"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before the children"

― Kahlil G.

"Whatever did happen to the guards?" she asked, donning a backpack on her shoulders.

"Outside in a pit I dug somewhere." Aidan replied, he was leaning against the windowsill observing at the distance outside.

"Classic." U'tu praised, turning to Lann'a he continued, "It's what the hunter scrolls would have recommended with the kind of terrain surrounding this stronghold."

Raising his shoulder in a lazy shrug. "I wrote it." he said.

"You didn't leave them out there, did you?" said River "They might freeze to death. How deep a hole did you dig down?"

He shrugged, "It won't be long until they manage to get out. By then, we will have gone to the Gatekeeper brothers getting well on our way back to the sun tribe."

River took a quick glance back at Crow, "Aidan, can I have a moment with you?" she said, guiding him by the elbow towards the hallway entrance. Crow followed behind them.

When they got out of reach from prying ears, she whispered to him, "I know about Alli'ona."

Aidan rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, "Alli'ona was a hero. But we rarely.." he cleared his throat, "It was unfortunate. She was responsible in handing over intel under cover knowing that she won't make it back alive. But she never made it to the dropping point. So we didn't know what happened to her."

Crow interjected, cutting him off when he was about to say more. "She was small, much too weak. Barely even a decade old. Her body can't even make it past a day before succumbing to the poison."

"For what it's worth we never sent anyone else to follow after her."

"You knew this. And you still let U'tu come with us?"

He looked affronted, "I'm confident we will make it back. Even if I don't wish to be the sun prince, my abilities far surpass the regular run-of-the-mill warrior."

"Don't you start about that. The point is you sent two children to die in this place."

"I'm not letting U'tu die, River. Not this time. We've made it this far. Don't you trust me?"

"I don't think I want to anymore."

"You don't even know me and you were willing to help. I know that you owe no one anything but you set out to help anyhow. I appreciate that, River. You must know I do. And I'm grateful for it. But I'm gonna have to ask you to trust me again to keep you safe, teh? Trust me to keep everybody safe. Not as their sun prince. But, as Aidan. I want to help them, too. Let me."

"You endangered kids, Aidan. Kids, children, little people who haven't grown up yet. You sent them out here to die. I was willing to risk my safety and my life but that's because I knew full well what I am capable of. But you— you had risked kids who didn't know better. Kids who were trusting in their adults to take care of them but instead you sent them to the slaughterhouse."

"It was a risk I'm willing to take to avoid war. You didn't know how it was back then. Ages ago, this bastard kept distributing poison when the tribes were at the brink of war. We needed to find a way to make him stop. It wasn't our plan but Alli'ona went above and beyond her duty for intel and instead—"

"She trapped me in the north tower stronghold." Crow finished for him. "Sun tribe are known for their traps, aren't they?"

"We are hunters." he said in that arrogant mattter-of-fact way he always does.

"You should take pride in knowing she managed to trap me well enough that I hadn't known it was there until the locks were safe in place. Back then, I didn't think the sun tribe would actually stoop down to sending little people to do their dirty work."

She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Aidan "I thought you didn't know what happened to her when she didn't show up at the dropping point."

"We had a contingency plan in place, in case the mission didn't work out as well as we had hoped. We had thought she died. It took months before we surmised that it wasn't the only situation that had transpired since then. Months before we realize the supply of poison was dwindling down to zero. That's how we knew she must have acted out the contingency plan we set in place. But even then, there was no way in knowing she did it. Our only evidence was the disappearance of the poison supply and that wasn't enough to know for sure."

"She did it." Crow confirmed "Bravely with courage and faith in the sun tribe. She wasn't afraid to die."

"She shouldn't have to die in the first place."

Aidan narrowed his gaze to her, "What do you know about war, River?"

"Only from books. I know enough that suffering doesn't have to be this way. I have trusted you well enough before, but will you trust me to be the behagthi this Great World expects me to?"

"Of course. You have taken us this far."

"Then no children suffers at my watch. We're taking them with us for the healers right now."

"You don't need me for that." Crow said, uncrossing his arms.

"On the contrary, you are exactly what I need." she said gravely. "bird boy"

He scoffed, "What use would you have for my poisons?"

"What you did to the Ensign and his Lady." she pointed, "That wasn't poison. That was something else. Don't think I didn't see."

"My poisons comes in a variety of ways. But that's all there is to it. Poison is poison. I am no healer, nor will I ever endeavor to involve myself in such trivialities. You can't possibly have any need for me."

