With the assurance of safety from Legre attacks we settled in a little cave not far north of where we met, close to a long ridge that sloped all the way down for hundreds of feets. We could see a distant plane further north of us which Steven told us was the Tibetan plateau; beyond that laid our destination.

It was about the fourth day in and we hadn’t gotten any news yet. The initial excitement for getting our friends back had subsided and I knew Steven was getting a little restless about the situation; he wanted to move on and move away from the danger zone. He didn’t fully believe that we were safe where we were. Au contrary Jeremy and Kailey seemed to be more back to their own selves; it was great to see them so relaxed again.

I was standing at the edge of the cliff on the fifth morning, facing the rising sun when a wolf cry sounded, causing my head to snapped back towards the source of the noise. My heart lurched in my chest as I took in the form of a Lupa approaching and I immediately went up to meet it.

The Lupa eyed me wearily as I got closer and I turned around to see the rest of my team had all stopped whatever they were doing and were closing in on us, anticipation in their face. I held a hand up signaling for them to stop getting closer, it was definitely not feeling comfortable coming into a group of humans.

Hi. I started with a greeting, bending down so I was at eye-level with it. It still startle me a little to see the level of intelligence in these Legres’ eyes. The Lupa just narrowed its eyes at me and I waited for a respond but a few awkward seconds past without any form of communication.

We have news. The wolf finally opened up, and my mind perked up and waited for the big news. We found one of the men nearby. He then projected the face of Vladimir and my heart both leaped and dropped. It wasn’t one of those from POE Academy, but on the other hand it was an important person to Emily and I was glad that the guy who had decided to stay behind to save us is still alive. But this also begs to question, what happened to John and Ho?

Where is he now? I followed up immediately and the wolf indicated that he was only about fifty miles away from us, but not in very good shape at all. For a moment I thought about asking the Legres to help us get him here but I knew it would only end with a fight between the two. We had to go and find him before he dies from his wounds.

“It’s Vladimir, they found him.” I turned around with a solemn face. Emily’s face lit up but her smile quickly froze as she took in my expression. “He is about fifty km east from us and he is gravely injured.”

“What are we waiting for? Lets’ go and find him!” Emily exclaimed and started to run, but froze quickly when she realised none of us was moving. The rest of us looked at each other, a look of uncertainty crossing our faces before returning to the running figure of Emily. She stopped abruptly as she realized none of us had moved, or maybe she had cooled down a little from the initial rush.

“Fifty km.” Steven repeated quietly, his expression told us that he was contemplating about the decision; and it didn’t look quite good at the moment.

“Are you serious?” Emily turned and faced us, lethal glares aiming at us. My heart contracted at her stare and I knew in my heart that the right thing to do was to go and save Vladimir.

“We owe it to him.” I said, surprising everyone and Emily shot me a surprised look. I could hear Tom sighed and stepping next to me.

“They are right.” Tom said, then looking at the increasingly constipated expression on Steven’s face. “I am not saying that it wouldn’t be dangerous, but we could easily make fifty km with the Lupa’s help.”

The expressions lightened up as if a light bulb had gone on inside their brain. We didn’t have to hide around Legres, the only thing we had to worry about was running into other POEs and the Lupa would know their whereabouts.

That’s not all. The Lupa’s thoughts pulled me back to it and I turned around, shocked. My heart lurched and I thought about the possibility of getting all my friends back. The excitement was excruciating and I waited for the Legre to elaborate.

There was a large group of those people dressed in black, with a few people you mentioned. The Lupa said, and the faces of Evanna, Owen and Holly flashed through my mind and I felt like I was dropping from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds. A pair of hands caught me before I collapse on the ground.  The implication was clear; they were captured. I didn’t know whether I should thank them for being alive or scared about the others.

“What is it?” Tom asked, shaking me gently as if he was afraid that I would break if he shook any harder.

“Evanna… Owen and Holly.” I tried not to choke as I coaxed out the words, all the caution of using our alias out of the window. “They have been captured.”

“mon Dieu.” Tom said, before engulfing me into a big hug and rubbed my back. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. I am not the kind of girl that breaks down, I just am not. Holding onto that I took another deep breath, however much I wanted to rescue them, I knew it was a stupid idea. I could only pray in my heart that the other escaped and no one had died. And that they would be okay. I mean, they have kept them alive so far, right?

The rest of the group was silent, obviously feeling the grief and completely cluelessness to what we were talking about. I was sure by now that most of them had realized Tom and I had some kind of history together before this.

“You okay?” Kailey approached me slowly after the two of us got up and I blinked back the tears. She put a hand on the small of my back comfortingly and I fought the fresh onslaught of tears that was threatening to break loose.

“Yes.” I said, sounding more composed than I felt. Amelia and Jeremy were eyeing me uncertainly as well and I tried to give them a reassuring smile. “So shall we set off to find Vladimir?”

The others continued to look at me carefully and Steven stepped forward. “If we do this,” He said, turning to look at each of us in turn with the most serious face I had ever seen. “We go right away after we find him. No more saving others, we have lost enough time as it is.”

I breathed in deeply, telling myself that it was okay; this was an unexpected opportunity that may not even have occurred anyway. We were lucky enough that we found Vladimir in time.

“Let’s do it.” I said, trying to push all my negative thoughts away and just focus on what’s happening right now. I looked down and reached out for Tom’s hand, clutching it tightly seeking that reassurance. He squeezed my hand in return and I felt marginally better.

After a series of heated arguments it was decided that Kailey and Jeremy will stay put whilst the rest of us will go back and get Vladimir. Steven wanted Tom to stay too, but he wouldn’t have any of it and the pressure from our intertwined hand told me that he was close to boiling point over it. Luckily Steven relent and it was Emily, Amanda, Steven, Tom and I going back to get him.

