The sand started to scatter under their feet as the wind swept it away. Walking against the current of the world was becoming increasingly harder than it had been in the night night, and it almost seemed like the earth was trying to tell him something.

Failure does at least force people to learn.

The trio continued throwing themselves over one sand dune and sliding down another. Everything ahead glowed in Amber sunrises and the white pounding desert floor. Behind them the same. Only a bright yellow and white surrounded them. For miles and miles there was only sand.

Andy panted against her own walking as she held the spot on her stomach that had been bandaged and cleaned, though pain still pinged through it. The throbbing burned hotter than the sand ripping into her face.

"Shit," she grunted out, barely audible through the howling wind. Andy fell to the ground, her stomach aching like a small fire had been lit in it.

The sand started to scatter around her body in seconds as the desert already prepared to burry her. Allyssa and Andor all at once stared at each other and realized the same thing.

Suddenly with necessity they found themselves in a cave because big rock was the only thing that could shield them from small rocks being thrown at them by wind.

"I'm fine," Andy hit both of them away before they could even see the damage she felt under her rib cage. "I just need a second to sit."

Andor and Allyssa both watched her hide the fact that she was very obviously bleeding out somewhere.

"Bullshit," Allyssa let out abruptly.

Andor expected a fight to brake out at any moment, but Andy herself was still in denial.

"I told you little shits that I'm fine," Andy gritted out, and with another shock of pain to her abdomen she held in a scream. She pushed her face into her knees, mumbling out again. "I'm fine."

Allyssa with whatever stoic silence a fourteen year old could have, lunged at Andy.

"gET OFF OF ME!" Andy screamed, and both girls now focused all of their energy on a screaming battle that mostly consisted of Doctor Allyssa trying to figure out what was wrong with Andy.

Andor watched them slap each other and wear out precious energy that they didn't have. He mentally argued if he should do something to brake them apart or wait for one of them to win. Would any of them win?

"Hey - you - Fuck you!" Andy pried Allyssa fingers away, and Allyssa started pinching her even more. Soon they would be tearing each other's hair out.

"It's the knife, isn't it?" He spoke quietly against there shouting, but the rarity of his words made them pretty loud.

Andy only stayed shocked for a moment, and then the light went out of her eyes with the same slow realization. She leaned back onto the damp cave wall, exhaustion aching through her back.

Silently she lifted up her paper thin tank, now worn from the sand and sweat. Under it her skin stayed puffy were she had been cut. The knife slit right through skin, just enough for a scab to form, although nothing natural could fix her at this point. Her cut had become infected.

"Your not going to be able to move," Allyssa stated.

"No shit," Andy whispered out. Any bit of adrenaline that had been pumping through her was gone.

How many days had they wasted? Andor thought. How long until the king would get angry that he hadn't showed? How many innocent people had already been killed?

"Andy you can't come," he said somberly.

"Fuck you! You can't do it alone!" Andy laid her head against the cool cave wall quietly. She breathed heavily, sweating like crazy, and desperately needed water and medicine.

Andor expected something like this to happen. Anytime Andy did anything without Spark he remembered that she never made it that far without getting hurt.

He went through the small bag he had packed and brought out a scratched, dusty watch. Something that once and would soon again belong to Sonja.

He handed it to Allyssa, and she looked more confused and curious than ever. "What is this junk?"

"It's not junk," Andor explained quietly, hoping Andy wouldn't wake up from whatever trance she was in. "It's like a phone that doesn't need wires or power. You can talk to Hope and her friends on it."

Allyssa shook her head. She already saw where this was going. "Andor-"

"I need to go. I need to be there-"

"Andor no. You're going to die out there."

"No I won't," Andor spoke out, trying to make his dehydrated voice sound as much like a leader as possible. "I won't die. I promise I will not let myself die, but just - before you argue - just listen to me. I trust you to take care of Andy, and in return you'll trust me to do this on my own."

Allyssa still glared at him under her curly hair caked with sand.

He held her by the shoulders. "I know what it's like to feel like someone who is just in the way of others more important - I do - but it stings a lot worse when your an adult."

Allyssa's face softened, and something in her clicked that maybe adults didn't have all the power.

"Okay, Fine." She huffed out. "Go kick ass then, I guess."

I placed one last flower on his chest, thinking that in some way it would soothe the guilt my brain started to form.

I had never been to a funeral, and I wasn't planning on being at one any time soon - even if my friends all had a death wish.

The concept never really clicked for me, to cry around an empty carcass and talk to them one more time. It's just gone. The eyes are classy and the skin is pale. He's just gone.

When I die I'm going to wander out into the woods like an old dog, find a good spot, and leave. Then no one can carry my body around as a token of appreciation and remembrance.

So why did I place this stupid fucking orchid that I found a few feet off on my dead brothers chest? Because although I'm a pretentious fuck who sees the dead as just bloody bags of skin, Faith is not.

When I really think about it, he was her brother first. She deserved to bury him and cry over him. Do all of those stupid funeral things for the dead that really only make the living feel better. They both deserved a lot more.

