Jesse's POV

"Petra?" I said as I climbed a staircase to the second floor, "You up here?" I wasn't entirely sure where the room that Petra was in was, so I hoped that maybe she could hear me.

I reached the top of the stairs that led into a hallway. A long carpet laid on the ground with intricate designs on it.

I found the door to the room Petra was in and softly knocked.

"Petra?"

I slowly opened the door, careful not to disturb her in case she was resting. She was lying in bed with her eyes open.

"Jesse," she said when she saw me. She looked happy as she sat up, "There's something import—"

"Petra, there's something that I really need to tell you," I said, "Oh, you had to say something?"

"Uh, yeah, but you can go first," Petra said, shaking her head.

"Well, while we were outside, we found something that I think you should—"

I stopped mid-sentence. Something about the way Petra was looking at me was weird. Her eyes were changing brighter and brighter to a yellow color.

"Petra?" I said, backing up slightly.

"Jesse! Help me!" she yelled just before her eyes changed to solid yellow. She screamed the same way she did at breakfast and threw the covers off her. She jumped out of bed as if she was being tortured and fell onto the ground.

"Petra!" I yelled as I ran over to her. I tried to grab her to get her under control, which seemed to only make it worse. She screamed and swung her arm around, her hand sent a rush of pain crashing into my cheek. Immediately my face felt tight there as I stumbled back.

After a moment, Petra's agony seemed to calm down. She caught her breath and sat on the floor for a moment.

"Jesse," she said, "We've gotta find out what's wrong with me." She looked at me sadly. "Oh, I'm sorry." She stood up and came in closer to get a look at my cheek.

"It's nothing," I lied as I rubbed my hand on it. It was starting to hurt badly now. Petra's a hard hitter.

"You're bleeding," she said, "I-I didn't want to do that."

"Petra, that wasn't you, something's definitely wrong," I said, trying to sound positive through the pain. I could feel my face pulsing.

A knock sounded at the door and Lukas's voice could be heard through the door.

"You okay in there? I, uh, heard yelling and thought I should check on you."

I walked over and put my hand on the doorknob. Petra backed up to the wall.

"Jesse," she said in a soft voice, "Don't let him in. I don't want to hurt anyone else."

"Petra, it's over now. I know you won't hurt him," I said as I opened the door. Lukas grimaced when he saw me.

"Ooh, Jesse, what happened? Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yep," I lied again, "Just a small bruise, that's all. Petra had another panic attack."

"You need anything?" he asked looking between the two of us, "I can try to get Jesse a towel or something if they have those. Y'know, for the blood."

"Thanks, Lukas," I said, "That'll be nice."

"Would you be able to bring me back a quill?" Petra asked.

"What for?" Lukas asked.

"It's just kind of boring in here all alone, thought I could draw... or something."

"I'll see what I can do. Be right back," he said as he stepped out of the room and left. I shut the door behind him.

"Petra," I said, "Was there a thing you had to tell me about?"

"Uh, yeah, about that, I think I'm good now, actually. Drawing was the thing."

I doubted that. I knew drawing couldn't be that important to Petra, but I decided not to disagree. Petra was also stubborn and if she didn't want to tell you something, you would never hear it. It would be best to just leave her alone.

"Alright then," I said. She nodded. "There's something I had to tell you that I came up here for—"

Lukas knocked again. I opened the door. He held a white cloth with blue printing on it in one hand and a piece of paper and quill in the other.

"I just got the paper from a journal I took with me from the last world we were in," he said as he handed the ripped out, lined sheet of paper to Petra. She smiled and took the objects from him and tested out the pen on the paper.

"It's perfect, Lukas, thank you," she said. He smiled.

"Aw, it's just a pen, but no problem. And Jesse, I got you this." He handed me the towel. I took it and put it up to my cheek to stop the bleeding. It must have bruised there because touching it too hard sent a rush of pain to that spot.

"Ah, thanks, Lukas," I said.

"Well, this was nice of you to check on me, but I think I feel a panic attack coming on, so I think I should get some rest now. Bye!"

"Uh, yeah, but, Petra--" I began.

"Come on, Jesse, we'll tell her later," Lukas said as he pulled me out of the room. Petra smiled and waved goodbye as the door closed. Was I the only one not buying this? She was smiling.

"Let's go back to the others," Lukas told me as he began to walk back down the hall. I reluctantly followed.

"She still doesn't know about the dragon," I said softly to Lukas as we walked together.

"I know, but I was thinking that maybe we should wait to tell her. She's already going through a lot right now, I just don't feel like we should dump more weight on her shoulders, y'know?"

I sighed knowing that he was probably right.

"Yeah, I get it. I just think she deserves to know. She's part of the team too," I said.

"She should know, just not... yet," he said, "Let's just figure this out."

Petra's POV

I sighed realizing I was alone again. It felt like I hardly got to see anyone and when I did it was only for a second. I had to get them out of there, though, before Lukas realized he had gotten me the wrong pen. Although in my case, it was exactly what I needed. I looked down at the pen and paper. I had to wonder how Lukas was able to get a magic quill and I couldn't, but that didn't matter now that I actually had it. I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes.

