Everyone said their goodbyes as they walked out of the front door. “So, how long did it take you guys to get here?” Kendall asked as they walked down the long road away from their house.

“It took us a week to get from school to here but that included a run-in with a big rock beast monster thing and then a Wind Spirit as well.” Parker and Alexis led the group so he spoke up to make sure they could hear him from behind. Caleb, Hailee, and Kendall walked in unison with each other a few feet behind.

Kendall’s eyes opened wide. “What was it like to run into those things?”

Alexis turned around to look at her. “The rock thing was pretty terrifying. We just ran away as quickly as possible.”

“As for Ava,” Hailee cut in. “She was scary at first just because we didn’t understand her but then we got to know her on our travels a bit and she turned out to be awesome.” Hailee started to look around in hopes of catching Ava somewhere off in the distance.

It didn’t take overly long for them to reach the part of their journey where there was nothing but trees and mountains around them along with absolutely no other people. Once they’d made it that far, Kendall started to ask them all sorts of questions about their Imperials and what happened between them and Lara.

They traveled a large distance quickly using their Space Imperial and being distracted by conversation with Kendall. About halfway through their journey back they had to go through a small forest. On their way through it the first time, they blew through it as fast as they could using their Space Imperials. However, on their way back once they reached the forest they decided to take a break and rest some.

The sun was beginning to set as they made camp on their second night of the trip. The first night had gone smoothly enough but the second night was hundreds of times more beautiful. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. They could see the stars shine through the gaps in the trees as they laid out on the grass in their sleeping bags.

Everyone talked for a while, either as a whole group or just one-on-one. At one point, Kendall leaned over and asked Parker if he and Alexis were boyfriend and girlfriend. He couldn’t think of anything to say back so he just blushed and then changed the subject. Luckily for him it was dark out so she couldn’t see him blush.

Parker agreed to take first watch for the night again while everyone else got some shuteye. He wasn’t the biggest fan of staying awake by himself but he also figured that if he tried the other shifts, he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep afterwards.

He sat on a small seat that he created using his Earth Imperial and stared up into the night sky. Everyone else had been asleep for a little while when Parker noticed that they weren’t alone. It became slowly apparent that there were all sorts of animals in the forest as well. He started to hear all kinds of noises from animals scrambling around the tree branches to owls hooting to crickets chirping.

It was getting to the end of his shift and a small critter ran up beside him. At first it made him jump because it seemed to come out of nowhere but then he was intrigued. Most little critters steer clear of people but this one seemed just as intrigued by him. Parker supposed that they probably didn’t receive too many visitors all the way out here.

The creature crawled into the firelight and Parker jumped to his feet with his heart racing. He’d never seen something like this before. Standing in front of him, only a few inches tall, was a squirrel, but it had the face of an otter with really big eyes. Parker stared at it, waiting to see what it would do. After staring into each other’s eyes for several minutes the critter ran at Parker.

Parker quickly stutter-stepped backwards tripping over the root of a tree and falling to the ground. The animal climbed onto his chest and just continued to stare at him. The face looking down at Parker didn’t make sense. How could a squirrel, not have the face of a squirrel? How had he never heard of this animal before?

“Parker…?” he heard Alexis mumble. “What are you doing?” Parker figured the impact of him hitting the ground must’ve woken her up. He could hear her breath quicken. “What is that?” she asked pointing at the critter.

Parker wanted to answer her but he couldn’t. He didn’t know what it was. “I don’t know…” he whispered, afraid that him talking may upset the critter. It wasn’t big, couldn’t have been more than eight inches tall, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t vicious.

“Where did it come from?” she whispered, thinking the same thing. She got up to try and get a better look at it. The critter didn’t even give her the slightest glance as she moved. When she made it to a spot where the firelight lit up the animal’s face, she almost squealed. “It’s so cute!”

The tiny little critter balled itself up on Parker’s chest like it was ready to sleep. Parker wanted to get up but didn’t know what the little thing would do if he did. After several minutes of lying still, it was obvious that the animal had gone to sleep so Parker slowly started to move. He put his hand under the squirrel creature to support it as he got up.

Parker walked over to Alexis to show her the little critter that was now sleeping in his hands. “It’s adorable!” Alexis squealed. “What is it?” Parker shook his head with no idea what the thing was. It looked like a squirrel, but he knew it wasn’t an ordinary squirrel. “We should name it,” she said with a big smile on her face.

“What do you want to name it?” Parker asked.

“I say we call it Monty.”

Parker laughed. “Then Monty it is!” He walked to his sleeping bag and crawled in with Monty still in his hand. Once he was fully in his bag, he laid the new little critter on his chest. His eyes started to close and he couldn’t help but think about how with all of the action, it didn’t phase the little critter that continued to sleep in a little ball.

