Sorry it's been a while. Enjoy the new chapter. Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'm always re-reading and editing my chapters when I see mistakes. Thanks for being so patient with me.

Third P.O.V

"Where are we going?" Tarina questioned. She had quickly caught up with Nod and M.K. Nod looked at his best friend and shrugged his shoulders. He was just as clueless as her.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Tarina shouted out. Nod glared at his best friend.

"Rina, stop." Nod shouted back. M.K stayed silent. Tarina pulled her bird in front of M.K and Nod and shook her head.

"No, you are going to tell me where we are going or I swear to Nature Nod, I'll put a stop to this ridiculous plan of hers." Tarina threatened. Nod let out a small huff of frustration. He leaned into M.K, whispered in her ear and took the reins away. He expertly steered his bird around Tarina and jetted past her. Tarina squared her jaw and went after Nod, swearing to string him out later.

She caught up with the duo before expertly swinging her weight towards Nod, knocking him off his owl. Both went free falling down towards the treetops. Abruptly both were jolted to a halt when they landed face first on a large leaf. Tarina scrambled onto her feet as did Nod.

"What the hell Tarina?" Nod sputtered out once he was able to catch his breath. Tarina glared at her friend, drawing her sword in warning.

"What is wrong with you?" Nod questioned. Tarina cocked her head to the side, like she couldn't believe he was asking her that.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" Tarina demanded in disbelief.

"This girl has got you wrapped around her finger, and you're just willingly letting yourself be used." Tarina exasperated. She couldn't believe that her best friend was willingly trusting a stranger, someone he had known for less than 24 hours, and was blindly following her into a battle.

"Seriously, Rina? You're the one that needs to get your head out of your ass." Nod seethed out. Tarina's eyes widened at his words.

"Nod, listen to me." Tarina demanded. "You've known this girl less than 24 hours and you're just going to blindly follow her into Wrathwood? Do you realize how insane you sound right now?" Nod ran his hands over his face in frustration. He was one leaf away from pulling all his hair out.

"I don't care, Rina. The Royal Pod is more important than my safety." Nod shouted back. Tarina was taken aback by his words.

"Well, I care about your safety, so please, please, please don't do this." Tarina pleaded. Nod let out a sigh as he stared down his best friend. Tarina could see the resolve finalize in his eyes.

"Unbelievable." Tarina muttered out. She backed away from Nod, angry that he was choosing M.K's plan over a safer one. Tarina jumped to another branch and then called her bird.

"You better hope this stupid plan of yours works." Tarina said coolly. As she flew away Nod threw himself down on the leaf, frustrated with his best friend and the situation that he had put them in by not watching The Royal Pod.

"Nod!" M.K shouted out. Her eyes were scanning the thousands of leaves, trying to find where Nod had landed. Nod took another moment to himself. Things that had always been a constant in his life were slowly starting to fall apart, and one of those constants was his best friend Tarina. He felt like screaming in the Great Forest but knowing that M.K was flying around looking for him, stopped him from going through with the idea.

"Over here!" Nod shouted. He waved his arms as M.K did her best to steer his owl over to his location.

Tarina thought that they were getting in over their heads. No one in their right mind would try and attempt a mission like this. It was an absolute death sentence. The reminder of the raising moon, and the Kingdom's impending doom, hung heavy over her head. She was furious with Nod. How could one Jinn be so incredibly stupid? It was a rhetorical question. She knew exactly how. He was Nod. He was impulsive and indecisive, but he cared deeply for those he called friend. It was just her luck that he was her best friend. She knew him better than he knew himself sometimes. Of course this kind of plan would only be something that he would think up. But she didn't need the Stomper encouraging his crazy ideas, but she was sure that one of these days his crazy ideas were going to get him killed. And she couldn't live with herself if that happened.

She perched her bird for a moment, needing a moment of complete silence to collect her thoughts. The fate of the Kingdom was riding on this suicide mission, and Nod wasn't worried at all for his safety. But she was. She always was. He was reckless while she was cautious. She liked order while he was walking chaos. Trouble never seemed to be too far behind him. She questioned why she was still friends with him sometimes.

