An update at last! My only free time now is on the weekends and even that is minimal...either way, I promise to continue this story! So enjoy this update :)

The Leafmen had set up a perimeter around their small campfire, for Ronin was not entirely relaxed, thinking the Boggans would spring some surprise attack on them. Even if they didn't, there could be other hostile creatures residing under the house. Due to the lack of stomping, they concluded that M.K. and her father were not home, but Ronin didn't want to risk finding another way into the house.

The platoon gave Thryn and Nod some of their rations, which the teens inhaled, not knowing how hungry they were until they saw the food. Nod guzzled every canteen that was handed to him. The race, combined with the chase through the forest had sapped his strength, and it was only the adrenaline that had kept him going. Thryn had tested her leg, happy to find that she could walk normally, as if she was never hit by an arrow.

She was coping pretty well, but Nod noticed how she kept rubbing her thigh and checking it every few minutes, like she expected the wound to reappear. She kept throwing Nod questioning glances, silently asking how he performed his healing powers, but he would just return it with a shrug, clueless as his friend.

When he asked her to describe the feat, she said it was nothing like the Queen's bright, golden light. The only way to tell if there was magic at work, was the shriveling mushroom and the rapidly-healing flesh wound on her leg.

Ronin had taken to pacing around their camp. He did this when he was anxious, probably trying to figure out how to get back to Moonhaven without getting killed by the Boggans. It probably made him more agitated that he would have to sneak through his own territory, like he was the interloper. Finally, the general sat across the fire from them, the anger evident on his face. This is what Nod and Thryn had been waiting for.

"I'm glad you two are okay," he began. "But what were you thinking? Sneaking out, against your orders, and racing at Bufo's? I want an explanation!"

Nod didn't ask how Ronin knew they were at Bufo's tree; he could have interrogated the frog for that info. He gave Thryn a side-long glance, noting her slight tension. She was scared that he'd would tell Ronin her former dilemma; that she had been prepared to steal from the Queen to cover her father's debt. Nod had already decided that he wouldn't rat her out. It was Thryn's secret to share, if she wanted to.

"I had gotten stir-crazy in Moonhaven," he said, not meeting Ronin's eye. "If I had to spend one more day in that place, with Mub and Grub...well, you've seen me when I'm cranky."

Nod said that last part light-heartedly, trying to ease the tension, but Ronin wasn't amused. In fact, he looked like a volcano about to erupt.

"Is that your excuse?" the general raged. "Is that all you have to say for yourselves?! You endangered lives, cost us time and resources, disobeyed direct orders, and alerted the Boggans to the rose's location! If you had stayed in Moonhaven, then my patrols would have been able to prevent those Boggans from invading our borders, instead of looking for you two!"

Correction. Erupting.

The teenagers took a sudden interest in the dirt, staring at it hard. They both knew that they had to ride this out in silence, let the man expend his anger.

"And you!" Ronin rounded on Thryn. "I expected this much from him, but I was counting on you, Thryn, that you would prevent something like this from happening. It's why I posted you as his guard."

The girl couldn't hide her shame, for once, couldn't bring her stormy gray eyes to meet her superior's ice blue ones.

"It wasn't her fault," Nod defended. "It was entirely my idea, I just talked her into it. Blame me."

Ronin turned his furious gaze back at him, "I am blaming you, Nod, but that doesn't mean she's in any less trouble!"

In the silence that followed, what Ronin said sank into Nod, and he contemplated them in a way that he hadn't before. His words, 'I expected this much from him,' and 'I am blaming you," stuck out like a sore thumb. The longer he thought about, the more uncharacteristic fury he felt.

"That's all you expect from me, isn't it? Disappointment and trouble." The words were quietly spoken, but they were colder than anyone present had ever heard Nod say before.

Ronin's fiery mood flared even more, oblivious to the youth's barely held-in fury, "That's all you ever give me, Nod. Trouble!"

"So I was 'troubling' you when I saved your life from Mandrake?" he retorted, eyes narrowed. "In that case, I'll get the memo next time and just let you die!"

