Hey, I'm back. I'll make this quick.

ara celene: Ye, Dan's probably going to go through a lot in the next few chapters with him. Oh, and you know what, I'll tell you the truth about Cara. Just because.

Reincarnation starts with 'rein'. What else starts with 'rein'?

REINDEER! BLITZEN IS ACTUALLY THE REINCARNATION OF NOTCH! CARA'S A FRAUD AND SHE KNOWS IT!

Just kidding.

Unless?

Also I completely forgot about Shell last chapter. Sorry, Shell! I didn't mean to forget about you! I promise you'll be in this chapter! (maybe)

Sorry to keep you waiting! Read! Quickly!

Krios

I Play Tag With A Mage

You must be wondering. Toni was training and going to parties and generally vibing in Valaither for the past four months. What have I been doing?

I've been running from bounty hunters, stocking up on supplies, and searching for the Nether Prison. Oh, and the occasional Valaither visit. Overall not as nice of an experience as Toni's.

I'd just woken up, but I felt like I hadn't slept at all. In fact, I was pretty sure I was more tired than if I hadn't slept.

The injuries didn't last—Ender fixed them pretty quickly.

What did last, though, was the concerns and worries of what Dan was hiding. Because he was hiding something.

Probably how he killed those kids.

I quickly shook my head. That might have still been a lie. What did I have for proof? The word of some madman who shot me in the leg.

And yet, Dan hadn't denied the claims.

I didn't like how petrified Dan had looked when the man had shown up. As if the man actually scared him, which I found ridiculous. He'd fought the literal reincarnation of Entity 303 before, and some guy with crossbows scared him?

Or was he more scared of what the man had to say?

"I didn't mean it."

"You didn't mean to kill them?" I said aloud. "Or did you mean something else?"

"Leg still hurting?" someone said, making me jump. It was Seu.

"No, I'm fine now." I stood. "Ender says I shouldn't overexert myself, though. Which is dumb. My leg doesn't even hurt."

"There could still be, like, torn muscles inside your leg though." Seu shrugged. "Or something like that."

"I'm fine." I began to roll up my sleeping bag, and there was an awkward silence. "Listen, about last night—"

"Who was that guy?" Seu finished. "I already told you, didn't I? I'm in the dark as much as you are."

"But you must know something. You've known Dan for longer than I have." I paused. "How much of the conversation did you hear?"

"Only the last bit." Seu said. "He said something about regret, and then Dan called for us."

"By the way, how did you guys know we were in trouble?" I asked.

"We heard screaming and decided to investigate." Seu glanced at the others. "They were too sleepy."

"Do you really not know a single thing about him?" I demanded.

Seu was silent before saying, "He's someone from Dan's past. Far back enough that I don't know who he is. We've only known Dan for three years, you know. Not that long."

"So it's been more than three years since Dan met the guy?" I muttered.

"Why are you so curious about him, anyways?" Seu frowned. "What did he say?"

I considered telling her for a moment, but decided not to. "Just…some suspicious things."

"Mhm." Seu nodded. "Well if you find out tell me. I'm curious too."

"Okay," I said as Seu walked away.

Dan, Dan, Dan. What do you have to hide?

?-V-?

Nobody had seen Dan. Apparently he'd taken his sleeping bag in the middle of the night and walked into the woods. I worried he'd just straight up left, but everyone assured me he wouldn't do that. Except for Nikai, but he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to stress me out, so I wasn't really inclined to listen to what he said.

Sure enough, Dan did come out of the woods with his sleeping bag. But his demeanor surprised me more than anything.

Dan swaggered out of the trees. He waved cheerfully to Durham and Nikai. Durham waved back—Nikai's hand kinda just twitched in Dan's direction.

"Alright guys, I've done a tiny bit of thinking." Dan said brightly. "I know, it's not my style. Thinking. But I've got one more person we can recruit to our cause."

"Our cause?" Ender snorted. "We're not a charity."

"Right you are, Ender." Dan nodded at Ender. "But, hear me out, I think we might actually have a chance this time."

"So we didn't have a chance the first ten times?" Nikai grumbled from afar. "Then what was the point of doing all that?"

"That's not what he said," Seu chastised Nikai. "Just listen."

I was taken aback—Dan was completely back to his old chipper self. Like he hadn't completely lost it the night before—like he hadn't looked absolutely horrified that night. I could understand why the others were acting normal, but Seu and Ender and even Durham should have noticed how messed up he'd been last night.

"Uh. Dan?" I said. "Do you have a history of short term memory loss in your family or something?"

Dan chuckled. "Classic Cal with the jokes. Anyways, and hear me out—we get Heather."

The group went silent for a moment—I could tell they were thinking.

"I know, I know." Dan raised his hands. "But let me spea—"

"No, that actually seems like a good idea." Seu said. "I'm not sure why we didn't think of that earlier."

