Thump. Thump. Thump.

Rockie slid around the corner, then regained his sprint up the hallway to the spiral staircase that led up to the master's quarters. When his foot touched the floor, Rockie dashed into a room to the right, King's study, then went for the wood desk.

He practically crashed into the edge of the desk sending a few papers fluttering before he hurried and squeezed his body underneath.

He took deep breaths, keeping his ears opened for trouble. He was prepared.

"Ready or not, here I come," a muffled voice echoed out through the walls.

Showtime

Rockie waited as he listened to the sound of stomping increasing below and people laughing. They'll never find him up here.

Too bad the kids' patience was nearly nonexistent. 'Fuck this. I'm running to base', he thought then shifted on his palms and knees. The sound of paper crinkling drew Rockie to look down at the sheet under his hand. He lifted his hand to see the paper more clearly.

'Please. If anyone get this, help. Fall border', Rockie read then frowned. The message was short and scribbled like the person had been in a hurry writing it with no name. He moved his hand over until it bumped into something light. It was a paper ball next to many more that had fallen from the full trash basket. Rockie's eyes returned back to the letter. 'Fall border huh?'.

19

Fall Border

Rockie rode the rails to the stairs down before landing back in their hallway.

"Rockie, where were you?" Triton asked as he walked up to the older boy with a wide smile.

Rockie gave a cheeky grin, "In my secret hiding spot. Let me talk to you." He said, then headed into their room. When they were inside, Rockie turned to face Triton.

"Okay, here's the thing buddy. I've been given a special mission. I have to leave and go some place far, but you can't tell anyone. I'm trusting you with this."

Triton frowned then his lips puckered up, "Well, that sounds dangerous, Rockie. Is someone going with you?"

"Look at me," Rockie exclaimed. "Imma beast. I don't need no bodyguard. I got this."

"Where are you going?" Triton asked with wide, curious eyes.

"I can't tell you all that. It's all confidential in this objective I got." Rockie said, waving the letter in Triton's face.

"Let me see," K.O said, popping out of nowhere to snatch the letter from Rockie's grasp.

"Give it back, punk." Rockie growled and started shoving the blonde.

The blonde teen just took the shoves using his height as an advantage while he read the letter, then his body went rigid. He shot around to the ginger with a serious face. "You've lost it now."

"Give it back." Rockie barked, reaching for the sheet, only for K.O to yank it out of his reach.

"You can't be serious right? I mean, not even you can be this stupid." K.O snarled aggressively, shoving Rockie back with one hand.

Rockie stumbled back from the hard push and caught his footing, then glared at K.O. "Why? If someone needs our help, it's our job to help them. And maybe it isn't as bad as everyone says. You've never been there."

"What isn't?" Belle asked as she glided her way into the room.

K.O held out the letter and she grabbed it and let her eyes scan. Her eyes widened and she instantly froze up.

"You hearing yourself? Fall border is deemed the worse place on the planet. It's ran by a maniac, who'd enjoy making his citizens kill each other and you're talking about waltzing in and playing hero." K.O argued, praying that Rockie couldn't be serious about crossing the borderline. "Does that sound like lollipopville?"

"And you were trying to have me lie for you?" Triton questioned hurt. His eyes softened then teared up, "Rockie."

RIIIP. The boys looked to see Belle rip the letter in half, then turned it sideways to rip it again. "No more talk of this," Belle stated, continuing to tear the page to graffiti at her feet as she took measured steps toward Rockie. "It is not up for discussion. It's not up for debate. This is not an adventure and this isn't one of your stupid stories. You. Will not. Cross. That border." She grounded out with a dead serious expression, towering over Rockie.

He also caught a glimsp of something else in her eyes. Like she was scared.

"Understood?" She asked with a locked jaw.

Rockie rocked his head back and forth so hard, they almost collided noggins. Belle stared at him for a while calculatingly then turned on her heels and marched from the room.

Rockie squinted his eyes at her back, then glared over and saw K.O and Triton glaring at him with their arms folded.

"What?" Rockie barked angrily, hunching up his shoulders.

K.O and Triton just shook their heads at him.

That night...

The house was dark and still as everyone rested peacefully.

Rockie peeked opened his eyes, and then silently lifted up in his bed fully dressed already. He scanned the room and after making sure everyone were sleep, got off of his cot. He tiptoed towards the door and swiftly left the room.

Once in the hallway, Rockie tiptoed to the staircase, then lightly stepped down them until he was situated in the main hall. He made his way across the room to the back door and opened it. When he stepped out into the night, he turned around to face the house.

"Nobody tells me what to do." He muttered, then closed the door.

Click

K.O's eyes popped opened at the sudden noise. Something felt off. He turned over to his left in his bed to face Rockie's. The bed was empty.

