Rhys sighed as he twisted the bottle in his hand, feeling the hard glass for imperfections. He was already regretting his decision. The rocks dug into his knees and he grimaced going to get to his feet. “Wait!” Vell said abruptly, handing another vile back to Rhys. “You need to take this one too. I have to start that fire before Ranoth gets suspicious of what we’re doing.”

“Right.” Rhys replied, his heart pounding in his chest and his breathing growing faster every second. If someone were to find out, what would they do?

As if on cue a rustling in the bushes caused Rhys’s ears to perk up and his eyes to widen to an impossible size. He shoved the vials under leaves as a tinkling voice called to them, “I know what your hiding idiots.” He spun, hiding his hands behind his back. Vell had frozen, and wasn’t moving, as if he were in shock. “Why do you have vials of chemicals?” another voice asked as two does entered the clearing. They both were a shade of brown but they seemed completely different in personality. One looked angry, while the other looked scared as if she thought they were dangerous. “Vell.” The shorter one started, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What are you doing?” she asked again, her voice rising. “No- nothing!” Rhys spluttered, shivering not only because of nerves but because of the cold that numbed his feet. The smaller doe started to stomp forward but the slightly taller one grabbed her arms and held her back. “Stop Kat. Please, we know Vell, but what's your name?”

“Who are you?” Vell intercepted, finally finding his tongue. “You know who she is, and I’m Amy. We saw the vials, just tell us what you're doing and we won’t tell anyone else.”

“Yes we will!!!” Kat interrupted, clearly shocked. “Am’s! They're doing things that are clearly not safe! We have to do something!”

“But what if it is safe, what if they just need it for healing wounds?”

“That's not- oh come here!” Kat hissed, grabbing Amy’s arm and pulling her to the side. As soon as they had turned Vell shot Rhys a panicked glance that clearly was asking, “What do we do?”

Rhys shook his head slightly in response, turning to the does. “It’s a bomb.” He said shortly, ignoring the dirty glare Vell was giving him. “Oh, we knew that.” Kat said, spinning back to face them. However Amy froze, “I thought you were kidding.” She whispered. Rhys shook his head again, “No. We’re going to escape. At all costs.” Vell was now starting to inch toward him, but Rhys held up a hand. “Vell, stop, they were going to find out anyway.”

“Yah well now they have to come, and clearly neither of them know how to survive out here.”

That seemed to be it, Kat rushed forward and with a leap kicked Vell over so he was on his back. He gasped for breath as her eyes blazed in fury. Amy continued to look at them all, startled. “Look, Kat, please! He didn’t mean it!” Rhys said, rushing over and pushing her away from his friend, she stumbled and fell. “You guys can come with us, I don’t care! We can escape! Think of all we could do without this restriction!” Rhys exclaimed, holding his gaze sternly with Kat’s, his eyes sharp with pleading.

“C’mon, don’t let them hurt us anymore.” He begged, holding out a hand to help her to her feet. Her glare softened slightly, and with slight hesitation she gripped his hand. Rhys pulled her to her feet and she immediately shook him off. She turned and for a second Rhys was worried she would take off to tell the wolves but she just started off saying, “You have forty-eight hours, if you can’t get it done by then we tell. Good luck.”

Rhys nodded solemnly, hopefully that was all the time he needed. But he knew that for certain he would need the good luck.