I step forward. 

"We are Sprocket, Elliot and Trillian of the resistance. We mean you no harm and i apologise for the behavior of my friend here. He is used to having an army to back up his sharp tongue."

the wolf chuckles. "We understand, what is your buisness in our forest?

umm... what is our buisness? i came on this thread mostly to help Sprocket. 

Yala almost launches at Elliot, and Zjier growls. 

"How you have the sense of saying we work for that scum is unbelievable."

He throws back his head and laughs. "You think that's a good enough excuse?"

Yala breaks free and starts muttering under her breath. Suddenly Elliot is frozen, and is suspensed in the air, slowly tipping to where it looks like he is laying down.

"Yala, enough!" I growl.

Yala scoffs but takes it away as Elliot lands down with a thump.

I think we might be making more more enemies than friends. But we're trying for three wolves that haven't had contact with really anyone else for a few thousand years.  

Elliot lands down with a thud. He scrambles up, his red face in stark contrast to all of the snow on him. I couldn't help it. I laughed.

Trillian joins in and soon we are all cracking up. Elliot looks angry, but pretty soon he starts to laugh as well.

We slowly lapsed into silence, wiping tears from our eyes. Trillian was still giggling silently, and I would have an outburst every two seconds.

"I'm really sorry about that," I say between hiccups. "We just had a humor moment."

"What is your purpose in this forest?" one of the wolves, Master Yala, growls.

I start to relate the story of how I had gotten the request for help, and had decided to come to the north to help fight Catastrophe. I would help in any way to prevent Catastrophe from gaining power, as he already had the sword of Ravenmoore.

Elliot then began to tell his story, about helping a girl named Lia and the bandits on the train.

Eventually he stops and we again lapse into silence. It was the wolves turn to speak. 

I'm a girl, Zjier's a boy, and Yala's a girl. Just to clear things up. 

Once I'm done sifting through...Moonracer's... memories, Elliot suddenly crashes to the ground out of no where and the vampires begin to laugh. The Three of us eye each other, confused at what is so humorous. Finally they stop laughing and Yala asks them what they are doing in the forest. Then throughout the course of about ten minutes, they explain everything. They look at us expectantly but we just nod and think about what they said. 

I think they're telling the truth, Yala communicates. 

How can we know? Zjier asks. 

I agree, I reply. But they don't seem to not be telling the truth.

I say we give it a shot. Yala says. 

We look at the others, and they stand a bit confused.

Zjier clears his throat. "Do you know which weapon Catastrophe is going for next?"

"Rumors say he is going to get the Crown," Sprocket replies.

"No!" Yala outbursts. Then she starts laughing. "Then he will get nowhere. The powers of the weapons don't work too well if you go out of order. He must get the Sword, the Shield, and then the Crown. Is it not obvious for dumb witted beings like him?"

"But he also might, just might, know that the Crown is among three wolves like yourselves," Trillian says.

"So we shift," Zjier replies, shrugging. "What's the most common thing right now?"

Trillian and Sprocket look at each other. "Teenagers." 

Ronan. Relief washes through me, though I'm not sure why. It just seems as if now that Ronan's around, things will be made right. I just hope he can help my friends. He stutters in embarrassed confusion as Shadow tells him to help his 'girlfriend' and I break the silence by calling, "Just get over here, loverboy!" Before dashing off to get help. I feel a bit better now that Shadow and I aren't alone with an injured Icy, but adrenaline is still pumping through my veins as I run back the way the train took me. 

~

By the time I reach the station, I'm freezing and exhausted. A kindly badger offers to let me lodge at the inn and tavern called the Cavern&Tavern that lies near the Badger Express, but I politely decline, telling her of my predicament. "Oh dear me, oh dear, dear, dear me," she says over and over again, pacing the floor. Her brow is furrowed, and I feel bad, for I know that I just worried this poor badger sick. Then her brow un-furrows, and she looks at me, wide eyed. "Hey!" She snaps her claws. "Ya know, I used to be a medic! Maybe I could 'elp 'er!" She then notices my wet and disheveled state, and kindly offers me a blanket. I take it gratefully, wrapping it around my cold, sore body. Despite this, I know I'll still have to walk back all the way I came with the old badger, which is agonizing to think about. And even then, I'm not so sure I trust this old badger with my sister's life. "Thank you for the offer, but I think I need to communicate with someone from middle Kyngdom, ( OUT OF CHARRIE: Middle Kyngdom is where Bog&Burrow in is located, right? IN CHARRIE:) where I'm from." The badger looks a bit disheartened at first, but then nods and hands me a Cypher Communications Device (CCD) from which I can contact medics from the area. But then the screen goes black. We've lost power. I sigh, flipping the device shut and handing it back to the badger. "Maybe it would be best if we wait the night," she starts, and then seeing the look on my face, abruptly closes her mouth. She tells me to wait while she brews some tea, and when she returns, I notice something different about her expression, and also the fact that there is no tea. A few moments later, something like a badger-drawn carriage approaches the station. Not as big as a train, just a small cart pulled by four friendly badgers who seem to be gabbing away at each other even as they run. I turn to realize the badger is gone, and when she returns, she has a few canteens of tea. "Let's go." She says. And we do. 

I am asleep, and dreaming in my dream memories are before my eyes, but then it stops, I am looking through my own eyes but I do not remember this, a women and a man spoke together I onley caught bits and pieces, they said that to send me away they said I was too young that I was onley 400, they said they would have to send me to my, Aunt Stella?? what were they talking about my aunt Stella I did not understand. then I woke up I knew I had to go, go back too Stella, find anssers,

Lia M.

I was cold. Really cold. The fire had died a long time ago, and we were still talking. The wolves were debating the idea of shifting into teenagers, and Trillian and I were giving tips on how to look. 

Trillian was trying to describe to them about hair color (they wanted bright green, she said more incognito), when I walked over to Elliot.

"Um, so what you said about being taught?" I ask.

He nods.

"So, when this all blows over I wonder if you could show me how to develop some more powers if it is possible. I think it would be really useful in this war if I could do something more. Right now all I can do is make things."

I hold my breath, waiting for his response. 

Well, that was no fun.

I scramble up and transform back into a human. Yala's released me, which Is a good sign. Hmm...Do they trust me?

"You've done that before." I say to Nova. "The whole memory scanning thing..You act like you do it a lot."

A shrug."It's handy  for checking people's true feelings."

"Wait...You trust me?"

Another shrug. "You seem okay enough."

I grin. "Trust me, huh? Then naybe I should give you something back." The pain is really getting to me.

The Three growl, and tension cranks up another notch. Some of the humans draw their various weapons.

I wave my hand. "Relax, people. Don't get ready to skewer me just yet."

I snap my fingers. Every single illusion in the forest dissapears.Both the humans and the animals look surprised, as if I suddenly did something nice for once...Oh wait, I did.

Yala's looks at me with new respect, like, how did you do that?

I wink right back.  A small blue spark appears from my eyelid and spirals up, disappearing into the starlit sky. The flute that I've been holding the whole time glows slightly with a blue aura.

"Remember, I have the Key. And it's not only you three that have power in the forest. This is my home as well-and trespassers are not appreciated."

Authors note:

The Key is a  powerful object that allows the holder to control all illusions in the Decoy forest. It is an instrument of any kind, but the last recorded sightings of the key said it to be a small flute charm...