As Hallie awakens the next morning to the sound of thunderous stomping outside, she immediately begins to panic. Priming her magic and calling Amber to action, she quickly checks that Luke is awake as the two cautiously make their way to the entrance of the cave. 

However upon looking outside, Luke immediately shouts, “It’s okay! It’s just Pine and some friends by the looks of it.”

As Hallie looks out, she can see Pine and on his back must be the friend Luke told me about. Looking out beyond them, she could see that there were a number of people traveling up the mountain. They were dressed in colorful clothing, but it was evident that it had been handmade. Judging by this, it was obvious to her that they didn’t belong to any of the bigger cities. 

“Long time no see. I’m glad that you could be there to take care of Pine and to bring him back over.” Luke says as he goes over to the stranger. Turning to me he said, “Hallie, this is Kepan. Kepan this is Hallie.”

“Nice to meet you.” Hallie responds, as she holds out her hand.

“Likewise,” he responds as he returns the handshake. “Now to get down to business… What have you two gotten yourselves into? And I expect you to tell me how you even met her.” he said looking pointedly at Luke.

“It's a long story, we should probably get everyone settled first.” Luke replies. 

With a whistle Kepan calls over one of the people who seemed to be more well dressed than the others. As the man arrived Kepan quickly said, “As everyone arrives, have them take a break and get comfortable. We are going to stay here for a few days to regroup.”

With a quick, “Yes sir,” the other man quickly became lost in the sea of people that were arriving shouting out orders in a language Hallie could not understand. 

After that was settled, Luke leads Kepan into the Cave and as we sit down, he tells him everything in detail since the moment Hallie arrived outside of their family farm. By the time he had finished explaining everything to Kepan, Luke said, “If you want to avoid getting involved, now is probably the time.”

With a chuckle, Kepan said, “It’s a bit too late for that, isn’t it. After all you guys are wanted criminals and anyone who assists you is to be punished with death.” Pulling out our wanted posters, he hands them over for us to look at before continuing, “It doesn’t matter much anyway. We are all fugitives and using our magic carries the same punishment.” As he leans forward and puts his hands together, he pulls out a few maps. Studying them for a few moments he begins to speak. “Fortunately for you two, we had already planned a rebellion. We have groups of rebels stationed near all of the main cities in preparation to eliminate the Tecas. Since some are smaller than others, we have distributed our people proportionally, but we are still looking for any new recruits. What do you say, you guys join us and help us end this once and for all?”

“I’m in.” Hallie says as determination fills her voice. Despite the fact that she had so desperately wanted to go home, she had given up on such a possibility. Knowing that it is more likely that she would be sent to the wrong time or place, she decided she would much rather stay here. Besides she has made some good friends along the way and with Luke and Amber by her side, she knew that she would be able to live here happily. But, in order to live free, she knew she would have to fight for it. 

“Are you sure?” Luke says as he looks over to me with concern evident all over his face. “It’s going to be dangerous. And I know we’ve been practicing our magic, but you still don’t have full control of everything.”

“I have to try.” Hallies replies as she looks into his eyes.

Seeing that she would not back down, he sighs before saying, “I’m in too.” Looking over at Kepan, he says, “I expect that you station us together though. I need to be able to keep her safe.”

“No problem. That can easily be arranged.” Kepan replies as he looks over at the two of us. “We had a basic strategy laid out already, although I suppose the addition of you guys’ magic may make things a bit easier for us, so we may need to make a few changes. However, the basic plan for each city involves surrounding the Teca, since it is the main part of the city and the site of the most corruption. We will be surrounding everything overnight in order to catch as many as possible unaware. We do have spies located in each Teca, so they will help the first wave infiltrate. Our strongest will be sent in first and those located outside will catch any who try to escape. Once inside, the others will work on taking down the Teca from the inside, including any who decide to fight back.”

“So we should be part of the group going inside, right?” Hallie asks as she looks at Kepan. 

“Yes, but no one is being forced into any role. You will be useful no matter where you are stationed.” he replies, sparing a glance at Luke.

Hallie reaches over and covers one of Luke’s hands with her own before saying, “I really want to do this, besides I’ve got some revenge that I would like to get.”

Luke simply sighs without giving any further reply. Seemingly in the realization that she would be doing this whether or not he wanted me to, he simply settled in to hear the rest of the plan.

“Is there anything in particular we are to target once we get inside?” Hallie asks as she looks over at the maps. From the blueprints, they were clearly preparing to enter the main Teca at the capital which is also the place where the two of us were nearly killed trying to escape, so Hallie already had a rough idea of some of the layout. 

“No, that is purely up to you. I encourage everyone to split up to cover more ground, but to stay in groups of two or three if possible. There are more people infiltrating this Teca than the others due to the size, so it is likely those who infiltrate will be spotted sooner. The goal is to get it, incapacitate and capture as many as possible and then once everyone is subdued enter and round them all up.” He says as he points to an area on the map. “This room here should be sufficient to hold them all and will allow us to restrain them easily. We do have access to some of their restraining devices and each group will be given several to aid in capture. We are trying to avoid killing anyone, however self-defense is the priority.”

“Did you already have a date in mind for the attack?” Hallie asks him as she looks over at Amber. Amber had been unusually silent  and as Hallie looked over at her, she could tell that her dragon was just intensely focusing on the maps and other information. As she looked at her, she couldn't believe how much bigger her dragon had gotten since they found her. Hallie could no longer even pick her up and as she sat next to me, she was taller than Hallie herself. 

“The original plan was for two days from now. With our traveling here, we are going to have to push things back a few days and give everyone time to rest, we should probably set it back at least two weeks. I have already spoken to everyone at the other Tecas and they also wanted more time to get fully prepared and train more recruits so it worked out for the best.” Kepan replied as he reorganized all of his plans.

“When would you like for us to depart from here?” Luke asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

“After a few days. We have all been traveling nonstop and everyone needs to rest. In addition, we were running a bit low on supplies. We should take the time to refill our water and food stores while we are here.” Kepan replies as he pulls out a canteen and takes a sip.

“We actually have plenty of food right now as Amber had recently killed a deer. Luke and I could make dinner for everyone if they’d like. That way they can rest tonight and it will allow us to thank them for helping us.” Hallie says excitedly. She knew that they could cook well enough and she desperately wanted to thank them, but knew she was unable to speak or understand their language. Giving them food seemed like a good way to bridge the gap and establish some sort of trust. After all, they would be fighting alongside each other in the upcoming battle.