It took two weeks for Creak's fever to break. The blood she had coughed up had been harmless, just the result of her sore throat. Vern had spent everyday with her and refused to leave even when his advisors came to get him, which happened fairly often. Creak couldn't remember much of what happened while her body fought to heal itself. Vern's bites had been worse than hers, but an elf's immune system proved to be superior causing him to completely heal within three days. By the time Creak finally came to it, Vern, like a newborn baby, didn't have a mark on him.

"You look great." She mumbled happily. Her eyes had slowly began to heal and she could see with great difficulty.

Vern sat beside her on the fur bed that she started to think of as her own. "Yeah, now it's your turn."

Creak smiled. For the first time in weeks she was starting to feeling like herself again. The pain had subsided and the burning heat all over her body had finally gone away. "I sure hope so."

Vern pressed his hand against her forehead and smiled back at her. "You sure seem to be getting better. How do you feel?"

Creak felt tired, but she didn't want him to leave her. "I feel great." She said with a yawn.

Vern looked at her with concern. "I guess you'd better be getting some sleep. I'll leave if you want me to."

Creak reached for his hand. "No. Please don't go. I'm not tired."

Vern looked over a Floral who sat at a small table mixing medicines together. "Would it be okay for Creak to go for a walk?"

Floral looked over at them. Creak had a feeling she had grown on the woman in the days she had been bedridden. Seeing Creak's excitement at the idea of leaving the infirmary, Floral nodded. "As long as you take it easy."

Creak nodded, letting Vern pull her to her feet. "Don't worry. We'll be fine."

She was shaky at first, but eventually Creak got used to walking again.
Hand in hand, Creak followed Vern through a maze of small huts. Floral had called this the capital of the Ground Kingdom, but it wasn't much. Maybe twice the size of Riverfall, but with smaller shelters. Nothing was made of wood; the huts were just compacted dirt and jungle leaves.
Once Creak's eyes had opened and she had seen the world in which the elves lived she found herself slightly disappointed. In her dreams with Bane there had been hollowed out holes in the giant jungle trees. The ground hadn't even been in sight they were so high up. But Creak couldn't help but feel like Vern's kingdom was in poverty.

"Why do you live on the ground?" Creak asked looking up into the trees, just as large as they had been in her dreams.

Vern looked at her curiously. "How do you even know it's possible to live in the trees?"

Creak didn't want him to think she was crazy, but after everything they had gone through she knew Vern deserved the truth. Looking away, Creak mumbled awkwardly. "I've had some dreams. There's this elf... he lives in the trees."

Vern smiled. "Remember when we first met and I asked you if it was your first time meeting an elf?"

Creak smiled. It was hard to believe they had come so far together; it was even harder to believe that had only happened a month ago. "Yeah, and I said it had been my second time and you didn't look like the first elf I had met."

Vern looked up at the trees. "The elf you met in your dreams is clearly not a grounder."

Creak understood what he meant by that. Every elf that she had seen so far looked just like Vern. They all had the same brown eyes and reddish-brown hair. The one difference was that none of them had been as friendly as Vern. Everywhere they walked, the other elves would walk in a different direction. Creak knew they didn't like her. She was just too different with her less pointy ears and rounder eyes, but that wasn't all. Her eyes were a lighter brown and her hair was more of a blonde-slash-brown color, not the reddish-brown of theirs'.

"So what kind of elf is he?" She asked with a glance at Vern.
"Well it might take me a while to explain, but if you really want to know..."

Creak nodded eagerly. She never thought she would have the chance to learn about elves, let alone meet one, but here she was.

"Okay." Vern took a deep breath and lead her past a circle of huts. "The Mystica Jungle, that's where we are now, is the home of three elven kingdoms. I won't get into the history of how the kingdoms were started... something like that would take hours to describe. So the three kingdoms, which are more like social classes if you ask me, live at different levels of the jungle. There's the Grounders, who live on the ground where we are now. All of us look the same for camouflage reasons because in the past the ground was full of beasts and very dangerous."

Creak tugged on his arm to get his attention. "And so you're the Prince of the Grounders."

Vern looked pained, but shook his head. "Was the Prince of the Grounders. I'm not any more."

Creak was confused. "But some people clearly seem to think that you still are the prince."

Vern tensed. "They're delusional. Now please be quiet so I can finish."
He waited to make sure she wouldn't say anything before continuing. "I like to think of us Grounders as the third and lowest class in our eleven society. Then there's the second class, the Woodlanders. They live in the middle of the jungle trees, somewhere right above our heads. They also like to throw their wastes down on us. Now, you'll know an elf is a Woodlander if their hair is jet black or a very dark shade of brown. They also have either blue or grey eyes. Does that sound the elf in your dreams?"

Creak shook her head. Bane had white-blonde hair that looked almost silver with green eyes.

Vern nodded. "Than your elf must be a SkyGazer. They live way at the top of the trees where you can see the sky. It's really beautiful up there which is why the SkyGazers are the first class eleves. Their kingdom looks nothing like the one down here." Vern looked down in embarrassment. "They don't live in poverty."

