I added sumtin.....

[(~Silentstar~)]

Ok, look on the 'warriors' skin. I added a pic that says when there's a new/old messege. Hope ya like em!

[Badgerstar]

they are awesome i always love looking at the new stuff!

[Bear]

Emen was numb for most of the day. She sat in the saddle letting the brown mare follow the carriage and the Renders without paying any attention to it. The horse could have wandered miles out of the way and she wouldn't have noticed. The flat grassy land stretched for miles in three directions while the coast followed them from the east. They occasionally saw other people. Often travelling north from Treeport back to Everything with wagons filled with traded items, or single men riding swift horses delivering messages from all over Edge. They could regularly spot boats sailing up and down the coast. None paid them any mind and often moved to the far side of the road to let them pass. Even the other Renders seemed to ignore her, though she was vaguely aware of the man from Everything trying to spark a conversation with her a few times. Once she was handed a thick slice of bread and a while later it had vanished. She didn't remember eating it.
The day ended swiftly and it only seemed an hour to Emen since they'd left that morning before they were stopping in the dark. The man from Everything helped her off her horse and another Render took it away while she was led to a newly made fire and handed an apple. Aside from Lario who laid across her feet, she spent a while alone, apple in her hand, until the man from Everything returned again this time with a bowl of soup. The man sat down next to her and wrapped a thick wool cloak around her shoulders.
"Are you not hungry Emen? You haven't eaten all day," he said with concern.
In response she began to eat the soup. She was hungry, now that he'd mentioned it but a big part of her didn't want to bother with eating. If he hadn't been sat there watching she would have fed the soup to Lario or simply tipped it out of the bowl. When she was done the man took it away and she was once again alone.
"You need to eat, Emen," said Lario. He looked up at her and nudged her hand with his velvet nose.
Emen nodded.
"I haven't seen you eat, ever," she said suddenly. Nearly a day had passed and she'd never seen him eat or drink a single thing. She'd never really seen any other Enders eat or drink either.
"I don't think that I need to, but I think that I can if it makes you uncomfortable," he explained.
"No. No, I don't mind. I just wondered."
They sat in silence for a while longer, Emen looked up at the stars glittering in the sky. She wondered where Enders came from. They only Fell once a year, so where were they the rest of the time? Why didn't they Fall for everyone?
The old man who had been driving the carriage, Gerran, sat beside the fire. Baard, the man from Everything and the other Renders joined him. They were a small group, only two other Renders were with them. A small, mousy man with golden hair and a tall scarred man with only one ear. Only Gerran had an Ender with him.
"We should meet up with the Renders from Dragonyth and Treeport tomorrow evening if we keep up this pace," he said, mostly to the Renders rather than Emen and Baard. They nodded and carried on the conversation, but the news surprised Emen and she stopped paying attention. She hadn't realised that they would join other groups along the way, but it made sense when she thought about it. There was always a Render camp - no matter how small - outside every village, town and city in Edge during the Ender Festival. They all had to go to and come from somewhere and would all head back in the same direction. Emen wondered how many other Sundered or Halcyn would go to Rend. She was glad Everything wasn't too far away. She didn't envy anyone travelling from places like Kodell, Summer Town and Obryn.
"...do Ender come from?" she caught the tail of a question from the man from Everything as the subject moved away from their plans for tomorrow. Lario stretched and moved from her feet to sit closer to the fire. She instantly felt colder and missed his warmth.
"No one knows. A few dragon and bird Enders tried to fly into the sky to find them, but no matter how high or fast they flew all they found was more sky. There comes a point where even the strongest flier has to stop and turn around," Gerran said.
"I'll bet they're stars. Sitting and waiting for their turn to Fall. The stars are much too high for anything to reach them. If they did, they'd all Fall at the same time and there would be no more Enders," the man said. She'd never heard the theory before but she wasn't sure it made sense to her.
"Why are some people Halcyn?" she asked before thinking. Gerran seemed fairly knowledgeable on the subject of Enders.
"Magic and Enders are connected. No one knows how, but magic cannot exist in a person without an Ender. Sometimes magic just doesn't work properly," he shrugged. "It's silly that you're sent away for it, even an Ender without magic is fully capable of defending itself, but it isn't something we can change, so don't waste your time."
Emen kept quiet after that, no matter how much knowledge he held, she didn't want to anger him or receive any lectures on the pointlessness of her questions. She wrapped herself in the woollen cloak the man from Everything had given her and curled up beside Lario and the fire.
