10) “Two years ago,” he began once she had caught up with him, “the veil opened. We don’t know how, or why, but it did. When it opened, both Earth and Kadalus  were affected. Supposedly some major weather patterns had occurred on this side, along with some earthquakes and the like. No one from here got pulled through to our side, though. We were the only people caught in the effects, I guess. The government here really knows how to cover up suspicions, though, so you can’t be sure that no one was sent into Kadalus.
“The first through were a group of refugees; some of the stragglers from the Raven’s War. A couple of scalies, some furries, and some bugs.” He spat the word out scornfully, and Chay could imagine him wrinkling his nose in distaste. Bugs—Kadalians with insect-like traits—didn’t have a very clean reputation on Kadalus, and she could only guess at what they were plotting on Earth. “They weren’t too happy to find themselves in a place like this, but when they stuck their slimy little noses further into it, they figured that taking over wouldn’t be too much of a difficult task. They’ve been plotting against the humans ever since they arrived. Two years. Lucky for humanity their plans are subtle, and take time.”
Chay nodded as she listened, absorbing the information readily, yearning to know anything more about her home and anyone from it. “And when did you get here?”
“Eight months and twenty-seven days,” he replied, not slowing his pace as the snow grew deeper. “I was pulled through and dumped in the middle of a freaking desert. Nothing to be seen for miles, so I just picked a direction and walked.”
“That’s what happened to me,” muttered Chay. She frowned, looking worried. “Did the government discover you?”
“Do snakes suck eggs?” Chay winced at the slur, and even though he was ahead of her, Jass seemed to sense this. “Sorry. Yeah, they found me, and brought me to their ‘high-security’ compound. Ran some tests, came up with some ridiculous reasons for why the results were the way they were. I ended up as…”
“A biological hazard,” Chay muttered.
Jass grinned wryly, turning his head to look at her from the corner of his eye. “You too, hm?”
“Yep.”
Shaking his head, he continued. “Disgusting. Anyway, I escaped, lived for about three weeks, then they caught me again. Put me in quarantine, just like before. This time, though, there were two others kept in with me. We devised a breakout plan, the three of us together. When we pulled it off, we high-tailed it out of there and…ended up here.” He glanced back at her, shrugging. “I guess it could be worse.”
“Who were the other two who broke out with you?” Chay was glued to his every word, wanting to know more.
“Typen and Adthe,”  he replied, changing pace slightly. As his pace increased, Chay sighed and sped up as well, reminding herself that the movement would keep her warm. Jass, she had noticed, seemed to be unaffected by the cold. “They’re the first ones I’d met after being caught.”
“And they’re part of your group?”
“Naturally. Adthe isn’t much of a ‘group’ person, but he’s still one of us.” Chay could hear his grin as he talked. “Come to think of it, he’s the normal one.”
Chay nodded, wanting him to continue. “What part is he from, and the others?”
“We don’t know where he’s from, but he’s… Well, he looks like he’s Fain, to be honest. I mean, this guy’s a walking shadow. Orange eyes, scar, the whole deal.”
“His relation?”
“Canine. Hyena.”
“Mm.” Chay thought about this for a moment. “Must have a pretty good sense of humor then,” she joked. “Does he laugh a lot?”
Jass stopped cold. His face was serious as he turned a stared into Chay’s face. “I’m warning you now, so you’ll be prepared if it ever happens.” His voice was little more than a whisper, but she could hear every grain of menace it carried. “If Adthe laughs, it may be the last thing you ever hear. Especially if he’s laughing at you. He’s never really talked about it, but his father is part of the group that came over first. The ones who are trying to take over. His father has tried to make him join, but he won’t. He hates who his father has become, and he dwells on it. He’s a loose cannon, really, just waiting to snap at someone.” His tone was as cold as the snow that blew around them.
“Oh,” Chay said meekly as Jass resumed his trek. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Well now you do. Don’t forget.” He was silent for several minutes, and all that was to be heard were the regular footfalls of the pair, accompanied by their breathing. Once, Chay stumbled in the knee-deep snow, and Jass paused as she climbed to her feet. Several moments after taking up his walk again, he spoke. “The other, Typen, she’s the one who stays home and holds down the fort. She a Chammie,” he said with a tiny smile.
“Really?” Chay paused, blinking in surprise as she stood in the icy white. “But I thought the Chameleons were extinct? No one’s seen them in decades!”
