Epic

Summary:

M.K. Is attending college two hours away but the Flower Queen is weak and she finds out that there is something not only threatening the Jinn and the boggans but also other forest worlds, but the threat is somewhere in the Stompers world so Nod will get to see the view from above.

The dark Prince

Dating was never easy, but dating through a view screen was much harder. She saw Nod almost everyday in the beginning, sometimes she saw Mod, Grub, or Ronin, on a occasion she spoke with the Flower Queen who seemed to admire her. It was hard to believe the little easily excitable flower girl was Queen, and yet the girl was also beyond her years. She often ask M.K. And her father for help for things only a stomper could do. Those were the times she saw Nod in person, but she barely understood him, even with him right there in the palm of her hand.

It was hard for her, and she wondered if it been hard for him too. He never said anything about it, her being a stomper, him being a small creature of the forest.

She often teased him about being a fairy with no wings, or a pixie. He did not take too much offense to it, until he saw the pictures of the pretty boys and girls with wings. He was not a pretty boy and he found it insulting to be compared to creatures who did nothing but cause mischief or sing and dance all day. She just laughed. They had a lot of good times even with the screen between.

But as summer turned into fall, then winter, she could not see Nod as much. She gone to school that was a hour away and then would have to do lots of homework. Much to her surprise she began to make friends, she been anti-social before, so used to taking care of things on her own but her adventures changed her. She trusted people more and felt more connected. So she was even more busy hanging out, and joining clubs. So their relationship started fading, and Mod-more than once-began to mope about not seeing his 'fine thing'. She did miss them, but the reality was: there really was no life with them.

She belonged here.

In the world of the stompers and though she was grateful for her adventure, she come to a realization there was no point in holding on. It was the hardest thing she ever had to do when college came around. She knew she would not be able to see them. Her father offered to record videos and send them to her, but it would not be the same. Nothing was the same, she always would have Nod settling with in her memory in a special place. She would always love him, but it was time for her to move on with her life.

She smiled sadly as Nod appeared on the screen, "Hey M.K. haven't seen you in awhile. I wanted tell you I been promoted. I'll be getting my own recruits soon." He grinned at her overly proud.

"That's...great," She tried to hide the lingering hurt and guilt in her voice.

It seemed to work at the moment, "It is, I'll have my own idiots to boss around." He pushed a strand of brown hair back. She always liked that he kept it a little wild, like his personality.

"Instead of being the idiot yourself." She teased.

"Heeey, come on you got to admit, I was suave even then."

"Not really," She laughed lightly remembering how cocky he been.

"And yet, you fell for my charms," Her face fell a bit but she was saved by Mod and Grub who threw themselves at the camera, smashing into it, leaving slime on it.

"Ahhh, Grub and Mod, how times do I got to tell you not to get so close to the circle thing." Nod yelled.

Mod just shook his body, "I'm trying to be close to my fine thing. Did you miss me, girl?"

She laughed, "You know Nod it's a camera."

"Yeah I knew that," He stepped back somewhat sheepish and leaned against the tree, "trying to keep it simple for these guys."

"Are you calling me stupid?" Mod asked getting right in Nod's face.

"Yuck," Nod pushed him away.

"You know you shouldn't talk to a fellow leaf-man like that," Grub held his chest out proudly.

M.K. was used to holding things in, when her mom and dad separated, when her mom died, and when things with her dad were not working too well. She was a strong girl she always had to be. She had mostly taken care of herself, even after she worked things out with her dad. She had often been the one to tidy the house, cook, clean, though her father tried he really was not good at those things. He still got distracted studying things from the leaf-men. He helped them often by suggesting improvements to their armor and he kept the area safe from creatures and people that the leaf-men could not handle. So he was still very busy, though they managed to have a really good relationship. So M.K. kept things locked in and yet now she could feel the first teardrop fall.

Her father had come up behind her, "Is everything ok M.K.?" He wondered. He knew what she was planning to do and he understood. He had always figure it would come to that, he even spoke with her about the challenges of her relationship.

"M.K?" Nod looked at her confused. He had no idea what he could have said to upset her.

"What did you do to my woman?" Mod slammed into the tall leaf-man. He looked right into the camera, "You want me to take flat-face out, honey?"

M.K. wiped a tear from her face, "It's not him Mod." Her voice was so serious and sad that Mod stopped pushing on the young man. "It's me," She took a deep breathe. No need to beat around the bush M.K. You can do this she told herself, "I came to say goodbye."

"Goodbye but you just got here," Nod's brows just got more narrow with his deepening confusion.

She shook her head, "I mean goodbye forever, I mean I'm breaking up with you."

