"I think you should leave." Brick whispered, his lips ghosted over hers as he spoke. He drew back and stepped aside without making eye contact. Blossom steadied her heart; she walked to the doorway and paused.
"You're not going to stop the invasion, are you?" She asked.
"Are you going to stop defending humans?"
"No… I guess that makes us enemies then." Blossom stepped out of the palace all of the celebration seemed hollow and distant to her. She had become lost in thought, how could she allow such weakness now? The sun was rising and all the festivities had begun to wind down when she finally entered the forest. Blossom groggily changed her clothes and went to sleep. An hour later she was rudely awakened by Bubbles.
"Blossom, Blossom!" Bubbles called, shaking her leader.
"What?" Blossom mumbled.
"I need to wash up and I don't know where the river is."
"Ask Buttercup, she knows more about the forest than I do." Blossom grumped as she rolled over.
"That's just it, she is not here. I think she went to the bathroom or something."
"Then wait for her to come back."
"I can't." at this Blossom sat up.
"What do you mean you can't?"
"Well you see I was making us a hot breakfast this morning and I heard something. The sound made me jump and I… I accidently hit the pan." Blossom looked over at Bubbles who was covered head to foot in pastry batter, egg yolk, and jam. Bacon grease dripped from her hair; all in all she looked like an utter disaster. "We were going to have bacon, eggs and warm berry tarts." Blossom couldn't hold in a giggled.
"Well now that you're wearing it we'll have to deal with nice, stale travel biscuits." Blossom looked at Bubbles who was now pouting, "Don't worry it's the thought that counts. Come and let's get you cleaned." The two traveled a few kilometers to a small stream. Bubbles begun to wash off while Blossom drank in the scenery, something about how the sun fell through the canopy of the forest just seemed wrong. There was no breeze, the animals were deadly quiet, everything seemed brighter than it should have been. The stream fell softly over the rocks, well most of them.
"Hey Blossom, what is this?" Bubbles asked, holding up a green gem that hung off a silver chain, Blossom examined the object.
"This looks like the circlet Buttercup stole last year, but what was it doing in the river?" Blossom looked around and noticed several large footprints in the ground. "The South came through here."
"They must be headed for Gordis."
"How did you know that?"
"This is their river, a least a part of it."
"That scheming sand bag! I bet they have Buttercup too."
"How? It's not like she would just lay down and let them take her." Bubbles said, it was quite a mystery as to how the missing girl was taken.
Before Bubbles had woken up to make breakfast, Buttercup left for a drink. It was in the cloak of darkness that she remained unseen when the South had begun to march to their destination. Hundreds of soldiers marched to the unsuspecting town in the dead of night. Buttercup had begun to sneak off in the forest when a hushed voice called at her back.
"Where do you think you're going?" A blunt object collided with her head and the world vanished.