"No, apparently, Darian couldn't wake him up…"

"Well, he's definitely awake now. Any Wilds in the Beast Wave left?"

"Only those in the Pit."

"So… what do we do with them?"

They barricaded the tunnels and surrounded the Pit, three Sky Fortresses and the military-grade Red Fang hovering above with every cannon and ballista pointed downward. Having the enemy trapped in a pit, surrounded on all sides, with air superiority and the ultimate high ground all at once, this Beast Wave was turning out to be much easier to handle than expected.

Remian, Markus, and Carrie peered down at the trapped Wilds from above. Remian called out, "Everybody get clear, at least three hundred meters away!"

They moved while Remian closed his eyes and concentrated. He calmed himself, calmed his mind, gathered his strength and evened out his breathing. "I am calm. The skies are blue. The gra.s.s is green. I am at peace…"

"We're clear!" Markus reported.

"Airs.h.i.+ps clear!" Mindy called. "Go for it!"

Remian clenched his fist, and released his powers. "Anti-Magic!"

A ripple burst out from him for a couple of hundred meters. This was more than enough to reach the bottom of the Pit and clear out any magical effects still lingering on the trapped Wilds below.

[Wha… where are we?] a lot of confused Wilds asked each other. [Can someone tell me what is going on?]

"Surrender or die!" Remian called down.

[Humans?! They have us trapped! But we will never surrender!] Snarls were their only reply.

"We'll treat your wounds and treat you to dinner!" Remian offered.

Half the growls and snarls in the Pit paused.

"Look, you guys actually attacked us first. We can't just let you run off, now, can we? Swear fealty on the Twin Dragons, and join our side!"

[How dare you!] the biggest Golden Lion below roared. [I am the third cousin to the Golden Lion Lord! Release me immediately, or he will exact vengeance upon you!]

"Oh? Sounds like we have a valuable hostage!" Remian exclaimed.

[Whoops…] The Golden Lion gulped.

"All right, everybody else has a chance to join our side… except that one! That one, we use as a hostage to negotiate with the Golden Lion Lord!" Remian decided.

[Nooooo…!] the Golden Lion Lord's cousin wailed.

Remian backed away from the edge of the Pit with a smile, then almost stumbled over something in the dirt. "What is this?"

It looked like a metal board stuck onto a bone handle… "Wait, I know what this is. A bone core made from DD's tooth supporting a body of metal… this is Song Chen's ruler. What's it doing here?"

"I think he dropped it when he got hurt?" Mindy guessed.

"Can anyone even use something like this to fight?" Remian wondered. "I mean, it looks more like something you'd carve runes into and sit on to fly."

Mindy's eyes went wide. All of her sudden her gaze seemed almost to sparkle.

"Anyway… it looks like Darian has gone. I guess it's time we left too." Remian added.

"We're leaving?" Mindy stared.

"I'm going with you for your first trade run, remember? Although we need to go south to have a chat with the Golden Lion Lord before we go north."

"Ah. Right." Mindy pondered. "When are we going? Tonight?"

"No, I still need to make a few arrangements. Let's head out tomorrow morning, after breakfast."

"Okay."

***

One of those arrangements was for his parents to head south too.

"Three Pines Peak?" Remian's dad mused. "Are the ruins there dangerous or something?"

"No, it's more like an academic dig than a dungeon raid." Remian explained. "The Wilds there are the Eagle Lord's followers; they're friendly toward us. But we need to send a lot more manpower, and I'd like our most knowledgeable academics to take a look. That means you and mom, by the way."

"I think the ones you want there are actually Arnold and Jim, but sure, we can go take a look. We're in airs.h.i.+ps. We can go anywhere." Damien Vin shrugged.

Lisa Vin, though, shook her head. "We can't just run off on a whim! Most of our students are here! What are we going to do, take them away from their homes? We can't just upset everyone's routines!"

"Call it a field trip, or a summer camp!" Damien Vin suggested.

"Just how long do you expect to be there?"

