A/N: I finally decided that I had built up the suspense enough and that I should write more...

Alex sighed. The pages had only been on the road for two hours and his bottom was already sore. He looked down at his horse and wished that he had brought a car with him, or a bike at the very least. Phi was busy talking with Devic about the trip, the King's Own, and the Scanrans, and Alex was bored so he decided to join in the conversation.

Phi curiously asked the page, "So who are these Scanran people anyway?"

The boy looked surprised, then he remembered that they were from another dimension, so they wouldn't have known about Tortall's enemy, "They are a group of roaming barbarians that just recently joined under one leader. Our country was just at war with them and was barely able to pull through the fight because we were also trying to deal with the constant flow of immortals into our world."

Alex nodded and turned in his saddle to face Devic, "Tom was reading one of the Palace's log books that was written just a year ago...Did the Scanrans really develop robots?"

The boy looked confused, "Ro-what?"

"Robots...men made of metal."

"Oh! They sure did...In fact, I think that Lady Keladry fought one of them herself before."

Phi piped up, "It would be interesting to see them...Did they run on electricity?"

"No." Devic suddenly became serious, "They ran on children's souls."

Phi turned to Alex and came him a nervous glance, "It sounds like something out of a horror movie..."

Alex nodded in agreement and Devic sighed, "I guess it would be pointless to ask you what a movie is..." Phi grinned and the boy continued, "That's what I thought...I'm going to ride up to the front of the line...last I heard, we should be setting up camp in four hours."

Alex grimaced and readjusted his position on the saddle that was beginning to feel like it was made of concrete, "Great..."

Phi laughed, "What's the matter? Is Alexander getting tired already?"

"No...maybe...a little...yes..." He sighed, "Is it just me or is your rear getting tired too?"

She grinned, "Ha! Mine lost it's feeling half an hour ago!"

***
Finally, HaMich called the party to a stop and all the pages gratefully dismounted and took care of their horses before getting a campsite ready. Everyone was assigned to a specific task to help prepare camp. It was Phi's job to find a water source and Alex had to help dig a ditch. He asked what the ditch was for, and after someone finally told him, he scowled and went to pick up a shovel.

While he was looking through the group supplies, Phi came up to him and asked, "Do you know where the nearest fresh-water stream is by chance?"

"Nooo...why don't you ask someone who actually lives here..."

"I tried, but either no one will tell me or nobody knows...it's going to be forever until we get any water if I don't get some help soon..."

"Have you tried asking HaMich?"

"Yep...he said I should have been paying attention while he explained how to find water..."

"Well you probably should have been..."

"Oh shut up! You weren't paying attention either!"

"Well at you don't have to dig an outhouse!"

While they were arguing, Devic came up from behind them grinning, "What are you two doing?"

Phi sighed in frustration, "Our jobs that some idiot assigned to us..."

Devic shook his head, "HaMich is just testing you...here," he tossed Alex a shovel, "The shovels were under the extra blankets. Phi, I think there's a stream over there..."

The two teens looked surprised and Alex said, "Won't you get in trouble for helping us?"

The boy shrugged, "Who's going to tell them?"

Phi laughed, "Alex, I think we were a bad influence on him!"

Alex smiled, "And there's nothing wrong with that...Thanks kid." The two stood up and went to work. Devic smiled happily and went back to his own chores.

***
That night, the pages had built up three separate campfires; one was for HaMich, any brown-noser that wanted to sit by him, and the troublemakers from the ride, one was for a large group of boys, mostly the ones that were friends of the boy that Phi had humiliated, and the last one was for a smaller group which consisted of Phi, Alex, Devic, and his friends. The boys were busy telling old war stories and legends and the two foreigners listened carefully, hanging on their every word.

Soon it was Alex's turn to tell a story. Everyone, including Phi, looked at him expectantly and he sighed and rubbed his hands together, trying to keep warm in the increasingly colder weather, "I don't really know any good stories you guys..."

