"Put your hood up."

We exited out of the cave and out of the waterfall and was now walking down the trail back on to the main road towards the depths of the forest. I was glad I was given a dress to wear; it was hot and humid. I was already sweating from head to toe. Whenever the wind blew, I welcomed it gladly with a relieved sigh.

"What's with this stupid weather?" I complained, wiping my sticky forehead and fanning myself with my hand. "I don't want to wear my hood..."

Justin, who had taken the front of the group with Tristan, turned around and jammed the hood of my cloak onto my head. "Don't take chances."

I cursed at him underneath my breath as I pushed the slightly oversized hood up a little so I could see, but I knew he was right. I didn't want to be taking anymore chances. If the king issued an announcement about me, people would be targeting me left and right. With the carefully hidden hideout behind the many trees and waterfall, I was reassured that May would be safe, especially since there were constantly people guarding the hideout's entrance.

By the time, Justin finally agreed to stop for the day, I was sweating from head to toe, my stomach was incessantly growling, and my legs were numb from hiking up and down the small hills of the uneven track. We set up our site off the main trail and into a thicket of bushes and trees. We sat down in a circle as I threw a can of food to everyone from the bag Maida had given me.

"Where are we going first?" I asked, hungrily eating from the can of corn Maida had packed for us.

"There are five main villages we must pass before arriving at the kingdom," Tristan informed me. "Adit, Brody, Mansa, Cuartio, and Audi. The forest surrounds the whole country with some rivers and lake here and there..."

He grabbed a stick and began drawing into the dirt.

"How do you know all this?" I asked Tristan. "Have you personally traveled to these villages?"

"The Elder informed us about all this when we were pretty young," Tristan said lightly. "We needed to know this since we were going to go on the journey with you too. After all, you're our only hope to defeating the king."

I nodded slowly as I was reminded of the heavy responsibility I carried. I frowned and glanced at the drawn map. Tilting my head, I pointed to Brody and asked, "Why is this village so far away from the other villages?"

"That's just how it is," Tristan responded quickly. "But you get it now right? Right now, we're in the middle of Cardea and Adit. This is what the whole kingdom looks like."

"It's a very small kingdom," I remarked. "How long will it take to get to the kingdom? After all, we only need to pass by the villages right?"

"Well..." Tristan hesitated. "The truth is I don't know. We might meet some complications here and there, but hopefully, the trip will be a smooth ride."

I blinked fast and nodded. I wanted this journey to go by as quickly as possible. The quicker we can get there, the quicker I'll be able to see Mom and stand by May's side again.

Glancing down at the dirt, I jumped as an ant passed near my finger and almost crashed into Justin who was sitting next to me. He shot me an annoyed glare and shuffled away from me. 

I sighed. And that also meant I could get away from this guy as soon as possible.

~

When I awoke, I was blinded by the sunlight streaming in from the leaves waving from the wind and quickly shielded my eyes from it with my hand. Why was it so bright so early in the morning...

I gasped and sat up. Heart hammering, I looked around and spotted the three boys with their backs turned towards me as they were talking about something before placing a hand on my racing heart. That's right. I wasn't at the hideout anymore. 

Taking a deep breath to steady my heart, I was about to get up when Justin spotted me and walked over from the huddled group me to hand me my bag.

"Good morning. How long have you guys been awake?" I asked, taking the bag Maida gave us from Justin.

"We just woke up," Justin shrugged before trudging off.

I frowned and hurried after him. How short-tempered. Tristan and Yuri greeted me with a smile and a 'good morning' as I walked up to them; Justin was already starting off towards the main road. While Justin and Tristan took the front, I traveled behind with Yuri. I passed the time by braiding Yuri's hair and watching him interact with the animals that crossed our path.

"Amazing," I breathed when he finished patting a rabbit's head. "These wild animals just walk over to you? How do you do it?"

"It's a secret," Yuri winked at me as he waved goodbye towards the rabbit.

"Hey, you two!"

I looked up to see an impatient Justin waving at us. Tristan smiled fondly at us as we ran to keep up with them. But soon, we fell behind again because we stopped for a deer who began nuzzling Yuri's hand and had Justin yelling at us to catch up again.

"Geez," I complained after the fifth time of having to run up to catch up to the two. "Justin's so strict."

"He's just like that," Yuri grinned. "Don't worry, Miss! You'll see how good he is sooner or later. Justin's actually a really kind guy. He's just a little wary around new people."

"A little?" I snorted. "I'm not so sure about a little, Yuri...what a waste of good looks."

"But," Yuri said, playing with a leaf that landed on his head. "Justin was the one who let you sleep longer. We woke up an hour before you woke up. Tristan was going to wake you up, but Justin stopped him and said something about how you were really tired yesterday."

"Justin did?" I blinked. "Are we talking about the same Justin?"