"Until Darian comes visit us for the weekend. It'll be a much shorter trip for him to visit us there than to visit us here. That means more time with him."

That certainly weighed in heavily. But Remian's mom still had a few more issues. "What about Sabriane and Eriane? Are we just leaving them here?"

"We could just bring them along." Remian's dad shrugged. "Though Sabriane might prefer to stay here and keep working on the new hospital. She can stay if she wants. She can take care of herself."

The choice was hers, but in the end, Sabriane opted to take a week off from the hospital and go set up an infirmary at the Three Pines Outpost.

Forty adventurers and three airs.h.i.+ps (Red Fang, Farm School, Encles School) headed to Three Pines Peak the next morning. Most of the adventurers were children and teenagers out on a 'field trip', but there were three older Adventurers who brought everything they had, prepared to stay at Three Pines for the long haul.

Basically… Sandra's and Gammie's 'parents' (Guardians? Mentors?) were going back with them to see their treehouse. Koma, Ruth and Xia were going to be in charge of Three Pines Outpost in the long run.

Oh, and… they also brought along one hostage. The Golden Lion 'cousin to the Lord' had an entire plank-and-netting platform slung below the Red Fang to himself. It was large enough for a quick pace to and fro, but the n.o.ble cousin did not seem to want to do much pacing when the only thing between him and a five hundred foot drop was a single piece of wood and some rope.

Meanwhile, the Eagle Lord and his host went and returned to Three Pines ahead of everyone else. They left KarGoth earlier in the morning, while the airs.h.i.+ps were loading supplies, and were miles ahead by the time the airs.h.i.+ps took off. By lunch-time, they were already on the far side of the horizon, almost out of sight.

The Red Fang, likewise, left the two school airs.h.i.+ps behind very quickly. That was all very well since Remian and Mindy weren't actually going to Three Pines this time. They were going to see the Golden Lion Lord.

***

[Golden Lion Lord! I have your cousin hostage! Meet me to negotiate terms, or we kill him!]

[Cousin! Help! HELP!]

The Golden Lion Lord got the messages as soon as the Red Fang entered his Fief. He blinked once at the sorry figure hanging from the netting below the airs.h.i.+p, turned to the nearest lioness at his side and asked, [Is that really my cousin?]

[He's a golden lion.] she shrugged. [If he isn't your cousin, he's probably one of your brothers, or your uncle, or something.]

[Ugh.] The Lion Lord turned to the airs.h.i.+p and said, [What do you want, human?]

[My enemies have infiltrated your land and are turning your kind against me. I want these human enemies of mine hunted down and the Beast Waves stopped!]

[What do the Beast Waves matter? Sooner or later you will heap the wrath of another Tide upon yourself and this time, you won't survive it.]

[Don't you care about your own kind being used in someone else's schemes?]

[Less mouths to feed.] The Lion Lord yawned lazily. [Less work for me.]

[HEY!] The lioness by his side growled.

Remian snorted. [I see why the Eagle Lord said that negotiating with you was beneath him.]

[He says that about everything.] The Lion Lord murmured, already feeling bored and sleepy. [If that's all…]

[Do we have a deal? You swear upon the Twin Dragons to hunt down those humans, and I give you your cousin back!]

[How odd that a human asks me to hunt down his kind to save my own…] the Lion Lord mused.

The lioness beside him rolled her eyes. [That's because you're too lazy to do it on your own initiative!]

[This is a trap, isn't it? You expect me to believe you have turned on your own kind?] The Lion Lord finally roared.

[It's no trap. As I have said; they are my enemies, not my friends.]

[But still your own kind, as similar to yourself as Iron Lions are to me.]

[Yet they want to kill me and destroy my people. Therefore I want the same upon them.]

[How odd.] The Lion Lord shook his head. [Hundreds of other species, far greater threats looming all around you in the world, and you humans fight your own kind.]

[Just give me an anwer already; yes, or no?]

The Lion Lord yawned, thought about it for a moment, then gave his answer.

[No.]