A.N. - This is a completely original work by me. I have had no help in writing it (but I have gotten tons of advice). I am positing it here for review.

News

Kristen moaned and rolled over to escape the painful blows dealt to her back, which did not cease in the slightest. She sleepily battled away her assailant, mumbling something about it being too early. Suddenly the attacker began impatiently jumping up and down on her, like she was some kind of trampoline. Growling, Kristen threw off the 'jumper' and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Kristen yawned loudly before finally opening her green eyes to see who it was that had so rudely awakened her. It was Fayore.

Fayore looked stressed and starved, his dark grey eyes staring hungrily at hers. He looked so pitiful Kristen completely forgot her anger at being awoken.

"What's wrong?" she asked, genuinely concerned. Was he hungry? Hurt? Scared?

"I'm so bored!" he wailed. "I've been up since noon, 'cause I don't sleep much an' all, an' you guys were all sleepin' and I had no one to talk to, an' – " Because Fayore had said that very quickly and in one breath, her paused to breathe. He deflated suddenly and looked at Kristen sheepishly.

"What did you do all day?" Kristen asked. It felt strange to say the word 'day' now, because she had spent so long confined to the nights.

"Well, first I kept watch for a few hours, then I got bored so I practice with my store of weapons for a long time," Fayore said waving casually toward the vast assortment of weaponry spread throughout the camp. "And then I got hungry, so I waited a few minutes for the sun to go down completely before waking up you." The little wyrwolf wrinkled up his nose, as if confronted by something with an atrocious odor. "But you wouldn't wake up, so I jumped on you." Fayore gave Kristen an apologetic look.

Kristen nodded, understanding now. "Right, hand me the red pack, please, and the blue one, too, would you?" Fayore obeyed happily. He was more than glad to finally have something to do and someone to talk to. Kristen rekindled last night's fire and set to work cooking breakfast. "Fayore, could you clean up those weapons?" The young boy nodded and ran about picking up various weapons and shoving them into his bottomless purple pack.

The fragrance of sizzling bacon filled the air as Kristen exercised her excellent cooking skills. As Kristen loaded the bacon onto six plates, divided equally, of course, Fayore padded over to her. He sat down, leaning into her shoulder and letting the purple pack slip to the ground.

"Kristen," Fayore asked, "why does Dante hate me so much?" Kristen sighed, scrambling the eggs a bit more.

"He doesn't hate you," Kristen said heavily, allowing her shoulders to droop, forcing Fayore to reposition himself.

"Yes he does. Didn't you hear him last night?" Fayore muttered, still upset over the previous night's argument.

"Not you specifically," corrected Kristen. "Wyrwolves in general. He thought they killed his little sister, his only family, and wyrwolves have been killing vampyrs for centuries. Mind you, we aren't much better on that front, but then, just last year, the wyrwolves began massacring vampyrs. Dante's been hurt by wyrwolves twice, but both in agonizing ways. He's frustrated with himself because he had no idea that his sister was alive. And since you're the messenger and a wyrwolf, he's taking it out on you."

"Oh . . . So it's not me he hates?" Fayore asked, his gray eyes bright with hope.

"No, Fayore, not upset with you," was Kristen's reply. Fayore happily snuggled into her arm at that and breathed in the smell of the cooking eggs.

I guess I'll just really try to get him to like me," Fayore mumbled. A few minutes later, Fayore and Kristen eagerly ate their equal share of breakfast. Not long after they had both finished, Keira woke up. For a split second, Kristen could have sworn she saw the snappish vampyr look at Fayore with a kind of bitter, rueful longing, but it was gone too soon to be sure. Exactly like the look of fear in her mother's eyes when she noticed Kristen's necklace.

Fayore smiled pleasantly at Keira as the vampyr began eating the plateful of food Kristen handed her. "Good evening!" he said politely. Keira, whose mouth was full, merely looked up at him and nodded before swallowing roughly.

"And to you," she replied before returning to her food. It was always easy to tell when Keira was in a good mood when she woke up or not because she would be polite for an hour or so after. Mike had confided in Kristen one night that he reckoned that Keira had 'high upbringing' to which Kristen scoffed.

"How are you doing?" Fayore asked nicely. So far everyone except Dante had been nice to him, especially Kristen who ought to have been angry at him several times now.

Keira looked up again. "Well enough," she replied gruffly, "but do quit addressing me until I'm finished eating."

Fayore wrinkled up his face like he always did when he was confused and looked at Kristen. "Huh?"

