Sorry about the late update guys, I got super caught up in homework and the week kind of slipped by XP
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There are a lot of things Peri would rather wake up too than Lafayette's worried tics. Before the sun was well up the small green parrot was awoken to the sound of talons clicking against wood in a stressed manner. No matter how hard Peri tried to block it out, it would not stop.

"Fay?" He called out.

The falcon stuck his head through the curtain separating the main room from the door. Peri rested his case, the bigger bird looked stressed indeed.

"Yeah?" He replied, fluffing up his feathers in a intrigued manner.

"Your walking is disturbing my sleep."

Lafayette looked embarrassed. "Oh, my bad aha. I'm just...are you saying you're not feeling it?"

Peri frowned. "What?"

The falcon shrugged. "You know...that."

Peri shook his head to clear away the morning grogginess. Then he skipped along the floor and over sleeping teenagers until both the birds poked their heads outside into the cold morning air. There was only just enough light to see. There was a surplus of eagerly in the air, and Peri picked up on the humming feeling immediately.

    "You can feel it now, can't you?" Lafayette let out a distressed caw. "Why does he keep following us?"

    "Is it not obvious?" Peri clacked his beak together. "I don't know how, but Craig is the only thing keeping that creature alive."

    Down, down, far down below, a wolf limped through he snow. He refused put weight on his right foreleg. Peri heard a distinct hissing noise as the giant mottled cat slithered the agility of a snake to perch next to them.

    "What is that...thing?" Carra bared her teeth.

    Peri had to jump out of the way as the snow leopard's tail flicked back and forth. Her demeanor was cold and unforgiving. Peri felt weird all of a sudden because he wasn't picking up on her magical signature at all. She didn't appear to have one. Carra seemed to notice his lack of reply and her glistening white fangs appeared again.

    "Answer me, or I will throw you off of this tree."

    Peri blinked. "Corrupted familiar, madam."

    "Why is he here?"

    Her blue eyes flicked over the two avians. Peri glanced over at Lafayette and could tell he probably realized the same, strange, thing about Carra.

    "We don't really now." Lafayette answered nervously, he stepped backwards a few inches.

    Both the birds could see the size of her paws, and she was obviously not kidding from her tone.

    Carra's head swiveled back to the ground, ignoring them. Below, Peri could see Chubby had woken up and the circling the tree nervously. Peri hopped over the the edge and dropped down, before pulling up and landing on a low hanging branch close to Chubby's head.

    "Evil spirit." The polar bear's voice was deep, like he could shake mountains with a hum, he was a deeply unsettled as every other familiar.

    "Don't attack him." Peri warned.

    Chubby tilted his head and he looked deeply confused. Peri didn't know what to say.

    "I know, I know, just...please."

The bear grumbled deep within himself but stood and watched the wolf limp towards them. Peri clacked his beak together, thinking of what he could do to lure the wolf away before-

"Is that Matri?" Craig poked his head over the side of the tree house.

Before Craig woke up. It was too late now. Peri grimaced as the short, lanky, boy scaled down the tree. A simple leap and a flutter of his wings brought Peri to Craig's shoulder as he ran towards the wolf.

"Craig-"

"Stop it, what's your problem with him anyway?" Craig replied, sharp and quick.

He reached out his hand towards the wolf and Matri leaned into it, whining. Craig's brow furrowed deeply in concern as he struggled to find out exactly what was wrong with the wolf who wouldn't talk.

"Why are you hurting? Please just tell me." He begged softly under his breath.

Matri's eyes focused on Peri and the parrot could tell deep down he was trying to get something out. Some desperate cry for help was trying to claw it's way to the surface.

"Why don't you just tell him?"

Lafayette was perched on a tree branch well out of the rang of Matri. The falcon's disgusted glare said a lot to Peri, who said nothing.

"He's dying Peri. Both of them. You're only going to make it more painful for Craig when it happens. You know that no one else has ever managed to bring a corrupted familiar back once they've gone this far-"

"Shut up!" Peri launched himself through the air and landing heavily in front of Lafayette.

Peri was almost half his size but he would let another familiar intimidate him like this. He stared the falcon in the face like he was a condor.

"There is always a chance, and don't you dare try to tell me what's best for my human." He snapped.

Lafayette looked taken away. He ground his beak together in passive aggressive submission, but didn't say another word. He jumped off the branch and flew off into the sky. Peri watched him go with the kind of feelings one might feel if they've just disciplined a child.

"Peri? What was that about?" Craig was looking up at him with an innocently worried expression.

It was the kind of thing Peri was trying to protect.

"Nothing, Fay appears to have lost hope in our cause." Peri glanced disapprovingly at the sky. "Don't let it get to you."

Craig shrugged it off, already undeterred, then turned back to Matri who was sitting in the snow and panting heavily, holding his right foreleg in the air.

"It's just like the last time, there's nothing wrong with him physically." Craig tilted his head. "Can you show us where Felix is?"

Matri's ear swiveled foreword at the sound of that. He stood up, tail raised in the air. Then started limping off in the direction he came from.

Craig suddenly got excited. "I think he understood me Peri! I think he's going to lead us there."

