Clawed My Way Past 30K

Well, now I'm exactly on target for a standard Nanowrimo. I have 30,005 words, and the target for Day 18 is 30,006.

The problem boils down to: I know where I want to go, but I don't know how to get there.

The ending is supposed to be: Aliacorba transfers half of Edward to James and the other half to himself, in exchange for Charles teaching their spirit shaman how to be a spirit shaman.

The problem: how on earth do they even meet each other, and once they do, why on earth would they actually tell each other their respective problems?

Thus: come up with a way for them to discover each other's problems without any telling needed. Also, the natives either need to go visiting at the fort without getting killed, or the Duchene brothers need to somehow go visit the forest without getting killed.

My present idea: Have the natives capture Edward alive ... for some reason ... yet to be determined. Maybe they were curious because they'd never seen a wolf before (there aren't any in Aunlanian). Once they have him, they can observe for themselves what Edward's problems are. Then, eventually when Charles tracks him down, Charles can hopefully be in some kind of useful position to observe the natives' conundrum.

So, more prison time for Edward. Poor guy. He spent most of the first half being a prisoner too.