We walked by the tree that looked like a hump-backed person for the fifth time. And it was five times too many for Gerrard.

"Caley, stop," he said, grabbing my wrist. I shook him off and looked at him.

"What?" I asked.

"You have no idea where we are!" he exclaimed.

"That's not true," I said unconvincingly. He gave me a look and I squared my jaw, crossing my arms over my chest to stand my ground.

"We're lost," he said.

"We're not. I know exactly where we are and where we are going," I said defiantly.

"Is that so?" he asked. I nodded. "Then why is this the hundredth time I'm seeing that tree?" he asked, pointing to the oddly shaped trunk.

"Ok, a hundred? Exaggerate much?" I asked back, ignoring his question.

"Caley!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "We're lost!" he said.

"We're not lost," I said. He glared at me. "We're just...not at the right place," I added.

"We're going back," he said.

"No! Not yet!" I cried.

"Caley, this is the Forbidden Trinity Forest. You realize why it's called Forbidden, right?" he asked.

"Because it's dangerous," I replied.

"How dangerous?" he asked.

"Very?" I answered after a pause.

"They say that whoever comes into this forest, or at least this deep into the forest, never comes back out," he said.

"That's definitely not true. I've been here before and look! I'm still alive," I said, gesturing towards myself. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him pointedly. "You aren't scared, are you?" I asked him.

"Not so much scared as I am extremely annoyed," he answered, shooting me yet another look.

"Look, we can leave once I show you what I need to show you," I said.

"Why can't you just tell me?" he asked.

"Because I have to show you," I said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you won't believe me if I just tell you," I replied.

"Caley, when have I ever doubted your words?" he asked. I bit my lip to think for a moment.

"Well...never. But you won't believe me on this. I guarantee it," I said.

"Try me," he said.

"Fine, but we're going to continue walking," I said.

"Fine," he replied, rolling his eyes at me.

We continued walking in the dark forest. It was already dark out, but it wouldn't matter if the sun was shining brightly in the sky; no light could be filtered in from the thick canopy of the forest. We walked towards the south, inward into the forest, our footsteps padding lightly on the forest floor.

I wondered why the forest was known to be so dangerous. I had gone into it alone and wasn't harmed. Given, if I hadn't been paying attention, I probably would have gotten lost. But using a light spell, I found my way around easily. The problem now was, was that I couldn't find the same path I had taken before to get to Mikael's forest cabin. Perhaps it was possible for the forest to change so that any traveler journeying in its depths would get lost.

I opened my mouth to voice this question to Gerrard, but was cut off by a distant howling. Stopping, I turned to Gerrard.

"What was that?" I asked. He shrugged, continuing to walk forward.

"Probably a werewolf," he said.

"A werewolf? This isn't Twilight, Gerrard," I said.

"I don't know what Twilight is," he replied. "But werewolves do exist," he said.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Caley, we live in a world in which magic is real. Obviously mythical creatures exist, too," Gerrard said.

"So...vampires are real, too?" I asked.

"Not in the modern sense of the word," he replied.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Vampires are just Magii that have a lust for blood. After they're done drinking it or doing whatever it is they want with it, they dispose of the body by giving it to what you know to be called zombies," he answered. "It's almost like a food chain, except in terms of magical creatures," he added.

"Zombies? So there are humans that eat human flesh?" I asked.

"They're not necessarily human. They could be anything. Wild creatures, beasts, anything. In magical terms, anything that eats human flesh is called a Carnibus comedenti. It's like a classification. Like the Magia Non have the word Homo sapien," he explained.

"Wow, I can't believe I didn't know that," I said, slightly in awe at the new information.

"I'm sure there's a course on it at the University," he said.

"Have you ever encountered a magical creature before?" I asked.

"I've met a werewolf. He works for Elijah," he answered.

"Isn't that dangerous?" I asked.

"He pledged his allegiance to Elijah. Not in the way you did, because Elijah can't control creatures in that way, since their blood is different from our own. But the werewolf made a magical pact with Elijah; one that can't be broken," Gerrard told me.

"Hmmm..." I said.

"You're trying to change the topic," Gerrard said.

"What?" I asked, still thinking about what he had just told me.

"Tell me what you want to show me," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh, right," I said. I took a deep breath and fell into step with Gerrard, keeping my senses alert in case I saw the flickering light of the cabin.

"Remember a few months ago, when I asked you about the Gemeni Twins?" I asked him. He nodded. "And how I asked you if it was possible that they were still alive?" I questioned. He nodded once more. "And you told me it wasn't possible since my own mother killed them both?"

"What are you getting at?" he asked.

"One of them is still alive," I said bluntly. He stopped walking.

"What?!" he asked, incredulously. "You're lying," he said.

"I told you you wouldn't believe me," I said, frowning.

"Caley, we would have known if they were still alive," he said.

"It's not they. It's just one of them. Mikael," I corrected.  "And it's true. I met him," I said. "I spoke with him."

"It was probably someone posing as him," he said.

"No, it was him. He had a staff that had all these different colored lights in it.  He said he was blind unless he had the staff with him," I said.