Creak asked to be sure. "So the SkyGazers have blonde hair and green eyes?"

Vern nodded. "If they're a true born SkyGazer then yeah."

His use of 'true born' brought a new question to her mind. "So can two elves from different kingdoms be together?"

Vern closed his eyes before turning to look at her. "Technically if two people really want to be together then one can stop them, but as far as elven rules go. No, elves from different kingdoms cannot be together. They would be banished."

Creak didn't think that was fair, but she knew more than anyone that life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. By the sound of Vern's voice Creak could tell he felt the same way.

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Vern saying hi to the few elves that stopped to address him as their prince and Creak marveling at the eleven city. Sure the buildings weren't much and the ground was mostly mud, but there were nice flowers. Yes, very nice, vibrant flowers.

Giggling sounded from in front of them and Creak couldn't help it when her head snapped to the source of the sound. Two eleven girls, about her age or maybe a little older, were walking their way. Creak felt herself tense at the thought that they were laughing at her.

"Oh, your majesty." One of the girls said as they both curtsied. "May we introduce ourselves?"

Vern looked a little annoyed and more than ready to tell them 'no you can't introduce yourselves', but Creak squeezed his hand and spoke before he could.

"Sure you can." Creak said with a smile. For some reason she wanted to make friends with Vern's people. She felt like they all hated her for not being like them.

The girls, both of which were fairly attractive with their reddish-brown hair and warm cocoa eyes, turned to glare at her. The one who had talked before snapped at her. "We weren't talking to you."

Creak felt herself frown. Normally she wouldn't let others negative opinions of her bother her, but this time it hurt. Maybe it was because they were Vern's people, or maybe it was because she hadn't done anything wrong. Creak just wanted to be accepted, but as a human in an elven kingdom... it was hopeless.

Vern pulled at her hand, sympathy in his eyes. "Maybe we should walk somewhere else. What you think about seeing the royal castle?"

Creak watched with an odd satisfaction as the two elven girls' mouths dropped. "You're seriously not going to hang out with her, are you?"
The one girl who seemed to do the talking pinched her lips in disgust.

For the first time Vern looked over at her. "I don't see any better company."

Without another word, Vern turned spinning Creak around with him and they walked away. Creak felt her heart warm at what he had done for her. There really was no one better than her best friend, Vern.
"Thanks." She said hugging his arm.

He smiled down at her. "What are friends for?"

Creak hated to ruin the moment, but she really wanted to know. "So... are you going to tell me why you aren't Prince of the Grounders?"

Vern's eyes washed over with pain, the kind so deep it cut into you everyday. "I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it. At least not now."

Feeling bad for bringing it up, Creak looked away from his pain-filled eyes. "That's okay. Just know I'll be here when you're ready."

He smiled faintly. "Thanks."

Creak grinned. "What are friends for?"

They walked in peace, hand in hand until they finally came to the castle. It wasn't much, just a giant mud-brick wall surrounding six jungle trees.
Tall mud walls connected the hollowed out tree trunks to make a rough looking castle. It was far from pretty and Creak couldn't help but wonder how it was even still standing.

"It's... great?" Creak smiled uncertainly wondering if it was even safe to go in.

Vern saw the look on her face and laughed. "Yeah, I know it's not the best and trust me when I say we've had a lot of problems over the years. The mud never stays upright and we constantly have to rebuild. You know, when I was little my bedroom wall fell on me while I was asleep. I almost suffocated under all the dirt."

Creak watched as one of the walls crumbled right before her eyes.
"Wow. Why don't you just live in a small hut like everyone else? Those seem to be working better."

Vern shrugged. "After the wall almost killed me I wasn't allowed to live in the castle anymore. I did have my own hit, but it sank into the ground while I was away."

Creak looked away from the sad castle and to Vern. "Does anyone live in there?"

Vern laughed. "No. The place is completely abandoned."

Creak snorted before asking him a different question. "How long were you gone when you left?"

Vern looked at the ruined castle as if he were remembering the time it hadn't been vacant. "I left five years ago when I was twelve years old. This is the first time I've been back since then. I abandoned my people in there time of need."

Creak didn't know how to make him feel better, but she had to try. "My parents left my brother and I when I was five. I haven't seen them since."

Vern wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry."

Creak tried to shrug it off. "It was a long time ago, but some days I can't help but think they left because we weren't good enough for them."

Vern nodded like he understood... maybe in some way he did. "Where's your brother now?"

Creak felt tears press against her eyes and she choked on her words. "I don't know. I left him two months ago." She looked up at him. "See. You're not the only who abandoned someone they love. We all make mistakes."

Vern gave her a sorrowful smile. "You can say that again."

Creak wanted to move on. It hurt to dwell on painful things for too long. "What are we going to do now?"

Vern looked down at her. "I think it's time for you to get some more rest."

"Oh, please no." Creak said and Vern picked her up and began to carry her back the infirmary. Despite wanting to stay in his arms forever, Creak couldn't help but feel like it was time for her to leave. She was on a mission after all and she needed to stop her detouring. She had to get to the rebel kingdom. Then she had to find her brother.