Even Peri was suprised. "We have to get the others up now. Go keep following him, I'll wake them up and catch up to you."

Craig gave the bird a thumbs up as he sprinted forward to catch up with the wolf. Peri swooped back up to the tree house and bent down next to Oratio's knocked out form.

"Hey, we have to leave now and I need your help."

Oratio lifted his head up. "We're leaving? Aw that's no fun I really liked it here. Hey Eryan can you belive we're leaving aleardy?"

The fox jumped onto the bundle of blankets that was the orange haired girls and licked her face. "Come one we're leaving right now."

Eryan blinked in confusion. "Whoa, right now? What's up?"

She glanced around and forwned. "Where's Craig?"

"Matri's back and he might be leading us to Felix." Oratio translated for Peri.

"Or a trap but I mean, let's just throw all caution to the wind if it's for our 'best friend.'" Lafayette was perched near Jason who was awake now.

"You're just angry because Jason doesn't have a best friend, does he?"

It was a small voice, but it was a powerful one. Lucy, isn't her petite, pale yellow, quiet wonderfulness had singlehandedly left the whole room shocked.

"Shut up. That's...that's not true at all." Lafayette blinked rapidly, as if he were reeling.

    Lucy shrugged, as much as a bird could shrug, and then all of the humans were finally awake.

-

    Peri has to admit, perching atop a bear as the group slowly lumbered after the surprisingly fast Matri was pretty fun. The only one who wasn't having any fun obviously was Lafayette, but he was a buzzkill.

    Craig was ecstatic, Sky kept telling him to be quiet as they walked but he just couldn't keep it in. Peri was riding off of that excitement mostly, and he genuinely believed that they were going to succeed. They would just have to be careful this time.

    "I've never been to this part of the woods before." Sky said, somewhat dumbfounded.

    "I thought you had this whole place mapped out." Eryan mused.

    "Are you tryin to tell us this is a safety concern?" Aurora blinked, still in default mom mode after just waking up.

    "No, no, I haven't been everywhere. It just makes sense, but stay on your guard for sure." Sky explained, reaching into her pocket and pulling her now mended garrot.

    Jason quietly shrugged his bow off his shoulder upon hearing those words. Peri watched as he leaned over to try and make quiet small talk with Craig, and he remembered what Lucy had said before. Peri bet he was trying to make friends with Craig, being the only other male in the group. The thought was somewhat charming. Even if, as Peri was having those thoughts, Craig just turned redder then the cold weather was already making him, and stuttered his way through conversations.

    The only one who wasn't here was Carra, the leopard. She had deviated from the group long ago. Peri got the feeling she didn't like them, or anyone for the matter. She was a strange energy-lacking little thing. Or big thing, actually. Peri realized he could very well fit under just one paw.

    The swaying of Chubby's shoulders as he walked was so relaxing to the point where Peri almost felt like taking a nap, and that was saying something because he was a familiar and didn't need sleep. It was more of a luxury. The sun was starting to come out from being the overcast sky and hitting the snow, it sparkled gently. Peri understood why some people chose to live here, even if the South, with its rainforests, was far superior.

    "Do you think I pushed it too far with Fay? He's been upset all day." Lucy landed on top of Chubby's back next to him, appearing for once, somewhere other than Ryan's immense amount of hair.

    "Oh definitely not, I think he deserved it, just a little." Peri huffed.

    Lucy titled her head. "I don't want to ostracize him, he's trying so hard to be friendly."

    "Really? He seemed like he just doesn't care to me."

    Lucy shot him a look and Peri shrugged. "I mean, that's just... okay sorry."

    "You have to learn to look past people's first impressions Peri, it's a very handy skill as a familiar." She explained. "Let's you in on secrets."

    Peri watched her nod sincerely and felt some sort of twinge inside him. Lucy was endearingly adorable to the point, without fail.

    "Oh really?" He asked playfully. "What kind of secrets?"

    She shrugged. "Whatever those two are hiding."

    Her beak was aimed towards Jason happily chatting Craig (who's entire attention was focused on Jason, of course) with Lafayette perched on his shoulder looking generally unhappy.

    Peri frowned, suddenly confused. "Wait what do you mean?"

    Lucy look surprised. "Can you not tell? It's painfully obvious."

    "They're hiding something?" Peri was still struggling with this.

    Lucy nodded. "I have no idea what it is though. Curious."

    Peri scoffed. "Uh yeah. I didn't think they were even capable of-"

    Peri was cut off as a sudden cold feeling violently overcame him. It was like he has been shoved into a frozen lake. He could tell the other familiars felt it too. Craig gasped, and Peri saw through the cold that Matri has fallen over and was twitching.

    "Peri whats wrong?" Craig begged him once Peri landed sloppily nearby, his feet getting cold int the snow.

    Matri mouth was covered in spittle and Peri realized he had been unhealthily straining himself this whole time. His eyes were open wide and stared at Peri full of fear.

    Craig was panicking, but Peri was transfixed. This was a different kind of glare, a different set of eyes. He couldn't bring himself to look away. Matri's chest heaved and his jaw opened, air was rushing out, he was trying to say something.

"Felix." Matri choked out. "Felix!"