"Where are we going, Clover?" Brandon asked, looking over at the boy as he led them confidently into the forest, surrounding the small village. Clover walked with a strict pride about him, as if every step were one closer to victory. Although whatever that victory might be was questionable.

Clover looked over at him and pointed into the direction of the forest they were about to enter. "We're going into the Forest of Demise!"

"Umm… That sounds a little dangerous." Brandon raised his eyebrow, with a little skepticism. The Forest of Demise didn't sound like it were the most forgiving place. Not to mention there was a road out of town in the opposite direction. As far as he could see the only roads located in the forest were small and easily missed.

Clover grinned at Brandon with unwavering confidence. "Perhaps, but it's nothing I can't handle, especially with you at my side!"

Brandon couldn't help feeling a little flustered at the compliment.

"Besides." Clover mused. "I came from the direction of this forest, correct?" He crossed his arms and closed his eyes as he walked, as if thinking very seriously. "It's the best lead I have to complete my mission." In a moment he opened his eyes and grinned with conviction. "We've got to get a move on if we're going to make any progress!" He marched forward in a more fervent pace.

"Ah, wait for me!" Brandon called, running to catch up. With a new boost in his confidence, he felt ready to take on any challenge.

The beginning of the road was fairly well defined and Clover did well not to stray from it. Unfortunately, due to the lack of use, the road began to fade away the further they delved into the shady forest. Even as the path had disappeared completely, Clover still marched on.

"Um, are we lost?" Brandon asked, looked at his companion with concern.

"Of course not! I know exactly where we're going." Clover declared, although his confident stride had withered into a casual walk.

"O-Okay." Brandon shrugged, he trusted Clover enough not to prod him any further. After a few more minutes of silence, with Clover striding determinedly and Brandon trailing more idly, the younger decided to strike up a conversation.

"Hey Clover."

The boy sighed. "I would really prefer you call me Clovisten. Sir Clovisten." He looked back at Brandon thoughtfully. "But what's up?"

"How did you become a big demon like that?" He asked with innocent curiosity. "It was so cool and really tough! It's a miracle you didn't flatten me when we were fighting!"

Clover laughed and pointed to his chest. "Certain Fortune Guardians are given special seals to keep in their company, to assure that the power is never released. If they were to get loose… well, you see what happens." He scratched at the fabric idly. "It grants us with heightened strength and agility, but can be very dangerous if we don't control our urges."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Many of them are tied to emotions." Clover explained, pointing his finger in the air, matter-of-factly. "Usually powerful ones like sadness, extreme emotional distress, rage and fear. Mine is tied to extreme rage." He looked down at his chest for a moment before looking back up at the trees before them. "If I become extremely angry, I lose control and the seal overtakes my body. You've seen what happens afterward." He laughed a bit. "Usually I'm in way better control than that! Which is why it's so surprising it happened."

Brandon listened intently to the story. "What could have made you so mad?"

Clover paused, for hardly a moment, before he shrugged. "I don't remember."

"Hmm…" Brandon hummed before grinning back at his friend. "Where could I get one like that?"
"Hah!" Clover scoffed and shoved his fists onto his hips. "Only official Fortune Knights are given the honor of a warrior's seal, and even then, only a few actually get to have them!" Grinning, he went on. "Mine is particularly powerful!"

"Wow." Brandon stared at his friend with wonder. "You're lucky!"

"It has nothing to do with luck." Clover declared. "I am skilled!"

"Hehehe, okay." Brandon shrugged.

Neither of the two boys paid any attention to the fact that they were miserably lost. Clover was much too busy explaining the rules and etiquette that knights must strictly abide by. How one must conduct himself in the presence of a lady, how one must honor his title and "not be called silly names like 'Clover'" and how one must always be on his guard for danger. Brandon, on the other hand, was much too busy listening intently to these pointers. At least he had been, until Clover had taken one unfortunate step.

In moments, the older boy had found himself dangling from midair, quite highly restrained by a cross woven net, hung by a tree branch. His sword lay limply on the ground underneath him, as when startled Clover summoned it at perhaps the worst moment possible.

"What the heck?" Clover cried sticking his hands through the holes in the net and balling fists. Brandon just stood there, staring, dumbfounded, up at him. He'd risen a fairly high distance, as the tree was more than modest in height, at least more so than most trees Brandon had been used to back at his home. "Who did this! Let me out of here!"

After a few more moments of staring dumbly, Brandon burst into laughter, falling to his knees and holding his stomach to keep from throwing up. "Aren't knights supposed to stay VIGILANT!"

