Epilogue

Today I'm going to visit the turtles. It's been a little over two months, so I'm overdue to catch up with them, I think. Besides, I have some news to tell them.

First—when I arrived yesterday, the town was buzzing like bees. Taevon and his wife, Aemya, happened to see me right away, and they told me what happened: Everyone finally got tired of Elder Nafti. They exiled him! Now Elder Zem is the head elder. (Aemya—Zem's granddaughter—says that he's talking about perhaps making the Council of Elders more about advice than governing directly…)

I was so surprised—but I guess I shouldn't've been. This has been coming for months. Ever since "the great Parvoss" appeared almost a year ago, Nafti has been abusing his power even more. Or maybe just the Jior have been more aware of it. I've heard grumblings against him every time I walked through town, and even some talk of what Don said about Jior ruling ourselves. Anyway, I must tell Don and his brothers that Nafti is finally gone. They'll be as happy as my neighbors.

Back to Taevon and Aemya. They invited me over for evening meal last night, and it was so lovely. They fit each other so well; she tempers his eccentricity, and he helps her to be bolder. They have news to pass on to the turtles as well: They just found out they're expecting! I'm so honored they chose to tell me so soon. Aemya said she'd just told her parents. And—I cannot write this without blushing, so I don't know if I'll be able to tell the turtles as Taevon said I must—they've already chosen a name. If a boy, Keva. If a girl… Kaiva. "Brave one." After me. I cannot begin to describe how humbled I am that my friends would choose that name for their little one.

Anyway, the last bit of news is specifically for Raph. I just returned yesterday from the land of the Deutsu: the Othila and the Da'an. My other trips there yielded nothing but snippets of news of the same civil war between the animals, with no real gains on either side. But this time, all the humans stood in surprised little circles, discussing the preposterous development. The Da'an have vanished. All of them. From their many bases scattered across the forests, they've disappeared, leaving nothing but shadows. About the same time, the human authorities finally tired of their animal creations fighting their own kind, so they recalled all who would obey, the Othila. Now all Othila are back in the human cities—back to serving their human masters, servants rather than soldiers.

And where did the Da'an go? I listened a long time, invisible, for rumors. Finally I started to hear the rumors from some of the Deutsu: the Da'an fled as one to a distant, unexplored valley. There they can live in peace, away from the humans who would order them around and away from their fellow Deutsu who would force them to obey the humans.

Perhaps, in future trips to that land, I can begin journeying through the forest and see if I can follow. It's a slim chance that would find their secret valley, but if I did… I think Raph would like to see Bren and the others again.

For now, it's time to visit the home of the turtles: an underground place of much strange technology, but a place of many friends.

The End.

*Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! It's a little bittersweet to finally come to the end of this. I hope my story has been fun for you!

Thank you especially to my two loyal reviewers, Rebel Mutant and Techno Dawn. It's been so encouraging to see your reviews for every chapter =)