River's eyebrows dipped with irritation as he handed back my knife. "I don't see how it's a good idea to give this to him." He glances at Moon while I stash it back into my bag.

"First of all, it isn't yours. Secondly, I need the protection and thirdly; it's mine." I snap, hooking the bag onto my shoulder.

"Who's to say you won't knife us in the back?" River growled.

"Don't tempt me," I walk over to Moon and waited until she seemed to have gathered herself together to make a move for it.

I see Shadow watching me, "...For someone so unattached to things, you look way too attached to that knife."

"Suddenly figured me out?"

'It's either you're dead or they're dead. It isn't meant to be beautiful, artistic or flashy. Make sure each strike has a purpose. It's useless to wave it around in a panic.' That is what my uncle told me as he handed it over. I don't know how he got them to smuggle it onboard without any questions ask. A broody teenager wondering around with a GIGN operator's knife...I was half expecting a swarm of police officer's waiting for me the minute I stepped out of the shuttle.

I see a half grin appear on Shadow's face, "Just observing. Echo told me it would be interesting. So far she isn't wrong."

I question the mental stability of a few of the members of this tribe.

"Alright, I think we have everything..." Moon looks around, probably doing a mental checklist.

I quickly look at the small party she managed to gather together. River (miraculously wearing a shirt), Shadow, the girl who threatened me with a kitchen knife when I first got here (Echo helpfully pointed out her name is Reaper...yep) and a standoffish girl who looked like she would be a stuck-up gymnast or ballerina (called Jaguar). Six of us...a reasonable number to move quickly.

"Is everyone else ready?" Moon stares at me with this question.

As tempted as I am to say 'no', just to push River over, I instead slightly tilt my head as a half-assed 'yes'. We had gathered in the depilated reception room and as we literally used the front door out into the sunlight, I realised that I haven't ventured out of the hotel for a while. Moon lets Shadow take the lead out into the hellscape that I've been deprived of as Moon's 'guest'.

The street seemed less dreary without the rain. In fact, it was relatively nice...despite the spray-paint tags and smashed in buildings. The road leading out was a steep set of hills filled with overgrown gardens spilling out over walls and even onto the walkways. The city was well on its way to look like a zombie post-apocalypse landscape cliché in every movie I've seen. Shadow was leading us north-west and out towards a thick temperate forest with mountains. I inwardly groan. Uncharted forestry that's been left alone for a good twelve months with solid rain and zero pest control on all of the walking tracks.

I remember the map in detail where Shadow laid out our destination last night. It was right on the edge of some park and would take us about five hours to get to and about another hour deeper into the forest for their meeting point. I was told it was some scenic lookout that saw most of the city. That just meant I'll be climbing a steep mountainside...Ghost wanted Moon tired...and alone (on the assumption that Shadow would be on Ghost's side but Shadow is being cautious so he might just be an unknown variable...). Something isn't adding up...maybe I'm overthinking it...

I was forced into the middle of this party. Shadow in front with Moon, chattering quietly to him about what to expect with Shadow's former clanmates. Then there was me, the Reaper and Jaguar in the middle with stone-cold silence between us. River brought up the rear, because he was the macho man and macho man always watches for any danger that could attack us from behind. Reaper has been staring at me keenly for a while now and I felt like she was going to melt off my face at the rate she was going.

I inwardly sighed and went to open my mouth to ask what her deal was but instead the ballerina got there before me, "Reaper is fascinated by Earth."

Reaper quickly nods, "I want to ask so many questions but I don't even know where to start!" She seems bubbly.

I also want to ask a lot questions and 'Why "Reaper"?' was my first choice.

"Do you really have big rabbits?"

"Eh?" That one caught me off guard. She started with that?

"Like really big and don't hop?" she even imitated rabbit paws with her hands.

"You mean 'hares'?" They mustn't have introduced them to Spero.

"Have you seen one?"

"A few..."

"They look so cute in the pictures. Oh but so are rabbits! Especially lop-eared rabbits.... but I can't seem to find any...aw if only I could pat one...they look so fluffy it just makes you want to squeeze them. Are they really that fluffy?"

"Let's stop annoying him with stupid questions, Reaper," the ballerina cuts in a little harshly.

Reaper pouts, "You're just upset that you're too shy to ask about big cats."

"I am not!" Jaguar turns her head away and I swear I could see her ears turning red...she's actually blushing...? Is this what they call a tsundere?

"Weren't there zoos up here?" I think I just had a terrifying thought.

"Two, but we are on the wrong side of the moon when they blew up the Crossing," Reaper said.

