"Man, Dad really did a number on this guy."

Lucas Albright stood next to Liv as she kicked at the pile of rubble that had once been a giant stone man. Dad's strike with Toraline had basically converted the guy's entire top half into rubble, leaving just a pair of sandaled stone feet still standing. It would have been comedic if it hadn't been for the fact that Lucas also knew what the sentinels had almost done. To him, to his family…

To the wounded elf girl now sleeping in one of Billy's nest-beds…

A memory flashed through his head again. The elf girl, broken and unconscious, naked except for the coverings Dad had left over her private parts… If this had been one of the books his friends at school liked to read, she would have been gorgeous and, uh, big. Like, in the chest area. And she would have woken up just as he had looked at her, and their eyes would have locked, and she would have pledged her undying loyalty to him as her savior.

Stupid books.

Instead, he'd made himself watch while Dad cleaned her wounds. It had been worse than when Mom had been hurt, not because the cuts were worse, but because… She looked like she was his age. She was small and frail and looked like those pictures you saw of war orphans from Asia or Africa or whatever. The wounds were almost secondary to the fact that he could see her bones under her skin.

"So wait," Liv had turned away from the gravel pile and was peering at him. "What were you doing when Dad was cutting up Rocky here?"

"I was handling the other one," Luc said, gesturing to a couple of divots in the earth where he and Harry had shoved the other Sentinel back a dozen yards or so. "Y'know, before it decided it wanted to blow up instead."

"And you say Dad's magic gave you the strength to do that?" Liv frowned. "Maybe he isn't a tank as much as I thought…"

"Nah, he still is," Luc waved a hand. "He just has some support powers too."

"Totally unbalanced," Liv snorted. "Someday I'm going to meet whoever programmed this world, and I'm gonna walk right up to him, and I'm gonna slap him right in the mush."

"How do you know it was a 'he'? It could have been a girl who programmed it," Luc pointed out.

Liv snorted again. "A girl wouldn't leave it this unbalanced. We're more detail-oriented than boys. It's a proven fact."

"That's sexist, Liv," Luc said with a grin.

"Only if it isn't true," Liv said primly. "Which it is. So shut up."

The two started back towards the clearing, where a cookfire was already blazing merrily away in the firepit. Cans of chunky soup had been combined into one big pot–they were having cream of mushroom-potato-broccoli-cheese-clam-chowder, apparently–and smaller pots of corn and green beans were cooking as well. It smelled good, despite the weird combination. Of course, after today, anything probably would have smelled and tasted good. Fighting really did give you an appetite!

"I wonder if we're all gonna get animal companions," Luc said as they reached the clearing, and he got another look at the big snake-hand-lion thing that the girls had brought back with them. It was intensely cool, and if he hadn't already had Harry he would have felt really jealous.

He still felt a little jealous, but he wasn't going to say anything 'cause he didn't want to hurt Harry's feelings.

"At this rate?" Liv chuckled as she watched the Bargalest locomote itself around the clearing, sniffing at Billy's trunks and limbs while Dinah stayed close by its side. "Probably. The only question is what they're gonna be, and how weird are they gonna get."

"And next time, you've got to name it before you bring it back and Dad sees it," Luc said.

"Oh man, tell me about it," Liv groaned.

The girls had come back into the clearing with the Bargalest in tow. Luc and Dad had been pretty much equal amounts of shocked, but after everyone had explained, they'd welcomed the big guy as best as they could.

Of course, that was when Dad had gotten that look.

"He needs a name." He'd said.

And everyone had started to protest, even Mom, though she'd looked more like she was trying to hold in laughter than anything else.

"How about… Neo."

It had been like the universe had stutter-stopped at Dad's suggestion. Liv had been all wound up for a tirade against his dad-joke names and had just kinda deflated. It had been pretty funny.

At least until Dinah had spoken up.

"You mean, like, because he's got a lot of knees?" she had asked suspisciously. "Because, like, he ain't got that many, Mr. Albright."

"No" Dad had said. "Like Neo. From the Matrix."

Everyone had looked perplexed. So of course Dinah had had to keep talking.

