Wow, an aching pain ran through my entire body, but only for a moment. Now I know how Amber felt when she fell down those stairs. Cracking my back and trying to ease away the pain, I sat up and looked around. The whole in the ground I fell from had my friends' faces peering at me from inside. I waved up at them and then glanced around me.

Hundreds of pieces of paper sat in a huge pile next to me. The document must have been in their somewhere. It was obvious. I moved my eyes away from the large and intimidating pile of papers and back up to my friends.

"Fabian! Are you okay? Oh gosh, I'm coming down there!" Nina bellowed down at me, her voice echoing around me. Confused I squinted my eyes so I could see what she was doing. How was she going to get down here from so far up? I saw her lean into a crouching position and I gasped as I saw what she was going to do. Was she crazy? That was so unsafe!

"Nina! No don't do that!" I warned her, but it was too late. She had already jumped down and I spread my arms out to catch her. Grabbing her out of the air plopped her down on the ground. Resting my hands on my shoulder I gaped at her. "That was so unsafe! I can't believe you did that. Well actually I can but gosh Nina! You could have really hurt yourself- then what would have I done?" I lectured. Nina rolled her eyes, seemingly unfazed by my words. Pecking me on my cheek she gave me a grin.

"Don't worry. I'm fine aren't I? Now the rest of you come down okay. Be careful, it was a rough fall." She winked at me and I could feel my concerned anger melt away. I could never understand why Nina was the only one who could have an effect on me like that. Then again, I guess that's love.

Mick was the first one of them all to jump down; his sports training must have really paid off because he landed without a shaky movement. After him came Patricia, who seemed to drop without hesitation, but who's landing was only saved by Mick steadying her. Alfie, being the goofball he was known for, flipped off the top and landed with his hands up as if he was impersonating a ninja. Amber peered down warily and stomped her foot before yelling down at Alife.

"Alfonzo Marmaduke Lewis if you don't catch me I will never kiss you again!" She cried out before she fell into Alfie's arms. I guess the threat of no snogging ever again frightened him into having strength and good reflexes.

Jerome leaped down with Mara already resting in his arms, which was weird because as far as I knew Mara and Mick were still an item. I glanced at my best mate, who actually didn't seem to care, he just looked slightly puzzled. I made a mental note to ask Mick about that later.

"Okay Rutter, what are we doing now?" Jerome asked as he surveyed the room with a look of immense distaste on his face. He particularity looked displeased with the large pile of papers.

Then and only then did I realize how large it was. I didn't really notice it before but the pile was about half a meter wide and probably about seven meters tall. I had a feeling we would be searching for a while.

"Well it looks like we're going to have to find what we're looking for in the pile. So let's start looking." I muttered the last part to myself and walked over to the closest to me. I picked it off of the floor and saw it was an ad for Coca Cola from what seemed like it the 1950s. I raised an eyebrow- they had Coca-Cola in this place. Even though I was confused I threw it back down on the floor behind me and then grabbed another one. Come to Lover's Lane- We Promise Whoever You Come with Will Be the One You Will Never Be Without. Located in the Land of Venus! That place was obviously located around here but it gave me no clues to the documents location.

Alfie and Jerome's laughs burst out into the silent room.

"Does anybody want to go see the lands largest ogre bogeys?" Jerome asked as he held up a green poster. Even I chuckled for a moment before diving back into the sea of papers.

I saw ads for everything to balloon animals to engagement rings. Shaking my head I check out what everyone else had found. Nina showed me multiple pieces of blank papers and game instructions. Mara had also come up with nothing, same with everybody else. I groaned in frustration as I kept looking. Stupid, trivial things were keeping me from finding what I was looking for and helping a whole land filled with innocent people.