Aidan growled. "For your crimes?"

"I have repented in that damned tower for ages. I've done my time."

"Bird boy?" she called to him, catching him by the arm "I said what I said. I need you. The kids will need you. The poison won't be purged without your help."

He bared his fangs. "How do you suppose that will happen, starlight?"

She rolled her eyes, "What's a girl gotta do to get a little trust from you?" She reached up to him, both her arms wrapping around his neck as she had done before.

On instinct, Crow caught hold of her in a bridal's carry when she jumped, lifting her up as he had done not so long ago. She grinned when he looked down to her, perplexed. He angled his head towards her when she started reaching further up to him until his mouth was an inch away from hers.

River heard his breath caught, his lashes falling slowly down to close and that's when she knew he was distracted. With her thumb and forefinger, she pinched two pressure points under the chin of his neck, putting much pressure on it as a way to block the air from entering his brain.

Blinking open, he looked to her, stunned speechless. He opened his mouth to speak but no air couldn't enter his lung pipes. In a matter of seconds, his pupils rolled up as he passed out.

She stumbled back down to her feet when an angry hissing sound came crawling up to her in a fit of rage. It was the viper getting into its intimidation stance with its gaping maw and its feather plumage opening in full display.

Thanks to her grandfather's unusual proclivity for befriending a variety of snakes, she had never been easily rattled by them. And yet, she has always been a little wary, not knowing which one to trust. But this one, she thought, I trust this one.

"Aren't you the most handsome thing?" she cooed.

The viper clamped its mouth shout, eyes widening and feathers arching down.

"You can hear me, can't you?" she asked, growing reinforced in her half-assed guess. "Of course you can. I know it. You're the best of the best, no doubt about it."

The kids rounded up, peeking from the hallway entrance after trailing behind the angry viper. The giant snake that would have struck her grandfather with wonderment now had its plumage pushing open, its snout lifting up in a high-handed display.

River began showering it with praises, "I'm just wondering now if you are able to do that thing, again. You know when you and Crow were the same." she said, pushing her two index fingers together.

It hissed as if dismissing her, then, turned around in a single spin before disappearing into a shroud of smoke.

Everybody in the room gasped when the smoke slid over Crow's passed out state. They shimmered as the shroud intensified into a heavy fog, blinding them from view. When the shimmery shroud dwindled down to mist, Crow had disappeared. In his place was the viper preening under the children's startled awe.

"Kids," she addressed the startled crowd even as the viper slithered from her legs to settle around the hips, "We're getting you to the healers. Get packing 'cause we're moving out now."

The kids looked to U'tu then to Lann'a. "We don't have anything to pack save but the clothes on our backs, River." a girl said, "We have extra on the trunks but will we ever need extra clothes to where we're going?"

Where they were headed to, it had a whole place stacked with columns if not rows of clothes. If she had to wrangle it free from Na'reem, she will. His workshop had loads of it.

"We will be hiking outside the city tribe for about half an hour so I would suggest wearing layers for the cold. And fur boots. The snow looks pretty tame when we arrived but it's better if we prepare for the worst."

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They nodded at that and looked to themselves. It was Lann'a that finally pushed them towards their bedroom quarters.

"Meet us in the back garden. We'll be there." Aidan said to the retreating kids. When they were out of earshot, he peered down to her, "How in Brumcia did you know that would even work?"

Her brows raised at him, she shrugged. "I was sensing a theme around here. So far, almost all of the people I've met coming here have responded based on their pride. Plus, it did help that my grandfather befriended loads of snakes growing up. I knew the gist of going about it."

"That is your plan now, is it? Breaking out orphans and abducting a behagthi?!"

She raised a finger with a waggle, "Rescuing a behagthi. He just doesn't know it yet."

A wet chuckle, "I'm pretty sure you gave him back his beastly curse."

At that, the giant wolf passed through the throne room entrance, moving to him and giving him a nudge on his cheek with a wet snout.

Something in Aidan softened at the touch, a tender expression creeping up as he petted the wolf between its eyes. "He says the wildness doesn't burn within him anymore. A startling kind of clarity has awakened in him that the madness doesn't bother as much as it did before. He is.." his breath hitched. "He says he is free of pain."

"Isn't that good?"

Brows lowering, "Do not take this lightly. With two behagthis together to fulfill a single prophecy, we don't know what sort of catastrophes can happen. And we are already balancing the tension of war. We can't have you throwing around assumptions based on what you think. There is a great deal more to this than what you can possibly imagine."

