"Do you see this?" Allen shouted into the forest.

Lavi spun on a heel, searching the dense jungle with his one good eye. His heart began to pound as he realized he must've lost Allen. Shoot - he'd gone off daydreaming again. This was no time to get lost in his own head when there were... giant snakes... about...

His skin crawled, and he shook the feeling off as he started to work his way back to Allen. He swatted away the clouds of mosquitoes, feeling mild annoyance, but it was muted, as if someone had put a damper on all his emotions. He was like a piano with a pillow stuffed on top of the strings so no matter how hard you shoved down on the keys, only the most muffled of notes rang out.

But it was a small price to pay. He had no more blackouts, and he could control the sudden memories. With the medication making everything fuzzy, it was easier to bat away those unwanted memories, even if it made him feel as if he were floating through a gray mist.

He beat his way through the foliage until he was standing by Allen, and he stared up at the wall of vines Allen stood in front of. Lavi frowned, raising his lantern to cast light on it. Carved, worn rock glowed orange underneath the vines, and Lavi looked left and right. The structure was a conical stair-step, and it was nearly a hundred feet tall, an extraordinary height for something so old. The trees towered over it, and it seemed to meld into the forest surrounding them. It was as if it were a part of the rainforest, reclaimed by nature.

"What is it?" Allen asked.

"Not sure. Some kind of temple, I think," Lavi muttered under his breath. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out a piercing whistle, hoping to get the other men's attention.

"Shall we?" Lavi asked, gesturing to the temple.

Allen looked uncertain, staring at the structure warily. He didn't like this. Lavi could tell. Something about the building just... didn't sit right with the white-haired kid. Lavi was used to old ruins, though. He'd been in more abandoned temples and houses than a politician's been in cathouses. He touched the rock, feeling the grit under his fingers, and he looked up again at the larger carvings, his eyes tracking the scattered pictures. Tellingly, he recognized the faint outline of a quetzalcoatl, as well as several men hung upside down, arms over their heads.

Lavi gestured for Allen to follow, and he walked around the temple. Surely there was a door somewhere...

"Shouldn't we wait for the others?" Allen asked nervously. He rubbed his arms, getting gooseflesh despite the stifling air. Even Akuma weren't quite so bad as this. At least Allen could sense them, unlike this monster that seemed to blend with the rest of the forest.

"No... they'll catch up soon, anyhow. Look, we need to get into this temple. I get the feeling Pedro is in here," Lavi stated, knocking a fist against the rock. "And I feel bad for him. That amphithere's probably got his head so wrapped around, his brain'll be a pretzel by now."

"What is it that amphitheres do?" Allen asked as the two of them searched for some kind of entrance.

"They tell riddles, like Jiji said. They feed off the confusion of mankind, but they thrive off knowledge, too. Some say if you answered all their questions, they'd reward you. If you could stump them, they'd give you an entire kingdom," Lavi recounted, recalling all of the information he'd ever encountered concerning amphitheres as preparation for this trip.

"Didn't Darrin's cylinder say something about a feather snake?" Allen asked.

"Yeah, it did. That was one of the reasons we came out here. The other was that Akuma were attacking along this highway as it was," Lavi said, passing by a relief of a quetzalcoatl -

Wait a second, they'd just seen that, hadn't they? Lavi frowned, touching the wall pensively. Yep, he'd definitely just been here. Of course - they couldn't make it easy.

"A riddle wrapped in an conundrum inside of an enigma," Lavi grumbled in annoyance.

"We went in a complete circle, haven't we?" Allen asked sheepishly.

"Yep! It got us good. JIJI, HURRY IT UP, WILL YA?! I AIN'T GOT ALL NIGHT!" Lavi shouted into the rainforest.

The only answer was the constant cacophony of the rainforest and their labored breathing from the vigorous hike around the temple.

"D'you think -?"

"Don't go there."

The two boys looked back at the temple.

"Well... how do we get in if there's no door?" Allen muttered, more to himself than to Lavi. He tapped his chin with his black hand, and Lavi was suddenly hit with an idea.

"We make our own door!" Lavi professed, activating Tensui.

Allen stared at his friend with incredulity, and he gestured to the massive temple.

"Lavi, that's got to be more than a foot of rock -"

"Grow-"

"- you don't seriously think you can just - "

"Grow -"

"- oh, for heaven's sakes -"

"Ready or not, here I come!"

