Chronciles of Ecladia Book One Beginnings

by Maris8

I started this story about a year ago and have been working on it ever since, so I hope you like it! If I try 2 explain the plot, you'll think it's cheezy, but please bear with me! rated T for safety!

Prologue

Maris

"Maris."

My eyes were closed.

"Maris."

My eyes snapped open as the majestic voice spoke again. "Maris."

I was standing in complete darkness, an impenetrable darkness as black as spilled ink. There was a mist the color of the early dawn that wreathed around my feet, beckoning me to join it. And, as I stumbled through the mist, I began to realize that there was no one else there… but someone had to have called my name… right?

"Hello?" I called into the darkness, afraid of what I might see.

"Maris… Maris…" the voice coaxed again. It was a soft, feminine voice, and, despite the forbidding atmosphere, the voice sounded welcoming and kind… like a good parent.

As I was thinking, I noticed a beautiful black-haired woman standing in the mist.

She was floating about a foot above the ground, her arms extended towards me as if to bring me into a warm embrace. Her waist-length, jet-black hair hovered around her angelically, making her beautiful indigo eyes shine purple against her pale white skin.

"Who are you?" I asked. "What do you want?"

"Your destiny is waiting, waiting for you…." She murmured, smiling a perfect, white-toothed smile.

"What? What do you mean?" I inquired, confused by her words.

"Sleep, child, and all will be well… your journey starts very soon… and I will be there beside you…" As her voice faded into the mist, so did she- her figure becoming less and less visible amongst the tendrils of fog.

"What? What does that- wait! Don't go! What are you talking about! Wait!" I yelled to the woman as she faded away completely, allowing the mist to finally envelope me in its intoxicating embrace. And, just before I went under, I screamed one last time.

"WAIT!"

Chapter One

Beginning

Maris

- Bring! –

My alarm blared through my subconscious, jerking me awake. I sat up quickly in bed as my eyes flew open, the morning sunlight that lanced through the blinds on my window making me see colors. Groaning, I lifted my hand to turn the alarm off, but when I saw what time it was, I quickly scrambled out of bed, not wanting to be late for school.

In my haste, my elbow connected painfully with the wall, making me yelp as a jagged bolt of pain zigzagged up my arm. Not the best way to start on a Monday morning right before school.

All of a sudden, I heard a very soft, muffled sound, like someone had seen me get hurt and was finding a good amount of humor in it. I instantly glanced out the window to where I thought I had heard it- the tree that stood right next to my window where I used to sit whenever I wanted to escape when I was younger. But it was empty.

When I finally convinced myself that nothing was out there making fun of me, I turned back to my messy room littered with clothes and the other miscellaneous junk you'd find in a teenage girl's room. All except makeup. Yuck.

Must've been a bird, I thought to myself, even though I knew birds didn't laugh unless you trained them to.

Then, I stumbled into the bathroom, muttering to myself about the likelihood of a laughing bird on the loose.

And, as I stepped onto the cold linoleum floor of my bathroom, my dream from the night before rose up like a bubble to the front of my mind.

I had had that dream for about a month now, ever since I had gotten back from spring break. I hadn't told anyone about it, especially my mom. Moms worry too much. It was usually the same way every single night, darkness, mist…but this time, I had met that woman…

I stared at myself in the mirror. Same old shoulder-length black hair, same pale skin, and, of course, my same deep green eyes with a weird black tree in them, not to mention the dark circles that were practically permanently attached to my skin. I didn't look like the kind of person who would have some great destiny on their shoulders… so what did my dream mean? I was starting to sound like one of those fortune-teller people. I decided I wouldn't let it bug me- dreams were dreams, and that was it. Nothing real about them.

After I brushed my teeth and tore a comb through my tangled hair, I quickly threw on a plain white shirt and sweater with my favorite faded blue jeans. Then I went downstairs to grab a quick glass of milk before I headed for school.

As I reached for the handle of our stainless steel fridge, I noticed a bright pink sticky-note hanging on the door, waiting to be read. I quickly peeled it off and began to read my mom's equally hurried writing, not wanting to be even more late to school than I already was.

Dear Maris,

I'm sorry I couldn't catch you

on your way out, but I still wanted to

wish you a happy 16th birthday.

Love,

Mom

I glanced at the calendar in surprise. Yep, it was May 18th, all right. My sixteenth birthday.

"Shoot!" I spat to myself as I ran to the entrance of Vanguard High, one of the high schools located in Brooklyn, New York, just a couple of streets away from where I lived. I was about fifteen minutes late and was already having to run like an Olympic sprinter if I wanted to make it before the late bell rang and my no-tardy record went up in flames.

As I neared the entrance, I noticed that the only students left outside were a couple of the more popular cliques who didn't really care whether or not they were late to class, and my obviously flustered best friend, Melissa.

"What in this cruddy place we call a world were you?" demanded Melissa as soon as I joined her at the threshold.

"I overslept, alright?" I told her, beginning the walk as calmly as I could to my first hour class while my nerves were as jumpy as fourth of July fireworks.

She instantly began tailing me, obviously not finished chewing me out. "Come on, Maris, you have enough money to at least afford a decent alarm clock," She tutted, shaking her head and scattering the strands of her flaming red hair.

My jaw clenched. I hated it when Melissa brought up my and my mom's lack of money, and the only reason that was true was because my dad had died. I'd never even met the guy; my mom didn't have me for another five months after he died. Or so she said.

"What good is a decent alarm clock if I don't even know how to use it?" I shot back, hurriedly ducking around a corner.

"Say all the excuses you want, but you can't expect me to wait for you every single time you're late! I think I'm gonna start heading to class without you!" she threatened as we halted at the fork in the hall that divided our first hours.

"You do that, Mel, but I'm one hundred percent sure you'll miss me after the first day or two!" I called over my shoulder as I walked away, nervously hoping that I wouldn't be late.

I didn't hear what she said in response as I rounded the corner into my Biology class, but I heard her yell. "Well, happy birthday!"

I groaned as I finally entered my class.

Apparently, I wasn't as late as I thought I had been, a lot of the other sophomores were still gossiping about tons of other, unrelated things and none of them even looked up as I came in, except for one person, that is.

"Hey, Mars-Bars!" an unfortunately familiar voice greeted me.

"What do you want, Justin?" I asked the chocolate-haired boy who happened to be blocking my way. Not to mention using the nickname I absolutely hated.

"Just wanted to wish my favorite girl a happy sixteenth birthday," he grinned, his dark blue eyes twinkling jovially. "I mean, it's not every day you turn old enough to legally drive."

"Well, thanks," I thanked him rather rudely.

Justin was a boy who had been hitting on my since the fifth grade, and, after ten years of having to put up with him, I was at the end of my rope.

"You know, I've been thinking about what to get you, so I thought just a small kiss would suffice," he pressed.

Another fun fact about Justin: he's also been trying to get me to kiss him since I was ten.

"Sorry, but it just isn't happening," I shot him down, as usual.

"Come on, Maris! It's just one kiss," he whined, getting closer to me. "Besides, if you do it, I'll never bother you again."

"No, Justin," I repeated myself. "I won't let you kiss me."

"Please, Mars-Bars? Just one eensy, little-bitty kiss," he prompted. "No big deal."

"No is no!"

Just then, the late bell rang; both saving me from Justin and making me jump before finally dumping my stuff down on the first two-person desk I came to as I sat down.

For the first time in my life, I was happy that my mom hadn't decided to buy me a backpack. Sure, I would have a big, heavy pile of books to carry around the school until I had a chance to escape to my locker, but at least I wouldn't get in trouble for having a pack in class.

"Quiet down, quiet down," boomed Mr. Walters, a rather round, short, bald, old man with a bristly mustache, as he straightened up from his desk to begin the class. Everyone hustled to their seats, Justin among them as he shuffled into the spot right behind me.

I allowed myself a low sigh of relief. I had made it just in time. Thank God.

"I will start our class today by introducing our new student. His name is… is…." Mr. Walters furrowed his brows comically in concentration as he struggled to remember. He was like Professor Plum in Clue- he had the worst memory… which meant taking the same tests more than once, sometimes.

"Seth. Just Seth," a smooth, male voice said from beside me.

I turned my head to look at the new arrival (along with every other person in the class), and what I saw made my head snap back almost immediately to hide my blush.

Sitting next to me was an extremely handsome, dirty-blonde boy with a long, oval face who looked to be about seventeen. I cursed myself for just plopping everything down without looking. Late or not, I would never had chosen that spot if I had only known who would be my table partner.

I peered around my screen of black hair and took him in more closely. He had his books stacked neatly in front of him, one for each of his next three hours, and I noticed a rather peculiar one that stood out among the rest. It was dark black with red and gold curlicues on it. I couldn't make out exactly what it said, so I tried even harder, but no success. Finally giving up, I looked back up at the boy. He was wearing a dark, forest green shirt and regular, every-day blue jeans.

And as I glanced back up at his face, I turned an even deeper scarlet when I noticed he was looking at me with keen interest; like I was some sort of new thing he had never seen before. As I looked on, he met my eyes.

His eyes were a pure, clear blue, like sparkling blue ice crystals set in his angel-made face. It was such a beautiful, captivating blue that I was completely oblivious of the envious mutterings that the other girls emitted as they glared at me for capturing the attention of the new boy. Not to mention Justin coughing rather loudly as he also noticed what was happening. The moment stretched on… and on… and on… and I didn't think I'd ever return to reality until I felt my heart fluttering unnaturally in my chest and I broke eye contact with him.

"So, let's begin!" said Mr. Walters, clapping his hands together enthusiastically.

He began to ramble on and on about cells and their composition, but I barely heard anything that came out of his mouth. I couldn't stop thinking about the boy sitting next to me.

Why had he looked at me like that? Where did he come from? Why was I thinking all of these questions?

"Maris!" Mr. Walter's voice resonated in my head from out of nowhere.

I jumped. "Y-yeah?" I stammered, wondering why in the world he would say my name like that. Did he somehow hear what I was thinking?

"Answer the question," he replied.

"Oh, um…" I trailed off, turning a dark scarlet as I realize that I have absolutely no clue what question he had just asked. I could hear the chuckles emanating from behind me as my classmates laugh at my vulnerability, though many of them probably didn't hear it either.

"What is the basic shape of DNA," murmured Seth from beside me, his voice barely audible.

"Oh, erm… a rope ladder?" I finally answer Mr. Walters, thanking Seth telepathically.

"Correct. Now on to the next chapter," says Mr. Walters as I breathe a long, slow sigh of relief.

How in the world had I missed that question? Why did Seth affect my behavior so much?

And, most of all: Who was he?

After school, I returned to Biology to ask Mr. Walters about the rather large assignment he had handed to us (I was kind of hoping he would forget and tell me not to do it or something like that) but when I walked in, he wasn't in his usual chair.

I looked around to see if he had left some sort of sign where he had gone, but there was nothing.

As I neared the table that boy Seth and I had sat, I noticed the black leather-bound book he had had was lying on the exact spot where he had sat, somehow completely untouched despite the fact that the entire school day had passed. I was almost certain that someone would've swiped it by then, but apparently, they didn't.

As I bent to pick up the book, I saw an inscription engraved on the cover, but when I tried to read it again, I couldn't even begin to decipher the letters or symbols or whatever was written on it! To my eyes, it said:

Enla Inakarei Ftermina

Why did I quit that Roman class? Was the first thought that weaved through my head. But even with the meager knowledge of Roman I possessed, I knew that what was written on the book wasn't Roman. Nor did it seem to be of any other language I knew of.

You should find him and give it back to him, my conscience piped up, as righteous as always.

Or you can look inside, then give it back! He'll never know! Said another voice in my head, one that was… not to righteous. I gave into my second voice and glanced around to make sure I was alone before I opened the book.

Within the book were a whole bunch of small, close-knit paragraphs written in the same elegant script as the front but there were pictures. Horrible pictures of people getting roasted alive and man-eating trees devouring people. Not to mention other, indescribable things.

I slammed the book shut, shuddering. Why would Seth, who seemed like such a nice boy, be reading something like that?

I'm going to find him, give it to him, and then I'll be home free, I thought to myself.

Boy, was I wrong about the "home free" part!

"Seth! Wait up!" I shouted as Seth rounded yet another corner in the intricate alleyway. He was about four or five yards ahead of me as I tailed him, and I couldn't tell if he had heard me and was just ignoring me, or he just plain old didn't hear me.

I was running at top speed, struggling to catch up to him, but his longer legs carried him much farther than mine did, even though he was just strolling nonchalantly down the street. The alley, to my relief, then opened up into an abandoned construction site. They were going to make a mini-mall or something there, but they had to stop because of contamination or something like that.

I was ready to yell his name again, but stopped short when he walked towards a small door in a shadowy corner of the site that, if he hadn't turned towards it, I would never have noticed.

He raised his hand as if to touch it, and, with a bright flash of green light, he disappeared without leaving so much as a dust particle wavering in the air.

Instantly, my jaw dropped and my eyes widened in astonishment as my brain registered what had just happened.

"What the heck was that?" I questioned verbally, using one of Mel's absolute, favorite phrases.

How had Seth just disappeared? That kind of stuff happened in movies, books, and bad sitcoms! Not in real life!

I hurried to the door, the grotesque book clutched to my side protectively as I went to investigate.

The door towered a good seven feet above me, and engraved on it was a gnarled and twisted leaf-less tree with a small disc, which I took to be the sun, behind its trunk. There were words written across the tree's trunk in the same language as the book, but I could barely make it out because of all the dust and grime that littered its elegant script. But, beneath all that, the words spelled out:

Erãhas Mersanavf Lemmisiia Ecladia

There seemed to be something else written a couple or so inches beneath that, but when I raised my left hand to brush some of the dust off, a tree symbol appeared, out of nowhere, on my hand and began to glow a blinding white. I opened my mouth to scream, but it was cut short as I disappeared, just like Seth.

Chapter Two

FamilyMaris

"I've just been informed that one of the heirs has appeared," a craggly voice growled.

My eyes slowly fluttered open, but, as soon as they were, I knew instantly that I was dreaming. There was a small, dark cloaked man sitting regally on a throne, then another figure on one knee before him, equally cloaked. Both had their cowls up, so I couldn't see either of their faces, much less recognize who they were just by their voices.

The guy on the throne seemed to be seriously old; his gnarled hands clenching the throne, making his thin white bones stick out among his pallid, marble white skin. I placed him in about his…. Oh, late thousands.

The person kneeling before him seemed to be between seventeen or nineteen judging by their small stature.

The kneeling figure was speaking, so I stopped thinking to listen to what they had to say.

"Y-you have been rightly informed, milord, we shall app-apprehend them immediately," the figure stuttered in a rather low, male voice, his gaze glued to the floor as if he were afraid to meet the other man's eyes. Believe me, if you were in that guy's place, you'd be scared too, judging by the man's thick, gravely voice that just reeked of pure evil.

"Really? A new recruit such as you knows exactly what to do? Tell me then," the man on the throne cajoled, a smile apparent in his voice.

"W-we shall apprehend the heir and b-bring them to y-you, m-milord," gulped the boy, his shoulders shaking a little with his stutter.

"Either my most loyal lieutenant has told you wrong, or you truly do not know what you are doing! Repeat your instructions as you were told, not as you like!" snarled the bony-handed man, squeezing the armrest of his throne and making his bones even more apparent.

"W-we apprehend them, bring them to you so you may test to see if they are the true heir, if they are, we shall let you deal with her," recited the boy, his bass voice shaking with fear.

Then, after that, the man on the throne actually laughed! A deep, menacing laugh that seemed to find joy at torturing the poor boy bowing before him.

After a minute or so, the man's booming laugh dwindled to a barely decipherable chuckle.

"They had better hope that they are not the heir for what I have in store for Erowynn's spawn," he muttered evilly before laughing his cruel laugh again.

Then, everything began to fade away slowly, until I could feel myself returning to reality.

I carefully opened my eyes, waking up slowly, the cloaked guy's laugh still echoing in my subconscious mind. As soon as my eyes were fully open, I quickly glanced around, half-expecting to see that crazy guy and his little buddy. Luckily, I didn't see them. What I did see totally caught me by surprise.

I was lying on my right side at the top of a small hill smack-dab in the middle of a large, grassy meadow surrounded on all sides by woods.

Gradually, I lifted myself onto one elbow and scanned the clearing, looking for any signs of danger. The grass was a brilliant, emerald green and waved in the chilly breeze, reaching up towards the stormy gray sky that gave the entire place a rather gloomy feeling.

The clearing was completely empty except for some guys in black cloaks like the guys in my dream standing some yards away from me at the bottom of my hill.

They were mumbling to each other as if in argument, but they were shooting occasional glances at me as well.

Well, I thought, whatever they're talking about, it just can't be good.

Then, as if on cue, the taller of the two guys broke away from his partner and walked over to me. He towered above me at what looked like almost seven feet, his strangely golden eyes glaring down at my face like some humanoid owl.

"Come with us," he coaxed in a very silky, persuasive voice.

Alarms went off in my head. There was something off about that guy, so I just blinked and stayed where I was, more out of fear than caution.

When I didn't do what he said, the just reached down and pulled me roughly up by my elbow and actually lifted me a good two inches off the ground with what felt like superhuman strength.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, struggling to escape from his stony grip with no success.

"If you do not struggle, milady, we will not have to hurt you," instructed the man.

"Let go!" I screeched in defiance, beginning to claw at his hands in hopes of hurting him enough to get away.

"It seems that you have given us no choice…" the man trailed off as he reached into the pocket of his cloak and pulled out what looked like a syringe filled to the brim with what I guessed was some kind of anesthetic.

But he didn't even get a chance to lift it up to me before a blur sped by and rammed into the guy holding me. I fell backwards onto the soft springy grass as the man suddenly let go of both the syringe and me. I was jarred for a second, but I looked up in time to see Seth, yep, Seth, the chick magnet that had sat next to me in first hour, wrestling with the guy.

Seth was on top of him; one hand had him pinned down while the other was around his neck, choking him. The syringe had landed a good three feet away from the guy, so Seth was obviously in no danger of getting sedated, nor of being hurt in any way physically possible.

My attacker's partner gasped in shock at Seth's sudden appearance before disappearing in a veil of what looked like black smoke, and, seeing his apparent coward of a partner retreating, Seth's opponent escaped from his grip the same way too.

After the man got away, Seth stood up and rounded on me.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded furiously, his eyes blazing like a sapphire blue fire with all the adrenaline that had obviously been pumping through his veins up until then.

"I-I wanted to give this back to you," I stammered somewhat stupidly as I held out the gruesome book. As soon as he saw it, he cooled down immediately, his eyes softening until he was smiling faintly at me.

"W-what happened to me? Where am I?" I asked, sensing that Seth would probably not hit me even if I asked him really obvious questions.

Seth glanced around as if another of those men were going to pop out of nowhere and attack us again. "We can't talk here, there are too many spies," he mumbled half to himself.

"What?" I queried, getting more confused. Spies? Where in the world was I?

"I'll take you back to our hideout, Kem will know what to do," he muttered as he grabbed hold of my wrist and started to lead me towards the woods, that small tremor rippling through my heart again as his fingers curled around my wrist (by then, I was wondering if I had like, a serious cardiac problem that only appeared whenever Seth was around me).

I hesitated at first, weighing the odds. First, Seth could kill me in there for all I knew. Second, I could never see my friends and family ever again.

The odds were weighing heavily against Seth, but something deep inside me told me to follow him. I still don't know what made me follow him, but I did.

As we walked into the dark green foliage, the atmosphere changed drastically. The gloomy feeling that had been hanging over the clearing like a fog lifted almost miraculously. The forest felt, well, peaceful, like Bambi and all his friends would show up any minute.

We walked for about thirty more minutes in complete silence until Seth stopped, his head cocked to one side as he listened to some sound that I hadn't picked up.

He sighed to himself. "Come out of the tree, Jaspr, it's just me," he ordered, his voice flat as if he had had to say that many times before.

"Well, you can't blame me for being careful," a rather loud voice piped up from above.

All of a sudden, a thin, yet short, blond boy who looked just a bit younger than me swung off a low branch in a tree behind us on one arm, the other holding a crudely made bow with an arrow knocked on the string.

His bright, fluffy, blonde hair shone like a brilliant molten sun with dark green eyes that were flecked with a dark, midnight blue, and he looked younger than Seth, about the same age as I did. He was wearing a shirt not unlike Seth's but had on dark brown trousers and brown boots that looked like something Link from the Legend of Zelda would wear. He was smiling a mischievous grin, like he was laughing at some private joke.

"Who's your pretty girlfriend, here, Seth?" asked Jaspr teasingly, his eyes sparkling with mischief as he noticed Seth's hand around my wrist.

Seth clenched his jaw as he finally let go of my wrist; leaving me blushing furiously, my blush intensified by my extremely pale skin.

"She's not my girlfriend, I think she's one of them," hinted Seth, struggling to control his apparently short temper.

The two boys obviously had some sort of thing between them, you know, a sibling-like thing. It was a possibility considering the fact that Jaspr and Seth looked kinda sorta alike.

"One of the Kalkoora?" joked Jaspr again, toying even more with Seth's temper.

"No, you idiot!" snapped Seth, slapping the back of Jaspr's head in his fury.

"Ow! Jeez, bro! I was only kidding! Don't you have a sense of humor?" whined Jaspr, rubbing the back of his obviously throbbing head.

"He's your brother?" I queried, turning to Seth, who was still fuming.

"Unfortunately, yes," he growled, brushing past me roughly.

Yes! I thought, I was right! It wasn't every day I was right about something.

"Hey! What do you mean by "unfortunately"?" Jaspr demanded from Seth as he scrambled after his brother.

I stood alone for a second. Everything was hitting me so fast. One of them? Kalkoora? What in the world did anything they said mean?

My head spun with all sorts of questions, but I just sighed and followed them into the surrounding trees and bushes, hoping that my questions would be answered soon.

After a couple more minutes of walking, maybe about, five to eight minutes later, we arrived at a small, makeshift shelter in the forest that resembled a shack you'd see in someone's backyard.

By the time I got there, Seth was already slipping inside with Jaspr following close behind. I walked in, reluctantly, after Jaspr.

The shack was a one-room shelter with a miniature fire in the middle of the floor to provide warmth and a couple of blankets that I guessed were used for beds.

As I was examining the scene, a hand, out from nowhere, seized the back of my neck firmly, lifting me up in the air again. I gasped in both surprise and pain as my captor's fingers dug into the delicate skin of my neck.

"State your business," barked another boy's voice from behind me.

"Ed, leave her alone, she's no threat. She doesn't have any weapons on her or anything," a girl's voice (finally) said, coming to my rescue.

I breathed a low sigh of relief, despite the girl's assumption that I was no threat, as the strange hand finally released me, dropping me the four or five inches back to the ground.

"Those two are Edwin and Kemris, other siblings of mine," Seth introduced to me from a corner of the room, his back to me as he fiddled with something in his hands.

I did a ninety-degree turn. Sitting on a nearby box about the size of a small chair was a honey-blonde girl with long, elbow-length hair that matched her cream-colored dress and green eyes that were flecked with even darker green. She looked about eighteen or nineteen, and she was smiling very warmly at me. I guessed that she was Kemris.

I made a mental note to thank her later for saving me from her bear of a brother, Edwin, who was, obviously, still standing behind me. Edwin was tall with broad shoulders that made him look older than Jaspr, but still younger than Seth and Kemris. He looked even more threatening, though with his dark, ruffled, chocolate brown hair that brought out his brown-slash-amber eyes mixed with an almost green blue that were narrowed in suspicion, not to mention his arms crossed over his dark brown shirt that matched his pants and boots.

Jaspr sat down on a box positioned next to Kemris', gazing at me intently as Seth had done that morning.

"You really think she's one of them?" Jaspr questioned curiously, looking me up and down.

"She does have all the signs, the black hair, the extremely pale skin, especially the eyes," Kemris agreed. "Did you check for the Insignia, Seth?"

"I didn't have to, if Maris didn't have it, she wouldn't be here right now," Seth replied, finally turning around.

He was holding the hilt of what looked like a sword, probably his sword, and was trying to get the clasp undone so he could attach it to his hip.

"Wait… how do you know my name?" I asked, freaking out at the fact that a nearly complete stranger knew my name.

"We were in the same class, Maris, remember? Attendance?" Seth explained, giving me a pretty warm smile that sent my heart thudding again.

"W-were you talking about that tree sign?" I guessed, changing the subject to one that, hopefully, wouldn't make me look even more stupid.

"Yes," Edwin growled bluntly, his eyes so narrow that you could just barely past his thick eyelashes.

"Let up on 'er, Ed, you don't have to look at everyone like that when you first meet them, you have to wait 'till they betray you first!" exclaimed Jaspr, his mischievous grin earning him another slap in the back of the head, compliments from Seth.

"Ouch!" He yelped for the second time that day (at least from what I knew at the time). "Where's your sense of humor gone, huh?"

Jaspr rubbed the back of his head as he scooted farther away from Seth towards the very edge of his box.

At that moment, Seth and Edwin exchanged a mysterious wink that just reeked of a deeper meaning.

"Ok… what did you two just wink for?" Jaspr questioned, his eyes darting between his two older brothers who both had huge grins plastered on their faces.

"Nothing incredibly important…" answered Seth nonchalantly, obviously stifling a laugh.

"Ok, what did you two jinx?" Jaspr yelled as he sprang up from his seat.

Bad move.

Apparently, Edwin and Seth had set some firecrackers or some other explosive at Jaspr's feet so when he stood up, they crackled to life.

Jaspr screamed, practically dancing around, struggling to avoid the oncoming sparks that threatened to light him on fire.

Seth and Edwin were cracking up from watching Jaspr jumping around like a leprechaun celebrating a new arrival of gold. I have to admit it was pretty funny despite the fact that Jaspr might have lit up on fire.

I glanced at Kemris, surprised at her calm appearance, but then I noticed that she was biting her lip, struggling not to laugh at her younger brother.

After the firecrackers finally died (which took nearly thirty minutes) Seth and Edwin were still clutching their sides and gasping for breath, the both of them sitting down on their own boxes to try and completely regain their breath.

"Ahh," Seth sighed, finally regaining his breath. "Sweet, sweet revenge."

"The prankster has just been pranked," added Edwin, his threatening demeanor gone.

"Sure, sure. I hope you're happy now," Jaspr muttered, trying to rub a soot stain off his left boot.

"Happy? That barely whetted our thirst for revenge! Just wait 'til lunch. Let's just say that if I were you, I wouldn't want to eat," Seth threatened with a dark smile, making Jaspr's face flush with fear.

At his reaction, Edwin and Seth immediately burst out laughing all over again.

I turned to Kemris, a bit bashful.

"Do they always do that?" I questioned, nervous about talking to the only other girl in the room.

"Most of the time they do, but sometimes there'll be a dry spell when they want to try and catch each other by surprise," she replied, her green eyes sparkling with laughter even though her mouth was still struggling to remain a symbol of seriousness.

Eventually, Seth and Edwin stopped laughing, but Jaspr was still scowling as he struggled to get rid of the dark black stain that was still on his boot.

Seth stood up, serious now. "Is everything ready, Kem?" he checked with Kemris.

"Yep, the food's packed, the clothes, the gold, everything," Kemris reported, smiling as she reached behind her back and pulled out a rather large brown sack that was filled to the brim with… something.

Edwin rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Finally! Now we can get moving!" he exclaimed, sounding pretty content.

"Wha-where are you going?" I stammered as Seth walked past me towards the door, carrying a bag filled with items such as those that Kemris had listed.

"We're going to Dendris and you're coming with us, whether you like it or not," he threatened playfully, grinning jovially at me and making me blush again.

"Mwahahaha," murmured under his breath, starting to get his bravado back.

"Well, I'm already here and I'm pretty sure you can overpower me," I agreed before glancing at Jaspr, who was still struggling to get the stain off of his boot. "Maybe not Jaspr, but the rest of you probably could."

"HEY! See what you do, Seth? What are you trying to make? A conspiracy? A club? Well just go ahead, I don't care!" Jaspr declared, sitting up straighter with each word.

"Fine, fine, whatever you say," said Seth sarcastically. "Oh, Edwin, since the so-called prankster said we could to it, remind me to get some more firecrackers in Dendris."
Jaspr's mouth gaped open. "W-wait a second! You've been getting that stuff in Den- don't- don't you walk- Hey! I'm not done talk- WAIT! Curse them!" Jaspr shouted as he ran after his brothers who had taken a bag each and ran.

Kemris and I exchanged equally quizzical looks before following the three brothers closely behind.

"Ow! That burned!"

"It's your fault for trying to roast it, idiot."

"I was trying to burn off the poison you two obviously spiked it with!"

It was night now, and we were all sitting around a small campfire, Seth was sitting about a yard to my right, Edwin right beside him, Kemris next to him, and Jaspr was sitting next to his older sister and me. Jaspr was still convinced that his brothers were trying to poison him despite their meager attempts to prove him wrong, hence trying to burn the poison off of the ham and cheese sandwich he had.

"Come on, Jaspr, we were just kidding," Seth assured him unsuccessfully, grinning mischievously.

"Yeah right, for all I know if I take a bite out of this, I'm gonna drop dead; killed by my own brothers!" complained Jaspr theatrically.

"That's it, Jaspr, give it to me," ordered Kemris, taking Jaspr's sandwich from him, tearing a piece off, then nibbling on the side of it before handing it back. "See? All better."

As soon as he saw that his older sister was still alive, Jaspr shoved the entire lot into his mouth, spraying crumbs everywhere.

"See, Jaspr? We weren't lying," pointed out Seth, stifling his laughter.

"Sure. I can't trust you guys any farther than I can throw you," Jaspr shot back, his mouth still full of food.

"Like you could pick up a leaf," Edwin mumbled under his breath as he took a bite out of his own food.

"I heard that!" Jaspr shouted at him, his eyes narrowing.

This time, I accidentally let slip of a small giggle, but luckily, Jaspr didn't hear me.

But Seth did. He glanced at me, obviously to see who had laughed, but, instead of turning back right away, he held his gaze for a long while, his beautiful blue eyes deep in thought.

I met his eyes for a split second before we both looked away, none of the others seeming to have noticed the small instant that Seth and I had shared. My heart was thumping with an unrecognizable beat, and I could feel a warm heat rising to color my cheeks. Whatever that emotion was, I only ever felt it around Seth.

After our meager "lunch" we all hit the hay so as to make it to Dendris sometime the next day; whatever Dendris was.

Kemris helped me set up a sleeping bag for myself while Jaspr and Edwin were practically unconscious before they even lay down.

Seth was taking the first watch and, as I lay with my back to him, I could feel his stares prickling the back of my neck.

I didn't know what was going on, where I was, or who these people were, but I knew, for some odd reason, that I was there for a reason.

I looked up to the glittering stars for comfort, barely even noticing as Seth shifted on the rock he was sitting on.

The stars there were much brighter than back home, probably because of the big city's fumes. They were like miniature suns suspended in a never-ending dance across the skies, the moon at their head.

And, as I looked up at the starry sky, many thoughts weaved through my head. Where was I? What's going to happen now? Will I ever see my family and friends again? Not to mention the biggest question of all: Will I even make it out of here alive?

It wasn't long until my eyelids drooped, and the inky darkness of sleep took hold of my senses.

