before it died down and left a silence almost as spooky as the noise had been. And in the night, with only flashlights to guide the way, it only added to the surreal quality of this strange landmark.

"We can take a quick break here," Taffy announced after walking up to the statues and turning around to face the group, her back to the statues and her own body partly covered by the shadow from one of them. "It isn't that far now, maybe another mile before we see-"

She was interrupted by the looks on the faces of the others as they tensed and looked slightly past her. At the same moment, she saw one shadow move around on the ground and heard movement behind her, and realized too late that one of these statues wasn't a statue! She whirled around, one arm lifted to guard herself while the other raised the flashlight she carried like an all-too-small club, and she found herself facing...

---

---

...Facing a girl of about her own age, with red and black fur in a rather striking striped pattern, and an expression so tranquil she could have been meditating in amongst the statues the entire day. Although it was difficult to see in what light there now was, her hair was cut in a bob that covered almost one half of her face and the eyes were completely hidden by a thick blindfold. Akaeyla had spotted the group, already getting mobile, as she'd approached the second downed aircraft. Having seen that the pilot was alive and in company, and noticed the general direction in which they were headed, she'd decided to head to the Sculpture Copse. Sculpture Copse- as the friendlier inhabitants of The Fall called it- was the collection of sculptures that lay ahead of the group, assuming they continued on their present bearing. She'd settled there approximately ten minutes ahead of them- she'd expected it to be five at the most, but the unexpected arrival of another party member had delayed them a little, it seemed. Her reasoning for waiting up ahead was quite simple- a person waiting quietly ahead of them had less chance of being attacked, or fired upon, than did someone or something who just dropped out of the sky upon them. Reasoning, it seemed, that had been flawed... the Lotori girl had been busy informing the others of the way to their intended destination and, with only her flashlight and the moonlight to see by, had leaned right up against the plinth Akaeyla was seated cross-legged upon, not realising she wasn't a statue. In fact, it looked like the other members of the party hadn't sensed her presence, or at least not been certain of it, until she'd risen from her seated position to a standing one- and horribly startled the Lotori girl as a result. Noticing the increased tension the sudden awareness of her presence had caused, Akaeyla decided she needed to address the situation immediately... which was something of a problem for Akaeyla herself.

Though perfectly capable of looking after herself, and content in only her own company, Akaeyla had always been somewhat shy around people... originally because she was blind, later because she saw too much. Whilst some people, the moment they step into a room, radiate a commanding presence which seems to take up all ambient space so they cannot be ignored, Akaeyla was more the opposite: When she stepped into a room, all the ambient space seemed to absorb her presence until she was almost invisible, and had to actually make an effort to be noticed. That, coupled with- as a friend had once observed- a tendency to think twice before doing nothing, made this situation awkward- the more so since she'd been living away from people for some time now. Deciding it would be best to speak to the Lotori girl first (since there was a reasonable chance of getting clubbed with a flashlight if she didn't) Akaeyla spoke in a soft but clear voice.

"Pardon me if I startled you," she addressed Taffy, "That wasn't meant at all... I forgot you might not be able to see me so well at this time of day. I thought this might be a good place to wait in case the pilot of that downed plane happened by, as I found out something earlier it might be useful for them to know". Akaeyla paused once she'd said that, not quite sure what she should say next, or if she should wait for a response. As she took in the various members of the party, the odd thought struck her that they resembled the kind of line up you find in a joke. Smiling slightly at that thought, she spoke the words that came to her head as a result, addressing all the people present as she did so.

"Stop me if you've heard this one before," she said, rearranging the leathery wings that were now draped comfortably around her shoulders as she did so, "A Lotori, a Spicati, a Draconi, a Nekomi, a hybrid and a child all walk up to a hermit in The Fall after sunset. The hermit says she knows something that might be important... what do they say in return?" She looked around the group as she finished her statement.They looked like they weren't sure if she was playing games with them, or was actually making a joke. She paused, tilting her head and adding, a touch lamely, "uh... any takers?"

---

---

Another mutant who lived in The Fall? Really? Is it idiots-who-waste-my-time day or something?

Max grumbled, his mood souring due to the fact that every time he took a new footstep there was another idiot crawling out of the woods. How many people were going to come out of nowhere and “introduce” themselves? By the time to Merecc would he have a small standing army? The most frustrating thing of all was that this newcomer thought being cryptic was interesting and Max had about enough with all of these cockamamie distractions. The red-furred Novan pushed forward and nearly snarled at the creature point-blank, but instead just seemed to express a tone of sourness and grumpiness.

“I say how many fucking people are going to come out of these fucking woods?!”

---

---

The kid didn't bother responding to her apology, and Nikki let it go. He was real beat up, so no sense in pushing. Lucky for him the coon seemed to know her way round a medkit, she supposed. She bit back a reflexive hiss as Xell plowed into her. High, night-blind, or both, it didn't really matter, but he could have been more careful. She herself had no trouble -- the waxing half-moon overhead gave her more than enough light to see by, even with the patchy treecover.

A quick round of musical flashlights followed, and then yet another person stumbled out of the brush. This one was quite odd in appearance, a three-way cross -- beyond rare.

And the first thing Xell did was insult her. Nikki snorted, not quite tickled enough to laugh, and gave his shoulder a swat. "Rude!" Her tone was amused, though not loud. "Don't mind him -- like Taffy said, you're more than welcome. Call me Nikki~"

And then they were off. There were enough lights about that the nekomi didn't feel a need to pull out her own, especially since it wasn't particularly bright. The dull red-orange glow wouldn't add much, and she didn't care to waste its charge. She ended up at the fringes of the group, near the lutroi kid again since the ruddy hue of his light was the least bothersome to her vision. It wasn't too far to the cluster of wood and metal statues, a place that always gave her a thrill of excitement when she saw it. In the pale light of the moon, it seemed almost eerie, and she couldn't help the wide grin that spread across her face. Who built them? she wondered, as she often did. And where did they end up?

With the glare of the flashlights, it was hardly surprising that they missed the young lady sitting on one of the statues at first. Nikki gave a soft squeak of shock, but soon relaxed when the stranger spoke. Max's curse-peppered response to the clunky joke setup left the nekomi speechless for a beat before she giggled. It was funny, in a surreal sort of way. "I prefer the one where two Novans walk into a bar and the nekomi ducks," she said lightly, her tail making an amused curl behind her. "But if you've information you think we should know, I'm listening."

