The continuation of our journey was long and uneventful. The next couple days were filled with forests, a few speckled villages, and coated with endless tiring walking, until I began to notice something I'd never seen before. Plots of ground were charred to the core. They appeared to hold no life in them, and could never maintain life. The spots radiated a cynical feeling as I passed the spotted blight of the woods.

"What are those black spots in the woods?" I asked Theo while eyeing the land wearily.

"There battle scars on the land from an ancient battle. The wounds were deep and they never healed. Now, nothing can grow there."

"What could have done that kind of damage?"

Theo shrugged his broad shoulders. "No one really knows. A lot of knowledge was lost after the darkening."

"The darkening?"

Theo stole a side ways glance at me with a perked eyebrow.

"What's the eyebrow for?"

"Sorry, it's just sometimes I forget how much you don't know."

"Well it's not like there was anyone to teach me any of this stuff."

Theo shrugged. "Your Dad could have."

This made me stop. "Wait. Are you telling me my father new about all of this!" I motioned to the world around me.

"Well...yes. How do you think he met your mother?"

I narrowed my eyes into thought. Dad new about everything all the I time and he never said anything to me? Why didn't he? The thought of him knowing about everything picking about my brain every so often, but this was the first time it was full view.

I tried to pull my mind away from the subject, it was a conversation for the ideas back with Dad. How long would that be? I frowned on the unsure days ahead of me. I have no idea how long this journey would take. Or if I would return. I tried shaking away the dark thoughts away by distracting my mind.

"So back to my question," I continued walking with Theo. "What's the darkening?"

"It began when the Sith Othwan disappeared. Chaos and desolation spread over the worlds when the balance the Sith Othwan brought was lost. A lot was lost in the time. A lot of knowledge."

"It sounds a bit like the dark ages." I mutter to myself.

"Exactly."

"What?"

"You said it sounded like Earth's dark ages, and that's exactly what it is. The dark ages was a piece of The Darkening."

"Hmm, interesting...but What happened to the Sith Othwan?"

"They just vanished. At the end of the Last Stand of Velberis, they just disappeared. In fact they went missing here." I looked ahead to see a massive stone wall in the distance.

The wall seemed to rot with age, sitting crumbled and picked at by the years. It's rough stones fading black with the destruction in the world. The wall was lifeless, though not completely dead. It felt incapable of change as I neared it, like a static zombie.

I attempted to imagine the wall in its golden years. I saw it standing strong and tall shining in the sunlight, with smooth silver stones perfectly fit together, showing the strength of Velberis.

"What happened here?" I whispered to Theo, as if trying not to disturb the unsettled rock.

Theo wore a frown. "It was the last stand of Velberis, the city of the sword. This battle destroyed the city and launched the darkening. This is the first time I've seen the ruins myself." He said in nothing more than a whisper himself.

He stared up at the stone arch as we passed. As we entered the Ruins of Velberis, we looked upon a jungle of crumbled stone. All buildings and streets charred black and falling apart. All in the same zombie state as the wall. I looked at Theo as he took in the broken city. There was sadness in his eyes.

"Theo?"

"Yeah?" He looked down at me. The sadness was gone.

"Nothing." I responded, then quickly walked on. He must have accepted my response because he didn't say anything after.

As we continued through the ruins, I notice buildings that were rebuilt. People started appearing on the street. We entered what was a small city in the Ruins of Velberis. Walking along cobble stone streets, we twisted through tall buildings.

"I didn't know people still lived here." Theo sounded a little displeased.

"Why shouldn't they have rebuilt?"

"It doesn't seem right. This was a legendary city, they should have left it in peace. They are trying to rebuild something that can't come back. Something happened to it at its last stand, something had killed it for good."

I personally disagreed with him. If the city was dead it would just be that, dead. But with the people it felt more lively. It felt like a star of hope in a dead sky.

"Well...think of it like this. People are trying to hold on to the life it once had, so it isn't seen as the dead city, but remembered for what it once was."

He looked down at me with a small smile, then continued walking. I drew my eyebrows together. What was that supposed  to mean? Frowning at his back, I continued on.

We passed a broken bell tower, and down the street from it was an inn.

"We should check the inn and see if the the innkeeper knows if Flynn passed through. We can see how close he is and if he's changed course." I commented .

"Good idea."

He held open the door to the Kings Crown Inn. We walked inside of the old stone inn. We walked up a few steps to a room with round wood tables full of an afternoon crowd. The inn keeper stood behind a bar, drying a large beer mug. We walked forward over creaky floor boards as he greeted us.

