Hannah's P.O.V

I'd sent my parents a letter for them to read out at my gran's funeral, I didn't get a reply, which worried me a bit. But that's not all that was on my mind, I was constantly thinking about Kookaburra day and night, I felt like I had to tell him how I felt about him, but it felt a bit too early to say anything, besides, what if he doesn't feel the same way?

Two weeks after my gran's funeral Kook and Ballista came with me to see her grave.

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Ballista asked, putting her hand in my shoulder.

"I'm sure."

The graveyard was separate to the kingdom and was on the outside of the castle walls. There were many gravestones, how were we going to find my gran amongst all of these? We went in three different directions, Kook went right and Ballista went left while I went straight ahead. We'd only been looking no more than a minute when I found her, "Dorothy Margaret Limeburn, died 16th August 2014, wife of Ronald Limeburn, mother of David, Andrew and Ruth Limeburn, grandmother of Hannah Limeburn".

"Hey guys, I've found her." I shouted.

Ballista heard me and walked over, but Kook didn't.

"Hey Kook, I..." I started, but when I saw Kook, he was stood by another grave.

Me and Ballista went over to see what was wrong, Kook looked rather upset, when I saw the headstone I understood: "Here lies Blue Jay and Kooklana 3rd, died 1924-1930, parents of Blue Jay Jr, Kooklana 4th and Kookaburra 4th, grandparents of Blue Jay 3rd and Kookaburra 5th.".

"Are they...?" I asked.

"My great grandparents." Kook replied. "My father told me about them when I was younger, but I've never seen their grave before."

I held Kook's hand and rested my head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Kook." I whispered.

Kook sniffed loudly. "It's okay."

I left some flowers on my grandmother's grave and gave Kook a small bunch to put by his great grandparents grave.

I spent most of the rest of the day outside some of the defenders were practicing their fighting skills and working on their aim. After I'd been sat on the castle steps for around ten minutes pondering about what I was going to say to Kook when the time was right, I heard footsteps behind me followed by a voice.

"What's the matter child?" They asked, I turned around and saw Madeva looming over me.

"Oh hi Madeva, nothing's wrong." I replied.

"Are you sure?" She said, sitting next to me. "You look as if there's something on your mind."

"No I was just thinking about stuff."

"Well if there's anything wrong, you can tell us."

"Actually there is something that I'd like to run past you, it's something that I've been thinking about for a couple of years."

"What's that?"

"Well...for the past two years I've been thinking about the hatred that's been going on between Splatalot and Splazzer City, and I always wondered if our two kingdoms could ever be friends, because I never understood how they became enemies in the first place."

"It all started years ago when our current king was around twelve years old, our kingdoms got into a huge battle that resulted in the old king's death. Our king then swore that when he was king, he would never forgive Splazzer City for what they did to his father."

"But that was years ago."

"To be honest, we're all getting sick of it by now."

"Hey Madeva!" Kook shouted. "Are you going to talk all day or make yourself useful?"

"What you say to me Kooky?" Madeva exclaimed. I couldn't help but laugh. "What's so funny?" She asked me.

"Sorry, it's just Kook, he never fails to make me laugh."

Madeva was silent which was strange for her, I looked over and she had a thoughtful look on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"Exactly why were you thrown out of Splazzer City?"

"Because I was in love with someone that I shouldn't."

"When you say that you were in love with someone you shouldn't, do you mean someone from a rival kingdom?"

"Yeah."

"Are you aware how many rivals they have?"

"Err...no."

"Just the one, us."

"Ah."

"It's Kooky that you're in love with isn't it?"

"Yes, but please don't say a word to him or anyone else."

"Okay, I promise."

"Thanks Madeva."

"Madeva!" Kook shouted.

"Yeah, I'm coming Kooky!"

Madeva got up and walked over to the rest of the girls, Kook looked over to me and made a yabbering on gesture with his hand while faking a yawn, I giggled and I could feel my cheeks begin to burn up.

After the defenders training I was waiting for the girls and Kook walked over to me.

"You okay?" He asked. "You look a bit flushed."

"I'm fine."

"What were you and Madeva talking about?"

"We were just talking about our two kingdoms and the rivalry between them."

"It's been tiring all that, it's been going on for years."

So now Madeva knew my little secret, who was it going to be next? This was probably going to end up like it would for me while I was at school, everyone finds out in a couple of days and humiliate me about it for weeks.

Later on that evening, I was on my way to my room and Knightriss came running over.

"Hannah dear, can I have a quick word?" She asked.

"Erm...yeah, sure."

