The Shadows Book One: The War for EarthEnd.

Chapter Seventeen - The End of The Path.

Liki Wolfspirit.

Skip woke up early the next day. Considering his stance in the army, no one questioned him when he wanted to "double check" the catapults for faults. He knew how the Anubians worked, and if he broke their artillery now, they would never check up on it before the resistence struck later on that day. Just another thing out of the way for them and something he could do to stick it to Visry before he ripped off his head.

He was kneeling, silently untwisting a certian part of the catapult that would, upon use, fall apart and be unusable now. He was focused so much on his task he did not hear the footsteps coming behind him.

"Skip? Just what are you doing?"

Skip spun, facing the Anubian Visry. He had to control himself from launching himself at the canine Beast. The thought of maybe if he squeezed out Visry's brains he could find his still lost memory within the mush didn't help. "I was checking our ranged artillery sir. It all seems fine here."

"Hmm good boy," Visry said, "I'd like you to go be with the soldiers, scouts report that the resistence is massing and beginning to move. The real war is beginning and I will be leading it this time."

Skip nodded slowly, "Of course Visry..." He said and turned, walking away as calmly as he could manage.

Liki woke up to a loud knocking noise, his eyes peeling open. He felt well rested, but his back was a little hurt. Kaz was on top of him, the black wolf laying on him all night had made his back sore. He rose a bit, his back cracking loudly and waking Kaz.

"Wha-?" He yawned, rolling off of Liki, "Oh geeze..." He mumbled as he heard the knocking again, on the bedroom door.

"Liki? Kaz?" It was Blackpaw's voice, "Everyone's waiting outside for you."

"Blackpaw, we'll be right there!" Liki said and jumped out of the bed, starting to put on his armor. Kaz quickly followed him, putting on his new pants and using his vines as a shirt instead. Both the Fangrens dashed outside to find PyreFox and Cammy waiting with Blackpaw.

On the outskirts of Hillside, the resistence was in formation on the hills. Groups set up in squads and looking fierce and deadly. Liki still knew though, it was a misshape army, still filled with civilians with only small experiance. It looked ready though.

The citizens of Hillside, even the ones on the top floors, were all standing on the wooden floors, staring out at the army.

"Liki, Kaz, are you both ready?" PyreFox said. He was carrying Kaz's bow and arrows, and gave them to the druid.

"Yeah." Liki and Kaz both answered.

"Cyro and Steel are waiting for us, we march as soon as your there."

Liki nodded. Most of this war was riding on his shoulders it seemed, and a lot of Beasts were putting their faith in his powers.

He was scared of letting them down. He was just a kid afterall.

Kaz took his hand as they were walking through the army though to the front where Cyro and Steel waited. He looked at his mate's face and felt a kind of calmness. With these Beasts by his side, he could take on anything. At the frong of the army, he knelt and let Blackpaw in his backpack, then stood aside Cyro and Steel as the two Foxens held their hands and kissed.

An odd silence followed, until two soldiers near them suddenly jumped at each other and kissed as well, and soon after, cheers were erupting from the mass of Beasts that were watching. Liki stared at the army, reved up over something they had all once looked at so badly.

"You see?" Cyro asked, "You've helped more than you think."

Liki grinned and nodded, and the army started marching toward EarthEnd.

"Army of the Anubian people!" Visry cried, the camp assembled at the gate to EarthEnd, "Our way of life has always been that of conquest! It is not about to stop! Power has always held our people high in the world. It shall continue to do show! These Beasts, who unite under their alliances and merge blood, Fangern to Feline, Feline to Foxen, Foxen to Actavian, are unpure for a world created by the Earth Goddess! We, the last remaining pure blood on the planet, shall eliminate them from existence and claim this land as ours!"

The army cheered as Visry continued, "Let your pride drive you! The way of the Warrior is a path of blessing! Go forth and crave it through the jungle of unpure!"

Visry grinned evily, turning toward where Skip was standing. Jaklya was beside the male otter, but tied to a pole and staring blankly ahead at nothing. Beside her, Skip could just make out the words her barely moving mouth was forming.