ChapterThree

Wolves

Seth

I was first on watch, but my mind was wandering; something I usually didn't do while my siblings' lives were on the line. I ground my teeth in frustration. My mind kept straying from my duty to her, Maris. The girl we suspected was Queen Erowynn's long-lost daughter.

I drove my sword, point-first, into the ground in pure irritation. I couldn't. I just couldn't let my apparent feelings for her get in the way of our mission. My gaze flickered to her again like it had for the past thirty or so minutes. She was sleeping deeply; obviously still worrying over everything that had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours. I chewed my lower lip thoughtfully.

Back in that Otherworld classroom, she had seemed like such a beautiful, smart girl who could overcome everything, but I had seen that look of pure fear in her eyes when she had faced those two agents, and I cursed myself once again for that.

What had I dragged her into? What if I couldn't get her back alive? Back to her friends? Her surrogate mother? I shook my head to try and clear my head. What was done was done. There was no going back.

I sighed deeply. If Aivanlyn denied that Maris was who we thought she was… well, I didn't want to think about how we would even begin to apologize to Maris.

I looked up at the moon, which had slowly crept across the night sky while I was thinking, finally come in line with the hilt of my sword, which was still stuck in the ground.

I wrenched it out and stood up from the rock I had been sitting on and made to go check on the other side of the small clearing we were camped in.

As I was walking, a low growling sound made me stop in my tracks. My blood ran cold as I very slowly turned around and looked at a small juniper bush that hid what had made the sound. Eyes as gold as the Kalkoora's agents met my blue.

A shiver went down my spine. There aren't supposed to be any in these woods! I screamed at myself in my head Not now! Especially not with Maris!

I twitched my sword a couple of millimeters behind me so that the tip touched Kemris, who was closest to me, and gently woke her up.

"What? Seth, what's- oh no," she murmured somewhat groggily as she noticed what was still watching us from the bushes.

"It must have smelled our campfire and come to investigate. I'm going to make sure that it's alone. Wake the others," I ordered her as I strode confidently towards those piercing yellow eyes which only glared harder as it let out a low, warning snarl.

Then, someone grabbed my shoulder, holding me back. "You're not going after that thing without us."

I spun around. Edwin still had my shoulder in his iron grip that was so much stronger than mine, despite the fact he was my younger brother, and Jaspr was standing a little ways behind him, his face ashen white and his bow locked in a white-knuckled grip.

I smirked slightly. I would get him for that later, but that was not the time to think about vengeance.

I then looked past Jaspr to see Kemris slowly waking Maris up, trying not to scare her.

My gaze flicked back to my brothers, shaking my head. "You know that these things hunt in packs, I just want them to know that they won't kill us that easily; I'm not stupid enough to go after them all alone," I assured Ed.

"What hunts in packs?" a musical voice asked from my right, just outside my peripheral vision.

I turned my head and met the quizzical, yet fearful, emerald-eyed gaze of Maris. "Well, erm… you see…" I stammered, my heart racing with something other than fear. I had no clue what to say to her! I definitely wouldn't say: "Well, there are these things called blood wolves-slash-dire hounds and they're going to kill us!" No.

"I'll explain," interrupted Kemris, swooping in to save me from making a complete fool of myself in front of Maris. I wasn't going to turn into a Jaspr. Not for as long as I lived.

Kemris turned towards Maris. "See those eyes there?" she flicked her hand to indicate where the eyes were still looking at us. Maris froze; her face going almost as pale as Jaspr's as with obvious fear.

"Well," Kemris continued, her voice almost perfectly nonchalant, but I could still hear a small tremble of fear. "They belong to these things called dire hounds, or, to use the more popular version, blood wolves. And, as you can see, they've completely surrounded us."

I furrowed my brows in confusion at her last words, quickly glancing around the clearing before realizing that Kemris was right, an entire pack of blood wolves had surrounded us.

Then, there was a low snarl from behind us and a small rustle of leaves as a very large, dark gray wolf stalked out from the forest, its blood-stained fur brushing ever so gently against the thin leaves of the bush it had walked out of.

There was a small movement to my right as Edwin carefully unsheathed his sword with a small hiss as it came free.

In response, there were even more growls and barks as the rest of the pack left the shelter of the surrounding forest to regroup around the large gray male, who, apparently, was the alpha male, the head honcho, the pack leader.

By then, the middle of the clearing was filled with about twenty or so wolves. All sorts of wolves of all colors, but despite their differences, they all had the same gold eyes and fur stained with animal blood… and some other blood. We were completely surrounded, with Maris utterly defenseless against these wolves that would tear her to shreds if we let them get hold of her.

But we weren't going to give her up that easily, not without a fight.

Maris

All the wolves were snapping and snarling at us, waiting for the signal to attack.

The lead wolf's nose flared for an instant as he took in our scents, trying to decide his prey.

Then, his head swung all the way around until his golden eyes bore into mine, burning with hunger. He had chosen.

Seth immediately stepped in front of me, putting himself between me and the pack of bloodthirsty wolves.

I didn't understand right away why the wolves were staring at me, but then, I realized why.

All the others had a fine layer of dust and grime on them, masking their scent, but since I took a shower every single day of my life, I didn't. Those wolves could smell me very well, and, to them, I was like a juicy strawberry with an extra coating of the sweetest chocolate, not to mention an easy meal.

Seth made a low, growly sound deep in his throat, trying to ward off the wolves, and then he put a protective arm in front of me. My heart was racing with something other than fear … but I still couldn't decipher what it was I felt.

The lead wolf made a sort of rasping sound that snapped me out of my reverie, and his pack began to close in on us from all possible directions, making only the small amount of forest behind us our only escape route.

I glanced worriedly at the others. None of them had any sort of armor besides the clothes on their back, and, as I watched, Jaspr's hand was trembling as he slowly reached behind his back to retrieve one of the arrows from his quiver before knocking it to his bowstring. Seth was finally unsheathing his sword, twirling the tip of it in small circles, anticipating the attack. Kemris was muttering something unintelligible under her breath and her hands were twitching ever so slightly as if they were just dying for the chance to fight. Edwin just moved into position to stop any wolves that tried to come after us. They were going to risk their lives to protect me… why was I so important that they would die so I could live?

All of a sudden, one of the more younger looking wolves broke free from the rest of the pack and lunged at us, heading towards me.

Jaspr instantly retaliated and let loose his prepared arrow, hitting the wolf in the back of its mouth, killing it instantly.

The others started howling and snarling before they all began to move in, using me as their intended target.

With many slashes and lunges, Edwin took out wolf after wolf, trying as best he could to protect us.

Kemris was muttering even more furiously, shooting ball after ball of fire from her palms towards the wolves, lighting some of their fur on fire and driving them back to treat their minor burns. I didn't have time to be amazed by what Kemris was doing; I was too busy being absolutely terrified.

Seeing that there were still a lot of wolves left, Seth quickly turned towards Kemris and I as Jaspr and Edwin continued to drive the wolves back. "Kemris, take Maris and run, don't turn back," he ordered, his eyes hard like pale blue sapphires.

"Un-understood," answered Kemris, her voice shaking ever so slightly despite her fearless composure.

"What? Wait, no!" I protested as Kemris tried to lead me away by my arm. I didn't want to leave the boys to die! Not for my sake!

Seth put a hand on my cheek, sending my heart racing once again with that weird, unknown emotion. "Go, Maris, we've dealt with these things before, we'll be alright," he assured me, managing a very weak smile that didn't touch his eyes.

I stared deep into those beautiful blue eyes, becoming lost in their depths. "A-alright," I managed to say as I pulled away and reluctantly followed Kemris into the foliage behind us.

I could feel Seth's stare prickle the back of my neck again as Kemris and I retreated, but that feeling soon lifted as we finally entered the cover of the trees.

After about five minutes, Kemris whispered. "Stop." She stood stock-still in the middle of a clearing we had reached, listening very intently to something I hadn't heard.

She had opened her mouth to say something else when a blood wolf broke from the cover of the trees and toppled her over. I screamed in fright.

"Run!" she yelled at me, struggling to avoid the wolf's long, yellow fangs.

I was frozen with shock, but I broke free from my daze to grab the closest weapon I had at hand: a tree branch.

I wielded it awkwardly, but managed to hit the wolf with a few very inaccurate blows.

The wolf, somehow threatened by my attacks, then rounded on me, spitting and snarling as it lashed out at me, trying to sink its teeth into my arm.

I dodged as best as I could, but one of its fangs glanced off my right bicep, amazingly tearing through my sweater and ripping through the flesh underneath. The pain was so excruciating; I screamed a blood-curdling scream before falling to my knees, completely at the mercy of the wolf.

Blood was welling from my arm and spreading through my porous sleeve and I knew that I was losing way too much blood.

The wolf raised a paw armed with claws the size of piano keys to finish the job it had started, but then there were three loud battle-cries as Seth and the others burst through the bushes, driving off the last wolf left from the retreating pack.

I barely noticed their heroic effort. My vision was swimming in and out of focus as I tried with all my might to stay conscious as I heard Seth shout out my name before he knelt in front of me, cupping my face in his hands.

"Stay with us, Maris!" he pleaded as a black wave threatened to encroach on my vision. "Please, stay with us!"

Then, everything disappeared and the darkness finally settled in.

Chapter Four

Revelations

Seth

I slowly stood up, Maris' unconscious body draped in my arms, the blood from the wound on her arm spilling onto my shirt and turning the dark forest green felt a grotesque maroon.

"Is-is she… well…. Y'know?" stammered Jaspr, his face still as white as the fallen snow.

I shook my head solemnly in response before turning to Kemris, who was staring at her feet. "How long does she have?" I asked, already knowing the answer but hoping against hope that it wouldn't be true.

Kemris gulped. "Not very long, the poison's already coursing through her veins and you know that I can't do anything about it," she mumbled, her voice almost inaudible.

There was a very long silence after her last word faded away.

"I think if I were to run the rest of the way to Dendris on my own, I might be able to make it, we are pretty close," I recommended, shattering the silence.

They all looked up at me. They didn't say anything, but they knew that if Maris was to survive, we would have to take the risk of letting me go on my own, even if the Kalkoora were following.

Kemris nodded slowly in agreement, recovering slightly knowing that she would have to take charge of our younger brothers. "We'll follow you in our own time so that we can make sure that we're not being followed," she said.

But before I could run off, Edwin butted in, "Seth… are you okay?"

I smiled as convincingly at him as I could, which is impossible for me. "Of course I am," I answered him before I sped through the forest surrounding us, fear for Maris' life and raw determination driving me on.

After a small while, Maris, in her sleep-like state, was having dreams about someone named "Mel" and her surrogate mother. I kept going, running through the seemingly endless expanse of trees and thorns, trying to get to Dendris as fast as I could.

"Don't die on me, Maris," I muttered through gritted teeth. "Hold on."

Maris

I slowly and very cautiously opened my eyes, squeezing them shut again as a blinding light forced its way into my eyes, sending many spots of bright colors sprouting under my eyelids. I groaned as the light forced me away from my wonderful dream world and I began to sit up, knowing that I wouldn't be getting much more sleep.

"Don't sit up too quickly, you're still recovering from your wounds," cautioned a soft, musical voice from nearby.

I opened my eyes fully now and slowed down efficiently until I was in a sitting position, remembering what the voice had said. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes to try and get a clearer picture of my surroundings.

I was sitting on a small, cotton bed with off-white sheets in the middle of what looked to be a wooden cabin. There were a couple of chairs in the room and a dresser, plus a small side table that clung to the side of the bed like a baby koala clings to its mother.

The voice that had spoken to me had come from the woman sitting on the end of my bed.

She was a tall, sun-blonde woman who looked to be about twenty or so years old with pretty baby-blue eyes. She was wearing a long white dress with long sleeves and faded blue trim. Cradled in her hands was a small wooden cup filled to the brim with some sort of foul-smelling liquid inside.

She smiled a perfect, white-toothed smile and held the cup out to me. "Drink," she said.

I glanced at the cup for a couple of seconds, then at her, not wanting to even be near that cup of… whatever. She laughed. "It smells bad, but it's just a little of my best cordial; it actually tastes quite divine," she assured me, still smiling her motherly smile.

I grimaced, making her chuckle a little. "I'm Aivanlyn," she introduced herself, and, seeing as I wasn't ever going to drink it, she the cup down on the bedside table.

Looking around the room again, I noticed Seth fast asleep in a nearby chair and snoring softly, his stomach rising and falling evenly in his dreams.

"He hasn't left since he brought you here," explained Aivanlyn, following my gaze.

"H-how long have I been out?" I asked, somewhat afraid to hear the answer. I'd watched ER, and I knew that people could fall into comas for decades then wake up and think they've only been asleep for a couple of hours.

"Three days," came the reply.

My jaw dropped. Three days? I shouted in my head. I groaned verbally again. My mom had probably called the F.B.I or the N.Y.P.D by now! She probably even started a global manhunt to search every inch of the Earth for any sight or sound of me! Not to mention she was probably going to ground me for life when I got back…. Or if!

I tried to stand up, but Aivanlyn pushed me back onto the bed until I was on my back again, my head resting against the pillow. "Rest, we don't want your wound opening up again," she warned me.

I blinked in confusion. Wound? What was she talking about? Then, all the memories of our encounter with the blood wolves flooded into my mind.

My eyes widened before they finally fell to my arm where the wolf's tooth had grazed me. I noticed I wasn't wearing my sweater or shirt anymore, but something with sleeves that, when pulled as far as they could go, reached just below my elbow. But, for now, the sleeve on my right arm was pulled back. What had started as an open slash in my arm was now just a jagged scar from my shoulder to just above my elbow.

"H-how-" I began to ask again before Aivanlyn interrupted me.

"Shush," she commanded. "I'll answer your questions later, but what you need most right now is to heal."

"Alright," I finally agreed, feeling my eyes beginning to droop as my brain sent out distress signals to try and regain energy.

Aivanlyn stood up to let me sleep and began to walk towards the small door in the corner of the room, then, with a swish and a click, she was gone, leaving me alone with Seth still sleeping beside me.

I closed my eyes and was about to fall asleep when I heard more footsteps.

I opened one eye and saw Seth trying to tiptoe towards the door, struggling to stay as quiet as possible.

"Seth?" I hissed at him. He froze, his hand an inch away from the doorknob. He spun around to face me, an embarrassed smile on his face.

"I woke you up, didn't I?" he asked with his weak smile.

I managed a meek laugh and pointed out, "Who said I was asleep?"

He scowled playfully at me. "You were asleep for three days, of course you can't sleep," he resolved with a cocky grin.

It was my turn to smile at him now, this time, a real one. "Well, that's not what you were thinking a second ago," I retorted, crossing my arms, smug.

He laughed softly and walked over to sit in the exact spot that Aivanlyn had inhabited only moments before.

"Why was I out for so long?" was my next question.

Right when I said that, Seth seemed to find something very interesting in the floorboards. "Well… You see…" he stammered, still looking down at his feet. "Blood wolves have this sort of mechanism in their fangs that injects poison…. Kind of like a snake."

"Poison?" I repeated, my eyes widening in shock as I realized how close to death I had been.

He laughed humorlessly. "Yep."

My eyes flew back to the scar on my arm. It looked so innocent, but I had been poisoned! Ok, I admit, I've been stung by a bee before, but that doesn't count!

He smiled genuinely at me as he ruffled my hair. "Don't worry, Aivanlyn got it all out," he laughed.

Then, he kissed the center of my forehead, making me blush as his presence usually did.

He chuckled a couple of more times at me as he got up, then he left, leaving me alone.

I fell back against the pillows, taking deep breaths to try and calm my thudding heart that was beating unusually again, but I still couldn't put my finger on what it was. I turned over onto my left side and tried to get some sleep, these confusing thoughts swirling through my mind.

But right when I was on the brink of unconsciousness, the worst possible person burst into the room, shouting: "SHE'S ALIVE!"

I groaned for the third time in ten minutes as Jaspr sprinted to my bedside. "The others all thought you were dead, but I said. "No! She will live!"," he declared, striking a heroic pose.

"Yeah, right," muttered Edwin beside him. "You were the one who put the thought in our heads that she might not make it, and Seth was the one who dragged her all the way here."

Jaspr made puppy dog eyes at his brother. "Not in front of her!" he pouted. "You always ruin my chances of-"

"Shut up, Jaspr!" hissed Edwin.

"But it's true!" protested Jaspr.

I sat up to see Kemris hanging around behind them, and, like Seth, she seemed fascinated by the floorboards.

Suddenly, I heard Kemris' soft voice ringing through my head as if she were actually speaking… but… her lips weren't moving.

It's my fault! It's all my fault she's like this! Her voice shouted sorrowfully in both her head and mine.

No, it's not I soothed her comfortingly.

Edwin and Jaspr were still arguing, so they didn't notice the glances Kemris and I exchanged.

Her eyes were wide with awe and absolute wonder, and I replied with a quizzical look.

Jaspr was still ranting on and on and on about how Edwin was always foiling his plans for showing off in front of girls, and Edwin was fighting back with claims that Jaspr didn't have a chance either way.

Kemris smiled somewhat stiffly from the fact that she proabably hadn't smiled in days as she reached out and grabbed Jaspr by the back of his neck.

"! Alright-alright-alright-alright, I'll shut up!" he squealed, convincing Kemris to release him.

"Finally, an off switch!" called a voice from the door.

We all looked up and saw Seth leaning against the doorpost, acting all cool as he smirked at Jaspr, making him turn a dark, beet red. My face followed suit, reminiscensing about the last time Seth had visited me which had been about… oh, five minutes prior.

Kemris, still smiling, walked over to Seth and started whispering something into his ear. He nodded and opened his mouth to say something back when Aivanlyn strode into the room, holding a black felt box.

The moment she saw the box, Kemris spun towards Edwin. "Get Jaspr out of here!" she commanded her younger brother.

"What- hey!" objected Jaspr as Edwin pulled him out the door by his elbow.

After they had left, Aivanlyn sat back down on the corner of the bed and opened the box. Inside was a beautiful white crystal about the size of a quarter that glowed with a blueish hue, suspended on a leather string. Next to it was a gold, hand-held harp with intricate designs carved into the gold all over it to form elaborate vines, roses, and sometimes, just gorgeous curlicues and ribbons.

I looked up at Kemris and Seth for an explanation, but their faces were strangely guilt-ridden. I turned back to Aivanlyn. "What's this?" I asked her curiously, unable to think of any reason she would show me those beautiful things.

Aivanlyn's characteristic bright smile turned sad. "Your mother left these artifacts just for you," she answered mournfully.

I shot her a quizzical look. My mom had never, and I mean never, gone anywhere out of New York in her entire life, not to mention going to some crazy world called whatever! Besides, she was back home in Brooklyn scouring the globe for me. I guess Aivanlyn saw the confused look on my face, sighed, then began her explanation. "Your mother, Erowynn, left you these artifacts after she died."

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "My mom's name is Kassandra, and she's not dead, at least I don't think so," I corrected, hoping against hope that Aivanlyn would say something like: "Oopsieme! Sorry, this is all just a dream, so when you wake up, everything will be perfectly normal!" But to no avail. She just sighed again.

"I hoped it wouldn't come to this," she muttered to herself.

"To what?" I questioned, becoming more and more confused by the second (as if I wasn't already confused enough!).`

Aivanlyn put her hand over mine. "Close your eyes," she commanded gently.

"But-" I began to object before Aivanlyn gave me an uncharacteristic steely glare.

"Close your eyes," she repeated, less nicely that time.

This time, I followed her orders and squeezed my eyes shut.

At first, nothing happened, but then, tens upon thousands of images flashed behind my eyelids before finally assembling themselves to form a story.

One minute, I was sitting in that small room with Aivanlyn, Kemris, and Seth, but the next I was standing in the middle of a long hallway with high-vaulted ceilings with large, beautiful paintings of many landscapes adorning the walls. Beside me was a young, blond girl who looked to be about ten or eleven years old. Her bright baby-blue eyes convinced me that I was looking at a much younger version of Aivanlyn.

She semed to be cleaning a nearby table when a short "psst!" came from behind the two of us.

She spun around faster than I could hide, and I flinched, expecting her to start screaming out an alarm, but then I noticed that she looked like she hadn't even seen me.

I looked down at myself and noticed that I was completely translucent, only being able to see the smallest trace of my physical being, but only if you were really looking.

I followed her gaze and saw a strangely familiar raven-haired woman, beckoning to Aivanlyn from a doorway nearby.

Aivanlyn followed the woman into the room with me curiously tailing her, wanting to know what was going on.

The woman closed the door behind us and turned back to Aivanlyn.

"Aivanlyn," the woman said in a very musical voice that was gentle and caressing. "I'm leaving tonight to try and drive the Kalkoora away from here, and I want you to take my daughter and flee soon after me. I have given extremely strict orders to Arial to make sure that you have a horse, but she won't know where you are going, and, if she asks, you are taking my daughter to my sister-in-law. Don't tell anyone the truth about where you are going, the less people who know what I'm doing, the better, I especially don't want Nael to know what I'm planning to do."

"What about the Jarokai, my lady?" Aivanlyn asked tentatively, soaking in each and every word.

"Don't worry about them, Syrin won't waste any time on her, his biggest goal at the moment is to kill me," the woman answered, her indigo eyes blazing with raw determination.

Aivanlyn flinched. Obviously, the name "Syrin" meant something to her. And what in the world were the Jarokai? I decided to stop thinking and listen.

"Where am I to take the Princess?" asked Aivanlyn, looking very nervous.

"I have prepared a passage for you to the Otherworld in the ruins of Beldishar's Hollow, and once you're through, take her to the house of Kassandra Bulok. I have been monitoring her for a while, ever since she unknowingly helped me, and she is absolutely perfect for raising Maris."

My jaw dropped. Maris? How did this woman know my name and why did she keep calling me her daughter? Was this woman my… real mother? There must have been some mistake! That's when I remembered where I had seen that woman before. She was the exact same one who had appeared in my dream! Then, I heard the raven-haired woman begin to speak again, so I told my brain to shut up and listen to the rest, but before I could listen to whatever she was saying, the scene changed.

All of a sudden, it was nighttime, and there were trees all around with stars sparkling above in the sky.

I was hovering beside Aivanlyn again, who was on a beautiful white stallion, a small bundle scarcely larger than a loaf of bread cradled in the crook of her right arm.

It took a little while, but sooner or later, Aivanlyn brought the horse to a skidding stop. She leaped off the horse gracefully and began to walk into a clearing, leaving the horse alone. I followed close behind.

The clearing was littered with very large bits and pieces of masonry and columns made of marble that had obviously belonged to something much bigger. There was a broken arch nearby with a very small door still attached to it.

Etched into the door were the exact same symbols I had seen on the one back home, a large tree with a sun behind the trunk, in fact, it was a twin to the one back in Brooklyn!

I watched as Aivanlyn stepped forward, flicked her left wrist, and disappeared in that bright flash of green light with the small child.

I was left alone for a while, but then a felt a small tug in the center of my chest that brought me back to the real world.

My eyes flew open to see the others still in the exact same spot that I remembered them.

Kemris and Seth still looked guilty, and Aivanlyn's eyes were still closed, her hand still wrapped around mine.

"Y-you knew?" I choked out, struggling to come to terms with what I had just seen.

Seth smiled weakly at me in reply, being the only one who could meet my eyes.

Kemris was staring at the floorboards again. "Yep," she answered, laughing a humorless laugh.

At that, Aivanlyn opened her eyes again, looking exhausted. "Now do you understand?" she asked, dark circles visible under her eyes.

"So I'm a-a pr-princess?" I gulped, not sure that the word really applied to me.

"You are the daughter of Queen Erowynn, the late ruler of this land," Aivanlyn answered. "and as her daughter, you are the rightful heir to the throne."

"What do you mean by "late"?" I asked, catching that one word.

"As I said before, that night, Queen Erowynn gave her life to keep her only daughter alive, and she left these things for you," Aivanlyn mumbled, her eyes glazing with tears.

I was silent. My real mom…. had died to save me. I hadn't even gotten the chance to meet her…..

"Don't worry, Maris, we're here to make sure that you're safe, you'll be perfectly fine with us," Seth encouraged me, walking over to the bed.

"I should give you some time to think, Maris, and to rest, you're going to need it. Kemris, I need to harvest some gensyl root, will you accompany me?" questioned Aivanlyn, her voice choked by surpressed tears.

"Of course," Kemris replied quickly before she and Aivanlyn hurried out the door.

After watching them leave, Seth turned back to me. "Well, now it's time to fill you in on the details," he grinned, seemingly happy for some unusual reason.

"Details?" I queried, raising one eyebrow.

He laughed as he walked over and sat in the chair he had been in earlier. "Yeah, details. You know, any questions you want to ask? Unless you don't have any questions?" he asked, leaning in towards me.

"Yeah, I do!" I cut in quickly before my chance to finally figure things out was gone. "So…. I can ask insanely obvious questions now and you won't laugh at me?"

"… Probably not. So fire away," he teased, gesturing me to begin with a wave of his hand.

"Okay, first things first," I blurted hurriedly. "Where in the world are we?"

He chuckled at my rapid speech. "First of all, we're not in your world, at least not exactly. We're in Ecladia, it's sort of parallel world to yours, but it is only accessible if they can find a Gate and if they are either born or branded with the Ensignia," he explained.

"The what now?"

"The Ensignia. It's kinda the coat of arms for Ecladia. Nobles like you are born with it, but not everyone in Ecladia knows about the Otherworld, especially commoners like my siblings and I. Only the choiciest few are told and are branded with the Ensignia. You know, mostly just loyal lords and ladies, barons and baronesses, the occasional common aristocrat," he paused momentarily to let me think.

I considered his answers for a moment.

"Okay," I nodded. "But… where do you guys come in if you aren't supposed to know anything about it?"

Seth beamed even more. "We are your protectors. We have been chosen to protect you from the Kalkoora," he answered.

"The Kalkoora?" I queried, confused again.

"The Kalkoora are agents that have orders to find and erm…. kill any surviving members of the Ecladian Royal Family, those men that attacked you three days ago are a part of that," replied Seth.

"So… why are you and the others looking after me? I mean, aren't there other people who could do that? Not like I'm saying I want to get rid of you, I mean, I like you- I mean-" I could feel myself growing red as I realized what I had just said.

He laughed again. "Don't worry, I know what you meant… well, there's this kind of organization called the Rebel Force that was formed to protect any surviving members of the royal family, and we're a part of it. We were chosen because of how close we are to your age, so it'd be easier for us to slip by places… get it?" he checked.

"Kind of," I answered. "So… what are the Jarokai, then?"

"The Jarokai are what make up the Kalkooran army because there are only about thirteen members of the Kalkoora in all. They're these like….. creatures that are designed for the hunt, so they're not too bright, but there are some that are actually smart in a ways," he explained. "For example, one time, we had one of them somehow figure out that he could dip arrowtips in oil, set it on fire, then shoot it at us, and, eventually, the others followed suit. We barely got out of there alive."

My eyes widened in astonishment. "So how did you?" I asked, being pulled into the story like a fish on a line.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you the story sometime else. Do you have any more questions?" he checked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not important ones," I replied. Most of my leftover questions were things like: How do you fight with a sword? Who was my real dad? You know, stuff like that.

"Great! Now let's see if you can walk," he said, jumping up from his chair and gesturing for me to do so to.

Slowly, I moved my legs to the side of the bed, some of my bones cracking with the stiffness of not being moved in days.

Seeing that I was on the brink of collapsing, Seth put one arm around me to steady me, sending my heart racing once again.

"Can you move everything okay?" he asked, his voice filled to the brim with genuine concern.

At his request, I tested my appendages, wincing a little as I flexed my right arm, which was obviously still healing.

"My right arm hurts a little, but it's not enough to kill me," I reported.

I took the liberty then to finally look at what I was wearing.

My sweater, shirt, and jeans were gone and were obviously replaced with a white linen dress that was very soft and about as thick as my sweater had been. The dress was more form-fitting on top, but then, once it hit my waist area, the material flowed down to wear it rested on top of twin white slippers.

"Right," coughed Seth, the both of us turning a bit red as we both realized that he had been staring at me the entire time. "You'll love it here, Maris, Dendris is probably the most enjoyable place in all of Ecladia."

"Why so?" I asked, curious.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" he answered mysteriously as he took my hand, which made my heart skip a beat, and began to lead me outside.

What I saw made my jaw drop.

Dendris was a small, ramshackle town nestled in a valley between two large hills that towered over the houses. The houses were made entirely out of wood, making them look like authentic wooden cabins, and their size mostly ranged from a short, small little dwelling to the bigger two-three stories that obviously belonged to merchants.

As I watched, the villagers went about their business, walking on a small dirt road that connected the houses as they bought and sold goods from road-side stands. Children also ran up and down the streets, playing games or just running errands for their mothers who were cleaning out the house in dresses such as mine, some colorful, others not.

"I want to show you something," Seth cut through my reverie as he began to lead me out of the village towards a small clearing behind one of the two large hills.

The clearing was about the size of a small Little League baseball clearing, and it was covered in clover-green wavy grass, interrupted occasionally by one of the large boulders that lined the place.

Seth brought me over to one of the larger, flatter ones and we both sat down, Seth to my right.

From out of the brown sweater he was now wearing, he pulled out the black felt box Aivanlyn had showed me earlier, something I hadn't seen him bring.

He carefully opened the box and pulled out the necklace, its stone sparkling brightly in the afternoon sunlight.

"I can't show you or even begin to tell you how this works, but I'm pretty sure Kem will show you sooner or later," he told me as he undid the small clasp at its back. Then, he reached behind my neck to put the necklace on, bringing his face close to mine, and, as his warm breath washed over my face, I began to forget where and who I was as I drank in his scent.

"Got it!" he exclaimed, bringing me back to reality as he let go of the necklace.

Grateful for the distraction, I looked down at the necklace where it hung low on my collar bone, winking brightly back up at me.

"You're the expert," smiled Seth as he held out the harp to me, as if I knew what to do with it.

"I-I have no clue how to play that," I objected. "I only played piano for a year, but I hated it so I quit."

"Just try," he pressed, sounding absolutely confident that I would play perfectly.

I gulped before taking the harp gently from him, surprised by how light the chocolate box-sized thing was.

"Go ahead," he goaded me as he noticed how reluctant I was.

Shooting him a "Don't-laugh-at-me-or-I'll-kill-you" look, turned my attention to the harp and began to play.

Surprisingly, as soon as my fingertips came in contact with the strings, a very flowing, beautiful melody filled both mine and Seth's ears, and it took me a moment to realize that I was the one playing it.

After about a minute or so, Seth interrupted.

"You have a beautiful voice," he complimented.

I stopped midstroke. "What?" I queried. I hadn't been singing… had I?
"You were singing," he said.

"Are you sure it wasn't someone else? I don't have a good voice," I argued.

"You were singing in Ancient Ecladian, very few people remember that language, and your mother was one of them. It's only natural she sang in that language to you when you were still a baby," he countered.

"But I don't even remember what I said, though," I protested. "Besides, I don't even see how I could've remembered it from being a baby."

"Well, certain people are born just knowing it, like Kemris," he said. "Maybe she'll teach you."

I set the harp flat on my lap, watching the sun flicker on its gold-colored strings. "When you say teach, does that mean that I'm going to have to learn to use a sword?" I asked somewhat hesitantly.

