Me: and another! What ya think of that, Mushra?!
Mushra: ….What? You say something? I'm still enjoying our victory.
Me:…but we were attacked/captured again…
Mushra: I'M TRYING TO ENJOY OUR VICTORY, JORDAN
Me: ….Ooookay. Do that. And you all, enjoy!

Chapter 11—Living or Surviving

"…Winter? Jaden? Heather?" Sago spoke worriedly into the phone, holding it in front of his face once he figured out the speaker phone function. "We promise we're coming for you! And whoever's done this!"

"Sago, what on Enterra's going on?" Mushra came rushing down the stairs, and he seemed to have heard the distress and was on alert. Kutaal joined soon after, and the others as well, who must have all heard.

"Something else has happened—centipedes, they were captured and taken by them. Winter was able to tell me that, before the phone went dead, or…or something else happened. We've got to get them." Sago stowed away the phone in the folds of his cloth before he headed for the door, the others following.

"But where? Did she say?" Mushra caught up to his pace, summoning his staff in his walk.

"The forest. I think they were chased through the forest. We'll get to the top of the hill and look for them there."

Mushra nodded, as Binka made a quick detour to go get Xavier and then her ride. Whistling, there was the distant hum of Mushra's hover board, and Sago detoured briefly to take up his hover bike (slightly modified by insistence of some of the local mech-beings over the years). Jumping when he knew it was nearing, Mushra landed on the board as Sago climbed on his ride. They stopped at the edge of the city when Xavier had caught up with Binka.

"What's going on?" he didn't look as if he'd even been to sleep yet, he simply seemed alert and rustled as he climbed out of the turtle.

"The girls have been taken by bug Enterran's." Sago stated. "We don't know for what or why, but they took them before they got through the portal."

"Easy enough to beat." Mushra commented. "Let's just hope they're not stupid enough to do anything to the girls before we get there…"

"Good thing I reloaded this bad boy!" Binka said, raising her bazooka over her shoulder.

"You and Kutaal should stay." Mushra stated.

"Us too?!" the kittens asked in complaints, as they hadn't let the others leave without them, and they earned a nod from Sago, and the three of them pouted.

"Why leave us behind, we helped your tired buts back there in Zortown!" Binka reminded the two of them, and Kutaal nodded.

"She is right! And what if you are in need of me?!" he offered.

But Mushra just shook his head. "There's obviously something going on. Two factions of Enterran's trying to take the girls? There has never been newcomers like them, with their knowledge…. We've had peace for so long, I have a hunch that that peace is ending… What's behind it and where it will go, we don't know, but we have to be prepared. I need you two to start getting parties together, to make contact with the other towns and start assessing what's going on."

Sago nodded. "Me, Mushra, and Xavier should be able to handle this. Those bugs were nothing like the reptiles when we fought them in the past—well…in the—"

"We agreed not to try and define that." Mushra commented. "It's strange enough having two lives in my head; you guys should keep to seeing it as one life."

Taking his meaning as his experiences as a Guardian that he still held in his mind, and his life here, Sago went on. "We'll get them back, as soon as possible. In the meantime, we need to be looking for answers. What brought Ryuma to remember us from the time before? And has anyone else begun to remember anything? Can you guys do that?"

"Yes we can!" Sen cheered. "We'll get those answers, no matter what it takes!"

Mushra chuckled, but looked to Kutaal and Binka. "Trust us. We'll be back here soon."

The two reluctantly nodded, and made a return into the city; parting their ways to begin to seek out people to form the separate parties to go to the towns.

The three Enterran men set forward from there, Xavier riding with Sago. Once they reached the top of the hill, Sago pulled the phone out once more and dialed Jaden's number.

"What's the point of that? I thought you mentioned Winter dropped it." Mushra stated.

"We could find where they were taken and follow from there. Those big creatures have got to make a trail with bodies and legs like that." Sago stated. Just entering the forest, they didn't hear much. This wasn't going to be easy. The sun had already begun setting once they'd returned to New Yora, and it was all-but gone now. Thankfully Sago had a light on the front of his hover bike, but it only lit so much space, and left the three of them highly alert.

