Finding Alder was not going to be easy. There was a large and fairly dense crowd of people surrounding the monument on all sides. In the middle, standing on the monument platform, were three people who seemed to be addressing the crowd.

Aria looked at Tarek, who said, "It would appear that the councilors have returned from the Bedoowan town. Perhaps we should get a closer look?"

Aria nodded, and they stepped over the low wall that surrounded the memorial and began making their way through the crowds. Aria had a much easier time of it than Tarek, who was bulkier than her and was, furthermore, carrying a long and ungainly stick on his back. His attempts to get through the crowd were hindered by his awkwardly polite demeanor. "Er, pardon me. Excuse me. Sorry. Could I just…?"

Wanting to know what the big scene was about, she ducked and weaved through the crowd, leaving Tarek behind and quickly getting to the front.

The three men were standing on the memorial. It was a ring of stones, not unlike a well, but much larger. It was covered with a wooden platform, which was where the three men stood to address the crowd. It made her uneasy to realize that the platform they were on was all that was keeping them from plummeting to their deaths.

They were standing in a row. The man on the left, a grey-bearded eccentric, looked livid. He was glaring at the one on the far right, who seemed to be arguing with him. The one in the middle was watching the right one with a look of patient detachment.

Aria finally started to pick up on the conversation. "…to decide whether or not the Bedoowan are as negligent as you say, Kore? How are we to know, when it was we who ceased communication? When it was we who drove them out?"

The one on the left – Kore, presumably – replied. "We drove them out? They brought it upon themselves when they began the oppression! At any rate, they haven't exactly stayed gone, have they? Look at the patrols! Has no one noticed how heavy the night-patrol alone has been?"

The middle one interjected. "The night patrols have been increased to keep us safe from the beasts that roam the forest. You know that as well as I, Kore."

Kore narrowed his eyes. "Be that as it may, Maal, you cannot deny that it puts them at an advantage – having a large number of troops strategically located at one end of our village, and the rest of their forces in the town ready to approach from the other side? Or are you so blind–"

At this point the man on the right, whom Aria surmised to be Grail, the councilor who advocated for peace, interrupted. "I think that is enough, Kore. At any rate, we have digressed." With that he turned to the people, and addressed the crowds directly. "What matters is this: the Bedoowan are doing all they can to rectify the problems we face. Together, we are negotiating with the Lowsee tribe to bring in what Tryptite we can, and the rationing is being implemented just as strongly on the Bedoowan as it is on us. The…"

Aria stopped paying much attention. She had caught the attention of one of the councilors. The middle one – Maal, the neutral party – had picked her out of the crowd and was staring at her intently, his expression unreadable. Then he smirked, just a bit. His eyes flickered, turning bright blue.

Aria froze in shock. Realization hit her like a taser, paralyzing her just as effectively.

Councilor Maal was Saint Dane.

Suddenly a look of cold, flat fury crossed his face, and his eyes returned to normal. He was no longer looking at her. He was looking just behind her.

Aria unfroze once his eyes left hers, and she turned her head to see Jani, just a foot behind her, looking at Maal with an expression of horror on her face. That wasn't good. None of this was good. In fact, Aria decided that things had just gotten very, very bad.

She needed to find Alder.

Before Grail could finish speaking – it mostly sounded like a lot of soothing political jargon anyways – Aria ducked behind some people and weaved through the crowd, immediately losing Jani and searching for Tarek. She found him nearby, caught his attention, and motioned frantically for him to join her on the outskirts of the crowd. He tilted his head at her curiously, but started trying to extricate himself from the throng of people.

He finally managed to saunter over to her just as the councilors seemed to finish their speeches, and the crowd began to disperse. She pulled his head down impatiently, eliciting a surprised squawk from him. "Listen, something really important just cropped up. One, Jani is here and there might be trouble soon. Two, Councilor Maal is Saint Dane. Three, Jani saw him drop his cover for a moment, and she knows something's up with him, and Saint Dane knows she knows something's up with him, which is why there might be trouble soon." She had said all of this very quickly and fairly quietly. She looked at him for his reaction.

Tarek look completely baffled. Clearly he was having trouble wrapping his head around this. Then he said, "Er…what? Councilor Maal, Saint Dane? That cannot be." He tilted his head, looking at her curiously. "What makes you…?"

She cut him off impatiently. "He picked me out of the crowd while everyone was focused on Grail. He looked directly at me, and his eyes flashed blue. Have you ever seen his eyes?"