Being aware that time was against them, she pushed all of her feelings and emotions back as far as she could. She had come to the conclusion that she couldn't go through M.K's ridiculous plan, but Nature be damned she wasn't going to lose her best friend. She urged her bird back into the sky and soon came across General Ronin.

"Sir," Tarina acknowledged. General Ronin's face remained unchanged, and Tarina was fine with that. She knew that they didn't have time to patch things up with each other if they wanted to save the Kingdom. General Ronin was the first one to spot Nod and M.K. Tarina kept her mouth shut when she got closer to the duo.

"So, how do you know where to get Boggan armor?" Nod asked. M.K's face paled a little, though it was hard to notice under the rising moon. However, instead of answering she remained silent for the rest of the ride. Something told Tarina that Nod asking her that question was a sore subject; probably having something to do with the fact that she wasn't a part of their world.

By the time they reached their destination, the moon was already high in the sky. It was another reminder that they didn't have a lot of time to pull off this sucide mission. They had perched their birds on some nearby brush, opting to walk the rest of the way to the large house. General Ronin spotted an open window and directed the group to follow his lead. As they snuck into the house through the opened window, M.K stopped short of the sight before her. Tarina, who was bringing up the rear, almost ran into the frozen M.K. Tarina didn't say anything, but glared at the back of M.K's head. She sidestepped M.K and looked around in both wonder and fear. Nod was the first one to speak up, shaking M.K from her stupor.

"Hey, Boggan armor; where is it?" He and General Ronin had stepped farther into the house. General Ronin's hand rested on the hilt of his sword, while Nod had twisted his body to look at both M.K and Tarina. M.K jumped down to the table that was pressed up against the wall before pointing over to another table that was in the middle of the room under a lit lamp.

"Over there." M.K pointed out. Tarina followed behind M.K, hating that she was practically babysitting the girl. Tarina looked over General Ronin's shoulder and saw that under the lamp on the table, there was a wall of old boggan armor surrounded by a couple dozen large jars and several books.

"Let's make this quick." General Ronin commented. He was the first one to jump across, shortly followed by Nod. M.K watched as Nod effortlessly jumped across the various ledges of wood and cans.

"Come on." Nod urged M.K. She looked over to Tarina who motioned for her to go first. M.K took a deep breath before leaping off the window ledge towards their small group. However, she was less than graceful. She had attempted to land on the lid of a nearby jar, but her foot slipped and she face-planted onto another lid. Tarina and Nod winced at the impact.

"Ow!" Nod commented. Tarina stifled a laugh. She shook her head and followed behind M.K. Gracefully, Tarina leapt from lid to lid before joining General Ronin on the table. Nod was still keeping an eye on M.K as she decided to crawl off the jar instead of attempting another jump. However, instead of dropping onto the flat surface of the floor she rolled on some pencils and slid underneath a movable filing cabinet.

Tarina could hear Nod's laughter while M.K screamed. Tarina shook her head, so much for him being helpful. Tarina felt herself being watched. Looking over her shoulder, she saw General Ronin staring at her with his usual unreadable expression. But she had a pretty good idea of what was running through his head; she just didn't care. Tarina and General Ronin continued to stare at each other for a moment longer, still with neither speaking first.

"Knock it off" General Ronin ordered after noticing that Nod and M.K still hadn't made their way up the table to join them.

"Ow" M.K squealed. Nod thought that it would be funny if he tried to touch her, which he did attempt, and electrocuted them both. M.K glared at Nod's antics. She had already smoothed her hair out, she didn't need to look like she had gone through the ringer again.

"Quit it!"M.K scolded as Nod continued to laugh. Clearly neither of them were taking each other very seriously. They continued to bicker back and forth for a few more moments before General Ronin peaked his head over the table top and yelled at them both once more.

