Before the sun rose the next morning in the partly cloudy sky, the three brothers and sisters left for their journey in the cool, misty morning, all ready to go with their backpacks. Arkas surprised the group by first freaking them out by being seen as an unknown figure off in the distance, secondly by eventually getting recognized for being his friendly self, thirdly by giving them a few things he thought the girls would need (traveling food meant to last forever; water canisters that can filter any water), until their body got used to not eating food all the time and drinking water, for that stuff was mainly only needed to help heal the body faster if it were to ever get overly enervated or injured, and fourthly, he just wanted to say one last goodbye.

After that small interruption, and Arkas was finally on his way back to Stoneforge with a hooded cape concealing his body, Alvin took lead and headed off first. Once Brittany and her sisters followed in pursuit, Simon followed, with Theodore picking up the back. They headed down the empty dirt trail that lead out of Stoneforge, which was surrounded by an ombré of dry grass that eventually became lush green as they neared the edge of a forest. Neither of the boys and girls talked much at first from their freshly awoken state. That is, until Brittany's paranoia of seeing figures following along beside them in the forest became apparent to Simon. The moment he asked if she was alright, she was smacked in the head with the memory that he could sense emotions, and she figured hers of fear was probably going haywire on his radar.

It was both convenient and inconvenient to her that he could sense this sort of thing because there are some emotions meant to stay personal…

"We're not being followed, are we?" Brittany finally asked, rubbing her arms that had begun to form goosebumps. She wasn't sure if it was from the cool air, or the fact that she was a little nervous about the black figures trailing beside them among the many trees. Somehow she just knew that it was the Black Eyed Beings, and she was afraid she'd have to run all of her breath out of her lungs again… Her legs weren't as sore now as they were yesterday, but she was sure they'd fall off for sure this time, if she began running vigorously when they hadn't fully recovered.

"Oh good," Eleanor abruptly breathed out, like she had been holding her breath for a very long time. "So I'm not going crazy…" She glimpsed to Jeanette who was walking beside her.

"I-I haven't seen anything…" Jeanette quietly said with a small shrug of her shoulders.

Simon nodded his head, seeming to completely know exactly what this conversation was about. "We are being followed," he confirmed, "but it's now no longer that much of an issue as it possibly could have been…"

"It's those creepy bug-eyed things, isn't it?" Eleanor frowned, looking over to Brittany, who appeared to be staring intently down at the dirt ground. The light auburn-haired girl really had her eyes aimed on the forest beside them.

"It is…" Simon sighed.

"Then how come they're keeping their distance this time?" Eleanor muttered as her brown gaze moved over to the forest next door. She readjusted her backpack on her back loudly, in a manner that seemed to send a threat message.

"Because of me," Alvin spoke up from ahead of them.

"You…?" Eleanor slowly said, sounding confused. "What makes you so special all of sudden? They weren't afraid of you before…" She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the boy leading them. "So, why the change?"

Brittany pursed her lips as she brought her gaze forward to Alvin, then down to his hands. The answer seemed obvious to her, especially since she had seen it, and was there when he flooded the woodlands with his fire. She would be afraid of his flames, too, if she knew they would purposefully harm her and her sisters. She could hardly imagine what it'd be like if his purpose wasn't meant to protect and destroy evil…the world would probably become Hell itself.

Alvin turned with a smirk on his face as he looked at Eleanor. "Because they know what I can do," he stated, briefly glimpsing over to Brittany afterwards, who had now pulled her gaze away from his hands, before he fixed his gaze straight ahead of them.

Off to her right, Brittany could hear Jeanette's voice whisper gently, "I think he's talking about his ability to use fire…?"

She heaved out a sigh, knowing very well that if she could hear what her sisters were saying, then that meant Alvin could as well. He probably now had inferior thoughts of them, if he didn't already have them before, which he most likely did. Brittany wished her sisters could be a bit quieter when they spoke about things one should really never say in the presence of the person they're conversing about… Didn't they know this? As if high school in the regular world didn't teach them enough about this…

Brittany bit her tongue when she heard Eleanor hiss back to Jeanette: "Then how come he didn't use his fire-power earlier?! Then we wouldn't have had to run so much!" Brittany mentally had to facepalm herself. They were talking so loud for whispering! But she had to admit…Eleanor did have a point. Why didn't Alvin ever use his flames earlier? Brittany curiously stared at Alvin's back, reminiscing back to that muddy, exhausting night…

She remembered she did briefly see him tackling the Black Eyed Being that had leapt at Jeanette…but he never used his powers then, when he easily could've.

