The rain hadn't let up, still falling in whispering sheets through the leaves of the trees and onto the wide highway the caravan was travelling down. The sun was fighting to light the surroundings through the low heavy black clouds, resulting in a wan steely light filling the world. The rain felt warm to Jack's skin as he stood on the platform on the back of Mistress Oldami's tall and wide wagon home. The platform was held in place by chains and support beams, less than a foot above the smooth cobbles that made up the wide highway.

Jack looked around him, ignoring the fact that two of the little men were holding the staffs that were connected to the thick bronze collar he was wearing. Jack spotted a dozen different types of trees, at least a half dozen different types of underbrush, and three different types of berry bush. He could hear birds, despite the rain, but none of the ones he was familiar with.

Jack's father was ex-military. Some kind of special forces bad-ass, even though he never talked about his time in the military, and he'd taken Jack camping up until Jack turned 16 and refused to go.

Looking back on those days, as he stood on the swaying platform Mistress Oldami had called a stepping porch, Jack discovered that he missed those days. Missed his father. Standing there, surveying what was, to Jack's eyes, an alien landscape, Jack realized that perhaps he had made a mistake in allowing Ryder and Skylar and their friends to convince him that his father taking him camping was toxic masculinity. They'd gone on and on how Jack's father was just indoctrinating him into the patriarchy, how Jack was being brainwashed by his father.

Jack's father had just shook his head sadly and continued with his camping trips without his son, telling Jack that he was old enough to take care of himself for a week.

Now Jack wished his father was here. The old man had known how to survive in the wilderness, how to identify plants and animals, how to track wild-life, how to find water and navigate in the woods.

"I got lost once, Jackie. So lost I put everyone in danger. I swore, after we were rescued and I came to grips with what happened, that I'd never do that again. I learned everything I could and it saved me life. I hope you never have to use what I'm teaching you, but I want you to be ready just in case."

Jack could hear his father's voice.

I wish I'd said goodbye to you, daddy.

Mistress Oldami was walking on the cobbles of the road, her light skirt swirling around her legs, smiling at Jack and motioning at him to come toward her.

"It is OK, little Xue'nghozi, just step off as if you were walking. Come to me, Xue'nghozi," Mistress Oldami urged with a smile.

Oldami could see the way Jak looked around, taking in the forests around them. His gaze was direct, penetrating, and she could see the titanfire deep in his eyes. It made her nervous, the way his eyes seemed to immediately focus on any movement by wild-life or any passing Phaelan.

Titans were rare. Rare and dangerous. The bruises that Jak had sustained when he had been captured had already healed. Oldami had double checked that morning when she had bathed him. The scratches from the brush and the bruises from the clubs and his fall had all healed. Oldami knew that bruises like that would have left a Phaelana in pain for weeks before he healed.

Jak had healed overnight.

"Come to me, Xue'nghozi," Oldami repeated, watching as Jak's attention fixated back on her.

Human's close set eyes had always bothered her. Her own eyes were slightly further apart, like most Phaelan, giving her better peripheral vision, and unlike most of the sentient races, human eyes were close together to give them better depth perception and sharper focused vision on things in front of them.

Plus the slight glow she could see in his eyes creeped her out.

Oldami opened her mouth to urge Jak again when he suddenly stepped forward, the loincloth covering his crotch and buttocks swirling slightly. He turned in place, keeping pace with Oldami.

"Very good, Jak," Oldami said. She moved to the side, constantly walking forward to stay ahead of the wagon behind her.

She pretended not to notice that the young Xue'nghozi's strength was enough, even with the dampening collar and shackles, to pull the two strong Phaelanas along with him.

"You need to walk, stretch your legs. Are you cold?" Oldami asked.

Jak looked at her and shook his head. "No. The rain is warm," he told her, looking up and down the caravan. As far as he could see there were wagons in both directions. There were two columns of wagons on either side of him, at least ten feet between the draft beast hauled wagon columns.

Oldami held her hand out, the spring rain cool against her skin.

Of course it's warm to him. He's from a land where wind-borne shards of ice can flay flesh from the bone, where there is nearly nine ten-days of darkness. The rain he is used to freezes to whatever it touches.

Jack reached out to grab Oldami's hand. The two Phaelan men who tried to pull him back were dragged forward as he reached out and took her hand.

Oldami resisted the urge to scream, remembering Jak's gentle strength last night and in the morning. Jack's large hand swallowed hers, gently holding onto her.

The Phaelani matron could feel a slight tingle in her hand, up her arm, and could see gold fire flickering faintly under Jak's skin. She knew it was the titanfire that made her hand and arm tingle and did her best to smile, her lips hiding her teeth.

