I have to admit this is one of my favorite chapters. Wow, I probably say that way too much...

Here we go, the second half of the river escapade!

Chapter 12: River Escapade Part Two

Willa remembered two things at that very moment.

One: In the book from the monastery, there was mention of three steps to unleashing the evil spirit that lived on the island. Said evil spirit was under the control of whomever awoke it. The ancient people would use this spirit against their enemies during war. In the later centuries of the ancient peoples' civilization, a priest wrote down the steps in a miniature journal. Which brought Willa to the second thing she remembered.

Two: She was almost positive Maleficent had that journal.

All the information and memories flooded back to Willa at once, causing her to shift suddenly, waking Philby up.

"Willa? Why are you still up? It's the middle of the night." He sat up and leaned on the tree beside her.

"I had a weird dream, and it got me thinking." Willa collected her thoughts before continuing. "What if California was just the beginning for Maleficent?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if she had world domination in mind?"

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know…just thinking."

Philby reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. "What is it Willa? You can tell me."

Willa told him about the dream and Philby's gaze drifted to the ground, deep in thought.

"What do you think it all means?" He asked her after silently thinking for a few minutes.

"I don't know why, but I know Maleficent took the book from my room. And I'm pretty sure she has that journal, assuming it exists." She paused before continuing. "If what the book says is true, Philby, we're all doomed."

Philby let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close.

"We'll figure everything out. Don't you worry."

The next morning wasn't much better for the seven.

The queen's bodyguard and Dillard were the first two up the next morning. Together they went down to the river to get some water, when they heard people talking on the other side.

Dillard couldn't make out what they were saying, but when he caught a glimpse of their clothing, he wanted to scream. It was them.

He took a deep breath, turned to the other guy and pointed back to where the others were still sleeping. The bodyguard took one step and a stick broke. Both boys froze and the chatter from across the river stopped abruptly.

"You hear that?" One soldier asked the other.

"What did you hear?"

"There's somebody out there."

Dillard could see out of the corner of his eye that the soldier had pointed in their direction.

"Well what are you going to do about it?"

"We should at least check it out. What if it's them? I don't want to have to go home and be the idiot who has to tell Maleficent we actually didn't search the island. She'll kill us!"

"Right. But how do we cross the river? It's too deep and there's no bridge."

The silence between the two was unsettling to Dillard.

Without warning, two arrows were fired in their direction. One landed right at Dillard's feet, but Dillard didn't look to see where the other one landed for he had already started running back to camp.

"Guys! Wake up! We've got company!" Dillard threw water on the withering fire.

"What's going on?" A sleepy Captain Maybeck asked.

"The search team is on the other side of the river and just shot an arrow at me and –"

That's when it dawned on Dillard what happened to the other arrow and he freaked out some more.

"What do we do?" Charlene asked.

"We need to run! Unless you feel like dying today." The captain spat off.

"No. We came here to fight the search team off. But now that they've found us, we need to fight." Finn stood up, holding his sword in front of him. "Who's with me?"

Willa, Finn and the captain ran snuck through the trees down toward the riverbank. Upon reaching the riverbank, they found Charlene's bodyguard lying on the ground with a pool of blood underneath.

"Based on the direction of the arrow, it had to come from up there." Willa pointed to the top of the hill on the other side of the river.

"How many do you think will be up there Shark Fin?" The captain asked in a whisper.

"No clue. Let's go find out." Finn searched the river for some way of crossing it. So far, he had nothing. The river's current was still going too fast to swim across. The river was too wide to jump.

He heard the sound of a branch breaking behind him and Finn whipped around to see Willa struggling to hold a large branch up.

"Dude, she's a lot better at this then you." The captain nudged Finn before going to help Willa carry the extra large branch toward the river.

"How are we going to do this Finn?" Willa asked him.

"You don't have a plan?"

"I have a plan, but it's a really bad one. I was hoping you would come up with a better one. You're the leader after all."

"I am not—"

"Don't give me that 'I'm not a leader' crap!" She held up her end of the branch up toward his face and glared at him. "I will use this!"

Finn sized up the branch, then looked out toward the river. A plan formed in his head.

