The sun was setting. Eddie had been quiet all day, just simply resting. I hadn't tried to talk to him again. I felt like that time was satisfying enough. Like our relationship as a cord was no longer in knots, rather a semi-straight line leading to... who knows where. I still had had no idea what we were.

Jason was trying to crack open a coconut.

"I bet I can do it with my bare hands," he insisted.

"Tell him I'll fly upside down for the rest of my life if he does," Peri said, turning to Lafayette, who chortled in amusement.

"What's inside one of these anyway?" I asked, having learned of a coconut's existence today.

Peri stared at me long and hard for a few seconds. "It's full of... really sweet tasting milk... you should try it once Muscles over here gets it open. You should both drink all of it." Lafayette bobbed his head slowly in agreement.

"Oh, cool."

I watched as Jason cover his hands in a fine layer of brown coconut dust. I didn't think he was going to get it open. What a shame. I was looking forward to tasting it.

Someone cleared their throat and Jason and I looked up, Eddie was standing there in a new set of clothes. Black from head to toe. He leaned on a walking stick. Kai's tank was strapped to his waist. He looked very solemn, as if his features were held together by a single pin.

"I need... to show you something," he said. "It's about Bundi."

"Show us? Why not tell us what it is first?" Jason immediately butted in with hackles raised.

"About the infection?" I asked, ignoring Jason (for once.)

"I think it's happening tonight."

Chills ran down my spine. Even Jason dropped his threatening outer layer in return for something a little more serious. I stood up as soon as the last syllable left his mouth.

"Are you sure? Bundi hasn't even shown signs of... changing." I asked, my mouth was dry.

"Are you sure? Have you seen them all day? That was the first thing that tipped me off." He limped forward, and past us. He was leaving the camp and heading towards the woods. "Come on feather-brains, there's barely any sunlight left."

"Where are you going?" Jason frowned.

"To the Cave, we have to stop it, duh." He had his back to us but I could still perfectly picture him rolling his eyes.

I nodded to Peri, who jumped up onto my shoulder. He bit my ear as I followed behind Eddie, with Jason trailing. I glanced back and saw Jason had one hand on his bowstring. It clung to his chest like a safety belt. Incase anything went wrong. I just hoped he was thinking about Apophis and not Eddie.

"Don't we need backup? Or anyone to help us?" I asked. "We're just kids, you're hurt."

"We'll be fine," Eddie grunted. "I'm not a kid. She doesn't have anyone else with her on the island—"

He stumbled over his own feet as he said it, and I reached out to catch him. He caught himself on his crutch and shot me a nasty look. "I can walk by myself."

"Are you sure—"

"I can do it myself, Craig."

I stepped back, "okay, fine."

"Hey keep up that attitude and I'll make sure we have to carry you." Jason piped up.

Eddie ignored this. I looked back at Jason and made sure the look on my face told him I didn't appreciate that kind of talk. He shrugged with equally exaggerated gusto. Children. We are literal children.

"I'm calling Nole if things get out of hand." I said, "no negotiating it."

"Fine."

And that was that. Only it wasn't that because I wasn't comfortable with this at all, but I trusted Eddie. Kosmos, do I really? I bit my lip, I guess I do. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Then again, I don't really have time to figure things out like that right now. Time to focus on Felix. I had to prepare myself, he was probably going to be sick. Really sick. This is where my own powers were going to come in handy.

The forest was beginning to fall asleep. The only sounds were the twigs we cracked with our feet. Soon the bugs would be out. If I had learned one thing about living with Peri, if was when the insects woke up and went to sleep. Most importantly, the best ones to eat. I could almost feel their energy, their life force. It was the same thing that crackled in my fists. The same thing that lived within people's souls.

The Cave was still as death. Which meant it was still moving. Only slowly, like the sap that trapped insects to trees. The dark crawled along the old stone like and old man's shaking finger. Jason and Eddie stood aside and let me to the front. I would have to touch its dried wrinkle skin and speak blood into its old bones. But for Felix, I would do anything. The stone was warm under my fingers as the energy left my hands, I made sure to keep as much as I could for Felix. The door fell away.

Eddie and Jason thrust their hands forwards and lit the area in orange firelight. The tables were the same as we left them, stains and all. The book case with faded and worn spines still remained. Still decaying. There was no terrifying woman lying wait in the shadows of the nooks and crannies. It was empty.

There was the slightest sound. Maybe it was a moan. I don't think it was strong enough to be classified as anything. It did its job, however, and drew out eyes to a space behind one of the two tables. There, balled up, and tied at the wrists, was Felix Vlasta. My heart soared.

