Alecie walked toward the room that she knew her father was in. She was dreading the lecture she was going to get and she knew it was going to be a big one. She stopped at the entrance, listening to the voices of her mother and father talking. She took a deep breath as she knocked and entered the room. King Tallas looked at his oldest daughter as she entered the room.

"Alecie what did you think you were doing?" Her father demanded of her. Alecie flinched at the anger in his voice, but she understood why he was so upset. She was normally very obedient. Oh sure, she had her little rebellious streaks every once in a while, what child didn't, but she had never completely defiled the law before.

"I was trying to help." She said looking at her father.

"By going to get earthwalkers!" he said. "And on top of that, stealing six stones from the treasury and leading them here."

"I didn't steal those stones!" Alecie argued back hotly. "You gave them to me yourself. I've gotten one every three years since I was born. I only took the ones that belonged to me."

"That still doesn't change the fact that you gave them to an earthwalker, and not just one but six!" King Tallas roared enraged.

"But they can help us!" Alecie protested. "Athena told me…."

"Athena." Alecie's mother sighed. "Has that sphinx been filling your head with stories again?" she asked.

"They aren't stories mother!" Alecie replied in defense of her friend. "Everything Athena tells me is true, she had seen it."

"That may be true." The queen said. "But that still doesn't give you a good reason to do what you did."

"I really believe that they can help us." Alecie protested. "I know that they are only earthwalkers but, I don't know, I just feel like I can trust them and that they could really help."

King Tallas rested his head in his hand exasperated. "Lecie," he said gently. "I know that you were only trying to help your people, and that is a good thing and I'm proud of the initiative you took; but getting help from the earthwalkers is just out of the question."

"I still don't understand why!" Alecie said.

"You know what happened last time we cloudrunners let earthwalkers help don't you?" her father questioned. Alecie nodded. How could she not know. She had learned it in classes every year. A long time ago cloudrunners and earthwalkers lived in harmony together. Then the earthwalkers started getting afraid of how numerous the cloudrunners were getting and started branding them and turning them into slaves. (Same thing that happened to the Israelites in Egypt, minus the branding). This turned the cloudrunners to the skies and from then on it became cloudrunner law to never have contact with earthwalkers.

Alecie sighed. "Why don't you at least give them a chance?" she asked pleadingly.

"I don't know if we can take that kind of a risk." Her father said. Alecie knew he was right, they really weren't in a position to accept help from people they really didn't know. Alecie looked down at the floor sadly.

"I'll tell you what, I will talk this over with the generals and advisors. If I get a majority vote to let them stay, then they can stay." Alecie looked hopeful, there was still a chance.

"Will they get a chance to plead their case?" she asked. King Tallas rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"We'll see." He said. Alecie smiled.

"Thank you father." She said. King Tallas smiled as his daughter as she hugged him.

"Now, go talk to them, but be careful. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." She said as she ran out the room. King Tallas leaned back in his chair as he looked at his wife.

"Am I doing the right thing?" he asked her. She  looked at him thinking.

"You are giving them a chance to plead their case. That is more than a lot of others would do. But Alecie seems to trust them, and she doesn't give that out easily."

"True. And from what I have seen they seem to be decent people. Very determined and genuinely wanting to help." King Tallas said thinking of the girl that had stepped forward.

"That girl, the one who stepped forward, she seemed a little familiar to me."

"Yes, she did." The queen answered. "But where would we know her from?" King Tallas shrugged.

"I do not know." He said as he stood up and held out his hand to his wife. "Come, we must go meet with the generals." King Tallas's wife nodded as she took her husband's outstretched hand and the two of them walked out of the room.