Dropping her gaze to the ground, Brittany stared at her shoes, watching abstractedly as each one disappeared behind her as she took each step, lost in her own swarming thoughts. Maybe Alvin didn't use his fire because he didn't want to freak anyone out… As much as Brittany didn't want to think so, she knew she'd definitely have a dramatic reaction. The only reason she was fairly calm when she saw Alvin using his flames for the first time was because she was about ready to die, and after having been surrounded with no hope, it was coming across to her as more of a phenomenon than a terrorizing surprise.

When Brittany lifted her gaze to look back up at Alvin, she found he was no longer in front of her. Furrowing her brows, she glimpsed to her right first, scanning past her two sisters, only finding Simon walking slightly beside them, and Theodore trailing behind them in the back. Bringing her gaze forward, she jumped when she felt her arm brush against someone else's. Immediately she whipped her head over to her left, clasping her hand over her arm where she had been touched, quickly finding where Alvin had seemingly disappeared to.

"How long were you there?" she inquired, scowling when he snickered at her.

"You were that absorbed into your thoughts, huh?" Alvin flashed her a lopsided grin. "What were you thinking about?"

Brittany opened her mouth to retort back to his first remark, and stopped herself short when she heard his last by clamping her mouth shut. What was she thinking about? About you¸ dummy—she could feel those words on the tip of her tongue, but why would she ever say them to him? That would probably heighten his ego. He most likely would jump to the arrogant thought first, before he considered the fact that she still didn't know anything about him, so of course she'd be wondering about him…

"You probably could hear what my sisters were saying," she responded tactfully, pursing her lips. It was still a bit embarrassing to her that her sisters weren't very careful with what they talked about, and how loudly they spoke.

Alvin nodded his head slowly, not saying anything.

"So?" Brittany pressed. "What are your reasons?" She didn't feel any need to elaborate anything to him because she knew he most likely already knew what she was asking about.

Alvin remained silent for a moment, but then he spoke up, carefully saying, "My reasons are possible for you to figure out yourself, although, they won't be one you'll easily think up, if you believe me to be as I'd rather leave you thinking of me to be…"

Brittany's face contorted itself. "Wait, what?" she gawked. "What kind of response was that?! Wha—why do you guys always seem to respond with indefinite answers or riddles where it always turns out it's my choice of how the answer should go?!" she huffed with frustration, flailing her hands up to the light gray sky. This was just like the answer Simon gave her back at Arkas' shop, except possibly worse because Alvin somehow worded it in a way that sounded like it was a piece of work she was supposed to open up and dig through in order to find the answer. It was like he was testing how well she paid attention to her English teacher when she began to learn about "reading between the lines" and "reading the words written in white."

UGH! She could understand why Simon would answer vaguely like that because it seemed to fit him—he was like that one obnoxious smarty-pants that knew the answers to everything, yet would never give the answers to you straight because he knew you would never understand it until you figured it all out first yourself. But for Alvin to be answering like this? No… He never came across to her to be some Socrates. So, why all of a sudden now he decides to play this stupid game with her?

Alvin simply chuckled, lightly shaking his head. Rolling his sky blue eyes over to her, he responded, "Because…if we told you what we thought, then you'd never truly have your own credence. I'd rather have your thoughts be completely honest and your own, other than based upon a fed thought that was given to you. It practically makes everything you believe a lie, if all you ever trust in is based upon what others believe in, and not what you yourself believe in..."

"Alright…okay, Alvin…" Brittany deliberately turned her gaze away so she could hide her bewildered face from him. When she managed to recompose her facial expression, she turned back to face him and shot, "Was Aristotle secretly your teacher or something? Or maybe you were a student with him? Were you classmate buddies with any oh-so astounding philosopher, actually?" She kept forgetting how long he's actually lived for, since the fact that he looked the same age as her kept fooling her mind—but still. He never exposed to her until now that he was secretly another version of Simon…which made her wonder if Theodore was just like this, too… He probably was.

"Uh…I have no idea who that is supposed to be," Alvin drawled. "But, no…everything I've said is all…me…" he grinned, confusion clearly written across his face.

"Uh-huh, sure…." Brittany trailed off, beginning to play with the tips of her dirt-free hair that had been put up in her signature ponytail. She couldn't help but begin to wonder how long it would be until she got to wash herself clean again, once this day was over. She had completely forgotten how it felt to take a shower and be clean until she was able to experience that daily routine last night.