"Yes," Yuri laughed cutely.

"How long have you guys been awake?"

"We just woke up."

I stared at Justin's back. Although he seemed like a complete indifferent and cold guy, he had noticed that I was incredibly tired yesterday, caught my sneaking around the forest and helped me fill up on berries back then, and was one of the biggest reasons why I was about to pull myself up back on my feet. 

I sighed and touched my sticky forehead. I'm thinking too much again.

"We're stopping for the day," Tristan's voice interrupted my thoughts.

I let out a relieved breath as we left the main track again and nestled deep into the forest. Yuri collapsed onto a patch of grass next to me, while Tristan and Justin discussed what we were going to eat for dinner.

"Sakura, can you give us the food Maida gave you?" Tristan asked.

I nodded before going through the bag Maida gave us. "Yikes. We're out."

"Out already?" Justin's eyes snapped towards me. "It's been one day. Let me see."

I gave him the bag to which he rustled through and looked up at me. "You didn't eat anything extra, right?"

I responded with an indignant look, and he turned back towards Tristan who smiled.

"We'll hunt again," Tristan chuckled.

"What about the Royals?" I asked. "Won't they see the smoke?"

"Royals never go near these villages so we're safe," Justin responded somewhat bitterly. "But we'll hurry and put the fire out just in case."

"I'll go get the wood then," Tristan announced, standing up.

"Me too!" Yuri exclaimed following Tristan into a dense area of bushes.

"Then I'll hunt," Justin said, flipping a dagger in the air.

"I'll go with you," I quickly said, standing up.

"No," Justin curtly said.

"Yes," I huffed. "If I'm going to continue traveling with you guys, I'm going to have to learn how to hunt sooner or later."

Justin was silent for a moment as he stared at me. Then he suddenly turned on his heel with a smirk.

"Sure. Come along," he said with a hint of cockiness in his voice.

Irritation pricked at my spine with the way he smirked at me, but I ignored it as I ran after him. We took some turns here and there, trying to find an animal. I was walking alongside Justin normally until he flicked my forehead.

"Ouch!" I hissed.

"Stop walking so loudly, will you?" Justin shot at me. "You're stepping on the leaves and sticks so noisily. No wonder no animals have crossed our path yet."

Grumbling under my breath, I began to pay more attention to where I was walking. After a short moment of carefully treading, Justin suddenly grabbed my elbow. I looked at him in surprise; he pointed forward.

My eyes followed his finger to see a plump raccoon nibbling on a batch of grass. Something cold pressed against my palm, and I flinched. I looked at my hand and realized Justin had pressed a dagger against my hand. I looked up at him confused.

"You wanted to come along to learn how to hurt, correct?" he muttered against my ear. "Kill it."

My eyes widened. So that's why he let me come along. He was testing me. Seeing if I could really kill it. Even though I wasn't even looking at the raccoon, my hands were already shaking. I was about to back down when I saw Justin's expectant expression. He expected me to quit.

I gripped the dagger and found a new sense to make my first kill. I stepped forward quietly and inched towards the busy raccoon quietly. Raising my right arm, I flung the dagger towards the raccoon. The weapon didn't even reach the raccoon and clattered a few feet in front of it. The raccoon's ears perked up and spotted us. It dropped the acorn and began its escape—

Something flew past my head and plunged itself into the raccoon's body. It collapsed, shivered, and then fell silent. I watched, my eyes wide. I'd already watched Tristan do it before, but I was still as shocked.

Justin walked past me and bent over the raccoon's body. I averted my eyes as Justin drew the blade from the raccoon's body. Then he picked up the body and started to walk away.

"H-hey," I said going after him. But I realized that the dagger I'd misfired was still behind and ran back to get it. When I looked up again, Justin was nowhere to be seen. I looked around and started to panic. The sky was already dark, and it was getting hard to see. The trees and bushes looked all the same. In the darkness, they looked more like threatening shadows. I stumbled around blindly and tripped over a root. It was so cold and black...

"Princess! Hey! Where'd you go?"

I gasped and realized I was shaking on the ground. Pushing myself up so that I was sitting on my knees, I felt myself reenergized as I recognized that voice. Justin. It was him. He was looking for me. 

"Justin! Justin I'm over—"

I heard hurried footsteps crunch through the forest, and when Justin was close enough, I was able to make out his shadow and reached towards him. Justin grabbed my outstretched hand and gripped it tightly.

Strangely, a wave of relief and protectiveness washed over me. I suddenly felt warm and strong as if nothing could hurt me anymore. As his large hand enveloped my mines, he pulled me up quickly with one hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist so that I wouldn't collapse under my shaking legs.

When I steadied myself, Justin pulled away from me gently. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I nodded, my teeth chattering like crazy.

