Riding into the camp was one thing that she could deal with, the eyes though she could barely take. They were staring, cold and angry, at her, the staring made a cold shiver run down her spine and made her want to turn back, her horse underneath her was twitching and nervous. Swallowing a little too hard, she turned her eyes to the people to her left and right. Not only were the people staring at her coldly, they're expressions were of pure hatred. Before she had entered the forest with the being behind her she had been told by her injured leader that she might encounter some hostilities but she hadn't thought it would be this much.

"Why are they staring at us so angrily?" a man slightly behind her asked.

She didn't need to know who had spoken, the voice belonged to her former Earth Science teacher, Vinny Ferriolla. Peeling herself from the people to her left and right, she turned around slightly and looked at the man. Normally at this time in the year he would have dyed his hair yellow but as of right now it was black. He was Italian, medium height with a lankish body. When her horse swished her tail back, it caught against her face and forced her attention back to the front.

"You wouldn't look at someone who is attacking, raping, kidnapping and killing your people?" Wendy asked.

There was a pause behind her then she heard a 'uh uh' afterwards Vinny stayed quite. Glancing behind her, she saw the tall, orange being beside him. He was an interesting fellow, only a year older than she was. The fellow had orange skin with milky yellow undertone, his eyes, orange in color, sat on stalks on a long face with a bill, behind his head hung some long fin-like appendages that he had called when he was questioned about them haillu.

"You doin' alright Jar Jar?" she asked.

"Yes, I's doin' okey day". the creature replied.

Her group had encountered the creature one day when they had moored the boat off on a tree, he had just ran up yelling for help in clean english. The group, led at the time by her leader, had opened fire and had killed three men and had captured one other. The creature had jumped onto their boat when they had started firing and had hid himself behind the ladder that descended to cockpit. Her leader had been shot once, not a bad wound but it had hurt her some, after the one male had been brought on board and questioned they had searched for the being. She remembered well that it had been her that had found him, cowarding behind the ladder.

"You know you can speak english right," she said. "you don't have to speak in that gibberish."

"I knows," the creature said. "I knows."

She hadn't spent much time around the guy, she had heard that he had been banished by his people and that since the hunters had started attcking his people the leader of his people had allowed the banished a chance at return for a while, he had mentioned that he hadn't taken up the opportunity to go back to his people because he was afraid of a guy by the name of Boss Nass.

"Boss Nass..." she spoke to herself in a low whisper. She had to get use to saying the name, she had to remember it. Her injured leader had briefed her on the guy, she had been told that he was a stern, stubborn at times, no-nonsense, enforcer of his peoples rules and laws. Her leader had told her that the man had been an army Sargeant in his youth, then when he had retired he had been an engineer, energy miner and currently, along with him ruling of his people, the owner of several small businesses. She had been told to keep her head on her shoulders because, as her leader had said, he would attempt to intimidate her by yelling and making ticking and other sounds. Although she was afraid, she was trying to put on a good front, for her leader and the small group behind her.

"How much farther Abi?" Vinny asked.

"Not much farther." she replied.

Abi, short for Abigail, was not her name and although she hated being called it she had to muster up the courage and patience to be referred as it. Her leader had changed her name to Abigail Sloccum as soon as the creature had boarded their craft, for whatever reason she was sure it was a good one. Sitting up straighter, she nudged her horse on a little faster to catch up to the animal a head of her that was carrying a mount. Her horse nickered once then trudged on, she pulled her up and smoothed her hand over the horses neck. Her mount was a dapple gray mare, about six years old, with a creamy mane and tail.

"Slowin' up yousa mount!" the guy in front of her barked.

She had a hard time not obeying him, she was very nervous now and her mount was picking up on it. Her horse was getting sweaty and was blowing from her nose fast. She eased the mare up some, allowing the animal in front three feet of space, her horse was making the animal in front nervous she could tell. The animal was slick with sweat and wasn't walking a straight line. The man riding the animal turned himself around in his saddle and stared at her sternly. She pulled the reins up and gave the animal in front of her seven feet instead of the three.

"Blew your cover girl," she thought to herself. "how in the world did Angel think I could be like her? I can barely speak my mind to my parents how can I keep my cool in front of these creatures?"

"Are we almost there?" Vinny asked.

The question went unanswered because at the time the creature in front stopped his mount, forcing her and her group to stop behind him.

"Ya Honor," he said. "Abeegale Slow Ccum of da hisen."