Exhaling out a sigh, she brought her gaze forward to the never-ending trail before them. It seemed like they had a long way to go…

.

Around the afternoon hours, the gloomy clouds had fully blanketed the light blue sky out of view. The quiet sounds that once surrounded the three guardians and three sisters had long been chased away by their loud conversations. Eleanor and Jeanette had split apart from each other and were talking with their respective bodyguard that had chosen to watch over them. Currently, Eleanor was asking Theodore questions about the food Arkas had given them….

When the Miller sisters had finally decided they couldn't handle the hunger their stomachs had begun to sound off loudly earlier in the day, they decided to take a moment to sit down and try the strange, compressed, pancake-looking cracker Arkas had given them. To say the least, Brittany took one bite and spit it out, whereas her sisters held their manners in a little better and managed to force themselves to swallow what they had put inside their mouths, although Jeanette nearly vomited it back up. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore had laughed at this sight, even though they had tried so hard to hold it in.

"The food that you were given is a traditional traveling food that dwarves always carry along with them on their journey," Theodore had explained. "It's an acquired taste, and it does take some time to get used to it," he grinned empathetically.

"But hey," Alvin had joined in, "maybe this will help you girls get used to not eating as much faster, and eventually not at all."

Brittany had flashed him a mocking grin when she heard that statement.

Jeanette at the moment was currently having Simon explain to her about everything she could have him elaborate to her about in the jade book he had given to her, which the bespectacled boy seemed more than happy to do so. He practically knew every single story and myth there was to go with each object the book had on each page. Apparently the falling-apart book used to belong to the astounding wizard Merlin. Why the ancient wizard had it was beyond anyone's knowledge, for the book simply contained all of the rarest and ancient artifacts known in the magical world.

According to Simon, the faded title on the book was supposed to read Objet D'art of Fair Desire, which basically meant this jade book contained all the most vital, most magnificent works of beauty and curiosity, worth far more than any other artifact there was out had explained his own little philosophy as to why Merlin would want this book, which seemed quite brilliant to Jeanette.

Meanwhile, Brittany was having a much harder time dealing with her oh-so, fun-loving bodyguard of a chum…

Alvin had unfortunately entertained himself by pestering her with hideous, buggy-arachnid-like things that looked like they had been created especially for the word "hideous" itself.

When Brittany had overreacted to a centipede-looking thing that had crawled right across her in her pathway, that was when Alvin's devious, playful instincts kicked in and he began finding all of the strangest, most terrifying small creatures he could find. Apparently there were creepy critters from the magical world as well, with special abilities and purposes, whether they were good or bad…

Of course, Brittany could understand this. But she was doing completely fine without the knowledge of this and having to worry about what kind of creepy-crawlies there were out there, as well.

"No!" Brittany firmly said, putting her hand out in the universal sign to say "stop" to the grinning boy approaching her.

Alvin leisurely continued to step closer to her like her words fell deaf on his ears as he stared down at the small creature he held so delicately in his hand.

"Alvin," Brittany warned, taking a cautious step back from the mischievous boy approaching her with a hairy, googly-eyed, hairy, gremlin-looking creature in his hand. A chill ran up her spine as her skin began to crawl will the paranoia that the thing in Alvin's hand was creeping up her own skin, the moment she saw it move in his hand; its legs moved in the steady motion of a wave, which seemed to amplify the make-believe feeling she felt on her skin. As horrific as this creature already looked, to top its appearance off, it had not two, or four, or eight legs, but it had a thousand creepy, segmented legs, covered in short, brown bristles. It was basically a deformed spider with pointed, bat-like ears…

"What, you don't like George?" Alvin cooed, stepping closer to Brittany as he gently petted the small creature in his hand. It seemed to purr at his soft touch much to Brittany's horror.

"You named it?" she shrieked, making a face of disgust at the small creature as it seemed to close its five, glossy, black orbs in pleasure.

"Of course," Alvin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Here—why don't you give him shot and hold him," he offered, extending his hand out to her.

Brittany took several steps away from him, shaking her head. "Alvin, if you get any closer, I swear to you…"

"Or you could just pick up the one behind you…" Alvin suggested.

The ice blue-eyed girl froze in place, and ever so slowly, she turned around and peered down at the ground. It appeared free of any hairy creatures, but that only scared her even more. What if this creature was on her? Brittany swallowed, pursing her lips as her desperate eyes searched the grounds. She briefly glanced over to her two sisters, to see if they were having any problems like this with Alvin's brothers, but obviously, as expected, no. Brittany couldn't help but roll her eyes, before she focused her attention back on her won situation.