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "And I'm not just agreeing because Seu's saying it—I actually agree."

"Simp," Ender snorted.

"Ender, you gotta stop calling me a simp. It's not true."

"You know it is."

"Ignoring them, it is actually a good plan." Orca said. "Heather would actually be more inclined to help Cal than you were at the beginning."

Durham nodded. "She always did help more than capture people."

"Then she should have become a police officer instead of a bounty hunter." Nikai snorted.

"But isn't she still on her vacation?" Ender asked.

Orca snorted. "She's been on her vacation for the past year. I think she could afford to start working again."

"Oh." Dan frowned. "For…some reason I thought it'd take more to convince you guys."

Still slightly confused, I asked, "Who's Heather again?"

"Our old boss," Seu said. "She's the one who brought all of us together. One way or another, she's saved everybody here."

"Yeah. Except, she's been on her stupid vacation for the past year." Ender scowled. "I'm pretty sure she was just using her vacation as an excuse to get away from us."

"Aw, that's not true." Durham said. "She must have a reason."

"I'm still not going to be happy with her when we find her." Ender muttered as she crossed her arms.

The whole time I watched Dan, only half listening to the others.

"Dan, who was that guy the other night?" I blurted.

I might have imagined it, but Dan's gaze seemed to get colder.

"Ah yes. I've been meaning to ask." Orca glanced at Dan. "What happened last night?"

Dan was silent for a moment before he grinned again. "Just some psycho tried to attack us. He probably was after our bounty. Don't worry, we took care of him."

I blinked. Why was he lying? I looked at Ender and Seu. Ender didn't seem to react to the lie, but Seu frowned. I was tempted to call him out right then and there, but I didn't really want to do that in front of everybody else.

"It's…actually been a while since the bounty hunters have gone after us," Orca frowned. "Which is odd. Usually bounty hunters don't give up so easily."

"Maybe they were distracted by some other high profile target." Dan shrugged. "Alright, I'm going to call Shell. SHELL!" Dan bellowed.

"Wait. Where's Shell been this whole time?" Ben asked.

Dan shrugged. "Probably out hunting."

"Hunting? The biggest deer out there would be little more than a snack for Shell." Ender snorted.

"How would he even hear you?" Seu asked.

Dan shrugged. "Magic stuff. I'm his owner. He knows when I call him."

"What a vague explanation," I snorted.

Shell swooped down from the air and landed with a thump on the ground.

"Hey, buddy." Dan grinned as he patted Shell's snout. "Ready for a ride?" Shell snorted agreeably, and Dan said to the others, "Get on your horses—all you need to do is follow me."

?-V-?

Heather had been living in a small seaside village called Coralside, which Dan apparently knew from a note Heather had left him. Unfortunately we had to leave Shell behind, because bringing a full on dragon would probably make a lot of people panic. Shell seemed just fine with it, though, immediately lying down upon hearing Dan tell him that.

"You don't even want to come with me?" Dan asked Shell, who grunted and rolled over onto his back.

"I thought he'd beg me to come," Dan said, looking slightly disappointed. "Isn't that what pets usually do?"

I smirked. "Maybe he thinks you're his pet."

"Impossible," Dan declared. "I'd be a very naughty pet."

"Maybe Shell's a good pet owner." I snickered.

Coralside was a pretty cute place—it was actually pretty small. You could walk from one end of the village to the other in twenty, maybe thirty minutes. And so we quickly found Heather's house.

"She should be living right here," Dan murmured as we walked up to a circular house completely made of quartz. The house stood out from all the other nearby houses—it looked like an enormous salt shaker.

"Heather's got odd taste," I commented, and Dan snorted. "Heather's always been a…little eccentric."

Dan stepped up to the door and knocked on it.

There was no response.

"Hm." Dan knocked on the door again, louder this time.

Again, no response.

Dan began pounding on the door with his fist. "HELLLOOOOOO? HEEEEEEEATHER? IT'S DAAAAAN, OPEN THE DOOOOOOR!"

Still no response.

"IT'S THE FBI! OPEN UP!" Dan tried, pounding on the door.

"You literally just told her it's Dan." Nikai said.

Dan shrugged. "It might work."

There was silence.

"Ok," Dan grumbled, putting his hands on his hips. "So either she's ignoring us or she's not here at the moment."

"She can't be ignoring us," Ben said. "Why would she ignore us?"

"She's probably not here." Orca sighed. "We should come back later, when she is here."

"Are we sure this is even Heather's house?" Durham asked.

"Yes this is Heather's house, she gave me her address." Dan said exasperatedly.

"What if she gave you a fake address?" Nikai suggested.

Ender wrinkled her nose. "Why would she do that?"

"Hm…" Dan said, and he seemed to be looking at something. I followed his gaze and saw a boy with a cloak hurrying away.

