"Please stay calm everyone. The situation is being handled right now, but things would go a lot smoother if everyone just stays calm."

Darren looked away from the guard that was doing his best to calm the agitated crowd of people, walking back to his spot at the edge of the group. Instead, he took the time to check the area around him.

Built around them in a square shape, the buildings were mostly made of cobblestone with wood to decorate the place. There were two entrances to the place about the size of an alleyway on opposite ends of the court. It was defensible enough and it helped that all of the people in the village could fit in it with room to spare. Guards were situated at the entrances and on the roofs of the nearby buildings.

When Darren and Andr had arrived, they were found by a small patrol of guards. After some questioning, the two were allowed to pass the guards and into relative safety. Now they were just waiting for everything to hopefully blow over. The only problems of note so far were a few rowdy visitors demanding that the Wickensfield guards deal with the situation quickly.

Darren walked a few more steps before his companion came into view. Sitting at the edge of what seemed like the garden of the square, Andr was examining a white tulip in close detail. Taking a seat next to her, Darren saw that she was trying her best to look at it from every angle. Moving her head from side to side, gingerly prodding at the leaves, brushing the petals. At first glance, anyone would have assumed that she was fascinated by the little piece of flora in front of her.

However, as Darren looked closer he could see a certain nervousness around Andr's frame. Her shoulders were stiff and her hands trembled when she reached out to touch the flower. While she stared at the plant her eyes were unfocused, not really seeing what was in front of her.

Darren reached out and put a hand on Andr's shoulder. "Hey."

The black-clothed girl nearly jumped from her seat, startled by the sudden physical contact. Andr's head turned quickly, a wild look in her eyes. She calmed a moment later once she saw that it was Darren.

"Sorry," Andr mumbled. "I-I…"

"Don't worry about it," Darren reassured as he took a seat. "If anyone is going to apologize, it's me. Should've realized you'd still be on edge with everything that's happened earlier. Hell, I'm not over it yet."

Andr nodded at his words and looked down at her closed fists in her lap. As an uncomfortable silence descended on them, Darren looked to the side and coughed. He desperately tried to think of something to say to make the silence disappear, but every subject he thought of didn't seem right. His eyes spotted the tulip.

"Have you ever seen a tulip before?" Darren blurted out. Some color crept onto his cheeks as Andr looked at him strangely. "The flower. Have you ever seen that before? I just remembered that you liked studying plants."

Andr looked confused then seemed to remember their conversation in the woods some hours ago as her eyes lit up. She snorted and her hands moved to cover her mouth. Darren's face reddened further at her snort, which caused Andr to snort again into a burst of laughter. Darren turned to the side with a huff as he felt his blush travel to his ears to his increasing embarrassment.

"It was just a question," Darren mumbled with a pout. "I don't get what's so funny."

"I-I'm sorry. It just- I-" Andr tried to speak but some lingering giggles interrupted her words. A few seconds later she calmed down, though there was still a small smile on her face that betrayed her mirth. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting that sort of question now. But to answer you, yes, I know what a tulip is. I never had the chance to see one with my own eyes though."

Another silence descended on the two, but this one was different. The awkwardness faded away into something more comfortable as Andr and Darren sat in their little corner of the square.

"Did you know that tulips come in every color except for blue?" Andr asked suddenly.

Darren blinked at the abrupt question but eventually shook his head no.

"Well, now you do." Andr turned to look at the flower and pointed to its petals. "And another thing. In the language of flowers, a white tulip means 'I'm sorry'."

Nodding at the information with a contemplative look Darren asked, "Anything else I should know about tulips?"

Andr beamed.

As they kept talking about tulips, neither noticed how the other slowly scooted closer and closer until their shoulders touched. They startled and then turned to look at each other, eventually seeing the shortened distance between them.

Darren paused, staring into bright violet eyes, mesmerized by their exotic color. A quick check saw that Andr was blushing up a storm and, if from what Darren was feeling, he was doing no better.

Darren swallowed and asked in a whisper, "Are… are you feeling better now?"

"Yes," Andr replied just as softly.

They sat there silently in the square, for how long Darren wasn't sure, but he found it to be enjoyable for the time being.

It didn't last.

BOOM

The nervous calm broke as the sound of TNT detonating rang out. Everything fell silent, the air itself seeming to be frozen as the gathered people paused in shock.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

More explosions sounded off, these ones much closer than the first before them. The gathered crowd, already agitated by previous events, tipped into a panic as the rumbling from the explosions stopped. The guards tried their best to keep the people calm but it was clear that they were fighting a losing battle.

Darren shot up from his seat in an instant. Taking a look around he saw that the two entrances were blocked off, people clogging the alleys as they tried to leave in their terror.

