Chapter 23:

"What happened?" Chelsea asked a group of Ganashes near the ashes of the Headquarter. The Headquarter was a pile of rubble, the wind sifting the ashes. It almost made Chelsea sad looking at it; there were still pieces of charred furniture standing. She couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like if RiverPlain would to burn...it was her home.

One of the Ganashes turned to the her, he had an angry red burn on the side of his face. The skin peeled from it revealing the bright red flesh underneath. Half of his hair was gone, burned away. "Was just randomly attacked. The wards were disabled, and a horde of Bolesgire came charging in. Then followed by Carevevs and then some Elves. Can you believe it, Elves?" He said in disgust. Ganashes and Elves had always been band together. It was odd to see them attack. But, as she had told Michael, they were probably not part of the Elvish kingdom, probably just Machire's workers.

She nodded in agreement, "It is odd, I don't remember them holding a grudge against us. Is nine the final death count?"

The man shook his head, "Three more died in the flames. FerLands isn't near a body of water, the aqueduct was sabotaged, so it took a while to get water. By the time we had our portals and transported back here, the place was gone! In total, fifteen injured and twelve dead.”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows, "You said they stole all the portals in here. Why do you think they did it?" He didn't seem to like the fact that they stole the portals, Chelsea didn't like it either. She felt like there was a massive scheme behind it all, like all of Machire's attacks had. What worried her is the fact that a nagging feeling told her that stealing the portals had to something with Willow. If Ganashes didn't have portals, they would have to walk through the UnderWorld, which can be suicidal in a lot of cases.

The man shrugged, "We don't know. A panic fire message was sent to CarvesWay, it said that the portals were gone, but nothing more. The attackers all disappeared before we could trap one and interrogate it."

"Maybe they didn't want the people to escape?" Chris replied, he looked thoughtful and sad. His eyes shifting back and forth nervously from the man to the Headquarter that was just ashes. He was probably thinking the same thing she had, what if that was RiverPlain?

"No," The man shook his head again. "They would have killed a lot more if they were after death. We believe they were after the portals themselves."

"Why would they want the portals?" Michael asked. Portals couldn't be used by anyone but Ganashes. Of course, Kopors and Faery creatures from the UpperWorld were allowed to use them. Maybe Machire wants the portals to himself...it would make sense.

"We don't know." A girl said, walking up to them. She looked to be seventeen, with waist length dark hair. She seemed completely unharmed, but Chelsea couldn't be sure whether she lived at this Headquarter or not. She was what someone would say beautiful. All sharp angles and planes. Her cheekbones were prominent, casting shadows on her face. Her eyes were a light blue with specks of dark in them, they were fringed with long, dark eyelashes. As she approached, she examined Michael from head to toe approvingly. Michael ignored her as she smiled at him. Ah, Chelsea thought to herself. She's one those girls.

Any Ganash willing to hit on Michael was a slut. All Ganashes knew he was bound, and all the girls who wanted him didn't love him or crush on him—it would be much too risky—they just wanted him in a bed. Michael, though, was not a man whore. He would probably still be virgin if it weren't for the legend. He was a gentleman in and out. Which was probably why Willow liked him so much—well, that and the fact that he was madly in love with her. Willow, though, had no idea about the legend. Chelsea began to wonder how she would take it.

“Excuse me, Kaelir, the problems are here, not on Michael's face. " Alicia said, snapping her fingers in front of Kaelir's face. Alicia was a straight to the point person, she hated sluts and whores and was not ashamed to insult them or embarrass them.

Michael and Chris both forced a laugh down, the two of them always thought it was funny when Alicia went snappy.

Kaelir was glared at Alicia for a moment, her eyes seeming to spit venom at her. But if it was supposed to intimidate Alicia, it didn't work. Kaelir immediately went all business like.

"Well, standing around here won't do nothing," She said, shifting her weight closer to Michael. Michael just continued to ignore her and even shifted his weight a little farther away. "I say let's go to the Bolesgire's nest, kill as many of them as we like, then go the Carevev's nest and kill as many as we can of them. And then, we go to the Elve's kingdom and give them a piece of our minds."

