"Stick close to me, the path is thin." Venom whispers. Slayer snorts and tosses his head, trotting confidently along the narrow mountain pass.

"Steady Ash. Steeaaady." I murmur. My grey horse was trying hard not to panic, and instead was trying to be a good role model for Domino, Blossom and BeBe.

We were smack bang in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, far away from the valley and grassy hills of Aradon. We had been traveling for three weeks to find help for our almost doomed kingdom.

"The last night of the year." I murmur to myself. It was June, we had a good six months to work with.

Venom looks up at the sky. I wait as he tries to judge what we should do with the approaching dusk. He wheels around to face us. Behind me, white horse Blossom lets out a startled grunt as she almost slams into Ash.

"It's too dangerous to go any further in the dark. There is a cave over the ridge where we can camp." Venom tells us. He turns and starts trotting toward the cave. A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth at his bravado.

The cave is fairly big and almost empty, but smelled. A lot. Luckily there was a wide, thick slab of stone in front where we hitch our horses.

"I'll get our blanket." TJ limps back outside to her chestnut coloured horse. Draped across BeBe's back was an incredibly soft blanket made from the fur of antelope, lions, and deer. Being vegetarian, I hated the thing. But I had no choice of sleeping under it, we needed to stay warm.

Venom nods at her, and we all squish up on one half, with the rest wrapped around and under us. Sort of like a chicken wrap. Nice.

With soft deer fur on my arms, I slowly drift into sleep. Venom is standing at the entrance of the cave with a hand on his sword. I smile softly, before my mind goes blank.

The following morning is cold and wet. Rain blows down, but it's more like ice than cold wet drops. Ash snorts and shakes his head as bits of ice rain down in his face.

"Shh Shh." I tell him. Squinting into the blinding whiteness, I could just make out the sillouhete of Venom hunched over atop his horse. He is speaking, but I could barely hear him over the storm.

"The end of the Rocky Mountains is soon," He was yelling to us. "The rain will be lighter on the plains." He urges Slayer to trot a bit faster, and Ash had to almost canter to keep up.

"Will it be cold on the plains?" Lilly whines from somewhere behind me. I could just hear Dusty make a sarcastic remark, but his words are lost on the wind. I roll my eyes and look in front of me again.

Ash hits the brakes so hard that BeBe almost slams into him.

"Misty Blue, why'd we stop?" TJ asks. I hold up a hand for silence and glare through the driving rain. The path in front of me vanishes into the mist and rain.

My blood runs cold. About a metre and a half in front of me, the path just stops. The rocks were still falling, as if the path had been broken recently.

I bite my lip as TJ, Dusty and Lilly crowd around me. TJ swore loudly and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"VENOM! VENOM!" I scream. Dusty slaps his hand over my mouth. My gut reaction to this was to shoot him, but he was also holding my bow.

He slowly draws his hand from my face. "If you scream, you'll cause a landslide," He says. "Shoot down the wall. He will avoid the arrow but know we're here." I nod silently, and shoot into the darkness.

We hear scuffling noises and then a voice. The echo made it hard to understand what Venom was saying.

"Careful-ul-ul-ul, There's-ere's-ere's a cliff-ff-ff-ff here. N-n-n-now help me up up up up up."

Behind me, Lily bites her arm to keep from laughing. After a long, very strange conversation we manage to work out:

Slayer was fine

Venom was fine

We'd lost a box of matches.

Having found this out, we all gallop down the cliff face, which was incredibly hard, to join him. Venom was already sitting up on his horse grinning. Both had various cuts and scrapes but were fine.

"Come on." He says as soon as we had recovered. "The plains are just over there." I squint into the distance, surprised to note it had stopped raining.

Just past a small mountain, the rocky ground gave way to a few shrubs and then thick green grass. I smile, and Dusty whoops. Venom was already trotting ahead, but I notice he was more cautious than before.

The sun had set by the time we reached the flat terrain. It was like a giant slab of stone stretching on forever.

"Venom, maybe we should let the horses rest." Lilly calls from the back of the line. I watch anxiously as Venom thought over this. He nods and signals to a large tree we could rest in. I pass the message along, and we start trotting over.

Venom ties the horses to the trunk of the tree, while we climb up to find a good place to sleep. Almost halfway up, the trunk just ended and branches spread out on all sides. It was perfect.

"I will hunt okay?" Venom tells us as we settled into the blanket. TJ nods, but her eyes are already closed. Dusty was sitting straight up watching out. Venom grins at him and climbs down the tree.

