Author's Note: Alright... The next chapter's finally here. I'll have more to say after you get done reading this chapter.

Chapter 11: Recovery

Diesel sighed as he sat down at a tree and laid his back against it. Raising his newly cooked morsel of meat to his mouth, he bit off a bite-sized piece and began eating. It wasn't much, but the small rat-like animal was a better meal than no meal at all. It wasn't as if he didn't have enough to eat. He had captured plenty of these little creatures and had some to spare. These things just weren't very appetizing, but truth be told, he'd been through plenty worse. The extra few carcasses that Diesel didn't eat, he fed to his pet.

The carcasses of those canine-like creatures had long since began rotting, making them unsafe to eat. It was good while it lasted though. He had all that he could eat for a few days. Once they became inedible, he was back to hunting these smaller creatures.

Diesel peered down at his left arm. He had taken the splint off it three days ago, but still kept it protected in a sling that he made from the T-shirt wrappings that once held the splint together.

Reminding himself that a human bone required an average of six earth weeks to fully heal, he guessed that he had been on the planet for maybe three weeks, given that the bone was holding itself together even though it was still sore. He was able to use it in minor tasks, like holding his meat, but that was about the extent of it.

As he continued to eat, he looked down at his pet laying beside him, simply eating away at his food that Diesel gave to him. Diesel did confirm a while ago that it was male.

The first four days that Diesel had "adopted" this creature were definitely the hardest. Diesel was strongly suspicious that the little guy wasn't going to live long. But he managed to pull through, and was continually gaining strength.

Diesel lowered his right hand to Kai's head and patted it gently, You just might prove to be useful one day, you tough little tyke.

Diesel was consistently able to produce fire and reliably hunt for his food. As of right now, Diesel needed to start getting his bearings. He didn't know where he was. He had oriented himself with the surrounding topography, learning where the water was and whatnot, but he needed a broader picture than that to properly realize his situation. Harkening back to his memories in the ship's prison he remembered what the jackal called this place, "Sanghelios," Diesel muttered aloud to himself.

What does that even mean? He silently wondered to himself. The name didn't sound familiar to him in the least, so he still didn't have any idea. Given that he was strong enough and his arm had recovered enough, he figured that tomorrow he was going to hike in a few different directions. He needed to understand where he was so that he could develop a plan as to how to get out of there; out of that sinfully hot desert.

But that was a task for tomorrow. For the rest of the day he was just going to relax as best he could. He needed the rest.

With that he reached into his pocket and pulled his book out. It was Boomer's book: the one that he gave to Diesel right before he died. Diesel had entirely forgotten that it was in his pocket until the morning after he had found Kai. He was also surprised to find that he still had his dad's dog tags around his neck. When he thought about it, he would've imagined that his captors would've checked for things like it, and then have taken them away if they found it. For a brief moment Diesel's eyes began to get misty, but he immediately pushed the feeling back. There was no sense in getting fussy about it again, not right now.

He simply opened the book and shifted through the pages, looking reminiscently on each of the fond memories, many of which he barely remembered. About half of the booklet was comprised of pictures from before he was even born.

He saw pictures of his three older brothers and his parents. He was always told that he looked like his mother. He supposed that it was difficult for him to see it because he lost her when he was six, and therefore didn't have as much of a familiarity as he should.

He didn't remember his father very well either, but every memory Diesel had of him, he remembered Axel as a stalwart and tender-hearted guardian.

His two oldest brother's, Dirk and Jacob, were like that, even if not as much as their father. They were the best brothers anyone could have. They were there for each other through thick and thin, and were always there when Dad couldn't be.

Then there was Boomer-oh, so unshakable Boomer. Despite everything that ever happened, against every hardship and cruelty of the world, he never let his little brother down. After Diesel and Boomer were the only two left, he stepped up and took his father's place in just about every aspect of Diesel's life. And for what it was worth, Diesel supposed that Boomer did the best that anyone could have.

Diesel guessed that in many ways, that was why he always thought that Boomer looked like their dad. But now they were all gone, and he was alone; alone and stranded on a planet completely unfamiliar to him. He literally had no possible help as far as he was aware, and he wasn't even sixteen yet. He grew up hard and fast, but still wasn't even considered a man. He was an underage boy with no help for his every necessity but himself, and potentially on a hostile planet whose inhabitants would kill him if they were aware of his presence. And besides that, the blistering weather was passively fighting him against his very survival.

