second to last time skip in this story! So close to the end of this! Let me know what you think!

-owl

It was two months after Rollan had accompanied Tarik to Eura. Two months of continued training with Lucette (the three other students that Rollan had met the previous summer had moved on to more specific training elsewhere). Two months of Rollan warring with himself whether he truly wanted to stay with the Greencloaks.

Now Rollan was eating dinner in the dining hall, sitting at the end of one of the long tables, empty seats to either side of him. He may have been at Greenhaven for nearly a whole year now, but that didn't mean he really had any friends. Rather, the only people he spoke to were Tarik, Lucette, Nicolai, or Lenori.

"Rollan!" Lucette's panicked voice sounded from behind him all of a sudden.

He turned to see her approaching him quickly, a tense expression on her face. When she reached him, she took the seat directly on his right.

"What's going on?"

She grimaced. "Tarik and Nicolai have managed to get themselves into trouble in Zhong. Olvan wants us to go get them out of it."

Rollan's brow furrowed. "What did they do? And why does Olvan want me to go with? I'm not any good at that sort of stuff."

"Nicolai had a misunderstanding with one of the nobles. He's been thrown in the dungeon, Tarik alongside him. Olvan was originally going to just send me, but I wanted at least one person to come with me and I think you can use the experience."

Oh. That made sense. "When do we leave?" Rollan asked.

"Right away, it's a week and a half journey by ship. Go get your stuff and meet me at the docks."

By the sixth day of being on the ship, Rollan was beginning to rescind his opinion that he preferred traveling by ship. At least when traveling across land, on a horse or by foot, there was different scenery to admire. Instead, Rollan's only surroundings were the blue sky, blue ocean, and wooden ship.

"Rollan!" Lucette called for him, and he scrambled down from the crow's nest where he had been lounging.

Essix then swooped down, right between the pair of them before returning to wherever she had claimed her perch for the day. Rollan watched her fly away before turning back to Lucette.

"The captain just told me that we are a few days ahead of schedule, thanks to the good weather. We should reach our port the day after tomorrow. Then it's only a one day ride to the estate of General Teng. Seeing as we are getting closer I wanted to start talking to you about the proper way to act when we arrive."

For the rest of the day Rollan listened to Lucette as she taught him what he would need to know.

Indeed, two days later, as dawn broke, they came into port. Unlike the ports in Amaya and Eura, which were quite similar, the Zhongese port had a stark difference in its architecture. Rollan followed Lucette off the ship, Essix flying above them and Bryer padding alongside Lucette.

When they were on the dock, Lucette turned to the captain of the ship. "I can't imagine that we'll be gone as long as a week. One day there, one day back, and at least one day to talk to General Teng, maybe two if it ends up being something major."

The captain nodded. "Alright, Lucette. Travel safe, we'll see you in less than a week."

With a final wave, Lucette led Rollan away from the docks and into the city. She navigated to a Greencloak outpost where they borrowed two horses. They walked through the city, but once they made it past the outskirts, they pushed the horses into a canter.

Now Rollan was sure that he actually preferred traveling by horse. The forests and fields around them as they rode were much more interesting than the empty, endless, ocean. Essix flew above them, shrieking occasionally but for the most part seemed to be enjoying herself. Lucette had called Bryer into passive state, seeing as he wouldn't appreciate running along with the horses.

They arrived at the estate of General Teng just as the sun was dipping below the horizon. A servant and a pair of stable boys came out to greet them. The stable boys took their horses as the servant watched the pair.

"We appreciate that you sent a message of your impending arrival. The General will see you tomorrow. For now you will be shown to your rooms where small supper trays have been delivered. In the morning you may speak to the Greencloaks who are in trouble."

Both Lucette and Rollan nodded and let the servant lead them through the manor house. The halls were beautifully decorated, ornate vases and other statues lined the halls and paintings of all kinds covered the walls.

"Miss Greencloak—"

"Lucette."

"Miss Lucette, this will be your room," the servant said, opening a door and gesturing to the room behind it.

Lucette nodded and waved goodnight to Rollan before closing the door.

They then went along the hall a little more before they stopped once again. "This will be your room, young sir."

"Thank you," Rollan said, entering the room that he was shown. The servant closed the door behind him.

The room itself was almost as ornate as the halls had been. Rollan had never stayed somewhere so nice. The bed was at least twice as large as the ones in the tower in Greenhaven. There was a large wardrobe against one of the walls and a nice desk against the other. There were three large windows that faced into the gardens.

Once Rollan had hung his dusty traveling cloak in the wardrobe, he crossed the room to the windows and opened one of them for Essix to come and go as she pleased. As soon as it was open she swooped in and perched on the top of the wardrobe.

After changing into his sleeping clothes, Rollan blew out the candles that were on the desk and got into the bed. The bed was not only huge, but was also softer than anything Rollan could have expected. He fell asleep quickly