To the calm of the forest chaos rode in; a ruckus from far away of grunts by some tired animals and of beating wheels, and of the sounds of the particular one up front and left of Han. Every turn, every single rotation that wheel made came with a grilling creak or a biting shrill, a cut to the ear. It was a constant assault the passengers had grown to expect by now and, if for some unexplained reason, that sound grew silent or skipped beat, or even stopped, they could remain sure that that was only temporary. The wheel was going to sing it's tune and the shrills were going to play to the monotone green of the forest around.

That came to be the underlining tone of this morning; an eerie irritance in the land of lush, yet dull and endless. Since they've left this morning all they saw was this forest, which went on and on through seemingly endless supply of crooked roads, intersections and smaller, slower paths, where even attempting to run those carelessly would land you in a tied bag of trouble. These roads where thin, which was what they wanted, but the sounds and tedium around didn't help. It only worked to build tension within oneself, make one agitated, desperate for something to break up this irritated monotony and that soon came.

The cart stopped and so did those drilling strings. The group took a moment to recover, enjoyed the small sounds of breeze while they lasted.

"Why are we stopping?" Katar eventually asked.

"The road is cut off," Han answered. A long way away a tree laid across the road.

"Strange," Koarsa said, "there was no storm yesterday, for it to be torn down like that."

"Could it be him?" Kai asked.

"The guy from yesterday? Likely not. But this doesn't have to be from a recent storm either. I'm keeping off the main roads, these aren't traveled as much. Most people wouldn't bother moving it away."

"And I don't think we will either," Katar said, pointing at another path leading down a similar direction. "What about that road? It seems like it is a way around."

"I guess that could work."

Han whipped his rains and their short break from the creaking wheel was over. Everyone went back into their spots, doing the same nothings as before. Only Kai seemed actually busy, working on something that brought him efficient calmness. He smashed his hand down and then slowly pulled it up, carefully hiding whatever he did with his other hand. Koarsa heard sand rustle, saw dust gather from the floor, but she couldn't tell what he was doing. Only saw him smile a little more with each attempt, until eventually...

"Hey, guys!" he called. "Look what I can do." He smashed his open palm down and slowly pulled it up while waggling his fingers with deliberate motion. Sand began to gather under them; slowly taking form of a small statue. It wasn't very detailed, but she could make out it having its arms folded and a protrusion over its left shoulder-a sword, she guessed.

"Is that... me?" Katar asked.

"Yup."

"Well," Katar continued, "that's actually pretty-"

"Terrifying." Koarsa took a closer look. "What's wrong with that face?" It looked like it was mushed together out of three or more and none of them would look good on their own.

"Ugh! Leave it to you to ruin all the fun..." he squashed it, his mood uncontested.

She looked at them both, sitting there comfortably by each other and found that hard to believe. A killer and a kid, one beside the other. Something was off, she wasn't getting the whole picture and the thought kept grinding at her as much as that wheel that played in the background. Building, coming stronger each round, until the thought forced itself out.

"So... Kai," she started.

"Yeah?" He was still sitting there, fiddling with sand.

"How long you and Katar are traveling together?"

"I don't know... maybe four months now."

"And the idea doesn't scare you?" That got Katar's attention, but he didn't say anything like she guessed he wouldn't. That made her smirk.

"Why would it?"

"Well, the bounty." Still Katar remained silent.

"What of it?" Kai didn't seem to mind.

"The bounty is for murder."

"Where are you going with this?" Katar finally asked and she left his question unanswered.

Kai looked at her strangely. "Do you think I can cash him in, break him out? We could use the money," he laughed, looking away.

"What are you getting at?" Katar spoke more harshly now. She noticed his bandaged right arm, it shook tightly, but it was not clenched in anger.

"What I'm getting at, is that there's things that are happening around me that I don't-"

"Hello, there," a voice came from somewhere and sharply cut the conversation off.

Damn it, Koarsa cursed behind closed lips. Every time I get a little closer...

The voice that did the job wasn't adult, but it was not puerile either. What it was though, it was confident. Confident enough to cut through their riling up exchange. They tried looking around as the cart slowed, but couldn't find its owner. "Up here," the voice came again and now they could add a face to it.

He was a slim boy, late teens, short hair, pointed chin and a handsome smile. Well, as far as she could tell. The boy happened to be hanging upside down from a tree. A rope was tied round one ankle; his other leg leaned loosely to the side. "Hey," he said and waved in his inverted way.

"Hi," Kai answered back.

"So," the boy nervously scratched his face, flicked something to the ground, "I'm in a bit of a pickle, as they say. Could you help me down?"

Kai slid down to the ground, Katar and Koarsa soon slowly followed and Han held ahead of the track in his cart.

"How did you end up... up there?" Koarsa asked.

"Well... that's a funny story."

"Oh, I'm sure it is..." Katar said, still agitated. He handed Kai his swords so he can cut the rope. He slung them over his shoulder. Too big, the bottom of the case pressed against the back of his knee.

"I was going to hunt in the woods this morning; that's my bow, by the way." He pointed to the ground. "I just walked my usual path, then, suddenly, this rope drags me up and leaves my hanging."

"That wasn't that funny," Katar said.

"Yeah? Well... it is what it is," he answered as Kai rose bending a column beneath himself. "I'm Wan, by the way," he said simply.

"Kai," Kai said when he rose to Wan's level. He swung the blades to his front, began pulling them out of the case, but then he stopped. "Do you hear that?"

Wan nervously glanced to the bushes, then back to Kai. "Hear what?"

"It's far away," Kai said and held still, listening and in a slow minute the 'far away' rushed closer. Coming like a wave through air, through trees, through vibrations of the ground.

Kai's legs began to quiver. His legs began to quiver and he didn't seem to know why or expect it to be so strong. His legs shook and then the column began to shake, and then the ground itself trembled terribly. A humongous earthquake rose up from nowhere and even the trees barely withstood it. Leaves popped off of them like scared away hair, branches broke off from the immense vibrations and fell to the dust.

Katar and Koarsa held on to the ground and they were relatively safe there, but Kai fell on his back and almost rolled of the pole. He clung to it and it seemed stable for a moment before the ground itself began to fail them, to crack. It ruptured rapidly, like it was barely an egg shell. Dust burst out of newly opened gaps and ran up Kai's pole which collapsed in heavy chunks and started falling. Kai tried jumping off when he came close to the ground, but the falling earth stove the ground in and he was sucked into the abyss.

The hole expanded quickly. Quickly, the opened cave below enveloped Katar and Koarsa into its depths as well.