"Alvin…where?" she demanded, slowly walking backwards as she searched the grounds intensely, suddenly running her back into Alvin's chest.

Quickly remembering of his new fond friend that he held in his hand, Brittany recoiled away from him like he had shocked her. When she turned to glare at him, she found him smugly grinning, crossing his arms. "I think he likes you," he mused.

Brittany's heart just about stopped. The hairy thing was on her…she just knew it was. As her face melted to one of complete horror, her heart seemed to defibrillate itself the moment she felt a wave of soft movement on her shoulder. Regretfully taking the dare to look to her right shoulder, she slowly peeked over in that direction, jumping and shrieking as her hands flew up to shield her entire face from the creature on her shoulder.

"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" she cried, completely holding still. There was no way she was going to risk touching the fuzzy creature on her shoulder, even though she really wanted to brush it off.

"Alvin…" she heard Simon's irritated voice say.

"I know, I know, I'm going to take it off," Alvin laughed.

Brittany's body seemed to relax when she could feel his warm presence nearby, and after a moment, she could feel a wave of soft prickles on her shoulder step off onto what she assumed was Alvin's hand.

"You can take your hands away from your face now," Alvin nonchalantly stated.

Almost a little too afraid to do so, out of fear that Alvin had the creature right in front of her face, Brittany first spread her fingers apart so she could see what awaited before her, and sighed with relief as her hands slipped off her face. Alvin was standing near the edge of the trail, bending down and allowing the hairy creature to step off his hands and crawl away into the green forest.

When he came over and began walking, which Brittany hesitantly followed beside him with a look of distrust on her face, Alvin began to say, "They're called Caramins, and I'll have you know that they're completely harmless. They can withstand extreme temperatures of heat, and they help regulate growth in certain healing flowers. They're quite friendly and very caring creatures. They're basically your typical pet dog."

Brittany grimaced, laughing sarcastically at this. "Yeah, um…no…"

"'No'?" Alvin echoed, raising his eyebrows at her with a small grin on his face.

"No," Brittany firmly responded back.

"You're only afraid of them because they're ugly," he stated, causing Brittany to abruptly halt in her tracks.

"No…" she defended, crossing her arms.

Alvin came to a stop as well and tilted his head at her. "Fine, then what's your reason?"

After a moment of silence, Brittany finally burst out: "Okay, fine! I'm afraid of that hideous thing because it is ugly!" She quivered at the thought of the Caramin's many legs crawling all over her. And not to mention its googly eyes! Imagine touching it...or them moving to look at you. Plus, it was a hairy little beast… Only certain animals, for example, an Old English Sheepdog, could pull off having that much hair all over their body with it being obvious.

Shaking his head slightly at her with a soft grin, Alvin turned away from her, saying, "Just keep in mind that not everything ugly is bad, and that not everything beautiful is good."

Brittany pursed her lips, rolling her eyes. "Whatever," she grumbled, watching as Alvin suddenly began heading down a smaller, different trail on their right. This side of the trail he was heading down had a ton of large, sporadic bushes, with the occasional few trees, unlike the opposite side of the trail, which was crowded with trees.

Narrowing her eyes, unsure if she should follow him, Brittany questioned, "Where are we going anyways? I mean, I know we're going to this David Seville's place…but…" She hesitantly followed Alvin when he beckoned her over. Briefly glimpsing over to where her sisters were, to see if Alvin's brothers would lead them down this trail as well, Brittany doubtfully followed after Alvin. Not that she thought he would take her somewhere dangerous…she just didn't want to go somewhere if her sisters weren't coming along.

As Brittany carefully began heading down the slim, faded dirt trail that was covered in small rocks, Alvin began to respond from up ahead, "To get to Seville's place, we're going to have to take several shortcuts, and where I'm leading you now is one of them. Seville lives very far away from where we are, and without these shortcuts, our journey would probably take at least three months, rather than around one."

"Okay…" Brittany slowly nodded her head, listening intently for the sounds of her sister's voices to be following after her. She sighed with relief when she heard Theodore's voice telling Eleanor to turn down on this trail. When she focused her gaze to what was in front of her, finding that the fire-powered boy was no longer in her vision, she began to quicken her pace.

After ducking under a few outstretched branches that tried to block her way in the shady area, Brittany suddenly began to hear a few splashing noises, like the sounds of someone playing in water. Furrowing her eyebrows, Brittany quickened her pace at the sounds of female laughing voices.

