I'm awoken by a small shake of the boat. I open my eyes to see clear blue skies above me. I slowly sit up to see Aaron sleeping at the other end of the boat. 'He deserves some rest. WAIT!!! Who's steering the boat?' I panic. I look at my surroundings to notice that the boat was pulled up a shoreline, a little bit. A familiar shoreline, one I had played on as a child, the one where I made a grave mistake. I sigh, thinking of all the good and bad times. 

After a while, I feel the boat rocking, almost making me fall out of it. I look at the water to see that there was no waves. I turned towards Aaron, who was tossing and turning, causing the rocking. He must be having a nightmare. I walk to his side, almost falling out of the boat a couple of times. I shake him by the shoulders, trying to awaken him. "Aaron... Aaron... AARON!!" I yell as I shake him. He suddenly sits up, breathing heavily, making me fall out of the boat in surprise . 

He turns looks around and when he doesn't spots me, he starts panicking. "Clare?" He calls out. I thrash in the water for a few minutes to get his attention. When that idea fails, I splash him with water. Aaron turns and when he finally spots me, he sighs in relief. He helps me onto the boat, where he hands me a towel. We sit in silence for a few minutes before Aaron gets onto the shoreline where he starts building a small shelter. When he's done, I climb out of the boat and lie on one of the beds. Aaron heads off into the forest to get fire wood. 

After some time, a woman spots our boat and heads towards the campsite. Aaron appears and pins her to the ground. I quickly discard my towel onto the bed, grab my sword and run over. When I approach her, I noticed that it was the same lady who we had saved from the Wolves. "W...W...What the... what?" She stutters. "What are you doing?" " You. You're Lord of this Village." Aaron states. I gasp in surprise. I thought that my father was still alive, or that my mother would become Lord. "Let me go" She commands. "Why should we? Tell us, Lord Aphmau, any last words?" I growl. "I don't understand, why would you kill someone you saved a long time ago?" She asked. "You're the lord of this village. You are just a puppet." Aaron replies.

"What!? No! I act of my own will. It's you who act for Zane who are the puppets." She says. "Really? So we see that you have some bad blood with Zane too." I state. "Yes! He attacked one of our village children!" She says. "If that's the case then you might just be useful to us alive. Fine, we'll let you live." Aaron states. "Wait...What?" Aphmau asks, puzzled. "That amulet... do you have any idea of the power you hold? It's best that you do not trust anyone. Even those that you do know, I would be wary of them" I explain.  I help Aphmau stand up, before we start talking again. 

"What was all that about?" She asks. "We're willing to let you live, under the conditions that you give us your sole vow not to tell anyone, not even your sons that we are here." Aaron explains. "If I tell?" She questions us. "Then you'd be putting not only my fath... sorry, your village in danger, but the entire realm as well. You have no idea what lengths people will go to to obtain that amulet." I stumble over my words. "What are you two talking about?" Aphmau asks, puzzled. "Are you going to speak of our whereabouts to anyone or can you vow to never speak of us?" Aaron asks. " You aren't really answering my question..."She hints. "We don't need to. I'm here to investigate.  If something goes wrong, no one will even know that we are here. It needs to be this way." I explain. "Then I won't say a word." She replies. "Good" I state, before walking off, me following him.

Once back at the site, Aaron asks, "What did you almost say?" "This is my home. I was about to tell her that her recklessness would endanger my fathers village, but when I heard that she was the Lord, it made me assume the worst about my parents fate" I explain. Aaron gives me a hug, knowing that this information made my scenario worse than it already was. We do our normal routine, fishing, dinner, training, then bedtime. 

The next day, we were training late into the evening. We were resting when Aphmau and a man dressed as a guard came through the forest. The guard attacked Aaron but Aaron pinned the man to a tree and we held our swords up to his throat. "I am not your enemy." Aaron calmly says. "You held a sword to her throat." The man says, almost ready to shout. "Right now everyone is a threat. I'm sure you have come to that conclusion yourself Laurence." I explain. "How do you know my name?" Laurence asks. "We want to help you and lady Aphmau, but first... we need you to head your guard and trust us." Aaron commands. "This coming from the two who are holding swords to my face." Laurence sasses. "The moment we let our swords down, we can tell that you'll take the opportunity to attack us based on your stance... since you haven't backed down."I state. Laurence stays quiet.

"We know a huge part of what is going on here but before we can even begin to explain, we need  to know that you both trust us." Aaron explains. "Laurence, he saved me once" Aphmau pipes up. "I don't trust you, but I trust Aphmau's judgement, therefore, you have my trust as well." Laurence sighs. "Well thats a start. We need to go to a more secluded area where we can talk, its not safe to speak of this matter here. Follow us." I command. "Just calm down Laurence. We can trust them." Aphmau says.

