Today's gonna be hectic, I signed while stretching. I was planning to leave after breakfast to get a good head start. I over heard from Merfalis that they were searching the south-east side today, which was perfect because I was going north-west. That's where I believe they went, plus that's where the drag marks lead. Most defels were up by now, so I went to tell Sierra, who wouldn't want to come because she would train instead, plus she would know I don't want anyone else to come. I want to find her on my own.

Sierra was just waking when I found her and explained it. "I knew you couldn't just sit here and wait. I'd love to come, but I really gotta train since I took the day off yesterday. Happy trails!" Sierra laughed. "Kinda thought so." I joked. "Yeah. You bring her home safe." Sierra scratched her arm. "I will." I promised. Her eyes narrowed off into the distance. "What on Transor is he doing!" She hissed. "What?" I wondered, spinning around. At first, I didn't see what Sierra was angry about, then I saw it too. Kurt was kissing another girl.

Without another word, they both charged towards him. Sierra grabbed him and ripped the two apart. For a good measure, she also punched him square in the jaw, then let go. The girl was screaming at us, but she's not important. I didn't even know her. "What the hell are you guys doing?" Kurt spit out some blood. Sierra had a hard hit. "Uh, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Sierra repeated, yelling in his face. He gave her a stare. "What about Savanna?" I screeched. His gaze turned to me. "So? She's gone! Why can't I just get a new mate without everyone spazzing?" He grumbled. "Well maybe because you have one! You're not supposed to! She's missing, not dead! If I see you with any other girls, I will personally beat you into the ground." I snapped. "That goes for you to, missy. If you do so much as touch him, you're going to be in a world of hurt." Sierra hissed, shoving her down. Just as Kurt went to get up, I planted a foot on his chest and sent him crashing back down to the ground. "You know better." I whispered.

Word got out about him fast, and soon enough, everyone hated him. His parents were disappointed. "Great way to leave, hey?" I laughed, walking towards the treeline. "Oh, and make sure you tell Carter in about an hour about what's going on, so he won't come after me." I instructed. "Will do. Bring her home, Tallia." Was all she said, then ran off to train. I stepped into the forest.

There were no signs of Savanna's kidnap out here, which gave me almost nothing to go on. But I believed I could find her, so I would. If I were a kidnapper, I would take the victim far away. They wouldn't be able to track her down and they'd give up. Oh, no. They must have taken her out of Draytor. I started into a slow jogging pace, wanting to cover a lot of ground before night fall. I was not planning on coming back today. Plus, if I ran, there would be more space between me and the meadow, in case Carter decided to follow me, which he probably would.

After a few hours of jogging with no results, my hopes started dying with each step. Exhausted, I took a long drink from a large river, and rested against a tree in the shade. How hard it would be to be a search party! When you come back with nothing and have to break the bad news to people you don't even know! You have to keep going, Tallia. You're going to find Savanna even if it takes a few weeks. She's been gone for a day and a half, they could have taken her far. They have to stop sometime, and that's when you'll find her. I stood up and broke into a faster jog.

Splashing across the river, I found a large fish and some hablees that would do nicely for lunch. Defels didn't normally eat meat, but they did at times. I walked and ate, wanting to cover ground. A few times I slipped with the current when a rock gave way or I didn't have a great footing. It was a strong current, sometimes took me minutes to get back up. After what seemed like an hour, I was across. I shook myself dry and started running through the forest. There were no trails here, just dense trees, branches that blocked my path. I ducked and dived but that was killing my energy. Since I was running, any collision would hurt, and I ended up with a bleeding cut across my chest, and smaller numerous ones on my legs and arms. Gingerly, I patted my face. All clear except for a small cut, about two inches wide over my right cheek bone. It wasn't bleeding, so I only concentrated on healing the bleeding ones.

This time, I walked through the brush, only getting the littlest scraps. It seemed to go on forever, and finally I was fed up with the area, and wanted to get past it. Maybe I could crawl? Nope. I got on me hands and knees and found branches everywhere, and sharp rocks. "Dammit!" I screaming in frustration. The birds flew from nearby trees. Trees! That's it! I bounded to the nearest one and hauled myself up the trunk. Easily pushing off with my legs, I practically flew. Reaching near the top and the branches were drooping with my weight, I glanced around at the world. I was still in Draytor, probably would be overnight. The sun was already threatening to set, just a sliver left. With the defels glowing eyes, we could see in the dark, but not all that well. I didn't like it because it blurred my senses. I had less than half an hour of light left. I really did not want to go back to the ground, so I carefully calculated the distance to the next tree and jumped across.

The bark was dead here, and slipped out with my claws. My feet slid out from under me and I fell. When me back came in contact with the branch, it snapped and we both fell. This tree was shorter than the other one, and the branches were thinner and supporting. I crashed earthwards through the thicket. It hurt so much, that when I would snap another tree limb, I wasn't sure if the crack came from me or the tree. Finally, I had the will to latch my fingers onto a branch, swing around and land on top. This one was sturdy. I croutced, catching my breath. Looking down, I realized I was a mere ten yards from the ground. My fall must have woken the whole forest. I wanted to move, but couldn't bring myself to. Everything hurt. Especially my back, which had a fiery pain screeching across, threatening to swallow me whole.

