Welcome back to another Chapter of Dark Crown! In this Chapter Everyone Prepares Something Special for Joseph because its His Birthday.

You may continue with Your reading.

Also here is a answer to a question you might have been having so far.

Why do I Randomly Capitalize Words? I Capitalize Them when I mention a Name (Anna, Shade etc.) I Capitalize an Action (Picks Up, Drags etc.) and also after a Comma ( , And He Rode the Horse) so yeah. I'll Stop Doing After This After this Chapter and then I'll Start Writing Normally.

Anyways You can Read now.

Manga's POV:

Four Days after Shade and Sam Came From the Village.

The House Became a Mansion.

After a While Of Learning more about My Friends. I recently Found out that Its Joseph's Birthday in 3 Days. I Cant Wait to Surprise Him with a Gift. After a While of Thinking, I Came up with a Good Gift. I Decided I Wanted to Give Him a New Set of Armor, Made out of Pyrium, A Fiery Set of Armor only Found in the Ancient Temple of The Flaming Wraith. This is Going to be a Tough Battle, But I'm Willing to Go and Find It for My Friend. I Packed some Stuff and Was Surprised that Everyone had Also Packed some Stuff for a Journey Except For Sam and Wolf, Who I Guessed Were Going to Drink till Theres No Tomorrow. I Guess Everyone is Trying to Get Something Special for Joseph too. I Set off after a Little Chit-Chat with Everyone Else and a little Breakfast. I Knew the Way to the Temple because A Member of our Family Lost Something in There. So We Followed Him all the Way there, We Reached the Entrance but didn't Go Further. He Never Came out of the Temple afterwards. So after I Set off I Went South and Passed through a Hilly Zone at a Normal Pace until I Reached the Mountains. I had Super Sensitive Ears so I Could Hear things From Miles away. That Came in Useful as I Heard a Patrol of Aviatites, Which were these Weird Birdlike Men with Huge Talons.I Thought Maybe I should List off all The Races I Know of, Just in case I Forget and Might Pay the Consequences for Forgetting Their Weaknesses if Push comes to Shove. I then Pulled out a Book and Quill and Began Writing.

Lycanites: Half Man Half Wolf, These People are Known for Being Hardy and Fast, And Can Rip anything to Shreds if They Put their Minds to it.
Their Strengths are Close Quarters Combat, But are Weak In Range. They are Resistant to Curses and Resistant to Most Weapons except for Gold, Iron and Pyrium. Their Weaknesses are The Metals Listed above aswell as Magic.

They are Allies with The Terrans and Enemies with the Felinin and Vodoites.

Terrans: Half Man Half Stone, These People are Known for Their Architecture, Which is mostly Composed of Smooth Stone and Sometimes even Metals. These People Care not for War unless it Somehow Affects Them in their Societies. Their Strengths are Hand to Hand as Their Fists can Crush anything. They can Control the Very Ground Below Us, So they can Make a Stone Stalagmite at Will. Their Weaknesses Come from Their Lack of Range, So they Can be Shot from a Distance. The Only Weapons that Affect them are either The Strongest Swords, Warhammers etc. Or You can Use a Warpickaxe which was Specifically Designed to Fight Bodies Weaken when Exposed to Water so Water Spells are Effective.

The Terrans are Allies with Every Other Race Except For the Aereos, and Vodoites.

Aviatites: Half Man Half Bird: These People are The Living Symbol of Freedom and for Good Reason. They can Soar as High as The Aether and Swoop Down Faster Than Sound. Their Homes are On The Aether, Along with the Aereos. Their Strengths are Their Speed, As their Talons can Crack Bedrock Slightly If they Move Fast enough. Their Weaknesses are That Once Wet, They Cannot Fly Very Well so Water Spells are Effective. So is Fire as That Permanently Prevents Them from Flying, Making Them a Sitting Duck after That.

They are Allies with the Aereos because their Homes are in the Same Place, The Aether. They are allies with Terrans aswell. They Are Enemies with the Vodoites and Felinin.