Diesel closed the booklet and placed it back into his pocket before he could develop a lump in his throat.

The night time was drawing near, so he figured that he would do best to go to sleep early so that he would be well rested for the morning. He still hadn't got used to the fact that the days were a bit longer on this planet than on Kholo. The nights were only like very dim and overcast days, and even then it was still terribly arid.

He began walking toward his little shelter before beckoning his "dog" to follow him, to which Kai aptly obeyed.

Diesel was impressed by this. Even though he planned to train the creature to obey verbal commands at some point, he hadn't yet found the time to administer the training. And yet, here the little guy was, simply complying after the first instruction to come along.

This whole training thing just might be a bit easier than I was initially expecting, Diesel smirked to himself. He was relieved to have some good luck for a change.

Once he reached his shelter he lay underneath its covering and wrapped Kai close to his side, secured by his right arm.

The shelter he had built just the day before wasn't too impressive. Given the fact that he only had one functioning arm, Diesel didn't have the time or energy to make a better one. But hey, it was better than sleeping under a bush like he had been before he constructed this thing. It was merely a tent-like structure about half a meter tall. It was made of fallen branches and foliage. The foliage was meant to further shelter him from the sun, and to keep the rain off.

As of yet Diesel didn't have any idea if rain even existed in this place, or even on this entire planet for that matter. When he thought about it, he didn't remember seeing a single cloud since he arrived. But, preparing for rain was simply an old habit that he learned to form the hard way. The first time was enough, and he never needed to be in that situation again.

Diesel closed his eyes and drifted into a relaxed sleep, with Kai doing the same; curled up into a comfy ball of blond fur at Diesel's side.

Diesel awoke at the usual time. He had noticed that he was gradually adapting to this planet's day/night patterns, but it was still a little dark. He figured that, eventually, he would fully adjust, but he guessed that wouldn't be for several more weeks.

His arm was doing as well as could be expected, and there were still no signs of recurring infection.

Glad to have some good luck for a change, he mused to himself.

Not two seconds later he heard a deep and loud rumble that was all too familiar to him. His gaze shifted immediately through the trees and towards the sky. It was thunder. He realized that part of the reason that it was still dark was because it was overcast.

Fairly certain of what was to come, he used his right arm to take off his boots and pants, before tucking them under the shelter that he slept under. If it was going to rain, he'd rather have dry clothes.

Not two minutes later little droplets of water began falling. Quite soon, it was a full blown rainfall. Diesel was completely soaked. He noticed that Kai was hiding under the dry canopy of the shelter.

Well, Diesel thought to himself, the good luck was nice while it lasted. It looked like the hike was going to have to wait.

The rain was warm, though, so it was actually a refreshing shower. Speaking of which, it was a while since the last time Diesel had bathed. That said, maybe the rain wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Diesel woke up when the morning began to get brighter. Once the rain stopped yesterday, he had to wait a while before the air dried him off. Getting his pants back on was a little cumbersome, but because his left arm was becoming more useful, tying his boot laces was not as bad as it could have been either.

The day (apart from the heat) was ideal for scouting around the unknown surroundings of the topography. He had planned to cross the river and head in the direction that he first found the canine-like animals. He supposed that his chances of finding more wildlife in that direction was greater that any others.

"Kai," Diesel beckoned with authority in his voice, "Let's go."

Kai immediately understood and arose from his resting position and began following alongside his master.

Diesel grabbed the plasma rifle from beneath the shelter and held it as best as he could. His left arm was still too early in the healing process to hold heavier objects like the front end of a rifle.

A thought immediately occurred to Diesel. He peered down at his gun and then at his left arm, before turning his gaze in the opposite direction of the river. That was the direction of the crash site. It was where he broke his arm and where he acquired his rifle after the crash.

Diesel gritted his teeth. He wasn't sure if he should go and investigate it. It was about three weeks old and he wasn't certain if he would find anything useful. But then again, that was kind of the point. If he did find something he could use, the trip would be worth it. The site wasn't far from the timberline, so it wasn't as if he was risking a deadly exposure to the suns.

With that, he made his decision: he'd investigate the crash.

With all this scouting around that he planned to do, he wasn't going to have much time to hunt. At the moment, though, he already had five cooked carcasses of those rat-things, so he would manage for the rest of the day: the carcasses would last for two days before they went bad. He wasn't sure how Kai was going to handle it though. Unless he caught something of his own, he wasn't going to eat for the rest of the day. It wasn't as if Diesel was going to go hungry for his pet. His own needs were the priority and, if need be, Kai was expendable.