---

---

There had been a crawling feeling up his back for minutes now, the feeling of being blinded on more than just the visual level pervading in his mind but having no power to stop it. The watcher made itself known, the void in his senses to the front of the party had made the rear seem active regardless of whether any dangers really existed there.

He dove into the brush and flicked off his headlamp the moment he realized the danger was in front of the group and watched the hermit and the others. He listened, analyzing the words, before slowly exiting his makeshift nest and moving forward towards them. A question in riddle form, there was a half smirk thinking about how much someone he used to know hated things like that. A lame joke using the exact situation before her, details about their ages and species… from a blind woman.

After the threat to his mother’s jacket from the woman he started to think these things were more coincidence. But he could feel his eyes wander from the hermit, as if the very aura around her was forcing the perception of anyone trying to focus on her to drift away. As troubling as it was, a familiar feeling supernal power almost made him feel just a little bit better. As he walked the blustering red alien sputtered about the number of people lost in the woods… he’d asked why the hermit was here, just with more complaining. The woman with Black Cat’s eyes attempted to counter with a joke, but asked for the teased information when that failed a response.

Yonath only really had one question, and the answer he wanted likely wouldn’t come from these other… people. But maybe… He strolled in front of the woman as she finished and shoved his bandaged hands buried in his pockets, a single backpack strap hanging off his shoulder, looking at the hermit with one side of this face. The words he spoke seemed devoid of his accent.

“Where am I?”

---

---

The harrowing breeze that seeped through every old wood piece, withered steel and stonework of the statues was unnerving for the Draconi. They donned humanoid outlooks but some appeared to be representative of unsightly abominations. His inquisitive brow slowly etched to that of paranoia. His pupils constricting to mere specs despite the unforgiving black skies with sparing light from the moon, flashlights and headlamp.

"We can take a quick break here," the Coon finally reported. Half lit and half in shadow "It isn't that far now, maybe another mile before we see-"

Xell noted that as the Lotori girl had fallen silent, everyone had frozen. He looked to the ensemble on either side of him. Turning his head from side to side with a stoic frown, before finally realising what it was that had the cast playing statues themselves.

His ears lowered as yet another remarkable creature of the unknown practically shifted from shadow to motion. By now, he bit his lower lip and frowned as he looked her up and down. She spoke very clearly and articulated every word precisely. The first impression the Draconi receiving that maybe she was educated to a large extent. Or wise? If it were the latter, however, it appeared her age defied it. Then again, the most jarring piece of the attire was the blindfold that completely obscured her eyes.

"Pardon me if I startled you," she turned to speak to the Coon "That wasn't meant at all... I forgot you might not be able to see me so well at this time of day. I thought this might be a good place to wait in case the pilot of that downed plane happened by, as I found out something earlier it might be useful for them to know."

Xell slightly turned to look at Max questioningly. The Spicati simply giving the panda hybrid a bothered look.
She then proceeded to pose a question. One that resembled that of a riddle and a joke. The first to respond being Nikki, who transformed it more into the latter. Xell found himself looking down to force a short but sweet smile at the endearing notion of it. He noted Max and the Youth walk towards her. Max ungrateful for what the guru like hybrid had to say. In return he uttered some impolite words and demanded how many more characters he would come across in this forest. The Youth, exhibiting a long pause before asking a question where his voice appeared to be completely relinquished of the tone he had spoken with earlier.

Xell simply looked on. His placid and partially curious mood was now starting to become riddled with unease again. He felt his heart skip a beat as he turned to look at the statues towering above him. His eyes darting from face to face. The fear causing his body to become a shrinking violet.

’How long has it been since I’ve topped up?’ he thought to himself, visceral eyes wandering towards Taffy’s bag. He knew he saw her earlier packing it away just before they departed the crash site.
’No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no’ he perspired

There’s a wildcard, the Draconi looked up, the impassive low octave voice spoke out from a statue it seemed. He could see red eyes glaring out from one of the metallic figurines that resembled a black panther, crowned with cowhorns on its head. Its black form towering higher and higher.

I don’t like her. You need to keep your distance Weaver.

Or better still…

Xell remained tight lipped and gestured towards the group, as if to illustrate his awkward situation.

Before he heard anymore from the unknown entity, it appeared all shapes and sounds resumed to their normal environmental pattern. The statues reformed to their static and ill formed looking selves, the darkness and light faded to their usual dims and the Draconi could feel himself breathing normally again.

He shook his head, and weaved a hand through his hair to brush off the sweat.

“I need to sit down. I don’t feel flash.”

“I hope you guys can work out whether Ms. VIP will be joining us,” Xell sighed with closed eyes “didn’t think blindfolds would be anyone’s thing. She got me there!” he jested lightly, waving a dismissive hand before turning around to find a safety haven.

They could be here a while, and much like earlier, he was beginning to feel tired. Skin becoming visibly pale even during this dark hour of the night. The rollercoaster of emotions had also worn him out and he wasn’t sure if he could handle another mile for wherever it was they were trying to get to.
Finding a nearby dishevelled picnic bench which appeared to have seen better days, he decided to hop between the seating compartment and the table. Letting his head collapse upon the surface with his arms sprawled out. Cold and pale fingers curled tensely.

---

---

Akaeyla listened to the responses her question elicited, taking in each one. The Spicati, and pilot of the downed aircraft demanded to know how many other creatures were going to come out of The Fall, which in itself was both demanding why she was there and asking how many more creatures would cross his path in one go. The Nekomi seemed to appreciate the joke format she’d posed her question in, earning a brief smile from Akaeyla in return, even as she had to put up with Max speaking practically in her face- something that, were it not for her disposition, might have moved her to inform him she might be blind but not deaf. The boy who looked like a Lutroi approached... he was an interesting one. In as much as Akaeyla often wished she didn’t see quite such a depth of what was real, what was true, in people or things (the very reason she had become a hermit) what she saw in the boy in front of her wasn’t merely interesting but fascinating... because, in the tangled web that presented itself to her sight, there was a great deal that went well back beyond his own lifetime threaded at random through events that certainly were his own experience. He posed, in three short words, a very profound question:

“Where am I?"