He nodded solemnly. "Unfortunately yes. The Kalkoora want to kill you, Maris, and if we're not there to protect you, you're going to have to protect yourself," he explained seriously. "But I'll do anything to make sure that I'm there, Maris, I promise."

Then, he reached over and took hold of my right hand, squeezing it reassuringly in his grip.

Surprised, I looked up at him and met his beautiful blue eyes, shocked by how close they were.

"I promise," he repeated with such conviction, something unrecognizable glittering in his eyes. "I won't leave your side."

We sat in complete silence, the sun slowly beginning to descend by a fraction of a degree, inching towards the horizon.

Then, Seth began to lean in closer to me, and our eyes flickered closed… but right before our lips met, a very loud, irritating voice interrupted, saying, "I knew I'd find you two lovebirds here!"

Seth and I immediately sprang away from each other like bullets shot from a gun, and I could feel him tense up as he let go of my hand.

"Why are you here?" I asked Jaspr, my face growing red as I realized what Seth and I had nearly done.

"Well, Aivanlyn sent me here to tell you something really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really important," he answered.

"And what is this important message?" growled Seth, his teeth clenched.

"Okay, here it goes… Aivanlyn- oops! I completely forgot- WHOA! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?" demanded Jaspr, just narrowly avoiding Seth's fist.

"Seth, stop!" I shouted before they could get into a fist-fight and Jaspr could get severly injured.

"He started it!" whined Jaspr, but when Seth raised his hand for another punch, he added. "Hey, hey, hey! Listen to your girlfriend!"

I was about to leap heroically between the two when Seth froze mid-punch, a strange grin crossing his face.

I shot him a quizzical look, but he "convieniently" didn't see.

"A-Aivanlyn says that she thinks that we should be the ones to train Maris," stuttered Jaspr, obviously fearing another punch if he didn't get to the point fast.

Seth's unusual smile disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Why us? We're not better trained that she is," he argued, brows furrowed in confusion.

"She says that if we take turns teaching her different things, she'll have a better chance of learning all of it instead of just one person who might accidentally lean too much on one certain subject," explained Jaspr.

Then, Seth's grin reappeared on his face. "Why would you even attempt to teach Maris? You're younger than she is! And besides, who wants to learn to be an archer, anyways?" taunted Seth.

"I'm a marksman, not an archer," Jaspr pointed out, putting emphasis on the word "marksman".

"Whatever you say… archer."

"MARKS-MAN!" objected Jaspr, indicating the syllables with his hands.

"Sure, arche-"

"MARKSMAN!"

"Arch-"

"Quit it!" I scolded unsuccessfully as I started cracking up at their antics.

Jaspr scowled at me while Seth laughed hysterically along with me.

"I'm leaving now, but I'll know you'll miss me 'cause I'm just cool like that!" shouted Jaspr over his shoulder as he turned around to leave.

"Sure, sure, Mr. Archer, whatever you say," Seth called after Jaspr.

"MARKSMAN!" returned Jaspr furiously, his yells getting fainter and fainter as he moved farther and farther away, leaving me and Seth alone again.

Once he was gone, Seth turned back to me just as I was regaining my breath.

He gave me a casual wink before saying, "You'll love it here, Maris, I promise you that!"

ChapterFive

Lovesick

Maris

"Just try and dodge it, or, if you can, try blocking it."

"I am trying!"

Note to self: Never get sucked into a parallel dimension that you're the princess of again where you have to learn to sword fight.

Seth had begun teaching me the basics of swordplay, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. A lot.

The training sessions were nerve-wracking and stressful as I tried to figure out how to land an accurate blow, but Seth seemed to always elude my practice sword, sometimes without even trying.

"Let's take a break," suggested Seth.

We had been practicing for almost an hour and already I was blanched with sweat while Seth seemed to still be in perfect condition.

The dress Aivanlyn had given me had obviously been made for fighting, because it was easy to move in and wasn't as uncomfortable as some of the things Seth had made me try on such as the full body armor. I still shudder at the memory.

We were practicing in the space outside the place I had woken in, which had turned out to be some sort of infirmary run by Aivanlyn, and I sat down (more like collapsed) onto one of the benches nestled against the room, trying to regain my breath.

"You'll get it, Maris, I started out much worse than you did," Seth assured me as he took a seat next to me.

"I can't imagine," I gasped, my lungs struggling to fill with air.

He chuckled a little. "I couldn't even lift the dang thing, much less swing it at someone," he laughed.

I smiled a bit at the thought.

"See? Besides, from what you are, you probably won't even need a sword," he commented mysteriously before taking my hand in his and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"What-" I was about to ask him when a high-pitched giggle interrupted me.

"Se-eth!" the voice called separating Seth's name into two syllables.

Seth and I both looked up simultaneously and saw a dark-haired girl about our age waving frantically from outside the fence that separated the yard from the street.

"Who's she?" I whispered to Seth, curious.

"She's um… her name's Priya, and she-well…" he stammered as the girl somehow managed to hop the fence and hurried over to where Seth and I were.

"Hi, Priya," Seth greeted her, letting go of my hand.

"Hi, Seth! I just came over to see- oh, who's she?" Priya asked, apparently just noticing that I was there.

"My name's Maris, and I'm-"

"Okay!" Priya interrupted, turning back to Seth. "I came over to see if you would like to come to the inn later, my daddy's going to be throwing a party because today my uncle's coming over from Sarine!"

"Oh, yeah… sure we'll come," agreed Seth, seeming kinda tense.

"Okay! I'll see you later… Bye-bye!" Priya gushed as she walked away, looking over her shoulder several times as if to make sure that Seth was still there.

Throughout their conversation, I could feel something deep within my heart, like there was some monster within that absolutely hated Priya's presence.

"I'm sorry about that, Maris, Priya can be pretty overbearing at the best of times," Seth apologized to me, a shy smile breaking over his face.

"It's alright," I lied through my teeth, trying to sound as casual as possible despite my unusual urge to take up my practice sword and chase after Priya.

"Well, it looks like our evening training session is canceled," he sighed.

"What?" I blurted without thinking.

"Priya's gonna expect us to be there, so we're gonna have to go… unless you don't want to, Maris," he said.

"No, no… it's-it's okay," I stammered, not wanting to be rude. "She invited you and you should go."

"Well, I'm taking you with me, and I'm sure the others will want to be there, too," he invited. "Besides, it's time you see what it's like to be here in Ecladia."

"Yeah, I can't wait," I gulped, trying to sound as excited as I possible could around the lump in my throat. I really was not looking forward to that night.

And all too quickly it came; one second Seth and I were practicing, the next we were all walking over to the local inn, Jaspr rambling on and on about some girl he claimed had fallen for him in the market that day. And as we were walking, the lump in my throat only becoming bigger and bigger with each step.

As soon as we arrived, Priya raced up the Seth, ignoring the rest of us completely as she blabbered on and on about mundane things that I couldn't understand.

Eventually, we made our way to a table where Priya still couldn't shut up about every single aspect of our life, and I was both shocked and strangely disgusted at the fact that Seth actually seemed interested in what she was saying! Talk about good self control: I was ready to strangle her by the time she got to her story about how she fell out of a tree when she was two years old.

Obviously as bored as I was, Edwin and Jaspr went off to dance with some of the other girls (Jaspr was flirting with every single one while Edwin tried to stop him) and Kemris left to find something to eat, leaving me alone with Seth and the parrot.

They didn't seem to notice that the others had left, or that I was still there, for that matter, and Priya was still chattering on… and on… and on… and right when I was ready to scream in irritation, she shut herself up… by kissing Seth.

It happened very quickly, so quickly, in fact, I barely saw what happened, but Priya just seemed to have lashed out and kissed him, not a simple peck on the cheek, either, but a full-on kiss on the mouth.

Seth was in shock for a couple of seconds, but then relaxed and allowed his arms to trail around her, sinking into the warm happiness that usually came during a kiss in the movies.

That's when I snapped.

I don't know exactly how it happened, but, one second I was watching them make out, the next I was outside, sitting on a bench, crying my heart out over something I didn't even understand.

"Maris?" I familiar voice called my name softly.

"I-I'm fine, Kem," I assured Kemris as she came outside, obviously having seen what I had done.

"Well, your definition of "fine" must be different than mine, because for me, most people who are "fine" don't cry," she argued, walking over to sit by me.

"It's nothing. I'm perfectly fine," I denied stubbornly, struggling to rub away any signs of tears but only succeeding in making my eyes tear up even more.

"Maris, I saw what happened with Priya and Seth," she said.

"And it doesn't bother you?" I asked, finally looking up at her.

"Of course it does, Seth's my younger brother, but… what I feel for my brother isn't the same as how you feel for him… is it?" she inquired, then, seeing my look of absolute confusion, she added, "You like him, don't you?"

"I-I don't know," I answered. Me? Like Seth? I couldn't imagine myself with him, but it could explain why I felt as if someone was strangling my heart… wouldn't it?

"You don't have to answer that, Maris… it's just, well… I know how you feel," admitted Kemris, sounding quite sad.

"What do you mean?" I sniffed.

She smiled a melancholy smile. "There's this boy, his name's Corellei, and… well, I have feelings for him and…" she took a deep breath. "But it wouldn't work out between us, I mean, he's a much more powerful sage than I am."

"Sage?" I queried, happy for the distraction.

"A sage is someone who can use magyk, like me. That's how I fended off those wolves that attacked us… but Corellei, he's… he's a special kind of sage," she explained. "Each sage has a field of magyk that they are born to wield. Corellei's a Murmngr, a kind of sage that specializes dark magyk, a special kind of magyk that usually takes a very dark, evil heart to control… he's good though, but people misunderstand him because of the only other user of dark magyk… Syrin."

"Syrin… who's that?" I asked, my eyes finally becoming dry at the familiarly unfamiliar name (if that's even a real phrase).

"Syrin? Didn't Seth tell you about him?" she checked, her brow furrowing in confusion.

I was about to shake my head in reply when, all of a sudden, a loud crashing sound came from the inn before a loud torrent of insults and curses; Jaspr's voice was mixed in.

Kemris sighed. "It sounds like Jas's in trouble again. Come on, Maris, it'll take the both of us to drag him out," she took hold of my hand and began to lead me inside where we found a very stubborn Jaspr picking a fight with a rather large man whose girlfriend he had apparently been flirting with.

And, in the midst of this almost-fight, Seth and Priya stood together, hand in hand.

Chapter Six

Flames

Maris

I was almost glad when Aivanlyn informed us that we needed to get back on the road so as not to call attention to ourselves.

We had been living in Dendris for about six days, almost a week, but we needed supplies and I was in a coma for half of it, so I knew that, despite our willingness to stay, we had to leave. So, after we had everything packed, we headed for the outskirts of town under the cover of darkness.

Aivanlyn had come along with us to say goodbye and to give us some last minute instructions for my training.

"Take care," she called to us as we began climbing one of the many hills that held the path out of Dendris, and, before too long, her voice had faded away into the night.

We trudged along in complete silence as we focused on scaling the hills, each one of us stumbling at least once every minute or so.

We were just coming over the crest of a third hill, which led down towards the thick wooded forest we were headed for, when an image flashed across my eyes, making me stop in my tracks.

"What's wrong?" checked Seth immediately, his voice riddled with worry.

"I thought I saw something," I answered him rather snappishly, still remembering the scene from the night before.

"What did you see?" demanded Kemris, walking towards the two of us from where she had been on point.

"It-it was nothing, I guess I'm just tired or something," I shrugged it off.

"Maris, you can see things we can't, we need to know what it was," Kemris said gravely, not making much sense.

"It-it was just a really bright, orange color…" I muttered, trying to describe what I saw. "It was like-"

"FIRE!" shouted Edwin from behind us, finishing my sentence for me.

Instantly, we all did a double take and watched, from our viewpoint, in complete and utter horror as flames and rancid smoke rose into the sky from the place where Dendris was nestled between its two great hills. Not to mention the screams of the villagers.

Both Dendris and its inhabitants had caught fire.

Seth

Maris' eyes were wide with terror, and, instinctively, she took a couple of steps forward, but I quickly blocked her way.

"Maris," I murmured to her, trying to get her attention. Immediately, she looked up at me, sorrow and absolute panic etched all over her beautiful face, her eyes turning red with unshed tears. But beneath all of that, there was a flicker of something… pain?

"Maris," I muttered again. "There's nothing we can do."
"There has to be," she objected. "We-we can…"

"It's going to be alright, Aivanlyn will help them," I assured her. By that time, I was trying to convince myself too.

As she came to terms with what was happening, Maris' eyes began dripping their tears onto her cheeks.

I then did the only thing a guy like me can possibly do when a girl that means to me as much as Maris did cried.

I hugged her.

In that moment, I didn't care if Kemris and the others were watching; I pulled Maris close to my chest as if to shield her from what was happening.

I could feel her warm tears sliding down my neck in her silent sobs, and, knowing that she would probably see even worse things than that, I shuddered.

Then, when she began pulling away from me, I willingly let her go.

She met my eyes with her brilliant and stunningly beautiful emerald eyes that were filled with utter confusion at what I had done. I opened my mouth to explain my actions, but immediately closed it for fear that I would seriously offend her if I just started yapping.

Luckily, Kemris came to the rescue again. "We have to go, now," she ordered, her eyes like stones as she took her place as the eldest.

"Right," I agreed, dazed from what I think was the fumes from the smoke.

Under Kemris' orders, we ran as fast as we could into the forest, trying to get as far away from Dendris as possible for fear that whoever had made the fire would be following us.

The fire could only mean one thing: Syrin was on the move.

And there was only one reason he would waste troops to burn a perfectly harmless town:

To find, and kill, Maris.

Maris

I awoke to Seth shaking me and murmuring my name. Slowly, and very carefully, I opened my eyes, expecting to see us surrounded by wolves again.

But this time, there were no wolves, just Seth's soft blue gaze, which, as usual, sent my heart thudding. He was kneeling over me, and, as I gave him a quizzical look, he put a finger to his lips for quiet and indicated that the others were still sleeping.

"What is it, Seth?" I whispered, very confused and afraid. The memory of Dendris burning still very fresh in my mind.

"I want to show you something, Maris, it'll only take a minute, then you can go back to sleep and I can take my turn on watch," he answered in a low murmur, taking my hand as he helped me onto my feet before leading me into the surrounding woods outside of the clearing we had camped in.

"Wh-where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see," replied Seth, obviously not wanting to let me know just yet.

We walked in complete but companionable silence, hand in hand, until the forest with its tall trees opened up into a beautiful meadow.

The most gorgeous fuchsia flowers swayed in the crisp night breeze among jade blades of grass, all under the careful watch of the full moon, the cream-colored sentinel of the night.

"It-it's beautiful here, Seth," I complimented the scenery as my hand slid from Seth's grip and I walked forward in awed silence.

"It's nothing compared to your beauty, Maris," said Seth from behind me.

Immediately, I whirled around thinking that someone had impersonated him, but there was no one there except for a blushing Seth, obviously embarrassed by what he had said.

"Wh-what?" I queried, wondering if I was just so tired that I was hearing things. Seth wouldn't say anything like that to me… right?

"I-I'm sorry, Maris, I-I shouldn't have said th-that," he stammered, looking as if he wished could just disappear. "Y-you know, let's-let's go b-back."

"No, Seth… I-I- why- why are you… saying this?" I asked him before he could slip away into the forest.

He had turned around to face the forest, but, once my voice began fading away into the night, he turned around again, his eyes looking very tormented as he tried to decide whether or not to answer me.

"It-it's because…" he trailed off, still trying to spit it out.

"Seth, it's okay, y-you can tell me anything," I promised him, reaching forward and gently taking his hand. I don't know what made me do that, but I did.

He looked down at me with his beautifully blue eyes, and, as I watched, something clicked in those stunning eyes. He had made a decision.

Seth's grip tightened around my hand as he drew me towards him until his hands rested just below my shoulders, his face only a foot away from mine. My heart thudded in my chest.

"I'm telling you this because I love you, Maris. I always have, with every bone in my body."

Instantly, I felt my jaw drop a quarter of an inch as reality hit me. Seth had confessed his love for me…

I could feel my heart speeding up, faster and faster as I realized that the emotion I felt whenever Seth touched me, whenever he spoke to me, whenever he was even around me, and especially the emotion that had made me feel so much pain when Priya had kissed him… that emotion was love.

At that moment I noticed that I had been silent for a good fifteen seconds or so. To you and to me, it might be a short amount of time, but I knew those seconds were probably the most worrisome of Seth's life. His eyes were filled with an obvious fear that I would run away from him or something similar, but, instead, I just walked closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder and letting him encircle me in his arms.

"I-I love you, too."

We stayed like that for a moment, just enjoying finally being able to let our hearts feel what they wanted to feel (for me, at least) and we could've gone on like that forever, but then, Seth began breaking away.

Fearing that our perfect moment would be completely gone, I opened my mouth to protest but was quickly silenced as Seth lifted my chin to his face with one finger and let his lips brush ever so gently against mine.

Instantly, I wrapped my arms around his neck as he kissed me again, intensifying the pressure as his arms pulled me even closer.

Sparks flew like fireworks as my heart sped on to the point that I couldn't tell one beat from the next.

I could feel my legs turning to jelly as my heart continued to thunder in my chest, but Seth kept me from swooning with his arms that pulled me ever closer as he continued to kiss me passionately.

I felt absolutely weightless as the seconds dragged on to minutes, Seth and I still together.

All the memories of Seth with Priya absolutely disappeared and all that was left was this perfect heaven where Seth and I were a couple and no one could come between us. Everything just faded away until I couldn't even remember my name. Just Seth, the scent of him, the feel of his smooth, soft blonde hair. Nothing in the world mattered to me more than he did. Nothing at all.

Then, out of nowhere, a loud, unfortunately familiar voice cut through our perfect moment, shattering the atmosphere.

"I KNEW YOU TWO WERE LOVEBIRDS!"

Instantly, Seth and I broke apart, my hands flying up to my mouth as I looked down at the ground by Jaspr's feet. Embarrassment flooded my heart.

"This is perfect! Just wait 'till I tell everyone!" he exclaimed, rubbing his hands in malicious glee.

Beside me, Seth had become really, really tense, and he was already grinding his teeth in obvious anger. About what? I guessed that it was Jaspr's violation of our privacy.

Wanting to be anywhere besides the place I was now, I took a glance at Seth before brushing past Jaspr, back to camp.

Seth

"What do you want, Jaspr?" I hissed at my youngest brother as the leaves that had been shaken by Maris' passing went still. Leave it to Jaspr to ruin one of the most important events of my entire life.

"I don't know what you mean," he joked, obviously playing around with me.

"What will it take for you to shut your trap?" I clarified, getting angrier by the minute.

"Hmm… let me think…" sighed Jaspr playfully, pretending to be deep in thought. "Oh! I know! How about we have a little bet!"

"A bet?" I queried. I had expected him to demand gold or some other ridiculous material.

"Yeah! About Maris!" he grinned jovially.

"Maris?"

"Let me explain. You get all the girls, I get none. We barely met her a week ago, and now you two are like, together. Not very fair, is it? The wager is if I can get her to dump you and come to me, get it?" he explained with a cocky grin.

"What's the catch?" I asked. Knowing Jaspr, he'd want to have some sort of head start.

"There is none, winner gets Maris," he answered. "So are you in, or are you in?"

"I'm in, but only under one condition," I said.

"Go ahead, be my guest."

"When you're flirting, don't make it so obvious."

"I'm not obvious! I'm suave," he corrected me in his usual "I'm-too-cool" voice.

"You are obvious, you idiot," I argued.

"Am not!"

"Of course you are!"

"Am not!"

"Stop acting like a two-year-old!"

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"Am not!"

And it was at that moment that Maris' blood-curdling scream cut through the night.

Maris

I was on my way back to camp; feeling the embarrassment of what had just went on painting my cheeks a brilliant scarlet.

I could feel absolute frustration coming off me in waves. Jaspr just had to butt in just when I had realized my feelings for Seth! He couldn't have come at a worse time.

My senses were being dulled as my mind and heart screamed in anger, but, despite that, I heard a twig snap right behind me, making me whirl around with fear.

Immediately, I forgot Seth, the meadow, Jaspr's entrance, and all that mattered was the empty space behind me. But, somehow, knowing that something wasn't there was much scarier than the possibility of finding a mouse or something.

Deciding that some passing animal had made the sound, I turned around to continue on my way, but, when I did, I came face to face with a pair of blazing yellow eyes. Instinctively, I opened my mouth to scream, but it the sound caught in my throat like peanut butter, the only thing passing through my lips being a low gasp of surprise.

I turned around again to run when I noticed that I was completely surrounded by a circle of snarling, snapping creatures that looked like jackals-slash-hyenas except they walked on two legs instead of four, and they were of all colors. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, but this time, with fear.

A band of Jarokai and obviously one Kalkoora had me completely at their mercy.

Before I could execute another feeble escape attempt, two of the Jarokai lunged forward and grabbed hold of each of my arms, whipping me around to face the Kalkooran guy who was waiting patiently as I struggled to get free.

The man began to stalk around me in circles, like a lion waiting to pounce on the little antelope it had just caught.

"Well, well," he purred in the same silky voice as the other two Kalkoorans that had tried to capture me. "This is the so called long-lost princess? The spawn of Queen Erowynn? Exactly how did something like you and those other nuisances slip by us so easily? Well, the Jarokai are under my command now, so you won't be getting away so easily, your Highness."

I glared the best I could at him, but I didn't have enough courage to keep it up.

The man chuckled as he unsheathed a rather large, yet slim, knife that he had concealed at his side, underneath his dark black cloak. Then, very gingerly, he began to test the very tip of the blade on the pointer finger of one of his hands, which were covered only by gloves that lacked fingers. And, as I watched, he let a small drop of blood drip down his arm before the cloth of his sleeve soaked it up.

"You know, Princess," he sneered. "I have very, very detailed orders to take you back to Lord Syrin, but if I kill you now, he will surely promote me… and I can leave your carcass behind for that Rebel boy to find. What was his name again? Scott? Stefan? Oh yes… Seth."

I stiffened as soon the man said Seth's name. "No," I denied, my voice sounding hoarse with fear.

The man laughed. "Just think about it, princess! The second he sees his poor queen's body, he'll be out for revenge… and, sooner or later, he'll walked right into the blade of my knife," he flicked his weapon for emphasis. "I must be boring you to death, your Highness, I've seemed to have been rambling… oh well, I won't keep you any longer. Say goodbye, Princess."

I screamed in absolute terror as he advanced on me, knife in hand, thrashing about as I tried in vain to escape the Jarokais' grip.

But then I noticed that a flurry of words I didn't understand were pouring from my mouth like a flood and pure, absolute light began to take over my vision, but, soon enough, the light was extinguished, and everything went black.

Seth

After I had heard Maris' scream, I ordered Jaspr to get Kemris and Edwin before I plunged into the woods, heading towards the place I thought the sound had originated from.

I was running as fast as I could, and reached a small clearing in couple of seconds.

At first, I thought there was nothing there, but then I noticed that Maris was lying facedown on the ground, not moving. As I moved closer, I saw footprints that were way too big to be Maris', and big, dog-like prints with claws. Someone had followed her, and it was, from the looks of everything, the Kalkoora.

I feared that I hadn't gotten to her in time, that Maris was… gone, but I breathed a long, slow sigh of relief when I realized that her sides were rising and falling as she slept, completely unconscious.

I walked over and knelt by her side, picking her up gingerly and cradling her gently in my arms, feeling my heart beat with both relief and fear that something was wrong with her.

"What happened?" a familiar, yet groggy, voice asked.

Immediately, I looked up and saw Kemris, Edwin, and Jaspr picking their way towards us.

"I don't know," I answered, hoping against hope that Jaspr hadn't told the other two what had happened between Maris and I. But luckily, they didn't say anything about the matter.

"Is there anything wrong with her?" checked Kemris, kneeling down on Maris' other side as she examined her for any injuries.

"Not that I can see," I replied, starting to feel even more afraid.

"We're going to have to wait until she wakes up, then she can tell us what went on here," recommended Edwin, being the only voice of reason.

Seeing as that was our only option, we, or I as I should say, carried Maris back to camp and laid her down on sleeping blanket near the extinguished fire and, once Kemris took up her watch, I lay down beside her and just watched her sleep, unable to calm the guilty thoughts that wracked my brain.

"Seth, what happened between the two of you? Why were you out so late?" asked Kemris tentatively as soon as Jaspr and Edwin had fallen asleep as well.

"We went for a walk, and… well… I-I told her I had feelings for her," I admitted, feeling my face heat up with humiliation.

"What? Seth, she's-she's a princess, we're just commoners, you're a commoner!" she gasped. "She needs to marry a prince, not some orphaned rebel boy who rescued her a bunch of times!"

"But Kem… I-I love her," I objected, sitting up to face Kemris' accusing green-eyed glare.

"This isn't right, Seth, she's a royal who needs to marry another royal! Are you getting any of this?" she demanded, her dark green eyes which reminded me so much of Maris' flashing with anger.

"Yes, Kem, but I don't see the point! I love her, she loves me, what does our blood have to do with any of this?" I shot back, feeling frustration well up in my veins.

"Seth, you're my little brother, and I promised mom I would… I promised mom I would take care of you guys," she gulped, tears welling up in her eyes as she choked up at her memories of our mom. "And I don't want to see you get hurt if this ends badly."

"It won't, besides, Kem, wouldn't you do whatever it took if you could be with the one person you loved? With Corellei?" I pressed.

"The situation between me and Corellei is different, our magyk abilities keep us apart, but genetics and rank keep you and Maris apart, that's a very, very wide gap," she argued, her sorrow being quickly replaced by fury.

"I don't care, Kem. I love her, and that's all that matters to me right now," I said stubbornly. "So you're just going to have to get used to it."

"Seth… just promise me that, if she needs to marry some other boy, a prince, that you'll let her go. You can't just think about yourself, Seth, Ecladia needs a queen and a king, someone who knows how to pass laws and make treaties and all that other stuff. You have to understand that this is the way it was meant to be," she pleaded, her eyes desperate.

"I'll make the decision when the time comes, Kem, but for right now, this is how it is," I stated. "And when she wakes up, I intend to keep it that way."

Chapter Seven

Moving On

Maris

I woke up absolutely, and irrevocably groggy.

My head throbbed painfully as my eyes flickered open, making me groan.

I was leaning against a tree in the clearing we had camped in, but strangely, I didn't remember falling asleep.

"You awake now?"

Instantly, I looked to my right and saw Seth leaning nonchalantly against a tree nearby, obviously awake.

He walked over and sat down beside me, yawning a bit as he did so.

"How long was I out this time?" I asked. Getting knocked out and waking up a long time later seemed to be some kind of tradition for me by that time.

He laughed, obviously getting my joke. "Only about three or four hours, don't worry," he reassured me.

I sighed in relief, happy that I hadn't been asleep for something crazy like, three weeks or something like that.

"What happened last night?" questioned Seth, snapping me out of my reverie.

"What?" I queried, confused.

"You know, after Jaspr caught us… well…" he trailed off as he flushed with obvious embarrassment.

I furrowed my brows in puzzlement. What was he talking about? Then, as if from no where, all of my memories from the night before flooded into my mind.

The fire, the meadow, Seth's confession… and especially the kiss.

But I also remembered the assassin.

"Well?" he pressed somewhat impatiently.

Quickly, I told him about the assassin and the bright light and everything else, but then I asked the question that had plagued me for the longest of times. "Who's Lord Syrin?" I inquired.

"Syrin," he stressed the lack of "Lord". "Is the leader of the Kalkoora. He hardly deserves to be a beggar, much less a lord."

"So… why does he want to kill me? He's already powerful… right?" I checked.

He smiled a humorless smile. "He is powerful, but he wants to be King of Ecladia, not just a minor lord, but as long as there is someone else who holds a claim to the throne, he can't," he answered, his voice sounding very melancholy.

"So… he's trying to kill me?" I guessed, fear beginning to pump its icy self through my veins.

In less than a week I had gone from insignificant sophomore whose biggest worry was acing tests to the princess of a world who's the target of a mad, power-hungry lord trying to kill her. Talk about really, really scary.

"Yeah."

I lay my head against his shoulder in defeat, allowing him to put his arm around my shoulders as he tried to comfort me. Then, when he pressed his lips against the top of my head, I closed my eyes in blissful silence, trying to come to terms with what he had just told me.

After a small while, I pulled away. "Where are the others?" I asked, beginning to worry.

"Kemris and Edwin went to check out Dendris, you know, after the… and Jaspr, well, I don't really know where he is, but life's much better off without him," he replied.

"Wait a second, Seth," I said as a very worrisome thought wormed itself into my mind. "Did Jaspr tell the others about… what happened last night?"

"Fortunately no," he answered.

I sighed in relief, but it didn't last long.

"I told them."

"What?" I instantly shouted, my eyes widening in horror.

He took a deep breath. "I only told Kemris, and she told Edwin, but they needed to know why you and I were out by ourselves, so I was pretty much forced to tell them," he explained.

I let my head fall back against the tree and covered my face with my hands, just imagining all the taunts Jaspr would throw at us.

"Don't worry, Maris, it'll work out alright," he assured me. "Besides, Jaspr promised not to tell anyone else."

"What? How'd you do that?" I questioned, peeking out between my fingers curiously.

"Well, let's just say that I threatened to tell everyone something about him for once," he smirked mischievously.

"Really? What?" I prodded, letting my hands drop into my lap as I straightened up.

"Well, you know Jaspr's an archer, right?" began Seth, grinning.

"Yeah."

"Well, he was making his own bow once, you know, like, practically turning a tree branch into a weapon? Anyways, after three weeks of working on the thing, he had it all nice and ready, so all he needed to do was put it to the test," he said, stifling his laughter.

"And what happened?" I goaded, being sucked into the story.

"Edwin and I rigged it so when he raised his arrow to test it, it snapped in half and hit him in the eye!" he burst out laughing at the memory, making me laugh too at the visual that sprang into my head.

But then, the both of us went silent as the strip of woods across the clearing from us began to rustle as Kemris and Edwin emerged from the cover of the trees.

"Any luck?" Seth called to them, serious now.

"No," answered Edwin. "We couldn't find anybody. Syrin completely obliterated the place."

"Aivanlyn probably evacuated some of the villagers, I have a feeling that she knew about this beforehand," assured Kemris. "Besides, her water magyk would've helped with the fire."

"Then we still have hope," I added. If Aivanlyn had known everything before they happened, somehow, then there was a very good chance that at least some the villagers had survived if not most and, if not…

I wrenched myself out of my daydream as Kemris walked over to me.

"We need to start your training, the sooner the better. I'm going to show you how to use your necklace," she said to me, holding her hand out to help me up.

With a quick glance at Seth and Edwin, I allowed Kemris to help me to my somewhat shaky feet and lead me into the forest from which she had come.

"Seth told me what happened last night," she commented casually once we were in the cover of the trees and out of earshot from the boys.

"Yeah," I said. "He told me."

"You know, Maris, that you're a princess, right?" she checked as if I didn't know that already.

"Yeah, but… what does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

She turned back to me. "We're commoners, Maris, and princesses do not marry commoners. Your blood separates you and Seth from each other," she explained.

