I shot my eyes open, quickly waking up from my.. dream, if that is what you can even call it. I put my fingers to my mouth remembering the kiss that Achelous gave me, my face heating up. Did it even count as a kiss? And why did he kiss me now and not when he first found out? Why when I'm about to leave; when I very well wouldn't have if he had just told me that he loved me back!? So then is that the only reason he spoke to me? Because he knew I liked him and pitied me?

"Are you alright?" Raine asked, now awake

I shrugged not wanting to talk about it

"The tree was hard to sleep on." I lied

I grabbed the blanket off of Raine, shoving it into the bag now frustrated with Achelous. He had no right to be in my dreams and learn everything about me! I chucked my bag at Raine a little bit too hard, grabbing my spear, a few tears running down my face

"Let's go!" I commanded, wanting to get back to the human world asap.

I stormed away from the tree, walking a couple paces ahead of Raine. Why did Achelous have to tell now out of all times? Why not in one of my thousand dreams that he was in? It would have turned out so much better if he had just told me right from the start of when he knew, not much later when I was on my own self-exploration. The tears ran down my face and I didn't bother to wipe them away; only more would come running down.

"Pheobe... can we rest a bit?" Raine asked probably dragging behind me

I came to a stop, Raine bumping into me from my sudden action.

"Mind telling me what's gotten into you?" she asked, maybe worried

I sighed once, turning to her. Raine looked shocked, maybe at my appearance, which probably looked terrible as of this moment. I sniffled once, wiping away the tears

"I'm just... so confused and angry about this whole thing! Achelous tells me he loves me in my dream, and it's actually him! It's always been him and not my imagination! He knew well before Minthe announced it to everyone that I fell for him! Then I leave and that's when he decides to go into my dream and tell me that he loves me! The nerve of that emotionless bastard! He doesn't even know what love is, cause he's an emotionless bloody bastard!" I screamed, letting my emotions out

Raine held my bag in front of her, making me almost want to laugh. I let a few tears fall, lowering my head to face the ground as she hugged me. I feel so confused and lost, I don't know what to believe in anymore. I hardly know if I still want to go on this exploration thing about Raine's and my real home, even though I knew the answer I wanted.

I took a few breaths, already feeling much better. I pulled myself out of the hug, starting to walk again.

"Let's not dilly dally!" I said, walking a head of Raine again.

I had to get home.

x o x o x o x o

We ate a little bit of food when the sun was close to setting. I hope that finding the way home isn't going to take as long as finding the lady who could tell us how to get there. I could only hope that we would get there by tomorrow at least, we covered a lot of road today.

"How long did it take your adoptive dad to get there and back?" I asked, trying to figure out how far or close were to getting there

"A day.... he was a Nymph remember? He also wanted to be home on curfew, Abilene didn't like him being gone so much." Raine explained

"... but didn't you say he left to go get her some medicine? How long has it been since he's been gone?"

"... five months. Abilene told him to be back soon, but by the looks of things she could barely... remember him." Her voice sounded quieter with every word she spoke

There was silence. I don't know if it was me and my bad mood bringing everyone else down, but I'm sure I didn't help with it. I really miss Coco and Kyra.. it's not fair that I just ran away with a girl who've they've never met before; who is strangely enough my sister, yet it's too late now.. there's nothing I can do about it at this point. Maybe Achelous would tell them where am I am.. or what I'm doing and why I'm away from my foster home.

Suddenly we heard the tiniest scream coming from behind us. Raine and I turned and saw a little speck of dust flying towards us. Not far behind her there were gremlins and crows chasing after her.

"Somebody save me!" we heard the little fairy yell.

I turned to Raine

"Wasn't that the fairy that pulled a prank on us yesterday?"

