As the morning light trickled into the caves of the Mora, Jade opened her eyes, stretching out as much as she could before sitting up. It was then that she saw the charcoal rubbings that Rune had left on her wall. She quickly ran over to them and read what he had written.
"Jade, you're in charge until I get back. Chaiia will help you if you need it. If I'm not back in 3 days, that's about when you should start to worry." Jade repeated the note a few more times before running to Rune's cave. Looking all around, she saw nothing. No signs of life anywhere except the dying fire. She grabbed a smaller stick and stuck the tip of it into the blaze to make a torch, and went into the depths of the cave. She reached a point where she couldn't go any further and noticed Rune's other drawing. She sat there, trying to make sense of the plan he had drawn out when it hit her. He had gone back to the Boka to try to get Kyra and Jayson back, and he was ready to sacrifice himself to save one of them. She sprinted back out of the cave and ran to the Maki.
"Ryuu! Chaiia! I need you guys now!" Jade looked around until the two girls came up to her, one with long red hair and the other with brown hair.
"What's up, Jade? Where's Rune?" Ryuu, the brown haired girl, asked.
"There's no time to talk. I need you to follow me." Jade started walking back to Rune's cave. "This morning, there was a note left on my cave walls, telling me I was the chief until he came back. I thought it was just a joke, but when I got into his cave, I saw something that made my heart stop." They walked into the cave and Jade picked up the torch again. "He went to the most remote part of the cave and sketched out an intricate plan. It took me about 20 minutes to fully understand it. See?" She held the torch up so the other two could see the strategy.
"Holy crap. I never knew just how much Rune could strategize before now. That plan is much better than anything I've seen before." Chaiia cocked her head to one side. "There is no way I'd be able to understand that without help. It is quite confusing."
Jade sighed. "Do you think that he'll be able to do it? I really think that he's underestimating the brains of the Bokans." She started walking out of the cave, Ryuu and Chaiia closely behind. She started getting a pack of supplies ready when Ryuu finally asked her what her plan was.
"You aren't just going to go out on your own, are you? What if something happens?" Ryuu grabbed her arm. "Jade, it's dangerous. You need to take someone. "
Jade looked at the two of them. "Fine, I'll take Chaiia. Ryuu, stay here in case I don't come back. If I don't make it back but Chaiia does, she's in charge. I should be back before nighttime." She ran into the woods, towing Chaiia by the arm.
"Um, Jade, do you know where we're going?" Chaiia tried to slow down, but Jade kept running.
"Nope! I really have no idea where to go or what to do. I figured since Rune always left in this direction, we'd find him eventually. Come on!" Jade kept running as fast as she could, trying to cover as much ground in the least amount of time. It wasn't long before she heard a yell, followed by the sound of branches breaking. Jade and Chaiia quickly hid behind trees before peering into a clearing, where they saw branches falling from the trees. It wasn't long before Rune fell on his back, the wind knocked out of him. Soon following, Lucas, Sokan, and Coron nimbly dropped out of the trees and landed on their feet. Sokan walked over to Rune, stopping when his face was right over his.
"You think you could trick us? You think your owl hoots in the night were sneaky enough, your whispers to Kyra, and you literally sitting a foot away from our base could fool the Boka? You were wrong, Rune, Chief of the Mora."
Jade looked at Chaiia with a terrified expression. Sokan was a ruthless person who had no soul, and Lucas was just insane. The two girls slowly crept around the trees until they were in a good position to ambush and began the wait.
"You and your tribe will never be as great as the Boka. Especially after they lose you, their chief. All they'll be able to do is come running to us for mercy. You should be grateful, since I don't kill my prisoners. I keep them locked far away, in a place where no one could find them ever again. I know why you're here. You want to trade yourself for Kyra. Not happening, Pretty Boy. You will stay- Ow!"
Sokan stopped his speech as Jade kicked him in the head. Chaiia ran out of her hiding place and kicked Coron in his stomach. Once he was down, she punched him in the nose. She gave him a few more hits, and then moved on to Lucas. He was a lot harder to fight than Coron was, and she started to lose the fight quickly. Lucas was distracted for a second as Rune started attempting to get up. Chaiia took that opportunity to punch his stomach, causing him to double over. As he was on his way down, Chaiia brought her knee up into his nose, smiling when she heard his nose break. She kicked him as hard as she could one last time, and ran to help Jade, who was losing the fight badly.