Jak smiled back, baring his teeth. Although Oldami dealt with humans every time the Consortium stopped near human settlements, the sight of a human baring their teeth, a Xue'nghozi human at that, still made her instincts scream to hold still, not to move.

Decades of bartering with and dealing with humans let her suppress her natural instinct.

Jack held up his free hand, pointing at the wagons, then looked at her curiously.

"How many?" Oldami asked. Jak nodded. "We are a fairly large trading Consortium. We are the fifth largest, the third richest. There are three thousand baishin, those are living quarters, nearly fifty crafting sledges, and many many trade vendor wagons. Our Consortium has several Shires through the Six Worlds and seats on the Novak-Eck Trading House."

Jack nodded, listening closely. He knew she couldn't understand him, knew the cat-eyed little woman's society was completely inhuman, but she was a source of information.

The world around you will tell you what you need to know, Jackie, if you just be still, be quiet, and listen.

His father's voice.

He saw a half dozen of little Phaelan run by, barely over his knees in height. Oldami had told him that children started running around by the time they were two, sleeping in the nearest baishin as soon as they got tired. He noticed that the children stayed in the middle open column between the four columns of wagons.

Movement caught his eyes and he saw short male Phaelan keeping pace with the children on the gap on the right.

"Mistress," One of the Phaelana holding onto a pole connected to the Xue'nghozi's collar said, his tone full of warning.

Oldami glanced at the male, nodding slowly. She could see the fire beneath Jak's skin, flicking along the channels. She could see his heartbeat by the way it pulsed out from the middle of his chest, slowly fading as it spread down his torso and his limbs. The gems inlaid into the red-iron cored bronze collar and manacles were beginning to glimmer, absorbing the power that was building inside of Jak.

Six days. The bonds just have to hold him for six days, Oldami thought to herself.

Titanfire wasn't like magefire or warfire. Magefire could be drained away by the bonds, drained into objects of power. Warfire could be eased by exercise, even just walking.

Titanfire, though, Oldami mused. Titanfire was different. Just a little titanfire would enhance and strengthen warfire or magefire, but the little Xue'nghozi Jak had more titanfire than she could believe someone could survive.

Oldami didn't know how to ease it.

Jack kept watching the sides of the wagons he walked past, quickly figuring out which were the wagons the little people lived in and which were buttoned up shops, crafting wagons, and even wagons that the sides were open to reveal the little people inside drinking or eating and socializing.

They're entire culture is on the move. They are born, live, and die on the move, he thought.

"What do we do about his titanfire, Mistress Oldami?" One of the men asked.

"There is nothing we can do," Oldami said, knowing her hand was sweating inside of Jak's hand.

Jack Roberts kept looking around him, looking down at the cobbles for a long moment. He didn't recognize the stone, noticed it was a zig-zag type, something that reminded him of a Nazi "S", with a glimmering white mortar in between the bricks. He could feel, beneath his bare feet, that the hard stones were set smoothly and the mortar was set in such a way that the road was smooth rather than bumpy. The road's stones were warm beneath his feet. He let go of Oldami's hand, stopping to kneel and rub his hand on the stone, wondering at it. When he touched the stone, his palm tingled, and he could see the golden glow flow down his arm at light up his hand. Then golden glimmering spread out from his hand for a few stones, along the mortar, before fading in the rain.

The two males tried to pull him forward, to try to pull along and make him stand up, but despite their best efforts they couldn't budge.

It's like he doesn't even notice their efforts, Oldami thought to herself, waving at the males to stop.

"What is it, little Xue'nghozi?" Oldami asked, then shook her head. Even if he spoke, she couldn't understand him.

"What is he doing?" Sleymak asked, letting his arms drop down to hold the pole lightly.

"I do not know. Perhaps he is of a builder caste in the lands of the Xue'nghozi? He was not a warrior, he is pampered and cared for. He is curious and obviously intelligent," Oldami said, watching Jak rubbing his hand on the stone.

Her eyebrows furrowed when she realized what she was seeing. Where his skin touched the stone his titanfire spread along the stones and mortar of the road. The pale skin human was steaming slightly in the rain, and it looked like the brightness was fading from his titanfire.

Could the water be doing it? Could the rain be negating his titanfire somehow? Oldami wondered. But if that is so, how could human warriors fight in the rain?

After a moment Jack stood back up, smiling at Oldami. The two men holding the poles tugged, staring him walking again.

The road was old, well put together. He could vaguely remember something about Roman roads lasting for over two thousand years, that the aqueducts and bridges were still intact. Jack had been able to tell that some of the S shaped stones had been replaced, that the mortar had been scraped up and then relaid. That meant that building and maintaining the highways was not a lost art, that the civilization that had built the roads still existed.