"Holy Merlin..." Gerrard whispered. "I can't believe it," he said. "Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Because I didn't trust you," I said. He glared at me.

"That's a lie," he said. I sighed.

"Because I didn't know what to make of it. I thought I could figure something out, but I couldn't," I said. "So now I'm telling you," I said.

"He lives here in the forest?" he asked. I nodded. "That makes sense. No one in the right mind would want to venture through this place," he said.

"Well, I want you to meet him. That's why we're here. But I can't figure out where his cabin is," I said.

"Maybe he made it so that it can't be found, but can be stumbled upon," he suggested.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"When you were exploring this forest before, you weren't looking for anything. You just stumbled upon the cabin. There are spells that allow that," he explained.

"So, what are you suggesting? We just wander around aimlessly until it jumps out at me?" I asked.

"Why are you so hung up on finding it anyway?" he asked.

"Call me crazy, but there has to be a reason why my mother didn't kill him and killed his brother," I said. Gerrard gave me a look of pity.

"You think he has something to do with the countercurse?" he asked. I sighed, starting to feel a little helpless.

"I honestly have no idea. But right now, I have nothing to go off of. I need to start somewhere. And if what you're saying about the Twins having an incredible amount of magical power and knowledge is true, then maybe he can help me," I said.

"Ok, we can keep looking," he said. I smiled at him gratefully and then turned around to keep walking. But when I turned, I stopped in my tracks, making Gerrard bump into me.

There, in front of me, was the cabin.

"Oh my God. There it is," I said, my voice quiet.

"There what is?" Gerrard asked, looking in the same direction I was looking in.

"The cabin. It's right there!" I exclaimed, pointing at the large wooden structure. He squinted and furrowed his brow.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "I don't see anything."

I looked at him incredulously.

"Gerrard! How can you not see that? It's kind of hard to miss," I said.

"Caley, I honestly can't see anything," he said. I looked at him and realized he was telling the truth. I looked back at the cabin and blinked a few times to make sure I was actually seeing it and not hallucinating or anything. But sure enough, it was still there.

"I don't understand why I can see it and you can't," I said.

"Maybe there's a spell on it so that only certain people can see it and others can't; for protection and privacy," he suggested.

"If that were true, then why didn't I see it before?" I asked.

"Because you weren't paying attention. Or rather, you were paying too much attention," he said.

"So then, how am I going to get you inside?" I asked.

"I don't know. Protection spells are one of the most ancient kind of spells. There's a lot of different ways to approach them," he replied. I frowned and looked at the cabin. There weren't any lights on inside like last time. I wondered if Mikael was even in there.

I started forward and went up to the door. It didn't open by itself like before. There was no Mikael standing there to greet me. Instead, I stood simply staring at the door. I decided to knock, as courtesy, but there was no answer.

"Mikael! It's me! Caley Lucia!" I called out, continuing to knock. There was still no response. I looked back at Gerrard, who was looking at me with a puzzled expression on his face. I faced the door again and decided to just try and open it. I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it and to my extreme surprise, it opened.

"That was eas-" I started, but was cut off by my voice being taken away. A wave of air surrounded me, swirling around so fast that it made a vacuum around me. I felt like all of the air was being sucked out of my lungs. I heard Gerrard shout at me and saw him try to come towards before being thrown backwards by the force of the wind. Grasping at my throat, my vision became blurry and my head began to pound. In front of me, a phantom of a person appeared. It looked like Mikael, only more ghost-like.

"If you are who you claim to be, what was the drink I offered you when you were here?" the phantom question in a hollow, resonating voice.

I racked my brains and tried to search for the answer. I couldn't remember the name, but the picture of the electric blue liquid formed in my mind and the soothing calmness it brought filled me. The phantom took this answer and the winds died down and the air rushed back into my lungs. I gasped for my breath,  coughing and wheezing. Looking up, I saw that the phantom was still there.

"Only one may enter," it said, referring to Gerrard who was making his way towards the cabin again. I wondered how bizarre the scene had appeared to him, since he couldn't really see what was happening.

"He's with me. I trust him and so can you," I said to it.

At the word trust, the phantom disappeared. Gerrard came up next to me.

"What just happened?" he asked.

"Can you see the cabin or not?" I asked. He shook his head. I took his hand and pulled him inside, bracing myself for something bad to happen. When nothing did, I let out a sigh of relief.

Gerrard was looking at his surroundings, a look of confusion plastered on his face.

"Do you see it now?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah, I do."

"Good. Now come on. Let's look for Mikael," I said.

We walked through the hallway and into the living room where Mikael had seated me the first time I had gone to his cabin.

"Mikael!" I called out.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw what was before me.

The place was trashed.

It looked like a storm had blown through the living room, leaving a massive mess behind. The elegant chair that Mikael had sat on was torn and flipped, the table snapped in half, the chandelier hanging loosely from the ceiling. There were long gashes on the walls that ripped through the wallpaper. The bookshelf was overturned and the books that were in it were littered all over the floor.