Jade thought she had been doing alright when she started off with the kick to the head. Unfortunately, Sokan had a thick skull and recovered from his shock quickly and punched her in the arm. She started fighting more defensively, only striking when Sokan's guard was down. She saw Chaiia make quick work of Coron and work her way to Lucas, and she also saw Rune fighting to get up. Her split second lack of concentration caused her to take a hit to the face. Soon, her feet had been knocked out from under her and Sokan was on top of her.
"Looks like you have more fight in you than I thought back home. You can really pack a kick, especially one to the head. Too bad for you that all that effort was in vain. You see, you are currently stuck here at my mercy, and your friend over there is losing her fight. You should just give up now before you get on my real bad side."
Jade considered what he said for a moment, only one, before reaching up and punching him in the face. It gave her enough time to scramble out from under him before he grabbed her ankle and yanked her back.
"You little brat! You shouldn't have crossed me, especially not on today of all days." He slowly pulled her back, pinning her arms above the head with one hand and slapping her across the face with the other. She saw out of the corner of her eye a flicker of movement, and she turned her head to see what it was. Chaiia was running over to her, planning on getting Sokan off of her. She saw that Coron and Lucas were starting to get up behind Chaiia, and it was then that she knew that the fight wasn't one that could be won.
"Chaiia, run! Take Rune and go! It's the only way! Get out of here!" Jade managed to shout before Sokan punched her in the throat, temporarily cutting off her air supply. She was relieved when she saw Chaiia listen to her and drape Rune's arm over her head and run off to the camp.
"You just cost me the chief of your tribe. You will pay for this, you useless piece of trash." Sokan screamed out a series of frightening war cries, and several of the other Bokas descended from the treetops. They all grabbed rope and quickly tied her up, leaving her motionless.
"You're too late, Sokan. Chaiia is gone with Rune, and all you have to show for it is a girl, someone you yourself called worthless. If there is nothing more pathetic to you than getting played by a couple of girls, let me know." Jade smiled at the annoyed expression on Sokan's face.
"Gag this puny little girl. I refuse to listen to another word she says." Sokan stormed off to the base of a tree, where he grabbed a rope and disappeared into the leafy canopy above.
* * *
Neptune sat back at camp, watching for Jade and Chaiia to return. Ryuu had told them everything that had happened that morning, and everyone in the camp was worried for their leaders. He sat thinking about what had happened when he was taken. The Boka had treated him like an old, broken stick; they treated him like he was worthless when he had been friends with many of them his entire time in school. He never thought things could change so drastically in just a few short weeks. He heard a yell from the other side of camp, and saw that Chaiia and Rune had returned, Rune clinging to her for support. Neptune ran as fast as he could over to his friends.
"Chaiia, what happened? Why's Rune so hurt? Where's Jade? And why do you have bruises on your face and arms?" Neptune took Rune from Chaiia so she could sit down and rest. He laid Rune on the ground next to the fire in the Maki so he could recover easier.
"Well, to answer your questions, Jade discovered that Rune had planned to go back to the Bokas to try and rescue Jayson and Kyra, even if it meant trading him for their freedom. His plan backfired, and Jade and I got there right after he had gotten thrown out of the top of a tree. I think he probably has at least 3 broken ribs and slight fractures in some of his other bones. Sokan started doing his whole gloating speech thing when Jade kicked him in the head. He didn't know we were there, you see, and neither did Coron and Lucas, who were with him," Chaiia stopped to take a breath. "I took down Coron in less than ten seconds, and fought Lucas for about 3 minutes before he got distracted, allowing me to win. Jade had lost badly to Sokan, and when I had taken down Lucas, he had her pinned to the ground more secure than a hawk can trap a mouse. I was going to help her, but she told me to run. I didn't want to, but I knew it was probably the best way to do things. I felt so bad leaving her behind, leaving her at the mercy of the Boka, especially when I heard the battle cries of Sokan after I left. I took a longer route back here so they wouldn't discover the camp."
