Chapter #2 Catching Up

Meanwhile, somewhere near the forest surrounding the kingdom of Amity Park. The Fenton family had set up camp near a cave beside a small creek. Jack just got a fire started and was trying to keep it from being blewn out by the light breeze. Maddie was tearing some stale bread for dinner while while Jazz and Danny went to find berries and meat.

Once Maddie finished tearing the last loaf of bread, she raise her head and stared at the forest her children disappeared into with concern. Not concern for her daughter for she's good with a sword and bow and arrow, but concern for her son. Ever since that day six years ago, Danny seem like a different person. He doesn't wear his armor anymore and he rarely uses his sword, but he carries it with him anyway. She knew what happened to her son hadn't completely changed him into a monster, but she was still worried about him.

"Maddie, can you help me with this?" Jack asked, snapping Maddie out of her thoughts.

"What?" she turned to see the small fire Jack tried to keep going was blewn out by the breeze.

"Here, I'll get that." she said as she placed the bread back in the leather bag and went over to her husband. She picked up some small stones and pulled out some dried grass from a small pouch on her belt and threw it into the fire pit. Jack watched as his wife clapped the two rocks together, creating small sparks and the grass caught fire.

"Is something wrong, Maddie?" he asked.

Maddie gently blew onto the fire until it was strong enough. "Oh, nothing." she said "I was just thinking about Danny."

"You mean what happened six years ago?" he asked.

Maddie nodded. "Yeah, I'm worried, Jack." she said that with sadness in her voice. "What happened to my little boy?"

"Now, Maddie." Jack said, placing a hand on Maddie's shoulder. "He's still Danny. Only with...some changes." he said the last part with difficultly. He had some trouble adjusting to what happened, but with Maddie's help, he pulled through.

"Mom, Dad."

Jack and Maddie turned to see their daughter Jazz walking out of the woods towards the campsite. With her was a man in his late teens-early 20s with black hair, tanned skin dressed in brown trousers and a yellow tattered shirt and a woman, also in her late teens lat teens-early 20s with dark hair and skin dressed in a red dress with black trim. The knights watched as their daughter and the woman carried the man out of the woods, who looked like he was in a fight. Bruises covered his most of his face and neck and blood stained his clothes and matted his hair.

"Hey, weren't those two Valerie and Tucker Foley?" Jack asked.

"It is." Maddie said. "Come on, let's help them."

They stood up and went over to the group and help the women carry Tucker to the campsite. Once they got there, Valerie and Jack laid Tucker on a green blanket while Maddie grabbed a bowl and went to the creek to get some water and Jazz reached for her medicine bag. She knew she would get into trouble if anyone else found out she was studying to become a healer. She never wanted to be a knight. She wanted to heal people with herbs and modern medcine. But being the daughter of knights and due to the queen's law, she was forced to train in sword-fighting and the supernatural. Her family were the only ones who know and respected her decision to study healing. As long as she did it at night, when everyone is asleep. Jazz opened the bag and pulled out some herbs and a stone morter and pestel. She crushed and mixed the herbs with the morter and pestel into a smooth paste.

"What's that?" Valerie asked.

"A remedy for bruises." Jazz answered. She set the morter and pestel down and reached into her bag again. She pulled a small leather pouch, a clay bowl, some thread and a iron needle. She opened the pouch and poured some red liquid into the bowl. After threading the needle, Jazz placed the needle and thread into the liquid. Valerie watched, understanding what her friend was doing. Jazz was sterilizing the thread and needle with red wine so she can close Tucker's open wounds. Using a clean cloth, she treated Tucker's bruises while Jazz cleaned and sewed the open wounds shut.

"Is he ok?" Maddie asked as she walked towards the group, carrying a bowl of water.

"He'll live." Jazz said, "What happened to him, Valerie?"

"We were working in the shop when these ghosts appeared and started tearing up the place." Valerie explained. "We tried to fight back, but there were too many of them. Most of them headed to the castle."

"How many ghosts were there?" Maddie asked.

Valerie shrugged. "I don't know. There were a whole bunch of them. Destroying houses, tearing up the streets and some were heading to the castle with this cloaked man."

"Cloaked man?"

"Yeah. He wore a red cloak with strange markings on it. I couldn't make out what they mean or who he was, but he's voice sounded familiar."

"Sounds like a sorcerer." Jack said. "A very powerful one if he can control ghosts."