Clover blushed and ground his teeth together. "Brandon, stop laughing and get me out of here!" He stretched his leg out against the rope, trying in vain to break it. "I want to find the idiot responsible for this!"

Brandon, now lying on the dirt, wheezed for a few moments, desperately trying to regain his breath, until finally a time came where he could look at Clover without laughing. "O-Okay! What do you want me to do?" The boy asked, a repressed snicker clearly present.

"Throw me my sword." Clover commanded, looking around as if he expected someone to jump out at them.

"Got it!" Brandon saluted and reached down to grab the weapon. "Urg…" He groaned in his attempt to hoist it. The metal was surprisingly heavy, enough for him to lift and probably wield, but definitely too much for him to throw, especially at such an immense height. He dropped the sword onto the ground futilely. "I can't throw it that high!"

"Don't admit defeat! You're a man aren't you!" Clover pressed, swinging his arms in irritancy.

"But I can't do it!" Brandon yelled back at him. "I'm not as strong as you!"

"Hrmm…" Clover sighed, turning over to lie more comfortably in the trap. "Then perhaps you could climb up the tree and cut me loose?"

"I can do that!" Brandon grinned up at his partner and then looked at the tree. It had plenty of branches, but they were a little far apart. Could he make such leaps? He looked back at Clover, cupping his hands around his mouth to yell. "I-I don't think I can jump this high!"

Clover spun around so he could see Brandon down on the floor again. "Yes you can!"

Brandon took in a deep breath and looked back up at the tree. Well… it was worth a shot at least… and with that he leaned back on his haunches and propelled himself upward as hard as he could.

To the boy's great surprise he soared cleanly past the first branch and even a little further than the following. He landed atop it and stared down at his feet. That was unbelievable! He'd never been able to jump this high before.

With new found confidence, Brandon leapt expertly to the next branch and then then next and so forth all the way to the heavy one that held Clover suspended in the air. Brandon crawled out onto the branch and looked down at Clover, who grinned back at him. "Told you."

Brandon laughed and reached into his pockets, retrieving one of the crossbow arrows Arthael had lent him for his journey. He didn't have very many, no more than ten, but he was sure he'd manage. The arrow was very small, hardly past the length of his hand and therefor fit in his hands similarly to a fork. He reached down to Clover and handed him the small weapon. Clover took it thankfully and began to saw away at a few pieces of the rope. Brandon himself grabbed another arrow to help.

With enough determined sawing, the job was done in a few minutes. The rest of the trap gave out from under Clover's weight, freeing him and sending him tumbling to the ground. Fortunately the knight was graceful enough to land cleanly on his feet. Brandon decided to be brave and leap down, right off of the branch as Clover had done and managed to land just as gracefully, if not more, considering his lesser weight.

Clover absentmindedly handed the arrow back to Brandon and stooped down to grab his sword. He righted himself and dropped into a battle stance. "Alright… I'm going to find the creature who dared try to trick a Knight of Fortune and get my revenge!"

"But Clover, you stepped on the trap." Brandon pointed out. "Isn't it your fault?"

"Aw…" Came a little voice and the two boys spun around to find a creature, about half the height of Brandon staring at them, with disappointment in its eyes. The creature wore clothing made from leaves, forming a long skirt and a hat. Its skin was dark brown, the color of tree bark and it had little yellow eyes. Its head was round and it lacked a nose. "…I thought you'd stay caught!"

"So you're the one who set that trap!" Clover declared and pointed his sword at the little creature. "You're not going to get away with this!" With that said, he charged at the small creature, sword at the ready and with the intent to at least capture the little thing. "C'mon!" Clover called to Brandon as he wove in and out of the trees.

"U-Uh, okay!" Brandon yelled and ran to catch up to his friend.

The small creature proved evasive and managed to escape the flat of Clover's sword more than a few times, which seemed to only drive the boy further. The creature giggled and stuck its tongue out at him. "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!" It sing-songed and disappeared into the trees.

Clover stopped running and stood in the middle of the forest, looking every which way in an attempt to locate the mischievous critter. Brandon caught up to him and watched as Clover caught the sound of the creature's laugh, following after it. Bye now Brandon was having more than his fair share of fun with this charade and followed, eager to see how the events would unfold.

"Gotcha!" Clover grinned and chased after the newly sighted creature, which shrieked and went on its way running. In the least it was a tenacious little bugger. It leapt up onto a rock, overgrown with moss and small plants, for a breather, until the blade of Clover's sword came smashing onto it. The nimble creature escaped and the sword bounced off of the stone with a clang. Clover took a moment to recover from such an unsettling hit and returned to glaring at the creature that stood on top of the rock, making faces and sticking out its tongue.

