Waverly picked at the crumbs on her cotton shirt as she waited for HalfHyde and Crillion to finish their private discussion. Her head spun so fast that it almost reached the verge of explosion. Only a couple of weeks ago things had been going perfectly, now her life was being tumbled upside down.

She felt incredibly sad for Judson.

He had been made to carry a stupid burden simply because a god had wanted him to. She balled her fists, anger creeping up her skin. Whoever had split her best friend's heart in two would soon get to know what it felt like to be biscuit crumbs. She promised herself that she would deal mercilessly with the person - god or no god.

When HalfHyde finished speaking, he shook hands with Crillion and looked over at Waverly then beckoned for her to come to him.

"He asks for ye." He simply revealed when she was standing beside him.

At first, Waverly thought that the Elf referred to Crillion but then she realized he referred to Judson.

She nodded and allowed the Dwarf lead her up a different flight of stairs. He motioned to the first door in the long hallway. Waverly could see the curve at the end of the hall that lead into a different hallway. That particular area was not touched by the morning sunlight.

She reached for the doorknob and opened the door.

The room was not big and so Waverly guessed it was reserved for guests to sleep in or maybe, patients. It had a row of separate well made beds on either sides of the wall. Trays of food, herbage and jugs holding clean water sat next to each bed, each with neat washcloths and bowls. There was nothing interesting in the room save for the painting that hung on the far end. It was a picturesque image of two women - both harnessing the sunlight. One figure embodied the morning sun and the other, the evening sun.

Waverly quickly recognized who the women were; Cret, the goddess of Light and Love and her supposed cousin Threna, the goddess of the Evenfall or Sunset.

Threna's hair was the color of the evening sun; a dark dull yellow, and she was shrouded in a silk dress of beautiful stars. Cret's features, on the other hand, were impossible to pinpoint. Her face was completely blocked out by the sun itself. Her form was a simple golden outline and nothing more. Even through the painting Waverly found it hard to focus on the deity's face. It was like attempting to gaze directly into the sun - which was impossible.

Judson laid propped up on the bed just below the painting. His head rested against the wall and his eyes were tightly shut. Waverly saw that his face was beaded with sweat when she sat on the bed and scooted close to him. His eyes opened and she felt relieved that they were no longer glazed white. She could tell he had washed too because he wore new clothes that were similar to hers - a white cotton shirt and trousers, except that she sported brown leathery shorts.

"Do you feel better now?" She asked calmly.

Judson sighed and lifted his head but with so much effort that his expression almost broke into one of pain. "Only a little. H-He made the fever go away. That is all."

"He says that you have to go home." Waverly revealed. Her voice quivered as she spoke.

She could not believe it even though she was saying it out loud. After knowing him for six years, she was finally going to visit his hometown. She had somehow grown to believe that Judson was a native of Bremeton and that he would never leave it.

"My bed has burned to the ground. I can no longer sleep on it. I have to get a. . . a new one." Judson complained.

"Not back to your treehouse, Jud. Back to your homeland realm. He says you will get better there."

Judson tilted his head to look at her. If he was shocked, she could not tell. The pain on his face made it too difficult to read his expressions. Waverly wondered where exactly he was hurting and what was hurting him but did not ask. His hair clung to his scalp from his bath and framed his face in a way that made him look too much like a child.

"It is far away. I do not remember where it is anymore." He stated. His voice was low and Waverly was thankful they were alone in the room otherwise she would not have heard him.

"Pa says he will give me a map. I will come with you." She said. "We have to travel or else. . ."

Judson turned to look at her again. "Or else what then? I am going to die?"

Waverly shook her head. "No. Crillion says you are not dying at all. He says you only carry a burden."

Her forehead wrinkled in deep thought.

The distant memory of someone stating something about a burden seemed frustratingly vaguer than before. She hated that she could not remember it clearly then pushed the thought aside.

"Do you remember meeting any gods before you came here?"

Judson shut his eyes lazily. He remained that way for a few minutes then opened them again. "I do not remember anything from my childhood. It is almost like I never had one."

Waverly looked up at the painting. Above Cret's head, the clouds had been painted to look as though they parted for the sun like a fluffy curtain. She desperately tried to recall if she had seen such an imagery before but nothing came to mind.

"Maybe we will find some answers in Dakriton. I will go now and ask Pa when we have to leave." Waverly gave Judson's hand a gentle squeeze before climbing off the bed.

"I will be right back."

She walked out of the room and subsequently collided with something huge in front of the door.

"Umph!"

The force of it knocked her down.

Waverly struggled to balance as the room still spun around her. Whatever she had bumped into gently bent over to stare at her. At first, she could not make out what it was because her vision was blurry then her eyesight cleared.

She gave a short scream and pulled out her wrist band that promptly materialized into a large crescent weapon in her hand.

"Back off!" She yelled at the creature.

