The Journey Begins . . .

       That night, Maila and Airibone were walking back to the sleeping hall when all of the sudden, Obalie ran up to them panting.

"You guys," Obalie was gasping for words, as she was breathing so heavily. "I've been running all around the village looking for you two, I've got Orkijace on her way." what is she up to now?

"What's going on?" Maila asked her breath taken friend. Obalie looked up at the sky and then glanced behind her. Almost as if she were on the run from something.

"I'll tell you when Orkie's here." Airibone gave Obalie a sarcastic look.

"Orkie, really? Is that what you're calling her?" Obalie raised an eyebrow. "What is she calling you, Obal? Or alie?" A smug grin slid across Airibone's face. Obalie just rolled her eyes and looked at the sky again.

"Alright, it's almost time." She whispered. Obalie glanced behind her and stomped her foot. Maila squinted to see, far away, at the back of the village, Orkijace poked her head around the side of a tree. Orkijace was so skinny, she could remain unseen behind a little tree trunk in the distance. Interesting . . . Airibone saw it too, they exchanged glances. Orkijace sprinted up to them.

"Hey guys" Orkijace had a beaming smile on her face. "So Oab, what did you want me meet here for?" Airibone had an amused look now. Obalie glanced at Maila and Airibone with an embarrassed expression.

"Uh, Ok. I didn't want to tell Tarska or Silvics, but I didn't wanna go alone . . . Then it would be weird and awkward. But, tomorrow, I heard that Oouger was leaving to fill in as a guard for his dad. So, I wanted to go and visit him so he wouldn't be lonely all day. Do you three want to come?" Obalie gave Maila a sideways glance with a nudge nudge wink wink look.

"Uh," Maila began, "I- Ya, sure! I'll come, I mean why not?"

"I'll come too, but why didn't you want to tell Silvics or Tarska? They would probably want to come." Airibone asked.

"Well," Obalie started. "You know how Silvics worries herself, and Tarska-" Maila knew what she meant.

"Ok," Maila interjected. "Orkijace, are you in?" Maila moved her gaze over to Orkijace, who was detaching herself from a vine. Orkijace looked up at them with an expression that said, 'obviously . . .'

"Ya! Of course! Should I bring anything?" Orkijace tilted her head at Obalie.

"Only if you want to, I'm not." Obalie answered. Airibone let out a yawn and dug her paws into the ground. This was probably a sign saying time for bed. Maila followed the sign and walked over to the sleeping hall. Darkness closed over her eyes as she drifted of to sleep. She had a feeling that her head would only be full of nightmares though . . . will we survive?

                                                              ~ * * * ~

This time, Maila woke up early. She proudly strutted over to Airibone, Orkijace, and Obalie, and began to wake them up. For Airibone, it only took a poke on the shoulder. Orkijace needed a little reminder about the plan, Obalie was- well- difficult to wake up this morning. When she did however, she was up, ready, and raring to go! "Is everyone ready?" Maila asked. "It's an hours journey there and back." Obalie looked at her with tired, yet excited eyes.

"No it's not," she said. "Oouger's guarding the outskirts of the territory." Airibone looked confused.

"So?" she asked.

"That's a day's journey!"Airibone's eyes shot open to their full extent. But Obalie wasn't finished speaking yet. "Just to get there. And maybe longer on the way back!" Orkijace had a troubled brow.

"Why would the trip back be longer Obalie?" Orkijace asked. Obalie was about to take a breath to answer her, but Maila answered instead. Only because she knew that she could explain it better.

"Because, it might be night time. That might make it more difficult to travel." Maila said calmly. Orkijace's brow relaxed and fell into a normal expression again. But, then it returned to a furrow.

"Wait,"she said. "Why don't we just stay with Oouger until morning?" Orkijace questioned. "Like, we could help him out and stuff. . ." Maila felt bad that her friends didn't know that he was leaving for a while, but she didn't know if Oouger would be too happy about her telling them. I don't care. They have a right to know!

"Um, you guys?" Maila stuttered. "Well, you see the thing is-" all eyes were on her now. "Uh, Oouger's not coming back." Maila still couldn't believe it herself, but it was true. She shifted her gaze to Obalie, whose jaw was in the process of slowly dropping as her eyes widened. Orkijace bowed her head with eyes open huge with shock. And finally, Maila turned to look at Airibone, she knew that Airibone would just pretend Maila was just lying in order to dismiss the horrible fact.

