I wake up and stretch my arms, enjoying the sunlight that streams through the cracks of the treehouse. I focus for half a minute to fix my leg, and I’m amazed at how easily it shifts back into healthiness. All that practice shifting into Styx must have paid off -- not that I’m planning on repeating it anytime soon.

Everyone else is already awake and down on the ground, leaving me alone up in the tree. This is the latest and soundest I’ve slept in a while. Dangerous though it is out here in the wilderness surrounded by monsters with only my three friends to depend on, it just feels...right.

I smile contentedly and climb down the ladder.

“Atlas! You finally decided to join the land of the living! Look who showed back up.” Melete says, gesturing with her arm to Sam, perched at the edge of the circle of friends eating breakfast.

“Sam! Good to see you’re all right,” I say.

“You as well,” Sam responds. “I hear you all had quite the adventure, although they refuse to tell me details.”

“We were waiting for you to wake up before we started,” Styx says. “But on that note…”

The next hour is spent regaling Sam with the tale of our adventure in Fort Carscott. Sam makes for a good audience, interested and excited to hear everything we have to say. Although sometimes Sam’s interest is directed in unexpected ways -- it seemed extremely excited at our mention of farming as a method to generate sustenance.

“...and then I stuck him with the stingers, which seemed to work really well. We had tested one of them an hour before, and it seemed to work despite being a few days old. I still stuck him with four of them though, just in case he had a resistance to them. Did you know that his strength was over six hundred?” I ask.

“Really? Wow.” Styx says. “I mean, I knew it was high, but I didn’t think it would be that high...that’s crazy.”

“How did you and Melete get into the camp, Styx?” Atlas asks.

“Pretty easily, actually. Just bluffed our way through. Said we had an important message for Jeremy, and no one wanted to stop us. Everyone knew we had run away yesterday, but they also knew I had been a messenger for Jeremy before we ran...so they were all confused enough to just let us be. No one wants to get on Jeremy’s bad side.”

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I nod. “After that, it was just a matter of Melete using her skill to disrupt their communications and distract Jeremy for me. We were hoping that, with everyone’s radios spewing out painful music, they’d panic and fall back to the school, giving us a free exit. And luckily, it worked!” I smile happily.

“That is interesting,” Sam says. “Your skill is even more powerful than I first thought, Melete. To think that it even causes pain when your voice is artificially reproduced.”

“Yep!” Melete says, extremely self-satisfied.

“Wait,” I say. “That was a possibility?” I laugh nervously before changing the subject. I turn to Pallas. “What happened after they captured you yesterday?”

“Not a lot, actually. Jeremy yelled at me for a bit, using that scary skill of his, asking where you all went. I refused to say anything, so after a while they locked me up in that room. Gave me a bit of water, but no food. I’m guessing he was going to try again after letting me go hungry for a while.”

“But lucky for you, your friends are awesome!” Melete says.

I chuckle. “Yes, lucky for him. “

We were lucky yesterday. Extremely lucky. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, things completely out of our control, but somehow everything worked out.

I know I can’t count on always being this lucky. In the future, we need to be careful. We need to plan. We need to do everything safely, smartly, and slowly.

But for now, I lay back on the grass and enjoy my friends and the sun.

For now, I smile.

----------------------------------------

Two days earlier…

A single Alatir stands in front of a line of Alatir, each of which is over twice the size of the one. There is no noise, for they do not communicate using sound. Their yellow eyes turn back and forth, marking a silent communication.

Diplomat Three dash Two, what is your conclusion?

Their conversation is not made up of words. Rather the message is conveyed via visions, ideas, and impressions directly into the minds of the recipients.

Diplomat Three dash Two, better known to its human companions as Sam, responds.

Potential. The humans may be useful allies. But there are also concerns.

Impressions are sent from Diplomat Three dash Two to the line of Alatir in front of it. Impressions containing its unease upon hearing some of the information the humans provided.

A leg of one of the large Alatir twitches, displaying an unseemly amount of emotion for one of the leaders of New Colony Seven dash Nineteen.

Once Diplomat Three dash Two completes its message, it is excluded as the leaders communicate amongst themselves. Diplomat Three dash Two remains in front of them, not moving as it patiently waits.

An hour passes before it finally receives an answer.

We are intrigued, but we require more information. Bring these humans to us.