"I told you this prank wasn't a good idea," Ari said, looking down at Jared, who had just fallen out of a tree and landed on Aidyn.

"What in the moons, man?" Aidyn groaned, shoving Jared off him.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Jared said.

"You're lucky you didn't knock Aidyn right into the fire," Kei scolded.

Jared looked at her confusedly. "But you were helping m..." She held a finger to her lips.

"Anyways, Kei, you got interrupted from telling your story," Ari said, effectively changing the subject.

"They all died. The end!" Kei finished cheerfully. Ari sighed.

Settling back onto his log, Jared asked, "So, how'd you all end up in my village-in-the-middle-of-nowhere? I mean, you're an odd bunch."

"I fell out of a tree," Aidyn said, and offered no other explanation.

"Ha! So, you've done it too!" Jared exclaimed.

"More specifically, he fell out of my tree," Kei added.

"Sure, that clears everything up all right," Jared said sarcastically. "Where are you guys going? What are you looking for? Details, people, details!"

Ari spoke up, "We're looking for the sources."

"Alright, looking for a bunch of legends. Sounds fun!" Jared said.

"It's complicated," Aidyn said.

"I like complications. Makes things more interesting."

"Here's the simple version: I stole a map to the sources and ditched the Voc, didn't bring enough bagels, fell out of Kei's tree, Kei brought Ari, we ended up in your village, Ari got arrested, and you know the rest." Aidyn ranted.

Jared neglected to comment on the bagels. "Was Ari just near Kei's tree when suddenly Kei showed up and was like, 'Congratulations! You're coming with me'?"

"Well... you're not that far off, but no." Kei replied. "Ari, are you okay with explaining how we know each other?"

"I guess..." Ari trailed off.

Kei placed her hand on Ari's shoulder. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Ari sighed. She disliked talking about her biological family and her past, but if Jared was going to tag along with them, she might as well. After all, she didn't know how long the little group of theirs was going to be together, it could be years for all she knew.

"I'll explain," she said. "Caela children learn to fly at around age six or seven. I was seven when I first started leaving my nest without my parents. One day, I flew a little farther than usual..."

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Seven-year-old Ari leaped off the mountain edge and soared above the forest. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was a perfect day. She swooped down and perched on a tree branch, settling in place and letting the sun soak into her skin and feathers. A reddish squirrel caught her attention, scampering through the branches of the next tree over. Her gaze drifted upward, and a cloud of something gray above the trees became apparent. She sniffed and wrinkled her nose.

"Ew," she said to no one in particular. "What is that stuff?"

Curious, she flew upwards and then towards the weird cloud. Upon closer inspection, it was coming from a tall pillar on top of a large, blocky gray building.

"Are humans making fake clouds now?" Ari wondered aloud. She got so wrapped up in considering why it would be necessary to make fake clouds and if it were, in fact, necessary, why would it smell so bad that she didn't notice herself flying straight into a huge cloud of the stuff.

She coughed uncontrollably, blindly flapping around in an effort to escape the gray prison surrounding her. Light-headedness overtook her, making it impossible to think straight and she smacked into the pillar, knocking herself unconscious as she fell towards the roof of the building.

Everything hurt. Her head hurt, her legs hurt, her arms hurt — oh, moons, her wings hurt. She attempted to open her eyes and immediately closed them again as brightness as sharp as a knife sliced through her head.

"Ariana!" her mother — Juliane — called. "Are you awake?" She opened her eyes more slowly this time, groaning as her eyes adjusted.

"Mom...?"

"Ana!" her older brother Typhen exclaimed.

"Ty!" she said excitedly and attempted to fling herself towards him.

"Okay, whoa, Ana," he said, laughing. "You shouldn't be moving yet."

"What happened?" she asked, sitting up with Juliane and Ty's help. "Where's Dad?"

"You fell while flying, and... your father is... dealing with a situation at the central nest," Juliane said.

"That sounds like an adult phrase," Ari complained. 'Adult phrases' was what she called the things adults said so that kids don't worry.

"He really is dealing with a situation, I promise." Juliane said, ruffling her hair feathers. Then she paused and looked away sadly. "I should go help him. I'll leave you with Ty, okay?"

"Okay... you'll tell me if there's anything wrong, right?" she asked.

"... Of course."

She was lying. There was something wrong.

"Ty, do you know what's going on?" Ari asked.

He frowned. "No, Ana, sorry. Mom and Dad are acting weird."

"Tell me about it."

