Alright guys here's the second chapter of the day. Wow can't believe i'm already like quarter of the way done!

Like I said, I'm still gonna stick to a chapter a day from now on, but I figure we needed to celebrate for Halloween.

One quick note though: this chapter might be a little strenuous at the beginning. There's a lot of talking and explaining and I totally know how not fun that can me. I've been there. However, it's necessary for the story to continue making sense, so just bear with me. It gets better.

So without further ado, I give you Chapter 10! Enjoy!

Chapter 10:

It Was Always Him

(Mk's POV)

I coughed as I blew dust off the cover of an old brown book that Nim had told me to pull down. I had decided to help him look through the library for any leads to what might be happening to this Willhollow place, and what could prevent that, as well as information on the Lady of Destiny.

We had been searching yesterday and all of today though and hadn't found much. Now it was nearly two in the afternoon and I was on the verge of falling asleep while standing.

I climbed down the ladder leaning against the bookshelf, and as I handed the book to Nim, I asked. "So what exactly are we looking for now?"

He didn't reply though. Instead he continued muttering to himself, thinking aloud again. He had been doing that a lot lately.

"Nim?" I asked again, but he still wasn't paying attention to me as be set down a large gathering of papers and scrolls and started looking through them. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a random book from the shelf, walked over to the table and raised it above the hard wood, before letting it slam against the desk. Nim jumped up, startled.

"Wah?!" He said.

"Earth to glowworm!" I stated, leaning against the table with my hands. "What exactly are we looking for? Direct information or stories? What's credible? I need advice here dude, I've never gone through history records before."

Nim sighed. "As of now, we need whatever you can find. I'm assuming that the predicament at Willhollow is similar to what would happen to us without our queen. She is the life of the forest, so if she was no longer here to keep that life flowing, it would eventually dry up and make the place weak."

That made sense to me. "Alright, but why do they need this Lady of Destiny in particular to keep the life flowing? What makes her so special?" I said as I picked up a book the scholar had grabbed and started skimming through pages.

It was all legends and folklore of the area, stretching all the way from the tales of Willhollow, to stories about Stompers and their experiences here. There was very little in that particular area, besides some coming too close to the castle and having to be driven away.

Some voice in the back of my head wondered if I would ever be written down as a story in a book like this? Was my adventure in Moonhaven worth the ink the paper?

"Well," Nim said, drawing me back to the real world. "What I'm more curious is why this only started affecting Willhollow now. If the queen were to die here, the effects would be immediate, and this plague should've already wiped out the place."

"Well maybe the queen was just powerful enough to keep the life flowing for a while after she was gone?"

"Well, that's close to my theory, but what I believe is that she didn't keep it flowing, but dam it up. Look at this." He said, before handing me the scroll he was reading. It was extremely old, more than a couple centuries, and as I read, I discovered it was the record of a queen's ruling and passing many years ago.

"Okay well what does this have to do with us? And what do you mean she dammed it up? How do you even do that?"

"By doing what she did," Nim said, tapping the scroll in my hands. "I know it's possible because this queen attempted it many years ago, and with pretty crappy results. You see, by cutting off the flow of magic through the forest, one can build it up in certain places, and cause the place to thrive, similar to damming a river."

I thought about this for a moment. It seemed to make sense. "Alright I follow. Wait, what about beyond the dam, when the river runs dry?"

"I was getting to that. See, this queen's pod shriveled before it could bloom, due to poor keeping. Desperate to save her kingdom, she made a sacrifice: Using the majority of her energy, she cut off the flow of life beyond her kingdom. The outskirts of the 'dam' dried and withered into a lifeless wasteland, while Moonhaven flourished."

"But this plan backfired when, at the next choosing of a queen, the dam metaphorically speaking, burst. The energy barrier finally couldn't hold up against the strain anymore, and collapsed, causing the energy to all leave at once, if it hadn't been for the efforts of the new queen, Moonhaven would've died away too..."

"Wow..." I whispered, thinking about how horrible that must have been. It almost seemed worse because the queen's intentions had been so good...

"So... basically, you think the queen of Willhollow put up a dam?" I asked.

Nim nodded. "Though not one that would last a hundred years. That's why she could pinpoint the exact time that the sickness would take hold."

