We spent the rest of the day resting, and packing for the trip. Lark would bring her violin, but leave her pen, since anything magical could get us killed by the villagers. We would all bring a backpack full of things travelers would normally carry with them.

I woke with a scream on my lips in the middle of the night, but on realizing that I'd simply had another nightmare, I pushed the scream back down, held back an enormous sigh, rolled over, and went back to sleep. The rest of the night was uneventful.

In the morning, Lark and I were awoken by a knock on our door. I stood and crossed the room to open it, wincing at the sliver of bright light that cut into the darkness.

Cass stood there, a wild smile on her face. "We're here. Get ready to go, and meet us up on the deck after breakfast."

Anticipation in my belly, I stepped onto the upper deck of the ship. My hair was instantly soaked. A steady downpour flowed from the sky, drenching everything and anyone, the sounds of rain occasionally punctuated by bursts of lightning and rumbles of thunder.

Cass and the rest of the crew, minus Dren, stood on the edge of the ship, waiting. My gaze met Bran's. He offered me a half-grin.

"Great!" Cass shouted over all the noise. "We're almost all here."

Leith stood beside her, and I noticed, with a slight jolt of resentment, that the rain bent around him, leaving him perfectly dry. There wouldn't be much point in him extending the spell to us, though. We'd be out of range soon enough.

Torchlight flared briefly across the ship as Dren opened the door and hurried out to stand with the rest of us. He winced and shivered as his clothes and hair were quickly soaked with water, but didn't complain.

Cass gave him a short nod, then turned her attention to the rest of us. "Are we all here?"

A chorus of yeses.

"Great." She turned to Leith. "Want to do the honors?"

Leith smiled, raising his hands. Apparently Cass's enthusiasm was infectious. "It would be my pleasure."

His mistlings rose from the deck around us, wasting no time, grabbing arms and legs and lifting the members of the crew of the deck.

Cass let out a whoop as she dropped over the side of the ship. Her mistlings progressed downward much more quickly than anyone else's did, and she seemed to be enjoying it. Dren was close to me, and he looked miserable. As for the rest of the crew, their emotions ranged from grumpy to excited—though none of them managed to equal the absolute ecstasy of Cass.

When the mistlings dropped us to the ground and dissipated, Cass ran a quick headcount, decided she would be at the head of the journey and Jaret would be at the tail—to prevent anyone from falling behind—and began walking at a brisk pace.

The forest canopy lessened the amount of rain that got through to us. However, from time to time, a leaf or a branch would shake off its heavy load of raindrops, drenching one of the team. They'd mutter a curse at the sky, shiver, and continue forward.

After an hour or two, Cass proclaimed, "This is boring!" and decided that we ought to play a game. A few suggestions were thrown around before someone said we should play at stories, and Cass thought that sounded wonderful.

"I'll start," she said. "Once there was a very tall tree. Ista."

"That tree," said Ista, "grew beyond the borders of the sky, reaching up to the stars and cupping their light in its leaves. Dren."

"I'm not playing," said Dren.

Ista shrugged. "All right. Brinley."

Brinley smiled and looked upward, but winced as a drip of water hit her right in the middle of her forehead. "Things that reach too far have always been destined to fall. Jaret."

"It's a punishment for their ambition. They've got to pay the price for believing they deserve to be above all other things."

"That was two sentences," Dren pointed out.

Jaret thought for a moment. "Not if I say there's a comma in between them."

"That's not grammatically correct."

"So?"

Dren rolled his eyes.

"I think it's fine," said Cass. "Who's next?"

"Lark," said Jaret.

Wordlessly, Lark shook her head.

"Just think it," suggested Ista. "I can say it for you."

Lark closed her eyes, and Ista said, "Some things, however, are not as greedy as they might seem, reaching for the benefit of others rather than for any reward they might gain. Fyra."

"Some things," I said, "are just innocents that don't realize they're on the path to destruction." For a moment, I racked my brain, trying to think of a name that hadn't been called yet. I settled on, "Bran."

"There is evil in the world," said Bran, "and that evil likes to use good in the cruelest of ways." He paused, running into the same problem I had.

Cass came to the rescue. "Everyn hasn't gone yet."

"Ah," said Bran. "Everyn, then."

"Evil can disguise itself," said Everyn.

"Now," said Cass, looking back at me and Bran and Lark, "we go in the order we've established." She turned forward again. "Evil can pretend to be what it's not."

Ista tripped over a tree root and cursed, then righted herself. "Evil is tricky that way."

"Evil is always tricky," said Brinley, "and the tallest tree did not realize this."

Jaret smiled softly. "It did not realize that the things that were evil wished to hold the stars for themselves."

Lark thought for a moment, then closed her eyes, and Ista said, "The tree did not realize that these evils, rather than wishing to hold the stars gently—as the tree did—wanted to squeeze the stars to death in their grasp, and steal all the light for themselves."

"So," I said, "when a squirrel climbed the tree to the very top and reached for the stars, the tree did not stop it."

Bran jumped as a tree dumped water on his head. "The squirrel grabbed one star, then the next, and shoved them into a bag."

"The stars cried out," said Everyn, "but the tree did not hear them."

Cass said, "It did not want to believe that someone would do something so cruel."

"The squirrel stole five stars, and scurried back down the tree," said Ista.

"And then," said Dren, smirking, "the heat of the stars caught it on fire, and it and the tree burned to ash."

"Oy!" shouted Brinely, and she turned to shoot Dren a sharp glare. "Not your turn, sir 'I'm not playing.'"

Dren glared at her. "I wasn't, but now I am. And the story's over. It was pretty weird, anyway. Squirrels and tall trees and stars that can be stolen."

"He's not wrong," said Ista. "I prefer the stars to stay where they are."

"See?" said Dren.

"However," continued Ista, "it wasn't your turn."

Dren stuck his tongue out at Ista. Ista stuck their tongue out in return.

Jaret turned to me, and, with a conspiratorial smile, whispered, "They're siblings."

"Ah," I said.

Ista reached out to ruffle Dren's hair, and Dren dodged their grasp, darting a few steps away from them. They launched after him. He let out a high-pitched squeak of surprise and sprinted away—Ista proceeded to chase him around the group, laughing wildly all the while.

Cass allowed this for a minute or two, then reached out to snag Dren by the shirt as he passed her. Ista collided with his back. The two nearly went down into the mud, but Cass steadied them.

"That's enough of that," she said. "We don't want to use up all of our energy yet. We're not even close to the town—there's a night's walk ahead of us before we can set up camp for the night."

"Sorry," said Ista. "Dren's just a bit of a brat."

Dren's face went red. "I am not!"

"Just a little."

"Not at all!"

Cass released Dren's shirt and continued walking.

After a few minutes, Ista and Dren's bickering faded into the background noise, and after half an hour, they fell completely silent.

White lightning flashed nearby, and the crack of thunder split through the air, so loud that half the group jumped in surprise. Then the forest fell silent but for the sound of dripping rain. I shivered. Lark gently nudged me and offered me a half-smile—I smiled back.

"Well," said Cass, "shall we start another game? Dren? Will you be a good sport this time?"

"Sure," Dren agreed, a touch resentfully.

"Great!" exclaimed Cass. "Same order. I'll begin. Once, when the world was young and the sun was new, a cat decided to try to catch a whale..."

An interesting but nonsensical story, right? Apparently, they've all got a bit of writer in them. I wonder, if Wattpad existed in that world, if they'd also put their stories up in search of votes...