On the tail of that the Draconi, Xell, announced he was feeling out of sorts and needed to sit down, before commenting on her choice of eyewear. Thanks to her unusual sight, Akaeyla could watch everything around her without turning her head, but she could shift her focus as readily as anyone else. Throughout their brief interaction she’d done the equivalent of glancing at them briefly, rather than keeping a constant gaze upon them, to keep the truths she might see to a minimum. Now though, she focused upon the people before her, deciding to answer the Spicati and Nekomi first, since her answer would kill two birds with one stone. Once that was done, she could handle the rather more difficult question the boy had posed. Taking a breath, and without turning her head, she spoke to the Spicati first.

“Maxwell Stone,” she said, learning the name as she focused more upon him, “the simple answer to your question is that many more people will come out of these woods, and many more go in. To answer what you want to know though; I’m here simply to confirm as fact something you already guessed: The Red Star pilot survived the crash and is on your trail... and since there was a distinct absence of the handheld firearms pirates often keep to hand in the wreck of the Red Star plane, on your trail and well-armed. You already know why they’re after you. I’ve given you the information I came to give you, I now care not if you linger, or if we never see one another again”. Having answered Max, she turned her attention to Nikki.

“Nikkolaira Wyatt,” She addressed the Nekomi, “you now know what information is important for the group to know: Max is hunted and, for so long as he remains in your company and you remain in his, so are all of you. I recommend some thought on that, from everyone here”. She let that answer hang a moment, before making the boy in front of her the focus of her attention- and almost wished she hadn’t.

Her sight revealed to her the reality of the boy, and what was before her wasn’t simply a boy at all. He was at once two separate beings, but beings that were together, in the process of becoming a united whole. It was like peering into another universe: An immense vulpine form, made of fires so bright and fierce she was amazed he didn’t set the dry brush around him ablaze stood there with him... or through him... as close as a shadow’s thickness, as distant as another universe. Akaeyla had seen enough of the supernatural thanks to her uncanny sight, to know she was looking at something of a spiritual rather than natural reality. The piercing emerald orbs of its eyes were possessed of keen intelligence and around it, through it... through the boy as well... flowed a myriad of truth, of experiences that had defined them... lifetime upon lifetime’s worth of them. Truths that were joyous, beautiful, even triumphant... and truths so tragic and blood-drenched she wished she had never looked. Taking a small notepad and pencil from a map-pocket as she looked, Akaeyla selected a blank page and began to draw, even as she considered the boy’s question.

“Yoyo, Yony, Yonath Syrain, Johan Le Roux,” she began, speaking the names that belonged to him, before pausing momentarily. How could she answer his question, and give him the answer he wanted? The best solution to her seemed to be by looking at the vast vistas of truth she saw in him- the answer to where he was would come from learning where he had already been. A look at the turbulent cascade of images- many, many lifetime’s worth- that flowed through him, revealed in those truths that seemed most his own star-charts, maps of the heavens... many of them from perspectives vastly different to anything on Mir. There were enough though, a few key stars, recognisable enough to start forming at least a simple version of the answer. Her quick hands continued to sketch, even as she looked deeper into what she saw, wishing she could look away more, the deeper she looked.

So many people seemed to have figured prominently in the lives both of the boy- Yonath- and the spirit creature that was bonded, or bonding, with him. Though her vision didn’t allow her to hear all she saw, it allowed her get something like the equivalent of a three dimensional impression of the words- knowing the pitch and tone and cadence. The accent and pronunciation, the patterning and meter of them... the truth of how they were said and what they meant. That, combined with a talent for vocal mimicry she had developed as an amusement on account of her original blindness, enabled her to pick up spoken language quickly. Focusing on truths that featured the incandescent spirit itself, she spoke some words that answered Yonath’s question on a more than superficial level. To the others present, it seemed that the young hermit’s voice changed completely. Thick with an accent alien to their ears, it suddenly contained an assurance and authority that hadn’t been there before, the tone and pitch changing too. It was strong, resonant, no louder than before but with a quality to it that made it seem like whispering thunder- and whispering only because the flesh and blood through which it spoke could never survive the fullness of its unrestrained might.

*“Nenkanak-hosas wa•-'a•lak w'e•y'ik-a-do, noklakno'o,” Akaeyla intoned, “Na•-ya'we hosas-a•deweklakno'o”. She paused briefly, focusing on Yonath, or through him, as though gazing on distant immensities she alone could see. A man had featured in the history of the spirit-creature and also of Yonath... a vulpine man both wonderful and terrible by turns. Akaeyla’s voice changed again as she mimicked the voice of this man, speaking as he would speak, her voice almost completely taking on a masculine cadence as she did so.

“You aren’t the only person who’s been stuck a long way from home in a place where your life is at risk,” she continued, “if you don’t learn to defend yourself, hemayan atak silwan”. Akaeyla shifted her inner focus, seeing an unusually yellow-furred hare that was vitally important to Yonath and the spirit-creature both. She spoke again, her voice changing once more, to mimic his.

**“Lay nahl loseer hraeth hyao, Néanéan,” she announced. Her sight fastened on another truth, one particular to Yonath especially; a gerbil-girl wearing green, who looked older than him by a few years. Her voice changed again, taking on an accent and dialect not entirely dissimilar to the one the others had heard Yonath use, as she spoke again.

***“Wo de ma he ta de feng kuang de wai sheng dou! Just tos an' get on, zef laaitie right?” she paused momentarily before adding in her own voice, “your brother’s time-piece was correct, but you already know that. Just remember; you’re not as alone here as you think you are”.

With that final piece of advice, Akaeyla finished sketching and handed Yonath the end result. A casual glance seemed to show a loose map of The Fall, with certain landmarks carefully marked and a hodgepodge of scribbles at one point, as though she’d tried to draw several paths at once and ended up making a mess. To Yonath alone though, it would show something else: the mess of scribbles formed the shape of The Barrier, the landmarks the approximate position of worlds on either side. One in particular, far from The Barrier had been marked in Kydane script with three simple words: You are here.



*Nenkanak-hosas wa•-'a•lak w'e•y'ik-a-do, noklakno'o Na•-ya'we hosas-a•deweklakno'o= You who are the first beginning that is the new end, he said, it is said. You are a new future, he said it is said. In context Akaeyla is saying 'You are at the end and also the beginning- the last of what was, the first of what might be to come'.

#hemayan atak silwan= One who walks about very much a ghost; 'dead man walking'. In context this would mean 'you are already dead'.

**Lay nahl loseer hraeth hyao, Néanéan= Lapine proverb plus Yonath's name in Lapine ammounting to 'It can't rain all the time'.

