@Admin(s), i posted a comment abouta hour ago, so i waswondering were it was? im asking because my comments show up like five to ten minuts after i post them.

Check again—just so you know, during the day we generally post comments every forty-five minutes or so. People have been submitting very long posts, which take a long time to read (but we love to read them!)--admin 

I drew Khai! If anyone wants me to draw their characters, just let me know.

No worries Luminescence!  I think you portrayed Lianna just fine!  Looking forward to the next part.

Is there room for more characters?

Name: Tazandyr "Taz" Meindor

Age: 29

Personality: He's very dramatic and energetic, pessimistic, hyper, and very sarcastic. He's 29 but he acts waaaaay younger, he's very immature AND annoying!!!! :D

Appearance: olive skin, dark eyes and messy black hair, medium height

He is from Aelaas 

@Heroes Here's Lulia and Raymond! I hope you like it, and let me know if you'd like anything changed! 

Part II

Khaira fidgeted. “You’re sure the ferry won’t collapse?” she asked Luila for the tenth time. Luila nodded. As a desert girl, Khai did not appreciate floating on a small boat in the middle of a lake. She hoped they’d at least reach the shore before the boat fell apart. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stop worrying.

Lianna wondered about what they’d find at the refugee camp. She knew they’d find anger- “Ugh, Raymond, keep your pets off of me!” She’d thought he’d been joking when he said he was bringing his pets along. He wasn’t. And that bird- whose name was apparently Lollipop- was really freaking her out: it wouldn’t stop staring at her.

Delilah stalked away from the inspector and noticed a man staring at her. She smiled sweetly and sat down next to him, because everyone else was moving away from her, like she was diseased or something. “Hi. I’m Delilah.” The man grinned. “I know. The megaphone?” She ran her fingers through her Floof, smoothing it down. She decided she wasn’t going to talk to this person. 

“I’m Taz.” The so-called “spy” sitting next to him glared. “I’m really scared,” he said sarcastically. Then, louder: “And I should be, shouldn’t I, spy?” He smirked and made air quotes around the last word. The girl’s glare lessened considerably. Actually, he should probably start calling her Delilah. “So, Delilah. That happen to you before? Well, get used to it- It’ll probably keep happening for the rest of your life.” Delilah’s mouth dropped open. Pessimism- works every time.

Jena stared out the window. Halieka had just gotten the news- Aelaas had fallen. But contrary to what her people thought, the war wasn’t lost. She stared at her arms and ran her finger over the markings on them. The arms of a ruler… Halieka would take Aelaas’ place as the center of happiness. Jena’s head snapped up as she called for her advisors. It was the only way… She couldn’t lie about it this time.

Luila felt the ferry bump the mainland and heard Khaira jump. She bit back a giggle. “Come on!” whispered Raymond. They silently hopped off the boat. “So- how are we getting to Aelaas?” Luila voiced it, but she could tell they’d all been asking it in their heads. Except maybe Raymond- he always had the answer.

Raymond thought. “Fast modes of transportation, fast modes of transportation…” he muttered. The girls looked at him expectantly. “Well, first of all: technology or living thing?” he asked.  “What do you mean, living thing?” asked Lianna, her voice a bit higher pitched than usual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fortunately, that wasn’t the plan: “We could hitch the dogs to a piece of driftwood- but it’d have to be a light piece. This isn’t going to be cruelty.” Khaira thought that made sense. But… “Shouldn’t you ask them first?” Not waiting for a response, Khai whispered the plan into each dog’s ear. She didn’t know if it was just her, but they seemed to nod. 

Lianna looked at Raymond. “You know what this means though?” Raymond shook his head. “Your dogs… are tejiletni-dogs.” Tejiletni-dogs… they weren’t just myths! “You know that they can do virtually anything, right?” Raymond nodded, as though in a daze. From a long way off, Luila’s voice said “Found the driftwood! Lianna, get the rope from the ferry, will you?”

