"Are you looking for this, Dustan?" I turned around to see Gavin leaning up against the door frame. He held out the book. I sighed in relief that it was Gavin who had found it and not anyone else.

"Yes." I said calmly. I wanted to punch him for looking through my stuff but I tried to stay calm.

"I'm not stupid, I saw you out it under your pillow." Gavin smirked.

"Gavin, are you angry with me?" I asked.

"Am I angry with you? Of course I'm angry with you! You have photo's of our parents, and you never told me? I know why you have it, because you want to know more about them. You want to feel like you actually knew them. Well you know what Dustan? Did you ever think, even for a second that maybe I wanted to know more about them too? That I wanted to feel like I knew them? Of course not. You're the great Dustan who thinks only of himself. Maybe that's why Lord Darrius chose me, and not you. Did you think about that? Maybe he chose me because I think about others before myself. You can have the damn book Dustan. If I had found it I would have shown it to you right away." Gavin hissed, shoving the book in my hands.

"Gavin, I'm sorry. We can share it. I'll put over there, on that shelf. And we both look at it whenever we want." I said, turning towards the shelf.

"No. If you really wanted to share it you would have shown it to me awhile ago. Keep it." Gavin growled, walking out of the room.

"I feel bad Ali. Gavin is right, I was being selfish. I only thought about me, that I wanted to have the photo's of our parents. Gavin deserves to be ruler, not me." I sighed. I opened the book to the first page. It was a photo of when Gavin and me were just babies. Our daemons were tiny moths, hovering over us. I didn't know which one was me and Alianora.

"Well you should! Gavin is just hurt, that's all." Ali sighed.

"You're right. Ali, why was I so stupid! I should have shown it to him." I sighed. I closed the book and placed it back on the shelf.

"You can apologise." Ali suggested.

"You're right. Let's go and do it now." I smiled, jumping off my bed. I landed on my feet. I stepped out into the hallway and glanced around. I heard Gavin's voice coming from down the hall.

"Gavin?" I called.

"It's Lord Gavin. What do you want Dustan?" Gavin hissed.

"Fine, Lord Gavin. I wanted to say I'm sorry about the book." I spat the first part in disgust.

"You think I still care about some silly book? Honestly Dustan, only a child like yourself would stay angry over such a stupid thing." Gavin retorted.

"Silly book? It's the only thing we have left of our parents! I'm no more of a child than you are! Gavin, don't forget that I'm older than you!" I scoffed.

"Dustan, why don't you go to sleep? You can play with the other children in the morning. I have some business to discuss with our uncle." Gavin said mockingly before walking away. I caught Luka smirking at Alianora before following behind Gavin.

"Who does he think he is to speak to us like we're little kids?" I hissed.

"Ruler I suppose." Alianora shrugged. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"But the looks of it, I guess that wasn't a question to be answered." she said softly.

"Have you thought about what you want to be?" I asked her, sitting on the steps.

"I don't know. I don't want to settle, not yet. I like changing to whatever I like." she sighed. To prove her point, she switched from animal to animal. A robin, then a monkey, followed by a dog and a snow tiger before switching back to a weasel.

"Is that what you're going to be? A weasel? You seem to take that form a lot." I asked. She crawled onto my shoulder.

"I don't know. I don't really like to think about it." she shrugged. I nodded, I could tell she didn't want me to bring it up again.

"Master Dustan, shouldn't you be in bed?" One of the servants asked.

"No. I'm older than Gavin, so don't you dare treat me like a child." I hissed standing up. Her dog daemon was cowering behind her.

"I'm sorry Master Dustan." she said, dipping her head.

"I'm sorry. I'm just sick of everyone treating me like a child because Gavin is ruler." I apologised.

"I understand Dustan, I have an older sister." the servant smiled before walking away.

"But I'm older than Dustan!" I called after her but she didn't reply.

"Why does everyone think Gavin is older." I hissed.

"I think it's because your uncle Darrius made him ruler. They think he's older because he became ruler and you didn't." Alianora suggested.

"I suppose. Come on Ali, it's getting late." I sighed, getting to my feet. I walked down the hallway and stepped into the large room I shared with Gavin. I turned off the light and climbed into my bed. Alianora lay at my feet in her dog form.

"Ali, let's get on thing straight. I'm not going to sleep because Gavin told me to, I'm going to sleep because I'm tired and I want this night to end. I want it to be tomorrow so I can hang out with my friends, alright?" I yawned. Within moments I closed my eyes and fell asleep.


"Gavin, why didn't you tell me that our uncle chose you for ruler? Surely he talk to you before that." I asked.

"He did." Gavin said, bringing his glass of water to his lips.

"Why didn't you tell me then? You could have in our hideout." I asked.

