A/N:
Sorry for not updating last week. I didn't finish the chapter on time and I wasn't feeling well. The story will be updated very irregularly or I will not be updating it from next week cause I have my finals from monday(I'm hoping I don't fail cause I'm not that great and studies and what's worse is that its a national public examination). I'll mostly come back to the normal weekend update thing I said before at the end of March. Yeah that's all I've got to say. And here's the next chapter -

They were running. They had left the forest they were in, which was blazing behind them. They stopped at a considerable distance turning to see the forest as it lit up the whole area. "Hopefully we didn't hurt Rin san or Hanayo san." Leah said breathlessly, looking at the burning forest. Ruby looked at it, standing by her. To be precise she was frightened by herself. She had just murdered a whole forest with her destructive powers. And if Rin and Hanayo were still in there...

No she'd rather not even think about it. She would never forgive herself, never use her powers ever again and she was sure Dia would be disappointed with her. If that was true it would be her nightmare coming to life, all over again.

"Ruby chan!" Leah said alarmed seeing the red head sobbing, with guilt. "I... can't..." Ruby muttered as she sobbed. "You can't?"
"I can't believe I did that!"

Leah knew she shouldn't have said that. There was no turning back though. Leah stared at the crying girl wondering how to comfort her. That's when she began to think about her sister and what would she do in a situation like this. Leah planned to do exactly that.

She hugged the girl and let her cry into her shoulder. Leah wasn't used to being very touchy like this but it wasn't that bad to be so every now and then. "Well they might have escaped too, they are very skilled and were knights." Leah tried to comfort her. It was true. On their way to the Forest of Birds they were talking about their adventures. According to them, before they retired from their job as knights, the relationship between kingdoms were more friendly and peaceful, but as the competition to get more powerful began their were fights everywhere, if not they were quite frequent, which was true. Leah and Ruby had seen the fight between kingdoms occur so frequently. As the times changed they had to grow more stronger, or so, that's what Rin and Hanayo told them. Being the ruler of the Rice Kingdom Hanayo had to be powerful to make sure no one invaded her land.

"But I... I-"
"Shh it's alright." Leah rubbed Ruby's back to comfort her. They stayed like that till Ruby's cries turned into whimpers. They, again moved ahead, walking through the dark grassland. It was night after all. The moon was rising illuminating the area just a bit. The shimmering stars were over looking the two as they walked, while holding hands. Leah could feel her back warm up, but she shrugged it off thinking it was because Ruby was so close to her. Her heart was pounding. Leah had to control the urge to hug the sensitive, glossy eyed girl who was longing for her elder sister to be beside her, just as she did. She had no clue why but she wanted to protect Ruby matter what. Sure there was some rivalry between their kingdoms but that wasn't going to stop Leah. She was going to make sure Ruby would never cry.

"L-Leah chan..." Ruby whimpered, pointed to a glowing object nearing them quickly. It was some person riding a horse. Leah looked Ruby in the eye, giving Ruby the signal to prepare herself. With their free hands they created a sphere of their respective elements somewhat ready to attack.

It was a lady with long blue hair that shimmered in the light of the fire torch. She had piercing golden eyes that scanned the area. She wore a grey robe with designs of water all over. Over her shoulder hung her bow and a quiver full of arrows. She was riding a horse which pulled a cart. Leah and Ruby immediately destroyed the sphere of their respective power, relieved as they saw the two familiar people riding the cart. It was Rin and Hanayo. Rin looked like she was joking around earning a glare from the blue haired lady every now and then and Hanayo trying to calm down Rin.

Before they knew they were right in front of them. Ruby held Leah's hand tightly. Leah felt like she was in heaven as she felt Ruby nudged a bit closer to her. "Ah, here you are nya!" Rin said almost throwing herself off the cart. "R-Rin chan be careful."
"Sorry nya." Hanayo said before turning her attention to the two. "Thank god you're safe." Hanayo sighed a sigh of relief.

