Chapter 4: The pond

Raven and Garfield rode through the forest where Raven found the pond. It was just an hour away from the castle. Garfield knew about the swords and he knew how to fight with one, and so did Raven, so they didn't really have anything to fear.

"Is it far?" Garfield asked.

"No, just around those trees." She pointed to a wall of trees that crossed over each other. "We have to leave Gem and Storm here, I tried to find another way in, but there is none." Raven jumped off her horse and tied him to one of the shaded trees.

Garfield followed and tied Storm to the same tree.

Raven crawled low under the crossed trees, Garfield took out the swords and followed.

The pond was beautiful. The water was light blue that grew to a darker blue the deeper the pond went, tall willow trees surrounded the clearing and beautiful colourful flowers were spread around.

"Wow…" He muttered as he dragged his blond hair out of his eyes.

"I know, I sketched it out after I found it." Raven crossed her arms with pride. "It's beautiful, I wish I could stay here."

Garfield smiled and looked at her. The wind was blowing gently and her hair flying behind her slightly. The reflection of the sun shone against her skin, she was glowing. The sight made Garfield blush.

Raven was beautiful, no, gorgeous! She was everything he had ever wanted, smart, adventurous, friendly, sarcastic and beautiful. He wanted to look away, but at the same time not.

"You in or not?" Raven's voice broke Garfield from the spell she had cast over him.

"What?" He jumped slightly.

"Go for a swim, I mean, look at the water." She pointed to it.

"I'm in." Garfield smiled and Raven nodded.

Garfield had taken off his shirt and shoes, while Raven only took off her shoes. Both laid their weapons on the grass next to their shoes, making sure nothing of weapon got wet.

When Garfield had taken off his shirt she had to look away. His bare body was made from gods! Raven had felt a blush form on her face. She jumped into the half warm water, the blush was still there. When she reached the surface she looked over where Garfield had been standing, only he wasn't there.

Tilting her head she looked around. "Garfield?" She asked.

Suddenly something pulled her underwater, she just managed to catch her breath before going under.

Whatever puller her down, released her and resurfaced with her. Raven turned around and saw Garfield laughing hard. She growled.

"Come on, Raven! It was only some good fun!" He said.

"So is this!" Before he could react, she threw herself over him bringing both underwater. After a small battle underwater, both came up with a gasp.

"You know…" Garfield leaned back and began to swim on his back. "... That was fun…" Raven splashed water onto his face. "Pff-" He spit it out as he had gotten some in his mouth.

Raven swam towards the edge of the pond and settled down where she could sit. Garfield swam over and settled next to her.

"It looks magical, don't you think?" Raven asked as she looked deep into the pond.

"Sort of, do you think it's like a treasure at the bottom or something?" He smiled.

"Maybe, let's find out." Raven rose from her spot, water dripped down from her clothes. Her clothes stuck to her body and Garfield almost began to drool.

She jumped back into the pond, Garfield watched her body slowly go deeper. A few minutes later she came back up. "There's a door!" She gasped as she pulled grass out of her hair. She swam over to him. "We'll need to come back later. One; it's getting dark. Two; I need to write this down."

Garfield nodded, and went to fetch their clothes. Putting their shoes and Garfield's shirt back on, they drawled back to the horses. Raven looked at the entres a good five minutes, Garfield knew she was memorising the place.

"Let's go." They rode back to the castle.

xXx

Once they had gotten home, Raven was shouted. Why was she late? Why did she leave Prince Garth? Why did she go out with the stable boy? Why was she wet?!

Raven didn't answer any of them, instead she dragged Garfield with her to her room. He couldn't go home in wet clothes. She threw a pair of fabric pants to him.

"Your shirt might not be wet, but I'm not letting you get sick." She crossed her arms. "You can change over there." She pointed to a pair of curtains, confused Garfield pulled them apart. There was a small room behind it, shrugging, he quickly changed.

When he got back, he saw that Raven had changed into a long black dress. The dress was short armed and fell all the way to the floor. A white belt hung around her waist, the belt held onto her knife. She hadn't left that alone for a long while, especially when Garth was there.

"You look good…" Garfield commented, she looked at him with a smile before settling down in front of a mirror. She picked up a brush and began to brush her hair.

"Thanks…" She locked eyes with him in the mirror. "You don't look so bad either…" She complemented.

"Uhh… Should I leave?" He asked.

"Don't, I like your company." Raven stood up and walked over to the carpet. Pulling it up she loosened the plank and pulled out the journal. "This journal is where I have documented everything, every adventure I or we have been on. It was started by someone named Arella, I have no idea who that is… But she looked to be an explorer." Raven placed the book on her desk.

Opening it, Garfield watched the pages fly by. Many things he remembered, others he had heard of.

"I found this two years ago, but didn't explore it until before my birthday." She pointed to the cave sketch.

"What was in it?" He asked, Raven turned the page.

"This." She pointed to the room sketch before her finger trailed over the mark and the man and woman. "It was like slavery, people worked and got whipped if they stopped. That man yelled at them to get back to work." Her finger landed on the big man.

"What do you think this is?" Garfield asked.

"I don't know… But I don't think they're from Tamaran, look at the mark." She paused. "That's not our mark, I need to look it up. I just wanted you to know about this journal so, if anything happens to me… You can find clues in it." She closed the book and placed it back in the floor. "I usually go back here to document what I have found before I go in, it's safer that way." She laid the carpet back over.

"So… What now?" Garfield placed his hand on his neck.

"You need to leave, Father is probably going to yell at me when I get out. Take my secret way out." She pointed to a tapestry next to her bed. The tapestry was purple and held the picture of a white flower.

That was Tamaran's symbol.

Raven got up and pulled the fabric away from the wall, revealing a trap door. When Raven opened it, Garfield saw it was just big enough to crawl through. "It lead's to a trap door just outside the castle walls, the door is close enough to the forest if you need to make a run for it, but close enough to the stables so you can get your stuff."

"Okay…" Garfield began to crawl inside. "Thank you, Raven…" He smiled.

She smiled back. "No problem…" She began to close the door. "Oh, and avoid the rats… They bite."

He cursed under his breath before the door closed. He yelped when he heard a rat laugh at him. Swallowing hard he crawled away.

xXx

I really like this and I'm going to update as often as I can… XD