"Who are you to assume that I know so little?"

"I wasn't the one who was throwing around hundreds of questions like some newborn fool."

"You would have, too, if you were thrown into another universe. Look, I really thought I had it in me to follow this vague prophecy with grace but almost all of you barely know anything real about it apart from mythical stories. So yeah, what if I take shots in the dark? Your shaman certainly has taken liberties in his translations. Why can't I do that, too?"

He growled, stepping over her face, showing his oversized fangs. But the threat felt empty, she thought. She has seen this behavior many times before. At times when her co-blogging team were rushing over a looming deadline, the tension of it would have them lounging for each other's necks.

"I know what is at stake, Aidan. I know that chaos and war will happen if the prophecy isn't fulfilled. I also know that so many are suffering right now because of that." she glanced at the empty hallway where the children have disappeared into. "I am scared. All of us are scared. We all want assurances and we all have our doubts. But nothing is gonna change if we don't make a decision right now. I know trusting in an outsider you barely know is hard and oftentimes difficult. You would have cast me out yesterday, and you would have cast me out in that dream. But you stayed with me, didn't you?"

Shaking his head, he spoke with new voice that went octaves lower, "That wasn't a dream."

Suddenly the weight of a viper around her hips felt like bruising stones. The head of Crow's viper form began slithering upwards to rest around her neck and the sudden drop of its temperature told her it was getting ready for a deep sleep. "These are strange times, aren't they? But really, you have to know that I will do my best to keep everyone safe as you are doing with us. You are not alone in this. I'm keeping everyone safe just as you are."

His look to her grew heated. "And what of the sun tribe? You would have them go to war over these children?"

She shook her head. "As far as the Ensign and his lady knows, I'm a liar. They don't know what to make of me and I haven't told them anything. What of you? Did the guards see the wolf?"

He drew back, "Of course not. Those vipers are good as blind in the woods. They would have thought of me as a rogue snow wolf howling and traipsing dangerously near their borders."

"Good. No one in the snow tribe suspects a thing."

"Where are we heading, if not the sun tribe?"

"The gatekeeper brothers first."

He gave a sardonic laugh, "Dark tribespeople won't ever risk their safety for anything. Much less children. I'm afraid appealing to their pride won't work with them."

"Oh, I'm counting on it." she said over her shoulder. "We should better be on our way to the back garden."

The wolf and Aidan flanked on her as they strolled down the hallways, the four moon lamps that used to hover over the Lady and Ensign had switched to lighting their way down the halls. "What have you got in mind?" he said, watching the moon lamps hover close to her.

River glanced at him and then the wolf, "Can we still talk in our minds?"

"I'm afraid not."

"I have a plan." she said to him, "Is it safe to say it out in the open?"

A couple of beats passed, the wolf and him shared similar frowns as though they were both focusing to hear something at an extreme distance "No one resides in the stronghold but the orphans and its Lady and Ensign. No one else. I suspect the other prisoners are joined in the festivities, serving for menial labors that nobody wants to do. It is more likely they were needed for overtime."

"Forced labor, doesn't that seem wrong to you?"

A solemn nod, "It does."

"Has it got something to do with being cut-off from the other tribes?"

"It has everything to do with it. Their resources are limited. Numbers dwindling down from the surge of dream sickness."

"Do you think these suffering in this tribe is worth a madness that can pull a behagthi from another universe?"

He tipped his chin down, "More than enough. Although there is one more thing you need to know."

They stopped short in their path, the moon lamp bouncing off light on his sandy blond hair. "What is it?"

"We are not alone. There are larger powers at work, watching over us. Those gatekeepers are not what they seem."

Raising her brows, "You gonna tell me? Or are you gonna keep on being cryptic about it?" she said, resuming to walk.

"Does this not surprise you? I figured you were taken to them. Na'reem, especially, had received almost all of your smiles."

"Jealous?"

"Observant."

She shrugged, "I know what a performance looks like. When you've had the Internet for as long as I have then you'll know exactly what to look for authenticity. The moment I met them, I knew they were doing their best to hide something and that you knew it, threatened them with it, and that's how you got them to sing their stories."

The corners of his mouth tipped up "I'm not familiar with singing. But my limited experiences tell me that it's to make enough big mouth sounds to imitate a dying whale?"

"Quit with that. It saved your life, didn't it?"

He shuddered "It is a most unholy memory. I can still hear you singing in my head but I guess this is the cost for your gift of healing. Although, I suspect I may not live the rest of my life with a memory like that. It is most.. Unholy."

