They followed the bird through the forest. It led them far deeper than they realized, and Elizabeth saw the massive creatures that lived deeper in the woods. She saw massive snappers, enormous bear-like creatures with an elongated neck and large towering arms and legs, and whistleback snails, snails as big as the landraider with holes in their shells that acted as whistles when the wind passed through them.

The deeper they went, the darker it got as the towering trees blocked out the sun. Luna pointed out to Elizabeth the mist dragons, long, fluorescent snake-like creatures that floated around the tops of the trees that covered the ground with an ominous, soft white glow. They passed giant ants that were as big as dogs and swarm ticks, boulbous insects as big as automobiles, and also giant moths that when they passed covered the landraider with a thin layer of dust. It was scary but fascinating for the child as she looked at the hidden world she was seeing for the first time.

Finally, they are led towards a massive canyon that was filled with trees and had a roaring river running through the bottom of the canyon. They headed down, and all of them felt the ground shake as giant footsteps echoed around them.

Elizabeth looked at the window and found a spider, a titanic mechanical spider with a towering fortress covered with plants on its back. The landraider stopped as the spider got closer and stopped right on top of them. Elizabeth stuck to Luna and Baldric as the giant spider lowered and numerous mechanical cranes lifted the landraider up towards it. Elizabeth thought it was eating them, which was not far from the truth.

It lifted them up to its belly, and a gate opened, and then it continued to pull them inside. Elizabeth held on tightly to Luna as they were covered in darkness inside the mechanical spider. Then massive, bright lights came from the outside.

She still held onto Luna as they got down. They were inside a massive vehicle garage, with vehicles larger than the Landraider hanging from the ceiling above them. Then, hundreds of thousands of mechanical ants approached them. Elizabeth panicked and wanted to climb onto Luna.

“G stop it. You’re scaring the child.” Luna said to the swarm of ants.

The ants, however, did not head for them but rather the landraider as they climbed and covered it. Annie panicked and tried to get them off, but Baldric stopped her. A mechanical centaur approached them.

The centaur’s lower half was part horse and part engine. Its body concealed the engine beneath, which hissed and emitted jets of steam and smoke. The upper half, however, was that of an automaton, but more detailed and advanced.

It does not have the exposed gears and clanky appearance that automatons have, but it looks sleek and rather human-like. The metal that acted as its skin was smooth. It had no exposed parts or gears. Its torso was that of a human female, wearing even a sleeved shirt and coat. Its metal head even had human-like hair that was styled into a bob. The arms of the automaton were also those of a human but also had sleek cannons fitted on it as well. As it approached, it stood a good two feet taller than all of them.

“Right, let me see the payment.” The voice came from the centaur’s stomach. It opened to reveal an action figure or a doll moving on its own. The centaur offered its hand to it and it got on.

It was a hand sized mechanical old man wearing a long white coat that was too large for him and holding a copper walking cane. It even wore rubber gloves and boots fitted for it. It had huge telescopic glasses that clicked and clacked when it blinked, and the mechanical man even had frazzled balding hair and a thick moustache. Luna got the cha ingot and placed it on the hand of the centaur.

“Look at the purity of this!” The little man inspected it thoroughly. “Where did you get something this fine?”

“Long story, are we good now?”

“Sure sure, whatever. Sylvie, will you put me on her shoulder and take this to the laboratory with you? I can’t wait to break it down!” The centaur picked him up gently and placed the toy on Luna’s shoulders. Then it bowed to everyone and left. The little man now adjusted his eyes and saw everyone else.

“Well, this is a combination I never thought I would see again. Max, I thought you split up from the group.”

“Don’t read too much into this G. This is only temporary.” Max crossed his arms. G noticed Annie, Elizabeth, and the Willowbear.

“Is that… Marko’s younger sister?” G said as he stared at Annie. “By the architect, I can see him in her.”

“Annie, Elizabeth, this strapping old man is named Tinkerton-G, or just G for short.” Luna introduced them to the little toy standing on her shoulder.

“May I just say, Annie, your brother was a remarkable and brilliant man. He is the best human I have ever met. In fact, if you want anything in this workshop of mine, anything at all, you just say the word and it’s yours.”

{Thank you.} Annie gestured at G.

“What is she doing?” G asked Luna.

“Ah G, Annie is mute. She said, Thank you. And this is Elizabeth. She is formally our client.”

“Bring me closer to her so I can see her better now.” Luna grabbed him and put him close to Elizabeth, who scanned her up and down.

“You seem familiar there. I feel like I have seen you somewhere before, little lady. Nice to meet you, by the way.” Elizabeth nodded at the little man. G then saw Baldric, who was awfully quiet.

“Aha! There you worthless debt dodging rat!” G pointed his cane at him. “Luna, bring me to him so I can hit him with my cane.”

“Hey! Hey! You already took my cha, what more do you want!” Luna, tossed G at Baldric, who landed on him and started hitting and poking him with his small cane. Once he was done, he climbed up to Baldric’s shoulder and grabbed his ear and twisted it.

“Now what do you all want that you visited me personally?” G said as he let go of Baldric’s ear.