Rune coughed weakly from the ground. "None of that would have happened if Jade had just stayed here like I told her to. None of you would have gotten hurt. Our tribe would have been in good hands, but here we are, the tribe stuck with my incompetence." Rune coughed again, this time stronger. His coughs lasted for a minute before he continued. "I don't want you guys to do that for me ever again, even if you think it's the only way."
Kyron, the blond that had pledged his allegiance to Rune, stepped forward. "Chief, if you had told me, I would have done the same. We would never abandon you, even in the most desperate of situations. You are a good chief, your heart driven by passion, loyalty, and love. That is why you can't bring yourself to leave our fellow Moras at the mercy of the Boka. I promise we will get them back, even if I have to fight to my last breath." He sat down, his eyes looking at everyone as if he were daring them to contradict him. No one did.
"Guys, that isn't what we should be talking about right now. We need to find out what exactly we need to do to get Jade, Jayson, and Kyra back. Anyone have any ideas?" Ryuu sat poking the fire with a stick, staring into the flickering flames. Everyone sat around, staying silent. No one wanted to say anything, partially because they didn't have a good idea for a plan. It was Rune who spoke up first.
"Here's a plan: We send someone in solo, but have a lot of others secretly waiting to help. That person offers to trade themselves in exchange for the freedom of one of the others. If the Boka refuse to give us one of the others, we send out a few people to sneak in and find them. If they can get in without being found, then we run. If that doesn't work, then-" He stopped as he started coughing again. He kept coughing to the point where he couldn't breathe.
"Rune, I'm taking you to your cave right now, and you're going to sleep. I'll make sure people stay outside so you don't run off again and kill yourself. You're lucky that the fall from the trees didn't kill you. I promise we'll take care of the situation with the Boka, but you have to rest or you'll never be able to help Kyra, Jayson, or Jade." Chaiia looked him straight in the eyes. He opened his mouth to protest, only to have Chaiia silence him.
"Kyron, please take him to his cave. Don't let him leave until you are positive he's recovered enough. We'll send people with food to help you guys." Chaiia helped Kyron get Rune situated before she sat back down with the others in the Maki.
"Chaiia, are you going to be leading us until he recovers enough to be out of the cave?" Belle tenderly asked, kindness and loyalty shining in her eyes.
"I don't know, Belle. It looks that way. Anyway, we have some planning to do. What are we going to do to save Kyra and some of the others? I mean, Rune's idea would never work. The Boka are too ruthless." Chaiia sighed. "It is the best plan we have right now, so unless someone else comes up with a better plan, that's all we got." She looked at all of their tribespeople.
"I guess we could just take someone like Neptune and have him pretend to be on their side. Then they could just go in and free them." A boy with glasses and dirty blond hair suggested from the back.
"It's a good suggestion, Timber, but Sokan kinda said that he would never welcome me into the Boka tribe. So I'm gonna call that one a miss." Neptune sat down next to Chaiia, his green eyes flickering. "I will say, a sneak invasion might be a good idea. We could have a few people cause a distraction, another few to distract guards that may be around where they're keeping them, and probably only one other person to go in and rescue them. The only problem with this plan is that it might cause others to get caught instead." Neptune hung his head, his mind still trying to wrap around the betrayal of his former friends. "I don't understand how my friends, the people I trusted for years, could just turn on me because I chose something different from what they wanted. This world is so cruel sometimes."
Chaiia looked around at all of them again. "Okay, let's get back on topic. What are we going to do to save our friends? We know that sending in one or two people alone doesn't really work that well."
"Doesn't work well, you say? I think it worked out great! This broken nose really compliments my features, don't you think? And Rune being temporarily crippled is amazing!" Neptune replied in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes, yes, we understand that our luck isn't so great. I think that what it comes down to is outsmarting the Boka. We can't beat them when it comes to brawn, but we do have brains on our side. Sure, they have Laila, but she didn't want to join them in the first place. Hopefully, she's still on our side enough to break down their strategy from-"
"I got it!" Ryuu jumped up, a huge grin on our face. "One of us should purposely get caught!"
Timber shot her a weird look. "Yes, do the exact thing we all were trying to avoid: get caught. Brilliant plan, Ryuu." He rolled his eyes.