Diesel began walking toward his destination, with his dog in tow.

Diesel reached the place that he was sure that the wreckage was, but he found nothing there. No ship fragments, no footprints in the sand, nothing. He glanced back at the timberline, trying his best to recall the images of when he first crashed and headed into the forest. He was certain that this was the place, but there was no evidence to indicate such a thing.

A daunting realization hit Diesel square in the forehead.

There was no use in standing out in the open like this, so he called to Kai before heading back into the forest.

This was bad. Bad bad bad, very bad. He hadn't fully thought about it until now, but there were other intelligent beings on this planet. There was no way that any number of animals, for any reason, would take a chunk of metal that big, and in such relatively short time, at that.

He dug deep into his memories to remember something that the jackal told him aboard the ship. It told him that this planet was the destination of the ship that they were on. This was a Covenant planet. Consequently it had to have been well inhabited if it was a stopping place for a whole super carrier.

Diesel quietly growled in frustration and anger, and almost stomped his foot on the ground in a fit of rage, but he restrained himself. Now was the least of times that he could afford to let his emotions influence his actions: he needed to be decisive and mathematical about this. He couldn't afford to screw up, not now.

He began putting the pieces together in his head to get a "lay of the land" as it were. He had nothing but a pet and a plasma rifle, of which he didn't know how many shots he had left. He didn't now how to read the symbols on the display. He was on a Covenant controlled planet, and had a broken arm. It was healing, but it was still broken.

He concluded that he wasn't going anywhere until his arm was fully functional, that was non-negotiable. It would be about another three Earth weeks before then, so he had some time to mentally come to grips with the situation.

The only thing at the moment that he had to worry about was food, and he wasn't worried about that at all. So far he was having no trouble with catching his usual meals, and he had no foreseeable reason that it would become an issue.

He was just going to take it as easily as he could until his arm was fully healed. Boring, perhaps, but it was the best option available to him at the moment.

Diesel's arm felt good. There was no pain, and he waited a few days afterwards to be sure. After putting pressure on it in a few different ways, it was clear that his arm was, indeed, fully healed. It was a little weak from lack of use as one should expect, but that was an easy fix. Miraculously, it didn't appear to be crooked in any way. He couldn't even feel anything wrong with it. Diesel had splinted the fracture perfectly. An amazed and relieved grin crossed Diesel's face. His good luck was on a roll. He wondered how long that would last. He immediately stopped thinking about it. Jinxing it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Now that his arm was all better, he knew that he had been there for about six weeks. After that, though, he had no idea of how he'd keep track of time. In the long run he probably wasn't going to. Diesel knew that he had a metabolism that was higher than average, so his arm might have healed just a little faster than usual, so he still didn't have an exact coordination of time.

Diesel simply shrugged. It wasn't that important, and there was not much he could do about it anyway.

Diesel began harkening back to what little he remembered about Covenant forces. To his recollection, their ground forces would usually attack during the day whenever they invaded a planet, and the activity would subside during the night. This meant that they were more likely to be diurnal creatures. If Diesel ever encountered any Covie settlements or anything, he intended to make concerted efforts to not go during the day.

With those few decisions in mind, Diesel prepared to depart. Because he had built a small smoke shed that he made from small logs, sticks and moss, he had enough food to last a few days without hunting. Even though his arm was still in a little pain while he built it, he did get the job done. It was only about a one cubic meter box that trapped smoke, but at the moment it was enough for one teenager and a baby alien dog.

The OD green cloth scraps that was once his T-shirt, later his splint, and lastly the sling that held his left arm, were pretty much useless by this point. He certainly wasn't going to filter water with those filthy rags, and they weren't long enough strips to tie anything together, not really. The only other use he found for them was something to lay his head on when he slept.

He needed a new shirt. Even under the cover of the forest trees he had a visible tan, and he didn't want to risk any kind of over-exposure. It would only get even worse when he started venturing outside the timberline. A shirt was a lesser necessity in this environment.

Because he never saw any non-animal activity in the forest, he deduced that whoever took the ship wreckage must be in the opposite direction; somewhere out in the sand.

He loaded his pant pockets with smoked meat, grabbed his rifle and headed out. He didn't take four steps before he heard another pair of steps behind him. Diesel turned to see Kai eagerly following his master.