***“Wo de ma he ta de feng kuang de wai sheng dou! Just tos an' get on, zef laaitie right?= Cirran 'Holy mother of God and all her wacky nephews! Just jerk off and get on with it all right?'

Huge thanks to Rattle Rabbit for his help with Cirran, Lapine Kydane, and aiding my attempts at correctly capturing the essence of his characters!

---

---

The words and phrases he’d all heard before, every line a memory. He could feel his still present intense anger at Richard Underwood, as if learning to fight helped anything. Defending yourself had nothing to do with the kind of fighting he’d been forced to endure… that arrogant prick. His leg twitched, pain shooting up it and causing him to stumble backwards. They’d been walking too long and the nerve damage from the ugly scar running down his right leg was beginning to intensify beyond what the opiates and other assorted painkillers could dull.

There was a moment of sad levity remembering Robin’s tirade, after Mike’s death, about how even where they were then no one seemed to care if they lived or died. The feeling of never knowing a ‘home’ starting to becoming more palpable. Her insistence on it just being another part of being a ‘zef laaitie’ seemed so hollow now. The literal translation of ‘common boy’ did not adequately describe the kind of battle cry it had become during the tail end of the Occupation. However, regardless of the vague and nebulous meaning ‘zef’ had back home. Regardless of his myriad of statuses thrust on him by his adoptive father. He never felt any different, titles like ‘royal family’ and ‘prince’ felt too alien to him to ever take seriously.

He stared at the drawing, scratches showing in crude detail where ‘home’ was.

The wet feeling in his eyes brought back memories from the final day on an unknown world. A maelstrom blowing due to the horrific events they’d endured, his adoptive father utterly broken from the loss of a son was standing in the wind and rain. He remembered the man looking back, downpour hiding tears, trying his best to smile as the words came just like the had from the woman.

‘Lay nahl loseer hreath hyao.’

‘It can’t rain all the time.’

‘Néanéan.’

He was still silent, a quiet duo of patting noises arose from droplets hitting the paper as the woman’s scribblings were smeared with salty water running down the page.

‘Néanéan’, the list of people that would know that name meant was tiny, only consisting of a handful whose remains lay in the earth below. People that were family. The name was even more spirit crushingly meaningful now.

It meant ‘old youth’.

Right now he couldn’t imagine a ‘youth’ feeling as old as he did.

His thoughts turned to Cirro. What would even be left there now? He’d defaulted back to his birth planet knowing all his work making life for a second time was destroyed but looking at what he’d been given, was there even a Cirro? His memories of the starcharts from the general area the map showed placed him far from anywhere he’d seen or traveled through. Even if he got off this planet, there was noone to signal, his friends on this side were dead. His family was dead. His real home was buried under ten centuries of dirt. For all he knew the people here didn’t even live long enough to regain the Ghosts memories. The paper in his hands suddenly felt as meaningless now as the ones in his backpack were after his real parents had died. What was the point of keeping any of them?

Yonath wiped his eyes to clear them and limped off away from the woman without a word, still staring at the paper.

---

Xell could feel eyes burrowing into him, a glance revealed the Lutran had halted his departure parallel to the bench and was glaring sideways from his paper at him with a tear filled but sour expression. The boy spoke hoarsely. His phrasing sounding like his mouth started in the middle of a sentence, struggling to catch up to his thoughts.

“Why can’t you do something, fok.”

The sour expression faded into a helpless looking one he turned back to his paper and limped forward, further from the group.

---

---

The blindfold the new lady was wearing was pretty weird. What she had to say was even weirder. Xell had scooted off first thing, and maybe he had the right of it. She was more than a little strange, and what with them being in the Fall that could be bad news. Nikki's ears flattened back at the sound of her name -- her full name -- and she hissed under her breath. "Only my aunts call me that," she grumbled, her tone indicating that she was far from fond of said aunts. "It's Nikki. If you're gonna go around pulling peoples' names outta nowhere, at least get it right." Her relationship with that entire side of her family, with the notable exception of her mother, was strained at best. It was ironic, but she'd started getting on better with her mom shortly after going to stay with her father full-time, instead of just over the summers. He'd said it best: "Loving someone and living with someone are two very different things."

The thought of a pirate on her -- no, their trail quickly distracted her from any further consideration of familial matters. Pirates. "Pirates could be interesting," she said aloud, not able to keep the excitement out of her voice. Pirates sounded like an adventure, and that was precisely what she was looking for.

And then the lady started speaking in tongues and with voices not her own and while it was pretty cool the reaction from the kid -- the one she addressed with half a dozen different names -- was not a good one. Nikki didn't know what his deal was, but she'd run with all kinds. She recognized at least a part of his expression -- she'd seen it before. Seeing it here was sobering in a way little else could be, and after a frown at the newest arrival she trailed after him as he limped off. He paused by Xell, said something to the guy that didn't make much sense, and kept going. She met the draconi's eyes and shrugged. "Don't let 'em leave without us, yeah?" she said quietly. Even she wasn't quite bold enough to want to be all but alone in this particular forest after dark, not without any prepwork.

---

She let him have his space for a minute or two, though she couldn't quite manage not to be curious. Then she joined him, plopping herself down a little more than an arm's length away, presenting him with her profile instead of a direct gaze. She was trying very hard to keep most of her curiosity in check. It took doing. Impulse control was not something she did well, nor something she did often. "Hey." It was a casual greeting, informal. "You look like life just got you with a sucker punch," she added. Whoops. So much for not saying anything about it unless he did. She grimaced and grabbed a simpler topic. "Any idea why those pirates were after your pilot in the first place? They had to want him pretty bad, to risk the no-fly zone in the first place."

---

---

Xell continued to bury his face flat into the withered wooden surface of the table. Blinking morbidly, despite it appearing that he was asleep. Perhaps not even acquainted with the real around him.

He could see the ground through the slits of the table’s occlusal surface. He’d shuffle his feet every now and again. Trying to chase traces of moonlight with his toes.

He had heard some muffling conversation in the background which appeared to resonate between the newcomer Panda guru and the Youth. He had no idea what conversation was taking a hold.

He was too preoccupied from his oppressive symptoms that the half-life of the drugs had brought with the discension process. Including shivering aggressively, skin impaling beneath loose grey scales, and his temporal arteries bulging from an incoming headache.

