-Jasmine Anderson-

I woke to find the hood propped open, and a strong smell of burning metal. Panicked, I jumped out of the truck and found Amos muttering to himself as he stared at it with a dumbfound look. "What happened?" I may have been a little harsh in my tone when I asked this, but I found I couldn't bring myself to trust him as much.

He sighed before taking a step back, "Went to start it and something blew up."

I closed my eyes in an attempt to readjust my temper. "Why didn't you wait until one of us was awake?" I clearly remember stating this before passing out a few hours ago.

He rolled his eyes at me now, "Why do you assume I'm five?"

I was honestly surprised by the edge in his tone as he slammed the hood down, the truck jumped a little to the force of it. "You're acting like you are," I decided to answer, though quickly regretted it when I considered who he actually is in his proper time-frame.

He crossed his arms in his annoyed fashion, eyes stayed locked on mine. "I'll make a mental note for when you wind up time-travelling by mistake. For now, I'll kindly inform you that I've been to Kane a few times already. I've also driven while we were chased down by a hoard of demons, and I can tell you that isn't easy or fun."

My anger vanished by a stab of guilt. I couldn't voice it to him though as he had went about waking Walt and Sadie. Sadie of course didn't take to well to the bad news, British swears going off and she had made sure to kick the 'piece of junk' before officially leaving it.

I tried to bring myself to trust him more, but I found I just couldn't. He is somewhat impulsive, why else had he apparently set off a trap and wound up here? The prank on Julian? Pretty sure that was all him.

It hurt considering I do trust him, he and Khufu had been the ones to watch over me in shifts the day before Brooklyn House had been ambushed by Jacobi. The kids adore him, and that's clearly not just because he gives a certain vibe. Hell, Carter and Sadie trusted him even though he had been giving signals that he was possessed.

After fighting myself for what felt like an hour, I decided to test the grounds indirectly. I cleared my throat, earning Walt's attention considering none of us had said anything after Sadie had calmed down. "I hope Julian's sword isn't giving him problems."

Sadie immediately burst into laughter, "I can just imagine him beaning someone with a stuffed unicorn!"

"If he was smart, he'd use the hilt to cause some damage," Walt tried to add a serious tone on the matter.

Sadie waved this off, "He'd be the one to strike them with it and scream like a girl when he realized it changed again."

Amos kept to himself, so I found I had to bring him into it to pry my answer. "Did you get a chance to see it Amos?"

"Remember now, it's Kaden," Sadie reprimanded jokingly. "I don't think Merlin did, he was in the library at the time."

"It won't transform again," he answered, glanced at me as if to ask if I was happy with it. "I only wanted to show him how easily it can come back. It's not so funny when you're on the receiving end."

"Wait," Sadie piped up first in surprise, "you're saying you're the culprit? Can I ask you how you did it?"

"No," came Amos' strict reply.

Walt gave me a surprised look, "You knew though?" He hushed out.

"Had an idea, wasn't sure," I answered at the same volume.

Now Sadie was harassing 'Merlin' for revenge prank ideas and only received annoyed answers. "Oh come on, you're probably the type that does it on a daily basis anyways! Just a few good ones off the top of your head?"

"Look, I've only done a couple in response to Julius'. I'm not about to hand you ideas to stir up even more chaos. Speaking of, is there even enforcement? It looks like survivalism rather than a structured Nome."

"Ah! Try and distract me? What kind of things? I promise I won't tell Dad if that's what you're worried about."

"Trust me Sadie; I have several other things I'm worried about other than what my brother would say." That's when the topic died.

The mile sign told us twenty-five miles left to go, earning a groan amongst the three of us, Amos still pressing on. "Why is he so grouchy?" Sadie felt she had to ask her boyfriend now.

I restrained myself from listing what my thoughts organized to answer her, fearing I'd regret that to. Walt gave a light-hearted laugh, "You were being a tad annoying."

Sadie scowled at the thought, "I was trying to lighten him up."

"Give him space," I spoke up now. "There's a lot on his mind, just under a lot of stress."

"We should figure out a plan while we are at it," Walt spoke before Sadie could retort. "We're kind of walking into the dark without considering the concept of light."

"You said that we need to find some hunters to find the Nome and hopefully Friedrich will be there." I recalled the quick version Sadie was kind enough to hand me.

"Sebastian advised we go to the Nome, but who knows if he is even there? What if it's a complete dead end and we have nothing to continue on?" Walt grew distressed the more he considered it.