It stared at her in shock. It was a humanoid elephant - what was called a Phantanid. It wore large brown shorts to reveal its sturdy elephant legs. Its torso was covered in a black robe and its large face was slightly human, with a trunk for a nose and a large ugly mouth. It had large, hairy human hands that gripped the railing of the balcony so tightly that Waverly feared they would break.

She swung Calaire defensively and the creature flinched.

"Excuse me but those are pointy."

Waverly was not certain of what shocked her the most; the fact that the creature could speak or that it sounded like a young boy.

"What? What?" She muttered.

Slowly, her brain began to recall that she was only a guest in a Dwarf's house and that the Dwarf had relations from Hammiton and also that she was not supposed to have a weapon pointed at her host. She quickly willed Calaire to shrink back into a wrist band.

The young Phantanid gasped in awe. "How did you do that? That was super amazing."

Waverly regained her posture as she was already subconsciously poised in a fighting stance. "My apologies, please. I did not mean to have a weapon pointed at you."

"Aren't you a little too young to own such a big sharp knife thing? Where's your daddy and mommy anyway? Are you the person that came in last night?" The creature rambled on.

Waverly did not understand why he cut his words short and she thought his voice was a pitch too high.

"Um. . . er, I was. . . I do not. . . " She stuttered.

"Hi, I'm Humbert." The Phantanid introduced with a smile and held out his hand for a friendly shake. His smile faded when he remembered his hand was too big for his new acquaintance to hold.

"Hello. My name is Waverly."

"Is that your brother in there?" Humbert asked, bending over so he could peek into the room where Judson laid with his eyes closed.

Waverly assumed he had slept off.

"No. He is. . . my friend!" She replied.

Peering around curiously, she wondered why no one else had come out to ask the reason she had screamed. Not even Crillion himself who had firmly warned against noise. Waverly turned to look at the dark hallway. She realized that the other doors were higher than normal - the right size for large elephant people. She suddenly understood why everything in the house was so big.

"Again! My apologies!" She said.

She did not know what else to say to the elephant boy. He was bald like most elephants were. His eyes were so small in his face that Waverly could not make out their color but she saw them blink and move about. Humbert suddenly appeared to be hurt. Waverly realized with a bit of guilt that she had stared at him for long.

She could almost hear her mother scold her for staring so rudely.

"Father does not let anyone see us because he thinks we'll scare them away. We are not allowed to make friends with anyone because we're too hideous and by the way, creatures like me don't talk." Humbert complained.

He sounded very sad, twiddling his large thumbs together with his face down.

"Creatures like you do talk. I have seen one other!" Waverly confessed.

It rattled her entire being to think of Malvarëken - Fear itself - in the form of a large lioness. It had spoken to her during her last quest and was quite bent on killing her as well.

"You have? Really?" Humbert's face brightened up. His elephant ears moved. They were grey and very flappy. "Which one?"

"I am afraid I cannot tell you. She was not as nice a person as you are." Waverly said kindly.

The Phantanid smiled wider and it made him look a little less terrifying. "You're really nice. Will you please let me see your amazing sword thing again?"

Waverly hesitated. She warily glanced back at Judson then at Humbert who was waiting for the demonstration with a patient smile on his face.

"Alright then!" She muttered.

She took off the wrist band and Calaire sprang into a crescent blade that was so keen its edge glistened dangerously. Its blue handle hummed with energy in Waverly's grip but it was no bother to her at all. She had become so used to the tiny vibration that it was now a thing of comfort.

Humbert's eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He gaped in astonishment at the blade and involuntarily reached out to touch it.

"No!" Waverly yelped and the blade shrunk back into a wrist band before it could nick Humbert's skin.

"That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Is it your battle blade? Where did you get it? You use it to fight the bad guys and stuff?"

Waverly frowned. Humbert's vocabulary was somewhat confusing but she gathered that it was the manner of speech he had grown up with.

"It is for defence only but yes, defence against people who try to hurt me."

"Aren't you like eleven years old?" He frowned, clutching his robe. "Why do you have a weapon anyway? I'm ten and daddy won't even let me touch the fruit knife. He says its bad for me to go near sharp things. He says I might get ideas - whatever that means. So you can fight then?"

"I can fight and I am thirteen." Waverly blinked in shock. The creature's head already touched the top of the door frame and he had just claimed he was only ten. She fearfully wondered if he would grow bigger as his age progressed.

"No way! That's so cool. Lily has got to see this!"

With that, he lumbered back into the dark hallway quietly calling for Lily.

Waverly easily guessed that Lily was Humbert's sister. She raced down the stairs before he would return with her and found HalfHyde talking with Crillion again but this time in less tenser and friendlier tones. When the Elf spotted her, he excused himself.

"Come here over with me." He called and Waverly walked with him to the couch she had slept on the night before. Two traveling bags were resting on it - packed and ready to go. From one of them HalfHyde pulled out a parchment.

