Tara and Allayria stumble between them, shunting both men back onto the grass, but Hiran is laughing, which only seems to make the splotchy-red on Lei's face darken.

"You idiot," he spits, shoulders shoving against Allayria's weight.

"No, no, it's okay," Hiran is saying, holding his hands up to Tara. "I deserved it. You can let me up, Tar, it's fine."

She looks doubtful, and Allayria throws her weight against Lei, sending him sprawling back on the ground.

"Get off me," he snaps, struggling. "Get off me right now, Allayria, I swear to the Gods—"

"Calm down, it's fine," she pants, already feeling the bruises form on her side. He's inadvertently hitting them as he struggles beneath her and she's considering a well-placed head butt to get him to knock it off. "Everyone's fine."

"He could have killed you—"

"And he didn't, thanks to your quick thinking," she says, and then she drops her voice and adds: "You haven't failed your 'direct imperative' yet, so cool it, Captain. Tara's not throwing punches because Hiran almost died."

The prod seems to bring him to his senses; he stops fighting her, though he's still taut like a bow. Allayria rolls off him and he sits up, still glaring over at the other Nature-caller.

"Mea culpa," Hiran says with an incline of his head. "My deepest apologies, Allayria."

"Don't worry about it," she says briskly, climbing to her feet with a grimace. "We knew there was a chance that would happen. And we all got out okay."

"Round two, then?" Tara asks, her gaze still locked on Lei.

"Certainly," Allayria answers. "Maybe we should rethink our approach though. I don't fancy a second jungle swing."

"Oh, that's not going to happen," Hiran interjects and he gestures for them to follow him. "You did all the heavy lifting; it's only fair that I take on the retrieval work for the next one. I wouldn't want this to be an unequal partnership."

You mean you wouldn't want Lei and I to have possession of both items, Allayria thinks shrewdly, sparing a half glance at the statue held firmly in Lei's hand. Any worries she had that he might nobly, stupidly hand it over before their statue was retrieved are long gone now.

Hiran leads them to the next outcrop and out in the center Allayria spies their periwinkle-colored haunting pillar, in all its miniature glory. Feeling that she will be happy if this is the last time she ever sees one of these things again, she plops down on the ground and stretches her legs out.

"So, what are our brilliant ideas this time?" she asks.

She hears a thud next to her and turns to see that Tara has followed her lead.

"That vine trick did the job pretty well," the Beast-caller says, pulling her right foot close so she can massage the arch of it. "Maybe we don't need to get the person in the range of fire—if we can get close enough but still outside of the firing range we can trip the system and then pull it out with the vine."

"Can't we just knock the thing off?" Lei asks pointedly, but Hiran shakes his head.

"Already tried that," he informs them. "The distance between here and the pillar is too great: a boulder shoots up on the opposite side and contains it."

"What if the bird got it?" Allayria asks. "We three will send in attacks from three directions, feint like we're going to grab it, and your bird swoops in from the top, snatching it while the boulders are busy with us."

"She can do that," Tara answers, glancing up at the circling hawk.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Hiran says, striding over to the edge of the cliff and glancing down. "What is our backup plan if the mountain decides to quake again?"

"The only two who need to be on the mountainside are the Nature Skillers who send rocks on the left and the right," Allayria replies, pointing to either side of the column. "Whoever's in the middle can stay up here with the vine and help the others if need be."

"Well, I'll take the left," Hiran says cheerfully, walking over to that side.

"I'm taking the right," Lei insists, throwing Allayria a look that indicates there will be no arguments.

"If I fall, you'll catch me gently, won't you?" Hiran asks her, his smile wide.

"As gently as you caught me," she drawls.

They all stand and Allayria uncoils her rope as the two men climb down on either side of her. Both build a platform of melded rock and stone out on either side of the pillar; if a quake shatters their makeshift bridges there will be nothing holding them up.

She glances back at Tara whose brown eyes slide shut. The bird above them dips down for a moment and then hovers, claws poised. Tara nods.

"Now!" Allayria shouts and two chunks of rock pelt toward the platform as her vine snaps out. The earth below explodes as a boulder rushes up; it splinters her vine as the golden hawk dips down below it, diving, and then swooping up, a glint of pale purple shining between its talons.

She and Tara cheer, and Allayria splits her vine, giving a portion to Tara to help retrieve Hiran and using the other portion to pull up Lei. She catches a glimpse of the bird dropping their item into Tara's palm as she heaves Lei over the side.

"They've got it," he pants as he climbs to his feet.

"You've got theirs?"

He turns his hand so she catches the glint of gold between his fingers.

The two pairs turn to face each other and a chill falls across them. All eyes are on the items, and hands drift casually past belts.

"Time to trade," Hiran says, his tone straining to be light. "We'll put yours down here; you put ours down there. We'll swap sides and each go on our merry way. What do you say?"

Allayria shifts on her feet, watching the periwinkle statue out of the corner of her eye.

"Alright," she says after a moment. "At the same time."

They stare at one another, but then Tara and Lei slowly crouch down, setting the statues down on the ground. The pairs cross paths and relief courses through Allayria as her fingers snatch up the statue. She turns to see Hiran tossing theirs up and down in hand, the previous tension in his face erased.

"Well, this has been fun," he says. "I suppose we will be seeing you around then."

"Yeah," Allaryia answers, sliding the haunting pillar into her pocket. "See you around."

Her legs are like butter by the time she and Lei get down and they give the pillars a wide berth as they move back to the forest line.

She has a momentary wonder at where their teammate ran off to when, as if in answer, a dull crash rings out and a mess of twigs and limbs tumbles from a nearby tree.

"You almost died," he says to her, his gaze latching onto her. Leaves and bark and bits of underbrush are tangled up in his hair and garments as he straightens up. "I tried to talk to Durai's beetles about helping you, but the ones left were pretty loyal to him."

"Durai," Lei says sharply and both he and Allayria glance around. "What ever happened to him, Finn?"

"Oh, he ran into a tree when the earthquake hit," Finn answers. "I think he broke his nose—there was blood everywhere. He started weaving in that direction." He points to their right along the cliff line.

"Let's weave in the opposite direction, then," Allayria answers. "Which way is the lake?"

A/N: It's a double-chapter kind of week. Happy New Year, everyone!