So you know how I said every month?

Yeah turns out that was a fuckin' lie.

lol

Well, life kinda sucks sometimes. I got nothing more to say than that, I guess.

Here's the new chapter. =D


Chapter 52: A Third Plan

"Okay, so… lemme see that map again…"

"This part of the city is a lot shorter in comparison to the rest…"

"Yeah, but tall buildings might provide more cover if we try here…"

"I-I thought we weren't doing that!"

"We never officially agreed to it, but it's still an option. We need all possibilities mapped to find the best chance of escape."

The five of us were all in my sister's kitchen, pouring over a large map of the city Paige had 'borrowed' from a city worker friend. It was a detailed top-view of the entirety of Blockington, with each of the buildings labeled based on height and purpose. What with that, and all the books and a few various weapons and supplies scattered loosely about, it felt like we were in the middle of a war room preparing for an epic battle.

Just as had expected, Diana and Andr both had their worries with each of the escape options presented to us earlier. Andr was, of course, worried about space, since she would need to likely break more blocks than anyone else. Diana, on the other hand, went as white as a sheet when Paige earnestly explained her flying machine idea. Neither of them had agreed on anything yet, but that was hardly a surprise: we only just started our escape plan. Who knows, the entire operation might get scrapped if the law gets changed soon.

But for now, we still needed to do some planning. With Zach out of commission for the time being, we needed to plan ahead.

Paige and Andr were currently looking at the buildings, planning how an escape might work if we started, say, atop one of the many buildings. There were a few very tall buildings that, if we could somehow get on the roof off, then a flying machine would almost certainly work without a hitch. Susie and Diana, meanwhile, were currently discussing the logistics of a mining operation such as the one we might use for an escape.

That left me, looking around the city. I was trying to see if there was a third option: an option that could, potentially, work out better than Zach's or Pagie's, even though Paige thought I was wasting my time.

And it seemed like she wasn't in the wrong, at least then. I hadn't come up with any strong ideas, not ones I would actively voice to the others just yet.

With the current state of affairs, we couldn't really make a solid choice just yet. It just wasn't clear which option would raise less suspicion. Personally, if push came to shove, I would go with the mining option, since that was something that seemed a lot safer than an unstable flying machine, but Paige was adamant that it was a good idea.

The day ended with the five of us still quite unsure. The big question at stake here was do we risk Diana's aversion to heights, or Andr's concerns about mineshaft heights?

Susie and I both retired to the spare bedroom. Susie looked tired: all of the discussions must've really worn her out.

"So… what do you think?" she asked me.

I let out a puff of air. "Honestly…? I'm still not sure. I mean, those two don't seem like they're going to change their minds anytime soon…"

Susie nodded along, thoughtful. "What's the plan for tomorrow, then?"

"Personally, I wanna go check out those mines." I explained. "I know that will be a much, MUCH slower option, but it also might be a much safer option, especially if we do it right."

Susie nodded along. "Course, you'll be doing most of the mining, though?"

"Well, probably. Diana and Andr I'm sure would be willing to help as well, and Paige might even come too, I don't really know." I reasoned.

Susie stayed silent. I figured she was lost in thought, just like I was.

We both climbed into the bed, but I didn't really feel tired. Susie reached over and took my hand. "Well… whatever plan we go with, Cameron… I believe in you."

I rolled over to my side to look into her eyes. "...thanks, Susie. We'll get out of this soon, I promise."

Susie gently managed a half-smile. She gently closed her eyes and, almost immediately, fell into what looked like a very, very deep sleep.

I rolled back over to my back and tried to sleep too, but I just couldn't. I was too keyed to even think of sleeping at that moment.

Instead, I sat up in the bed and started digging around, thinking I'd grab a book to get a little reading in.

I pulled out the first book my hand touched.

It was the Enchanted Book.

I remember seeing the book refer to itself as such in one of the earliest pages. For a moment, I was about to put it back and look again.

But… something about the book stopped me.

