Neal Nolan

Sleep. Such a wonderful thing, isn't it? I never really got much of it in Fiona's castle. When I was younger, I thought all the cells in my hallway were haunted, I never wanted to sleep because of it. That caused my sleeping schedule to never be the same (even when I grew out of the fear, my body could never get used to sleeping at different times), oh, and the rats.

The dream I was currently having was nice. I was on the beach, listening to the sound of the waves crashing down onto the water, the chill breeze blowing onto my face as it moved past me, my feet buried deep into the sand.

I hope one day to find a beach, maybe with Gideon and Robin, though I wouldn't mind being alone. I was used to being alone. The beach had always been something I fantasized about, after seeing it be illustrated in some of the books Robin had stolen from Fiona, my mind never erased it. At a young age, I thought it was the most beautiful drawing I had ever seen.

In my dream, I'm also alone. Is this what peace feels like? Is this what it will feel like when we can all finally live a normal life?

But what is a normal life?

"Neal?" That was Robin. I could recognize her voice from anywhere.. but what was she doing in my dream suddenly?

"Robin? What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Oh, I have so much to tell you about!" Robin says excitedly.

She has the look of adventure gleaming in her eyes. "Was finding food eventful, then?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"Oh yes, very. But before I start, I'm sorry I left you and Gideon. I did intend to get food but I got a little.. sidetracked. I'll come back in a few days, though. Just don't tear each other to shreds while I'm gone, please."

"Darn, there goes my fun," I joke.

"Secondly, you probably think this is a dream, this whole place is but me visiting you isn't. I found a spellbook and one of the spells in there was a dream spell, so I'm visiting you in a dream to tell you all this."

I nod, did she just happen to have the spellbook with her when we left? Where did she find one? And where even is she?

"What?" Was all I could say, "Why didn't you visit Gideon? He would understand this better than me," I ask curiously, and it was true. Gideon understands way more about magic than he lets on. He probably saw Fiona do a lot of it, as she used it as her main source of power.

"Gideon's awake," She says with a shrug. I nod in response.

I decide to ask more of my questions. "Where did you find a spellbook?"

"In an abandoned castle, this girl I met and I were running away from some guys that were trying to take me back to Fiona. You would've been proud of the fighting skills I used there.." Robin trails off. I knew I taught her well.

"Anyway," She continues, "I found a few things in that castle, which includes that spellbook."

She met a girl? Who? "Who's the girl you met?"

"Her name is Charlie. I think you would like her."

"Can we trust her?"

"I think so, as soon as I met her she said she wouldn't return me to Fiona, and she had plenty of chances to."

"Well if you do then I do too," I tell.

Robin smiles a little at me. I smile back in return.

"What about you? What have you and Gideon been up to?"

"We made up, so that's good. But it turns out the goonies are looking for us."

Robin scrunches her face as if she was cringing. "And there are people who would turn us back in to get Fiona's prize money. So just be careful."

"We will, and you too. I'll try to meet back up with you soon, yeah?"

"That's a plan," Robin agrees and gets up. "I better go and get some sleep myself. Sleep well, Charming," She grins at me before disappearing from my dream world.

Well, that sure was interesting.

I wake up after that. I wasn't sure how long after, I don't remember the rest of the dream. I squint my eyes as the sun beams into my tent. Gideon had used a spell to transfigure two leaves into two tents. Not sure how he knew that one without a spellbook, but he did. I need to ask him about that one day.

I sat up and ran my hands through my hair to straighten it out some before walking out of my tent, seeing Gideon sitting on a log that we had put down around our campfire, which was now defused.

Gideon hears me starting to walk over towards him and perks up. "Was wondering when you would wake up."

"How long have you been awake?" I sit down next to him, starving. I'll need to start looking for food later. Maybe I can find Robin wherever she is, she might have some.

"For a couple of hours. Bad dream."

I wasn't going to ask. I could tell by the look on Gideon's face that he didn't want to talk about it. "Speaking of dreams, Robin visited me in mine."

"She did? How did she learn that?"

I explain to Gideon what Robin told me. I also told him about the girl named Charlie, and how Robin said we could trust her.

"Not her exploring a castle without us.." Gideon mumbles.

"Apparently she was outrunning men."

"Of course it was men," Gideon rolls his eyes. "Men don't know how to behave themselves.. and I say that while being a man."

I chuckle a little, "Some men."

"Yes. Some."

We sit in comfortable silence after that. "Look at us," Gideon begins, "We made up without Robin's help!"

"Look at us go!" I joke and we both laugh before going back into that comfortable silence.

Gideon looks over at me before looking back down, "Neal?"

"Hm?" I hum.

"I know you- I know you used to be jealous of the way Fiona treated me because I would get special privileges or whatever, and I know you know now that I didn't get to, but I still wanted to talk about it."