Each time I found another one that wasn't we were looking for I got more discouraged. Crumbling them up every time I found one that held no relevance I was getting more irritated by the failure. It was nowhere to be found. I looked back at the pile of discarded papers and gasped at the size of it. We had gone through about half of the original pile but we still hadn't found it.
"This is like finding a needle in a haystack!" Mara cried out in frustration as she held up a picture of Scooby-Doo in utter annoyance. I nodded my agreement and tried to get the anger out of me. Desperately trying to concentrate I closed my eyes and blocked out my friends grumblings.
Letting the peacefulness of the darkness try to guide me to the right place I put all of my concentration into it. And then a wisp of gray light fluttered around in the blackness. Popping open my eyes I saw the gray light slide into the middle of the pile. Hurdling in after it I ignored my put off friends, who had obviously gotten papers flying at them. My hand grabbed at one small slip of paper, it was so small in fact that I bet we wouldn't have even noticed it until the very end of our search.

Pulling out of the rest of the papers and brushing off ones that had stuck to me off, I read the script on the paper with bated breath.
"So close to victory, so sad it is challenging to figure out ancient history, special words you need to utter, have been long thrown into the gutter. If you can find them, written upon a wall, then you will prove yourself and this land will not fall."

"Another rhyme! Amber you were right, these are getting annoying." Mick said after I had finished reciting it. It really was a weird day when I agreed with both Amber and Mick. Rubbing my temple I tried to think what it meant written upon the wall. I didn't know if it was a picture, or if it was something like what happened back at the house to Nina. The words just appeared to her, but I didn't know if that would happen here. I mean with all of the golden things, trolls, and ogres I doubted the possibility of things being impossible.
"Do we have to go looking for it? It didn't really give us a clue of where to go. So where are we supposed to look?" Amber asked with a sour look on her face.

"Yeah, I don't see anything on the walls right now. And it's not like the words are going to just appear on the wall." Mara exclaimed.

And as if trying to prove her wrong, golden cursive scrawl began forming on one of the dark walls.
Smart people, it's hidden in the secret sacred steeple
Golden in make, all you must do is survive your ache.

"That sounds like a line from a horrible pop song." Jerome scoffed. "And what does it mean by secret, sacred steeple anyway?" I bit my lip, trying to think of what it meant. Secret obviously mean tit was hidden, and sacred went hand in hand with steeple, since a steeple was a part of a church. Since it was golden in make, which really wasn't much of a surprise considering where we were, I doubted it was paper. It was probably an old tablet. But survive your ache? What did that mean? Did that we were going to be hurt?

