Days had gone by, and still they had not acquired any more useful information about the mysterious falcon, let alone seeing it. The 'Lord', as he called himself, had not once shown his face again, and not once helped them with their 'investigation', if that's what it could be called. They hadn't even so much as heard a word about the falcon bothering people since they arrived into town. Kaden was getting so frustrated that she was ready to go home.

Kaden thought a lot more frequently, too. A lot of her time consisted of her thinking over the falcon, trying to figure out why it was here, what it was like, who it was, even. She had thought up every possible theory, and tested every single assumption. A lot of them made sense, too, but Kaden didn't know where to start. She didn't even know where to find the bloody thing. Then, of course, there was thinking about all of her other problems. One of the most obvious being Allan. Sure, she hadn't seen him in almost two years, but seeing him wasn't a good thing. It had brought up a lot of old feelings of anger, and of sadness. She hadn't wanted to face him since she had seen him again. And, another boy she had seemed to make a mistake on, being Damek. She had been ignoring him for a while, and he didn't seem to like it all that much. Kaden thought that by now he should want to go home.

One thing Kaden did know was that thinking about anything other than those three things calmed her down, but she was just so stressed out that she was about to give up.

One night she decided to go for a walk to take her mind off of things. The cool air, and the night sky, seemed to do that to her. She decided a nice walk in the woods would be peaceful, and before leaving her rooms she dressed in a warm cloak, put gloves on her hands, heavy boots, and took her dagger with her just in case. You could never be too cautious.

The night breeze was as cold as ever, and it woke Kaden's sleepy head up immediately. She breathed in the cold night's air, and smiled. It was good to be outside, and alone, to clear her head. But, when she looked into the sky, clouds covered the moon and stars in a thin fog. She shook her head. Something about that made her uneasy.

Instead of dwelling on it, she stepped out of the inn, and walked towards a path in the woods, trying to find her way in the dark with just the light of the moon to guide her. In her head, she was imagining a giant rock in the woods where she could lay and watch the moon and sort out her heavy head, but it was so dark in the woods that it was difficult for her to find one. She squinted in the dark. She thought she saw something in the distance, so she walked towards it, trying to make it out clearer than she could. Suddenly, she bumped into something tall and solid. At first she thought it was a tree, but then she looked closer, and it wasn't that tall. It had short hair of a color Kaden couldn't quite make out, and a very familiar presence. She gasped.

"I'm sorry, I should go." She was about to step away, but his gaze caught hers.

"Kaden." He said with his soft, honey voice. She almost melted, but caught herself. What was she thinking? This was the man she had run away from months ago because she was angry at him. Even if it was a fight about something stupid. And she was still holding a part of that grudge. She wasn't ready to give it up yet. She wasn't ready to talk to him.

"I really have to go." She struggled away from him, and he followed.

"Kaden, why are you avoiding me?" He still followed her, and she really didn't want him to. "You can't evade me forever." Kaden started to run. She wasn't ready for this. Maybe she looked like a foolish girl running away from her troubles, but she really didn't want to face him. Not now, not ever. "Kaden, wait!"

She ran and ran, until she thought she couldn't run anymore, and still she ran. But, she noticed unconsciously that she never had gotten out of the forest. Oddly, she should have made it back to the inn by now. It didn't take her that long to get out there; it shouldn't take her that long to get back. Abruptly, she tripped, and fell on the damp, mossy ground. She groaned as the air from her lungs exhaled.

"Kaden!" Allan called from a distance. She could hear his footsteps getting closer. "Kaden, are you alright? Kaden, talk to me!"

She felt his strong arms roll her over and prop her up against a tree. His rough, callused hands held her face; those hands that felt so familiar, those hands that she had held so many times before. They only felt vaguely different, because of the time they had spent apart. She found herself thinking about where he had been the past two years, and if he had learned new experiences, and what he had done with his life. Then she came back into focus.

"Don't touch me!" She stood up abruptly, but dizziness made her sit down again.

"Kaden, be careful. Let me help you stand." For some reason, Kaden couldn't quite figure out herself, Allan was helping her despite her pushing him away. He took her hands, and helped her up slowly. Her legs gave out on her, and she fell into Allan's chest, her head below his face. "Whoa, you okay?"

A rustle of a tree branch beside them startled them. Of course there are rustles in the forest at night all the time, but this was no normal rustle. This was a loud, clumsy rustle. Kaden and Allan looked at each other frightened.

"Wait here." He said as he took out his dagger and a match. He struck it, and looked at her worriedly.

"You think I'm going to wait here while you go find whatever's out there? Who do you think I-" Before Kaden could finish her sentence, before them was a very large, awkward bird, looking straight at them, not moving one muscle. Kaden gasped. The bird was looking straight at her.

