Justintime:Sorry for the delay, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Yes, Agnes is cool, and now you'll find out what she did to Kedri.

Chapter 9: The Guardian

Kedri was asleep... deeply asleep and she didn't feel it. A mammoth could have walked over her and she wouldn't have felt it.

- Kedri... A voice was calling her, but she couldn't determine where it came from.

- Kedri... The same annoying voice, when would it stop calling her? She just wanted to sleep!

- KEDRI!

- WHAT! - She punched something and then opened her eyes. Dahra was there, on the ground, nibling her face with her right hand. Kedri had a good aim on her pretty face and it did hurt.

- OUCH! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!

- Oh... sorry, I thought I was just dreaming

- NO! I was trying to wake you up, because Wyrmyr can't even get close to you!

- He can't? but why...? It was then when she heard it. It was a familiar sound... it was close and angry... it was... a... growling? Kedri's eyes grew wide opened when she realiced and turned around slowly to see that Wyrmir was cornered against a wall of the cave by a big, angered grey wolf that was growling and barking at him while he was saying sentences like "Take it easy, cute doggie" and things like that, only making the wolf even more and more upset. Yes! it was a growling!... a familiar growling... It was...

- NO ONE KNOWS! - she cried as she jumped from where she was laying on the ground, with tears of joy running down her face and runned to hug her dearest friend tightly while still crying. It was the first time she ever allowed herself a little weakness like that, but she didn't care. Her best friend ever was back from the dead and nothing else mattered to her now.

- What in the... - Dahra interrupted herself when she saw that Kedri would not pay attention to whatever she sayed and looked at her in confusion, and so did Wyrmir when they saw the Arborum girl kiss and hug the wolf tightly instead of just killing him. - Oh! I missed you so much! I can't believe you're back with me!

- Kedri continued crying without listening or looking to her other friends. She was just too happy to listen.

- THANK YOU, AGNES! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID BUT THANK YOU! - she started playing to mount and run with the wolf while he growled friendly and licked her face once and again. Dahra and Wyrmir just looked, mouth and eyes wide opened.

- But what the hell's going on? - asked Wyrmir after a while

- Oh, sorry - Kedri finally answered - Let me introduce you to my best friend. Dahra, Wyrmir... this is No One Knows, my wolven friend.

- But... if he's your friend, why did he attack me when I approached to you? he was lying by your side when I woke up and I was just going to wake you up, but he wouldn't let me. BAD DOGGIE! - he sayed at No One Knows and the wolf growled at him angrily again.

- Don't call him that! he hates being called doggie. He's a wolf, call him wolf, not dog. Is denigrating. He attacked you because he didn't know you, besides you're always bugging me to give you my magickal things and that also could have bothered him. Dahra doesn't do that, that's why he didn't attack her.

- But how could he know that! - Wyrmir answered.

- Well... do you remember that I transformed into a werewolf? well, when an Arborum is born they get an animal friend and they're bounded for life, so when the animal dies the arborum absorbs it's essence and becomes a shapeshifter. The same would happen if the arborum dies and not the animal... the animal becomes shapeshifter.

- Yes, ok, but how is it that he's here now? - asked Dahra and Kedri talked to them about Agnes's visit last night. None of her friends was very happy when they heard she got asleep during her guard, but the discussion didn't go on because of an upset No One Knows looking and growling evilly at them. Of course she didn't tell them what was Agnes doing when she found her rumagging through their stuff.

- Ok, well, I think we should eat something and move - sayed Wyrmir and started looking through his things too see if he had something to eat and he realiced there was nothing.

- And exactly what will we eat, Wyrmir? WE HAVE NO MORE FOOD! - Dahra yelled, loosing her usual composure to a growling in her stomach. Just then Wyrmir and Kedri's stomach also growled and No One Knows lied at his friend's side, closing his eyes and letting Kedri pet him for a while. Dahra looked around and saw a teapot, the one that Agnes had before, and a wooden spoon and grabbed them, but dismissed them immediately because they didn't even have any water.

Kedri looked at the teapot and the wooden spoon and smiled to herself. Quietly, she took them and kept them. "I guess this is another gift from Agnes, hehehe " She thought. Soon they realiced that the food wasn't the only thing they didn't have.

- "MY MAGICKAL CUP! IT WAS IN MY BAG AND NOW IS GONE!" - exclaimed Wyrmir when he saw that one of the few magickal items he had was gone and gave Kedri a murderous look, after all she was the one that stayed asleep during the guard. - "YOU! IT WAS YOUR FAULT! I'LL KILL YOU!" - he screamed at Kedri and grabbed her arms and shook her untill Kedri got dizzy. The only reason she didn't puke was that there was nothing in her stomach. Just then a slight bite in the ankle remembered Wyrmir that shaking Kedri was, probably, a bad idea. He looked at the wolf biting his feet and smiled nervously - "Hehehe... nice doggy... I mean, wolf!... nice wolf! Hehehe..."