I saw the dry blood on my hand in the sunlight, caking under my fingernails and pinky together. I saw the flies start to peck there way at the guts and gore at the ground, cooking in the humid jungle.

What I really saw when I closed my eyes, out of all of the death and decay, was who did all this damage.

It couldn't happen again.

"We can't tell Faith," I stated.

Jordan squinted at me, but he listened and closed his watch. "Why?"

Most answers wouldn't have subdued how much he wanted to tell her, which was mostly because he really wanted to sleep with her, but this took the cake.

"It's probably a trap," I stared back at the body, watching it decay as slow as grass grows. "By whatever that thing is."

"You think it's native to this area?" He asked.

I shook my head, only hoping that geography had something to do with. "I don't know. All I know is that I want to get to Andor before it does."

"But - Liberty-"

"Can't save a corpse," I interrupted, over hearing the "I'm sorry"s and "it's not your faults"s.

He silently agreed, and we continued to track Sonja's watch as the sun rose against the horizon. The leaves glistening with the rain from the night and the char of the fire still hot.

Another day started. Another hero dead.

Going around the coast instead of floating across the bay was a horrible idea. An idea that was Andor's, granted, but still horrible.

It had been somewhat releasing to see the sand start to turn to dirt, the dirt turn to grass, and the grass turn to a forest with trees and animals running around.

The leaves were thick enough that they shielded the forest floor from sun and rain. This also meant that the forest floor was so horribly dark. So horribly dark that the blistering sun of the desert seemed better. Little animals also ran around, and when a rabbit would decide to brake a twig in the silence, Andor jumped a little.

The release soon turned into a frustrating fear.

Why the things that went bump in the night didn't horrify Hope or her friends was against him. No knight he had ever met in his 20 years of being a prince would ever be able to walk through these woods and call them home.

He knew he had to be in the Mianite because that little village Thomas Syndicate practically ran had been strategically avoided only a few miles ago. Now he wandered around in the empty jungles that Hope had grown up in.

Truly, it explained so much.

He quietly meandered North, following his compass that pointed upwards to where the King Ragnar lived. Quite frankly, quiet was the only thing to be through the woods because the other option was being openly scared out of his god damn mind, and he was sure the squirrels dancing above him could smell fear.

He noticed the sun start to arch downward for the night, and he audibly sighed which was the first noise he had made in hours. Everything would get even darker, and he knew a lantern and a lighter could only last for so long.

The shadows the huge trees casted got longer, and the night animals woke up leaving the already scary enough day animals to sleep.

He knew that the kingdom couldn't be close because that was wishful thinking and wishful thinking got you a dead dad. Although positivity was key, Andor was also 100% positive that life wanted to squish him dead metaphorically and physically. Even since he ran around the kingdom small enough that everyone still tolerated him, he never felt wanted - at least not in this time.

So obviously when he started to smell smoke of fire and nicotine, he decided that it had to be a band of thugs instead of civilization. More of Hope's old friends without Hope there to protect him.

In other words, something bad was about to happen.

A light started to come forwards towards him. A beacon of light that showed the deadly rocks surrounding it. A figure stayed hidden in the darkness at the lantern stayed in front, lighting the forewords instead of the back.

He unlit his lantern, deciding it best to hide from the person instead of fight. He kneeled down, hiding in the moss and damp mud and grass. The dagger Hope had given him scratched at the side of his leg, and instead of grabbing it he ignored the pain. Hope may have thought he was sneezing when he said "pacifist" but he knew what the word meant, and although in this world the definition meant dead man he still decided to leave the knife alone. Someone had to be the 'peaceful dead man'. Someone had to even out the world.

The dark figure's shoes clacked closer and closer, making Andor lean back on the damp tree. Another pinch at his leg definitely broke skin.

Some people just shouldn't have weapons, he thought.

The pacing got slower and whispers started to leak out from the figure's mouth. Finally the footsteps slopping in the mud stopped echoing through the jungle, and Andor could feel breath on his neck behind him - soft, quick breathing.

He finally reached for the knife, not that he could ever use it but maybe threaten someone. He had done it before with a thief, and maybe it would work again for a strange black glob in the forest.

He felt the cold blade and lifted up the knife. The joints in his arm was sore, and every action lifting up the knife felt wrong as if he would malfunction if he continued with the action.

You're not actually killing someone, He reminded himself. You don't have to kill anyone.

"I have a weapon!" He screamed out, although his throat was dry and his voice cracked.

Thankfully it wasn't a thief or a monster or a thug. The stranger had been a bleeding wanderer. A familiar bleeding, pale to the point of death, and caked in mud wanderer.

"Sonja," He mustered out.

The first thing he noted about her was the way she was swaying - around and around in waves of consciousness - which was probably due to her leg. Her leg had been bathed in blood, a mix of hers and others. She had stabbed at it over an old scare like a kid picking at a scab.

"Are you alright," he asked, mostly out of politeness. The answer didn't have to be spoken.

So instead she said. "I need you to cut open my leg."

Andor got handed another dagger.

"Do you think they own Bazookas?"

"Tom, no one wants you to have a Bazooka."

