• Celica awoke slowly, with her eyes still closed. She heard footsteps, and she was bouncing up and down gently. She would have thought she was walking herself, except that she felt nothing on her feet and she had just been unconscious. Then, very suddenly, she remembered what had happened.

    Now totally alert, she snapped her eyes open, and nothing made sense. Her chin was resting on something soft, but firm, and she was leaning on something. Although she was exerting no effort, she was moving slowly. Panicking slightly out of confusion, she flailed around against two forces underneath her thighs, and then both she and whatever she was leaning on toppled over and fell hard onto the dry gravel beneath them, with a quick scream from Celica and another, more manly yell.

    "What were you thinking, Celica?" She recognized Peter's voice and suddenly everything made sense. He was walking with her on her back.

    "Oh, sorry Peter. Are you okay?" She asked, looking him over as he lay beside her.

    "Yeah, I'm fine." He said. "But are you okay? You've been unconscious ever since we got back, and that was a good six hours ago."

    Celica's mind froze. "Six?" She asked incredulously. "Six? Oh my god! You were carrying me all that way?"

    "Well, I had to find Amos, and I couldn't leave you there, so," He rolled his hands over each other to explain that he had come to a conclusion, "Yeah, I carried you all the way here." He looked a bit sheepish and shrugged a bit as Celica stared at him.

    "You just can't stay mad at a charming girl like me," She said, laughing and flipping her hair in mock flirtation. Peter gulped uncomfortably and blushed, though, so she stopped and changed the subject.

    "Where are we headed?" She asked curiously. A map lay next to him, which apparently had fallen from his hands when Celica had knocked them over.

    He picked it up and examined it briefly, trying to find where he had left off by a similar process to finding a lost page in a book. "Well, we're trying to find my friends who live in Parwet." He said Parwet like it was a great treat to go there. With a confused look from Celica, which Peter had gotten quite used to, he continued. "Parwet is the capital of this country, and it's supposedly the coolest place ever." He smiled as he talked and finished a bit breathlessly, although even talking about such a place were making him giddy.

    "So why do you need your friends?" She asked, taking a look at the map. Upon closer inspection, they were alongside a mountain range, which was to the East of them, and Parwet was far South, at the tip of the range. "What can they do that we can't?"

    At her use of the word "we" his face brightened a little. "They're in possession of a weapon that we can use to infiltrate the POCC and get Amos back."

    "A weapon? What does this weapon do?" Celica asked, not liking this plan very much.

    "Well, I'm not totally sure. They were only starting to build it when I last saw them."

    "They must have told you what if was for." Celica said, putting her hands on her hips.

    "I don't know, it was very obscure." Peter said, now getting a bit defensive.

    "You don't even have a clue?"

    "No, I don't! Now stop asking!" He was getting angry, and a few strands of hair fell down in front of his face, making him look kind of insane. Celica was reminded of Michael when everyone was in his basement.

    "Peter, I believe you." Celica said, her voice shaking a little bit.

    "Then lets go." Peter said quietly, pulling the map up into a visible position and turning his back to her. His shoulders hunched slightly and he walked, the gravel crunching beneath his feet.

    "Peter," Celica pleaded, "I don't know why it means so much to you, but I won't bug you about the weapon anymore."

    He only seemed more sullen as he walked silently away from her. Celica jogged slightly to catch up with him and then kept pace.

    "Just go home." He said very quietly. "You've taken me back, you can go home." He sounded more and more harsh with each word.

    Celica was crushed. "I don't want to." She answered even more quietly, her voice shaking. "I want to help you find Amos."

    "Well, don't. I don't need you. Go home." He still hadn't turned to face her.

    "But I need you, Peter." She had said if before she even realized she was thinking it.

    Peter was silent. He didn't answer for several minutes, and Celica didn't feel the need to talk. He seemed to be barely tolerating her presence, and she didn't want to to break this fragile verbal cease-fire between them.

    Thus began their long journey, silently and awkwardly.