The Leafmen and women froze, waiting for the ax to fall, waiting for Ronin to go all-out raging, but the general just sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, "Nod, this isn't about you. The future of the forest is at stake, now that the Boggans know who has the rose-"

"How is this not about me?!" Nod exploded, all the pent-up frustration he had been keeping in for the past five days spilling out like a flood. "I'm the one who has the stupid thing attached to my arm! I'm the one who gets thirsty every ten minutes, and has to eat flower gunk with my breakfast!"

"Your being a selfish brat!" Ronin snapped back, all patience lost in his rage. "The forest is depending on this rose, and you put it in danger when you entered that race. All to fulfill your own desires!"

"You know if the Boggans want this rose so badly, there going to have to kill me. But I guess you don't care enough about me to be worried about that! Just so long as the stupid forest is saved!"

"That stupid forest is your home! It's all our home!"

"Yeah well, with the way things are now, this home sucks!" he yelled, and stormed off. The boy just wanted to be away from their stares, away from Ronin, Thryn, and everything. To be completely alone with his thoughts. He walked into the blinding darkness, not caring if he ran into a spider, a snake, or a rodent. Nod was too angry to give a damn.

At the campfire, everybody backed away from Ronin, giving him space and not daring to confront him. The leader of the Leafmen glared into the flames and flickering coals, his mind like an agitated wasp's nest.

Thryn watched the two impassively, her misty eyes regarding them, as she contemplated the words that they had shouted at each other. Ronin and Nod's relationship was common knowledge among the Leafmen ranks. From the oldest veteran to the newest recruit, they all knew that the teen and the man butted heads from time to time. Yet this one argument seemed particularly bad.

She noted to herself that throughout the whole exchange, Nod didn't bring her secret to light. The chief reason she and Nod sneaked out was because he wanted to help her, and he even burdened himself the blame. No one had ever done something like that for her. She had doubted anyone would ever do that for her sake.

Until now, that is.

Ronin was still staring moodily at the fire. Thryn knew that both of them were too prideful to apologize first, or admit they were wrong. So she would have to help them do it, and the first step, was for her to come clean.

Thryn stood up and walked over to the brooding general. She crouched beside him, and whispered, "Sir?"

He didn't turn his head or indicate in any way that he had heard her, but she continued anyway, "There's something you should know."

Angela was ranting on and on about how much she hated her Algebra teacher, Ms. Donovon, but M.K. had zoned out a while ago. Her friend was a bit scatter-brained, so she hadn't noticed that M.K. wasn't listening. It didn't really matter anyway; she had heard this rant plenty of times before.

She, Angela, and Reece were sitting in the stands of the soccer field, watching their school's soccer team battle for the ball against their rivals, the Whittney Bulls. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but M.K. couldn't muster up the effort to enjoy it. She was too preoccupied with her gloomy problems.

First, ever since her house had been ransacked, she had been in an anxious state of mind, and had fallen behind in class. Anxious, because she was afraid the police would ask her awkward questions about her father's free time. Oak Valley PD had bagged and boxed a huge mound of evidence from her house, everything from torn up papers to the broken computer screen.

How any of these items were supposed to help find the criminals was beyond her, but the way Detective Sullivan had looked at the things, M.K. feared an investigation. She had too keep reassuring herself that everything would be returned, and the detective and cops would just write them off as weirdos.

As for what was stolen(if anything was), Professor Bomba was still trying to figure that out. After living alone for ten years, he hadn't made an inventory of all the things he owned, and was sorting through the items by hand. Without an inventory list, getting everything covered with the insurance company was going to be tedious.

The only thing more unsettling than that was the discover of Rot on her door. That meant Boggans had gotten in her house, yet it was impossible for tiny monsters to do such damage. This only led to one conclusion: both humans and Boggans had broken in, working together. It made her legs turn to jelly at the thought of it. How could humans become allies with Boggans? Up to this point, she was convinced that she and Dad were the only ones who knew the existence of the tiny world.

She really hoped she was wrong.

M.K. fingered the seam of her shorts. So deep in her musing and worry, she nearly jumped out of her seat when the crowd went in a uproar around her. Their team, the Oak Valley Stags, had just scored a goal. Boys in dark blue and white uniforms were swarming a teammate, giving him high fives and half tackling him to the ground. It was Jason who scored.