Despite having not opened the book in so long, it always was in the back of my mind, like an itch that I just couldn't scratch. It didn't grow stronger, meaning that I didn't have any growing desire to read it, but it never faded either, meaning that it always was there, no matter what.

I stared at the diamond centerpiece of the book, shining even in the pale moonlight.

Then I slowly opened the book again, to a random page.

It contained a rather detailed drawing of what was unmistakably a Creeper, but drawn as though someone had sliced it in half, so you could see the inside of the creature. Little notes in neat, detailed handwriting (still in Standard Galactic, as the book called it) covered almost the entire drawing, explaining how each of the inner workings of the monster worked with each other.

The drawing… fascinated me, but also made me wonder yet again about the original author. What would drive a person to study mobs to such an intense degree? Furthermore, Creepers and other monsters don't exactly tend to stick around when they die, so how did the creator manage to get such a detailed and thorough understanding of it…?

I flipped ahead a few more pages.

Another page contained a strange building that I had never seen before: a dark, foreboding structure. The walls appeared to be made of brick of some kind, but no bricks that I had ever seen looked that dark…

It was like a fortress of some kind. But rather than a grand structure that looked like it was meant to scare away intruders, this thing felt like… it was designed to house a secret of some kind. A dark, terrifying secret. Even the mere drawing gave me an unexplainable shiver.

I flipped again, trying to get away from that picture.

I found myself near one of the ending pages of the book. The most interesting part of it, to me at least, was that at this point, all of the notes and whatnot just… stopped.

Like, it just leaves a blank page. No notes. No pictures. Nothing.

The last page that actually has any writing on it only has a small paragraph.

"'The darkness will not stop until the light has ended.'" I read aloud quietly. "'I fear my time draws near. I must hide this book, and encourage only someone strong enough… or perhaps foolish enough, to read it again. He does not stop, but He cannot control me anymore. He will come for me, but I will be gone before that can happen. It falls on the next Reader to finish what I started. I failed, but I set the stage for a future champion to take my place… I implore the next Reader. Do not fall for his tricks. Do not make the same mistakes I made. The book will not lie. It will only misdirect.'"

And just underneath that, there's only two last words.

'Purity Heart.'

"Purity Heart…" I repeated, slowly reading the paragraph over again. Whoever wrote this book… they made it with the intention that someone else would read it. Does that mean finding the book and making the recipe inside of it… it was some kind of test?

And come to think of it, didn't I see the crafting recipe first? When I first found the book, Susie looked through the entire thing, front to back, and didn't see anything. It was only after I pointed out the crafting recipe for the Enchanted Book in the back that Susie and the others noticed it too.

Does that mean that… someone knew I'd find this book? Or did I just stumble across it by pure, dumb luck?

With so many questions, and none of them able to be answered, I could only guess.

I slowly shut the book.I still wasn't quite sure what to make of the thing, even now.

I was about to put it away when, by mere chance, I glanced at Susie.

She was still fast asleep, peacefully oblivious to the world, and to me.

I'll admit it: I was terrified about Susie's dilema. If we made even the tiniest mistake, either by her being out for too long or by not properly getting her disguise ready…

'No… no… stop thinking like that…' I thought. I forced myself to think about something else. ANYTHING else, really.

My eyes drew back to the book.

Was… was the diamond in the center always that shiny…?

I opened the book to yet another random page.

The entirety of the two pages I was on was absolutely covered in that strange language. However, one paragraph jumped out to me.

"A choice will be made by the one who hides,"

"A choice that, to others, feels rife with lies."

"But when that choice should ultimately fail,"

"A smile will end this meaningful tale."

"... another one of these…?" I murmured, looking at the brief poem once more. "'A choice'... is that referring to the way we're escaping…?"

Once again, I had to remind myself that, for all I know, the book isn't giving me a proper prediction. And yet, after having one prediction come through for me not all that long ago, and now that we're in something of a sticky situation, having even a slight idea of what may happen is oddly comforting.