And then, once again, I heard the increasingly familiar scream of Amber. Amber had tripped over a growing pile of papers and had fallen over into the hard wall. A crack formed in the wall and it split open revealing the golden door beneath it.
"Wow Amber! You are getting really good into this falling into things we need to find!" Nina exclaimed happily. Amber grinned as she rubbed her head.
"It's a gift." She smiled again and then looked back at the gleaming door. "Since I found it and I'm the one with a headache can I open the big door?" She asked. We all nodded as she pulled open the two doors.
"Whoa." Was the reaction from me and everybody else in the room as the doors opened. Golden steps started a long way up and you could barely see the gleam of what looked to be a pedestal that rested at the very top where there was a landing.
"Well…I think we found it." Alfie muttered as he gaped at the breath-taking space before us. "Now go read it Fabian." He pushed me forward and ducked behind Amber. I gawked at him. Did he really want me to go alone? Rolling my eyes I started up the stairs. Nina's small hand slipped into mine and she smiled at me, following me up the stairs.
"Are the rest of you coming?" Nina asked tersely, as she raised an eyebrow to the rest of the gang. My friends soundlessly followed me up the stairs and I turned back around to walk the rest of the way up. My eyes were starting to hurt from the bright light of the room but still it really was amazing. The trek up the stairs was quick but when we got up there I was basically frozen in fright.
What if I didn't do it right? What if I couldn't do it at all? I mean there were all these people who had been frozen in gold for God knows how long and according to little trolls I was the one to save the. This passed beyond all insane things I had ever heard of. Is this how Nina felt when she had to put together the Cup of Ankh? I hope not because it was horrible.
Pushing the thoughts out of my head I stopped right in front of the pedestal. Apparently I had been right about it not being paper because it was a long tablet with not inked words but imprinted ones. Before I could begin reading it I heard Nina gasp in shock. "Look." She whispered as she pointed to the corner of the room.
A golden figure similar to the ones we had seen in King Midas' palace was hunched over next to a window that once again showed the golden city that rested below us. The man looked like he was a priest of some sorts as he reached out in horror towards the pedestal. I felt bad for him; he looked so terrified at what had happened to him- what had happened to the city.
Closing my eyes I blocked out the image of the poor man and tried to concentrate on the words on the tablet. I reopened my eyes and began to read it out load, trying to put power in my voice.
"With Jupiter's power, as his descendant, I free every ivory tower, and every innocent attendant. Let the gold melt away, and every man say hooray." As I read out each word I could feel powerfulness swell inside my stomach, telling me I wasn't just some nerdy, bookworm loser who lucked out with great friends and the perfect girlfriend. I really felt as if I was the descendant of a god.
Each word caused a gray light to swirl around the room, cover the priest, wrap around the towns building that rested outside of the window. The gold slid away and disappeared from view leaving behind the true surroundings. Instead of a golden room with golden walls the room was really a wooden structure, decorated with ivory statues. Outside instead of a golden town was really a town made up of stone buildings, brick houses, ivory towers, the whole town was actually made up of very different things not just the seemingly bland gold.
"You…you saved us! You are the descendant! We must take you to the castle. You are to be king!" The previously frozen male, who had wrinkles all over, white hair, and looked to be around 75, said as he clutched onto my arm, looking up at me with wide blue eyes. King? Why would I be king.
"What do you mean…uh sir? What's your name?" I asked him. He shook his head. Suddenly he seemed to notice the rest of my friends, particularly Nina.
"My name is Father Marcus, but that is not important. What is important is that you shall be king and you have brought back the princess. And you have also seemed to bring the rest of the saviors. You have blessed us and we must bring you to the old king. He'll be most pleased you broke Pluto's curse!" He hugged me and pulled me and motioned for the rest of the gang to follow him. Marcus opened a door we hadn't seemed to notice before and led us out into the rest of the church.
While the building was defiantly amazing I wasn't noticing the architecture, I was noticing all of the people who were gasping at us and crying tears of joy. The image looked like it was out of an old renaissance painting. Everybody was dressed like it too, with long dresses for the women and in long tunics and tights. Marcus took us up to the wooden alter and placed his hands on a goblet in front of him. "Alle camere private del Castello di Giove" he sing-songed. I had no idea what he was saying but I figured it out as soon as we were in cased in a gray light.

We were standing there in the church for only a moment longer and then we were back where we had started, right in the chambers of the king. The room was still painted gold, but the people who had been sitting at the table were gone. The only person left was the frozen king whose eyes were no longer sad, but gleaming with happiness.