Waverly guessed it was a newly drawn map.

"I reckon ye knows what matter it be with ye friend now!"

Waverly shrugged. "Somewhat!"

"And I reckon ye knows what ye must do about it."

She glanced up at him and nodded in response. "Will you not come with us?"

HalfHyde chuckled. "No. I will but only slow ye down in travel. Ye friend is a. . . a different creature. What he carries a thing now for us is - it is uncertain. If all goes well, he will be fine and if it does not, then all of us be into big trouble."

A curious frown formed on Waverly's face. She feared that the supposed burden Judson carried was graver than what it was named to be and that there was far more to it than even Crillion understood.

"What do you mean, Pa?"

HalfHyde sighed, put his arm around her and drew her close to himself. She found this a bit surprising because ages had passed since the Elf last showed sentiment towards her. His robes still smelled of earth and precious stones. Waverly breathed it in.

"A lot of things ye will find difficult to understand in soonest times to come but ye must remember, it is not the end of the world."

He spoke in a low tone and Waverly felt a tugging sensation in her stomach, like his words were trying to wrench her gut free.

"Ye must travel by tis map and the directions in it to the realm of Shades where the boy was born. Find him treatment however ye must, wherever ye must."

"How long will it take us to arrive?"

"I do not know but it shall be no longer than six days. Ye must travel by horse. I have saddled two for ye the fastest Huddersfield breed in town."

HalfHyde handed Waverly the map, bags and a smaller satchel that clinked when she shook it. She peeked inside and saw that there were tiny glass bottles arranged in it.

"What are those in there?"

"It will cease him to burn one drop of some of these - but be mindful to remember child; the yellow ones heal a tremble and the orange ones a burn. The boy suffers already greatly. It is summer now. Letting him sweat so and too much be a torture."

Waverly shouldered the bags, her mind wandering to the night before. The vials were some of the same ones that Crillion had used on Judson. She wondered how much her father would pay the Dwarf for his services. Without HalfHyde, Judson would have had no helper because she knew of no one who could heal. The thought of what could have happened without the Elf's intervention made her tremble.

"Many thanks, Pa. For bringing Jud to this place." Waverly said with a smile. She hugged the Elf around his midriff and stood up. It felt to her like she was about to repeat her last quest but this time with her father's permission.

"You shall also need this." Crillion added.

Waverly turned and found the Dwarf holding a white object in his hand. In his other hand, he held a scroll. He handed her the scroll then made her hold out her free hand. When she had done so, he pressed the white object against her palm and a sticky substance from its bottom reflected against her hand.

"What is this?" She asked, looking perplexingly at the bronze circle with a large symbol of a crown and a scepter in the middle.

"Permission to cross the border." Crillion stated. "So that you can have safe passage across the border. Use the seal on your hand first when you leave because it will wipe off and on your return journey, make use of the scroll. Do be careful not to lose either."

Waverly wanted to say that she would have no problems crossing the In Between but she let it be. Lord Edsel had only promised her safe passage from Gahb Alde to Bremeton and that was a whole year ago. There had been no mention of free crossings into Dakriton or any other realm.

"Many thanks, good Sir." She acknowledged with a warm smile. She thought Crillion was kinder than any other Dwarf she would ever meet.

"Ah! Speak nothing of it! Anything to contribute to the inevitable future." Crillion grinned.

Unlike Humbert, Crillion looked more beastly when he smiled. Waverly wondered how it was possible for a Dwarf to sire a creature as large as Humbert. She looked up at the balcony and suddenly spotted Humbert there, trying helplessly to hide himself and the other Phantanid that stood next to him.

Waverly could not make out her features but she guessed that the other Phantanid was Lily. She suddenly felt like going to them to say goodbye. It would probably take a long time before she could visit them again.

"I will get Jud now." She announced and without waiting for opposition, bounded up the stairs.

Humbert and Lily noiselessly inched back into the dark hallway so that their father would not hear them. Waverly could hardly believe that the previous night she had been terrified of how violent these creatures might be. Now, she thought they were adorable and utterly harmless.

"There she is, Lily!" Humbert announced quietly. "She's Waverdeen, um no that's not right. Waverly. Yeah. Her blade is awesome and it's in that blue thingy that she's wearing around her wrist."

Humbert spoke in whispers to Lily but he was lacking in the craft. Waverly could hear him clearly even with the great distance between them.

"Hi!" Lily cooed beside Humbert. Her voice sounded much younger than her brother's. She inched closer and closer until she was out of the dark hallway.

"Waverly, meet my little sister, Lily." Humbert introduced with a large grin. "She was seven yesterday but now she's eight today because it's her birthday."

Waverly smiled at Lily.