I almost want to keep searching the book more, maybe to get more information or something out of it. But, oddly enough, my mind finally felt like it was time to get some sleep. It was getting rapidly harder to keep my eyes open.

Yawning, I stuffed the book into my bag and set it down beside the bed, and then slowly drew the covers over me.

I laid there, watching Susie's breathing gently rise and fall. She looked totally relaxed… not at all stressed or worried about our future prospects.

I gently placed my hand on her cheek, gazing at her with a sad smile.

"I promise, Susie…" I whispered, pulling her closer to me in a hug. "I promise… I'll get us out of here safe and sound. We'll be safe on the other side… I promise…"

It may have just been my imagination as my mind slowly started switching off, but I could've sworn I saw Susie's lips just barely twitch into a sleepy smile.

And with that, I was falling asleep once more...


Once more, I found myself in my world of dreams.

Vivianna was there, once again with my head laying in her lap.

"We seem to keep finding ourselves like this, don't we?" I asked rhetorically.

The water spirit gave me a gentle smile. "I just like making sure that you're comfortable when you come here. Is that so wrong?"

"Was I complaining?" I asked back.

"Geez, Vivi, don't hog him all to yourself!" Aira's voice cut in, sitting in front of me with a pouty expression.

I couldn't help but laugh a little, and Vivianna joined in with me as well. Aira pouted a little harder, but I sat up and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Alright, so…" I responded, rubbing my hands together. "I want your guys' opinions. What'd you think of our ideas? Did anything stand out to you?"

Vivianna and Aira both thought about it for a moment. "Well…" Vivianna started, looking quite thoughtful. "I have to agree that digging feels like a far more rational and safe choice, but it is rather slow…"

"And flying WOULD be fast, but it's very dangerous, even with one of those flying machine things your sister was talking about." Aira reasoned back.

"Yeah, I thought so…" I responded, standing up and starting to walk around in circles around Aira and Vivianna.

For a while, we discussed other ideas. Stuff that I had come up with that I didn't quite feel was worth sharing with the others, at least not yet, but with each idea I had, it was very easy to see why it would likely fall apart.

"Well… I guess they can always be the back-up plans, should our original one fall apart. Worst comes to worst, I could maybe try just flying us out myself, but that's extremely risky." I reasoned.

Aira nodded. "You probably couldn't take EVERYONE all at once, but one at a time could work… it'd be very slow, though."

All of a sudden, I had a brainwave. "Hey… HEY."

"What?" Vivianna and Aira both asked at the same time.

"What about… what about that… that thing you did?" I asked, looking at Vivianna.

Vivianna looked confused. "What thing?"

"Y'know, that thing!" I responded. "The thing with the ball of water? I used that over at your river, and all of a sudden we all ended up at the lake near our house. If we could do that-"

Vivianna slowly shook her head. "You mean how I linked us between the two water systems. Unfortunately, that wouldn't work… at least, not easily. For one, the water in both systems has to be the same. The lake near your house is fresh, so we'd have to find another fresh water source to even attempt it. But a slightly bigger wrinkle is that… well, man-made water sources are not as viable as natural ones. We could still try, but… there's a chance it would fail on us."

I blinked. "And… when you say 'fail'..."

"I mean as you'd never reach your destination." Vivianna responded grimly. "As in, you'd be on an infinite slide through a water tunnel. Forever."

"Let's NOT do that, then." I quickly agreed. "But, you said that only happens with man-made water sources?"

"Yes. Natural ones are much more secure. The only reason they would fail is if the water somehow got changed half-way through the journey, like if we headed for the lake and all of a sudden it changed to salt water. But the odds of that are next to impossible."

I breathed. "Okay… well, I guess I should ask Paige if there's any natural areas that we could visit tomorrow."

The two nodded. "In the meantime, though, I'll focus on deciding which of the two other ways would work… this might be hard to work out, but hopefully Andr or Diana will cave in the end…"

"I'm sure they will." Aira agreed. "There's gotta be a compromise somewhere they could make. It'll just take some time."