If they tried to follow the crowd, Darren knew that they wouldn't make it to safety in time. Instead, he began to look around the immediate area to see if there was something he could use to get him out of this situation.

"Darren!" He turned around to see Andr waving him over to a nearby wooden wall. Running his way over there, he saw that Andr had found a weak spot in the wall. It seemed that she was on the same page as him. "Over here! I think we can get through this, but it's too strong for me to break. Do you see anything we could use?"

Darren reached into his backpack and pulled out his axe. "What about this?" he quipped.

Andr gave him a quick look as her eyes went from Darren to the axe in his hand and back to him. "How did you…" she trailed off before shaking her head. "Never mind, that'll do."

Shuffling to the side, Andr let Darren have at it. He swung the axe as quickly as he could, seeing the telltale cracks of the block breaking apart. In a second the space was emptied and all that was left was a floating small block of wood.

"Okay. I'll go first and make sure the coast is clear then you follow after me," Darren said as he pocketed the wood block. Instead of a reply though, he was met with silence from Andr. Confused, he turned to the girl to see that she was staring at where he pocketed the block with wide eyes. "Are you alright?" Darren asked warily.

"... Builder," Andr said in a nearly silent whisper.

Darren's eyebrows furrowed as his confusion only grew. "What did you just say?"

Andr looked up into his eyes and he saw a bevy of emotions. Awe, curiosity, and bewilderment were the main ones that stood out, but it was the hint of fear in her gaze that disquieted Darren the most.

"You… you're a Builder," she replied louder. "H-How are you-?"

"People of Wickensfield!"

A loud, booming voice that reverberated around the square interrupted Andr before she could question Darren further. The guards that had tried to stop the crowd from panicking earlier were now being pushed inside the square by dangerous looking men wielding crossbows. Looking around, the displaced camper spotted a man standing on a nearby roof.

He was dressed in leather armor with smaller pieces of iron armor that seemed strapped onto various parts of the suit. A crossbow rested in his hands and a sword was strapped to his side for easy access. The man was completely bald with rough features that were only enhanced by the nasty scar over his right eye. There was a manic gleam in his gaze as he grinned down at the group.

"May I have your attention please," the man continued. "I am here with the great honor of-"

"Who the hell are you?!" someone in the crowd shouted. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?! When the guards get their hands on you-!"

FWIP

"Graagh!"

An arrow sprouted from the man's neck, the people near him screaming in fright. The pillager, uncaring for the panic he had just sown, coolly reloaded his crossbow without a care in the world.

Darren snapped out of shock a second later and turned to Andr. She was still with fright, skin a pale white and her hands covering her mouth. Darren shook her by the shoulders. "We need to go. Now."

Andr stared at him uncomprehendingly but soon nodded, albeit a bit shakily.

Crouching down near the hole in the wall, Darren crawled in as fast as he could. Standing up once he made it inside, he eventually found himself in a living room with a set of stairs to the side. He helped Andr once she had made it inside as well and peered outside through a nearby window. The pillager had once again begun talking and this time some pillagers were backing him up on other nearby rooftops.

"Some people are so rude," the pillager said lowly yet clear enough to spread through the square. "Now where was I? Ah, yes. I, Captain Chester Stewart, have the great honor of demanding the surrender of this whole village and its guests. If you choose to resist, well," Chester motioned towards the man he had shot earlier, "you can end up like that poor gentleman over there." A sickening grin grew on his face as he started to wave his crossbow in front of him. "Please resist. It's been far too long since I've had some decent stress relief and that other guy was barely anything worthwhile."

Darren kneeled. In his head, he tried to think of a way out.

"Darren." He looked to the side and saw Andr giving him a hard expression. "We need to help them."

"How?" was his immediate response. "There are more of them than there are of us and, even if we did deal with the pillagers on the roofs, there are still more all over the square. We wouldn't be able to reach those pillagers, fight them, and save everyone in time."

At his words Andr seemed unsure of herself, biting her lip in frustration. She seemed to debate with herself for a few moments, debating whether or not to go through with something. Then she nodded and turned to Darren with a resolute air.

"I can deal with them," she stated firmly.

"But how-"

"I'll tell you as soon as you tell me how you're a Builder."

Darren, still confused by what she meant, only nodded slowly after a moment of hesitation. "...Alright. Once this is all over and done with, then we'll talk."

Making his way up the stairs, Darren found himself on the second floor. On the ceiling was a trap door with a conveniently placed ladder just under it. He climbed up and pushed the trap door open as quietly as he could before slipping onto the roof. In front of him was one of the pillagers with his back to him keeping watch of the crowd below. Darren stalked towards the man ready to pounce when a flurry of thoughts made themselves known.