It would probably be a long trip, not one that can be made in less than two days but we were confident that with Emily’s power and the Lupa’s help we could get there fairly quickly. The physiques of POEs tend to be better than normal human and if we put our mind to it walking six or seven kilometer an hour for an extended period is not an issue. We should be able to get to him before night fall; the only problem would be how to get him back safely. Amanda was coming with us to help stablise Vladimir’s conditions. With Emily’s power over the plants the two of them might be able to save Valdimir. I just hoped that we won’t be too late.

It was a strange feeling to be going through the forest without projecting my mind everywhere to detect for signs of Legres and actually finding reassurance when I do. Members of the pack came and go as we hurdled through the forest, letting me knew where is safe and what to avoid. We were making such good progress that by the time we stop for a break we had already covered over a third of the journey.

“We will get there in time.” I said, tentatively putting a hand on Emily’s shoulder to comfort her. If my relationship with Tom seemed strange to the others, I think Emily’s with Vladmir’s were equally as unexpected. The two of them seemed to have some kind of thing going on that we never saw in the group before the final split. I mean, Emily practically flirted with everybody and whilst Vladimir did seemed rather tolerant of her in the group and I do see the two of them together from time to time, she was equally that way with John and often teased Jeremy.

Emily gave me a mixed look that seemed to convey some emotion that I didn’t understand; but one thing I did understood is that she didn’t seemed to dislike me anymore, but she didn’t seemed to like that either.

When I didn’t get a respond out of her I backed down towards Tom and sat down next to him, trying to relax my muscle and regain my strength as quickly as possible. I cared about finding Vladimir before he died just as much and I would hate to see the valiant guy die alone in the woods without help.

Tom and Amanda, who had no idea of what Vladimir and Emily’s relationship was like seemed genuinely touched by Emily’s eagerness to find him. The later was consoling her at the side and whilst felt form Emily too, I couldn’t help but be a little suspicious. Although I knew that everyone had their secret, just like Tom and I.

The next lag of the journey was even more solemn. The pressure was building with every second that pass. We all knew that conditions Vladimir in and one second delay could mean life or death.

We somehow managed to make another twenty mile before stopping for a break; every moment that past seemed to send a wave of guilt and urgency through my body and I could only imagine how Emily felt. Even Steven was looking more tense than usual and ushered us on as soon as our breathing because less erratic, and we didn’t need any pushing to press on.

The last hundred meters was a torture. I could literally feel the tension and fear coming off Emily and I was too afraid to try sensing if he was alive. What if he was but when we got there it was too late? It would crush Emily.

The moment we entered the cave I sighed in relief; Vladimir was still visibly breathing, his face pale and covered in sweats, painful gasps escaping from his lips every now and then. Steven bended down to feed him a tablet and Amanda and Emily immediately collapsed next to him and began assessing the damage. I bit my lips as I watched the two of them frantically passing medical supplies and trying to deal with the staggering amount of injuries on his body.

For the next thirty minutes the rest of us stood in the background in silent, hovering above watching Amanda and Emily trying to patch up Vladimir. The man in question was still unconscious and if he wasn’t letting out some gasps whenever one of the girls touched a particularly painful wound I would be scared that he died.

“Don’t worry, he is a strong kid.” Steven said, a hint of worry in his voice. I turned up and saw he was no longer frowning.

“What was it that you gave him?” I asked, my curiosity rose once I finally realised that Vladimir was no longer in danger of dropping dead any second.

“A pill for the pain and adrenaline.” He replied, answer short as ever. “It will keep him alive, but he still needed to get thoroughly checked once we get out of here.”

I nodded; amazed that Steven was actually capable of speaking long sentences. After what seemed like another hour the two girls finally stopped fussing and stood up. Amelia concentrated some water from the atmosphere moisture so Emily and she can wash their hands.

“He will be fine.” Amelia said, and Emily actually managed to coaxes out a smile. I sighed in relief but knew that our predicament was far from over.

“How are we going to move him back?” Tom voiced out the big question on everyone’s mind. It was obvious that Vladimir would be in no shape at all to carry himself and moving him across fifty km did not sound as though it would do any good to his already life-threatening injuries. And even after we get him back to our makeshift base, who was to say how long it would take him to recover enough for us to continue the journey.

I could tell the same questions were echoing in Steven’s mind as he struggled between a deciding what was right and what was necessary. I knew that he felt like the more time we waste, the more likely we would be discovered by our enemies.

“We will take it one step at a time.” Tom assured everyone and I looked up and smiled at him. He had this way about him that seemed to make everything seems okay. After discussion over our options for methods to carry Vladimir back, Emily began to work on a make-shift stretcher by making a mat weaved out of grass and attaching them with two logs.

 “We would have to spend the night here.” I said, looking out at the completely darkened sky. Even with the Lupa on our side a night forest is not something that we should venture into with an injured person.

Now that we were with Vladimir Emily was a lot more relaxed and she nodded in agreement, but before anyone else had the chance to say something, a Lupa appeared at the cave entrance and I could tell something was wrong right away.

A large group just appeared form the north. The wolf let me know, its eyes uneasy. They have a sensor, you need to hurry back.

~~~~~~~~~~

I feel bad about this cliffhanger :P but I update fairly quickly this time!

It's nearly my birthday (whooop) but I have so much to deal with that it's insane. I have my society stuff, my twin sister's surprise to plan and on top of that my part time and college work. I feel like a superwoman. Also woke up kind of ill :( but I am going to take Gale's spirit with me and be strong and face it head on ;D

I am also seriously addicted to the bachelor for not reason..... love the australia version :D

love you all and thank you for those who reply to my message ;D

dedicated to Dominicana7 :) thanks for the infinity and beyond