I tried to sleep that night but I kept having a reoccurring nightmare of Eddie offering his hand out to me, taunting me with Felix's location. I missed him so much. It was dark and I could hear everyone else breathing slowly, meaning they were asleep, so I was only one awake. I was alone. I felt like I could cry. I was frustrated with myself and my inability to conversation correctly. Maybe I could have gotten Eddie to tell me where he was if things had gone differently.

I reached under the blanket to wear I had left the necklace he made me for my birthday. I wish I could have been there for his. I wish I could have stopped him from doing something rash.

Felix had always been kind of reckless. His mom, as great of a leader as she was, didn't pay enough attention to him. We'd stay up late and Felix would get angry and he'd tell me about all the things he would do so she would notice him. Something to draw her away from the work she buried herself in. Felix would tell me it wasn't like this when his dad was still around. He couldn't recall much but he could remember a time when Neve was actually happy, when she smiled. That was always something we had in common our missing parents. I guess I had two more to look for now.

Sometimes I really can't believe I'm adopted. I have more important things to worry about these days so I suppress it, but I was always so much like my mom. I was crying now, they was quiet frustrated tears, but they were there. I was getting really homesick.

"Craig?" A voice suddenly jarred me out of my thoughts.

Jason stared at me from across the bus.

"Wh-what?" I stammered quietly, trying not to wake up the girls.

"Are you okay?"

I sat up and wiped my face, taking in a deep breath. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Kosmos, my heart was racing now. He was actually concerned about me.

"Y-yeah. I'm just...homesick." I replied numbly. "I hope I didn't wake you up."

He shook his head. "Nah, I couldn't sleep. I get homesick sometimes too."

I blushed, slightly. Was he trying to...sympathize with me? I wasn't used to reciprocated feels, this was weird.

"I actually ran away when I was fifteen. I regret it...sometimes. I can't...I can't really go back, but I miss my family. Do you have any family besides Ryan?" He asked, scooting over towards me.

"My mom, the one who adopted me, and Felix, he's kinda my best friend." I continued, not meeting his eyes.

"He's the one we're looking for right?"

"Yeah."

There was an awkward silence.

"It's getting pretty cold, I was thinking of busting out the jackets Eryan managed to snatch for us." Jason offered helpfully.

"I think I'll be fine with my blanket, for now."

I didn't know what to say to him. He was so nice. How do I repay that kindness without it getting romantic? Ugh, this would be so much easier if I just liked girls. At least I had some idea how to talk to girls.

"Okay then." He gave me a thumbs up and a smile, before scooting back to his corner.

How can it be legal for one boy to be so adorable. It wasn't possible. I laid back down, wishing I had a pillow to scream into. I did manage to get to sleep after that, so that was a plus.

    I woke up to rough shaking. I blinked my eyes rapidly and noticed it was morning. Ryan was crouching over me, bundled up in one of our jackets, staring at me with wide eyes.

    "Craig!" She gasped, "something's wrong!"

    I sat up immediately. I glanced around, looks like everyone else was just waking up too. There was a thin sheet of clear stuff where the open windows used to be, I guess the bus had built in glass or something.

    "What is it?" I asked, reach for my poncho, then realized I probably wouldn't need it.

    Ryan waved her arms about and gestured out one of the windows. "I don't know! Something's wrong with the outside."

    I leaned over the bench and glanced out the outside. We were cruising through groves of dead trees covered in snow. The world was white and blinding from the morning sun.

    "I don't see anything wrong."

    Her jaw dropped. "Look at it, it's so...so white!"

    I stared at her. "That's snow."

    Ryan's eyes narrowed. "Wait...that's snow?"

    I nodded slowly, honestly not believing this.

    "It's weird." She concluded. "Let's avoid it."

    "That's going to be hard, considering Zestos is a Northern town." Eryan mused, rubbing her eyes as she started packing our bags.

    "Are we finally getting off of this Kosmos forsaken bus?" Jason groaned, from the floor.

