What was taking them so long? Kendra wondered. Everyone had come through except for Knox, Bracken, and Mara. The fairy queen stood next to Kendra her eyes fixed expectantly on the shrine, the fairy king was helping the others get their mounts. Kendra was turning to mount her stag when there was a burst of light and Tempest flew over to them, astride Tempest sat Knox, Bracken, and Mara. The griffin smoothly stopped and landed near Kendra and the fairy queen, Trask trotted over to see what had taken them.

"What took you so long?" He asked Bracken as he approached.

"Sorry, we had issues, Mara had a bad reaction to dragon poison," Bracken said as he dismounted coming forward to get out of Mara's earshot.

"What, is she ok?" Trask asked, his face now serious his eyes full of concern.

"She is better now," Bracken responded, "But it would help to know what dragon attacked her, do you remember anything?"

"No, Jade Falls was a catastrophe, we had been cornered by a group of adolescent dragons, small but still deadly. They struck quickly, I got swiped in the back of the head with a tail and was knocked unconscious, Mara dragged me to safety, when I awoke I found her unconscious next to me, she was a bloody mess, barley breathing, on her deathbed. I spent the following days trying to nurse her back to health with my limited resources, then, your wizard found us. She never told me the full story other than that she dragged me to safety then blacked out. Honestly, I doubt she remembers all of it. She was beaten up pretty bad"

Bracken nodded, "I was hoping I wouldn't have to look through her memories, but I will try later. The key to finding the right medicine for her is finding out what attacked her." Bracken said thoughtfully, he turned and mounted a magnificent white stag.

"Why don't you transform?" Kendra asked

"Because I don't want to tire myself out right as we get to Titan Valley," Bracken explained. The group rode in silence for some time. Kendra noticed Trask acting strange, he looked too serious, every time he glanced at Mara he would avert his eyes and look at the ground. After watching this go on for half an hour Kendra moved up to find out what was going on.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kendra asked Trask as her mount came into sync with his.

"Nothing," He responded

"It's not, nothing, come on it's ok. Is it Mara?"

"Yes," Trask responded with a hint of grief in his voice.

"What's wrong?" Kendra asked she was trying to be helpful, not intrusive.

Trask started talking, "When Mara joined the Knights of the Dawn I promised her father that I would protect her, that was the only reason her dad was ok with it. But ever since she joined I feel like she has been protecting me. She almost died so many times, but at Jade Falls I had pushed my luck with her. Without Andromadus's intervention, she would have died at Jade Falls, I have never forgiven myself. But now she is getting stronger by the day, then when I turn my back for 10 minutes she almost dies again." Trask seemed like he had wanted to say this to someone for a long time,

"You love her don't you?" Kendra realized.

"More like a daughter than romantically, Mara has her eyes on someone else."

"Who?" Kendra asked

"It does not concern you yet, so I will keep that to myself" Trask answered, Kendra was not surprised, that Trask withheld that info, she was now curious but decided to not bring it up. Kendra looked to Trask he was staring at Mara again, she was on Tempest, her head hung low, she seemed tired and worn out.

"You can't watch her every minute and it is not your fault what happened to her back there," Kendra said trying to help Trask feel better

"I, know, but it does not stop me from beating myself up none the less," Trask acknowledged

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The group came to a stop near a small hill, the hill was a medium-sized hill, it had young trees around it at regular intervals, carved into the side of the hill was a stone archway that lead to a tunnel and extended in towards the center.

"This is the way to Titan valley, but be warned the shrine is in territory frequently visited by giants. There are not many fairies at Titan valley so I do not know the situation of the preserve. But be warned giants could be waiting for you on the other side." The fairy queen warned

"We will be carefully mother, I promise." Bracken dismounted and embraced his parents tightly and signaled for the others to dismount. Everyone hopped off their mounts. Mara dismounted tempest as well due to the fact, that if Mara was riding Tempest, they couldn't fit in the tunnel. Kendra started walking with Bracken towards the archway. Kendra and Bracken went in first, At first, Kendra could not see the end, then there was a change in the air, Kendra could tell that they had crossed over. Kendra and Bracken had just exited the tunnel into the sunshine when a set of nets came out of nowhere and engulfed them. Kendra heard Bracken cry out a warning but it was too late, Kendra fell back, and blacked out.

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Knox crossed over with Mara who lead Tempest with her, they had walked in silence through the tunnel when Mara announced that they had crossed over. Knox could tell no difference, though Mara claimed that there was a change. Knox could now see the end of the tunnel, right as he and Mara crossed out into open sunshine, Mara shouted a warning about half a second before two nets came upon then.

Knox was all tangled in his and he saw that Mara had been knocked to the ground as well. The net had completely engulfed him, he saw a rope leading from the weighted net, at the end of the rope was a giant. There were more giants, Knox counted 3, one of the other giants held nets, one net held Bracken who was yelling in a foreign tongue at the giant, Kendra dangled limp in her net, she appeared unconscious.

They had been captured, Knox saw the others come out of the tunnel all in rapid succession they all were hit with nets, Warren, Vanessa, Tanu, Trask all here captured. Knox was reeled in by one of the bigger giants who passed him off to the one that held Bracken and Kendra, the same giant reeled in a fighting Mara. Though she kicked and squirmed she could not lose the net, unlike Bracken she silently struggled. Knox saw her realizing that struggling was futile, so she halted her efforts and focused on taking in her surroundings. Knox looked around and all the giants appeared to be male. In the distance, Knox saw a magnificent castle. It was the biggest structure he had ever seen, If Knox had to take one guess about where they were going it seemed that the castle was the safest bet.

