Sorry for the wait guys! I was on vacation and things got all wonky will the hotels' internet...Plus school is starting back up so things aren't going to be quite pretty. Here's chapter 10, chapter 11 should be up next week, this will mainly focus on Ronin's backstory and M.K's...scenario here.

( Ronin's POV )

"Just keep looking! Send out more soldiers to find him!"

"Ronin! We have to keep soldiers here in case of an attack. We can't send out any more of our Leafmen!"

In complete frustration, I turned to my right and punched the stone wall, causing a sharp pain to shoot through my left hand. Finn stepped back a bit away from me before looking at my hand and the maroon liquid dripping from it. He moved forward to try and help me but I just held my injured hand with my right hand.

"Don't! Just...don't."

He held his head down, almost ashamed of what he had just said to me, what choice he had to make to ensure Moonhaven's protection. What had I just done? How could I get angry at him when he was just thinking of everyone else's safety and not just an individual?

"Ronin. I-I'm sorry. We-" I immediately cut him off.

"No! I...I understand why you said what you said. Alright? It was the level-headed decision. It's just that, Nod has been missing for hours!"

True. Nod had been offering more than usual to go out and do some scouting around to ensure Boggans didn't cross our borders even more so. Ever since Tar-the queen had been killed, all of the Boggans had been rotting away some more of the forest to add onto their rotten swamp. I had been a bit surprised and suspicious at first, but soon it became a part of his daily routine.

Normally, he would have returned a few hours ago from the border but this time he was taking longer than usual. Night was falling and trust me, you did not want to be out in the forest after the sun went down. Boggans weren't the only things you had to watch out for and be worried about at nighttime.

"I'm just worried about him. I can't lose him too."

If anyone knew anything about me, its that I always somehow managed to loose the people that I cared about. My parents were assassinated by Boggans when I was one hundred and ten (10 human years) and the wife of a Leafman took me in and cared for me. Motivated to get revenge on those cursed Boggans, I began attending the training sessions and became a Leafman, meeting Nod's father.

Then Tara came into my life when I was training with her, besting her with both the sword and bow. We became natural rivals at first, childish quarrels were the only communication we ever had for years until we both finally turned one hundred and seventy (17 human years) and our rivalry turned into more of a friendly competition. Later on we actually became friends and soon after, we found ourselves dating each other.

When she was chosen to become the next queen, she was forced to stop Leafman training and I was told by General Carter not to see her anymore. Reluctantly, I broke up with her and she was heartbroken for weeks, she got over it eventually but it seemed that our romantic feeling towards each other still lingered. Nod's father comforted me and got my thoughts more into avenging the death of my parents.

On a dark mission to the swamp, my best friend was slaughtered at the hand of Mandrake, King of Wrathwood. Leaving his eighty year-old (8 human years) son alone, his mother having died of a disease a year earlier. Tara had just died a few days ago and now Nod was missing...how come death had a personal goal to take away everything and everyone I cared for?

"You know what? Call the Leafmen you sent out, back here. I'm going to find Nod on my own. He's my responsibility and I know all of his annoying habits, I can easily track him from where he was last seen."

I made my way out of the stone building towards the aviary where I kept my hummingbird.

"Ronin!" Finns voice called out from behind me just as I was about to snap out at him, his voice softened.

"Good luck."

( M.K's POV )

I was freaking out, okay?! My father just tried to kill me and now this Leafman was jumping around and waving his arms, hopping in joy and doing some sort of jig/jumping thingy.

While he was doing his little...dance, I snuck away towards some thick bushes and dived into them, careful not to alert him to my hiding place. As soon as he finally calmed down and bothered to look around, I was carefully hidden and he began to frantically look around for any signs of where I had disappeared.

Slipping away undetected and reaching a clear cool pond, I jumped onto a few lily pads and finally took a seat on one when I was in the middle of the pond. Taking off my boots and letting my feet splash around in the water, I placed my mask beside me and took in a deep breath.

I don't know exactly how long I sat down on that lily pad, wishing that everything could return to how it was supposed to be. All around me, the night came alive as fireflies could be seen glowing and cricket chirps were clearly heard.

"How could everything go so crazy in just a few days?"

Remaining silent, I listened as if expecting the universe to give me an explanation as to why my entire built up life was crumbling. My future was set. Due to Dagda's untimely death, should anything happen to fath-Mandrake, I would become the new ruler of Wrathwood. I'd rebuild the Mandragorian Empire and the entire forest would be the beautiful grey color that I had always admired.

But this...this...betrayal, I guess you could call it. Hurt.

Mandrake was always supportive of all of my decisions and opinions on the forest and life. So..why was he deciding that my thoughts just didn't matter anymore? Even when I was little, he let me imagine and dream along with Dagda until we were teens.

~Flashback~

"You're it! You're it!"

Tapping Dagda on the shoulder, I ran around the room, hiding behind a rather large stone. Daring a peek around one of the rounded sides, I could see his feet coming closer towards me.

"M.K. I'm bored of this. Can't we play something else?"

Popping out from behind the rock I began arguing with him about how he wasn't any fun anymore. Let's face it. He was just getting into his teenage years, studying up on swords and weaponry while I tried to get him to play tag-and-go-seek with me. It was only a matter of time before father showed up in the room, having heard our loud bickering.

"Now what's going on here?"

Dagda opened his mouth to most likely complain, but I beat him to his own explanation. "Dagda won't play tag-and-go-seek with me because he's becoming a big pinecone head!"

"I am not! Dad. I'm too old for those kinds of games. I want to do training!

"Look, both of you! You both make valid points in your explanation, but you forget that you have to respect each others choices. Now M.K, you want to play a gam and Dagda wants to train, you two like doing things together so here's what we'll do..."

After his explanation, we headed out to the archery training ground and made up a shooting game and we all had fun shooting targets. Father called it a compromise, basically a promise to listen to what the other has to say in an argument and make a decision based off of that. In other words...a deal.

~End Flashback~

Father made me a promise after that day, he told me that he would always protect Dagda and I from any harm. Yet, today he attacked me for trying to express my opinions of fighting and killing. The Boggan that had raised his whole life, when we spoke earlier it was like he was a different person entirely!

Some say that while rules were meant to be broken, as are promises...

Well I clearly beg to differ!

Ronin is looking for Nod, but Nod is looking for M.K, and M.K is looking for a way out of this nightmare for her. Will any of them ever find each other?! Wait, that doesn't make any sense..oh wells! Chapter 11 will be able to explain EVERYTHING! Until then...

§~Amethyst~§