Kei's parents had been debating on whether or not they should let Kei go off on an adventure for an incredibly long time. Long enough she honestly wouldn't be surprised if Aidyn just gave up and left.

Sensing that the conversation was on its merry way towards yet another roundabout, Kei slipped out of the living room and into her bedroom that she really needed to clean. She might as well pack, assuming she got the go-ahead. And if she didn't — well, that would just be too bad.

For some weird reason, despite it having been well over 15 minutes since she'd dropped the whole I-want-to-follow-a-hibri-I-met-five-minutes-ago-on-a-quest-for-mythical-stuff bombshell, Kei was still processing what had just happened. She'd had a hard time explaining to her parents why she wanted to go. Moons, she was having a hard time explaining to herself why she wanted to go.

Which definitely said a lot about just how much she'd thought this through.

Grabbing the duffel bag she used for the multiple occasions her dad decided to take the family on a camping trip, Kei started sorting out what stuff she needed to bring while mentally going over all the reasons she wanted to go.

Sleeping bag. Kei took a moment to make the puffy cylinder stand up against the side of the backpack.

She had been presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something incredible, one she couldn't pass up. Chances were, something like this would never happen again.

Clothes. A (mostly) neatly folded stack of fabric took up residence beside the sleeping bag.

That map was in the human language. The boy was clearly a human-anguis hibri, yet he didn't know how to read his own map. Meaning it wasn't his. Meaning he wasn't looking for the sources for the humans. He could even be actively working against them.

Weapons. Some throwing knives and a small gun slipped into the bag.

Meaning, maybe, she could help fight against those ingrata. Despite living in a remote village with overprotective parents, Kei had heard rumors. She'd seen patrias stumbling in, overheard whispered tales of human torture methods. If the sources were real, they could change everything.

Rope. Flashlight. A coil of rope and a solar-powered flashlight meandered into the front pocket of her bag.

Plus, why the moons not? Even as Kei scanned her room for anything else she might need, she already knew that was a stupid reason. A one-way ticket to craziness, an insane hibri, and potential death? One would have to be out of one's mind to accept it just like that.

Kei had always known she'd lost her marbles a long time ago.

Cooking stuff. That had to be pilfered from the kitchen, and pilfered the pot and utensils were. For some currently unknown but almost definitely peculiar reason, a couple rolls of bandages and some medicinal leaves appeared to have made a home inside said pot. Kei left them there and even stole some matches.

Moons, she was going to have a hard time explaining this to her friends.

Oh, moons above.

Ari.

The young caela had been injured in some sort of accident years ago, rendering her unable to fly. She'd been living with the fabri for ages and — moons — she wouldn't take Kei's departure well.

That could be an issue. While her brain tried to decide whether to come up with excuses or creative methods to smuggle Ari along with her, her hands busied themselves with casually stealing food.

"Kei?" Kei's mother had entered the kitchen and, to her credit, didn't look all that surprised at the sight of her daughter scanning cupboards for easily-stealable food. To be quite honest, that kind of thing was sort of normal in their household. Admittedly with a little less camping equipment, but normal nonetheless.

"I — " Kei wondered how to deflect the incriminating situation.

"You can go. I'll help you pack."

"I wasn't — wait, what?" It took a moment for her mother's words to register.

The rana smiled at her confused daughter, azure eyes alight with withheld laughter. "Your father and I had an extremely lengthy debate about it, but we decided to let you go with the hibri."

"For the record, I still think this is a bad idea," Kei's father called from the door. The faber stayed outside, watching his wife bustle around the kitchen packing bags of food with the sort of single-minded intensity only a mother sending her child off on a crazy adventure could summon.

Kei blinked in surprise, then carefully stuffed the bread and other preserved food inside her bag. Apparently those unassuming cupboards held a lot more dried fruits than she'd originally anticipated...

Not entirely shockingly, the actual packing took a lot less time than making the actual decision to pack. In fact, just a couple short minutes later, Kei was standing in her doorway preparing herself for some serious insanity.

"Kei. Wait." She turned around. There was a soft murmur of words. A piece of paper changing hands. Muffled goodbyes and tight hugs. Then Kei was walking out the door, walking across soil and leaves that crunched beneath her shoes.

Her father's parting words rang in her ears as she examined the map he'd given her. No matter what happens, you can always come back home.

Well, at least she had a backup plan if this whole thing crashed and burned in potentially human-induced flames. 

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It wasn't too hard finding Ari — the caela's dark brown wings contrasted well against the green foliage that surrounded everything. Unsurprisingly, she was reading a book and, like everyone else Kei had passed, was a tad more than a bit surprised to see her all packed up for a trip to the moons or something.

"Where are you going?" Ari's bright green eyes, almost exactly like those of the fabri she had lived with for years, were wide and confused. The slight waver in her voice betrayed the underlying concern in her.

"Off to look for magical things with a hibri I just met," Kei announced without preamble. Seeing Ari's face fall, she hastily elaborated on her already-insane plan, thus making it even more insane. "I was wondering... if you wanted to come along?"

"Sorry, what?" The incredulity had been expected, but disappointing nonetheless. Which raised the issue of how much she could tell her. Not that Kei didn't trust Ari, but Aidyn had made the whole mission sound pretty secretive.

She silently apologized to Aidyn.

"There's this hibri — anguis-human, if I'm not wrong, he's looking for the sources." Ari's eyes, if possible, widened even more, shock overtaking her features. "To take down the humans or something. I'm going with him. So... do you want to come along?"

Ari's decision was almost as quick as Kei's, leading her to the assumption that adults just sucked at decision-making. Or maybe teenagers sucked at planning. "Yes. I need to pack, though."

