Kei couldn't stop herself from sighing as they trudged through the mud again. She wasn't sure if it was their group or the surrounding patrias, but one common factor seemed to be their getting evicted. But hey, at least they managed to get some supplies this time, and Ari got lessons from the caela healer. No one had gotten arrested either, which Kei considered an upgrade.

Also, they had knives. Which definitely made the whole getting-evicted-from-yet-another-village-for-what-could-barely-be-considered-mild-shenanigans thing worth it. Speaking of the knives, Kei hadn't told the others about that yet. It was probably something best done before entering another village.

"Wait, guys, before we get to that village, I have something for you." There was a pause as Kei dug out a bag that had definitely been acquired legally.

"What is that?" Jared asked, sounding concerningly excited considering Kei was pretty sure he knew what was going to happen.

Aidyn, however, had other concerns. "Where did you even get that, and was it legal?"

"Less questions, more knives," Kei replied, cutting off someone's "KNIVES??" as she took out a few, well, knives. "May I interest you in some stabby bois?"

Aidyn took his with some trepidation, followed by Jared (with less trepidation and more glee), and Calix (who had less excitement and more exhaustion and concern; this did not stop him from taking two). Cybele flinched when Kei waved a handful of not-held-safely knives around, but took one anyway. Probably just to get it out of her hands.

Ari eyed Kei's collection. "Where did you get this, how did you get this and when did you get this? I was with you the entire time!"

Kei smirked. "A little thievery. Some minor crimes. A bit of tomfoolery, if you will." Now that Kei thought about it, her widely-considered-to-be misdeeds had probably contributed to their eviction. She filed this information away for future reference.

"Kei, you can't just steal knives — how many do you even have?" Aidyn watched as Kei packed the rest of her knives away.

"Aidyn, barely a single day has passed since I met you where we haven't committed crimes. Also, I had to replace mine." Seeing the others' questioning looks, Kei elaborated, "I had six, but then they sank. Yes, I have been carrying several knives around this entire time."

As Cybele seemed to rethink several life decisions, Calix only sighed. "If we're done with weapon distribution, we should get going."

"Onwards, lusty gentlemen!"

"What?" Cybele stared at her.

"It's from this book my parents made me read," Kei explained. "I'm pretty sure the guy who said that died though."

There was a pause as everyone processed that. "Oh."

✧ ☾✧☽ ✧

The village was, to summarise, chaotic. The houses were scattered everywhere like a three year old with a pencil drew the layout. No one seemed to know where they were going (least of all the jammers, but these patrias lived here), and what Kei could only assume was the market was one solid crowd. If a town could be what she imagined a metropolis looked like, this would be it.

So, a pretty good place to be a delinquent.

Aidyn surveyed the crowd. Everyone seemed to be talking at the tops of their voices, so he had to almost shout to be heard over the din. "WHAT DO WE NEED SPECIFICALLY?"

"WHAT DID WE GET AT THE LAST VILLAGE?" Ari yelled back.

"KNIVES."

"APART FROM KNIVES?"

"FOOD," Jared shouted helpfully. "JAM."

"WE SHOULD PROBABLY GET CLOTHES," Cybele added. "THESE ARE REALLY DIRTY."

"FOOD, CLOTHES, IS THAT IT?" Aidyn repeated. Kei opened her mouth. "NO MORE KNIVES, KEI." Kei closed her mouth. A couple passers-by gave them strange looks for that comment, but moved on with their lives. Or maybe they just didn't want to get into a conversation about acquiring several stabby bois through questionable means.

"SHOES. FEET HURT," Kei said, amending her previous statement that would have been knives.

"WHO HAS MONEY?" Ari asked.

Calix butted in. "JARED SPENT ALL OF MINE."

"SORRY!"

"HE'S NOT SORRY."

"CYBELE AND I HAVE A BIT," Aidyn reassured them. Even if his tone was a bit ambiguous with his volume.

"GO COMMIT LEGAL TRANSACTIONS," Kei ordered.

"YOU NEED TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN CLOTHES," Aidyn said. "STICK TOGETHER."

"AND DON'T LOSE JARED," Ari ordered, glancing at Calix.

"I'LL STAY WITH YOU, CALIX," Jared promised.

✧ ☾✧☽ ✧

Anyway, they lost Jared.