Phi poked him in the shoulder playfully, "Then make one up!"

"Fine! But I'm warning you! It will have no plot whatsoever and be terrible..." All the younger boys leaned in closer, their faced illuminated with the dancing flames of the campfire, "All right...um," he dropped his voice to a low, spooky whisper that seemed to echo from the woods themselves, "My tale begins on a night such as this one. It was cold, unnaturally so, the moon was full, the sky was clouded, and the wind was gently howling through the branches of the dead, bare trees..."

Phi grinned, "You've done this before, haven't you?"

"Yes, now be quiet Phiona or the spirits from the beyond will find you easier...Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by a certain impudent mortal...The air seemed heavy as three young boys rode out of their town that night. They were all ten years old and good friends. They had grown up in the same little town and cared for each other like brothers. So when one of their mothers told them to go out of town one night, of course all of them agreed to it together. As the night dragged on, the three steered their horses into the forest. One of them didn't want to go in but the other two didn't pay any attention to the third, so he had no choice but to go along. They rode deeper and deeper into the woods when the wind stopped blowing and the clouds moved in front of the moon. It grew dark, as the moon was their only source of light and the boys could barely see one foot ahead of them. Suddenly they heard a piercing scream from deep in the forest and their horses threw them off and galloped away, driven insane from the noise." As Alex made up the story on the spot, he grinned inwardly as the pages leaned closer and closer to him and he quieted his voice even more so that it was barely above a whisper. Even Phi looked interesting in his story, so after a brief dramatic pause, he continued.

"The boys huddled together, frightened by the terrible sound they had heard and they sat in the baleful darkness until finally the wind picked up again and drew the clouds away from the moon and an eerie yellow glow filled the woods and threw strange shadows on the ground. The boys looked around and realized that they were hopelessly lost. They agreed that they had no choice but to set up a camp for the night and find out where they were when it became light again. The three boys each took a job. One of them went to forage for food and water since the horses had had their supplies on when they bolted. Another went to collect firewood so that they could get a fire going, as it was almost pitch black and they could only see a few feet ahead of them. The last one decided to set up camp, and since he had the gift he was able to create a soft glow in the still air, casting eerie shadows all about him. All of a sudden, he heard a scream off in the woods, different from the one that they had heard before. Fearing for his friend's safety, he ran towards the sound, but when he got to the spot where the sound had come from, it was too late, his friend was gone." Leaving that up for interpretation, Alex took a breath and looked at his audience. They were looking at him with wide eyes, even Phi looked enwrapped in the story. He took another deep breath for emphasis and continued.

"The boy didn't know what to do where to go. He needed to find his other friend so they could battle this unknown evil together. He called out to his friend, and to his relief, his fiend responded not too far off. Before they could reunite, the boy heard that terrifying scream again, but this time it came from right behind him. He turned around quickly, only to find shadows flickering across the dense trees. His friend called out to him, asking where he was. He responded, but heard no reply. A deep fear formed in the pit of his stomach as he raced towards his last hope of survival. But he couldn't find him." By this point Alex was talking softly, forcing the rest of the group to lean in to hear him.

"The boy started to shake, he was alone and afraid with no weapon but his weak magic. All of a sudden he heard a rustle behind him. He turned and saw that a bush was moving ever so slightly. He stepped towards it and called out his friend's name softly, hoping it was just him. The bush rustled harder in response. He stooped down and reached into the bush," Alex's voice was at a whisper now, everyone leaning in closely, "and then... IT GOT HIM!!!" Alex grabbed two of the nearest boys' arms. They all screamed girlishly and a few fell off the logs they were sitting on.

Phi laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes and Alex joined her, chuckling as the people around the other fires gave them strange looks. Alex stood up and sighed happily, "Now that I've scared the crap out of all of you, I think it is time for me to retire." He laughed quietly the entire way back to his tent.

A/N: Hee hee! Don't worry, I'm getting to the climax, I just wanted to have some bonding time, ya know? Hope ya liked it...