    "Hopefully, get up." Eryan poked him.

    I blushed in embarrassment as I remembered crying last night. He acted like he didn't remember. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he just liked playing with my emotions? Who knows at this point honestly.

    We packed up our blankets. Soon our bags were puffed up and ready. We chewed on some apples and jerky while we waited for our stop to arrive. It wasn't that bad of a breakfast.

    "Have you guy's considered what you're gonna do once the day ends and you don't have a place to sleep?" Peri asked, preening his feathers carefully.

    I frowned. "Well no, but there's gotta be like an inn there or something. Zestos is a big town."

    "Do you have money for that?" Peri tilted his head.

    "We have some, we just need to use our time carefully." I insisted.

    "Just checking."

    The bus slowed to a halt, then the door opened up, and the four of us with out bags stepped out onto the platform. This one had a roof, I assumed because of how heavily it snowed.

    "Looks like the town is that way, where are we going Chief?" Eryan asked, pointing at a sign.

    I bit my lip, aware that everyone, including Jason, was relying on my now. "Let's go to the town and ask around for anyone with a snake familiar. There's gotta be someone who's seen that woman, I mean she's not exactly inconspicuous."

They nodded, we started off, or at least three of us started off. Ryan hesitated on the steps down from the platform, while the rest of us were knee deep in snow.

"Why?" She demanded, gesturing at the snow. "Why is it like this?"

"It's just frozen water." Eryan mused.

Ryan glared at her. "But why is it so...? So...?"

"So what?" Jason asked, equally amused.

She threw her hands up in the air. "Whatever, you guys don't get it."

She tentatively put her foot down onto the ground. Then sunk down slowly. She squinted in annoyance as she trudged forward to catch up with us. We teased her a bit on the way there, she eventually joked along with us. It was especially fun to see Oratio leap from the ground every few seconds.

    It was just my luck, that after a half hour or so, someone else decided to show up. A certain short, black-cloaked, demon child. We were following the path to Zestos when all of a sudden he just kinda...stepped out on the path ahead of us.

    I jumped, startled, not that he was only a few meters away.

    "Eddie?" Jason groaned.

    He grinned. "Did you miss me?"

    His cloak was now winter edition, fur lined and thinker by the looks of it. One dramatic twirl and I saw that the snake emblem o the back was still the same.

    "What do you want this time?" Ryan demanded, pulling out her dagger.

    Eddie's eyes locked onto the blade. "So that's where that ended up."

    Ryan's intimidating stance faltered slightly. "This?"

    Eddie nodded, then bowed slightly. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm not actually here to harm you."

    "Like the last time then?" Jason asked sarcastically.

    Eddie snorted, then rolled his eyes. "Ooh, aggression from pretty boy. No, this time my mistress would like to deliver you a message."

    "Your mistress?" Eryan raised an eyebrow.

    "Yes, Kosmos it's like the four of you are deaf. Thank goodness it's not a spoken message. Otherwise I might be here all day just repeating." He groaned, reaching into the pocket of his cloak.

    "Just...just give us the message and leave." I said shakily.

    He scared me. He scared me really badly. I wasn't ready to deal with this. I just wanted him to get it over with and leave.

    His hand reappeared, this time wrapped around a short wooden stick. He tossed it underhand towards me. I almost dropped the thing he threw, but managed to get a grip on it last second.

    "Enjoy!" He flashed one more grin at our group, then ran off into the woods again.

    Ryan let out a growl and tried to run after him, but tripped in the snow and was spitting out dirt and gravel when she swung her head up.

    "Curses!" She stammered her fists agains the ground.

    "What did he give you?" Jason inquired, leaning after me.

    I snapped myself out of my funk and glanced down at my hands. It was a stick, and that was being generous. It was quite literally just a stick of wood about a foot long. The only distinguishing thing was a small carving on the side. A circle, in the middle was some sort of gem inlaid into it. An emerald I think. On the tops and bottoms of the emerald was four runes. I stared at them for a moment, because they seemed familiar. It wasn't until Ryan push her dagger forward and positioned it next to the stick did I realize the runes matched.