"Hello, and what can I do for you?" The short man with flecks of grey in his brown hair looked up toward us, although his pale eyes never seemed to meet ours.

"Hello have you seen anyone by the name of Flynn come through." I said before realizing my poor choice of words.

"Haven't seen anyone in years." He responded.

"Oh...um...I'm sorry— "

"It's fine, I'm used to it by now." He chuckled. "Now back to your question, a man by the name of Flynn?" He frowned in thought. "I do remember one lad. Came in a couple days ago. Stayed for the night. By the way, would you like a room?"

"No thank you," Theo answered. "And thank you for answering our question." The man gave us a nod then continued polishing his mug.

We exited the Inn and were back on the street. Theo turned and saw the old bell tower than paused.

"Come over here." Theo said heading towards the bell tower.

"What are we doing?"

"You'll see." He grinned.

He entered into the tower, while I leaned against the small arched door. After a moment he came back through the door. He smiled.

"I want go somewhere before we leave." He set off following the main road.

"Where?" I called chasing after him.

"You'll see." I caught up to him. "Now let's hurry, we don't have a lot of time of we want to catch up to Flynn." He pulled my hand  down a wide road that led away from the small city. This was the first time I'd seen Theo this excited about something.

As we rushed down the empty streets, I saw something popping out of the tips of the tall broken buildings. As we grew nearer, I realized they stone towers in the sky. We entered a clearing in the town, revealing a spiraling grey stone brick castle with a thick broken road leading up to its legendary entrance.

The castle stood high, even with boulder sized holes blown into it. It had tall pointed towers all seemed to work together to form one entity. The strong walls were infested with vines and wildlife. Even with it dead, I was amazed.

Halting at the door of the palace, I held Theo back for a moment before we entered.

"Wait, why did you want to come here?"

He stared down for a moment while he formulated his answer. "I spent years studying the worlds inside and out. Spent years reading about legends, and I'm ready to experience some for myself. Now," He held out his hand to me on the steps of the palace. "Would you like to join me?" I took him up on his offer by taking his hand. Slight tingles traveled from my hand as he smiled at me. I felt like I was living a fairytale!

We entered together into a wide hall that lead to the central tower. We pushed open one of two tall wood doors, revealing a throne room. Two spiraling white stair cases that joined together at the center of the back wall, then continued on. In front of the joining staircases was a pedestal holding two thrones of white. The floor was made of silver stone with some white octagons creating a path to the thrones. Be hind the thrones was a large torn banner of a silver and white sword on a navy backdrop. The walls held two tall arched windows of shattered stained glass.

I looked across the room at the two stone chair, and the thought floated smoothly into my mind. The first thing any sensible person would do in an abandoned throne room. I casually strode up to the right chair and sat. I straightened my back, lifted my chin, and looked forward at Theo who had an eyebrow raised.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Imagining myself as a queen." I replied in an elegant tone while looking around through the new perspective. I felt a surge of power run through me. My mouth grew into a small satisfied smile.

"So, how does it feel?" Theo asked, amused by my lofty mood.

"Why don't you come and see for yourself." I gracefully motioned to the throne beside me.

He shook his head at me with his smirk. "No, I'm not going to sit in the throne." His eyes examined the stone chair. I suddenly felt a slight scenes of déjà vu, but pushed it off.

I nodded to him. "I can tell you want to, so you might as well."

"No." He repeated.

"Well then... I order you to come sit in it."

He laughed. "You can't order me to do anything."

"Yes I can, I'm the Queen." I motioned to the throne I was sitting in.

"Still no."

"I could have your head for that, disobeying the Queen's orders."

He raised his eyebrows. "Have fun trying to pull that off."

"You underestimate me."

"No," he shook his head. " I think I estimate your abilities pretty well."

"I guess there is only one thing left for me to do... I order you to never sit in this throne." I gestured towards the second chair.

"Okay, I'm fine with that." I threw him an annoyed glare.

"Oh come on! Assume some authority!"

He chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I'm the one with the power in this conversation. I've kept you from getting what you want and annoyed you." I kept an irritated stare on him until he finally sighed. "Fine." I smiled triumphantly as he took his place in the taller throne beside me.

"Well...?" I asked him. "How do you feel?"

"It makes you feel kind of powerful.",

"I know, I love it!" He chuckled at my comment. "Azarious would kill us if he saw us right now—" I cut my self off at the end of the sentence. I had absolutely no idea where those words came from.

"What?" Theo asked not having caught my sentence.

"Um... nothing."