Lilly, who was only eleven, was snuggled up close to me for warmth. I watch as Dusty starts exploring around the trees. With Lilly curled up next to me, I slowly fall asleep.

At what I guessed to be ten in the morning, I wake the others up. Venom had not returned, and there was a lake nearby. We hadn't had a bath in at least two weeks, so I found this a perfect opportunity.

TJ and Dusty and Lilly and I literally sink into the lukewarm water, and I swear we could see the dirt coming off in bubbles. Afterward, we lie on the lush grass, drying out in the sun.

We didn't know Venom was back until he dangled a dead snake in front of me. That went over like a poop in a punch bowl.

"There's a town about a week's ride away," Dusty points out when TJ started complaining we were out of supplies. "We can stop there."

So, late that afternoon, a thick fog had draped itself over the plains. We race in the general direction we thought the village was in, unable to see three feet in front of us.

And all through the day, I had a feeling we were being watched.

"There is thick forest ahead. Stay within voice range." Venom warns us. I hear Dusty tie a rope around his waist and toss it to Lilly, who did the same. TJ had a general sense of direction and didn't need a rope.

I trail along behind. It was up to me to keep everything in line.

"Venom, which way now?" I call into the gloom. My heart starts thudding. No answer.

My hands shake as I try to keep Ash calm as I dismount him. There were no hoof prints in front of me, only behind. "VENOM! VENOM HELP!" I scream. I thought I heard footsteps ahead and started running, only to realise they were my own.

Sighing, I whirl around to go back, but almost fall of a huge cliff. What? But Ash was right here!

I turn again, only to find a river. I rub my eyes, bewildered. This forest played tricks on people's eyes!

I slither up a tree and glance around. Far in the distance through the trees, I spot five people on horses. I run toward them.

Suddenly a stick with rope on it comes flying from tree. It wraps around my legs and I fall down, hard. Everything swirls into blackness.

"Uhhh... My head..." When I wake, the entire world is spinning. Standing over me is some guy with a sword. Behind him are another five. My blood runs cold. Dermorian Warriors.

He thrusts the sword so the point is touching my neck. The other warriors fan out around him, mumbling in Ancient Dermor.

"You." The first guy looks at me. "Tell us where you are heading and I'll let you go."

Does this guy think I'm stupid? If I tell them, they'll kill me and go to Kurykubi. I roll my eyes.

"Yeah right, pinhead! Go suck a turnip!" I snap. Pinhead's eyes narrow and he pushes the sword a bit harder. Blood starts to spread all over my neck, but I can barely feel any pain.

"LET THE ARADON GIRL GO!" A voice yells from the trees. A barrage of arrows explode from the forest, but the enemy dodges them like bosses. Somebody kicks me and I go rolling to the edge of the cliff.

Gritting my teeth, I try to scramble upright, but slip and tumble over the edge of a cliff. I slam into the branch of a cliff tree and hug the trunk, pain ringing through my trembling fingers.

Above, I hear the sounds of yelling and metal clashing on metal and the twang of strings. From what I can tell, six Dermorian warriors are facing maybe two rogue people. A sudden roar tells me a cat has entered the scene. But on what side, I don't know.

But I can't do anything about it except wonder wether Venom has heard the commotion and added two and two together. I listen to the fighting and dig my fingernails into the sandstone cliff.

Slowly I start to scramble up the cliff face. I hadn't fallen far, maybe two meters. I just had to rock climb a little bit, and drag myself over the edge.

Alarm bells start ringing in my mind. The sounds of battle had stopped. Had the good guys won? Gasping in pain, I pull myself onto flat ground and look up panting.

A guy with long blond hair in tiny plaits and a scar on his cheek was murmuring to a leopard on the ground. He wore a long leather shirt and jeans. On his belt was a quiver of arrows and a sword. The leopard had an arrow in its chest and was growling.

Off to one side is a girl with almost the same clothes and tools. She has blond hair tied in a ponytail that goes almost to the floor. She is pointing a bow and arrow in my direction, ready to let it fly. I hold my hands up in surrender.

The guy looks up at me with sea green eyes and stands, one hand on the leopard's neck. He starts walking stiffly toward me. I automatically reach for a dagger on my side that I rarely use.

"I am Arcturus. This is my sister Grace and my cat Beji." He kneels and bows his head. Grace does the same.

"We've been looking for you Misty Blue."