1400 Views! Oh goodness gracious!

So word has it, I was wrong to say the last chapter was boring...I stand corrected! The reviews have convinced me I was wrong!

And I also want to clear somethings up. The ages of the Keepers might not have been made clear, that's my bad. Willa is the baby at 18. Finn & Dillard at 19. Jess is 20. Terry's 23. Charlene & Philby are 22, and Amanda is 21.

So I hope that clears some things up! And now on with chapter 18! :)

Chapter 18: Insanely Good Hearing

Two Days Later

The island appeared on the horizon. Willa couldn't help but smiling. The island was so beautiful. It blew her mind that something so beautiful could become so dreadful and dark. She hoped that they could stop Maleficent before the anyone was sacrificed. The mere thought of human sacrifice made a chill run down Willa's back.

A pair of warm arms wrapped around her and a kiss landed on her cheek.

"Morning beautiful," Philby whispered in her ear.

"Morning."

"We're here." She could hear the dread in his voice. "This is it."

"Yeah." She took a breath. "Don't you think this is a little silly? We're going to stop three crazy ladies from unleashing an evil spirit." She stifled a laugh. "Stuff like this only happens in fairy tales."

"Well if this is a fairy tale, do I get to be the dashing young knight in shining armor? I think that title suits me pretty well."

Willa laughed at his inflated confidence. "Somebody's been hanging out with the captain a little bit too much."

"So is that a yes to the knight in shining armor?"

"If it makes you feel better, then yes."

"You'll have to be the beautiful princess of course."

"Which translates to the damsel in distress in most fairy tales." The last thing Willa wanted was to be a damsel in distress, feeling helpless and useless was not her thing.

"But why is that a bad thing? As a knight in shining armor, I need damsels in distress to stay in my job."

Willa laughed, but before she could reply, Finn walked up beside them.

"Hey Philby. Can I talk to Willa for a second?"

"Anything you want to say to me, you can say to him. Let's not be secretive here Finn. Besides, I'll end up telling him anyway." She nudged Finn.

"Oh, alright." Finn cleared his throat. "Jess wanted to scout out the location of the temple, but since she can't read any of the writing in the book, she was wondering if you would come with her. Since you know what the journal says and all."

"Sure, we'd like to come." Philby said, tightening his grip on Willa.

"Uh…she only asked for Willa." Finn said awkwardly.

"Oh."

"It's okay." Willa turned to Finn." What time do we leave?"

"As soon as we get close enough for you two to get into a boat and row ashore."

"Where's Jess? Shouldn't she be asking me herself?"

"She's with Amanda. Amanda's…uh…not feeling well."

"What's wrong with her?" Philby, who was disappointed a few seconds earlier, was now very concerned.

"She's…uh…just sea sick. That's all."

"She didn't get sick the first time we rode on Terry's boat." Willa stated.

"Yeah, I don't know. She'll be fine." Finn stared off into the distance for a few seconds before going back below decks.

"You sure you don't want me to go?" Philby asked Willa once Finn was gone.

"I can do this, Philby."

"It's not that you can't do this, because I know you can. I just want to be there in case something goes wrong. I promised to protect you and I intend on keeping that promise."

"Well I'm not the damsel in distress this time, Philby. Maybe next time." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before going below decks to get ready for her scouting mission with Jess.

Willa and Jess trudged through the jungle. Jess was using the sword Finn had given her to cut branches out of the way. Willa was holding the journal, trying to use it to navigate to the temple.

Their mission was simple: see if Maleficent was at the temple already. They weren't supposed to be seen or engage in any fighting. Just scout the area, then come back.

Willa had told Philby they should be back in three hours. Philby had made the point to tell her that he would go after them if they weren't back by then.

"I think we need to turn left about forty-five degrees." Willa called out to Jess.

Without saying a word, Jess moved in the direction Willa had said.

For another ten minutes the girls said nothing. Willa wasn't looking where she was going because her eyes were fixed on the journal. The ancient language fascinated her. She wanted to take the time to study it and try to decode it herself, but she hadn't had the time so far. When this is all over, she reassured herself.

Jess abruptly stopped and Willa ran straight into her, dropping the journal.

"Why'd you stop Jess? Based on the map it looks like we have—"

Jess turned around and placed her hand over her mouth.

"Somebody's following us," Jess whispered. Willa's eyes grew wide.

Jess slowly crouched down, an action which Willa quickly imitated.

Willa figured Jess must have some insanely good hearing, because she didn't hear anything. She also didn't hear anyone sneaking up on her.

Before she knew it, something hit her hard and fast like a freight train. She fell forward, bringing scrapes on her face, hands and arms. The edges of her vision were blurred. She struggled to get up, but couldn't do it. And in a few seconds, her she lost feeling in her whole body and everything went black.

To say Philby was worried would be an understatement. After exactly three hours after the girls' departure, he started heading off to find Willa—and Jess too, but mainly his fiancée. Finn had convinced him not to go alone, and then got stuck being the one to accompany him.

They had been walking for about two hours, trying to track the girls through the island's jungle, but they were having a hard time. After Philby was starting to lose hope, he saw someone lying on the jungle floor.

He ran to the person and immediately his heart sank in his chest.

Willa was lying unconscious with her hands bound and her mouth gagged. There were a few cuts on her face and arms, but nothing too serious.

He immediately cut the rope tying her hands together with his sword and removed the gag. He propped her up to a sitting position on the nearest tree. He shook her shoulders lightly. She wasn't waking up.

