The Nagual

"Wait." Boeden called out weakly. He held up a hand to Kahili. He pulled himself to his knees and eventually stood up. Fraus grabbed onto his upper arm and Boeden tried to shake him off but the effort was fruitless. His body was giving up on him.

"Move and the girl dies!" Kahili said, pressing the blade closer to the girl's neck. Felia, too, tried to get out of her captor's hold but Kahili responded by pulling her arm back and twisting it.

Sohrab above them, clearly becoming upset, started to blow smoke through his nose. He wasn't concentrating enough and because of this, there wasn't a single flame that came out of his mouth. He flew in circles above them, though, always keeping his eye on them.

"Please." Felia pleaded. "Just let me talk to him. For a second."

"Why should I let you?" Kahili asked.

"Last request?" Felia offered.

Kahili laughed at her response. "What do you think this is? A cheap movie? You know, Felia, you're a lot more stupid than you let on. Entertaining, sure, but you're really dull." The red-head started giggling.

"Enough, Kahili. Grant Felia her wish." Fraus said.

Kahili looked at him in shock. "What for?"

"Because I'm still the leader around here and you will do as I say." Fraus said, his voice getting angrier with every word.

Kahili laughed once. Felia felt the girl's grip on her arm relax just the tiniest bit. "Fraus, we all know that Felia here is the 'real' leader here. And I don't know if you were able to see it but I haven't been taking orders from her all day. Why would I ever take orders from you?"

"Because I have the most experience out of everyone here!" Fraus shouted.

"No one's actually following the rules anymore, Fraus!" Kahili said, stepping away from Felia and taking a step towards Fraus. "When you killed Argos, the rules were thrown out the window!"

There was a collective moment of shock in the crowd. People started to whisper amongst themselves. They started to cast glances at Kahili and Fraus. Sohrab, ever vigilant, was almost directly above them.

There was a certain and unmistakable heat coming from Sohrab and Felia could sense it.

"He's going to do it." she said to herself. Though no one heard her Fraus and Kahili continued to yell at each other. As quickly as her tired legs allowed her, she struggled her way to Boeden's side. "Hey." she said, slightly smiling.

"Hey." he replied. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

He laughed a little to himself which made him seem even closer to death's door. "You haven't noticed, have you?"

"Notice what?" Felia asked while helping him up. As she did, they met each other's gaze for the first time. The world slowed just a little and Felia remembered that feeling. It hadn't been so long ago. At most, it was just two days ago when she turned her back on her previous life. Remembering, and smiling just a little, she said, "You're a little different without your blond locks."

"You're a little different when you don't trust her completely." he replied and returned the smile.

"How did you do it? I mean, it seems a little impossible." Felia asked, wondering how she didn't see the connection before. Boeden was Noah. Noah was Boeden.

"This," he said while pulling gently on his hair, "is the real deal. What you saw before was a blond wig and Noah was just a name. And I never left. You would have seen that had you turned around at all. That, I may add, was pretty brave, by the way. There are not a lot of people out there who can stare change in the face and not look back."

"How did you get here before us?" Felia asked.

"I didn't. I moved around you two. Some of the noises you heard in the jungle before the meeting were me and I thought you would have found me by then. I can't believe I'm saying this but I was glad when Kahili, uh, distracted you there otherwise I wouldn't have been able to move forward and join the other Naguals."

"And Fraus didn't even see you rejoin them?" Felia asked.

He smiled and said, "Fraus sent me to make sure you two got to the right place on time."

"Then you did a pretty good job playing dumb." Felia said.

"Fraus wanted me to. He . . . well, he used to trust me a lot. That's why he let me take you to Wren."

There was a scream and Felia and Boeden quickly turned around to find Kahili on the ground with a deep cut that crept along her stomach. Fraus held his blade and looked at the Boeden and Felia with a grin that sickened even the strongest of stomachs.