Delilah closed her mouth angrily. Taz was no longer even going to be considered as friend material. Yes, it had happened before, but he didn’t have to mention it! She bet he was one of those people where nothing bad had ever happened to them. Being the daughter of star-crossed lovers was so much harder than they made it sound. The world went blurry with tears.

Oh no. Now he’d done it. “Um, it’s okay. I didn’t mean it…” Taz muttered. Now the kid was going to start crying. “Nice flowers?” he said, a little louder. Delilah looked up at him, said flowers almost slipping off her head.  “Thanks.” she whispered. Then she was back to her old happy attitude. What?! This was the happiest, most optimistic person he’d ever met.

Jena smoothed the silk skirt of her dress and pushed up her lace sleeve, making her markings more prominent. “Mr. Mbila, please hear me out. I know I’m young-” Mbila interrupted. “Our youngest Jei yet, actually.” Jena continued pointedly: “-but this is the best decision for the greater good. We need to take Aelaas’ place.”

Luila stared. “Stop joking around!” she hissed. “Tejiletni-dogs aren’t real and you know it!” “Ask them to do something. Anything.” Lianna told her. Luila spun around, her cream colored tunic swishing, ready to make Lianna look crazy. “Please get us some food.” The dog she was talking to nodded and stood up. As he walked away, food appeared. Luila’s jaw dropped.

Raymond tried not to laugh at the look on his friend’s face. “Well, let’s go then.” The dogs- no, Tejiletni-dogs- were all hitched up and ready to go. He clambered up onto the driftwood and Khai, Lianna, and Luila followed. “Jelly, take us to the Aelaas refugee camp,” he said, speaking to the pack’s leader.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Khaira did all she could not to scream out loud, but riding behind Tejiletni-dogs was definitely something to scream about. Even Lianna had let out a few squeaks, and for Lianna, that was like screaming, in Khai’s opinion. “Aelaas, here we come!” she stage-whispered.

Lianna realized it was impossible to even hope to reach Aelaas before morning. That morning, Lianna realized that normal rules did not apply to Tejiletni-dogs. “We’re… here?” she said, in disbelief. Everyone looked at her. Taking that to mean “Yes, we’re here, are you crazy?” and said, “What I mean is, we’re here so let’s go do what we’re supposed to: help out.”

Delilah had since warmed up to Taz, and she stood next to him, looking at the strangers. One was a dark-skinned girl with no shoes and a colorful scarf holding back her hair. One was a short-haired, pale-skinned girl wearing a silver headband and fingerless gloves. The third girl had sandy brown hair with a CRAZY bandanna and a cream colored tunic, and looked surprisingly Aelaanian. And the boy had black hair and another crazy bandanna and leather sandals.

Taz knew Delilah was examining the strangers, but he was examining their pets- of which there were quite a lot. There were two dogs, who looked like siblings, and who stood by the pale girl. One was white, except for one ear, which was black, and the other was black with a white ear. There were four birds, all varying shades of green, yellow, blue, purple, and orange, which were perched on the boy’s head, shoulders and arm.. A cat, which was an orange tabby, who slunk around the girl with the scarf’s legs.. And finally, there were three mice, all snow white, which were perched on the crazy bandanna girl’s arms and shoulders.

Jena was prepared to argue with Mbila, but not for FIVE HOURS. Finally, she told him they would discuss further in the morning and promptly exited the room and ran to her secret spot, which was in the gardens. It was only secret because she went out of the castle through a secret door which led there, but she still loved it.

Luila was surprised- most people averted their eyes from them. But not the girl with the flower crown, and not the man with the SUPER messy hair. She could tell he was staring at the mice, (who were named Red, Yellow, and Blue), but what was the girl staring at?

Raymond drank in everything with his eyes. Everyone looked so familiar… why? He looked at Luila, ready to ask her when it hit him. “Luila, they look like YOU!”

I really like it!  Can’t wait to see the next part!

Agent Winter, if you have spare time would you please draw Lianna for me?