The sun was still not up when I woke up. I picked the covers off of me and realized Catherine had re-wrapped my arms and legs with new gauze bandages. A surge of gratitude rushed inside of me. Even though Catherine was younger than me by a few years, she was the mother of our group. I don't know what we would have done without her.

Climbing out of bed, I reached for my bag and shrugged it on before leaving the room. I went to the other room right next to mine and opened Catherine's door. She was sprawled all over the bed sheets. I snickered at the sight of her arms hugging a pillow, and a slight trail of drool running down the corner of her mouth. Approaching the side of the bed, I placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to shake her awake. "Catherine. Wake up. Catherine."

She mumbled something unintelligible and turned away from my hand. I shook her for a little longer before she finally came to. Catherine blinked wearily and rubbed her hair, glancing around with squinted eyes as if she didn't know where she was. When her eyes met mines, they widened, and she shot a pillow at me. The pillow swung full force into my face.

"Hey!" my voice muffled into the pillow.

Catherine finally snapped out of her sleepy daze and quickly sat up. "Sakura! What are you doing here?"

I sighed, throwing the pillow back on her bed. "We're leaving, remember?"

She blinked and stared at me as if I was speaking another language. "Right now? Without saying any goodbyes?"

I nodded. Catherine looked around as if she was still in a dream. She pinched her herself, touched the bed sheets before reaching over and trying to touch my arm. I smacked her hand. "You're not in a dream! C'mon. I need to wake up the boys too."

"Maybe she's sleepwalking," I heard Catherine mutter as she got out of bed and grabbed her materials.

Ignoring her comment, I swung open the door before walking straight towards the boys' house which was opposite from ours. Walking to their rooms, I spotted two bunk beds in the room. It took me a little while to make out the outlines of who was sleeping in which bed, but I managed to match who was who. Justin was sleeping on the bottom bed on the right bunk bed with Tristan on top while Yuri was sleeping on the left bunk bed on the bottom.

I rapped my knuckles against the door loudly. Immediately, Justin sprang awake. Tristan followed a half-second after; Yuri kept sleeping like there was no tomorrow. Justin narrowed his eyes at me before recognition crept in.

"What's with the morning call?" Justin yawned, tousling his bed hair.

"We're leaving," I responded.

He stopped and looked at me. "Now?"

I nodded. Tristan jumped down quietly from the top without using the ladder. I watched as the boys got ready. A rustle came from the left bunk bed. 

Oops. Can't forget about Yuri. Walking over to Yuri, I tried shaking him. He remarkably resembled Catherine when sleeping.

The blond boy woke up from his deep sleep and blinked drowsily a few times after a few more shakes from me. He yawned widely and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. When his lazy eyes focused in on mines, he yelped and hit his head on the top bunk.

"Miss! Whatta you doing here?" he exclaimed, rubbing the top of his head.

"We're leaving," I responded. 

"I think she might be sleepwalking," I heard Justin mutter to Tristan.

"That's what I said!" Catherine approaching from the doorway, pointing at Justin.

"You guys," I groaned.

"You sure you don't want to say goodbye to anyone?" Tristan asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't want everything to turn into a big event."

We set out just when the sun had peeked itself at the line where the sky met the sea. We quietly made our way out of the village with Justin and Tristan taking the lead while Catherine, Yuri, and I stayed in the back. We traveled to the back of the village and went up a hill from there. I gave the village one more glance. 

I'm sure Curt will do just fine with Jake; they'd all be alright. I don't think Guren and the others will come back either; there's nothing else for them to retrieve from here, and I'm sure he knows that we will not be either. When I get to the palace, I will look for Hayden and bring him back safely. 

                                                                              ...

We had been traveling for a while now, and as we traveled out from the trees, I noticed farms and lands of grass were beginning to appear. It was my first time since Adit seeing something else rather than just trees and found myself rapidly intrigued by the many farms. Yuri, Catherine, and I stopped by many farms to pet the animals feeding on grass outside before getting yelled at by Justin to hurry up.

Eventually though, the farms began to disappear, and we reached a large grassland. All I could see were long blades of grass as tall as me blowing in the wind as we began our way inside.

"You know," I said. "Everything's beginning to look really nice and well taken care of."

"We're getting closer to the kingdom," Tristan said. "So the land gets richer bits by bits."

"Basically, transportation takes forever because the king doesn't bother improving anything. The closer the village is to the king," Tristan explained when he caught the confused glance on my face. "The more prosperous the village will get."

I tilted my head. "Why won't he just take the two villages then and make them into something useful?"

"I'm pretty sure he's more preoccupied with whatever he's doing in his palace right now. He'll probably get all the land he wants once he's successful with his experiments," Tristan muttered.

A dark silence fell among us. Trying to retrieve back a lighter tone, I spoke the first thing in my mind, "You know when the next person takes over the throne, I hope they'll take care of the roads."

"What do you mean?" Tristan asked.