"Now, we've been thinking about this for a long time and we've come to a conclusion about what we're going to do about whether you stay or not." I held my breath. "Over the past week we've come to the conclusion that we're not at risk to attacks, and we've decided to let you stay."

"Oh thank you so much."

With that weight off my shoulders, I could sleep well tonight, that is, if I manage to get warm, it's always so cold in my room.

That night wasn't easy, I found it hard to get to sleep with all these thoughts going through my head, would Madeva be able to keep my secret? Is Kook going to find out? Will other people find out? Are Splazzer City going to come looking for me? But once those thought were out of my head, I could finally relax and soon dropped off to sleep, but that wasn't easy either.

I woke up in my room, I'd only just got washed and dressed when an alarm started ringing down the corridors, I ran out of my room and bumped into Kook.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We're being attacked." Kook explained.

We both ran down the forever winding corridors to the castle grounds, the grounds were already filled with people, several guards of the castle had joined in with the fight, I grabbed Kook's hand in fear, he gently gave mine a quick squeeze.

I cowered in one corner out of sight while Kook went to join the fight. I kept on looking up over my hiding place to see how things were going, I saw Kook look in my direction, he pointed behind me, I turned around and. Saw someone looming over me, clutching their sword, I screamed and rolled away from them, but they followed me, they were about to strike me when a paintball struck them on the left side of their head, I looked and I saw Kook, he looked serious, he put his slingshot away and pulled out his sword.

"Don't...you...dare...hurt...her!" He shouted between swipes of his sword.

"What makes you so concerned about her?"

"I'm not going to let you hurt someone I love."

Love? Did Kook say that he loves me?

After that everything happened so fast, Kook's opponent knocked Kook's sword out of his hand and struck him in the stomach, Kook screamed and collapsed to the ground.

"KOOK!" I screamed.

I grabbed a nearby rock and struck this man hard on the I head, he went down instantly, I didn't care if he was alive or not, once he was down I ran over to Kook, he was very still and blood was gushing out of the wound.

"Don't worry Kook you're going to be okay." I said supporting his head.

"No, it's too late, you can't do anything about this."

Tears were streaming down my cheeks.

"You can't leave me Kook." I sobbed. "I...I love you."

Kook coughed and started I to splutter, I began to shake with worry as a small amount of blood poured out of the corner of Kook's mouth, I wiped it away with my thumb.

"H-Hannah, can I just say a little something too?" Said Kook.

"Of course."

"First of all, can you promise me that you'll defend the castle the very best you can? I want you to take my place." With a trembling hand, Kook handed me his slingshot. "And...I...I l-love you too."

I looked deep into Kook's eyes, they were beginning to close.

"Kook? Kook stay with me please!"

Kook's eyes opened again.

"Promise me." He whispered.

"I promise."

Kook held my hand and kissed me gently on the lips, I closed my eyes and squeezed Kook's hand, I didn't want it to end. Kook's lips soon left mine and the grip on my hand suddenly loosened, I opened my eyes again and he was still as stone.

"Kook? Kook! Kook answer me." I sobbed, but it was no good, Kook was gone.

I held his slingshot tight in my hand and brought it to my chest, as the tears fell silently from my eyes and onto the stone beneath me, I let out a loud sorrowful cry, and woke up back in my room. It was all just a dream. I laid back down to go back to sleep when there was a gentle knock on the door.

"Hannah, are you okay?" I heard Shaiden ask.

"Yeah I'm fine thanks Shaiden, it was just a bad dream." I explained.

"Okay. It's just that I heard you scream and I was wondering if there was something wrong."

"No everything's fine."

"Okay."

The next time that I woke up there was daylight bursting through the curtains and birds were singing in the distance.

When I went down to breakfast all of the girls were there, but the boys, most of them were probably still in bed, Kook and Gildar were the only ones there.

"Morning guys." I said as I walked in.

"Morning Hannah, did you sleep alright?"

"Not really, I had a bad dream which woke me."

I looked over at Kook and smiled, all the girls followed the direction of my eyes.

"Erm...Hannah, we've all been thinking about your banishment."

My heart skipped a best and I looked at Madeva, she shook her head, she hadn't said anything.

"Okay, what is it?" I asked.

"Well, our kingdom is the only rival of Splazzer City, so we've come to the conclusion that it's someone here that you have a secret crush on." Ballista suggested.

"And have you figured out who?"

"We've got a vague idea."

When everyone else was here we could finally begin the day, I looked over at Kook down the breakfast table, and he seemed to be rather distracted, as if he was thinking about something as he stared into his drink continuously, I'll have to tell him, and I will...soon.