After the giants had rounded up and secured the others they set off towards the castle. It did not take long, the giants ran most of it taking long loping strides. Throughout the run, the giants had mostly conversed amongst themselves in a foreign language. Knox looked to Kendra, she was still unconscious. Knox was worried, what had the giants done to his cousin?

Knox decided it was probably that Kendra had fallen and bumped her head when the giants had captured her. His train of thought was cut off by the long bellowing of a horn.

Knox looked up and saw that they had approached the front gate of the castle. Knox was amazed by the sheer size of the building. but the size was fair since it was a giant castle. One of the giants passed their captives off to the giant that held Knox and Mara. Knox did not see who the giant held. The other two giants took the group into the castle, they passed through winding corridors and down spiral staircases. When the giant reached the bottom of a particularly long staircase to come to a tall oaken door the giant opened the door and both giants entered. They shut the door behind them and put the group down, then they started to untangle the nets. What were they going to do? Eat them? Knox did not want to find out but he could not flee, the giants were right there when Knox was untangled from his net he could now see clearly, now that ropes were no longer obstructing his vision.

"The queen will see you soon but first you have another visitor." Knox was surprised to hear the giant speak English, but he was not excited to meet anyone.

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Kendra had awakened with the help of some smelling salts from Tanu. She found that she was in a large room on what seemed to be a table. The first thing she saw was the giants, Kendra snapped back into reality, and jolted up. They had been captured, Kendra looked around everyone was accounted for, even Tempest, The griffin was sitting at Mara's side like an obedient puppy.

"Are you ok Kendra?" Warren asked he had been kneeling beside her.

"Ya, I just bumped my head, where are we?"

"The giant queen's castle."

"What!"Kendra said, alarmed. She did not want to believe it but it seemed like the only explanation for their current position. Kendra got startled as she heard the door creak open. She saw a giant enter the room, it appeared to be carrying a human, as the giant got closer, Kendra almost fainted again. The person on the giant's hand was none other than... The Sphinx.

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The giant set the Sphinx on the table. Vanessa snarled, Tanu and Trask shot looks of hatred. Knox looked confused, Mara's eyes where murderous, her hands were balled into fists, Kendra had to admit she looked pretty scary, Kendra certainly couldn't want those eyes on her.

"Well look who has become my prisoners." The Sphinx said snidely,

"Shut up you arrogant ball of slime," Mara countered snidely,

"Arrogant ball of slime? I have been called many things but that one is new." The Sphinx replied offandedly, seemingly not offended by Mara's insults, "Now here are some words for you, give up, this is not children's play, this is war, I have no time to exchange petty insults."

"You are right, get out, we have no time to play your game, we are busy," Mara said, launching the Sphinx's words back at him.

"Ah, I remember you, you are the Tabares girl, Rosa's daughter, that might explain your feelings towards me." Mara looked more murderous than ever, Tanu and Trask moved to intercept her, Mara launched her self at the Sphinx,

"In about three minutes you are going to wish you had never been born. We spared you now to backstab us you traitorous," Mara spat an insult in a different language that Kendra didn't recognize. Mara continued to struggle but Tanu and Trask still had firm hands on her shoulders.

"Your companions know better than you. They know that as a guest of the giant queen any injuries you inflict on me would be an offense to her majesty." The Sphinx walked closer, Mara redoubled her efforts to break lose of Tanu and Trask. The Sphinx walked ever closer to the snarling Native American. "My, you have grown." The Sphinx taunted, Mara struggled harder partly breaking free of Tanu. Tanu wrapped his arm around her waist right where her wound was, Mara, let out a cry of agony and doubled over sinking to her knees. Tanu and Trask let go of her. The Sphinx bore down on her, she looked up at him defiantly, hatred laced into her every feature. "I am going to keep this short. Stop fighting, you are not going to win this war, you are just going to lose more people the more you fight." Kendra couldn't watch this anymore.

"No, we won't, we prevailed against you last time, didn't we? It will be you who loses and when you do the dragons won't be happy with you." Kendra astounded herself with her own boldness. "Now, where is Seth?" Kendra asked aggressively.

"I have no idea, which is one of the reasons I am here." Kendra heard booming footsteps approaching the room but still a distance away. "Well, it seems like her majesty will see you soon." With that, the Sphinx walked over to the giant that had brought him in, it picked him up but did not move, it was clear that the Sphinx wanted to to see what was going to happen. Trask helped Mara to her feet, she was sweating and shaking with rage.

"I am so sorry, I didn't realize where I was putting my arm." Tanu apologized

"It's ok, it just hurts a lot. I doubt you did any extra damage." Mara assured him,

"Do you want anything to dull the pain?" Tanu asked

"No, I need to be alert," Mara responded "Sorry for making you guys hold me, I was just so infuriated, we spared him and now he has turned against us again, but now since he is an eternal I can't give him the painful death I want to." Mara acknowledged. Kendra felt the same way, "What if we put him in the quiet box?" Kendra asked

"No, we can't capture him while he is the giant queen's guest, he was right about everything." Mara lamented

"That was weird, taunting isn't usually the Sphinx's style," Venessa said.

"He wanted us distracted and off our game. And I fell right for it." Mara mourned, Tempest walked over to see what was going on, the griffin held the knapsack in her beak, she let out a low hoot and nuzzled Mara's hand with her beak, Mara stroked the griffin affectionately. The door swung open and revealed the giant queen.

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Thank you so much to all those who have left reviews! You guys are so nice and your comments are wonderful. :) Thank you Brindah for your help editing, you are amazing!