Hello everyone!

I sincerely apologize for failing to update. I know how frustrating it can be as a reader and I will do my best to update in a timely manner from now on. That being said please understand, my life is crazy busy with senior year coming to a close and I may struggle to get things done. But I will try!

As always, reviews are welcome.

Enjoy!

I felt a whisper of claws on my neck as Puck zipped back into the tree house. The beast had only missed razing us by a hair.

"Dammit Puck!" I shrieked out of both fear and anger. "You told me you killed it!"

"I thought I did!" He replied as he set me down.

"Well obviously not!"

The house trembled beneath our feet as the beast roared.

"Look," Puck glared at me, "there's nothing I can do about it now. So stop shouting at me and help me put this sucker back in the ground!"

He had a point.

I nodded. "Okay, but how?"

Puck turned and ran up the stairs. I jogged behind him as he explained. "Well apparently shoving a sword through its heart means nothing sooo our next best bet is to cut off its head." Puck turned down one hallway, then another, zigging and zagging through the tree house. I had no idea where we were. Where was he going? "Arm yourself with as many weapons as you can," he continued. "We need to immobilize it in order to get close. Chop off limbs, toes, whatever we can so that we can get it off balance, tip it over, and slice its head off. Okay?"

We finally stopped in a dimly lit hallway in front of a door I'd never seen before.

"Puck? What is this place?"

He turned around, an inquisitive look on his face. "The armory of course."

My jaw dropped. "We have an armory?"

"Uh, yeah," Puck said as he opened the door and flipped on the light.

The room was huge, glittering with shiny metals, sharp metals. Lines of shelves holding a myriad of battle equipment wound back and forth across the room. There were, among many other things, traditional swords, daggers, cross bows, and all kinds of modern firepower. I even spotted some magical weapons on the far side of the room. My skin started tingling in the presence of so much magic, so much power. I made a conscious decision to stay away from that side of the room.

I whistled in appreciation.

Puck chuckled. "C'mon we've got to hurry."

I grabbed knives and strapped them to my arms and legs. I loaded guns and stuck them in holsters strapped to my waist.

Puck grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows, a few guns, and a sword.

We took armfuls of extra weapons downstairs that we could keep close by the door in case we needed to restock quickly.

Handling all those lethal items reminded me of the imminent danger we were about to face. Anxiety hissed and slithered inside me. The possibility that one of us could get seriously injured was very high. It wasn't my own safety I was worried about, it was Puck's. I had only just been reunited with him after so, so long and I was afraid of losing him again, but for good this time. I had missed him so much when he was gone; could I really handle losing him again?

"Puck…" We made eye contact, and though I didn't finish my sentence he understood everything I'd left unsaid.

He put a hand to the side of my face. His eyes were steady, calm as they looked into mine. "We're going to be fine."

"You promise?" I picked my head up.

Puck pressed his lips to my forehead and lingered there for a moment. When he pulled away, he said, "I promise."

Then a wicked grin split his face. "Now let's go kick some beastly ass!"