The details of how this happened were once more very unclear for everyone, including Calix, but that was still besides the point.

They did, however miraculously, find clothes for all of them. (They had to guess Jared's size.) Once supplies had been acquired and decisions on who was carrying what had been made, they set off to find one lost snake boy. Last seen: no one knew, but probably somewhere inside the village. Hopefully he was still inside.

"Should we split up?" Ari said when they'd spent a fruitless 20 minutes wandering abound the market looking for Jared. "We could meet up at that tall building after a while."

Kei squinted. "The one with the white walls?"

"Yep."

"It would be more efficient than all of us going as a group. Go alone and meet there in half an hour?" Kei suggested.

"Sounds good," Aidyn said, turning to leave. "Try not to get arrested."

Kei nodded. "It would suck to lose a foot again."

"Again?" Right, Calix and Cybele hadn't been there for that. Kei just snickered when no one offered explanation or elaboration, watching as they disappeared into the crowds before turning to leave herself.

How does one find a misplaced anguis in one of the most crowded places one's ever seen? Kei figured her best bet was to wander around and ask people. The first person she stopped, a tall faber all dressed up for a fancy meal, brushed her off with a "No, sorry" before bustling away. Okay then.

The next person Kei stopped was an anguis with flowers in their hair and a basket on their arm. "Excuse me, have you seen my friend? He's a milk snake anguis with short hair, about this tall, hopefully still somewhere around here?"

The anguis squinted at Kei, staring at her face. Kei idly wondered if she had something on her face, but it was less a there's-mud-in-your-hair stare and more a I've-seen-you-somewhere. Which made no sense, since Kei was fairly certain she'd never met this anguis in her life. "I don't think I've seen him, but if he doesn't turn up after a while you could put in a notice at the town hall."

"Where's that?" Kei asked, keeping the smile on her face. "Sorry, I'm not from around here."

The anguis squinted at that, but pointed to the tall white building Ari had suggested they meet at. "Why are you in our town, if you don't mind me asking?"

Kei's mind blanked as she scrambled for an explanation that wasn't Oh yeah, no, we're just looking for the sources, have you seen any lying around? "Um, I was going to visit some relatives and he just decided to tag along. Except we got separated in the crowds and I have a moral obligation to go find him."

"Ah, I see." The anguis clearly didn't believe her, but didn't comment on Kei's story. "Well, I hope you find him soon, then. Have a nice day."

"Thank you, have a nice day too," Kei replied. Even as she walked away and melted back into the crowds, she could still feel the anguis' eyes on her. Weird.

Kei slowly meandered out of the crush of the marketplace, her next three interactions going just as bizarrely as the second. Honestly, you'd think there were posters with her face on them or something. Kei reached the outskirts of the town, where the crowds thinned out and was just about to give up and go to the town hall when she spotted a certain anguis happily munching on rat jerky. "Jared!"

Jared looked up from his rat jerky, face lighting up. "Kei! You found me!" Kei looked at the sticks of rat jerky he was holding.

"Jared, did you steal that rat jerky?"

The accomplished criminal grinned. "I'm very good at slithering away."

Kei rolled her eyes and groaned. "Come on, we need to get back to the others. You really have to stop getting lost."

"I knew exactly where I was," Jared argued.

"I mean you were missing, current location unknown, not where you should be, unable to be found."

Kei carried Jared's rat jerky as she led him towards the town hall. He got swept away by the crowd a couple times, but the knowledge that Kei had his rat jerky brought the errant anguis right back and finally safe outside the town hall, where Calix and Ari were waiting. "Where did Aidyn and Cybele go?"

"You were late, so they went back out to look for you," Ari explained. "Please don't go looking for them, that will not end well."

Jared munched on his rat jerky.

Calix narrowed his eyes. "Did you steal that?"

Jared shrugged, doing his best to look the picture of innocence. Unfortunately for him, everyone present knew he had no money and therefore could not have acquired sustenance through legal methods.

Before anyone could respond, Aidyn and Cybele returned, panting. "Oh good, you're here," Aidyn huffed. "You need to see this."

Kei shared a few confused glances with the others, but they all followed Aidyn round to a... noticeboard? Inside the town hall. With schedules and posters pinned to it.

Six of which had drawings of their faces on them.