Philby, Charlene, Amanda and Dillard sat around their camp in silence. Dillard still seemed horrified by the fact that he had just been shot at and Amanda was trying to comfort him.

Philby had tried to make his case to go with Finn. Willa offered the idea that if Philby could stand, he could come with them. But upon standing, he stumbled and fell. Stupid ankle. Now Philby was stuck here, waiting for those three to return.

He leaned up against the tree: the leg with the twisted ankle lying straight, the other bent at the knee, with canteen in hand. He couldn't help but worry about Willa. She had taken his sword with her since she had no weapon of her own. He wanted to believe that that would be enough, but he was still worried.

Charlene plopped down next to him, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Want a slice of bread?" She held it out to him with a smile on her face.

"No thanks. Not hungry." Philby turned to face the direction of the river.

"She'll be fine, Philbs. Don't worry about her."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's got Finn and Terry with her. They're both really good at fighting and neither wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"I should be out there."

"No you shouldn't. You can't even stand up."

Philby knew he didn't have a good retort to that, so he kept silent.

Finn held onto the branch with his right arm and inched his way across the river. Willa and the captain were holding it on the other side of the river. The branch didn't extend all of the way across the river, but it was close enough.

When Finn reached the end of the branch, he tied his belt around the tiny branch that extended off the end. Finn summoned all of his strength and swam hard for the shore, with the other end of his belt in hand. Once safe out of the water, he gave a thumbs-up to Willa and tightened his grip on the belt, holding the branch in place.

The original plan had Willa walking across the top of the branch, but she didn't do that. Willa got in the water and swam along just as Finn had, with Philby's sword in her free hand.

Once Finn had helped her out of the water, it was the captain's turn. He had claimed to be the best swimmer and dove in the water, surfacing a few seconds later. He grabbed onto the branch with both hands as Finn and Willa struggled to pull the branch out of the river.

Captain Maybeck stood up, brushed himself off and Finn saw his face drain of color.

Finn and Willa exchanged a confused look before slowly turning around. At the top of the hill, there were three soldiers: two with arrows ready to fire and one with a sword.

Maleficent's search team had found them.

The queen finally broke the silence. "Hey Philby, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Do you think the marriage alliance was a stupid idea?"

"Stupid? No. It was a very smart move strategically speaking." When Philby saw a frown grow on her face, he continued. "Think about it this way," Philby turned to face her. "You'll be queen of not only Florida, but of California. Your legacy will live on for centuries. You'll have all the finest things and the strongest armies. Nobody will be able to challenge your rule."

"Oh."

"That's not what you wanted to hear, was it?"

"Nope."

"Are you having doubts?"

"Yes." Charlene shook her head. "And no." She put her head in her hands. "It's complicated."

"You like the captain, don't you?"

"Yes."

"But the laws say you need to marry someone of royal blood, so that leaves Finn."

"Those laws are only in California. My parents got rid of that here in Florida."

"Okay...so this really comes down to what you want more: love or security."

Philby watched as Charlene thought it over and let out a sigh.

"Okay, which would you rather: marry Finn and become the most powerful queen the world has ever seen or marry someone else, the captain perhaps, and know that you'll be happy?"

"If this were under different circumstances, I'd pick happiness."

"What other circumstances are there?"

"He's already in love with someone else."

"Who? Finn? We all know that."

"No, Terry."

This was news to Philby. Charlene glanced up at him, saw his shocked expression and let out a small laugh.

"He got his heart broken a long time ago, but he's still hung up over her." Philby could hear the jealousy in her voice when saying that last word.

"Have you talked to him about it?"

"No. I don't want to hear about her. I can tell he thinks about her when he's with me. If I'm with him, I'll always be his second choice. If I follow through with the marriage alliance, I'll always be the wife Finn was forced to marry. I'll be miserable both ways. What I thought would be a win-win turns out to be a lose-lose."

Willa saw they were at a standoff with the three soldiers. The soldiers clearly had the high ground, so they were already at a disadvantage. If they took one step, the archers would fire and they would all be dead, like Charlene's bodyguard.

"We just want to talk." Finn let out calmly. "No need to shoot us."

Finn put his sword on the ground and showed the soldiers his empty hands. Willa and Terry did the same.

