Destan's heart pounded as he stormed through the forest. Only one thought circled over and over through his head: I have to stop this.

All those weapons... Handguns, pistols, rifles. Add to that the element of surprise on their side, and there was no way the tribe would be able to withstand the attack. Not unless he warned them, made sure they were prepared.

Banished or not, Destan was the only one who could do this. He was the only one who knew.

The sound of his footsteps bashing on the forest floor, in sync with his heartbeat like a frantic concord, stopped suddenly when another sound interrupted.

Voices.

Destan crouched down, frozen like a deer in headlights, as he listened to the noises coming closer and closer.

"I swear I heard something," came a girl's voice.

"We shouldn't even be in the forest, Tari! We're not allowed, with everything that's going on."

Tari?

"Everything that's going on is exactly why we should be in the forest!" the girl, Tari, snapped back. "If I'm going to be the future leader of this tribe, I can't just sit on the side-line when something big like this is happening. I have to help."

Scrap, not Tari...

Destan had never gotten along very well with his cousin. Although they were family, she and her mum strongly believed that Destan's outcast status defined him, and that they could not be seen talking to him without losing face. Lys was the only one in the family who hadn't completely abandoned him after his dad had died in that horrible accident.

If Tari found him here, mere hours after he'd been banished, he would not survive this trip. She took her role as future tribe leader very seriously and she would not hesitate to attack, family or not. Her father had always boasted about how strong she was with her electric powers, and he wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of them.

As quietly as he could, Destan stepped to the right to hide behind a nearby tree, painfully aware of every single twig that snapped or leaf that cracked.

"There! Did you not hear that?" came Tari's voice from awfully close by.

Her footsteps followed her voice straight towards him.

Scrap.

"I heard normal forest sounds! Come on, Tari, I don't want to be here..."

"Then go back. I'll handle this alone."

Destan knew he had to do something, quick, or he'd have to fight his own cousin. He wouldn't get a chance to warn them about the Inops if Tari attacked him.

But she was so close... How could he escape her now, without making any sound and let her know where he was? This is worse than Aruna's training sessions!

An idea flicked on in his head like a light switch. He closed his eyes and reached out to the molecules that made up his own body. He let the atraments flow their power out of his hands and lift him up, higher and higher, until he could step onto one of the tree's branches.

"Tari..."

"Shush!"

Eyes wide and his back pushed against the trunk, he looked down just as his cousin and her friend showed up. Tari held her hands out, ready to attack, just like her dad had taught her. The boy, however, looked frightened and skittish, as if he'd run back home screaming at the slightest hint of danger. His head was pulled in between his shoulders, and where Tari held herself like a predator ready to pounce, the boy seemed more like prey. Prey with brown locks reaching down to his shoulders, hiding the insecurities in his face from view.

Unmoving, Destan watched as the duo searched the area for any sign of danger, until they got frustrated and moved on. He stared after his cousin as she bickered with her friend on their way back to camp. He breathed a sigh of relief when she finally disappeared from view.

Just as he was about to let himself down, another voice broke the silence. "Tari! Tari, where are you?"

Uncle Lys! If there was anyone who would hear him out and take him seriously, it was him. Destan could hardly believe his luck when his uncle stepped underneath his tree. Alone.

Lys squealed when his nephew suddenly dropped out of the tree next to him. Aiming the first thing he could find at this sudden threat, a pebble the size of his little finger, Lys' jaw dropped.

"Destan?"

"Uncle Lys!" Destan exclaimed. "I'm so glad I found you. Listen, something's –"

"You are not supposed to be here."

"No, I know, but this is important. The Inops, they –"

"Leave," said uncle Lys, his voice low and threatening.

Destan hesitated. "What?"

"Leave, at once!" his uncle snapped.

"No, you don't understand, there's something I have to tell –"

Lys stepped forward, towering over his nephew, scowling. "I don't care what you came here to say. You have been banished. Leave, and never come back."

"Uncle Lys, this is important! You have to listen to me!" Destan blurted out desperately. He came here with a mission, and now Lys wouldn't even let him finish talking? This was about the safety of the tribe. How could Lys just blow him off like that?

Had he finally given up on Destan, like everyone else?

Uncle Lys narrowed his eyes, raising the pebble back up into the air like a mini-weapon. Although small, Destan knew the damage Lys could deal with the stone. "I don't ever have to listen to you again. Twelve years it took me to get you banished. Twelve years! Now that I've finally succeeded, I don't want to see you ever again. You are dead to me, Destan. You are dead to all of us."

No... No, he couldn't mean this. Was this some sort of sick joke? "You... You got me banished?"

Uncle Lys showed his teeth in a wicked grin. "Indeed. And you never suspected a thing."

"No, but... But you helped me!"

Lys barked out a laugh. "I advised Remus against you time and time again, kept him angry with you for killing your father. I spread rumours about you when this war first started, to turn people against you once more. I gave your team the task to capture the Inops boy, while Remus was negotiating for peace. You didn't even suspect anything when I sabotaged your first assignment by eliminating Elias Foss."

Destan couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. Everything he'd ever known crumbled to dust in front of him. Lys' words were a raging fire, burning the only life he'd ever had to the ground. "You did that?"

"Who else, boy?" uncle Lys snapped. "He was knocked out with a stone! How thick can you be?" He hovered the trembling pebble in front of Destan's face to back up his point.

Destan stared at it, feelings, thoughts and realisations racing through his mind in perfect chaos. All those years Lys hadn't given him a single piece of advice on how to get back into the tribe, while Aruna was the only one to help him. All those years he'd asked Destan what he was up to, to find out whether he had made any progress yet. And ever since he'd had a chance to prove his worth to the tribe, Lys had done nothing but sabotage it.

This can't be happening.

Not Lys... His uncle. His family.

"But... But why?"

"Why?" Lys growled. "Why? Because you were never supposed to become Chief. My son was next in line, my son! When he passed away, you were suddenly the eldest child in the family. But I have another child. And she will be our Chief. My bloodline will lead this tribe!"

Destan stared at the trembling pebble inches away from in between his eyes. He almost wished Lys would just finish it. At least that way he wouldn't have to live with what he now knew. He should never even have come back here in the first place.

He'd always known his uncle valued status within the tribe more than anything. The way he always bragged about knowing everything Remus knew, about being the one to make the decisions even though Remus would enforce them.

Destan could never have imagined his craving for prestige would go this far.

All his life uncle Lys has lied to him, deceived him, manipulated him. Lys had won, before Destan had even figured out the game.

"Get out of my forest, boy. If I ever see you here again, I will not hesitate to kill you. And nobody will ever know. Now get out!"

Destan ducked in a reflex when the pebble flew backwards only to whoosh through the air straight for his head.

One last time, he fled through the forest, leaving his tribe, his home, his life behind him.