We lead them back to our campsite to talk. "So this is where you two have been hiding. I'm sorry." Aphmau starts. "I thought we told you to tell no one that we were here." Aaron cuts her off.  "That was before Zane and the Lord of Scaleswind appeared at our door." Aphmau replied. "We can let it slide  this time simply because it's for that reason. We were there when Zane and the Lord of Scaleswind approached the gates. We would have attacked and killed Zane had the Lord of Scaleswind had not been there. If we did, we know that Zane would have killed the lord himself and blame for the deed of killing the lord, even if we had successfully killed Zane... would fall upon Phoenix Drop. Your village would have been destroyed by the army of Scaleswind seeking revenge." I explain. "How do you two know all of this?" Aphmau asks.

 Aaron pulls out an amulet. "That stone is broken." Aphmau noted. "Wait, thats... isn't that an amulet that used... I have..." "This. I've had this for months. It's connected to the entirety the Jury of Nine, Zane and spies who have been working under Zane's command. I've been monitoring them and carefully moving so as not to bring attention to the fact that someone has been peering into their conversations. Every action I take is not without planning and consideration of the consequences. I can tell you now that your village, Phoenix Drop, was at the centre of many conversations had over this communication amulet." Aaron explained. We all gasped in surprise. Not even I knew that Aaron had the amulet. 

"If that's the case then... has Zane been planning this all along?" Aphmau asked. "No. Zane is very opportunistic. He's smart when it comes to taking advantage of a situation but I cannot say that I've heard  anything of him planning for events to turn out this way. His marriage to you was most likely his original plan, not just to obtain the amulets, but to stop Phoenix Drop from rising."Aaron replied. "What? Why would he want to do that to us? We aren't a threat!" Laurence asks. "You were not a threat but slowly your village was becoming one. Do you realise how many magicks users are in Phoenix Drop? Not to mention a witch who's efficient in witchery, a elf from the Sacred Forest of Yggdrasil, and a werewolf. On top of that, Laurence, a Shadow Knight. Even though you are outnumbered, your village has people who could make an army overpowered." Aaron explained. 

"If that's the case, can we take on Zane if we give him the amulets?" Aphmau asks. "No. Do not dare give Zane that amulet. Like I said before, Zane is an opportunist, why would he allow Phoenix Drop to stand while he has the lord of Scaleswind ready to attack you? The thought of him getting his way for both obtaining the amulet as well as destroying you is too good for him to pass up." Aaron replies. "I have one more thing to ask you, where is Nicole?" Aphmau inquires. "I don't know. Whoever mover Nicole did it without communicating over their amulet. All I can tell you is that the person who is the spy has been here for a very long time." Aaron answer. 

"Wait... how can you so easily trust me?" Laurence asks. "Laurence, as I said before, you were mentioned many time as being a shadow night from the village of Meteli. I know it's not you as you are here in this conversation now." Aaron replies. "I see, then you must have heard the spies name? We don't have to many people here in Phoenix Drop, we know everyone by name." Laurence asks.  "I do not know who the spy is... the spies name is Velius. They are going under a different name here in Phoenix Drop which I have not heard. The spy was most likely the one who moved Nicole. If thats the case she can't be too far from town. There's no way they could have moved her her without someone or myself seeing it." Aaron says.

"Why should we trust you? How do we know you aren't the spy trying to throw us off your path?" Laurence accuses. "Laurence, this man saved me long ago." Aphmau explained. "I see." Laurence says. "The amulet you have , it's unfortunately not the only one." Aaron sighs. The conversation was very boring and irrelevant for me to listen to, so I sat down on my bed and thought about what had happened to my parents. Eventually, Aphmau says. "Um, ok, Laurence, lets get out of here." Once they have left, I walk over to Aaron and ask "What other secrets are you hiding, mister Mysterio?" Aaron lets out a small laugh at that. We talk and relax until its bedtime, knowing that the next few days were to be very busy.

Hey Guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been busy taking care of my new wee pup. She's a white west highland terrier and her name is Roxie. I will try to update regularly but I cannot promise that I will update every week or so. It's a long chapter but I got so involved in the story, I didn't notice how long this was. I've got school starting on the 1st of september, but I need to go in on the 30th of august because I'm starting my GCSE's this year and I need to find out who my form tutor is and what my new timetable is like, along with a couple of other things. I hope you guys all have had a lovely summer!

Peace out!!

Word count: 2005 words.