SPOILER ALERT: The following contains major spoilers for Orestes chapters 11-15. If you’re planning on reading the book and don’t want spoilers, you won’t want to read this!
Previous interviews:
Chapters 1-4: Interview with Acules
Chapters 5-7: Interview with Orestes
Chapters 8-10: Interview with Levina
Character Interview: Ritter (Orestes chapters 11-15)
Jennifer: Welcome, Ritter.
Ritter: Hey, how’s it going?
Jennifer: I’m well, thank you. And you?
Ritter: Can’t complain, can’t complain. So what can I do for you?
Jennifer: Just answer some questions if you don’t mind. The last time I heard, you were in a group of twelve people who were leaving Warrior Peak to help out the settlements in Serenity Valley. And you’re in Serenity Valley now, right? Tell me about it.
Ritter: Oh, it’s great. The trees here are huge. I mean, massive, nothing like we’ve ever seen before. It takes at least six of us joining hands to make a circle around one of them, and the canopy is so thick it sometimes even blocks out the daylight. I actually figured out you can walk across the canopy in some places, almost like it’s on solid ground.
Jennifer: Interesting. So have you made it to any of the settlements? How has that gone?
Ritter: Yeah, we spent a few weeks at Settlement Six. Just like people at Warrior Peak, they had never even heard of Morroks, but we took that as a good sign because that meant that the Morroks hadn’t attacked them yet. There was some evidence that the Morroks had started kidnapping kids, though, which was terrible. But we spent several days teaching and training them and shoring up the village’s defenses. We’d like to see all the villages unite at some point, but Settlement Six is so far away from everyone else, I don’t know if their nonfighters would be able to make the journey to the central Valley, where most of the settlements are. So this is the best we could do for now.
Jennifer: I’ve talked to Orestes and Levina before. They’re with you, right? How are they doing?
Ritter: Oh, they’re both as uptight as ever.
Jennifer: Really? I don’t think I would’ve used that word for them.
Ritter: Well, not in a bad way, necessarily. Orestes is my best friend, so don’t get the wrong idea. They’re both just so serious all the time. Orestes has the tortured, I-used-to-be-a-Morrok-and-that-makes-me-a-terrible-person thing going on, and Levina thinks she’s responsible for the whole world and everyone in it. They’re good together though. Everyone we’ve met in the settlements really likes and respects them even though they’re young.
Jennifer: That’s good to hear. What about you? Is there a woman you’re interested in?
Ritter: Oh, you’ll love this. Ready for a story?
Jennifer: That’s what I’m here for.
Ritter: Great. So this will blow your mind. Humans aren’t the only ones in the forest.
Jennifer: You’ve run into Morroks?
Ritter: No. I mean, yes, but I’ll get to that later. I mean there are other people too, besides Humans and Morroks. I was the first one to run into them—well, into her. See, when I was in the canopy by myself one time, I ran into this girl who had been following us. But not a Human girl—a Serenial.
Jennifer: Serenial?
Ritter: Yep. Serenial look like Humans, except they have wings—big, powerful wings that let them fly just like a bird in the air. But they’re smaller than Humans too; most of them are under five feet tall, and they have pinkish skin and these big, buggy-looking eyes. But this girl—Sylvia—she’s gorgeous. I was shocked at first, of course, but man, was she beautiful. She knew some Human tongue, so we talked as much as we could, and I tried to get back to the canopy as much as I could to see her.
Jennifer: Did you tell anyone else about her?
Ritter: No. Sylvia asked me not to. The Serenial have been purposely hiding themselves from Humans for years, so it was all very top secret. But we just couldn’t get enough of each other. I would sneak out of Settlement Six to see her—though I think Orestes might have been suspicious of what I was doing. When we were heading for Settlement Eleven, I tried to make up a story about taking a trip by myself so I could spend more time with her, but Orestes and Levina said they wanted to come along. So I pretended to go with them, but I disappeared a lot. It wasn’t very smooth. But I had to see her.
Jennifer: You mentioned you’ve seen some Morroks in the forest?
Ritter: Yeah. So when Orestes and Levina and I were on that trip, I found out that Morroks had been following our group all along, and I guess the they thought they could pick us off because there were only a couple of us and we were far away from the settlements. So they came after Orestes and Levina while I was with Sylvia, and I barely got to them in time to warn them. Then some Serenial joined us, and together, we were able to put down the Morroks. But then the Serenial arrested us.
Jennifer: Really? Why?
Ritter: Well, it turns out the Serenial think it’s our fault—the Humans’ fault—that the Morroks are in the forest. And they noticed that the Morroks were following our group—Orestes, specifically—and they were trying to figure out why. Truthfully, they wanted him dead, in case that would make the Morroks less interested in the forest.
Jennifer: And do you know why the Morroks are following him?
Ritter: No. Neither does Orestes, not really. I mean, his parents, my dad, and I know he got rescued from the Morroks a long time ago, but I don’t know why the Morroks are so obsessed when they’ve clearly got plenty of other recruits.
Jennifer: Orestes hasn’t told Levina about all this?
Ritter: No, I don’t think so. I think he thinks he’ll scare her off or something.
Jennifer: How did you get away from the Serenial if they wanted to kill you?
Ritter: Fought our way out. Once word gets around to the other Serenial, Sylvia will be banished for life.
Jennifer: What will she do now?
Ritter: She’ll join our group. I’m not going to let anything separate us again. She gave up everything for me, and I’ll do the same for her if I have to. We got back to Settlement Eleven and had to tell Fallon everything, and it turns out the Morroks had kidnapped some kids while we were gone. They left a message too: “There are only Eight whom the Morroks fear.”
Jennifer: What in the world does that mean? And why would they tell you?
Ritter: Beats me. They seem to be into mind games, as if they weren’t physically strong enough already.
Jennifer: What’s next for your group?
Ritter: Keep going to the other settlements. It’s all we can do. But it seems like everything just got a lot more dangerous.
Jennifer. Yes, it does. Best of luck to you.
Ritter: Thanks. I think we’ll need it.