Chapter 10

"Can you please remind me why I demanded to go on this journey?" Buffy asked as she sat on a wagon with a leg already doing what she wanted to do; sleep. Rupert had unwillingly let her come with them after she annoyed him half to death and now she wants to get out of this. She has to sit in a wagon for days with Dawn's, the Key, guardians, Willow and Tara and Faith. She has not seen William in the whole ride and strangely wants to see him.

"It could go with you wanting to make sure everything goes to plan with your way out of here," Willow answered hiding her grin behind her hand. She too was bored but was not going to complain about it even if these robes were itchy.

"How about we play a game?" Tara asked. Dawn was also getting bored and she was praying for a pit stop so she could stretch her legs. She looked around at all the bored faces. "Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"We could play a game I learn in my village called Energy Ball. You throw an energy ball around while counting from one to whatever number you get to till there is only one person left," Dawn suggested. Buffy never heard her talk before and who can blame her. From what she has heard, she hates holding the essence of the Key.

"I personally can not think up a greater idea so how about we play some Energy Ball," Faith concluded and everyone got into a circle while Tara muttered an incantation to create an energy ball. It was bright yellow in the middle and turned orange on the edges. There seemed to be a small pebble in the middle that was dark red.

"She used a magic pebble made especially for summoning energy balls. Magic pebbles are pebbles found on the bottom of lakes that hold mermaids and hold magical abilities," Willow explained as she watched. Buffy gave her a weird look on how she knew that she was curious about the pebble. "You looked like you wanted to know," the red haired witch said.

The game worked. No one was bored for hours while they played the difficult game. After seven rounds, Dawn was the reining champion with Buffy in second place with one game won. After that last game, the wagon stopped suddenly.

"I am going to go out and find out what is going on," Faith said and got out of the wagon to check. After a couple of minutes, she came back in a foul mood. It seems to be that a wagon wheel busted beyond repair and they needed to go to the nearest place available to stay for the night while they waited for a scout to bring a carpenter who could repair it.

"Are we going to have to go out and find a place to stay?" Buffy asked. It was weird that now she had a chance to go out and she doesn't because of all the fun she is having.

"Yes," Faith answered.

"Even with only one wagon disabled," Buffy whined trying to find a way out of it.

"Yes, a Mythian never leaves another Mythian behind and it is getting dark," Faith answered ready to blow her lid.

"Rupert says that he knows a place where we can stay and it is close to here," she said trying to perk everyone up. After a bunch of moans on having the game concluding, everyone got out of the wagon.

They seemed to be in the middle of a forest with trees trying to grab at anyone or anything with its branches. Animal noises were everywhere creating a hidden conversation and the ground was damp and covered with leaves. They caught up with the boys and saw them looking equally as tired. Rupert looked the worse. He appeared like he just went from one side of America to the other without sleeping, having only one cup of coffee and walked the whole way. Buffy saw William too and he seemed tired as well. He wasn't so tired that he wouldn't give her a smile.

"The place is on a path about fifty paces from here and that path is a hundred. I hope everyone is ready for a walk," Rupert joked and led everyone to the path.

The path was covered with magical pebbles that gave off a bright light that a bird could probably see it from the sky. They soon followed it from here and Buffy noticed that everyone was strangely keeping a close eye on Dawn. She wondered why.

After an hour of walking that made Buffy want to stay in the wagon, they made it. It was a castle about two stories high made of stone. The shingles were falling off and vines were everywhere, but the young victim didn't care. She sprinted from the rest of the crowd and made to the door before you could say 'Chosen One'. Once Rupert got all the lesser people to their quarters of the vast and empty castle, he showed her to her room.

It was great. It had flowers everywhere and a rug that showed the map of Myth on the floor, but Buffy didn't give a care. She body slammed onto the bed and fell asleep without a care in the world. She didn't even notice that everyone was snickering at her about overreacting on the whole thing.