Brittany didn't remember ever falling asleep, but when she slowly came back to consciousness, the first thing she noticed was how warm she felt. It was a pleasant, relaxing kind of warm, one that hit her with nostalgia. It reminded her of the day she and her sisters decided to take a small vacation from their boring town about two years ago. They drove for probably about three hours, but the long trip was worth it once they arrived at their destination: the beach. It had been so long since they've been there, probably the first time ever since they moved, and it was nice to see brand new faces for a change. The familiar ones in their small town were becoming so natural to see, you could tell when something was different about them, whether it was a haircut or sudden change in style.

The beach they had visited seemed to fulfil every expectation they had, surprisingly. With the golden sun warming the glittering sand and baking their skin, everything seemed just about perfect. The ocean was a pretty turquoise, there were plenty of attractive strangers who stopped to flirt with them, and they even were given free drinks from the round beach bar.

Brittany remembered how the drinks were a house specialty, that it was non-alcoholic (mentioned due to Jeanette's hesitation and Eleanor's questioning eyes), and that it was something they had never tried before. Bright lime green, tasting fresh and tangy with its tiny square ice cubes—there was hardly anything dangerous or bad about it—it was simply the perfect summer drink. When they asked the bartender what it was they were drinking, he merely grinned, leaning over with an ease that reminded Brittany of a snake, and whispered it was his own secret recipe. She had made eye contact with him, noticing for the first time how odd his vibrant green eyes would blink. He seemed friendly enough, people knew him, and he didn't exactly give off what she would call "bad vibes;" so, every time she just so happened to look over and catch him staring, she told herself that it was all just a coincidence.

The bartender actually wound up knocking over her drink at some point. It spilled all over her—onto her legs, her forearms and hands. The sheer, lime green liquid seemed to slip right off her skin, but for the ice cubes, those did something strange. Where they touched her skin, they seemed to evaporate and sizzle, as if they were melting from her skin…but they were really burning her. She had immediately brushed them off, startled from the pain, and as an aftermath, she saw something on her skin where both the ice and green liquid touched her. It was faint, but she saw light marks beginning to reveal themselves, changing her skin like a mood ring slowly beginning to change colors, and they weren't just random lines decorating her skin—they were purposeful, as if there were a design to it—almost natural like a birthmark or scar. But then the bartender distracted her with a rag he was giving her, apologizing over and over again, saying he'll make her a new drink. She was surprisingly cordial about it and wiped herself down; upon looking back at her hands and legs, she saw her regular, unblemished skin.

It had to have been the way the light reflected off of her skin from the bright sand and glistening ocean waters. That's what she figured. Her sisters seemed to not have noticed her skin's weird reaction, and the bartender was too busy apologizing to probably notice anything. So she told herself her mind was simply playing tricks on her, carving out images the way you'd pick out a hand from dead tree branches, or a bunny among the clouds. But now, with everything she knew, as she thought about this random occurrence, she couldn't help but wonder…

Brittany slowly opened her eyes as the memory lingered in her mind, vaguely aware of where she was. She stared at her bare arms that hung loosely down before her with her left hand clasped over her right wrist. In the background, she took notice of the dry, dirt ground as it passed by, with each booted foot striding forward and disappearing behind the next step, and that's when it struck her—

Immediately she gasped and straightened up, bringing her hands up to place them on Alvin's shoulders, her heart pounding, however in the process, she managed to knock him under the jaw.

"Hey—!" Alvin started.

"Ohmygosh!" Brittany yelped, bringing her hands up to her mouth. As if waking up and discovering her overly close proximity to him wasn't bad enough. "I didn't mean that!—are you okay?"

Alvin sucked in a deep breath, heaving it out. "I'm fine," he grumbled. He had to have rolled his eyes when he said that.

Brittany's face soon shadowed over with a trace of remembrance. "Oh, I guess you are immortal," she recollected out loud. She didn't really feel that bad anymore—in fact, not at all. There probably wasn't anything she could do that could kill him, let alone, actually truly hurt him. Would he even flinch if she even cut him with a knife? She couldn't help but wonder what would happen if someone were to cut out his heart…would he still live? Not that she wished for his death. She just found it impossible for someone to still live without a heart. But then again, "heartless" wasn't a term always used in a metaphorical way. What about if someone were to take out his brain? Could he still function?

"Yes…and please don't try anything stupid just to prove it," Alvin sighed, as if knowing her track of mind.

