By the time the sun brushed against the treetops of the Summer forests on its way down over the horizon, my feet ached.

And it wasn't only my feet. My body ached, my head ached, and my heart ached. I was tired. The sort of tired that a nap wasn't going to fix. But we were nearly there, nearly to the hawthorn grove.

Schula continued to make bits of ice in her hands, rubbing them on the back of her neck and occasionally feeding ice chips to Puko. We were otherwise quiet as we made the last leg of our journey, anxiously awaiting a sign of Teyber or Spaulder. What we weren't expecting was to reach the hawthorn grove, only to be met with silence.

My excitement grew as we approached the trees, and Schula reached for my hand as we took our first steps into them. I listened for the signs of other people nearby, and came up empty.

"I don't hear anything," Schula said, having the same idea that I just had.

"Do you remember that sound they made when the scouts were calling to each other in Eidelhein?" I asked. "It was like a whistle."

"Oh, yeah." Schula lifted her face to the treetops, her lips making the 'o' needed for the whistle, and she called out the notes.

Puko joined her, flying down to my shoulder from where he had been keeping pace above us.

Their joined notes ended, as the tune was a short one. Birds startled away, but little else happened. I looked around the grove, taking steps in different directions as I went. 

"I don't even see signs of anything being here since we left it," I said. "But the note said to be here..."

I stopped near the indent that was still disturbed from when Spaulder slept on a large patch of grass. Clear signs of cooking, washing, and sleeping were scattered about, but none of it recent.

"Maybe he had to step away for a while," Schula suggested.

"So we just wait?" I sighed, crossing my arms. "I wanted to get on the hunt for Bara Khalja and DuVarick as soon as we could."

Schula's hands balled into fists at her side. "I know," she seethed. "I want to find them too."

"Caw!" 

I reached up, absently stroking Puko's head feathers.

"I guess we can at least give it the night." I looked up into the first stars of the evening, the sun barely gone from the horizon and its last rays still lingering. "Now that I think I can do something about Bara Khalja if I can only get close enough to touch him, I need to try."

Schula bit her lower lip, sending me a cautious glance. "Tell me exactly what you plan to do with that. I'm worried about you putting yourself in danger."

"We're all in danger if we can't stop them," I argued. "They nearly rolled over Thanantholl, they're fighting in Yusellia now, who's to say they can't turn the whole of the Wyldes into their own domain?"

Schula took a few steps into the clearing, looking around as she thought it out. "Okay," she said quietly. "Let's make a plan together though. I hope we find Teyber soon."

"Yeah," I agreed, taking the bag off my shoulder and letting it sink to the ground. "We can at least make some kind of camp for the night. I'm so tired and I'm starving."

That brought a small smile to her face. "Yeah, I'll get the wood."

And with that, we started to make camp. Puko busied himself swooping around and catching insects overhead. Meanwhile, Schula built a small fire that could cook something without adding excessive heat around us. I pulled out the magic supplies from my bag and debated on what could be useful. Little of it was edible, but I did remove some ash bark from a jar so we could make a simple soup in it.

The sun was well and truly gone and we had built ourselves a comfortable camp, distracting ourselves from our surroundings just enough that we didn't notice the newcomer to the grove.

Schula took a drink from the mushroom and grouse soup we had d pulled together and handed me the jar.

"Thanks," I said, taking my own drink and plucked a little more of the roasted bird from the low embers to add back in. That's how we had to do it since we had no cookpot, we would just add a little more in as we emptied it.

As I took a mouthful of our dinner, Schula froze.

"Did you hear that?" she hissed.

I stopped, setting the jar down slowly near the fire and tilting my head to listen. There was enough noise in any forest to cover quiet footsteps, but what I heard now was the intentional snap of a branch.

Schula and I locked eyes. We could sneak away if they didn't know we were here, but our camp was a dead giveaway that we were still close by. We could fight, which it might come to anyway, or we could test if it was a friend out there in the dark trees before we ran.

I lifted my lips and let out the whistle from before. The simple notes calling out like a bird, though not one from the Wyldes.

My heart hit my chest hard as we listened back. And, after a moment, there it was. An answer in low notes, raising higher at the end.

Schula was on her feet in a blink. I was slower as I had to make sure I wasn't spilling our dinner as I rushed to stand, but we were up and heading to the sound.

"Teyber?" I asked, just loud enough for them to hear.

Movement rustled higher up than I expected, and a branch was pulled back as a lithe figure dropped to the ground gracefully.

"Not quite," said a female voice.

Stepping into the starlight, she was shorter than us but strong from hard training. Her fluid movements and hair pulled back under a green hood were a blast of familiarity, and it took me a second longer to come up with the name than it did my triquetram.

"Li-Liana?" Schlua sputtered.

Liana smirked. "Nice to see you again, ice fae."