Clover would have jumped up after it, had the rock not begun to quiver and an irritated grunt not escaped from the folds of the stone. The boys took a step back as the boulder lifted itself from the ground with limbs that had only now became apparent, all made of complete stone. Its crumpled stony face contorted with anger as it began to comprehend Clover's attack.

"Eh?" Clover looked down at his sword before grinning apologetically. "I apologize for disturbing your nap stone beast. I am in a bit of a hurry."

The monster was clearly, unamused as it began to step closer to them, slowly, threateningly at first, before it let out an unbridled roar and began to charge at them.

The boys screamed and turned on their heels, dodging tree after tree in an attempt to escape the monster. Said trees were turned over in the path of the attacker as it ripped toward them with sudden rage.

"IYEEEEEEEEE!" Came a shrill scream and Brandon took a moment to look back and catch a glimpse of the mischievous creature, now trapped in one of the bushes, grown to the monster's back, unable to get free. Brandon turned back to Clover who pumped his arms up and down in an attempt to run more quickly. "What's the plan!"

"We're going to fight it!" Clover declared, holding his sword at the ready.

"That thing!" Brandon shrieked. "How the heck are we going to do that!"

"A knight must always be brave in the face of danger! Running away is a sign of cowardice and therefore an insult!" With that Clover spun on his heels and held his sword before him, standing his ground bravely as the massive creature charged into him.

Brandon brought himself to a halt, his heels skidding on the dirt as he spun around, expecting to find Clover completely flattened. It's safe to say it was more than a relief to find that Clover's weapon had held strong against the onslaught, while Clover's own strength kept them both in place. The monster shoved forward with all of its might, while Clover pressed back with an almost equal force. His face was contorted in effort with his teeth ground tightly together. Strangled sounds came from the back of his throat from the sheer effort of holding such a massive creature at bay. His feet began to slide back in the dirt, very slowly as the overwhelming weight of the monster lunged at him.

Brandon pulled out his crossbows; both loaded and set to fire, and ran toward the monster. He leapt with his new found agility, onto the creature's back where he proceeded to untangle the smaller creature from the bush. As soon as it had been freed it scrambled away from them and into the trees. Brandon crawled toward the monster's face and leaned over it to see Clover starting to lose his strength. Brandon leaned his upper half down over the creature's face and aimed both crossbow's directly into its eyes, firing with instant precision.

The arrows bounced directly off of the stone monster, but caused it to reel back, completely startled. It completely lost its hold on Clover who broke his sword away from the hold and pulled it back behind him. Clover leaned his body back as far as he could, while still maintaining his balance, his legs spread in a powerful stance and his hands gripping the hilt of the sword steadily. "How about this!" He yelled and swung the sword up into the air and back down upon the monster, its flat end slamming into the monster's forehead.

There was a silence as the monster just stood there, until it began to sway left and right until finally dropping back onto the ground with Brandon still lying on top of it, completely unconscious. Clover stood in front of it, panting and dropped the blade of his weapon onto the ground, as it had become difficult to hold up after so much constant strain.

He looked up at Brandon and grinned, straighting himself from his battle stance finally. "Never… back down from a fight…" He breathed, hunching over his shoulders weakly.

Brandon jumped from the monster and landed squarely next to his friend, grinning and laughing at their victory. He looked back at the unconscious creature for a moment. "We should probably get out of here before it wakes up. I bet it'll be pretty mad."

"Sounds good." Clover hoisted his sword up and onto his shoulder, where he stood triumphantly in front of his victim.

"But where the heck are we?" Brandon looked at the boy and swung his arms around. "We've been running for so long I completely lost track!"

Clover whipped his head around then scratched at his neck. "Uh… no problem I'll just… er…"

"…can…can I help?" Came a meek voice. Brandon and Clover turned toward it to see the small creature from earlier peering at them from behind the tree.

Clover pointed his sword in its direction and called out, "Come out here and face me!"

"I'm sorry…" The creature murmured and shuffled toward them, fixing its leafy skirt. "I didn't mean to cause THIS much trouble…" It looked up at them apologetically. "I know the way out of here. I'll lead you there if you want…"

"Humph." Clover huffed and rested his sword onto his shoulder once again, eyeing the creature skeptically.

"That would be great!" Brandon cried in response and knelt down to offer the small creature his hand. "I'm Brandon!"

The creature shyly shook the boy's much larger hand. "…um. I'm Brich."