Caden is a planner. Caden likes plans and waiting and thinking things through. This has gotten them out of a lot of sticky situations in the past.

Hope is not a planner. Hope likes to jump in feet-first and do stupid things like abandon their team to go after Moon, who's en route to the City after being snatched off the ground and swung off on the back of somebody's horse. Maybe this time the journey could use someone a little more like Hope, especially because the longer Caden waits to leave the farther Moon gets until they had no chance of rescuing her.

Hope has done some unfortunate things. She's lied and stolen and cheated and she knows that-this could be her chance to prove she's better now. If Jack can do it, so could she. She won't plan or wait or think things through-in fact, she'll do the opposite, especially because there's a very high chance her father is in the City and she'd very much rather not think about that.

Maybe that was why Wolfsfend chose them in particular to go to the Town in the first place. It wasn't because Hope was a navigator, or Caden was a healer, or Moon was the Wolf Girl. They all just happened to have at least one missing parent. At least that puts Hope closer to the heroes of all her favorite stories, whose defining characteristics are often their tragic backstory. Hope wants to redeem herself, so even if Caden wouldn't run after Moon, Hope would.

It's what the hero would do.

At Society of Young Inklings, our mission is to inspire youth authors and to help them move the big ideas from their heads and hearts onto the page. Society of Young Inklings celebrates diversity and offers classes and mentorships to all students. Visit our website to get involved: www.younginklings.org

The City - heftet, Engelsk, 2022