"Phff!" Airibone scoffed. "That's not true! He'd tell us for one thing, and he'd at least say goodbye." a lone tear drifted down her face, Maila shook her head.

"No, he-he didn't want us to know. He knew we'd try to stop him. I shouldn't have said anyth-" Maila started but, was cut off.

"He's dang right we'd try to stop him!" Obalie fumed. "And that's exactly what we're going to do!" Obalie dug up some dirt with her back foot and got ready to sprint! Maila knew how she felt, but they couldn't do that. Oouger's father was to weak to do it anymore, and someone had to do it (that was willing). Maila had to tell this to Obalie before she ran off into the sunrise. But, as Maila took a breath to speak, Obalie blurted something to them.

"C'mon! If we leave now, we might be able to catch him!" she shouted. Airibone grabbed Obalie by the tail and, hauled her back in.

"No we won't, he left at second moon midnight. He'll be halfway there by now." Airibone argued. Maila gave Orkijace a sideways glance, and they grabbed some fruit they had gathered the other day and began to walk towards the outskirts of town. Obalie and Airibone exchanged glances and hurried after them with more fruit.

"So," Maila said. "who's excited?" she looked around to see their faces, which weren't quite what she expected. "Uh-" she tried. "We can go and visit him anytime if you like!" this made her feel a bit better to know, maybe it would work with them. Airibone looked up at her with a fake smile. "Ya," Airibone said. "That sounds good." Airibone looked down at the ground as she drew a small circle in the dirt with her fore paw. Maila knew that - as a group - they had known Oouger since they were born. And, they all had close attachments to each other. They were all like siblings. She knew that no matter how much she visited, she would never get over the fact that he wasn't around them anymore. They all know we'll have to get over it someday- or at least get used to it. Maila glanced up at the sky, two suns were high up in the sky. It's noon already! How has all of that time passed so quickly?

Maila peered over her shoulder at her friends, Orkijace had her head bowed and Obalie was looking through her collection of fruit. Wait a minute! She realized, where was Airibone?

"Airibone?" she called. "Guys, have you seen Airibone? I'm sure she was right here a minute ago!" Orkijace's head shot up as she looked around.

"I don't know," Orkijace said. "Wasn't she just talking to you Maila?" She asked. Yes she had, but that was a few minutes ago. How could none of them have noticed? Just then, Maila was just about to call out for her again, when she caught movement in the corner of her eye. Maila raced over to it, to find Airibone crouched beside a bush.

"What are you doing?" Maila asked her. Airibone looked up at her, and then back into the bush. What is she doing?

"Hello?" Airibone spoke softly to the bush. "Hel-o-o! Anyone there?" Maila realized that they were getting closer to the forbidden forest, she knew that it could play tricks on one's mind. Maila grabbed Airibone's shoulder and tugged her friend away. But, as she did this, the bush rumbled and out came Tarska.

"Geez, you don't have to play dumb with me!" she spat. Tarska pick something up from the bush and walked over to Obalie. Obalie had one eyebrow raised.

"Why are you here?" she asked Tarska. Tarska let out a long depressing sigh and answered.

"I was bored, and Oouger and Silvics were gone, so I followed you three all of the way out here." Tarska let out another breath and brought her fore-paw up in front of her, to peered at her claws.

"Oh," Orkijace said. "Well- we didn't invite you. That's kinda rude." she said with a hint of sass in her voice. That's weird, Orkijace, SASS? The mist coming from the forbidden forest must be playing with her head.

"Uh," Maila spoke up. "We're getting pretty close to the outskirts where he's posted now guys." Maila looked over to Airibone in hopes that she would catch on and help Maila change the subject. Airibone wasn't looking at her though, Airibone was gazing off into the forest.

"What do you think's in there?" She asked with a half present quality to her tone of voice. "I mean, nobody knows! I think adventure is just calling me . . ." Airibone took a step towards the tall, perfect, straight line of trees. Maila rushed over to her and held out her forearm to block Airibone from going in.

"Oouger is that way Airibone!" Maila said pushing her friend back over to the group. Obalie nodded and pointed over to a small clearing where Maila could see a dark structure on the horizon. That's Oouger's hut! She realized with a shot of glee and satisfaction. We made it!

"Tarska?" Orkijace said in a puzzled way. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"What?" Tarska scoffed. "I'm right here Orkijace." Tarska was right there, she wasn't going anywhere. What was Orkijace talking about?

Then, all of the sudden, Maila heard a faint wisp of laughter, as if floating along in the wind. And immediately after, Orkijace gasped and collapsed to the ground.