Blood Ties already? How did that happen? I am still working on Fire and Ice, though my goal is to have that done by the end of December. Please, please, please, let me know what you think of this!

-owl

After a few months of running around the world, looking for talismans, and still not stopping families from being torn apart, Meilin had had enough. She was still dealing with the guilt from her father sending her away and fighting so she could run like a coward. Then, that on top of hearing Zhong had fallen to the Conquerors, with the quick succession of Conor's family in trouble for not being given the Iron Boar. Nicolai being captured was just the nail in the coffin.

The only way to keep her family together was to fight her way back to her father and stay with him, fighting together.

Now, however, Meilin was lost. Hopelessly lost. Which shouldn't have really been possible, as one of the first things her father had taught her was how to navigate the Great Bamboo Maze. And she had followed the instructions exactly.

With a cry of frustration, Meilin let Jhi out of passive state. "You're a panda, shouldn't you know how to get through here?" she asked in a hiss.

Jhi simply blinked once, slowly tore down a bamboo stalk, and began gnawing at it.

Well, this was hopeless. She was going to die out here.

The entire group was on the Tellun's Pride, on their way back to Greenhaven from a week of ship training. Their group consisted of Conor, Rollan, Abeke, and Tarik. Lucette had stayed at Greenhaven, instead of accompanying them on another journey. Meilin had left them, and they weren't quite sure why. Or, at least, Conor wasn't told why.

Either way, they were currently training with the talismans that they possessed. It turned out that the Greencloaks had the talismans of the Four Fallen, hidden in a vault deep in the sublevels of the castle. Those four were in addition to the two that Conor and the others had recently recovered, as well as the Obsidian Ape, Marble Swan, and Bronze Eagle.

For whatever reason, Tarik and Olvan had decided that they could bring the talismans of the Four Fallen, in addition to the Granite Ram and Iron Boar. They didn't bring the others, because it was unlikely that they would be needed, and it was enough of a risk to be bringing the six they already were.

Conor had been given the Silver Wolf, which he was currently wearing. His sense of smell and hearing had sharpened considerably, more than even when Briggan was out of passive state. He assumed that Abeke was wearing the Amber Leopard, and Rollan the Copper Falcon.

Abeke currently had the Granite Ram as well, and was practicing jumping from the masts of the ship. She was practically flying. It made sense, of course, as once you added the jumping power of the Granite Ram to the enhanced speed and power from the Amber Leopard, you had quite a bit of oomph to your movements, and that was without Uraza in the physical world.

"She's doing very well," Conor commented.

Tarik nodded. "Yes. It seems both talismans are connecting to her natural ability well. She's doing all this with Uraza in passive state."

Out of the corner of his eye, Conor saw Rollan's attention switch from watching Abeke closely, to something in the sky.

"Is there something out there, Rollan?" Tarik asked, following Rollan's gaze.

The boy nodded. "It looks like a small bird. Black and white."

Tarik frowned. "It could be a messenger bird. Maybe a message from Olvan, Lenori, or Lucette. We'll have to let it land before we'll know, of course."

When the bird did land, Tarik was quick to take the message from its leg. He unrolled the onion-skin paper as Abeke landed next to the three of them.

"Is that a message from Greenhaven?" Abeke asked. "Any word on Meilin?"

"In part. 'No news of Meilin. Positive report on location of Dinesh. New orders. Go to Kho Kensit. Rendezvous messenger at Inn of the Bright Moon, outside East Gate of Xin Kao Dai. But beware. Enemy holds city. Good luck.'"

Conor blinked. "We can't just sail into enemy territory!"

"Xin Kao Dai is a busy enough port that I would think, as long as they don't see our cloaks we should be fine," Tarik answered, his face scrunched up, Lumeo mimicking it sitting on his shoulder.

"I'm good at disguises!" Rollan offered. "I bet we could get a few things from the captain's cabin and around the ship. Maybe even an extra sail and — Oh! We could be traveling puppeteers!"

Abeke raised an eyebrow. "If we're going to do that, what show are we going to be putting on? There was one time, in Okaihee, that a troop came and performed a very detailed version of the First Devourer War. There was a twenty piece Gerathon puppet!"

In the end, it was decided that they would tell the same story that had been shown in Okaihee. After that had been decided, they went back to training. It was Rollan's turn with the Granite Ram.