I look back to her, confused, "Blew up?"

"You don't know?"

I could hear River snort, like I was stupid.

The Crossing of Limbo was the main bridge that connected the two continents on Spero together and it would have taken some serious explosives in just the right spots for infrastructure of that magnitude to be destroyed. This was the largest city of the southern continent and the gateway to the north was about a day's walk north from their hotel.

"That literally shook the world, how could you not know?" Jaguar interjected.

I refocus back to her, "I'm not from around here and it certainly didn't 'shake' the south."

Shadow turns back to fill me in, "It was my old group that did that..."

"And we're meeting an ex-leader?"

"There's a reason they call him 'Ghost'."

Either he was on the wrong side or they threw him over and think he's dead?... I quietly mull over the new information and at just how much of a nuisance that it now presented. I' going to have to acquire a boat now if I wanted to continue north towards Nirvana, the capital of the northside and the largest population of the two sides.

"Is there any other tribes between here and the forest?" I look back up over to Shadow and Moon, shutting myself from the topic for now. I can't do anything for now. The most I can do is focus on what is in front of me.

"It's technically ours," Moon sighs. "But that's because there's nothing left in these buildings...so it's a barrier between Necrosis and Pyros."

And we're walking through it like we're on a school trip. "...Just how many tribes are there around Manta?"

"Necrosis and Pyros have the monopoly at the moment, on this side anyway. Otherwise there's the Night Screams to the south that basically took over everything over the other side on the south bridge...which you had to cross to get here..."

"...I think I've met them," I mutter to myself, remembering the cannibalistic kids and at how close I became dinner...

"Other than that, there are scavenger groups but we don't really interact with anyone...except Bailey and her gang...when we can't avoid it." The way she said Bailey, it didn't seem their meetings were peaceful.

Urgh what have I gotten myself into. For the next few hours, I basically tried to tease out more about the turf wars ...and the fact that Pyros owns the broken Crossing at the moment and didn't play nice. Eventually we all kind of fell silent when we saw a girl with jet black hair cut in a sharp bob look over at us with equally sharp dark eyes. She was like a knife and immediately put everyone on guard...

"I see that you brought way more than requested, Shadow..." She trailed off and shifted her sharp, cat-like eyes over to Moon. "This is your leader? Moon?" Apparently unimpressed, "That does not speak well of you new leader if she cannot abide a simple request."

Moon glared back just as fiercely, "Just take us there."

The girl hmphed with a sly grin, like she wanted to poke a little more.

"Cat..." Shadow hissed between clenched teeth, which I guessed was her name. She really was a black cat dressed in black shirt and pants with black shoes and thick black eyeliner. The only things that was contrasting her emo look was the flower hairclip taming back some of her fringe. "Just take us to him."

"Fine." With that, she swept her eyes over us like we were all insects before turning around and lead us into the undergrowth. "If you fall and break your neck, I'm thankful, but do be quiet about it."

I muttered as River crossed my path to go in front, "Congrats River, someone else pisses me off more than you."

"Likewise," he muttered back.

"Stay silent as well," Cat whipped back at us.

"What the fuck...?" Jaguar whispered to Reaper.

This bitch... "Where is this haughty attitude coming from?"

"You dare ask?" She stops and looks back at me. We stopped on a loose soil ridge which gave her the upper vantage point to look down on me.

"Ah yeah."

She actually turns around and gets into my face, "Ghost is taking a lot to just agree seeing your leader and you dare bring in more people and risk us being spotted? Don't joke with me."

I stare her down, "That applies to you as well. You dare ask Shadow to bring out his leader in the middle of turf war without back up just so yours can feel safe? By the sounds of it, you have far less information that I do about the area and you dare to make that demands? Without understanding the situation? Don't be an idiot. On top of this, Moon in her good faith has actually taken your request on board with very few people with her. I suggest you rethink your attitude towards a potential ally if you really want to survive out here in this tribe game you're playing."

She went completely red in the face and turned around, marching up the hill in a huff, she probably didn't expect someone to lash back. "I suggest you chop your dog's tongue off before he meets Ghost."

Shadow actually laughs, "That isn't one of Moon's. He's gonna have to defend himself."

"He's an outsider!? You're letting a random stranger into this!?" Cat snarls at Moon.

"Yes," Moon said simply. "Now, are you going to continue wasting time or am I going to meet your leader by the so-called deadline?"

They better have maps or something that is worth this headache-inducing "cat" and this fucking mountain trail they have us hiking around.