He wasn’t too sure how long his mental state had been decaying in this one spot. Breathing heavily, he stopped when he had this strange feeling he wasn’t quite alone anymore.

Somehow, he could feel someone was suddenly watching him. And then he heard that fractious tone.

“Why can’t you do something, fok.”

The Draconi rolled his head to one side morbidly. By that time, all he could see was the back of a pink hoody and a limp walk disappearing farther and farther away.

“Did he really just do that?!” The dragon sneered with protruded canines as he hoisted his torso up with hands against the surface of the table.

As Xell jumped on the seat and hopped off to land to the ground deftly, he started following the Youth. A deoxygenated purple hue colouring the bags under his eyes as the irises started to bleed red again.

It seems you’re becoming agitated. That monotoned voice spoke through his thoughts again. Almost like a Psychiatrist who was telling off a troublesome patient.

“Agitated? YOU BET I’M AGITATED!” Xell practically yelled.

The Draconi stopped. Peering up to the skies before turning around 360 as if to chase his own tail which was dragging on the floor. Somehow, the thought occurred to him to try and find this entity.

One day you’ll find me. the grey reptile felt stabbed by this thought criminal, eyes neurotically twitching from the violations in his head and so will the rest of the group…

The Draconi shook his head furiously before storming off further towards the Otter child. Stopping just short before them as he noted Nikki trying to make conversation with him.

Don’t be so harsh on the vagabond. Are you really going to bite the hand that leant you a torch, so that you could seek refuge from the rain earlier?

“This is the reward I get in this glowing afterlife?!” Xell demanded incredulously, eyes directed towards the air above him. He gasped when he suddenly realised where he was standing. And realised what he said may have been heard out loud by the Nekomi and the Youth.

“What do you expect me to do?” Xell demanded, answering the Youth’s earlier question as his eyes faded back to their former azure colour. His natural eye colour not the same tone of blue it used to be. He clenched and unclenched his fists.
"I can't control what's happened."

He looked down on a piece of paper the Youth was holding. Some sort of a map it seemed. Not the most professionally crafted one he had ever seen. He recognised the Fall on the map, but that was about it. Everything else orbiting the origin they were in was completely alien.
"Nikki, you could do with some art lessons."

---

---

Taffy lowered the flashlight as the red-and-black stranger apologized and explained her presence - not exactly the kind of behavior that some marauding monster or crazed raider in the dark would normally exhibit, and Taffy was somewhat relieved when Max was the first to respond, even if what he said wasn't terribly polite or helpful. And, finding out that the pilot of the other crashed plane had survived, and was still after Max...

This is going from weird to dangerous, thought Taffy as the fur of her tail started to stand on end. If this blindfolded prophetess is for real, and I'd find it hard to believe somebody like this could exist out here without some kind of divine providence watching over her, then that means this whole motley crew is in danger. So it was a pirate group that was after Max after all! And it sounds like, from the way Max looked when she mentioned it, that he knows why they're after him...he's hiding something, and I don't really care what it is, except that whatever it is, it's the reason we're attracting trouble.

And then when the blindfolded young woman began answering Yonath's question...that sent all kinds of chills up Taffy's spine and caused her tail to puff out, particularly when she changed her voice to imitate what seemed like impressions of other people - people that the otter boy recognized, if she guessed rightly from the way he reacted. She glanced over at Max to see his muzzle turn pale and his quills stand on end, and in a strange way, it made her feel a lot better knowing she wasn't the only one that was getting spooked by this display of preternatural knowledge.

Taffy wasn't particularly religious or superstitious, and in fact came from a family that scoffed at many myths of the Novan people - indeed, that was part of why her uncle lived out here, and why her family had come here on camping trips from time to time - but there felt like something of the truth in all this young woman said, a conviction that led Taffy to believe what she was saying had to be true. That said, she wasn't sure she understood all of what was being said to Yonath, particularly the parts that sounded like another language entirely in those different voices. Knowing what you hear is the truth, and understanding it, are two separate things.

"We've got to get moving again as soon as we can," she whispered to Max as the red panda/bat-like Novan started to wind down her performance for the boy. "If that pirate's really following us, then our best bet is going to be getting to my uncle's place before he catches up. At least we'd have some cover then, and maybe we'll have enough time to set some kind of trap together."

She didn't quite catch what happened there at the end, but she saw Yonath turn and walk away, in roughly the same direction Xell had taken when he had went to take a sit-down at a bench. Well, this is great, now I've got to play damage control...and get the group back together so we can get going again. I don't want to get stuck here with a pirate on our tail.

Abruptly, Taffy drew back her arm and punched Max in his shoulder. He swore and rubbed the spot tenderly, his eyes shooting bullets at her while his mouth was drawn into a small, quizzical "O" shape. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"I'm holding you responsible for all of this," Taffy replied evenly, gesturing vaguely toward Yonath, the mystical stranger - the whole situation, almost the whole forest, by implication. "Just making sure you didn't miss it."

Without skipping a beat, she turned away and said, "I'll try to get the others back together so we can leave right away." As she walked off, a strange sort of half-smile curled itself into existence on one edge of her muzzle. She tried to explain to herself why, but the words didn't come and she gave up trying.

She approached Xell just in time to hear him demand what the otter boy expected him to do, and she realized that she had been so focused on Max's reactions earlier that she had neglected to keep an eye on Xell. His pensive, bag-eyed look raised some warning flags in Taffy's mind, and she began to suspect there was more going on with this Draconi than he had let on about. "Guys," she said, coming up to Xell, Nikki and Yonath with her hands on her hips as she addressed them, "I know we just got an earful from that mystic, but I think she's right about that pirate who's on our tail. We need to get moving if we want to get to my uncle's place so we can use it for cover."

She gingerly placed a hand on Yonath's shoulder, noting he still clutched the drawing the girl had given him. "If you need some time to process...whatever it is that lady told you, take all the time you need," she said, much more softly than she'd been saying to any of the others so far. "We'll be safe once we get to my uncle's cabin, just wait and see."

---

---

He’d thrown his backpack on the ground in front of him, hastily opening it as the woman approached and starting to dig around in it, her greeting lost on him.

"You look like life just got you with a sucker punch."

He’d started throwing what looked like paper trash out of the thing. The interior of the backpack was filled with a ream of old papers in what looked like no such order. Some brown with age, others not quite so old, either way they didn't look to be of any use and many weren’t even in a readable language.

Papers caught in the wind, one slapping her in the face.