"Geez," Justin sighed, raking a hand through his hair. Now that I was okay, his tone had switched back to the regular guarded and firm stance. Although this time, he didn't seem as cold. "Where did you go? I thought you were following me."

"I realized I left behind the dagger—"

"Oh, the one you missed by a mile?"

A familiar feel of irritation built up in me again. This annoying, stupid brat... "First of all, it was by a foot—"

"No, I'm pretty sure it was by a mile. Oh boy...it's going to be a while until you learn how to handle a blade. What are we going to do with you..."

"Hey!" I pointed a finger at him. "I'll make you eat your words one day. I'll become stronger than you and Tristan. I'll...you'll even say that you need me!"

Justin stared at me in silence. I realized what I had just burst out of my mouth and quickly tried to cover my outburst. "You...yeah...I—"

"Hmph!" Justin chuckled.

My face flushed and became hot as I crossed my arms and watched him laugh. Although I was embarrassed by my sudden outburst, this was my first time seeing him laugh so freely and on top of that because of me. For some reason, I felt happy that I was the reason he was doing so.

"Okay," he chortled as he regained his composure. "I'd like to see that one day too."

"Don't use that tone on me," I bit at him.

"What tone?" he asked, amused before turning on his heel. "C'mon the two must be starving."

"Hold on!" I grabbed his arm. "Don't walk so quickly!"

Justin frowned and sighed before offering his hand towards me. "You are so troublesome."

"I don't need your hand," I clicked my tongue and swatted at his hand. "Stop treating me like a child."

Justin snorted before taking my hand, even though I swatted it away again. "Come on, we'll never make it out if you don't stop arguing back."

I pouted but let his hand grab mines nonetheless, swallowing my pride. As we walked back, the trees thinned out, and I could see a red glow of fire.

Tristan looked up at us as we emerged from the trees and grinned. "Geez, you guys took a long time."

"Tristan!" I exclaimed, surprised. "How long were you waiting for?"

"Probably really long," Justin cut in before turning towards Tristan. "Sorry, you would have gotten your food three times earlier if it wasn't for her."

"Hey, why you — I said that I would become better! Just watch me!" I gritted my teeth, flailing my arms and Justin's since he was still holding my hand.

"Hey, hey. Watch it. You're going to—"

"Why are Miss and Justin holding hands?" Yuri poked his head around Tristan's back.

"I was wondering that too," Tristan smiled as he glanced between us.

Justin quickly let go of my hand and glared at Tristan.  "Whatever you're thinking, you better stop it. It's because she can't go anywhere in the darkness without a hand holding her."

"What's wrong with holding hands with him, anyways?" I frowned, scratching the back of my neck.

The three boys stared at me blankly.

"Ever dated? Or caught feelings for somebody?" Tristan asked before turning towards Justin. "Would you look at that? A girl's heart who doesn't race like crazy or faint when she holds hands with the godly Justin."

"No," I answered slowly, mystified why the conversation turned out to be this as Justin rolled his eyes at Tristan. "Mom never let us go out to have fun with the other kids so...."

The atmosphere suddenly turned very awkward and depressed as everyone stared at me as I trailed off into my thoughts. Tristan clapped his hands before it could get any worse. "Alright now, let's go to cooking."

Everyone quickly started moving; I snapped out of my daze and went over to help Yuri clear out the space. Once Tristan made sure the raccoon was fully cooked, we ate our share and patted out the fire.

While searching through the bag Maida had given us to see if she gave us anything else that wasn't leaves, I realized that she had also packed us canteens. I passed them around as everyone took a swing.

When everyone finished eating, we began scattering the sticks everywhere so it didn't leave a hint that we were here.

I glanced around after the scattering was done and realized that all the trees were much too tall for me to sleep in. Justin noticed me and murmured loudly enough for me to hear, "Well, guess we're all sleeping on the ground today."

My face twitched. 

I groaned inwardly when I realized I didn't have a choice. Grumbling, I gingerly sat down on the ground and watched Yuri and Tristan lean down comfortably. It suddenly became very quiet. The only sound was the wind passing by us. Slowly, I laid down on the ground and closed my eyes. Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought if I wasn't thinking about all the possibilities of what type of insects could be crawling around me...

Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to switch my thoughts to something more pleasant. 

Adit... I wondered what that village would look like. Despite being in a different and unknown setting, I couldn't help but feel excited to finally travel to finally be able to travel to a different village in the country. As long as I could remember, the farthest place I had ever went to when I lived in Cardea was the port.

But I'm sure...I'm sure Adit will be just as beautiful as Cardea.

~~~~~

Okie dokieeeee!!! Here's Chapter 12 for yall :)) Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed remember to vote and comment!! It takes less than a minute but goes a long way for me to see that you guys are enjoying reading this chapter <<33