"A-are you saying that I'm going to have to…. Marry somebody I've never even met, much less love?" I asked, shocked that Kemris, who had talked to me only two days prior about falling in love was trying to break Seth and me up.

"I'm just saying that, if it comes to that, you're going to have to," she answered matter-of-factly before turning to walk away.

"Wait, what? You're saying that just because I'm a princess that means I can't be with the person I love? That's just-just… cruel!" I snapped.

She twisted towards me again, as patient as ever. "Maris, when you think about it from the citizen's perspective, we need someone to rule us, someone who knows how to handle wars and laws and things like that. I'm telling you right now that Seth isn't the kind of guy who grew up learning those kinds of things," explained Kemris. "And, quite frankly, Maris, you may have to give him up one day, at least when the war is over."

"War?" I queried.

"Of course, a war. What did you think that attack on Dendris was? Syrin has been looking for you, Maris, ever since you disappeared sixteen years ago, and he's been making our life hell," she said. "That's why we came for you before you turned eighteen, our situation has gone from bad to worse. You have to understand Maris, you're Ecladia's only hope of surviving as the great country it had once been, and if leaving Seth is the only way, you're going to have to do it. I don't want to make you feel guilty Maris, but many people want to kill you, and Seth will do anything to protect you. If we allow him as a king to kill himself to save you, we'll be right back where we started."

I gulped as her words sank deep into my heart. "I-I understand," I murmured.

There was a complete silence for a couple of moments until Kemris spoke again.

"That's why I brought you out here, Maris, to begin your training so you can help us fight Syrin," she reminded me. "Now repeat after me: Ektra Neãlshra."

"Ecktra Neelshra," I copied her unsuccessfully.

"Try again," she ordered. "Ektra Neãlshra."

Back and forth, back and forth we went as I made mistake after mistake and Kemris corrected me time and again.

Thirty minutes later, I finally had it.

"Okay, next step!" she said cheerfully, clapping her hands together.

"There's a next step?" I inquired somewhat jokingly, making her laugh at my terrified look.

"Don't worry, it's not too hard," she assured me. "Now what I just showed you is a spell to activate your necklace, so hold the stone to your mouth, then say the spell to it."

Somewhat doubtful, I raised the stone to my lips and murmured the words into it, and, surprisingly, the crystal jerked out of my hands to hover before me at eye level. My mouth gaped in awe.

"Good. Next step," muttered Kemris half to herself as she pulled a necklace identical to my own out of her collar. "Say my name into it. Loud and clear."

"Um, okay… Kemris," I said into the crystal, and, almost immediately, Kemris' necklace started pulsating a warm, yellow light.

After saying the words into her own necklace, she called into it, "Can you hear me?"

Instantly, I winced as her voice, which was strangely magnified, screamed at me.

"I'll take that as a yes," she murmured, though to me, it sounded like she was talking normally.

Then, she reached out and covered the necklace with the whole of her hand, snuffing out the light, and, when she let go, the necklace fell limp against her collar, nothing but a necklace once more.

"These necklaces are a means of communication between sages, and are absolutely crucial on the battlefield. If you ever run into trouble, Maris, just say the spell and call for me, and we will be there before you can blink," she explained, giving me a reassuring smile as I deactivated my necklace.

"So… I'm a sage?" I asked.

"Of course, your eyes don't lie!" she smiled, showing me the family resemblance between her and Seth.

"My eyes?"

"Yes. A sage's eyes will always show something of nature in them, for example, the darker green flecks in my eyes look like falling leaves, right?" she said, widening her eyes a little so I could get a good look at them.

I nodded in agreement. "So the trees in mine mean that I'm a sage?" I checked.

"Yes, and not only a sage, an animagi," she replied excitedly.

"What's an animagi?" I questioned, as confused as ever.

"An animagi is a special kind of sage that can phase into the certain animal they represent," she explained. "But the gene is only passed on by blood. Your mother, for example, was an animagi herself, so it is certain that she passed the gene to you."

"Then… what am I?" I prompted, curious.

"Well, by my perspective, you're either some kind of eagle or a hawk," answered Kemris.

"I look like a hawk?" I queried, not knowing whether to be amazed or offended.

"You have sharp eyes, you're alert, you're fast, you're like a hawk," she clarified, laughing.

"I still don't get it," I admitted.

"Don't worry, you'll figure it out sooner or later," she assured me, smiling as ever. "Though I have to say your blood also affects your abilities."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Royal animagis, like you, have the ability to wield Light magyk- that's the most powerful form of magyk in Ecladia besides dark. And, since royal animagis are even more rare that just plain animagis, which are rare unto themselves, it's almost certain that you are the only wielder of light magyk in all of Ecladia," explained Kemris.

"Wow," I commented, not knowing what else to say in my awe.

"Yeah, wow," laughed Kemris. "You know, we'd better head back before those boys kill themselves. Come on."

And as we were heading back to the small clearing where we had been almost an hour before, Kemris and I began talking about random, meaningless things. Things you'd talk about with your friends, for example.

Then, out of nowhere, an arrow sped by my face, and actually brushed my hair back before embedding itself in the tree behind me with a "thunk!"

"What the heck?" I exclaimed, my eyes widening in terror at how close I was to death.

"Maris, get down," Kemris ordered me before stepping protectively ahead of me, her hands lifting as she prepared to work her magyk.

"Whoa! Hold your horses, Kem, it's just us!" Edwin's voice called from ahead of us before Kemris could start attacking.

With a sigh of exasperation, Kemris dropped her defenses as her three brothers stepped out of the woods. "Lyho apcr, you scared me," she hissed, half in a language I couldn't understand.

"What was that for?" I demanded from Jaspr, who was holding his bow.

"Your first training exercise! I wanted to see how you reacted in this type of situation," answered Seth, holding out a hand to help me up, which I took.

"You could've given me a heads-up!" I complained, still freaking out as I got up on my feet.

"Oh, so you expect an enemy soldier to just come strolling up to you in the middle of battle and say, "Hey! I'm going to attack you now, so be ready!"?" he smirked, smiling a cocky smile.

I scowled back at him.

Then, Jaspr walked the two feet behind me to where his arrow was still poking out of the tree.

"Ah, man! I was going for a bull's-eye!" he whined, making Seth whack him in the back of the head… again.

"OW! Jeez! None of you have a sense of humor!" complained Jaspr, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's not that we don't have a sense of humor, Jas, it's because your jokes are never all that funny," countered Edwin.

"They are, too!"

"No, they're not."
"Yes, they are!"

"No, they're not!"

"Yes, they are!"

"No, they're not."

"Anyways," interrupted Seth before the argument could turn into a full-on fight. "We're going to have to keep training, Maris. Whether you like it or not."

He added the last bit as I let out a low groan. I had already nearly chopped Jaspr's arm off in one of our training sessions, much less actually getting any good hits in. The sword wasn't looking to be a very good candidate for my weapon of choice in a fight.

"I don't think I could keep using that sword without killing anyone," I grumbled.

"Oh, I know!" interjected Jaspr out of nowhere.
"What is it now, Jaspr?" sighed Seth.

"How 'bout I start teaching Maris archery? You know, to give her a break from the sword!" he declared.

"That's a fabulous idea, Jaspr! We can totally help Syrin by killing Maris for him!" said Seth, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah right, Seth. What are the chances of me skewering Maris with an arrow when she's standing right next to me?" snorted Jaspr in defiance.

"Anything's possible with you, Jaspr," noted Seth.

They argued for about twenty more minutes about the pro's and con's of me learning archery, Kemris and Edwin sometimes adding words of support for one side or the other, until I decided to step in.

"Alright, both of you. Jaspr, I'll let you train me, but Seth has to be present at each session," I compromised.

"I can deal with that," agreed Seth.

"Fine! If you feel you need to eye your girlfriend all day, Seth, then I guess I can let you," chastised Jaspr with a cocky grin.

"Sure, sure, Jas," scowled Seth. "Whatever you say."

Chapter Eight

Heart-Felt Words

Maris

"So this is derwon… downer? I downer whether or not this is true?"

"No, it's wonder. I wonder whether or not this is true."

"Oh…"

It had been a day since that fateful night, and Jaspr had begun to teach me archery which, surprisingly, I learned rather quickly.

Of course, Kemris started cramming spells for magyk and other things such as a sort of martial arts thing into my still confused brain while Edwin helped me with the more academical subjects, such as map-reading and other things. Kemris had also volunteered to teach me the Ecladian language, but Seth had stepped in and asked if he could teach me.

So there we were, sitting on a fallen log at the far side of the clearing we were still camped in, Jaspr and Edwin training in the clearing itself while Kemris read what looked like some sort of spell book.

The Ecladian language was by no means super-complicated, but it did demand much concentration to keep the words the way they were meant to be read.

Seth had shown me that the Ecladian language was kind of like English words, but the letters are mixed up according to a certain system. Each letter of each word is exchanged with the letter that comes four spaces after it until the word ends, and no letter can be repeated so you just flip the letters if the word isn't big enough. For example, the word "apple" in English is spelled "a-p-p-l-e" but in Ecladian, it is spelled "l-e-p-a-p". Of course if you have a four-letter word like… well, word, you ended up just spelling it backwards "drow", but Seth had told me not to rely on that kind-of rule to get me by.

"Don't worry, Maris," Seth had assured me as I gave him a look of utter confusion. "The system gets easier once you get used to it."

And he was right. The farther I went along, the easier it was for me to understand the language. And, soon enough, I was reading through the sentences that Seth was writing in a small notebook that he had bought at Dendris' market for that particular reason.

"I see you're getting the hang of it," commented Seth. "We should probably take a break, we've been at this for what? Six hours?"

I laughed. "Only two. The sun's barely risen," I corrected him, smiling at his obvious joke.

Seth closed the notebook with his messy scrawl etched inside it and stretched his back a little as he came out of the hunched position he had been in. "Well, it feels like six hours," he said, setting down the book and the thin piece of charcoal he had been using as a pencil. "What with how long it took you to figure out that I was writing, "Where'd that beaver go?" in Ecladian."

"Hey! That one was hard, the charcoal smudged and besides, why would I need to ask someone where a beaver went? I mean, it's not as important to me as some other phrases are," I muttered the last bit half to myself.

"What kinds of phrases?" asked Seth, leaning in towards me, his crystalline blue eyes quizzical.

I blushed. "Well… um… it'd be nice if I knew how to say… well…" I stammered dropping my gaze as I turned a deeper scarlet by the second.

"Go on," he urged me, giving me a reassuring smile. "I promise I won't laugh if it's something funny… maybe."

I giggled a little at his joke before answering, "Well, I-I've been wondering for a while… how do you say "I love you" in Ecladian?"

He gave me a broad grin. "That one's easy! It's "I evol ouy,"," he replied. "And you'd better get used to hearing that, because I'm going to be saying it a lot."

I blushed furiously at what he said as I looked back up at him. "That's probably the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me," I admitted.

"Really? I thought that other boy would've come up with something better."

"Huh? What other boy?" I queried instantly, furrowing my brows in confusion.

"You know, that boy that talked to you when we first met," answered Seth.

"Justin? Justin Keindrwood? I highly doubt he could come up with anything sweeter," I scoffed, chuckling a bit to myself.

"Well, he looked very much interested in you," Seth pointed out.

I shook my head at him before he could even finish his sentence. "He's no threat. He's been hitting on me since I was ten and hasn't let up since. If he ever had a chance, we would probably be dating by now," I said. "And, obviously, that hasn't happened."

He laughed. "I have to say that's probably a good thing on his part, if you had been going out with him, I'd have probably had to get into a fight for your hand," he said theatrically, taking a firm grip on my left hand for emphasis.

"With your training, I doubt he would win," I giggled, squeezing his hand playfully.

"Yeah, it'd be like getting into a fight with Jaspr," he mocked just loud enough for his voice to carry towards where Edwin and Jaspr were still training.

"I heard that!" Jaspr's voice resonated from the other side of the clearing, and, soon enough, its owner appeared in front of us, Edwin trailing behind. "I could beat you in a fight easily, Seth, and you know it!"

"Yeah right, Jas! Name exactly how many times you've beaten Seth," snorted Edwin with a smirk at his younger brother.

"… Okay, maybe I haven't beaten him before, but I bet I could!" retorted Jaspr.

"Is that really a bet you're willing to make?" asked Seth, an idea obviously forming in his head.

"Of course!" leapt Jaspr immediately.

"Please don't tell me you're gonna kill Jaspr, Seth. I don't want to have to be responsible for a body, I mean, how are we going to explain that to Kemris?" I interjected.

"Easy! We'll just say he died of shooting himself with an arrow. It's happened before," said Edwin.

"Hey, wait a second! You're thinking Seth's gonna kill me? He wouldn't dare!" shouted Jaspr defiantly.

"Really, Jaspr? You really think I wouldn't try?" grinned Seth, obviously having a lot of fun taunting his youngest brother.

"I would drop you in a second!" corrected Jaspr.

"Yeah, right," dismissed Seth.

"Yeah, I would!"

"Of course, you wouldn't."

"Yes, I would and you know it!"

"Hey, hey! No fighting! We already had one of us get mortally wounded!" a new voice interrupted before a red-faced Jaspr could do anything more than smolder under Seth's nonchalant gaze.

"He started it!" whined Jaspr, turning into an eight-year-old again under his older sister's regime.

Seth rolled his eyes. "You're just mad because you know that I'll beat you," he said.

"Am not!" hollered Jaspr, turning an even darker tomato red.

"Yes, you are," pressed Seth.

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are."

"I am not!"

"What did I just say?" shouted Kemris over her two younger siblings.

"He started it!" carped Jaspr to his only sister.

"Okay, the both of you just shut up and move away from each other so my headache won't turn into too bad of a migraine," ordered Kemris, obviously flustered.

"Fine!" agreed Jaspr before stomping away to the other side of the clearing towards his bow and arrow.

"Sometimes I wonder about that kid," muttered Edwin as his eyes followed his brother.

"Yeah, me too," concurred Seth, following Edwin's gaze.

"And I wonder about you two! Why do you pick on him like that?" demanded Kemris from her younger brothers.

"Hey, he pranks us!" protested Seth.

"I know, but that's only because you prank him!" countered Kemris. "Sometimes you three just drive me insane!

"So you two go over there and apologize to him right now!" she snapped.

"Do we have to?" asked Edwin.

Kemris glared at him in response.

"Take that as a yes," mumbled Seth before standing up, being an inch shorter than Edwin despite the year between them, and, together, they walked across the clearing towards Jaspr, who was furiously stringing his bow. I was left alone with Kemris.

"You alright?" I checked on Kemris as her face took on the appearance that she was ready to throw fire at the three of her brothers.

"Yeah. It's just kinda stressful being the only girl out of three boys, not to mention being the oldest," she explained. "Especially after our mom…"

When she didn't finish her sentence, I was about to press her for information, but felt that she didn't want to talk about whatever happened to her mom.

"Wow," I said, breaking the awkward silence. "I don't think I would be able to handle that."

Based upon her reaction, I could tell that something bad had happened with their mother, and I was surprised by how she handled such an impossible situation with such grace.

She turned and smiled a small smile at me. "Not many people could. But I have my brother to thank for that," she said.

"Seth?" I guessed. Out of the three boys, it seemed that Seth would be the most likely to help Kemris out the most. Either that, or I'm really, really biased.

"No," she answered. "Our other brother, Edmund."

"Edmund?" I queried. Seth, nor any of them for that matter, had mentioned another member of the family, much less a brother named Edmund. Whoever he was, either he wasn't rather important to our situation or something bad had happened with him too.

"He's our older brother, the eldest of all of us, and he left for war a little while before… before Syrin came after my mom," sighed Kemris sadly, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "Apparently he thought she was part of the rebel force, which she was, but he killed her mercilessly… and Edmund never came back from war…"

By then, tears were drizzling from her eyes and down her cheeks, leaving her beautiful green eyes bloodshot.

I stood up and took her left hand. "Kem, whatever happened, it happened and you can't change it, but that doesn't mean you can't change the future," I told her, using words and phrases I hadn't even thought about saying.

She smiled weakly at me before wiping her eyes with her free hand. "Thanks, Maris. I needed that," she thanked me, sniffing a little.

All of a sudden, shouts emitted from across the clearing, making Kemris and I perk up immediately to see Seth and Jaspr coming to blows over… something… while Edwin tried to break them apart. It wasn't going very well.

"We'd better go before they kill each other," said Kemris, wiping her eyes dry and sweeping away the vulnerable girl she had exposed to me and replacing it with the determined oldest sister that we all knew very well. She smiled genuinely at me.

"Yeah," I agreed with an equal grin. "Let's."

ChapterNine

Morpho

Maris

"Dang you, Maris! You're too good at this!"

I smirked cockishly. Jaspr was shouting on the account that I had done everything he had instructed me to do with the utmost perfection.

Everyday, Kemris or one of the others would wake me up for hours of intensive training, and, soon enough, the hours turned to days, the days to weeks, and the weeks into months, my skills improving at all subjects greatly- even the sword.

"Stop complaining, Jaspr!" yelled Seth from the tree he was leaning against, Edwin at his side.

Now, three months to the day that Syrin lay fire to the peaceful village of Dendris, Jaspr was testing me on my archery skills, which I excelled at.

We had been moving from clearing to clearing, forest to forest, only stopping in towns for supplies and only if we were in dire need for them. We had learned our lesson from what happened in Dendris and we didn't want any other small village suffering the same fate.

Jaspr muttered something under his breath about how he was surrounded by idiots before lifting his bow until his arrow was at eye level.

And just as he was about to send the arrow towards a small, ramshackle target carved into a tree about five meters away, his bow snapped in half where the arrow sat knocked above his fingers, and, as I watched, the wood from the retaliating bow hit Jaspr directly in the eye.

"HOLY SNAP, THAT HURT!" cried Jaspr, covering his soon-to-be black eye with his hand.

Of course, I could barely hear his wails over the hysterical chuckles that emanated from both Seth and Edwin as they laughed at their younger brother, not to mention me.

As I was laughing my head off, I noticed in my peripheral vision the two other boys high-fiving each other, making me remember what Seth had told me that they had actually done the same thing to poor Jaspr earlier. Ouch. Talk about bad karma.

"That's it! I'm taking a break! Why don't you fight her, Seth?" Jaspr ordered his older brother as he stomped towards them, the remnants of his bow still clenched in his hands.

Seth laughed as he straightened up and walked over to me, still grinning jovially.

"So what are we doing, Master?" I teased him. Seth had made a big deal over the fact that I didn't call him something special, just "Seth", but then I had retaliated that he never called me anything special, so it had been a joke between us to keep making names for each other.

"Well, My Lady, why don't we start with no-weapons, no-magyk? Just good old fists?" he told me formally.

"Okay," I agreed before positioning myself sideways to make myself a smaller target and moving my hands up to shoulder-level, my right hand slightly lower than the other.

Seth copied my movements, and waved his hand for me to begin once he was ready.

Instantly, I lashed out with my hands and hit the pressure points at his neck, like Kemris had taught me to. And when Seth went to defend himself, I swung out with my left leg and hit the back of his right leg, making him fall and land heavily on his back, officially defeated.

"Ha, Seth! You got beat by a girl!" taunted Jaspr from where he was watching us, massaging his already blackening eye.

"Yeah, but you got beat by a bow," retaliated Seth.

"Ouch, that's a burn," laughed Edwin.

I reached out with a hand to help Seth up and assisted him in brushing off some of the dust and blades of grass that clung to his tunic and trousers.

"You're getting good," a new voice chimed in from nearby.

Immediately, we all turned to a small alcove in front and a little ways to the right of me and noticed Kemris watching us from the shelter of the trees.

"Thanks," I replied, smiling. Even I have to admit that I was getting good.

"You know, I think it's high time we get Neandro," she muttered half to herself. "Don't you think so, Seth?"

"You really think she's ready?" queried Seth.

"Who's Neandro?" I asked, becoming a bit confused.

Seth sighed playfully at my question. "Neandro's someone who can help you with your goose problem," he teased.

"I'm a hawk, not a goose," I corrected him before turning back to Kemris. "But can't you teach me to turn into a bird or whatever?"

I had noticed only a few days after my training had begun that Kemris wasn't even teaching me the basics of being an animagi, and when I had asked her about it, she had only replied with, "Don't worry, you'll learn."

"I'm not an animagi, Maris, and, quite frankly, you're going to need a trained professional to help you out with that," she answered. "Which is why I'm hoping Neandro will accept, being a hybrid and all."

"Hybrid?" I queried at the new word.

"A hybrid is a half-human, half-animal that are much like animagi, but they are born with wings and tails and things like that and they cannot use magyk. There are six basic clans with some overlaps with cross-species marriages: Bird, Bat, Cat, Dragon, Wolf, and Marine," explained Kemris. "Of course, many of them are extinct by now."

"Extinct?" I gasped.

"Hybrids were exiled by society because of their… uncleanness and have been that way ever since. Not to mention that many people kill hybrids on sight despite your mother's law against the mindless murdering of them," replied Kemris.

"And that's why we have to scale Mt. Gothr to find the Bird Clan, and Neandro," added Seth.

"Wait a sec. Mt. Gothr? Are you talking about mountain climbing?" I demanded, totally freaking out.

"Yes, and no. Mt. Gothr is an active volcano that erupts at incalculable intervals and is extremely dangerous," explained Seth rather awkwardly.

"Volcano?" I shouted, my eyes growing very, very wide. Lava and I shouldn't mix. In fact, we shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence. "You mean like, lava?"

"Yes, lava. And, whether you like it or not, Maris, we're going to have to go. We need to stop at Feeana for supplies or we won't even make it to the base of the mountain," said Edwin as he and Jaspr walked over and entered the conversation.

"Yep! I can't go much longer without my daily dose of Vitamin G!" joked Jaspr.

"Vitamin what now?" I queried, still flustered.

"Girls," he answered with a smirk, making his black eye look even darker in the shadow of his forehead.

"Just shut up, Jaspr," growled Seth and Edwin simultaneously.

"Make me!"

"The three of you shut up!" snapped Kemris, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, we do need supplies, but to get to Feeana in less than a day, we're going to need to go through morpho territory. I suggest we take the long way around it."

"We won't last that long," objected Edwin. "I just checked the food supply and the water, and we won't be able to survive the four days it'll take us to go the long way. Besides, the likelihood of an attack is a million to one!"

"You do know that one out of five travelers gets attacked? There are five of us!" protested Kemris.

"What's a morpho?" I stepped in rather awkwardly.

"A morpho is a type of animal-plant-thing that kinda look like onions, but they have these vines that cling to you and into their mouth which as row upon row of razor sharp teeth. Sounds like a very pleasant death, doesn't it?" grinned Seth as I turned pale with disgust.

"Yuck," was all I managed to say. "But why do you call it a morpho?"

"Because if you cut off one vine, five more dangerous vines grow in to replace it. Or, to put it simply, it gets easier for the morpho to kill you," he explained. "Isn't that nice?"

"Yes, so nice," I said sarcastically.

"I can take on a morpho anytime!" exclaimed Jaspr, flexing his minuscule arm muscles. "Even with its vines!"

"If a broken bow manages to give you a black eye, I doubt that you could beat a morpho," scoffed Edwin.

"Yes, I can and you know it!" whined Jaspr. "I'd shoot its weak points!"

"Jaspr, you know the only weak point is its roots which is fiercely protected by its vines. You wouldn't be able to get anywhere near it without getting killed… Well, when I put it that way… you should do it!" encouraged Seth.

"Ha, ha, very funny," laughed Jaspr sarcastically. "Don't be such a pessimist."

"Well, it's true," said Edwin.

"Stop fighting, guys," ordered Kemris. "All we need to do is get to Feeana alive, okay?"

"Right," we all agreed.

And so we gathered our stuff, preparing ourselves for the journey ahead of us.

"Wait."

Instantly, we all stopped, nearly bumping into each other as Seth, who was leading the way with his sword, halted us with an upheld hand.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Can you hear that?" he questioned back at me, making the rest of us listen to the silence of the woods.

"There's nothing," said Kemris.

"Exactly. The forest has gone silent. Even the birds," he whispered. "Move very, very slowly. Something's around here, at it isn't a kitten."

"A morpho?" guessed Edwin, the smallest bit of fear creeping into his voice.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, we're gonna have to be- wait! What was that?" muttered Seth as a loud rustling came from our left.

Quickly, Edwin unsheathed his sword and advanced upon the bush where the noise had come from, and, slowly, ever so slowly, brushed the leaves back.

"Get back, Ed! The closer we are together, the least likely one of us will be picked off," ordered Seth, taking command.

"There's nothing here," announced Edwin, breaking the added silence that had gathered after Seth's warning.

"Good," said Jaspr, his face growing very, very pale.

We began to walk very cautiously forwards, and we went about five feet until another rustling was heard, this time, a little ways to our right. But again, when Seth went to investigate, there was nothing.

"Seth, be care- AAH!" I screamed, cutting short my warning as my legs were tugged out from under me.

I was dragged through the bushes, screaming, by my legs, the leaves giving me paper-cuts, or leaf-cuts, or whatever, all over my arms and across my face.

I could feel something slimy wrapped around my legs, and knew instinctively that a morpho had me in its clutches.

And I was ironically proven right. As soon as the wall of bushes ended, I came face to face with the morpho.

It was exactly as Seth had described it. It was a very big, about the size of two doors stacked on top of each other onion or turnip-shaped thing with a mouth near its base that was filled with row after row of gnashing, serrated teeth that filled the entire forest with such a deafening sound, I could barely hear myself think. And it was then that I saw the vine that had me in its grip.

The morpho was going to eat me.

Terrified, I closed my eyes and waited for my obviously painful death, but then I felt a strong pair of hands grab my right arm from the shelter of the bushes. "Oh no, you don't!"

Seth pulled on my arm in an attempt to get the vine to release me, but to no avail, it held on.

"Maris, your barrier!" shouted Kemris over the noise.

Without the energy to call back to her, I barely managed to raise my left hand to yell out the incantation.

Kemris had taught me how to make a wall of fire with a basic magyk spell, and, as I look back, I realize that that was probably the best spell to attack the creature with.

"INAKAREI, LEMOSAN!"

Immediately as the last syllables left my lips, a wall of fire erupted from the ground, shielding me, hopefully, from more vines.

But, unfortunately, it failed.

More vines passed through the fire as if it were just air and wrapped themselves all around my legs to the top of my ribs, nearly completely encasing me in a slimy green cocoon.

"It-it's not working!" I yelled to Kemris, knowing that she wouldn't be able to see what was going on. The morpho tugged me ever closer.

"Jaspr!" I heard Seth gasp, his voice thick with exertion.

"Yeah?" Jaspr's voice sounded very strained too. He was probably the one keeping Seth from suffering my same fate.

"Let go and shoot the vines!" commanded Seth. "It's the only chance we've got!"

"That could get the both of you killed!" protested Edwin over the turmoil, his voice very, very strained. My guess was he was holding onto not just one, but both of his brothers.

"Just… do… it!" pressed Seth, his grip slick with sweat.

"Seth, don't. I don't want you to die for me!" I yelled up to him as the vines began to cover my shoulders.

"I won't let you go, Maris!" he hollered at me, and, through the leaves, I caught a glimpse of his desperate blue eyes, filled with fear.

"I'm going to let go!" Jaspr cried out. "Just hold on!"

I slipped forward a couple more dreadful inches as Jaspr released Seth to grab his bow, and, as I moved, Seth was dragged out from the bushes, within range of the vines. Slowly at first, the vines began to grab onto his hands, then wrists, up to my neck now.

Seth's grip was getting slicker by the second, and the slime of the vines was making it worse. "Seth, let go! Save yourself!" I screeched at him. If Jaspr didn't shoot his arrows soon, Seth and I would be dead.

"I won't let you die, Maris! Not while my heart beats and I still have even an ounce of love for you!" he yelled at me.

"Jaspr, where are those arrows?" demanded Edwin's voice to Jaspr.

"I'm almost there! Just wait a little longer!" answered Jaspr; his voice sounding very hurried.

But he was too late.

Just as Seth's grip slackened a fraction of a degree more, the morpho tugged on me and Seth's hands on my wrist disappeared as I was dragged once again towards the morpho.

"MARIS!"

I tried to grab hold of blades of grass as the morpho reeled me in gradually, but I couldn't get enough of a grip on them.

The vines were wreaking havoc on my body, grabbing on to my wrists, my neck, my shoulders, any spot they could hold onto until I was almost completely encased in morpho vines.

"MARIS!" Seth called out to me again, and, through a tiny peephole in the vines, I could see him trying to come after me, the only thing holding him back being Kemris and Edwin who had him by the shoulders and arms.

"Jaspr!" Kemris screamed at her brother in desperation as she fought against Seth's flailing.

Everything was going in slow motion, the teeth of the morpho as it realized that it would get dinner after all, Seth's anguish, and the arrows flying through the sky…

Arrows?

Five arrows were speeding through the air until they severed the many vines that were holding onto me... and sliced through the main root of the morpho.

There was a loud screech of pain from the morpho as Seth ran forward and pulled me back into the safety of the bushes before the morpho could lash out with its dying breath.

We were completely silent as we caught our breath to the tune of the morpho's screams as it died, and, soon enough, the forest went silent.

"Maris, oh, Maris," muttered Seth half to himself as he held me close to his chest, pure relief coming off him in waves.

We were still on the ground, me lying there, in Seth's arms while the others knelt, gasping for breath.

"Maris… your legs," panted Kemris.

Immediately, I looked down at my legs, which were exposed as the skirt of my dress had been pulled up to my shins, and saw where the vines had cut into my skin, leaving it raw and, in many places, bleeding.

"I-I can heal it," I mumbled, more to myself than anyone else.

"Schenamei carolis," I muttered under my breath as I traced the wounds with the fingertips, leaving the skin flawless. Then I moved onto my arms and face.

"Hey… wait a second!" interrupted Jaspr. "That's worse than what happened to my eye! Why didn't you heal me?"

Leave it to Jaspr to make a serious, traumatizing experience into an annoying one.

"It didn't pop into my head at the time," I answered him sweetly, giving him a rather weak smirk.

"Well, now you owe me one!" he held out his hand to me, as if to help me up, but then I noticed that it was pink and completely rubbed raw.

"Huh? How'd that happen?" I asked him as I examined his hand.

"Oh, so you think it's easy firing five arrows at once? Maybe I should bring that up in our next training session!" he said.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Then I'll fix it now."

True to my word, I ran my hand across his, leaving it completely undamaged.

"Thank you," he thanked me with a smirk.

Seth pulled me to my feet and helped me brush off the bits and pieces of vine that still clung to my body.

"Are you alright?" he checked, his eyes full of worry.

"Yeah, I got it all," I answered him. "I'm fine."

He smiled weakly at me. "Good."

And, being the official ruiner-of-perfect-moments, Jaspr came between us and draped his arm over my shoulders. "Now we're even," he grinned simply at Seth. How strange.

I glanced at Seth and he scowled at his brother. There was something going on, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Nice barrier," complimented Kemris awkwardly, bringing me back to reality.

"But it didn't work," I pointed out.

"But it was still good. I could see and feel it even from where I was. I haven't seen any barrier as good as that besides probably Murlina, but that's because she's the best sage in Ecladia," said Kemris.

"Who-" I was about to ask before cutting myself short. "Oh, forget it. If it's important, I'll hear it sooner or later, right?"