"You shouldn't need that much, just a sleeping bag and clothes and food and stuff," Kei told her.

Ari raised her eyebrows. "That's kind of a lot, Kei."

"Shush, and go pack."

Snickering, the two girls made their way over piles of dried leaves, heading towards Ari's small treehouse near the center of the village. "Is there anyone you need to tell about this?" At 'this,' Kei gestured towards herself and her bag. She was fairly certain Ari had been sort of collectively raised by the fabri, but one had to be sure.

"Nope, so I just need to pack my stuff and we can go."

"Please don't forget anything important," Kei implored her. One time, Kei's parents had taken the two of them on a fishing trip, except Ari forgot her bait and tried fishing with an empty hook. Needless to say, she didn't catch anything. Those were dark times.

"Come on, that was one time!" Ari argued, likely thinking of the fishing incident too. Considering Kei wasn't entirely sure which incident Ari was referring to, it should be fairly obvious it most definitely had not been just one time.

"Sure it was." An uncontrollable fit of giggles tried to burst out of Kei's mouth, but she reined it in. Except, one cannot control the uncontrollable and she laughed anyway.

Ari rolled her eyes and studiously ignored her friend's hysterics, but a sly snicker slipped out anyway.

They continued their walk, bantering and attempting to explain the situation as they went.

A few mismatched paragraphs later, they reached the base of Ari's tree. Being too lazy to climb up with her, Kei waited below and made stick bombs while Ari scampered up into the treehouse and gathered the assorted belongings she would need. Occasionally she would poke her head out of the window and check if something was needed, but those occasions were few and Kei made several stick bombs in peace as she waited.

Unsurprisingly, packing once again proved itself the quickest part of any journey and Ari was scampering back down the tree halfway through stick bomb number five.

"Where are we meeting your hibri friend anyway?" Ari asked when they were once again making their way over piles of dried leaves. There were many dried leaves.

"At the other end of the village," Kei replied. She didn't bother correcting Ari's use of the word 'friend.' Following strangers was exactly what she had been told multiple times not to do.

Ari just gestured for her to lead the way.

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Kei had seen an awful lot of confused faces that day, but Aidyn's really took the cake. It seemed he had not been expecting an extra caela. In his defence, though, teenage girls typically didn't come in buy-one-get-one-free package deals.

"Wait, you're still here?" Kei asked him. She'd disappeared for so long, if the roles had been reversed she'd probably have ditched herself. Aidyn kept staring at her. Belatedly, she realized introductions were probably required. "Right. Aidyn, this is Ari. Ari, this is Aidyn. The mysterious hibri I was telling you about."

A smile popped into existence when he heard the nickname, but it quickly faded away as he surveyed Ari. "I didn't know you were bringing anyone else."

"Uh... sorry? Probably. Should have. Asked." Kei had lost the ability to speak in complete sentences. Send help.

Help arrived in the form of Ari taking over the conversational role. Praise the moons. "I can come though, right?"

Aidyn seemed to consider it. Kei considered telling him that Ari could heal people (being a caela and all) and thus would be useful on a dangerous mission. (Assuming it was dangerous. Considering most things tended to be, she was assuming it was dangerous.)

"She's a good friend of mine who wanted to come along. I promise she will not betray you or murder you in your sleep. Also, she can heal people." Miracle of miracles, Kei had recovered the ability to speak coherently.

Aidyn caved relatively quickly, and simply nodded. "Okay, but two things you should know: one, I don't have magic. I kinda lost the lottery on that one. Second, this is probably going to be really dangerous, so if you wanna back out... well, now's your chance. Cool?"

Kei did her best to nod and shake her head simultaneously, resulting in a strange diagonal repeated nod. (Was she supposed to say yes or no to the whole if-you-want-to-back-out thing?)

"My healing magic is weaker than other caeli, but it's enough to fix small stuff," Ari told them.

"Sweet." Aidyn glanced upwards, squinting at the canopy. "We should probably get going." He took the map out of his jacket and handed it to Kei. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be..." she replied as she scanned the map, tracing out a path between crosses. Kei frowned when she read one of the scribbled notes. The letters were messy and unfamiliar, but the words still sort-of made sense.

"Okay, quick warning, there's a huge chunk of human-controlled territory in between where we are and the giant cross labeled 'likely hiding spot,'" she noted.

"We're going to pass by humans?" Ari asked in a small voice. She hated humans with a passion because they had something to do with why she couldn't fly, so that could be an issue.

"Unfortunately, the alternative route is a gigantic detour that's going to take at least two weeks of travelling."

"I know humans suck, but we need those two weeks. Is it possible to skirt the area without a huge detour?" Aidyn peered at the map, trying to find a solution.

"They've got a pretty expansive part of the equator, and we'd need to cross over at some point to get to the source. The best we can do is avoid the humans for as long as possible until we have no other choice." Kei's finger traced over an outline of Altiu with one part shaded green, along with a side note that this part had been conquered. The green stretched across almost a third of the continent.

Tapping on a narrower strip of green, Kei said, "This part is our best bet. We might cross a few human-controlled villages, but it can't be helped."

"Sounds like a plan." Aidyn sounded like he was half-grinning half-sighing, but he took the map back without further comment and led the trio out of the faber village.

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Thanks for reading! New characters are 100% stan-worthy. WE STAN KEI. AND ARI.

It was determined literally twenty-something weeks later that Kei is written by Kate (wewannabeus), so yay! We love us a chaos (half) tree. Thank you for the dope chapter, Kate!

With virtual hugs, possible new Google characters, and acronyms,

Giant Fucking Chicken

(G.F.C.)