Authors Note: Lessens the cliff considerably I have been informed that this chapter does NOT lessen the cliffhanger, but chapter 33 does answer a lot of questions.

I had already gathered that this was about me, somehow. I had heard what the guard said, and mother was far more upset than I had ever seen her before… and I’m pretty sure she would have killed that guard if he hadn’t fled. I felt everything start to slow down around me, my thoughts murky as I tried to figure out what the heck was happening. Did they know I was an impostor? That I was from another planet?

Jaws widened his eyes slightly, looking back at the forge before smiling at me and saying, “Wait for us by the forge, Heller.”

Mother reacted instantly, moving to block the doorway, “No! Heller stays with us.” She glared at Jaws until he nodded.

“Tell me what happened then, Isa.” He looked at me, “You are a clever boy, Heller. But just listen for now.” I nodded, not wanting to risk saying anything anyway.

Mother took a deep breath. “The guard came to the Door, Toly. They said that my beast-taken cousin wants to talk to Heller, alone, and he was here to escort our son to the Fortress!” She started off speaking somewhat normally, her voice raising in pitch until she was yelling again at the end.

Father’s brows raised in surprise, “You mean Lord Runax?” He asked, “But why would…” He started to ask, before mother cut in again.

“They obviously want to get back at me for leaving!” She exclaimed.

I was getting more and more confused, none of this making the least bit of sense to me.

Mother continued, “We need to leave, now.” She said, emphasizing her point by banging on the door with the hilt of her dagger, “If we take some weapons to trade for food we can make it to East Stone Village within the week!”

Father was silent, raising his hand to his chin in thought. It was useless to try and force him to make snap decisions, and mother knew him well enough to wait for him to speak.

“No.” He said, raising a hand to forestall mothers reply. “We need to find out why they want to speak with our son, and if we try to run they will catch us.”

Mother ran up to him and tried to slap him with the hand not holding a dagger (so she wasn’t that mad, yet), but he fended her off with a raised arm. “They want our son, and you want to give him to them! Iron for brains and coal for eyes, you beast-blind fool!”

Father released her arm and looked over at me. “If they mean us harm, they would do it after we fled the village, Isa. Not here, where all would see.”

Mother froze, her breath caught in her throat as she struggled to digest this new thought. Underneath my dark green scales I’m sure I was as pale as a ghost, but I did my best to stand up straight and emulate my father’s behavior.

“We will go together to the Fortress, now, during the daylight, and find out what Lord Runax wants from us.” Father said, placing particular emphasis on the final word. He looked at me, “Understood, Heller? We gain nothing if we run, and I’m sure it will be fine.” His smile was actually quite reassuring. Mother nodded as well, finally placing the dagger and the bag of armor and food down on the desk set in the corner of the Smithy’s small office.

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We left the Smithy after Jaws took a few moments to speak with the blacksmiths who had remained behind to extinguish the fires burning deep in the forge. I noticed Carver had remained behind as well, and she gave me an encouraging nod as she helped attach the chains that would be used to pull the furnace apart. The fire couldn’t be put out with water because the steam would cause it to explode, so it was opened up and spread apart, then carefully covered in sand. It was a long and difficult process, and I could see that Jaws felt guilty at having to leave – after all, it was Mothers arrival that broke the taboo in the first place.

The walk to the Fortress felt far shorter than the run from home had been, and before I knew it we were standing there facing the guards who man the gates. I didn’t see the guard that mother had stabbed, and the only reaction the guards outside had was to nod to father, who saluted and nodded back.

I hadn’t been able to bring myself to ask any questions on the walk here, my mind whirling with possibilities. I desperately wanted to go online and talk with Wolfram, maybe get him to somehow send help, but I couldn’t just fall unconscious in the middle of the road.

“I have heard that the Marshal wishes to see my family.” Said Jaws, causing the guards to look at each other and then smile at us.

The guards shared a grin and looked at father, “A squad was just dispatched to your house, and another to the forge, Toly.” Said one of the guard – a woman with pinkish fur and dog-like ears – as she smiled, “Gerrant ran into some trouble and came back for reinforcements.” She nodded at mother, “My bet is that he wasn’t as polite as he should have been.” Mother didn’t say anything… but apparently her temper was well known.

After a few long minutes, we were brought into the Fortress, into a section that I had never been to but had seen before (in Astral-form). This was where the rulers of the village lived and worked, sleeping accommodations in the upper levels and audience chambers and other various rooms on the lower floors.

We were told to wait in a sitting room, four guards in attendance on either side of us. They had asked us to separate, but both mother and father had refused. I had a sense that while nobles might be able to order commoners around, the guards themselves were also commoners and so lacked the power to order us around.

Before long a door set into the far wall opened, revealing a figure I had never seen before. He had large eyes with larger pupils, a wide mouth that almost seemed to split his face in half, and an incredibly small chin… he looked like a human frog. I had gotten used to everyone looking different, but there were a few individuals scattered throughout the village who had gotten what I considered to be a bad draw; this man was one of them.