"HEY!" Dan yelled. "KID!"

The boy froze and slowly turned.

"Can you come here for a moment?" Dan waved him over.

"What are you doing?" Seu asked.

"What? I'm just going to ask him whether Heather lives here." Dan turned back to the boy. "Come over here!"

The boy looked reluctant, but slowly walked towards us.

"Is this where Heather Redsteel lives?" Dan asked the boy, pointing to the building.

"Uh…" the boy's eyes darted to all of us, pausing when he spotted me. "Um…"

"Come on kid, it's a yes or no answer." Dan said impatiently.

"No," the boy said. "I don't know who you're talking about."

Dan frowned. "But this is definitely the address she gave me when she left…" He turned to us. "Do you think she moved without telling us?"

Durham looked horrified. "But then there's no way we can find her!"

"Calm down. We can still find her, if we do a little investigating." Dan turned. "HEY!"

The boy, who was trying to sneak away, jumped. "What?" he said skittishly.

"I'm not done with you." Dan tapped his foot. Have you by any chance met a middle aged woman with long auburn hair, a black robe, gold belt, thing like that?"

"I already told you I don't know." the boy snapped. "Now if you don't mind, I'm in a bit of a hurry…" the boy turned away and began to walk down the street again. As he did, he adjusted his collar a bit, and I saw a crescent shaped scar on his neck for a split second before it was covered by the boy's collar again.

"A lot of help he was," Dan grumbled. "I guess we have to start asking around now."

"Oh joy." Nikai said waspishly. "And here I thought we'd actually have an easy job for once."

"When have things ever been easy for us?" Seu said. "Hopefully we find her…it'd be really useful to have a mage on our side when we raid the Nether Prison."

"A mage?" I said, taken aback. "Heather's magic?"

"Yeah, she can pull doves out of hats and coins from her ears." Dan said sarcastically. "Come on, guys, let's start asking around."

"What about the scar?" Orca asked.

"What do you mean?" Dan said.

"You forgot to ask the boy about the scar on her neck." Orca said.

Dan shrugged. "Oh well. Probably wouldn't have made a difference. He really seemed not to know her. Well anyways, let's go."

I frowned. A scar…

"So," I said slowly, "what kind of things can Heather do with her magic?"

"A lot of fairly impressive things," Ben said. "She can control fire and earth, she can fly, she can teleport…"

"Can she shape shift?" I asked Ben.

Ben frowned. "Yes, but not for long. How did you—?"

I turned to Orca. "Was Heather's scar crescent shaped?"

Orca blinked. "…yes."

"I thought we were supposed to be questioning the locals," Dan said sarcastically. "Not each other."

"Okay, so…I've got an idea." I said. "But it's a real shot in the dark."

"Uhuh?" Dan said, not looking at me.

"I think the boy we met earlier might be Heather." I said, and everyone stopped stared at me.

"Are you nuts?" Nikai scoffed. "That's impossible."

"Pretty sure I saw crescent shaped scar on his neck, though." I told them.

Ender stopped and looked at me with wide eyes. "What?"

"Right here." I touched the back of my neck.

"But then why would she act like she didn't know us?" Seu asked.

"Oh my god…no way." Ender turned to face us. "He had green eyes, right?"

"He did," Ben said.

"And auburn hair?" Ender asked.

Seu gasped. "Oh."

"Yeah, he did. Or she did." Ender muttered. "We need to go after that boy!"

"Now, hold on…" Dan held up his hands with a laugh. "This doesn't make sense."

"Agreed," Orca said. "This does rather feel like a shot in the dark."

"If it's not him we can go back to asking around," Ender snapped. "Let's just go after him." Without waiting for an answer, Ender turned and ran. I ran after her, and Dan sighed in exasperation before running after us.

Ender looked around frantically for the boy, and I also kept my eyes peeled, searching the windows of every house when I spotted the boy moving around in a nearby alley.

"There!" I yelled, and me and Dan ran to the alley, everybody else trailing behind us.

Ender ran into the alley and yelled, "HEY!" The boy jumped and turned around.

"Heather," Dan began, "that better not be you—"

"BIND!" the boy yelled, hurling a ball of red yarn at Dan, who yelped and ducked. The ball of yarn hit Ender instead, who was running into the alley behind us. The ball of yarn suddenly exploded, and Ender yelled in panic as yarn snaked around her body like it was alive. Durham ran into Ender from behind, and he yelped as the yarn wrapped around him as well, tying Durham and Ender together. Yarn wrapped around their mouths as well, cutting off their screams. They both toppled to the ground, struggling against the yarn.

"What the—?" Seu spluttered upon seeing Durham and Ender on the ground. The boy snapped his fingers, and Seu yelled as the ground erupted around her, stone closing around her legs.