"That's enough," Theo says chuckling while getting up from the throne. " Come on, let's go explore some more. "

We walked up one of the dusty, white stair cases near the thrones, and continued their journey through the castle, examining the rooms of the great legend

"So... You seem pretty interested in this place. Why so?" I questioned.

He looked down me like I had a mental malfunction happening in my brain. "Velberis had the greatest militia in Yeris, and proved to be the wealthiest city. It wasn't the size of the army that made them so powerful, but the skill of the men. There have never been a set of men with such raw skill in history." As he says the last part his eyes glow with admiration. "On top of that the kings were some of the most noble men that ever lived."

Theo continued on talking about the history of Velberis, starting from the beginning then taking me up through the ages. Talking of the development of the city. Honestly I was more interested looking at the architecture around me to pay attention to what he was talking about. But he seemed to be enjoying himself so listened in enough to react appropriately. Until something he said sparked in my mind making me do a double take.

"Wait, what did you just say?" Did he just say what I think he said? Azarious?

"I said, then there was King Azarious, who in my opinion was the greatest. He is the king that truly expanded and strengthened the army through Yeris."

My mind jumped back to the random sentence I said on the throne. Why did I say the name that I said? Why did I know the name Azarious? I wondered if I should tell Theo. Maybe I shouldn't tell him. I should figure out what just happened first, because it's not like he needs to know.

We wound up near the top of the main tower in a room with a gaping hole in one of the walls. Looking out at the scenery still happened to leave me breathless after everything we've seen today. I looked over at the broken colors of Velberis. In the east, I could see the refurbished buildings of the small city with people speckling the streets. The west, the ruins had stretched on for miles, lifeless. Ahead of me was the south, where we had entered, and I examined the wall once again.Looking over the city an image of it whole and rebuilt flashed before my eyes. It was a work of art.

I suddenly realized how high in the sky I was and quickly stepped back from the edge.

"You okay?" Theo said reaching for my hand to steady me.

I nodded. "A little to high for my taste."

"Well there's only one way to solve that." He let go of my hand and sat on the ledge of the broken tower. Then he looked back at me expectantly.

"Really?" I say jokingly trying to hide how nervous I am.

"Come on." He said holding his hand out to me. Slowly I began to walk toward him until I reached the ledge. I sat down cautiously next to him slowly settling into my surroundings, very aware of my legs dangling over the edge with solid ground hundreds of feet below me.

I kept a cool face and turned to him. "Happy?." His only reply was a smirk. He turned his attention to the satchel on his lap. He undid the latch with his left hand then spoke.

"Umm Sky? I'm going to need my arm back."

"What? Oh." I realized I had been gripping his arm in my attempt to avert the chance of falling to my death. I quickly let go of his arm, and became unbalanced. He slid his arm around my waist as I clung back on to him.

"Nevermind." He laughed, while helping me re-steady myself. I laughed as well, only nervously. I let go of him again, but this time slowly. Theo kept his hand around my waist, and it helped me relax a little.

"Theo, can I ask you something?" I asked looking at him expectantly.

Looking down at me he replied, "Sure."

"Well..." I began, "What's going to happen when we're done with this?"

His eyebrows drew together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean when we're finished rescuing our parents."

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it."

I thought about things just returning back to normal in my life. Being with my dad, seeing Jennifer again, finishing up school, having a life. Things that I use to fantasize about doing, for some reason, now made me sad.

"What's wrong?" He asked reading my expressions.

"I was thinking about life going back to the way it was before I met you."

"Oh." he replied, almost taken back by my comment, "Well hey, let's not think about that right now."

"What should we think about then?" I joked around.

"Umm... How about we think about life after you met me." I smiled, and looked up at him.

"I think that would be a better option."

Smiling back at me, he gingerly held my cheek, drew me closer and softly kissed my lips. At first, I sat there surprised, amazed by what was happening. But then I was brought back to life by the gentle heat of his kiss. I leaned into him as if melting, savoring the moment.

Then he abruptly pulled away from me stunned by his action. He quickly stood up and I stood up after him.

"Umm— I'm sorry..." He stood there awkwardly for a moment, then walked out of the room, while I was too stunned to say or do anything. I stood awkwardly for a moment until Theo walked back into the room with a plain expression. We sat there for a moment caged in silence. Then Theo spoke.

"Let's get going." He exited the room again leaving me with a mind running circles.

What just happened!? Why did he kiss me? Why did he stop? First, he kissed me out of nowhere, runs out of the room, then doesn't say anything about it. Why would he do something like that—?

"Skyler." Theo's voice pulled me away from my thoughts, and I followed him back down the tower.