"Liki...dead...Liki...dead..." She just kept saying it over and over. Skip's heart was breaking and it was so foriegn to him, he didn't like the feeling he was having. His eyes were beginning to water slowly.

Visry stared at him, his face going from evil grin to suspiciousness, "Skip...?"

Skip shook his head, "Sir, something in my eye." He rubbed his eyes with his arm, but his voice shook when he spoke and made the Anubian all the more suspiscious.

"Skip, what is wrong with you?"

The Aquari looked back up, trying to hide his unrelenting hatred for the Anubian, but it seemed he was unable to. His eyes blazed with a fire Visry had never seen before, and his own widened, "What are you-?"

He didn't get to finish when a enormous ball of fire suddenly landed in the middle of the cheering army, whose cheers were instantly replaced by screams of agony and surprise as the flames engulfed them.

Skip looked up to see a group standing on a hill in view of the city gates. He recognized one as Liki instantly becuase of his Shadow Form. His druidic companion and small student was with him. Liki was holding a scroll in his hands, which started to glow brightly.

The next thing he knew, a large ball of ice slammed into the group of Anubians opposite where the ball of fire had hit, killing instantly with its wieght and force. Skip realized what was happening, the resistence had created Spell Scrolls to decimate the Warrior army of Anubians.

"Split up you fools!" Visry commaned what was left of his army.

The Anubians scattered, trying to find their generals or commanders. A good chunk of the army was already gone, and confusion was already in place. A large roar was heard as the resistence came pouring over the hills, soldiers running past Liki and his companions.

"We've been ambushed Visry..." Skip commented calmly.

"So we have..." Visry growled and took up a nearby sword in his hands.

"Fire the catapults! Destroy them!" He commanded and brandished his sword behind toward where the catapults were actually lined up for just this reason.

Anubians scrambled to load up the devices with large boulders, and soon were waiting on Visry's signal to fire into the now combined mob of resistence and Anubians.

"Fire!" Visry shouted.

Skip grinned. The moment the ropes holding back the catapults were snapped, the wood of the device snapped apart and the rocks fell back onto the operators, smashing them completly.

"What the hell!?" Visry roared. He turned toward Skip, "I thought you had checked them?!"

"I did..." Skip whispered and stared at Visry, he bit his lip and tasted blood. As his blood lust took over and he made Visry his target, he snarled, "I checked them to be sure they'd fail."

Visry backed away, his eyes wide with realization, "You...You've betrayed us!"

"No!" Skip yelled and jumped at Visry, "I remembered who I was!" He collided with Visry, beginning to pound the hell out of the Anubians face, "You took my life away!!! You brainwashed me!!! You-"

He was suddenly ripped away from the Anubian by a pair of arms, he struggled in the air until he managed a hold and used his feet to kick at his attackers legs. They fell to the ground and he rolled and got back up to face his opponent, but he paused in his attack as realized who it was.

Jaklya had broken free of her bindings, and was now standing between him and the weakened Visry as he tried to rise.

"You..." Jaklya whispered slowly, "You are enemy..."

"Jaklya wake up..." Skip pleaded, "You're brainwashed, even more now..."

"You are enemy to Anubains, you will die!" Jaklya rushed him, and Skip blocked with his arms.

"Jaklya please!" He shouted but the female otter suddenly picked him up and tossed him through the air. Skip collided with a building, breaking in through the wall and falling among the rubble. He groaned and sat up quickly, barely feeling anything but his head was bleeding.

"Die!" Jaklya's hands were suddenly on his throat and gripping tight, crushing his windpipe. He gagged and struggled, his once-lover's eyes gleaming with glee as she was enjoying his suffering.

Skip felt defeated, and that was another thing that was foriegn to him. He felt remorse and sorrow as he began to fade, feeling his throat breaking.

Liki watched from atop the hill as the fighting was breaking out. The distruaght Anubians were being wiped out one by one, their skill no match for the sudden ambush. They had been caught off guard and had no way of fighitng back. Even with their limited skill, the resistence was in control and it was working greatly. Suddenly Cryo was handing him a pair of binoculars.

"Liki! Look at this!" Cyro instructed and directed him toward the area he was talking about, inside the city.

The Fangren gasped at what he saw, the two otters from before, except they were fighting each other.