Brittany furrowed her brows, quickly recovering from his startling statement. She hoped he knew she was smarter than that to actually try anything. "What? There's nothing I can do against you—you know that," she responded.

"Well, one can never be too sure," he muttered back. "I mean, you've got a knife."

"What?" she gawked. This was ridiculous. "Yeah, I've got a knife. One that I don't even know how to use…" She gave him a look that proved herself true, even though he wasn't looking at her to see it.

"That's bull," he quickly shot. "Anyone can use an ordinary knife, just like the one you have. You just need the will and strength to use it to draw blood—whether or not your mind is all there—and you've already done that."

Brittany opened her mouth, slowly closing it shut. But I can't kill like you, she was about to say, but had thought better of it. She still wasn't sure how she felt about what he did yesterday...a day that felt a lifetime ago already. It was like a dream. But what he did had to have been for the better. Alvin and his brothers were smart, they knew what they were doing, and they've been doing it for years. Plus, they're supposed to be the guardians of this world. They're the superheroes no one knows about, and as far as she was aware of, superheroes weren't ruthless killers.

"But you know," she couldn't help but begin, "I'd never stab you with a knife."

He didn't say anything for a while.

When his silence began to fill in, slowly rising to her awareness, Brittany began to wonder if she said something wrong. Maybe she did. As if what she had said was supposed to mean anything to him—oh so crucial. She didn't know why she felt the need to even say it. He probably didn't give crap about anything she had to say—just save her life, get the job done, get her to this Seville-guy, and then he'd be gone. If she put up a fight, then he could handle it. Easy. One slice of a blade from her wouldn't affect him the same him hurting her would.

"It's almost funny," Alvin suddenly started softly, catching her attention, "how sure you sound of that."

At first she wasn't sure how to respond. She was surprised. But then he continued speaking.

"There aren't very many beings you can trust, even if they are your friends. Like Emrick said, a lot of beings are selfish. It's rare to find a reliability so whole." He sighed, like this was something he's experienced too many times. "Really, what I'm trying to say is that you should never let your guard down. Even around me. "

"But…" Brittany trailed off. Maybe she understood what he meant, and he was just trying to make a point, but he didn't have to go off and say that he could potentially turn his back on her. "So, are you saying that you don't trust me?" Or that you don't want me to trust you? That seemed strange to say.

Alvin shrugged, glimpsing back at her. "Maybe. Maybe not."

She crossed her arms with a harrumph—again with the "mysteriousness"—suddenly realizing that there was no reason for her to be riding piggyback anymore. "You can set me down, now," she pointed out. He stopped walking, doing just as she said, stretching his arms and rolling his neck afterwards.

When Brittany came forward to stand beside Alvin, she finally took the time to observe their surroundings. They were no longer surrounded by willow trees; in fact, they weren't really surrounded by anything. It was all open land with a somewhat flat, grassy terrain with what looked like large boulders, some broken apart, others round and smooth, scattered throughout the area; even some intervened on the trail. Behind them, she could see Willow Groves quite a distance away, while off to their sides, miles and miles away, some jagged mountains, partly covered by white clouds, enclosed them in that large grassland. Up ahead of them, well…was simply exhaustion. The pathway they were walking on, wide enough for three people to walk side by side, seemed to go on forever, curving in all directions, eventually disappearing to what Brittany was sure was going to be a steep hill.

She exhaled deeply as the despair from how much walking she would have to endure already settled in on her limbs. Just looking at it made her feel tired. If she had wings, maybe life would be easier. Or if she were as fit as Eleanor. She frowned, already hearing her little sister's voice telling her to stop complaining and start walking because this wasn't that bad. But it was, wasn't it? She now had no idea if her sisters were safe and sound, or if they were running for their lives. Pursing her lips, she looked over at Alvin, only to find him staring at her.

"What?" she snapped, trying to hide the leap her heart had at making sudden eye connection. She felt like she was back in high school, getting caught by her crush for staring at him, but instead of looking away immediately, because she was completely innocent and had actually been staring down at her hands this whole time, she held Alvin's sky blue eyes.

"Nothing," he said, turning his head to stare straight ahead at the pathway in the distance. "C'mon, we got a long ways to go."

"Right," Brittany muttered, following into step beside him.

