Hilo! I was pleasantly surprised that I got a review so quickly. Unfortunately, I'm still in the middle of the third chapter. Please don't ask me to 'update soon' and such. I'm glad you like it enough that you want the next chapter, but I find that it adds unneed pressure, and I find it a tad rude. Thank you.

"Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty." - E. M. Forster

. . .

The storm had passed by the time they arrived at the terra. They eventually found a person who knew Kite, but had to turn them away because she had left several months before. The Storm Hawks terra-hopped from one place to another until Piper had noticed a strange pattern a couple of days later. "I think I know how to find Kite!" She exclaimed excitedly. She hung a map on a wall and put in pins to all of the places where they had tried. Starling and Stork noticed the circle of pins, but still didn't quite know what to think of it. "Look, all the places where people have said she stayed in circle around one terra."

Finn, confused, asked, "What terra?"

Piper grabbed another chart and pointed to a specific location. "The terra is so small that it wouldn't show up in larger maps. Plus, it's the only terra within the circle." She was set to go to the terra.

Starling, however, wasn't fully convinced, but it was certainly worth a shot. She gave the okay, and Stork headed in that specific direction. "What terra is that anyway?"

"It's called Terra Errador." Piper had several maps out, and a book with little notes about each terra; a handy guide of which terras were safe, and which to avoid. "There are only a few hundred in populations, and from the looks of it, they depend on trading, fly-goers that stop to rest, and repairs for finances."

"And what do we do if she isn't even there?" Finn complained. They had "just missed" Kite so many times he was about ready to give up on her. He was tired of asking people the same questions. Starling explained that Kite always kept to herself, and all the places she stayed at for a while were huge with thousands of people, so it was already hard to find people who had heard of her name, let alone where she actually lived or knew the direction she went.

Piper had already thought of the answer. "Then we wait for her. Every time we were pointed in a different direction, she passed right over, or near Terra Errador, so it would only be a matter of time before she passes over there again. That terra has to be her permanent safe-spot."

"Excellent," Starling said, having more confidence that Piper's plan would work after her explanation.

"Unless of course, she goes AWOL and goes in a completely different direction to find another 'permanent safe-spot,' " Stork piped in, taking a break from the steering to look at the maps, and to foil Piper's plan. "In addition, if we noticed the pattern that easily, the Raptors-if they haven't figured it out already-will also notice it soon." He looked at Piper, who was giving him a deflated look for poking a hole in her plan, and then shrugged. "Just saying." He didn't want to go to Terra Errador mainly, because he didn't want to see the Raptors. Again.

Starling sighed. "Stork's right. If she is there, the Raptors won't be too far behind. We'll have to check the terra out. If she really isn't there, we'll have to stay anyway just in case the Raptors do show up. When they do, we'll just slow them down while we continue our search for Kite."

"Sounds good," Aerrow nodded affirmatively. He felt as if he had to say something, since it seemed that the girls had already worked out a plan, despite Stork's holes.

Stork groaned and shook his head in defeat. There was no way that nothing was going to happen. At that point, doom was just right around the corner, and he was flying the Condor right to it.

. . .

Dust kicked up when they stepped on the terra. From an aerial perspective, Terra Errador was empty, except for a small thick patch of green on the eastern edge. The shops were homes, and the markets had little variety of anything, but people were busy. Besides the Condor, there were a few more ships engaging in trades and business. Overall, it seemed like it was a friendly place.

They split up in three groups: Aerrow and Radaar with Starling, Finn and Junko, and Piper with Stork, to ask around. The only places they didn't, or couldn't check, was the thick forest, which was rumored to be highly booby-trapped, and a junkyard. Piper and Stork couldn't get past the guards of reptilian hounds-who looked ferociously mean, and might have a form of terrible diseases or flesh-eating bacteria in their oozing saliva-that protected the junkyard. From what they heard, the owner was just as mean as the guardians, if not more so, so the two left it unchecked. After a couple of hours, everyone met back at a shabby diner, their chosen rendezvous point, to report their findings. Everyone had nada, zilch, zero, nil, zippo, and nothing. It was as if Kite didn't exist to this place, even if there was proof that she had flown over several times.

"I knew this was an utter waste of time-more of a waste since I think I'm getting a rash from all of this dust. I wonder if I'm allergic," Stork groaned. The guards to the junkyard were still having a shaken effect on him. He thought that he might have had contracted something from them. "Maybe this 'Kite' person just doesn't want to be found by anyone, including us. She's been pretty successful so far, so maybe she has a better handle on things than what we're worrying about."

Starling was hurt, but didn't want to show it. If Kite really was hiding, not only from Repton, from her, then it was equal as distrust. It hurt more to the fact that they had an argument the day they separated. "We have to find her," she said, looking directly at Stork, "and not just because she stole something from the enemy. I have to make amends to her."

Stork saw the hurt in Starling's dark green eyes very clearly. He was good at seeing through people's walls, even without his x-ray peepers, mainly because he could see she regretted something. Stork regretted a lot of things. It was a list that increased daily, but mainly for minor and trivial things, like forgetting to put on sun block, or not getting stuff on the Condor repaired before they fall out of the sky. He didn't say anything more, and just looked down at the edge of the table, wishing he could be on his ship.

. . .

"God then made man. The Italians for their beauty. The French for their cuisine. The Welsh for their voices. The Germans for their cars. And on and on until He looked at what He had created and said, 'This is all very well, but no-one is having fun. I'll have to make Irish man.'"