"I've been watching them." Cyro said quickly over the sounds of battle, "I think the male actually broke their catupalts for us, and then he attacked the leader! The other one is fighting him now!"

_"Save him..." _Liki heard The Shadow Creatures' voice in his head all of a sudden and he dropped the binoculars. Blackpaw yelped in his backpack, and he heard Kaz yell after him and follow behind quickly as he ran down the hill at a fast speed.

Skip was silent, his mouth trying to take in air and his feet scrampling on the floor as his throat continued to break under Jaklya's grasp. His eyes were starting to become blurry and his vision was just as so. He was fading quick and he hated how the last thing he would see was his lost love's gleeful smile as she strangled him. Tears ran down his face as he accepted his fate and slumped.

Jaklya... He thought with the last of his energy, I'm so sorry...

The world began going black.

"Grahhhh!!!!!"

Skip gasped, light suddenly returning to him as Jaklya was tossed off of him as she screamed, and he blinked until his vision cleared and he saw Liki wrestling with Jaklya.

"Kaz! Heal him!" Liki shouted while he scrambled to restrain Jaklya. The small Fangren boy in his backpack was assisting him by stabbing Jaklya's hands whenever she tried to grab his Master with a kunai.

A black Fangren was suddenly kneeling beside him. Skip recognized him as the druid he had fought before at the resistence camp. His hands touched the otter's crushed throat and glowed a bright green. Skip gasped again, more freely, as the inside of his throat was repaired almost instantly.

"You..." He whispered.

"Are you with us?" Kaz suddenly said, "Cuase if not I will recrush your throat myself." He growled but stared at him calmly.

Skip blinked, as he actually found himself debating what to do. He shook his head clear and groaned a moment. What was he thinking? He had made that decision a long time ago.

"Yes, I'm with you." He said and got up to his feet shakely.

"Good." Kaz placed his hand on Skip's arm and it glowed once more. The otter suddenly felt refreashed, his energy replenished.

"Thank you..." Skip whispered. Those words too, seemed so foriegn to him. This would be hard to get used to. He stalked out of the rubble of the building with the druid. Liki was still battling Jaklya, keeping her back with his magic as she kept trying to close in.

"Please, go after Visry before he escapes!" the Aquari called to him, "I'll take care of my...sister..."

Jaklya actually stopped in her fight at that, turning toward him and ignoring Liki. Her eyes were still filled with rage, but her face showed that she was finally recognizing him. Liki took that chance to jump away from the otter, and he and Kaz sprinted away from the Aquari. The child in Liki's backpack threw a kunai at Skip's feet. He knelt and picked it up, than regarded Jaklya again.

"Skip...you...betrayed me?" She asked slowly.

"No...sister...I remembered who I was...I remembered who we were once...I wish I could get you to see it too..." He shuddered, but raised his fists in a fighting stance, the kunai in his hand. "We were brainwashed Jaklya, this isn't who we are supposed to be."

"Liar!" She charged him, but he blocked and then twisted his arms, grabbing Jaklya's head and kneeing her in the mouth. She staggered back, mouth bleeding hard now as Skip stood at the ready.

"The Anubians stole our life away! They pulled us apart and ruined our lives together!"

Jaklya chaged him again, her blood lust raging her foward without thought or preparation. She was still the same, she wasn't thinking, still the raging Beast the Anubians had made her. Skip was himself agian, he could see clearly and even while he was still in his beserker mode, his bloodlust did not overcome him. While Jaklya would insist on using her bare hands, he knew better now. He knew he wasn't a killing machine, he had only been made to think that. There was nothing he could to save his once lover from her illission it seemed. He had hoped once, but he had lost it now...he didn't want to try...it hurt him on the inside to see her like this.

He only wanted one thing...he wanted to stop her from her path.

Skip jumped over Jaklya, who charged underneath him without pause. He landed as she was turning around, twirled and through the kunai.

It landed square between Jaklya's eyes.

The female Aquari fell right away, the kunai burying right into her brain. She screamed in agony and rage as she flailed in pan on the ground and Skip watched silently.

Slowly, Jaklya's energy failed her as her blood was dripping right out of her head, and she was reduced to growling angerly as life continued to slip from her.