"Ana!" a cheerful and familiar voice said. It was Hailys, the caeli's best healer. All of them had healing abilities to some degree, but Hailys was by far the most powerful.

"Hi, Hailys!" Ari said. "Why are you here?"

"Well... I've got some bad news." Hailys said sadly.

"What do you mean?" Ty asked. "What bad news?"

"Ana, I'm sorry. You're not going to be able to fly again."

Ari gasped and her eyes filled with tears. Flying was her life. It was every caela's life.

Hailys gestured for Ty to come with her to talk in the back room. A few minutes later, Ari heard Ty exclaim,"You mean we'll have to — !"

"Shh! Ariana's right over there!" Hailys said quickly.

"What are you talking about?" Ari called.

"Go to sleep, Ana! You still need rest," Ty shouted. He had never raised his voice at her before. Ari buried her face in her pillow and fell back asleep immediately. She must've been far more exhausted than she thought.

When she woke up, she was in the middle of an unfamiliar forest. Ty was standing near her.

"Ana, you have to leave now," he said. "You can't stay with us. You wouldn't ever be able to move on your own."

"Ty? What are you talking about? Where am I?" Ari exclaimed, leaping to her feet and reaching out for him. He took off, flying out of her reach and back towards the distant mountains.

"I'm sorry!" he called one last time, and then he was gone.

Ari flung herself out on the ground and cried for what felt like forever, although it was probably only an hour at most.

She spent the next few days wandering the forest, eating berries. At one point she ate a bright purple, poisonous berry and started throwing up. It wouldn't stop and she thought she would die from food poisoning, when a girl about her age poked her head out from behind a tree.

"Did you eat a poison berry?" the girl asked. Ari groaned in response. "I'll take that as a yes. Come on, my parents have medicine. What's your name?"

"Ariana, but call me..." she paused. The idea of someone other than her caela family calling her 'Ana' was painful. "Ari. Call me Ari."

"Cool," the girl said. "I'm Kei."

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­­­­"Moons, okay," Jared said. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Sorry, I should have summarized," Ari said.

"Nah, long stories are fun."

"So, my family basically adopted Ari and I didn't want to leave her behind, so I brought her along," Kei finished.

"So, that's why you're here, but where are we going?" Jared asked. Aidyn shifted around uncomfortably.

"Uh, I'm not exactly sure. We're following the map I have, but it said something about someone called Tercy Cess, and I still have no idea who that is." Aidyn said.

Kei snapped her fingers. "That's what I was forgetting! I never told you about Tercy!"

"Ooh, another bedtime story?" Jared asked, clapping his hands excitedly.

"Tercy Cess is a famous rana. She's known for going after the sources, just like us. But she disappeared years ago." Kei said. "That's all we're told about her."

Aidyn pulled a rolled-up map out of his pocket and handed it to Kei. "Recognize anywhere on here?"

Kei pointed to a red 'X.' "That's a rana village. I visited once when I was younger."

"Could it be Tercy's village?" Ari asked.

"I don't know why else it would be marked, unless there's a source hiding there."

"Guess that's where we're going then?" Aidyn asked.

"Sounds like a good starting point to get information," Kei said.

"Great, glad all this is sorted out, but can we be productive in the morning? I'm tired," Jared said. Ari nodded in agreement.

"Who isn't, honestly," Aidyn said. "But yeah, we're not going anywhere tonight. We should leave when we wake up."

The next morning, Ari got up and stretched, chatting with Kei. Aidyn got up shortly afterward, and then they all pitched in to wake up Jared, who was very soundly asleep and snoring. He jumped straight up when Aidyn poured some cold water on his head.

"Couldn't you have just, I don't know, yelled? Like a normal person?" Jared exclaimed, turning to Aidyn.

"We tried that," Ari said.

"Oh."

"We should get going," Kei said, rolling up her sleeping bag.

"Where exactly on the map are we?" Aidyn asked.

"Somewhere around here." Kei moved her finger to a spot. "We're close to the east coast." They set off, with Jared still dripping wet and shivering.

Two hours or so later, they stopped for a break, Jared lying down in a sunny patch of grass and the others sitting down nearby.

"Hey, what's that?" Jared asked, pointing to a nearby tree. Ari walked over for a closer look. It was covered in symbols scratched into the bark. Like, CK + SA 4EVA, AM/DN and other stuff like that.

"Some people have no respect for trees," Kei sighed.

