A/N: Sorry that this is late again. I started writing it on Sunday, but then I ended up watching The 10th Kingdom (AWESOME movie! Now if only they'll make a sequel, lol), and I just couldn't stop, and since it's 417 minutes, that made it kind of hard to write since I was watching it for so long. ;) I'll try to make it up by getting out another chapter within the week. :)

Chapter Twenty-nine: A Friend in Need…

I couldn't believe it. We now had a Seeing Stone. It seemed too easy, but I suspected that the following ones would be harder. The Green Forest was nearby, so we were aiming there next, since the pixie-elves of the Green Forest held the second Stone.

As we were eating breakfast the morning after retrieving the first Stone (we'd had to camp outside), Shean voiced a question.

"So, we should probably send the Stone to Val's parents now, right?"

Relakk and I stopped mid-bite in our bread and stared at him. I finished chewing and swallowed.

"Oh, drat, I'd forgotten about that. How are we supposed to manage that?" I asked, directing the question at Relakk. "I don't want to have to go back to send it home!"

Relakk was still chewing thoughtfully. He swallowed. "As you know, I only have wind and water magikk, but I have long studied other forms of magikk. I know the teleporting spell, and you have the ability, Val. I can lend you some of my power and send the spell through you and we can send the Stone back to Kyrria. And if you'd like to send a note to your parents, Val, you may put it in the bag with the Stone."

I nodded, but I felt a bit unsure. "Are you sure this will work? I mean, I still get lightheaded sometimes and all…"

Relakk shook his head. "No, it will work. Now take my hand in your right and the Stone in your left. I will channel the spell through you, but you must make it work with your magikk."

I nodded, giving him my right hand as Shean handed me the Stone.

"Close your eyes…"

I closed them, knowing what would happen next. I felt a surge of power and rushing voices like a wind that carried through a royal meeting hall, chanting words that I didn't understand. In my magikkal sight, I saw the Stone shimmer, and then begin to flicker, and finally to disappear with a pop.

I jumped and opened my eyes. "Is it back in Kyrria?"

Relakk nodded. "It is back in Kyrria."

I suddenly felt too tired for words and collapsed backwards. Shean caught me and held me. He glared at Relakk. "I thought you said she wouldn't be tired!"

"I said no such thing. I simply said that it would work. Besides, I have something to take care of this." He rummaged in his saddlebag and produced a small flask. "Here, drink this." He handed the flask to me and Shean uncorked it for me. "Just a little, now," Relakk cautioned.

I nodded and took a small sip. I suddenly felt as good as I had before I'd teleported the Stone. I stuck the cork back in the bottle and handed it back to Relakk.

By night, we had made it to the edges of the Green Forest. We camped under a roof of trees, cushioned by a thick layer of fallen leaves that hadn't yet decomposed. Relakk chose to lie by himself, off to the side, nearer to the horses, but Shean and I slept side by side so we could talk.

"So, what did your note to your mom say?" Shean asked, pulling me closer so that my head lay against his chest so that he could run his fingers through my hair.

"Mm, let me see… I told her that we were fine and that Relakk found us and that we'd contact them when we got the second Stone."

"Wait, I thought she didn't know about any of this."

I was glad that it was too dark for Shean to see my face turn red. "Yeah, well, um…. she doesn't. Well, she didn't. She probably does now. Relakk put in a note of his own explaining everything, since you know how bad I am at explaining things."

I could hear a smile in his voice as he replied. "Yeah, I know. So what do you think she'll do? Do you think she'll send anyone after us?"

I shook my head, knowing he'd be able to feel the movement, even in the dark.

"So what do you think she'll do, then?"

"She'll probably worry and wish and wait and all those things mothers seem to do."

Shean sighed. "Well, as long as we can manage to get that second Stone, I'll be happy."

"Mm. Well, I'm tired. Goodnight."

"'Night, love."

And within two minutes, we were both asleep.

The next morning, we ate a quick breakfast and hit the road (or, to be more precise, the almost non-existent game trail) that wound through the trees (and just about everything else it could) before arriving at the pixie-elves' village. We arranged a meeting with the Chief of the Green Forest Pixie-Elves and waited in a small tent.

He finally came and sat down in a little raised chair that was at the right height so that he could look us in the eye.

Pixie-elves are the little hobbit-sized folk of legend; the little forest sprites that everyone thinks wear green hats and boots with pointed, rolled toes. In reality, they aren't quite that insane. Instead, their clothing is made of something more like camo fabric, except with patterns that were a bit more fashionable, and they wore moccasins.

"What do you wish to speak with me about?" Asked the CoP-E (that's what everyone calls the Chief of any of the Pixie-Elf tribes, since CoP-E stands for Chief of the Pixie-Elves)

"We wish to know what me must do to acquire the Seeing Stone that was entrusted to your tribe," Relakk explained.

The CoP-E rubbed his chin. "Hmm… You are not the first to come seeking this. All others have failed. Are you sure you are ready?"

We all nodded. "We're ready," I assured him. "What must we do?"