Willa was worried that the soldiers might recognize Finn. That would be the worst case scenario. Maleficent would have him tortured and killed. The words "human sacrifice" came to mind.

Luckily for Finn, he looked a lot older than he did four years ago. He had grown taller, grown a little facial hair and was skinnier than he was four years ago. He still had the same brown hair and piercing green eyes. According to the story Finn had told her, he had only come in contact with a few of Maleficent's soldiers the night of the castle raid. He had never seen Maleficent herself in person, so how could these soldiers recognize him?

After all, he was declared dead four years ago.

The soldier with the sword slowly walked down the hill and upon reaching them, gave them a quick search. He nodded up to the two archers and they lowered their bows.

"Get up there." The soldier pointed up the hill with his sword. Terry reached down for his sword, but his hand was almost cut off by the soldier. "No weapons."

Willa walked up the hill first, with Finn and Terry following close behind. The soldier picked up their three swords and brought up the rear.

Upon reaching the top of the hill, Willa was relieved to see that the three soldiers were the only ones. They had one medium-sized tent, three horses tied to a tree not too far away and a small campfire blazing.

The two archers ushered the three into the tent, where they sat on the ground. The two archers sat in front of them, with the other soldier standing guard at the entrance.

"State your names." The first archer said with a firm voice.

"I'm Abigail and this is my brother Marcus" Willa nodded toward Finn," and our friend Jacob" she nodded to Terry.

"And what business do you three have here in the woods, Abigail?"

"We were out hunting."

"With swords?" The second archer snorted when he laughed. "What a foolish idea."

"You're obviously not from here." Terry let out a small laugh of his own, mocking the second archer. "We don't use bows and arrows here. There's only small animals to hunt here. They're fast and agile, arrows would be wasted here. We use traps and use the swords to gut them afterwards." A creepy smile crept on his face that gave Willa chills up her spine.

The archers glanced at each other. Willa could tell they had realized they might have just blown their cover.

"So you're natives?" The soldier behind them asked.

"Yes. Born and raised here in Florida." Finn answered.

"Have you ever heard of a Prince Finnegan of California?"

Willa hesitated before answering, pretending to be deep in thought. "Oh I remember him! I heard he was the young prince killed in the raid when Maleficent took over! How long ago was that Marcus?"

"I'd say about four years ago, sis." Willa was so glad Finn caught on quickly.

"What does he have to do with us? I heard the lad's dead!" Terry asked the archers.

"Word has it, he's not." The first archer eyed Finn suspiciously and Willa held her breath.

"Supposedly he's escaped to Florida and is seeking refuge here." The second archer added.

"Is he now? That's the first I've heard that rumor! I'm always out of the loop on this kind of stuff!" Terry threw his hands up in fake frustration.

"Why would he come here? The queen would never want anything to do with an outlaw!" Willa stated with such certainty she almost believed herself.

"Let's hope for your queen's sake that that is true." The soldier with the sword said behind them.

"Stay here. We'll be back in few minutes." The first archer said before the three soldiers left the tent.

"I've got a plan for getting us out of here." Finn whispered after the soldiers had been out of the tent for thirty seconds. "Just follow my lead." Willa and Terry both nodded and the soldiers came in. This time all three of them stood in front of them.

"Looks like we'll let you go. But you have to swear not to tell anyone of our presence here on the island. The last thing we would want is for you three to be the reason Maleficent declares war on Florida." The first archer said with authority in his voice.

Willa almost laughed at his words. If only they knew Prince Finnegan was sitting right in front of them.

"We promise man. Can we go now?" Terry asked. "We're losing daylight here."

"Go. And don't come back." The second archer said firmly.

Finn got up first and ushered the other two out. The soldiers followed them out of the tent, exactly like Finn had hoped.

Finn spotted their swords on the ground near the tent. It was time.

He reached down, grabbed his sword and blindly swung it at the archer directly behind him, slashing across his arm and stomach.

Willa ducked and scrambled to get their swords. Terry turned and punched the second archer in the nose and moved on to the third soldier.

Finn poked his sword into the second archers side, immediately sending blood flying, staining Finn's shirt.

"Terry!" Willa screamed. The captain turned around and grabbed his sword that Willa had thrown at him.

