"Peace! Peace! Peace!"

The small crowd chanted the mantra like a heartbeat. Destan hid just out of view behind a cottage, watching the protest with growing worry. Scattered about stood people with arms crossed, unwilling to join in.

A man among the chanting crowd stepped forward, quieting the onlookers on the square as if he was Remus Kardos himself. His head was bald and his overalls dirty, especially at the knees; he was a farmer.

"This has gone far enough!" he called. "For years, centuries, we've lived in this forest in peace. We use our powers to survive, not for revenge. Our ancestors would be ashamed. Violence is never the answer. We have to stay in control. Peace! Peace!"

As the crowd joined in on his chanting once more, another noise broke through: booing.

"We will fight!" shouted one of the onlookers. A middle-aged woman with the sides of her head shaved off and her atraments reaching all the way up to her ears, slammed her fist in the air. "I've always said my mind-wipes wouldn't hold forever. The Inops found out about us once more and they attacked us for it. It's time we kept them out of our forest with a more permanent solution: fear!"

As a loud bickering broke out, Destan slipped away into the forest. He walked until he could no longer hear the voices.

Reaching out to the atoms of a small rock on the ground, Destan lifted it up, let it float in the air, and then flung it against a tree as hard as he could.

Thunk.

It came bouncing back, so Destan picked it up once more. He leaned back as he sat on the ground, pushing his back against the trunk and putting all his frustration into the movement. He flung it again. Thunk. And again. Thunk. And once more. Thunk.

Over the past three days, the world had gone crazy. Absolutely haywire. There were attacks left and right, assaults and wreckings on each side of the stream. The tribers and the townspeople were at each other's throat. The balance between them had broken.

And all of it had started with him.

Thunk.

It all started the night after Destan had let Nero escape. Remus told the tribers he'd handle it, but for some of them, this wasn't enough.

So they'd snuck through the forest into Grimsby. They'd plucked a random man from the streets and threatened to kill him. Destan suspected they'd tortured him too, to make sure the message was clear. Then they'd set him free, to tell the rest of town to stay away from them.

The tribe didn't allow violence. Not unless it was necessary for their survival. But in that moment, many tribers felt that violence was the only way to keep the Inops away from the camp. They thought violence was the only way to ensure their safety.

Thunk.

Obviously, the townspeople had gotten angry. Nero must've told them that their legend, about the mages in the forest, was true. He must've told them where to find the people who had threatened them. So they'd come back and set fire to the forest.

The forest was the tribe's home. It was their hunting ground. With a chunk of it burned away, they were in even more trouble come winter.

Thunk.

And the tribe had retaliated. A few of them had gone back and set fire to the abandoned houses on the edge of town. They'd lit up an entire row of buildings, as if to say, don't cross this line. Don't come any closer to us than this. The fire had been huge, so Destan heard. And, with the wind blowing south, it spread. Faster than anyone could have guessed, it travelled from the abandoned block to the inhabited parts of town.

Destan didn't know exactly what happened, but someone got hurt. Seriously hurt. Of course they'd come back once more. The two factions had gone back and forth, like a sick game of tug of war, for days on end.

And it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Thunk.

Why?

Why, why, why?

Why did people do this to each other? Why did they treat one another like the spawn of the devil? Couldn't they see that they weren't so different?

Julia wasn't so different from him. Julia was a triber, who lived among the Inops. How was it that nobody could see they were the same? Why could they not leave each other alone like they had for so many years?

Thunk.

And it was worse than that. People had started ignoring Destan again. Scowled at him when they passed by, like they used to. As if he wasn't one of them. As if he was an outcast. He had no idea how this had happened. Did they know this whole conflict between the tribe and the town had started with him? Did they know it was him who led Nero to camp?

Thunk.

Destan had thought about telling his uncle. Uncle Lys would know what to do. Uncle Lys would help him, surely.

But uncle Lys was the Chief's advisor. If he knew that Destan had started all this, he would have to tell Remus. And the Chief would have no choice but to ban him. He'd never be allowed back into the forest.

No. He couldn't tell anyone. He'd have to keep this a secret.

Another secret.

Whoosh –

Destan looked up when the expected thunk didn't come.

Halfway between him and the tree he'd been throwing to, its bark now etched and jagged, stood Keara, the stone in her hand. She looked down at him, her silver hair in one of her signature ponytails and a few thoughtful lines above her eyebrows.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Brilliant," said Destan flatly. "What do you want?"

She stared at him for a few moments and he stared back, as if daring her to push it. Eventually she seemed to decide to let it go. "We have a new mission."

Destan's jaw dropped. "A new one? Now?"

"Yes," she said. "Especially now. I don't know why you're so surprised. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I said I'm fine. What do they want us to do?" Destan tried his best to ignore the dread in his pounding heart. It couldn't be a coincidence that they'd gotten an assignment now. It had to do with this conflict between the tribe and Grimsby, there was no doubt about that. But these tasks all went through his grandfather. Surely Remus wouldn't ask them to attack Grimsby, would he?

"We need to comb through the forest," said Keara. "The townspeople have laid out traps everywhere. We need to get rid of them, so that we can hunt and gather safely again."

Destan frowned. "Okay... But how are we meant to search the entire forest with just the three of us?" The forest was enormous, even with a part of it burnt away. It would take them days to go through it all, if not longer.

