A/N: So... hi :) It's been awhile, but I told you I would never abandon this! The good news is, I finally got around to planning chapter by chapter, and we only have five left. I'm excited! The last chapters will probably be shorter and a little bit rushed, mainly because I'm not being a perfectionist anymore, because when I'm a perfectionist, I don't update for a year. Plus, I have a new idea that I'm super excited about for a different fandom, but I'm not letting myself start it until I finish this. So yeah! Thanks for sticking with me, and you know the drill! R&R!

The next few days go normally. Well, as normally as they can in another dimension. We trek in directions that don't really make sense to Nilima, Sunil, or me, but Ren and Kishan smell the lotus apparently, so we follow them.

Nik is surprisingly easy. He sleeps a lot, which is kind of unusual, but it's nice because it makes hiking easier. All of us take turns swaddling him to our bodies, but Ren and I take him the most- we are never letting him out of our sight again.

Kishan has him now, wrapped tightly to his back, and when I look over, I can see my son's head resting there silently, but wide awake. I smile widely at him, and he gurgles a bit in response. I walk behind Kishan and kiss the top of Nik's head. I whisper to him for a moment, just about how important he is, to all of us.

Kishan turns around, his eyes glittering with happiness, but a little reservedly. "Do you want him?" Kishan asks.

"No, that's alright. He just seems like he wants to be able to see a little more," I say, still tickling my son and grinning at his giggles.

"Oh, here, I'll turn him around. Take him while I adjust this thing." I gently untangle Nik's leg from the sling keeping him on Kishan, and Kishan turns the sling around to rest on his chest. I hand Nik back, and Kishan throws him up in the air a bit before settling him in the sling again, this time facing away from Kishan so he can see everything that is happening.

"Look around you, bagh savak," Kishan whispers to Nik as he plays with Nik's tiny toes.

"This is paradise. You probably won't remember any of this, but this is what we do. Your mother, and your father, and your Aunt Nili, and your Uncle Sunil, and me. We'll come up with a cooler name than 'Uncle Kishan'. That makes me sound too old. But this is what our family does, my little tiger. We protect. We protect each other, of course. We have all given our lives for each other, though not literally. Except, your father did literally die for your your mother," Kishan says thoughtfully.

I gasp at this memory, as I tend to push it out my head most of the time. Ren has made his way back towards me to listen to Kishan talking to Nik, and wraps an arm around my shoulders when he hears me.

Ren leans his mount down to my ear and whispers to me. "I'm okay, iadala. We are together. We are with our family. Leave it behind," he says gently as his presses a firm kiss to my temple, sliding his arm off my shoulder to grasp my hand.

Ren and I both listen to Kishan, who is still murmuring to Nik. "So you see, mera bhatija, you may not always be safe. No one can promise that, we all know that very well. But we can promise that you will never be alone. Someone will always be protecting you, and everyone will always love you, but never more than you deserve, because you deserve the world.

"If you had been born three hundred years ago, you would have been the heir to a massive empire, and would be raised very differently. But I think it is better this way. Now, you will always have your mother or father with you, no nannies. And, bagh savak, I can tell you that they love you beyond anything I have ever seen. They would do anything for you, as would any of us. You are the most important thing on Earth to me right now, though my children might take a little bit of an advantage over you. Not by much though," Kishan says, smiling almost regretfully as he carefully steps over a tree root so as to not jostle Nik too much.

I smile softly at his one-sided conversation and wipe away a stray tear or two.

"Should we make camp here?" Sunil asks from about twenty paces ahead, where he and Nilima have been talking quietly for the last while.

Kishan looks up, startled a little, then looks at the sun. "Yes, probably. It'll be dark soon."

Nilima directs the Scarf in our tent needs while I ask for some food from the Fruit. Kishan and Ren debate starting a fire, then decide to just ask the Scarf for extra warm blankets. Once the tents are done and the food has been eaten, we all change into pajamas and get together to discuss the prophecy.

"We have a copy of it, right?" I ask. "Because I do not remember all of it."

"Of course, Kelsey," Nilima says with a smile, but it is not directed at me. She and Sunil have been playing with Nik for awhile, so she is talking to Nik when she answers. She kisses NIk's forehead and passes him over to Sunil, who looks a little bit confused by a baby, then she digs in a bag for a piece of paper.

She hands it to me, and a lean onto Ren's shoulder while we both remind ourselves of what we are supposed to do.

Far below the temple grey,

the Book is guarded by the Fey.

The monkey king's most dangerous game.

The thorny dangers so far in the past

now thank you with their prickly grasp.

You shall return to them in a land so vast.

Paradise awaits you now

with soiled paint upon your brow.

The wicked Siren's nest is down,

with guarded child close at hand.

You must unlock the silver band

to reach the eastward fire land.

The centerpiece, it stands alone,

with no tiger's blood able to condone.

The blackened jewels to their northern home.

The food of India shall, at last, rest,

and, traded now for Durga's best,

it will be placed at the west.

After all these things have been completed,

Man and Tiger at last in balance.

"Well," I say softly. "It seems like we have completed the first part, at least. We beat the monkeys, the weird leaves pointed us in the right direction, I guess, and we are in paradise. Not sure about the soiled paint part though," I add.

"That could be the goop the Ocean teacher put on our eyelids," Nilima points out.

"That makes sense," Ren nods. "What's with all the directional stuff though?"

Kishan stares into the distance thoughtfully. "I don't know… It feels familiar. I know what it is, but… I can't quite remember. I think that it is one of the memories that Ana removed before I came here."

Sunil has now gotten the hang of holding a baby, and had him laying on his raised knees while rocking back and forth. "What if it is a map? Like, this item will take you here, this one there, like that?" he suggests.

We all consider the idea, staring at the prophecy.

"That's as good an idea as any," I say, with no idea what we will be getting into within the next few days. "Ren? Any ideas?" I ask, noticing that he hasn't spoken at all.

I feel him shake his head against my scalp just before softly says, "None at all."

I feel his anxiety, and I know that he is still angry about being here, so I suggest that we all go to bed, and after we clean everything up, my husband and I drift into an uneasy sleep.