=0o0=

After dinner and much needed baths, Annie, Elizabeth, and Willow are being toured around the massive workshop by Sylvie, with the three of them riding a mechanical beetle and being escorted by the mechanical ants as well. Meanwhile, Luna, Baldric, Max, and G were talking in the laboratory, watching them through the glass windows.

Luna has just finished telling G and Max the whole story of what happened to them up until they reached the edges of the thorn forest.

“Wow, that sounds like you are screwed.” G said, sitting down on a little armchair with spider legs.

“Yeah, this is the first time I have heard the full story as well.” Max said.

“What now then?” G pointed his cane at Luna and Baldric. “I’m hoping you two have a plan and not just stay in the thorn forest forever. I mean, I would love that; finally someone to talk to, but that’s just me.”

“Our plan is to head north.” Baldric said as he looked at G and Max. “Once we get close to the walled sea, we can send a message to Aspana, or the sentinels, so they can meet with us there. If it’s true that they have sent soldiers or spies to look for the princess, then the closer we get to the border, the higher the chance we have of finding them.”

“That’s it?! That’s your plan?” Max said flatly. “That’s a horrible plan.”

“What about the child’s mother? What about Princess Alicia?” G said.

Luna sighed. “For now, she is not our problem. We already have our hands full with Elizabeth, and our main goal is to get her to Aspana, and then we will see what happens from there. At first, we planned to contact Solomon, Alexander, Theobald, or Fenia for their help in finding Alice, but with the whole situation exploding out of control, our options are severely limited.”

“What about contacting Braenarim?” G asked.

“You really think Braenarim or the Sentinels will even listen?” Baldric replied. “Braenarim must be getting spoon-fed lies right now about us. Not to mention, we are across the continent away with Silvus in the middle. Do you really think Silvus will allow a search party to get them?”

“Also, the Sentinels have much bigger problems, if you can believe it.” Max added. “The last rumour I heard before I went after you all is that they are dying by the droves.”

“You two still haven’t told me why you two are doing this though. Years of proudly stating that you do not deal with children or animals, and then here you are now. I thought that after you burned down an entire city, I thought you would have learned your lesson, Luna. What changed?” G pressed both of them.

“Well, I will save my own ass first.” Baldric said. “Technically, the real reason we took the contract was because we were asked to find Princess Alice, not Elizabeth, so it’s not actually breaking the rule, but with technicality in play, it’s pretty much the same thing.”

“Fair enough, how about you?” G pointed his cane at Luna.

“The truth is, I could just not leave Elizabeth alone.” Luna said to the three of them.

“That’s it?” G said to her.

“That’s it.” Luna replied. She then took a sip of her drink while Max, Baldric, and G looked at her as though they were waiting for more answers.

Max shook his head. “So let me get this straight. We are all risking our lives and you practically went against Silvus, the brotherhood and the syndicate just because you could not leave her alone? That’s why? No, let's learn absolutely nothing from Nurin.”

“Fine. Fine. Alright. This is all my fault. Is that what everyone wants to hear? I am wrong! I am an idiot! There happy?! Lunatic Luna at it again!” She rose and started yelling at them. “Fine! I am going to do what everyone wants! I'm just going to abandon Elizabeth in the middle of nowhere and let her die on her own! Let someone else take care of her!”

“We are not saying that what you are doing is wrong, Luna. I think it's noble actually. But you should have known better.”

“Don’t give me that crap! What did you want me to do back then? Leave the child alone in the middle of the badlands?”

“Luna. Look Max, He could have worded it better. But I think his point is that children make you irrational.” G said as he stood up and tried to get her to sit down. “You always focus on keeping them safe rather than looking at the bigger picture. You lose your common sense and become easy to trick.”

“So what now? I’m already in too deep on this. I can’t just leave her alone.”

“We know Luna. We’re just warning you that what you are doing might hurt you again, like what happened before. We all agreed on that rule because of what happened back then. Your emotions got the better of you and you ended up losing the bounty, killing the hostages and destroyed an entire city. We are just afraid that it might happen again. Innocent people are getting dragged again. Oichi is bad enough, but what if everyone in Ablan gets involved? What then? Will it be worth going through it again?”

Luna could not answer. She could not even look at Max, G, or Baldric in the face as she kept her head down. She did not know why she was doing this either.

She went against Solomon and practically left Oichi to suffer. She dragged Baldric, Max, and Annie, and possibly even her friends in Ablan, into something they did not sign up for and yet she did not know why she was doing it. Elizabeth was a princess, but in truth, Luna barely cared about Aspana or Braenarim, so why was she doing this?

Remove the status and Elizabeth was just another little girl. Children like her disappear by the hundreds all over Aelmion every day, so why was she willing to throw everything away for her? All she had was a gut feeling that screamed for her to protect the child, but is that reason enough to jeopardise her family and friends? Luna put her drink down.

“Max.” She looked at him with something Max had not seen in her for a long time: fear. “I owe you a lot. But if I were you, you should walk out of this while you still can.”

“Baldric, what about you?” G asked.

