"What do you mean you never see them again?" I asked, struggling to quell my panicky heart.

Sky shrugged. "I mean, they're not running around setting villages on fire or anything."

"Wait hold on-" Jason started.

"Where do you see these gals usually?" Ryan interrupted him.

Sky reached under some furs and brought out a folded piece of paper. It was a map. It had lots of little red marks on it but most of them were clustered around this one woodland area.

"This area right here, I think Katestra has some sort of base here. It's where most of the sightings have been." Sky continued.

    Jason frowned. "Have you not checked it out before? Why not explore or something? Also-"

    "Hey, this business is tricky work. I've been collecting this information for years." Sky huffed, the two did not seem to like each other. "That would ruin my chances."

    "Chances of what?" Jason asked, flabbergasted.

    "None of your business, birdbrain." She hissed back.

    "You guys!" I demanded. "Sky, could Felix be there?"

    She tapped her chin. "I mean, most likely?"

    "Then we have to go in there." I decided.

    "Craig, we don't even know what 'there' is." Eryan explained softly.

    She seemed hesitant and not completely on board. I was at a loss for a moment. They volunteered to come on this trip, if they wanted to back out, that's a lot of hard work for nothing.

    "Plus, all my work." Sky noted, uncomfortable.

    I grimaced and pulled at my bangs. "We've come all this way, we can't...we have to."

    Felix could be dead. He could already be dead, and it might be my fault. Peri jumped onto my knee and stared at me sternly.

    "Craig, Felix is still alive. There's still time." He offered.

    "How do you know?" I muttered.

    Peri looked away. "I can't tell you right now, but I just do okay."

    "Is this the same thing you've been keeping from me this whole time?" I sighed, honestly exhausted at this point.

    Peri looked away, seemingly ashamed. "Yeah, just trust me okay."

    I grated my teeth together in frustration, pulling my jacket closer around myself. "Okay, so we need to figure out what's in that red area first, but we're going in, that's settled."

    "That's...better I suppose." Eryan admitted, I could try she was trying hard to work with me.

    "This is a lot to take in, but you guys can still stay with me if you need." Aurora added graciously.

I smiled weakly, still feeling quite sick. I was trusting Peri to tell me the truth. Kosmos, why did this have to be so time sensitive? I really hoped Felix was doing all right. Jason still seemed upset, seeing at he had been interrupted around three time now.

"Craig, think about this for a second. How old are you Sky?"

Sky immediately went on the defensive. "That's irrelevant."

Jason gestured towards the redhead. "See? You're cute Sky but I don't think we can trust you not to lead us into a trap."

Sky jumped onto her feet, balling her fists. "You take that back!"

"Stop it." Ryan growled. "You guys are freaking Craig out."

I had unconsciously leaned back. "Hey, we're not gonna fight."

"Absolutely not. Sky doesn't have to tell us anything if she doesn't want to." Aurora suddenly took commanded.

She sat up. "Sky, do you want to stay with us tonight?"

Sky shook her head. "Nope. I'm not sleeping anywhere need mr. Ruffled Feathers."

"Hey!" Jason blinked.

I picked up the map and let them playfully nag each other. It looked like Aurora would be able to handle that. I looked at the collection of read dots. Ryan scooted up next to me.

"We're gonna find him." She insisted. "We're gonna bust in there, fight a bunch of ladies, and grab Felix."

"Wherever 'there' is. Eryan has a point." I huffed.

"Yeah she's smart like that." Ryan agreed. "She'll probably figure out how we'll scout the area."

"Aurora will make sure nobody accidentally hurts theirselves." I continued, smiling.

"Jason will gripe." Ryan rolled her eyes. "You'll think it's adorable."

"Shut up." I blushed. "And it is adorable, you can't deny that."

"Whatever flaps your parrot."

    "I resent that." Peri muttered form my shoulder.

"You'll tell me how untrustworthy he is while also being by wingman." I raised a eyebrow.

Ryan mock scoffed. "Okay that is true."

"Jason, what are these?" Eryan demanded, her voice dramatically louder than any tone before.

Sky and Jason immediately shut up as everyone's attention was turned to Eryan holding an opened tube with a piece of paper in her hand. Jason paled.

"Uh, um. It's...it's a long story. Why did you go through my stuff?" He frowned, laughing nervously as he took the paper back from her.

    "It fell open, I thought it was something of Sky's." Eryan admitted. "Who's Triste?"