"Not 'very powerful', dear." Maddie said. "Only a full-fledged sorcerer with the Sceptre of the Dead can control ghosts."

"What's the Sceptre of the Dead?" Valerie asked.

"Hey, there's Danny." Jack said, looking out from the cave.

Maddie went over to the cave enterance while Jazz and Valerie stayed with Tucker. Walking across the meadow was their youngest child with a woman around his age dressed in a black dress with green and purple ribbons in her ebony hair tied tightly in a long braid. Maddie sighed with relief.

"Oh, Jack he's ok." Maddie said.

"Of course he's ok." Jack told her. "He's tough like his old man. But who's that with him?"

"You don't remember? That's the princess."

"Princess Samantha? She looked a lot smaller the last time I saw her."

"Yeah."

After the two teens arrived at the camp site. Sam explained what happened back at Amity and how she escaped. She was glad to see that her friends are ok, but she was worried about her mother, who disappeared during the attack. Even though the queen was not an easy person to talk too or reason with. She was still her mother and she hope she's ok. That night, after everyone had supper and went to sleep. Sam laid on her blanket and stared at the rocky ceiling of the cave. The small puddle of water beside her cause the moonlight to cast colorful lights on the rocky surface. Sam watched the multi-colorful lights dance above her before she turned over and laid on her side. As she did, she noticed that no one was sleeping on a red blanket on the other side of the cave. Sam sat up, rubbed her eyes and looked out the enterance to see the silhouette of a person walking to the stream. She stood up and walked out of the cave, quietly enough not to walk the others. She followed the stream until she arrive where the person was. As she got closer, she was able to make out who it was. Danny Fenton. She watched as her friend kneeled down and splashed some water into his face.

"Danny?"

Danny jumped and turned to see Sam standing in front of him.

"Sam, it's you." he sighed with relief.

"Sorry I scared you." Sam said. "What are you doing down here?"

"I was getting some water." he answered. "Plus I couldn't sleep."

"Me either." Sam admited. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah."

Silence hung in the air until Sam decided to break the ice.

"So, Danny. I noticed you weren't wearing your armor like you did before you left." she said. "What happened?"

"My armor?" he asked, worried. "Oh, it rusted so I had to get rid of it. Why?"

"No reason. I just noticed your family are wearing armor while you're not. Aren't you afraid of getting stabbed?"

"No, we were trained to fight and defend without armor so I'm not too worried."

"It be nice if I could fight, use a sword and travel like you and your family." Sam said. "Being stuck in the castle all the time isn't my idea if a life."

Danny smiled as he remembered when he and Sam were younger and Sam use to sneak out of the castle at night to hang out with her friends before her father managed to convince the queen to let her hang out with them during the day. Sam never liked being stuck in the castle all day and all night, she wanted to expore the world and fight evil villians like the people in the stories her father told her when she was little.

"Really, most people would want to live in royalty."

"Yeah, but not me." Sam said, lamely. "It's so boring. I sometimes wish I was the daughter of a knight."

Danny chuckled. "You wouldn't want that, Sam. It's not as fun as you think."

"I know. But it's better then being in the castle."

Danny let Sam's words sink in for a minute before he sighed and looked down at his reflection in the water. Something has been bothering him since he and his family were heading back to Amity. He had a secret. A secret only he and his family knew since what happened six years ago. He remembered about him and his friends talking about what would life be like if they had the choice to follow their hearts and be different from their families. Now, he was different. Not only from his family, but from everyone else as well. Including Sam.

"What's wrong, Danny?"

"Huh?"

"You look like you're miles away. You alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I was just...thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

"I was thinking about..."

"Danny, Sam. There you are."

The two teens turned to see Jazz heading towards them.

"Jazz? What are you doing here?" Danny asked.

"I think I should be asking that question." she said, sternly. "You two should be in the cave. It's dangerous at night. Come on!"

"All right." Sam said. To Danny, she whispered. "We'll talk later." Before she followed Jazz back to the cave.

Danny watch the girls leave for a second before he returned his attention to the water again. He kneeled down and stared at his reflection again with regret.

"Why couldn't I tell her?" he thought as a light breeze blew his hair out of his face, revealing his eyes.

He's blue and green eyes. Both of Danny's eyes use to be blue, but now, at night, his right eye turns green and glows in the dark while his left remains it's normal blue color. He frowned upon seeing his green eye and patted his hair down to cover it again and turned away from the stream.

"I can't tell her." he thought, ashamed. "No one else must know about...my curse."