Diesel shook his head, "No Kai. Stay here."

Kai seemed to take notice of Diesel's voice. Diesel began to slowly backpedal before Kai took a step forward.

"No," Diesel commanded in a calm yet stern voice as he pointed his index finger in Kai's direction, "Stay."

To this, Kai hesitated for a moment before sitting on his haunches. Diesel resumed his cautious backpedaling. This time, Kai didn't move, but he did begin to let out an unambiguous whine.

Diesel was going into the unknown to search for Covenant settlements. The last thing he needed was an animal tagging alone to give away his position. That already happened once with Korona and Tucker, and it ultimately, in an indirect way, cost Boomer his life. Diesel wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

Diesel turned around and headed for the timberline.

Diesel reached the place were the crash site used to be before stopping. He peered around for any sign of which direction to go. This was as far this direction that he ever went. He began thinking about when he first crashed here, but immediately cleared his mind. Now was not the time to reminisce. He simply chose to keep marching forward. That direction was as good of a guess as any.

It was late afternoon, so he expected the night to come soon. He had been walking in a straight direction for a while now, but saw no signs of anything, except sand; he found plenty of sand. That was, until his vision cleared one particularly large dune. Diesel didn't recoil at the sight, but did duck slightly in a gesture of caution. He walked at a crouch till he could look over the top again. Off in the far distance was an unmistakable visage of a city. The buildings were purple and varied in height. It was the same kind of color as most of the Covenant's technology. The city was surrounded by a tall wall, with large gates to allow entry. Diesel figured that this was the destination of that super carrier that he was aboard.

The topography that surrounded the city, however, was green and lush, instead of dry and sandy. He couldn't tell from this distance, but it looked like the ground over there was more dirt and less sand.

Something else quickly caught his eye. Nearer to him than the city, stood a small building that looked most likely to be a rectangular hut. It was almost square. They were also long fences surrounding the hut that held what Diesel assumed to be livestock. They were unlike anything that he had seen before, but they looked like a cross between a camel and cow. As of yet they hadn't taken notice of him.

Something immediately captivated his attention like a spooked deer. Amidst the livestock was a bipedal figure. Even from this distance he could clearly make out its features. It was a digitigrade with two massive toes and had unmistakable two fingered hands with a pair of opposable thumbs on each hand. The spindly four-appendaged mandible made it unmistakable. It was an elite. It didn't wear any armor, but that fact didn't conceal its identity from Diesel. It wore what Diesel assumed to be a kind of robe that was designed for this hot weather. Its bald head was a dull hue of dark grey.

Diesel's blood ran cold as he slowly moved back and ducked behind the cover of the dune. Diesel clenched his teeth. What he was planning to do was crazy, borderline insane, but he was quite sure that were there was an elite, there was supplies. He hoped he could find weapons. But, he wasn't ready to do that just yet. He needed to observe this elite for a few days to get acquainted with its movements. Then he would break in and see what he could find.

That was a task for another day. Right now, Diesel could feel that he was getting more than a comfortable amount of exposure from the suns. With that, Diesel made his way back to the forest.

When Diesel got back, he immediately set to work on finding large leaves and pieces of bark. What he intended to do was use the sheet of bark as something to lie down on in the sand so that he wouldn't get burned on his belly.

What he did with the big green leaves was tie then together to make a crude cape to cover his back. It wasn't much. But right now, it was all he had. He used the old strips of cloth that once was his shirt to help tie the leaves together and provide a little extra surface area to cover his back. Every bit of covering helped.

He figured that these extra implements would keep him sheltered enough from the sun. Essentially he planned to use the next few days to stalk and observe that small hut and the residence within, all the while, resting prone from the peak of a dune.

Diesel had been observing the hut for several days. He even stayed awake for a few nights to see if the elite had any nocturnal habits. He concluded that it didn't. He also figured that there was only one elite that lived in the hut. This elite seemed to be a farmer of sorts. It would wake up every morning and tend to the livestock for the first half of the day before spending the rest of it inside the hut. Diesel figured that this was due to the extreme heat of the afternoon.

The leaves had kept his back from burning, just as he hoped, and the bark did its job as well. The biggest problem that Diesel had right now was water. He didn't have any container to carry around with him, and the only river was back in the forest.

However, there was a small stream next to the hut. This was where the animals would drink. A few times during the night, Diesel ventured down and took a few quick drinks before hurrying back to the safety of the sand dune. When he went down there, the livestock certainly kept their distance, but didn't seem to act like he was a serious threat. Diesel found that interesting. They certainly were domesticated, but he was sure that a human was completely unfamiliar to them.