Skip approached slowly, a certian despression overfalling him as Jaklya's eyes glared up at him. Even in near death, they still flared with rage.

He got to his knees, tears falling down his face. Seeing those tears, Jaklya's eyes softened only a bit and she managed to whisper, "Skip..."

"Jaklya...I'm so sorry...I wish I could have saved you..."

"You've...betrayed...me..." Her eyes closed at those last words, and her breathing was shallow as death began to take her.

Skip stood agasp. Were those the last words he would hear from from his lost loved? He shook his head and feel to his knees, taking Jaklya in his arms as she was on the verge of death. It wouldn't be if he could help it.

He leaned down and kissed her, for a good ten minutes he held their mouths together. He felt Jaklya's tongue responded to him, but he could not tell if maybe it was her last feeble attempt to kill him or if she was trying to say the same thing he was.

He released the kiss and looked at her sadly, "I love you..." He whispered.

"Skip..." Jaklya mumbled with her last breath, "I...I..."

She didn't get to finish. Her body went limb in his arms.

"Jaklya..." The Aquari rested her body back on the ground and stood, shaking and regret. "This...this wasn't how it was supposed to be..."

He turned and ran.

Visry was limping onto a boat, a crew of Anubians attempting to get the ship ready to sail as quick as possible. He couldn't believe what had happened here today. There was only one thing left he could do.

He entered his cabin on the ship and retreived a small amulet in his desk there, and swallowed it.

Liki and Kaz approached the docks as fast at they could, seeing Visry boarding one they were dashing across the camp when the ground under their feet suddenly started to shake.

They both stopped and tried to keep their balance as the ground continued to shake.

"What's going on!?" Kaz shouted over the earthquake.

Before Liki could say he didn't know, the boat across the docks where Visry had went broke apart, sending the crew members into the water as a large, deformed monster that resembled an Anubian rose from the wreckage and stepped out onto land, it's footstep making the earth shake again.

"I'd say it's that." Liki said as the gaint Anubian made it's way through the city, crushing buildings under it's feet. With a single step.

"There's no way to stop that thing!" Kaz yowled as they watched it, "He'll decimate the resistence with his foot alone."

"Not if we stop em first!" Liki responded and ran after the gaint, using his magic to give him a sudden speed burst and leaving Kaz behind. He couldn't afford to have his mate in the way. Blackpaw was still with him, holding onto his neck tightly as the wind flew by them, but the boy was not in any danger as long as Liki remained careful.

His speed brought him close to the gaint, and he jumped at it and drove his daggers into the tan skin. The gaint continued crushing it's way over the buildings of EarthEnd, approaching the city walls and the battle raging outside them. He started climping the Anubian monstrosity, using his daggers as his anchors to scale the flesh.

The monster didn't seem to feel him as he reached his waist and was still climbing, when it finally made the last step into the war and stomped on a group of soldiers, both Anubain and resistence.

The resistence scrampled it's archers, tageting the massive Beast that was crushing their army under its foot.

PyreFox and Cammy were on the hill overlooking the battle, casting their fire magic into the masses where Anubians were clustered, but they were now busy stuck staring in shock.

"Look!" Cammy pointed, "Liki! On its stomach!"

PyreFox looked down on the gaint's bare stomach, seeing the small shadowy figure there, clawing his way up the Beast.

"Why doesn't he just stab em in the testicles?" PyreFox thought aloud unintentionally.

Cammy slapped him behind his head as hard as she could manage, "This is no time to make jokes!!!"

"Ow!" He yelped and rubbed his head, "All right, all right!" His hands became aflame and he started throwing fireballs at the gaint.

Liki noticed the fireballs hitting the gaint in the head, distracting him and keeping him disorientated. Arrows flew through the air, buring themselves into the gaint's flesh like his daggers did as he scaled him.

"What are we doing up here?!" Blackpaw shouted at him.

"I have no idea!" Liki shouted back. What was he doing up here? It had seemed the most sensible thing to do.

"There's nothing we can do to hurt this thing!" Blackpaw returned.

Liki thought a moment, than he got the most riduclous idea he believed he ever would have.

"There's something that hurts even the biggest of men."