"Err, no, I've never actually seen him personally, I've only–"

Aria cut him off again. "Well, trust me, there's no mistaking them." Her eyes darted back over to the platform to see what was going on. Kore seemed to have departed, but Grail and Maal – Grail and Saint Dane – were standing nearby discussing something. Suddenly, they broke off their discussion and began walking towards the forest.

A feeling of unease settled over her. She had a bad feeling about this. She turned back to Tarek and said, "You stay here and look for Alder. I'll meet up with you in a little bit. I'm going to follow them to see if I can…" She trailed off.

Why was she doing this? If she wasn't planning on staying here, then she definitely didn't want to be getting involved in this.

Then again, if she could get some useful information now, then maybe – just maybe – Uncle Press wouldn't be completely disappointed in her for bailing later.

Tarek looked like he wanted to say more, but instead he nodded, frowning. "Alright. We should meet up right back here. See you shortly, and…be careful. We don't know what Saint Dane is capable of."

Well, we know he can shapeshift, summon giant bear monsters, and paralyze a person with a glance. Or maybe that's just me. Oh, and he might have a gun.

Suddenly following him seemed like a terrible idea. She winced. She really didn't want to go. But she had just taken charge, and furthermore, for whatever reason, Tarek actually seemed to be listening to her. She didn't want to back out now – she'd look like a complete pansy. She normally wasn't a proud person, but she did have to draw the dignity line somewhere.

So instead of thinking about all the ways this could go horribly wrong, she just charged straight into the potentially dangerous situation with no plan whatsoever and hoped that things would work out.

Great.

She saw Grail and Maal disappearing into the forest. She jogged after them, trying not to make herself too obvious and probably failing miserably. She reached the edge of the forest and slowed down, taking care not to make too much noise stepping on leaves and branches and whatnot.

The two men were walking side by side, and seemed to be engaged in conversation. They were quite a ways ahead of her. She did her best to keep them in sight, but between trying to stay low and moving slowly enough to avoid making noise, she lost sight of them fairly quickly.

She let out a low sound of frustration, trying to keep to the direction she thought they may have been heading, and, again, probably failing. She didn't want to head back just to tell Tarek (and, with any luck, Alder) that she had lost the councilors five minutes in and then gave up. So, she kept going.

Not long after that the trees became much thicker, the foliage dense. The terrain had shifted so it was slightly uphill, too, and her legs were starting to feel it. She was out of water, and starting to get hungry again. Hopefully her stomach wouldn't growl and give her away…if she managed to relocate her quarry, of course.

She stumbled around the dense foliage for about ten more minutes before stumbling upon a slight break in the trees. She went over to a small rise with a large fallen tree at the top, poked her head over, and froze.

There was a small clearing just in front of her. Councilor Maal was standing alone in the tall grass, facing away from her.

She started to panic, and decided it would be a good time to hide. There were plenty of trees around, but as she looked at the fallen log in front of her she had a better idea.

She dropped to her stomach, and was immediately covered in tall ferns. Her head was poking just over the rise – but as she had hoped, the fallen log wasn't flush with the ground. There were a few inches of space between them. She craned her neck down a bit to align her eyes with the space; from her position, there was no way he could possibly see her, and she had a good view of most of the clearing.

She wondered where Councilor Grail was. He wasn't anywhere in the clearing, so she figured he must be hanging back in the forest. Suddenly, Maal's head whipped around, his eyes scanning the foliage.

They came to rest on her hiding space.

A shiver passed through her. She began to panic, thinking, he can't see me. He can't possibly know I'm here. Oh, please don't know I'm here.

His eyes narrowed, and he turned all the way around and began sprinting straight towards her.

Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no.

She laid there on the forest floor, hoping beyond hope that he hadn't seen her, as he ran straight at her. He got to the log, crouched, leapt right over it—

His foot landed an inch shy of her back. His momentum carried him straight over her, then past her, and he kept running.

He had missed her completely.

She stayed there, unmoving for a moment, trembling. She decided not to move until she was sure he had left, then head back to the village. She was just starting to relax when a screech erupted from behind her.

She turned her head and saw what had drawn Saint Dane's attention.

Jani was in a tree, clinging desperately to one of the branches. Maal had her leg in a death grip, and his form was starting to shift and change. Aria heard him speak, his voice changing from that of Maal to the colder, more cultured voice of the man she had spoken to in the cave on the mountain.