"You both are idiots." Tarina mumbled under her breath as she waited for the two to catch up. Both her and the General remained silent as the group slowly walked down the table top. The General kept his eyes peeled for any dangers while Tarina mainly kept her focus on M.K's head.

"You know some of this stuff looks familiar." Nod commented as he looked around at all the stuff that was pinned against what appeared to be some kind of wall.

"Hey, that's my saddle! Where are we?" Nod cried out. Tarina started to pull her attention away from M.K's head when suddenly it felt like the earth was shaking. Out of pure instinct, Tarina braced herself for battle. But she quickly realized that there was no threat; it was just the Stomper walking around in his house. The only noise that came from their small group was a gasp from M.K.

"Oh, it's where this guy lives." General Ronin commented. He too, had braced himself for a fight; his hands were resting on the hilt of his sword. Nod seemed to be in awe of the Stomper. Tarina noticed that M.K seemed to be the only one that wasn't bothered by the sight of the male Stomper. General Ronin was the first to move with Nod and M.K following close behind. Tarina once again brought up the end of their group. The General had moved to jump on top of a nearby container, of some sort, to get a better look at the Stomper. Nod had let out a small chuckle of amusement which only made Tarina shake her head. Of course he'd be the only one to find something amusing about all of this.

"I can't believe it. He's been crashing around the forest like a bear for years. Most Stompers just come and go. But this guy's relentless" Nod explained to M.K. Tarina couldn't help but roll her eyes. If only Nod knew.

"Wait, Stompers?" M.K raised an eyebrow in confusion. Both Tarina and General Ronin looked at each other.

"Yeah, you know? Like us but big and dumb and slow, always stomping on things; Stompers." Nod explained further as he waved his arms around in large gestures towards the male Stomper. Neither of the male Jinn noticed that M.K's expression was souring at Nod's words, but Tarina saw every emotion that crossed her face.

"And this one is obsessed with finding us." General Ronin pointed out. "Obviously that's a security risk. Can't have one of his big fat feet stepping on Moonhaven." He clarified further. But the words had the wrong effect on M.K; and once more neither of the males noticed but Tarina did. The General had stood up to adjust his armored arm brace and M.K had stood as well, though now she wasn't sure why she had in the first place.

"One of his ginormous, flabby, dirty, stinky-" Nod continued to describe the man with large exaggerated gestures. Nod slowly stood up between the General and M.K, not once sparing a glance towards the women as he blabbed on. Tarina remained silent as she watched the sour expression on M.K's face become more and more aggravated.

"Okay! I got it." M.K exploded. She just wanted Nod to shut up and Tarina couldn't blame her. Tarina felt like there was some kind of connection between the Stomper and M.K, but she couldn't figure it out just yet.

"So we've been throwing him off the trail." General Ronin quickly pivoted the conversation away from the Stomper. He had turned around now to face the weird looking walls of leafmen artifacts that were pinned up everywhere. Where Nod's saddle laid on its side atop the table.

"So you're just messing with him?" M.K asked incredulously. "But he's found all this stuff!" She exclaimed gesturing to all of the things around them that proved the Stomper was right about them existing.

"He only finds what we want him to find." General Ronin stated. Then he turned around and pointed to his left.

"Look at his map. We've got him looking everywhere but where we are." General Ronin explained as his hand drifted from the left of the map, where there were a bunch of red thumbtacks, to the right of the map. Moonhaven's actual location, which just so happened to be under a lamp light, highlighting the hidden Kingdom.

"I love how this guy talks. Look at his flower." Nod laughed out as he followed the General off of the container and back on to the table top. M.K and Tarina followed suit. Nod continued to be his joking self and mimicked how the Stomper talked and moved. Tarina couldn't stop herself from smirking at his antics. Even General Ronin joined in, much to the surprise of Tarina.

"I hurt my elbow." General Ronin copied Nod's voice, cradling his right elbow in his hand. Nod let out a jovial laugh and Tarina shook her head, it almost felt like old times. You know when the two of them weren't fighting or yelling at each other. Tarina felt a ghost of a smile creep up onto her face. She missed the old times when everything was just easy for the three of them.