The Phantanid did not seem as scary to her as Humbert had been when she first set eyes on him. She thought it was because she had already adapted to seeing their faces. There was nothing on the entire planet that would compare to how ugly Malvarëken was in Waverly's opinion.

Lily stared curiously at Calaire and then at Waverly's other wrist which was adorned with dangling precious stones. Her eyes widened. They were light blue in color and much bigger than Humbert's. She was also noticeably smaller in size such that if Waverly jumped, she could touch the top of her forehead. Her pink dress was designed with rainbows.

"You have pretty charms." She commented, half pointing at the bracelets.

Waverly nodded. "Many thanks. And happy birthday to you. Would you like a charm for a present? I do not have anything else to give."

Lily nodded excitedly. Waverly picked out a bracelet at random and placed it in Lily's hand. It was too tiny to fit around her wrist but could be fashioned into a ring for her.

"Thank you so much. I'll take very good care of it!" Lily promised. She ran her finger against the tiny gemstones.

"Hey, what about me? Don't I get a charm?" Humbert complained.

Waverly glanced at her wrist trying to figure out which bracelet to give to him but Lily interrupted.

"No, you don't, Ertie. Charms are for girls only and it's not your birthday so you just have to deal with it." She objected, rolling her eyes.

"Waverly! Ye must hurry!" HalfHyde called from downstairs.

Waverly looked down and realized that Crillion and HalfHyde were both watching her speak with Lily and Humbert. The siblings whimpered when they saw their father and scrambled back to their respective rooms in the dark hallway. Crillion had not even shown signs of anger or disapproval.

Waverly watched them disappear into two different doors. She sighed and went into Judson's room to wake him up.

"We must leave right this second. Pa says it will take six days to arrive in Dakriton."

Judson weakly got down on his feet. He was always without shoes and it did not bother him at all but Waverly felt that he should have one on for the journey.

"Do you not want a pair of boots?" She asked.

He shook his head. "The ground is cold. Feels comfortable."

Together, they headed downstairs and out of the house. HalfHyde escorted them all the way out but Crillion only watched from the doorway. It seemed that during the night another Huddersfield breed had joined theirs and both horses were already saddled for their journey. HalfHyde even made a scabbard for Waverly's Karya. She wondered when he had had the time to do it.

"Promise me to take good care of ye and the boy. " HalfHyde advised. "Safest of your wayfare. Careful not to converse nor engage ye with strangers people ye never met. They be dangerous to ye since ye never known them ever."

Waverly smiled at her father. He had repeated that same warning more times than she could count until it had become an unforgettable verse in her head.

"I hear you, Pa. I promise." She said and allowed him help her onto the horse.

It was her first time on horseback and she felt very excited. She looked over at Judson who was half hunched over on his own horse. His face looked sickly pale and people stared at him when they walked past but mostly out of sympathy. One look at him and one could tell he was ill.

A thought suddenly struck her.

"Pa, when we arrive Dakritonian which healer do I meet?"

HalfHyde frowned. It seemed he had not thought of it either. "Hopefully they will take ye and him to the temple of the god their patron who is. There ye will meet a priest. Whether or not he may like to, he owes the boy a service to heal him because he shares the same Dakritonian heritage as he. Same the way Crillion owes me a service because we are brothers."

Waverly nodded. It was a half comfort but at least she felt better in the knowledge that the realm would owe it to Judson to help him whether or not they wanted.

"That way to the Slumber Hill and beyond. Use the map. I taught ye to navigate them and I reckon ye has not lost remembrance."

She shook her head. "No, Pa."

"Off ye must be now!" HalfHyde urged and gently slapped both horses against their behinds. They whinnied and walked off in a gentle clip clop.

"Goodbye, Pa." Waverly called back with a wave.

"Journey safe ye two." The Elf replied.

Waverly took time to admire the rest of the town. The town square was so large that she could not see the end of it. The markets were more elaborate but much less lively than Lake Borough's. There were less Gypsies and more Dwarves in Slumber Hill. She spotted only a handful of Elven-Humans too. There were sheltered wells dug up at end of each row of houses and Waverly assumed this was how the townsfolk stored water. The sight of wells brought bad memories to her. She diverted her focus to the road ahead.

Soon, they were trotting past the Hill. It was so large that it blocked out the sunlight. It was noticably much wider and grander than the hill King Asherah's palace was built on. Waverly wondered why the King had not founded his domain in this part of Bremeton instead.

As they circled the sloping path of the hill that led out of town, Waverly glanced back and noticed two things at once; one was that the hill had taken on a strange shape like that of the bowing head of a man or rather, the head of a man who was falling into a state of light sleep with his face downward and second, the rest of the town spread out below in a funny formation of houses and vegetation.

She instantly realized why the place was really named Slumber Hill; from her position far behind the large rise, the town looked like one big bed and the hill seemed to be sleeping on it.

The Honor of Light|
Book 02