Continuing on through the old ruins, the sky began to shadow the
ground with gray clouds. My mind stuck on the kiss, as I evaluate the situation. Well if he kissed me, then he must like— I looked up at Theo's back as he walked on, getting butterflies as I imagined him liking me. Then the image of us kissing masked my mind, and I quickly pushed it away. No! He doesn't like me! It wouldn't make sense, I've never seen him do anything that would suggest it before. But it was also the only thing that made sense. A small smile curved my lips.

Maybe he does like me. It wouldn't be that weird of an idea. After all I'd admit that I've felt a little attracted to him at times. But then again, he's him and I'm, well... me.

All the thinking about his true intentions made the curiosity unbearable. Theo never spoke a word to me since leaving the tower, and the silence was killing me. I finally managed to muster up some nerves hidden in a dusty door within me.

"Theo?"

"Yes?" He responded without stopping.

"We... need to talk," I cut in front of him so we could talk face to face. "...about what happened." I paused for a moment. "What did happen?"

Theo sighed. "I don't know."

"What do you mean? How do you not know why you kissed me?"

"I just... don't. It just happened, I didn't mean to kiss you."

"Oh." This was not the response I expected from him. My heart dropped a little. I never thought I'd hear from a guy that he didn't mean to kiss me. "So, just to be clear, you don't have feelings for me?"

"We're just friends." He remarked softly.

I don't know why, but his words stung my insides. I felt my throat harden and my stomach stiffen. It felt wrong.

Maybe it was because I was expecting a different answer or maybe just hoping for one.

I managed to give him a smile then walked on.

"Skyler," he sighed, "I don't want— wait. Did you hear that?" He turned into his natural form. He quricked one of his ears to the air and breathed in. "Grievers." He reported to me.

He drew his swords while I changed from my human form, and pulled out my crossbow, loading in a bolt.

There was a rumbling in the ground. The griever round the corner of a crumbling building. The monster was twelve feet high, covered with thick midnight armor with a heavy white hammer.

"I don't think your crossbow will do much to that thing."

Two more grievers emerged, but these much different from the first. These were slender and cool with light armor. They both held pale swords in each hand.

"Which do you want to take?"

"I'll take the twins." I aimed my weapon at the left one's chest. I fired, but my bolt was intercepted by one of the grievers slick blades. It looked as if it were waving away a fly by the way it moved its sword. I made the wrong decision.

I quickly traded out my crossbow for a sword as the one I shot at began to make its way towards me. Before I knew it, the griever thrust towards me. I met my blade with its while it slashed at my side with the other sword. I jumped back just in time to get away clean, but I came back with a strong thrust. It hit my blade up, but I managed to nick it's shoulder. The beast hissed in pain, and moved back as I brought my weapon down on it.

It looked back on me with iced narrowed eyes. I think I pissed it off. The griever came at me faster than before. It drove at me with a swing I barely had time to block, until it managed to back me against a wall. It slashed down at me, and I held up my sword in defense, but I knew that left me open for an attack with the other sword.

Just as the griever got ready to cut me open, Theo dove behind the creature. I felt a gust of air as the giant armored griever swung its heavy hammer, missing Theo, but hitting the head off the dark slender beast that was preparing to kill me. The trips hammer got jammed into the stone. I dashed toward Theo as the wall behind me crumbled from the dislocation of the hammer.

"Thanks...for saving...me" I said breathlessly to Theo. He flashed a quick smile to me before his face lit with fear. He pushed me to the dirt. I looked up to see one of Theo's blades driven into a grievers slender chest. But Theo wasn't left untouched. The griever has marked him with a long slash across his stomach.

"Theo!"

Dropping his swords, he clutched his stomach, and fell to his knees with the ash. I hurried over to his side and began helping him up. He began trying to move pushing me with him.

"Skyler, the—"

The last griever swung, hitting Theo's side. He was flung back rolling on the ground till he went still.

I drew my attention away from Theo, and onto the troll. A plan formulated in my mind. I sheathed my sword and picked up the ones Theo had dropped. As the griever began to bring down its hammer on me, I dove between its legs and slashed at the back of its knees. The monster let out a shriek as it fell to its knees. I dropped the swords then jumped up on its back using its armor for grip. Climbing up its back, I unsheathed my blade, and drove it between the armor on the beasts neck. The troll swayed slightly before collapsing completely.

I tumbled to the ground and felt drops of water falling down on me. My mind flashed to Theo, and the thought of his condition impaled my heart. I looked around and found him sprawled motionless across the old road.

A/N: Please remember to vote, and thanks for reading!