Here's the next chapter! Hope y'all enjoy it as much as you have the others!

Chapter 5: When Oranges Start Flying

"So let me get this straight." Dillard was currently walking in between Finn and Willa, Philby and Amanda were in front leading the way. They were currently headed to the coastal port, hoping to catch a boat ride to one of the island kingdoms. "You two knew each other back before you-know-who took over?"

"Right so far Dill." Finn said with a slight hint of annoyance. For the past few hours, Dillard had been asking him every question imaginable about being the future king.

Dillard turned to Willa. "And your parents wanted you to marry Finn, so you'd be the queen someday, but you said no because you two were friends?"

"That's right Dillard. I'm not going to marry a guy I treat like my brother." Willa said gently. If she was getting annoyed with Dillard's questions, it wasn't showing.

"Why would you not want to be queen? Isn't that every girl's dream?"

"It might be. But I'm not your average girl." Willa winked at him. "Hey Philby! How much longer until we can rest a little bit?"

"I guess now's a good time." Philby replied. He found a small area in the woods where all five could sit down. Dillard pulled out a few oranges and started peeling his.

"So how much longer until we get to the port?" Finn asked Philby.

"If we kept walking at the same pace…tomorrow afternoon."

"That's good, right?" Dillard asked with a mouth full of oranges.

"Yes, Dillard. It's good. The faster we get help, the faster Finn gets to take back his throne." Amanda was directly looking at Finn, not breaking her stare for a second. Finn was glad he was sitting, because he felt his knees going weak.

"I wouldn't necessarily call it my throne."

"Finn! Shut it! We're not having this 'I'm not good enough to be king' crap anymore! You're going to do a great job and we'll be here to support you the entire time! Now deal with it!" Willa picked up an orange and threw it at him, bouncing off his left shoulder and flying off into the woods.

"Who knew oranges could fly?" Dillard asked before all five burst out into laughter.

"Ouch Willa!" Finn pretended to be hurt and pointed to in the direction of the orange. "Look what you did! Go get it!" Willa just rolled her eyes, mumbling something about how annoying he could be and got up to go retrieve the orange.

"Stupid orange, where did you roll off too?" Willa saw it had flown off in this direction, but couldn't seem to find it anywhere.

Willa stopped in her tracks at the sound of a stick breaking.

She looked down beneath her own foot and saw that it wasn't her, which could only mean someone else was out there.

She took a few steps toward the group when she heard footsteps coming up behind her. She turned around at the last second and everything went black.

"Where's Willa? She left like five minutes ago. Surely the orange didn't go that far!" Finn was now worried. The last thing he wanted was for his best friend to get lost or get captured by Maleficent's guards, again.

"I'll go out there and find her." Philby got up, grabbed his sword and trudged off in the same direction Willa had gone in not only five minutes earlier.

"WILLA!" Finn heard Philby scream. All three ran off toward his scream.

The sight absolutely horrified Finn.

Willa was lying on the ground, clearly unconscious. She had a long gash that stretched almost all the way across her forehead. There were a few scratches on her arms and legs, but all of them had those from the thorns they had passed by earlier.

Philby was leaning over her, checking to make sure she was still breathing. Amanda knelt down on the other side of Willa, and placed her hand on her forehead, examining the gash.

"What happened?" Dillard asked nonchalantly, again with a mouth full.

"It looks like somebody attacked her out here in the woods." Philby glanced up at Finn. They both knew it was time to keep moving, which would be very difficult with an unconscious girl.

After moving Willa's unconscious body back to where they had been sitting earlier, Amanda ripped off a piece of her sleeve, wet it with water from Willa's canteen and placed it over the gash to clean the wound. Dillard was helping Amanda, so Finn pulled Philby aside so that they could talk in hushed tones.

"Okay soldier. What do we do? We need to move on! Somebody's found us!"

"We can't continue on, Willa's unconscious!"

"I know it's not the best idea, but we've got to keep moving! Somebody will have to carry her!"

"Carrying her would slow us down significantly, making it easier for whoever did this" Philby pointed to Willa "to get all of us!"

"Great!" Finn let his hands fly up in frustration. "So what do we do?"

"We'll have to stay the night probably. Somebody will have to stay up at all times and keep watch. It's our best line of defense against whomever is out there."

"Then we leave in the morning, whether she wakes up or not?"

"I think she'll wake up before then, but yes that's the plan."

Finn took first watch. Philby had surprised him. He was currently sleeping right next to Willa, holding her hand. As if doing that would somehow help her wake up faster, Finn thought to himself. Seeing this made Finn brought out overprotecting-big-brother feelings for Willa. He didn't want her to get hurt, especially not by any guy he knew personally. Oh great, now I'm going to have to talk to him about her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Finn saw Amanda sit up. She searched their mini campsite, but when her eyes found him, she smiled and came over to join him.

"How's first watch going?"

"Pretty boring if you ask me. Couldn't sleep?"

"Nope." Amanda stared off into the distance—which consisted of trees, trees, and more trees. "So you're the future king, huh? That's…cool." For some reason, Finn didn't think Amanda was all that impressed with his true identity.

"I guess so. Can I be honest with you for a second?" Amanda nodded. "It's not that I don't want revenge on Maleficent, because I do, but I really just don't want to be king."

"Why don't you want to be king?"

"I'm not the kind of person the people will want. They wanted people like my father or my grandfather: brave, courageous, trustworthy, and…loyal."

"And why don't you think you have those things?"

"I don't know…I'm just not my father or grandfather, I guess."

"You're wrong." Amanda looked him directly in the eyes and Finn's heart skipped a beat. "You were courageous and brave when you saved me. You're most certainly trustworthy, and the fact that you're going back to regain your family's throne makes you pretty loyal."