They smiled at me. Kemris, Jaspr, Seth… but Edwin wasn't.

"Has it occurred to any of you that we're still standing in the middle of morpho territory?" he checked, raising a darkened eyebrow.

The rest of us stopped grinning stupidly before we began running towards the edge of the forest.

Towards Feeana.

Chapter Ten

Laiyah

Seth

We stood catching our breath on the edge of the forest, still freaking out about the morpho attack.

I was about four to five feet ahead of the others, and, as I looked up from my heavy breathing, I could see the silhouette of Feeana stationed only about a mile away from the base of Mt. Gothr, which towered over the entire valley that shadowed it, it's peak piercing the sky like a mighty hero's spear.

As I was thinking, Jaspr appeared behind me, still panting. "Seth?"

"What is it, Jas?" I questioned, too tired to be sarcastic.

"We haven't eaten anything since like, the crack of dawn, and I don't think that's good for someone as important as Maris," he explained.

I looked at him. "Are you sure it's Maris you're worried about and not yourself?" I asked him slyly as I heard his stomach growl as if confessing Jaspr's crime to me.

"Fine," he admitted. "I'm hungry, but who can blame me?"

"I can't," said a new voice that I would recognize anywhere.

Both Jaspr and I turned slightly to welcome Maris into our conversation, Edwin and Kemris coming up to her flanks.

A smile appeared on my face. "Okay. How 'bout a little contest? Last one to Feeana's buying all of us lunch," I stated before taking off.

"No fair!" whined Jaspr, his voice getting fainter and fainter as I ran farther and farther away. "You're the fastest!"

"Exactly," I mumbled to myself with a grin.

I had been born with the natural ability to outrun anyone and anything at anytime. Jaspr was born with the ability of being impossibly annoying! What a surprise.

But as I was running, my cockiness turned to utter shock as Maris sped by me, laughing.

I skidded to a hard stop, coming to rest about three meters after I had started. "What the…" I trailed off, my mouth gaping wide with surprise.

"Whoa," commented Jaspr as he and Edwin both came panting up to me, Kemris coming up a short time later.

"It's her animagi blood. She's genetically more advanced than us," explained Kemris.

As we watched, Maris came to a complete stop about half a mile ahead of us in front of Feeana's gates and, without skidding, turned to look back at us, still giggling. "I can't believe I outran you, Seth!" she shouted to me, obviously knowing that I wouldn't be able to hear her if she talked normally.

"Not I see why you like her," whispered Edwin to me, a face of equal awe etched on his face.

I grinned up at him. "You don't know the half of it."

Quickly, Maris walked all the way back to us, still smiling. "Looks like you're buying, Seth," she laughed, smiling her dazzling smile.

I scowled playfully at her. "Right."

"You're my hero!" yelled Jaspr theatrically, running the last few feet towards Maris. "Now I won't have to spend all my money on food!"

"Wait a second," interjected Maris. "You always lost?"

"No… Okay, a couple of times… a lot of times… fine, yeah, I've always lost," he finally admitted.

Maris laughed her sweet, melodious laugh.

"Guess I'm the fastest now, Seth," she boasted, still beaming.

I tried to scowl at her again, but ended up with a wide grin from ear to ear. "Yes, I guess you are," I agreed.

Then, Maris turned and led the way past Feeana's gates, which were always open to travelers such as us during the day, and into the city itself.

Feeana was not unlike Dendris with the likes of the people, though it was a bigger town and one of the many villages among a very important trade route that led to Castle Ecladia, the castle that Maris would someday preside in despite the fact that Syrin dwelt there now. And, as we walked along the cobblestone street that was worn down by centuries of travelers, people began to stare at Maris, something the citizens of Dendris hadn't done. From what I could see, I guessed that word of Dendris' plight had reached the ears of Feeana through the many passers-by. Whispers could be heard being uttered from the mouths of the villagers.

"… Princess Maris isn't dead after all."

"Syrin is looking for her…"

"Burnt down Dendris, Syrin did, looking for the Princess!"

Instantly, I sped up until I was standing at Maris' side. I placed my hand on her shoulder, making her stop.

"Keep close and make sure they don't see your eyes," I instructed her.

"Why?" she whispered to me.

"They know about what happened to Dendris, and your eyes will betray you as a sage, not to mention us. They'll recognize you," I explained.

All of a sudden, a voice shouted out from behind us. "Hey, wait up!"

Immediately, Maris lowered her eyes as she heeded my warning.

I took a quick glance behind us and sighed in relief as soon as I saw who it was. "Don't worry," I murmured to Maris. "She knows."

The rest of us turned to meet Laiyah, the girl who had been calling to us.

She was running as fast as she could, her curly red hair flying out behind her like a cape and her dark, short-sleeved dress flapping in the breeze.

The people who had been muttering things about us were gradually leaving, and, once they saw Laiyah, they must've regarded us as nobodies. Laiyah was a very well known girl in Feeana and was notorious for housing many worn travelers.

Laiyah was a girl about my age, a little older than Maris but younger than Edwin, with dark, scarlet-colored hair and fetching blue eyes. She was a part of the Rebel force that stood against Syrin and was Vice- President of the Force's Magyk Squadron.

Laiyah stood gasping for breath in front of us, a crooked grin on her face as she looked up at us. "I've been waiting for you guys since forever! Did you have a nice trip?" she asked, coughing a little as she straightened up.

"We ran into a morpho, but, obviously, no one got seriously injured," I reported to her.

"So that's how you got that black eye?" Laiyah questioned Jaspr as she noticed the damage.

Jaspr blushed before touching his fingers to his eye as if to hide it. "No… my bow snapped and it hit me, so…" he trailed off, turning a dark red with embarrassment.

"Nice! Though couldn't you have healed it, Kemmy? Or couldn't she have?" inquired Laiyah at Maris and Kemris.

"What? How do you know about me?" queried Maris, obviously a bit lost over this new turn of events.

"Oh, sorry! That was pretty rude," fussed Laiyah. "My name's Laiyah and I'm to be your guide here. I work with Kemris in the erm…"

"The Rebel Force," I muttered to Maris under my breath so no one else could hear. Syrin had spies absolutely everywhere. Even in the smallest towns, there was evidence of Syrin's invasion.

"Oh," she muttered back in acknowledgment.

Then, Laiyah brushed past all of us and began to lead the way… somewhere. As she noticed that we didn't follow right away, she glanced over her shoulder. "Come on!" she coaxed, beckoning to us with her hands.

We followed and, as we were walking down the street, I took a look at Edwin. He had gone paler than he usually was, and his eyes followed Laiyah. I pulled up to his shoulder, Jaspr trailing behind to look at all the girls that we passed, Kemris and Maris walking side by side with Laiyah.

"You okay?" I checked Edwin. Ed and I got along very, very well. So well in fact, we hid barely anything from each other. Not Jaspr, though. Definitely not Jaspr.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine," he answered me very unconvincingly.

"Laiyah?" I guessed, and, judging by the look on his face, I was right.

Edwin had been in love with Laiyah for the longest of times, and, despite his many chances, he always failed to admit his feelings for her.

And his chances were running short.

Jaspr, being Jaspr, hit on every pretty girl in sight besides Kemris… and if he hit on Kemris, he'd officially break the record on my "weird" scale.

"I've told you a billion times, just ask her out," I prodded him in a whisper, being very careful so the girls, who were talking to each other, wouldn't hear us. "You have nothing to lose!"

"Nothing except maybe she gets so upset that we can't work together, let alone be friends anymore!" protested Edwin in a raised whisper.

"How do you think I felt about telling Maris, the princess of this whole dang country that I loved her when we'd only known each other a couple of weeks?" I countered. "And we've known Laiyah for years."

"But you and Maris… you two seem… made for each other," he argued, turning a bit red as he spoke.

I rolled my eyes at him. "How are you even sure that Laiyah doesn't like you back?" I pointed out. "I mean, maybe she's waiting for you to make the first move!"

"I highly doubt that," snorted Ed.

Well, Seth does have a point you know a voice resonated in my head, and, according to Edwin's reaction, in his too.

Immediately, we both glanced around for the culprit.

Then, Maris, who was still at Laiyah's right flank, gave me a sideways glance out of the corner of her eye.

Is that you, Maris? I checked with my mind.

Yeah. Kemris taught me how to read other people's thoughts and to send my own. It's convenient, but annoying she said. But Seth's right, Edwin. I can see something in Laiyah's heart that I can't really describe…

Did you just say you saw something in Laiyah's heart? I queried, thinking I misheard… or misthought… or whatever.

That's another animagi ability I have, I can read the colors of people's hearts, you know, red for anger, indigo for sad, the such explained Maris. And right now, there's a weird, magenta-purply color in her heart that I can't decipher.

Do you think it's about Edwin? I asked her.

Probably She answered, but then, she rolled her eyes at something.

What'd he say? I questioned immediately, guessing that Edwin had said something. Or thought.

He says Laiyah's too good for him responded Maris.

Tell him he's an idiot. From me I added the last sarcastic bit.

A couple of seconds later, Edwin gritted his teeth, which told me that he had gotten my message.

"Anyways," said Maris, a couple of seconds passing by before I realized that she was talking out loud. "Where are we going?"

Laiyah smiled at her. "We're going to my place. It'll only take a couple more minutes of walking," she answered.

We walked for about fifteen more minutes, talking to each other about rather meaningless things before we came upon Laiyah's house.

It was a small, ramshackle two-story house built out of wood with about four windows on each wall.

Laiyah led us inside, through a small hallway until leading us around a right turn and into her parlor which was basically a thick woolen rug, a couple of armchairs, and two tables.

"Make yourself at home," invited Laiyah as she walked ahead and turned to face us finally.

Laiyah's parents had died years ago about the same time that our mom had, so she had the entire place to herself, and, thanks to her job at the local in, she managed a good enough salary to live without anyone supporting her.

Then, she turned to me, snapping me out from my memories. "Does she know about… her lineage?" she checked.

I nodded. "Yeah, Aivanlyn told her," I replied, choking up a little as I remembered the kind woman who had so generously offered quarters to many of the Rebels.

"Great," she sighed in relief. "That takes a lot off my mind. So, how is Aivanlyn? She still lives in Kraeda, right? It's been a while since I've seen her."

Silence descended on all of us as we thought about how we were going to break the news to Laiyah.
"Is… Is everything alright?" she asked, her brows furrowing with concern.

Kemris took a deep breath in, breaking the silence.

"We-we don't know. Aivanlyn was with us in Dendris when Syrin… burnt it down."

Instantly, we all turned towards Maris, who had explained.

Abruptly, Laiyah's concerned look turned into one of pure, absolute horror.

"He-he must know she's here, then!" she cursed loudly. "Maybe even before she came!"

"He did try and capture her when she first came," I added in a solemn tone, remembering when Maris had first come through the Ecladian-Otherworld gate.

"And, if we're not careful," murmured Edwin. "Feeana's next."

Maris

Five Hours Later…

"No! I won't do it!"

"Maris, it's the perfect cover-up!"

"Are you serious? Tell me how it's perfect, then!"

Seth had informed me that both him and the others wanted me to disguise myself as a singer so as not to rouse any more suspicions with the villagers, but, as usual, I stubbornly refused.

"Maris, it is absolutely full-proof!" he argued with me.

"How is that?" I demanded.
"Three reasons," he stated. "Number One: You have a very good voice whether you admit it or not. Number Two: We'd be able to get more information much more easily from everyone in town- everyone talks with loose tongues to entertainers. And, Number Three." He grinned before continuing. "You're pretty enough for the job."

I rolled my eyes at him. "But I don't know any songs at all unless you have songs like "Ode to Joy" or "Row Row Row your Boat" or something like that," I snorted.

"What?" he queried, obviously confused by what I had just said.

"Never mind, but I really don't know any songs, much less how to sing!" I disputed.

"Laiyah can teach you the songs, but you have to be willing to learn them, Maris," he said simply, smiling encouragingly at me. "Besides, it's only for a couple of days until we get the supplies we need, then we're out of here."

There were a couple of moments of silence as I thought about his proposition.

"Fine," I finally agreed. "But I've seen those old Westerns. If some guy starts hitting on me, I want permission to use my magyk on him."

He grinned mischievously at me. "No problem there."

I rolled my eyes at him again, making him laugh.

"Really, Maris," he chuckled. "There's an evil warlord following us who is intent on killing you, but no! You're not afraid of him! You're afraid of some boys how share my opinion about you."

I narrowed my eyes accusingly at him. "You just don't get it," I told him.

He laughed jovially again and ruffled my hair. "I promise I won't kill anyone over you, Maris, I'll probably just give 'em a black eye or two," he promised.

I tried to scowl at him, but just ended up smiling.

"Okay, then. Just please don't hit Jaspr too hard," I joked, making him laugh even more.

"Don't worry," he snickered. "I'll only rattle whatever brains he still has in that head of his."

I cracked up at his joke. "Yeah, we wouldn't want to give him any more brain damage than he already has," I teased.

Then, as our laughter died down, silence wrapped itself around our shoulders like a thick woolen blanket let out to dry after a good soaking, leaving it heavy in the air. Seth was gazing deep into my plain green eyes and I into his glorious, crystalline blue ones.

Finally, after about a minute just watching each other, Seth moved and cupped my face in his warm, callused hands before bringing my mouth to his, planting a kiss on my lips.

I could feel love rolling off both him and I in large waves like the ocean crashing against a weathered cliff as I closed my eyes and twined my arms behind his neck, letting his arms move to my waist.

Then, after about thirty seconds, we both pulled away at the exact same time, drifting into the awkwardness that seemed to always follow a kiss.

"Wh-what was that for?" I asked him.

He smiled slyly at me. "It's been a while," he answered nonchalantly. "And I wanted to remind you how much I loved you."

Subsequently, I let my eyes pierce right into his heart until I could see the colors of emotions swirling around.

Inside, there was a swirl of a beautiful magenta, the color of the sky when the sun first rises, but, in the background, there was a dark, peat-colored brown. Protectiveness.

I blinked my eyes to erase the vision as I pressed my face into his chest, feeling his arms wrap securely around me and his heartbeat quicken ever so slightly.

Then, almost out of nowhere, Seth began to hum a very smooth, riveting melody that sounded like the sort of song you would hear on a music box.

"What is that?" I questioned him, not opening my eyes as the song pulled me in.

He stopped humming to speak. "What's what?" he queried.

"That song you were just humming," I clarified.

"Oh. It's a song I wrote for you," he replied, a smile creeping into his voice.

"Let me guess," I said. "The words are something along the lines of: "I'm so in love with this girl I'm driving myself insane trying to keep other guys from stealing her away from me."

He laughed at my joke. "Of course not, those words would never fit in with the song!" he chuckled.

We both laughed simultaneously at his joke, but as our laughter died down, he told me the real reason. "I can't sing, much less write, so there are no words for it," he replied finally.

"Just make it up as you go along, then," I murmured as I listened to his heart's even throbbing.

"Why don't you do it?" he whispered to me, his smile still very prominent in his words.

"I'm not sure I can," I muttered back to him.

"You can do anything when you put your mind to it, Maris. You just have to have faith," he said, letting his lips rest against my hair.

As he did that, I broke away just a little so I could reach up and kiss his mouth.

Immediately, I felt his arms pull me closer to him as he allowed his lips to press even more deeply into mine.

The kiss was so perfect, almost as perfect as our first, yet… now it was much more bittersweet.

After about fifteen seconds or so, I pushed him away from me until I was out of arms reach.

"Maris?" checked Seth, sounding concerned.

"Seth," I murmured the name that meant so much to me. "I-I can't… I won't do this to you."

"Won't do what?" he questioned. "What is it, Maris?'

"Seth, don't you understand how much danger you're in when you're close to me? You could've gotten killed if we'd walked back together if Jaspr hadn't walked in on us!" I said forcefully, tears beginning to fight their way into my eyes. "I can't let you die for me!" Kemris' words from that next day still resonated so very, very clearly in my head: Seth will do anything to protect you. If we allow him as a king to kill himself to save you, we'll be right back where we started…

He smiled lovingly at me. "You know I understand, Maris, but you also need to know that I will do anything to keep you safe from Syrin," he vowed. "Even if it means my death."

"No!" I screeched, grateful that the others had left shopping so they wouldn't hear me. "Seth, I won't let you! If-If you were to… go, I-I wouldn't be able to live."

"Maris," he soothed as he walked closer to me. "Maris, I can't live without you either, and that's why I will not allow you to kill yourself if I give my life protecting you. Wouldn't you do the same?"

As his voice faded away, he reached out and traced the top of my cheek with his thumb, and, when he pulled it away, it was moist.

I could feel my tears run freely from my eyes and down my face as we both realized what my answer would be.

Finally, Seth reached forward and pulled me into his arms, comforting me as wracking sobs engulfed my body.

He was murmuring small phrases of condolences as his hand rubbed up and down along my spine reassuringly.

"I won't let anything happen to you, Maris," he swore. "And may God strike me dead if I do."

And somehow, what were supposed to be words of comfort only made my heart fill with much more dread.

Chapter Eleven

Discovery

Seth

Maris' voice rose higher and higher up the scale until I was absolutely sure it would crack… but of course, it didn't. She was singing a song called "Tall Trees" written by some man who had supposedly traveled all over Ecladia before writing a song a about its namesake.

We had only been living in Feeana for about three weeks, some of the supplies we needed had had to be imported, and Maris was already famous for her "angel-like" voice and was extremely popular among the locals.

But, of course, with popularity came admirers.

I had lost count after thirty with how many boys had flirted with Maris, but I had only had to punch one boy so far, which had made Maris sigh in relief.

It had happened about two weeks after we had arrived in Feeana, and Laiyah had convinced her boss to allow Maris to sing at the inn. Once Maris and I had arrived (the others had been haggling in the local market) and she had sang (she sang very, very beautifully, but, of course, she said she had sounded terrible) a group of about five boys about Kemris' age came waltzing over to talk to her.

"'Ello," one of them, this one with sharp hazel eyes and straw-colored hair, greeted Maris.

"Um, hi," Maris had said back to him. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Why yes, of course!" the boy had smirked. "I need a question that is in dire need of answering."

"Alright… what is it?" questioned Maris curiously.

"Is your name as pretty as your face?" asked the boy with a grin.

Instantly, my teeth gritted and I took hold of her hand underneath the table we had been seated in, and I noticed her face become a beautiful scarlet-color with modest embarrassment.

"My name is Kavryn. Kavryn Ara Brade," Maris had answered with the false name we had agreed upon. We had chosen the name based off of her birth name, Maris Neaveh Braithe, and off of the name her surrogate mother had given her, Maris Amelia Bulok.

The boy's grin became even more prominent, this time; his friends grinned along with him. "A beautiful name for an even more beautiful girl," the boy had complimented with a sly smile. "Isn't that right, boys?"

His buddies had nodded and muttered their agreement.

Maris blushed even more and squeezed my hand ever so slightly. "Why, thank you," nodded Maris, biting her lower lip, something she always did when she was stressed. "Would you mind if I asked you your name?"

The boy smirked even more broadly. "The name's Themes (he pronounced it Thee-muhs) and you could say that I'm the local heartthrob, or so I've been told," he gloated. "And let's just say I find you very interesting, Kavryn Ara Brade."

I felt the adrenaline pumping through my veins as my muscles longed to lunge at Themes and strangle him. But, as usual, I did all I could to keep my cool. Jaspr wouldn't be around if I weren't a master at that.

"Well, that's, um… very nice of you," Maris had replied shyly, still blushing.

Obviously misinterpreting Maris' uncomfortability for infatuatedness, Themes slid into the empty space beside Maris and put his arm around her.

"You know, Kavryn, I don't believe in love at first sight, so would you mind if I walked past here again?" flirted Themes, making me become even more and more tense as he brought his face close to Maris'.

Maris was rendered speechless, obviously unused to boys flirting with her, and, taking that as a "go ahead", Themes went in for the kiss.

He began by merely stroking her face with his left hand before sliding it behind her head and bringing her mouth towards his.

I snapped.

Immediately, I had leapt over Maris and connected my fist with Themes face before knocking him to the wooden floor of the inn, pleased that no one was there besides us.

Themes' buddies were in an uproar, cursing at me what rights I had and didn't have to punch and slam their friend down like that, but I blocked out their voices as I kept down the struggling Themes.

All except for Maris'.

"Seth," her soft voice cut through my reverie as she placed a delicate hand on my shoulder. "It's alright."

Reluctantly, I had stood up from Themes and watched him clamber up onto his feet with a little help from his partners. Already, a large purple bruise was sprouting from his chin to his lower eyelid.

"So this is your boyfriend?" Themes calmly asked Maris as he looked down at me from his height mere centimeters taller than I was.

"Yes," Maris had gulped in response, still shaken from the violence that had taken place over her.

"You know, boy, with a girl like that, it's only a matter of time before you lose her, and, when you do, men like me will be waiting," Themes had cautioned me.

"I know," I coolly agreed as he turned around and stalked out of the in with his gang. Sometimes I saw them around in the market, and, each time my eyes met Themes, his seemed to remind me of the warning he had given me.

And, like Themes that night, most of the young boys in the room now were glancing at Maris before turning to whisper to each other. Chances were they were saying the exact same things Themes had.

I sighed and put my face in my hands. So many other men wanted Maris; it was tough to see myself actually holding onto her. In fact, there might even have been a chance that Kemris' prediction would come true and I would have to give Maris up to some arrogant, snot-nose prince who cared nothing about her besides her royal blood and beauty.

I kept my eyes closed for so long; I didn't hear the end of the song. I only heard the usual applause and soon felt Maris' warm body pressing against my left arm.

"You all right?" she checked, obviously seeing my distraught demeanor.

I opened my eyes and gave her a reassuring smile. "Yeah. I'm just tired," I lied, and, by her quizzical look, I could guess that she didn't believe me.

"You did great," I complimented her, changing the subject as quickly as possible.

She rolled her eyes. "You always say I do great," she protested.

"That's because you always do," I countered, draping my arm around her shoulders and smiling gently as she lay her head against my chest.

"Um… you-you did great tonight," praised a new voice.

Maris and I both looked up to see a young boy about my age with ruffled copper colored hair and light gray eyes like pigeon's down.

"Thank you," Maris replied, flashing her gorgeous smile.

The boy smiled back, obviously gaining confidence. "My name's Jesse, what's yours?" he asked innocently, reminding me all too painfully of Themes.

"Kavryn," answered Maris smoothly, as she straightened up. Her voice made it seem as if her name really was Kavryn Brade. "And this is my… boyfriend, Seth."

Not smiling, I met Jesse's gaze once, showing him with my eyes what I was capable of.

Immediately, he seemed to rethink whatever he had been planning. "Well, I just came over to say hi… so I'll see you around?" he checked, almost as if she had said yes to a date.

Maris nodded at him. "Sure."

Then, Jesse stalked away to the other side of the inn where he had obviously been sitting beforehand, leaving Maris and I completely alone.

"He likes me," stated Maris as soon as he was out of earshot.

"I'm not a sage and even I knew that," I snorted.

She scowled at me, but ended up smiling instead. "You're right," she giggled laying her head on my shoulder once again.

I looked down at her. She was so beautiful, so perfect… I kissed the top of her head ever so gently, feeling my love for her coursing through my veins like a wildfire.

Still smiling, Maris moved her head until her face was buried in my chest before closing her eyes.

I felt my heart flutter unevenly, and I pulled her closer with the arm that was still around her. "You know how they say angels are the most beautiful creatures in existence?" I murmured affectionately in her ear.

"Yes," she replied in a whisper.

"Well, I can't imagine anything more beautiful than you," I muttered.

"Oh, shut up," she ordered me, though she was smiling.

I glanced up right then and noticed Jesse staring at Maris and I, a desperate longing crowding his eyes. Just by looking at him, I could see that he really wished he could be with Maris instead of me.

I smirked rather cruelly at him (wouldn't you, too if someone else was flirting with the love of your life?) and saw his cheeks flush a brilliant scarlet. I laughed a little, making Maris open her eyes at the sudden movement.
"What are you laughing at?" she asked curiously. That's Maris, always asking questions.

"Nothing," I lied, still grinning at Jesse who was obviously still thinking about Maris, the girl that every boy wanted.

Maris

I was still pondering what Seth had been laughing about when two young men about twenty-five years old appeared with instruments to the middle of the floor in place of me.

One man, this one very clean shaven with curly brown hair and quick blue eyes held what looked like a two-feet high harp that, once he was sitting on a small stool, held between his legs and resting his fingers against the strings.

The second man, this one shorter and with blonde hair and dark eyes, had a clarinet-like instrument with a large bell at the end and seemed to be made of a crystal-clear blue material. The end that the man put in his mouth seemed to be made of a very long reed, if that's what it's called in Ecladia, that was about two inches long.

And, as we all looked on, the musicians began to play.

The harpist began the harmony before the flutist, intertwining smooth notes and phrases to weave together a very beautiful tune.

But when the flutist joined in, the piece transformed altogether.

And so did the scene.

One minute I had been watching and listening in absolute awe to the obviously talented musicians when, all of a sudden, I watching a beautiful, black-haired woman singing to a small baby in her arms.

My mother. Queen Erowynn.

Her voice was so melodious, so perfect, it blended in so flawlessly with the sound emanating from the flute.

The melody weaved through my head, reminding me of all the good things that had happened in my life…Seth…

All of a sudden, I was yanked rudely back to reality by Seth's whispering in my ear.

"Maris?"

Immediately, I blinked and the vision of my mother disappeared, and the inn reappeared in my mind.

It took me a couple of seconds, but then I noticed that the music had stopped.

Complete and utter silence.

And everyone was staring at me like I had grown another head.

"What's wrong?" I murmured to Seth.

"You were singing," he answered.

"So? Why are they staring at me like they've seen a ghost?" I asked back.

"Because they have," he replied.

"What?"

"Maris… they know who you are. You were singing in Ancient Ecladian, and, even though many sages know that, that song you were singing… that's a Lament, it's a special song only animagi's know. A special song that only you'll know," He responded.

"So do we fight our way out of here?" I checked. I was scared of his answer. There were many people in the crowd I had grown to like, even that boy, Jesse, who had flirted with me a couple of minutes earlier, but that already felt like a lifetime ago…

"Probably not, most of these people hate Syrin, so we might actually be able to recruit troops from here for the Rebellion," he replied. "But they might just turn us in, too."

"What? Didn't you just say they hate Syrin?" I queried.

"They do, but Syrin has made threats that, if any of us were to harbor you, he would slaughter their entire family," he answered. "Many of them would turn you in to protect themselves."

My jaw dropped, appalled. "Then what do we do?"

"We have to get out," he responded. "But we need a distraction…"

All of a sudden, as if by divine intervention (which I think probably was) everyone began to shout out theories on how I was alive and that they knew all along that Kavryn Ara Brade was Maris Neaveh Braithe.

Then, slowly, but surely, Seth and I slipped out the back door without anyone noticing.

Or so we thought.

Seth

Once we were back at Laiyah's place, we began our interrogation of Maris.

"What happened?" Laiyah demanded Maris.

"I saw something," answered Maris simply.

"What did you see?" asked Kemris.

No answer.

"Well?" I coaxed her. "Maris, we need to know what you saw, it may have some important information."

She bit her lower lip like she had with Themes. "I saw my mother… Queen Erowynn," she muttered in response.

"Was she doing anything? She might be trying to tell you something," said Kemris. "Spirits are known for that."

"Well, she was singing… to me… when I was a baby…" she trailed off, not meeting any of our eyes.

"That song probably triggered some sort of memory," theorized Kemris.

"Probably," agreed Maris in a barely audible whisper.

"Either way," I said, changing the subject as I sensed Maris' uncomfortability. "We're leaving tonight."

Looking obviously grateful for my changes, Maris gave me a quizzical look, and I answered her unspoken question.

"It's much too dangerous for you here, Maris," I explained. "We have all the supplies we need, so I don't see any problem."

Kemris nodded in agreement. "And we need to get you to Neandro. I have a sense that the war is catching up to us… fast," predicted Kemris.

"Right," said Laiyah. "I'll stay here and try to get you some troops. I'm well-liked here, so I'm less likely to be turned in if I get caught."

Edwin immediately went rigid. "What if the Kalkoora show up?" he choked out, obviously tense.

"I'm not stupid enough to face them alone Edwin, and besides, I much less important than any of you. You need to protect Maris," argued Laiyah.

"But-" Edwin began to say before Laiyah interrupted him.

"But nothing," she interjected. "I can cover your tracks just fine and I have a few tricks up my sleeve if the Kalkoora do decide to knock on my door."

Edwin still seemed unhappy about the whole plan, but he didn't say anything else.

"So we have to go see the hybrids! What if they try to eat me?" demanded Jaspr.

We all stared at him. Here we were, worrying about Syrin getting his hands on Maris and killing her, and he was worried about the hybrids eating him.

"Jaspr, would you rather be executed for high treason and torn limb from limb by Syrin or die a quick death from the hybrids?" asked Kemris.

"… So when do we leave?" leapt Jaspr after thinking about his options.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Anyway," I said. "We can't say here much longer. The sooner we see Neandro, the better. And the less chance of Syrin catching up to us."

"Hopefully," mumbled Laiyah.

None of us argued with her.

Chapter Twelve

Visions

Maris

According to Seth, we had until dawn the next day to make it to the base of Mt. Gothr, which would be very easy, and to begin scaling it.

Thankfully, we only had to make it about a third up the actual mountain to stop any locals from Feeana from following us because of their hybrid superstitions, but, of course, the Kalkoora were unafraid of such superstitions from creating about twenty of them without even trying.

And so we began our journey to meet the mysterious Neandro, my future shifting teacher.

Seth

We were climbing up the mountain on a small, well-worn trail that had been created by the many villagers throughout the years who had scaled the mountain in search of wild game, fruits, or, sometimes, just for enjoyment.

The trail was a small, dirt track with foliage lining either side of it.

Kemris was leading the way with a map unfurled in her hands with Jaspr and Edwin walking behind her, arguing about something or other.

I was strolling beside Maris a bit behind them as I asked her questions about life in the Otherworld, a place I had only ever experienced in the weeks that we had been observing her, waiting for the signal to bring her back to her home in Ecladia.

Then, as we were walking, her eyes glazed over for a split second, making her stop abruptly.

"Maris, are you alright?" I asked her a soon as she didn't start walking again.

"There's a… umm…" she answered unclearly.

"Maris? What are you seeing?" Kemris' voice intervened as soon as she noticed what was happening.

"I see this place… it has stone walls and… wait… who is that… Such blonde hair…" she muttered half to herself as she was gazing into the past, present, or future. "There's a girl… she's… um…there's a light… Syrin? He-he's falling! I-I think he's… dead."

"What? Is she seeing the end of the war?" demanded Edwin from Kemris.

"I don't know," replied Kemris.

"No! Wait… he's-he's casting a spell and… NO!" screamed Maris suddenly, clutching the base of her ribs in invisible pain.

"Maris!" I cried, putting my arms around her to try and support her.

Maris was screeching in pain and, soon, she fell onto her hands and knees, dragging me down with her until I was kneeling.

All of a sudden, her eyes started flashing rapidly and her gaze came in and out of focus as they glazed and unglazed.

