Yay! Only two more chapters for this story! I'm also going to go finish Hunted as soon as this is posted! Please let me know what you think!

-owl

About a day after their run in with the Ravens, Scrubber found prints that could only have been made by Arax. They were old, preserved in mud that had long since dried.

Rollan bent down and compared his hand to the prints. "Have you ever had sheep this big?" he asked Conor.

The boy shook his head.

"How big do you think he is? Are we sure we want to find him?"

Conor looked like he wanted to laugh, though that went away before he spoke. "If we want to get the talisman."

The boys remounted their horses and began to do their best to rejoin the group that had gotten ahead of them while they were inspecting the footprints, continuing to talk as they did so.

"The Granite Ram, right?" Rollan asked.

"That's what Tarik said."

"What does it do?"

Conor shrugged. "I would assume something to do with a ram."

Rollan snorted before speaking. "I think we should just let Meilin handle it."

This time, Conor did laugh. "That was certainly something. I could never hope to compete with her. At least we have our animals."

"Well," Rollan muttered, "you do." He stopped for a second, watching Briggan bounding after a stick that Conor had just thrown for him. "What's your secret?"

"I play with him. It's not like I'm giving him secret lessons or something."

Rollan sighed. "I talk with her, when she's around, and we've been bonded for a year now, so you would think that we would be best buddies. I just wish I could get her into passive state. That was what Lucette was trying to help me do the day before you three arrived at Greenhaven; build trust with Essix."

Conor was silent for a minute. "Give it time. I'm not there yet, either."

"The Queen of Perfection has been doing it since we've met. I'd ask her about it if she'd talk to us."

"Maybe she's just shy."

Rollan gave Conor a look. "I know you were raised in a sheep field, but even you can't be that dense."

"Are you saying she thinks she's better than us?"

"You said it, not me. I just— When I met her, before she had summoned Jhi, she seemed more open. Not by much, mind you, but still more open than she is now."

"I wonder if it has something to do with the attack when she drank the Nectar and left her father to fight," Conor mused. "Regardless, maybe she is better than us. But, we're all on the same side either way."

"I get it, I'm the odd one out, stop pressuring me."

Conor gave him a wry smile. "I'm not. What you're feeling is called a conscious."

"I wouldn't know about that," Rollan sassed back. "My mother left me before I could learn about that."

"My father let the Earl of Trunswick have me as a servant to pay off his debts."

Rollan made a face at Conor. "My terrible childhood is all I've got, and I'd like to win something!"

"You've never seen my father when he was angry." Conor muttered, "but sure, you can win this one.

"It's nice to win something."

Later that day, the sky darkened as strong winds blew heavy clouds towards the travelers. Soon it began to rain. Rollan watched as Conor wrapped his blanket around himself, then copied him.

"You need layers," he said. "Once you start to get cold, it's hard to warm up again."

Rollan nodded. "Do you think it'll get worse?"

Conor shrugged. "Not sure, but I don't like these clouds."

"You've got a good eye for that, boy," Barlow said, guiding his horse towards the boys. "I'd be worried about tornadoes if it were any flatter here."

"Tornadoes?"

Barlow continued talking, ignoring Rollan's reaction to the idea of tornadoes. "As it is, I think we'll have more trouble with snow or hail. I wouldn't be surprised if it started raining any time now."

"We could probably take shelter against that precipice," Conor said, pointing ahead of the group. "It has an angle so, unless the wind changes, the rain shouldn't get to us. The trees at the bottom should also provide shelter. And, we wouldn't need to worry about lightning because there is plenty of higher ground to draw it away."

Barlow grinned at Conor before calling up to Monte. "Conor thinks we might want to stop there" — he pointed — "for the night."

Monte followed Barlow's finger and nodded. "looks good to me."

Barlow then guided his horse to the front of the group, riding next to Monte, who seemed to be constantly talking.

Even as that upped their pace in hopes to reach the makeshift shelter, Rollan couldn't help but pay attention to the terrain around them. There were deep ravines on either side of the path that they were following, and too often Rollan's horse was too close to the edge for his comfort.

When they were maybe twenty yards from the shelter, small pieces of ice began to fall from the sky. The group moved to ride as close to the rock wall as they could, in hopes that it would be safer.

"Hail!" Barlow yelled. "Get to the shelter!"

Just as Rollan reached the rock overhang, a larger piece of hail fell, striking him on the forehead, causing him to pitch forward in his saddle.

Rollan could feel his forehead gushing blood as, once in the shelter that Conor had suggested, he dismounted his horse and moved to sit against the wall of the cave. Tarik approached him with a clean scrap of cloth, gently pressing it against the wound.