"I do."

Lucy stopped in her tracks, letting out a little gasp when she saw us.

Tucker turned around, staring at her dead in the eyes with no fear. Meanwhile she seemed to have a glint in her eyes that reminded me of my uncles old chihuahua 'Paco' which was the meanest son of a bitch I had ever met. I decided to just continue to avoid her Paco like gaze.

It didn't make much sense that she walked in here, fuming. We had gotten orders to come to the armory and grab whatever we wanted by Claudius himself.

You know, probably a good old thank you for saving his life a couple of times.

"Why?" Lucy questioned.

I continued to shake this cabinet lock that I just couldn't get open. I knew they had to have something good in it - something else. They couldn't survive this long on bows and swords.

I needed the flame throwers.

Lucy chirped on in this annoying voice about blah blah blah. Something like, "Your friends are risking their lives to make sure the world continues to stay and you are raiding our armory!-"

I pointed over to the green, metal cabinet that held my soon to be new weapon of choice. "Do you have the lock to this?"

I heard Tucker back up a few paces.

The delicate teapot finally burst. "You cannot just waltz into whatever kingdom you feel like and tear everything up! Who gave you the right to go ahead and -?!"

I kicked at the cabinet. Still didn't budge, and since Tucker wouldn't talk I had to elaborate. "Claudius let us. He told us to grab everything."

Lucy squinted at me which people normally do when I speak, but this has become more severe.

Tucker, with the brain of a leader, already knew what was happening. What had been happening.

Faith rushed down the hall, her hair a mess. Wag was at her side, pointing his fat ass finger at us.

"Dear god. Stop them," Wag begged Faith. After hearing what Claudius told us three, he decided we were going to start a world war and snitched.

"Hey!" I yelled out. "What about teamwork?!"

Wag crossed his arms and glared at me. "Thomas, I am the first person to happily blow something up, but this makes absolutely no sense."

"Of course it does," I explained. "A leader wanted to thank us for protecting his academy."

Faith finally spoke up. "My senile uncle has no idea what he is saying, and quiet frankly Tucker I'm disappointed that you allowed this to happen."

Tucker silently scowled at her.

Faith started a rant that seemed like she was more or less talking to herself. "I mean how did Uncle Claudius even know where you were? He doesn't even know where his own bedroom is. Liberty's girlfriend helped him there every night."

Tucker and I both went pale, realizing we had forgot something in the excitement. Yeah, it was only a theory but we could have been thinking about it. We were actually going to tell Wag until Claudius came down and told us to grab a weapon of choice.

My stomach started to feel sick, but I knew I couldn't enact on anything yet.

"Faith, sweetie. Calm down," Lucy hushed out. Lucy's mouse voice didn't solve the problem.

Faith's hands flew in the air, spurring around like a broken helicopter. She was gonna accidentally hurt someone. "Stop telling me to be calm when I know something strange is going on! First Jeriah goes missing, and I'm supposed to pretend he's just gone! Like he just went missing?! Then, Liberty went with Andy on a mission that he didn't tell me he was going on. He left without any warning, and he left me with this! This! With my last resort gone on a death mission accompanied by a fourteen year old, and the Ianite Raiders knocking on my gates!"

Her voice went into a gritty desperation. Something that no one could try to comfort. Her voice cracked. "I'm trying to keep the children being taught here out of a war, and my bed ridden uncle just told these idiots they could have whatever they want-"

"-Hey-"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO STAY CALM!!??"

Lucy nodded her head. The room in quiet lull that even left the crickets shutting the hell up.

Lucy gave an understanding smile to Faith, who was holding onto more stress than Jordan. "This is a very precarious situation-"

Faith screamed in her hands and mud brown bangs, having no one else to find advice from except herself.

Wag and I glanced at Tucker who we hoped had sobered up enough to become a leader again. A whole cage full of problems had hung above us since we got to Aura, and now it seemed it was about to release. Tucker saw the invisible cage, too, and he had his mouth agape, waiting for it to drop just like us.

Murmurs came from the armory doorway and loose wobbly footsteps followed. I gazed in front at the shadowy hall, a shadow moving around it, making the dark floor resemble shattered glass.

I'm front of our very eyes the cage opened.

Uncle Claudius walked into the armory, unaccompanied, even by his cane. The man who had told Tucker and I to grab weapons had glazed over eyes and a blank expression. This man was different. This man had conned us.

"Uncle Claudius," Faith still spoke to him like trying to call a deaf dog, but he was no longer that. He had never been that.

Claudius now had his hair combed back and his boots shined. He walked straight now, not with a crooked leg, and his hand spun around a throwing knife.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Faith asked, still not understanding for someone so smart. Mostly because her mainframe had broken. She just couldn't damn well comprehend it.

Claudius let out a friendly smile, a move any good master of disguise would use. He walked over to his niece, and when she saw his kind face she melted like loose putty in his hand. The rest of us were ridged and on guard.

"Well Faith dear, I thought I might tidy up for the battle," he held her face in his hands just like her father might have. "Watching the world churn on is exciting, isn't it?"