She growled, stopping him in his tracks "All right. You've said that twice now. Was it really so bad?"

His shoulders bounced as he chuckled, "Yes."

"Are you messing with me?" she drew back, "After the things we've seen and been through?"

The wolf howled a lengthy note of sorrow.

Aidan gave him a sympathetic grin "He doesn't disagree with me."

"Great. After risking so much, this is the thanks I get?"

He leaned in to her, "Our celebrations are regarded to be most sensational, River. And yours will inevitably last for months."

"That's not what I'm— " she trailed off. Steepling her hands together, she rested her forehead on its fingertips.

"I hadn't known behagthis to be religious."

Frustration rumbled behind her throat, eyes closed. "I'm searching for grace at the moment. And I can't find fuck-none of it so let me search in peace."

Another beat passed, he asked "Do you think the kids could be ready for us now? Or would they take a little longer?"

A heavy sigh escaped her lungs, opening her eyes to look up at him with renewed patience. "Aidan, focus. You were telling me—"

He shouted a celebratory whoop at the top of his lungs and it rang at the ends of the hallways.

The wolf relaxed, tongue pulsing out of its mouth as his tail wagged in excitement.

"I'M FREE!" he said, his words echoing. Then turning to the wolf "You're free, too! Fuck, I didn't think I would see the day. I can't even begin to describe how freaking awesome this is. We're free."

With another sigh, she crossed her arms, "How 'bout that?"

Aidan ran both hands through his long hair, pushing it back "I don't believe it. I keep expecting it might come back anytime soon but it doesn't. There isn't an excruciating pain in my body. I'm fucking free."

The wolf yipped in agreement.

"Got that all out of your system now?" said River, before walking down the halls.

He shook in disbelief, stepping forward to walk next to her "You have my apologies. It's hard to focus now that the pain is utterly gone."

"This is your curse? The pain?"

"The excruciating curse was my pain. Its vestiges are lost in me, I'm fully confident it won't be coming back." He said shaking his shoulders loose, bending his neck. It looked like a world of weight was thrown off him.

At that, the wolf began nuzzling River's cheeks, smothering her with his unbridled glee.

"I didn't believe it at first. Yet as more time passed, it became more and more clear that we're free of it."

His smile could literally light up a room, she thought.

"Curses are.." His attention was caught by the wolf whose affections doubled when it switched to him "..exclusive to princes, it's our way of life. It's all I've ever known. Both of us, my wolf and I, have suffered under it for most of our lives."

"There are three other princes in the other tribes. Do I need to break theirs too?"

"Curse-breaking is mostly unheard of. It's surprising, really. Such things are only told from the ancient weavings but they're useless and nobody really bothers anymore with it."

Her shoulders dropped with a sigh, turning to him fully "Tell me more."

"From what the weavers tell, they say behagthis untie the hinges of tribal corruption, lessening it until it can be spun again once more in another millennium. So when the curse comes back for me" he grinned "It's going to take another millennium."

She waved a hand "Say no more. It's noted. Curse-breaking. Not my job. Here's what I know: the snow tribe has the gravity of madness that has pulled two behagthis from another universe and my job is to figure out a way to ease the suffering and corruption. Then I'll be good to go?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it" said Aidan, flinging back her own words at her. "I learned that from you."

"Yes, I'm very glad" Cradling her temples, "You mentioned the gatekeeper brothers, should we be worried?"

His grin faltered to a frown, brows puckering in all seriousness "They're not as good as they seem to be."

"Truly nobody is. Fact of life. Keep going. We need to hurry down. These revelations can come after we're safe."

"What I mean, River." he said, stopping in front of her "It's that they seem good, but they have done a heck ton of horrible plots. If you think my leadership of sending in a young warrior to the snow tribe is at an extreme level, then, they are downright evil. My decision was made for the better good of the entire world but theirs is.. unknown. We cannot leave anything to chance when it comes to them. You should hear the reports I've been getting about them, it's anything but good. I've even loathed the decision to have you meet them but I've had to. Their powers are incredible and I know they have a wealth of resources they can easily provide. Heck, it's basically no skin off their nose if we looted them for supplies. It's something any sensible tribespeople would have wondered at least multiple times in their lives, but they don't actually do it. It cannot be done. The reason why we trust those dark tribe brothers to gatekeep the most dangerous tribe in all of the lands is because they themselves are just as dangerous as this snow tribe. If not, more."

