"Brody? What's Brody?"

I glanced over at Tristan who quickly looked at the ground. Everyone had gotten up by the time the sun was rising and were now in a circle, waiting for for Catherine to fix up breakfast. 

She had somehow pulled out a cooking pot from her small backpack and was cooking up some soup with the materials in her bag under a small fire Justin helped her make. But that soup was now left unattended as the question about Brody was left hanging in the air.

I narrowed my eyes at the three boys who were now avoiding mine and Catherine's eyes. Turning towards Catherine, I said, "Isn't it the next village?"

"Next village?" Catherine tilted her head. "The next village is Mansa."

"Hmmm?" I turned my head back towards the guilty-looking boys. I clearly remembered me telling that there were five villages in the kingdom. "Is that so?"

"It's...." Tristan hesitated when no one spoke up. "An unofficial village."

"What?"

"It's not on the map," Tristan sighed. "There are four main villages in the country. But Elder told us about Brody. I don't think it can even be considered a village."

"Well the king has to know about this place right?" I asked. "It's his kingdom."

"Oh he knows it," Justin's face darkened. "It's where he dumps his experiments."

The warm, sunny atmosphere suddenly dropped as everyone stared at Justin's dark expression. Tristan clapped his hands and cleared his throat. "Yeah. What he said. Anyways, only very few people know about it so don't go blabbing your mouth off about Brody."

"How many experiments has he done on these people? Why is he doing this?" I asked tentatively. I wasn't sure if I was ready for the answer.

Tristan looked towards me sadly. "He kills off all the experiments that don't go well and keeps the ones that successfully turn into a demon somewhere in his castle. He's going to change as many people until he's satisfied with the number of demons that he's going to turn into his army."

An army? Turning so many people into demons? Killing people who don't successfully turn into one?

I felt the air from my lung disappear as realization suddenly hit me. I wanted to go on this journey to get Mom back. I went on this journey because I didn't want to just sit at the hideout and wait for other people to save me again. But did I ever take into account what was actually wrong with the king? I just thought he was a careless and stupid man on the throne but...

I connected gazes with Justin's hard eyes. I was stupid to think I had matured in any way.

This was going to be way harder than I thought.

...

After that conversation, we silently finished Catherine's breakfast (which tasted like heaven) and set out quickly. Tristan had warned that since it was off the main road, the trail would be much more rocky and tough to walk up. He estimated that we would be able to reach Brody in a week or less if we traveled diligently everyday.

After a few hours of walking which felt like eternity, Tristan suggested we rest for the day. I gladly accepted the offer and went into the shade that the trees provided. I searched for the canteens of water from my backpack and tossed them to everyone. 

Tristan, unlike Catherine and I, wasn't really that tired and wanted to practice his swordsmanship. He challenged Justin to another duel, and they clashed around while Yuri cheered from the sidelines. Catherine watched with a fascinated look on her face next to me as I tried to control the amount of water I was drinking without drowning the whole thing. Then, she suddenly turned towards me.

"Hey," she said. " Why doesn't Yuri fight?"

Her question caught me off guard. Now that Catherine's mentioned it, I realized that I had never seen Yuri fight either.

"I dunno..." I muttered, staring weirdly at Yuri. That was weird. He wasn't exceptionally skillful at fighting like Justin, and he didn't have the brains and characteristics of a leader like Tristan. In fact, I haven't really seen Yuri do anything to contribute to the journey except for the fact that he had Rezin, and he could play with wild animals.

"I'm tired," Justin's voice complained loudly as he flopped down on the grass lazily next to me.

"I swear," Tristan exhaled, coming up to us. " You are so lazy. I don't even know why you're better than me..."

Justin smirked as Tristan trailed off the last bit of his sentence, realizing what he was saying. As the sunlight broke in from the shaking trees, the light hit Justin's face. I could see a line of sweat running down from his forehead and felt my eyes follow the bead of sweat trailing down.

"Oh shut up," Tristan said, looking away.  "Hey Sakura! Come here!"

"I'm tired," I whined, looking away from Justin. "My legs won't move."

"Dang," Tristan said. "The both of you....Come on Sakura!"

I grunted in protest but forced myself up and tottered towards Tristan. Tristan held out a blade to me. I took it and glanced up at him confused.

"Practice with me!" Tristan said.

I stared at him, and he looked back at me expectantly, like a dog waiting for his master to throw him the ball.

Fine.

I attempted to look pumped up which was hard since right now all I wanted to do was sleep. Letting my arm swing on its own, I swiped a lazy swing at Tristan which he dodged happily.

"Come on Sakura!" he cried. "You can do better than that!"