"Whoa." Eryan gasped, she reached up and put a hand on her forehead.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking up at her.

She shook her head, straightened up, then nodded. "Yep. That's weird thought, that they have the same markings."

"But what does it say?" Jason inquired.

    I tilted my head. "I have no idea."

    We stared at it for a bit more. Then I shrugged and shoved it into my bag.

    "Whatever you guys, we have bigger things to worry about." I forced out, pushing past them to keep walking.

    "You think snake woman and Eddie's mistress are the same person?" Eryan asked, helpfully changing the subject.

    "Without a doubt." Ryan agreed. "She's got some nerve, giving us a message like this. I'm gonna look forward to wiping a grin off her face."

    I laughed nervously. "Yeah."

    My grip on my bag tightened and I just kept pushing forward. It wasn't long before we spotted the first buildings.

    A path through the snow had been cut out, so we were now walking on a thinner, much easier to travel road. There was a wall ahead is us, with wide open gates made out of wooden spikes, sharpened and tethered together. Behind them was a bustling city of rounded houses made out of wood and furs. Everything was tightly bound together and warn looking in the inside. People were walking around the street in big puffy jackets. Some carried fishing poles with giant fish flung over their backs. Now that I thought about it, this place smelled a lot like fish. The familiars though were really interesting. One fierce looking woman patted a leopard seal on the head and threw them a small fish, which it chomped up happily. Another man walked by with a pure white fox balanced on his shoulder. The fox winked at Oratio, who looked like he laughed.

Peri decided to take that moment to wake up from his spot nestled in the hood of my jacket. His head popped out and he glanced around as we walked down the streets.

"We finally made it?" He yawned.

"Yep, tell me if you see her, or Felix for that matter."

I was getting excited, I felt like we were finally getting close to Felix now. I walked to the woman with the seal.

"Um excuse me, ma'am?" I started.

She looked over from the beadwork she was doing. "Yes?"

"Have you perhaps seen a woman with a snake familiar pass through here? She's got dark skin, and long dark hair." I asked.

The woman frowned. "I don't think I have, sorry."

I nodded, only slightly disappointed. "Thanks."

"Should we do that to?" Jason asked, looking to me for guidance.

I nodded. "She was tall, too, and the snake was bright green, if you want to add that."

"Craig?" A new voice asked.

The four of us turned to see a young lady staring at us from on top of a polar bear. She slid off and pulled down her hood, revealing wispy white hair that had been pulled up into a bun. I blinked in realization.

"Aurora?" I gasped.

"Is it you!" She grinned, running forward to huge me.

She let go and stared at our misshapen little group, we very obviously stood out.   "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story." I laughed shakily. "What are you doing here?"

She snorted. "I live here. Who are you're friends?"

"This is Eryan, my sister Ryan, and-"

"You can call me Jason." He said, leaning against a wall.

I faltered. What? What was that? Was he...flirting? Was he flirting with Aurora? I suddenly felt really sick.

Aurora shot him a look. "You're sister, huh? What's been going on since the Capital?"

"Oh...Kosmos so much has happened." I started, tearing my eyes away from Jason.

She looked around. "I've got all day. You guys don't look like you have a chaperone of any kind? Do you need a place to stay? You can tell the story back at my house. I can brew you guys some coffee or something."

"Dude, that would be great." Eryan agreed.

Aurora gave us a thumbs up. "Hey, it's the least I can do. Helping you out Craig, actually got me that job. I start in a few weeks."

I smiled. "Nice."

She grinned again. "Oh, this is Chubby the way. He's my familar."

She patted the giant polar bear who looked content taking in our conversation. Oratio leapt forward to say hi. He titled his head and stuck his tongue. We laughed.

"Looks like you guys will fit right in." Aurora sighed contently. "Come on, let me show you guys back to my place."