His eyes caught mine and his whole face lit up. Without saying a word he took off the crown that rested on his head and walked over to me. He studied me for a minute before lifting the crown up in the air and slowly placing it on my head.
"New descendant, new savior, new king. You Fabian Rutter are no longer just a school boy; you are the ruler of your given land. I grant you the title as the old king, King Midas." His voice was laced with an intense happiness, as if he was glad he was no longer king.
Then I realized what he had said. He said I was king. King. King! I was no king. I barely had a clue what we were doing here, yet alone how to be a king of a land I didn't know of.
"What?" I cried out, pushing the crown off my head and watching it clatter to the floor. The king, the real king not me, pressed his lips together, as if he knew what I was saying. He bent down and picked up the crown, this time keeping it in his hands.
"Unwilling. I figured. You must be wondering what's going on as well, am I right? Come sit down and all will be explained." He motioned for us to sit down at the table, which was now filled with food we can actually eat. "And help your selves to the food. No doubt you are hungry." He sat down at the head of the table and motioned for us to sit around him. We sat in the same order we usually did when we were at Anubis house, except this time Nina sat next to me.
I really didn't realize how hungry I had become until I started to notice the delicious looking food in front of us. I picked up a few things and placed them on the plate in front of me. Mick grabbed at the food, piling large amounts of fruits, meats, and pastries on his plate. Jerome and Alfie did the same thing as him. Everybody else was more polite about it but they still took some food.
He smiled once again and I realized at once he wasn't what the myths said. He was seemingly compassionate beyond belief and humble as well.
"Can I ask you a question?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow and a chuckle reached both his mouth and his eyes. Nodding his grin became even wider. "Did you really wish to have the golden touch?" As I suspected his look didn't darken, instead it became sad.
Shaking his head he frowned softly.
"Oh no. Never. Pluto's curse turned the city to gold. And I'm sure you've heard other tales. The leader is always blamed…but I suppose rightfully so. If only I could have protected it like I should have. It just got to be so hard when Steven and Jacqueline died." His voice quivered and I could see tears forming in his eyes. He placed his hand over his face and I saw a tear escape and run down his cheek. Next to me Nina visibly tensed up and I grabbed her hand, trying to comfort her by stroking it softly. After a few minutes she calmed down and we turned our attention back to Midas. "Well I suppose you're wondering who Pluto is, am I correct?" He asked us, his voice more composed.
"Oh I thought Pluto was a dwarf planet." Amber said after she had finished a bite of an eclair. Midas gave her a puzzled look and then took a drink of water, as if trying to prolong telling us bad news.
"Um not that I know of. Pluto is a betrayer, he was a part of the royal court for some time, left for a journey to the place you call home, and came back wicked and power hungry. He took the children of the leaders of each section of the land, and of course the daughter of the head king and queen. After he took them he whisked them away to your land, leaving each child with unsuspecting human parents. Devastated by the loss of their children it was incredibly easy to take them down silently in the night, without disturbing the other kingdoms. Now this happened years and years ago, but the magic protecting the Land of the gods as a whole is dwindling. I believe we only have a month left until the princess returns in time for the coronation that will either save everybody or destroy us all. And it seems as if my son has brought back, and fallen in love, with Nina, the princess and future queen." Midas explained to us, his words cracking every so often.

I tried to process what he was saying. According to him the children from other lands, because apparently there was more than one land, had been kidnapped and then left with people by a man who had betrayed Nina's parents. I understood what was going on but I didn't understand the son detail. Before I could even say anything Amber asked a question that was on my mind as well.
"Son? Your son couldn't have fallen in love with Nina. Fabian is in love with Nina! Unless…" Amber trailed off, thinking of an option I really didn't want to think about. Tearing my eyes away from my plate I looked back at Midas whose face had a tight smile on his face.
"Yes. Fabian is my son. And the rest of you are the other kidnapped children." I knew he was telling the truth, but it was so hard to think about. My parents, they loved me and cared for me and never treated me wrong. I almost didn't want to believe him but I knew I had to. Considering the fact that it would be impossible for me to be a descendant of a god in a land that no longer believed in them.
Studying the king, or my father, I did see a resemblance with him that I never saw with my own parents. His eyes were a light blue like mine, his hair was the same dark brown, and his facial features were almost the same as mine. The only difference was the wrinkles that covered his face.
"I don't believe it! If we were all kidnapped how does Nina remember her parents? And where's Fabians new mum huh?" Patricia, who hadn't said much, was now screaming at him, pointing an accusing finger. She looked like she did when Nina had arrived- disbelieving and defensive. The king, my father, pressed his lips together and stroked his chin, as if trying to figure out how to word it correctly for the difficult Patricia.
"The princess of the whole land has better abilities then the ones of the royals of the provinces. As for Ave…she wasn't as lucky as I was when Pluto came here." He choked up at the final sentence and once again buried his face with his hand.
Jerome snorted.
"You're an emotional guy aren't you? Now I see where you get it from Rutter." He chuckled at the end of his statement. Since I was used to it I rolled my eyes and ignored him. Midas looked up and raised an eyebrow, his tears long gone, and got a knowing look in his eye.
"Mars, huh. Figures." Jerome gave him a confused look and went back to eating.

