Esmeralda landed on the ground of her precious floating piece of land.

She went inside the house and goes straight to her bedroom. She lies down on the bed, her mind was preoccupied, trying to plan her next move.

Locating Kate's whereabouts will be difficult this time if her suspicion is correct that the girl is now under the vampires' clutches.

Vampires are not easy beings to deal with. They are powerful, full of schemes, and won't back out easily.

Maxwell and his brothers got to be the ones responsible for what happened to King Voyen's wedding day! They are the first suspect that comes into her mind upon realizing that Kate was gone missing after the lights were restored.

They abducted Kate! She was sure of it!

And now that they finally had the girl, she was confused about what to do?

Should she just let them have her?

Or fight for the girl?

Anyways, what is the value of the girl to her?

She asked herself that question over and over again.

Throughout the centuries, she always shies away from any conflict, because in the past, she believes that her role inside the castle was to be a peacekeeper and not the trouble maker.

Besides, she lives alone and everyone knows that it's for their best interest not to provoke her.

She holds great power over them, their lives are connected to her heart. If she stops breathing and her heart stops beating, all the inhabitants in the castle will perish, no one can escape the dead-end!

She tapped her fingers on the wood, creating a distinct sound.

Her fingers were tapping the wood faster...creating a rushing sound...as if pushing her to act right away!

What if they will kill Kate immediately after they got what they want from her?

And once again, she comes back to the same question...Why are they after the girl?

What is Kate to them?

She stood up. She feels like her brain would explode with so many questions traversing in her mind.

She left her room in a hurry and went out of the house.

Facing the golden tree, she waved her hands summoning the leaves, the leaves began detaching from the branches of the tree and lined up in the air.

Esmeralda announced her task for them.

"The girl Kate is gone again! She was abducted on her wedding day. I want all of you to find her as soon as possible!" she barked her order.

"Don't worry Esmeralda, we will find her!" the leaves uttered in unison.

The leaves began swirling around, and moved closer to each other forming five groups and flew to different directions. After a few seconds, they disappeared from Esmeralda's vision.

"Why are you so worried about the girl, Esmeralda?" the tree asked in bewilderment. "I've never seen you like this..."

Esmeralda sighed. "The girl is becoming important to me. I dunno the reason why? Maybe because I'd been alone for a long time? I found her company refreshing," she answered.

"Why—am I not enough for you? We've been together since the day we were born, we're more than friends. We're twins, remember—?" the tree reminded her sadly.

Esmeralda smiled.

Her mother told her once that when she was born, she was holding a seed in her tiny hand. Her father planted the seed in the garden.

The seed started growing...

And the magical tree was born!

From that moment onward, they become inseparable.

She soon found out that the tree can uproot and resize itself, can talk and move, can disappear and reappear, it can do so many things. And the most amazing part is that she can order the leaves to do her bidding.

"Hey, don't be jealous. You're still my only best friend and my twin. Nothing and no one can separate us. If I die, we die together, okay?" she said.

The tree smiled and was shaking its body.

"So...what do you want to do with the girl?" questioned the tree.

Esmeralda looked at the tree, she's wearing a serious face. "You want to get out of here?"

The tree was shaking, shrieking in delight. "Yesssss! Take me out of here, please!"

Esmeralda smiled. "Soon, just be patient. I think I can find a way how to get out of this forsaken place for good."

"Oh really? That's good progress, you've been studying the process for centuries and still no positive result. Why are you suddenly telling me that we can get out of here alive?" the tree was puzzled.

"I can't tell much right now. I'm still in the first stage of my experiment. I will let you know once I'm done with it," Esmeralda answered.

"And what will you do with the rest of the inhabitants of the castle? You will kill them all?" asked the tree.

"It entirely depends on how my experiment will go. I think I can do better than this. Much better than the three elders! Let see! " there was a dark gleam flashing in her eyes.

"Hmm, interesting! I can't wait for the time you will share your findings with me," said the tree in a chirpy voice.

"Soon!" Esmeralda replied, her eyes shining brightly.

One hour later.

Some of the leaves already returned, they were floating in the air, waiting to be addressed.

"Any news?" Esmeralda asked the first batch of the returning leaves.

"No, we don't have any good news," the leaves said in chorus, they were shaking, indicating that they found nothing. "We already scouted the neighboring areas even the forest below, we're very sorry Esmeralda, we can't find the girl," they apologized.

"Alright returned to the branches now!" she commanded.

The leaves flew fast towards the tree and quickly attached themselves to the branches.

The second batch of the leaves arrives. They went to the lands of the monster creatures to investigate.

"Did you find the girl?" Esmeralda asked.

"Yes..." the leader of the leaves answered.

Esmeralda's eyes widened. "Where!? Tell me quick!"

"We can smell her scent in the monsters dwelling in the pit. But we can't locate her body, only her scent," said the leader regretfully.

"Alright, returned to the tree now!" she ordered.

The leaves attached themselves to the branches.

The third batch of leaves arrived.

"Any news about the girl?" Esmeralda asked.

"We found her smell in the Moonfolk dwellings! But we can't locate her body," the leader of the leaves said.

"Okay, return to the branches now!" Esmeralda commanded.

The fourth batch of leaves just arrived.

"Report!" Esmeralda addressed them.

"We searched the entire place of the vampires and other neighboring places, we can't find the girl in there. We can't also trace her scent around that area," the leader spoke.

Esmeralda was getting confused about the conflicting reports. Why Kate's human scent can't be found in the vampires' territory but was found in another place?

What's going on?

"Okay, go back to your branches," Esmeralda ordered them.

The leaves flew to the tree.

The fifth and last batch of leaves arrived.

"Any news?" Esmeralda said.

"We found her scent in the land of the Faerie, also in the Dwarf territory but unfortunately we can't locate her body!" the leader said.

"Alright, thanks for your hard work. Return to the branches now!" Esmeralda ordered.

The last batch of the leaves flew to the tree and attached themselves to the branches.

The tree is whole again.

Esmeralda went back inside the house.

Time to analyze the reports!

Where to go first?

Into the Monsters pit? Moonfolk and Faerie territories? Or the Dwarf's place?

She has to start looking for Kate somewhere before it's too late and she will lose the girl completely!