Miles into the forest, just before sundown, I had them stop, recognizing the landmarks around us. We ducked through a hole in the thickets and coasted to a halt in the middle of another familiar clearing, protected on all sides by dense thorny undergrowth thicker than any city wall. The sharp brambles would protect us and shield us from the view of the outside world. A world who would eventually come looking for us. Small yellow flags sprouting from the earth glittered brightly in the dying orange light, marking out the planned construction over the enormous plot. I do not deny I am overly ambitious-I wanted to build myself a fortress to rival the walled barricades of Baton.

Jake, who'd spent the long trip listening to the Phoenix Drop radio broadcasts I'd managed to transmit through his helmet, flicked the visor up out of his face and grinned. The radio in the helmets were connected to a main home system safely tucked away in his duffle bag. "Well, they finally noticed we exist."

"Just in time for us to disappear," Kim smirked, sliding off her motorbike and freeing her straight blue locks from her helmet. She unclipped her sword unceremoniously from her belt and threw it down onto the grass next to her. The others followed her lead with just as much relish, ridding themselves of the heavy weights of steel and leather.

Dimitri also made a show of pulling daggers out of his boots, his katanas off his back, throwing disks from his sleeves, darts strapped along his belt, and a very simple, very lethal curved blade from inside his cuffed pant leg. He made it a point to carry as many weapons on his personage as humanly possible-and it always helped that he knew how to employ every single one of them.

The twins made a beeline for the wide expanse of thick, soft, moss covering a spot of smooth boulders near the edge of the clearing. "Naptime," they demanded childishly, flinging themselves eagerly into the springy plants. For a moment I pitied the moss; the freezes of winter would begin in a few short months, and the tiny sprouts would die. Then I remembered that I was thinking about plants. Plants that didn't live very long to begin with.

"Worktime," Luca amended for them, moving to unhook our enormous loads and tying her hair up sloppily, out of her face. She gave me a weird look when she came across my bizarre train of thought, but let it go with a strangled giggle when I shook my head at her.

I smiled at my friends. Under normal circumstances, the trip would have taken two hours at most. However, with the extra weight from the recently purchased supplies, the journey took us nearly eight. All the way from Bright Port, we hauled huge shipments of stone, freshly carved from their extensive underground quarries. From Scaleswind, we hauled our lumber. The thick spruce logs approximated nearly thirty feet long and weighed close to a ton each; it was such a hassle to tow them across the treacherous rocky terrain all the way from the snowy, densely wooded forests of Scaleswind. In my bag I kept the pages of blueprints to build our safe haven tucked safely away.

Most of them set to work on the house after we rolled our vehicles into the shade to prevent sun-damage, rolling out the large stone bricks that would serve as the house's foundation into place. I hauled myself beneath the bellies of our beast to make alterations to the engines to muffle the exhaust and moving pieces so that they would run quieter. Kim's magic arced overhead in dazzling blue streaks, aiding them where it could. The twins were coaxed from their comfortable spot into working by the promise of hidden bones-of which there were really none-underground. The two phased into large sleek brown wolves and dug eagerly, hoping to find the treats. They dug out a space large enough for a basement storage room before they realized the trick and flopped down dramatically to pout. Eventually, they fell asleep and took a nap in the last remnants of dying light.

We worked late into the night, most of us having slept late today in preparation for the festival we were no longer attending. The temperature began to fall, and our breath came out in billowing icy clouds the longer we worked. When the foundation had been fully laid and the basement walls hardened by Kim's magic, I stretched the blueprints out onto a large makeshift table lit by an oil lantern, tucking my duffle away under the wood. The twins, deciding to come back to work, peered over my shoulder for a moment before making their way to a separate set up of yellow flags and begin digging again. This time, Luca helped them.

Outside the barrier of thorns, near the path we had come in through, Dimitri and I worked to set up tents to sleep in. Said tents needed to be perfectly secured to the earth before the twins finished their digging and required a place to sleep. Their klutzy nature would most likely bring our work back into a tumbling heap if done incorrectly.

Occasionally, a firework from Phoenix Drop's festivities would find its way high enough above the inky black skies to be seen from our clearing. I couldn't help but grin every time a Croisette or Peony cracked across the silence, knowing that their loud pops and bangs would cover the noise of our construction from search parties-if any had even been sent out.

Jake found a way to raise the thick wooden beams into place vertically at each cornerstone by tying strong lengths of rope to the center of a trunk and leashing the wood to the towing bars at the backs of our transports. His innovation suggested that Kim's use of magic was beginning to tire her, and it wasn't long before she broke off from the building team in search of rest. She gave me explicit instructions not to wake her up, "even if the world is burning down around us." I merely agreed and tossed her a pillow. She fell asleep at once.

Leaving her in peace, Dimitri and I moved to take her place. Dimitri unloaded a magic-adapted power saw he'd stolen from his father's workshop and began to strip logs from their bark and slice them into sturdy planks to lay over the floor. Captain Dante Scarlato dabbled in blacksmithing and carpentry, skills that his son picked up on quite easily, and kept many such tools to use. However, all of the Captains on the joint Phoenix Drop-Alliance task force had recently departed on a trade ship with highly valuable cargo, and they were tasked with its protection. He wouldn't be missing his expensive machines for a while.

I walked slowly around the construction with a thick black marker, carefully marking spots on the wood and stone to help the others align with the blueprints, and also poured over said blueprints making corrections and adding notes. While doing this, I caught Jake climbing up one of the corner posts, his deft fingers finding the smallest nooks in the wood. Before I could ask him what he was doing, he reached the top and sat on the stump triumphantly. "I think this one's sturdy, Luca!" He called back down with a grin and a wave.

