Will took the map and spread it against the ground. It was bigger than he thought, so he took a couple heavier rocks and placed them on the corners to help keep it flat. It was a strange-looking map. It was only black and white and looked like it had been drawn with some sort of black ink pen.

“Here, this is us.” Ezra dropped his finger just slightly to the side of a small town clearly marked as Bezda. “And it looks like we’re going… there.” He slid his finger to tap against a small opening between several tall cliffs. It had been marked with an x. Ezra shook his head.

“That’s not good,” Bet said. “We can’t get down Scraper Canyon. It’s too steep. We’ll have to go towards it before the rocks have raised too high.”

“And that means we’ll have to go through the cave,” Ezra stared at the map, as if thinking hard.

“Can we do that?” Will said.

“We will. We have to.” Ezra stood back up and looked around the woods. Evening was creeping in, and the mossy trees had begun to release their soft splashes of color. It was muted, but still very visible. “At this point, though, we need to get supplies for the night. The old man was right. It’s not that far away, and we’ll need to get rested.”

“How do we prep?” Bet said.

“You two,” Ezra said, “send out Swoop and Pexel to get them fed. Take a bit of time an gather firewood. Tenebrim and I will go and hunt us some food. I had hoped to eat in Bezda, but now that’s impossible. At least Tenebrim’s back. He can fix that problem.”

Will looked at the blue mantis. It was bobbing it’s head as if pleased with itself.

“Tonight, we need to talk. No more secrets. We need to know everything we have available to make the trip. The old man said this would be dangerous, and I think I believe him.”

Several hours later it was dark. The three of them sat around a crackling fire as they cooked several rabbits that Ezra and Tenebrim had caught earlier. It made Will sad to think of eating them, but he didn’t really have a choice, and also, he was starving. Swoop and Pexel had both taken a bit of time to gather their own food, and now they had returned. Pexel lay curled in a silver ball on top of Bet’s bag, and Swoop was back at her favorite place against Will’s shoulder.

Awkwardness began to build as they waited for their meal to cook, and Will knew that Ezra was soon going to ask him about the pills. But when Ezra finally spoke, the topic was something entirely unrelated.

“You know why we don’t like Darkhands?” Ezra stared into the dancing fire. Bet lowered her head as soon as Ezra brought it up. Will waited a moment then said no as if he were somehow ashamed.

“They took our parents,” he said. “It’s been about a year now. They were charged with breaking the law, but they were innocent. Still… it didn’t matter.” Ezra took a long stick and poked at the fire’s blackened ashes. As soon as he did so, the embers flared up and jumped angrily.

Why were Bet and Ezra’s parents taken?

They had stolen money

They were breeding Links illegally

They had organized an uprising against the Emperor

This Poll is Closed