The man agreed to the plan and Alicia seemed to like it. But, of course, many people did not agree with it. After a few minutes of arguing they concluded they would talk to the Elves and deal with the Bolesgire and Carevevs later. She could tell that Chris was more than eager to go home.

Chelsea started to walk away, but wasn't far enough away to hear Kaelir start talking to Michael. "Michael." She said. “I've heard a lot about you.”

Chelsea , Chris and Alicia stayed close, they loved to hear the arguments Michael got himself into with girls like that. "Really? I guess you really are stupid." He replied, dragging the words out slowly, clearly implying the legend in the sentence.

Alicia laughed quietly next to Chelsea.

"Yeah," Kaelir replied. "I heard about that. But I also heard about the other rumors. That you never give in to any girl and yet you are a Midnight."

The Midnight family was really known for their looks. They were called the “Sexiest Ganashes of today” every year for centuries. It was a long line of well built bodies, blonde hair and green eyes. All of them had been as gorgeous as the next. Michael being the only Midnight left, yet being nothing like his ancestors, seemed to annoy a lot of girls.

“Are you done making idiotic remarks?” He said, still not looking at her.

Before she could answer, he abruptly turned around from her and walked over to them.

Chris smiled at his annoyed face, “Just another day on the job, huh?”

“No kidding,” he replied. And then Alicia got up and lightly punched him in the shoulder.

“The day you give in to one of those girls is the day chickens will grow teeth, that is for sure.”

Michael was about to respond, but then everybody stiffened. They all heard it of course, the endless ear training enabled them to hear even the slightest of movements. Cirestain had this training tool where he had what he called a “whacker” that made the tiniest sound before whacking you on the head. You had to hear it or and press the button that hold the string or it would leave you with a black eye. That month, all of them were covered in bruises and gashes; but it was effective. It trained them to hear the slightest noises.

They all took out their blades. Mostly all the Ganashes there heard it because they all had their blades out and were looking around alertly.

It seemed out of nowhere, but a Bolesgire jumped out and landed on Michael. Knocking him to the ground and twisting his wrist. A terrible cracking sound came and Michael hissed, dropping the weapon. It was all within seconds, but all the Ganashes lunged at the Bolesgire. By the time one of the blades went through, Michael had an ugly gash across his chest.

Blood was piling quickly and his wrist was swollen and was a dark, disturbing shade of purple. But, by the time Chelsea helped him up, the skin in the gash was already building it's way back up. By the time Michael was straight, the blood had stopped flowing completely.

It was one of the perks of having fast healing bodies, it kept you safe most of the time.

* * * * * * * * * *

Willow sat in her room, not knowing what to do with herself. She made small talk with Evelyn. Evelyn was just as happy about the ball as Alicia was. She gushed about how Willow was so lucky that she got to see CarvesWay River, the biggest Ganash HQ there is. Willow felt an uncomfortable clump in her stomach at just the thought of going to such a large HQ surrounded by Ganashes and expected to dance and look pretty.

She got so easily lost in RiverPlain, the smallest of them all, how would she ever find her way through the largest? It was probably the size of Michigan considering how big the RiverPlain was. She imagined herself with the Ganashes staring her down angrily. In RiverPlain, many of the Ganashes barely tolerated her presence; she was an Amnesian, a greedy torturer, and they didn't even know that she was Machire's daughter.

Evelyn babbled about the exquisite decorations at CarvesWay, the royal food, the countless amounts of servants (not slaves, Willow had learned, which eased her mind). Willow nodded, and smiled in what she hoped were the right places.

"So its like...a palace?" Willow asked, looking out her window, the view wasn't as good up from her window as it was on the cliff with Michael. They were supposed to go to the UpperWorld last week, but it had been too busy. And by the time they met up it was almost nine o'clock at night. Today, though, Michael had sworn he would take her. Though with Ferlands being up in flames, she wondered if it would happen at all.

"Yes!" Evelyn yapped. "It's like a palace! But so much grander!”

Willow couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm—at all the Ganashe's enthusiasm. It seemed CarvesWay was their pride and joy, there homeland, the emblem.

She just hoped that tonight she could return to her home for a little while.