I didn't, but I get why he wanted to. We've never had any serious discussions about the trauma we share from Fiona before, well, before yesterday.

"I wasn't.. jealous, really. I knew she treated you like a slave, I just wanted to be treated differently from the others considering everyone thought me, you, and Robin were like the 'chosen three' or something like that. I know now though that she didn't treat you the way you deserve to be treated, but from my point of view it never seemed like any of that."

I watch as Gideon takes in all the words I just said. "Yeah.. yeah. I think most people felt the same way, Fiona manipulated it anyway."

"She did with a lot of stuff," I agree.

"But we're freed from her now," Gideon says optimistically.

"Yeah.. if we don't count the goonies and the award for finding us, then yes."

"The award? How much are we worth?"

"Not sure, Robin didn't say."

Gideon grins, "Well.. it better be a lot. My face is beautiful and is worth at least 500k" He jokes. I was about to laugh a little in response until I heard voices in the distance.

"What?" Gideon asks me as he notices I went quiet. I put my finger over my lips, "Hide," I whisper and climb into the bushes for the second time in the past 24 hours.

Gideon did a spell that packed up the campsite before hiding beside me.

"Why must we always choose a bush?" He whispers. I shush him.

I watch as I see eight goonies walk onto what used to be our campsite. I see Mark and Gerard. I forgot about them, and the two leading the pack, Dennis and Carmen.

Dennis, one of my least favorite humans on earth. Just seeing him makes me start to growl.

"Stop growling, you sound like a dog," Gideon hisses quietly.

"Good, maybe they'll be scared of me," I reply mutely.

"Who in the name of Fiona is scared of a dog?!" He whispers aggressively and I shush him again.

'They're gonna hear you,' I mouth at him.

Gideon makes a face at me and I look back out at the crowd.

I recognize one of the goonies.. No, that couldn't be.. Fiona didn't.

Gideon tenses up beside me when he notices what I noticed. "Roderick?"

Robin Mills

I didn't sleep after I visited Neal, I had too much on my mind.

Charlie let me stay the night in her cottage. Luckily for me, her parents are traveling, so I was thankfully able to avoid the questions about who I am if I'm the girl from the wanted posters, where I'm from. Stuff like that.

I'm grateful I've met Charlie. Not only has she shown nothing but kindness to me, she also provided me with food and saved me from those men.

The only problem is that this is only happening to me. I want the guys to be able to eat too and sleep on a comfortable bed, even take a shower. The plan for today is to go out and find them before the goonies did. Charlie said her parents weren't coming back for another few weeks, so we would be able to stay with her for however long we need during that time period.

I'm going to hate saying goodbye to her soon. I made the decision last night that after we find the guys, we need to travel more. It's dangerous for us and Charlie to stay here. I don't want to risk her life for mine. That wouldn't be fair after all she's done for me.

I sit up on the bed I was laying on, rubbing my temples. I wonder what time it was, and if it was still too early to begin the search.

I walk over to the window and peek out behind the curtains that had been blocking the sunlight. The sunlight shines bright in my eyes, which caused me to squeeze my eyes shut and draw the curtains back to their original position.

That's when I notice the smell of food lingering in my room. I take in the smell, It smelt amazing, but I'm not sure what it was. We never got amazing smelling food in the castle. I walk out of the room and down the small flight of stairs, seeing Charlie cooking food in the kitchen.

"Good morning," I announce my presence and sit at the table.

"Good morning," Charlie sings and pulls something out of the oven. "The food is almost done."

"What are you making?"

"Breakfast! I made some biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage, and muffins!" She exclaims and smiles brightly at me.

I smile back. "I've never had bacon before."

Charlie gasps, "You poor thing! It's very good." She then begins to put all the food on a plate before handing it to me.

"Thank you," I say softly, genuinely thankful for what she was doing.

"Of course! It's no problem. Most of this is usually what I make for breakfast anyway," Charlie explains and makes another plate. She then starts packing up the food and putting some in her basket, "For your friends," She points out after noticing my curiosity.

"Thank you," I say again, already feeling more satisfied knowing that I achieved my mission of finding us food, even if it didn't happen the way I intended it to.

I take a bit of bacon, "Ohmygod," I say with my mouth stuffed. "This stuff is delicious!"

Charlie sits across from me at the table, "I told you!"

Once we both finish eating our food, I grab my bow and we set off, heading into the forest to look for the guys.

"I was thinking we could look the way I found you?" Charlie suggests as we walk.

"Yeah, good idea," I don't have any other ones besides that.

Charlie starts to walk in that direction. I follow her as she knows this forest better than I do. I mean she lives here, I've lived in a castle all my life, only having gone outside a couple of times.