I nodded. "Hey, unrelated topic. Yesterday, I remember you guys said I had a sort of scattered nightmare. Did anything like that happen tonight?"

Vivianna shook her head. "No, nothing tonight. But it was very bizarre… it was an incredibly strong one, and yet, it wasn't any of your usual nightmares, that much I'm sure."

"I don't even think it was so much of a nightmare." Aira responded, though she sounded unsure of herself. "I mean, we thought it was, but after seeing the scraps we saw yesterday, I'm not so sure…"

"What, you think it was some kind of warning or something?" I asked.

"It's hard to say…" Aira responded, her large wings fluttering a tad nervously.

The words hung in the air for a little bit.

I sighed, shook my head, and then looked up at the two with an apologetic gaze. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be dragging my problems in here with you guys. This is meant to be the time for me to relax."

Aira shook her head. "I don't mind. I'm worried about your situation too, after all."

"Still, it's not cool for me to force you guys to help me even though I only have so long here every night. Let's just let this go for tonight, okay? Right now, I wanna spend my night NOT worrying about our future prospects. I'd rather spend it with two people who I care about very much." I responded.

The other two repeatedly told me that they didn't mind, and while I was certainly grateful, I knew I only had so long here each night. I didn't want the entire time to be focused on my current situation.

The rest of the night passed on quite peacefully. Although they never said anything, I think they were secretly grateful I hadn't made them spend all night talking about it. At the very least, both of them managed to have some quality time while I was there.

All too soon, however, the familiar tug in my gut informed me of my body waking. The two gave me their good-byes, those familiar sad but understanding looks on their faces.

"We'll keep looking over those ideas you gave us tonight, Cameron." Vivianna explained. "We'll try to see if anything could potentially bear fruit."

"You do your best, and we'll see what we can do, okay?" Aira asked.

I nodded. "Thanks, you two. You're the best."

And slowly, I returned to reality...


I woke up to Paige sitting directly next to me on my bed.

At least, I was 85% sure it was Paige: it certainly wasn't Susie, and Diana definitely doesn't have brown hair. But beyond that, with my horrible eyesight, it was pretty much a toss-up.

"P… Paige…?" I slowly asked, trying to sit up.

"SHHHH!" Paige shushed, slamming her hand down on my mouth and holding it there.

It was then that I heard it.

Footsteps. From just outside.

I reached over and silently put my glasses on my face, then stared at Paige with wide eyes. She gave me a look that read, 'Outside, in the hall.'

The footsteps were marching up and down the hallway, and unless I was mistaken, they were heavily armored footsteps lugging at least a few sharp weapons.

Paige's face was pale. "They're knocking on random doors outside, waking up the residents and checking in on them," she whispered. "ALL of our plans are still out on the table, not to mention the other two. If they knock here…!"

I could feel the blood draining from my face.

It was a tense five minutes or so as at least two or three armed guards stormed around the halls, knocking on doors and talking to residents. I couldn't make out most of what they were saying, but I have to imagine that they were very targeted questions meant to find anything… interesting.

Thankfully, none of the guards came to Paige's door. The footsteps soon fell away, going down the building.

We gave them a full minute before me and my sister relaxed again. She wiped away at her forehead, whispering, "Too close…"

"Note to self: let's NOT leave sensitive documents scattered about the table anymore, not when we're not pouring over them." I offered.

"Agreed…" Paige breathed.

Paige stepped out, saying that she was going to make something to eat, hopefully calm our nerves. I stayed in the room, lost in thought of the close call we just had.

I suddenly heard movement behind me. Susie was slowly coming to. She yawned, slowly pushing herself up to a seated position.

"Morning…" she sleepily whispered.

'Thank Notch above she slept through that… the last thing I need is more reason for her to be stressed out.'

We slowly took our showers, got dressed, and headed out to the main. Paige was in the kitchen, still in her sleep clothes. She was looking out of her big window, a mug full of some hot beverage steaming away in her hands. From the looks of things, I'd imagine she was looking out at the cityscape.