Rivers leaned into him, the four moon lamps at once shone down on their heads, the light glowing brighter on their faces "Ever since I came here tribespeople have been in fear, confused, and downright crippled by doubts. They don't know what to make of me. I swear to God on my second day your father looked about as ready to murder me on the spot." She held both his shoulders, grabbing his attention from getting unfocused "Dangers and evil aren't new to me. It's the story of my life. People I've met and basically each person I know of has a greed inside them that they don't show to anyone under normal circumstances. But they show it to me, do you know why?"

His chest expanded at a sheer scale as though he had been holding his breath for too long, "Why?" he asked, his gaze searching.

"The color of my skin."

Immediately, his hand shot up to her jaw. Tipping her chin up, his thumb skitting across her cheek. "Why," he whispered "It's all the better to touch with."

"The shape of my eyes."

He murmured, the sincerity in his tone laced with reverence."All the better to discover your soul when words are lost."

"And because I'm a girl."

"The better to know the gods have not forsaken us. You are a gift, River. It's wise for your people to know that you are one-of-a-kind and that your natural presence is proof of divinity."

"No, it isn't like that." she chuckled "But I think it's kind of sweet you misunderstood it that way."

His brows furrowed "Do they not know you are behagthi?"

She wasn't anyone back in her world. Her primary job was tech support to a collaborative chef blog which she sometimes help in writing content. But that's about it. Nothing more than that. Nothing like the way Aidan was looking at her like she held the power to make or break a universe. She shook her head, wishing she could dispel his wild notions with words but they didn't have much time for that. Instead, she circled back to her main point. "Aidan, I'm used to being underestimated my whole life and because of that I have seen greed in its various shades of colors from all walks of life. My long experience has afforded me that much of an education about people's desires. So trust me when I say that nothing about the gatekeeper brothers has rubbed me wrong. When people perform — usually in my experience— it means that they are prepared to collaborate by putting their strengths on the table. We just need to find a way to work together, teh?"

He gave a slight smile, "Their strengths are actually bigger than what they are putting out."

"What is it?"

"Me'ren. That insufferable know-it-all. He has eyes for anything that has happened in the past, even the ones that aren't documented by weavers or scrolls."

She drew back, "Sul'ahvi?"

"His eyes extend to the far future. And Na'reem, your favorite brother?" his voice dropped, leaning closer than ever "He can oracle what happens in the present at any given spot across each and every space imaginable. A mighty good chance he is listening to us right now."

She licked her lips "That sounds awesome. Why didn't you say it sooner?"

"It doesn't terrify you? The way that we are at a surveillance by all-seeing eyes. They know of our future, our past, heck the ones we are plotting right now. Nothing goes amiss with them. They know everything."

She rolled her eyes at that "This isn't new to me. Trust me, I have the Internet." She held his wrist when his eyes grew unfocused, "What are the chances their powers are only limited to tribespeople?"

He smirked "You believe yourself exempt?"

"Going by the luck I'm having, I believe it's worth a try. However, it would work so well if we can speak in our minds. Are you willing to merge with the wolf again?"

He grew quiet, his eyes turning fully unfocused. It's a look she has seen on U'tu before. It meant he was having a conversation with the wolf. After a moment has passed, he said "We haven't known that it was even possible to separate like this. That it's possible to lose the excruciating pain of the curse completely."

"Do you wish to stay separate? It's okay if you do. We can find another way."

"No. He's a part of me. As I am of him." Then the wolf dipped his head and turned into a shroud of smoke in the flash of a second, blowing past Aidan and disappearing into him.

River smiled at the rare sight she was seeing, "Well, he has got a lot of speed. I'll tell you that."

He flashed a proud grin. "You haven't seen nothing yet." On the balls of his feet, he began to bounce. Then jumped high into the tall grey ceilings of the stronghold. The morphing from human to wolf was nearly imperceptible by visible eyes. If she had so much as blinked then she won't have tracked the movement with her own eyes.

As he landed on the grand with practiced grace, he was wolf once again.

She returned his excitement, "I'd bet on that."

Interesting.

"What?"

I'd have thought you'd be more surprised.

"Aren't you?"

The wolf tipped its head down. Yes. Infinitely more surprised than I've ever been. The pain is gone. It's easier to sense everything else. Easy to get distracted. He drew close, inhaling her scent deep. It's the best feeling ever.

"Well, don't get carried away" she tutted, "We got a problem coming up ahead of us."

He sniffed, then strolled steps ahead of her. Can't a wolf stop and smell the roses once in a while?