Finn distracted the soldier by challenging him to a duel. The sword fight went back and forth between the two and was rapidly moving around the soldiers' campsite. Finn could see out of the corner of his eyes that Captain Maybeck now had both swords and was making his way behind the soldier Finn was currently fighting. Willa had gotten a hold of one of the bows, getting an arrow ready to fire.

Captain Maybeck came up behind the soldier, and held him in place with a sword at his throat.

"I'd stay still if I were you." The captain pulled the soldier a little closer to him. "I'm not as forgiving as my friends are."

"Let me go!" The soldier screamed as he struggled against the captain.

"How many of them are you?" Finn asked him.

The soldier spat at him and Finn raised his voice. "HOW MANY?"

The soldier struggled for a few more seconds before giving up. "Six."

"Where are they?" Willa asked from behind Finn. He turned and saw her holding an arrow in place, ready to fire it at the soldier if he answered wrong.

"Searching the island in groups of three. Like us."

"Where on the island?" Finn asked. This time he stepped closer to the soldier.

"I don't know." The soldier spat off sarcastically. Finn nodded at the captain. The captain brought up his second sword and jabbed him in the leg. The soldier screamed out in pain.

"I asked you a question soldier. I think for your own safety, you'd better answer it." Finn continued.

"One group headed toward the canyon caves." He let out a deep breath. "The others stayed at the beach."

Finn looked at Willa and she pointed back to the river with her eyes.

"Who are you?" The soldier croaked out.

Finn leaned in toward the soldier to whisper in his ear. "Maleficent's worst nightmare."

The captain took the second sword and hit the soldier on the top of the head with the sword's handle.

Willa untied all of the horses. They saw no use to take them back to their camp because of the river.

With all three soldiers unconscious and wounded, Finn, Willa and Captain Maybeck headed back to their camp.

Amanda thought she heard some footsteps in the direction of the river and perked up. Finn and the others had been gone an awfully long time and she had started to get worried.

Before she had a chance to worry more, Finn stepped into their camp, soaking wet. Without thinking twice, Amanda ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He wrapped his free arm around her and squeezed her tight.

When she let go of him, she noticed the blood stained on his shirt. Oh no. He's hurt. When she looked up at him with a worried look, Finn let out a small laugh.

"Don't worry, it's not my blood." He led her over to the campfire and sat down.

Terry had already sat down on the opposite side of the fire and was already bragging about their adventures to Charlene, who looked somewhat entertained by them. Dillard helped Philby stand up and walk over to the fire so he could sit down beside Willa.

Finn shared the story of what had really happened and Amanda could have cared less about the details. She was just glad he was alive and that the blood on his shirt wasn't his.

"So where do we go next?" Charlene asked Finn. Terry had tried to wrap his arm around her, but she had just scooted farther away. She seemed anxious to Amanda. Finn had told her about his deal with Terry, and Amanda was now worried it wasn't going to work.

"Which is closer? The canyon caves or the beach?" Finn asked in return.

"Canyon caves." Philby and Willa said in unison. Amanda felt like she was the only one to notice Charlene's face drain of color.

"How did you two know that before the queen over here? Shouldn't she know more about her island then you two?" Dillard asked the couple.

Willa shrugged. "I actually paid attention to the geography lessons, unlike Finn." She glanced up at Finn and he threw his hands up in defeat.

"Hey! In my defense, I never thought I'd be trekking through the forests of Florida on the run from Maleficent."

"So how far away are we from the caves?" Amanda asked.

"I'd say a day." Philby answered with a shrug. "It depends on how many more soldiers we run into."

"Well I think we've all earned ourselves a good night's sleep. We can worry about caves and soldiers and all that nonsense in the morning." Terry got up and walked over to where Dillard had left the food. "I say for now, we eat! I'm starving! Somebody didn't let me eat breakfast before going off to fight."

He gave Dillard a cold stare, but it only brought on laughter. Tomorrow might bring more horrors and injuries, but today they were happy, and that's all that mattered.

Such a long chapter! It was so good I couldn't find a good place to break it up!

kk7: I hope you liked what I did with your request!

And don't forget to review! I love reading them! :)