She started walking towards it slowly, with her hands out, to show the bird that she wasn't going to hurt it.
"Kaden, what are you doing? Get back here!" Allan half-whispered, half-yelled. He glared at her, but she glared back so fiercely that he backed off.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, uh, falcon. I'd just like to get to know you." She stepped so close to the bird that it edged its way backwards a little. "Don't worry. I'm alright." She dug in her pocket for a piece of bread that she was saving for the nights adventure in the woods, and held it in her hands for the bird to eat. At first, it hesitated, but slowly, it stepped along the branch closer to Kaden, and grabbed the bread up in its beak, and backed up again. "There you are. You were hungry, weren't you?" The bird moved its head up and down as if nodding. Kaden was so surprised that she looked back at Allan, and widened her eyes. "Did you see that? It just nodded!" She smiled. "Do you understand me?" She looked at the bird again, and it nodded again. She gasped in shock.

"Kaden, this is so strange." Allan said from behind her, but she didn't acknowledge him.

"Come here closer, falcon. I just want to help you." Kaden said, and slowly, the bird inched its way closer to Kaden. Allan lit another match, and suddenly the bird flinched and cawed, and then it flew away. It shocked Kaden so much that she thought it was a dream. Then she realized why the bird had disappeared.

"Allan, you're such a dolt!" Then she started to walk away. She had almost gotten the bird to come with her so that she could take it with her… somewhere. She hadn't quite gotten that far with her plan. But, she would have probably taken it somewhere so that she could talk to it more and get more information.

"Kaden, wait!" Allan was running after her again.

"Just leave." She told him without turning her eyes away from the blackness in front of her.

"Kaden, don't leave! I want to talk to you."

"You know what?" Kaden turned to him. "I had almost convinced that bird to come with me so that I could help it, and then you light a match. Are you stupid??"

"No… I just, well, I wanted to help." He lowered his head.

"Lighting a match didn't do anything good. I could have done this all by myself."

"That's not true! You couldn't have done it without me. You know you couldn't have. Why do you always do this, Kaden?"

"Do what?" She was enraged now. Her face was bright red, and she wished Allan could see.

"You always make everything my fault! Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the problem?" He had a very angry expression on his face. The words hit Kaden like a boulder being thrown at her.

"This is why we broke up in the first place. This is why I never wanted to see you again!" She started to walk away again. She started to cry, and that was one thing she was grateful for the dark. But, the dark seemed to make it very hard to see, and especially to find her way back to town. She kept going, though. Her pride would not suffer for asking for his help. She never wanted to speak to him again.

Kaden stopped and looked around. Every way she looked was foreign. None of the ways looked at all like they were somewhere she came from.

"You know, you're never going to find your way home." Allan said from behind her.

"Would you shut up?" Kaden yelled.

"You're going to need my help." Allan said again after a moment. Kaden sighed, exasperated.

"You know what? I don't. So go away."

Allan walked closer to her, turned to face her, and blocked her way. "Kaden, don't deny it. I know what you're like, remember?"

Kaden closed her eyes. She had been beaten. He knew so much about what she was like. He knew that she hated to give away her pride, and that she was stubborn as ever, and that she was hiding her feelings with a mask. She had gotten worse at that, of course, but he didn't know that.

"Fine." She said as she started walking away again. "Help me find my way back. But I'm only doing this because I'm lost. You know that, right?" He nodded. "Good."

They walked for the longest time, and Kaden thought they had gotten even more lost, until they came to the path. She sighed, relieved. She was so scared that they would be lost in those woods for the whole night.

"Here, I found the path." He said, pointing out the obvious.

"Thanks." Kaden said absent-mindedly.

"Why were you in here anyways?" He asked after a pause.

"I was going to clear my mind, and watch the stars. It always helps me to calm down." She started to walk down the path away from him. "Why were you in the woods?"

"Same reason."

"Really? Somehow I don't believe that." She started to walk faster.

"It's true. It really is."
"Well, okay then. I can find my own way back from here."

"Are you sure? I can walk you back to your room." Kaden looked at him as if he was crazy.

"No, thanks." She smiled, and turned her back, starting to walk away. "I'm a big girl. I can walk myself back."

After leaving Allan, surprisingly, in the forest, Kaden started to walk back to her rooms, still thinking about the events of the night. So much had happened, the most exciting and relieving part being that she had finally met the falcon. She wasn't so much as thinking about Allan. It could be because she still couldn't force herself to think about him in the first place and also because she still had a void inside her to thinking about him at all. She had become so used to blocking him out of her mind that it had become like a reflex. But one thing had been churning in her mind. "You always make everything my fault! Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're the problem?"

She kept thinking how it could be true; that maybe she truly had been the problem in their relationship. Maybe she had made a big deal out of a little fight.

When she opened the door to her room, she sighed and flopped onto the bed. She couldn't believe how exhausting the night had been. Almost as soon as she had lain on her bed, a knock sounded at the door. She was so confused, because it was so late, and she couldn't believe that someone was here. She especially couldn't figure out who it was.

Kaden got up from her bed slowly, and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" She asked without opening the door.

"Can we talk?" Someone asked on the other side. She opened the door hesitantly, and stared at the person in front of her.

"Damek?"

A/N: So, what did you think? Was it better? It was definitely longer... and it was a cliff hanger. So, I hoped it was good enough for the world of FanFiction. Hahahaha! Love you guys! Review!! Please!!

- Abiona Marchand