"I would do better if you let me rest!" I said, trying to catch up with him without chasing him. Finally I gave up and pulled my arm back. Inhale...I drew the blade back to my ear. Exhale...I pushed the dagger out of my hand and let it spin through the air. Too easily, Tristan deflected it like it was an annoying fly.

"Tsk, tsk. What can I do to make you take me for real?" Tristan clicked his tongue. His eyes suddenly lit up. "I know! Whoever loses this battle has to gather firewood for dinner!"

I felt myself frown. I did not want to gather firewood. I hated that. It hurt my arms and blistered my hands. 

Tristan smiled at my distaste and winked at me. "So it's a deal right?"

"No," I said. "Because you guys have been practicing since you were young, and I've barely started."

"And that's how you get better," Tristan smiled, picking up my dagger and tossing it back at me. "Or you can choose to take on Justin. Your choice."

I felt myself frown deeper as I caught the blade safely in my hands. This was not fair. I glanced at Tristan's eager face. He didn't seem to want to let me go at all. Sighing, I put my brain to work.

Tristan did a lot of offense and barely did any defense...

I groaned inwardly. What was I supposed to do with that information? Even if I managed to hone in on his weakness, how was I supposed to utilize it to—

"Sakura!"

I blinked out of my thoughts and saw Tristan charging at me with less than a few feet away from me. At the last second, I dodged his swing and rolled away before quickly hopping back on my feet.

"Do you want to do the chores that badly?" Tristan grinned. " You could just forfeit if you wanted to."

I shot him a glare. Tristan ran at me again with his dagger at his side. He swung towards my blade, and I quickly placed my dagger in front of me, letting the blades clash. I almost dropped the blade when I realized how powerful and strong Tristan was and quickly retreated.

"Can't beat me with strength," Tristan sang. "Come on. Show me your best."

"Shut up," I growled, frustrated that he looked didn't look like he was suffering at all.

This time, we came at each other at the same time, and our daggers clashed with a loud clang. I heard Catherine yell out in surprise distantly, but I was too focused on Tristan in front of me to hear her clearly. 

My hands started to shake as Tristan pressed against me. With a desperate effort, I swung my foot and kicked him from underneath his legs. I saw a flash of surprise in his eyes before he fell down.

I would've pinned him down if I reacted faster, but Tristan was much too fast for me and was on his feet before I could swing my dagger.

"That was cheating!" Tristan pouted like a chipmunk. "I never said you could use other parts of your body!"

"You never said I couldn't," I grumbled, earning a snicker from Justin on the sidelines. "Wasn't there was a quote.... ' everything is fair in something and war?' Oh wait! It was 'everything is fair in money and war'!"

"Idiot," Justin said. "It's 'all is fair in love and war'."

"Oh yeah!" I pointed to Justin with a smile.

"Hey hey!" Tristan waved. "The match is still going on!"

I didn't realized how close Tristan was until I felt the cold sensation on my neck. While talking with Justin, Tristan had snuck up from behind me and pressed his dagger against the back of my neck. I cursed under my breath; Tristan laughed when he heard me.

"Gotchu."

Suddenly, he placed a playful kiss on the side of my head. There was a shocked silence as Tristan continued to smile at me like he did nothing wrong. I slowly touched the place he touched and looked up at him confused.

"Sorry," Justin said, pushing Tristan away from me. I jumped; I didn't even see him coming. "I forgot to tell you he's a lady player."

"Aww," Tristan swung an arm around Justin. "Don't sound so cold."

"Whatever," Justin said, smacking Tristan's arm away. "Go flirt with other women. Let's play. I'm ready now."

I sighed in exasperation as my heartbeat calmed down. I walked over to where Catherine had sat next to Yuri under a shady tree and laid down. Catherine handed me a towel from her backpack, and I gratefully took it to wipe my sweat.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the trunk as the clangs from Justin and Tristan echoed through the air. Soon, I heard the yell of defeat from Tristan. I heard their footsteps echo towards us and opened my eyes. Sighing, I got up.

"Alright," I sighed. "I'll go get firewood now."

"Take Rezin," Justin told me without looking at me as he bent down to grab water. 

As if the bird was with us all along, Rezin came down from the air and landed softly on my shoulder. Catherine gasped in amazement; I patted the bird's head and started into the forest.

It took me especially longer and harder to get firewood because I was short and weak, but eventually I had gathered enough and was heading back with heavy arms with Rezin leading me the way back. As I broke the clearing, I spotted Justin leaning against a tree, staring into space.