"Fuck." K.O growled, then threw the cover off of him and jumped to his feet.

Rockie maneuvered through the forest using his hand as a light against the darkness. The forest grew thicker as he neared closer to his destination. 'Haha' Rockie inwardly cheered. He was almost there.

The sound of running gradually grew from behind him before something crashed into his back and sent him toppling over a ledge. He slammed down onto a steep hill and rolled down it, knocking against humps and boulders on the way.

Thud. Rockie landed stomach first to the ground. Before he could register the pain, he was yanked up and turned around left to face a hostile K.O. The blonde held Rockie off his feet by his shirt collar.

Without saying a word, K.O punched Rockie twice in the face and let him go to the ground. He then grabbed the back of Rockie's vest and started dragging the ginger up the hill.

"Let go!" Rockie gruffed as he struggled trying to break K.O's hold. He slammed his heels into the dirt deep enough to slow the blonde down. Rockie then clamped his hands tight around K.O's forearm and thrust his feet up and kicked K.O in the face.

"Gah," K.O groaned releasing the boys' shirt and fell back. They both went tumbling down again until they crashed into a tall concreted wall.

They both tried to get right, however Rockie beat the blonde to his feet. Rockie stepped over K.O and sat on his chest with a grin. He reared his arm back then punched K.O twice, making his nose bleed, before the blonde grabbed his arms and wrestled him to his back.

K.O punched him. "You're coming back." K.O yelled preparing to punch him again.

Rockie bent his right leg and kicked K.O in the stomach. K.O fell back with a grunt.

"No, I'm not." Rockie stated, sitting up glaring at K.O. He really was getting pissed off.

"For once in your life, can you stop being a dumbass," K.O stated, sitting up as well. "If you go in there, you'll die. You know this?"

"No. I'll be the hero that I am," Rockie argued standing on wobbly legs and rubbed the blood from his mouth with his elbow. "If it's anything like those old ghost stories just wait till they meet Rockie K."

"Aah," K.O roared as he tackled Rockie to the ground and the two traded punches while they tumbled across the forest floor.

"Hello," a soft voice called out, and the boys froze and looked over to a small tunnel in the wall blocked by a metal barrier. The voice seemed to be coming from the other end.

Rockie pushed K.O off of him and crawled over to the metal barrier. Through the bars he could vaguely see a small shadow.

"If you are lost, you need to go now." The voice warned, which now sounded like a small boy.

Rockie peered into it, "No. We're not lost."

"Rockie, stop." K.O whispered-shouted to the boy.

"We actually got a letter to come here."

"Rockie!" K.O urged, stalking towards the ginger.

"You," the figure on the other end started. "You got my letter?"

"You wrote that?" Rockie laughed like he was relinking with an old friend.

"Wait right there." The voice said, then vanished leaving the night to shine through.

"Okay Rockie. Let's go before he come back." K.O quickly said urgently to the ginger.

Rockie stared at him for a while with his brows furrowed, and then his face smoothed out. "Okay."

K.O frowned at him confused, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"You serious, cause I am?" K.O continued wiping his nose clean, trying to find the trick the kid was pulling, but Rockie's face was neutral as he just nodded his head. K.O slightly nodded along, still incredulous. "Alright, come on then." K.O said and went to grab for Rockie's arm, but the younger boy jerked out of reach and started marching to the hill. K.O followed.

The hill up to the ledge was so steep that the boys would literally have to crawl back up. K.O started climbing when the next thing he felt was a shock followed by pain across the back of his head before everything faded to black.

Back at the guild...

Belle's face scrunched in as her body swayed from side to side before she realized that someone was shaking her. She moaned in annoyance, then slit her eyes open. The color red was the only thing she caught through her blurry vision. The shaking got harder and Belle blinked her eyes rapidly until she could make out Maya.

The girl still looked half asleep as she rubbed an eye continuing to push Belle with one hand.

Belle groaned, then swatted her hand away as she sat up. "What do you want?"

Maya opened her mouth wide and the girl let out a yawn, "Rockie and K.O are gone."

"What?!" Belle asked with a squeak. "Where?"

"I don't know," Maya said, then yawned again. "I was going to smear jelly on Rockie's face, but they were both gone. Oh well, bummer." Maya pouted, then noticed that Belle was extremely quiet. She peered down to see the water magic froze staring at the wall. Maya frowned, "Belle?"

"Tell me they didn't. They couldn't have." Belle started talking to herself.

"What are you talking about?"

Belle suddenly jumped out of bed, "We need to get King." She said and headed for the door.

"Whoa there girlie," Maya said grabbing ahold of Belle's arm and spinning Belle around to face her. She was awake now. "Get King for what?"

"I think they went to cross the border."

"The border? You're not talking-"

"Fall border," Belle forced out under her breath and her spine shivered. "Yeah."