"No, listen to me for a second. If one of us gets caught on purpose, we could hopefully get at least one conversation in with Laila. That would tell us whether or not she's still on our side. Then, we work out a strategy with her, one where she leads the Boka off our trail. After we rescue everyone else, whoever purposely got caught would escape with Laila. I mean, it could work." Ryuu sat down, breathless, with a smile on her face. She seemed proud of the fact that she could find a way to help her cousin Kyra and her friends without too much violence.
"Ryuu, you're a genius! That plan might actually work! The only problem is that the closest people to Laila are already imprisoned, and it would be suspicious if Belle was wandering the Boka woods." Chaiia's eyes showed her loss of hope.
"Wait! We could have her say she was being used as a distraction, and that some of us were going to try to raid. Belle never lies, and when she does, you can't tell. I think this may work. We just need a day or so to think before putting the plan into action!" Ryuu's excitement was greater than a little kid's on their birthday.
"Belle, what do you think of this? We are kinda putting you up on the chopping block without your consent, and that matters. If you don't want to do this, you don't have to." Chaiia looked into her friend's eyes, asking a thousand questions in a glance.
"If it means being able to help out my friends, then count me in. I'm ready."
* * *
Jade thought that she was going to be brought into a solitary confinement type of prison cell. What she really got shocked her more than anything. She was brought into a room in the tops of the trees, a room exactly like Rune had described. When she walked in, she was shocked to see Kyra tied up in the middle of the room and Jayson tied to the floor, facing Kyra. His eyes flashed in shock as Jade was walked into the room.
"Hello, Jayson and Kyra. I believe we have one of your friends here to join you. Jade here decided to try and thwart Sokan's plan to capture Rune. You may have heard him throw Rune out of the trees next to you this morning. I know you probably have many questions, but as Jayson is gagged and Kyra, well, you know not to talk, you guys won't be able to inquire." Lucas guided Jade roughly into a sitting position about 5 feet from Jayson. He had just finished tying her hands to the wall when Kyra spoke up in a faint, raspy voice.
"Where's Rune? You said that Jade had tried to thwart your plans to get him, indicating that you would have him." She flinched as she finished talking, a reaction that surprised Jade.
"You know, I was just starting to celebrate the fact that I finally got you to stop talking so much. I guess I counted my eggs too soon. To answer your question, Jade didn't do it alone." Lucas touched his face, right in the spot where Chaiia had punched him. "That brat Chaiia was in on the ambush, and she got away with Rune. That reminds me, I have a little something for you from Chaiia." He punched her in the face as hard as he could. Jade's eyes flashed with horror right before she closed them as tight as she could. When she opened them again, Lucas's nose was inches from her face.
"You know, I don't think we've gone over the rules yet. Close your eyes, look away, slip your gag off, pretty much anything you do out of line results in punishment for your friend Kyra here. I guess I should give you a free pass on this one, but Kyra's still due for a little Luna session."
Jade noticed Jayson droop a little as Lucas said that. He looked at her sadly, shook his head, and closed his eyes. It wasn't until she heard the knife being unsheathed and saw Jayson open his eyes that she realized just what she was witnessing. She looked up as Lucas lifted the knife, terrified for her friend, when Sokan walked in.
"I'll handle this, Lucas. I can't let you have all the fun, now can I? Hand over the knife, please."
Lucas looked at him, a slight glare in his gaze. "Her name is Luna. She isn't just an ordinary knife. She cuts through her enemies like-"
"Yes, Lucas, we know. She cuts through her enemies like the moon cuts through darkness. I don't think we need you to go into another detailed explanation of her name, do we? Just give it to me."
Lucas reluctantly handed him the knife, causing Sokan to grin with pleasure. "I never thought that a day like this would come. The day when two of the people who always seemed so much more talented than me would be at my mercy. I guess that fate had decided to smile on me and bless me with her graceful light. Now, Jade, you've never been present for this, not once. You haven't even spied on us, and we would know if someone was spying up here. You probably aren't going to be mentally prepared for this. Watch closely, or else the mental pain will just get worse. You'll get used to this in a few days, trust me. Jayson has." Sokan turned around to face Kyra, the knife in his hand glinting in an evil way. It wasn't until he brought the knife down that Jade's nightmare truly turned into reality.