Jass shrugged. “I thought so, too. But I guess we were all wrong. She still was dragged through the veil. The bad thing was, she can’t hide her skin here. She can change colors alright, but when she’s not camouflaged her skin is…a chameleon’s. So don’t stare,” he instructed, calling back to her. “She won’t admit it, but it bothers her to be stared at. Get it?”
“Don’t stare at Typen, don’t make Adthe laugh,” Chay recited, rubbing her arms to warm them as she resumed her trek. “Got it.”
“Good. Now you’ll want to know about the other two, I’m guessing?”
She grinned apologetically, although she knew he couldn’t see her. “Please and thank you.”
“Who do you want to know about? There’s Kandyl and Civanna.”
Chay frowned, horror making her eyes go wide. “Savannah? Montevallo?”
“Not ‘Savannah’, ‘Civanna’. There’s a difference. ‘Savannah’ is her alias, just like mine is ‘Jason’, and yours is ‘Chandra’.”
“So we’re still talking about the same person?”
Jass nodded, not seeing why Chay was so distressed. “Yeah, but I don’t know why you’re so upset. You don’t like her or something?”
“She kinda hates me,” muttered Chay, as cynically as she could manage without losing her pace through the flying snow. “Only a bit, though.”
He seemed amused by this, but it didn’t show in his voice. “I can’t understand why. She didn’t seem to object to me getting you.”
“She knows I’m coming?” she squeaked, coming to a stop. “Is there anything else she knows? You know, other than the most despised person in school coming to visit?”
“She knows I’m bringing someone,” he told her, walking onward. “She just doesn’t know it’s you. And don’t worry too much about it. She was born that way. Feline-related, by the way.”
“Not a vulture? That would be more fitting.”
He chuckled ahead of her, and went on. “She’s not as bad as you think. She’s just…”
“Conceited?” Chay offered, suggesting words to complete his sentence as she struggled to keep up with him. “Pinheaded? Egotistical? Bloodsucking?”
His laughter echoed off the dark, snow-covered trees. He wiped tears from his eyes, shoulders shaking with mirth. Chay rolled her eyes and followed him further into the woods, waiting for his laughing to quiet. “Done now?” she asked as he leaned against a tree to catch his breath.
“Yeah,” he wheezed, doubled over with hysterics. “Just gimme a minute.” He drew great gulping breaths and calmed his gasping. “Heh,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Warn me next time you do that, okay? So I don’t laugh too loud. Might wake someone up, and we can’t have that, now can we?” He stood back up and grinned at her. “I’m sensing some tension, though. But you’ll get over that soon enough.”
“And if I don’t?” she mumbled dryly, following after him again.
“You will. Trust me.”
She sighed, biting her lip to halt anything further on the subject. “Alright, we know about Civanna,” she muttered loud enough for him to hear. “Who’s the last one? Candle?”
“Kandyl,” Jass corrected, adding a bit of a Kadalian accent to the name. “She’s the other one you don’t want to mess with.”
“Relation?”
“Snake. She’s got a nasty temper, and a nastier sense of humor. She’s deadly quick with her tongue, and even quicker with her weapons. If you want to stay on her good side, stay quiet.”
“Fair enough,” shrugged Chay, ducking under a low branch. She had begun to shiver, but it was nothing serious. “Anything else I should know?”
He paused shortly, thinking over her question. “Um…nope. Not at the moment, anyway. Typen will answer your other questions when you get them.” He looked around at their surroundings, his maroon eyes shining oddly in the moonlight. “Stay here a minute; I need to see where we are.” Without waiting for her to object, he had vanished into the dark.
Chay sighed, irked at being left behind again. She trudged through the snow to the nearest tree and sat underneath its snow-laden boughs, trying to find some shelter form the blowing snow. Crossing her arms over her chest, she attempted to keep warm in the frigid cold. Her breath froze no sooner than leaving her lungs, and she was beginning to shiver. In an attempt to stay warm, she unfurled her wings and wrapped them around her torso. The feathers trapped most of her body heat, creating an effective insulation, but it wouldn’t last for more than a few minutes, she figured.
The wind picked up, swaying trees with staggering force. Several minutes passed, and Chay’s eyelids began to droop despite the storm. She tried to stay awake for the sake of not freezing to death in the woods, but her mind just wouldn’t cooperate. Her chin touched her chest once, twice, multiple times before she finally was able to close her eyes and—
, Ssssthunk! Ssssthunk!,
She jolted awake, her eyes going wide in shock. When she tried to look around, she found her head pinned between two long, slender, feathered shafts buried in the tree trunk. Raising one trembling hand, she wrapped her fingers around one and tried to pull it out. No luck. It was stuck deep.