With that, Tensui had grown to about the size of an elephant, blotting out the moon overhead. Allen was honestly surprised that Lavi had anywhere to put the darned thing, considering there was hardly space to walk around between the trees, much less swing the head of a massive hammer anywhere. Allen rolled his eyes as Lavi brought the hammer down, quite literally -

Both boys were flung back into the forest as if from a massive blast for the second time that day, and Allen found himself, once again, in a tree while Lavi lay with his legs dangling over his head, back to a tree and head in the dirt. The two boys groaned as they tried to right themselves. Allen fell out of the tree with a girlish shout as Lavi pinwheeled his legs in an attempt to get back on his feet rather than on his head.

"What... pthoo ... happened?!" Allen coughed, spitting out a leaf. He stumbled over to Lavi, and he surveyed the 'damage' the redhead had done to the temple.

Absolutely none. Not a single scratch.

Allen helped Lavi stand up, and the dazed apprentice stared at his handiwork, or rather, lack thereof. He stamped his feet and muttered several colorful phrases about the amphithere's parentage that made Allen blush.

"Lavi! Watch your mouth!"

"What? It's not like we've got little kids running around. And that one time was an accident, I swear - I had no idea Timothy was listening when I said Kanda looked like he was a tr-"

"No more, please," Allen pleaded, hands on his knees as he tried to get his breath back.

The two of them looked at the temple, and Lavi stretched his back, trying to work out the kinks. He sighed.

"So brute force doesn't work," Lavi grumbled. "It figures."

"Apparently not. I guess there's some kind of force field or something," Allen muttered, scuffing the ground with a boot, sending leaves and debris flying.

And then, suddenly, Lavi was struck with another idea. He looked at the ground where Allen had created a rut in the deep detritus of the forest floor, and he pointed down.

"Wait wait wait, we don't need to force our way in - we just have to know how the first guy found the door," Lavi said. "There's got to be a rut somewhere from the amphithere. It's a feathered snake, but I don't remember anyone saying it could fly."

"Heaven forbid such a thing," Allen said, shuddering. "Well, what are we waiting for? I'll look over here, and you -"

"Nah-ah-ah, we are not splitting up! You saw what happened to the last guy. He's getting mind raped by the freaky feather snake right now, so I think it'd be better if we stuck together," Lavi said, practically standing on top of Allen as he hugged the kid's head to his chest and looked around the forest with apprehension and a squinted eye. Allen, used to this kind of treatment, gently extricated himself from Lavi's over-the-top embrace.

"Alright. Let's see what we can dig up," Allen said calmly.

The two of them used a stick to mark their starting point in case they walked around in circles again. They slowly made their way around together, kicking aside leaves and sticks in hopes of finding some clue. It wasn't until they were a third of the way around that Lavi noticed a long rut headed towards the temple - and then suddenly disappearing. It was as if the beast had run headlong into the outside of the temple and just vanished.

"What in the Sam Hill?" Allen said, staring at the seemingly magical trail they'd been left to follow.

"Really? Sam Hill?" Lavi asked with an amused expression, staring at Allen. The young boy made a face.

"I picked it up from Darrin! He says it quite a lot, you know, so it rubbed off on me..."

The two boys stared at the temple for quite a few more moments before Allen suggested, "Perhaps we should go back to camp. It's a fool's errand; this may not even be where the amphithere took Pedro, and we could be wasting time!"

Lavi's eye seemed to be far off as he stared at the building, and he slowly shook his head. "No... this is it. And I think I know why we can't get in..."

Allen stared at the redhead, who'd whipped out Tensui again. Jitters of apprehension crawled against his skin as he thought about the last time Lavi had attempted to fix this problem with his hammer. He chewed on his lips, staring at the Innocence in his friend's hand, and he muttered, "Lavi, is that such a good idea...?"

Lavi looked over at Allen in confusion before it dawned on him what the white-haired kid must be thinking.

"Hey, I may look stupid, but that doesn't mean I'm actually stupid. Nah, we've been looking at this all wrong. We kept thinking the door had to be down here. What if it isn't? What if the door is up there?" Lavi asked, pointing Tensui at the top of the conical pyramid. No doubt, at some point, there had been a kind of doorway up there, or a square centerpiece. The stairs must have long been obscured by the vines, but that was all fine and dandy for an amphithere. All that mattered was that there was something for the amphithere to climb up...