"Those are wanted posters," Cybele explained. "Seems like the previous town sent a notice out." Kei squinted at the words. Wanted dead or alive. Suddenly, Kei wished that she hadn't nicked those knives, even if petty theft wouldn't warrant a wanted poster like this. Cybele continued translating the poster as Kei stepped forward to read it slowly.

They didn't have their names, but all six of them had descriptions and bounties for — six tides, that was a lot of money. Enough to buy a boat — each. Did the sources scare the patrias that much? Though Kei supposed that wasn't quite right. How badly would the humans react if they found the sources?

Lynx maxi, estimated to be around 6'4" in height, left ear damaged. Suspected anguis-human hibri, about 5'10", scales on arms and legs. Suspected faber-rana hibri, about 6'2", appears to have vines growing out of hair. And on and on. Paired with the not-entirely-accurate but not entirely inaccurate drawings, it was honestly pretty surprising they hadn't been recognized yet.

Well, at least Kei had an explanation for how weird the patrias from earlier had been acting. It didn't help that Kei's description of Jared, barring some vocabulary choices, almost exactly matched the poster's. Their faces were on wanted posters. "I'm thinking it wouldn't be a terrible idea to leave."

"I'm thinking that too." Aidyn sighed.

Kei paused, surveying the noticeboard once more before meticulously taking down the posters and stuffing them into her bag. Catching several questioning looks, she just shrugged. "What? It's funny."

"Could we please go before we get arrested again?" Ari said nervously, glancing around like their newfound awareness of the bounty would immediately spawn several hunters.

"Again??" Cybele clearly wasn't going to let all these arrest references slide a second time. Much like Kei hoped they wouldn't get arrested a second time, because it would suck to lose a foot again.

"Only Ari, if it helps?"

This did not help, as evidenced by Cybele's even more incredulous "ARI??" Even the caela herself couldn't stop a small snicker at Cybele's confusion.

Calix clapped his hands to get their attention. "So where are we going?"

"Well, we came from over there, so anywhere else could work I guess," Kei said as she pointed in the vague direction of their previous village. "Forest or forest, make your choice."

"Right," Jared decided. Kei raised an eyebrow. "It just seems right," he defended.

No one had any objections to that, which should have been Kei's warning that things weren't going to go well. The only thing the entire group seemed to agree on was bad decisions.

✧ ☾✧☽ ✧

The right path had not been the right path and Kei was never trusting Jared again. She was pretty sure correct routes that in this case may have been heading to the left didn't make you have to run for your life through a forest again, except this time because caeli wanted to capture and/or kill you for money.

"Not so fast, little source-hunters!" A caela with bright red feathers put on a burst of speed and overtook Kei, herding her backwards. Six tides, she didn't even have a gun. The caela was too far away to stab, but Kei was still well within shooting range of their gun. The group — there were seven caeli in total — herded the jammers together, till they were standing almost back to back.

Except for Jared. Jared was nowhere to be found. For perhaps the first time in her life, Kei was glad they lost him so easily. Even if it would be an absolute pain trying to find him again later.

"Now, cooperate nicely, or this will go very painfully for you," a caela with a bright yellow tuft of feathers told them. "Honestly, you would think this many reminders could convince you to stop the search. You all are children."

Kei reached for a knife.

"Perhaps you don't understand what the humans would do to us, all of us, if you managed to find the myths, but it is imperative that you are stopped. If that means taking matters into our own hands, so be it."

"Pretty speech, but are you sure you're not just in it for the cash?" Aidyn snarked, reaching for the handle of his whip. The caela tightened their grip on their gun, stepping forward threateningly.

And then a lot of things seemed to happen at once.

Kei threw her knife, barely aiming. It missed the caeli, of course, but the closest one flinched and fired wildly, turning a large fern on the tree behind her grey and droopy. Apparently having been balancing on the fern, Jared fell out of said tree and landed on another caela, which caused a mild amount of chaos. Taking advantage of their being squashed by Jared, Kei stole the unfortunate caela's gun and dragged Jared up.

Several people were swearing. Someone was screaming "Go, go, go!" and they ran off through the undergrowth as the non-injured caeli gave chase.

"KEI, CAN YOU HIDE US?" Aidyn yelled as they crashed through assorted plants.