"She means quit talking to her," Kristen said in a tone not unlike one a mother would use to shush her child, and hush Fayore did. At least until Mike got up and stumbled over to the three of them.

"I see Fayore is still there, which means either he stayed all day or as Dante would think," his voice changed smoothly to imitate Dante's, "he plans to spy on us some more, the little monster." Despite their best efforts, both Kristen and Keira smiled. However, Fayore laughed outright and Mike beamed as he joined the others on the ground.

Dante woke up next and immediately started asking questions, "How long has he been awake?" Dante demanded.

"Since noon," Kristen answered stiffly.

"Noon? Noon? He could have told those wyrwolves everything, eaten a fine meal, taken a nap, and come back without our knowing!" Dante roared, arms flailing about. He looked almost akin to a mad, raving dog, foaming at the mouth. Minus the foaming part, but doubtless he felt that enraged.

"Relax," Keira said sternly, "you're starting to sound like how I am with Chrysis." This might have been meant as a jest of sorts, but Dante certainly did not take it as such.

"At least my suspicions are well founded." Dante snapped, turning on the blonde. "Unlike yours!"

Keira gave him a fierce, knowing, and overall teasing smirk. "Perhaps she reminds me too of a certain family member of mine." Her blue eyes were cold and harsh, the words meant to be cruel.

Dante visibly flinched and fell silent for a moment; Keira carefully hid a triumphant grin that only Mike and Kristen caught. The two vampyrs exchanged uneasy glances before preparing to step in as peace keepers. However, the ever- diligent young wyrwolf was already trying to calm everyone.

"It's okay Dante! I kept watch for hours and I practiced fighting with – " Fayore said trying desperately to be the happy medium, but Dante furiously cut him off.

"How can we trust a little, sneaking creature like you?" He growled. No one was able to reply to that, being as a very, very angry young woman had just woken up. Not even Mike had ever seen Chrysis this furious, through the two years he had known her. It was thoroughly terrifying to see the one person everyone had least expected to get angry so entirely pissed off.

"Get off his case, Pans," Chrysis hissed. There was no need to shout. She had everyone hanging from strings like puppets. The utter shock of her sudden blast of wrath held them captive to her every whim.

Dante half-turned to stare at Chrysis through the corner of his blue eyes, "No . . . " The sound barely managed to escape his throat, his voice no louder than a light breeze.

The earth rumbled and groaned as the roots of every plant shifted and moved, just as deeply affected by Chrysis' mood as the vampyrs, and Fayore, were. Branches swayed in random directions with not a single breeze to be felt.

"If Rose had a rose necklace, then Pansy would have a pansy necklace. Is this not true?" Chrysis said casually, by way of explanation.

Dante glared sharply at Kristen before replying, "Mother always had an infuriating fondness for flowers," Dante muttered, jaws clenched.

"Pansy?" Keira snorted, physically unable to hide a grin. Dante's glare was answer enough. Keira busted out laughing, almost falling back into Mike as she did so. Mike pushed the hysterical blonde over and scooted just barely out of her range. After a moment or so, Keira sat up and looked at Dante's very annoyed face.

"Wait, you were serious?" she asked, swiping a bit of bleach blonde hair out of her eyes. Dante nodded, eyes narrowing, Keira grinned. "That makes it all the better, then."

Chrysis, having accomplished her goal, sat down beside Fayore and Mike and took the plate Kristen offered her. Kristen also demanded that Dante sit his butt down and eat, much to Keira's amusement.

Dante glared at Kristen. "Did you tell?" he hissed angrily under his breath at her.

"I've kept my mouth shut," she hissed back.

"What are you two whispering about?" Mike asked, looking questioningly at Dante and Kristen. Fayore, who had heard their conversation, kept silent, his gaze falling expectantly on Kristen and Dante.

"Kristen wants to give Dante flowers and wanted to know what kind and he told her his name instead," giggled Keira before outright laughing again. Her antics were rewarded with two glares and a few smiles. Fayore managed to hide his soft smile with his messy dark red hair.

"Shut up, Keira," Dante snapped, taking a bite of bacon irritably. Keira obeyed in so far as to not talk. However, even Fayore's threats to bite off her nose did little to keep her from laughing at random.

This continued for days, lifting everyone's spirits – at least when Dante ignored her, which he frequently did. However, Dante had also taken to either ignoring Fayore, or watching him close to something vaguely akin to stalking. Not a week later, Jeremy returned, much to Dante's dismay.