Aidyn stood up almost immediately. "Oh, moons. We're out of money, aren't we? I should go get some, there's a town nearby — I'll be back in a couple hours, maybe?"

"We still have some..." Ari said.

"Just in case," Aidyn said, turning and walking into the jungle.

"Bring me back a soda," Kei called after him.

｡･ﾟﾟ･｡

Rain was absolutely pouring by the time Aidyn returned from wherever he was. He gave Kei her soda and told them to get ready to leave immediately. Ari had a feeling that wherever he was, he wasn't just getting them more money, but she wasn't going to force him to talk about it.

"Can't we just find shelter somewhere and continue once the rain stops? I'm soaked," Jared complained.

"We shouldn't hang around for much longer. It's not safe," Aidyn replied.

"Please?" Kei asked.

He gave in. "Okay, fine. But as soon as the rain stops, we're out of here."

Luckily, the rainstorm was fierce but short and they managed to continue walking an hour later. The sky didn't even light up purple with lightning. The village was closer than Ari expected, and they arrived long before sunset.

"This is... strangely quiet," Kei said as they stepped into the rana village. "When I was here before, it was full of people."

Not a single other living being, whether patria, human, or hibri was visible. It was basically deserted.

"Actually, this is pretty normal in the more heavily human-controlled towns," Aidyn said. "Everyone is too scared to leave their house. Though there are usually, you know... more humans."

"But this village isn't human-controlled!" Kei exclaimed. "It's like our faber village. Secluded, with no humans whatsoever."

"There were no humans until yesterday," a low voice spoke up. A male rana materialized out of the water, climbing swiftly onto the shore. "We've all been hiding. But you four aren't humans." He turned to Aidyn and frowned.

"Only my dad's a human," Aidyn explained, "and I'm with the Voc. I don't like them either, thanks."

The rana inclined his head. "Alright. I believe you. Are you three also from the Voc?"

"No, we're just traveling with Aidyn," Kei said.

"Are you by any chance here for information on Tercy Cess?" the rana asked.

"How did you know?" Ari asked.

"So were the humans. It was three girls. One was Cynth Leeyung."

Aidyn's eyes widened.

"Who's that?" Kei said, tilting her head questioningly.

"The Leeyungs are a very prominent human household, known for killing patrias and hibri without giving it a second thought," the rana said. "My name is Linnus. Thanks to the Leeyungs, my parents are dead. When Cynth came, she vaporized Zair, one of the most important people in our community, and sadly, he's the one that would have been able to help you with Tercy."

"I'm sorry about your parents. Is there anything you can do to help us?" Aidyn asked.

"Reuin overheard their conversation, didn't you?" Linnus said as a female rana popped out of the water.

"I did," she said. "Zair gave the girls a map to Tercy's grave."

"Did you see it?" Jared asked.

"Yes, briefly," Reuin said. Aidyn handed Reuin the map. "I can't read this."

"I can," Kei said. "Just tell me what it looked like, and I'll write it down." The two of them sat down on nearby tree stumps to figure out where it would be on the map.

"What did the other two look like?" Aidyn asked Linnus.

"One had darker skin and golden-brown hair, Cynth called her Valloma. The Vallomas are another important human family," Linnus replied. "The other had dark brown hair and honestly, if she weren't traveling with Cynth, I would've mistaken her for a rana hibri. Cynth called her Willa."

"Could she be a spy?"

"I doubt it. Cynth is... difficult to lie to," Linnus said. "No matter how good of a spy you are."

"We've got our destination!" Kei exclaimed while running over, waving the map.

"Where are we headed?" Ari asked.

"Tercy's grave."

"Well, I know that, but where is it?"

"Towards the northeast coast," Kei replied.

"Oh, great. More walking!" Jared said, waving his hands in a gesture of sarcastic excitement.

"Yeah, there's a lot of that," Aidyn said, turning to leave the village.

"So, northeast to Tercy's grave, then where?" Ari asked, waving goodbye to Linnus and Reuin.

Aidyn turned back towards her, a determined look in his eyes. "The Almoons Festival."

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OoOooOOOoOooOOOoooOooooOooo sounds like things are about to get pretty sPiCy around here —

Anyway! Happy New Year, dear Almonds! Thank you for reading chapter twenty, written by the glorious renwritesanddraws! We're so happy y'all are still with us. Shit is about to hit the fan, so make sure to keep reading hehehehehehe. Also predictions are fun predict stuff if you want.

With virtual hugs, purple Google features, and dino buddies,

Garage Factory Clones

(G.F.C.)