"I'LL TRY," Kei yelled back, almost skidding across the leaf litter as she spun around, envisioning undisturbed forest all around them. Nothing to see here, there are absolutely no teenage outlaws in this forest, just leaves. The noise from the wildlife that had been scared off by the confrontation seemed to return in full force as Kei continued running, hearing the caeli's wingbeats falter in confusion. Note to self, adrenaline is great for magic.

At least until she swerved around a tree and realised she no longer had a right arm. The six sets of footsteps pounding through the forest was getting a little too loud to cover with cicada noises, and Kei struggled to make the undisturbed-foliage image follow behind her, never mind cover all the directions. At least the humans couldn't fly.

Up front the trees were thinning out, the lush forest opening up into what looked like a plain. Not far ahead of her, Kei managed to count five others sprinting towards the plain like their lives depended on it. Though to be fair, they kind of did.

The caeli's wingbeats got louder as they caught on to the illusion. Kei fired some yellows into the air behind her. She couldn't see past her illusion, but judging by the thump and "SIX TIDES" she heard, she could only hope the caela wasn't too badly injured. Calix reached the plain first, cutlass drawn as he waited. Jared rushed right past him, but stopped a few paces into the tall grass.

Stumbling over a tree root, Kei cursed out loud as she felt the illusion drop. There went all hope of hiding. And if the caeli had been mad before, they were positively enraged now.

But then, as she got closer and closer to the treeline, watching Ari, Aidyn and Cybele step out into the grass, the wingbeats faltered again. Kei ran faster, not wanting to waste time and turn around to see what was happening. Her lungs struggled to gather enough oxygen as she finally burst over the treeline and skidded to a halt in the grass. Kei spun around just in time to see a caela crash into the branch in their haste to stop chasing them.

No one spoke for a few minutes while they all tried to catch their breath, watching the caeli disappear into the trees. Kei did a full 360 of their surroundings, searching for the threat. But apart from their ragtag crew, the plain looked deserted. The tall grass rustled in the light breeze, and the approaching sunset didn't exactly hurt the relaxing atmosphere.

And yet, those caeli had been genuinely terrified. The urgency in their movements had been from sheer panic. Kei just couldn't figure out the cause.

"So... what exactly just happened?" Kei asked finally when the silence progressed from frantically panting to awkward. As soon as she spoke, it was like a quietude bubble got popped and was replaced with chatter almost as loud as the marketplace they had run away from. (Not because of the noise, though.)

"Is anyone injured?"

"Why did the caeli stop?"

"Why are we being bounty hunted?"

"Is there something dangerous in the plains? Should we go back?"

"How does Kei always end up with a gun?"

"What are we going to do tonight?"

There was a pause as everyone waited for answers to the multitude of questions. After a few moments, Kei rolled her eyes and popped their bubble again. "No, but actually, there has to be something dangerous out here. Those caeli were hellbent on getting us, but we all saw how one crashed into a branch to stop themself from going out here."

"There's not much we can do, going back into that forest would be a death sentence," Aidyn pointed out.

"The plains are spooky," Ari said.

Jared sighed. "I had a spooky story for something like this, but it was written in one of my journals."

"Oh my moons, you're right, I completely forgot those sank. Rest in peace Jared's journals." Kei saluted their memory, Jared joining her sadly.

"I think we should hide out in the forest," Calix said. Everyone turned to look at him. "This close to a village, and nothing in the plains? There's not even a well or a plantation, it's completely deserted. Something's not right."

"The plains are spooky," Ari repeated.

"There are massive bounties on our heads. If spooky plains can keep us safe, I say we should stay here," Aidyn argued.

Jared munched on his rat jerky.

After lengthy discussion, they eventually decided to stay in the plains, mainly because the sun had already set, plus Kei wanted to try out sleeping on grass instead of leaves. Hopefully this meant things would go better, because as mentioned, the jammers only ever seemed to agree to bad ideas.

Sprawled out under the stars, Kei counted out the moons over and over and listened to the others fall asleep. (Apart from Calix, he was taking first watch and had apparently decided to sort out his pack in darkness.) Altfem was waning already, leaving the other five moons to light up the sky.

Altos, Altiu, Altres, Altno, Altarbe. Listening to her friends around her, Kei could only pray that the moons really were watching over them.

✧ ☾✧☽ ✧

YAY CHAPPIE CHAPTER thanks wewannabeus we love to see it.

With virtual hugs, purple Google features, and lateness,

Goobery Foofball Cdeluxe

(G.F.C.)