"You want to climb up there?" Allen asked slowly.

"Nope," Lavi said simply. "We're gonna fly."

"Fly - ? - whatdoyouthinkyou'redoingputmedownthisminute!"

Lavi dragged the rather stunned Allen through the air as Tensui's handle extended forward and up, lifting them into the air. Lavi could see the top of the temple now, and sure enough there was a rather large hole with a pole smack dab in the middle, no doubt for the serpent's use.

"Ha ha! I was right! See that, Allen? A hole," Lavi said.

"Lavi, I was never meant to be this high off the ground," Allen lamented, clinging to his redheaded "friend" as much as he was able. Allen wasn't typically afraid of heights, but Lavi could be reckless and unpredictable, and for all he knew, Lavi might just drop him right here and now with some missive to get Bookman or something of the like. Or, worse, they might go higher. Allen was not a fan of riding the hammer handle, and he preferred to have his feet on the ground.

"Alright, alright, we'll go down, then," Lavi sighed, and Tensui shrunk until the tip of the handle was level with the highest tier of the temple.

Allen tentatively put his feet on the edge, and Lavi pushed him over. However, he'd shoved just a bit too hard, and Allen ended up falling face first down the hole. Lavi winced as he heard a distinct "AH!" and a thud. He followed after quickly, and he bent on his knees to look down into the temple. Allen lay face up, staring up in a daze at Lavi from what looked like the highest floor. A door led out to the rest of the pyramid, and it was suspiciously big enough for a certain giant snake.

"Alleeeeeeen~! Are you okay down there?!" Lavi called, leaning forward -

- too fast, as karma would have it. He pinwheeled his arms to keep his balance, but it was too late. He landed on top of the pole, smack dab in the middle of his back, and promptly fell face down on the slabs. He made choking sounds as he felt his vertebrae do some kind of musical shuffle, realigning themselves. He curled up on his side and tried not to shout at the heavens for his bad fortune.

True, it was probably payback for pushing Allen down the hole, but that was a genuine accident.

"Come on, get up," Allen sighed, trying to pull Lavi to his feet. The kid was obstinate, though. He whined and curled up in a ball, unwilling to get up.

"Do you want the feather snake to come to us, or us to it? It's your choice," Allen said rather calmly, staring with amusement at his rather childish partner.

Lavi was suddenly very eager to get going. Amazing what a little bit of incentive will do.

They walked through the door and found that the hallways and rooms were formed in much the same way as a snail shell. The hallway was a sloping ramp that spiraled down, with rooms full of odd instruments and scrolls on each floor. Bas-reliefs covered the walls as they made their way down towards the bottom of the pyramid, and eyes seemed to follow them. Allen shivered as gooseflesh cropped up over his arms, and Lavi tried to ignore the sensation of being watched.

On the last few turns of the ramp, they'd noticed the tunnel was becoming brighter and brighter, illuminated by a sickly green glow. The two crept forward, all business. They finally reached the main doorway to a large atrium, almost thirty feet high. A pool of water, probably a sinkhole, punched a hole in the floor. On the ceiling, vines trailed down in streamers. Stalactites dripped down, but they were tiny, no bigger than a man's forefinger.

"You see Pedro?" Allen asked.

"Nope," Lavi drawled slowly, scanning the room.

They both straightened up from their crouch, walking around the circular atrium. It was beautiful, in an odd way. The light originated from a massive, luminescent stone in the middle of the ceiling, and the light bounced off the water in the sinkhole, magnifying it somehow. Lavi stood at the edge of the sinkhole, and he whistled appreciatively.

"That's a big hole in the ground," he muttered to himself.

There was a sudden rumbling, like a great boulder trying to wedge itself through a crack in a mountain. Allen and Lavi ran to each other, back to back, and they listened patiently for the noise. It seemed to come from all around, though, and Lavi looked towards the doorway.

He ushered Allen to a piece of fallen masonry, and the two sat with their backs to it, hardly breathing in anticipation. The two looked at each other with trepidation as something big slid into the room.

"Lavi," Allen whispered, tugging on the other boy's shirt.

"What?" Lavi snapped, keeping an ear out for their guest.

"I think I found Pedro," Allen muttered, pointing upwards.

Amid the stalactites, an inert, humanoid figure swung from the vines, wrapped among them like a fly trapped in a web. It wasn't obvious whether the man was conscious or not.