"Alvin…?" she anxiously called out, briskly breaking her way through the embraces of the dying bushes that surrounded her. Were the Black Eyed Beings possibly following her? She couldn't tell if it was their voices she was hearing… She had completely forgotten about their lingering presence once Alvin distracted her with his ugly little friends, so she had no idea if they were still following them or if they had given it up. Suddenly when Brittany unexpectedly no longer had any green arms blocking her pathway, she stumbled down to the ground from her forced momentum.

While she recovered from her heart-pounding moment, she quickly realized that the surface on the ground had changed, and was now covered sparsely in healthy green grass, which eventually became fuller further down the small pathway ahead of her that elevated upwards. When she peered up at her surroundings, she found she was in a fairly large tunnel, molded out by small-leaved bushes. It was almost completely dark, since the sky above was already dark itself, but there was a dim, shady light that made everything still visible.

Coming to a steady stand, Brittany dusted herself off, taking another scan of her surroundings once more, before she slowly crept up towards the end of the bush tunnel. The sounds of splashing water and female laughter became louder as she neared the end of the tunnel, making her clench her teeth nervously.

"Alvin…?" she hesitantly called out once more, unsure if she should really let whatever it was out there aware of her presence. She probably should've kept her mouth shut…

When she slowly emerged out of the tunnel and had made it to the top of the round entrance, she was struck with a sense of nostalgia at the sight. Despite the gloomy, monochromatic appearance the place before her portrayed, oddly enough, it was just like a replica of that same pond in that aspen groves, which she used to visit daily, way back when she was little. Everything seemed peaceful, like nothing could ever disturb the silence, and the pond was as clear as a mirror, reflecting the mossy trees that shaded over the place perfectly on its still surface.

Wait… Brittany's face contorted itself. She knew she heard the water splashing…yet here it was, still as glass. And even though there was the possibility that there could be other bodies of water hidden in this labyrinth of bushes and trees not too far away, that idea just seemed absurd to her—she knew this had to be the only body of water hidden in this place—it made more sense for it to be like that…

Ever so slowly, Brittany began to approach the tranquil pond, once again, scanning her surroundings to see if there was any obvious signs of danger nearby. She felt exposed in the peaceful clearing, and the pure silence, making her feel like she was inside some bubble, was beginning to bother her. By the time she was in close distance to the small body of water, she slowly kneeled down on the soft, glistening, green grass, and peered over the edge to stare at the clear water. She couldn't see what was hidden inside the pure liquid, for her vibrant reflection blocked her view—

Splash.

Brittany gasped at the noise, feeling her stomach jump to her heart, and shot her gaze up to graze her view over the surface of the water. There were no signs of movement on the mirror-like exterior—no expanding rings of circles or small waves of disturbance. She began to chew on her lower lip discreetly, as she cautiously peered back down at her awaiting reflection. She wanted to distort the image of herself, to see if she was being delusional about the noises and to see if she could look past her own image and see within the water.

Once again, taking another cautious scan of her surroundings, Brittany dropped her gaze back down to the still surface. Leaning down a little, she slowly reached her hand down to touch the water. Her ice blue eyes stared securely at the image of herself reaching up to meet her touch, when she suddenly noticed a strange movement in the background. She froze, concentrating her vision on what appeared to be someone else's face rising up out of her own reflection—

A face of terrifying demeanor abruptly rose out of the water and hissed up at her, threatening her with its jagged sharp teeth and blood red eyes. Brittany swiftly jumped backwards and collided with a straight, hard surface, gasping with large eyes at the sudden sight, just as the sight of a metallic, spiky fin that reflected the colors found on a peacock's tail swiftly flapped out of her vision and that familiar splashing noise sounded off.

Brittany breathed heavily as she took a moment to feel her own accelerated heartbeat pound inside her chest.

"They won't harm you," Alvin's voice suddenly sounded off from above her.

Brittany froze, looking up in the direction she heard his voice, quickly reminded that she had fallen backwards on a hard surface, other than what should've been the soft grass. How long has he been standing there? she snapped inside her head. Furthermore, she confusedly thought, remembering how recently she had taken a surveillance of her surroundings, Since when did he arrive?

"Excuse me?" she finally huffed, finding a familiar face with a lopsided, grim smirk staring down at her with sky blue eyes.

It's weird. I was reading this over, and it felt short...

Thanks for reading! :D
And always, always, always, thank you so very much for the reviews! :DDD Love all of you darlings!

The next chapter, I think, will be what will set everything in motion...maybe. Either the next one or the one after it. :)