The lady on the horse got off, and approached them. "Hello I am Umi Sonoda, a friend of Hanayo and Rin. It is a pleasure meeting you." Umi said while bowing down. Ruby and Leah introduced themselves, as they too bowed. "Please get in the cart. I shall explain the rest as we move." Umi said pointing to the cart. Leah and Ruby obliged.

Umi opened the door of the cart and helped them get on the cart before closing it and climbing back on her horse. Umi used the reigns on her horse and so they were off, to wherever. "The forest caught on fire. It wasn't a normal forest fire, it was of magic." Umi told them. Ruby was surprised that she found out. It wasn't easy to determine between real and magical fire. "It could be the bandits nya! They are so annoying nya." Rin said. "Actually it was me, I did it." Ruby said cowering. Everyone except Leah turned to her surprised. "Leah chan gave the idea to protect ourselves from the bandits. Or I think they were bandits." Ruby then explained what exactly happened, excluding the part where they were super close to each other. Leah gave her a threatening look when she specified that it was Leah's idea to burn the forest.

"I see..." Umi had a thoughtful expression. "You both are very powerful. You do not see that everyday. Both of you have just started as knights."
"But I've been a knight for three years!" Leah said. Umi shook her head. "Three years is too less to be considered experienced." Leah looked at Umi her mouth agape. "There are people who have been knights for much more than that. Three years does not give you much experience as to one who had been a knight for ten years."

"Anyway why were you four wandering in the forest at this hour? The bandits have become more hostile especially at night." Umi said after a moment of silence. "We are going to drop Ruby chan and Leah chan to their familiars." Hanayo said. "I see."
"They fell off the Northern mountains nya."
"What!?"
"We fought and fell off on accident." Leah clarified. Umi gave out a sigh of relief. "Alright, if you say so." Umi said, before giving them a warning. "I shall warn you again, don't be roaming around at night. You both aren't skilled enough to take them on. If they do catch you they might just torture you find out about the swords."

Leah looked at Umi puzzled while Ruby remembered what Hanamaru told her after she had found in these long lost books they found in the depths of the library and being kidnapped. They were after swords. Those all powerful mythical swords with infinite power. Why would the be after mythical swords? Ruby asked Umi her question. The look on Umi's face after asking was as if she knew something, something no one else knew. It even looked as if Rin and Hanayo knew what she was talking about. "How do you know about this?" Umi asked her doubting her. "My friend and I were cleaning the library and we found this at the back if the library, hidden." Ruby spoke quickly a bit scared of the expression on Umi's face.

Umi's facial expression morphed into a defeated one. She cleared her throat before speaking, "They are searching for the book that has a prophesy in it and many other details of the swords, including where to find them and forge them. If they get they get in their hands..."
"It'll be destruction all around..." Leah's eyes widened in shock. "These swords are real!?" Ruby said surprised. She remembered clearly Hanamaru telling her it was just a myth. "Yes they are." Hanayo said in a grave manner. Ruby wanted to believe it was a joke but the look the three older girls gave her was another story. Leah and Ruby sat there shocked trying to digest what they just heard. If the bandits found it, it would mean an apocalypse would be arriving quickly.

"So this is the abandoned village." Chika said. To be precise Chika didn't expect to see a village abandoned in the middle if lush green, covered with rice plains. "What happened here zura?" Hanamaru looked at the dark gloomy village sending her a chill down her spine. "No one knows what happened. The village was suddenly abandoned. There are tales that whoever has entered the the village ever since the day never returned." Dia explained, staring at the village, "I never expected to be standing here in front of it."
"Neither did I." Sarah agreed, who also looked terrified as well. "But this seems like a shiny place! Why would anyone abandon it?" Mari chimed in. "Mari san... there are many reasons why a village may be evacuated."
"But doesn't look like it would be evacuated. It has all of the needs of a village for to to survive."

That point stated by Mari was in fact astonishingly correct. There were rice fields left and right, a river not so far away and there were already houses. Why would one abandon a village? "I can't believe I'm agreeing with her but Mari sama is right it doesn't make sense." Riko said her hand on her chin, with a thoughtful expression. "Seems like you've been paying attention to those lessons." Dia commented to which Mari grinned goofily. "Maybe because of war?" You said. "The kingdom has never been attacked because of the powerful ruler, Hanayo Koizumi." Dia said. "I don't care about the reasons but I, Yohane, shall protect you all by controlling the spirits and send them to the Underworld to cross the river Styx." Yoshiko said.

