Rocki spent a good hour in the small room Kofi had showed her to on her last flight, simply staring at the wall and letting her brain filter through all the things she had learned. When she deemed that enough time had passed, she emerged and found Kofi at the cockpit. A planet was taking up a lot of the view, so she assumed they had arrived at Sheere and strapped herself into the chair.

Kofi glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "Glad to see you're not going to completely avoid me."

"You're my guide." Rocki felt like she almost had to shout to be heard over the deafening air rushing past the ship. "I don't have a choice."

"Irrelevant," he shot back, still smiling. He said something else, but she couldn't hear with the distance between them, and frankly, she didn't care. He kept chatting, but she only stared out the windshield as the grey planet grew closer, tuning his one-sided conversation out.

I hope Aley is doing all right. I miss her. If anything happens to her... I don't know how I'll ever recover. I wouldn't be able to stand losing my baby either, so I had better be careful. The middle of a war is not a great place to be pregnant in. What if I get caught in a battle and have to fight? What if I get kicked or stabbed in the stomach? The thought terrified her. I'll just have to be careful.

"... and that's how I killed my ex-wife and five children," he said with finality.

Her chin snapped over to look at him sharply, but he was grinning back at her. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I wanted to see if you were listening."

She rolled her eyes. "Just watch where you're flying the ship."

He chuckled but turned back to the windshield. "I was telling you that you'll need a breathing device before we get off. Valicara are meant to be able to breath thinner air, but sariun aren't, and since we don't know which half of that you inherited, I figured it would be better to be sure."

"Fine," she said. The planet was approaching much quicker now, she could see the ground. It was completely flat, there were no trees, rocks, streams, or hills. The ground was just a numbing, washed out gray. Rocki had to look at her hands to make sure she hadn't turned black and white all of a sudden.

She wanted to comment her thoughts about the planet to Kofi, but waited until the ship was safely landed. There was no telling how distracted he would become if she spoke to him again and she would rather have a tuned-in driver.

"It's so weird," she said, looking out the window. She waited until Kofi unbuckled to do so herself.

"What is?" he asked, stepping over to help her as she fumbled with the clasps.

She shooed his hands away. "The planet. It's bare, and... sad."

He glanced outside, beginning to pull his long gold hair up. "What makes you say that?"

"There are no trees, no water, no color, do people live here?"

He chuckled a little. "That's just how Sheere is. I don't see anything wrong with it. Everything they need is underground, so there's no need for the surface to grow anything." He tied his hair, leaving it in an effortless bun that Rocki had never been able to accomplish, even when she had long hair in her younger years.

A barren and dull planet on the surface, but underground is bursting with colors and life. Sounds like world I could use in a story. Rocki stood. "Where is the air machine?"

Kofi led her to the back of the ship and put the device on her. It had a small, cylindrical air tank that attached to her upper thigh so she could easily adjust the settings. A tube ran up her side and around her front to her mouth, which was covered by a mask that would allow her to draw in oxygen. He explained she would be able to pull the mask down to speak but would have to eventually cover her nose and mouth again to make sure she was getting plenty of oxygen.

After triple checking that the system was working, Kofi opened the ship's door and led the way down the ramp to step onto Sheere. A hard wind greeted them, nearly knocking Rocki off her feet.

"It might take a little bit to find an entrance," Kofi called, bracing himself against the gusts. "I don't know where exactly one is. There are tunnels set up all over though, so it shouldn't be too difficult." He grabbed her hand as he started off, but she pulled it out of his grip, instead grasping his wrist to keep herself grounded.

Her wings flapped unnervingly in the wind, so she drew them tighter against her back, stepping closer to Kofi so he could block a little of the swift air. The hand that wasn't holding onto Kofi lifted to press her mask harder against her face, in case it decided to fly off.