He quickly snapped out of his trance when I neared him and walked towards me. Without even acknowledging me, he grabbed the sticks from my arms. I stood there, dumbfounded before quickly chasing after him. 

"Wait—" I protested.

"Quiet down, you short girl," he said, still ignoring me. "Go help Catherine set up."

"But I can't let you carry those," I tried. "They're heavy—"

Justin looked down at me in amusement. "They're light as a feather. It's just you who thinks that. Go rest."

I blinked as Justin pulled ahead of me. Huffing, I marched off towards Catherine who was looking over her ingredients.

Catherine looked up from her ingredients and rose an eyebrow at me. "What's with that? Why do you look so annoyed?"

"Justin called me short and weak," I frowned, squatting down.

Catherine snorted. "He was waiting for you, you know? He didn't want you to carry such heavy sticks so he waited for you to come back."

I glanced at her skeptically, and she rolled her eyes. Before I could respond, Tristan called us over to start cooking because they had already started a fire. Catherine rushed over and quickly cooked up a tasty broth with animal meat that Tristan and Justin had caught.

Once Catherine finished, we quickly stamped out the fire and scattered the sticks before settling down to finish our dinner. The broth left us satisfied and warm which quickly led us to become sleepy and drowsy.

Everyone quietly settled themselves down and fell asleep. Right when I was about to fall asleep, I heard a humming sound. 

I opened my eyes to see Catherine drumming her finger on the ground with her eyes closed. She suddenly stopped when she realized I was watching her intently.

"Sorry," Catherine whispered. "Did I distract you from sleeping?"

"It's alright," I shook my head, smiling. "What's the song?"

"Ah," Catherine looked a little embarrassed. "It's something me and my brother hummed to when we were lonely."

"You miss him?" I asked.

Catherine didn't say anything. Her eyes glimmered softly before he softly said, "Yeah. I didn't really think I would miss him this much, but I do."

"Did you really want to follow us just because you wanted to see the outside world?" I asked.

She looked at me in surprise. "Of course. What about you?"

I looked at Catherine. I hadn't told her about May or Mom, so I just stared at Catherine until she cleared her throat. "It's alright if you don't want to tell me."

I shook my head. "Tristan already told you about the gist of the journey, right?"

Catherine nodded. Grimacing, I tried my best to summarize the beginning of how everything started till now. She was a very good listener. When I was finished, she was nodding her head.

"That's...a lot," she said.

"You're not reacting like most people would," I snorted.

Catherine smiled. I felt myself intake a sharp breath when I realized how pretty Catherine was. She had fair and proportional features. Her golden hair seemed to be spun from real gold, and her eyes were strikingly a beautiful blue.

"You're an amazing person, you know?" Catherine suddenly said, startling me.

I gave her a skeptical look at the edge of my eye.

"For you to move on even after losing the most important people in your life is the hardest thing anyone could go through," she said, looking up at the sky so I couldn't see her expression. "I'm already missing my brother, and it has only been a day since I left him."

"I still miss them," I said. "I miss them everyday. But it's okay. I'm okay. Everything is going to be okay."

"And that's why you're so amazing," Catherine smiled, finally looking at me. Her eyes were misty and I felt a pang in my heart. "You're strong, Sakura. You still have the heart to care about other people. Not only that but you are able to move the hearts of people and change them. I really admire that."

I was stunned. Never in my life has someone told me that they admire what I had done. I looked at my feet. Did Mom ever tell me she was proud of what I'd done? What did I do besides listen to Mom's orders everyday? What would she say to me now if she saw me? 

I swallowed bile that rose in my throat as I flipped my hands over and looked at them. These weren't clean hands anymore. I've held a dagger and killed someone with it. I've witnessed horrible things that many other people have never seen before in their whole life. 

What would those other people say about me? Mom is a doctor. She heals and nurses people to health who get hurt by fighting. Yet I was a person who fought and hurt those people. One who heals and one who hurts. I closed my hands and hugged them close to my chest. 

It's okay. It's okay. It's okay, Sakura. Hold it in.

I took deep breaths and tried to keep my emotions in check without making it too obvious. I glanced at Catherine in the corner of my eye and realized she was beginning to nod off. I quickly grabbed her shoulders and placed her head against my shoulder before she could fall over over. 

As the night fell silent, I felt myself grow cold. Closing my eyes, I huddled against Catherine and tried to chase away any remaining thoughts in my brain.

It's okay.

~~~~~

Sorry for all those waiting for Chapter 23! I sorta ran into writer's block, but I've recovered now and hopefully will keep up my updates weekly. School has been crazy so I'm trying to balance everything haha.

Anyways, I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter! If you did, don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts down below! Love ya'll <<33