The girl glared at Tucker, her eyes getting more ferocious by the second. It was clear that Tucker was panicking, even if he didn't show it outwardly. That meant it probably wasn't best for him to do the explaining. I looked over to Mary and Mr. Reginald, who also had arrows pointed at them and sharp tips lightly jabbing their backs. Mr. Reginald looked concerned while Mary looked rather unfazed.

I had to think about it. Mary isn't a people person so I'd rather not have her negotiate when our lives are on the line and I don't know enough about Mr. Reginald's people skills to trust him to get out of this situation. Welp, that means it's up to me. Better than dying I guess.

I raised my hands up, trying my best to be as innocuous and as little of a threat as possible. Sadly, it wasn't reciprocated well, as one of the archers reacted by trying to end mr with a quick shot. Fortunately, I sidestepped it.

Weird, I thought. It didn't feel like my body was taken over. That couldn't have been my reflexes, could it? I shook my head. That's not important right now. I need to talk my way out of our current predicament.

I let out a nervous smile. "Umm, I'm sorry if we're intruding, but we didn't mean to cause any trouble."

The girl currently threatening Tucker's life gazed over at me, but kept the knife up to Tucker's neck. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she lowered her knife and started walking over to me. I felt the spear on my back let up as the muscular woman backed up a few steps.

The girl walking over was slightly taller than me, with long black hair and brown eyes, with a leather homemade ribbon tying some of her hair into a small braid. The clothes she was wearing could only be described as woodland clothing as they were leather and most likely made from animal hides. Unsurprisingly, she was barefoot.

She walked up right to me, with little more than an inch between us. Without warning, she took a step back and threw a punch at me. My first reaction was to dodge but Miss Myala's voice chimed in my head.

Just take the punch.

Trusting her words, I took a bullet to the gut and fell to the ground in pain.

"Sir Arthur!" A voice yelled. Probably Mr. Reginald.

It didn't hurt as much as I expected, but it was still painful enough to make me want to throw up, which was surprising considering the girl who punched me looked like the weakest out of everyone who was surrounding us. I wanted to roll over and groan, but I knew better than to show weakness to the Amazons.

I jumped up and looked back at the girl. I put my hands up once again. "We don't want any trouble," I repeated.

Hearing this, she looked at her knife for a moment, as if deciding whether she'll need it or not before ultimately slipping it into a sash that was on her leg.

"Then..." she said in almost perfect English, "why did you hurt Baihu?"

"Baihu?"

She gestured over to the Liger who was now lying on the ground with its one good eye closed while several of the women were treating its paws.

"He randomly attacked us," I tried to explain. "We fended him off but he wouldn't leave us alone."

"I see..." The distrust didn't leave her eyes, not that I could blame her. We are strangers walking into her territory. If someone was randomly walking around the area of the mansion I'd be pretty suspicious as well.

The girl looked back at Tucker, then Mr. Reginald, before stopping at Mary.

"I'd be willing to believe your plea of innocence, If your friend didn't reek of our scouting dog's blood."

Upon hearing this, every Amazon directed their attention towards Mary. Their faces grew fiercer as the Archers pointed their bows all towards Mary.

Mary of course, looked far from concerned, which probably upset the Amazon women even more.

"The scouting dogs do not attack unless ordered, which meant there was no way they posed a threat to you. Yet you stained yourself in their blood."

"I did not kill your dogs," Mary said.

"You lie! I smell their blood on your hands. It reeks."

"They were dead when I found them. I moved their corpses away from our campsite as to prevent the others from panicking."

...Is that what she was doing when she said she was looking for flowers earlier?

The girl walked over to Mary and examined her.

"Hmm. Your face, your voice and your actions. They all tell me you're telling the truth."

"Then—" Mr. Reginald started

"But," she said, cutting him off, "that doesn't explain why you're here."

"Well, uh, as strange as it is, my father told us to meet with the Amazon women to establish trade."

"Father? And who would that be? I've heard nothing of this."

"His name is Gideon Price. He lives in a mansion right outside of this forest.

"A manshun? I've heard of one of those once before."

"Ainia," one of the archer's spoke, "Eth epacl eks datacket syare goa."

The girl nodded. "E vise."

I don't know what she just told her, but I hope that it wasn't more false claims against us.

The girl, who I found out is called Ainia, raised her hands up. "Rloweo ryuo swapone!" She shouted.

With that, everyone put down their weapons.

She walked back over to me. "You have proven your innocence, but we do not trust you. You shall earn the approval of the queen or you shall be Baihu's next meal."

Unsure of what to say, I nodded.

She responded by walking in a random direction but stopped when she realized we were not behind her.

"Come." She said.

Then she started walking again. I ran a little to catch up to her, while Mary, Mr. Reginald, and Tucker were enclosed by Amazon women who were most likely watching their every move. For some reason they seemed not as alert around me.

Not wanting to look suspicious, I distanced myself from the three and caught up to Ainia. Maybe I could get some answers out of her. Upon catching up she looked at me with an almost quizzical expression, like she wasn't expecting me to walk with her.