"I mean, it ain't a bad name. But why Neo of all things?"

And Dad had gotten that grin of his, and Luc had known at that moment that they'd walked right into a trap.

"Well, just look at him. It's clear as can be that his real name is 'Mister Handerson'."

The groan that had come from that one had practically shaken Billy's branches as the entire family–including Mom who was still smiling for some reason–let Dad know their thoughts on the subject.

Of course, that didn't prevent the name from totally sticking. Because that was Dad's superpower, apparently.

"You guys really saw Fairies?" Luc asked next as they got to the campsite and the cookfire where Mom was stirring the pots and Dad was deep in conversation with Toraline about something or other. "Like, full-on tinkerbell and stuff?"

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"Basically yeah," Liv said as they sat down on one of the logs. "Well, one of them was. The other was this little pudgy guy that kinda reminded me of those old Pink Panther cartoons we used to watch at Mimi and Boompa's house. Except like, beefier. And with claws."

"Huh." Luc frowned. "I guess there's a lot of stuff out there we haven't encountered yet."

"Yeah, which means we just gotta keep exploring," Liv said, kicking her feet up on a rock. "Not sure how I feel about the whole 'splitting the party' thing, though," she added after a second.

"I mean, it sounds like you guys did okay," Luc pointed out. "You guys took down a boss monster without even a scratch."

"Yeah, but that's just because the fairies decided to help us," Liv said, frowning. "If they hadn't, or if they'd decided just a bit later… Bel was in the middle of Mr. Handerson's spikey limbs, and my coins were getting low, so I couldn't have kept buffing her indefinitely. I think some of us really would have gotten hurt if the fairies hadn't intervened when they did." Liv thought for a second, then glanced up at Luc. "And you guys would have been in trouble too if those bugs hadn't attacked when they did."

"I must apologize again for my failure to hold to my oath," said Billy the Tree's leafy voice, the note of sadness and shame still there even though everyone had tried to tell him that it hadn't been his fault.

"Billy, it wasn't your fault," Liv said, smiling gently up at the canopy. "None of us had any way of knowing you'd have some kind of anti-smack-the-sentinels safeguards in you."

"It does raise a problem though," said Isabel, appearing suddenly and flopping down next to Liv. She was in new clothes and her hair was wet. Last Lucas had seen her, she'd been heading for the river with a bottle of shampoo and a determined look on her face. He guessed she'd finally given in to what he called the 'hair washing urge'. Girls just had to wash their hair. He didn't get it, but there ya go. It had gotten bad enough that Bel had finally decided to brave the cold river water in pursuit of her goal.

"What problem?" Lucas asked.

"How do we ensure the camp is protected when we're not here," Mom said, entering the conversation as she sampled the cream-of-clam-chowder soup. "Or when we're asleep, or what-have-you."

"Yeah." Liv nodded sadly. "We thought that Billy could take on whatever came at us, but now we know there's holes in his defense the size of… Well, giant stone men who explode. That's… Kinda a big hole. No offense, Billy."

"I truly am sorry," the tree said dejectedly. "I have failed at my calling and my promise."

The rest of the family's voices rose in reassurance to the big tree, but Lucas didn't join them. He was thinking.

Mostly, he was thinking about how Billy was kind of right. And how he and Billy were kind of the same, right now.

He hadn't been able to do squat against the Sentinels. Oh sure, he'd pushed them around a bit–

No. No, he sighed and gave voice to the little voice that had been in the back of his head all day. No, he hadn't done a thing. Harry had done everything. The big elephant was the one who had shoved the Sentinel around, who had kept it from attacking Dad, and even who had pulled Luc away from it when it started glowing.

Which, okay, Harry was part of his class, so Lucas supposed that technically it was him that had done all that… But be realistic here. Harry had done all the heavy lifting, and Luc has just… Sat there. He hadn't even shot at the statue with his little shotgun, because be honest, what was a 10-guage going to do against a rock soldier?

Not a lot, that's what.