I Was going to Continue but I noticed the Patrol Curve around Here so I Stopped. I am Also a Felinin so That gives Me More Reason to Hide. I Guess My Race Manual will Have to Wait until I come Home. I Snuck around the Patrol and I Realized Something. Why are The Aviatites Down here on the Overworld? Shouldn't they be up in the Aether? Then I Remembered that there Was a Little Border Dispute in the Aether so they Probably wanted some Fall Back Territory in the Overworld.
I Kept going until I Reached the Temple, It's Torches Still Growing as Bright as Ever. I Looked at the Gates and Remembered that the Entrance is Sealed by a Secret Lever Behind a bit of Moss. I Moved the Moss, And Pulled the Lever Down. The Gates Started Creaking as They Opened To Reveal a Giant Burial Tomb. With all the Courage I could Muster I Stepped Forward Towards The Main Hall. I Walked Down the Hall Feeling as Though Something was Watching Me. I Shrugged the Feeling off and Looked around, Seeing a lot of Ancient Carving. They Depicted A Boy Who will Unite All The Kingdoms. I Wonder Who that Boy is? Anyways I Got to the End of The Main Hall and was Greeted by the Main Puzzle Intended to Keep People away. Although Its Kind of Easy. The Goal is to Push a Block into a Hole, But the floor is Slippery so a slight Nudge will send it to the opposite side of the room. after a little bit of Fiddling around I got the Block into the Hole. The Door to the Main Chamber was now Open. Sighing as I walked in, I Noticed a Slight Spark in the Corner of my Eye. It Grew and When I turned to Face It, Time Slowed Down To a Near Stand Still as a Fireball was Headed for my Face. Being the Quick to React kind of Person I Very Quickly Grabbed my Meowmere And Sliced the Fireball in Half, Causing Its Two Pieces to Land to My Left and Sped back up to Its Original Speed. I Looked over at What Shot the Fireball at Me and was Surprised to Find a Pyrorian down Here. I Thought they Were Nearly Extinct! I Had a Bucket of Water for Drinking if I Ever got Thirsty, But I used it To Coat my Blade with Water so That I could Deliver It a Quick and Painless Death. I Charged at It, Dodging another Fireball and Struck it Through the Heart with My Buster Class Sword and Its Eyes Rolled Back into its Head and Died. It Vanished and Left a Rod made out of Fire. I Picked it Up with Caution as It could Very well Set Me and My Stuff on Fire, Causing a Slow and Horrendous Death. Shuddering at the Thought, I Pushed It away and Continued. There was a Chest at the end of the Room. It was Made out of Obsidian so It must Be Important. Being the Cautious Person I was, I Checked for any Traps, Strangely There were None. When I opened the Chest I Was Amazed at What I Found. Instead of Just a Set of Pyrium I found an Agility Trinket. Sadly From what Ive Seen, Joseph doesn't like Speed. So I decided to Take it as a Personal Trinket. The Temple was Easy, Way Easier than Before. I Guess its because its Guardians were Pyrorians, And since Those are Nearly Extinct the Place was Left Almost Completely Unguarded. I Wanted to Get Home as Soon as Possible but It was Dark Out. So I had to Camp out Here. After a little bit of Putting Together I made a Tent and Fell asleep.

I Suddenly Woke to the Sound of Screaming as I Saw a Horrendous Sight, A Woman, Who looked Starved Had Been Tied to a Tree and was Being Abused by a Group of Men Who looked like Bandits. Full of Rage I Grabbed My Meowmere, And Charged the Group With a Loud Warcry. They Suddenly Turned around, Surprised but Before they Could Recover I Did a 360 Degree Slash, Decapitating Them All. I untied the Woman and To my Surprise, She gave Me an Evil Grin and Vanished into Thin air. I stood there Baffled but after a few Seconds of trying to comprehend the Situation I Gave up Thinking and Walked Back to My Tent. Before I got into it I Felt Someone Stab Me from Behind! I Stood in Shock as the Wound Grew Deeper, I Turned My Head and Was Terrified. It was the Woman Who I Rescued but She Has Blood Pouring from Her Eyes and Mouth, Which was Smiling at Me the Same Way It did Before She Disappeared. I Felt My Vision Blacking out as I Heard Her Say: "Oh how Sweet and Tender, Your Blood has a Nice Flavour to It. Goodnight My Sweet Princess, I Will be Seeing You in The Realm Of the NeverReturning."

I Woke Up in a Cold Sweat. Damn! It was Only a Nightmare. After Recovering from that Traumatic Experience I Packed My Stuff and Went Home. When I Got There I Saw None of the Others Were Home. Except for Joseph.

When I Came Up to Him He Asked: "Hey Manga! Where Have You Been?"

I Replied Feeling Tired: "On a Little Errand. It looks like its Been a Whole Day Since Everyone Left. I wonder what They are Doing..."

