Authors Note: Yay! Eleven reviews! Thank you! Well, this is my third chapter. I hope ya'll are liking this so far.


Gilan shrugged. "You've threatened to do that often enough and I'm still not dead."

Halt glared again, but was hiding a smile. "So I have."

Will interjected before the friendly argument continued any farther. "Just a second, you've forgotten the girl, Halt."

The grizzled older ranger shook his head. "I didn't forget, I was just talking to Gilan. And now we can get the girl down." He shot a look at Gilan. "We had accomplished that until Gilan came along and scared her away."

Gilan looked up at the tree. The green eyes were staring at him. "You mean there's a girl up there? I've never seen a girl that could climb so fast!"

Will shook his head. "That's because she's not a normal girl." When Gilan gave him a questioning look, he continued. "She appears to be half cat."

Gilan's jaw dropped. There was no way he could disbelieve his friend. "Half cat!"

Will nodded seriously. "Yes." Then he gestured at Gilan's weapons. "She won't come down unless you take those off." Gilan quickly complied.

Kleay stared down at the men in confusion. She had woken up when the sky was still dark and had climbed down to retrieve her bow and the arrows she had lost. Then she had seen one of the strangers, a wiry brown-haired young man, and she had gone back to her tree. She had gone back up when he had scared her and then the second man had joined the first. He was small but strong looking, with black hair and a beard, flecked with silvery gray.

Kleay was extremely confused. The men had no tails, or ears like hers. She bristled and shivered. The only people who didn't have tails and ears were the Katka. And the Katka had wings and beaks. Because of the fact that the people didn't look like Katka or Vetaer, Kleay had expected them to speak in some outlandish tongue that she wouldn't understand. But they spoke like the Vetaer. Kleay shuddered again. At least they didn't appear to be Ammorin. One Ammorin was bad enough, but three was very bad.

At the moment they were talking in low voices, gesturing discreetly in her direction. The third man, who had startled her earlier, was taking off his weapons. Good. Now Kleay felt safer. Then the oldest man, the one with the beard, called out.

"Come down. We won't hurt you." He muttered something to the third man, who was tallest. Kleay heard something that sounded like, 'Gilan'. Maybe that was the tall man's name. The tall man, Gilan, called out as well,

"It's okay! We won't hurt you."

Kleay hesitated, then turned around and climbed down the tree.

Will watched the foliage rustle in the tree as the girl came down a second time. This time, she didn't drop the last couple feet. Instead, she climbed down the last bit. He was startled to see that she was hanging upside-down, using bumps and knotholes in the tree to keep from falling. Her tail was lashing around from side to side, helping her to keep her balance.

This time, Will noted, her ears weren't flat. Instead, they were pricked curiously and her eyes were looking at them with intelligence and trust. Then she dropped the last foot down and rose to a half crouch. She hesitated, then straitened up and looked Halt, Gilan and Will in the eyes.

She paused again, then, surprisingly, she spoke. "Are you Ammorin?" she asked.

"What?" blurted Will.

The girl looked at him, puzzlement in her eyes. "What do you mean, 'what'? I asked a question. Are you an Ammorin?"

"We don't even know what an Ammorin is!" exclaimed Halt.

"You...don't? You don't know what the Ammorin are?"

"No."

The girl shook her head and a worried look crossed her face. "That's okay then." She paused. "I suppose that you'd like to know my name. I'm Kleay."

Will blinked. She had an awfully strange name. But that didn't matter, she was odd enough as it was, with her ears and tail. "I'm Will." he said. "And this is Halt and he," Will glared at the tall young ranger. "is Gilan, a very careless ranger when he wants to be." Gilan grinned cheerfully.

"Hullo! Nice meeting you." he said casually.

Kleay smiled. These strangers were friendly, and very nice. Except for the one named Halt. He had a grim look on his face at all times. Kleay arched one eyebrow at the thought. Oddly enough, the one called Will and Gilan smiled at the movement. Kleay smiled at them again.

"Well," she said. "I really think you're nice and all, but," she paused. "but I really need to get home to my parents." Then she sighed. She didn't know where she was at all.

The three men blinked at her, then exchanged looks. "Actually," Will began. "We need you to come with us. We need to ask you some questions." Kleay frowned and then looked around at the trees surrounding her. She didn't know where she was. These men could help her. She looked back at them.

Will was staring at her and Halt was just as taciturn as ever. "Fine, I don't have any choice." She walked over to them and then stopped. Will gently took her wrist.

"Come on, follow us."

"And don't try anything funny." added Halt. He picked up his weapons and clipped them on.

Kleay scowled at him. "I'm not stupid." she snapped, flattening her ears and letting her tail whip around angrily. Will widened his eyes slightly at Kleay's show of anger. He gently pulled her along behind him.

They had been walking for about a minute when Kleay smelled a familiar scent. She stopped and turned around. "Jackar!" she cried. Halt, Will and Gilan turned and looked. Kleay was smiling at a short cat-man dressed in black and gray with black ears tipped with white. He glided out of the bushes and turned impassive black eyes on the three rangers.

Jackar blinked slowly. "The prophecy is being fulfilled." he said in an ominous voice. "The invisible ones have come."


Well, do you all like suspense? Then be prepared!

R&R please!

Oh yeah, if ya'll haven't guessed, I'm southern. So that's why I keep saying, 'ya'll'. It's an abbreviated way to say, 'you all'. I say it all the time.