Walking through the camp, she noticed the well-ordered tents and uniformed
men, also noting that all of the horses had been properly taken care of. It
was not much of a surprise to find everything in such a clean state; it was
a military camp after all. With her companion in tow, she made her way to
the commander's tent, ready to be briefed on the events that had brought
them here.

Raoul grinned as the two mud splattered mages shoved the flap of the tent he
had confiscated from Kel aside. Although he had not requested anyone by
name when he had sent his missive to Corus, these were the two people he had
hoped would show up.

"It seems a little cramped in here; did the Own get a funds cut that I have
not heard about?" Numair recognized his surroundings as Kel's tent; he was
just interested in hearing the story behind Raoul ending up using it as his.

Daine shoved her sharp elbow into her husband's side and quickly moved the
conversation past the tent situation. It was not that she was not
interested in hearing the story; she just thought that it would be more
entertaining to hear it from Kel or perhaps the handsome sergeant named Dom.

"What he meant to ask was why is that you requested out presence here.
Your missive was rather brief."

Raoul quickly briefed the two on the events of the day before. Both of them
were devastated to here about the town and Daine was outraged to hear about
animals attacking Kel. It was at this point that Kel shoved through the
tent flap while simultaneously shaking an angered Neal off of her arm.
Before she took notice of the tent's occupants, she threw a few parting
words over her shoulder to her best friend, "I told you that I'm fine! One
more moment stuck in a stupid cot and I swear that I will skin you alive and
then feed you to Peachblossom!"

When the knight finally looked into the tent and saw who had witnessed her
little outburst a slight blush could be seen before her Yamani mask was put
firmly in place.

Daine could hear the animals that had attacked well before she reached their
location. In their minds were lush landscapes that were completely
unfamiliar to her. Not even any of the animals in the Carthaki Empirical
Menagerie had come from a place like this. There was a giant river coursing
its way through giant trees, much like the Copper Isles, yet it was
different. The indigenous people were slightly lighter in skin color and
there were giant stone pyramids that looked to be centuries old.

When she called to the creatures camped in the trees above her they swept
down to greet her. As soon as she saw their bodies she recognized them as
the bat species known as 'flying foxes', a breed said to have gone extinct
over a hundred years ago. She had read about them in an obscure book in
Numair's library.

What are you doing here? How did you come here? she inquired. In response
she received scattered images, flowing at a rapid rate. Suddenly she saw
another person in her mind. They were glowing with wild magic and assuring
the bats surrounding them that everything would be okay where they were
going, that they would return home soon if they followed the instructions of
the man who would greet them upon arrival. Suddenly the image of the mage
was replaced by a much more familiar face; it was the face of the king of
Tyra.

Ok I promise that the next chapter will be longer, out in a much more timely fashion,
and it will include extra long feedbacks. I will not be including responses to my reviewers in
this chapter, mainly because it has taken me a month to even get to this point. SO sorry about
that. I also want to inform you that I will be going on an Alaskan cruise next month, I hope
to get two more chapters out before I go, but while I'm gone I probably won't get a chance
to write anything.

Special thanks to my beta, Blue Mariposa!

Love ya all!
SW