im sorry guys for not updating in a while. School's a bitch. Im barely passing german…and I hate the class with a burning passion. Seriously, if u could gather all the assholes and shallow people in your school and put them in one class with a teacher who doesn't know how to control them, then that's my 6th period.

Anyway, enough with the rain clouds! On with the story and a review at the end!

M.K. surveyed the troops that were to follow her orders. Most of them were middle-aged, indicating that they were veterans. M.K. could tell pretty easily. They all had the same look as Ronin. Toned muscles, a regal bearing, and many had lines etched in their faces, the sign of seasons of combat. But it was the look in their eyes that clinched it. Like Ronin, their eyes hid tragedies and hardships behind an iron wall of resolution.

She refrained from rubbing her temples to relive the pressure building up to a headache. The soldiers were giving her a hard time. Ever since Officer Laure introduced her to them in the barracks, the Leafmen and women belittled and questioned her at every turn.

The Leafgirl knew why. The Council probably told them to, just to test her leadership and patience. The soldiers were enjoying it, constantly commenting on her age and legitimacy. They were playing with her temper.

M.K. was a little lost on how to handle it. One side of her wanted to snap at the soldiers and force them to obey her, but she knew that's what they wanted. They also wanted her to beg them to listen to her, but a strong leader wouldn't do that.

At the moment, they were mounted of their hummingbirds and waiting in the branches of a tree. They were scanning the area with their hands on their weapons. None of them knew what was in store for them or what they would face. M.K. didn't relax; if she wanted this test to look authentic to the Council, then she had to treat it like it was the real thing.

However, Officer Laure did give her a message from the Council: search and recover the bottle.

She had no idea what the hell that meant, but it had to be part of her test.

"Well, are we going to move or what?" a blond Leafwoman asked abruptly, jerking M.K. out of her thoughts.

"Not until the scout returns," the red-head replied calmly.

The Leafwoman snorted. "This is wasting time."

"Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted."

"...What?"

"Just one of my favorite quotes. I don't know who said it first. I just picked up from my dad."

This seems to stop the Leafwoman's complaints and the group fell into silence once again. Then M.K.'s ears picked up on the familiar buzzing of hummingbird wings. The scout returned and saluted M.K.

"All clear sir...I mean uh...ma'am" he said awkwardly. She smiled to let him know it was okay.

"Let's move," she addressed her troops. "Fly low, four feet above the ground, arrow formation."

They obeyed without question, which was the first time ever today, and followed her down. When they reached the correct altitude, they leveled off and flew just above the undergrowth of the forest, falling into the traditional V-shaped flight formation, with M.K. leading them. The red-head marveled at how silent the hummingbirds could fly when they needed to. She patted her bird's side good-naturedly, but this made it tweet in response. M.K. winced, noting to not do that again. She was aiming for combat silence since she didn't know what she was flying into.

Some meters behind the group, sitting in the branches, two Leafmen watched through binoculars. General Ronin smiled approvingly at M.K.'s tactics. So far, she was doing well, taking her leadership responsibilities in stride and deciding the precaution of being quiet. Finn observed next to him, taking down notes as they followed the group. The Council needed someone impartial to assess M.K.'s actions.

"So far, your girl's doing good Ronin," Finn praised, obviously impressed. "If she keeps this up, she'll figure out that we're watching her before the test is over."

"Then we better be careful old friend," Ronin replied as he packed the binoculars in his saddle bag. "This could be risky for us."

"As if," Finn scoffed as he packed his pair away as well. "We mastered silent movement and stalking years ago."

"I didn't mean me. My stalking is fine. Yours is slipping, however." He didn't give Finn the chance to retort before he flicked his reins and took off. They kept to the canopy and always a good distance behind the unknowing Leafmen and women as they tailed the group.

M.K.'s green eyes continually scanned the flora around her, though she didn't move her head an inch. Every sense was on high alert: eyes, ears, nose, even that instinctual primordial sense that all beings possessed. She kept her breathing slow and even.