And she also hoped to spend time with Michael, although she had a hard time admitting it. It seemed, lately, that she always wanted to be around him. Always wondered where he was, always thought about him.

She wasn't sure if it was a crush, she'd never really had crushes. And when she did have a crush, there wasn't this much...emotion involved.

She hoped they would go today.

And she tried to keep the mental images of the “grandness” of CarvesWay.

* * * * * * * * * *

Willow gasped as Michael, Chelsea, Alicia and Chris walked in. Michael's shirt was soaked through with blood and Willow could see three angry red scars beneath it. The scars looked like old scars, still red, but thin and it looked as if it had been healing for months. Yet, the fresh blood on his shirt seemed to tell her otherwise.

"Willow it's fine." Michael said, looking at her horror struck face. "Ganashes heal like, an injury that takes you a month to heal only takes us an hour."

"Oh." Willow said, still looking at the scars wearily. Her heart was beating in her chest painfully, she was worried, despite herself. She could feel her palms all sweaty with nervousness.

Why would you care anyway?

A voice chided her in her head. She didn't know why she had the urge to hug him in relief that he was okay. It was nothing fatal.

Alicia was eyeing her with a smile playing over her lips. Willow tried not to meet her eyes, fearing that Alicia could read the emotions that were probably pasted on her face like a red flashing sign that said, “I care about Michael much more than I should.”

To distract herself, she asked, "What happened?"

"Bolesgire attacked." Chris said. Michael threw himself on the couch and looked at Willow eagerly, as if he was waiting for something; maybe the trip to the UpperWorld?

Ugh, Willow groaned internally. Why am I so obsessed? She remembered watching TV shows where the girls constantly obsessed over their crush slash boyfriend. Willow didn't want to be like one of those girls; but she now did understand them a lot better.

Alicia got up, she was watching Michael, and so was Chelsea and Chris. "Well, I am bushed, I think we should go to bed, Chelsea and Chris."

Chelsea smiled, “That is a great idea, Alicia. I think we should go.”

Michael and Willow watched as they walked out of the room. They were all terrible actors. It was only two PM, impossible that they were tired. But, even though they made it slightly awkward, Willow was happy they left her and Michael alone.

“Alright,” Michael said, standing up. “I am going to put a shirt on and then we're off.”

She perked up, unable to help herself. “We're actually going?”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her in confusion, “Of course we are 'actually going'. I promised didn't I?”

She smiled brightly, unable to help herself.

“C'mon,” he said, and Willow more than willingly followed him.

* * * * * * * * *

They stopped by his room first, so he could put a shirt on. As soon as they were at his door Willow felt a sense of discomfort. She wondered whether he wanted her to wait outside or go inside, or wait in the doorway. So, when he left the door open, she hovered in the doorway, unsure of what to do with herself.

Michael looked over his shoulder as he walked to his dresser. “You can come in.” He said.

She followed his words and walked in slowly, then leaned against the wall. She tried not to stare as if he pulled his shirt over his head and opened up a drawer. She had seen guys shirtless before, of course. But yet, this was so much different. Watching him, she saw things she had not noticed before. The way the muscles moved when he opened the drawer. How smooth the skin was and how it glowed slightly in the bright light.

As fast as his shirt was off, another way back on. It was a navy blue short sleeve shirt, a casual shirt. Seeing how casual he looked made her really realize the fact that she was going to the UpperWorld today, to her home.

He turned around, “We won't need any weapons,” he said. “Might as well leave now.”

Her eagerness continued to build up in her chest, “We're actually doing this.” She whispered as they exited his bedroom and he closed the door behind him.

Michael laughed, “You seriously thought I wouldn't go through with it?”

“Maybe,” Willow answered. They were making their way to the Weapons' Room to get the portals. The time was going quickly and before Willow could begin to be overexcited Michael threw the portal and it opened up.

He held out his hand and she grabbed it. Enjoying the pleasant feeling of safety it gave her, and the jolt of energy. “Are you ready?” He asked, his voice soft.

Willow nodded and they both jumped through.

She landed in soft, freshly mowed grass. The sweet smell was strong and awakening. She looked around her.

They were in a neighborhood; with regular houses and backyards. They weren't within the stone walls, nor the mountain landscapes.

She was home.