"I'm gonna go walk a bit," Luc said, getting to his feet. Mom waved at him. His sisters didn't even notice, they were deep in conversation about something or other. He slipped away from the clearing on quiet feet and started walking towards the pile of chests that Mr. Handerson–okay, Luc was just gonna start calling him Handy because that other title was a mouthful–had dumped next to the rest of their stuff from the Diligaf.

It wasn't a lot of cool treasure like he'd been hoping. It was mostly metal bars and stuff. Which, okay yeah cool that meant they could make real armour and weapons and stuff now, and he was kinda excited to get a real weapon he could use from Harry's back… Maybe like a halberd, or one of those long-bladed chinese slashing spears.

He popped open one of the chests–it looked exactly like something out of The Legend Of Zelda, right down to the band of gold metal and the comically-oversized lock that didn't need a key to open–and pulled out one of the silvery ingots from within. It was heavy, like maybe ten or fifteen pounds, and it shone with a luster that made him think it was probably a special kind of metal because he didn't think iron or steel would shine like that in the evening light.

Ooh, or maybe he could get Dad to help him make a ballista. A big-butt crossbow he could mount on Harry's back, loaded with bolts as long as a spear and made out of solid metal… Hah, who'd be the tank then? He grinned, picturing himself in full samurai armour, charging into a horde of Sentinels, firing a massive crossbow from Harry's back, the bolts impaling a dozen Sentinels at a time…

… Huh. Now there was an interesting idea.

"Hey Billy?" Lucas said, looking up at the tree. "You got a second?"

"I have all the time in this lifetime, Consul Lucas–"

"Okay, seriously, how many times do we have ta tell you, just call us by our first names, okay?" Lucas said, glaring without heat at the canopy. "Come on, we're basically bros right now."

"… Bros?"

"Yeah. Brothers. I mean, you're basically part of the family right now, y'know? You take care of us when we're asleep, you talk to us about our problems, you help out around the camp… I mean, I can't exactly play a game of b-ball with you, but c'mon, you're my bro. So c'mon bro, call me Lucas. Or Luc. Okay?"

"I… I shall endeavor to do so, Consu–"

"Ah?" Lucas raised a finger.

"… Lucas?"

Luc grinned. "You'll get the hang of it. Now, I've got a question for you. You weren't able to hit the Sentinels at all, right? Like, couldn't even think about it?"

"That is correct, to my shame," the tree sighed. "I tried, I swear by my foreseeder I did."

"I believe ya," Luc said, hefting the metal ingot thoughtfully. "But I'm curiou, how far does that compulsion go? Like, you were able to hit the Sentinel with the Bugs, right?"

"No, I flung the creatures in a direction that, regretably, resulted in them impacting the Sentinel. However, since I knew that the Sentinel would not be harmed by the blow, there was nothing that kept me from making the move."

"And then when you hit the Sentinel–"

"I did not hit the Sentinel, Lucas," Billy said slowly and clearly. "I struck the creatures, and then the creatures themelves transferred that energy into the Sentinels, resulting in them both being flung from the clearing. It was a regretable oversight on my part."

"Now that is some good rules-lawyering," Lucas said with a grin. "And that brings up my question: Could you hit a Sentinel, say, if it wasn't you hitting the sentinel, but maybe like a bit ol' bat you were holding at the time?"

Billy was silent and his leafs rustled as he thought it over. Then: "I do not believe so, Lucas. Anything I hold becomes an extension of myself, and by the rules I now know are within me, it would be as if I struck them with my own wood and bark."

Darn. Well, that would have been too easy. And it wasn't what had started Lucas thinking in the first place anyway.

"Okay, what if you didn't hit them at all, but like, pushed a button that caused them to be hit by something? You couldn't be held responsible for that, could you?"

Another rustling silence.

"I… Am not sure. It feels like maybe that would not trigger the shackles binding my actions? But what exactly do you mean, 'push a button'?"

Lucas felt a grin stretch across his face, one he knew would be the envy of little brothers everywhere.

"Billy," He said, hefting the metal ingot again, mind already running down the possibilities. "Has anyone ever told you about the glorious art of trapmaking?"

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