“You move any more, and the next one goes between your eyes.”
She froze, not daring to breathe. Trying to see who had spoken without moving her head, she darted her eyes frantically to and fro. “Who…who’s there?”
A small figure of slight build materialized from the gloom, an arrow aimed straight at Chay. She was cloaked in grey, with a hood hiding her face, and the folds of her cloak swirled around her in the wind, giving her the look of some messenger of death. She stepped closer over the snow, until the tip was mere centimeters away from Chay’s skull. The bowstring was stretched taut, and as she spoke, the bowman never let the string go slack. “Well, well…what do we have here? Someone lost, maybe?” Her voice was soft and deadly, like the rustle of snake scales over dry leaves.
Chay began to shake her head, but thought better of it. “No,” she whispered, as if speaking softly would give her a better chance at living. “I—I’m with Jason. Jass. But he left, he told me to stay here.” The bow twitched, and Chay flinched.
“Jass, hm? Cute.” Her voice sounded amused as she held the arrow steady. “He brought another one home. But where did our little weasel get to?”
“Put the bow down, Kandyl. She’s with me.” Jass leapt out of the tree Chay was trapped against, landing lightly on the snow beside the two. He glanced between them, blinking at the arrows on either side of Chay’s head, and the one centered on her forehead. “She’s fine. Let her up.”
Chay swallowed as the arrowhead drew away, its holder sighing. “You never let me have any fun,” Kandyl muttered, firing the arrow into the frozen ground. “No fun at all.”
“Is Adthe out here, too?” He crossed his arms, ignoring the girl’s jibe.
“Naturally. The boy thrives in the cold.” She raised an eyebrow at Chay, looking her over. Her eyes shone dimly under her hood, oddly blue from the light reflected off the snow. “So, who are you?” Her voice was gentler, but hadn’t lost its underlying hiss. Her breath rose in a silver cloud as she spoke. “Name? Relation?”
Chay stood slowly, afraid that any sudden movement would trigger the snake’s hair-thin temper. “Chay,” she croaked, then cleared her throat and repeated herself. “I’m Chay. Avian.”
“A tweet? Cute.”
She winced at the gray term for an avian-related being, but didn’t dare to contradict. “Kestrel, mainly. Mind if I ask… what your relation is?”
The eyes beneath the hood twinkled. “I do mind, actually. Sorry to disappoint.” Looking sideways at Jass, she seemed to laugh, although nothing could be heard. “Our sneaky little friend never told you what I am?”
He shrugged. “I told her you were a snake. That’s all.”
“Hm.” Again the blue eyes observed Chay from under their hood. “The snow’s getting worse. By the look of it, she’s about to shiver out of her feathers, Jass. You should get her inside while she can still walk.” She bent down and jerked the three arrows from their targets, pulling them out in a swift, fluid motion. With that, Kandyl turned and strode into the dark, her grey cloak rippling in her wake.
Chay stared after her, dimly aware of the cold that was biting through her clothes. She shivered spasmodically, her teeth chattering. Only when Jass spoke did she realize that he had slung her arm over his shoulders and was helping her walk. “Come on, hurry up,” he scolded.
“Where are we g-g-going?” she stuttered, forcing her feet to move. “How m-m-much farther?”
“Almost there,” he answered, gritting his teeth as his leg sunk through a snowbank. “Not much farther. Geez, you weigh more than I think a bird should.”
Even though she was half-frozen, she managed to lift one wing and clip him in the back of the head. “Not funny, J-J-Jass,” she muttered, trying not to lean on him too heavily.
“I thought it was pretty good,” he snickered, grinning as he stepped over a fallen, snow-covered log. “Careful here. Last big drop before the door.” He held out his arm to assist her in crossing, but she swung her legs over and hopped ungracefully over. “Okay, then…”
“J-j-just walk,” Chay said, frowning through her squinted eyes. “I’ll follow.”
Jass looked as if he was about to argue, but a bright light reflected from the snow and temporarily blinded them both.
“…Jass? That you? Why in Kath’s good name are you out on a night like this? And who’s your friend? Is she that Chandra girl?”
Blinking, Chay struggled to see who was talking, and where the light was pouring from. She could almost make out a doorway, but at that same moment, a sharp crack sounded from above.
“Chay!” Jass called, but as she looked up, something slammed her in the back of the head and she crumpled to the ground.