Nina, who had remained mostly quiet, spoke up, her curious nature shining through.
"Why does Fabian need to be the king of this land if you're still alive?" She questioned him. His grin was replaced by a serious look. Rubbing his hands together he looked worried and anxious.
"Life means nothing when it comes to ruling, unless you're the leader of the whole land of course, and when the powers transfer to the heir then there's nothing you can do to stop it." His explanations continued to blow my mind. Even though I believed every word, against my better judgment, it was so hard to process. Trolls, ogres, kings, gold, gods, Jupiter, a new father- everything seemed as if it was straight out of a fairy-tale.
"Wait you said all of the other lands are in trouble. How many lands are there?" Mara asked, waving her fork in the air as she chewed on a salad. Midas got up from the table and walked over to a bookshelf. He pulled out a small scroll from the top shelf and threw it over to me. I caught it swiftly and unraveled it.
All of my friends got up from their spots and gathered around me. A colorful map showed the whole land, which was shaped similar to Australia, along with the oceans that lay around it. A bright star on the map in the province of Jupiter showed us the city's name, Giove. The land of Jupiter was the most northern on the map and on its right was the land of Mercury, which capitals city was named Mercurio. Next to Mercury was Vulcan's land with the head city being called Vulcano. Vulcan was located next to Mars which capital was known as Marte and to the left of Mars was Diana which held the city of Dianam. Located directly next to Diana was Minerva, whose major city was Mineruam. Right next to Minerva was Venus whose lengthy capital city's name was Venere Cupido Psiche. In the center of it all was the largest land of all, Juno. Giunone Anubi Dio lay towards the very end of the entire provenience, with a lagre lake almost wrapping entirely around the city.
"This is a bigggg land." Alfie drawled out behind me as he circled it with his finger. I had to agree, looking at the scale of this map it was obvious it was bigger than all of Great Britain. "But why is there that orange light all around that part?" Alfie asked as he pointed to something I hadn't noticed before. A faint orange line wrapped around Juno's borders and the line between Jupiter and Venus' borders.
"The Great Barrier. It was put up by Pluto in the dead of night before he attacked each kingdom. The only way to get past it is at the Ponte di Amore Eterno, The Bridge of Eternal Love, in Venus. And the thing about the bridge is that it can only be opened by the presence of true eternal love." Midas clarified. Amber's jumped up and down happily and she got a huge glimmer in her eyes.
"Why can only true love stop the evil stuff?" She asked her voice breathy and excited. Midas gave her a big grin and a wink.
"Love my dear, is the most powerful thing in the world. It's above magic, and weapons. It's all you'll ever need." Amber gasped at his words and put one hand over her mouth and the other over her heart.
"That's exactly how I feel about love!" Amber squealed excitedly as she turned to Alfie. "What if we're the only ones that can open the bridge? Ohh! I guess it could be Fabian and Nina too. Hmm." Amber began scratching her head and squinting her eyes, the look she gets when she's thinking.
Before there could be any more explanations Marcus, who I had nearly forgotten was here, yelled out in pain and grabbed at his hair.
"The other lands need assistance. There's doom. Doom to come! Send the children. Send the children! They are the only ones…the only ones." His wails filled the room and two women in maids clothes rushed in from the other room and took him away.
"He…he…is he okay?" Nina cried as she reached out to the closing doors. I grabbed onto her to calm her down and stroked her hair. She was always like, caring so much for people she barely knew and caring for those who were even her enemies.
"Yes…yes he is. Marcus is gifted. And as he has spoken I know what he means. I'll lead you down to the stables, you'll have to take the horses…the horses will be the quickest way. Blessed horses, they'll barely ever be tired. Yes…yes it's the only way." Midas trailed off, almost as if he was talking to himself.
"Quickest way? Quickest way to where exactly?" Mick asked. Midas seemed to snap out of his self-induced trance and brought his attention back to us.
"You saved this land and you have to save the rest of them. It's the only way. The only true way…we'll pack food and money for each of you of course. Take the map too. Horses as well... you all know how to ride, correct? Well, even if you don't you'll catch on quickly I'm sure. Come on now, you'll have to leave as quickly as possible for your journey." He paced back and forth as he elaborated to us about what we were doing.
A journey. When I was a lot younger I used to love all of those books and movies where a brave group of people, usually a young crowd, who would head out on their own and save the whole world. Now that I was a part of the stereotypical group of people who have to go out and save the world I wasn't so sure if this was so cool. It was scary- even though I don't like to have people see my scared, especially my friends, I knew that I was probably going to go through more than I had ever been through back at Anubis house. And suddenly, I was okay with it. Although I'm not sure why, and I doubt I'll ever be sure, I was strangely calm with the idea. If I could help all of these people, save these people's lives from an evil man, then why shouldn't I?
"Come this way, I'll have Giovanna prepare the bags. Let's head down to the stable. We'll get the horses ready." Midas beckoned us over and led us out of the doors and into a long hallway. Before we all filed out behind him I picked up the map and then ran to catch up.
Buckingham Palace had nothing on this castle. Portraits hung on red ornate walls, and huge chandelier hung from the elaborate ceiling. I could barely concentrate on the beauty of it because we were quickly whisked into a stone passageway that led outside.