"I think that's kind of mean." M.K interjected. Tarina's smile faltered at the tone of M.K's voice. She sounded like she was offended. Tarina had a sneaking suspicion of the relationship between the man and M.K but didn't want to say anything in case she was wrong.

"Who said that?" Nod continued to mock. General Ronin was still laughing along with Nod's antics. Flashes of his best friend flickered through his head. Even though it had been years since his friend's death it still felt like it had just happened yesterday. The lingering feeling of despair and regret danced in the back of his mind. He quickly shook those thoughts away when M.K exploded at the trio.

"It's his life's work. He's my Dad!" M.K glared at Nod, who by then was the only one still laughing at his imitation. General Ronin's face was full of shock but he quickly schooled his features. Tarina had been the only one not laughing or shocked by the revelation. M.K's confession had just confirmed her suspicions.

"He what?" Nod questioned. His face had twisted into confusion. He couldn't comprehend how a Stomper could have a normal sized daughter. It didn't make any sense to him.

"I'm a Stomper." M.K stated clearly, turning to face Nod. Her voice was stern as her eyes narrowed at Nod.

"What happened? You got shrunk?" Nod said in a joking manner. General Ronin stayed silent while Tarina shook her head in disappointment. She could tell that his humor had rubbed M.K the wrong way.

"Yes! Which they know!" M.K exploded. Her arms widely gestured to Tarina and General Ronin.

"Seriously?" Nod asked incredulously. Tarina turned her head away from her friend. She thought that General Ronin would've told him by now, clearly he hadn't.

"It's been a weird day for everybody." General Ronin explained. His face had fallen back to its usual stoic expression.

"You got a problem with Stompers?" M.K eyed Nod. Tarina's eyes studied her best friend's face and could see a glint of mischief dancing in his eye.

"A Stomper squashed my uncle." Nod's voice was soft, his face looked crestfallen but Tarina knew better. Behind M.K she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Oh my gosh, really?" M.K quickly felt sympathetic towards Nod. Her hand reached out to comfort Nod. He took a deep breath before responding to M.K.

"No, I'm messing with you." M.K's irritated groan rang out as she punched his shoulder. Tarina tried her best to hide a smirk that crept onto her face, but she didn't really care if he saw her reaction.

"Too far?" Nod questioned. General Ronin raised an eyebrow and Tarina couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

"Try it again, maybe she'll punch you harder." General Ronin commented before turning away to gather their supplies.

"If she doesn't, I will." Tarina added as she went to follow the General. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Nod roll his eyes. The trio quickly began to gather as much Boggan amour as they could carry. Nod had rolled some of the amour into a small bundle that he could easily carry under his arm, while General Ronin was trying on an old face shield.

"Hey, how do I look?" General Ronin asked. Tarina looked over her shoulder to see he had hunched his shoulders over, trying to make himself look more intimidating while carrying a bow and some arrows.

"Scary as ever." Nod said with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. Tarina rolled her eyes. So they were interrupted by a piercing shriek that sounded like M.K. Tarina almost dropped the armor she was carrying. The three of them quickly sprinted off the table and met M.K on the floor.

"Are you okay?" Nod asked, immediately drawing his sword. Tarina pulled hers out likewise. Suddenly they felt the ground shake and a large horrible growl come from a hideous three legged creature. Tarina's eyes widened at the sight. The three of them dropped their bundles of Boggan armor ready to make a run for it. Nod grabbed M.K's hand before yelling,

"Run!" The four of them sprinted away from the creature as fast as they could. The thing was large and slow, but it could make up for the ground coverage in a single step. It slid into some nearby clutter but that didn't stop the creature. Tarina was ahead of Nod and M.K, while General Ronin was following in the rear. The creature's growling must have alerted the Stomper because next thing any of them knew the Stomper was scrambling to stand up. He started up some kind of contraption that blew a large cloud of dust out and made a terrible kind of noise.