"Felix!" I cried out with joy.

I fell to the ground in front of my and immediately began checking him over. That's when my hand touched his shoulder and I heard the squelch of damp fabric. My hand came away covered in dark, not blood, but slime. It had traveled once more, and this time I realized his entire right arm had been swallowed by the disease. It had traveled up his neck and was eating at his face. He was gasping and wheezing for air. Once I lifted up his face to make it easier for him, his eyes flickered open. Where the black had crept onto his face, his eye had gone pale and misty. My mom had dealt with something like this before when a hunter fell and hit their head badly. She couldn't heal them.

"Do you know where Matri is?" I asked Peri.

"Nearby, safe." He answered quietly.

Felix let out another quiet, desperate groan. One filled with pain and begging for the suffering to end. My chest was squeezing my heat too tight. I could feel silent, salty tears roll down my cheeks. Peri wiped them away with his beak.

"Oh Kosmos," Jason gasped, when they finally moved closer. "That's what's happening to Bundi?"

Eddie nodded. His gaze was also fixed in horror upon Felix's weak frame. He seemed at a loss for words.

"It's okay," I croaked, and wiped my face, "I... I can help him—you. Felix? Can you hear me? It's going to be okay buddy."

I couldn't tell if he heard me. Whenever I tried to wipe the slime off his face it wriggled and convulsed, as if it were digging deeper into his skin. He flinched, so I stopped. I was shaking, partly from the happiness of having him back and the horror of what had happened to him. I was feeling so much, I couldn't discern one emotion from the other. Sadness, disgust, love, elation, they all mixed together like sand in a muddy river.

Jason cut the binds on his wrists. I laid him down, not minding if the slime got all over my hands. I slid my poncho off and laid it under Felix's head. Then I knelt down beside him and flexed my fingers.

"Are you going to heal him?"  Eddie asked.

"I have to try."

Jason sat down behind me, hands out, like he was ready to catch me. Which was probably exactly what he planned on doing. I can't say the sentiment didn't send my heart a-skipping.

"What are you doing?" Eddie frowned, glancing at the two of us.

"He faints. Like a lot." Jason explained.

I blushed. I forgot Eddie had never seen this happen. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."

"You what?" Eddie glanced at me, and it was a look with a different sort of feeling then the prickly beetle's shell he'd been wearing all night. It was gone as soon as it appeared, and he closed up again. "Fainting huh? That's... rather weak of you."

Jason's frowned. "You realize that's the equivalent of one of us burning for so long we passed out, right?"

"Oh, Kosmos—"

"Guys," as much as I'm enjoying being fought over, I'm not a piece of meat. "I need you to get along for a few minutes or at least be quiet."

They respectively shut up. Thank the spirits. I laid a hand on Felix's chest, and Peri jumped down so that he rested on my splotchy knuckle. The little green parrot looked up at me, and I knew he would help me as much as he could. I took a took breath of the soggy, rank, underground air. Then let it out, and as the energy left my lungs it pooled on my fists. A soft green glow filled the Cave. Then I closed my eyes and sunk into the darkness.

My eyes—Felix's—flicked open and I was standing on a circle of stone. The Summoning Circle. I was gasping for air, chocked by emotion. Anger filled my blood. It burned my bones and left the corners of my vision a seething red.

"Wolf spirit! Reveal yourself!" I screamed, it left my throat raw and red.

I was a god amongst this place. I was in control. The fire in my tongue was also clenched in my fist. Like a whip, like a sword. I would smite my enemies. I could barely hear anything past the roar of floodwater.

A booming voice shouted "DON'T TEST ME, MORTAL. I AM CENTURIES OLDER, I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU COULD FATHOM."

The force blew me back. My vision was becoming blurry. I saw teeth and felt the blow on my face. My hand came away covered in blood. Something was wrong, I wasn't supposed to feel this drained. It was like the skin was being pulled off my bones. Everything went dark, I felt something kick me in the stomach, my real body, my Craig body. There was no soft green light anymore. There was only darkness and confusion. I think Jason caught me as I fell, for some reason there was no light.

Then there was fire, and there was Eddie. He stood above me, in was in his fist. He held the fire in one hand and... Felix's limp, slime-free body in the other. Another shaped joined him in the darkness, tall, and threatening, with long dark hair that cascaded down to her waist. The green light came back, silhouetting the woman's long, sharp fingernails in its menacing glow.

"I'm sorry." Eddie mouthed, while looking directly into my eyes.

The door to the Cave slid shut.