The red-head sniffed the air with her nose. Unexpectedly, an aroma filled her nostrils. Immediately, she held up her fist and halted her patrol. The hummingbirds came to a standstill and hovered. M.K. sniffed the air again for confirmation. There it was again; the smell of mud and decaying organisms, with just a hint of rotting plants underlying. It was the Boggans' signature BO.

Reminding herself that this was just a simulation, M.K. combed the foliage with her eyes again, while very subtly pulling the reins back. She reached her hand back and patted her hummingbird's rump. The bird was trained by the signal to fly backwards very slowly. Seeing this, her soldiers followed suit. Slowly, the hummingbirds flew backwards, their riders not making a sound.

All the while, M.K. had never stopped scanning the forest for a sign. Her patience was rewarded when there was just the tiniest flicker of movement in the branches above, at an angle from her squad. Then a tree blocked her view as the hummingbirds were guided behind it.

Using a hand signal, M.K. ordered her troops to land on the forest floor. The birds had sensed their riders' wariness and were silent, not daring to cheep or make a noise. They didn't dismount, in case they needed to take off again. M.K. pulled out her binoculars from her saddle bag. She used the giant, gnarled tree root to hide her and her mount, and kept the binoculars out of the sun so the light wouldn't glint off the glass and warn their quarry.

Once again, she slowly scanned the forest starting where she saw the flicker of movement in the branches. Hopefully, they weren't spotted before they could hide and can take them by surprise.

There! She stilled her binoculars and saw a figure walking along a branch, carelessly out in the open. Initially, she thought it was a Boggan due to the rags and mismatched bone armor it wore.

However, the figure did not walk with hunched shoulders, and had a slim, lithe shape. A wooden sword was strapped to its waste. M.K. smirked when she spotted the green boots that it wore.

A Leafman in the disguise of a Boggan. That was her test?

She could now see more and more in the canopy, a group spread out between two trees. All of them wore weird combinations of stolen Boggan armor, probably obtained after some battle years ago. They carried sticks and wooden practice swords that are given to first-timers for training. Half of them had bows strung on their shoulders, along with a quiver of arrows (probably blunt). M.K. didn't see any birds, giving her squad the advantage of flight.

She turned to address her squad, all them looking at her for direction. She hid a grimace. "Our targets are in the two trees across from us, dressed as Boggans and armed with practice weapons. They haven't any mounts that I can see, and I have every reason to believe that they aren't aware we are here."

"We're lucky that they didn't see us flying straight for them," the Leafwoman from before said. "How did you know they were there?"

M.K. smiled mischievously and tapped her nose. "The odor is a dead giveaway. What's your name?"

"Mira."

"Mira, I need you to scale this tree and find out the positioning of the guards. Do it fast, but don't be seen. Please." She added the please involuntarily; her mother had drilled into her good manners since she was a child.

Mira had cocked an eyebrow at the word in the order but complied and bounded up the tree trunk, using the ridges in the bark as footholds.

M.K. dismounted and knelt, starting to draw in the reddish-brown dirt with her finger. She drew three big circles to represent the trees and lines for the trunks. The Leafgirl frowned at the drawing, wondering about it before a thought crossed her mind. Officer Laure's cryptic message about a bottle. She had only told M.K. because she was in charge, but maybe M.K. should share it with her team. They should know what they were aiming for.

"Alright, listen," she said, keeping her voice low so as not to be detected by the Leafmen-Boggans in the trees. "I was told that we needed to find a bottle, probably with something important, and these guys will most likely have it. There's a dozen of us, and I'm estimating more of them. We'll know more when Mira gets back." Many of the Leafmen nodded their understanding, but M.K. thought she saw a glimmer of approval in one bearded man's eye.

At the word, the Leafwoman returned, huffing a little from her climb and descent. She saluted, "They have two dozen soldiers, twelve distributed in each tree." Seeing the drawing in the dirt, she began sketching the general positions of the guards. "That's double the amount of us. At the top, in the center of the branches are red flags, guarded on all sides."

"Birds?"

"None. All on foot and most with bows and arrows."

M.K. pieced it together. "The flags are our objective. We take them, we take the trees, and we end the field test. But I was told that there'd be a bottle..."