He Shrugged and We Went Inside. Of Course I Told Him to Wait for Me Inside so that I Could Hide the Armor. I Went inside and We Began Chatting about Our Lives Again.

Emerald's POV:

After Me and Ray Left So did the Others, Strange but Nonetheless We Went for a Trinket of Strength. I Knew a Friend back at the Village Who was Selling one. Me and Ray Went back To the Village to Buy It. On the Road there We Saw a Group of Highwaymen Who were Brandishing Weapons Menacingly. I Told Ray to Ready Himself. I Pulled out My Staff and Casted a Shield Spell. I let Ron take Care of The Rest. Ron Taunted the Highwaymen with a Yo Mama Joke. It was Probably the Worst Idea He Could think of. Seriously, I've been with Him Long enough to Know how Bad He can Get, But this was Low even for Him. The Highwaymen Were Infuriated and Started to Charge Us. Ray Looked like He Popped a Nerve Whilst Concentrating, But it Payed off Because as Soon as He Stopped Focusing He Shot and Aimed For another Highwayman's Head Before the First Bullet Hit the First Highwayman. He Repeated this Until He Killed All Of the Highwaymen In a Matter of Seconds. I Knew He was Good but Not This Good! We didn't go Without a Hit though, Even if I Blocked it With My Shield, a Stray Arrow Was Aimed for Ray Before He Slaughtered Everybody. We kept on Going and Fighting a Few Stray Bandits that We Found Guarding the Road. When We Reached the Village I Asked around for My Friend Whose Name is Jay Frill. The Villagers told Me and Ray that Jay Went Hiking With His erm... "Soulmate".
I Asked for the General Direction He Went, And they Said They Were at HighCloud Peak. I Told Ray Which way to Go and with That We Set Off to HighCloud Peak.

Shade's POV:

I Set off to Find a Gift for Joseph for His Birthday. I Was Thinking He would Like a New Sword, So I Decided to Travel to a Place I Knew there was a Strong Blade. Strangely, Anna wanted to Tag along. The Blade was Called the "Iron Will". Its Name is a bit of a Misnomer as It is actually Made out of Tinkerite, a Material more Dense that Osmium and Harder to Cut Through than Obsidian. The Location We Were going to was Called "Night's Gate". it was a Forest that Seemed to be in an Eternal State of Twilight. Whilst going there We ran across some Bandits.

Bandit 1 Demanded: "Hold it Right There! If You wish to Cross You will have to Pay the toll."

Bandit 2,3,4,5,6 all Cheered the First One on. I attempted to Intimidate Him: "Or What? Your going to Kill me? Pah! You Couldn't even Hold up a Sword if You Tried. Let alone Attempt to Mug Me."
This of Course did not Work, and Thus a Battle Commenced.
I Rushed at Bandit 1 & 2 With both of My Blades, Darkfury and Shrieksong, And was Preparing For an Armor Buster Attack When Suddenly an Arrow was Flying towards Me. I Spun 360 Degrees, Narrowly Dodging the Arrow as I looked and Saw Bandit 4 Attempting to Snipe Me. My plan was To Incapacitate Bandit 1 & 2 and then Go for Bandit 4 but Anna Shot Him down, Allowing Me to do A Roundhouse Kick and Knock both of the Bandits Down, Knocking them out Cold. I was Standing on top of them Full of Pride When Suddenly...

Anna Shouted: "Look Out Shade!"

At that moment I Noticed Bandit 3 Charging at Me with a WarAxe. I Sidestepped, Dodging His Downward Smash, And I Knocked the Weapon of His Hands, The Brute got Stunned for a Moment, Giving Me an Opening. I Stabbed Him with Shrieksong As it went Right Through His Iron Armor, Like a Hot Knife on Butter, He Fell Unconscious and We won the Battle. I knew this as Anna killed Bandits 5 & 6 Whilst I was Fighting 3, So We had no more Opponents.

I told Anna with a Voice Full of Pride: "We Did it Anna! Great Work with that Bow By the Way!"

She Blushed and Said Flattered: "Oh you... You didn't Have to." She Smiled Afterwards.

I said Whilst Focusing on the Forest ahead: "C'mon, Were almost at the Blade so We need to get Going."

And so We took off Into the Forest. The Sky Started to Darken and as We Entered the Forest, We Heard some Strange Noises from Underneath.

Anna Asked Sounding Scared and Holding on to Me Tightly: "W-Whats T-that Noise?"