"Those buildings over in midtown would serve well…" she whispered, just barely loud enough for me to hear. "Plenty of height already, no need to fiddle around with a bunch of tight passageways...

"You really are dead-set on that whole flying machine idea, huh?" I noticed, sliding into a counter seat.

Paige turned and saw me and Susie sitting at the counter. "Oh, hey guys. Yeah, I know, but still. I realize my idea is probably a bit insane and whatnot, but still, it feels right in my mind."

"I know… but we have to work around those two…" I whispered, pointing discreetly towards Diana and Andr.

The two of them were slowly stirring, probably from the smell of Paige's drink. Paige looked at the two of them as Andr stretched herself awake, accidentally knocking Diana's hat off that she had just put on.

"*sigh*... well, no matter." Paige replied, setting her drink down. "What'cha want for breakfast?"

Within the next half-hour, the other two had fully woken up, showered, and the five of us were munching away on some tasty, if slightly burnt, eggs and toast.

As per arranged, me and Andr were to accompany Paige as we took a short 'tour' around Blockington. The actual goal of the trip was to scope out the various tall buildings of Blockington, and see which one we could conceivably sneak on top of without being seen doing so, so that when we launched our flying machine, it would attract as little attention as possible

"The real question isn't going to be getting the flying machine to work itself." Paige reasoned over breakfast. "I've seen my friend build those things almost a dozen times over now. The real issue is finding a proper starting point. Too low to the ground we'll be seen. But we also don't want to overshoot and try a building that's too high, or else we might not be able to breach it on that day. And Notch forbid we start going too close to the guard wall, so that they hear the movements of all the moving parts or whatever…"

"And the mines, too. Gotta be worried about those." I added in. "I mean, Andr's just ONE problem of many. We'd have to figure out what picks we're gonna use, how many we'll need, and we'll also need a way to cover up our tracks when we get in, so that no one follows behind us…"

"*sigh*... this is all one bad dream I WISH I could wake up from…" Paige murmured.

Me and Susie agreed.

The moment breakfast was over, Diana and Susie both agreed that they'd work on hiding the plans still scattered about the table. Paige showed them some secret hiding place that apparently only Paige had learned after moving in, and as far as she knew, she was the only one who had access to it. The two of them promised to be as quiet as possible, to not alert anyone to their presence.

"Remember, we'll knock on the door, and the secret passcode is, 'crossed swords', right?" I reminded the pair.

Susie and Diana nodded. Me, Paige, and Andr all stepped out and headed quickly for the city below.

We left fairly late, so most of the city was already awake and bustling. We made sure to stay separate from them: no one needs to overhear our plan.

"So, how are we doing this?" I whispered into Paige's ear.

"Follow me…" she whispered back.

She took us to a building that, at least to me, looked unremarkable. If anything, it was like Paige's building, save for it was made out of stone bricks as opposed to wood.

We stepped in and searched around. I wasn't exactly sure what we were looking for, but Paige clearly did. She took us both up a very, very long plight of stairs, higher and higher until we finally reached the top.

Paige didn't appear fazed in the slightest. Me and Andr, however, were panting and sweating like crazy. We had to keep pace with Paige, who was going up the stairs so fast it almost felt like she was flying up them.

"Can… can we… slow down… next time…?" Andr pleaded, tugging away at the collar of her hoodie.

"So… let's see…" Paige responded, looking out and around the area. Once I managed to straighten up and start breathing normally again, I joined in looking about with her.

The building we were on was rather barren, with only a small fence keeping anyone from walking off the roof, and a small gated off area on the north side of the building which I quickly realized was a fire escape.

"I'm sorry, but what exactly are we looking for, again?" I asked, turning to Paige.

"Look for problems. Reasons it wouldn't be a good idea to launch our flying machine from this building." Paige explained. "Stuff like how tall the other buildings are for cover, how close we are to guard stations, that sort of thing."

"Umm… you mean like that?" Andr called somewhere behind us.

Me and Paige turned to see Andr leaning over the edge of the building slightly. "Umm… this building… definitely isn't going to work… and neither is the one right next door."