"What the hell happened over here?" Gerrard asked.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," I replied, looking around. "Do you think he was found?" I asked.

Gerrard wandered over to the walls, bringing his hands up and running them over the ripped wallpaper gashes. He stepped back and looked at the couch, kicking it over. Then he walked out into the hallway before walking back in.

"No, I don't think he was found," he said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"There wasn't a sign of any struggle," he replied, shrugging. I looked at him incredulously.

"Umm, do you not see this mess?" I asked him, indicating the disaster that was before us.

"I do, but it wasn't caused by a fight. I think it was done purposefully," he replied.

"What?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"If there had been a fight, the enitre cabin would have been destroyed, not just the living room. The hallway is perfectly fine. The door is fine. Everything else is fine. It's just this room that was destroyed. Which means, he wanted to create the impression that something bad went down here, when in reality, he did everything himself," Gerrard explained.

I looked at Gerrard, slightly in awe. He really did have better sense than I did. I tended to jump to conclusions. Gerrard thought things through. It was one of the reasons why I was so drawn to him and why I trusted him.

"Why would he stage this, though?" I asked.

"Probably to lead astray intruders," he replied. I nodded and looked around at the mess.

"But where is he?" I questioned.

"Now that is a question that I can't answer," he said.

"When that phantom appeared, it recognized me. Maybe Mikael left a note for me or something," I said.

"If he did, it's probably not obvious," he said.

"Let's look around and see if we can find anything," I suggested.

And so we set to work, restoring the messy room to it's previous condition. We flipped the chairs back over and mended the walls. We straightened the chandelier and pulled the bookshelf back up. There were still books and papers littered all over the floor. I stooped down now to sift through them, looking to see if I could find anything that Mikael might have left behind that would indicate his whereabouts.

I sat down at the previously overturned couch and began looking through the papers. The majority of the papers had written on it slanted cursive handwriting that looked to be written quickly and messily. The ink was smudged in many of the places and the writing was extremely difficult to read indeed. I squinted at the writing on one page, but could only make sense of a handful of words.

I continued to look through the papers, stopping at the ones that had drawings on them. There were drawings of castles and palaces, of what looked to be kings and queens, and royal families. There were drawings of knights and armies, some with the teardrop on their flags, some with flames, some with leaves, and some with a patterened sun.

I wondered, as I looked through these drawings, if there was once a time when there were empires and kingdoms in the magical world, just as there had been in the rest of the ancient world.

"Caley!" I heard Gerrard call out, distracting me from my rifling.

"What?!" I called back.

"Come here! You have to see this!" he replied.

I put the papers down in a neat pile on the table and dusted my hands off on my jeans. Then I made my way to where Gerrard's voice was coming from. I entered what looked to be study room of sorts. It looked like a miniature version of the library that was in Trey's house--with books upon books covering the walls and papers and notes written everywhere.

"What's going on?" I asked Gerrard, coming up next to him. He was bent over the table, looking at a few long papers that were colorful from afar. Up close, I realized they were maps.

"I think I may have found where our missing Twin could be," he said, handing me a map.

The map looked like a rough sketch of Europe. But there were significant differences in the drawing, since many of the countries did not exist on the map and the ones drawn on the map weren't real. In many places, there were markings in different colors: red, blue, green, brown, and yellow. On top of some of these markings were black X's.

"What is this?" I asked.

"A map, obviously," Gerrard replied, his brow furrowed as he looked at the map in his own hand.

"Yeah, but of what?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know about these, but the one in your hand is a map of the European area circa the Persian Empire," he replied.

"What? How can you tell?" I asked.

"I've had my share of history lessons, Caley," he answered, glancing at me briefly.

"Ok, then what are those in your hands?" I asked, pointing at the maps he had in his hands.

"It seems like they're the same map, but at different periods of time throughout history. The "country" lines or the "empire" lines changed and it seems like the locations of whatever it is that he has marked on these maps have also changed," Gerrard replied.

"You think he could be at those locations?" I asked.

"I have no idea. I mean, the markings are pretty precise, if you ask me. He's got exact latitudes and longitudes on here," he said.

"So I guess the remaining question is is what those locations are," I said.

"Well, not only that, but which one he's gone to look for," Gerrard added.

"And what it all means," I said, looking at the intricate maps.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"You really think he has the answer to your questions?" Gerrard asked.

"I really do," I replied. He stood up straight and faced me.

"Well, then. I guess you're going to have to declare that you're studying abroad for a year," he said. "Because traveling to all of these places is going to take a long time."

I let out a long breath, looking at the maps on the table.

Gerrard was right. This was going to take a very long time.

________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Oh, goodness gracious. I have not updated in quite some time. I apologize for that. School started off with a bang and I barely have had time to breathe, let alone write.

So here it is; Chapter 5. What'd you guys think? What do you think Mikael is searching for? I feel like you guys can guess all you want, but you won't get it right. =P You should all take that as a challenge and leave me lots of guesses to prove me wrong.

Anyway, comment and vote, my little fanlings. I love reading your comments and I love it even more when you vote, too. So do both!

Until next time...

XOXO