"We can't let him hang upside down for too long. All the blood will rush to his head," Lavi whispered.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice slithered, weaving into the boys' ears, winding around in their brain, and making its way back out. Allen felt his skin go cold, and Lavi itched his scalp as if a spider had infiltrated his skull. If goosebumps hadn't already formed massive colonies by now, they were rampant as wildfire. The spine ached and twanged like a taut string, and the nerves spat and fizzled under their skin.

It spoke in Mayan, but somehow the language was clear. The two panted, and an oppressive feeling overwhelmed them.

"I suppose you've come for your friend. I'm glad. I love visitors. I don't get enough of them. Hopefully, in time, more friends will follow your lead."

Lavi looked back up at Pedro. He heard a faint whine, and he sighed with relief. The man was alive, but there was no telling what his mental state was like. Being locked up with this... snake for too long was enough to drive the strongest willed man mad. He got Allen's attention, pointed to the man, and then pointed to Allen's black arm. Allen gave him a horrified look, pointing to himself.

Lavi slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand, and he gestured to himself, then back to the... thing crawling around out there.

I'll distract it, Lavi mouthed, but Allen still looked rather skeptical. Finally, Allen sighed, threw up his hands, and bolted to the wall. Lavi saluted to Allen's back with a cheeky smile, and he ran out to find the snake.

He didn't have to look far. It was big enough to cover almost half the circle that made up the floor. Iridescent feathers covered its body, and a fan-shape adorned the end of its tail. In a strange way, it was almost beautiful, but the head... the head nixed that idea.

A cruel, reptilian face swung around, searching the cavern. It was vaguely humanoid, just enough to cause shivers. Something was decidedly wrong about the face, but Lavi couldn't put his finger on it. The eyes were golden, slits digging through middle, and they seemed to take up half its face. The face was covered in a fine down of feathers, so small as to be almost imperceptible.

A rattle erupted from its throat as Lavi pounded his hammer into the ground to get its attention. It coiled on itself and rose up.

"A Bookman..." it hissed, eyes twitching up and down the young man. Lavi got the distinct feeling it was sizing him up. He swallowed, testing his words in his mind.

"What about it?" Lavi quipped in Mayan, quirking an eyebrow. The amphithere slithered closer, a smile stretching on its face. It was almost fifteen feet long, thick and undulating.

"I haven't seen your kind here in a long time. I remember we used to have... competitions. You couldn't become a Master without coming across one of us, first," the amphithere chuckled. The ripples of laughter seemed to wash over the Junior Apprentice's skin, and a sweat broke out over his forehead.

"Really, now? What happened, then?" Lavi asked, walking away from Allen and Pedro. The young man was steadily working his way up the ladder of vines to the captive man.

The question struck a chord. A chain of shivers seemed to cross the serpent's feathers, a single wave of discontent. Lavi heard a clicking noise as a secondary eyelid shut over golden eyes, watching him.

"We are... few."

"I'd say so. You're the only one I've heard of. I'd dare say, you may be the only one left."

The amphithere hissed in warning. It swung its head towards Lavi faster than his eye could follow.

"Because of you men and your hateful cunning. You banish confusion, drink up the knowledge you got from us, destroy our lifeblood. We were the guardians of gods. Now... we are legend," the amphithere scolded, imperiously bent almost double in frustration and indignation. "But you make trouble for yourselves, anyways. It is in your nature. Your comeuppance is upon you. Now, what is it you want?"

Lavi stood by the wall, effectively blocking himself in. The amphithere had him cornered, if that could be said in a round room. However, its head was turned from Allen, who was trying to find a way to lower the inert man without dropping him. He needed more time. The Exorcist begged Lavi with his eyes, grimacing as he tried to take Pedro's weight.

"A feather. I just want... a feather," Lavi professed as the amphithere lowered its humanoid face to stare into Lavi's own. His visage swam on top of the golden eye surveying him, and the amphithere began to laugh, great rolling guffaws.

"A feather! Ah, so you are being tested! Oh, how long has it been since I've been asked for a feather!" the amphithere bellowed, almost rolling on the ground. "I-I-I could g-give you an entire kingdom! No, the secrets to life! To death! I could give you anything, but what you ask is for a measly feather."

Lavi gave a shaky smile. "But you will give me a feather?"

The serpent stared at Lavi almost blankly. The eyes remained wide as the snake swayed in thought.