"Yeeep." She confirmed

"... We going to help her?" I asked, almost rolling my eyes

"It would be wrong not to." She replied back

We nodded looking at each other. I grabbed her spear, running with Raine to the flock of birds, grimlins, and the fairy that was being chased by them. At sight of my spear, mostly all the grimlins turned around running away. The crows were gaining on the little fairy, but before the crows could sink their claws into her, Raine snatched her in her palms, immediately putting her clenched hands at her chest. I swung my spear at them, purposefully missing them to scare them off. They quickly flew off in another direction, leaving the fairy with us.

Raine slowly opened her palm, revealing the fairy. She had a dress and hat made purely of flowers. She had short hair with eyes that were as blue as her wings. She was really cute, yet I somehow felt like flicking her off Raine's hand and onto the ground.

"Y-You saved me! I swore that they were about to kill me! Thank you! Thank you to the both of you!" she said.

I stared down at the fairy, irritated.

"Aren't you forgetting something? You owe us an apology!"

The fairy looked at me as if I had gone, the realization finally hitting her.

"You two are the girls I slipped yesterday? I'm so sorry I was just.. .I didn't know you two were.... you're not from here are you?" she asked.

We shook our heads. She sighed.

"I'm terribly sorry! How can I make it up to you?"

"Show us the way to the wise woman!" we both said.

She paused, then soon smiled.

"As long as I can come along with you!"

I was about to reject, but Raine cut me off before I could open my mouth.

"You can! What's your name little fairy?" She asked.

"My names Petal. I kind of... lost my way home when I was young. Another group of fairies let me stay with them, but now I just wander around here pulling pranks."

"This better not be one of them." I mumbled turning away from them

The fairy frowned, but she understood the meaning behind that and flew to my shoulder.

"Just over that big hill! There's a large hut that is among a lot of bamboo tress! They have a stone with a seal stamped on and only the ones with pure hearts can pass the barrier they put up." the fairy explained.

I looked down at her, inspecting her face

"You sound like you've been there before."

"I was, I fly around here remember?"

"Pheobe! If we run fast enough we can make it before sundown!"

"But Raine, we've been walking all day! It's not like it's gonna go anywhere."

Suddenly we heard a loud booming sound from behind us. We both looked back to see that large black clouds were covering the painted sky. The rain was coming down just a bit away.

"Still wanna sleep out here?" asked Petal

I sighed, the fairy did had a point.

"Let's make a run for it!"

Raine and I began sprinting, Petal sitting upon Raine's shoulder. I could feel the rain drops beginning to fall, making a "pitter patter" sound as they hit the ground. Another loud boom erupted from the sky, making us run that much faster. Raine was talking with Petal that kept asking all sorts of questions, keeping her voice to a low murmur. We reached the top of the hill, already drenched in rain water, Petal using Raine's hair as a shelter. I rolled my eyes coming to a stop to catch out breaths

"Looks like you're not that much of a prankster!" I spoke looking down at the hut

There was a large dark hut surrounded with bamboo trees, that looked oddly used. I looked down at the hill, almost wanting to roll down it like a log. A loud boom echoed through the sky, causing Raine to jump and slide down the hill. I yelled down after her, accidentally slipping down the hill myself. It was actually really fun. I almost wanted to do it again; but Raine began walking forward towards the hut, as I followed her. We came to a stop in front of the stone that tPetal had warned us about. Raine took a breath, easily walking though it. I followed her lead, also walking through it quite easily.

"That was an exciting ride." noted Petal.

"[i]YOU[/i] have a good heart?!"

"For your information I was raised better then to prank strangers who were kind, I had no idea who you two were because you didn't look like any Nymphs. I was just protecting my home!"

"You need a smaller home." I mumbled

Raine rolled her eyes, walking up to the door and knocking on it. The door creaked open as we carefully stepped inside. It was so warm and light; completely unlike outside,

"Anyone in here?" Raine called out, her voice almost echoing

There was a short silence, as Petal seemed very scared. What was there to be scared of?

"Well well well, looks like the twins made it a bit earlier then I expected. Welcome to our home Pheobe, Raine and little Petal."

A chill went down my spine at the sight. There was a eye-less green skinned old lady in front of us.