Dedicated to so1tgoes.

We don't even make it back into the live forest before we find a way of of this godforsaken jungle. There is a tiny outcropping with a slit leading into blackness.

"It's out best chance," Cicada says. "Who knows what else lives here."

"I think we should rest before charging into the unknown again?" Joss says.

"We can't sleep in a pile of ash," I say, looking around at the flaky black stuff covering the jungle floor for about a fifty foot radius.

"I vote we go in there and see if it's safe to camp in there before moving on," Cicada says. We all agree.

"We need to wash up too," I add, glancing a Joss's back, covered in dried blood and torn fabric.

I am the first to slip through the little crack. I click my tongue as the others slide into the cave after me.

"It's a tunnel." I look down the tunnel. The end disappearing around a bend.

I close my eyes a remember the sturdy wooden doors leading into the tunnels beneath the palace in Arocule. I image that door blocking the tunnel, creating a cave. I also imagine the slit in the rock closing, making the rock look like a whole outcropping on the jungle floor above.

"Now we are safe," I say, then add, "hopefully."

Since no one will have to scout, we all lay our sleeping bags out next to each other.

Cicada and I share again. We lay facing each other for a while.

"Do you think we'll ever find Arosi?" She asks.

I think back to my dream and the way Arosi was able to communicate to me through it. I also think of when I was imagining that baboon that attacked me. How my brain went against my will and imagined things I didn't want it to. That had to have something to do with my closeness to Arosi.

"I sure we are near him," I say, sounding more confident than I feel. What happens when we find Arosi? What will happen to all of us in the next seven days?

Images flash through my mind's eye. Feathers, flowing lava, falling rock.

Five began the quest, four remain, two will be left at the end of the campaign. Three will fall to the almighty bane.

Fear blossomed in my heart. That sounded ominous.

"What did you just say?" Cicada demands.

"What?"

"You said something," she says, "it sounded like a prophecy."

I'd said it aloud?

"I don't know," I say, although the words are fairly clear. Two of us will die before this quest is over.
•••
We wake a few hours later rested and ready to continue the quest.

"We need to tell them," Cicada says.

"We can't," I reply, "they'll give up on us."

"Fine," she says.

Her and I have been debating whether to tell Jonah and Joss about the mini-prophecy I spit out last night. We'd both agreed to neglect to tell them because odds are they'd quit coming with us and be stuck down here forever.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Joss asks when we are finally done setting up camp.

"Yeah," we say in unison.

I close my eyes as imagine the doors disappearing. I open them and they're gone, revealing the bend in the dark tunnel.

I unsling my bow from my shoulder and load and arrow in it, not willing to turn a corner in this place unprepared.

I swiftly move around the corner. The tunnel only continues.

We walk for a few minutes in silence.

"We've been down her for a week," Joss says, "and have seen no sign that we are anywhere near this dragon."

"I've seen signs in my dreams, Joss," I say.

"What signs?"

"The Network is dying. Alvus told me we were its only hope."

"Alvus told you?" He sounds doubtful and doesn't care if I hear it.

I don't respond. By now I'm fed up with Joss's doubt. I'm tired of trying to convince him we are doing the right thing no matter what the price is.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like," Joss says, "if I'd never agreed to go on this damn quest with you."

"You would've died with all the other soldiers in Verro," I say.

"I could've survived, I was one of the highest ranking men in all the Network."

"It doesn't matter how skilled you are up against Arosi."

He stops and steps in front of me so our chests are pressed together. "Is that a challenge Alaric?"

He places his hands on my chest and shoves me back two steps.

Anger flares within me before I can control it. I punch him hard on the cheek and he crumbles to the ground.

"What the hell is your problem?" I demand. "What did I do to you?"

This time Cicada nor Jonah try to get between us. Unspoken words need to come out and they need to come out now or else this quest has an even bigger chance of failing than ever.

Joss stands and wraps his hand tight around my throat, pinning me against the wall with his torso. "This whole thing is your fault. For whatever reason Constantine brought our ancestors down here, whatever lived in the Network before we did, now it's waging war with us. We had no control over what your grandfather did and now our people are dying for it. You were the only one left with Constantine blood when the war began. I think that if they would've killed you on your execution day, then Arosi would've left us alone, because we all know his only true grudge was on Alvus."

"You think this war began because I wasn't killed?" I say pushing him off of me. "Damn you. Damn you! The only reason I didn't die that day was because Arosi attacked us! He planned for me to live! This war would still be happening if I'd been killed that day so don't even try to pin this on me! If I do recall, I'm journeying through damn hell trying to save your ass and everyone in the Network. So don't even try to pin this on my you damn asshole."

"This quest only began because of you!" Joss hollers, "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you!"

"No you're right, Joss," I say, suddenly calm, "you'd be dead, along with Rox and all the other soldiers that fell in with us!"

Before a second goes by, Joss's fist connects with my face and I crumble to the stone.

He leans down and speaks slowly. "I'll blame whatever the hell I want to blame on you," he says, "that's how your life was before wasn't it? Why can't we just go back to everyone hating you?"

Anger boils within me. I remember the countless nights I'd lie awake not being able to get shuteye and being livid about it. That's how k feel now. Joss shouldn't have put his face in my reach.

I grab him by the collar of his shirt and fling him over me. He lands hard on his back but we both get to our feet quickly.

I tackle him to the ground, beating his face repeatedly with my fists. He punches me in the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs. I choke as he rolls away and slams the sole of his boot into my temple.

Black splotches drift over my vision as I fight to stay out of his range long enough to stand. But he's already up. He knees me in the skull and I fall flat on my face.

I roll away from him and use the wall to pull myself up. My head spins. I hear Cicada yelling but not jumping in like she would.

"Stop!" She screams when my head clears. Jonah is holding her back so she doesn't stumble into our quarrel and get herself hurt. "You'll kill each other."

Joss insulted me about my life before the war. Of course I'd be able to kill him for that. There's too many negative emotions involved with those times and when they are tampered with, they always explode but the supply never dwindles.

Joss is lunging at me. I bring my foot up and hit him solidly on the crown of his head. Now he's the one struggling on the ground.

I kick him in the ribs and he falls back into his chest.

I can already see it. I can already see myself taking his face in my hands and breaking his neck with the force of my own fury.

But then a wave of fatigue washes over me, so strong and sudden that I have to hold the wall to keep from collapsing to the ground.

Something whistles over my vision and hits Joss in the shoulder. Two more fly and hit Cicada and Jonah.

The last thing I see before I blackout are the other collapsing to the stone.