Episode One, Part 1:
Horizons.

I'll do whatever it takes. I'll make a million mistakes. 
I'll make the world safe and sound for you. 

Wynn brushed his hands together to rid himself of the layers of dried sand that had stuck to his skin, finally ready to collapse down and catch a well earn break. Despite Fenn and Aeryn's warnings for him to take it easy, he felt accomplished at being able to help his people in building their shelter along the shoreline, and he was relieved to see that they had already managed to create several makeshift tents for them to use. Having noticed him sitting down, Sol made her way over to him, chucking her flask of water his way.

"You look exhausted," she frowned, wishing he hadn't gone against her orders from him to sit down and let everyone else do the hard work. "Tomorrow, you're not lifting a finger. I'll even assign a couple of guards to you and make sure they don't let you leave your tent."

"And I'll just tell them to leave. I'm a Sovereign too, Sol," he teased, winking at her as he took a mouthful of her water.

"I'm the Nobel Sovereign," she fired back. "I'm in charge of everyone, including you."

"You don't scare me."

"Unfortunately, I think that's true nowadays. However, I'm fairly sure Dreea can still scare the crap outta you if she wants to. Hell, she even manages to scare me sometimes."

Wynn laughed, shocking a nervous, wide-eddy expression her way. "Yeah, I'll give her that," he said. "There's a reason she's the Scary Sovereign. Even I'm not immune to some of those vicious glares I see her give people."

"Good," Sol hummed, moving to sit down beside him as they leaned up against one of the many logs the had been set out. "I'm glad we've come to an agreement: you're gonna rest."

Wynn rolled his eyes in amusement and passed her back the flask, casting his eyes over to the rest of their people and watched on as they all continued their assigned work.

"So... What's the plan, Nobel?"

Sol let out an exaggerated sigh, wishing she knew the answer. "I have no clue. Maybe this part of the land can't even keep us alive for long if there isn't enough water or hunt for us to eat, but I'm not sure we all have the strength to move around this land if that's what it comes to; if we can't stay here."

"Sol, I'm fine," Wynn insisted. "If you need me to help you guys search for food tomorrow, I can-"

"You're not going to. And it's not just you I was talking about. Aeryn and Fenn have no clue what Elara's going to be like in the long term; no one's ever been through what she has and survived. I don't want to make the wrong decision."

"Elara's okay," Wynn assured her. "She's weak, but she's alive and she's already getting stronger. I'm sure she'll be back to her normal self soon enough and she'll be trying to convince everyone that she can still take me down in a fight, or whatever."

"I hope so," Sol replied, leaning her head on Wynn's shoulder as she looked out at the ocean in front of them. The wreckage of Neptunum was no longer visible over the water, but pieces of the ship kept washing up on the shore; every time they found something, they hoped that it would turn out to be useful; a first aid kit, a bag of blankets or sheets they could hang up to dry and use it to keep everyone warm...

"Dreea and I were talking about the possibility of trying to find The City..."

Wynn shifted underneath Sol and she knew, even without looking at him, that his face was puzzled up in confusion.

"Why?"

"Because of the direction we've moved," she said. "Atlantis said that the coordinates for here suggested that we might not be too far away from Targo-"

"What about the flood? Surely it was all wiped out by the water?"

"Not necessarily. The DeadLands was an uphill climb, remember? Maybe on the other side of all this water, it's still standing somewhere."

"Ha, you say that like it's a good thing," Wynn mumbled, his voice anything but amused.

"It's not," Sol shook her head. "And I never want to go there again, but as I said, Dreea and I were talking... It might be smart to send Liam there with some backup; if The City did survive, then we'll get ourselves inside like you did when you came for me, and Liam will be able to help us find supplies: food, medicine, weapons, tents."

"Have you guys told Chessca about that plan? She's not going to like it at all, even if you both stay here... Elara's not going to want to know about it, either. Neither is Quill..." Wynn laughed again, but this time it was in pity for himself. " Come to think of it, I think everyone I know has a reason to hate that place."

"You're not wrong there, and Chess will definitely have a lot to say about everything, but we might not have a choice."

"We can cross that bridge when we come to it," Wynn said. "Chances are, we'll find more hunt in the forests tomorrow. I don't think we always need to be expecting the worst to happen... After Neptunum, I don't think it's even possible to top that on a list of worse case scenarios. Something's gotta go in our favour every once in a while."

"Believe me," Sol murmured, lifting Wynn's arm up so she was able to sit as close as possible to him. "It already has."

