Author's Note: Yes, I am well aware that this is late. I could say real life is annoying me, which is true. I could say I got distracted by other plot ideas, which is also true. I could say school has been giving me too much homework—ah, that's partially true in some cases. Still, I'm not about to let this story die when we've only got about four more chapters to it! I will try my hardest to update within the next two weeks, as I am nearly done with Star Dancer's tenth chapter which will then switch my focus to Half the Power's thirteenth chapter. Note I said—wrote—"try"; this is by no means a guarantee.

That being said, if I do manage to update next week…consider it your early birthday present (or late, as the case may be)

Half the Power, Twice the Spirit

Part Twelve: Dragon's Children Gathering Together

Kygo scanned the faces of the newcomers; none of them seemed to recognize the name, or at least, not for what it stood for now. His suspicions were confirmed when Dela spoke up, her eyes narrowed. "What does Xsu-Tou Pass have to do with the gathering of the halflings?"

"It has become a place of evildoing," Chion replied, having been the only one of them to actually have been close to the place, aside from Eona—but she had mentioned she'd visited the pass in a dream, so that wasn't quite the same, either. "You have heard of the halfling hunters, haven't you?"

The Dragon halfling's eyes widened sharply. "You don't mean—the awful people who wanted to sacrifice me to the dragons for whatever horrible reason?"

"Exactly," the Snake halfling nodded. "Xsu-Tou Pass is their lair, their most sacred place. It is there they, in their misguided ways, attempt to bring about the rebirth of the land through the killing of halflings and using their blood as the catalyst."

"Where would they get such an awful idea?" Eona blinked rapidly, her wings fluttering at her shoulders.

"No one knows," Kygo answered, shrugging. "It's a mystery I'd rather leave unsolved, for that matter. And if we can avoid the hunters, well, all the better."

"And we have to go there?" Ryko looked upwards into the sky, as if searching for the dragons. The islander heaved a long sigh, rolling his shoulders. "For the sake of the land…"

"For the sake of the land," Kygo agreed quietly. "We will have to try and avoid the hunters as we search for the last four halflings." He paused, uncertainty flashing across his face. "They are all still alive, aren't they?"

"They'd be born again if they were killed," Ido pointed out.

"Babies can't perform the Spirit Dance, not even halflings can perform feats of walking and talking hours after birth," Kygo countered, to which the Rat halfling snorted but raised his eyes to the sky, locking his gaze on the iridescent dragons hovering there; slowly he shifted his eyes to the shimmering world laid out beneath the great beasts. Their group of halflings was like a blazing star of many different colors, but they were not what he wanted—he looked further, to those lights at the edges of his vision, dyed the color of a dragon's Hua.

One, two, three…four!

He withdrew back to himself, dropping his gaze from the murky clouds above. "There's still four outside of us," he reported. "The Monkey, Horse, Tiger, and Pig halflings remain living, for now."

"Good." Kygo turned his eyes to Eona and her company. "You'll come along, then, even knowing where we're headed?"

The Dragon halfling dipped her head in assent. "You need all of us," she replied, her wings unfurling to their full length, nearly as long as Eona was tall. "Of course we shall follow you. This 'Spirit Dance' will save the land, won't it?"

"We hope it will," Tyron spoke up from the cart.

"We'll just have to get there and see what happens," Bano decided, draping himself across the back of the cart. "Off we go, then, yes?"

Kygo gave an absentminded nod, climbing back into the driver's seat, taking hold of the horse's reins. Dela, Ryko, and Silvo turned their horses around so they were facing the same direction, albeit paced more forwards than the cart full of halflings. Eona lifted off from the ground, soaring straight up above the level of the trees and hovering there, wings beating, her head turning from side to side as if she were scanning the route ahead. Suddenly she lifted a hand, pointing somewhat north-northwest of their position. "Dark-colored—the Monkey halfling's not too far away!"

Ido clambered back over the side of the cart, sliding in next to Garon. "Does she mean in terms of flying or riding?" he muttered dryly.

"Doesn't matter," Kygo replied, coaxing the horse into a quick trot. "The sooner we find all the halflings, the better."

The Rat halfling gave a harrumph but did not say anything else as the other three on their horses kept pace with the cart easily. A silence hung over them, the kind of silence when one contemplated what it would be like in the future, be it they did manage to bring about the rebirth of the land through the Spirit Dance, what kind of recognition they might receive.

The dying forest was falling away, the bitter winds blowing across the ashy plains having felled any outlying trees no longer strong enough to stand. Eroding rocks dotted the ground, some little more than pebbles strewn across the ground. Kygo squinted, studying the barren land. Eona came swooping down to lightly land beside the cart horse. "There," she said softly, pointing discreetly towards an outcropping of rocks, where if the human tilted his head just right, he could see the faintest flicker of movement.

They were being watched.

"Won't he see us coming and run away, regardless of the fact that the vast majority of us are halflings?" Tyron raised an eyebrow.

"No one on foot is faster than flight," Eona flexed her wings carefully. "I might be able to convince him to follow me, but I'm not sure I can explain the Spirit Dance to him."

"If you can get him over here, we'll do the rest," Kygo decided, nodding once. The Dragon halfling gave a nod before leaping into the air, spiraling up into the gritty clouds. The earthbound halflings and humans watched in silence as the female halfling's shadow flitted through the clouds, tiny plumes of ash trickling down onto the barren plain. All at once she dove from the cloud cover and shot straight down, disappearing behind the cluster of rocks.

"Think she can do it?" Bano questioned, tipping his head to one side.

"It's possible," Garon muttered, kicking idly at a pebble near his toes. "Then again, the Monkey halfling could try running away, or hiding, and I'd bet he knows that rock better than she does."

"Always so depressing, aren't you, Garon?" The Goat halfling butted in—he didn't really have any room to talk considering he'd only met them a day ago. The Dog halfling surprisingly stoutly ignored that remark concerning his attitude and the halflings all focused their eyes back onto the scene at hand.

Eona lifted off from the rock, though instead of flying back to them, she glided down to the base of the outcropping and waited; shortly after a faint shape darted from the lip of the rock and clambered down beside the Dragon halfling. Eona led the way back across the plain, dragon's attributes starkly rendered beside the Monkey halfling's profile of wide ears and a curling tail flicking behind him.

"This is Jessam, the Monkey halfling," Eona announced. "Jessam, these are my traveling companions—Ido, the Rat halfling; Tyron, the Ox halfling; Garon, the Dog halfling; Chion, the Snake halfling; Bano, the Rooster halfling; Tiro, the Goat halfling; Silvo, the Rabbit halfling; Ryko, the islander; Dela, leader of the Eastern Tribes; and Kygo, Prince Heir of the Empire."

"Welcome," Kygo said, inclining his head slightly. "As you may have been told already, we are on a mission to revitalize the land. I was told of an ancient form known as the Spirit Dance which was implied to me to be the way you halflings can bring about the land's rebirth. As it stands, we already have eight of the twelve halflings, and the land grows worse every day. Will you join us?"

"Join you?" Jessam echoed, dark eyes widening. "To save the land?"

"Yes," Bano chipped in, stretching his arms out. "No one will dare mistreat the ones who saved their sorry behinds!"

The Monkey halfling hesitated. "There is nothing for you on that rock," Chion supplied, crossing his arms. "Nothing binds you to this place; why not join us and cast your lot to be known forever as the ones who saved the Empire from dying a long, slow death?"

Slowly, Jessam nodded. "Put like that…yes. Yes, I will follow you to wherever it is you intend to perform this…Spirit Dance."

"Good," Kygo smiled; nine now. Three left…soon, the circle would be complete. "Hold on," Tyron spoke up, casting a look over the cart. "I don't know about the rest of you, but with six of us in here it's getting crowded. I'm not sure we could fit seven and still hope to keep ourselves from falling out at every bounce over a pothole."

"Someone can ride on one of the horses with Ryko, Dela, or Silvo," Chion suggested.

"I'm staying in the cart," Ido declared, scrambling up and claiming his place close to the front. "You won't get me on one of those things." He eyed the cart horse suspiciously; it stamped a hoof and snorted, and Ido gave it a look in response.

"I suppose I could go," Tiro volunteered, shrugging. "Doesn't matter either way to me."