"She's getting too many visions at once!" exclaimed Kemris over Maris' screams as she joined me at Maris' side. "Something's going to happen in the future and…"

I stared at my older sister. "Is-is she d-dying?" I stuttered, panic engulfing my heart. Maris… my darling Maris…

Kemris didn't answer.

Maris' breath was ragged as she fought for every breath of air and I could feel her heart accelerating faster in her neck beneath where her head was cradled in my arm.

"Maris!" I spoke into her ear, not even sure that she was hearing me through her reverie. "I promised you I wouldn't let you die! Not while my heart still beats! I won't let you die!"

All of a sudden, Maris' eyes stopped their fervent actions, and she slumped into my arms as she lost consciousness.

"Kem… what's happening to her?" I demanded from Kemris desperately.

"Her-her body's going into a temporary hibernation state to regain energy," she explained.

"How long?" I asked in a whisper.

"I-I don't know," answered Kemris. "Could be a couple of minutes, hours, days… years."

My heart quickened in horror at the word "years".

Taking a deep breath, I slid my arms around Maris' body and stood up, cradling her gently in my arms.

"Whoa, déjà vu," muttered Jaspr as he tried to crack a joke from his spot beside Edwin where they had watched the whole ordeal. I glared angrily at him.

"Seth…."

Immediately, we all looked at Maris, who had uttered my name, thinking rather foolishly that she was awake, but, of course, she wasn't.

She was murmuring things in her sleep, muttering my name over and over again, and, every once in a while, a "no" would slip its way out from between her lips. My uneasiness grew.

"Seth, are you all right?" checked Edwin, who had apparently picked up on my feelings.

"Of course I am," I lied rather defiantly.

"You said that last time," pointed out Jaspr.

"Shut up, Jaspr," we all said in unison.

Maris

Seth.

He was lying alone on the ground, bleeding to death from a horrific wound in his stomach.

He may not have been able to see me, but I could definitely see him… and the dreadful hole in his stomach.

"Seth…" I murmured, feeling my heart beating with panic. "Seth, hold on…"

I knew I was seeing the future, I could just feel the power of the universe weighing on my shoulders whenever I looked ahead, but it still felt like a dream to me.

"Seth… you have to survive… I love you…" I muttered half to myself. "Seth… please…"

As I watched him clutching the hole that had engulfed his stomach, I could see his breath become more and more labored… until it stopped completely and he lay his head back before closing his beautiful, crystalline blue eyes.

"Oh, God… Seth… wake up… please…" I begged, feeling tears streak down my cheeks as soon as he didn't wake up right away. Seth couldn't die! He couldn't! He couldn't leave me all alone! Not now, not ever!

Instinctively, I began to run forward to do anything I could to bring him back. "SETH!"

But before I could lay a hand on him, I felt someone's arms encircle my waist, holding me back from the corpse of the love of my life.

"NO!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face. "LET ME GO! SETH!"

"Ssh, it will be alright, child. It will all be alright," a familiar voice murmured in my ear.

I froze as I realized who was with me. "M-m-mom? Er-Erowynn?" I muttered incredulously.

"Yes, my darling. It is I, Queen Erowynn. Your birth mother," sighed Erowynn in her beautiful voice.

I looked back and up at her, into her beautiful indigo eyes. "Mother… why are you showing me this? Why?" I pleaded from her. I could sense that she was the one who was giving me these visions, she was the one showing me Seth's… demise.

"You must understand, Maris, once you have seen the future, everything changes," whispered Erowynn in response.

"So… he's not… dead?" I queried, my bloodshot eyes stinging horribly as I looked back at Seth's body.

"He may, he may not. Anybody can keep the future as it is now, my child, but it takes much work to change it. It is possible that Seth and you shall live long and happy lives together, but, if nothing is done… he will die," breathed Erowynn.

"But I saw myself dying… I was dying… so why… why is he?" I questioned my mother.

"He promised to always protect you, my dear, and his oath lasted, and he will die so that you could live on," answered Erowynn as she removed her arms from my waist.

"What do I do? I-I- He-he can't die, he just… he just can't," I cried, sensing that she was about to leave.

"You will know when the time comes. I must go, my heart, but you must know that your love for Seth is so powerful, I am so very sure that the future will change, but you must work for it," she murmured, her figure already beginning to dissipate. "It brings me such joy to see my daughter again after so many years, but in such sad times…"

"Mother… will… will I ever see you again?" I asked her.

"Yes, this war is not over yet, and I will always be at your side, just as Seth will," she answered with a melancholy smile. "Until we meet again, my daughter."

I blinked, and, when I opened my eyes again, my mother, Queen Erowynn, was completely gone.

I turned to look back at Seth, but the vision of his body had disappeared and I was left in a blank darkness, and soon, that began to fade too…

All of a sudden, my eyes flew open and I was once again on Mt. Gothr.

"Maris?" a voice checked.

I looked up instantly and saw Seth sitting against a tree as he cradled me in his lap.

Once I had laid eyes upon his healthy face, I threw my arms around his neck and wept bitterly into his chest, my vision of his death still very fresh in my mind.

"Maris? What's wrong?" he asked me, worry in his voice as he held me close in his arms.

"I-I saw-I saw-" I blubbered, still crying.

"It's alright, Maris, I'm here. Tell me what's wrong," he comforted me, stroking my face reassuringly as he met my eyes. "Just tell me."

"I-I was dying Seth, but then… you were," I said, choking back my tears. "You-you killed yourself to save me and-and I couldn't help you." Again, I buried myself into his chest, remembering the horrific vision.

"Maris, look at me," he ordered, and, slowly, I lifted my face to his again.

"Maris," he murmured. "I promised you that I would do anything for you to stay alive, and if that means dying, then I will, but you have to know that my heart will always belong to you, and so I will never truly die. Just like your mother.

"Maris, from the moment I first laid eyes on you, my heart was yours, and it will always be yours," he continued. "Even after death."

"But Seth… I-I won't be able to live without you… I just can't," I confessed, feeling fear strangling my heart.

"I know, Maris, nor would I be able to live without you. And I promise you that I will only choose death if absolutely necessary. Heaven isn't Heaven to me without you," He answered romantically.

I smiled weakly at him. "Really?" I checked rather stupidly, sniffling a little.

He smiled genuinely at me. "Of course, Maris," he replied, planting the smallest kiss on my cheek.

"Great, now I'm the proud owner of someone else's heart. Fantabulous," I sniffed.

"Fantabulous?" he queried, raising an eyebrow curiously at me.

"I just made it up. It's a mix between "fantastic" and "fabulous". Fantabulous," I explained to him, wiping away excess tears from my eyes.

He chuckled. "You scare me sometimes, Maris," he said. "Sometimes you really do."

"Not as much as Jaspr scares you," I pointed out, making him laugh again.

"No one scares me as much as Jaspr," he agreed, and, soon enough, we were both laughing.

All of a sudden, I could hear the soft "pluffs" of footsteps. "I think they're coming," I informed Seth.

"Who is?" asked Seth.

"Kemris, Edwin, and Jaspr, I think. They're coming," I clarified. "Can't you hear them?"

"I repeat: what?" he questioned again, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

The footsteps rose in volume as they came closer and closer, but, strangely, it took almost seven minutes before the others appeared from the lichen.

Edwin was leading Kemris and Jaspr into the clearing, and, as they approached, they seemed to notice that I was awake.

"Wow," exclaimed Kemris. "You're awake! Thank God!"

I cocked my head curiously, but no one answered my unspoken question, though Seth did seem a bit uncomfortable after Kemris' statement.

"We can get down to business now, can't we?" checked Edwin.

"Of course! With Maris awake, we should be able to plan everything effectively now… and to get some answers," responded Kemris mysteriously.

"Answers?" I queried, confused.

Still, no one answered my question until the others had been seated in a half-circle around Seth and I.

"Maris, while you were asleep, you were muttering things about "destiny" and "will". Was there anything in your vision about that?" explained Edwin.

"Destiny and will?" I questioned, getting more lost by the second. "I don't know what you're-"

Before another word could leave my mouth, the scenery vanished only to be replaced by another vision.

There was a valley with rolling green hills with beautiful jade colored grass, and, as I looked more closely, there was a girl and a boy standing, alone, on top of one of the highest hills.

The girl was a bright blond with streaks of pale brown shining in her hair, and her eyes were a pale, sky blue that sparkled like dewdrops on a cool autumn morning.

The boy was a dark dirty blond that was more brown than it was yellow and had beautiful gray eyes flecked with a brilliant, crystal-clear blue that looked like wind-slashed raindrops in a storm.

But before I could see anything else about them, I was brought back to reality by Seth squeezing my hand. I blinked instinctively, and the vision was erased.

"Maris?" checked Seth concertedly, obviously remembering the last vision I had had.

"Destiny and Wil," I murmured partially to myself.

"Yeah? What do those things have to do with anything?" asked Jaspr.

"They're not things… they're people," I corrected him in a whisper.

"What do you mean, Maris?" questioned Seth.

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Kemris had told me how to let other people see my visions. All I had to do was concentrate very hard on everyone's mind and force my vision into their heads. But, unfortunately, she had only been able to tell me in theory. Apparently, regular sages can't see the future.

Thankfully, I was successful.

The boys blinked in surprise (Kemris wasn't very shocked by what I had done) as they were obviously seeing my vision of the girl and the boy. Destiny and Wil.

I was only able to keep the picture their head for a couple of seconds before I was forced to drop it, exhausted by my endeavors.

"Destiny… Destiny looks like you, Seth," I murmured to him, panting with exertion.

"Who's Destiny?" queried Edwin.

I looked him in the eyes. "The girl," I answered him. Call me crazy, but as soon as I had seen the girl and the boy, I had instantly known their names. Maybe it's just an animagi thing.

"You probably had a vision of the future, Maris," said Kemris. "Your mother probably wants you to know what's going to happen."

"Awesome!" exclaimed Jaspr out of the blue. "Seth and Maris are getting married! I call dibs on best man!"

"Wait, what?" I queried, hopelessly lost by Jaspr's outburst.

"You said Destiny looks like Seth, right? Kids resemble their parents, and Seth would only ever marry you, so I called dibs on best man," explained Jaspr in rush.

"Jaspr, you took something that made sense, then completely warped it," said Seth, rolling his eyes at his younger brother.

"Besides," added Edwin. "I'm already locked in as best man."

"What? Okay, fine. I call dibs on second best man!" declared Jaspr.

"There is no second best man, you idiot," pointed out Seth.

"Don't worry, Jas," I joked. "You can be one of my bridesmaids!"

"What? I ain't a girl!" yelled Jaspr.

"You sure act like one," muttered Edwin to himself.

"If you don't want to be a bridesmaid, Jas, then feel free to be the guy in the crowd mopping his eyes every few seconds with a tissue," I taunted him, grinning.

"HECK. NO!" enunciated Jaspr.

We all laughed simultaneously at Jaspr.

"Maris?" muttered Jaspr through our laughter.

"Yeah?" I asked him back.

"If Seth were to propose to you right now, would you or would you not say yes?" he questioned, sounding very curious.

I pretended to think, though we all knew how I'd answer. "Hmm… I don't know…" I acted.

Seth smiled at me. "I really want to hear this," he said.

"I'd probably say yes," I answered finally, putting in a shrug for added effect.

"Now what would you say if I proposed to you right now?" asked Jaspr.

"I'd call you a weirdo and whack you over the head with a tree branch before casting a spell on you from which you'll much suffer severe pain and become crippled for life from," I replied in one breath, smiling mischievously.

"Okaaay then," trailed Jaspr, scooting a little farther away from me. Seth laughed at his actions.

"She's already taken," he said to Jaspr, holding me a little closer.

"So says you," countered Jaspr.

"I'm not causing a family feud, am I?" I asked nervously.

"No. Besides, everyone knows which one of us would win in a fist fight," said Seth.

"Thanks for the compliment," thanked Jaspr.

"I was talking about me, you idiot," corrected Seth.

"How are you so sure that I was talking about myself while you were talking about yourself and not me talking about myself when you were done talking about yourself, because I was talking about myself once you were done?" asked Jaspr in one breath.

"What the heck?" I queried. "You lost me at how."

"I got it!" exclaimed Edwin all of a sudden, making us all turn to look at him.

"Jaspr can walk Maris down the aisle!" he declared.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," I argued. "I can already guess that he's going to say: "It's still not too late for us, Maris"."

"Okay, I might say that, but you can't blame me for trying," protested Jaspr.

"So said all those other boys," pointed out Seth.

"Guys, don't start another fight! We don't need to have this sort of conversation for the billionth time," interjected Kemris with a giggle.

"Wait, they've had this kind of fight before?" I queried.

"Of course! Though, most of the time, they're arguing over something very small," answered Edwin.

"Hey! That biscuit was mine and he took it! That's a cause for argument!" snapped Jaspr. "It looked so delicious… and you ate it!"

"What? You were complaining about it! I only ate it because I couldn't stand your whining for another second!" argued Seth.

"Seth! Jaspr!" interrupted Kemris. "That was two years ago, let it go! We need to focus on the future, so that means going to see Neandro."

"I'm still scared by those half-bird freaks, though!" complained Jaspr.

"They're not freaks," corrected Kemris. "They're hybrids."

"Same thing," countered Jaspr. We pretty much ignored him after that comment.

Kemris gazed up at the mountain looming above us, casting its shadow over us and into the valley in its lee. "If we're going to make it to the summit before sundown, we'd better hurry," she murmured. "Or the Kalkoora will definitely figure out where we are."

No one argued.

Chapter Thirteen

Mt. Gothr

Maris

"We made it."

Seth's announcement rang through the still mountain air as we came to a small cave about two or three miles below the mountain's summit.

"How can you tell?" I asked him. I had thought we would have to get to the peak of the mountain, but apparently we didn't.

"The hybrids wanted to create alternative routes of escape in case humans came to attack- out the top of the mountain or a handful of tunnels leading away from the mountain," explained Seth.

As we were talking, Edwin peered into the gloomy darkness of the cave, struggling to see through the dark blanket that seemed to envelop the inside of the mountain.

"I can't see how far we have to go before we hit the lava," he reported back to us.

"Lava?" I queried instantly.

Seth smiled reassuringly at me. "Don't worry, Maris. You'll make it through alright," he soothed me. "After one near-death experience, I'm sure karma will allow you to go another ten minutes before another one."

I scowled at him. "Remember the last time you said that? I nearly became lunch for a bunch of wolves," I snorted.

"Quite frankly, I don't think I ever said that, and, besides, there aren't any wolves around here- the air is too thin for them," pointed out Seth.

"Nope! Nothing except for a huge lake of molten lava!" added Jaspr. Thankfully, Seth didn't hit him in the back of his head again.

I walked up to the mouth of the cave. "I can't see anything either… so that must mean that the lava's deep, deep down… right?" I checked, hoping against hope that I was right.

Seth walked up to my side. "Of course. So there's nothing left to do except head on in," he said.

"Great then! O-Older brothers first!" invited Jaspr anxiously, backing away step by step from the cave.

"What happened to your so-called bravery, Jas?" asked Edwin, smirking.

"I don't think it's safe to assume that the lava's- WHOA!" yelled Jaspr as Edwin shoved him into the cave.

Jaspr fell head over heels into the dark abyss, disappearing after a couple of rolls.

It took a lot of clattering and clanking, but, soon enough, the noises stopped. "I'm okay!" cried Jaspr from somewhere deep inside.

"Great! Now we know it's safe!" exclaimed Seth as he began to lead the way inside with Edwin, Kemris and I following close behind him.

We had only walked in a couple of feet when the light of the descending sun disappeared completely and we were left in complete darkness.

"Maris, light a fire," ordered Kemris' voice.

"Why don't you do it?" I asked. I had had some bad experiences with fire already, and who knows what kind of explosive rock lay within Mt. Gothr.

"Just do it," chuckled Kemris, a smile prominent in her voice.

And so I did. I murmured the small spell for a basic flame, and, immediately, I had a miniature, chocolate-bar-sized fire in my hand.

I held the small flame in my left hand, and, obediently, the fire floated about an inch above my palm, flickering occasionally.

As soon as the light had been produced, the entire cave was thrown into focus by the glimmering flame.

The walls around us were made from what looked like some sort of gray rock, like graphite, but there were different colored chunks of rock poking out from the walls at different intervals- the most abundant being a dark, brownish-mustard color.

And, sitting on a nearby rock, was a very dazed looking Jaspr.

"Give me a warning before you do that!" whined Jaspr to Edwin.

"Don't be such a coward, Jas! Suck it up," said Edwin in response, making Jaspr turn a dark, beet red with anger.

"Guys, let's just keep going. And no more playing tricks on Jaspr," commanded Kemris as she began to lead us deeper and deeper into the volcano, my fire being our only source of light.

Fifteen minutes went by where the only sound being heard was the crunching of our feet on the loose gravel underfoot, and, at the end of that interval, I heard a soft, barely audible bubbling sound. I stopped walking to listen.

"Maris?" checked Seth uneasily, obviously remembering what had happened earlier in the day.

"I can hear something," I answered him.

"I don't hear anything," said Edwin, looking confused.

"Being an animagi, Maris is genetically more sensitive than we are," explained Kemris. "So she can hear things way before we can."

"So what do you hear?" asked Seth.

"I sort of… bubbling sound," I reported, my head cocked slightly cocked to one side to hear better.

"It's probably the lava," guessed Edwin, turning towards where I was facing. "So we must be getting close.

Again, we began walking in complete silence, the noise becoming more audible with each and every step.

"Is it just me, or is there a light up ahead?" said Jaspr.

"Knowing you, Jaspr, it probably is just you," mocked Seth.

"No, I'm serious! I think there's a light up ahead!" pressed Jaspr.

"You're probably just imagining it," dismissed Seth.

"There is a light!" prompted Jaspr stubbornly.

"Actually, Seth," I intervened in Jaspr's defense as I noticed the dim, golden light up ahead. "There is a light."

Seth squinted into the darkness, trying to see past it to where Jaspr and I had spotted the light.

"Well, I can't see anything," he argued.

"I can see it, too," nodded Kemris. "Maris and I are sages, our senses are heightened, though hers more than mine, and Jaspr's an archer-"

"Marksman!"

"And he's trained himself to be able to see farther distances with his bow," finished Kemris after Jaspr had interrupted.

"Ha! I told you so!" exclaimed Jaspr. "-"

"Alright, you told us so, we get the point," grumbled Seth, rolling his eyes. "But let's just see who's going to be protecting you in the next fight. Certainly not me or Edwin."

Jaspr paled as he imagined facing a herd of Jarokai by himself.

"Guys, what did I say about picking on Jaspr?" scolded Kemris, her three younger brothers finally shutting up. "Maris, do you think you can see far enough ahead to see when we'll arrive at the light?"

Following Kemris' orders, I let my eyes pierce through the cloak of darkness that surrounded us. "Um… we should meet the light in about… five to eight minutes," I answered her.

Immediately, Seth started forward, the rest of us falling into step behind him.

My estimate was almost on the mark, if I do say so myself, as we reached the light in about nine to ten minutes.

What we saw, however, completely shocked me.

Once we had stepped out of the shelter of the tunnel that led outside, we were met with a huge lake of molten lava that spanned in a wide circle about two miles by two miles. Spanning the lake was a thin (it was probably only like, eight feet wide), naturally made bridge that was probably made by the water dripping from the ceiling over millions of years that was made out of cool, volcanic rock.

But the thing that frightened me the most was the thousand-foot drop from the bridge to the lava, and, of course, there were no rails on the bridge.

From the looks of everything, I half-expected the "Indiana-Jones" theme music to start playing (you know, the whole bum-ba-dum-dum deal) and Indiana Jones himself to pop out of nowhere with his whip and fedora and to lead us running across the bridge while it collapsed behind us and for a whole bunch of looters or bandits or whatever to try and chase us before falling, screaming, to their deaths. But, of course, those crazy things only happened in my imagination.

Seth bravely stepped onto the bridge to test its stability. "It seems like it could hold our weight," he reported back to the rest of us, shifting his weight between his feet to test it.

"L-L-Ladies f-f-first!" stuttered Jaspr, motioning for me to go.

"You big baby," insulted Edwin under his breath.

I gulped, still freaking out, as I stepped out onto the bridge.

As soon as I had lain my foot out on the rock, I instantly flinched and closed my eyes, waiting to plunge to my death. Nothing happened.

I opened one eye cautiously scared that the tiniest shift in weight would spell out my doom. Again, nothing happened.

"Come on, Maris," encouraged Seth, holding out his hand to me from where he was about three feet ahead of me. "Everything will be fine, you won't fall."

I took another step, this one more confident than the last as I started to believe that nothing would happen.

I was dead wrong. Emphasis on "dead".

The remarkably small space I had stepped on collapsed from beneath me in a large chunk, spreading to my other foot in a wide, two-foot circle around me, and I fell, letting out an instinctive scream as I went.

Luckily, I only fell about two feet before Seth's rough, callused hand grabbed hold of my wrist.

In less than two seconds, I had gone from walking confidently across a lake of lava to dangling for the edge of a small cliff, staring my death in its blistering red, lava eye.

"You. Jinxed. Me," I gasped, struggling for breath as the volcano's fumes hit my lungs.

I heard Seth give out a strained laugh. "Yeah. I gotta stop doing that," he chuckled half to himself.

He grunted in exertion as he lifted me back up onto the bridge, helping me lift myself out of danger.

Then, when he had brought me back up onto solid rock, he put a hand on my waist for support while the other still held tight to my hand as we both backed away from the small cliff I had just created.

Once we had made it back to safety where the others were, I waited for Seth to let go of my waist. Two minutes later, he still had not budged.

"Seth, you can let go of me now," I reminded him.

"Oh… Sorry," he apologized as he finally took his hands off me.

"I bet you five coins she's gonna have another near-death experience before the end of the week," whispered Jaspr to Edwin from behind us.

"You do know I can hear you, right Jaspr?" I said to Jaspr, making him turn a dark red when he realized he had been caught red-handed.

"Er-um-well-I mean-" he stammered, obviously trying to come up with some excuse to justify what he had been saying.

"Just shut up, Jaspr," ordered Edwin as he brushed past his younger brother.

Kemris rolled her eyes at their antics, taking a quick glance at the lava before striking out fearlessly across the bridge. Jaspr followed a lot more reluctantly.

We trod across the bridge much more carefully, not wanting a repeat of what had happened to me. But, when we were about halfway across, Jaspr cried out.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed from behind us.

"What happened?" I instantly checked, expecting to see Jaspr burnt to a crisp, but, of course, he was all right.

"Stepped in a puddle of lava," replied Jaspr nonchalantly. "No biggie."

Immediately, we all looked down to see Jaspr's ankle covered with a large red burn that was quickly blistering.

"Jaspr! We need to get that cooled down, now!" panicked Kemris, murmuring the small spell for water before dousing Jaspr's foot with water.

"Does it hurt?" asked Edwin curiously as he noticed that Jaspr hadn't so much as even flinched.

"Nope! Not at all!" answered Jaspr rather enthusiastically. "I'm spiff!"

"Okay. Then let's keep walking," said Seth as he began to walk again, obviously bored by the whole ordeal.

"Wait a second! Edwin, you owe me twenty copper pieces!" accused Jaspr, making Seth turn back to his voice.

"What?" queried Edwin, obviously confused.

"You said that I would scream in pain the next time I got hurt, so pay up," demanded Jaspr, holding out his hand for the said money.

"You wait one second! You did scream in pain, you idiot," argued Edwin.

"I said "ouch", I didn't scream it," corrected Jaspr stubbornly.

"He does have a point there, Ed," I nodded, not very much helping the situation.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Jaspr happily. "See! I have royalty on my side!"

"Just drop it, guys, we don't have time for this! Remember, we're in a volcano that can erupt at any second," intruded Kemris wisely.

"Fine, but the moment we're out of this volcano, I'm going to be breathing down your neck until I see my twenty copper pieces!" vowed Jaspr, walking past Edwin to where Seth and I were standing together.

"Fine, fine, do what you need to to do, Jaspr," said Edwin, rolling his eyes.

"I will, thank you very much," responded Jaspr rather snootily, still shuffling towards Seth and I.

"Then let's keep going," concluded Seth, turning around, again, to lead us towards the cave that yawned at us from the end of the bridge.

Again, we walked in silence for a while, but this time, it was me who broke the silence.

"So… who is Neandro exactly? Is he some sort of… diplomat or something?" I asked curiously. I had been wondering about the mysterious hybrid for quite some time, so I had decided that then was the best time to get answers.

"Oh… well…. He's the… erm…." Seth almost answered, obviously put off at my question.

"He's what?" I queried, not wanting to lose this lead.

"He's the king of the Bird Tribe," answered Kemris in Seth's stead.

"So is that a bad thing? I mean, why wouldn't you want to tell me?" I shot at Seth, very, very interested in why he had been so reluctant in telling me that Neandro was a king. My equal, you could say.

"He… well, let's just say he doesn't very much like us humans for exiling his people to a life of hardship," replied Seth awkwardly.

I stopped in my tracks. "So now you tell me?" I said sarcastically. "How nice."

Seth chuckled humorlessly. "You never asked," he muttered.

Before I could come up with another sarcastic remark, however, we noticed that we had made it to the entrance of the cave.

The cave turned out to be a small tunnel that only extended about five feet in an ascending manner, so we trudged through it rather quickly.

As we stepped out of the darkness of the tunnel, we walked into a large cavern that was engulfed in the dying rays of the sun, and, for a moment, we were blinded as our eyes adjusted to the light. Once I could see again, I looked up and saw a large, gaping hole above us, holding a small circle of a dark, bloody scarlet sky. Just by looking at the hole, it was easy to see that it had been human-made.

Or hybrid-made.

Ahead of us, there was another tunnel/cave about three feet off the ground with slopes like stairs leading up to it on either side.

And, as we neared the center of the cavern, I heard a peculiar noise.

The noise sounded very familiar, even to me… it wasn't footsteps, it was much to crisp and short, but it wasn't a gliding sound either…

Then, I had an epiphany as I finally recognized the sound.

Wing beats.

"Stop," I ordered in a whisper as the sound became louder and louder as the source, or sources, grew closer. Immediately, the others stopped, Seth, for once, not questioning me.

The sound was coming closer… and closer… until it was replaced by a strangely youthful, yet powerful, voice.

"Who dares enter our domain?"

Chapter Fourteen

Neandro

Maris

As the voice echoed through the stillness, unanswered, three men emerged from the tunnel… That is, if you can call them men.

Just like Kemris had informed me, the three men had wings protruding from their backs and slicing through the air as they hovered in front of us in a line, one in the middle, and two on each side.

The one in the middle looked about eighteen to twenty and was about a head shorter than the men at his sides and he had dark blue hair that looked like it hadn't been combed in weeks, its color matching those of his enormous wings that, when fully stretched out, could probably reach a maximum of fourteen feet across. Matching his otherwise dark complexion, the man's clothes, an ankle-length robe with a cloak to match, were jet black, a color that enhanced the paleness of his snow-white skin. From what I could see of his feet, they were encased in dark black boots.

The other two, however, were complete polar opposites of the man in the middle.

The one to the left of the dark-clothed man was almost two heads taller than the man at his right. He was wearing a dark, forest green jerkin whose sleeves looked like a cougar had gone after them with a hacksaw. His hair was a pale, corn-yellow that was messed up like the other man and looked even more yellow when compared to the cardinal-red bandanna tied around his forehead. And, much like the middle man, his wings, whose wingspan looked to be about seventeen feet were the exact same color of his hair, if not a couple of shades off. I assumed it was he who had spoken- he had the right atmosphere.

The last man was wearing a battered, neglected-looking dirt-colored shirt that had many rips and tears in it- some sewn up, others not. This man was taller than the one in the middle, yet still shorter than the blond one. He had dark, chocolate colored hair that was even darker than Edwin's, but his wings were a couple of shades lighter- more of a tannic shade than a cocoa and looked like they could stretch a good sixteen feet.

As I was thinking, the man with the blue hair began to speak, and, shockingly, it turned out that it was his voice we had heard, not the blond hybrid.

"Noenbloods?" the man said, his black eyebrows arching in surprise as he realized who we were… or what we were.

What did he say? I quickly asked Kemris in my head as I contemplated the new word.

That's the hybrid's word for us humans- noenbloods. It means that we have no hybrid blood dwelling in our veins explained Kemris.

Almost immediately, the man's surprised look turned to one of pure scorn. "So the oh-so-intelligent-and-superior noenbloods show up to demand something more from us then they don't say anything? What do you want? More land? More rivers? My people are already impoverished enough without you coming to demand even more from us! Oh well, at least some of you can provide us some food," smirked the man. "Especially you, my dear." Right then, the man had turned his gaze onto me, a hungry glint in his eye.

Instantly, I sensed Seth's anger flare up and knew that he was ready to step forward to defend me. Don't move Seth I ordered him. Let me see into his heart… maybe I can get something useful from there.

All right grumbled Seth mentally.

True to my word, I allowed my eyes to pierce into the blue-haired man's heart, but was met with wave after wave of burgundy, the color of contempt.

Dang it I growled. Looks like he really does hate us that much.

Well, can you get anything from what he's thinking? Demanded Seth, anger still very prominent in his thinking voice.

Immediately, I blinked and tried to read the blue-haired man's mind, but was met with the very same thing in his heart. Pure and utter contempt.

Nothing I reported, then, a brilliant idea hit me. Wait, I have a plan.

Executing my plan, I breached the man's mind once again. Maybe we'd be willing to talk if you'd be more willing to listen I murmured in his head.

His reaction was instantaneous- the blue-haired man jerked in surprise, making the two next to him tense up.

"Lord Neandro?" checked the brown-haired man tentatively.

That guy's Neandro? He's barely older than Kem! Mocked Jaspr. Man, and here I was expecting someone like-

Shut up, Jaspr! We all thought simultaneously.

Neandro looked down at me from where he hovered about a foot off the ground, looking as if he had just noticed me. He had pure shock etched all over his handsome face. "She's an animagi," he whispered. "Of course… the eyes, the pendent, and that smell…"

"Forgive me, Lord, but animagis were wiped out with the passing of the Late Queen Erowynn," the blond-haired man pointed out.

Neandro took a few steps, or wing beats, whatever you call them, towards me, ignoring the blond-haired man completely. "Yes, that smell… that beautifully alluring smell…" murmured Neandro half to himself. "Can't you smell it, Tarn?"

"Milord, I cannot smell a thing besides the scent of these noenbloods," answered the brown-haired man, who I took as Tarn.

Kemris gave me a sideways glance from where she stood slightly to the right of me.

What'd you do? She asked.

I sent him a little message I answered. And apparently, he knows that only animagis are telepathic.

Just then, Neandro quit beating his wings, allowing himself to fall the few inches towards the ground, and, from there, he walked over to me before stopping (he towered a good five or six inches above me) to let his fingertips stroke my face. Seth stiffened instantly. "Your smell tells me you're one of us, but you have no wings… Who are you?" he asked me in a smooth whisper, locking his gold eyes with mine as he cupped my face in his hands.

I was silent for a couple of seconds, not knowing what to say. What do I tell him? I polled my friends.

Tell him your name answered Kemris.

Kavryn? I checked.

No. We can trust him, tell him your real name responded Kemris.

Kem, I don't know if that's a good idea- thought Seth before Kemris interrupted.

Seth, if we can't trust him to teach Maris to shift, than who can we? Just calm down and let us handle this ordered Kemris.

