He knelt down next to her. “What is it?”

“A medallion,” she said, kneeling down.

“What’s so strange about that?” he asked, and knelt down next to her.

“Nothing, if it wasn’t exactly like mine.” She rose to her feet still holding her small treasure. Peter rose, too. He could see the intensity showing in her face. “How could this have gotten here?”

“I don’t know, perhaps another tribe came through here at one time. It could have been here for a century, maybe longer.”

“No, Peter, it’s too clean. Besides it has the Novah symbol on it. See.”

She handed the medallion over to him, so he could better examine it. His eyes grew large as he caressed the metal.

“You recognize this?” Mailee asked. She always had a way of reading him.

“No,” he said, handing the medallion back. “Forget you ever seen that thing.” He leaned his hand up against a tree and refused to look at her.

“You know something.” He stayed silent. “Peter, this is the Novah symbol. None of us has been through these parts before.” Mailee thought for a moment. Peter looked at her, knowing exactly what she was thinking.

“Mailee, you can’t think…”

“I don’t think anything.” She stared at the medallion for the longest time. Then she took it and hung it around her neck and tucked it deep inside her clothes. She turned towards Peter. Her eyes so intense. “All I can gather from this is that someone dropped this… and very recently.”

Peter didn’t argue with her. She walked on even more determined. She was a woman on a mission. Peter feared it might be their demise.

“Mailee, wait, this is too dangerous. We should go back.”

He was now running after her at a fast pace. Suddenly she stopped and knelt down behind a large boulder. She noticed that Peter was still half standing.

“Get down,” she whispered, pulling him to the ground. She could only sit there and stare at the scene, a war camp. She had seen many of those, and they all disgusted her.

“It’s an Oyani war camp,” Peter said. “We need to get out of here.”

“I think you’re right,” she whispered, a glint of fear in her eyes. “Let’s go.”

Peter got to his feet with his back hunched over trying to flee the scene. He took Mailee’s hand and attempted to make a fast getaway.

“Going somewhere?” a voice came from behind them.

Mailee turned around and found herself staring into the eyes of an Onyan soldier. He was intimidatingly tall or so it seemed so due to the armor he wore.

“Intruders,” he shouted.

Two other soldiers came up from behind Peter. Cold shivers went up her spine when she realized that there was no escape.