The small group had split up, trying to confuse the creature, General Ronin and Tarina bearing left while Nod and M.K continued straight. Suddenly the Stomper pointed the end of his contraption towards Nod and M.K, cutting off their escape. The three legged creature slid on the floor and was now between the Stomper and Nod. M.K had turned around as soon as the Stomper pointed the contraption at them, while Nod stood between M.K and the three legged creature. As M.K was running away she saw that General Ronin had readied an arrow in his bow, aiming it towards the Stomper's face.

"No." M.K shouted out, launching herself forward to try and stop The General. Instead of hitting its intended target the arrow found its home in the Stompers butt. All in slow motion, the Stomper dropped his contraption and tried to move away from the pain. In doing so, he rammed himself against the nearby table.

"Ow, I hurt my elbow." He shouted out, quickly cradling his elbow.

"Did you hear that? He said it!" Nod exclaimed. Tarina narrowed her eyes at Nod. It was not the time for funny comments. The Stomper, after hurting himself, had caused a nearby cup to fall and almost crush Nod. Tarina had a brief moment of panic for Nod's safety, but the little voice in the back of her head made the comment that he might have deserved it. Just a bit. But Nod being Nod, he managed to avoid the cup as it shattered on the ground. Soon the four of them stood watching the scene unfold before them.

General Ronin, ever so sharp, spotted a way for them to escape. He grabbed the bundle of armor and made his attempt. He launched himself at the creature, using its ear as a catapult to get him across the expanse of space quicker than running would've. He landed on the ledge of the windowsill, quickly making his way for the rope like cord to lower for the rest of the group. Tarina had followed closely behind, with Nod and M.K right on her tail.

"Hurry!" Tarina shouted. General Ronin pulled the cord and the four of them started to ascend up the window. By now, the Stomper had recovered and was scrambling to find the four of them again. He pointed his contraption towards the group and M.K felt herself being pulled away from Nod.

"No. Don't let go. Don't let go." Nod shouted at her. But he could feel his grip loosening and that was never a good sign. Nod could feel her hand slip through his own as he saw her being pulled towards the ugly homemade contraption.

"Ahhh!"

M.K had been caught. Nod could only watch in horror as he continued to be pulled away from her. Tarina's heart was pounding. She may have not liked M.K all that much, but she was still under the protection of Moonhaven Kingdom. Tarina heard the Stomper talk to himself excitedly about his capture. But Tarina couldn't focus on that. She was thinking of ways to save M.K. Tarina wasn't sure about what happened next, but the Stomper seemed to have fainted at the sight of his prisoner. The glass prison that M.K had been caught in shattered as it hit the table. The trio had to watch everything in slow motion. Tarina and Nod looked at each other.

General Ronin stood by the open window, their escape route, before shaking the group from their confusion.

"Let's go." He commanded. Tarina turned to follow suit. Calling for their birds a pang of guilt hit Tarina. She had rationalized that the only reason she tolerated M.K was because The Royal Pod had chosen her. Therefore she was under the protection of Moonhaven Kingdom and any threat against her was a threat against the Kingdom. But she quickly realized, after visiting Nim Galuu, she was jealous of M.K. Not because The Royal Pod had chosen her. She was jealous of M.K because of Nod. But why? He was just her friend, right?

"You can't stay. You're with us now." Nod said, a bit remorseful. He knew that she must be worried out of her mind for him. He knew he would, if he were in her position. A moment more had passed before M.K managed to walk away from her father.

"Come on M.K. We gotta go." Nod urged again. Tarina did her best to hide the eye roll from Nod, but it didn't go unnoticed by The General. Tarina saw that she had caught The General's eye and quickly hung her head.

"You think he's okay?" M.K asked as she landed by the windowsill. Tarina kept her gaze forward, doing her best to ignore the way Nod helped M.K onto his bird without her asking him.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. Their heads are like rocks." He said, trying to reassure M.K. As soon as M.K was mounted Tarina flew off. General Ronin followed closely behind.

"Uh smart rocks." Nod quickly added.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please don't forget to leave a review. See you next time!