Both Clarion and Milori sat silently at the border. She could sense the uneasiness in him and could see the worry in his eyes. "Milori,".

He could obviously feel the concern in her voice and when he looked to her he tried to hide the emotion he knew she had seen. Milori couldn't even bring himself to smile.

"Something troubles you,". The amount of concern she had spoken with seemed to grow thicker.

"Oh, it's nothing to be worried about,". Clarion hadn't been the only one meant to hear those words. Milori had also hoped that he too would realize the truth of his own words.

She stared at him with an expression quite similar to the Keeper's when he too tried to get Milori to divulge his thoughts. Although Milori often tried to keep his thoughts to himself, he soon realized that either Clarion or the Keeper would be able to get them out of him.

He let out a short sigh and then began to explain what happened, "This morning there was an incident,".

"Incident?".

"Flake had fallen from one of the trees,".

Clarion felt a sudden shortness of breath. "Is she alright?" was all she could manage to say at the moment.

Milori instantly noticed her tension and grasped her hand in his own all while finally being able to manage a brief smile. Her anxiousness dissipated for a moment. "Flake is fine, she's recovering in the infirmary. Luckily, I had been there to call one of the owls to her rescue," he assured her.

"Thank heavens she's alright, but why does it still worry you?".

"It's not exactly that, it's more of what I had heard later that morning about what could have happened if I hadn't been there,".

"None of that matters though,".

"But what if I hadn't been there? I couldn't live with myself if Flake, in fact anyone, had gotten hurt under my rule,". Slowly he stood up and began to slowly walk along the edge of the creek. He began to lightly kick the few small stones that were there, into the water.

Clarion got to her feet as well and followed after him. "Milori,". There was less concern in her voice this time, her tone was more straightforward.

Milori barely turned towards her, but out of the corner of his eye he watched her and waited for her next words.

"You can't blame yourself, none of this is your fault,". As hard as she tried Clarion could not get him to see what truly mattered.

He gave a slow exhale and returned his gaze to the quiet flowing creek once more.

"You can not guilt yourself over everything that happens under your rule,".

Milori let out a sigh before replying to her, "As ruler to the winter fairies and sparrowmen it is my job to protect them, therefore whatever happens to them is my fault,".

Clarion looked down in despair. She was about to give up on convincing him that the fault was not his own.

"If something happens to any of the fairies it is my responsibility. I should always be there to stop anything that could bring harm to them," he paused a moment, "But if I am not there to save them, I, as a ruler, must take the blame upon myself,".

At these words a sudden thought came to Clarion. "No,".

Milori instantly looked to her in somewhat of a surprise. No?

"As a ruler it is not your responsibility for everything that happens, and things will happen. But your responsibility as a ruler is to take care of the problem and to see to it that it is solved," she paused a moment, "If you hadn't been there to save Flake it would have been your job to see to it that she was alright and to bring her to the attention of the healing fairies,".

Milori realized the words Clarion had spoken made sense now.

"You mustn't blame yourself, you must act like the ruler your people think you are,".

She was right and he knew it, there was no reason to argue with her any further. A much brighter thought came to him suddenly. He turned towards her and grinned, "How is it that you are always right?".


The Crow King stared at the two smokey figures he saw in his crystal orb. A smile as evil as he was crept onto his face. "Interesting, his majesty seems to be very fond of this one, she holds a place within his heart unlike the others,".

Two crows suddenly appeared on his shoulder. One had round taupe eyes whereas the other had pale ones. With a simple nod from the king the pale eyed one leaped off his shoulder and flew towards a perch.

"Goliath, I have a job for you," he spoke to the crow that remained on his shoulder. Almost silently he whispered orders to the sleek black feathered crow. Afterwards the crow gave a sharp screech and an acknowledging nod before leaping off of the king's shoulder and flying out of the cave as it was joined by the one that had been waiting on its perch.

The Crow King looked into his crystal orb once more except this time it was focused on one of the figures. "I shall use her to break his heart and finally fulfill my vengeance," he sneered and laughed evilly, "but first...". The image quickly changed to another of a small fairy, "I will make him suffer,".


Hope you guys liked the chapter! :D I'll try and post another tomorrow!

For those of you reading 'King of the Never Owls' it will be on hold until I finish 'The Warmth of Winter'. "Hidden Deep Within the Ice' is on hold as well. I promise that I will write 'The Warmth of Winter' as quickly as possible and I will try to post a chapter each day.