I Reply Calmly Whilst Listening: "Oh its the Goblins. Don't Worry, They aren't Hostile unless You Invade their Home, Which Happens to be Right under our Feet."

Anna Sighs of Relief and lets go of Her Grip on Me. The Walking was Pretty Silent and I Noticed Anna was Blushing, Thinking about Something.

I then Ask Her: "Anna, Are You Okay? Do You Need to Sit Down and Have Some Rest?"

She Instantly Snaps out of It and Replies: "O-Oh No Need I-i Was Just, Eerm, Thinking About Something."

I Now Noticed How Tired I Felt So I said: "Well I'm Going to need to Take a Little Break, Because I'm Exhausted."

She Nodded and Sat Down Next to Me. She Started Blushing Harder as She Got Closer, She Even Looked away So I Didn't Notice. But it was Too late for Her.

Anyways after Taking a Deep Breath I Started to Think, and I Thought about Anna In Particular, And Then I Suddenly Realized How I felt about Her, I was So Used to Being Emotionless To the Point Where I didn't Notice That I... Kind of Liked Her...

After what Felt like an Eternity of Silence I Spoke up: "Anna..."

She asked Slightly Spooked: "O-Oh Yes Shade?"

I Stuttered: "I- I E-erm, Nevermind..." My Brain Didn't Let Me Finish, But I'm Kind of Glad That it Stopped Me.

She Then Sighed, Sounding almost Disappointed and Spoke up: "We should Probably Get Going then..."

I nodded and We took Off... Deeper into the Woods.

Ray's POV:

Me and Emerald Have Been Hiking for a Little While now, Still trying to Find Jay and to Ask him to Give us One of His Strength Trinkets.
It Was really Cold Up Here But Me and Emerald Pushed Through, And whilst Hiking I saw a Wolf Shivering in the Cold.

I asked Emerald: "Hey Could You Spare Me a Bone?"

She asked: "What For?"

I Reply: "Look over There."

She then Turns Her Head Over to the Wolf and Nodded, Giving Me a Bone.

I thank Her and Start Approaching the Wolf, It looked Scared but at the Same time Relieved to Find Someone Up Here.
I held out the Bone and The Wolf Slowly Approached Me, Sniffing for any Signs of Danger. When It was Sure It Was Safe,
It Happily took the Bone From My Hands and Rubbed Himself On My Body For Warmth. I Knew It was a He, Because He let Me
Pick Him Up and I Checked. Emerald Behind Me Asked: "What are We Going to Name Him?"

I Replied whilst Laughing Because The Wolf Was Licking Me: "We Should Name Him... I think Tofu is a Good Name"

She agreed with my Name and So Me, Emerald and Tofu Went together to Find Jay.

We found Him and His Lover at The Very Top of HighCloud Peak Looking Down at The World.

Emerald Cleared Her Throat and Asked: "Jay."

Jay Seemed Alarmed to See Us Up Here and Stuttered When He Spoke: "Y-Yeah? What do You Need?"

I Replied: "We need one of Your Trinkets of Strength Please."

He Stuttered once again Realizing that His Lover Was giving Him the Look that clearly Said "Do you Know these People"?: "E-erm Here Y-You Go, And D-don't Bother Paying for it, I S-still Remember the Favor that Y-you did for me..."

He tossed Us the Trinket and Said: "Can You... Please Go now?"

We Nodded and I could See our House From Over Here. Say that Gives Me an Idea... I Ask Emerald: "Do you want to Go Home The Fun Way or The Boring Way?"

I didn't Care what Her Answer was So I Took out My Hatchet And Chopped Down a Tree. Then I Refined the Wood to Make a Sled. Emerald Gulped, Knowing what i was Going to Do. I Dragged Her and Tofu on as I Took off with The Sled. Emerald Fainted from Fear, Tofu Cowered in Fear, Whilst I Was Having the Time of My Life! I Swerved The Sled Left and Right to Avoid The Obstacles. Suddenly We Ran Out of Forest and Jumped From a Cliff, Landing Right in Front of the House. Emerald was Still Unconscious so I Carried Her Inside whilst Tofu Followed Me in and We were Greeted Manga and Joseph, Being the Second and Third Ones Here.

Anna's POV:

Me and Shade Were Still Walking Through Night's Gate, I Heard that This is One of the Legendary Twilight Forests.
I Still Felt Something Inside of Me, Something that Wanted to Get Out So Badly it made My Chest Hurt.
Being the Clumsy Person I am, I Tripped on a Stray Root and Shade Caught Me Before I Landed, Making Us Both Blush, Especially Because of the Way He was Carrying Me. Bridal Style. He Put Me Down Gently and I felt Like Giggling like a Little Girl. I Held in the Urge and We Continued until Suddenly...