It was nice how the weather wasn't overwhelmingly hot. There was a slight cool breeze in the air that rippled across the swaying grass, gently lifting Brittany's hair and rustling through Alvin's. From where they were, the sky above them was a clear blue, and according to the daylight, Brittany assumed it was now sometime in the early afternoon. When she took another scan of their surroundings, she couldn't help but feel like there was something empty about where they were. It seemed completely void of life, and there was something off about the scattered boulders. They were out of place, unnatural, almost as if they had just fallen out of the sky.

"So," Alvin breathed out. "About last night…"

Instantly Brittany's insides seemed to freeze up. Oh no. As much as she wanted to discuss what happened last night with him, she could only dread what was coming next. Considering what had happened, it was strange that she even managed to forget about it for a little bit. She had some major questions about things that were said last night, and she definitely didn't want to forget about each thing she wanted to cover with him—there was a lot he had to explain to her, and she was pretty confident he knew at least something for each topic she wanted to cover. Although she wasn't sure if shew as brave enough to approach the ones about him...

Alvin looked over at her, keeping a steady pace. "What exactly happened?" He spoke calmly, smoothly, and that seemed like a very bad sign to her. There was something so intimidating whenever you knew someone was upset with you, but managed to keep a level tone and well-composed expression as they closed in on you, backing you into a cage and ultimately locking you up with all their compressed anger that was bound to explode.

"I…" Brittany bit her lip. What was she supposed to say? She looked over at him, quickly averting her gaze. He was watching her carefully, and that wasn't making this any easier. She now really wished she could sprout wings and fly away.

Alvin finally sighed. "Do you even understand what happened?" he asked.

"Look, I know I shouldn't have walked off," she said automatically, hoping he would have some mercy on her. Remember to ask him those questions once this all settles, she reminded herself, because she knew if she got too distracted, she'd forget. If she picked her words right and didn't sound too pathetic, maybe this conversation would go better than expected and she'd have a comfortable freedom to ask him whatever she wished and get proper, decent answers. "I know I walked inside some creepy tent with an even creepier lady-being who spoke about my future, and that was clearly not"—she paused, hearing the strange being's voice echoing in her ears as the candles blew out, remembering the sudden pain she had felt in her wrist, as if something was biting her—"that was clearly not smart," she then finished, mumbling the last bit out. She was now beginning to realize how badly last night could've ended.

"Brittany, I know. But do you understand what she did?" Alvin asked once again, this time more slowly and clearly, as if she was hard of hearing.

Brittany glanced over at him, suddenly feeling a small pump of irritation spread throughout her veins. (Don't forget about the questions you need to ask him, she chanted inside her head in the background of her thoughts.) Didn't she understand the situation? "Well…" She took a route down Memory Lane. She drank that strange tea, then the lady began to act weird, the candles began to go out, and then… She looked down at her wrist. Something painful happened. But the moment the candles came back to life, she had no actual evidence of the pain and blood she swore she felt. "I don't know," she admitted.

"This is why you can't go off on your own—why I told you to stay put," he said, his voice rising the slightest bit. "Do you know how different this situation could've been if it hadn't have been Eris that was the one doing this? You could've easily—"

"Wait, Eris?" she cut off. (The questions…don't forget…) "How do you know it was her?"

He stared straight ahead for a moment silently before carefully saying, "Eris has a very distinguishable presence—"

"But what's she doing here? Is she following us? Why? How?" she cut off again. (The questions…) It almost made sense, but then again, it didn't at all. She tried to imagine the creepy lady, comparing it to the dark beauty she remembered seeing at the top of the stairs, but then suddenly having a flashback of Ms. Plumpridge, she slowly began to understand. "Right, Eris can possess dead bodies," she mumbled, mostly to herself. "She can tell the future, too, right?"

"Yes, but not in the way she was telling yours," he replied. "This is different." Alvin sighed heavily, his jaw setting tight.

"How?" Brittany asked. Despite the fact that she was barely keeping up, she wanted to know. If the problem dealt with her in any way, she had to know. Or else that blank space would slowly chew her up. "Alvin," she began, getting impatient. "How?"

"It's an old ritual," he finally began to explain, sounding on the verge of exasperation. "It's called Malhaima, where the fortune teller gains a certain ground of trust from the being who's fortune is being told by offering a drink and having them drink it all, then they sing Death's Lullaby, then they betray the trust of the being by drawing blood and having it drip in the same cup the being drank out of, then they drink that blood, then they can tell you the bigger picture of events and trials to come. It's not too specific, but it is like an outline of your life."