Seth looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn't open his mouth.

"My name is Maris Neaveh Braithe, and I am the daughter of the late Queen Erowynn," I said to Neandro.

Neandro blinked in surprise, taking his hands away from my face before stepping back to inspect me. "We haven't been visited by other royals in years, though you do bear the resemblance of Erowynn…" he trailed off.

Next, he stepped back towards me, taking my left hand in his. He began stroking it, his face contorted with concentration as he looked for… something. Just then, he stroked across my hand with his thumb and, instantly, a glowing tree and sun sign leapt into sight- it was so prominent, it was hard to believe that my hand had been clear only seconds before.

"Yes, your emblem bears too much resemblance to those born with it to be set aside as someone who had their hand branded later in life… it's even on your left hand," he muttered half to himself before looking up at me and releasing my hand. "Why are you here, Maris?"

I was curious for a second at why he hadn't called me "Your Majesty" or something insane like that, but then I remembered that he was a Lord, my equal.

"She hasn't yet discovered how to shift, Milord," answered Kemris formally. "And we humbly come to you to ask for your help. We know of no other animagis who share her gene."

"She's a bird, isn't she?" said Neandro, his golden gaze shifting to Kemris. "Her smell indicates that."

"Yes, milord," nodded Kemris. "And we ask that you grant us our wishes."

Neandro closed his eyes, obviously deep in thought. And, after about two minutes of contemplation, he opened his eyes and spoke again. "I believe that I will teach the young princess," he agreed.

"ARE YOU MAD?" shouted the blond-haired man suddenly.

Neandro glared back at him. "Let me speak, Koto," he glowered before turning back to me, all signs of frustration erased from his face.

"As you most likely know, us hybrids were driven out by society some years ago, and now we are forced to live in the desolate wastelands the noenbloods have "allowed" us to live in," said Neandro. "But your mother fought to bring us back in to the human world, as equals, but she was killed before her plans were finally fulfilled. All I ask of you, Lady Maris"- he took my left hand into both of his- "is that you would complete your mother's work and bring us out of this poverty."

I was rendered speechless for a while at how tenderly this obvious predator spoke as he talked about the suffering of his people, but after a deep breath, I was able to speak again. "I-I can't make you any promises, L-Lord Neandro," I stuttered, not exactly knowing what to call him. "But I'll try my best."

Then, Neandro moved back towards his entourage so quickly, I didn't even see him move. One second, he had been holding my hand respectfully, the next, he was five feet away, hovering again. "So long as you try, Lady Maris, I will help you. Until then you and your… team will be allowed to stay with us in our Roost," smiled Neandro solemnly.

"S-Sire? Letting… noenbloods into our Roost is-is… preposterous! What if one our males, or females, were to accidentally… dispose of them?" asked Tarn. I had a feeling "dispose" was interchangeable with "eat".

"We are perfectly capable of defending ourselves," growled Seth, appearing at my left side almost magically. Up until then, he had been stationed behind the rest of us with Edwin to make sure that no one tried to attack us from behind, and, somehow, he had snuck up behind me unnoticeably.

"I assume you intend to use your swords? You see, it would be most unfortunate on my part if another one of my tribe were to be slaughtered by noenbloods, and you would only cause more trouble for your princess if you were to do so," said Neandro to Seth, who already had a hand at his sword. "And besides, my tribe is very self-disciplined when it comes to the hunting of noenbloods such as yourself, for the reason that if one noenblood were to be killed, a whole village would come after us. You should also assume that it will be the same for you."

Seth looked like he still wanted to argue, but couldn't fine any hole in Neandro's logic. Thankfully, I was the only one who heard the curses he was shouting in his head.

"But sire, these noenbloods can seriously endanger our fledglings! What if one of them were to-" Koto began to say before Neandro quickly interrupted him.

"I have already made my decision, Koto," snarled Neandro, his eyes still looking at me.

Koto, like Seth, still looked like he wanted to complain, but he kept his mouth shut. And, strangely enough, he was cursing loudly in his head, too. It's crazy how similar we actually are.

"Tarn, would you mind fetching Loracle and Lorali," ordered Neandro. Despite asking a question, he had said it like a statement.

"Why, milord?" asked Tarn curiously.

"To take them to their lodgings. I believe the caves in the upper part of the Roost would suffice," said Neandro. "That way the smell will bother the Tribe less."

"With your permission, I will fetch the females, sire," volunteered Koto.

"Is the smell getting to you already, Koto? Has your seven-hundred-odd years done nothing for you? More self-restraint in the future, if you please," sighed Neandro.

"Y-yes, milord. Understood, milord," said Koto like some soldier before ducking into the cave.

"I will go help him look- that Loracle is a rather elusive female," said Tarn, quickly following Koto. It was obvious our smell was bothering him, too.

Neandro's eyes followed them at the two large hybrids fled in terror at our smell. "I cannot believe them at times," he chuckled before turning back to us. "Loracle and Lorali will make sure you get a good night's sleep- they're two of my most trusted females, but I am not sure that many of the other birds will like the idea of noenbloods in the Roost. It would do you well if you avoided contact with any of them- most of us have grudges against every and all of the noenbloods."

"I understand," I replied tautly, forcing a smile.

"As for our lesson, milady, we start at dawn tomorrow," he said. "Don't be late." He winked broadly at me before flying quickly into the cave after Koto and Tarn.

"Wow! I thought he was going to eat you for a second!" exclaimed Jaspr as soon as Neandro had disappeared.

"So did I," I admitted, laughing.

"He's lucky he didn't try anything or I would have had to draw my sword," Seth joked, an undertone of seriousness lurking in his voice.

"I'd pay to see that fight!" cried Jaspr enthusiastically.

"Me too," agreed Edwin. "Noenblood versus hybrid… sounds like an event that should be publicized."

"No offense Seth, but Neandro probably has a hundred year head-start when it comes to training- I think he would win," said Kemris.

"He would have to shift, wouldn't he? He's probably like what, a foot tall when he's in his bird form? I think I would win," argued Seth.

"A hundred year head-start?" I queried.

"Hybrids live about forty to seventy times longer than an average human, and that's not counting the outliers," explained Edwin.

"The same goes for halvenbreeds, though most of them live only about twenty to fifty times longer than an average human," said Kemris.

"What's a halvenbreed?" I questioned, getting confused all over again. There were so many things about Ecladia that were still a mystery to me- it was hard to imagine me sitting on a throne in the nearby future having to plan things for a country I knew barely anything about! I hoped that I would learn everything… soon.

"A halvenbreed is someone who is half-hybrid, half-human. Some can shift, some can't. They're kind of like the step before an animagi- in fact, some animagis are actually halvenbreeds that are able to use magic. And a lot of sages actually have a bit of hybrid in them without them even knowing," explained Kemris.

"So you might be a halvenbreed?" I asked somewhat stupidly.

"No! I don't see wings or anything on me!… or maybe they're invisible!" exclaimed Jaspr, craning his head to look at his back.

"Jaspr, there's no amount of hybrid at all in our blood, you can calm down," assured Kemris.

Jaspr narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his sister. "So you say…" he said incredulously.

"No, Jaspr, this isn't some conspiracy by the hybrids to see how long you go without noticing you're a halvenbreed," I chuckled as I read Jaspr's thoughts.

"How do you know? Maybe you're one of them!" he accused, jabbing a finger at me. "Maybe you're all in on this!"

"I highly doubt that our Lord would do something like that to a human- he doesn't like to watch anyone suffer, and everyone knows how much halvenbreeds are hated by society," a new, young, feminine voice said.

Immediately, we all looked up to see two women- one that looked about seventeen, the other about twenty.

The seventeen-year-old (or whatever age she really was) was a brilliant blond- so blond, in fact, her hair was almost white. Her wings, however, were a beautiful, polar bare white that matched her pale brown eyes and looked to only stretch about ten to twelve feet. She wore a loose, fishtail dress that came down to her ankles before fluttering above twin silver slippers.

The twenty-or-so-year-old was a dark red-head-slash-brunette with crimson eyes that were tinted pink to closely match her hair, but, strangely, her wings were a brilliant, amber shock whose wingspan looked to be about thirteen feet across. The dress she was wearing was a deep black that brought out the red tones in her hair, eyes, and wings.

The blond grinned at us. "This is soooo exciting! I've always wanted to observe noenbloods up close, but Neandro never let me!" exclaimed the blond, practically jumping for joy- or as close she could get when she was hovering.

The brunette smiled at us also, but much less enthusiastically than her companion did. "My name is Lorali, and this is my younger sister, Loracle," she introduced both herself and the blond- her soft-spoken voice marking her as the one who had spoken earlier. "And our Lord Neandro has invited us show you to your lodgings."

As Lorali's voice faded away, Loracle flew over to me before taking a quick breath. "Mmm… you do smell good!" she exclaimed.

"Lora, don't get any ideas. These noenbloods are personal guests of Lord Neandro," scolded Lorali, sounding distinctly like Kemris. Maybe all older sisters acted the same way when it came to their younger siblings.

Loracle grinned at her sister. "Don't be silly, Lory! I wouldn't even dream of eating a noenblood!" said Loracle, rolling her eyes.

"If you please, just follow us," instructed Lorali, gracefully ending the conversation with her sister.

Then, Lorali and Loracle turned to lead us into the home of the Bird Tribe.

Chapter Fifteen

Learning

Maris

Loracle and Lorali led us through the tunnel (which was sloped just as the other one was) Neandro and the others had gone into until we emerged into a cavern even larger than the one we had just been in.

The ceiling was so high in this cavern, the only sign of a ceiling was a dark, blackened mass looming above us, and the coolness of the air indicated that there probably wasn't even a ceiling at all- just an open hole to the sky.

At regular intervals, other tunnels branching out from the main cave split the walls of the cavern, and it was obvious that every tunnel lead to somewhere important by the hustle and bustle that was going on.

From where we were standing, looking at a place most humans had probably never seen before, the Roost, as Neandro had called it, looked just like any other village in Ecladia- even some cities in the Otherworld acted distinctly like this.

There were many bird hybrids flapping about, taking care of whatever business they had, ranging greatly I color from dark obsidians to pearly whites and everything in between.

And, as we were watching, some of the hybrids noticed what was going on, and soon enough, growls of disapproval and other obscenities were being glared down upon us. Neandro hadn't been exaggerating when he had said that most of the hybrids despised us.

Acting quickly, Loracle and Lorali turned to the left to lead us down another tunnel, and, soon enough, we were well out of sight of the hybrids.

At the end of the tunnel was a small, well-furnished room that looked almost exactly like one of the rooms we had stayed in in the towns that we had previously visited. With the exception of the granite, cave-like walls, that is.

Within the room were about seven or eight pieces of furniture including six beds, a small sofa and a table made out of pine with thin, pastel-colored sheets and pillows. It was obvious the hybrids weren't too worried about the cold- they lived in a volcano.

Loracle and Lorali stood by the door to let us pass them and walk into the room.

"Lord Neandro has made me your guard for the night, and I will be posted here at the door to make sure that none of the birds will try anything, so you do not have to worry," assured Lorali in her soft voice, giving us a small smile. "As long as our Lord wishes it, no harm will come to you."

"Thank you," thanked Seth. "You don't know how much it means to all of us that the Lady Maris is safe."

I was shocked by the official title he had just dubbed me, but I had a feeling it was just a show for Loracle and Lorali.

Lorali smiled at him in response, but didn't say anything. Our smell was obviously getting to her.

Just then, Loracle yawned and flexed both her wings and her arms simultaneously. "I soooo tired!" she sighed tiredly.

"Then go to sleep- I can check and see if Koto will guard the mountain tonight," said Lorali.

"But I never get to guard!" pouted Loracle. "You know how Tarn gets if I ask if I can guard!"

"Then stop complaining," recommended Lorali. "And maybe then Tarn would let you guard more often."

"Fine. But maybe I wouldn't be so tired if Koto would lay off a little on our scouting missions," complained Loracle under her breath.

Lorali rolled her eyes, but said nothing more.

After that, the two sisters left us alone to sleep, Lorali staying just outside the cave entrance, past a small, closed door that had obviously been opened to let us into the small space.

As I was lying in my bed, I couldn't stop thinking about my shifting lessons… and of Neandro's reaction to my being an animagi.

Sooner or later, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

"Just focus, and you'll get it."

"Um, I can't really focus when you're yelling in my ear!"

It was the next morning, and Neandro had begun teaching me to shift, but, if that morning was anything to go by, I wasn't going to do very well as an animagi.

So far, I had only successfully shifted once, but hadn't been able to keep my hawk form for more than about thirty seconds.

Just then, Neandro had been trying to get me to concentrate on my form and, somehow, from that core concentration, I would change shape. Unfortunately, the amount of concentration needed seemed to be more than I could handle.

Neandro rolled his eyes at me. "Just take a break, then. We'll tax your noenblood brain again once you've rested," he sighed, looking rather disappointed.

Relieved, I slumped onto a surprisingly convenient rock that just so happened to be stationed upon the small cliff we were on. Neandro had said that the view of the valleys and rivers below would calm me down and help me concentrate, but so far, it hadn't helped me all that much.

That day, I had changed into a pure white form-fitting fishtail dress that was supposed to help my body shift and Neandro was wearing a dark black linen shirt with trousers to match- his dark black boots showing through.

Neandro flexed his wings and looked longingly out at the horizon. It was obvious that he wanted to fly, but couldn't because of me.

"You know, milady, sometimes I wonder what it'd be like to be a noenblood- always grounded, never being able to touch that beautiful blue sky…" he trailed off, still gazing out at the pale blue sky.

"Well, it doesn't make that much difference when you're born like this- when you don't know how something feels, you don't really worry about it," I rationalized, crossing my legs.

He laughed. "Of course. Like the situation between mates. When you don't very much understand their bonds, you don't see the point. Though I think you would understand," he said.

"What do you mean?" I queried, confused.

"Your mate. The tall blond noenblood male? The one who obviously wanted to kill me in the Entrance Hall last night?" he reminded me. "The one who threatened to fight one of my hybrids if one of them so much as touched you."

"Seth?" I guessed, half-hoping I was wrong.

"Yes! Him!" exclaimed Neandro, smiling slightly.

"What about him?" I asked.

Neandro chuckled mysteriously. "I could tell by his face that he would do anything to keep you safe- and I sense that most of that has nothing to do with the fact that you're to be the new Queen," he chortled.

"Wh-what do you mean?" I stuttered, fear beginning to make my heart beat faster. Was Neandro really as trust-worthy as Kemris said he was, or was he really in league with Syrin?

"From what I've been told, mates will do anything to keep harm from each other- the greater their bond, the greater their obsession with protection. I believe that… Seth's bond with you is rather strong. Do you know how much he is willing to do to protect you?" he chuckled.

"Of course I do," I answered. "But how can you sense that?"

He rolled his eyes a little at me. "I part bird- part animal, if you'd like. I have instincts. And besides, it was obvious by how furious he became when I mentioned your positively alluring smell," he smiled a bit creepily.

"He's always been like that," I said, choose my words very carefully.

"But if there is one thing that nags in my mind, it's your feelings for him. How does that male make you feel, milady?" asked Neandro.

My mouth fell open ever so slightly at his question, and I was rendered speechless.

"It's a simple answer," he assured me, smirking. "But be careful, milady- I can sense liars."

I gulped. Neandro would be able to sense if I lied- I didn't deny his ability of that, but if I admitted my feelings for Seth, Neandro could easily turn on us and tell the Kalkoora about him and Seth could get hurt over my stupid slip up. There was only one obvious choice.

"I'm-I'm sorry, but I don't know you enough to give you details of my personal life," I replied finally. "I may or may not hate or love Seth, and it is none of your concern which is the truth and which is a lie."

Neandro grinned. "Marvelous. I didn't think you would ace your first test," he muttered half to himself.

"Wait… what?" I queried.

"I was testing to see how you would answer me, and you gave me such a perfect answer," he explained, still grinning.

"But what does that have to do with shifting?" I questioned, becoming lost all over again.

"The better question is, milady: what does this have to do with war?" corrected Neandro, side-stepping my question.

"Huh?" I asked, completely lost.

He laughed at my obvious discomfort. "Kalkooran spies are everywhere these days- in every town, forest, barn, farm, ditch- and they will do anything to find out anything about you milady, and you must be prepared to give incorruptible statement at a moments' notice," he explained.

"Oh, I see," I nodded, finally getting what he was saying… kind of.

He was still laughing softly as he walked over to me, and, before I could blink (he moved very quickly for someone burdened with what looked like very heavy wings) he had placed a hand under my chin, and lifted my face to his and letting his beautifully golden eyes pierce mine, his face a mere four inches from mine.

"Question," he murmured, his warm, sweet-smelling breath wafting across my face. "Exactly what does that male, Seth think of you?"

"I think you already know that," I answered him, fighting not to take a deep inhale of his breath which smelled like a rich, rosy perfume.

"Humor me," he said, smiling.

"Is this another interrogation test?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "I'm just curious."

I sensed that he was being honest. "Well, he thinks I'm pretty, which I don't agree with, and he's always telling me how much he loves all the perfect mistakes I make. Kind of an oxymoron if you ask me," I told Neandro, not exactly knowing why I was spilling the beans. Something deep within me was telling me that I could trust him… in fact, that same feeling had appeared more than once in my life- it had also been the feeling that had encouraged me to follow Seth into the forest that one fateful afternoon so many months before.

Neandro chuckled again. "I don't agree with him on the pretty part either- I believe you're beautiful," complimented Neandro, making me blush a brilliant scarlet.

"Well, you'd better get in line- a lot of other boys apparently agree with you, too," I said, making him chuckle again.

"Really, it's impossible not to think you're beautiful. Your ebony black hair that looks so much darker with your pale skin- especially your absolutely mesmerizing green eyes…" Neandro trailed off.

We stayed in complete silence for a while, Neandro's melted gold eyes boring into my green.

Then, Neandro began to lean closer towards me, closer and closer until I could feel the small wisps of air coming from between his slightly parted lips. The space between us was becoming increasingly slower, my conscience screaming its disapproval at me, but I couldn't bring myself to move.

Neandro was about three millimeters away from kissing me when he stopped. "No," he murmured half to himself.

Then, before I could even blink, he was five feet away, hovering.

"I-I'm sorry, Lady Maris. I shouldn't have put you in such a situation," he apologized, not meeting my gaze.

"N-no," I said, turning a very bright scarlet. "I-I'm sorry." I couldn't believe how I couldn't move to stop Neandro from kissing me, I mean, I loved Seth! Was I really that shallow that I would let any boy just kiss me?

Neandro lifted his eyes to me. "You shouldn't be the one apologizing, milady. You don't realize what could happen if I lowered my guard for a single second around someone like you."

"No… I-I don't realize that," I agreed. There was so much I still didn't know about hybrids except for their tragic past. How much more would I have to learn before I became Queen?

He laughed humorlessly. " I could easily kill you, milady- even the weakest hybrids are twenty times stronger than any noenblood as yourself," he chuckled. "Though, even if you hadn't known that, you do realize that I'm quite smitten with you."

"Like I said before- get in line," I said, my face decreasing in its redness little by little.

He laughed again, this time; he actually seemed to have regained his old humor. "Of course, milady, if I were to try anything, your mate would come after me with that sword of his," he chortled.

I laughed with him this time. "I completely agree."

"Besides," continued Neandro. "I'm very, very, very much older than you."

"Yeah, Kemris mentioned that earlier. You live longer than us humans do, right?" I questioned, hoping I was right.

He nodded. "To you, I may look eighteen, but, in reality, I am at the ripe young age of one-hundred-eighty-two."

"Wait, WHAT?" I queried, my eyes widening in shock.

He immediately burst out laughing at my expression. "Yes. Though my father is around seven-hundred-twenty-six I believe, now."

"You're dad is that old? Are you pulling my leg?" I demanded, still awestruck. When Kemris had said they lived longer than we did, I hadn't expected anything so extreme.

"Yes, Koto is that old," confirmed Neandro.

"Koto? He's your dad?" I queried. Koto had seemed to be only about thirty! How in the world could he be seven-hundred-twenty six?

"Of course. Can't you see the resemblance?" he asked, rolling his eyes like it was the most obvious fact in the entire world.

"No, not really, but if Koto's your dad, than shouldn't he be Lord?" I questioned.

"He stepped down from office shortly after we were exiled. He was devastated after my mother was killed by the noenbloods who drove us out- he couldn't take running the Tribe," explained Neandro, a snarl creeping into his voice.

"That's… that's horrible," I sympathized. "My mother was killed by Syrin, and I never even got to meet her…"

"Death is a daily occurrence here, you might as well get used to it, milady," He said, still looking rather mad.

We were silent for a while until, finally, Neandro broke the silence and recommended that I keep practicing.

After another hour or so of unsuccessful shifting, Neandro and I headed back into the volcano. It was rather close to noon by that time.

"Maris!" a voice called out to us as we entered the cavern that the others and I had first met the hybrids.

Immediately, Seth came running towards us, panting in exertion and looking like he had just run a marathon.

"Are you alright?" he checked in between deep breaths as he skidded to a stop in front of me.

"Of course I am! But what about you, Seth? What happened?" I asked back. "I mean, you look like you-"

I was cut off as Seth abruptly cupped my face in his hands and planted a kiss on my lips.

I taken aback by his sudden action and my face turned red as I realized that Neandro was watching rather resentfully. I sensed certain urgency radiating from Seth, and I was on the brink of breaking into his heart when Neandro cleared his throat very, very loudly.

"Sorry, to interrupt your… *Ahem* moment, but I noticed that Loracle wasn't guarding, but her scent is still rather fresh around the entrance. Did she come by here?" asked Neandro.

Finally, Seth released me before answering Neandro with a steely glare. "She didn't come by me. I haven't seen her all day," replied Seth in a low growl as he stepped protectively in front of me like Neandro was going to lash out and try and hurt me or something.

Neandro's eyes went wide. "Are you sure? Maybe you weren't paying attention or something, are you sure that she didn't pass by-"

"I. Didn't. See. Anything," snapped Seth.

"Seth, don't be rude," I scolded him, reminding myself of Kemris as I stepped in front of him. "What's wrong, Neandro? Maybe she just wandered off or something."

Neandro shook his head. "Loracle wouldn't wander off like that. She's very, very diligent when it comes to her duties. And that only leaves…" he trailed off, deep in thought.

"What?" I pressed, feeling my heart beginning to beat with worry.

Neandro looked up at me, his eyes twin gold pools of worry.

"Noenbloods took her."

Chapter Sixteen

Trials

Maris

"What? Are-are you sure?" I queried, panicking. "If humans came that means they… do you think they came because of me?"

"Unfortunately so, milady. They must believe we abducted you or something similar- it's happened before, but not to such extremes where they've taken one of my Tribe hostage like this," sighed Neandro with much dread. "I will go alert the troops, in the meantime, see if you and your coven would like to come up with a plan to subdue them. Either that or we fight. I won't let any one of my Tribe be hunted again."

"I think we're perfectly capable of defending Maris ourselves, thank you very much," snarled Seth very, very disrespectfully.

Neandro gave him a furious look. "Of course you noenbloods do! What do you think my people have to go through every single day? I allow myself to give you this one favor of helping your queen and you won't even help me when your own people are obviously going to try and kill us?" growled Neandro, his golden eyes hardening.

"Neandro, I really appreciate what you're doing for me, and we will do what we can to help you. It's my fault Loracle's in this mess- I should've done something to let them know you didn't kidnap me or something, and I will take responsibility. Just please, do what you have to do," I said, shooting a furtive, and mad, glance at Seth.

"Thank you, milady. Your humility is much appreciated," thanked Neandro, still glaring at Seth. "I will go and make sure our troops are ready in case of an attack. Do whatever you think is best."

"I don't see why you need to apologize Maris, we can just-" recommended Seth just as Neandro disappeared.

I instantly rounded on him. "What the heck was that for?" I interrupted him, letting my bottled anger out.

"What do you mean?" he queried innocently, a startled look flashing across his face.

"Why did you feel the need to say all those things to Neandro? Do you know how much he's going through trying to teach me how to shift? One of his Tribe has been kidnapped because of me!" I snapped.

Immediately, Seth's startled face turned to one of fury. "That's absurd! The human scent he smelled could've been just you- and besides, whatever went wrong couldn't have anything to do with you, Laiyah would have stopped them long before they had come anywhere near us! Whatever's going on with Loracle, it's of her own doing, not ours," he snarled.

"What? Neandro would've known if it was my scent or not, and if he thinks that Loracle was kidnapped, then it's a fair bet she was!" I yelled.

"I don't see why you trust him, Maris! He's a hybrid! If he lets his caution slip for just a second, he could kill you! You heard what he said about your smell!" Seth shouted back at me, his crystalline blue eyes as hard as stones.

"For your information, Seth, he is perfectly cautious around us, and you weren't like this last night with Laiyah and Loracle! Why do you hate Neandro so much?" I demanded, furious.

"It's-it's-" spluttered Seth, obviously too mad to speak clearly.

"It's what?" I prompted, feeling pure anger exploding in my heart.

"It's because I saw what he almost did to you while you were learning to shift! I saw how he almost kissed you! How can you expect me to shrug that off?" snarled Seth.

"Wait, you were spying on me? You can't trust me enough to even go outside with someone who has sworn not to hurt me? How stupid do you think I am?" I screeched, becoming more furious by the second.

"I don't think you're stupid, Maris! I just don't think you're ready to fight alone yet- especially against a hybrid! I wanted to make sure you would be safe," his yell dwindled to a low growl.

"Seth, can you just stop trying to protect me for one second? When are you going to get it through your head that I can take care of myself and will take care of myself if need be? Isn't that what you've been training me for?" I snapped.

"Just listen to me, Maris! I'm trying to do what's best for you!" he pleaded, his voice thick with unshed anger.

"Well, it doesn't seem like that to me! To me, you seem like some possessive jerk that won't let any other boys around his girlfriend without him being there! I know how to take care of myself, Seth! I know things you could never even understand how to do!"

"You don't understand, Maris, I-"

"Actually, I do understand! I understand that you're a selfish jerk who's jealous of someone that is my rank, has royal blood, and knows most of the same abilities I know! You're just jealous that you can't be like him!" I screamed.

"Me? Jealous? Of that stupid hybrid?" he scoffed incredulously. "Don't make me laugh."

"He is not stupid! He's been through things you couldn't even imagine!" I defended Neandro.

"Oh, so you're protecting him? Then why don't I just leave you to him since you're such a perfect couple? Then it wouldn't be my problem when he eats you!" he shouted in my face.

"Just go ahead then. Leave. I don't care if anything happens to you- in fact, I wouldn't even blink if you burned in hell for the rest of your life," I snarled back, equally in his face.

Seth was silent- his flaming blue eyes searching mine, looking for a chink in my armor. Then, he found one. "You can't live without me, Maris- you know you can't," he muttered hotly.

"You can't live without me either," I shot back.

We stayed in a very angry, tense silent for almost ten minutes, the two of us glaring daggers at each other.

Then, little by little, I began to feel my anger siphon away.

At last, Seth let out a deep sigh- I could almost taste the anger hidden in his breath.

"You're right Maris. As usual," he sighed, eyes tightly shut.

"About what this time?" I demanded, still a bit angry.

"I am jealous of Neandro."

"What?" I queried, surprised at our argument's drastic turn.

"I-I want to actually do something Maris! Neandro's doing to so much for you, I mean- why can't I?" he demanded rhetorically.

"You are doing something, Seth! You're-you're protecting me!" I argued.

He opened his eyes, the beautiful blue looking very, very tortured. "But Maris, you said it yourself- you can take care of yourself now. In a couple of days, you won't need me and…" he trailed off.

"And what?" I questioned, my eyes probing his for answers.

"Neandro is the perfect guy for you, Maris. He's everything you need- he's of royal blood, he grew up with politics, he obviously likes you… I'm nothing like that," he sighed. "I-I'm afraid of losing you."

"Oh Seth," I choked up, lowering my head and closing my eyes. "You don't have to worry about that- I love you more than I've ever loved anyone in my life. How could you think I'd run off with some other boy just because we supposedly compatible?"

"But Maris…" he murmured, placing his hands on each of my shoulders and making me look up at him, opening my eyes. "I don't want to lose you… I love you and… I want to be with you… forever…" As he trailed off, he closed his eyes again and let me feel the flood of emotions contained in the small space of his heart.

So many colors swarmed my vision, I closed my eyes to let myself drink them in. There was a dark, smoky gray, the color of fear… a soft azure blue, the color of desperation… but above all else, there was the beautiful color of the sunrise, the gorgeous pearly orange-pink that is completely indescribable… the color of love. I let my mind connect with his.

Do you really feel this way? I asked him.

He opened his eyes to me at the exact time I did. "How can I not?" he replied verbally in a whisper.

I gazed into his beautiful blue eyes, and, almost immediately, a thought passed through his head that shocked me. "Seth? Do you really want to… isn't that a bit… extreme?" I checked, completely caught off guard.

He smiled reassuringly at me. "I told you I love you, Maris, and of course I want to," he answered.

"But you don't have a ring," I pointed out.

"We don't exactly need one since it'll be a while until we can actually get around to it," he said back.

"And also because we don't know what might happen between now and then," I murmured, fear creeping into my voice as I remembered my terrible vision.

"Don't worry, Maris," he soothed. "I will do anything and everything to make sure that we're together."

I chuckled humorlessly. "So do you want to tell the others?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, Jaspr might not be able to accept the fact that we're-"

"Ah! Please don't say that word!" I interrupted. "I don't know why, but it just bothers me!"

He laughed at my reaction. "Alright, Maris, whatever you say," he chuckled. "Besides, there's nothing in the world more important to me than you are, Maris."

"But really, Seth. Let's be logical right now. Marriage? Are you sure all that sword-fighting hasn't screwed your brain up or something?" I checked.

He laughed again. "It's archery that screws people's brains up- Jaspr's proven that, and I told you already, Maris. I love you and I want to be with you for as long as we both shall live- even beyond that," he said romantically.

"Bet you won't be saying that when we're ninety-two," I joked, rolling my eyes and making him laugh again.

Then, he pulled me in towards him, wrapping one arm around my waist before brushing back a stray strand of hair. "I don't think I'll ever stop feeling this way for you, Maris. You're an animagi- you should be able to tell whether I'm lying or not," he said.

"But Seth, why me? I mean, half the girls in my class probably hate me now that I sat next to you when we first met!" I complained. "Not to mention the situation with Priya…" I winced inwardly as I remembered the pain I had felt when Priya had kissed Seth right in front of my face.

He smiled at me. "Really, Maris? You think so little of yourself, don't you? None of those girls mean anything to me- my heart has belonged to you since the day we met," he assured me.

"But think about it Seth- I mean, what do you see in me? Plenty of those other girls were a billion times what I am! I don't even have a four-point-oh GPA!" I argued, not even sure he knew what a GPA was or exactly how high a four-point-oh is on the scale.

"You really don't see yourself clearly, Maris do you? You're beautiful, smart, understanding, strong, and, above all, you're really modest when it comes to everything! You're everything a guy like me could ever dream of," he murmured.

Slowly, I slid my own hand on top of the one he had on my cheek. "But I'm nothing against you, Seth. It's me who should be worrying of losing the other- I mean, you're funny, handsome, caring, loving, you know, all that other stuff," I listed quickly.