"But I tried, don't you remember? I told you I had something to tell you and then you tried to scare me. And then I just kinda forgot until I got home." Gavin shrugged.

"Whatever, I'm leaving." I sighed, walking over to the door.

"And where exactly are you going, Dustan?" Gavin hissed as I opened the front door.

"Why does it matter, brother?" I scoffed.

"To the marketplace, I assume. To run around with those children you call friends." Gavin retorted, sitting down on the stairs.

"At least I have friends." I snapped.

"Who needs friends when you're ruler?" Gavin laughed. I rolled my eyes and without another word I stepped outside. I walked though the marketplace, saying hello to the familiar faces. I stopped at the bench beside the garden and waited.

"Hello Dustan. You're here early, you're normally late." Riley smiled. Rafender was sitting on her shoulder as a mouse.

"Well, Gavin was being obnoxious and I couldn't wait to get out of the there." I told her.

"He can't be that bad." Riley scoffed.

"No, he's horrible." I scoffed.

"Come on, let's go find Molly, Brandon and Travis." Riley said, pulling me to my feet.

"It's 'bout time you two showed up. We've been waiting for ages." Travis scoffed when we reached the empty alley way where we were to meet up with them.

"We were not Travis, don't lie. We only just got here." his daemon scoffed.

"I see you managed to get out of the kitchen. does your mother know where you are?" Riley narrowed her eyes. Travis is the youngest of all of us, he's only ten.

"Of course not! My mother doesn't want me hanging out with older kids. She would prefer for me to play with kids my age, but I like you guys more." Travis smiled.

"Sorry we're late!" I heard a girl call.

"It's alright, Molly. Is your brother coming?" I asked.

"Brandon should be along any moment." Her daemon said, grooming his cat fur.

"What about your brother, Dustan? Is Gavin going to come along?" Travis asked.

"No." I shook my head.

"Why not? Is he ill?" Molly frowned.

"In his head he is! My uncle Darrius told him he's to be ruler, and now he thinks he's too good to hang out with gyptians and servants." I scoffed.

"Well, it's his loss than." Molly's brother, Brandon hissed.

"Why are you late? You were right behind us." Molly frowned.

"I had to make up an excuse to our mother about why we were leaving the house so early. You know she doesn't like us playing with servants, gyptians and royals." Brandon said.

"It appears out parents never like who our friends are." Molly sighed.

"Tell me about it. My uncle is always giving my lectures about how royals shouldn't running through the streets with gyptians and servants." I laughed.

"They need to understand that it's up to us who our friends are, not them." Riley agreed.

"Well come on, the kids on the north side of town have declared war on us. They say we must meet them by the river, were going to have the battle there." Travis said eagerly.

"Are the other kids going to meet us there?" I asked.

"Yes." Molly replied.

"Then let's go!" Brandon exclaimed.

"Look here, Farid. The south kids were brave enough to show their faces." Wesley, a north town kid retorted.

"It is you who is lucky to show your faces." I growled, stepping forward.

"What is this? A royal is among the south town kids." Farid scoffed.

"So?" Riley hissed.

"So a royal doesn't belong in this battle." Wesley retorted.

"Don't tell me where I belong. I am a south town kid, so my place is here." I hissed.

"What does it matter if he is a royal or not? Royal or not, Dustan fights with us." Riley growled.

"Whatever." Wesley scoffed.

"Are we going to start this battle or not?" Travis asked.

"Okay. But I shall warn you first, you're going down. Any last words?" Farid asked.

"What are you children doing? Wesley! Are you starting fights? Enough of this! Go home, all of you!" a women growled at everyone.

"Next time, they'll be no interruptions. You better watch your backs." Fared growled into my ear before following my friends.

"We would have beat them if his mother never showed up." Travis scoffed.

"See you later!" I called to the other south kids. Brandon, Molly, Travis and Riley walked beside me as we walked closer to the river. We watched the other children leave, it wasn't long until we were alone.

"Riley, yesterday Gavin said, you told him you reckon that the Gobblers torture your daemon's to capture you, is that true?" I asked.

"Yes. It's makes sense." she shrugged.

"Well, I won't let them touch Ali." I sighed.

"You know Dustan, my mother doesn't like me playing with you. She reckons you would hand me over to them gobblers any chance you got." Riley laughed.

"I would never do that to anyone!" I scoffed.

"Ali and me are going to make sure no north town kids strayed behind." I said, getting to my feet. I walked around the great oak tree.

"Help!" I heard Riley scream. My heart pounded as I raced back to my friends. Ali turned into a cougar so she could attack whatever had our friends. Four men in black had thrown a net over my four friends, and they struggles to get out. Their daemon's were beside them but they couldn't get free either.

"You may leave now. You've done your job. Thank you for helping us catch the children." the largest man smiled. It took me and the others one second to figure out that he was talking to me.