Just as her eyes began to water from the wind, she blinked and suddenly it didn't affect her anymore. She blinked a few more times, almost stopping from surprise, but Kofi was still plunging forward, so she allowed him to pull her along. It had previously been difficult to see much through the wind, even though it didn't seem to be kicking up any dust, but now it was like she had an invisible shield exclusively in front of her eyes, so nothing was impairing her vision.

As the wind buffeted around them without mercy, the duo pressed on, determined to find shelter in the tunnels... Oh, we're thinking about ourselves like we're in a book—great. And now I'm doing a weird second-person plural thing. I hope my baby doesn't inherit my nuttiness. Mama may go crazy yet, little guy.

Kofi had been right; it didn't take very long to find a tunnel entrance. It was literally a hole in the ground, just big enough for two people side by side, but it had been constructed as more of a ramp rather than an Alice in Wonderland type fall.

There were no lights in the tunnel, but Kofi charged fearlessly forward. Perhaps valicara have better night vision than humans. She didn't let go of her guide's wrist as they continued farther into the darkness. "Further up and further in!" Although further down is probably more applicable. The sound of wind whistled across the entrance, but it was much more peaceful underground without air constantly pulling at everything.

Rocki lowered her mask. "Do you know where we're going?" she asked in a hushed tone. The walls absorbed the sound rather than echo it like she had been expecting. The underground had a nutty quality to its smell, but it was cool, dry, and much warmer than out in the wind.

"Not really," Kofi whispered back, leaning in towards her. "I can hardly even see where we're going. I've only been to Sheere twice and both times I just kind of wandered until I found someone."

"You wandered?" Rocki gave up the charade of quietness. If someone heard them, at least they would be able to show them the way. "That is your entire plan? Wander around the tunnels and hope we find someone who can lead us to the seer?" She pushed her hands through her shaggy, and now wind-blown, hair.

"We'll be fine." Kofi shoved the mask back onto her face. "Someone always finds me."

Rocki kept a mutinous silence. We're going to die down here.

Something small and scaly with huge claws scuttled past them. Rocki yelped, the sound muffled behind her mask, and scooted closer to Kofi. "What was that?" The creature disappeared into a tiny tunnel that must have been made by another of its kind.

Kofi peered into the darkness. "I don't know, I couldn't see it."

"You couldn't see it? It was right beside us."

"What did it look like then?"

"I don't know, it had scales and it was about as long as my hand. Its claws were thick, but short."

His head turned towards her, although he didn't seem to be able to look her in the eyes. "How can you freaking see? It's completely black in here."

She shrugged, glancing around. "I mean, it's pretty dim, but I wouldn't call it completely black."

He tilted his head slightly. "Oh. It must be your sariun half. Sariun have much better night vision than valicara. I suppose something good did come out of the other side of your bloodline. This once anyway." His voice was bitter, but the harshness disappeared in his next sentence. "You should probably lead the way then."

She snorted. "To where? You didn't even know where you were going, and you've been here before."

"I heard that you can follow the lopenants to the villages. They usually stick around because the bugs they eat are more abundant around there. Did you see what direction it went in?"

"It went into a tiny tunnel on our right."

"Just keep moving forward then."

A few more yards in, and the tunnel split in half. The classic left or right. "Which way do we go? Left or right?"

"Right," he said confidently.

Rocki put her mask on and steered them in that direction, jumping back when another creature skittered across the tunnel. It was the same as the last one, some weird cross between a mole and a pangolin with tiny snake scales.

"What?" Kofi asked, his wing brushing hers.

"Another one of those animals. What are they called?"

"Lopenants."

"Lopenant," she repeated the word to herself under her breath. "Does Sheere have a lot of them?" She scuffed her borrowed shoe against the ground. It was as hard as a rock, but the texture wasn't the same—it had a lot more grip.

Kofi's wing was still lightly touching hers, but she allowed it since he probably couldn't see and wanted to stay close by. "They're pretty common. I've seen a lot of them in my two trips here."

Something shrieked.