"Where's Jess?" Finn asked. "What about the journal?"

But Philby wasn't paying attention to Finn.

"Come on Willa, please wake up." She was definitely breathing. She doesn't have any head wounds, so how did she get unconscious?

"Willa, wake up." He shook her shoulders again, this time with a little bit more force.

"Willa, sweetheart, please." Philby felt a few tears come to his eyes, but he brushed them away. He was not about to start crying in front of Finn or Willa.

Willa stirred and slowly opened her eyes. It took her a few seconds to focus in on anything, which Philby knew was a result of being drugged by something.

"Philby?" She asked in a small, weak voice. "Wh-where's Jess?"

"We don't know, Willa. That's what we were hoping you'd tell us." Finn, now kneeling beside Willa, asked in a quiet, comforting voice.

"I…uh…don't know." She tried to lean forward, but immediately felt woozy and leaned back on the tree. "I remember her stopping because she heard something, and then something hit me and I lost all feeling…then…then…that's it."

"Amanda's going to kill me." Finn muttered under his breath.

"Did you see who attacked you?" Philby asked, hoping to get some kind of clue who they were dealing with, but Willa shook her head.

"Let's get you back to the ship. We'll come back for Jess." Philby decided.

"What do you mean, we'll come back for Jess?" Finn scold Philby. "We need to find her NOW! The more time we spend wasting going back and forth to the ship, the harder it will be to find her!"

"Willa is in no condition to walk around in the jungle!"

"I can't go back without Jess! I refuse to do it! We don't know what happened to her! And we lost the journal!"

"Do any of you two know what time it is?" Willa asked the two, stopping their fight.

"Why does that matter?" Finn yelled at Willa in frustration.

Philby looked toward the sky. He could tell the what time it was based off the sun's position. The tops of the trees were getting in the way, but Philby saw enough to make an educated guess.

"I'd say it's almost noon, why do you ask?"

"They won't be doing anything at the temple until sunset." Willa said through deep breaths. Whatever was used to knock her out still had some kind of hold on her. "We have time Finn."

Finn studied her, as if trying to see whether or not she was making that up.

"Fine. Let's get going."

Finn and Philby helped Willa stand up. Finn led the way back to the ship. Philby wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her steady. Willa leaned on him heavily, too much for Philby's liking.

After walking for ten minutes or so, Philby realized she was slipping into unconsciousness again. He stopped, move his arm around her waist up her back and placed his other arm under her knees. He picked her up bridal-style and carried her.

Every once in a while, Philby would look down at her, but each time he saw her still unconscious. Philby didn't know what was used to knock her out, but by the way she described it, it seemed more like...no, that's insane, Philby. There's no way Willa was hit by a spell. But Philby couldn't help but think that it was a spell. And it was bothering him that he didn't know.

Who are we dealing with? We're in way too deep.

By the time they got back to the boat, she had awoken again, but this time she wasn't as out of it as she was the first time. Philby tried to get her to go to bed and take a quick nap, but she refused.

Charlene, Dillard and the captain quickly joined them on the top deck, asking what had happened to Willa and where Jess was. But neither Finn nor Philby could answer their questions, which only made their situation worse.

"So what do we do Finn? We can't have Jess becoming the sacrifice!" Charlene pleaded.

"That's not going to happen, Charlie, I promise. We need to have some sort of plan, though." Finn said calmly.

"Do we even know where the temple is?" Terry yelled out. "The stupid temple could be anywhere for as far as we know!" Except he didn't say stupid.

"We didn't find it, but we were very close." Willa said in a soothing voice. Philby could tell that she was exhausted, but he knew better then to ask her to rest a little.

"So how long do we have before this whole unleashing spirit business happens?" Dillard asked Finn with a serious tone, which shocked Philby. Dillard didn't strike him as the serious type.

"Willa says we have until sunset." Finn replied.

"We can make it to the temple by then." An idea popped in Philby's head. "But we'll have to also to stop Maleficent in the process. Two missions in one."

"Save Jess, stop the spirit unleashing nonsense, and get back here alive." The captain stared back at Philby. The anger and revenge in his eyes gave Philby chills up his spine. He made a mental note never to mess with him. "I believe that's three missions, Phildweeb."

"Save Jess? What are you talking about?" Amanda slowly made her way over to Finn. Philby could see how weak she was. There's no way she's sea sick. Upon reaching Finn, she held one hand on her stomach and the other on the railing behind her. Finn wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her.

"I'm sorry Amanda, but Jess was taken." Finn said quietly.

"WHAT?"

"They attacked me from behind before we knew what was going on." Willa added. "I'm really sorry Amanda. I was knocked out before Jess was taken, so I have no clue what happened to her."

Amanda was quiet for a second. "No, no, Willa, it's not your fault."

She turned to face Finn. "I just know this was Maleficent." She closed her eyes and gripped the railing tighter. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again. "Finn, I want you to go get Jess back and get rid of Maleficent. I wish I could be there with you, but I—" She gripped the railing again. Philby thought she was going to vomit over the edge of the ship, but it never happened.

Finn nodded and kissed her on the forehead. "Let's get you back to bed."

She nodded, but before Finn ushered her back downstairs, he turned to address the group.

"We leave for the temple in ten minutes."

Duh, duh, duh...oh dang. Here we go! Where's Jess? And was Willa really hit by a spell?

I guess you'll have to wait and find out! :P

And please review! I love reading them! Tell me what you like (and what you don't, that's always helpful!)! I'll do my best to update as soon as possible!