A huge stone barn covered in ivy was quickly brought into view as we walked outside. A maid with dark hair stood outside of the doors with eight backpacks at her feet. Saying nothing she handed each of us one of them, all in different colors with our names written on them.

"How did you…do you even know all of our names? And how did you make these so fast?" Patricia asked him as she gaped at the backpack in disbelief.

"I'm afraid that we don't have time to discuss this. You only have a months' time until Nina's coronation. I swear to you as soon as you get back more will be explained but now I'll have to get you your horses." Midas said all of this as he opened the doors to the stable. Eight horses came bounding out and stable boys led them over to us.

One small boy, who was no older than 12 brought over black stallion over to me. The only thing was that it was not all black a golden coat wrapped around its eyes and hooves.

"His name is Orno." The boy muttered and then bowed to me. I didn't know what else to do but say thank you and mount the horse. Once I, and everybody else was on the horses I had a fleeting feeling that this may be one of the most ordinary days we were going to have in this land.

"Head out that way to get to the forest. After the forest you'll arrive in Mercury. Good luck." Midas bid us goodbye, and we all took off in the way he pointed out-into the forest and into some serious trouble.

AN/ Translations- Alle camere private del Castello di Giove= Private rooms of the castle of Jupiter. All of the sections and cities are the Gods names translated to Italian.

Anyhow this is a longer, and I think more intresting chapter then the last! But you can tell me what you think in the reviews. (Wink wink) This chapter is dedicated to angela1997 an awesome person! Oh and water wolf 100, my MIA beta. Also izzi08, Viancs777, hethuissibuna, and tastetherainbow!

Review Replies

Viancs777- I'll make sure I finish it to the end! I hope you'll read it to the end too!

angela1997- Well I did send you the PM and we've been talking so I don't have much more to say then-YOU ARE AWESOME SAUCE!

izzi08- Fabian is a very unappreciated character sometimes! He deserves the spotlight! (OH and I follow you on twitter as elise9728 so maybe we can tweet about his awesomeness sometime!)

hethuissibuna- Can I just say how much I loved your review? It was so amazing sweet and detailed! You're the bomb! And yes you're right, there is actually quite a mystery about to unfold soon. I'm glad you laughed last chapter, I hope you found some things to laugh at in this chapter as well! Oh and I think you accidentally misread-it said fright, not fight-but you totally got my wheels turning for an awesome fight! I hope I get an especially long review for this especially long chapter! :) PM sometime if you ever wanna talk, you seem awesome!

TasteTheRainbow- Aww thank you so much! I'm glad you feel like you're there-but trust me, soon enough you'll be wanting to leave as much as they do!