I reached the tall endergirl and leaned over the edge to see what she was looking at. The next building over had a rather lively looking outdoor restaurant set on the roof of the building. It was currently unoccupied, but given the amount of plates and general trash that littered the entire space, I'm guessing that there was QUITE a party going on down there recently.

Andr glanced around, and once she was sure there was no one in visible sight, quickly teleported down to the roof, shifted around through the garbage, found whatever she was looking for, and then quickly teleported back up to us.

"What'd you find?" I asked. Andr grimaced slightly as she passed me a small piece of paper.

It was a menu of some kind, and it advertised 'the wildest parties you've ever seen EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!'. It went on to show that these 'parties' started at 10 PM and went on until almost six in the morning.

"Mmmm… dang, that sucks. This building would've been perfect otherwise." Paige mused dejectedly. "Well… let's look for another one."

For the next hour or two, Paige led me and Andr on a bouncing trip around town, climbing several buildings and trying to see if any of them were good enough to start a flying machine if we went that route.

However, it seemed like pretty much every building we went to had some kind of problem that prevented us from using it as a viable option. One building was way too close to one of the towers, something that we couldn't have seen until we climbed the building. Another one was almost perfect, except that they locked the door to the roof every night and had at least one guard patrolling the building. That may not have been a problem, considering we have Andr who could potentially teleport us around the threats, but it was risky: if we did get caught, we'd be putting our future plans at a major risk.

In the end, we couldn't find anything. Once it became clear that Paige was running out of ideas, for now at least, she decided that maybe we should call it a day and move on.

Then I remembered what me and my spirit friends had discussed earlier that night. I quickly asked Paige as we were starting to head back if there were any lakes or water sources in the city.

Paige looked at me rather strangely. "Why? That's a really random question."

"Uhhhh… I just… was wondering." I offered meekly. It suddenly occurred to me that Paige had absolutely no idea of my spirit friends, and as much as I wanted to tell her about it, it would more likely cause more problems at the moment than it would solve.

Andr seemed to see that I was coming up with a valid reason, and it seemed like she was catching on. "Oh, uh… well, Cameron just has this… weird weekly tradition."

"Weekly tradition?" Paige asked, glancing at the two of us suspiciously.

"Uhh, yeah!" I agreed. "Every week, I, uh… I go to this lake, you see, that's right by the house, and I… I plant a tree! Yeah, that's it, I plant a tree sapling right next to the lake.

Paige had an eyebrow raised. "And… why exactly do you do that?"

Andr jumped in with the assist. "Well, you see… Cameron was 'forced' to leave the house for a while way back when, for reasons he had no control over. Now that he's back, he plants a tree by the lake as a symbolic way of saying 'This is how long I've been home'. It's just a little tradition he does now."

Paige looked a bit skeptical, but then again I would've been too. As it was, I nodded along and tried to not appear as though this was something we had just come up with off the top of our heads.

"Well, I guess there IS one. In the north part of town, there's this little lake that the town expanded around. I'm not quite sure what they did with it, but I'm pretty sure they at least put a bridge over it, maybe put a park around it." Paige responded.

"That's fine." Vivianna whispered to me. "If it's a decently sized lake of fresh water, then our lives just got a whole lot easier."

I asked if we could go see it. Paige responded, "Well, as much as I would like to so I can see this 'tradition', we can't. The north part of town is reserved for the more… upper class folk that live here. The entire section is loosely guarded by some town guards so that the 'elite' can have protection. Normally you have to have an escort there, but I've heard there are ways to get in on your own…"

"Like what?" Andr asked. "Bribery?"

"Maybe," Paige agreed. "But I've also heard that you have to have done something for a specific guard in order for them to consider bending the rules. Nothing too extreme as far as I know, but still it's bound to be something that travellers like you guys will have difficulty doing."

I glanced at Andr. She wasn't sure WHY I was so dead-set on this lake idea, but she could clearly see the gears turning in my head. "How often are the guards set up?"