Mira looked up at her. "There was something out of place. One guard was posted between the trees, on the ground." She used her finger to rub a dot in the dirt. "I could barely see him because of the ferns but one of his buddies came to give him a canteen. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have known he was there."

One guard all by his lonesome? If that wasn't a clue, then M.K. didn't know what was. She was glad that she had shared about the bottle with her group. The Leafgirl looked over her troops, and then her eyes glanced over the hummingbirds and the large leaf shields strapped to their saddles. The ground they stood on was composed of red dirt or clay, and she swiped some on her finger to examine it. The pieces fell in place and she had a plan.

"Alright, this is what we're going to do," M.K. announced, gaining the men and women's full attention. "But for this to work, we'll need to perform the flying turtle maneuver."

The response was dead silence and a lot of blank looks. "I've never heard of such a thing," a man replied slowly.

M.K. smirked. "That's because I just made it up." Before they could question her further, she fired the next question at Mira. "How do you feel about making your hair darker for the day?"

Ronin and Finn silently watched from their hiding place near the top of the tree, for what felt like half an hour. They constantly kept watch on the two trees occupied by the Leafmen-Boggans, and on the surroundings for any sort of activity. For a while, nothing happened.

The seasoned warriors had seen M.K. spotted the "enemy" in the canopy and had quietly backed her team away, behind the tall hickory tree where they were now. From their vantage point, it was obvious that the Leafmen in the trees hadn't seen them, for they carried out sentry duty like normal. Now they were waiting for M.K.'s plan to be put into action. Assuming there was a plan...

"What's keeping them?" Finn asked softly, for maybe the hundredth time.

Ronin snorted. "We've been on worse stake-outs and reconnaissance missions than this. Where has all that patience you had years ago gone?"

Finn scowled. "This is different. It's not a real mission."

"Give her time. She knows what she's doing." Ronin had faith in M.K. He wouldn't admit it to many people, but he really wanted her as his apprentice. The girl had so much potential and he wanted to be the one to cultivate it. Ronin didn't have much faith in young people; M.K. was changing his view on that.

He watched the trees through his binoculars again; still no sign of anything. The sounds of the cicadas were soothing and were making his eyelids heavy. Some of the disguised Leafmen were yawning. Perhaps because it was so tranquil that Ronin didn't see what was coming. Or even heard it coming.

The general had the lens to his eyes when Finn patted him on the shoulder. The red-bearded Leafman was taking notes and had an unobstructed view, therefore he saw it first. Ronin followed his pointing finger.

At first to his eyes, it looked like a green ball was skimming through the air, only inches above the forest floor and making a beeline for the occupied trees. Ronin then spotted the multiple pairs of wings beating fast. Six hummingbirds in all flying close together; it was a wonder that they didn't bump each other. The birds were in perfect sync, something only hummingbirds can do. On each bird was a Leafman, holding a shield and overlapping it with the man next to him. It looked like an armadillo rolled into a ball and grew wings.

"God above," Finn breathed. "What in the name of the Queen are they doing?"

"I believe they are attempting to attack the trees and get the flags."

Finn scowled. "I know that but-"

"Just watch."

The Leafmen were getting very close to the trees. A sentry, his eyes half-closed in sleepiness, suddenly snapped his head up at the sight of the incoming hummingbirds and shields. He delayed for a few seconds, not believing what he was seeing. Then, he shouted sounding confused and choked. Commotion ran up and down the branches as the Leafmen-Boggans prepared to attack and guard the flag.

"I knew that wouldn't work," Finn stated. "There was no way that they'd reach the flag before they-"

"There's a another one!" Ronin interrupted. Both men stared as a second formation of humming birds came from the other direction, heading for the second tree. The sentries were already assaulting the first group with wooden arrows, that bounced off harmlessly. They were giving all their attention to it, unaware that a dark horse was heading for the other flag.

The second group ascended up the trunk and through the branches. A sentry shouted the alarm, but it was too late; the formation was barreling past the sentries, arrows deflecting uselessly off the shields. One sentry took a brave stand in front of the flag, but a shield shoved him out f the way. M.K.'s troops dismounted, three of them covering their comrades with a shield as the other went for the flag.

