Five figures move silently through the foliage clover leaves shift over their heads as a soft breeze sets the reed like grass swaying. The figures stop as the huddle together crouching down to hind in the grass.

"It's impressive how much you can see out here." one of the figures whispered as he glanced around.

"There's no light pollution here that and the moon is bigger so more light is getting reflected." the hushed reply came from the group's leader.

"How far out are we now we've been going north for at least eight hours." Another of the figures asked as they pulled out a rolled up piece of paper a crude map had been sketched out on it showing what they had managed to scout out.

"No clue its impossible to tell in these conditions we don't even know where we're going." The leader looks up while talking barely able to see past the leaves above them. "Judging by the light we have a few hours before the moon hits its peak well start to head back then." after finishing talking the leader pulled out a long stick that had a stone hammered into both sides driving the stick into the ground the five man team continued on their way.

The team continued its movement as they followed a small brooklet upstream as they moved they left a trial of wooden poles behind them. This continued as the night dragged on until they found themselves at the edge of the forest.

"This place is smaller than I thought I figured it would go on for days." The Leader said as they peered out of the forest before them the forest gave way to rocky steps that rose up into a mountain's peak.

"I didn't realise how high up we had gone." One of the members said as he turned looking back the way they had come. "The incline here is very small I guess we have been going up a hill till now." The figure of the boy sat down in the dirt with a sigh.

"Well we might as well start to head back nothing left to do here." Another member said exasperated as they started to move back down.

"Hold on let's get going forward for a bit longer." The leader said as he started out of the forest and up toward the rocky cliffs of the mountain.

"What why It's a mountain we can't go through that are you crazy what in gods name could you possible...oh I got it." A fourth member started to complain before he saw the pair of binoculars their leader pulled out.

Stepping up to the mountain's base the leader cleared the line of trees before turning to look over it. He saw a sea of green swaying in the wind It looked like a lake as the foliage moved back and forth like waves. He served as a gust of wind passed through him it had grown stronger and colder at the mountain's base than in the confines of the trees. Over his head the glow of the moon could be seen as it reached its zenith. Abnormally large it provided a greater amount of light to see by even in the night.

Using the binoculars he started to look around.

'Nothing but trees, nothing but trees, nothing but trees.'

"Oh there's a small cliff face to the south it looks like it goes through the mountains and beyond that it looks like a valley of some sort and it has a river running through it." the leader said with excitement.

"Holy shit really let me see." The fourth member said as he grabbed the binoculars. "where is it, where is it, I swear to god if this is some kind of... Holy shit there it is ha ha we did it we found what we were looking for!" as the fourth member was celebrating the first member got of the ground and moved to going them.

"So how far is it." He asked the leader

"Don't know if I were to guess judging by how long it took us to get here probably a day mabe two." The leader answered thoughtfully as he considered the distance

"Whatever lets just get back and tell everyone it's sooo cold up here." The second member said still in the forest

"Ya they'll be real happy to hear this maybe we'll finally get that barbecue we were promised." The third member says as the four of them walk back down to the forest.

"Hey maybe this new place has some kind of monster cows then we'd be able to have some real meat." The first member asks.

"God I hope not cows are scary enough without them wanting to kill you!" the third member shouts before being hushed.

The five of them slowly look around as they scan the forest around them small raies of moonlight poke through the canopy after being assured that their was nothing around they continued no their way.

"Way to go dumbass." Forth said in a harsh whisper as the third said a barely audible apologie.

"Lets just focus on getting back The council will want to know about this." The leader stated as he quickly moved through the forest following a trail of stone tipped pillars.

"Why didn't you tell us of this!" Ashly demanded as she glared angrily at Andrew.

"I am telling you." His simple statement only riled her up more as she continued to shout

"You can't keep something like that a secret you can't just say 'Oh magic is real but we won't tell anyone' It's not right they have a right to know!" The rest of the council was quite as they sat listening to the argument. Andrew felt resigned he wished Than or Lee were here as they had a better understanding of his points but Than was scouting up in the north and Lee had gone back to testing the area for minerals he had apparently found a cave that might have copper in it and had spent the whole night looked up in it.

"Look I'm not going to let people make strange explosive liquids or tell them that they can. It's my belief and Lee agrees that we have more important things to do let's focus on what we know before we go diving into what we don't. As members of the council it was my belief that you deserve to know what we all have found out and what I plan on doing with it for right now now that there is something that could be called magic and that under no circumstances should you tell anybody that it exists." As Andrew finished his speech an angry Ashily left the meeting.

"Hm while I do understand your point there is still one problem with your plan that being the method of discovery if cooking a soup or stew can make one of these 'Potions' then we will definitely have people making these things accidentally and I for one don't want to know what a heat stealing liquid will do to a person's so much." Maril spoke up as she spared a glance to the departing form of Ashly.

"You have a point we'll have to make a sub cast for the gardeners that will cook and make food they'll have to be people you trust and will be in charge of making food for everyone which shouldn't be to hard to do seeing as there aren't many good cooks amongst us." Andrew replied before gesturing to Don "Please start your report."