"Aiee!" Jeremy squawked, leaping away from Fayore as the little wyrwolf pulled playfully on the cardinal's blood red feathers. The little boy scooped up the bird, blissfully oblivious to the stream of obscenities gushing from the humiliated bird's beak. Fayore nuzzled Jeremy, pressing the warm little body to his face.

Jeremy, humiliated and peeved, struggled with all his might, screeching at the top of his lungs. "Let go, you foul – ", and such things as that, only worse and far more insulting at least to birds anyway, Kristen herself could not help but crack up at Jeremy's colorful language.

"Oh, let him go," Kristen breathed when she could convince her body to quit laughing for a moment. "He might not tell us anything if you don't!" This threat, translated by Kristen, shot Mike into action. Disdainfully, he grabbed the cardinal's leg and gently pulled the bird out of Fayore's loose, playful grip. His lips were set in a thin line as he gazed at Jeremy, helplessly flapping his scarlet wings. Mike pushed his silver-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose and wordlessly handed Jeremy to Kristen.

"Quit manhandling me!" The little cardinal shrieked, hoping angrily out of Kristen's lap.

"What did He say?" asked Kristen, interrupting Jeremy's self-pity. The cardinal glared at her, but seeing as she had not done anything to him, he graced her with a response.

"First tell them others to quit molesting me," Jeremy said defiantly, ruffling his feathers irritably.

Kristen rolled her green eyes and said in an exasperated tone, "Fayore wasn't molesting you." Kristen was rewarded with a stubborn stare. She sighed and looked up at the others.

"He won't talk until everyone promises not to molest him," said the vampyr apologetically. To this Fayore protested, but between Chrysis and Keira (and one hell of a glare from Dante) they managed to calm down their out raged wyrwolf companion.

"I wouldn't want to molest him anyway," said Dante gruffly, crossing his bare arms over his chest. Jeremy huffed indignantly and hopped over to Kristen to talk.

"What did He say?" she asked the little red bird again. Jeremy looked at her, suddenly realizing the power he possessed. This small group hungered and starved for the wisdom of their elders, especially the father of their covenant. If he refused to relay Father Nolatari's message, then they could do little about it. But even as he realized this, Jeremy knew he would never withhold information from them, no matter how irritating they became. Loyalty to his old friend could not account entirely for the burning desire to tell them everything, to pour it all out. However, loyalty to his old friend kept the knowledge he gave as a discreet as Father Nolatari wished.

"Says to keep heading northwest. Get to Elesin, find the Cerevina. That, for now He said, is at most importance. Said things are almost to get dangerous and you need to keep your minds shut tight and to be sure to blend in as much as possible. He wants you to be safe and do everything you can to survive." Jeremy was on the verge of disclosing too much information, but he reasoned mischievously, there could be no harm in telling what Father Nolatari planned to do when the group returned.

"He also says he wants a chance to speak to Dante," Jeremy spat the name, disgusted to even have to say it. Whatever Father Nolatari had to say to the vampyr, it did not mean Jeremy had to like him. "Alone," he added. Good, no trace of the other news Jeremy recalled sadly, the last of what the old man had told him.

"Jeremy, friend, there is something else I wish to tell you." Father Nolatari's saddened voice echoed in his head like his own thoughts. He had been about to take flight to find Kristen and the others when Father Nolatari spoke again. At the depressed but ever determined voice of his friend, Jeremy had turned to face him. Father Nolatari's gold eyes were wet with unshed tears. To his knowledge no one of the Cardinal Covenant had died after he left to talk to Kristen and her friends. What could have moved his dear old friend so close to tears, he remembered thinking. Now he knew, and fervently wished it wasn't so, that it had just been some horrible kind of cruel joke. But deep down he knew it was true, that Father Nolatari had not been lying to him. "I will not live much longer. My successor has come at last and soon I will die as the others before me have done. But not yet, thankfully not yet, though it will be soon, so soon. I can feel it in the very marrow of my ancient bones." Seeing his crumpled face, Father Nolatari continued, "I do not wish to upset or rush the children. Do not tell them what I have just told you. I tell you, Jeremy, because you are a good friend of mine and deserve to know."

A few minutes after that, after what seemed like two seconds and eternity at the same time, he responded. "Have you told the Covenant?" Though not a vampyr or an official member of the Cardinal Covenant, he was fiercely loyal to it and in turn its vampyr members.

"No," Father Nolatari had said quietly. "The news would cause distress among my Covenant, distress we do not need." He had nodded, his scarlet head bobbing sadly as the man his friend, stroked him, both silent and deep in though. Instinctively, he hopped closer to Father Nolatari, savoring those moments that just might be their last together after so long. Finally, grudgingly, he pulled away from the old man and looked up at the old man, his eyes wet with tears he dared not shed. Father Nolatari smiled at him with no joy.