At first she thought he was talking to the big tree in front that had three creatures standing in front of with sharp ended poles then she saw him. A large creature stepped out from the side of the tree, there was a stone face of white color that he was standing on, behind him was two other creatures near the size of him. The creature looked tall and was wearing a brown robe with an intricate design on the front and on the edges, he had a hat on his head.

"Whosa dis?" the creature bellowed.

She felt a chill run down her spine, she could tell this wasn't going to be good. The tone of his voice, much too booming, much too stern, it just made her want to turn around and run away and forget about talking to the guy. Hearing a sound behind her she turned around to see Jar Jar dismounting. She started to say something when the man with the booming, stern, voice spoke above her.

"Jar Jar Binks!"

She nearly jumped out of her saddle, he had been loud, too loud, scary loud. Jar Jar had stopped in his tracks after dismounting, the reins had fallen to the saddle horn and was causing the horse some problems. Vinny moved his mount slowly up to Jar Jar's mount and removed the reins from the horn, he ground tethered the horse. Jar Jar had a look of pure nervousness and fear on his face, she could have swore that she had seen him shiver a few times. Swallowing, she turned around and looked at the large creature in front of her, clearing her throat, she prepared herself to speak.

"We brought him back," she said shakingly. "we brought him back to safety, to his people."

"Jar Jar Binks, yousa big doo-doo now!" the creature bellowed. "Yousa brought da hisens to da sacred place!"

Jar Jar was cowarding, he was pulling himself down to the ground slightly, he was scared and so was she. Swallowing hard, she figured it was time to speak her peace. Quickly getting herself together, she dismounted and stepped forward, placing herself in front of Jar Jar.

"We mean you know harm." she said. "we're just here to bring Jar Jar back, we intend to leave as soon as he is in safety."

"Yousa hissen more trouble den yousa tinkin'," the creature bellowed. "yousa all bombad!"

The people all around her had their hands either clinched in tight balls or had them ready to be clinched, there was pure anger in their eyes and she could tell that all they needed was a simple go a head from the creature standing on the stone face for them to run forward and attack. Sighing loudly, she took the rifle that was hanging on her saddle in a case and threw it to the ground. Her group all gasped, although she wasn't their real leader she knew they had been briefed to do exactly as she said or did.

"Throw your weapons to the group." she ordered.

There was silence behind her so she turned herself around in her saddle and looked at her group, she tried to be stern. She repeated what she had said to the group, they stayed silent for a few seconds then Vinny and Peter, another male in her small group, threw their guns to the group, the other two males in her group were slower in complying.

"Steven, George," she barked. "discard your weapons!"

Steven threw his weapon to the ground, George though was not very fast in doing so. He sat on his horse motionless for a few secodns then threw down his Blaser R8 Professional, it landed on Steven's Modern Hunting Rifle. She stayed staring at him then turned around, the creatures on either side of her were starting to look from side to side, they were not sure as to what was happening.

"We mean you no harm," she said. "our weapons..."

"Yousa tinkin' mesa will believe that," the creature on the white stone face snapped. "mesa knows yousa all gots other weapons on yousa person."

She was taken back, yes they had other weapons on them but the ones that they had thrown down to the ground were their main ones. With a slight shake of her head, she removed two knives from her side and a pistol, she threw them to the ground. Turning around in her saddle, she stared at her group hard. Each one discarded their weapons to the ground, all the knives and pistols. Turning herself around, she looked at the creature on the stone face. He was still looking at them angrily.

"All of our weapons are now on the ground," she said. "there are no weapons on our person anymore."

"Yousa still hisens!" the creature yelled. "Yousa all da cause of uss-en bein' hair and not in our homes."

"No no!" she exclaimed. "Never, we would never attack or harm one of yours."

"Yousa all bombad!" the creature yelled.

"We're just here..." she started.

"Enough!" the creature bellowed. "Yousa all begun or yousa all be pune-ished!"

The first thought that came through her mind was Jar Jar, would he be okay and was it okay to leave him with is people. They seemed right hostile. Looking down at the creature from her atop her horse, she saw that he was beyond scared. Having to think fast was not her area, she hated thinking quickly, but it seemed that this was the time to do so. Leave Jar Jar behind or take him with them, she was sure he'd be safe with them but she wasn't so sure he'd come along. Before she had a chance to think further on the situation the creature with the booming voice spoke up.

"Jar Jar will-a stay hair with uss-en." the creature boomed loudly. "Yousa all go now!"