“Well, I want to see where this goes, actually, how it all ends. And if I leave, I'll have to walk and take all those steps... we are in the middle of nowhere, so... yeah, I’m staying.” Baldric said as he lazily raised his mug towards Luna. She just smiled back.

“Max. You are a guild master.” Luna said to him. “If they see you with us, your reputation and your guild might be implicated as well.”

“First, when I left up until I met with all of you, I was wearing a disguise and had a rock solid alibi. Second, I did this because I’m more concerned about you. Luna, you are a council shadow. Do you even know the full weight of your title? Did you even think about what would happen if you were caught? You can lose your status, or worse, get Ablan involved in all this.”

“My crimes are my own, Max. If anything, the worst case is that the council will just remove my rank to save Ablan and mark me as a castless.”

“Is that bad?” G interjected.

“Yes, it is. Brotherhood rules state that if a shadow goes castless, every bounty hunter needs to kill the castless on sight. Also, the next bounty hunter or guild to kill them is instantly promoted to shadow status. And I read in the rule book that the corpse of a castless has to be disposed of in a really specific way. Really cut the corpse into pieces as fine as mincemeat. Sick stuff actually.” Baldric said to G.

“Yeesh, and you still want to go through with it?” G looked at Luna, but she did not reply.

“Well, that’s a yes.” Baldric was the one who replied. “Besides, we are kind of banking on the first family giving us amnesty and money or titles and stuff. Maybe they can call us lords or something.” He chuckled. “But in all honesty, we are pretty much screwed.”

“I’m so sorry about this Baldric.” Luna said, softly. “You don’t deserve this.”

“Oh, come on, it's fine.” He assured her. “We have been through far worse. And to be honest, we pretty much over extended our stay in Ablan anyway. It wasn’t real anymore, you know. We can always find another town and start selling garbage there.” Luna smiled weakly at him, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

“Max, I’m backing Luna’s offer as well. If you leave now, you can go back and no one will ever know you were with us. You've got your guild to think of. Besides, if they do kick us out, it means you will be next in line for a shadow status.” Baldric nudged him as he took a drink.

“What about Annie?” Max said to both of them. “Did you think about her? She is still too young to be dragged into this world. We all promised she would never be like us, that we would all keep her safe. Do you think Marko would approve of putting her baby sister through this?”

Both of them couldn’t answer with guilty looks on their faces. G moved his chair so he could see that Annie watched Elizabeth being flown around by a mechanical beetle. He remembered Marko back then, bragging about her baby sister and how he wanted Annie to be an inventor. G looked back at the three of them who sat in silence. Luna was the first to speak.

“I messed up.” She looked at all of them. “This is my fault. I did this and you are right, Max, she does not deserve this. She deserves far better than… me. You can take her with you when you leave. Hide her, keep Annie safe, and keep her far away from... us. From me.”

Tinkerton-G quickly turned and berated her. “I remember Marko entrusting Annie to you and only you! Don’t you pass your responsibility to someone else. And if she is anything like her brother, why don’t you ask her what she wants to do rather than decide for her!”

“G, if you ask Annie, the answer is she would want to stay. If anything, she is crazier than Marko, but she just doesn’t show it.” Baldric chuckled.

“So that’s that then. Don’t force her.”

Luna snapped. “Did you not hear what was going to happen to us? Or what type of situation we’re in?! What type of danger would Annie be in if she came with us?!”

“You put her in this. You will get her out.” G pointed his cane at her. “Don’t give Maxene any more trouble because he will have his hands full with the brotherhood and his guild. Final word: Luna, clean your own damn mess.” G slammed his cane down.

“Also, Luna, they are actively looking for Annie as well. I know this may be the stupidest thing I will ever say, but... I think she is safer if she stays with you.” Max said.

Luna huffed. “If she is going with us, we will need a lot of gear and armor.” She slammed her mug on the table.

“Say no more. I've got a buttload of that here. And if it’s for Marko’s sister, I would be happy to give her stuff for free and for you, even a discount and a bonus.”

“Also, G, I need a new guardian, and I’m going to pick up my order for the walker. And since you’re offering, I’m going to order new handyman armour for Annie, and I need you to make one for Elizabeth as well.”

“Woah, woah there.” Baldric said to her. “You are going to give Elizabeth a walker now? You expect her to fight as well?”

“What? Not at all. I was just... Look, I did not explain. We are still a long way away, and if what we all talked about happens, we will run into people who are better organised and will be using a more serious amount of firepower. I want both of them to be protected when it happens, and if they get caught in a rough spot, then at least both of them can fight their way out.” Luna said to the three of them. G looked back at the two children below.

“Yeah, no, it’s not always a good idea to give children weapons. Guardian of the year over here.” Max said at her.

“Annie I can work with.” G said as he watched the children below. “I got a new type of handyman armor that will be perfect for her but the princess… You know what I can do you all better.” G stood up from his chair. “I can give the kid a walker.”

“You... have a walker that a six year old can operate?” Baldric said to him.

“She is seven.” Luna added.

“You better believe it!” G approached Luna and lifted his arms, asking to be put on her shoulder, which she did. “In fact, I can solve two of your problems right now! Quick, bring me to my laboratory!”