She pulled back her hood, giving us a better view of her face. She wasn't as pale as she had been back in Eidelhein, but the month it would have taken to cross the desert would do that if she spent any of her time under the sun. She had a new scar on her hand and her gear was more weathered than it had been before, but it was still, without a doubt, Liana.

Her eyes met mine and her smirk dropped to a more serious expression. "Kalor sends his regards."

My mouth went dry. My father. "He does?"

She snorted. "Of course he does. You changed him, you know."

I frowned. "What does that mean?"

She ignored my question in a very Liana way, and padded silently to our fire. Poking around, she found our dinner and plucked a bit of roast grouse, popping it into her mouth. "Teyber is waiting for you. He wanted to be here himself but we convinced him to get some sleep and let one of us take a turn watching for you."

"We?" I asked. "Wait, we've been here an hour and haven't seen sign of anyone else."

She shrugged, looking away. "Yeah, we were dealing with something. But I'm here now, and I can take you to our hiding spot."

Schula stepped closer to me, running a soothing, cool hand down my arm. "At least we found them," she murmured.

I sighed. "We need to wait for Spaulder, is it far?"

She shook her head. "Not too far, and he'll be able to find you. Don't you have that mind thing?"

"We do," Schula said. "Within a range."

Liana nodded. "We couldn't stay here much, it is still within the Summer territory. We're in that middle bit, the parts that aren't so faetouched."

I blinked. "The unclaimed Wyldes?"

Liana huffed. "Whatever you want to call them I guess. They are no different than where we stand now, just not saturated with Summer magic."

My eyes drifted to the distance where the unclaimed Wyldes started. What did make them so different? The things that were willing to live there, I suppose. The high fae influence certainly made a hostile environment for unseelie creatures. But that wasn't so of the Winter lands, there were plenty of terrible things living there. The flesh hounds...

I shuddered, shoving the thought aside for later.

"Alright," I agreed. "Let's go."

Schula and I paused just long enough to collect our things and put out the fire. Then, with Puko on my shoulder, we followed Liana out of the Summer lands for good. The walk wasn't long but it was unbearably quiet. She went slow, stopping to listen often and checking the stars when there was a break in the canopy.

Finally, she stopped at a tree and ran her fingers over something in the bark that I couldn't see.

"This is it," she said, turning to face us. "Follow me or I'll send down a rope."

"What do you mea- hey!" Schula said. We watched Liana climb the impossibly tall oak tree without any branches to reach for. Up the trunk until she was high in the dark forest of the unclaimed Wyldes that grew so terribly tall.

"Well," I said, "I guess we could follow."

Schula shrugged, and I settled my pack more firmly over my shoulders. I pulled the ring from my pocket and offered it to Puko. "Can you take this up to Teyber? I'm sure he's missed it."

"Caw!" Puko took the prize from my hand and flapped off of me, heading upward into the great dark tree.

Schula and I started our climb, but only a short distance off the ground we were welcomed by a lowering rope with loops knotted into it to grab onto.

"That's better," Schula sighed as she put a foot through one loop and held onto another. I did the same, and soon we were pulled up. I kept one foot free to gently bump us away from the rough bark as we went, trying not to scrape up my skin and clothes. Even reaching the top it was too dark to see, and we had to put our faith in Liana that there would be someplace safe to stand once we reached it.

We neared a cluster of leaves and branches that looked almost, but not quite, natural. There was little to do to avoid it since the rope went through it, but I dodged my head away from it so as not to get the mess caught in my hair. At least, that was my attempt before an arm shot out from it and grabbed the loop my hands were grasping.

I was startled for a moment, but more hands came through to help and pulled away the branches, quickly revealing a very welcome sight.

"Teyber!" I was so happy to see his face again as he helped me and then Schula onto a large branch. Him and his other scouts quickly helped us up and he pulled me into a tight hug.

"Wren, Wren," He almost sang my name. "You are well, I am relieved."

I pulled back, and even in the low starlight I could see his face from this distance. He had grown a bit of facial hair but otherwise looked the same. "I can't believe it, you're in the Wyldes. Why?"

"Shh, not now." He hummed, still holding onto me. "You need a warm meal and a bed, and then we have much to tell from both sides, I think. Where is Nassir and Spaulder?"

"Both are accounted for, though not here right now," Schula said. "You said bed?"

Teyber chuckled, stepping back and gesturing down the branch to where they had tied a good amount of thick branches together, effectively making a platform with space to sleep safely. There were about two dozen of them scattered around the branches in various tied-branch platforms.

"Amazing," I said. "I never would have thought to do this."

He grinned. "Enough praise, let's settle in so we can catch up."

"Right, yes," I agreed, and Teyber showed us to a more comfortable place in the trees.

Finally, some progress. Allies. Real allies with no political agenda in the Wyldes. No courts, no magic.

Just the elven children.