The sun shined through the trees onto Parker’s face waking him from a great night’s sleep. Alexis told him not to move as she saw him wake up. His heart started to race as he was still waking up. “Why can’t I move?” he asked.

“Monty is still sleeping on your chest.” Parker peered down at his chest and Monty was still curled up in a little ball, passed out, oblivious to everything around it.

Parker slowly sat up, supporting the little critter as he did so. Apparently the night before it had been much more tired as it woke up this time. It looked around groggily and Parker figured that it would scamper off at this point but it remained in his hands.

After looking around for a couple moments, it climbed Parker’s arm and sat on his shoulder. Everyone else had been up for a little bit and took the time to observe the new critter as it slept. Now they watched to see what it would do and for the most part it seemed to be really nice.

“So, do we try to leave it here? Or do we take it with us?” Hailee asked.

“I say we take it,” Kendall chirped.

Caleb looked at it questioningly. “I mean… it seems friendly enough. Let’s just keep a close eye on it.” Monty seemed to smile as Caleb said they’d keep it.

They packed up their camp and made haste on their way back. Traveling through separates spaces and using the wind to boost their speed as much as possible. Kendall was amazed every time they did it and never grew tired of it. The others were starting to get tired from having to do it but talked about how thankful they were to have the option and not have to simply walk at a normal speed.

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Night came quickly as they were getting close to the base of the mountain. They had passed through the small town where they met Ava and no one said it, but they all hoped to run into her again. They set up camp again under some tree coverage. If it were up to Parker, he’d set up camp out in the wide open so he could stare up at the stars. It made him feel like he was back at school on the roof looking at the stars with Alexis.

He still couldn’t believe that Kendall had picked out that they liked each other so quickly. They hadn’t even done anything like hold hands or hug or kiss. Nothing. But somehow, she was able to guess right. Parker wondered if she knew about Caleb and Hailee also.

Parker again volunteered for the first shift except this time he had a little bit of company in his new little friend. Monty had ridden the entire way on his shoulder. Whenever they used the wind to boost their speed Parker would hold onto him to make sure he didn’t accidentally fly off of his shoulder.

Once everyone had fallen asleep Parker started to play with Monty. “You’re pretty smart aren’t you?” Parker asked in a hushed voice. Monty looked at him and Parker could’ve sworn that he nodded but then he started to run in circles and then sprinted out into the trees.

Parker stared into the dark in hopes of being able to see him. He stood up and looked across the fire into the brush on the other side and he could see two little eyes staring back at him. They seemed to glow red but Parker figured that was just the fire reflecting in his eyes.

The head attached to the eyes popped through the brush and Parker realized that it wasn’t Monty. The head looked like that of a small fox with large pointy ears. Ear so large that they didn’t look like they belonged on such a small head. After a second of it staring at him through the fire, the rest of his body came through and it looked just like Monty, with the exception of its face.

The next moment, Monty reappeared and ran up onto Parker’s shoulder. Monty stared at the new critter that appeared from the bushes and started making small, squeaking noises. Parker turned to look at Monty and Monty started to pull on his shirt collar. “What’s wrong?” Parker asked and then realized that Monty was a small animal and wouldn’t be able to respond to his question.

Before Parker could react the new critter darted at him from the bushes and started biting at his ankles. Parker started to scream; waking everyone up in a panic. The animal ran up his backside and started to attack Monty before anyone could figure out what was happening.

Caleb reacted quickly and formed a ball of air around each of the critters keeping them from one another. Parker stared at Monty in astonishment. He hadn’t seen him act like that since they’d met but then he remember that even though Monty was cute and cuddly, he was still a wild animal.

Alexis took a closer step to the new animal that was stuck floating in the air. It was making rabid growling and hissing noises as it scratched at the air around it. “What is this thing?”

Hailee stepped closer to get a better look as well. At first, she cringed at the noises it was making and how evil the look in its eyes was but then she looked at the animal as a whole. “If you get passed the noises and viciousness that it’s showing, it’s actually kind of cute.”

“You would say that,” Caleb stated. “Cute doesn’t mean nice.”

“It is cute!” Kendall shouted as she peered at its face.

“What about Monty?” Alexis countered.

Parker laughed as Alexis put her hands on her hips as though she were already victorious. “Well, I guess we just got lucky with Monty. Who even knows if the rest of his species are like him? He could just be unique.” Parker felt bad shutting down Alexis’s theory but he also didn’t want them to let their guard down.

Caleb walked off through the trees to let the mean animal go somewhere far enough away from them. Monty remained with the group and looked highly relieved that this new threat was gone, hopefully for good.