"What?!"

He grinned and took his daggers out of the flesh, and Blackpaw yelped in horror as they fell.

"What's he doing!?" Cammy shouted.

PyreFox watched Liki fall, until he reached the gaint's large ball sack and drove his daggers into the large orb hanging there, falling down it and leaving a huge gash in the skin that started bleeding. The scrotum had less skin that the rest of the gaint, Liki daggers easily found blood.

The gaint howled in pain, huge tears falling from it's eyes and smothering the army that was at its feet.

The fox pumped his fist and stared at Cammy, "Told you!"

She hit him again.

Liki stabbed into the weak flesh continuesly, over and over and over again. Blood was seeping out the holes he made and some white substance he didn't want to think about was beginning to come out as well.

Blackpaw actually groaned, his fear replaced by disbelieve, "I can_not_ believe...you're really doing this..."

Liki grinned agian and laughed, "You gotta admit, something like this would hurt anyone!"

His student groaned again and Liki laughed almost manically as he kept plunging his daggers in different places of the skin, climbing all over the large testicle and stabbing it.

"What! That's halarious!" PyreFox shouted while rubbing his throbbing head.

"This is serious business damn it!" Cammy yelled, but her face was red as she blushed.

"It's the only thing that hurts him, you can't tell me that isn't funny."

Cammy's next retort was lost over the large roar the Anubian gave off as it's hand grabbed it's own balls and found Liki on them. It ripped the small Fangren right off and threw him into the air.

"Liki!" PyreFox yelled, watching the wolf fly threw the air almost lazily.

Cammy looked away from him to notice, "Oh no!"

They watched as Liki was tossed away clear across the city and landed in the sea with a just visible splash of water.

The two Foxen gaped, as the Anubian laughed, shaking the earth with the vibrations. It lasted a good while until he grinned and lifted a foot, than began stomping down on the army with his feet once more.

Each stomp made PyreFox and Cammy wince, the resistence and Anubian army were both being destroyed. The gaint had little care for who was underfoot it seemed.

"PyreFox..." Cammy whispered, "I think...it's come to that..."

"Cammy..." He mumbled and looked at her, "I think it has too..."

She smiled to him, "There's no other way to stop him..."

He nodded, "Yeah...so much for jokes lightening the mood..."

"For the record, It was a good joke." Cammy held out her hand to him, her Flame Mark already glowing.

He grinned, and took his mate's hand, his own Flame Mark glowing as they lifted each others arms into the air and began their final spell.

Flames enguled their bodies as they started to summon the Flame Leviathan.

Liki swam up through the water as fast as he could. The impact to the water would have knocked him out, had it not been for a sudden burst of Shadow Magic he had used to ease his fall.

His energy was spent though, his Shadow Form had vanished already and they were still really far under the water.

Blackpaw, however, hadn't been as protected from the impact and was outcold.

Liki's Flame Mark had already kicked in at that point, giving him the energy he needed now, and still he was far from the surface and beginning to black out.

At that moment, he felt someone wrap around him and begin to swim with him, increasing their speed to the near surface.

Liki gasped and took in the air quickly, and noticed it was Kaz who was helping him. The druid began pulling his weak body toward the shore while yelling, "Are you nuts!? Dashing off like that! And then you get thrown into the sea!? How am I going to keep you alive!?"

Liki chuckled, "You're doing good so far love..."

Blackpaw coughed, spitting up water suddenly as he came out of his truama. "Owwwwwww...my chest..."

Kaz pulled them up onto the docks soon after, and they rested a moment. The black Fangren panted, "That...that thing is destroying everything..."

Liki grunted in exhaustion, "I have...to stop it..."

"Liki," Kaz whispered, "There's nothing you can do, you've expended your energy now..."

"No, there has to be something more...can't you replenish me?"

"My magic takes time to work like that...I'm exhausted myself, while you were gone I had to deal with all the Anubians on the ships." Kaz said the last bit with a bit of undertone to get the point across he was annoyed at being left behind so quickly.

"Sorry..." Liki whined and looked at the ground as he sat.

Silence followed, besides the sound of the earth being stomped on by a gaint.