"Why in the hell would they do that?" Maya's eyes bulged out as she whispered-shouted. The rest of the girls were still trying to sleep.

"Not important. We just have to get King." Belle tried once again for the door, yet Maya grabbed her bicep.

Belle turned to Maya who was just staring at her with a blank face.

"If they did cross the border, getting King will be a bad idea. I mean they aren't that stupid right, so let's not go overboard with disturbing King. It will do nothing, but get those two killed." Maya said, slowly releasing Belle's arm.

"They're dead either way!" Belle lowly shouted back. "They deserve whatever punishment come to them. This is not a game. He need to go get them."

"He will be so mad if he find out. King despises that place more than anything and to be honest, I don't blame him." Maya paused with a shudder as all the stories rushed through her mind. Any story about Fall border was horrorific and terrifying. "I believe they wouldn't be dumb enough to cross. We'll just go to the line and try to knock some sense into them. Let's bring them back before anyone wake up and I promise you I'll help you bitch at them tomorrow." Maya tried to rationalize hoping Belle wouldn't go to bother the master.

The older teen just stared at her looking unsure.

"Okay?" Maya continued to plead. "If we get there and they're not there, we'll come back here and get King."

"You promise?" Belle asked, in an almost child-like way. For some reason, Belle's demeanor was younger, as she looked on with wide, trusting eyes.

Maya was thrown back a bit yet she stiffly nodded. "Yeah."

Belle stuck out her pinky. Maya curled her pinky around Belle's.

"Alright. Let's change and go."

The girls ran through the thick forest with Maya leading the way carrying a lantern. Belle added in directions for them to take which cause Maya to eye her a few times.

They continued to sprint through the forest when suddenly Belle reached out and grabbed Maya's arm.

"Watch out." Belle shouted, pulling Maya back into her body.

Maya didn't know what was going on until she looked down and noticed that she'd been seconds away from falling over a ledge.

She took a breath then looked over her shoulder to the older girl, "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Let's go this way to go around." Belle said, pointing towards the right and the two ran in the direction, going around the steep hill.

Staying hidden in the shadows from the trees, Belle and Maya took stealthy footsteps before they approached the giant concreted wall that kept intruders out and citizens inside of Fall border. Belle sucked in a breath, then started taking small hesitate steps back as her wide eyes stared frighteningly at the wall.

"Where's the entrance to this thing?" Maya grumped staring down the length of the wall. A twig snapping had Maya turning around to see Belle retreating back slowly with a look of total fear on her face. Maya frowned concerned for the girl. "Are you okay?"

"Ngh," the girls turned around when they heard a low groan come from somewhere behind them. The girls made their way around the trees until they approached the hill. At first, they didn't see anything, but the sound of groaning drew them over towards the bottom of the hill were they noticed blonde hair.

They slowly stepped towards the person before they realized it was K.O lying on the ground. The boy shifted around letting out more groans. The girls hurried and sprinted towards him.

"K.O," Belle softly said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

K.O placed a hand on the back of his throbbing head and blinked his eyes until he peeked through. He pushed himself up to his knees, but he must've moved too fast because his stomach started turning and he had to cover his mouth before his gagging turned into vomiting.

"What happened to you and where's Rockie?" Maya asked the blonde.

"He... he hit me." K.O lowly said, hissing while applying pressure to the sore knot.

"That's normal." Maya huffed throwing her hands on her hips.

"No, he really hit me." K.O said bewildered, looking up at the girl.

"Well, where is he now?"

K.O frowned as he looked around, still slightly confused from the bump and then looked towards the wall where the metal barrier now lay on the ground.

"That idiot," K.O gritted jumping to his feet and running to the spot. Maya was right on his tail. When she was in reach, she yanked K.O around by the arm.

"He went in there?" She asked, her eyes frantic and angry.

"What do you think?" K.O gripped back, snatching his arm away from her.

"Why would he do that?"

"Stop asking me stupid questions that I can't answer."

Maya looked at him like she could kill. "Then why in the hell would you let him go in there?"

"I didn't let him go anywhere. Now let's point fingers later and go in there and get him." K.O snapped at the fuming red head, stepping into her face.

"No," Belle spoke out with a stern face, silencing the arguing two. A cool breeze rolled passed them.

Dove Clan family

Belle Kiss

age: 15

weight: 120 lbs

height: 5'4", 162.56 cm

eye color: light blue

hair color: white

magic type: water

likes: reading and solitude

dislikes: messiness (people and things) and fighting

guild sign color: blue

She might look like the sweet and innocent type, but when pissed off Belle can be a force to reckon with. Belle is the level-headed one who maintains keeping K.O and Rockie in line. She seldom join in with the guild crazy antics, but enjoy spending every waking minute with her family. Even though she is seen as put together, there is something deep behind those blue eyes.