"That does make sense" I mussed. "But that doesn't explain why they would need this one specific girl to become queen afterward."

"I have a theory for that too." Nim grinned.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course."

"I believe that they need the Lady of Destiny, because whoever becomes queen will need to have the strength to try and either contain all that built up energy, or try to filter it slowly through the cracks, both of which would take an awful lot of strength and precision. The Lady of Destiny would fit perfectly, not to mention Willhollow's prophecy about her fits perfectly as well."

"You're amazing Nim..." I smiled. My comment probably wasn't helping his ever-growing ego though. Still, he made no added remark, and continued looked through his papers.

"Still, we have very little information on the Lady, which is a huge inconvenience. If we knew more about her or her power, maybe we could figure out a way to mimic it somehow and keep the tree going a bit longer?"

"Well since I don't do so well with books and stuff, why don't I go talk to Tarren and see if he knows anything else?"

Nim gave me a stern look. I rolled my eyes. "Nim it's fine. If he tried anything I could probably break his arm if necessary."

"I don't know kid. Guy's tougher than he looks."

"Whatever. Point is I can handle myself. I'll see you! Tell me if you find anything new!" And with that, I was out the door and on my way to where Tarren and his men were staying.

"Mk!" I suddenly heard someone call. It was Ronin.

"Hey." I greeted the general. "What's up?"

"Do you have any idea where Nod is? He didn't show up to training which is strange."

I raised an eyebrow. Ronin huffed. "As of recently it's strange. Have you seen him?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nope, haven't seen him since yesterday, and I honestly don't plan to anytime soon..." I stated harshly, before walking towards the guy's camp again, my feet making a more dramatic stomp than was probably necessary.

"Oh boy...What's wrong now?" the General asked, although by the tone of his voice, he already knew.

"Nothing, it's just this whole thing that Nod's being ridiculous about! He just needs to grow up a little and quit with the whole jealous thing..." I muttered, not stopping. Ronin simply followed me.

"Well...to be honest Mk...He's not being that ridiculous."

"You're kidding right?" I said, cutting him off. "You're taking his side?! Aren't you supposed to be the rational one here?"

"Well yes, but I'm also a guy and know what he's going through, and his emotions and-"

I stuck a finger up, cringing internally. "Justskip the boy lesson and explain why he's being such an ass, when this really isn't the appropriate situation for his stubborn attitude."

Ronin rubbed the back of his neck, not sure how to word the explanation, and I, growing impatient, began tapping my foot. "Well?"'

"Well..." He began... "Okay, Willhollow's fate aside, imagine if this were just some random guy with no time-sensitive duty, trying to hit on you. How do you think Nod would react?"

I groaned. "Yeah, I know Ronin, it's the typical boy response to a someone messing with their girl, but this particular situation-"

"Is no different in Nod's mind." Ronin cut in, stopping my train of thought. "He doesn't see the fate of Willhollow, or the prince's duty, or anything else. All he sees is another guy trying to steal his girl."

I turned away again. "Well that's stupid and immature, and he needs to get over it." And without letting Ronin say anything else, I headed off.

Though from behind me, I was pretty sure I heard him mutter "And she calls him stubborn..."

I rolled by eyes. Well I was right! Of course some part of my brain, probably the loving girlfriend part, totally got how he was feeling and why he was acting the way he was, but the rational side told me that people's lives were at stake, and despite the awkwardness and ridiculousness of a total stranger expecting me to marry him just because I happened to look like a girl in a picture, I knew I had to do what I could to help these people.

Eventually I reached where Tarren and his men were staying. Most of them were lounging around, throwing rocks in puddles and laughing at each other as they talked.

The only one who appeared to be doing anything worthwhile was a guy about Tarren's age, with hair black as an oil slick, and dark blue eyes, like the sky right before dark. He was practicing knife throwing against the makeshift target he had carved into a tree trunk. I decided to approach this one, since the others were eying me rather suspiciously.

"Umm excuse me?" I said quietly but clearly. The black-haired one turned to me, and his eyes lit up in recognition, before he slightly bowed. His wings twitched softly in reaction to the movement. "Oh hello Miss. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Blushing at the formality, I stuttered out. "Oh umm well I'm uh looking for Tarren. I need to ask him some questions about well, you know, your guys'... problem?"