"Says the one who is scared of a puppet wearing a ghost costume." Hanamaru teased. "It jumpscared me!" Yoshiko whined. Everyone laughed. It was a feeling that contrasted the feel of the area."Alright everyone we should enter if we need to save them." Sarah said between laughs. "Yeah." Chika agreed after she stopped laughing.

With a deep breath, hoping not to die, Chika along with Sarah guided them into the village.

"Aww, they're so cute!" Kotori said, pinching Leah and Ruby's cheeks lovingly. Ruby rubbed the aching spot while Leah just gave Kotori a glare who was just obsessing over how cute they were. From the sidelines Hanayo, Rin and Umi were watching quietly. "Oh my god your robes and armor they are torn!" Kotori said her hands on her cheeks. She rushed to them, took their hand and dragged them to some place in the tree house. "Wait, where are we going?" Leah asked. "Your clothes are in awful states and I can't believe that you are able to stay in those filthy rags. I'm going to fix them up for you." Kotori answered. "I like what I'm wearing." Leah grumbled. "That's not needed." Ruby denied politely. "Nonsense. I'm going to make sure that your clothes are fixed and are going to look fashionable and comfortable." she said. Ruby noticed there was no way to talk the Queen of the Birds out of this. "Chunchun!" she called out. From the many birds that adorned the trees if the forest a small tiny brown bird perched on Kotori's shoulder.

"Ready my sewing machine." she instructed the bird. "We're going to have some fun!" she said excited. Chunchun left with a "chun" flapping its wings happily.

She led them to a room. A room of the enormous tree house that had birds as a roof. She opened the door and greeted them with a, "Come in.", with a welcoming smile.

Ruby, on entering, felt like a loser. Ruby made clothes as a hobby. People would appreciate her and sometimes ask if they could buy it(though Ruby denied. She wasn't really confident about herself). Now she entered into a room of, no not a Queen of the Birds but a Queen of Fashion. There were dresses lined up on racks which hung on a invisible roof separating the birds and trees yet allowed the branches of the trees in. On some racks of clothes hanged and on some, a staircase was carved into the thick branch. The two looked around them in awe. They had never seen a place like it. Ruby immediately knew she must take some advise when it came to fashion. "Please stand over there." she guided them to a part of the tree stump that had been placed on the ground as a place to stand, mostly to take measurements. There were nine so called stands as such, laying in one row. Leah and Ruby stood on one respectively.

From one of her pockets Kotori took out a measuring tape and took measurements and made notes of it. As she did so she asked about them. As the discussion went on she noticed that Kotori's eyes had knowing glint in them as if she knew something. What it was Ruby did not know.

"Alright then now that I have your measurements I'll give you some clothes to change into, so I can work on the clothes your wearing right now." Kotori said as she led them to the other side of the room. "Let's see..." Kotori said as she rummaged through the stacks of clothes.

"She seems nice." Ruby whispered to Leah. Leah hummed in agreement. "She seems to really like making clothes." Leah remarked softly. "Some of the clothes look really good." Ruby said as she took a glance around her.

"Ah here you go!" Kotori lifted up a pair of pyjamas. One was pink in color with a huge striped lollipop surrounded by tiny strawberries that also decorated the pants. The other was midnight blue with little white dots like stars that decorated the night sky like pants as well and a midnight purple diamond in the center of the shirt. "Here you go." she handed Ruby the pink one and Leah the midnight blue one. "You can keep them. Now change into them here. You can keep your clothes on the measuring stumps."she instructed. "I'll meet you at the some place where we met. You go straight and then a right." Kotori said as she turned around to leave when Ruby stopped her. "What about the birds? They won't look right?" Ruby asked a bit self conscious. "Don't worry I'll flip that switch." she said pointing to a lever by the door. She went to it and grunted as she pulled it. The invisible barrier turned opaque. "I'll see you outside." she smiled as she left.