As Don got his notes ready to start his update he spared a glance at their meeting ground it was the crystal clearing they had discovered when they had been chased by the birds the level of bird attacks had dropped significantly after that first wave and while they were still a problem it was mostly a contained problem. They had found many ways of containing them and that was what most of his report was about. After his report the other gave theirs and things were mostly going ok the gardeners had found an assortment of edible plants one of which was a fruit that had seed that tasted like coffee and a sweet fruit that tasted like strawberries.

"Man this place is weird." Don found himself agreeing with Andrews statement as he bit into the weirdly shaped fruit.

After the meeting Andrew was finishing up his notes as Rachal came up to him.

"Can I have your notes now" She asked as Andrew held up a hand to stop her.

"give me a few more second." Andrew quickly finished putting down his notes "There you go." He said as he passed them over with a smile. 'Finally done with the fucking paper work' He inwardly celebrated as Rachal took his notes looked at them looked at him sighed and with a muttered "I figured" tore them up in front of his eyes.

"Hey what the fuck!! I Worked really hard on that." Andrew yelled as Rachal glared at him.

"Really hard, You call those chicken scratches your best effort I'm the chronicler I have to compile all your notes in to something short and legible how am I supposed to do that if I can't even understand what your writing. You aren't going to leave this clearing until your handwriting looks like this." Rachal angrily shouted as she thrust A sheet of notes that had immaculate handwriting on it. Andrew took a moment to look at the paper than at Rachal who had a look of sadistic determination on her face though the sadistic part may have been his imagination for half a moment he was a young second grader being towered over the figure of an old and very pissed of lady.

As Andrew continued to look between the two terrors he sighed in resignation.

"Your right as a leader it is my duty to at least write properly." Andrew said in resignation.

Rachel smiled at that "Very good now then let's start with.

And at that moment Andrew bolted only to be immediately talked.

"Don help me please!" Andrew begged the large man as he started to leave.

"Sorry man me and Emily are going to go and talk sooo." Don said while walking away with Emily

"Oh come on man Bros before hoes and..."What did you just call me!"" Emily interrupted if glares could kill Andrew would have went to hell and then to hells hell.

"That your a beautiful and lovely person, its a turn of phrase it means nothing, don't kill me." Andrew stuttered before cursing in his mind as he felt a weight on his back.

"Honestly stop acting like a child the more you struggle the longer this will take." Rachal said from his back.

"oh god i'm getting traumatic flashbacks about Mrs. Jolin, Jace help me please Jace" Andrew cried out to his only other friend that could save him but Jace just continued to say nope as he walked away Andrew briefly considered taking the long shot and begging Maril for help but her constant giggling showed that she only saw this as a game.

"Oh suck it up Andrew and take your medicine your the one that wanted this job." Emily said as she and Don moved out of the clearing.

"Alright now that that is out of the way where should we start." Rachal asked herself while Andrew briefly wondered if this is what it feels like to be a mouse caught by a cat.

"Is this any way to treat your fearless leader!" Andrew bellowed as he tried to sit up.

"Yes my fearless leader that tried to run away from some paper." Rachal answered in a deadpan as Andrew collapsed.

"Alright let just get this over with damnit!" Andrew said resigned.

"Are we done yet." Andrew asked it had been three hours and Andrews spirit had been withered if he had a soul he was sure it looked like a raisin right now.

"Hmm" Rachal hummed as she looked over the his work."You're not there quite yet do these parts again."

"UUUGH can you please get off me now at least?" Andrew asked

"That depends will you try to run away if I do?" Rachal answered with her own question Andrew just slumped down.

"I promise I won't." Andrew replied as he started to redo his note for what felt to him like the thousandth time.

"Hmm don't believe you." Rachal said simply as Andrew once again slumped down.

"Please its really hard to breath like this." Andrew grunted

"A little motivation never hurt anyone." Rachal answered

"Your enjoying this aren't you!?" Andrew asked

"Hmm...maybe." Rachal said offhandedly.

"AAGH...here is this good enough." Andrew said handing back the paper to Rachal who gave it a look over.

"Hmm Andrew would you mind if I asked why you aren't wearing shoes?" Rachal asked as she stretched her arms.

"Seriously?" Andrew sighed as he answered "I was helping Dons group make the clay they needed to get their bricks made you should know that from Don's notes."

"Hmm so I heard that you went out with the hunting team this morning mind telling me why." Rachal continued to ask him questions.

"What is this an interrogation yes I went out with the hunters, why because i'm good at it and I didn't have anything else to do anything else you'd like to know?" Andrew asked in aggravation.

"Is that why your right hand is bandaged you know we're limited on medican water if your going to use it you should put a mark down like we agreed on!" Rachal said angrily as she got off him.

"I don't need to put down that I used medican water if I didn't use it." Andrew replied indignetly as Rachal brushed of her pants.

"What you didn't use it what about disease we don't know what kind of infections you could get here!" Rachal frowned at Andrew with disapproval.

"I'm fine mom!" Andrew answered as he got up glaring "I'm not going to waste something so precious on a few scrapes."

"Umhm well whatever these are good enough you can go know." Rachal said in dismissal as she started to shuffle through her notes.

"Thank God!" Andrew shouted as he quickly made a break for it leaving Rachal to her notes and thoughts.