/////////

"Did I do it right?" Izzy asked, frowning as she glanced down at the stick in her hand, trying to figure out if she was holding it like she had been shown.

"Perfectly," Kodiak smiled, fulfilled by the beam of pride that took over Izzy's face. "You'll be a strong fighter in no time, just like Ell. I can see she's already taught you a couple tricks that I showed her."

Izzy nodded. "When there was nothing else to do in the Bunker, all of us would practice together. We'd move all of the couches to the side of the room so there was lots of space and we'd sometimes make it into a competition. Elara and Riverly were definitely the best."

"Who was the worst?" Kodiak asked, eager to hear her answer even though he was fairly sure who she was going to say already.

Izzy looked bashfully over at Elara who was sitting a couple of metres away, watching from the sidelines. She wasn't sure if she was allowed to say it but Elara broke into a tired laugh, nodding her approval Izzy's way.

"...Uncle Quill," she admitted, feeling a little more relaxed as she saw Kodiak break into laughter. "But he did get better!" She hurried to make up for it, not wanting Kodiak to think Quill was totally defenceless. "He beat Fenn a couple times. And Elara once."

Kodiak raised an eyebrow, looking over at Elara. "Quill beat you?" He asked, trying to hide the sheer amusement from taking over his face.

"I was having a bad day," she admitted, not realising how her words were taken by Kodiak who was already imagining how many of her days were ruined by her belief that he was gone. For all of the precious memories that Izzy brought up about her experience in the Bunker with Elara, Kodiak knew that they were all drenched in what had been an inconsolable sorrow, and what were moments that Izzy didn't want to let go of were ones Elara was trying hard to forget.

"Besides, I let him win," Elara continued, struggling to push herself to her feet and trying to continuously distract everyone from what she was going through by making everything into a lighthearted remark.

"You okay?" Kodiak asked, dropping his stick on the ground that he was using for sparring with Izzy and hurrying over to Elara's side and helping her stand up straight.

"I'm fine," she smiled, shooting him a wide-eyed smile to try and remind him to be subtle around Izzy. "Speaking of, I'm going to find Quill. You guys come find us when you're done here."

Kodiak nodded and reluctantly took a step back as he watched Elara walked away, trying to still his mind from the relentless, racing worries that spun around every thought in his mind.

"How bad does it hurt?"

"Huh?" Kodiak turned around to look at Izzy, trying to understand what she was talking about.

"Something's wrong with Elara. Something's really hurting, right? What is it?"

"She's okay," Kodiak let out a deep breath, setting his hand on Izzy's shoulder to reassure her.

"You have to tell me so I can look after her. How can I keep her safe if I don't know what's wrong?"

"Iz..." Kodiak frowned, crouching down so she stood a little taller than him. "It's not your job to keep her safe. It's mine, okay? I'll keep you both safe. I don't want you to feel like you have to worry about that."

Izzy chewed on her bottom lip, conflicted at his words. Although she hadn't known Kodiak long - the span of several days - she felt like she had known him for months after the countless stories Elara had told her about him whilst they were in the Bunker. It was what made her trust him without hesitation whilst they were on Neptunum; what made her feel like he was a part of her family from the moment they first met. She didn't want Kodiak to feel like she didn't believe him - because she did; because she knew Kodiak would protect her just as fiercely as Elara had done, but how could she not worry about Elara after everything she had done for her? How could she not want to take care of her when it was exactly what Elara had been doing for her since her father died?

"Okay," she finally told him, not even knowing how to hear the fear that clung onto every syllable she spoke. "I'll try not to worry. She's okay." 

One // Part One
Like he was a part of her family from the moment they first met.

Can't wait for you guys to see the Elara/Kodiak/Izzy dynamic this season! Such a special, little family and I can't wait for you guys to fall in love with them like I have!

Anyway, happy first chapter of SEASON 9!!! Not gonna lie, it's crazy that we're nine books in to this series. This has been the hardest book by far to plan and I can't figure out why, but I'm almost done with the plan! I usually have every chapter mapped out before I start writing, but I wanted to get this book posted today. ♡

Thank you for sticking around for 9 seasons. Hope the next two books are as special to you as they are to me. Lotta love to you guys. ♡

26/01/21.

𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘴, 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭-𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳.

𝐈 𝐝𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, 𝙞𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮, 𝐭𝐨: 𝐀𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢, 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢, 𝐊𝐞𝐫𝐢 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢, 𝐆𝐢𝐠𝐢 𝐁𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐊𝐨𝐛𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 and 𝐀𝐫𝐚 𝐙𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧.