KC-Smith. Thank you for your praise. Your comment about the repetitiveness at the end of the first chapter has a good point. I was actually trying to make it a little disorganized, since Shan is still having trouble coping with his father's death, but maybe it was too much. I'm considering revising it. I hope you update on 'moonlight calling' soon, because I really enjoyed it.

iglooey. Thanks so much. There will be some background information about the gods, I promise,but I'm not terribly fond ofannouncing things at the beginning of the story. It will probably come out as dialogue or something of the sort. I'm glad you could empathize with Shan, because I was really worried that the whole story was too flat! (Oh, and my American Heritage Talking Dictionary says that 'bitingly' is a real word. But maybe I shouldn't have said 'bitingly'. Adverbs can make you so lazy. I'm trying to obliviate some of my laziness.)

Pepper123. I'm really grateful for your review. It was very helpful. I know that the whole layout is extremely confusing, but FictionPress did not support formatting when I began this story. I'm glad to see that they do support formatting now, so the story layout should be a little clearer when I replace the current material withnewer versions. Information about Shan and his cousins is also under way. Thanks for saying that you'll read this if I update. It's so heartening. I read your story, 'The Journey', and it's great! It's on my favorites list right now, and you are one of my favorite authors, too. I'm sorry I couldn't review you. I'll do it properly when I have 'Son of the Betrayer' going again.

sRoze. You write beautiful stories, but it turns out that your reviews are beautiful as well! I'm impressed. Alliren (the snake lady) was a character that I put in for the bad side. I wanted to create some behind-story for her, and I think it's moving along. So hopefully you'll be seeing that soon. If you can feel with my characters, that's great news coming from a great writer! Thank you. Your review made me very happy. And I will be updating, I promise. But I can't guarantee that you'll learn 'what happens next'. Therewill benew scenes stuck between the ones displayed here, though, so you can at least hope for that much. Thanks again.

March 22, 2005. Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers for their constructive criticism and support. I apologize for the hold-up in posting. I have been having some trouble with Internet access lately. 'Son of the Betrayer' is currently under detailed reconstruction. I have made some minor changes in plot and characterization. I am also adding some basic background information, as well as formatting my text in a more readable way.The current postings will remain until I can replace them with better material. I hope I won't disappoint any of you. Feel free to contact me at the above e-mail address if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks once again.