Today, however, was the day that Diesel worked up the nerve to infiltrate the hut. He was hoping to find some weapons, and maybe even something to be used as a water container so that he wouldn't have to be so near a water source all the time. It would give him some flexibility with how long he could stay out and whatnot.

Diesel waited for night to fall before making his way out of the forest and in the direction of the hut. He had taken long naps during the day to help ready himself to go during the night. Just as he suspected, there was no activity. Even the livestock seemed to be mostly asleep.

With stealth like a cat and caution like a mouse, Diesel approached the house, carefully placing each and every step as to keep his boots from making noise. None of the animals appeared to notice him, so he was doing well so far. He was going to sneak in, see what he could find, and sneak out without raising any alarm. As there seemed to only be one resident in the house, Diesel had considered killing it, but thought better of it. This place was obviously a home, so there might have been a chance that there would occasionally be visitors. Given that this elite had livestock, it would at least have some kind of contact to sell the meat and fur of its animals. Diesel needed to find out more about this place before doing anything drastic.

Then again, one might consider what he was now doing to be very drastic.

Maintaining his crouched position, Diesel silently opened the door and entered before shutting it behind himself. Diesel peered around the dimly lit room and began searching around. The place had a smell reminiscent of old furniture. The entire place was silent, which Diesel took as good news. Diesel naturally had good night vision, and the fact that the nights here were only like dim and overcast mornings lent to giving Diesel no trouble with navigating around the hut.

The tables and stools were quite tall, which made sense with an elite living here. He spotted a collection of jars that appeared to be made of clay that might be usable for a water container. He planned to take one on his way out. He didn't seem to find any weapons though. This was quite disappointing, but this didn't discourage him from continuing his search. He had to keep track of time though. He needed to be gone well before daybreak.

He spotted some cabinets and decided to take a look. Upon examination, he could tell that they were made of wood. He opened them to reveal the contents and stopped for a moment when he saw what was inside. He hesitantly pulled one of the items out and put it in his mouth. It was as he suspected.

Smoked jerky, he inwardly groaned with satisfaction as he slowly chewed.

They were wrapped in hand sized bundles with a string. Diesel took two bundles. He would have taken them all, but that would have been overly suspicious when the owner found that they were all gone. Besides, he didn't have a sack in which he could carry them… unless he used one of the jars. But, then again, that would have required that he carry it with his whole arm, and he had to carry his plasma rifle in the other. If he carried only two bundles by the strings, he could still fit another item or two in his hand, depending on the size.

In another of the cabinets, he found a purple, metallic container with a cap on it. He opened it to find nothing inside. It didn't even possess a lingering scent of anything. Diesel grinned. If he had to make a guess, he'd have guessed that it was a water container. It looked to be about one-and-half liters. He was definitely taking that.

He continued poking around until something on the floor caught his attention. It was under what Diesel assumed to be a couch, which was against the wall. If he hadn't been crouched he wouldn't have spotted it. He approached and examined his finding. It seemed to be a handle, and his conjecture was confirmed when he lifted it, revealing a hatch that obviously lead down to an underground basement. He couldn't lift it all the way because the bottom of the sofa obstructed the motion, so he ever gingerly moved the furniture out of the way. It was easy to lift, so he didn't have any trouble with keeping it quiet. He opened the latch and headed down. He kept it open to let some light enter.

Despite his night vision he was still having difficulty seeing. What he could see, though, were weapons; lots and lots of weapons, most of which Diesel recognized. There were plasma rifles and needlers, each accompanied by their pistol variants. There were also plasma swords.

He could see that in one of the corners of the room, there was what Diesel assumed to be a type of work bench. On top of it, there were scattered assortments of things. Upon closer examination, he supposed that they were weapon parts, as there were a few pieces that he recognized as such. Over in an adjacent corner were what appeared to be about eight urns, which were over a meter in height.

There was a thump from upstairs. Diesel froze. The noise continued, and Diesel immediately recognized it as footsteps, and they seemed to be getting closer to the hatch in the floor. Thinking quickly, he positioned himself behind the jars and made sure that his rifle wasn't poking out anywhere. The footsteps stopped for a frozen moment before Diesel heard them descending the stairs.