Wait, why did I come up here so quickly? What even was my plan on doing this? Was I just expecting Andr to do something then I would too? And speaking of Andr, what exactly was she going to get to the other side of the square? Did she have a plan to-

He wouldn't have any more time to think though as on the other side of the square Darren saw Andr tackle her pillager to the ground while wresting the crossbow from his hands. The pillager on Darren's side also saw the confrontation and started to aim at her.

Instantly Darren shot forward without thinking, pulling out his sword and aiming for the man's back. Like a hot knife cutting through butter, the sword slipped through a gap in the armor and sliced into the pillager's vulnerable flesh. He kept pushing the sword up to the hilt, it was enough that it pierced through the other side of the body.

He froze in shock as his actions caught up with him. The man let out a wet cough causing Darren to jerk just before the pillager fell bonelessly to the floor. The fall nearly pulled Darren along with him, but he let go of the sword and watched it slip from his fingers. As blood began to pool around the body, Darren felt his own chill as realization began to set in.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Andr somehow make it to a neighboring roof to take down another pillager. The lead pillager, Chester, finally noticed his men being taken down and made to aim for the biggest threat.

As Chester lifted his crossbow towards Andr, Darren snapped out of his shock, pushing his conflicting feelings deep down. I can deal with all that later.

Taking the crossbow dropped by the pillager he killed, Darren aimed at Chester and pulled the trigger. He was unprepared for the recoil of the shot and the arrow went high, but it was enough. Chester, seeing the arrow coming for him while he began to shoot, reacted swiftly. He ducked, bringing his crossbow closer to himself and making his shot at Andr go wide.

Darren capitalized on that moment to pull the sword out of the pillager's body and ran towards Chester, intent on ending this fight as soon as possible. He jumped from one roof to another as he got closer to his target. Chester recovered from the attack quickly and reloaded his crossbow before turning it to aim at Darren.

The pillager fired the arrow quickly, sending it towards Darren's skull. The displaced camper, moving forward too fast to dodge to the side, could only tilt his head to the side. Darren flinched as the arrowhead gave him a slight cut on the left cheek, but other than that he was left unharmed.

He was now upon the pillager and came for him with a downward swing of his sword. Chester dropped his crossbow and unsheathed his own sword to block, a metallic clang ringing out as metal met metal.

"Heh, finally. Some real action," Chester muttered with a grin. "Let's hope you actually manage to entertain me."

With his piece said, Chester pushed Darren back and swung hard. Darren moved his sword to block and had to take a step back under the force of the hit. It was strong enough that Darren knew he wouldn't be able to block many more.

Chester pulled back, readying another swing and Darren took his chances. Stepping forward into the pillager's guard, Darren made to pierce Chester's gut. The more experienced fighter however rolled to the side. He got up quickly and prepared another strike.

WHUMP

But before Chester could swing though, Andr suddenly appeared behind him in a flash of purple. Chester twisted around to deal with the new threat but had to dodge out of the way as Darren took the opportunity to strike. The pillager readied himself but spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

Reinforcements had arrived to back up the guards below, dealing with the pillagers holding them hostage while simultaneously slowly closing in on the square. Chester growled at the sight of his men being taken down but he seemed to know when to withdraw.

"Next time," Chester snarled, pointing his sword at Darren. "Next time I'll have your head hanging off my belt." He dashed off without another word and jumped off the roof.

Darren went to give chase but once he got to the edge of the roof, Chester had already disappeared. He turned around with a huff before focusing on Andr.

She was looking out towards the crowd in the square seeing their relieved faces knowing that the danger was over. Guards were arresting pillagers, villagers were hugging one another, and things seemed to be going well.

"You alright?" Darren asked.

"Yeah," Andr replied softly before she turned to him. "Yeah, I'm-" Her eyes widened slightly. "You're hurt."

"What?"

She reached out and brushed his left cheek with her thumb. Darren flinched as a sharp pain sprung from there reminding him of his near death experience.

"We should find that healer you mentioned, Melissa. She could help," Andr said softly.

Darren felt embarrassed by the contact, but also happy that she cared. Ultimately he pulled away from her, replying, " It'll be fine, I'd rather not put more on her plate when she has an entire village to care for first. Especially after today. Oh, I have a quick question for you if you don't mind?"

Andr, still somewhat focused on his minor wound, waved for him to ask.

"Did I see you teleport earlier?"

Andr froze. It was only some seconds later that she locked eyes with him.

"Andr, what are you?"

A/N: This is a bit late. Whoops.

Right, so if it wasn't clear enough in this chapter, I'm trying my hand at writing romance. The problem is that I have no idea what I'm doing or how I'm going to do it. I keep finding examples that either go too slow or too fast for my taste and I want to be able to write something that lands just in the middle of that.

In summary: Ideas please. Help.