Hearing her name, the werewolf in question looked up towards his voice from where she stood directing her brothers, and her face turned instantly pink in irritation. "Jacob, you idiot! What if that had fallen down?" She shouted up at him. "When I said we needed to check for stability, I didn't mean we should endanger ourselves!"

Jake cupped a hand next to his ear, pretending not to hear. "What's that? 'I should endanger myself?' If you say so!"

To Luca's complete horror and fury, Jake stood up arrogantly on his pole and looked back and forth between himself and the next one, just over fifteen feet away. I squinted through the hazy darkness to see him give a sarcastic bow and sloppy salute in her direction, before he jumped through the moonlight. His fingers caught expertly halfway down the next timber, and he clambered back up to the top to do it again, all the way around the perimeter. His dangerous antics drew the attention of the twins, who paused in their digging for a few moments to watch with amusement, tongues lolling lazily. They clearly contemplated partaking in the fun themselves.

"Jake, get down!" I laughed as he jumped again. He twisted around midair to grin at me, paying absolutely no attention to what he was doing, and he crashed into the next beam headfirst. I winced as he scrambled for a finger hold and became worried when he found none. His clambering became desperate as he began sliding to the ground. The pole started to rock, first slowly, then violently as Jake's shifting weight pushed the wood further off balance.

"This one is not steady!" He screeched as the beam fell.

The twins sprang into action in an instant, one giant wolf pushing at the pole to slow its descent, struggling against the weight, and the other prancing about on the ground to catch Jake if he fell-no, not if; when. That tree was coming down, and Jake would go with it. If Jake didn't let go, and soon, the three of them would be crushed. In this jolt of panic, I stood frozen, and vaguely heard Luca scream at me to get out of the way, which I did on reflex when I processed the gravity of everything.

Luckily, Jake isn't stupid-compulsive and reckless, definitely, but not stupid-and released his hold on the wood, dropping onto Rollo's back and allowing himself to be carried to safety before Lello scrambled out of the way. The trunk fell, slamming into the earth with an ear-splitting crash where I had been standing, but stayed fully intact. Birds flocked to the skies as the sound ripped through the forest-surprisingly, Kim managed to slumber through the shaking and noise, and the shouting that followed-and Dimitri paused in his sawing, confused, and removed wax plugs from his ears, which he'd been using to dull the noise of the saw. His brow furrowed suddenly at the sight before him, his eyebrows scrunching so close together that for a moment they were one furry line across his forehead.

"What the hell just happened?" He asked incredulously, taking in the panicked air and collapsed beam.

Lello, speaking around his teeth and tongue and lengthened jaws with difficulty, answered him with a sort of misplaced mischievous pride; usually, it was the twins themselves that caused chaos like this. "Jake tried to kill us and should never be allowed to climb on things again."

"You asked me to check on things," Jake wheezed pitifully, causing me to mentally facepalm.

"I didn't mean get yourself killed!" Luca shot back, running a hand across her brow and shoving the other into her curly hair, trying very hard not to panic now that the excitement was over.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" He tried.

"Thanks to my brothers!" She shouted, throwing her hands back out of her hair at his childish reasoning. The twins snickered with barely hidden pity.

"I'm with Luca on this one," I sighed, earning me a hurt, betrayed look, "you could have died." As funny as the situation happened to be, my best friend's death was not a subject I wanted on my mind.

Knowing that he would never win this fight against the short-tempered werewolf, Jake shot me another glare. "At least it won't fall down again," he huffed, turning his back on us. But under his breath, he whispered an apology to Luca. Only a flick of her tail and a final warning glare showed she heard him.

Dimitri gave us all a tired look, replaced the plugs, and continued with his task. Lello flicked Jake with his tail, and he and his brother returned to digging their pit. This catastrophe would be overlooked and forgotten by morning, which seemed to be fast approaching.

Progress slowed the longer the night went on as our minds grew fuzzy and distant. Dimitri, after accumulating a rather large pile of floorboards beside him, fell asleep where he stood at his saw; Luca dragged him off and carried him to bed before he had the chance to fall and hurt himself on the open blade. The twins curled up in their hole, but gladly moved when I told them about the campsite, phasing back into their human shapes as they did so. Luca retired with them. Jake worked a while longer, until dawn could be seen above the trees, likely to make up for his falling accident; but he too eventually found sleep. I took a final look over the blueprints and construction before joining them.

We slept long and peacefully very late into the following morning; the best rest we'd found in ages. We dreamed, or at least I did, of fame and glory. Of a new family, banded together deep within the forests of Ru'aun, hidden from the harsh judgement of prying eyes, the cruel remarks from lashing tongues. I imagined our new home as a shining beacon, a haven for the worthy. My imagination made me grin as it invaded my dreams, filling my thoughts with hope and happiness. Here we were, out in the middle of nowhere, already fighting to make better, more meaningful lives together. We were going to make a wonderful difference in Ru'aun. In the world. I loved that.

The fireworks continued long into the night and into the next morning. The peace celebrations found no reason to stop. They reminded us of what we were giving up by leaving-but also that there was nothing we could gain from staying. The sparks exploding across the lightening skies soared to their highest, only to flicker and die, the brief ember of joy proved insignificant in the vastness. Whispers raged against my skull. I would never be a spark. I would never let them be sparks. We will rise to be a raging inferno to blast the world into the future. We will be the inferno to purge Ru'aun of darkness and leave behind wonderous room for new life and growth. We will grow to the height of power, an invincible force to rule the entirety of the continent.

Shut up, I told my tired mind, in too much of a good mood to properly scold my demons. Go to sleep. I have things to do in the morning; things far beyond you.

There was hesitation there, just for a moment, and my thoughts slowed. The images of a glorious future dulled, and the ridiculous thought trains ceased to run. Begrudgingly, the voice responded. As you wish...