"Pretty much all the time. The only time they aren't is when nightfalls, but that's even more dangerous, since guards will be wandering the streets of the entire city by then. If you want in, you either have to risk being up past the city-wide curfew, or figure out how to get past a guard by doing them a favor. Any other option would likely fail almost instantly." Paige explained grimmly.

I started thinking to myself. Keeping myself hidden wouldn't be a problem. Heck, keeping most of us safe probably wouldn't be, considering we have Andr on our side. However, without knowing what kind of water we would find inside that little lake, it would be a very risky gambit to go there willy-nilly…

That's when I decided that, maybe, a little solo adventure was required of me. I waited for a few minutes, and then when we were in an area I recognized, I said, "Hey, you guys go on ahead, okay? I'm gonna check in with Zach, he was kind of out of it when we left there yesterday. I'm going to see how he's handling his new job."

Andr started making motions like she wanted to come along, but I stared at her meaningfully, hoping that she'd get the picture. "It'll be fine, Andr. I just want to check on him, make sure everything is fine."

Paige didn't like it, but she reasoned that as long as I didn't take too long, it would be fine. "Just… come back soon, okay? It's dangerous to be alone in these times.."

"I know. I know. But I just want to check in with him." I responded.

The two girls quickly went on their own way, heading for Paige's apartment. I started heading slowly in the direction of Zach's place, but the minute they were out of sight I doubled-back and headed towards where Paige had pointed out was the north section of the city.

'Vivianna, Aira, bearing on the water source?' I thought to myself.

"Forward another ten seconds, then hang a sharp right." Vivianna directed. "It's close. But until you touch it, I can't get a proper analysis."

"You should duck into the side-streets a little, start gliding just out of sight." Aira added. I nodded, and as soon as I was out of sight I willed myself up.

Once safely out of view from most people on the street, I carefully made my way around the buildings, taking care to not draw any attention to myself and pretend that people flying past dozens of windows was a perfectly normal thing to happen. Thankfully, luck was on my side. I encountered no interruptions as I made my way steadily north…

And suddenly, I saw it. A row of guards, standing and talking amongst themselves. My stomach gave a small lurch. I was close, I knew it.

I carefully flew over them, and landed a ways away behind a building. Now the pressure was on, because if a guard happened to see me now, no telling what they'd ask…

Following Vivianna's directions, I slowly made my way towards the eventual water source, hoping beyond hope that we have just found our fast track home.

It was tense, and there were at LEAST two close calls where someone saw me, but eventually I wormed my way past everyone and, finally, came to a stop in the small park that Paige had described. The landscape was actually quite pretty for something man-made, but that was not my concern at the moment.

It didn't take long to find the bridge: it stuck out quite easily against the greens of the grass and trees. I easily found a way to get right next to the water and, with little regard for finesse, stuck my hand inside it.

'Verdict…?' I asked hesitantly.

"..." Vivianna was quiet for about five seconds.

'Vivianna?' I asked again.

"...I think we may have a winner." Vivianna finally replied, and I just knew she was grinning as she said that. "It's a little small, but this is definitely freshwater. You can easily make a link here."

'Perfect!' I thought, just as happy. 'Now, all we gotta do is get the others here, and we'll be-'

But my thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sound of a metal sword being drawn.

"You have a LOT of nerve to come here…"

And before I knew it, I was knocked out cold.


Cameron never seems to catch a break, doesn't he? Even when things start going right, something always comes to muck it up.

But either way, I hope you guys did enjoy the chapter regardless. Again, SORRY for how long this took to get out: school has been weirdly stressful after I've had to go online, and life is NOT helping matters. That's half the reason this chapter is shorter than usual: I really wanted to get something out to you guys, since, well, what else was I supposed to do? Take longer?

With all hope, maybe this will be what I need to get more work done on my chapters, hopefully. All it takes is a solid push in the right direction and I can get wonders done, but those moments don't happen nearly often enough…

Ah well.

Until next time, my lovely readers, I hope that all of you will…

Stay awesome! =D