She figured that was her answer, Jar Jar was allowed to stay with his people. She wasn't sure how that was going to pan out but she figured it was better than him being alone our in the woods where a bunch of rifle and bow and arrow weilding humans were running on the loose. She thought about dismounting and getting the weapons they had discarded but was stopped short when the creature on the side on the two legged animal dismounted and started collecting their weapons, another creature, nearly as tall as he, walked up with a basket. The one collecting their weapons dropped all of them in the basket.

"We leave now." she said.

Turning her horse around, she pushed her group from the back out of the camp that the hostile creatures were staying. Deep inside she had a fear that her leader would not be pleased in the least that their weapons had been conviscated or that they had just dropped off Jar Jar and left without a fight, she also had a deep feeling that she had not seen the last of the robust creature or the two creatures that had collected their weapons. Taking a deep breath, she nudged her horse into a trot and hurried her group away into the brush and away from the hostile people. When they were out of earshot she let a big woosh of air from her lungs out.

"What the hell was that?" Steven growled. "We rode into camp, got yelled at then had our weapons taken now we're just going back to our ship without anything in return?"

"Would you rather us be thrown in jail or worse killed for something we didn't do?" Wendy asked.

"You coward." Steven said angrily.

"I'm only 19!" Wendy yelled back.

"You were suppose to act as a 30 year old." Steven shot back.

"I have no idea how to act 30," Wendy near cried. "I've only lived half that."

Wendy wasn't in the mood for others to be chiding her, now that she was away from the creatures camp she lowered her rank. Steven Nigro was her former history teacher from when she went to high school, he had medium length brown hair and brown eyes, normally he's be wearing brown khaki's and a blouse with red or blue buttons but today he had blue jeans and a muscle shirt on. He had brought with him a M1903 Springfield rifle that he had thrown down at the creatures camp, she was sure he was not happy about loosing that gun.

"What are we going to tell Angel when we get back to the ship? Vinny asked.

"That we returned Jar Jar to his people," Wendy replied. "what else should we tell her?"

"How about that we are several fire arms down?" Steven hissed.

"She's not going to be happy hearing about that." Peter sighed.

Peter was right, for an english teacher he was right about what he had said. They were low on both fire arms and ammunition and with their weapons being conviscated they would be at a severe handicap. Peter Barringer, a tall 37 year old man with short brown hair and blue eyes, rolled his shoulders. He was wearing a camouflaged pair of pants and a white short sleeve shirt that made him look bigger than he was. He had brought with him one of his personal guns, a M1 Garand, she had been surprised when she had seen the gun as she had never know her former teacher to have or own any guns, he looked far from a gun owner.

"Better the guns than us being arrested and killed for something we didn't and would not do." Wendy said.

"Really I agree with that." Vinny yelled back. "But still with the environment here I'd much rather have a gun for protection."

Vinny Ferriallo, a 45 year old man and her former earth science teacher, was up a head of everyone on a splashy paint Mustang gelding that had been caught in Utah three years ago. He was wearing a very odd outfit, a hippish pink and red shirt with green pants that had been splashed with bleach to give them a "unique" feel and sneakers. He looked odd and he knew it, normally at this time of year he would have dyed and cropped his hair yellow but for the moment it was black. He also surprised him when he had brought out a Winchester rifle, he was now minus the weapon and he looked non to pleased about it.

"Did you see their faces when they saw us?" George Moseley asked. "They were not happy in the least about seeing us there."

"I think that big guy in the front was the most angered of them," Vinny chuckled. "he was ready to pounce on us."

Beside Steven Nigro was a medium height man of 28 years, he was a professional hunter and had only been brought on the trip because of that, Wendy knew that much about him. He was wearing camouflage pants, a camouflage jacket and a white shirt, on his feet were camouflage boots. He was bald and had icy blue eyes, the iciest eyes she had ever seen. The horse under him was his own, a sorrel gelding with scar marks on his sides. Wendy knew nothing about the horse but she knew enough about horses by working for her leader, Angel, that the horse was a Quarter Horse. He was not happy she could tell about having to leave his prized gun behind.

"We've done enough today," Wendy said. "lets head back to the ship."

Wendy had figured that her leader would have been pissed that the weapons had been lost but to her surprise when she had entered her leaders cabin on the boat she had met with a kind, understanding, woman. Her leader had been in her bed, propped up by pillows, looking out the window when she had walked in.

"I saw you and the others come up." her leader had said. "Did the trip go well?"

"Well not as exactly smooth as it should have been," Wendy started. "we lost our weapons."