No One Knows didn't like being called "doggy" and started growling at the Alfon, but as soon as he corrected himself, the wolf stopped, contented. Wyrmir's cup wasn't the only missing thing. Also the big, steel arrow that Kedri had and one of her ebony boxes were missing, but she thought that the teapot and wooden spoon was enough payment in exchange of 2 things she would never have a use for. "Hehehe... She "found" them, hehehe"

Kedri checked all her stuff, to see what did Agnes not "find" and she found that she still had: 1000 Copper coins, 139 Gold coins, a scroll to invocate a beast that was usefull to call a giant spider (she thought she would give that to Wyrmir later if he was nice to her), 3 magickal ring, a chainmail shirt, a quiver with 34 arrows (20 of them were not very good, but still usefull to hunt, she thought), the wooden spoon and teapot that Agnes left, the necklace of unpredictable, with the wish already spent,1 ebony box, her sword and bow, the black potion, seeds, grain and 23 1/2 mts of rope. After checking all her equipment, she got ready to leave and hurried her friends.

- Ok, where should we go now? - asked Wyrmir while Dahra was looking to the floor, searching for any footprints or something.

- Look! - She sayed – This animal footprints in the snow... I think they go to South-east! - when she realiced her friends didn't know what was she talking about she added - from North-west. We're travelling to the north, supposedly, right?

- Oh, yes - sayed Kedri - so let's go there. North-west it is, then. Maybe we can find our way to the Lord of All Times somewhere to the North-west. As they were walking, they noticed that the forest got thinner every step they took untill they found themselves out of the forest.

They found a totem with the base buried into the soil, with a skull on top of it and a lot of drawings on it. It also had feathers, but no particular signs of any culture, god or godess... or at least none that they could see, but they were getting too far from the forest. The forest, in a way, represented some security and getting away from it gave them the sensation of being too visible and unprotected, so they went back to it and kept going to where they thought it was North. They were still hungry, so Kedri and No One Knows tried to hunt something... anything.

- Ok, wait for me here. I'll try to bring something for lunch - but the cold and hunger made the Arborum miss each and every shot she made. In her despair she climbed a tree, at least to see where she was. Nothing, she only saw trees, but at a still far distance she could see a group of trees that was higher than the rest. When she finally got down, she saw something in the trees.

- MUSHROOMS! - There were a lot of them in the trunks. How couldn't she see them before! she checked if they were poisonous and they were not, so she took like 3 kilos of them and took them to Dahra and Wyrmir, feeling very happy.

- What's this? - asked Wyrmir while taking one of the mushrooms with two fingers and making a "yuck!" face. This Alfon wasn't very instructed botanically.

- Mushrooms - answered Dahra, who didn't also know too much of the forest - but what did you bring them for?

- THEY'RE EATABLE! I'll cook them for you! You'll see... they're better than meat and more nutritive! - Saying this she started gathering wood while singing in a low voice and cooked. Even No One Knows was so hungry that ate them, and everyone liked Kedri's cooking. She wasn't so bad cooking mushrooms as she was cooking meat after all.

They kept walking after eating, and all the way they found some of the same totems. The wind was getting stronger with every step they gave, and thus, the next totems didn't have the feathers of the first one, but besides that they were exactly the same and they all had skulls. They shrugged and kept walking.

- Now I'm sure! - sayed Kedri to her friends - When I went hunting I felt so desperated because I missed all my shots that I climbed to a tree to see if there was any creature near, but I saw a group of higher trees to the north. We're getting closer to the Wind Hill, home of the Lord of All Times! The wind will be even stronger when we get there. We must be prepared! - she added before Wyrmir asked the stupid question that he was thinking (the "How do you know?" question)

They arrived to a lake. It was a beautifull lake, with clear green water and a small beach all around it. Dahra collected some wood and made fire while Kedri tried to catch a fish, but to add to her bad luck, they all suddenly fled. The Arborum didn't insist and used the fire only to warm a little. They started walking, following the border of the lake untill they reached a point where there was a thin stream that finished in the water of the lake. It seemed that it came down from Hueslat. Farther, there was another one and very close to the second stream there were some beautifull eggs, bigger than all of them. They were of a beautifull blue colour, with an oval shape and were resting over a gelatinous substance that also covered them. Dahra wanted to touch them and after she did, she walked to the border of the lake, where she found a scale very diferent to the one she found from Phebas, although just as hard. It had a long point comming out from the center of the scale while in the borders there were two smaller ones, besides it had a blueish hue in the colour. Kedri's stomach growled.

- Hey! Why not eat one of this eggs? - asked Wyrmir - This nest looks unwatched

- Are you crazy? look at the size of this eggs! The mother must be huge! - answered Dahra.

- Besides is very probable that the mother is close and may be back at any minute - Kedri nodded and No One Knows smelled the eggs.

- Oh, come on! She won't notice one missing egg! - The Alfon replied.

- NO, WYRMIR. DON'T INSIST.

Wyrmir insisted and insisted once and again untill he realiced his friends weren't even pying attention to him any more.

They were looking to the skies. There, in the highest branch of the highest tree, a couple of red eyes were watching intensively.

A/N: PFIUUU! Finally! It seemed that everything was against this chapter. First, I moved to a new house with my family, then my vacations, then the computer didn't work, then it had a password and today finally! By the way, sorry for the poor editing, but this browser is old... it was the only thing I could get, Buaaaaa!

No One Knows: GRRRRRRRRRR

Author: No, really, don't look at me that way. No one more excited to finally bring you back, my dear.

No One Knows looks at Sabaal murderously

Sabaal has an anime teardrop: Nice wolf, nice wolf...

Sabaal talks to the readers: I hope you enjoyed my return. Now please review or I'll stop feeding No One Knows and lock you with him in a room with no window and swallow the key!