"Make the roads more even and connect them to the villages better so that people can travel along these trails easier and faster," I sniffed. "It's no wonder I barely see anybody on the roads. People don't want to travel by foot because it's too far and going by sea only benefits those who have ports near them like Cardea."

Everyone stared at me as if I had just said the most bizarre thing. Although it was just for a second, I thought I had seen the corner of Justin's lips turn upwards into a smirk.

Tristan opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something when a sudden rustle whispered from behind me. We froze.

There was no wind blowing at that time. It sounded as if someone was running towards us. I leaned down to get my dagger from my boot without taking my eyes off the area in front of me.

"Yuri, Catherine," I whispered. "Go hide behind something—"

"That's gonna be a problem because there is nowhere to hide!"

I gnashed my teeth when I realized what Catherine had said was right. We were in an open landscape with nothing but grass and a couple of rocks. Suddenly, someone burst out from the trees.

I lunged quickly, swinging my feet across the person's legs, catching them off balance. Justin jumped in and placed his blade against the person's throat. The person's face was tilted to an angle where I couldn't see their face—

"H—hey. It's me. Don't kill me," the person coughed.

Surprised, I sprang away from the familiar voice. "Jake! What are you doing here?"

"Oh god," Jake rubbed his throat. "That surprised me."

Tristan relaxed from their protective stances in front of Yuri and Catherine as Justin pulled his sword away from Jake. I watched silently as Jake shakily stood up.

"So," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Mind answering my question?"

Jake looked up at me and smiled a carefree smile. "Please take care of me from now on."

There was a confused, still silence in the air following his words. I blinked a few times, trying to grasp the meaning behind Jake's words. Behind me, Tristan smacked his forehead and groaned while Justin sighed.

"What?" Catherine snapped at Jake. "What'd you just say?"

My eyes traveled over to an object on Jake's back. A backpack. Why did he have—

Horror and comprehension crept coldly down my spine. I closed my eyes and sighed tiredly. "Jake. We aren't going to bring any more people with us. You need to go back."

"I can't," he said. "I don't know my way back."

By now, Justin and Catherine were boiling. Tristan and Yuri looked as if they didn't know which universe they were in.

"You do know if you go with us you could lose your life right?" I asked. 

"Sakura!" Catherine protested.

Jake nodded. I continued. "And because you're just worming yourself in without actually talking to us about it, we're not going to go out of our way to protect you when danger hits, yes?"

He hesitated for a while, and I almost thought he would turn back when he nodded. Justin opened his mouth to protest, but I interrupted him. "Jake. Promise us right here and now that you understand what I had just said."

"I promise, and I understand," Jake nodded.

Justin didn't seem pleased at all, but he gave up and looked the other way. Tristan and Yuri seemed to just follow what I said because I'm sure they were still trying to figure out if they were in the right universe or not. Catherine, however, wasn't about to give up.

"Listen here, you overgrown cow!" Catherine jabbed her finger at Jake. "You can't just force us to take you alone with us—"

"That's what you did to us," Tristan muttered.

Catherine stopped to glare at Tristan, who instantly backed off, before turning back to Jake. "If you're gonna follow us at least tell us something you can do usefully."

"Well..." Jake blinked. 

"Do you know how to use a weapon by any chance?" Tristan asked. "Or fight?"

Jake shrugged. "I guess..."

"How well can you fight?" Justin asked.

"Ummm," Jake pursed his lips before his eyes met mines. "I..."

"We can just hold the matches again," Catherine said. 

Tristan nodded. "Let's travel a bit more though. We still have a long way ahead of us."

"What matches?" Jake asked.

Catherine and Yuri fell back to explain to Jake as we continued our hike again. The grass around me tickled my face as we brushed further into the land. I was starting to regret bringing Jake into the group, but I really just wanted to hurry up and get to the next town. I made Jake promise we wouldn't protect him, but what if he really doesn't know how to fight? We can't just leave him—

"Sakura!"

I blinked. Tristan was staring at me worriedly. Raising my eyebrows, I tilted my head. "What's wrong?"

"I've been calling your name for a while," he said, staring at me.

"Oh," I scratched my head. "I'm just a little tired."

"Would you like to stop for a while?" he asked.

"No," I shook my head. "Let's keep going."

Tristan nodded and stayed by my side, letting Justin take the lead alone. I felt a surge of gratefulness towards him for staying with me. My head was hurting a little, and it felt nice to have a quiet person walking besides me. We had finally made it out of the grassy fields and back into the forest when the sun had started to set.

Tristan informed the group that we should set up to rest. As soon as we found a place to stay, I collapsed on the ground. Jake sat next to me, out of breath too. He stared at me and wiped sweat off his brow. "Hey."

I turned my head. "Hm?"

"I just thought you seemed a little strange," he pulled his hair back. "I didn't expect for you to leave the village so quickly."

"I just felt as though we needed to move on a little quicker," I said. "By the way, how did you know we were leaving?"