    Jason looked panicked. "No one! They're nothing."

    "Is she your girlfriend?" Sky peered over Jason's shoulder.

    My stomach dropped.

    "No!" Jason insisted, turning red. "They're just letters...I found them in my house."

"Who's Triste though?" Sky tilted her head, momentarily breaking her feud with him.

I didn't want to look at those letters or whatever they were. He might be telling the truth, but that still stung.

Jason shrugged. "Okay look, I found them when I moved in okay, they were just there. I was hoping uh...I was kinda hoping I might find Triste okay? Whoever she is."

I stared at his face, Ryan leaned to look at the letters, abandoning me. He looked distant. Maybe even in love. I didn't want to think about that.

"So you just found these letters in the house you moved into?" Even Aurora looked interested.

Jason nodded. "They're love letters."

I blushed. I still didn't move though. Ryan looked up at me and seemed to notice this. She was probably reading me, but I didn't care. I could just about taste the metallic bitterness that came form watching Jason look so lovestruck.

"Well gosh, you could have just told us, were you thinking about giving the letters back to Triste?" Eryan asked.

Jason nodded. "I don't think she ever got them. Whoever wrote these sure did care a lot about her though."

"I'll say." Sky offered her hand out.

"I'm not giving this to you." Jason scoffed.

Sky sighed. "I promise I won't damage it, the darn paper looks like it's already been magically injected beyond belief anyway. I want to put it on my wall."

Jason bit his lip.

"If anyone can find someone, it's me okay?" Sky continued.

He hesitantly handed it over. "There's a total of eight, all to Triste, all anonymous."

    Eight? And he's read them all? No, this is stupid, I shouldn't be getting so jealous over this. I need to calm down.

    "Wow." Aurora mused quietly.

    Jason looked over to her and smiled. Kosmos, I had seen that smile before. That one night from the bus, when I thought I had seen a genuine kind side to him. Maybe he did just want to flirt with every girl he met.

    "I'm gonna get a breath of fresh air." I sighed, standing up.

    "Me too." Ryan added, sensing my distress.

    I stepped over Jason, wishing I was also metaphorically stepping over my feelings for him, and crawled out the entrance. I spotted a little green blur zip out into the beyond and knew Peri was probably watching. I sighed and sat down, hanging my feet over the edge, which a distraction from my inner turmoil. Heights were still oddly very terrifying

    "Hey bro." Ryan patted my shoulder, sitting down next to me.

    "Hey." I groaned.

    "I wouldn't take anything he does seriously you know." She pointed out. "Kosmos, it's just one boy drama to the next isn't it?"

    I laughed bitterly. "Yeah."

    "Besides, I mean there are plenty of guys and gals out there." She continued.

    "Yep. I shouldn't be getting so wrapped up in well, everything."

    "Sometimes we can't help it you know."

    We sat there for a bit ad stared off into the snowy landscape. I spotted Carra on the ground a little ways off. She looked like she was hunting.

    "Maybe if I had a more impressive familiar he would like me." I puffed, watching my breath form a cloud.

    "Hey now." Peri scolded, a few feet up. "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."

    "What are you talking about, Peri is super impressive." Ryan snorted.

    "Thank you." The little green bean from the tree added.

    "I mean yeah. Jason has like a hawk though."

    "Young man, don't make me come down there."

    "I'm just saying." I yelled up at the tree. "If you two were to get into a fight."

    Peri landed on the platform next to me. "Sweet Me, I will push you off this tree house."

    "Boys aside, have you experimented with your powers anymore?" Ryan mused, watching Peri jumped onto my head and start messing with my hair.

    "Sweet Spirits, I forgot." I stopped trying to get the crazy bird out of my hair and stared back at my hands. "I've been so busy."

    "Busy staring at Jason to find out about your powers?" Ryan laughed. "Only you, Craig."

    I blushed. "Besides, I don't know if I could...activate them again if I wanted. I was kinda panicking the first time."

    Ryan shrugged. "Maybe after Felix is back safe with us."

    Peri stopped messing up my hair and suddenly hoped down on my knee, looking alert.

    "Hang on...guys there's another familiar near." He announced.

    Lucy poked her head out of Ryan's hair and tilted her head.

    "Who is it?" I asked. "Do we know?"

    Down below, I saw Oratio perk up and hop off of Chubby, who was standing up anyway. Chubby let out a low chuffing noise.

    Peri's feathers ruffled up again. "It's Matri."