"Ethro, please come back soon," I prayed, "I have the pen. I can't take this much longer."

I miserably flopped over on my side and tried to fall asleep without much success.

A while passed when I heard a noise outside my window. I sat upright in bed to try to see what it was. Snow was caked around the edges while ice fogged up the frames so it was difficult to see what was going on. I thought I saw a figure creeping around for a moment, but it suddenly disappeared. I got close up to the glass to try to see if it would appear again. As I was beginning to contemplate if I was just imagining things because I was being left alone for so long, I felt a cold hand grip my shoulder. Startled, I spun around. I couldn't see what was happening before I fell to the ground and everything went black.

Aiden's POV

"Aiden! Aiden!" Katcha yelled as she came rushing into the room. I lifted my head from sleep, now feeling more stuffy and drowsy than before.

"Mm... Katcha?" I croaked, my eyes only half open.

"Were you asleep? Did I wake you up? Never mind, I don't care, this is about Petra! She... she got stolen! A guy broke in, took her, then poof! Gone! He was so fast, or she, I couldn't get a good look, but, but, you have to tell the others! Come on!"

"Katcha..." I moaned, "I-I can't—"

"Don't say I can't! Get up and go! I've seen you run before! Do that now!"

I didn't think Katcha really understood being sick because I felt like I could barely move. I pushed the blanket off and stood. A sweaty chill ran down my back and my head was spinning in circles.

"Ugh," I uttered as I ran my fingers through my sweaty hair, "I can do this. Where are the others?"

"The library! Follow me!" Katcha practically raced out the room as I struggled to keep up. I didn't know how I was suddenly this sick, it could have something to do with the sudden change in weather, although that's probably not it.

"Katcha," I breathed, "Wai-wait up!"

"Come on!" she said, only stopping a second just to pick up speed again. I sucked in a breath of air and continued moving.

After one final hallway, I finally entered the library, where everyone was discussing something around the fire.

"Petra," I breathed, trying to catch my breath, "She..."

"Aiden!" Jesse exclaimed, "What are you doing down here? You look awful!"

"Someone came in her room," I said, ignoring Jesse's blissfully ignorant insult, "They grabbed her and disappeared."

"How do you know this?" Darling said, standing up.

"I heard it," I said. I mean, technically I wasn't lying.

"Wait, Darling, he could be right!" Sheldon said, "Cheshire."

"Cheshire! Oh, that little... gah, he's so annoying!" Juniper said.

"Who's Cheshire?" Lukas asked.

"Ah, some old enemy of our kingdom. He keeps messing with us, man! We know you're better than us already, Cheshire! No need to rub it in!"

"He never just acts at random, he's always got a plan," Darling said, "It could involve Petra."

"But we've only been here for a day!" Jesse said, "How could he already know about us?" 

Sheldon shook his head.

"He's sneaky. Who knows how he does what he does?" he said.

"Well, however he did it, Petra could be in danger right now," Lukas said, "We have to act fast."

Jesse's POV

"Ooh, more adventure!" Maya said, "You know, it seems like wherever we go, we always run into someone that would very much like to kill us..."

"Yeah, well, just our luck," I said.

"Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions, though," Lukas said, "What if that wasn't actually Cheshire? We don't have anything that can prove it was him yet."

"You're right," Darling said, turning to Lukas, "I don't want to make assumptions on someone that we can't prove yet."

"Oh, phfft, believe you me, it was definitely him," Juniper said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "Darling, every time you tell us to not judge others before we know it's them, we miss out because it actually was them."

"I guess," Darling said, "But—"

"Look, Darling, I think I'm gonna agree with Juniper on this one," Sheldon said, "Just look at everything that's happened in the past. It's definitely Cheshire."

"Hey, why don't we stop arguing and go after this Cheshire guy?" Maya said, "If there's a chance he has Petra, then he's worth investigating, kapeesh?"

"Okay, okay, you're right," Darling said.

"Darling, you're nice. You believe in second chances," Juniper said, "But sometimes people don't always redeem themselves and have a sudden change of heart."

"I suppose." Darling looked glum. Melody shifted uncomfortably.

"Let's just go investigate him, see what we can find," Sheldon said, "Mags, why don't you stay here with Aiden, just in case Cheshire needs more than one."

"Okay," she said, "I can do that."

"Um, Jesse?" Melody asked, tapping me on the shoulder, "You wouldn't mind if I came along, right? I'm trying to fit in as best as I can... and maybe this could help? And I owe it all to Petra, the least I could do is help with—"

I smiled.

"You're definitely welcome to come, Melody. Don't worry."

She looked relieved. "Thank you, Jesse."

"Let's go!" Juniper said, "To the stables!"

She pointed her finger out the door and exited, followed by everyone else.

"Take care, Aiden," Darling added before leaving.

"Thanks," he said as Magnolia led him away.

"This should be good," I said, "Juniper said the stables, it looks like we're going horseback riding again."

Melody looked confused. "Why would you... ride a horse?"

"To get places faster," Lukas shrugged.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," I assured her with a friendly nudge. She smiled as we left.