Conor, along with Barlow and Monte were positioning the horses along the outer edge of the cave, to block the wind more than the trees already were. Abeke was crouched next to Nicolai, trying to start a fire. Essix had been perched at the back of the case and now moved to perch on Rollan's outstretched leg. Meilin and Jhi were all of a sudden next to him, the panda leaning over and beginning to lick the bleeding wound.

"Well, that was unexpected." Tarik commented.

"What's going on?" Rollan asked, trying his best to look at his forehead. Of course, as that wasn't possible all he really did was go cross-eyed and let his vision be taken over by panda fur.

"Your wound is closing up." Meilin answered.

"Did you know that Jhi would do that?" Tarik asked.

"No, I just let her out and asked her to help. All the stories say she was a gifted healer."

Rollan shrugged. "Thanks for the panda spit, Jhi."

While the hail was over and done with by the first dawn they were in the cave, high winds and driving rain made them stay there for another day. At least, after the first night they had been able to make a fire and keep it going.

Around noon on the day they finally continued their journey, Essix, Briggan, and Uraza found tracks that were fresh. To be fair, the gyrfalcon did little more than spot things for the wolf and leopard to inspect, but it was a group effort, nonetheless.

"Not as fresh as if they had been left today, but certainly not as old as the other ones we've seen," Barlow declared, hopping off his horse and inspecting the tracks.

As dusk approached they came across a ledge that was too perilous for the horses, so Barlow and Monte hobbled them and the group continued by foot. As the sun met the horizon they saw Arax silhouetted at the top of a mountain peak.

"As much as it would probably be safer to wait until tomorrow, when it gets light again," Barlow said. "It might be better to keep moving, try to catch up."

"Shouldn't someone go back and guard the horses?" Rollan asked, pointing his thumb back down the path where they had left the horses.

Monte nodded. "Yeah, I could go with the boy. We can stay back where— and keep the horses safe."

Barlow shot his friend a look, but didn't say anything.

"Let's push ahead," Nicolai said decisively. "Rollan and Monte, good try, but you're not getting out of this."

Luckily, it only took half an hour, and there was still plenty of light in the sky, though the stars were beginning to shine, when they found the ram.

Arax was in an oasis of sorts. A small waterfall fell from one of the higher ledges, and the water continued in a calm river flowing down the mountain. There were plenty of rocky ledges scattered around, and the entire area was ringed by trees.

The traveling group stopped and stared at Arax. While, yes, they had been searching for him, actually seeing him was different. He was taller than Rollan had expected, two times as tall as the tallest horse they had been riding. His coat was silver, his horns golden, and his eyes as yellow as a raw egg yolk. He stamped his forelegs in an annoyed manner.

"I have seen two of you before," he declared in a resonant voice. "I let you go in peace. Now you have returned. You all seek me openly. Why?"

Rollan was in awe, there was no way an animal should either be that big or be able to speak a human language. There was also something that Rollan couldn't place, like he wasn't sure whether he should cower in fear or bow.

"We were guided here by a vision from Briggan," Barlow said.

"Briggan?" Arax asked, peering at the group. "Ah, I see now, I thought I had sensed a familiar presence."

Briggan and Uraza padded towards the ram, followed by Essix in the air. Jhi appeared and joined the other three. Arax seemed to be inspecting the four animals that now stood in front of him.

"It is good to see you four again," he said after a long moment. "You have changed much, but greatness can come from lowly places."

"They are not the only ones who have returned," Tarik said. "The Devourer is back as well."

"So it is counsel you seek?" Arax mused. "You can keep a Great Beast in a cage as long as you want, but that will only give them time to grow resentful. Kovo and Gerathon long to be free."

"Have either of them gotten loose?" Nicolai asked.

Arax shrugged. Rollan hadn't thought that possible, but here it was. "It not, they will be soon. I am not particularly adept at sensing my brethren. Tellun is the greatest."

Briggan barked.

"And Briggan, in his time," Arax amended his statement.

"The Devourer," Tarik continued talking, "we fear, will come and take your talisman. We came, with respect, to ask for it first, for you to lend it to us. We need it for this upcoming war."

Arax stamped his forelegs again. "Surely you don't think you can convince me to give you my precious talisman?"

Meilin stepped forward, her hands clasped together. "Please," she pleaded, "We come in peace, and mean you no harm, we weren't followed, your home here is safe. But, we need your talisman. Please."

"You give a very moving speech, Friend of Jhi," Arax said. "However, I cannot give you my—" There was suddenly a distant rustling, and Arax's head snapped up, his yellow eyes flashing. "You are liars! More people are upon us. Now you will pay!" And, with that, he lowered his head and charged Tarik.