"So…curious were you, girl? You wanted to know what I was up to? I'm afraid you'll be getting a great deal more than you bargained for."

Aria struggled to her knees, and turned about, all her senses on red alert. His back was to her, his full attention on Jani. Aria could almost certainly sneak away without him noticing.

With a final great tug, Saint Dane ripped the girl from the tree branch. He swung her around, hoisting her up by the collar, and held her suspended in the air with one hand.

Aria froze, locked in a raging internal debate. Jani would definitely leave her for dead had their fortunes been reversed. Besides that, Jani had caused her nothing but pain and trouble since they had met. Aria had absolutely no reason to stick up for her.

No reason at all – aside from the fact that if she didn't do anything, she would never be able to look herself in the eye again.

She took a deep breath, then began searching the ground for something she could use as a weapon. She knew that Saint Dane wouldn't have revealed himself to Jani if he had intended to let her live. Maybe if the eye flash was the only thing she had seen, but now…

Aria got her hand around a good sized rock just as Saint Dane got his hand around the hilt of a knife he had in his belt loop. She crept up behind him, rock in hand. She was only five feet away, and Saint Dane still hadn't noticed her.

Jani was gasping now, her eyes bulging in horror at the sight of the knife. Just as Saint Dane brought the blade up, Aria readied herself, drew back her arm, and threw the rock with all the force she could muster.

It missed him completely, flying by his head and clipping Jani on the side of her face. She howled, more in surprise than pain, Aria thought.

Saint Dane's head whipped around, and Aria cursed all the days she had opted out of dodge-ball in Phys. Ed.

He looked at her, gauged the distance between them, then spoke. His tone was almost incredulous. "How did you miss…?"

It really was ridiculous. It was a pretty big rock and she had hurtled it, point blank, at the back of his head. Even as tall as he was, it should have been a sure hit.

She had missed.

"Uhhh…"

He just shook his head at her, and said, "Run along, little Traveler. I have no plans for you…yet." He got a predatory grin, and his eyes flashed with alarming intensity. At the sight of that look, the muscles in Aria's legs seemed to forget themselves, and her knees went weak. Her breath lodged in her throat, and it seemed impossible for her to move, let alone run.

That was when Jani's boot planted itself squarely in the place no man wants to be hit.

Saint Dane's eyes widened, and he hissed in pain, letting go of Jani's collar. She dropped to the ground, stumbling a bit. He snarled at her and turned his head, raising the knife once more.

With the break in eye contact, Aria forced herself into action, slinging her pack off her back and sprinting straight for Saint Dane. As the knife swung forward, she hurtled herself onto his shoulders, wrapping the bag around his face and jerking back on the leather pack-harness. He let out a muffled snarl. She started tying the straps together, effectively securing the backpack to his face.

He spat and his hand clawed for his back, trying to dislodge her. She tightened her grip until the knife swung back as well. He had turned it around and swept it in a backwards arc, and while his angle was poor enough that he couldn't land a lethal hit, the blade did slice through her leathers and carve a nasty gash along her right ribcage.

She screamed and let go, just as Jani ran up and delivered another heavy blow of similar orientation to the first. He let out an angry screech and swung the knife blindly forward. Jani dodged it, and in the commotion Aria ducked around him. She saw his gun in a holster on his belt, and without a second thought, grabbed it as she ran by.

The two girls sprinted in the direction of the village. At least, Aria hoped it was the direction of the village. She was trusting Jani to lead her right, assuming that Jani wanted to get to safety just as much as she did. She didn't hear Saint Dane pursuing them – thank goodness – but she still kept running at as rapid a pace as she could.

However, adrenaline aside, the wound he had dealt her was screaming at her. It felt like her whole right side was on fire. She brought a hand to her ribs and it came away red. Her stomach lurched, and she forced herself not to look at it. The sight of blood made her extremely uncomfortable. Especially when it was her blood.

They finally reached the outskirts of the village. Aria put her back to the first hut she saw, and slid to the ground, gasping for breath and clutching her side.

Jani was panting too; her eyes were wide and wild, and her whole body was shaking. She looked to Aria, then began stalking over to her. In a moment Jani was looming over her.

Aria's eyes widened and she cringed, tucking her head in and clenching her jaw.