The rest of the night flew by and the sun was in the sky before they knew it. Everyone packed up and started moving again. “This should be it. The mountain is just ahead and then from there it shouldn’t take long.” Parker walked them through what he thought they needed to do in order to make it back as quickly as possible.

“Don’t forget the rock beast thing,” Alexis reminded.

Everyone moaned. “Oh… I forgot about that thing…” Hailee complained. “Do we just try to blow passed it in our Space Imperial?”

“That’s a good idea,” Caleb said. “If we do that, it shouldn’t be able to do anything to us right?”

Everyone looked at Caleb with a hopeful look in their eyes. “Only one way to find out…” Parker responded.

They arrived a few hundred feet from the base of the mountain where they could see the “Danger, Falling Rocks” sign.

“Hey… didn’t that get crushed before?” Alexis asked pointing at the sign.

Everyone agreed that it had and made sure that they were paying close attention to their surroundings to see if the thing appeared again. They heard a loud rumbling sound and the ground started to shake. Before the thing could throw rocks at them, they quickly disappeared into Parker’s Space Imperial.

As they started to move to the mountain and make their way to the top, Parker could’ve sworn that he saw something. “That’s impossible…” he muttered to himself.

“What?” Caleb asked.

Parker glanced at him. “I thought I saw something, but I’m not strong enough to do that yet. I can’t see other things in my Space Imperial. Only Lara is strong enough to do that…” Parker started to panic at the thought that Lara was near, even though he’d told her that he would do what he could to help her.

“You don’t think…” Caleb whispered. “You don’t think she’s here do you?” He glanced over at Hailee who was none the wiser.

Parker shook his head. “Must’ve just been a trick of the light. No way she knows we’re even out here.” He may have said it, but he didn’t believe it for a second. He didn’t know how, but it seemed like Lara always knew where they were, no matter what.

After making it a little ways up from the base of the mountain, Parker let go of his Space Imperial. The sun shined through the tops of the trees and Parker thought he saw the glimpse of something again.

Alexis saw the fear fill his eyes, even though it was only for the briefest of moments. “What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.

“Nothing…” Parker mumbled without making eye contact.

A moment later, the trees above them started to rustle. Everyone looked up as a few leaves fell to the ground. Parker caught a glimpse of something shiny coming from in the tree that made him feel uneasy. “What’s that…?” he said pointed to where he saw something.

Everyone squinted into the trees to see if they could see what he was pointing at. After several moments, Caleb said, “I think it’s a hawk. I can see beady black eyes and a sharp beak, but something feels off.” As he said it, there was a loud, awful sound that rang out from the trees.

Parker thought it sounded like a Howler Monkey. Whatever made the sound lowered itself from a branch. It had the body of a sloth with stringy brown hair and long arms with huge fingernail, claw things. They didn’t think much of that but then when it got below the leaves, they saw its face; the face of a hawk.

“What is that?” Kendall said with disgust.

“Don’t move,” Caleb insisted. “Who knows what it might do?”

The creature dropped from the tree and ran around like a monkey. It stuck its head into a bush, grabbed something that must’ve been something to eat and then disappeared into the canopy.

Everyone stared back and forth for several minutes before saying anything. They would glance at each other and then back where the thing disappeared.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour Parker said, “I say we just ignore that and move on.” Everyone agreed and started to walk again.

“So… I know we’re close and all,” Hailee started to say. “But, do you think we could stay out one more day?”

Everyone stared at her questioningly. “Why?” Alexis asked.

“Who knows when we’ll get to leave again? And I don’t mean to say that I don’t love it there but it’s nice to get out for a change.”

“I mean, I’m ready to go back. Sleep in my own bed…” Parker got a dreamy look on his face as he talked about his bed.

“Just one more night? Please…?” Hailee begged.

They talked it over for a bit but came to the decision to spend one more night before going back to the school. They made camp near the end of the trees at the top of the mountain. They couldn’t quite see the school from where they were but they could hear the waterfall from just over the peak.

Parker made a fire while everyone else cleared the area of sticks and rocks and anything else that would hurt to lie on when they went to sleep. Monty stayed attached to Parker at the shoulder.

Once everyone was asleep, Parker created a nice little recliner-type chair using his Earth Imperial. He sat, leaning back, staring up at the sky. Monty curled up on his chest and went to sleep. The crackling of the fire was something that Parker would miss when he got back to school. Their fireplace in The House of Erion was nice, but it just wasn’t the same.

It was nearing the end of his watch shift when Monty bolted upright on Parker’s chest and looked around panicked. He started to make small squeaking sounds and tugging on Parker’s shirt again.

Remembering last time, Parker looked around to see if there were anymore of those evil little things that attacked them around. He didn’t see anything, but after a moment, he heard a rustling in the bushes to his right. Before he could do anything, something hard hit him in the head and he blacked out.