"That doesn't sound…too bad," she tentatively commented. The fact that he had just defined all that had generally happened to her inside that tent, without his direct presence, only made what happened more real. There was actually a purpose to everything that had happened, and as strange as it was, it was almost comforting to her to know this. True, she wasn't completely aware of what the heck was going on, but it was all just to tell her future. (The questions. You forgot about them for a moment. Don't forget again.) Although it didn't have to be that horrifying, did it?

"Really?" Alvin said. "You don't think that's bad?"

"Well…" Brittany shrugged, already knowing that what she had said probably wasn't a good thing to say.

He sighed. "Brittany, let me give you a couple of rules that are commonly good to follow by in this world: First off, any place or activity where you can hear or begin hearing Death's Lullaby usually is a sign that what's going on is probably business you should stay clear of and immediately evacuate from. Secondly, any kind of incantation or ritual that deals with drawing blood typically links to malevolent purposes. Again, another thing you should try to avoid. Third—because I know rules one and two probably aren't good enough to keep you out of trouble—never ever walk into a place you aren't familiar with or don't know what to expect from it."

"But…" she began, only to trail off when she noticed a slow change to Alvin's facial expression.

Then he suddenly snickered.

"What?" Brittany crossed her arms.

"Nothing," he responded, shaking his head.

"Nothing," she echoed.

"Nothing," he repeated back. "However, there is something you should be aware of..."

"And what's that?" Brittany cautiously inquired. That next time I find myself in one of those situations to avoid, it'll be my fault if I get hurt? She could think of a million snarky responses he could give her. None of which came close to the actual words he spoke next.

"That there is a scale of lightness and darkness for everything here, and it's something you can feel, not quite like the way humans sense things. It's a lot stronger, and something that can become familiar to where you can identify what it is without even knowing or seeing it beforehand. Since you haven't truly been exposed to these opposites, your natural senses for this haven't quite woken up. It might take a while until you recognize these feelings, since you've been living in the human world for so long, unaware, but eventually…" he looked over at her, "…you'll know. All in good time."

Brittany was slowly nodding her head, making sense of his words, when his last sentence abruptly fished out the following words with a jerk: Your time is running out. And that's when everything—from last night to her actual life-threatening situation—came rushing over her like a giant ocean wave. She forgot again about her wanting to ask him those questions about last night. But she wasn't sure if she could actually ask all of them…

She looked over at the guardian beside her, an image from the scene she had seen from the crystal ball flashing across her mind. She began to bite her lower lip. Was she missing something? She blinked when she realized what she was currently staring at. Slowly, almost afraid, she moved her eyes from Alvin's sharp jaw and looked up to see where his eyes were, only to find him staring back at her. Her heart leaped and she quickly looked away. Nice, she complimented herself, completely forgetting about the questions she wanted to ask him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

She looked back over at him. "No."

"You sure? You looked…troubled," he said.

"Oh…" She fixed her eyes straight ahead. They still had quite a bit of ways to go. Upcoming on the trail was a large, partly crushed boulder, taking up half of the width of the pathway. "It's nothing," she said. "I was just…well…" She dropped her gaze down at her hands, then remembering about the pain she felt in her wrist. "When did you realize I was gone?"

"The second you walked off," he instantly replied.

"What?" Brittany looked over at him. "You knew?" Disbelief laced through her voice. "So why didn't you bother to stop me?"

"Because I knew you were near. I wasn't aware you had walked inside some tent," he answered.

Unbelievable. "What made you come and find me?" she asked.

"The moment I knew you were in pain," he said, his voice lacking emotion, "and afraid." Brittany glanced over at him, barely remembering all the aspects that came along with this stupid, jacked up bond—she hated how vulnerable it made her to him. It was entirely unfair, since it seemed one-sided. "You're lucky that this ritual works in that way, where the wounds made necessary to draw blood heal immediately once the cup is full. I'm not sure if we would've been able to heal you afterwards, considering my backpack was left back at that inn and there aren't very many healing plants in this particular area or where we're heading," he added.

"Oh." She peered back over at him, now realizing his lack of his backpack. She hardly noticed. "So, this ritual," she began. "I take it that it's bad then…?"

"Very bad," he concurred.

She sighed, and wanting to know a little more, then said, "All right, explain."