"Oh, I will. For a price."

"A price?"

"A wager."

Lavi muttered a curse. He hated making bets. The last time he made a bet, he ended up scrubbing the bathroom floor wearing a maid's costume for Jerry's pleasure.

"Fine. A feather for...?"

"Your... companionship."

"How long?"

"Seven years of your life."

Lavi stood there, his face completely level. On the inside... it was a different story. His mind was whirling around to a thousand places at once, debating the pros and cons, trying to see if the risk was worth it. Seven years. Seven years was a long time. Definitely not forever, but still a long time. And besides, he didn't know what the wager entailed. It could be flipping a coin. No, no, this was an amphithere. They loved riddles too much. Guardians always love riddles.

All he needed was a stupid feather. He could just reach out and pluck one off, get himself out of this mess quick, but he had a feeling that wasn't going to be as easy as he expected.

"You're on. What's the game?"

"Oh... pitz," the amphithere chuckled, curling away.

Lavi frantically looked over at Allen -

The kid was gone. He must've run for it as fast as he could. A sigh of relief imperceptibly rushed out.

"Play ball," Lavi snarked, smirking at the serpent. It seemed to rattle its tail, a strange look on its face.

It suddenly swept Lavi into the sinkhole without further ado. He didn't even have time to shout. There was a large splash... and then, nothing. The snake followed after with a ruffle of feathers and a quiet hiss.

"This is most definitely where the boys were. Now, if we can just find them," Bookman grumbled to himself.

Darrin had tracked the two after hearing Lavi's piercing whistle, but once they had arrived at the temple, it was definite no one was here. They had found a newly formed pile of broken branches from someone climbing out of a tree rather haphazardly, as well as skid marks and disturbed foliage around the temple. The group of men muttered among themselves in Spanish, nervously shuffling their feet.

"Dunno, pardner, but they might'a hitched farther away to follow th' creature," Darrin suggested, looking up from his tracks. However, it sounded like he didn't believe that himself. The two stared at the temple a little longer.

"It's almost two in the morning," Ricardo sighed from behind Bookman. "Should we go back?"

"You can, but I won't," Link said irately, adjusting his cuffs. "I cannot leave Walker by himself or allow him to escape. I'm going to keep looking."

"And I cannot leave my apprentice. Amphitheres and Bookman have a... shaky history," Bookman corroborated.

Slowly, men began walking back to the camp as Link and Bookman continued forward, Darrin following behind with his canister strapped to his back.

Bookman rapped the temple wall with his fingernail, and he almost groaned. It was warded with heavy magic. Not to mention, they'd walked around the temple nearly five times before realizing they were walking in circles. The old man shook his head as he looked up at the top of the temple.

"There should be a structure up there..." Bookman mumbled to himself, rubbing his chin in thought.

Suddenly, something emerged from the top, and all three men stiffened. Link grabbed a knife. Bookman put a hand on Heavenly Compass. Darrin's hand twitched towards the revolver he had at his side constantly.

A white face peered over and slumped with relief.

"Thank God," Allen groaned, putting his head to the vine-covered stone. Pedro was leaning on his shoulder, gently gibbering in Spanish, eyes wide and unblinking. It would be a while before he would be back to normal.

"It looks as if your charge can handle himself," Bookman said with a smile, and Link stowed his knife with a slight sigh.

"The Lord smiles on me. I'd hate to bushwhack another inch through that forest," Link muttered under his breath as he climbed up the outer foliage that seemed to latch on to the rock. The other two men followed close behind. It took them

"Where's Lavi?" Bookman asked as he took Pedro. He checked the man's eyes, and he found they dilated normally as well as were operating right, just... he hadn't blinked in what seemed to be a long time.

"He told me to leave him. He's... negotiating with the amphithere for something, I'm not sure. He gave us time to get out," Allen assured. Link helped the boy climb down as they made their way back to the ground, all of them quiet as they chewed over the heavy news.

"You go on. I will stay behind and wait for my apprentice," Bookman assured as the silence stretched to breaking point. The cacophony took over as Bookman stared at the temple, a weary feeling filling his bones.

Allen helped Link lead Pedro away into the forest, Allen looking over his shoulder every few seconds, while Bookman surveyed the temple. He didn't care to go back up the thing. He didn't know why he didn't just stay up there to begin with. He hadn't been thinking.