She pulled the paper away, blinking and putting it down before trying again, "Any idea why those pirates were after your pilot in the first place? They had to want him pretty bad, to risk the no-fly zone in the first place."

He grunted, “Not ma circus, not ma monkeys,” very quickly as he pulled out more papers. He scowled at the pile of very aged looking school assignments before sneering and ripping them in half and tossing them aside.

He pulled out another small pile and tossed them to the side as well, another catching in the wind and sticking to Nikki.



The creature behind him was talking, but it seemed like the boy was ignoring him. Though his question made to Otter pause and look annoyed. It was really surprising just how much trash was in the backpack, it seemed like every pocket was stuffed with hoarded papers. The sudden cleaning spree the boy was on was beginning to look like some kind of nest around him.

He obviously ignored Xell’s questioning and snatched the paper from Nikki, holding it tightly in his hands and glaring at it as if trying to disintegrate the thing with hate alone for solid moments before the boy snapped out, “Fokkin’ burn already! Just BURN!” Silence hit suddenly after that, the Dragon’s hands clenching and unclenching.

“What do you expect me to do?”

This time he halted, looking around him with a sudden change of expression from annoyance to panic. He quickly started grabbing the papers and reading over them, putting certain ones back beside each other.

Another gust of wind blew some of them further into the woods. The panic deepened to desperation as the youth started madly grabbing the papers and trying to stuff them back into his pack before they blew away too. The dragon-like creature pushed his unanswered question further.

"I can't control what's happened."

The boy stopped suddenly again, eyes taking on a shocked expression. He released the wad papers he was holding and sunk visibly. Picking the piece of paper with map back up and looking at it.

The creature looked down on a piece of paper the Youth was holding as well. To him it was some sort of a map. Not the most professionally crafted one he had ever seen. He recognized the Fall on the map, but that was about it. Everything else orbiting the origin they were in was completely alien.

To the boy it was a reminder of reality, that even if he knew where he was, even if he could get back to where he started… home was still gone, so was the family that had been there.

"Nikki, you could do with some art lessons."

The boy watched with an air of helplessness as the crumpled papers he’d tried to stuff back into his bag scooted around, tumbling back out the bag and across the ground on their own. It didn’t matter anymore, he’d already screwed it up, there was no way to get them all back. He reached in and pulled a photo out, placing it with the map.



“No Water... No Moon.” The accent was gone again, the words were spoken with equal amounts fatigue and relief.

The Procyon stranger put a hand on his shoulder, making him go rigid with tension. He tried to listen but the words just didn’t parse while she was holding on to him. Something about moving on, he just felt irritated again, jerking his shoulder away from the woman and souring his expression again.

He knocked the remaining papers away from his pack and put the map and picture back in among the what, to the others, would look like more sensible things to carry before zipping the pack and stand to move away from the woman and turning his back to the woods so he could watch the growing group.

---

---

Xell furrowed his brow, awaiting an answer from the skittish Youth who was clinging onto the map for dear life and also scrambling to hide some of the pieces of paper back into his rucksack. Some, however, he seemed to want to purge as he noted ripped pieces being hailed away by the wind. Like meaningless snowflakes that wouldn’t last.

He noted one document still lying beside Nikki. It, too, was picked up by the wind and smacked into her, but she plucked it off of her and placed it on the ground.

He raised his eyebrows as he thought he caught sight of some scrawlings on the paper.
‘Yonath Syrain?’ he thought ‘Is that his name…?’

Were these the pieces of a puzzle the Youth was trying to put together?
He appeared to let a lot of them he was desperately trying to retrieve to escape in the end. A helpless expression on his face. As he if any urge he had to fight was collapsed.

One piece of gold dust he was able to retain was a photo. One that appeared to have a much younger image of himself in. Two figures behind him trying to catch him before he fell. The air of a family composition, except none of them looked anything alike.

The Draconi’s head turned in morbid surprise as he noted the Lotori arrive and make an announcement.

"Guys," she said, coming up to the group, "I know we just got an earful from that mystic, but I think she's right about that pirate who's on our tail. We need to get moving if we want to get to my uncle's place so we can use it for cover.”

The Draconi continued to watch and folded his arms as the Coon tried to offer words of support to the broken Youth whilst placing a hand on his shoulder. This appeared to be met with dismissal as he jerked away and widened the distance between himself and the group resentfully.

“I’m not sure he’s one for hugs,” Xell smiled wryly, tipping his head towards Taffy with folded arms still “I don’t know if this is the 411 exactly, but I think his name might be Yonath. All the clues to his existence was in his backpack…” Xell pointed to it as the otter boy stood some distance away by now.

“Except most of the truth now has been cast away,” he spoke almost poetically as he pitched an open palm out to the skies. The Lotori and Nekomi following to see pieces of shredded and whole paper glide in their own different directions by the air currents in the sky.

“You know, he was actually about to talk to me,” Nikki brought her head back down raised an eyebrow at Taffy, hands placed on her hips defiantly.

“Would it have been anything more than a mutter or two?” Taffy retorted with a glare “anyway, like I said, we don’t have time for this! Rather than waste our time on deep and meaningfuls, perhaps we should hightail it out of here. Maybe he'll warm up later.”

Various silent expressions of acknowledgement were exchanged across the board. The group turning to make their way on the dark path away from the arena of surrounding ominous statues. The large figurines watching with their contorted and harrowing faces as the assembly turned their backs on them. Howling winds continued to strain through the industrial metal work.

The group now comprising of Taffy leading the frontline, Max, Nikki, Sasha, Akaeyla, Yoni, and Xell himself. The more amicable members were supporting each other towards the more anterior part of the group whereas some of the other more reserved members were preferring to keep a distance from afar. All using their torches to pave the way through artificial light.

Xell made a deliberate attempt to walk side by side with Yoni for a moment. Although the extreme antisocial vibes given off by the Lutran-being made it clear that this wasn’t a time for long engaging conversations.

“I’m sorry I took what you said the wrong way,” Xell turned away from looking at him, to focus on the distance ahead. In an attempt to ease the burden.

“One thing I will say, however, thank you for your aid earlier.”

The Lutran offered nothing to say in return. That being a given, Xell reached into one of his pockets and retrieved the alcoholic beverage he had stolen off of Max’s plane earlier.

“Not sure if this is great for someone your age, but thought I’d return the favour.”
The youth did nothing more than hold a perpetual scowl, staring straight ahead, even as he found Xell handing the compact bottle over to him until it was within the Youth’s grip.