Diesel's grip on his rifle loosened as he readied himself to fight. He would need to use surprise to his advantage. Despite his increased heart rate, he slowed his breathing and used his mouth instead of his nose to keep silent. He could feel perspiration forming on his hair-covered forehead, and his palms were becoming moist.

The footsteps carefully sauntered around the room, inspecting it most likely. He wasn't sure for how long, but it seemed like minutes. But, to Diesel's surprise, the footsteps made their way back up the stairs, and closed the hatch. Diesel could hear the couch being repositioned over the floor boards. It was then, in the pitch black of the basement that Diesel let out a tense sigh, before relaxing his breathing.

He was now in a bad situation. As far as he could discern, all he could do was wait until the activity stopped. He'd have to get out of there when the elite went back to bed.

The elite never went to sleep again that night, as evidenced by the constant noise upstairs. And Diesel was sure that it was daytime by now. He'd have to wait until the next nightfall. He figured the best thing he could do was take a nap, but the stress of the situation kept him awake. This was going to be the longest wait he had in a long time.

Diesel's ears perked at an unfamiliar sound. It sounded like speech, but it was garbled, and it was muffled by the floor that separated Diesel from the sound's origin. He focused, and he could have sworn he heard two voices conversing with each other.

Diesel froze as he heard the sofa above the basement scraping against the floor and the hatch being opened a few seconds later.

He could hear two sets of footsteps walking down the stairs. The room suddenly became just a little bit brighter. Based on the flicker of the light, Diesel recognized it as candle light.

He then heard a deep and gravelly voice begin making sounds that were unmistakably speech, but Diesel didn't know what it was. What he did notice, though, was that it was just like what the guards would use when Diesel was aboard the ship. This only made sense due to the fact that this was an elite's house.

When the voice finished in what sounded like the conclusion of a sentence, another voice responded. It sounded less harsh than the first, but the language was still a rough string of garbled consonants with few vowels in between. In a few ways it reminded him of a cross between Welsh and German. He never learned those languages, but he did know what they sounded like.

Diesel's breath caught in his throat when he heard the all too familiar sound of energy swords being activated. He continued silently breathing, when he found a small crack between urns and peeked through. After about thirty seconds of observation, he guessed that the bigger elite with the bigger voice was tutoring the smaller one with swords, but Diesel wasn't sure. The smaller one was moving around when its foot slid and bumped into the urn right next to Diesel's foot.

Diesel's blood pressure spiked as his adrenaline was making him start to shake.

It was then that after an exchange in their language, the elites walked out of the basement and closed the hatch.

Diesel peeked from behind the urn and let out a breath that he had been holding.

That was way too close.

Diesel waited for night to fall. He couldn't tell by the light, as he was in an underground room, but several hours of silence indicated that the elite had gone to sleep.

He looked around for a few items. He took an energy sword and placed it in the pocket of his pants. He then proceeded to take one plasma rifle and replaced it with his own. He figured that it had more shots in it that his own. He then proceeded to take a plasma pistol, a needler and needle pistol. He placed them on the ground in front of the stairs. He then walked up the stairs and opened the hatch, he couldn't open it fully due to the couch, but he would be able to squeeze through.

He placed the metal container and the meat on the floor before doing the same with the weapons, and lastly, with himself.

He wrapped the weapons in his arm like a bundle of sticks before grabbing the container and meat with the other arm and headed out the door. He was cautious to not be too hasty, and watched his surroundings. After he made it over the dune he was home free. He picked up the pace to a run, and didn't stop before he made it to his shelter.

Author's Note: So, we've finally got the two story arcs meeting up. As you may have noticed, this chapter was a little longer than usual, which was the result of two primary reasons. The first reason was that this seemed to be the only suitable stopping point for this chain of events. But second of all, I'm a high school senior that is just starting the last half of the second semester, which is going to be the heaviest academic workload that I've ever had (I'm also participating in my school's lacrosse team), so I'm probably not even going to get to begin writing the next chapter for another seven or eight weeks. This is all to say that even if you don't receive even so much as a peep from me for quite a while, don't be discouraged, because I'm not giving up on this story. I just have other thing to focus on for some time. Afterwards, I'll have the whole summer to work on this story. After that, though, I will be going into boot-camp in the Marine Corps in September. Marine Corps boot-camp lasts for thirteen weeks, so that will certainly be a time when you all won't be hearing from me at all. This is all just to give you a heads-up. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you have any input to give, all you gotta do is click the "review" button and type your thoughts.