"What?!" both Mod and Nod exclaimed.

"What did I do honey-cakes?" Mod looked so sad that she knew he would cry if he could. Grub looked mournfully too.

"Don't you like us anymore?" Grub asked. Nod was uncharacteristically quiet the whole time.

"It's not that, I'm going to college guys and it is far away."

"But you could still visit," the snail suggested.

"Not very often, I won't even see dad for months I'm going away, several sta..." She thought of a way to explain the distant, "Millions of trees away."

"Why?" Mod asked as his eyes got big with sorrow.

"Well because I'm a stomper and need to move on with my life. Of course I'll still come and say hi when I can, but..." she looked at Nod who was clenching his jaw. "A relationship isn't going to work between us, there are things I'm going to want, a family, a house," She kept sex in the back of her mind but it was there, and her face flushed a little.

"If you want a family we can adopt Grub here." Mod suggested bumping into his friend, "He would make a great son and he looks like me."

"Yeah," Grub agreed, "And don't forget several leaves, one tree."

"I know, that's why will always be connected wherever I go," she brushed a strand of red hair out of her face. "I just can't be with you in the way you want me to anymore." Mod held his head down, Grub hid in his shell. "Guys..."

"Fine," finally Nod spoke with a slight sneer as waved her off, rejecting her, "You want to go be with your precious stompers! Go! I have plenty of pretty ladies who want to be with me!"

M.K. felt hurt at his remark and her father spoke, "Don't talk to my daughter that way, is that the armor I made..." He stared at the acorn plated armor, adjusting his glasses.

"Yes," Nod replied, "And your daughter thinks she is better us. She's not. We are better than her."

"Don't talk to my future wife like that," Mod said pushing into him.

"Yeah, don't talk about my mom like that!" Grub yelled.

"She's not your mom," he stared at her, "She's not one of us and I guess she is right it won't work. We are too different."

"Nod I..."

"Go away, I don't need you. I never did! I don't need anyone." He turned his back toward her.

"Fine!" She replied and she yanked the headset off and dashed to her room throwing herself on the bed.

She never talked to Nod again after that, not for lack of trying but he refused. That's when she realized just how in love she had been in. There was no use dwelling on it, so she moved on.

Nod had buried himself in training over the next few months. Ronin had tried to talk to him several times but he refused, "Quit being so stubborn!" He yelled at him one day, "I got bigger things to worry about than your moping!"

"I'm not moping and what things? We can handle the boggans just fine, ever since..." He did not mention Queen Tara's name he was sure it was worse than the pain he was feeling over M.K. and she was still alive. This pain, this emptiness it was absolutely horrible and he had no idea how to handle it, because this he had never experienced before.

"First loves are always the hardest," Ronin's second in command leaned over his shoulder and soon got a disapproving stare from Ronin. "Not that I...we do have bigger issues" his boss kept staring, "and as usual I have no real say in this matter...I'll be over here," He stepped back.

The young man just chuckled a bit, despite his bitterness, "It's funny how you can take a man down with a stare, even one as strong as Carver."

"And yet..." Ronin half smiled, "It doesn't work on you, maybe boys are just immune to it."

"Hey I'm not a boy," He whined.

"Maybe not, but you are still quiet immature, though I do get why you are acting like this. Carver is right, first loves are hard."

"I don't want to talk about it," He crossed his arms and leaned on the big tree that they were working out of, "What was that thing about bigger issues again?"

"Well, something strange has been going on in the forest. It has been small, but it worries me."

"Everything worries you. Everything is fine."

"There has been dead boggans here and there."

"So," Nod raised a brow, "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Normally, but there have been no leaf-men near the area and there just doesn't seem to be any weapons and..." Ronin shook his head, "Maybe you are right."

"Okay, now I definitely need to know, you never agree with me. What's wrong?"

The leader of the leaf-men put his hand on Nod's shoulder, "This is one thing I have to admit I don't understand even the queen is unable to figure it out. The boggans look as if they had been burn to death from the inside."

"What! that's impossible."

"And some of them looked like they drowned when there was no water. These deaths are strange."

"So let's go investigate." Nod was all ready to jump on his bird and go.

"No, there been no reports lately," He shook his head, "and this is not a job for you, right now you got a group of men and a woman to train." Nod glanced over at his supposed men, disappointingly, one was overly skinny, another looked like a peach, and the only one that looked like he could handle himself was his rival growing up and then there was the young girl with round blonde curls. She was pretty, but Nod was not sure if she was leaf-woman materiel.

"Shouldn't Alana train the girl, she is really good with...uh girls."