“Do as you will.”

The Draconi dispersed from the row the Lutran being was in and found himself walking around the periphery of the group. His mind drifting through waves of deep thought, and concentrating on the task at hand. Which was straight forward in itself, if his mental state wouldn’t oscillate like the burden of a pendulum.

Just as they were about to leave the statue garden for good, one monument caught his attention. Mangled and elongated with several metallic pole heads like a hydra, it had scales that were constructed out of shards of mirror.

It was that moment that made Xell take a small detour as he snared the reflection from the periphery of his eye. Quickly shuffling towards it, footsteps thudding upon the ground softly, he panted as he wiped the condensation and debris off of them. Exercising caution not to lacerate his skin upon the sharp edges. The refracted rainbows on the broken edges reminiscent of once a whole mirror image themselves.

Gazing at the web of fragments, he was horrified to see his own reflections looking back at him. The rich rocky grey tone having disintegrated to a pale skin tone that resembled an anaemic maggot. The bags under his skin, too, appeared to hollow his face out with the sickly blue hues.

The most unforgiving sight were his irises. Unrecognisable as that once focused rich azure look had dwindled to a hue he didn’t even recognise. The colour of blue that was slipping towards the red part of the colour spectrum. Fresh eyes being forced or rebranded towards an unnatural crimson. As of yet, they were looking a dull magenta, starved of vitality.

“Well well… look at you!”

Xell turned and almost leapt out of his scales to see the familiar face before him. Moonlight outlining the feline creature.

“Nikki?”

“Trust you to wander from the group to check yourself out,” she laughed, swishing her ears “but you can do plenty of that later.”
She too, looked into the shards and tidied up her bob of lush hair. Xell looking on with a frown, jumped scared again as he felt caught off guard when she turned back to look at him with a grin.

“Well, I’ve seen better myself, come on! Let’s get back to the group!”
He nodded once, before keeping up the pace with her as they jogged back towards the group. It seemed no one had noticed. Or if they had, they hadn’t said anything out loud.

There was a silence amongst all individuals as the even march continued on and on past the clearing of statues, through fields, until they eventually arrived before an entry which would lend itself into a new corridor of woods. All amassed amongst each other in a linear fashion. Tall with ebony like wood during this dark hour. The path ahead was long and winding, which had velvet like lavender mist hovering above the primitive cobbled path.

“This doesn’t seem to be getting any easier…” Xell stopped and put his face into the palm of his hand. He spread the fingers planted across his face and caught sight of Taffy’s backpack again. Grinding his teeth at remembering what it was he wanted from it.

“Yous gonna be a burden on us?” Max turned around to size the Draconi up and down condescendingly “no one asked ya to join!”
This statement was met with an aggressive counter turn on the heals as the Coon turned to glare daggers at the Spicati. The expression all too vivid despite the veiling night hour.

“I told you earlier! He’s with us… no one is leaving this group!” she said through gnarled teeth.

“Oi, who made yous in charge anyway? Or are ye gonna bitchslap me again Sheila?!” Max demanded “don’t ya think I forgot ‘bout that…!”
The Draconi’s head began to spin as the bickering flooded out. Tit for tat as one voice argued against another in the frontline of the group. Which did nothing more than to augment the rising headache within Xell’s skull. Hoarse whispers of that Voice flowing through the visceral meninges of his brain.

The voices of the own group started to sound like chipmunks. Uneven tempos, before the pitch started to delve to lower octaves.
Digging both nails into his temples again to open up the fresh wounds he made earlier, blood oozed out as smogs of red started to infiltrate his vision. He coughed violently as the hazy scene around him started to flutter around him. Through his distorted vision, he could make out the arguing voices of the frontline, a pair of sceptical eyes from the back scrutinising him, the blindfolded hermit analysing the situation, and a couple of females trying to support him up. His legs unstable as the rest of his body shook furiously. Cold sweat oozing from his scales.

He couldn’t even remember nearly falling. He oscillated from side to side, trying to insist through his own garbled voice that he didn’t need their help. Muscles feeling paralysed around the musel itself and uncertain if he got the words out. Smiling with eyes closed and trying to push them away, only to find he could hardly move.

“…el… ell…. Xell…. Come one!” his ears were trying to focus as on the voice being spoken to him. Jaded irises seeing both Nikki… and Sasharya. They hybrid’s look more concerned and awkward at the revelation unfolding.

“I… I can’t…” Xell winced, standing upright, not without cascading from side to side in a disorientated manner “I’ve been gone too long like this. I can’t do this anymore.” His face disappeared beneath the shadows of the bangs of his hair.

He forced himself away from the Nekomi and ran off.

Max and Taffy suddenly stopped in their tracks. Fireflies of torches buzzing around to catch the source of the sound. Shuffling through shrub and the glint of a metallic object caught by the moon in the abyss of barbed brushes.

“What was that…?” Taffy uttered in a hoarse whisper, turning to the group for answers.
As Taffy turned around towards the front again, her heart skipped a beat as she saw the distraught Draconi in front of her. Blocking their path as his stance twitched haphazardly.

“Please… there’s something in your backpack I need…” he said, coughing violently, hands hovering over his knife, albeit reluctantly
“please. Just let me have some.” He winced, his hands suddenly clutching his torso as he bent double.

Taffy’s constricted pupils were unrelenting within the paled saphhire irises, gasping even more as the Draconi made his next move. Suddenly looking up to glare at the both of them with crimson eyes that bore the sea of a thousand dead souls.

---

---

Nikki pulled the papers away from her face with a noise of protest. She wasn't a trash can! She ran her eye over it before setting it aside. Surprising he wasn't from the downed plane, but before she could ask further questions, he suddenly shouted at the papers, and then started trying to gather them back up. Make up your mind, kid, she thought, but she did what she could to grab the ones near her and pass them back.

Xell's comment got a raised eyebrow. "I didn't draw it," she said, letting the last bunch of papers go when the kid didn't bother to take them. She looked up to see Taffy joining them, with a reminder that it was getting late. She nodded assent, glancing back at the troubled kid one more time but deciding to let him be. If he didn't want to talk, he didn't have to.

As they continued on, she caught Xell passing the kid -- Yonath, the paper said his name was -- a drink. He was underage, but that hardly bothered Nikki. She'd had her first drink even younger, and maybe it'd help. God knew he looked like he needed it.

