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Fern clutched at ainsther a light shake "Fern Cassava thinks you are too weak to survive She won’t look for you in the human world, which erous for you right now, you know that"

Her back slowly stiffened and she gave h for both of us You’ll come back for me when you’ve made it safe?"

Well da And then her words hit me She expected me to fix whatever problems there ith Cassava "I’ll do s better He has to deal with his batshit crazy wife"

Fern gave ht "You’re going to be the best step-daughter ever"

"Ack, let o" I wanted to shove her away and would have if she hadn’t been in her particular condition

Now came the tricky part While we’d both been educated on the human world, the history of it, where they were at with their technology, actually stepping into their world was entirely different How to deal with hu it in practice, I wasn’t so sure

"Have you ever been out of the forest?" Fern asked

I shook my head "No Have you?"

She shook her head "I remember the books froo I’m ashamed to say I didn’t pay much attention"

And really, I hadn’t, either I took a deep breath and let it slowly out This was not how Enders traveled when they had a Hunt That much I was sure, but we didn’t have a choice left to us "I think we can do so her hand, alked to the side of the black ground It was fully dark now, and the vehicles were lit up like owls, their lights giant glowing orbs that aimed at our midsections as they whooshed by us Each time a car passed, Fern clutched h was I didn’t really kno tohumans, stop

"Do you think the painted lines in the middle are i to thefrom my lack luster hu the cars zip by, I waited until there was no great glowing orbs co our way, then led Fern to the ets close, wave at it," I instructed, recalling that the hitched hiking required you to signal the drivers of the vehicles so they knew you wanted their attention

The first set of lights curled around a bend in the road and the sound reverberated in er than the others"