"I can't believe we have to wade through all this," I muttered as I tried to push my way through a thicket of bracken that we had been obliged to cross. We had had to leave the horses with the P-Es, who had promised to keep them well for us.

"Yeah, well, if your world is like some of the other fantasy worlds, we're gonna have plenty more 'fun' treks," Shean assured me with false cheer. Just wait until we get to the Mog. The CoP-E said that that's even better."

We had to cross through some of the thicker forest to get to the Green Forest Mog, something like a swamp, but it had little fire geysers that shot off every once in a while. It sounded something like the Fire Swamp in the Princess Bride, but a bit harder to detect and more random. Relakk assured us that he could pull up a water shade to shield us from the flames, though.

Once we passed the Mog, we had to get to the Valley of Song, which wasn't supposed to be much farther away. The P-Es only told us that we had to find a Silver Shade flower, which was supposed to grow in a single ring in the middle of the valley. I wasn't at all sure what the P-Es wanted it for, but I figured that it wouldn't be too hard to get, so why bother asking.

"Oh, hey, I think I see a clearing up ahead," Shean called, having pressed ahead a bit farther. Relakk was beating about wildly with his staff at the branches and vines that seemed intent on entangling his robe and cloak.

"Hey, wait for me," I yelled at Shean. He slowed down and I caught up to him. I helped him beat vines out of the way and we made it to the edge of the thicket.

Without warning, a giant snapping bird of prey's beak thrust itself into my line of view. Shean shoved me down and followed the movement. We somehow managed to roll through the bushes and vines to land in the clearing and jump up to face our attacker.

I would have stared, except for the fact that we had to fend it off for our lives.

The animal was magnificent. It had the back body of a horse and the torso, front legs, claws, wings, beak, and neck and head of a gryphon. The hindquarters of this particular animal were a bronze chestnut and the gryphon feathers were silver and brown, making for a beautiful mottled effect.

"It's a hippogryph!" I whispered as Shean tossed me a large branch to fend off the snapping beak.

One wing was trailing the ground as it tried to snap us in half. The filly was still obviously a foal, as she was barely large enough to ride, or she would have been if she were a horse. I had heard tales a-plenty when I was younger about how hippogryphs had savaged villages near their nesting places, so I was very wary of this one.

I didn't want to hurt her, but I felt that I would probably have to kill her to put her out of her misery, since she probably wouldn't let us near enough to splint her wing. But even if she did, she would probably go berserk and break the splint, and possibly the other wing as well, and die anyways, possibly even be killed by poachers, who would prize her feathers, which had the same effect as gryphon feathers: disabling anyone in their vicinity from lying.

All of a sudden, Relakk burst from the trees. He raised his staff and a powerful burst of wind knocked the hippogryph senseless. I stared at him, and then ran to the unconscious filly, forgetting that she could be faking unconsciousness and attack me when I got near.

"If you've killed her, I'll…" I began, but trailed off when I saw that her sides still moved.

"Here, help me secure her," Relakk instructed, pulling off his pack and rummaging through it to come up with several coils of rope and pegs. "Pound these into the ground and we'll secure her so we can work on her wing." She had fallen on the opposite side of her broken wing. "Hurry," he added, to remind us that we needed to get to work before she woke up.

We strapped her neck to the ground and hobbled her feet with some of the lengths of rope from me and Shean's packs. We also put ropes on either side of her wing. I sat back and surveyed our work.

"Why are we doing this? She tried to attack us and besides, she'll probably die anyways, since she won't be able to get away from predators or poachers and it would be hard to run through the forest with a splinted wing. Wouldn't it be kinder to just put her out of her misery?"

Shean shook his head. "We can't do that. I can't do that, anyways. I think we can probably talk to her and explain things, even if she can't talk back. You said that young immortals could understand mind-to-mind human speech, even if they can't talk yet, right, Relakk?"

The mage nodded. "I think we may be able to make it work if we get her to the open and then go to the Valley of Song. I know how to trigger the splint so that winds will knock it loose once the wing is healed."

I sighed. "Fine. But if we find her dead, I get first dibs on pummeling both of you."

Shean grinned. "Deal."

A/N: Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! I finally figured out an alternate to the Stones! No longer must I slave over a way to keep this interesting! I won't tell you what it is, since you'll find out soon enough. Mwuhahahaha! ;)

Second, I just can't keep up with my 'every Monday' promise anymore. :( I may be able to do every other Monday, though now that I don't have to write horrible history stories for my history project, I might not regard my laptop with so much dread and may be able to make myself write more. ;) I just need to get back in the habit.

Third, I thought of (what I think is) a cool idea for my Fast Forward website. What I'm hoping to do is include character bios, the Stones legend, fan art/pictures (probably all by me, lol), and an FAQ. That's all I can think of at the moment, but I may think of more later and any suggestions are welcomed. I'll probably work on a newsletter too, for those who don't feel like checking my blog. ;)

I think that's all, so I'll leave you alone now, lol. Until next time! Namarie!