The deeper they went, the more Sago worried the phone had been ruined, or perhaps taken despite what he'd thought.

"W-wait…I hear something..!" Mushra stated, and made a turn, zooming ahead into the darkness.

"Mushra, wait!" Sago complained, following after him. The call ended then. "Damn." He dialed again.

"NO, I LOST IT, WHA-….NEVERMIND."

Soon, he caught up with Mushra's hover board hovering beside a big tree, and no Mushra in sight. Before he came around the end of the trunk of the fallen tree, with a small shining object in hand. Jaden's phone. The 'I Hope You Dance' song came to an end once Sago closed Winters phone, and the two stowed the objects away.

"There's a grouped trail on the other side of this." Mushra pointed to the tree. "We should start following there as fast as we can." He gave a small whistle for the hover board as it came down to where he could step onto it, and as it rose once more, he crouched and zoomed through the air, Sago revving up his hover-bike and following after him, providing the light to follow the trail more clearly.

The longer they rode, the more it began to bug Mushra. All this time, there had been no signs of unrest or disruption in any of the cities or towns or lands. Sure, they couldn't be in every single one, all the time. But they have allies, or civilians who have looked to them for aid whom they've told to call upon them if they are ever in need. With Lanancuras gone, it almost felt like the longer they were without him, the less unrest, corruption, or violence came about. Sure, there were simple deeds, and half of them, Yakumo's three warriors had no place to judge as they had committed such deeds themselves. Mushra had come to believe it was the corrupted guardian who had caused it, and by his understanding of his past life, it was very possible. But could he have been wrong?

"Hey, Sago…" he spoke then to his friend.

"Yeah?"

"Have we been too distracted or too hopeful since…since I returned? Since you guys found me?" he asked.

"Found you…?" Xavier asked, confused, without thinking or realizing he interrupted.

"Mushra had given his life to defeat Lanancuras, but seeing as how he had taken guardian form, upon his fall his Enterran form survived." Sago explained.

"And my guardian card did, as well, which I keep somewhere safe." Mushra said, with his fist curled in front of his chest as his arm rested on his knee.

"We sought him out, hoping he had landed back on Enterra, and he did. From there, we committed ourselves to repairing Enterra." Sago looked ahead to Mushra then. "And no, we haven't been too hopeful… We took down a great evil, and sacrificed…something precious in the process. We deserved hope."

Mushra nodded slowly. And he knew, the one who had sacrificed herself did so to give them that hope.

"We've been what we needed to be, Mushra, I think… What more could we have done?"

The fire Enterran only shrugged, and kept his focus ahead.

Their travel brought them another ten minutes forward before Sago had to call for a stop. He climbed off his hover bike, and observed the ground, looking back at what he could see of the ground behind them, and the trees. He looked around, and ahead.

"They split up; they tried to confuse their path. They suspect us of coming." Sago told them and climbed back on.

Mushra folded his arms, considering the two paths, now that he noticed them. "…So which way…?"

"This one." He pointed to one that turned east.

"But it's only one line of legs." Xavier spoke."

"Exactly." Sago nodded.

"Wouldn't there be more traveling together to carry the girls?" he reasoned, only to earn a shake of Sago's head.

"Possibly, or they'd want us to think so." Sago offered. "They would expect us to follow that way. I know this is the way we have to go."

"And how do you know?" Xavier questioned.

Sago looked back to him. "How do you know I'm wrong?"

Xavier watched him for a moment, annoyed almost, before looking away. "…I don't, I'm just pointing out…"

"Well I say they're this way. If you feel they're that way, by all means, follow the two trails that have less damage despite being two, whereas the single one has more as if in a rush." Sago was almost irritated, like he was offended by whatever this was with Xavier, the distrust or doubt in his reasoning.

But Xavier said no more, and stared on ahead without a word.

Mushra watched them worriedly, before he began leading again.