A few moments later, Brittany learned that this ritual—Malhaima—was actually banned. Well, as banned as it can get, meaning, many beings looked down on it. While it was very effective in telling the future, those who practiced this ritual always fell under a certain…transformation. Somehow, doing this ritual causes a kind of curse or sickness of some sort to occur, and eventually over time, whoever performed the ritual and continues to do it will begin to change and fall under command of this curse. Repetition eventually makes you become the creature you change into during this ritual, and at some point or another, it becomes too hard to simply open a wound and drain just one cup full of blood.

But what do you expect? You are singing Death's Lullaby and trying to gain something in a way that's not right. While it's not necessarily bad to sing Death's Lullaby (some beings have their superstitions about it)…

"…it's best not to, for various reasons…" Alvin trailed off, sighing heavily.

At this point, they were now approaching the crumpling, large boulder on the pathway. When Brittany looked over at Alvin, he motioned her over to take lead on the small portion of the pathway that wasn't blocked off by the boulder on his side of the pathway. When both of them were past the boulder, Brittany stopped walking, staring at another boulder up ahead, not too far away from where they stood. She then took extra notes on all the other boulders that still surrounded them in the grasslands that surrounded them.

"Does it rain rocks here or something?" she asked. "Or is this really that natural?"

Alvin seemed to ponder her question for a little as he gazed around, until a small grin cracked across his face. "Yeah, I guess you could put it that way…raining rocks…" he mused sarcastically. When she gave him a look, he rolled his eyes and continued forward. There obviously was a story to these boulders, but before she even got the chance to ask, he beat her to the chase with his own question: "How's your memory?"

Brittany had to close her open mouth. She wasn't sure how strange it was that she kept forgetting about this issue—the main issue—at the moment. It almost seemed ironic. "I… Well…" She looked at Alvin, who had stopped walking and was now looking back at her with those same eyes that had looked at her so often with that hard, steady gaze of his.

For a while, a silence filled up the empty space around them. A cool breeze came flowing through this silence like a wandering ghost, and the moment it passed, Alvin released a heavy breath. "Brittany…" he urged on, crossing his arms.

Blinking, the eldest Miller sister stood dumbfounded. "Repeat the question again."

"Brittany, what's the latest memory you can remember from the past?" he asked, sounding a little worn out.

She thought his question over, slightly glad she was wearing him out since he was doing the same to her, trying to think back to the past. A part of her didn't understand his question, and another thought his question was ridiculous—like how in the world was she supposed to conjure up this latest memory when she wasn't even sure if that was possible?—either way, however, she thought back to…

Her mind came up blank.

It almost felt like there was never a time she was young...that she had been in her teens her whole life. It was confusing. How long has she lived for again? Was it really 19 years?

"Brittany." Alvin was now right in front of her. "Do you still remember anything about meeting some sirens when you were little?"

She was tempted to nod her head, just because that seemed like the right answer, but she realized her hesitation too late—

"Brittany, tell me about your childhood. Tell me about your life, things that happened, up until the moment we first met." This wasn't an option.

She exhaled through her mouth, trying to release all the stress that had suddenly erupted inside of her. "Alvin, I—well…" She fell quiet for a moment. Just do what he asks, she told herself. He's only concerned and doing this for your own good. If her sisters had been here, she knew she probably wouldn't have easily gotten this ornery. She took in a deep breath before exhaling out, "I remember passing Bleidd's place for the very first time, thinking it was creepy…"

"And when was that?" he asked.

"I don't know…Maybe when I was fifteen? I was with some friends, and—"

"Do you remember anything before that?"

Brittany thought about it before shaking her head no. And that's when she began to feel panic again. She was fifteen years old four years ago. This Dreameater was catching up to her most recent memories, and it was doing it fast. She felt like she was a hopeless victim, running away from a speeding car: she had no chance or hope, unless the car magically just shut off and died, or something came and intervened to her benefit. Upon instinct, she looked to Alvin for help, and much to her discomfort, he looked seriously concerned. Did it really have to be that bad? When he held a facial expression like that…he made her feel like it was the end of the world. She was about to tell him just that, but he beat her again, saying, "We have to get going."

Nodding her head eagerly, Brittany followed behind Alvin's lead with a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach, asking, "How bad is it?" She frowned at how fast he was going, but didn't complain and did her best to keep up.

"Not good," he breathed out. "If anything, I'd say you have at most a week or so before you're…" He didn't look back at her, but she understood what he meant and nodded her head, even though he couldn't see it. "When nighttime comes, I'm carrying you. We have to keep moving," he then said, as if it were a sealed deal.