Shade, Excitedly Said: "Look, There it Is!"

I look over to See a Sword, That Looked So Pristine and So Balanced that If I Were to Hold It With a Pin, It wouldn't Topple Over. It was Made out of an Metal That Was Completely Light Gray Except for the Handle. We Went over and Picked it Up. Feeling The Blade on My Soft Hands Felt Nice. The Blade was Just as Heavy as Joseph's Old Sword. Except it Swung Faster than it and Had a Much more Comfortable Handle. We both Rejoiced as we Walked back out of The Forest. It was Midnight, 1 Day before Joseph's Birthday. Seeing that It would be Better to Sleep now and Come Back in the Morning, We set up Camp. When we Were Done Shade Put all of his things next to the Tent. I Did the Same and I watched Him Move Over to a Patch of Grass and Lay Down. After Finishing up I Joined Him on the Grass...

Shade's POV:

I Felt Calm on the Forest Floor, Feeling the Wind Brush Past My Face as i Looked at the Stars. As I Looked I Heard Anna Walk up to Me and Laid Down Next to Me.
It Felt Like The Silence was Here for all of Eternity Until Anna Suddenly Spoke Up...

Anna Broke the Silence: "The Stars really are Beautiful aren't They?"

I Replied With a Smile: "Yeah... It Sure Is..."

Anna Blushed Slightly and Said: "Shade... I... Would Like to be More than Friends."

I Started to Blush too and I Replied: "I... Feel the Same way, Anna. I've Never Felt this Way Before..."

She then Pulled Me in Closer as We Both Blushed a Deep, Crimson Red. She Finally Said: "Shade..."

I did the Same: "Anna..."

Then there was Silence... Until We Both Said At the Same Time: "I... I Love You."

She Pulled her Face Closer to Mine until We were Inches Apart.

And Then We Kissed... We Stood there, In the Kiss for a While, I Never wanted This Moment to Go Away...

Then Anna Pulled Away from the Kiss Slowly, And then She Laid Her Head on My Shoulders. Before Drifting off into a Deep Sleep, She Said: "Good Night, Shade."

I Looked at Her Peaceful Body, Chest Slowly Rising and Falling in the Rhythm of Sleep... A Small Smile Left on Her Face as She Slept...

I Soon Found Myself Slipping away From Consciousness and into The Beautiful Dreamworld.

I Woke up and Was Surprised to See Anna On My Shoulders, Still Sleeping. I Smiled as I Remembered Last Night... A Night I Will Never Forget...

I Slowly Removed Her Arms that Were Wrapped around Me, And got Up as I Decided to Make Breakfast.

Whilst Cooking I Saw Her Figure Shift as She Woke Up, I Think at that Moment She Remembered What Happened Last Night, Because She was Confused to See Herself On the Grass, And Then Smiled as She Walked up to Me whilst I was Cooking. When We Finished We Walked back Home in Silence,The House wasn't Too Far Away and We Were Happy to See that Our Little Adventure Has Ended...

All of Us Except Joseph Went into The Dining-Room, And prepared the Cake. Once it was Ready We Called Joseph In and all at the same time Shouted...

We shouted at the Same time: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!"

Joseph was Really Damn Surprised to See us Celebrate His Birthday and said whilst Smiling: "Aww, You Shouldn't Have!"

And One by One We Gave Him His Presents and the Look on His Face was PRICELESS! He Was in Awe of What we Brought Him and We Were Surprised to See Eachother's Gifts too. Overall this was One of the Best Days of my Life.

AND CUT! Damn... This page sucked the life out of me, and as promised, you can already see the text change as i type this down.
The Page was confusing to write down since i had to take into consideration everyone's POV's. I'm lucky i wrote their names down on my notepad. Also i broke the 4000 Word Barrier. And i finally started doing what i intended this series to go with, ROMANCE. I finally filled that Quota out. Now just to Implement Tofu into my Major Roles and we will be a second...one thing is still missing... Oh yeah! The plot! I intended to have the Storyline Thicken right from the beginning but i kinda wanted the Romance first... You can probably see why... Anyways i recovered from my Frozen Fingers problem and am back in business! I will be seeing you guys on the next Chapter so Bai Bai :3