Defeat seemed certain, and while Liki's Flame Mark was burning him so much for thinking that he-

Wait...no...this burning wasn't the same.

Liki stared at his mark. It was burning him, but it wasn't glowing. What did that mean?

At that moment a huge jet of flame shot into the sky outside the city, right next to the gaint Anubian. The flames shot into the air, expanding outward in waves then cascading back down until they became a large ball. That ball began to spin and a pair of large glowing yellow eyes appeared on it, glaring at the Anubian angerly as the flames continued to swirl. The bottom of the ball edged out to a point while the top part widened to become like a twister.

"What...is that?" Kaz asked.

Liki looked at his Flame Mark, and he remembered what PyreFox had told him before he took his flame oath.

"It's the Flame Elemental the Pyre Clan uses for it's magic. If what PyreFox told me is true," Liki looked back to the Elemental that was staring down the Anubian, "That thing there is only a fraction of how huge it actually is."

"How did it get here?"

"PyreFox and Cammy must've summoned it."

It was then that a long lash of flames shot out of the Elemental and smashed the enlarged Anubian in the face, who howled and tried to attack back, but its hands merely fell through the Elemental and became burned. The Anubian backed off, but the twister of flame followed and the Anubian tripped on the walls of EarthEnd.

The gaint began to fall.

"Move!" Liki yelled and he and Kaz bolted away as fast as they could manage. Blackpaw was already holding onto his Master's neck tightly.

The gaint's bellow filled the air, and it slammed across the city and crushed half of it with its body. Liki and Kaz were tossed by the rush of air that followed, tumbling across the ground and stopping soon after in the rubble of a broken building. Liki groaned with Blackpaw as Kaz got up, his magic already healing him.

The Flame Elemental followed the Anubian, it let itself fall on the Beast. The fire surrounded it, and the gaint howled in pain as it was burned to death.

It took thirty minutes for the gaint to die, or at least, thirty minutes for it to stop yowling. It took another three hours for the flames of the Elemental to dissapate, leaving the black, charred, and boiled body of the Anubain gaint laying in the middle of a now half destroyed and equally burned city.

The Anubians, upon discovering that Visry wasn't anywhere to be found, realized that Visry was the gaint and surrendered quickly afterward. He had kept something like this as the final card to play. Since it failed and they had no leadership there to tell them what to do, they had no choice. The deaths of both Anubian and resistence were taken and noted of. Visry had killed a near equal amount of the resistence that the resistence did to the Anubians.

PyreFox and Cammy however, were nowhere to be found.

Liki believed he knew what had happened to them, and after searching for an entire day, he told Cyro and Steel his worry.

Summoning the Flame Leviathan was something only the leader of the Pyre Clan could do completely. PyreFox and Cammy could as well summon pieces and parts of the Elemental, but at the cost of their life. They had sacrificed themselves to stop Visry.

Steel refused to believe him, and even though his new mate Cryo told him to not, he continued to search alone, all over the hills and city for his two friends. He came back after the day was over, defeated and broken on the inside. He took Liki's opinion on what happened as true, and returned to keeping things in order.

There was little time to mourn PyreFox and Cammy's sacrifice though, the next day, yet another Anubian ship arrived, but this one waved a white flag as it approached the city.

Liki, Blackpaw, Kaz, Cyro, and Steel went to the docks to meet up with the boat. Liki was interested to see what would unfold now that the Anubians had been defeated.

As the ship made port, only two Anubians unboarded and approached them.

"I wish our meeting could be on a more plesent manner." One of the Anubians made a point of staring at the large charred corpse of Visry before continueing, "I am Tetren, The Inner Soul of the Anubian people, and this Letry, The Inner Heart."

Steel looked confused, "I'm sorry, but are those supposed to mean something?"

Tetren chuckled, "It's okay. No one's ever heard of us before, considering how our people are. We are two of the Anubian Leaders. Visry," he nodded at the gaint corpse again, "Was the Inner Mind."

"Ah I see." Cryo said, "You two are of Heart and Soul."

Kaz pointed at Letry, "I bet you stand for the desire of peace."

Letry nodded, his voice quiet, "Yes...my stance isn't really well taken...but that might change soon."

"And you stand for a clear way of thinking?" Liki asked Tetren.

