I don't really have much to say in this AN, though I will admit I'm fairly happy with this chapter.

-owl

Once it had been decided that Meilin would stay with Rollan, and Abeke had grabbed the Copper Falcon, Lishay led the way into the jungle. Everyone's animals were out of passive state. Zhosur seemed right at home, and Lumeo did as well. The tiger and otter were playing tag with each other. Briggan and Uraza, however, were a lot less enthusiastic, especially when the jungle eventually turned into a swap.

There they had their first problem: snakeheads. Because, even though they were fish, they could jump up from the water a few inches, and were keenly aware whenever anything living entered the water. The biting fish were to be avoided at all costs, as apparently they had a pretty bad bite. They did not have time for another life threatening injury or illness. The snakeheads hadn't been a problem in the jungle, but now that they were essentially hopping across small islands no bigger than the size of Jhi that practically melted into the water, it was different.

Briggan eventually took the lead, somehow sensing what little islands would support their weight, rather than melt into the swampy water. He had a good run, until, eventually, he miscalculated and leapt to an island that disappeared as soon as it was touched. Briggan flailed in the water, splashing everyone as he pulled himself out of the water. After that, Lumeo guided them.

Eventually, dusk came upon them, lengthening the shadows and starting Rollan's final twenty-four hours (unless, of course, they succeeded). The other main problem was that, with the dwindling light, it was getting annoyingly hard to see. Of course, that made it all the more obvious when they saw what had to be torches, maybe a hundred yards down the river.

"Do you see that too?" Conor asked, pointing.

Tarik nodded. "Yes, definitely people with torches."

"Can't be the Rhino Riders, though," Lishay put in. "The animals would have recognized the scent."

Indeed, all of the four animals were portraying body language that made it abundantly clear that something was wrong.

"What's that," Abeke asked, also pointing, "in the water?"

"Crocodiles!" Tarik exclaimed.

"And they're driving them towards us." Lishay added.

The crocs were fast. The Greencloaks barely had time to reach an island they could all stand on and have room to maneuver before they were upon them. To make matters worse, because that was all this trip had been so far, these crocs didn't look right. They were too big, their teeth too long, and eyes too bright.

That's when Conor had a horrifying realization. He had been, in addition to the glimpses of the Devourer, been getting the occasionally reoccurring scene of a dog in a cage. It was well trained, and remained so even after. It had been given something that turned it into a monster. The conversations Conor witnesses in these glimpses were barely ever distinct enough to make out, but from the one word he had gotten, 'Bile,' he was sure that was what had been given to the dog.

"Uh, guys..." Conor choked out. "These crocs remind me of one of the visions I've been having recently."

"I don't like the sound of that, Conor!" Tarik hissed at him.

Conor decided to just give them the shortened version. "I am fairly certain that these are not just crocodiles, but rather Bile-enhanced crocodiles."

"What does that mean for us?" Lishay yelled as she smacked a croc on its nose with a large tree branch from the ground.

Abeke dodged another and glared at Conor. "They're probably twice as lethal because of that, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

After that, there wasn't any chance to talk. There were easily half a dozen of the mutated crocs attacking them. Tarik and Lishay were each fighting their own, while Zhosur and Lumeo fought together. There was a familiarity between the four of them, and Conor couldn't help but wonder what their history was like.

Abeke and Uraza were fighting together, against a pair of crocs. Clearly the Amber Leopard was a good fit for Abeke, as she was fighting with a ferocity in her attacks that Conor hadn't' seen before. That left one for Conor and Briggan to fight together.

No matter how much damage the Greencloaks dealt to the crocs, they kept coming. At one point, Abeke and Uraza managed to kill one of them, but other than that, they were losing. Badly. The only thing that kept Conor from falling into true despair was that there were only the six — now five — of them, and there weren't more coming to join the fight.

"We don't have time for this!" Tarik yelled suddenly, "Lishay and I will draw them away, Abeke and Conor, you two keep going. We need to get those banana gourds."

With a semblance of a plan now made, Conor and Abeke jumped away from the crocs, Briggan and Uraza doing the same. For whatever reason, the crocs going after the four of them didn't even try to go after them, instead immediately turning their attention to Tarik and Lishay.

The pair of Greencloaks lead the crocodiles away, dancing around them and seeming to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Once the chaotic splashing had softened with the distance between them, Conor was able to focus again. Now it was fully dark, and he found himself wishing the stare gave them more light. The Silver Wolf may have been helping with an enhanced sense of smell and hearing, but it did nothing to help him see. If only he could see like Briggan could.

"Remember how some of the Marked can draw on powers from their spirit animals?" he asked Abeke.

She nodded. "Like how Lumeo makes Tarik more lithe, or Diata makes Nicolai stronger when attacking?"

Conor nodded excitedly. "Exactly! What if we asked our animals for help to see better? They both are able to see in the dark."

They both closed their eyes, and when Conor opened his, everything had a blue hue of light. There wasn't enough to cast shadows, though. Next to him, Abeke seemed to be a little unsteady.

"You might need to lead," she said. "I need to get used to this."

They trekked for several hours, before finally, they decided to take a break and rest. Abeke offered to take the first watch, and Conor didn't argue, though he did make sure that she would wake him up in a few hours so he could take his turn. He fell asleep almost as soon as he pillowed his head on his cloak.