They rode for many miles the next day following another same stretch of trees, grass and sea. By the time they stopped for the night Emen was stiff and sore, and looked at Baard in the carriage in envy. Even though she knew how to ride a horse, it had been many years since she'd been on one for more than an hour or so, two days near solid riding hurt. Despite being no more than an hour's ride from Treeport they camped in a nearby forest. Even travelling Halcyn were unwanted.
As Gerran predicted, two more groups of Renders joined them. The ones from Treeport were waiting with a larger camp than the one at Everything. There were half a dozen Renders with three others with them. Emen didn't know whether they were Sundered, Halcyn or had volunteered to move to Rend. One was very old, even older than Baard and stayed in a small padded coach pulled by a single horse. The other two were Emen's age and she guessed they were Sundered. The Treeport Renders were cooking some form of meat so Emen didn't mind them.
After several hours another group of Renders appeared through the trees. The group from Dragonyth was very small, made up of two Renders and a single small, tear-stained girl with two horses between them. The girl was only very young, much too young to be Sundered and seemed very scared. Emen couldn't see an Ender anywhere that might belong to her, and she wondered why she was travelling with them.
"This is Merrelyn," one of the Dragonyth Renders told Gerran, who seemed to be their leader. Gerran simply nodded and barely spared the girl a look.
"There's only small villages left on the way, the other Renders will follow us back to Rend at their own pace. It'll take another week to get there," he told the camp. "Mathorn's leading the group from Eytal, might be they'll catch up to us tomorrow if they take a boat across Dragon lake."
The girl, Merrelyn, was huddled beside the horse she'd been riding on with one of the Renders. Emen left the fire to try and comfort her. Lario followed as he did always.
"Hello, I'm Emen Delaass. Why are you travelling with us?" she asked the girl who looked at her with wide eyes and backed away slightly.
"I'm Merrelyn Ashnar, Merri. M-my-" the girl began to sob pitifully and gave up trying to speak, instead she wrapped her hands around her little knees and buried her face.
Emen placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her but it didn't seem to do anything. Lario sprang into action and pressed his face against her knees and began to lick her hands, he wrapped himself around her and began to make a strange noise Emen thought might be a purr. Merri soon stopped crying and began to laugh.
"My parents couldn't afford to keep me," she said when she'd finished giggling. Her face fell and no amount of Lario cheered her.
At first Emen didn't understand. The idea seemed bizarre and made no sense to her. No loving parent would callously give their child away, would choose to never see them again. She was too stunned for words. Merri must be twelve, she decided Renders wouldn't take anyone under twelve years old, since that was the minimum age to receive an Ender, it was also the lowest possible age for someone to be Halcyn and so be sent to Rend.
"That's terrible. But don't worry, we'll look after you," Lario said.
"I don't need looking after. I have three younger brothers and two sisters. I have - I had to look after them all by myself!" Merri exclaimed but patted Lario's soft mane anyway.
"That's alright, Emen has two little sisters. We'll look after each other," Lario bared his teeth in a grin and gently butted her hand.
The girl began to giggle again, even more so when Lario edged her onto his back and carried her to the fire and the Renders. This time Emen followed him, consumed in her thoughts. She couldn't imagine living in a family where she was given away to complete strangers to live on her own in a city weeks away. She was surprised that Lario was so good with the girl. It had only been days ago that he'd Fallen, but he'd definitely seemed far too serious and thoughtful to be good with children. He hadn't liked Tyfia and Cotia at all when they'd been in Everything.
That night Merri slept safely underneath Lario's large paws.
The next few days were spent riding, pausing only at night and to let the horses rest. Although the pace wasn't overwhelming the sheer amount of time spent moving exhausted Emen. Lario loped alongside her brown mare, no matter the pace or the hours they spent travelling he never seemed to tire and was always ready to set off again the following morning while Emen struggled to wake herself.
Merri was allowed to ride in the carriage with Baard, or the coach with the frail old woman that smelled strange and often wailed and screamed randomly throughout the day. Merri much preferred Baard. Aside from the one Render assigned to steer the coach and tend to her, everyone avoided the old woman. Emen felt bad about it, but the one time she'd tried to talk to her, the old woman had screamed and tried to claw at her face with long, yellowed nails. She'd stayed as far away as everyone else after that.