He arched an eyebrow characteristically. "Handsome?" he queried.

"Yes, you are handsome," I repeated, biting my lower lip as my face reddened.

"And what exactly makes me "handsome"?" he asked.

"Well… your hair, your eyes, your face, your actual personality… um… your eyes…" I guessed, trying to list some of the reasons for why I felt what I felt for Seth.

"You said my eyes twice," he pointed out, smiling.

"Well, I guess that's the main thing… they're like a trap, but in a good way," I muttered, trying to describe the indescribable way his eyes were so captivating.

"A trap?" he queried, his eyebrow still arched.

"Well, I guess because they're so… so… blue," I answered, sounding like a total idiot.

"So it's my blue eyes that make me handsome?" he questioned, still smirking.

"Kind of…" I trailed off, not getting my point across at all.

"What do you mean by "kind of"?" he queried, smirking even more broadly.

"That's it! I give up! You're asking way too many questions!" I finally concluded, flustered.

"Hey, I'm just curious!" he defended himself in mock horror, but his smirk made it very unbelievable.

I laughed at him. "Just shut up, Seth," I giggled, unconsciously laying me head on his shoulder.

He pulled me closer to you. "Do you want to know what I really love about you, Maris?" asked Seth, still grinning.

"Sure, though I think I might already know the answer," I replied, a very good idea in my head.

"I really love that you're so easy to tease!" he said somewhat romantically before bursting out laughing.

I made my face as straight as humanely possible. "Knew it," I muttered, but I couldn't keep up my act for long and, soon enough, I was smiling along with him.

He stifled his laughter enough to speak. "Really, Maris! It's pretty hilarious how you react to my jabs," he said.

"And exactly what is so hilarious about my reactions?" I asked, doing an impression of him as I arched my eyebrow. It didn't have the same effect though.

"Your actions, I guess," he shrugged, making me roll my eyes again.

Just then, he pulled away ever so slightly, not letting go of my hand which he still had trapped under his before getting down on one knee.

"Maris Neaveh Braithe, future Queen of Ecladia," he murmured, locking his beautiful blue eyes with mine. "Will you marry me?"

"Of-of course, Seth," I replied, stuttering quite a lot as I realized what he was doing. "I really do love you."

As he began moving back into a standing position, he kept his eyes connected with mine and, soon enough, I had completely lost my senses in the beautiful labyrinth of crystalline blue that was his eyes.

Then, when he finally stood erect, he began to lean in towards me.

Instinctively, we both closed our eyes as we came closer and closer together… but right before our lips met, I interrupted.

"Shoot," I muttered, obliterating our perfect moment.

"What is it?" asked Seth, opening his eyes and pulling his face back.

"How are we going to break the news to all my not-so-secret admirers?" I questioned.

"Don't worry, Maris- we'll just let them vent their anger. I'm pretty sure I can take a black eye or two… or three… or a hundred depending on how many guys like you," he chuckled, enticing me to laugh along with him, which I did.

And, as our laughs died away, he began to lean in towards me again, but, this time, I didn't interrupt.

As I felt his lips press into mine, I immediately felt love course wildly through my veins like a billion volts of electricity let loose into my body.

Unconsciously, I felt my arms moving like they had a will of their own around Seth's neck before tangling my fingers in his soft, dirty-blond hair and I could feel Seth's arms pulling me ever so closer to him.

Our argument seemed a million lifetimes ago even though only about five minutes had passed us by.

Then, all of a sudden, Seth's arms tightened around me and he dipped me. You know, like in those chick flicks (most of the time it happens at weddings) the guy leans over the girl until she's like, impossibly bent backwards. I was surprised I didn't break in half right then and there.

It took a lot of my strength to keep myself from swooning, but, thankfully, Seth brought me back up after about fifteen seconds, his lips still locked with mine.

Then, after a long while, we both pulled away simultaneously.

"W-what w-w-was th-th-that?" I spluttered, my heart still thudding at a thousand miles an hour.

He grinned nonchalantly at me. "Aren't guys supposed to give their new fiancées a romantic kiss after they propose?" he pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot about that," I blushed, just realizing how much I had forgotten in our perfect moment.

He chuckled and took my hands into his.

"We'd better go find Neandro," he suggested.

"Who?" I queried idiotically.

He raised an eyebrow quizzically at me. "You know, Neandro? Remember- Loracle?" he questioned.

"Dang it, I forgot about that, too!" I exclaimed, feeling more and more stupid each second.

After my obviously dim-witted response, Seth's laughter rang out like a never-ending song in the hollow cavern, giving the illusion of forty Seths all laughing at once.

But the one thing that kept resonating in my head was the fact that, now, I was engaged to someone I had met only about three months before. My old life in Brooklyn was just a very dim memory now…

How much more would change before that flicker of a memory disappeared altogether?

Chapter Seventeen

Compromise

Maris

The Bird Tribe was in turmoil.

When Seth and I had stepped into the cavern we had been lead into only the night before, the frenzy of activity had escalated to an uproar.

Birds were flying every which way- some in their natural form, others in their bird form. But one thing that was the same about all of them was that their eyes were all wide with panic.

Then, out of nowhere, a beautiful, brunette brown-winged hybrid appeared in front of us- her normally striking hazel eyes red and bloodshot from crying.

"Where is she? Where did they take my daughter?" she pleaded from me, tears pouring down her face.

"Loracle?" I asked her, praying I was wrong as I felt the wave upon wave of despair coming from her heart in floods. No mother should ever have to feel the horrible pain of losing their child to someone who might kill them.

"Yes!" she shrieked. "What are they going to do with her? What have they already done? Where is my daughter?"

I was rendered speechless and before I could compose myself, Tarn appeared from the mob, taking the crazed woman's hands into his own as he attempted to stop her hysterics.

"Calm down, love- we'll get her back," he comforted her unsuccessfully as his eyes were also blotched red. I took a guess that Loracle and Lorali were his daughters and the woman was his mate.

Then, finally, Neandro appeared beside me.

"Everything will be alright, Myrrellia! I promise you we'll do everything we can to get Loracle back from those blasted noenbloods," assured Neandro, though his voice cracked in several places.

"They took her?" I asked, frightened.

Neandro's panicked eyes turned stone cold. "I sent a couple of my birds to investigate, and they found that about fifteen noenbloods were around the volcano last night, and, from what they saw, there was a struggle between them and Loracle, and she lost," he reported coldly. "You attract quite a crowd, Lady Maris."

My heart thudded in my chest. "We have to convince them that I came here of my own free will," I said.

"But how would we do that? The noenbloods are prepared to kill- if you went out there by yourself, they could kill her before you could explain, but if we went with you, they'd kill her thinking we're holding you hostage," pointed out Neandro.

I closed my eyes deep in thought for almost five minutes as I thought of what to do, and, finally, it hit me.

"I have a plan."

"Seth, you have to stay in the back until the right time!"

"But what if something happens?"

"Nothing. Will. Go. Wrong."

My super fantabulous plan involved me and a couple of hybrids walking out of the volcano first, Neandro and I side by side, but Seth and the others would take up the back, to show that we had some control over the hybrids if not all.

But, of course, Seth wanted to be with me.

"But, Maris!" argued Seth from where we stood apart from the mob, the others figuring out who would come and who would stay behind. "What if the hybrids were to lose control with all those humans around? The scent could drive them crazy!"

"Stop worrying about it, Seth. Neandro won't let them lost control- I've seen it," I assured him. In fact, I had looked as best as I could into the future to see what would happen and, thankfully, it seemed that everything would go rather smoothly. But my mother's words rang in my head now more than ever.

Once you have seen the future, everything changes

"Maris, I really don't know about this…" muttered Seth, concern glittering in his eyes.

"I promise you, Seth, if anything goes wrong, I know you'll be able to protect me- everything will be alright," I soothed him.

He looked like he still wanted to argue, but he clenched his jaw and said nothing more on the issue.

Seth

We had left the main cavern and were finally on our way over the bridge- headed for open air.

Maris was in the lead with Neandro, Tarn, Koto, and some other burly, yet supposedly young, hybrid named Kest who looked to be about twenty-seven years old with dark honey-blond hair and dark brown eyes that matched his wings. Despite never having seen him before, he was the one I trusted most to protect Maris- he had vowed that much to me before we had left.

Unfortunately, Kemris, Edwin, Jaspr, and I were secluded to the back of the group to show the other humans that we had a mutual agreement in place between Maris and the hybrids. But I itched to be by Maris' side, just to make sure she was safe but, as usual, she wouldn't hear a word of it.

I was still clenching and unclenching my hands thoughtfully as I contemplated a way to sneak up to Maris' side when, finally, we neared the main entrance and, strangely enough, I could hear a loud droning noise- like a hive of bees were waiting just outside ambush us.

The sound of voices.

Then, at the end of the long, dark tunnel (Kemris hadn't allowed us a fire) there was the brilliant light of day looming ahead of us.

We all blinked rapidly a couple of times as our eyes adjusted to the radiant light that streamed through our eyes, but, soon enough, we were able to see the mass of people waiting just outside the entrance of the volcano.

We hadn't arrived a moment too soon. Outside was a huge amount of people about a hundred strong, and it looked like they had been just about to launch a rescue mission- many of them were carrying pitchforks, swords, lances, maces, whips, torches, or, in a couple of cases, tree branches.

Those idiots.

As Maris stepped out into the light, no one seemed to notice that their so called "damsel in distress" was right in front of their noses- probably because they were too infuriated to even think straight (which was why they were in that situation in the first place).

I could almost taste the vibes of shock emanating from Maris as she realized how many people had been willing to kill and die to save her. Oh, how I longed to run up to her, take her hand, and tell her everything was going to be alright, but, of course, I wasn't allowed.

Finally, one of the men cried out, "Your Majesty!" before falling to his knees before Maris. The rest immediately following suit as they kneeled before Maris in reverence, making Maris blush attractively as she usually did in these sorts of situations.

"We, the Unofficial Army of Feeana (feel free to call us UAF) have come to rescue you, milady!" one man yelled as he stood up, the rest of the "army" following suit.

The man had a dark chestnut colored hair and looked to be about forty-two years old with a scruffy mustache and small, silver glasses that perched crookedly on his nose, reflecting the color of his azure blue eyes.

How stupid can these people be? I snorted in my head.

Maris arched an eyebrow, telling me that she had received my message.

"And who says I need rescuing?" she asked smartly.

"Er…. Well, we all do milady. That's why we are here now," replied the man.

He's obviously been voted "Official Spokesperson" I muttered to myself in my head, relaxing a little as a small peal of Maris' laughter rang in my mind, saying she had heard my joke.

"So you believe I'm not strong enough to take care of myself? I do have a small guard of my own, you know- do you think they are not capable of protecting me after the three months I've been in their care?" questioned Maris quizzically, turning back to the matter at hand.

Ah, the magic of reverse psychology.

"Er, no my lady, we're just saying that-"

"Saying what? That you think people our age can't fend for ourselves? Let me ask you then why you're so eager to rescue a girl who's supposed to be queen when you believe those my age are incapable of holding down such a rank?" demanded Maris.

"N-no, milady! We're not saying anything like that! We just believed that we might be able to assist in your escapade from these filthy half-breeds!" protested the man.

As soon as the last words left Mr. Spokesperson's mouth, Neandro let out a low growl just audible enough to make a lot of the men shy away from him with fear and superstition.

I have to hand it to the guy; he knows how to charm a crowd.

"Well, you're wasting your time- I came here completely by my own will," said Maris.

"What?" repeated the man, his eyes going wide with shock- the other men beginning to mutter amongst themselves.

In fact, some of the people in the crowd dropped their would-be weapons (thankfully, none of them were torches).

"Y-you came here of your own free will?" queried Mr. Spokesperson incredulously.

"Yes," confirmed Maris.

"But what about the others you were traveling with? How do we know the half-breeds aren't keeping them captive in order to convince you to lie to us?" demanded someone from the crowd.

As if some great director had cued me in, I strode forward, the others quickly following suit.

"You see? I had them stationed behind the hybrids in case any of them tried anything," explained Maris, half-lying as I came to her left side and slipped my hand into hers.

"But then… why are you here?" questioned Mr. Spokesperson.

"I obtained the animagitic gene from my mother, but I needed a teacher to help me to learn to shift so, naturally, I called upon Lord Neandro to help me," she replied, adding emphasis to "Lord".

"So… you're not trying to escape from the half-breeds?" checked Mr. Spokesperson.

"No."

There was a rather awkward silence interrupted every now and then with a grunt of uncomfortability or a cough, until, finally, someone shouted out, "So what do we do now?"

"I believe it's obvious… Pernan!" I suddenly called out into the crowd.

"What did you say?" Maris instantly queried, sounding confused as she always did.

"It's a secret word used to identify other members of the Rebel Force- I wanted to see how many of these men are on our side," I explained to her, watching as every single person in the crowd answered with, "Orus".

"The words "Pernan" and "Orus" means "Who comes calling?" and "Thine comrades true" in Ancient Ecladian- the leaders of the Intelligence Branch of the Rebel Force came up with it shortly after a conspirator had been identified within our Force," I continued.

"Oh, all right," she muttered, still sounding lost.

"Don't worry, Maris. You'll know these things and more soon enough," I assured her, though she didn't look convinced.

"I believe, as many of you should, that this would be the perfect time to come out of the shadows and finally challenge Syrin- with the return of our princess, we can win back Ecladia!" I exclaimed to the crowd as they answered with a turrendous "Huzzah!"

"I shall allow you to do so, but under one circumstance," interjected Maris elegantly, taking her rightful place as princess.

"Whatever you wish, your majesty," said Mr. Spokesperson as he gave her a very eloquent bow.

Suck-up.

"I believe it is time you return the hybrid Loracle to her family as I see that this has been one huge misunderstanding," ordered Maris.

"Yes, milady," said Mr. Spokesperson has he commanded the troops to bring Loracle from wherever they were keeping her. He went about it somewhat reluctantly, but he wouldn't dare defy orders from someone has highly ranked as Maris.

A group of five men emerged from the crowd, carrying a bound, gagged, and blindfolded Loracle.

Tarn looked like he was ready to rip them apart for what they had done to his daughter, but, thankfully, the men hurried with her release and, soon enough, Loracle was running back into her father's arms.

Tarn was clutching Loracle to him so hard, I was surprise he didn't crush her delicate-looking body with his muscular arms.

Neandro also had a slightly tearful reunion with Loracle- he gave her a small hug just as Tarn had, but luckily, not as hard.

"Alright. We need to make sure our force is well equipped… about how many of you are swordsmen?" I called into the crowd. Weapons were one of the most crucial things about an army.

There were a lot of shouts as people identified themselves as swordsmen, and I took the count at about forty percent of the people.

"Lances?"

Again, many yells, and this time, the count was about forty percent.

"Archers?"

And there was the remaining twenty- percent.

"Wait a moment," interrupted Neandro, forcing everyone to stop in their tracks (they probably thought he was going to eat them or something). "Any halvenbreeds?"

The crowd's reaction was immediate- eyes went wide and many accusing glares were shot. Halvenbreeds were almost as hated as hybrids- sometimes even more.

And, this time, only one person stepped forward.

Laiyah.

Chapter Eighteen

Unite

Maris

""What blood runs through your veins?" asked Neandro over the gasps of shock that were reverberating through the crowd. Laiyah was very much well liked by the citizens of Feeana, and it was obvious that none of them had suspected even a single drop of hybrid blood in her veins. And, from the waves of emotion being emitted from my friends, they hadn't noticed anything either.

"My mother was a hybrid within the Cat Clan, my lord," replied Laiyah formally, something many of the regular citizens had "accidentally" missed.

"Are you able to shift?" questioned Neandro.

"Yes, my lord," answered Laiyah.

"Then you're hired. You can work with us," smirking Neandro, giving her a wink. I could tell by looking into his heart that he was enjoying the Feeanians' discomfort at his every move.

"As you say, my lord," agreed Laiyah, giving him a small nod before turning back to the crowd. While she walked back to wherever she had been before, the people scooted away from her, leaving a wide path for her to walk in.

"Move into your positions," commanded Seth into the crowd. "I would like to see each group of professions with their commanding officer."

But, as his voice faded away, no one had moved a single muscle- they were obviously still in shock over Laiyah's revelation. "Well? You heard General Seth! Hop to it!" shouted Neandro. "Either that, or my officers and I will have a nice feast tonight.

Immediately, everyone leapt to their groups and, through the confusion, I saw Laiyah standing in the middle of the mass. Her heart showed many levels of fear, but there was still a raw determination grasping most of the space in her heart.

Meanwhile, Seth arched an eyebrow at Neandro. "General?" he queried.

"I was tempted to spice your name up a little," shrugged Neandro. "I mean "Seth" is such a common name. I have three cousins, an uncle, and a great-grandfather named that."

"But really, spice my name up?" laughed Seth, sounding incredulous.

"Of course! "Seth" doesn't spell honorable war hero who loses a limb every other day! And besides, if you don't take the position of General, someone else would have to be by Maris' side every hour of every day and night," said Neandro matter-of-factly.

"That is true," I agreed from my spot between the two of them.

Seth nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't want to have to fight any of our own soldiers," he said, making me laugh.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, my lord, but the scent of the noenbloods is close to unbearable at this point," intruded Kest in a soft, yet obviously battle-hardened voice.

"Right," I muttered half to myself before turning back to the crowd. "If I may have your attention-"

"Yes, milady!" a chorus of men's voices interrupted me before I had even finished my order. I blushed modestly. I would never, ever get used to that.

"I have only just started my training here, and I would like to ask your cooperation in setting up a camp nearby," I commanded.

"We have a camp set up about two kilometers below, milady," Mr. Spokesperson replied with a condescending grin. He obviously loved thinking of something before anyone else did. "We will accommodate ourselves there until you're ready to begin, milady."

"Alright," I smiled. Things were starting to work out, though there were still other things I still needed to work on.

"But just so you know," added Neandro. "If any more hybrids disappear, my search party is coming straight for you, and I will give them personal permission to eat on sight."

"W-w-w-we u-u-understand, s-sir," stuttered Mr. Spokesperson stuttered as his face turned ashen white.

I stifled a laugh as I realized that there was no such order as "eat on sight" in Neandro's vocabulary of commands.

"That's Lord to you, noenblood," corrected Neandro, his posture obviously showing he was trying to stop himself from cracking up.

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-y-yes, m-m-milord," stammered Mr. Spokesperson.

"Stop torturing the man, Neandro, I think he's had enough of a heart attack for today," I giggled.

"As you wish, milady," chuckled Neandro with me, his slightly sarcastic tone making me roll my eyes.

"With your permission, milord, milady. I believe it's high time we return to the Roost," suggested Tarn, sounding much more cheerful now that he had his daughter back in safe hands.

Once Neandro and I had given last-minute orders, we trooped back inside.

The situation could have gone a lot worse, but, thankfully, my prediction had been correct. Maybe my mother was over exaggerating a little with "everything changes"… but I wasn't sure.

But our glee was short-lived. As soon as we arrived back at the Roost, there was an even bigger frenzy than what had originally been.

The hybrids were crowded around a single, black-haired woman who was trying to calm the crowd in what I guessed was Ancient Ecladian It would make sense for the hybrids to know- they'd been cast out from society for many, many years.

"That's Celeste, my sister… but, what's happening?" Neandro muttered half to himself.

Just then, the hybrid, who I guessed was Celeste, looked up and her panicked face turned to one of pure relief. "Milord brother, they've heard of our newly made alliance with the noenbloods, and they don't feel that we owe the noenbloods anything," reported Celeste.

"Thought this would happen… Alright, all of you, silence!" boomed Neandro, his voice echoing all over the cavern. Immediately, the crowd went silent.

"I'm pleased to announce that Loracle is back within our custody, and we have formed an alliance with the noenbloods," said Neandro.

"But it's their war! Why should we have to risk our lives for the very same people who exiled us?" demanded a tall, thin hybrid with a dark complexion.

"I know we've had fallouts with the noenbloods, but his is our war too. Think of what would happen if Syrin were to gain power of Ecladia. He'd treat us even worse than how we are now! You know what kind of experiments he's been performing on our brothers and sisters," reminded Neandro, though neither my companions or I knew what he was talking about.

Complete silence.

"Now nothing more will be said on the issue. As Lord of the Bird Tribe, I make decisions, and I am sure that this course of action will be better than the alternative," said Neandro.

There were low rumbles of disgruntled voices muttering amongst themselves, but no one spoke up.

"Now that that's cleared up, I want all those capable of fighting to report to Tarn at sunrise tomorrow morning. Are we clear?" demanded Neandro.

"Yes, milord," chorused the crowd, still very melancholy.

"See this as an opportunity, my brothers and sisters, to finally show the full might of the Bird Tribe to not only our adversaries, but for the noenbloods stationed outside. Fear of us rules their hearts, and nothing rules ours. We have the advantage," encouraged Neandro before adding to me, "Not that we're planning on attacking anyone, of course."

"Of course not," I muttered back to him. "You promised."

He rolled his eyes at me as he realized that he had.

"I will go and prepare, and I expect the rest of you to get plenty of rest," ordered Tarn as he flitted in front of Neandro and I to capture the attention of the crowd. "At sunrise, we train."

Immediately the crowd began to disperse, and Celeste fluttered over to us.

"Thank, milord brother," she thanked Neandro. "I would never have gotten them under control."

Celeste had dark jet-black hair and golden eyes exactly like Neandro, but she looked to be about twenty-five. Her wings were a powdery, sugar white.

"Don't worry about it, sister. They wouldn't dare rise up against you because of your lineage with me," assured Neandro modestly.

Celeste smiled shyly. "Milord brother, I was wondering if you could help me with the planning, it seems that Raven is-"

"Yes, I already know about Raven. She seems to have shifted in order to send me the message that she will be working with us," interrupted Neandro in a hushed tone. "And I believe we should speak of this matter elsewhere."

Celeste nodded in agreement and, soon enough, she and Neandro had swooped out of the main cavern to a separate cave some meters to the right and above us.

"Well, I'm bored!" exclaimed Jaspr out of nowhere. "I think I'm gonna go shoot some trees!"

And, right when he turned to leave the cave again, he ran right into the back of Kest. "Watch where you're going, noenblood," growled Kest angrily as he turned to face Jaspr. There was something bothering him, though I didn't quite see what…

"Ah, come on, Kest! You don't have to look at everyone like that when you first meet them, you have to wait 'till they betray you first," a voice giggled.

Immediately, a girl appeared from where she had been standing on the other side of Kest (I guessed that she was the one he was angry at). She looked to be about twelve or thirteen and had short, brunette hair that was slung back into a ponytail and dark, chocolate brown wings that brought out her hazel eyes.

"Hey!" argued Jaspr. "That's my line!"

"Oh really? I don't see your name on it," shot back the girl with a cocky grin.

"Holy snap, it's another Jaspr!" exclaimed Seth, his mouth dropping open as his eyes went wide.

"Yea, but she's a girl!" added Edwin with an equal reaction.

"Time to head for the hills, guys!" I laughed.

The girl chuckled with me at my joke. "Yeah, that is if the hills don't run away first, and, with your faces, I'd say that's highly likely," taunted the girl, still laughing.

"She is like me!" agreed Jaspr.

"I assume you're going to waste more of your time with these noenbloods? I believe I'll leave you to get acquainted then," snarled Kest before he flew away, the air of frustration leaving with him.

The girl watched as Kest left. "Sorry 'bout my daddy, he's just mad that I spend most of my time exploring when I'm supposed to be hunting or fetching bedding material," explained the girl.

"Kest's your father?" I asked curiously.

She nodded fervently. "Yep, though he can be a real jerk sometimes. Oh, my name's Lute by the way!" she introduced.

Just then, Neandro reappeared, looking a bit excited about… something. "Lute, your father told me I'd find you here! I need you to go hunting so we can accommodate another… guest of ours. You can take Kain with you if you'd like," said Neandro.

"Okay!" agreed Lute. "Nice to meetcha, anyways! Bye-bye!" Then, she quickly flew away to find the person named Kain.

Neandro chuckled at Lute's retreating form. "Lute's always ready to do anything to help the Tribe. Especially when Kain's by her side."

"Who's Kain?" I asked, being the asker of questions as always.

"Kain's one of my nephews, and, unless I have a fledgling myself, his brother, Arthur, will be the next Lord. I'll make sure to introduce you to the two of them sometime," answered Neandro. "But in the meantime, the war continues, and so do your lessons in shifting.

I groaned instinctively, making both Neandro and Seth laugh in unison.

"Come on, Maris, it'll be fine! It took me quite a while to fully learn to shift just as you have, and I do know that you'll understand it sooner or later," encouraged Neandro.

"Really?" I queried, hope creeping into my voice.

"No, it took me all but an hour to figure it out, but I'm forty-five-percent sure that you'll get it in the next four years," taunted Neandro as he grinned from ear to ear.

"Great. Thanks for the awesome pep talk," I thanked sarcastically.

"You are very much welcome, Lady Maris," laughed Neandro.

"Don't worry, Maris, this is just like your sword training! You'll get it after nearly killing Jaspr twice! But this time, I'll pay you three gold coins if you can really kill him," bribed Seth.

"Ahem! I'm standing right here," pointed out Jaspr.

"I know. But seriously, Maris! Think about it- three gold coins! You can buy yourself something really beautiful for that kind of money, and all you have to do is kill Jaspr!" continued Seth.

"Seth, I am not going to become a murderer for a couple of coins!" I protested, making Jaspr sigh in relief.

"But," I carried on slyly. "I can paralyze him for life…"

Instantly, Jaspr turned a very, very pale, ashen white, making us all laugh hysterically.

"I was just k-kidding, J-Jaspr!" I chortled. "You don't have to be so scared!"

"Yeah right! When I get paralyzed from the waist down, you will pay!" he threatened.

"I'd like to see you try," I dared Jaspr.

"Really? We'll fight right now!" challenged Jaspr.

"Really, Jas? You can't pin down a leaf and you really think you can beat Maris?" questioned Edwin.

"Um… never mind, Maris," Jaspr backed down, making me laugh all over again.

"Don't worry, Jaspr," I assured him. "I wouldn't kill you for the world."

"Because you love-"

"Don't push it," I interrupted him before he could finish the sentence I had heard in his head.

"Hey, I was gonna say Seth!" he protested.

"No, you weren't Jaspr. I can read minds you know," I reminded him.

"I was going to say Seth!" pressed Jaspr.

"Give it up, Jas, you weren't," argued Seth.

"Yeah, I was."

"No, you weren't."

"Yeah, I was!"

"No, you weren't!"

"Just drop it Seth," I ordered.

"I was," said Jaspr.

"Just shut up, Jas," commanded Seth.

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"
"I thought I told you two to drop it," I repeated more forcefully this time.

"Fine, as you wish, Lady Maris," said Seth formally.

"Fine," agreed Jaspr a… little less formally.

"You know, Maris, maybe if you were to keep working on everything else while you're learning to shift, you might be able to balance it all out so you can get done with everything at once," suggested Kemris.

"That seems like a good enough idea to me," agreed Seth.

"Right, Seth. Now you can stare at your girlfriend all day again!" enthused Jaspr.

"Shut up, Jaspr," we all said simultaneously.

Who said we couldn't all get along?

Chapter Nineteen

Conversations

Maris

"Maris! Fire on your left side!"

"Crap!"

Apparently, I had accidentally lit another sapling while practicing my magyk with Kemris.

"Sorry!" I apologize rather meaninglessly as I stomped out the fire, but all I got in reply was a couple of chuckles from Seth, who was standing a few feet away, watching.

"Come on, Maris," he taunted. "It can't be that hard, can it?"

"Really? I'd like to see you try it," I snapped back at him, the fire finally going out.

Seth raised both his hands in a mock surrender. "I'm not a sage, remember? I'd only succeed in looking like a complete moron," he reminded me.

"Then stop complaining," I ordered as I turned back to Kemris.

"Why don't we test out your shield, Maris? We've been at work with your fire magyk all day, I'm not surprised you started throwing sparks," said Kemris.

"Good idea," I agreed.

Immediately, Kemris and I both took our stances, and both began to breathe out our spells.

My shield was a dome that was created entirely out of light with I projected with my magyk, and it was able to absorb any attack of any shape or form, but, of course, my body would pay the price, as usual.

Finally, a ring of flames erupted from Kemris' position, and I projected my shield with perfect timing, a small, thin golden film glazing over my eyes as the spell took over.

As the flames advanced on me, I concentrated with all my might on keeping my shield strong and indestructible.

Of course, I failed.

As soon as the fire hit my shield, the magyk snapped back into my body, throwing me backward into the surrounding forest.

I hit a tree, snapping a tree branch in half before I collapsed on the ground; my breath had been knocked painfully from my lungs. But, despite all that, I was all right thanks to the breastplate Kemris had insisted on my practicing with so I could get used to armor.

Yet I couldn't resist playing a rather cruel trick on Seth.

I pretended to have trouble getting onto my hands and knees from where I had been lying face down on the ground, but then I flopped back onto the dirt like I didn't have the strength to get up.

I have to say that I was a little too obvious with my charade, but apparently it was enough to fool Seth because, once he had seen me, he gave out a loud, worried cry.

"Maris!"

I heard his footsteps thumping closer to me before he knelt by my side, placing his hands reassuringly on my shoulders.

"Maris? Are you alright?" he asked, fear creeping into his voice.

I didn't answer for fear I would start cracking up.

Obviously thinking I was unconscious or something, Seth rolled me over onto my back and, just as I predicted I couldn't help but laugh at the look of pure panic on his face.

"I-I'm fine, Seth," I laughed hysterically, just barely able to get my words in between giggles. "I have a b-b-breast plate!"

"God, Maris! You scared the hell out of me!" exclaimed Seth, getting to his feet before holding out a hand to help me up. In the background, Kemris was laughing along with me.

"That was probably one of the cruelest jokes I've ever seen, but it was soooo funny!" chuckled Kemris. "You should've seen your face, Seth! Maris, you should do that more often!"

"Really, Kemris. Don't encourage her. Who knows what other "give Seth a heart-attack" plans she has in store for me?" said Seth, obviously holding back a grin.

"Come on, Seth, you have to admit it was pretty hilarious," I goaded.

Finally, he smiled. "Well, that's true," he agreed.

"Maybe I should try that out sometime- who knows what kind of things I could get away with!" mused Kemris.

"Yes! Come to the dark side, mwahahaha," I joked, still beaming.

"Do you wanna keep going, or has all this joking around tired you out?" asked Kemris, still giggling every now and again.

I looked up at the ever darkening sky. "I'm not so sure," I answered. "It's getting pretty dark.

"Yeah," agreed Seth. "Kemris, you should head inside."

"Me? What about you two?" queried Kemris.

"I just want a word with Maris, here."

"All right, then. Maris, be careful, don't have any more near-death experiences while I'm gone!" teased Kemris as she turned and walked back towards the small cave that was the entrance to the volcano. I rolled my eyes at her retreating figure before turning back to Seth.

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked him. "Is it about our recent decision to… well… you know."

Seth nodded. "About our engagement, yes. This may seem kind of stupid to you, but I've been wanting to ask you this for a long time…" he trailed off, turning slightly red in embarrassment.

"What is it, Seth? I promise I'll only laugh a little," I smiled encouragingly.