It was only them. Ruby felt a bit embarrassed and awkward. "L-let's get changed." Ruby said as she turned away from Leah. "Y-yeah." Leah said as she turned around as well. Ruby felt mortified. She had never really changed in the same room as anyone except for Dia and in rare cases Hanamaru. She mentally pleaded for herself to calm down. "Pigi!" she screamed as she felt something touch her barren back. She clutched the shirt of the pyjama and covered the half naked top of her body. "L-Leah chan!?" Leah had already changed into her shirt but not her pants. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean too... I was just..."
"You were?"
"You have a bruise on your back."
"You could have just told me."
"Sorry."
"Don't do it again." Leah nodded her head vigorously after the warning slipped out of Ruby's mouth.

"It's not paining, is it?" Leah asked, this time after the two changed. "Actually no, it isn't." Ruby said realising it didn't. How weird? "I guess I just have to wait till it heals." Ruby said still confused why it didn't pain.

After that small discussion, Ruby and Leah stood there awkwardly, looking at the floor. Unfortunately none of them were excellent at socializing. Ruby couldn't stand the awkwardness between them. "Umm... Leah chan..."
"Yeah." Leah turned to her. Ruby mentally scolded herself for forgetting to choose what to talk about. "Uh..." Leah looked at Ruby expectantly. 'What do I say?' Ruby thought as she looked at Leah's pretty face. "Thanks for umm... calming me down back there... if I were alone I don't know what I would have done." Ruby blurted. "I-I just did it because Onee chan told me if someone is crying you must help them. There is no other reason." 'There is but I can't really tell you.' Leah added mentally while looking away blushing, her arms crossed over her chest. "If you say so." Ruby giggled making Leah's heart skip a beat. "We should get going." Leah said the blush still evident on her face. "Yeah let's go."

They reached the place they were supposed to meet to find Kotori and Umi catching up with Rin and Hanayo. They seemed like old friends, though their personalities were completely different. "That's so dashing of you Umi chan." Kotori pecked Umi's to cheek to which Umi blushed furiously. "Kotori there are guests here."

"I just kissed you on your cheek. Why do you want something more?" Kotori asked with a sly smile. Umi was so speechless for a moment till she murmured, "Shameless..."

"Umi chan didn't faint nya!" Rin said shocked. "Are you alright Umi chan?" Hanayo asked, genuinely concerned. "I am completely fine!" Umi retorted. Their conversation continued as lively as ever, just like it was the last time they talked.

"Ah, your back." Kotori turned to them when she noticed they were standing there awkwardly. "Let's go see the birds nya!" Rin exclaimed. Rin was slightly interrupted by the rumbling stomach coming from the red head. Ruby ducked her head I embarrassment. "Or we could eat." Hanayo suggested. Everyone bursted into laughter, except for Umi who just smiled widely. "Yes we shall Hanayo." Umi said.

"Something seems off." You said who felt a bit queasy. You was never a fan of gloomy dark places and this was no exception. "What do you mean You chan?" Chika, who was in front of You, slowed down to reach You's pace. "No there is something here." You said. "I don't feel anything."
"I must not be feeling well."
"No, my little demon you are right." Yoshiko said, her face pale. "I feel it too." Sarah pipped in from beside Yoshiko. "Everyone stop." Chika said to which everyone do and turned their attention to Chika.

"Does anyone else feel like that?"
"Like what Chika chan?" Riko asked who was not paying attention to Chika's discussion with the affected three. "Feeling horrible, like something is wrong." no one said a word to Chika's question. "What do we do zura? We don't know what's wrong with them."

"We have to continue on. We can't do anything without knowing what's wrong." Dia said thoughtfully. "But-"
"Chika san she's right," Sarah told her, looking a bit green. "none of know what is happening. Till then we should be moving."

"Chika chan she's right." Riko added on. Chika sighed. As much as she wanted help Dia had a point. "Alright let's go."

The things that happened after this very point would have shaken the group.