Her leader sat up a little straighter, she grimaced in pain but managed to sit on the edge of her bed. Her hair was a bright red and her eyes when she looked up at her were a emerald green, the prettiest of green she had ever seen.

"How did you lose your weapons?" her leader asked.

"Before you get mad," Wendy said quickly. "let me explain. We came up to the camp and met with some of the most hostile... angry people I have ever met. They stood there with their hands clinched at us and were staring at us with such hate and anger, it scared me to death."

Wendy stopped, she had to catch her breath, all of that was a mouthful and she just needed to catch her breath. Her leader was staring at her intently, she was taking everything in, everything she said. Pulling her hand up, she tugged at her shirt collar before starting up again.

"We took Jar Jar back to his people, this one didn't seem so happy to see us, in order for us to not be arrested and killed I ordered that we all throw our weapons to the ground. We did and they were conviscated by this purplish brown skinned guy." She finished.

Her leader took it all in and didn't say a thing for a while, when she started to stand she near yelped in pain. Wendy rushed forward and gently pushed her back down to the bed.

"We will make due with what we have on the boat," her leader said. "I have a few extra weapons on board that can be distributed."

"I wanted to collect the weapons that we left behind but when I saw that tall purplish brown skinned guy..." Wendy gasped loudly.

"Calm yourself Wendy," her leader said. "we'll make due and be fine with what we have available."

"Angel how can we?" Wendy exclaimed. "We're not just low on ammunition and weapons but also food and medical supplies, how are we going to make due on our dwindling supplies?"

Her leader looked up at her with her emerald green eyes, feeling a shiver she took the hint and sat down. She was about to get a life lesson from her friend and she wanted to make sure she listened, even though she really didn't want to.

"As you know from what all you've heard and been told I just showed up on the mainland, on the coast of New Jersey to be exact, one day when I was 15 years old." Angel started. "The only thing I had to my name was my sword and the clothes on my back."

Wendy stood up straighter, although she had been born in a different state and had moved to North Carolina when she was 5 years old, she had met Angel when she had turned 12. By then Angel had already made a name for herself, she already had a large stable packed with horses and a full pasture of foals, weanlings and yearlings, one of which would make her the most famous race horse owner and winner in history.

"I had nothing to get me by, no money, no nothing" her leader continued. "one day I was hungry and decided to lift a simple apple from a stand. I was caught and I was shipped off to an orphanage where I spent a year and a half of hell. I had nothing while in that orphanage, no mother or father, no siblings, no friends, the only thing I did have was a small blanket and a pillow to sleep on, I barely got fed because I refused to obey the order and I was beaten a lot. If it wasn't for the order that beat me I wouldn't have just up and grabbed my sword and ran off one day and if it wasn't for the order I would never met Mr. Kirshane."

Wendy knew what Angel was getting at but she didn't want to aggravate or hurt her by interrupting so she just sat there and listened. Angel had told her all about Mr. Kirshane, he had hired her to work at his racing stable, she had worked there all of six months before she quit.

"I really have to thank that man," Angel went on. "if it wasn't for him or his alcoholic step son I would never have gotten my foot in the door in the world of horse racing."

"You met The Don at Mr. Kirshane's stables." Wendy sighed. "You fell in love with the fiery horse and couldn't stand seeing him be put through the trauma that he put that poor horse in."

"I took every penny that that man gave me for working with him and spent it all on that horse," Angel continued. "I bought that little stallion and I gentled him and I trained him, I raced on top of him and I won then I retired him to stud and I got good offspring from him."

"And you still are..." Wendy said quickly.

"Yes," Angel sighed. "I still get good offspring from him."

Angel paused for the longest time, Wendy thought she had fallen asleep. She had been injured bad and had been drifting off to sleep a lot lately. Standing up, she prepared to leave the cabin when her leader spoke up.

"Moral of what I am telling you," Angel said sleepily. "never underestimate how much you have or don't have. Appreciate what you have and take good care of it, you'll never know when something else will drop on your lap that is good... or bad."

When Wendy left the room she bumped into Andrea who had a glass of tea in her hand. She apologised then stepped to the side, when Andrea went in the cabin she caught a glance of Angel nodding her head. She didn't want to leave like that, without saying a word, but she did so. When Andrea turned around to close the door she saw a frown on her face, she knew what it was for. She didn't need to be told that a few members of her group thought of her or the other two younger members on the ship were a bit annoying. Sometimes they listened only half way and other times they didn't listen at all, she figured that it was a late teenage thing she was going through. Sighing hard, she started down the hallway towards her cabin.