To my surprise, the boy laughed a very genuine, sunny laugh, which was something I wasn't expecting from his very professional stature.

"I should've figured you were looking for him..." He smiled to himself, before recovering his professional demeanor. "Prince Tarren went in that direction a while ago, to think he said. I believe he's still there."

I smiled. "Alright. Thank you..." I trailed off, realizing I couldn't remember the boy's name, though I'd heard it before during the "almost-kidnapping" incident.

"Jason." He finished.

My smiled widened a bit. "Thank you Jason." And with that, I headed towards the grove where he said that Tarren had gone. It didn't take me long to find him, lying beneath a tree.

It wasn't until I had almost reached him that I realized he was asleep, the faded, old envelope sitting next to him. Not wanting to disturb him, I attempted to tiptoe back, but accidentally broke a twig beneath my clumsy feet. His eyes fluttered open, silvery blue and sparkling like the sea.

"Sorry." I said, mentally kicking myself. "I was going to come back later, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's fine." He said as he stretched out, still groggy from sleep. His wings fluttered, as if waking up themselves. "How can I help you?"

"Okay, so Nim and I have been working in the library, and we think we have a theory as to what's been going on back at your home."

This seemed to wake him up pretty quickly. He sat up straighter and perked his ears. "What is it?" He asked.

"Well, you see...May I sit down?" I asked.

"Sure, of course!" he said, patting the grass. I lowered myself and sat cross-legged, before continuing. "Well, Nim looked through some of our old history scrolls, and found out that many years ago, our queen created a sort of Magic dam, because the pod that was used to choose the next heir withered."

"Basically, she plugged up the flow of life in Moonhaven, to keep it thriving long after she was gone. Later on, right after the next queen rose up, the dam theoretically 'burst' and almost destroyed Willhollow, but that's not the point. The point is that-"

"You think my mother did the same thing to Willhollow." Tarren finished my sentenced. I nodded.

"Yes, but on a smaller scale. That's how she could pinpoint when her dam would burst, and your home would start to die. And you would need a very powerful queen to try and readjust the land after the all that energy had been clogged up. That's why she requested the Lady of Destiny. Plus her prophecy fits perfectly. That's the theory anyways..."

Tarren considered this all for a moment. "Well it seems logical enough..."

"Yeah," I persisted. "And we might be able to use this information to help your home, but we'd be more effective if we had information about the Lady. That's what I came for."

He sat up straighter, almost formally. "Alright, what do you wish to know?"

"Anything, everything, anything you have to tell us. Nim says we have little to no info on this girl."

"Well, personally I had always thought her to be just some old story." He began, pulling the picture of the Lady out and handing it to me. It still freaked me out how similar we looked...

"My mother used to tell tales about the Lady of Destiny before bed. In the stories, the Lady of Destiny was an extremely powerful heroine who would rush to the rescue of Willhollow when it was being attacked by enemies or dangerous creatures of the forest."

I smiled. "Well isn't that cute?"

Tarren rolled his eyes. "Yes, adorable. But back to the story. It wasn't until later that I learned more of the history behind the Lady of Destiny."

"She wasn't always the Lady of Destiny you see. Originally, she was actually the very first queen of Willhollow; a queen of extraordinary power and ability. Her name was Jennora, and her gifts stretched from giving life to the forest, to be able to level it in one sweep. She was incredible..."

"Yeah, totally sounds like me..." I mumbled under my breath. Tarren apparently heard it though. He just rolled his eyes, deciding not to go into it, to my relief.

"Anyways, the story goes that when we were once attacked by a great dark magic in the forest, the Lady sacrificed herself to save Willhollow, and that one day she would return to rescue her kingdom in great need again."

I knew I was supposed to be gathering information for Nim, but I had to stop him there. "Okay, hold the phone. So now, not only am I some supernatural chick with all sorts of crazy abilities and nonsense, but I'm also a reincarnation? I mean, you've got to be joking!" I said.

Tarren sighed. "I know it's you Mary Katherine. The evidence fits perfectly!"

"Yeah, everything except me! I mean look at me! Do I look like I could take out an entire evil force? I can barely keep my boyfriend in check..." I muttered, falling back into the soft grass and staring at the sky, which had begun to grow cluttered with clouds.

Tarren made an "o" with his mouth. "Boy issues?"