"We're not," Elias sneered behind him. "Try to keep up, outcast. There have been more teams set up and sent out. We only need to go through one section of the forest."

"Oh," Destan muttered, mentally kicking himself. That actually made a lot of sense. Maybe he shouldn't be assuming the worst all the time.

"Well, are we going, or what?" Elias called, having already walked ahead.

Keara smiled down at him, then turned to follow Elias. With a sigh, Destan levitated the rock he'd been playing with and jumped up to follow his team.

The trio made their way through the dense and foggy forest. Once again, the animals seemed to have hidden – although this time it might've had something to do with all the traps lying around everywhere.

On the way to their designated part of the forest, Destan kept his eyes on the ground. Every now and then Keara would stop them and use her powers to pull a beartrap out from under a berry-bush, or to stop one of the boys from stepping right onto a long, rusty nail protruding from the ground. A few smaller animals, rabbits and squirrels, had already fallen victim to these new traps. They took those with them for the icebox.

"Keep your eyes open," said Keara once they reached their area. "Those things could be anywhere."

With every trap they found, Destan's mood sunk. What was wrong with these people, that they'd purposely try and wound unsuspecting victims this way? That they'd stop them from gathering food, thereby limiting their chances of survival? How had it come to this?

He knew the answer to this question painfully well. It had all started with him and Nero.

All of a sudden Elias stopped, putting his hand up to signal his team to do the same. Destan frowned, but complied. He looked around, searching for what it was that had made Elias stop in his tracks. Nothing seemed out of –

Crunch.

Destan eyes shot towards the noise. What was that? His heart pounded as he listened to the soft, faraway noises, that were unmistakably footsteps on the leaves and twigs that covered the forest ground.

They're here? Destan thought. What the hell are they doing here, now?

Glancing at his teammates, he saw in Elias exactly what he feared: resentment. Elias must've reached the same conclusion as him: these people, wandering through this part of the forest at this particular time, they weren't tribers. And if they weren't tribers, they had to be Inops.

These people were the very reason the team had to be out here today, searching for hidden traps. Elias wouldn't take kindly to that. Destan could see it in the anger in his eyes, the way his body leaned forward just slightly, like a predator waiting to attack, as he listened to the crunching footsteps becoming louder.

No. Destan couldn't let that happen. Elias would kill these people, given the chance. This had all started because of Destan. He couldn't have these people's deaths on his conscience. He had to stop it. He had to do something.

A snap sounded no more than a few trees away. The stone rolled in between Destan's fingers. Elias glanced at his teammates and gestured towards the sound, then lit the air above his hand on fire. With the ball of flames smouldering away by the tips of his fingers, Elias stepped through the trees. Destan followed closely, determined to change the course of events as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

Having grown up in the forest, Destan knew exactly how to sneak closer to the voices without alerting them to his presence. Elias and Keara didn't make a noise either, while the Inops still stomped through the forest as if they had nothing to fear.

With a glance at his teammates, who had their eyes on the targets, Destan dove past a tree and out of their sight. His feet flew over the mossy ground as he approached the voices. The little, walnut-sized stone trembled in the air above his hand.

His mind raced just as fast as his feet. What was that little rock going to do? He needed something else. Something more impressive.

Destan skidded to a halt when he spotted them. There were two of them, two boys, hardly older than Destan was. Probably trying to prove themselves, just like Destan was. Grins graced their faces, as if what they were doing was the best thing in the world. Both of them held several spikes in their hands – the same kind of spikes Keara had just been pulling out of the ground.

Elias was right, they're here to... Wait, that's it!

Positioning himself behind a tree, Destan dropped the stone and reached out to the new molecules. As soon as he found them, he pulled with all his might. One of the spikes shot out of the Inops' hand and into the air. It hovered in front of the boy, sharp tip aimed at his heart.

"What the hell?" the Inops shouted, jumping backwards.

Pulling once more, Destan sent the quivering spike flying straight at him. The boy only just managed to jump out of the way.

"What's going on?" one of the boys shouted.

The spike whirled through the air, turned and zoomed after the boys once more.

"Run!" screamed the other.

Destan threw the spike after them as they fled, making sure to just miss. He sighed with relief.

"What was that?"

Destan started. He turned to find Elias and Keara both staring at him; Keara with a frown on her face, while Elias' was distorted with anger.

"What do you think you're doing?" Elias repeated.

For a few moments, Destan considered lying. But what was the point? Judging from his face, Elias had obviously seen what had just happened.

"I chased them off," said Destan. "They won't be back."

"You don't know that! They've still got those bloody spikes!"

"They were terrified. They won't..."

"We should've killed them!"

"No!" Destan shouted, just as angry now. "No, we shouldn't! They're people, Elias, kids. Just like us."

"They are nothing like us," Elias hissed, pricking his finger in Destan's chest. "And they are trying to kill us, too. You better decide whose side you're on, outcast."

Elias turned away with a disgusted look on his face and Destan stared a hole in his back as he walked off.

"Come on," said Keara, her voice low. "We have a task to do."

Destan sighed as she, too, walked away. This time, he'd been able to stop people getting hurt. But when it wasn't his own team coming across Inops in the forest, there was nothing he could do. Elias wasn't the only one wanting them dead. Most tribers would've killed these boys, just for sneaking around the forest. They'd eliminate any threat to the tribe. Destan wouldn't be able to save them all.