Jani stood right in front of the injured girl, silent for a moment. Then she burst out indignantly, "You just saved my life, and you think I'm gonna beat you up? I mean, give me a break; you're bleeding like a bear! I still don't like you, but I'm not that bad!"

Aria looked up at her skeptically. Jani just scowled and sat down. They remained in silence until they had both caught their breath.

Aria rolled her head over, feeling faint. "Hey, look, I know you hate my guts, but could you go over to the memorial and find that knight who pulled you off of me yesterday – Alder – and the kid who saved my skin earlier? His name's Tarek. Just tell them Aria's hurt and needs help." As an afterthought she added, "And clarify that you weren't the one that hurt me."

Jani growled a bit, and said, "Only if you tell me what's going on."

Aria ground her teeth and hissed, "I'll tell you later. When I'm not bleeding to death from a wound I got saving your ass!"

Jani snorted and said, "Oh, come on. You're not anywhere close to dying. I have your word?"

Aria ground her teeth in frustration. Aria didn't make promises lightly, but the pain in her side was not getting any better. At last she nodded.

Jani seemed satisfied. She hopped up and jogged away.

Aria lay against the side of the building, thankfully in the shade, and watched the forest. She was now extremely hungry, extremely thirsty, and suffering from minor blood loss. The wound really wasn't that bad, but it hurt like sin. Combine that with the stress of the last few days, the adrenaline high she was coming down from, and the absolute terror that Saint Dane was going to step out of the forest to finish her off, and you had one seriously unhappy camper.

Why had her uncle decided to bring her with him?

She heard a rustle in the bushes, and her eyes snapped up. She hadn't even realized it, but they had begun to droop. She searched the bushes in front of her for any sign of movement; the swish of a black coat, the leathers of a Bedoowan councilor, a flash of blue. Her heart throbbed painfully fast, until a hint of movement above her drew her eye.

A large black bird was perched on a branch in a nearby tree. It was looking at her with one glimmering yellow eye.

She looked at it, smiled, then started giggling hysterically.

The bird cocked its head, and she called out to it. "Hullo, raven! Tell me what thy lordly name is, on this night's plutonian shore?" Then she started laughing again.

Oh, yeah, she was out of it. After a few more moments the bird leaned forward and shifted on its perch, as though preparing to fly over to her, and Aria wondered if it was a scavenger. Big scavenging birds will go for live prey if it's injured enough.

She didn't have to worry, though. A moment later she heard someone calling for her. "Aria? Aria!" It sounded like Alder.

He appeared around the hut she had been leaning against, and knelt down beside her, eyes wide with concern. Tarek appeared a moment later, poking his head around, and wincing when he saw her. "I thought I told you to be careful!" Tarek exclaimed.

She waved a hand. "Don't worry; it's not that bad. I'm just…really tired…" She let out a yawn. She was starting to nod off again.

Alder nodded, eyebrows still creased fretfully. He scooped an arm around her, lifting her up as though she were a child, and she winced as the pain in her side flared up again. He said, "Do not worry. There is a medic who lives near here. We will tend to you there, and when you are done resting you can eat."

"And write more journals, I'm sure." She said groggily.

Alder smiled tightly, and began walking her away. Jani was nearby, standing there with crossed arms and a petulant expression on her face. Tarek looked pale and worried.

She wanted to tell him not to worry, it wasn't that bad, but she was too tired. Just as she started to black out, she tilted her head back, looking towards the forest, and the tree the large black bird had been perched on. The bird was gone.

Old update, July 2016:

Dear readers,

I'm so sorry. I know I haven't updated in an age. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say the last 6 months of my life have been a living hell.

However, I'm back! For at least a few weeks, you'll have fairly regular updates. Rather than just writing a chapter and slapping it down as soon as it was finished, I decided to forego updating for a couple of weeks into summer so I could get a few chapters stockpiled. I'm making a great deal of headway in the story, almost every aspect of it is planned out…with any luck, I'll have Denduron finished by summer's end.

To my faithful followers, you have no idea how much I appreciate your support. I hope with all of my heart to be a writer someday, and every review, every favorite, reminds me that my ambitions are not impossible as they may seem right now.

To Jay Foren, my most dearest follower, I hope my new chapters will meet with your approval! I always put the extra effort into exceeding your expectations. Of course, I haven't updated in so long that I'll probably exceed your expectations just by putting something up.

Happy Fourth, everyone. God Bless Dendur—er, I mean, America!