When Xell split off, she trailed behind, partially out of curiosity, partly to make sure he didn't get lost. He really wasn't looking so good. He ended up staring into a fractured mirror, and she couldn't help but crack a joke. When he met her eyes, though, the laughter faded. "Hey, you feeling alright?" she asked. "You seem...Iunno." She waved a hand. "C'mon, let's get back with the others. Hopefully it's not too much further to Taffy's uncle's place, yeah?"

Of course the spicati pilot was going to be an ass about it. "Yanno, if you don't wanna stick with us, you can just go off on your own, neh?" Nikki pointed out. Sure, she'd prefer to stick together, but if he had such a beef about them, goodbye and good riddance. "I'd've thought someone just off a wrecked plane would be glad of a hand and a place to stay for the night, but nobody's making you come."

With a lash of her tail, Nikki turned away, not interested in discussing it further. Taffy said they were all welcome, and that was that. She was just in time to see Xell drop.

"Hey, Xell? Xell!" She was glad to see his eyes crack open again, even if they were oddly reddish. When he plunged off the trail she watched him go, taken aback.

...Only for him block the way forward, looking like he might just draw a knife on them.

Really?

Mush-brained druggies, man, she thought to herself, glancing around for a good angle. How is anything worth this kind of pain if you don't get a fix? "Man, you really are a mess, aren't you?" she said softly. She felt bad for him, but all the same, if the knife came out she wouldn't hesitate to tackle him.

---

---

“You are calling him a mess? All offense G, freakass hybrids should not stand on soapboxes.”

The otter wandered up to the side of confrontation, the bottle in hand and liquid level half it’s original. He seemed to ignore the woman after that watching the lizard.

“Guess that’s it, ja? ‘Aap uit die mou laat’ as they say, right? I do not envy you, dealing with that… thing.” The boy paused and paused and looked at the bottle, “Anything to push it down, keep it suppressed, ja nee?” He took another long drink, wincing from the liquid burning his throat.

“Ag, not bad stuff. Daga works better though. I will have to show you.” He glanced at Taffy’s backpack, “The meds krimpie there has, they work the best, that it?” He narrowed his eyes, “I should have figured this place would figure it out, just like we did. Maybe it was an accident like these…” He pulled a small pill bottle out of his hoodie pocket.

“Maybe it’s better for all of these people to think that we are just drugged up scrompies, ja?” He produced a pill from the bottle and offered it, “Things we don’t understand, gotta be suppressed with medicine we don’t understand. Maybe if we get down the road awhile, I will tell you what I know about old ruby eyes.”

---

---

"You sound like my ex," Nikki said, her voice turning irritated for the first time. The insult itself didn't bother her, not as it might a human -- and she wasn't even a hybrid in the first place, unlike others in the group. She'd seem some like them get targeted by the same nasty groups that went after Mirans in general. There were even some that saw nekomi in particular as a blight, with their habit of turning up everywhere and the way they embraced the variety that came from interspecies relationships. "'Cept he just went with 'earwig', whereas you picked something you'd be better off calling a mirror." Her tail lashed as she stalked forward, away from the group. That was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about -- the whole reason she'd been looking for excitement to start with.

---

---

“It’s not my fault you lot want to play escort!”

Max grumbled as he began to look cautiously around the forest as he kept his ears open for any slight disturbances. With the others focused on the nonsense that was going around him, he was not only debating with himself on the right action to take but also to keep a pointed ear out for the approach of anyone or anything. He didn’t like how two random mutants had come out of The Fall nor did he feel comfortable around the cryptic seer that had addressed him by his birth name. Maybe the “ghost stories” people told him about the damned forest all his life had some merit. But he had more things to worry about than some spooky bat lady who needed to shut her fucking mouth and get as far away from him as possible. The Red Star sky pirates were not fools, and if his experience in dealing with them told him anything it was the fact that they didn’t pick on random transports without any information on what they were packing. His travel route was premeditated and that means whatever package he was carrying was worth going the full mile for.

And Max was pretty sure that this group he found himself part of didn’t have the experience or mettle to go the full mile with them. Taffy understood how quick they needed to get their shit together, but was that enough? If Max cut himself from the group he wouldn’t endanger them and he could deal with the pirate all on his lonesome; it was faster do travel solo and while all the dangers of The Fall were freaking him out he had a feeling he could get far enough away from everyone else without risking their lives. They could head out to Taffy’s uncle’s place and be safe. As long as he was with them they were in danger. His brows narrowed as he looked at Taffy engage with the others before turning towards the opposite direction and moving without mention. As he did so he drew his revolver, taking deep breaths as he moved away from the group and possibly towards the pirates who were hunting him.

Why do I even care?

As he kept himself quiet as he moved through the brush in the darkness he could hear the screaming from his sister back home already.

---

---

“…you… you don’t envy me dealing with that thing…?” Xell said softly, wiping a stream of sweat from his forehead. Eyes still congealed with layers of cerise and ruddy-like mud textures.

The Draconi dry-heaved aggressively. His lungs feeling like daggers pincing the pleura. White corneas flushing to pink from the pressure, before coughing up a sputum of blood. The large clot hitting the ground and splattering onto his clothes.

Bent over double again. Hearing the Otter boy continue to talk.

“You… you seem different somehow…” Xell slowly lifted his eroded face to see a whitehead capsule float within the furry palm. His eyes bulged out. Scaly hand trembling as he reached out for the capsule and sculled it.

The remedy appeared to be working. The dose appeared was doing enough to take away the red diffusion surrounding the periphery of this vision.

He noted the liqueur bottle he had in one hand. Almost half consumed. Was it this that had brought on this outspoken manner of the Lutran-
like being?

“Honestly… I would prefer what the Quack has in her backpack there…” he laughed almost insanely “I’ve never tried dope before. Seems meth spirits to me. A blind man’s liquor. But… if it would help me to see less of…”

He went silent. He knew who it was that haunted him. He gave the Youth a sorrowful look.

Wait, Ruby eyes? He can’t possibly know him!

He was hanging onto a tree for support branch for support. With a clunk, the decayed gave way and he fell to the ground in a heap.
Shaking his head to rid of the flying stars circling his head, he looked up at the group and tried to focus on their faces. By now, Max and Nikki appeared to have made themselves scarce.

“Where did the others go?” he lowered his ears, looking from side to side frantically.