"Well I actually was going to ask you if I could travel with you or not during dinner, but you rushed out of there before letting me finish what I was about to say," Jake told me. 

"Sorry," I apologized. "I was feeling a little unwell. Curt knows of this, right?"

"I already told Curt, and he let me go with you guys. I was pretty excited since it would be my first time away from the village so I awoke early. When I searched your rooms, it was empty. I figured you guys weren't that far ahead so I ran to catch up."

I stared at Jake's boldness and stupidity. "What would you do if you couldn't find us?"

"Oh well," Jake shrugged. "I mean there is just one trial going one direction so..."

I shook my head at his rashness. I felt a cold stare on us but when I glanced up, no one was looking at us. Tristan and Justin were discussing something with their backs turned on us and Catherine was helping Yuri tidy up his messy hair and clothes.

"By the way, you do know why the five of us are on a journey right?" I indicated to the others.

Jake nodded. "Catherine told me everything while we were discussing the matches. She's scary."

I snorted. "Yeah. Sometimes she can be. But she's awesome, really. If you look at the group, Catherine's one of the main reasons why this group is kept together from falling apart."

"But don't you think—"

"Sakura, Jake," Tristan called us. "Do you want to start now?"

I looked over at Jake, and he nodded. We got up and headed over to Tristan. He was playing with his sword in his hands like he wasn't aware of the fact that he could've cut open a big wound in his wrist.

"How will we play?" I asked. "We don't know where Jake stands in—."

"I want to go against Justin," Jake cut me off.

A silence fell among us. Tristan scratched his head. "You must be pretty good then."

"I'm alright," Jake shrugged.

"You're pretty confident in yourself, aren't you?" Justin came up from behind me.

"Well, I did help fight off the soldiers," Jake replied.

A strange, cold tension started to rise between the two of them, and I hurried to interrupt it before it could turn into something ugly. "Let's get started, alright?"

"Let's go, Sakura," Tristan said, twirling the blade in his hands. "I need this warmup."

"Come here so I can hit you," I grabbed for Tristan.

"I would love to, but you'll have plenty of chances to do that when we fight," Tristan dodged me.

Without officially starting off the match, I aimed a low kick at Tristan's legs. He dodged skillfully and appeared from behind me. Immediately, the others backed off.

Tristan's hand shot out to grab me, but I instinctively dropped to the ground and rolled away. I grabbed my dagger from my boot and held it in front of me. Tristan grinned and swung his sword from one hand to another.

"Stop showing off," I said.

"Is that a command from the princess?" he laughed.

"Not funny," I muttered as I launched at him.

I faked left and attempted to stab him in the right; it missed him by a hair. Tristan looked a bit surprised since he hadn't used that move on him by me yet. I jumped back and flipped the dagger around my anxious fingers; Justin had taught me that move just a few moments ago while we were still traveling but—

My thoughts stopped short as Tristan came towards me, his sword with him at his side. He swung his sword, and I tried to dodge the blade, but realized it was just a distraction. He swung his legs beneath me, and I lost my balance, landing hard on my back. Tristan stood above me and was about to move the sword's point to my neck when suddenly a flood of memories rushed into my mind.

Guren was standing in front of me all of a sudden instead of Tristan. His sword was swinging down at me...

He was going to kill me...he was going to kill me!

Gasping, I felt my leg rise up and kick Tristan's sword hand. The sword clattered out of Tristan's grip, and a second later, I launched myself up and kicked him in the chest, sending him back. I was so surprised by my sudden agileness that I almost stopped. I never could've done that in such a short amount of time... 

I felt something sting my eyes but had no time to contemplate it when I realized Tristan was starting to get up.

Tristan got up from the ground and sprinted towards his weapon, but I threw my dagger at him, stopping his path to his weapon. He skidded for a second, the dagger skimming past his chest, and tried racing for his sword, but I had already snatched his sword off the ground and swung the sword's point to his throat where he immediately stopped short.

As a shocked silence filled the air, I waited for his indication to surrender as we heaved for breath. Tristan slowly put his hands up, and I quickly dropped the sword away from his throat. My eyes immediately caught Justin's; he looked surprised, but when he realized I was staring at him, the corner of his lips curved upwards slightly.

An unexpected feeling of shyness and praise filled me. Although my sudden strength and reaction time did catch me off guard...even with Justin I would've never been able to improve that quickly...

"Wow," Catherine said, trotting up to me, breaking my stare with Justin. "Now that's definitely not from this world."

"It's a very nice crimson color," Jake said, following close behind. "That's so cool though."

"What?" I asked, confused. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Your eyes," Tristan said, pointing to my eyes. "They turned red."

~~~~~

Oh hoooo I liked writing the fighting scene. The thing is I don't really know how to write them so rip. Oh well, I hoped you guys liked this chapter teehee <3

Don't forget to hit the star button and comment down below your thoughts! I love reading your comments!