Yes, I know it took me Forever to get this chapter uploaded, but it's a pretty good chapter.

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Aranta walked silently through the still forest. He thought the cool night air might speed up the healing process of the gash on his shoulder. He had been walking through the forest for about fifteen minutes, when a rosebush snagged on his footpaw, and he tripped and fell. He bumped his head against a small stone on the way down.

Aranta tried to get up, but the overgrown, thorny rosebush hindered his efforts.

He decided to just sit there for a while until he could muster the strength to get free, as he was very tired from the earlier battle. His eyelids began to droop, so he thought he would sleep a while. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he heard a voice behind him.

It was somebeast singing. The voice sang out from the mists of time.

You will find me in Noonvale on the side of a hill
When the summer is peaceful and high
Where streamlets meander, the valley is still
'Neath the blue of a calm, cloudless sky
Look for me at dawn when the earth is asleep
Till each dewdrop is kissed by the day
Neath the rowan and alder a vigil I'll keep
Every moment that you are away.
The earth gently turns as the seasons change slowly
all the flowers and leaves born to wane
hear my song over the lea like the wind soft and lowly
and come back to Noonvale again.

Aranta was in shock, but he didn't look behind him for fear of making the beautiful song disappear. Once it was over however, he turned around and saw one of the most beautiful mousemaids he had ever seen. But Aranta noticed something strange about her. She seemed almost transparent, and time around him seemed to stop completely.

Then suddenly, she disappeared.

Aranta was in disbelief. He did not understand what had just happened. "What the hell was that?" Aranta said out loud.

Something compelled him to look at the stone he had bumped his head on. The letters were mostly faded and all he could make out was

L t ro e f No nv e

What is that supposed to mean? Aranta thought. It took a minute to set in, and then he realized what had just happened. He had seen a ghost.

At the lizard camp, Karredus, a black adder with iridescent green eyes, who was the leader of the reptilian horde, sat in front of one of his commanding officers. "Iss it ready?" Karredus asked to the trembling lizard in front of him. "Almosssst, your majesssty, the sssalamandersss are almossst finished building it."

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The salamanders are sort of like the workers for the horde, even though they are not reptiles. I'll have the next chapter up eventually. And yes, just in case you are not smart enough to figure it out, Aranta saw Rose's ghost. I kinda wanted to put emphasis on the whole "Laterose is the guiding spirit of Noonvale" thing.