"You think so?"

She placed her hand on top of his. "I think you'll be all those things when oranges start flying."

Finn smiled at her and leaned in a little—maybe this moment was the right one. Amanda placed a finger to his lips.

"Not yet." She gave him a brief smile. "Now let Philby keep watch and get some rest."

Normally, Finn didn't let people boss him around like that, but Amanda was different. Everything about her was different—but in a good way. He felt that connection between the two of them grow stronger and stronger with each passing moment. Hopefully that perfect moment would be coming soon.

Philby sat there holding Willa's hand. He had been doing this since they found her and he would keep doing it until she woke up. Amanda had cleaned off the gash fairly well and she had tore off part of Finn's cape to wrap around her head for the night.

He had to admit it, the past few days had been great, but seeing Willa unconscious stirred up feelings he didn't know he had. When he had found her, he had wanted to find who did this to her and hurt them—bad.

With his thumb, he stroked her hand. She looks so beautiful when she sleeps. Philby glanced around to check on the others, when he felt someone slightly squeeze his hand.

"Philby?" Willa's weak voice croaked out. He turned around to see Willa opening her eyes.

Philby brushed his free hand across her forehead, moving a stray hair away from her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Like someone dropped a house on me." She gave him a weak smile.

"It's that bad, huh?"

Willa nodded. "How long was I out?"

"Just a couple of hours." Philby glanced down at her hand, which he was still holding. "I was really worried about you."

"Head wounds," she shifted to a sitting position, "always look worse than they really are."

"And how would you know that? Does this happen to you a lot?"

"Are you underestimating my intelligence Philby? Because I am a very smart young lady."

"No, no, no! I mean, you're very smart. Why would I ever call you stupid? Because you're not." Philby stopped himself, realizing how much of a fool he had become.

Willa let out a small laugh, looked down and realized that she was still holding Philby's hand.

"Oh, sorry about that." She took her hand back and started blushing.

"Don't be." Philby grabbed her hand and smiled. "I never said I didn't like it."

From behind one of the pillars in the throne room, Jess saw it all.

The messenger knocked on the door rapidly before bursting through the giant doors. He led the soldier into the main throne room, where Maleficent was sitting on the throne. The room was freezing cold, numbing to those who were not used to it. At her right was a man, whom the messenger recognized as General Jafar—the leader of the army. On her left, was Lady Grimhilde, who was the ruler of one of the larger villages about a day's trip away. Both were competing for Maleficent's attention, but the messenger immediately received it.

"Your majesty, this soldier claims to have important news that only you can hear." The messenger said while bowing.

"Bring him here then leave my presence."

The messenger did as he was told, and the soldier walked toward the throne.

"Your majesty, I have news that one of my soldiers found the Lady Isabel. One can only assume that the prince is not far away."

"And what did the soldier do upon finding her?" Maleficent tapped her fingers on the arm of the throne.

"She was wounded, your majesty, but she is not dead."

"Good. She can still be of use to us. Do you know where they were headed?"

"The soldier believes they are headed to the coastal port."

"Send out a team to intercept them. Make sure they do not leave get onto a boat."

Upon hearing this, the soldier nodded, bowed and left the room.

Once she was sure Maleficent and her allies had left, Jess moved behind the throne and moved on one of the stones in the floor, revealing a secret staircase.

Upon sealing herself into the secret tunnel, Jess moved swiftly down the staircase. This was news that she had to report immediately. Wearing the cape that her sister had made her two years ago, she had a harder time moving as fast as she wanted, and almost tripped down the staircase twice.

At the bottom of the staircase was a small wooden door. Jess knocked two times, then four times, then once more.

The small door opened and Jess hurried in. The small room composed of a makeshift bed and a small table with four chairs. Currently there was only one middle-aged woman sitting at the table. She looked up at Jess and smiled at her after she closed the door.

"Jess, my dear. What brings you down here?"

"Maleficent's soldiers have found Lady Isabel and they believe she is with Prince Finnegan." Jess sat down at the table and placed a leather pouch on the table. "I also brought you some food."

"Thank you my dear." She opened the pouch and started to eat some of its contents. "I was wondering what was taking Maleficent so long to find them."

"You want her to find them?"

"No, of course not dear! This is my nephew we are talking about! Of course I want him safe, but I know Maleficent too well. She is swift and has spies everywhere." The woman looked up at Jess and smiled. "But luckily, I have one where it matters—right in Maleficent's court."

"She sent out soldiers to intercept them from getting to the coastal port. Why would they possibly go there?"

"To get to the island kingdoms." She smiled. "The island kingdoms were very loyal to my family and I, they would help us overthrow her for the right price."

"So why haven't you gone there? You've spent all of your time down here!"

"Things are falling into place, my dear Jess. It is not my place to take back the throne. The agreement was that I was to hold the title of queen until my nephew could take over as king. The time has come for Finnegan to come through on his promise." The woman reached over and grabbed Jess' hand. "Now you must go, my dear, before Maleficent has realized Jezebel has gone missing."

Jess stood up and turned to the door.

"Thank you Jess, for the food."

"You are most welcome, your highness." Jess curtsied and went back up the staircase to the throne room. She took a deep breath. Okay Jess. Time for the acting to begin again. You are Jezebel, you're not a spy and you love being here in Maleficent's court. Jess sighed. She knew she couldn't keep up this act for much longer. But if what the queen said was true, the prince would come back before anyone would find out her secret.

So there you have it! Next chapter is going to bring in one of the remaining 2 Kingdom Keepers (either Maybeck or Charlene). Any ideas on how they're going to fit into the story?

Hope y'all enjoyed it! And please review, I love reading them! And seriously, be honest!