The next day we set off into the forest. We had left a quick note to the McGardens saying how thankful we were for their generosity. We departed early in the morning. Silence engulfed the air around us. As expected, Xavier was the first to speak. He spoke directly to Miriza. "You said you were a Princess, What's it like being royalty Riza?" As soon as she heard the nickname, the swiftly turned to look Xavier straight in the eye. Her expression was dangerous. Seriously. It was absolutely terrifying. I did not envy Xavier. "Never call me Riza." She stated. She didn't sound too happy... "We are comrades. Yes. But under no circumstances must you call me Riza or abbreviate my name in any way. There shall be no exceptions. Also, never refer to my time in royalty. I was never fond of it." Xavier seemed quite shaken. Miriza could seriously be scary. You could also tell she'd grown up as a princess with the language she used.

Nobody dared say a word after that. This gave me time to think. Where were we going exactly? I was going to bring the subject up, but Lokni beat me to the chase. "Does anyone know where we're going?" He asked. Xavier shrugged, "I was following Rize," He whispered hoping that Miriza wouldn't hear him. Sadly for Xavier, she did. As soon as he had abbreviated her name she turned straight towards Xavier. The look on her face was even more terrifying that before... "Rize?" She said, "That's even worse than Riza!" Xavier gulped. Miriza slapped him. I made a mental note never to get on Miriza's bad side. "What was that for!?" Xavier exclaimed, "I thought sky dragons were supposed to be friendly!"

"I am friendly," Miriza gave a smile, "I'm just annoyed that's all." With that Miriza turned away from Xavier. Xavier began to rub his cheek as we carried on walking.

At that moment, I felt a strong pull towards something or somewhere. I had no idea what or where it was, but it wasn't close. I had to go there. I bolted left down through the trees. "Faya!" Xavier called, "Where are you going!" I heard the others behind me. Where was I going? Well at least we were going somewhere now. Eventually, the others caught up to me. "Don't run away again!" Lilias spoke hugging me. I sighed. I should have really explained before I went running off. "I suddenly felt a strong pull towards somewhere or something. I just felt I had to go there..."

"Well, Now we're going somewhere!" Lokni smiled. I could tell that the place I was drawn to was a good place. I could smell it somehow. It smelled like... home... How did I know what home smelled like? Was this the home of my past life? I somewhat doubted that would be the case...

We trudged on for few more hours. I was in the lead now. Lilias was beside me along with Xavier while Lokni and Miriza walked behind us. I knew that Xavier was only walking with us to get away from Miriza. After a period of time, I could see something glittering in the distance. Unexpectedly, Miriza ran forwards towards it. Lokni and Lilias ran after her. I walked behind now with Xavier. As we moved in closer, I noticed that it was a golden tree. It was the most magnificent thing I could ever imagine. It wasn't any taller than the other trees, but the magic power it radiated was fantastical! It seemed like the ruler of all the trees in the forest. The angel of trees. I stared in awe until Lilias's sweet voice snapped me out of my wonder. "Why did you run to the tree Miriza?" she asked.

"When I was taken to the lacrima, we came across this very tree on our journey." She answered, "I left something by the tree. The knife my father had given me when I was only 5. It had always been my prized possession..." What sort of father gave their 5 year old daughter a knife? Plus the idea of Miriza with a knife... I should saw my farewells to Xavier now... Miriza carried on. "If we go through all that shrubbery all around the tree, we should be able to find it!" She said. Miriza knelt down and started to rummage through 400 years worth of shrubbery. Lilias followed quickly. "Careful, there are prickles" Miriza said. Lilias nodded. Soon Lokni and Xavier had started to join in. I watched them rummage. Something about this seemed pointlessly impossible... What was I saying? I shouldn't be so depressing! I should be a ray of sunshine! right? Quickly, I ran over to the other side of the tree and began rummaging as well.

After hours and hours of rummaging, we had gotten nowhere except for tearing a few prehistoric shrubs out of the ground. "I'm hungry..." Lilias said. That's when we all realized... We didn't have any food or drink with us... And we were alone in the middle of the woods... HOW STUPID COULD WE HAVE BEEN! Immediately, we all stopped rummaging and gathered round in a circle to decide what to do. "We'd better go look for food..." Xavier muttered.

"Don't be so depressing!" Miriza said with a smile upon her face, "We weren't going to steal from the McGardens, besides we can make this whole scenario into a fun little game! The first one to find food gets to eat it first! If it's poisonous, they loose!" I didn't like the idea of that game... neither did Lokni or Xavier... "Yay! A game!" Lilias exclaimed with joy, "I'm going to win!" with that, she ran into the forest. Miriza went off in the other direction. "This game..." Lokni said.

"I agree..." I answered.

"Miriza's crazy as well as scary..." Xavier muttered. Lokni and I laughed.

"Well we'd better go get food anyway," I said. The others nodded. The three of us went into the forest together.

We didn't have much luck finding any food. We were just about to head back but as we turned around we saw a tall figure staring down at us. It was a man with a long white beard and an eye patch over his left eye. At first, he just stared menacingly at us. Then he caught a glimpse of Lokni's face. He seemed taken aback. Then he saw mine... For some reason he seemed extremely surprised when he saw me. He just pointed from Lokni to me, from me to Lokni. "Do I exist anymore?" Xavier said.

"He smells like my childhood friend Precht..." Lokni said. At this the man looked straight at him. And then looked straight at me. He stared at me long and hard. "It has been over 100 years..." Lokni muttered under his breath. This man was string to make me feel uncomfortable. He then brushed past us. I heard him whisper something as he brushed past us. "Lokni and Mavis? Impossible..." As far as I knew, my name wasn't Mavis... But I guess that man could have been Lokni's childhood friend, it had been over 100 years after all...

When we arrived back by the tree. Miriza and Lilias were already there. Miriza didn't seem to have found anything, but Lilias had a pile of berries and mushrooms in a pile in front of her. "You've returned," Miriza said, "You know it's cheating to work together." She said disapprovingly.

"We just met up on the way back," I lied convincingly. Miriza smiled. I guess she trusted me.

"I'm going to win!" Lilias said stuffing a handful of mushrooms and berries into her mouth before anyone could stop her. "Not poisonous!" She yelled, "I win!"

"How do you know?" Lokni asked.

"Earth dragon magic," she smiled as we all sat in to dig into the meal. Instantly, Miriza's eyes widened as she spotted something shining in the fading sunlight. "My knife!" she exclaimed with glee and thankfulness. Unexpected, the knife wasn't rusty as it had been kept in a small leather knife sheath. The knife was plain with a brown handle with a small sky blue crystal embedded into it. Miriza smiled as she discovered a small belt lying there as well. She placed the belt around her waist and clipped the knife sheath onto it. Soon, we had finished the meal. Before we settled for sleep, I told Miriza about the strange man we had encountered on our way back. Miriza told us not to worry, especially if he'd walked off in the opposite direction.

That night, I was awoken by the small sound of sobbing. I was the only one to be awoken. The night was cloudless as I lifted myself up from the ground. I followed the source of the noise to find Miriza behind the tree. She was sitting hugging her knees with the knife she had found clutched in one small hand. She didn't notice me as I watched. Despite denying it the other day, I guess she did miss her family...