"Go now," Father Nolatari commanded. "We will see each other again."

"On the other side maybe," he responded. Birds accept death; it was a part of life, the last part. But it hurt, too. Birds grieved just as much as any other animal, but unlike humans, animals felt no desire to end their lives because of death. There was a balance, there still is. Death dances about, choosing who it pleases to join his kingdom, with little though to the mortal realm. Depressing as it was, he accepted Father Nolatari's fate.

Slowly, he pulled away from the old man who had been his friend for so long and hopped over to the window. Sadly he glanced back before shoving himself up on a low air current. He cruised away from the church, the silvery moonlight giving his feathers an eerie glow.

No, Jeremy decided, I won't tell them that. He shifted in Kristen's lap, keeping his legs from going numb.

"Thank you Jeremy," Kristen said politely, offering him a bit of bacon from Chrysis's plate, but he refused and promptly flew up into a nearby tree.

"What did he say?" Mike asked, remembering the time he almost ate their little messenger.

"He said to keep heading northwest. We need to get to Elesin and find the Cerevina first, because apparently that's the most important thing." To Kristen's surprise, it was Fayore who started muttering the name Cerevina under his breath as she and the others had been doing ever since they heard the name. "Anyway, he said things are about to get dangerous-" Kristen was cut off by an out raged shriek from Keira.

"Going to? It's already often dangerous! Fayore is proof of that! We could have all died! I rather think that's dangerous, don't you?"

"That's just what he said, Keira. I'm only translating," Kristen replied tiredly, calming the hot tempered vampyr down slightly. "He said that we need to keep our minds shut and to blend in as much as we can. We need to do everything we can to survive," Kristen had the eerie feeling that the last part was meant mostly for her, but she said nothing about it.

"Anything else?" Dante demanded.

"Yeah, he wants to talk to you when we get back. Alone, according to Jeremy."

"I wonder what that's all about," he muttered tossing a handful of dirt over the fire to extinguish it.

"So he wants us to be paranoid?" questioned Mike.

"Super paranoid," Chrysis nodded as the two siblings stood. They pittered and pattered around the camp, returning it to its former untouched glory. The only trace left of their presence was the fact that they were still there.

"Why didn't you do that before?" Keira asked, an annoyed tone seeping into her voice. As she spoke, she waved her hand in a casual way towards the flawless campground.

Chrysis shrugged, "We didn't feel we needed to." Keira huffed angrily and pulled on her pack as she stood.

"Come on, guys!" Fayore said happily pulling on his bottomless purple pack, "let's go!" He beamed up at Dante who glared at him. Silently, they shuffled out of the camp, single file. Dante was leading them, holding up the directional compass. Kristen came next followed by Mike then Keira. Last came Chrysis and Fayore, covering up their tracks as they went along.

Later that night close to dawn to be precise, they reached the edge of the forest. Because it was so close to dawn, Fayore was sent to scout, as he said. The vampyrs stayed in the shade of the trees and set up camp.

What Fayore saw was shocking. There were no trees. The tallest thing to be seen was a fort like building with only one entrance that Fayore could see, because it was facing the forest. The gate was still shut tight because there was no one outside it. The landscape was barren of life, more like a dirt floor than anything else. The fort was a sandy color that blending in with the land so much that it was hard for even Fayore's young wyrwolf eyes to make out.

He forced his vision to hone in on the fort so difficult to locate. The little figures that stood as lookouts for the night were replaced by the lookouts for the day. Those people had bows and arrows like the ones in his purple pack, only better. The archers could not see Fayore from his hiding spot in one of the many trees, but he could see them well enough to determine that none of the day watch was proficient with a bow as the night watch was.

Quietly, Fayore crept back to the camp to inform the others what he'd learned.

"Guys! Guys!" He whispered loudly, slipping under a fallen tree.

"What? What?" Keira asked, yawning. Mike passed him a small featherless bird Kristen had managed to capture and kill. It was not cooked, because being so close to the Path, a fire would attract unwanted attention, but Fayore didn't mind. He was eating regular meals and no one, excluding Dante, yelled at him anymore. Besides, he was used to uncooked food. Happily, Fayore bit into the cool flesh.