Seu swore as she tried to move, and Dan just stared at the boy, whose palms were glowing.

Everyone else ran into the alley, but stopped upon finding Seu with stone encasing her legs, and Durham and Ender writhing on the ground.

And at that exact moment, the boy's body suddenly burst into flames, and as everyone yelled, the boy's body grew taller. His hair grew longer, and he seemed to age.

The fire abruptly stopped, and in the boy's place was a middle aged woman with long auburn hair.

The woman smiled guiltily. "Dan. You really shouldn't have come."

Dan gaped at the woman. "Heather! It is you!"

Before he could finish, Heather stomped her foot, and a stone wall suddenly burst from the ground in between Dan and Heather, blocking our view of her.

"HEATHER!" Dan yelled. "What are you—"

"Look!" Ender yelled, pointing upwards. I followed Ender's gaze and spotted Heather, flying upwards onto the roof of a building. She looked back at us regretfully for a moment, and then she ran off.

"That woman," Dan seethed. "One of you stay back and free them. The rest of us are giving chase." He pulled out an enderpearl and hurled it onto the roof, disappearing with a pop.

We all pulled out enderpearls, (except for Ben, who felt he should stay back) and hurled them onto the roof.

(By the way, if you're wondering where we got the enderpearls from, Dan says everyone should always have a few enderpearls on them in case of an emergency.)

We appeared on the roof with a pop, and saw Dan chasing Heather through the roof tops.

"Why am I doing this again," I grumbled as I began to chase after them.

Running through these roofs were a lot easier and less hazardous than in Cratre, because the roofs weren't too slanted and they weren't very wet. At some point I jumped onto a roof where a couple were having lunch. They stared at me, surprised, and I smiled apologetically at them. I snatched a spring roll as I ran and ate it in two bites. It tasted pretty good, actually.

Heather looked back and scoffed in disbelief upon seeing all of us chasing after her. "It's dangerous up here! Why are you following me!?"

"Oh, yeah, we're never in danger," Dan sassed at the same time I yelled, "we're looking for you!"

"Don't," Heather said, turning and glaring at Dan. "Don't come looking for me."

"Why the hell not!?" Dan howled.

Instead of responding, Heather turned around and jumped off the building. I screamed, but instead of falling to her death Heather stopped midair and slowly floated down to the ground, running off.

"After her!" Dan shouted, tossing an enderpearl down. We all did the same, and teleported down just in time to see Heather push her way through a crowd. We ran into the crowd, pushing through a bunch of people before finding ourselves in downtown Coralside. There were a lot of shops and stalls, and we could see Heather running down the path.

We began to run after her, but she turned and shouted something inaudible. Fruits burst from a nearby fruit stall, flying at all of us. Everyone was pelted with fruits, and while we tried to run through, the fruits were too powerful. Orca took a tomato to the face. Dan was pelted by grapes. Nikai slipped on the remains of a watermelon and face planted. Several oranges burst on my hoodie.

"Damn you, Heather!" I yelled. "That was my favorite hoodie!"

"And your only hoodie," Dan added as he dodged a pumpkin.

"AND MY ONLY HOODIE!"

Through the barrage of fruits, I could see Heather getting away and swore loudly. I would not lose a potential aid in raiding the Nether Prison for the eleventh time.

I dived for a nearby trash can, ripping off the lid and holding it in front of me to shield myself from the fruits. I screamed and charged through the hailstorm of fruits. "AHHHH!"

"Don't let her get to the ocean!" I heard Dan yell. "If she gets to an ocean we're—ACKH!" I heard Dan crash to the ground after being hit by a fruit.

I could feel the lid vibrate as it was pelted with fruit, but I held myself steadily. When I was no longer being assaulted by fruit, I tossed aside the lid and ran as hard as I could towards Heather, who was running towards the edge of a cliff, with nothing but a short fence to stop her from diving into the ocean.

"HEATHER!" I yelled. "I—WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

Heather looked back at me, and for a second I saw pity in her eyes. She shook her head, and then turned back and dove over the fence.

"HEATHER!" Dan, who was just catching up to me, yelled. "DAMN IT!"

I got to the fence and stared over it into the ocean. It was a long drop—Heather had basically jumped from a cliff. But under the water, I could see a dark shape gliding through the water, away from us.

"Why did she run from us?" Orca, who looked like he was wearing a watermelon hat, said.

Dan groaned and sat down heavily. "I have no idea."

We were silent for a moment before Nikai let out a derisive laugh. "What was it you said? 'We might have a chance this time'?"

"Shut up, Nikai."

Sorry for the slightly short chapter—I just really didn't feel the spark on this one.

Also sorry for being a day late—my parents took me camping and there was no Wi-Fi at the campsite.

Not much else to say—I'll see you next Friday.

Probably.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

Krios