Guys I'm so sorry that it's been so long since my last update, but I've been traveling a lot (not wanted by me) and I haven't had internet access. So here's the next chapter.

thanks, awesomebooky

It has been a while since I last saw Maria, and I thought of her every night before I went to bed. It wasn't because I liked her, it was because I saw her ribbon in my hat and I wondered if she knew it was missing.

My father has been going nuts trying to find her, but Benjamin keeps her locked away in the Manor, so that we cannot find her. He has sent search party after search party out just on blind faith that she left the confines of Merryweather Manor and went into the forest. Personally, I think he has just lost his mind. I mean, I get why he wants to kidnap the Moon Princess, but I'm starting to see that it might not be good if we keep her from getting the moonpearls. The curse says that the valley will be destroyed, right? Well doesn't the valley include the Denoir Mansion? If you really think about it, we would be destroyed as well, so why do we want to stop the curse thing again?

My mind was shaken out of it's reverie when I got to the next trap in my route, there is a hare in it. I go towards the trap ready to take the hare, when I see Maria walk out from behind a tree on the edge of the clearing wearing a red gown. Hm her wardrobe is finally starting to look practical for the forest.

"Princess," I take out my dagger, "giving yourself up. How good of you." I smirk at her. She just stands there smiling and giggling at me. Then, she reaches behind the tree and pulls on a rope that snatches me by the feet and sends me dangling upside down by a tree. I do the thing most people would do and yell.

"The great trapper, trapped!" she says still giggling.

"Let me down little witch!" was my furious reply.

"Certainly" she says. I watch her as she walks toward my helpless body and picks up my dagger that I had dropped. She walks back toward the rope and is about to saw the rope.

"NO DON'T YOU DARE"

"No?" she asks naively.

"Ow ow my foot." I whine while she goes over to the trapped hare and releases it whilst muttering something to it. All the while I'm grunting in pain trying to get her attention so she'll let me out of this agonizingly painful trap. "UGH please" I beg, "ow ugh a" I say. She turns to leave the clearing, NONO my mind screams.

"Wait, ugh, this is just really painful...ugh I can feel my head swelling." I whine to her.

"Oh no. It was like that before." was her reply. She starts to walk back to me and I whimper. "I will let you down, if you do one thing for me."

"WHAT?" I spat.

"Just promise me you will listen." She says. I'm befuddled. "Just say 'I promise'" she tells me. I stay silent. "Just say it!" she exclaims back at me clearly annoyed.

"I promise." I relent. I'm still extremely confused. She trapped me and has me in a comprimising situation where she can get me to do just about anything, and all she wants me to do is listen. "All right you beat me. Now let me down."

"Very well" and she saws the rope which drops me. On my head. "OW AHHH" I exclaim. I hear a bark and grab my hat, then quickly get up and try to escape before the demon dog gets here. I look up to see a dagger in my face, my dagger. The dog walks up to her side, it's eyes glowing red and staring at me, forcing me to stay where I am.

"What about him?" I ask her gesturing to Wrolf, whilst panting. He barks and she pets him.

"You're a Denoir. He very probably will hurt you." she drops my dagger, so that I can grab it and smirks at me. She keeps smirking at me and I don't like it. Only I can smirk at everyone. I slowly reach down and grab my dagger off the ground, step over to a log, sit down defeatedly and put on my hat. She's silently staring at me, so I turn around.

"I'm listening." I tell her.

She smiles at me and proceeds to tell me all about her plans and how it is so important as to find the moonpearls in time. She even points out what I was thinking about before I was trapped on my route around the forest.

After she finishes, I get up and start to walk away when I hear her again.

"Robin, please" she begs me. I turn around and see her pleading eyes. It almost breaks me. Almost.

"I promised I would listen." I shrugged, "and I have." I said as I turned back around slowly, wanting to keep her in sight.

"Robin! You have to help me! You have to!" she begs me spinning me around to face her in the process. I grab her by the shoulders roughly and look her in the eyes.

"You are a Merryweather." I state the obvious and Wrolf, who has been fine barked roughly at me, but I ignored it trying to get Maria to see my reasoning. I did though, let go of her. "Right now I ought to kill you" I said my throat closing up at the last words. It was then that I realized that I really did not wish to kill the feisty red-headed Merryweather.

"Kill me and the whole valley dies with me!" she says forcefully. "You and I can stop it and we only have until moonrise." she says softly. "TONIGHT" she says and starts to walk away yet again. I stand there like an idiot, an internal battle waging inside me because I really do want to help Maria, but father will kill me if he finds out. My walls come down.

"I'm still listening." I say. I turn around and watch her as she slows to a stop. I can just feel her smiling as she continues on her journey, but this time, I'm right there with her.