"Oh?" His superior raised a brow, "are you saying that Alana should train girls just because she is a woman. I like to see you say that to her face." He chuckled. Nod would deny it, if ever it was pointed out but that thought made him nervous, Alana was even worse than...he shook his head...She was one of the few female soldiers and she trained many of the men because she was tough. She even made some of them cry.

"Not a chance in the dark." Nod replied, "She is way scarier then you."

"I know," He laughed some more, then he got serious, "You need to do a good job on this, if you ever want to get my job someday."

"Yeah right, who would want your job?" Ronin stared at him, "but you know me, I got to be the best at everything and I love a challenge." The man smiled at him.

"Alright get started."

"Yeah, yeah," Nod began to disappear.

"Oh and about M.K. you should not give up so easily." He yelled.

"That jerk always has to get the last word in," He muttered but he was sincerely surprised. He had figured he would tell him to move on and all that, maybe it was because he had love Tara. He probably did not want Nod to end up with the broke heart that he was carrying. Nod half smiled, he hoped one day Ronin could move on, Tara would not have mind, she just wanted to see him smile.

He felt a sense of dread as he looked over his recruits. The tall skinny one was picking his nose, "stop that cadet!" He ordered.

Darvas rolled his eyes at him. Nod was even more annoyed than ever before, "You got a problem with my command." He stared right into the blue eyes of the raven haired man. Some people were unsettled by the guys appearance. The guy was so cold and quiet, he looked different then most of them with his extremely pale skin. He was a boggan by no means but he was different, but this never bothered the new commanding officer. He even tried to be friends with the guy once, but the thing was...the guy was a dick and after discovering that, they pretty much competed in everything with each other.

"Yeah, the fact that you are command. We all know it is just because of your connections."

"Hey man you don't speak for all of us," The round man spoke and Nod had been surprised by the confidence he saw in his eyes. Maybe he had misjudged him.

"Hmm...whatever," Darvas growled.

"If you have such a problem, request another leader."

"I have," He growled bitterly as he stared down his superior officer.

Nod paused for a second before he burst out laughing, "You must have pissed off Ronin."

"And guess who he picked to handle me, maybe you pissed him off worse."

"Oh whatever, it doesn't matter, let's begin your training, we start by...well you guys can run seven laps up and down the tree."

"Oh," The round man whined.

"I bet this is your fault," The blond girl growled at Darvas and Nod had to admit he liked her fire. "You shouldn't disrespect our commanding officer like that, we all pay."

"She's right, several leaves," He stared right into the blue eyes, "one tree, one falls you all will fall." The man just glared at him. The blond girl was the first one to start her lap.

"Come on you guys aren't going to let a girl beat you." Nod yelled at them.

Darvas smirked, "I was just trying to be a gentlemen." Nod scoffed at the remark as he watched the guy leap up onto a leaf.

"Okay," The heavier man leaped barely making it.

The skinny guy just inquired, "Aren't you going? Shouldn't you show it how it is done."

"I'll be watching you guys by bird, consider this an evaluation." The dirty blonde man frowned at him but did what he was told.

He watched them leap into the air, Darvas unsurprising was the fastest of all, and this seemed way to easy for him. Nod wondered why he was just now joining the leaf-men and not before. Of course he heard rumors he had no choice or he was going to end up in the hallows of the tree, jail. He did it for the money, or the glory. He was too bored, he was secretly a spy for the boggans. Nod knew none of it was true and he should not care but he could not help his curiosity.

He watched the young woman linger behind. She was really good and it seemed she had no problem keeping up with the men. Nod thought maybe she would be the easiest one to train, but he figure he better not speak so soon, so to speak, since he was just thinking.

He saw the thin guy stepping from leaf to leaf with his long legs at a leisurely pace. He came down to the man, "I said run not walk, how am I supposed to access your skills."

The man looked at him with a dumbfounded look but began to speed up. Nod then noted the red headed man was trying his best but was lugging behind. Maybe there was hope for him though, if he lost same weight, he certainly had the determination.

Nod looked over his recruits, there was a brief gleaming of hope for them, but as he watched the dirty blond almost fall off, and knock the rounded one down he realized maybe not. Then of course, Darvas kept opening his big mouth and the young woman seemed to be wearing down at the third lap.

Maybe not...

He shook his head. Why did Ronin have to give him the worse recruits ever? Maybe Darvas was right maybe this was punishment, well at least all of this managed to keep his mind off of...her.

Author's Commentary: Oh yes, the others have names, but Nod doesn't know them yet. You know he is more of an action man than social, well tell me if I should continue or not?