"Wait, what?" She stopped walking. "No!" Huffing, she picked up her pace so she was walking beside him, but he was still slightly ahead of her.

"Brittany…" he calmly said. "I'll be fine."

"But I..." she tried to argue, even though the reasons she had weren't ones she was going to ever share with him.

In the end, of course, it wasn't long until Brittany found herself reluctantly complying to get onto Alvin's back that night and the next few nights to follow. This first night, she did pause to argue, however remembering his words from earlier and seeing the small smirk on his face, she immediately clamped her mouth shut and got on his back.

"What is it that you're so nervous about?" he had asked. "It's not that bad. Is it really over something you can't tell me? Do you secretly have a phobia of getting on people's backs or something?"

You! Yes, it is! And yes, because it's about you!—and no you idiot! she had shouted in her head. But instead, she had dumbly said, "Well, I'm just concerned because...don't you need your rest, too?"

He had molded his face into a smirk during the time she took to say those stupid words, and things just went downhill afterwards. He easily won the argument without losing too much time.

Of course, she really wasn't concerned about him getting enough sleep—she knew well enough already that he wasn't just some regular human being—really, she just didn't want to have to get on his back again, and what she said was the only excuse she was willing to give up to him. Whether it was because she thought it was embarrassing or because it made her too nervous, she wasn't certain, but all she knew was that the idea of getting on his back made her stomach drop a little, and she wasn't sure if she could actually stand being that close to him. But now that it had been at least 10 minutes since she's been on his back, she was beginning to realize that maybe she had been overreacting a little, and she was actually enjoying the ride. But just a little bit.

Brittany sighed, allowing her ice blue eyes to scan their surroundings in the dark setting; her legs felt relieved to not be walking again and just thinking about how much Alvin was walking made them sore. They had managed to walk a great distance through the rocky grasslands Alvin had said was called the Middle Plains and were now beginning to enter a pathway that lead up the mountain. Apparently they were heading towards a shortcut he knew of—something Brittany noticed he was hesitant about. But going this way was supposed to cut their traveling time in half, and it was "crucial," as Alvin had put it, that they didn't waste any time.

Glancing behind them, Brittany pursed her lips. There wasn't any greenery around them anymore, and everything was shaded in dull, dark colors of gray, black, and blue. She could hardly see that far back, let alone that far ahead either. Without Alvin, she would never dream of being in this sort of place at nighttime. If she looked to her right, she would see the edge of the trail which led to a drop-off that faded to blackness; if she looked to her left, she would see the jagged mountainside, falling apart into smaller pieces like a crumbling cake that was cut sloppily with a bad knife. To her left was where she let her eyes remain on as she listened to the soft crush of small stones beneath Alvin's feet. The air smelled clear with a hint of dustiness to it, and the night breeze was a little cooler than what would've been comfortable. Lucky for her, Alvin was a walking heater.

"It's quite the view, isn't it?" Alvin suddenly said in the silent darkness.

Brittany couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but she took it as so and responded dryly with: "Yeah, it's a real wonderland…"

"You better get used to it, because it's all you'll see for the next few days," he said.

"And if I don't?" she questioned, just to see what he would say.

"I'll make sure you don't go jumping off the cliff then."

Brittany frowned a little, eyeing what she could see of his face. He wasn't smiling or showing any hint that he was joking, and with the tone he used while saying that to her... She slowly rested her head on his left shoulder, and turning her face towards the mountainside, she muttered, "I...I think I'm just going to go to sleep now."

But for the next hour or so while she got lost in her thoughts thinking about him, his words, her sisters, his brothers, and what her eventual would be, she stared hazy-eyed at the frozen shapes the black cracks in the mountain wall created, finding sharp claws, piercing eyes, and jagged teeth to faces of monsters she's never seen before, not quite sure if the careful eyes to each cracking beast was actually following them as they passed by or not.

I really am awful at updating. Sheesh. Sorry for the wait. I've kind of been all over the place with this chapter, so it may not be all there like my mind is with this story at the moment, and it's not exciting or anything since it's a bit of a filler-chapter (and there's still so much I feel like I have to cover)...but hopefully the next chapter will be a little better. :P

To the Guest reviewer that asked what version of the Chipettes this is based off of...well, whatever you're imagining, I guess? ;D I normally just write these characters as humans, so I'm not sure...

Thank you so much for the reviews and all the support I've received! It really does help, and I appreciate all of you! :)
And as always, thanks so much for reading!