The disguised Leafmen were bewildered as the man grabbed the flag and held it triumphantly above his head. However, the sentries in the first tree did not let up their onslaught of the first formation.

"They may have one, but they need both flags if M.K. wants to past this test," Finn said.

Ronin rolled his eyes. "Ever the pessimist, Finnikin?"

The other man bristled. "I've told you how much I hate my full name!"

Their banter was cut off by loud war cry. A woman had sprang up from the formation, a stick in hand. She ran at the enemy archers with such ferocity, they fumbled their arrows and dropped their bows. She jabbed her stick into the torsos, leaving them gasping for breath. She was already moving, a ponytail of red hair trailing behind her like a ribbon.

"M.K.!" Finn shouted. "What's she doing? Ronin?" The general ignored and stared at the red-head hard.

They watched as she leaped from branch to branch, attacking all the archers but only giving them minor blows, never hitting them over the head. The enemy began to concentrate their efforts on her, giving the formation the opportunity to advance. A Leafman dismounted and bolted for the flag. The red-head warrior shouted in victory at the sight of her comrade holding the flag. A sentry shouted for a cease-fire.

"I guess that's it then," Finn muttered. "Shouldn't have ever doubted M.K. Who knew she could pack such a wallop! Those guys will have bruises for weeks!"

"That's not M.K." Ronin said.

"What?!"

The general pointed at the Leafwoman. She had taken off her helmet and was shouting her exhalation at the win. Her hair was a lot longer than M.K.'s, her features sharper, and had blue eyes. Finn was incredulous.

"S-so where is she?!"

Ronin smirked. "Getting her true objective."

The sentry on the ground, hidden by the ferns, watched the whole scene unfold. His job was specifically to not leave his post and protect whatever it was inside the ferns. His fellows up in the trees had to do their own jobs, and from the sound of it, it was more exciting than it was on the ground.

The disguised Leafman snorted and adjusted his "armor" again. He hated wearing these random pieces of bark and animal bones. It was uncomfortable and stank something horrible. He knew this was M.K.'s test and wished she would either admit defeat now or win. Just why was he on the ground?

The hairs on the back of his neck rose before he heard the sound. Quickly, he turned around only to have the end of a stick pushed against the soft skin of his throat. Holding the stick was a very happy red-head.

"Now soldier," M.K. lectured smugly. "If this was a real battle, you'd be dead in no time."

The guard dropped his wooden sword and surrendered politely. "You win M.K. Just don't let it get to your head." He held up his hands, letting a little smile crack his face. At least I can go home now, he thought.

"I won't," she replied, less bravado in her voice. She lowered her stick and walked further into the ferns to retrieve her prize.

Nestled in the moss and shielded by the ferns, was the bottle. It was made from green glass and had a cork in the opening. A message was rolled up inside. M.K. picked it up, but put it down again when she saw something next to it. A dagger, twelve inches long and beautifully crafted.

M.K. picked it up and felt how balanced it was, like it was made just for her. She could tell the blade was made out of the finest rock, finer than a Leafman's katana. The hilt was engraved with the signature green vines, and in the center of the cross-guard was the Moonhaven crest.

M.K. placed the dagger back down and picked up the bottle again. She slid the message out. Her hands were almost shaking in anticipation as she unrolled the parchment. The broken sunlight illuminated the words scrawled on its surface.

Congratulations, Mary Katherine Radcliffe. If you are reading this, then that means you have passed our test. Return to Moonhaven and present me with this scroll and the ceremonial dagger. You are now the official protégé and future successor of General Ronin of the Leafmen. May the heavens watch over you and may your decisions be guided by wisdom. Good luck!

Queen Tara Of The Forest

M.K. could barely breathe. She did it! She actually has the job!

Thats it! I need to post these chapters so you guys can read the juicy stuff! But it's never a good idea to rush a story, you gotta pace yourselves or your readers won't like it. Anyway, please review, because you need to. RIGHT NOW!