"Then Jessam, you'll be in the cart with the rest of them," Kygo said, taking his place in the driver's seat, looping the reins through his hands. The six halflings piled back into the cart, leaving Tiro to ride with Silvo. Eona vanished into the sky again, circling above them, no longer looking for the other halflings. And so they set off in a vaguely northern direction, as Ido directed that the last three lights had all been somewhat in that direction.

The ashy plain with its eroding rocks soon vanished behind the rolling foothills that preceded the beginning of the mountains. Kygo looked ahead to the looming monoliths of stone—somewhere in there, he knew, laid their destination. It wouldn't be easy getting there, with twelve halflings in tow and headed for the heart of halfling hunter territory—but it was where the Dragon halfling had seen they had to be.

Xsu-Tou Pass.

He turned his thoughts away from what might happen in the future; he focused on their surroundings, finding himself surprised, as the foothills were in better condition than anything Kygo had seen yet—the ground was still covered with sparse grass that, though scraggly, held up beneath the hooves of the horses and the wheels of the cart. Tiny prickly bushes dotted the landscape here and there; it was as if the blight had yet to quite reach this part of the land.

A bush wiggled off to the left.

Kygo's eyes flashed to it in an instant; as they passed it he glanced over the top, but there wasn't anything there. He returned his gaze to the hills ahead, telling himself, You only imagined it. I highly doubt the hunters would be skulking around in the dirt, considering what we've seen of them thus far.

A bush wriggled closer to them.

"What's over there, Ido?" the Prince Heir muttered out of the side of his mouth; the Rat halfling squinted, his amber eyes misting over with strands of silver-blue. After a moment he sat back, shaking his head. "Not hunters. Just one overly-curious halfling."

"Another one?" Kygo's eyes widened imperceptibly. "Which one?"

"Orange—it's the Horse halfling. Don't ask me why he's running around through the bushes. Probably thinks he's being rather clever, making it appear like we don't know he's following us." Ido's eyes narrowed. He leaned forwards, calling, "You can quit pretending to hide, Horse!"

A head poked from the nearest bush, dark hair overshadowed by a slim pair of horse's ears. "Must you ruin my fun?" he called, rising to his feet, crawling free of the bush.

"You weren't fooling anyone," Ido informed him loftily. "If this is your idea of fun, I'd hate to see what it's like if you get serious over anything."

The Horse halfling grinned. "Well said, well said! But truly, you are quite the interesting bunch! What kind of humans voluntarily travel with halflings—and so many halflings, at that?"

Kygo sighed inwardly; after saying variations of it nine times already, the speech was beginning to get old. Still, it had to be said. "We have learned of a way to save the Empire from its death," he answered. "This way requires the participation of all twelve halflings in something known only as the 'Spirit Dance'. We already know our destination, and we already have nine of the twelve halflings gathered. You are needed too, Horse. Will you come with us? By the end of this, you won't have to skulk around in bushes—unless of course that's what you like doing," he added belatedly.

"Nah," the Horse halfling waved a hand offhandedly. "You just have to be careful around hunter territory, you know? Have to be sneaky."

"If that's your definition of sneaky," Ido muttered under his breath just loud enough for Kygo to hear him, "then I'm surprised as to why you haven't been captured by the hunters yet."

The Horse halfling either ignored him or hadn't heard him; dark eyes focused on Kygo. "You're sure this 'Spirit Dance' will save the land?"

"I believe so, yes, but I can't offer a guarantee," Kygo admitted. "However, I will say this: the Spirit Dance is our best hope of success. I ask again—will you come with us and take your place in the circle?"

"My name is Dram," the Horse halfling said, tapping his chin. "And…I suppose I must. Better than crawling through the mud, that's for sure!" He laughed. "All the same, we must have the circle, yes? And who would stand for the Horse Dragon if not me?"

"Good point," Kygo nodded. He turned his gaze briefly to the sky, where he could bring into focus the circling blobs of color he knew to be the dragons. Are you watching us? he thought, staring up at them, willing himself to hold them in his gaze just a little longer. We have ten of your children gathered already.

Two more halflings and the Spirit Dance begins.

Only two more…