These people's wagons would need civilizations that can provide refined metals, have logging industries, and can produce agriculture and the cloths that these people use, Jack thought, staring at the wagons. That means that they move from culture to culture, bartering trade goods, restocking when they need it, providing news and spreading knowledge.

Jack smiled as he looked the wagons. He lengthened his stride, ignoring that it made the little people start to jog. He was aware of it, it just didn't really matter to him.

I'm a prisoner. I can't even talk to them. They don't understand me and they pierced my tongue with a barb. Everyone but Oldami treats me and looks at me like I'm a dangerous animal. Why should I worry about them? Jack wondered. I can understand their language as if they are speaking English, which prevents me from learning their language so I can speak with them.

It felt to Jack like there was a reason for it, one he could almost figure out, but the smell of fried food from an open wagon washed the reason away with a rumble of his stomach.

"Oldami," Jack tried, spotting writing on the side of an open wagon that Phaelan were sitting inside eating from bowls. For some reason he could read the language clearly, as if it was written in English. He knew he should be startled, but he wasn't.

Oldami stopped, turning to look at Jack. She was startled to hear her name from his mouth. It had a strange pop on the beginning of the second syllable that made it sound odd to her ears.

"Yes, Jak?" she asked carefully.

Jack pointed at his mouth, then rubbed his bare stomach.

"You are hungry?" Oldami asked.

Jack nodded, patting his stomach.

"Guide him to the nalishom," Oldami ordered, skipping forward a few steps and up onto the stepping porch.

Jack copied her, stepping onto the swinging platform, and from there up into the wide wagon itself. He pulled the two men after him, ignoring the way they pulled at him. The stools were too short to sit down on, so he stayed standing.

The conversations around him stopped as he looked over everything.

Boxes of runed metal, glimmering with a faint fire, that held vegetables, meat, were running the length of the wagon, on either side of wheel wells. The food was being cooked on iron plates, the Phaelan cooks chopping at the food with short thick blades that reminded Jack of the machete his father always carried. They'd pour spiced oil on the metal plate, chopping at the vegetables, the meat, the noodles they took from the frier. As he watched one of the cooks grabbed a bowl from the suspended shelving and used the thick blade to scoop up a mix of vegetables, noodles, and meat into the bowl before handing it to a waiting male.

Jack looked down at Oldami, staring in her cat's eyes, and pointed at his mouth, pointed at the food, then at his mouth again, then rubbed his belly.

"No, little Xue'nghozi, this is Phaelan food. The spices and oils may be poisonous to you. The vegetables are very hot, peppers and other things, that may poison you," Oldami said.

Jak stared at her. He pointed at the food, then at his mouth.

"Not all people can eat another's food, Xue'nghozi Jak," Oldami said. "Come along."

The two men pulled at him, but Jack held still, still staring at Oldami. He reached out, grabbing a bowl from in front of a Phaelani woman who jerked away from the human's sudden movement.

"Do not, Jak," Oldami warned.

Jak stared at her and tipped the bowl into his mouth, slurping at the food and juice.

The males were pulling at him, but he ignored it. They were a distant thing that he could ignore by tensing his shoulders.

"Put down the bowl, Jak," Oldami pleaded.

Jack slurped in the noodles, chewing on them, tasting the way the fried vegetables crunched between his teeth. The noodles were chewy, the spiced oil reminding him of habanero peppers, the meat tasting oh-so different from the meat he was used to.

Oldami watched the gold titanfire bloom under Jack's skin as he ate first one bowl, then another, then another, and finally one more. For the last three, he held his hand out to the cooks, still staring at Oldami, until the cooks handed him a bowl piled high with the food scooped off the iron plate and into the bowls with the blade.

The last bowl made the gnawing feeling vanish from Jack's stomach. He felt warm and tingly, better than he had when he'd first woken up.

Jak pointed at the highway.

"You want to walk more?" Oldami asked quietly. When Jak nodded, she motioned the two males to lead the way.

She walked quietly behind the Xue'nghozi, watching him walk quickly enough that she had jog to keep up. He was humming some kind of catchy song as he walked, looking at everything around him. Twice he moved across in front of wagon to move to the next open pathway, or to the outside of the caravan. She could tell that he did not even notice the two men trying to keep him on the main pathway.

The gold titanfire beneath his skin pulsed and rippled as he walked, the rain on his skin steaming.

Oldami chewed her lip in worry as she followed.

She knew now why he was so pampered.

He wasn't titanfired, he wasn't titan sparked.

He was a full blown titan.

The sooner we reach Warlord Elshon, the better.