"You are not like the others," she spoke. "Those two men have traces of fears for us. But you and the red headed girl do not. I don't know whether to call you courageous or stupid."

I wanted to laugh but I couldn't actually tell whether she was joking or not. She wasn't even looking at me. She was busy looking up ahead, weaving between trees and avoiding certain areas which I guessed meant they were probably traps. I did my best to follow her but I had to admit she was extremely agile which made it hard to keep up with her. Seeing this, she picked up the pace.

She climbed up a tree and started weaving between tree branches while I struggled to not run into various dangerous animals or Amazonian traps. I didn't even have time to look back and see if the Amazon army was still behind us. Ainia would occasionally look back to see if she'd lost me, but once she saw me, she would just continue to speed through the trees. Somehow, I wasn't running out of stamina and beginning to get accustomed to the forest patterns and Ainia's movements. Avoiding snake pits and bear traps was becoming like second nature and my only goal was to make sure Ainia was always within sight.

This went on for what felt like hours but in reality I doubt it lasted more than twenty minutes before Ainia summersalted perfectly off a tree branch.

I ran up to her, impressed that I wasn't dripping in sweat. Although, I was nothing compared to her. She wasn't sweating at all.

She grinned. "Not bad, Arthur," Ainia said.

"Huh, how do you my name?"

She put her finger in her ear. "The big guy screamed it earlier, did he not?"

"...I wouldn't know, I was on the ground."

"You took it well. I hope there are more city people like you out there."

"Probably. I'm not that special."

"We shall see."

I took a moment to capture the landscape around me. The soft wind, the trees, and the noises the insects made were pretty calming. I felt calm. Well, until a hand was rested upon my shoulder and I jumped.

I looked back to see Tucker, as well as Mary, Reginald, and the rest of the Amazon women.

"Yo Arthur. I'm being held at spear point and you get to run off with a cute forest girl? No fair."

"Run off with? I think trying to keep up with her was more accurate."

Mary walked out of the circle of Amazon women and towards us. She looked at me and then at Ainia and back at me.

"Something you want to say?" Ainia challenged her.

But Mary didn't say anything, which is honestly probably the best thing she could've said. It's not like we weren't still surrounded.

"Are you okay, Sir Arthur?" Mr. Reginald said, walking up.

"Yeah, I'm fine Mr. Reginald."

Tucker put his hands over his head as if he was bored. "This is cool and all, but where's your guy's, err girl's, home at. All I see is a bunch of trees."

"Impatient fool," one of the Amazon women near the back spoke.

"Citay fulk er thrash." Another said.

"Filtay Citay dwellers." Another chimed in.

I see we aren't well liked out here.

"Quiet!" Ainia yelled. "Save your hate until after the queen's judgment."

No one said anything.

Ainia answered previous question by walking through some abnormally large bushes and disappeared. Not thinking about it too much, I followed her.

On the other side of the bushes was...the ocean...like the actual ocean. The sun reflected on the ocean and made the water sparkle. There was nothing to be heard but the chirping of birds and the pushing of waves.

"Down," Ainia spoke, but it sounded like an order.

I looked down to see the rocks enclose part of the water like a private area. I could tell by looking at it that the water within the circle was a lot shallower. Looking further down, I spotted houses; at least fifty of them along hills by the cliff. Trees surrounded the parameter of the buildings. One house stood out amongst the others. It was at least three times bigger than every other building and it stood at the top of the hill. It wasn't hard to figure out that was more than likely where the queen lived.

"That's where you live?" I asked like an idiot.

"Yes, that is our home. The land of Proeliumeis."

Eventually Mr. Reginald, Tucker, and Mary joined us with the rest of the Amazon warriors.

"Woah, that's so cool!" Tucker yelled.

"It is indeed beautiful." Mr. Reginald said.

As usual, Mary didn't say anything.

I looked at Ainia. "So, uh, how exactly do we get down?"

Ainia pointed towards a steep hill not too far down under us.

Tucker's face dropped. "You mean...you want us to run down that steep hill?"

"Es usuol, city fulk are oll skaredi kats." One Amazon woman with really bad English said.

"Are you too weak willed to even make it to my home? If so, you should just head back to your manshun." Ainia said, mocking him.

"Pfft, of course I can. All in the name of adventure. I just wanted to make sure that my brother Arthur here is going to be okay. This might be a little too daring for him."

Love you too Tucker.

"Hurry up, you city dwellers. Get movin." One of the women said as she jumped down. The rest followed suit until it was just us four, Ainia, and three other Amazon women, who were scowling at us intently. I guess they didn't trust us with Ainia alone, not that I could blame them.

My body tensed up as I looked how far down we were jumping. I know the Amazons were used to it, but I felt like the second I hit the grassy plain a bone was going to snap.

You'll be fine, Miss Myala said.

You're not the one who has to take a literal leap of faith.

You're overreacting.

I don't think not wanting to die is overreacting.

Arthur.

Yes?

All is for the pursuit of knowledge .

Upon hearing those words, I already knew what was going to happen, but it wasn't like I could stop it. First I lost control of my body, and then, I soared into the air.