Still, I made myself carefully step to the next tree, and climb upwards. The screaming pain in my left shoulder told me it must be fractured or pulled. But I climbed on, wanting to get away from possible ground threats. Nearing the middle, I paused for a moment, wincing at my arm, then attempted to heal it. It took a while, but I finally felt better, in my shoulder anyways. Everything else could wait til morning. I was extremely tired from the day, and just as the final line of sun went down, I plunged into sleep.

The temperature dropped that night and I woke up shivering. At first, I felt around for Carter to warm me, but then remembered where I was. It's never been this cold in the meadow, must get colder the farther north I go. The only way I could warm up was to move around, and that meant I couldn't sleep. So, I laid back down on the branch and tried to doze off. But when the wind blew through, it chilled me to the bone and my fur wasn't of much help. When my shivering got out of control, I decided to set out again. Even if the night dulled my senses, the cold brought them back.

Silently as I could manage, I slipped through the trees. At times, I practically took down the tree. I cursed my slowness, stiff with the cold. On a regular day I would be undetectable. The sun was still down, and just when I thought I was going to freeze to death. It slowly got warmer. My fingers and toes were numb. Every movement felt tight and took a lot of effort. My breath came out in white puffs. My tail was losing feeling. How could anything live up here? There was a time of year when the meadow would get a but chilly, but nothing like this. That happened every year, my mom called it winter. But it wasn't winter, it was autumn. I would hate to be here in the winter. When the seasons changed in the meadow, most of the time you didn't notice. The only noticeable one was winter.

The trees here are different, I realized. The ones at home had little green needles and were easy to climb because the branches were everywhere. Here, they had no bottom branches, and the leaves were big and pointy, and were orange and yellow. I don't think I'm in Draytor. This thought scared me. I felt all alone in Transor, like no one else existed. It was dark and strange here, and I wanted to go home. Wait til the sun rises. It'll be better. The moon was thin tonight, and let off barley any light. It gave me hope, thinking someone from home was looking up at the same moon. The stars were gone, hiding behind clouds, scared of the ugly landscape that haunted me and this very moment. Finally, I broke down from the cold, exhaustion and fear. I latched myself onto a branch, and pressed my back against the bark as hard as I could. My fingers dug into the tree and I shut my eyes tight, trying to escape reality. Sweat trickled down my fur and it felt as if something were running it's fingers down the effected area. Stop it! Stop it! Get a grip, Tallia!

I let my imagination go wild. I was swimming in the lake at home, laughing while splashing Carter. He dove under the water and pulled my down, pretending to be a monster. I giggled and pushed him away. When I resurfaced, I saw Sierra drag Savanna into the water. She screamed. Savanna hates the water. Sierra smiled, pleased with myself. In a few moments, they were upon me, in the middle of the lake. Savanna was freaking out, clutching to Sierra, tightly. Everyone laughed and Savanna gave them death stares. Kramor flew up suddenly and plucked me out of the water. We flew around a while with no destination, and I practiced tricks and maneuvers.

I must have feel asleep because when I opened my eyes, the sun was clear of the horizon. I had made it through the night. Now, in the sunlight, all my previous worries seemed childish. Good thing there was no one here. I stretched upwards and learned I was very sore. In a few spots, I found bruises and could feel the ones on my back. "Ugh!" I moaned. I never really minded pain, it made me stronger in the long run. Around people, I acted like I didn't care to seem tougher, and that is just what I will do now.

Quickly leaping to the next tree, I wondered what I would eat for breakfast. Do berries even grow here? Wouldn't the cold kill them off? Upon leaping to another tree, I found fruit about the size of my palm growing there. Is it poisonous? I certainly had never seen this fruit a day in my life. Curiously, I licked the edge. After a few minutes of not dying, I decided it was safe. Just as I was about to to grab one, a small bird flew by, landed a little while down the tree and ate one. I watched it, searching for any signs of danger, but the bird continued eating. The fruit didn't seem poisonous, so I carefully took a bite. It was delicious, but filling. I could only eat half a dozen before I was full.

Wanting to perpetuate my journey, I started racing along the tree tops. Slowly, my joints and muscles started feeling better. Within an hour, I was almost back to normal, not including my back. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I gave in and healed myself. So much better!

Hours passed, and still not a hint of Savanna. Maybe I'm going the wrong way? No. It feels so right. Tonight will probably be worse.

Eventually, the dense forest broke away to a large prairie, that stretched out as far as I could see. My jaw dropped. There were no signs of life, no tracks. It would take way more than a day to cover this, and I really didn't want to sleep there. The grass flowed up to my waist. What kind of creatures live in it's depth? I really didn't want to go through there. I was so deep in thought, I didn't even see when Kramor flew up and landed in front of me.

After a few moments, Kramor pushed me over with my tail. I fell, unresponsive. It was only when I hit the ground that I snapped out of my haze. "Kramor! What are you doing here?" I wondered. Kramor snorted. it occurred to me that I should have taken Kramor along, they could cover way more ground that way. Then, I remembered the crazily thick forest. You wouldn't be able to see anything. But she would come in handy now. "Good to see you. You'll definitively make the trip across the grassland faster." I laughed, hopping onto the sminal's back. To my despair, Kramor flew back towards the meadow, instead of across the prairie.