"It's a fort," Fayore said with his mouth full.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full," Kristen chastised from her perch on a cold rock. "It's impolite." Fayore nodded, ducking his head as he roughly swallowed. "It's a fort," he repeated, "But it's really hard to see from the tree line, 'cause it's the same color as the ground. I got there as the guard switched. The night guard is better armed than the day guard an' the night guard is more alert, too. They're probably paranoid 'bout a vampyr invasion or something." His dark eyes twinkled mischievously and for a brief moment everyone, excluding Dante, smiled. Vampyr invasion. Ha!

"By the way," Fayore asked, taking another bite out of his bird and swallowing, "where'd you get so many guns? I mean," another bite, "my clan had some guns but only the high end wyrwolves got them, 'cause there weren't enough to go around," He stopped to finish his dinner and after a moment he continued. "So what did you guys do kill one 'a Prince Zorinthos' scoutin' parties or something?" Fayore grinned, wiping his hands on the grass beside his crossed legs.

The vampyrs just looked at him funny. "No," Dante said slowly, "Chrysis had them." They all looked expectantly at Chrysis. Keira was the only one who glared.

"Mike, you remember Mother's attic, how we used to always find the coolest stuff up there? I found them in a box at the very, very back, under whole bunch of costumes and stuff." What she neglected to mention was that it was either for Mother Syeti of it belonged to her.

Mike nodded understanding."But why would Mother have a bunch of guns and ammo?"

"I don't think she knew she had it. Remember Mother said the house belonged to her great grandparents? Maybe that stuff was left from them or their children."

Mike looked thoughtful at that and nodded. "You're probably right."

"Say, guys, I think we should go inta that fort tuh-marrah night," Fayore said, smiling. "The longer we're here, the more likely it is we'll be found, innit?"

Keira nodded, "Yes. There is a more of a chance we will be found every second longer we stay here, especially during the day."

"Then again," Dante threw out, "how are we going to get in? Won't they be suspicious of a large group of people from the forest trying to get in to their town right at dusk? They've probably been warned about vampyrs."

"None of the humans in the towns know about vampyrs or wyrwolves." Fayore piped up, looking too-obviously at Dante for praise.

"How'd you find that out?" Dante growled. "Did your wyrwolf buddies tell you to tell us that so we'd get caught?" Fayore flinched and looked down at his twiddling thumbs.

"I overheard the chief elder guy talking to this wyrwolf about to go get Initiated. He told him to expect each town along The Path to check for a vampyr necklace, and that they wouldn't know what they were," Fayore mumbled. Dante glared at him.

"That brings us back to what Dante said," Mike muttered, then louder, "How do we get in without them checking us?'

The six of them pondered this, even Fayore whose facial expressions of thought proved distracting to Keira. (Meaning she couldn't think because she was trying not to giggle.) There were a few false starts.

"I got it! I got is!" Fayore squealed happily, jumping up.

"Shhh!" the vampyrs said, motioning for Fayore to shut up and sit down. The little wyrwolf plopped down beside Dante. "So what was it?" the oldest vampyr growled.

Fayore's mouth opened then closed and Fayore hung his head. "I forgot," he whispered sadly. Dante hissed in frustration.

And then there was the time Chrysis got an idea.

"I have an idea," Chrysis said dreamily, about half an hour after the Fayore incident.

"What is it?" Mike asked, looking up at his little sister. (He'd been playing with the grass.)

"It won't work," she said miserably.

"Then why'd you mention it?" Keira snapped more frustrated with herself then anything.

"Because it would have been a good idea," Chrysis replied stubbornly, "if the physics of it would have worked."

"Hypothetically, what would we have done?" asked Dante, tired of finding new possibilities and having to throw them away for some reason or another.

"We'd have taken off our necklaces and gone up there and pretended to be the average traveler, but we can't take off our necklaces, can we?"

Dante shook his head and Chrysis nodded, already thinking up a new way to get into the fort, as Fayore called it.

"Well, I for one think that idea was useless," Keira snorted, half to herself.

But, ah, anyway, Kristen eventually came up with an idea that seemed workable – even if it was down right silly.

"I have an idea!" Kristen said. Met with looks of doubt, dismissal, and (from Fayore) hope. Kristen felt doubt trickle all down her back, like ice cold sweat. "No really guys. It may sound retarded, but it'll work. Trust me on this one guys. If it doesn't work then you won't ever have to listen to me again, I promise." This statement certainly interested Dante and Keira, though Chrysis and Fayore were with her from the start and Mike had just plain given up.

Leaning in now, "So here's what we do . . . "

A.N. 2 - Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions/comments/complaints. But if you're just going to say it sucks, don't. That's not helpful. And if you notice any typos, please let me know.