The teen mentally scolded herself, your only here to support Jason, not wallow in self-pity. Some friend she was being, how many more had he scored and she hadn't even noticed?

Jason was smiling and laughing with glee, and he turned his eyes to the crowd, no doubt searching her out. She wanted to hide behind her friends, but that would just make her feel worse, so she waved when his eyes found her. He waved back, before jogging back to center field for the kick-off.

M.K. hadn't talk to Jason after she had turned down his offer of a date, nor had he approached her. The way he had waved at her should have told her that everything was cool between them, but she had a feeling that it wasn't. He was probably still a little embarrassed about asking out a girl with a BF, but he'd get over it. However, Jason would most likely tell a close friend, like Corey, about the whole thing, and with Corey's addiction to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media crap, the whole student body would know about her having a no-name boyfriend.

She could care less about the student body knowing. What worried her was her friends. She counted her lucky stars that Jason hadn't pried further into the matter last night, but Angela wouldn't be so tactful. The blonde would pester her with questions until she caved, and Reece and Lisa, though not as obvious, would be just as curious. M.K. would just have to make up another lie. She didn't like doing it, but if it was the only way to keep her human friends separated from her Jinn friends, then so be it.

All these thoughts leading up to one person. Nod. Had she been lying, not just to Jason, but to herself? Or was Nod really her boyfriend? Before this rose, they had talked to each other everyday, and had gotten closer over the year. It got to the point where he would scratch the back of his neck, and she would tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, and they both knew what the other was thinking.

That spontaneous moment when they kissed in front of the entire kingdom. M.K. still blushed every time she thought of it.

She hadn't seen him since last Sunday, the day before Lex reported his incident with the rose sprout. Saying M.K. was worried about him was an understatement. She was frantic. The only reason he hadn't contacted her was because he was confined to Moonhaven, she knew that, but it didn't stop her from wondering if something was going wrong. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could swear that she was sensing he was in trouble.

Nod is always in trouble, a little voice in her head chided. He's Nod after all. But that did nothing to quell her fears.

Disgusted shouts from the spectators brought her back to reality. The referee had blown his whistle, calling a penalty on the Stags, and the crowd was letting him know how they felt about that. M.K. didn't know what happened, and all she saw was the ref giving Jason a serious talk. Though she couldn't hear his words, she read the blonde boy's lips, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

M.K. sighed sadly. She couldn't sit here any longer and pretend she was alright. The red head just wanted to go home, get her helmet, and go find Nod. She wanted to talk to him so badly, pour out her fears to him, and have the young Leafman tell her that everything will be okay, and that she worries too much.

She was about to turn to her friends and make up an excuse, so that she could go, but something caught her eye. A flash from a tree. It was so small that she almost missed it, but ever since her first adventure, her green eyes were practiced in spotting small things.

The flash had come from a tall pine tree, on the other side of the field, beyond the stands occupied by the Bulls' supporters. The tree was bare of pine needles, and some branches were totally stripped of bark, but that wasn't what made her mouth gape open. Perching on the branches were dozens of black birds.

With a unexpected whoosh, the birds took off in an unorganized fashion, cawing haughtily. The crowds attention was momentarily distracted by the flock, but they turned back at the blow of another whistle, and more cries of protest were made. M.K. couldn't look away from the flock to see what had happened.

She hadn't seen that many birds since the last Boggan attack.

The teen could've reasoned with herself that it could just be a normal, unridden flock of crows, but that would just waste time to find out. Abruptly, she shot from her seat, startling her friends.

"M.K. where are you going?" Reece asked, sounding concerned.

"I'll be right back, I need to check something!" she replied, not giving them a chance to say anything else. She was rushing down the steps, as fast as she could without tripping. At the bottom, she turned for the forest, hugging the side of the stands, so as not to get kicked by the cheerleaders in their sequences. Behind the stands was the parking lot, and leading off into the trees, was a trail.

The half time whistle blew, but M.K. didn't look back.

Im getting really good at ending chapters with cliff hangers. looking back, I see that ive been doing that the whole time but im not going to stop now...hehe I know it drives you guys crazy ;)

im so evil...

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