Silence followed form that point on and it seemed like this path would not end. It wasn't until they reached the end of the trees, they realized their enemies hadn't just been in waiting. They'd traveled far to get here, and would be traveling far back.

"We can't stop. We have to get to them, as soon as we can."

I I I

"When you faced these Enterran's before, what happened? Why did they attack you, or go after you?" Xavier asked when they had gone so long without talking.

"Because we tried to sneak into their base. A castle, which we had thought had been our friends destination, Shinzo.." Mushra told him. "There was…hate for humans before, and once word got out of…of Yakumo's existence, many factions of Enterran General's or just Enterrans of power were out for her head."

Xavier was confused by that. "Why would they hate humans? Humans began us, didn't they?"

"They did. But the Generals lead the races into an age of hate against them, to hide their deeds against the humans, do to Lanancuras's influence. They were made to believe the humans were monsters." Mushra said. "Defending Yakumo earned us a lot of enemies. Daku is who we attack that had the centipede beasts and their riders; he was the Insect King and General. Ryuma, the Reptile King and General. But we sacrificed ourselves, before…" Mushra said thoughtfully, looking ahead. "And the world changed, became better. Humans lived, instead of being wiped out. And we all lived in peace, before Lanancuras began to wake…."

It had seemed as if Mushra had more to say, and then he just stopped. Sago took noticed, looking to his friend.

"Mushra?"

"Should we have accepted them into our world once we found out where they came from?" He asked suddenly, and surprisingly. But there was a thoughtful look upon his face, as if he was really considering this.

"Why would you ask that?" Sago remarked.

"Their appearance here…everything they knew…and we accepted them here." Mushra pointed out.

"Because they're good people, and they'd become good friends by the time they told us the truth... Mushra—"

"We knew something was off, about them knowing." Mushra pointed out. "I couldn't know a thing about WHY, if it was any guardian stuff, all I have is my memories and knowledge from that life and few senses earned from that knowledge. Why would they be given that knowledge? And how could we know anything good could come of their presence?"

"We didn't, but we didn't know any bad could come of it, either. And we still don't know that—Ryuma took them to get back at us, he found out something of our past with him on his own." Sago argued, Xavier silent all the while as they talked. "Mushra, this is crazy."

"No it's not!" Mushra spoke, and he was suddenly very adamant about this. Emotional as well, and the look in his eyes, and the fact that he turned his hover board and brought their traveling to a halt, made Sago stay quiet. "What if their very presence here has, somehow, put them at risk? I think we should send them home, find a way to block or close the portal once we have them back again."

"Mushra.." Sago almost tried to argue.

"If this DOES become something more dangerous than we've experienced since Lanancuras, I will not put them in harm's way—I will not risk anymore lives of any of my friends, not like we did Yakumo!"

Sago said nothing to that. He almost seemed to flinch, the memory of losing her still too painful.

"…Maybe he's right. If they were meant for this world…then why were they not born in it? If they were meant to be by your side, fighting, why were they not born Enterran's?" Xavier offered suddenly, and Sago was even more surprised of him. He'd been through less than they had, and had less reason present in his memories to think this was needed. And even more connection with one of those girls to be willing to let her go.

Sago just shook his head. "No."

"Sago, you know, I have a point." Mushra said firmly, only for Sago to return with his own firm 'No'.

"If they weren't meant for this world, that portal would have never came into existence. Let's focus on saving them, before we decide what life to force them to stay in." he said to end the discussion, and his hover-bike took off at a higher speed than before.

There was a purpose for all that had come to pass. And what was soon to come, as well.

Me: some boy focus for ya. Poor guys. No rest for the weary, as they say. And they sure are weary.
Mushra: *snoring in the background*
Me: …..*devilish grin initiated* *sneaks away and comes back, crawling up behind him….and raises a foghorn* …ehehehe…
Mushra: zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Me: *presses and releases the horns of hell*
Mushra: *suddenly shot into the air, the squeal dying out the higher he goes*
Me: wow *watches* look at'em go…. Review if you'd like! New chap coming soon!