I remember the place we're walking through. It's the area I met Charlie at, it's confirmed once I see the 'wanted Robin Mills' poster on the tree.

"I came from over there," I guide Charlie.

"Do you smell.. burning?" Charlie asks.

I sniff the air, smelling it too. "Yeah.. Maybe it's the guys. They could've set up a fire."

"Okay.. let's check that direction then come back this one," Charlie says and navigates her way towards the smell. I start thinking about how she'll get along with the guys. Out of the two dumbasses they are, I think she'll get along best with Neal, she reminds me of him in a way.

Charlie abruptly stops and gasps. "What? What's wr-" I cut myself off as I see what she gasped at.

The village, not Charlie's- another one, was burnt down to ashes.

"Oh nonono," Charlie says and runs into the ex village. I follow her, wondering what happened.

"Some of my friends lived here!" Charlie says, the sound of panic in her voice, "Oh god, I hope they're alright."

I start to investigate the scene, checking the piles of rubble to see if there were any clues about what happened.

My hands became dirty as I dug, but it was worth it when I say a recognizable pendant. The pendant was beautifully crafted, the middle of it having a raven symbol while the rest of it was a smooth surface. I turned it over to see if it belonged to the person I thought it did.

F.S was carved in cursive. F.S also stands for Fiona Sangster.

I knew it. Of course, only she would be so obsessed with finding us that she would burn down villages out of rage.

"Charlie?" I say and walk over to her. She looks devastated and understandably so. "I know who did this."

"Was it.. her?" Charlie mumbles, talking about Fiona and I nod. "I found the pendant she always wears."

Charlie takes it from me and examines it. "She destroyed this place... all because you and your friends weren't here. I hate her."

"Yeah me too."

"What if she's going to my village next? Oh, Robin, we have to tell everyone!"

She's right. We need to arrive there before Fiona does, even if I have no idea where she is.

Gideon Gold

"Roderick?" I tense up. Roderick wouldn't help them willingly.. At least I don't think so.

I don't know which one I would find worse, Roderick purposely helping them find me, Neal, and Robin, or Fiona turning him into a goonie. Both options are not good whatsoever.

"Nooooooolannnnnnnnn, Gooooolllllddddd," Dennis chanted. "We know you're hereeeeee. Come out come out whereverrrr you a- ow!" Carmen cut Dennis off by poking him with a stick.

"You don't sound the way you think you do. That isn't gonna make them show up. Check the bushes!" Carmen demanded and I gulped.

I see Neal grip his sword out of the corner of my eye. Does he sleep with that thing next to him? My god.

I panic as I start to see Roderick and Mark digging through all the bushes around us.

"What's the plan?" I whisper frantically to Neal.

"Let's exterminate some goonies!" He says with a determined look on his face.

"Yes, prince charming. Let's just ambush a group of goonies, that's a fantastic idea," I protest sarcastically.

Neal rolls his eyes. "Did you forget you have magic now, Gold?"

Of course, I didn't. I just didn't think it was fair to fight any of them with it. I didn't want to hurt any of them, especially Roderick, but I also didn't want Neal to get hurt either.

"On my count..." Neal whispers and I nod.

"1..."

Mark starts walking over to our bush.

"2..."

Mark starts to dig through our bush and that's when Neal shouts "3!" "Motus!" I yell which causes Mark to fly backward.

The goonies notice. It's not like I was trying to be nonchalant. Neal and I pop out of the bush and the goonies that are all here start running towards us.

Roderick ran towards me, that's just great. He starts swinging punches at me. I think about the combat training sessions Neal would have with Robin and me and I start using the blocking techniques I learned, even if I wasn't good or strong at them.

Roderick could sense the hesitation I had when It came time for me to be offensive and used it to his advantage. He punched me right in the stomach which caused me to tumble onto the ground.

Neal's fighting Gerard and Dennis on one side of me, them having to dodge his sword swings (Show off, I thought), and Carmen's helping Mark on my other side.

Roderick hovered over me, and then the next few events from then happened so fast.

Mark had gotten up and joined in Neal's fight, kicking the sword free from Neal's grasp. He caught it in the air and started using it against Neal. The fight had started to move closer to us, but Mark seemed unfazed. Neal, on the other hand, noticed how I was on the ground, about to get recaptured by my ex-crush. He tried to back out of his fight to help me, but Mark didn't seem to want to have that.

Mark swung the sword around everywhere, trying to slash or stab Neal with it, but the problem was, he didn't know how to use it. "Mark put the sword down!" Dennis yelled at him, "We aren't supposed to hurt them!"

Mark didn't listen and ended up stumbling down, as he stumbled down, the worst thing that could happen in this situation happened.

He accidentally slashed Roderick with his sword.