"Need any help?" Darrin asked, which pushed Bookman from his reverie.

"I don't believe I will," Bookman said. "This is a matter between Bookmen and their former compatriots."

"You got truck with them feathered demons?" Darrin pressed curiously, and Bookman only gave the man a sidelong glance.

"At one point in our history, we were something like partners. They kept the people confused and hid the secret wars of the world from those who didn't need to know, but in the meantime they also hoarded knowledge. Eventually, we had... a difference in opinion. We fought. Not many of them are left," Bookman recounted. It suddenly occurred to him he was divulging Clan secrets, and he blinked, realizing he had forgotten himself.

"But never mind that. My idiot apprentice is probably in danger. The amphitheres have long memories," Bookman said, turning back to the temple and the situation at hand. "You had best find your way to camp. I will be with you shortly."

Darrin stared at Bookman for a while, barely having to look down at the short man. He recognized the look of someone who had secrets to keep, and this guy looked like he had enough skeletons in the closet to outclass a graveyard. He slowly turned and walked back into the brush, disappearing into the foliage like a ghost amid the trees.

At first, he'd felt crushed. His body was being shoved through a hole meant for a piece of straw, and his mind was in a likewise state. The feeling could only have lasted a few moments, but as with all uncomfortable scenarios, those few moments felt more akin to years.

When he was at last freed from torment, he hit something solid. He didn't dare open his eyes or try and breathe. His last (very vivid) memory was being swept into the cenote by the feathered snake, and he was certain he must've hit the bottom or a wall.

But he didn't feel wet. In fact, he felt quite dry, and air was blowing past him, so he couldn't possibly be in the water.

He opened his eye to an incredibly large cavern, so large that the ceiling above was hidden. Torches hung, still and breathless. They lit the dark space, but their light was curbed, almost as if it were too timid to reach out into the strange twilight of the cavern. A circular playing field radiated around him, packed dirt making up the oddly flat floor. The space inside the cavern was immense; a cathedral could sit comfortably with several companions in this massive hole in the ground.

Lavi got up and dusted himself off, realizing belatedly that he had inexplicably been changed out of his typical clothes. Now he was wearing only a loincloth and hipguards. He should've figured. He was told they were playing pitz after all.

It was the ancient Mayan ballgame the Hero Twins of myth played against the Lords of the Underworld. He was familiar with the symbolism of the game, and he had to admit that this stupid snake had some style. No doubt, he was in the Underworld, Xibalba.

His skin crawled, thinking that he was in the depths of the earth. This guy pulled out all the stops for his riddles.

Quickly, he took stock of the rest of his surroundings. Pitz fields were shaped like an valley, but unlike the typical pitz pitch, this field was circular. The walls sloped inwards to form a kind of shallow bowl, and exactly nine hoops were set up around the entire court. All in all, the field had to be a half-mile across with the walls included.

There was a serpentine shhh-shhh of scales on dirt, and Lavi turned around.

"So what's your riddle?" Lavi asked, bouncing from foot to foot eagerly.

"First, the rules. Head, hips, legs, and arms only. No hands or feet," the serpent stated. "If the ball goes out of bounds, the game ends."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"Oh, why yes. Feed the warrior."

Lavi frowned with an exaggerated pout.

"That tells me absolutely nothing!"

"The best riddles do," the amphithere hissed sardonically.

A ball suddenly landed on the top of Lavi's head with the force of a meteorite coming in from space. He had hardly cleared the stars from his eyes before he noticed that the amphithere had already hit the ball up the wall and away from him.

That's not fair. He doesn't even have hands or feet to foul with, Lavi thought peevishly as he raced to catch up.

The game was afoot. He'd better get moving.

A/N: It's that time of year again. The time of year to slack, eat whatever's in the fridge, and get mentally prepared for another year of sch-... scho-... education. As such, here's another chapter, the fruits of my (limited) labor! I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the people who subscribe and favorite the story! I've decided to instate a different policy towards thanking individuals for their expressions of interest rather than announcing it rather publicly. The same goes for reviewers.

However, the discussion questions remain: Has this chapter moved along the story, or is it more like filler to you? What kind of things have you noticed about the characters or the challenges ahead? Are there any characters in particular you wished you could see more of? Are emotions running high, or are they puttering along?

Send me your answers, in either PM or review, whichever you prefer.

God bless you, and keep reading!