"I stand for the ability of thinking and taking the best course of action for my people. At the moment, I am most certain that peace is the best course to take. Visry did not however, and as The Inner Mind, he stood for the mindset of our people, which was war and that is the course he took."

"So..." Cryo pondered, "You can only take a course of action when it appears in the best interest of your people or what they want to happen?"

"Which is again, regrettably, mostly war." Tetren sighed, but he smiled, "However, upon the news of this defeat reached us, our attitude has certaintly changed. Our people are desperate. We are a proad race however, and we've rarely accepted help or truely appriciated it. As years have gone by however, Beasts have united under one force while we remained seperate and suffered for it."

"You're starving..." Steel mumbled.

Letry nodded, "Yes...our land is failing us and we're not getting enough food and trade has never been an option our people considered. We do though, make nice cloths from cotton and can trade that for food..."

"We," Tetren continued, "on behave of our people, are looking toward joining the Alliance of Beasts and are visiting King Arthur in Camelot. We wanted to stop here and let you know that we will do everything we can to compensate for what Visry has done and help rebuild EarthEnd. Our greatest greef goes toward the ones whose home he has now destroyed." Liki noted how Tetren was pinning everything on Visry, a good political tactic.

A small silence followed until Kaz asked, "How are you so sure your people will stick to this?"

"We are not..." Tetren admitted and sighed, "I am hoping that when they see how well we are off doing this rather than war, they will get used to it. If not...well...I pray to Gaia it won't."

Kaz nodded, "I'm sure she's listening..."

Cyro stepped foward, "Steel and I would like to go with you to the King, we can help you get his trust in this situation." Steel nodded in agreement, he had been thinking the same thing.

"We would greatly appreciate that." Tetren said thankfully and took a glance at Liki a moment.

"You're who caused Visry so much trouble in his efforts I take it? You destroyed that Anubian General's mind and caused him to send Skip and Jaklya here..."

Liki's ears dropped across his head, "I'm sorry for that..."

"You'll be happy to know that General has recovered actually, the sight of his family snapped him out of it. It's hard though, you've scarred him emotionally. He refuses to be alone and hates being in the dark, but he hates having any candles around him as well for light. The only time he's even normal is the day. We give him a drug to force him to sleep at night."

Letry spoke up, "What happened of Skip and Jaklya?"

Liki shook his head, "I don't know...I believe Skip betrayed Visry before the battle began and fought Jaklya, I haven't seen them since. Alive or dead..."

"Skip and Jaklya..." Letry continued, "They were both once young teens like you, but just normal kids...Visry took them and...changed them somehow...he made them believe they had been bred and trained since birth to fight...It seems Skip broke that illusion somehow, but Jaklya didn't. Maybe Skip broke through to her and they got out..."

Liki nodded and looked at the ground, "I hope they're okay..."

"As do I..." Letry added.

Steel and Cryo gave Liki their blessings and left with Tetren and Letry soon after that. The Foxen would make sure King Arthur sent help to EarthEnd immediatly.

Liki, Kaz, and Blackpaw watched the ship sailing away slowly, the sun setting behind them.

"Well..." Kaz started, "What now? It seems a quick ending don't you think?"

Liki grinned at him, "There's alot more to do than just this. I'm just getting started with helping people."

"This was 'helping people'?" Kaz groaned, "I hope it doesn't evolve into war each time you try..."

"I kinda hope so too. One the other hand, stabbing a gaint Anubian in the balls each day sounds interesting."

Blackpaw groaned audiobly and turned, stalking away as Liki and Kaz laughed and followed, holding hands.

Skip rowed his small boat listlessly, simply staring at the other bench in from of him and wishing Jaklya was sitting there. He kept thinking that there were two thing Jaklya had been trying to say to him before when she died in his arms.

It was either, "I love you too."

or, "I hate you."

...

He sighed and looked behind himself. He could see the land of Europe in the distance.

He would find someplace to hide out and live on his own. Skip just wanted to leave this all behind him, and move on.

Hopefully, he'd find peace in Europe.

And hopefully, so did his lost love...not the Jaklya he had killed...but the one he had had before Visry interfered with their lives...