After a week had gone by with no word from father, I knew that he was not going to return. I reached the conclusion that my father had known it also, after going over our departing conversation in my mind since he had left. Never before had he said to me that he would not return, and being an honest man, he would not say such a thing unless he had known it to be true.

Upon reaching the realization that father was not returning I had spent the day in mourning over my loss. I felt such a despair that I could not even begin to explain the pain I felt. Although father had been gone often and home seldom, the times we had spent together were some of the best times in my life. Father was my only friend; all the others I ever befriended were threatened out of any friendship with me by my stepmother.

I had been lying in my room with racking sobs pouring from my body when my stepmother found it fit to make a intrusion.

"My dear girl, stop creating this horrible racket. I will not have it. I assure you if you do not relent that sobbing I shall find it fit to help you in the most horrendous way possible. You have no reasons to be crying, it is not as though you have been spurned by a lover, for what lad would think to be taken by you? Now cease this crying at once," commanded Thalia making sure to slam the door on her way out for emphasis.

I quickly wiped my tears having several thoughts hit me at once. One is that Thalia would not hesitate to follow through on her threat. The second thought was that now with father gone; I had no one left to protect me from my stepmother.

I sat up in my bed horrified by the mere thought of what Thalia would do to me with father gone. I felt like the walls around me were pressing me in, suffocating me with the idea of power Thalia held over me. I needed to get out of this house.

Running from the house I went outside to the stream that lay in the fields behind the house. The openness of the field seemed to give me the air I needed, and the stream gave me a sense of calm. Taking off my stockings I dipped my feet into the stream in hopes of thinking clearly.

There was only limited time before Thalia and her daughter Kayra found out about my fathers death. Once they found out my freedom would for sure be taken away from me and I would be enslaved with the binds of servitude. Worse yet, Tollan would still demand taxes from us and wonder why we will not be able to pay him what we have given him in the past. This will eventually lead him to the discovery that my father had worked in the black market, which would have even worse consequences. The punishment is death to those involved in the black market: theft did not go well with the king and it was never punished lightly. With father gone, someone else would have to pay for his wicked deeds and I for one know Thalia would be too happy to let me take the punishment.

I had to figure out the riddle and fast. I reviewed the riddle and realized that the first two lines of the riddle where the most obvious. It's always been said that the best place to start is the beginning. I repeated the first lines out loud to myself

"Over the hills when it becomes mountain land,

But before the Region of desert sand."

I figured that I needed to go some place where maps where kept so I can possibly find the place the riddle spoke of.

The local bookstore owner was known for traveling and collecting maps, so I knew just where to go. I was now one step closer to solving the riddle than I had been mere moments ago; it was a start, and hopefully a good one.

A/N: Well I now have a almost endless amount of freetime, forthe first in months, so i am now working on updating all my stories! I will be updating this one story infrequently, but than again maybe not. After writing another chapter I realized that i do reallylike this story so I will end up writing more soon. But i just want to say that Aubree's father is dead, and Aubree knows that because when her father says he most likely wont return, he isnt going to (if that made any sense).Also, that her father wasnt around that often, so yes shes sad that he is gone, but not thatdepressed, since she hardly saw him.

It gets better i promise! I have such a wicked sweet idea of what it is that Aubrees father is looking for! also thanks for the reviews! i would thank you individually but i dont know who reviewed from last update or the first chapter. So thanks toyou all!