"We'll figure it out when we get there," Sadie reassured with a nod of understanding. "We've done it before, I'm sure we can pull it off again."

That's when I suddenly rammed into a clothed unit, pausing in confusion as I noted the cloak before me. I was about to ask when he slowly turned towards the trees alongside us. Then I noticed Walt and Sadie hadn't stopped, they continued on with their discussion. "Someone's watching us," Amos whispered my way, almost as if he was in disbelief himself.

I went about looking at the trees as well, not finding anything to prove him right. Though the hairs on my arms seemed to lift a little, I wasn't sure if it was because of Amos' assumption. "Let them watch then," I hushed back. "We still have twenty-five miles to walk."

He hesitated to move until I yanked on his arm gently. I watched as Walt and Sadie seemed to have drifted into flirting. Amos was still on edge, so I found it fit to say something. "It was kind of funny," I admitted.

Hint of a smirk without giving me a glance as we continued tailing the couple. "Is that you're way of apologizing?"

I huffed jokingly, "You're not supposed to point it out."

Amos then watched Walt and Sadie for a moment, "I'm assuming they're dating, right?"

"Yep," I wasn't going to divulge into the whole controversy of whether she's actually dating Anubis or Walt.

"How?" Amos peered at them like a puzzle. "She's too annoying, and he's way too calm for her. Kind of opposites."

I laughed to his noting, "Sometimes opposites attract. Besides, they've been through some things that I'm sure brought them closer. Also, you shouldn't be so negative towards your niece."

Amos rolled his eyes now, "She completely lacks structure. Almost the exact definition of Isfet itself. What's with the hair?" He made a gesture to explain the hair streak she changes monthly.

I'm pretty sure the answer was embedded in with their family past. She felt she had to rebel and stand for herself because she was 'alone'. I was about to answer with something basic along the lines of 'that's just who she is', but Sadie screamed in alarm to gain our attention again.

Walt had an amulet out as he kept between Sadie and a limping dusty colored wolf. Though the animal hadn't made any obvious intention to attack anyone, he just collapsed to the street, a soft whimper to the impact. "Wait," Amos gestured Walt to stop whatever he was going to do, though I don't think Amos' input was needed.

We watched as Amos slowly kneeled, slowly inching his right hand to the dog's head. The wolf only responded with heavy breaths, grey eyes taking note of all four of us. When Amos gained contact, he hesitated a moment to find the dog wasn't about to strike out. "Jaz," he moved his head a little to gesture me over.

Blood matted the poor thing's scruff and left shoulder. I hesitated to even inspect it, but seeing Amos still gently rubbing the dog's head eased me into it. My hands gently glided the affected area until a shine of metal stuck out amongst the mess of fur and dried blood. Silently I went to yank it out; the wolf yelped in reply but kept calm to Amos reassuring it.

It only took a second for us to figure it out, an arrowhead coated in blood. I handed it to Sadie who insisted, and quickly went about cleaning up the wound. "Why are we tending to a wolf again?" Walt asked, apparently irritable that this was going on.

"I know him," Amos explained quickly.

"Oh great, and my uncle talks to wolves." Sadie rolled her eyes and strolled away for a moment, perhaps sick of seeing the dog already.

Amos scowled at her remark, but kept trying to reassure the dog, who seemed somewhat comforted by him despite my work. When I wrapped it up, I turned to Amos to find thanks in his eyes. "I highly doubt you're capable of talking to wolves." I started, wanting an explanation myself.

He nervously laughed, "You caught me on that one. He isn't a wolf, Max is an animal charmer. Though I think he's going to need our assistance in reminding him that he's a magician rather than a wolf right now."

After explaining the matter to Sadie and Walt, we decided to hold off heading into Kane and set up an area further away from the highway and let Amos coax the wolf back into a human. That's if it really is a magician, right now I highly doubt it.

So... This wasn't action-packed. I was weighing between which parts I should type up first, and I decided this one. The next one will be. As a hint, it's going as Michel Desjardin's POV, which might be a tad difficult for me to write up due to trying to perfect his thoughts.

Right now, very excited about this story beating An Odd Introduction's word count (which is sad because it has 80+ chapters and several of them being practically pointless XD).

Received a request for a one-shot that I hope to type up here soon and will return to my big projects again (this story and a few others).

Thanks for R&Rs!