I sighed. "Oh yeah. You should probably apologize to me cause it's mainly your fault." I said, sprinkling my tone with sarcasm. He just laughed.

"Yeah, well I'm sorry I even have to go on this crazy quest, but I do. I had to find this girl, and now that I have, she won't even listen." I sat up.

"No, you're looking for her, not me." I said, showing him the picture.

"Mary Katherine, this is you. I mean, just look at the two of you! It's an exact match..."

Feeling his eyes gazing into mine, I looked down, feeling a blush creep into my cheeks. Trying to change the subject, I muttered. "Why do you always call me Mary Katherine?"

"Why not? It's your name isn't it?" He said as continued staring. The warmth in my cheeks intensified, and I internally cursed myself.

"Well it's just that MK is a lot easier to pronounce, you know? And it sounds a lot cooler than Mary Katherine."

I froze as Tarren's finger suddenly twirled around a stray lock of my hair that had fluttered in the wind. "I think Mary Katherine's a pretty name..."

Then he carefully tucked the rosy strands behind my ear, brushing my cheek softly as he did, and I felt a shock wave run through my body, strange and beautiful and wrong. This shouldn't have been happening! But there was nothing I could say or do. It was like the shockwave froze me, and made me incapable of fighting it.

Instead, I forced a flinch, and his hand withdrew, his eyes turning away. "Sorry,"

"S-sure..." Was all I could muster as a reply. We sat there, trying not to look at each other for the longest time it felt, before I suddenly felt a drop of water hit my nose, then my shoulder, and more and more fell. It seemed to melt the paralysis we were stuck in, and I stood up.

"Oh shoot, we probably need to get inside. And you need to go tell Nim everything you just told me. I... I need to go find my idiot boyfriend and try and talk some sense into him..."

Tarren laughed curtly. "Alright, I'll see you then..." And with that, we both walked back to Moonhaven, him heading to his camp, and me heading back to the Leafmen. By the time I got there it was pouring rain. I couldn't believe it. It was summer wasn't it? It wasn't supposed to rain like this for months.

I got back to my place, already pretty wet, and simply grabbed my grey hoodie before heading back to the Leafmen's training area. I need to talk to Nod and try to sort this out. Despite him being an idiot, I was being pretty stubborn too...but I still needed to try and make him understand...

I got to the training camp pretty quick, but I didn't see anyone, which was typical considering it was raining cats and dogs. I hurried inside the gym-like building, but no one was there either. This was strange because even on rainy days, the Leafmen were usually still hard at work.

Suddenly, I heard the loud flapping and calls of men out on the landing deck, and rushed out. There I found Ronin and the men helping a small squad who had just flown in on their now sopping wet birds. This unsettled me because the men weren't supposed to be flying in rain like this.

As I walked closer to Ronin to ask him what was going on, I heard one of the men report to the general.

"I'm sorry sir. We searched as far as Rider's Point but we couldn't find him."

I froze, before scanning over all the men on the deck.

Where was Nod?

"Damn..." I heard Ronin mutter, before rubbing his temples and thinking.

"Ronin what's wrong?" I asked, my voice barely above a whispered. I tried putting the idea away. Nod rarely hung around the training base when he didn't have to anyways. Who was to say he wasn't at my place looking for me now? Besides, they never said it was him missing anyways. It could be anyone...

Ronin looked me in the eyes when he heard my voice, and they were full of worry. "Mk..." He trailed off though, not knowing how to continue. My heart was hammering in my chest. It couldn't be him, it couldn't be him, it couldn't be him.

"Ronin what's going on?!" I nearly yelled, the anxiety eating away at my brain. He finally let out a broken sigh.

"...Aparently...Nod left Moonhaven about two hours ago, for training he'd said, but he hasn't returned yet. I sent a search party to look for him but as you can see, they haven't located him. Mk...With rain this heavy, he could be in serious trouble..."

It felt like ice was running through my veins instead of blood. My eyes widened, my mouth opened to speak though no sound came out, and I felt the air literally get sucked out of me.

It was always him...

AAAAHHHH CLIFFHANGER! XD I don't think I've done one of those yet! Well not a real one anywasy. What do you guys think is gonna happen?! Is Nod gonna be okay? AGH TENSION!

Guess you'll have to see tomorrow! XD Until then.

~ Macy