Since I had no idea what had woken me up I did not want to bother anyone for no reason. For all I knew it had just been an animal or something. Plus I had my presence. If anything attacked me I could always phase through it and run back to get help. Walking on my toes, I made sure to not make any unnecessary noises as I went along. No one was up and about as far as I could tell. Something about that did not seem right. We always had at least a couple of sentries that switched off staying up and watching over us during the night. Did these people just feel so safe up in the trees that they did not feel the need for a bit more security? Weaving through the wooden buildings I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Moving faster and faster, I eventually reached the place we climbed up the ropes to reach this village and was shocked by what I saw. The ropes were lowered. Creeping forward slowly, I saw that all of the ropes were moving. People were coming up them. Hoping that it was just some of the native people, I crept over to a neighboring tree to see the climbers without being seen.

After only one small look at them in the dark I knew that these were no native people. Instead of the tan dark skin that the natives had, these men had whiter and fairer skin. Also, they each carried at least three weapons and, if that wasn’t enough proof that they were not welcome here, several natives were unconscious and tied up on the forest floor. Covering my mouth in horror, it took me a moment to get up and start moving back to the village people. I had to warn everyone. The first intruder reached the top and he saw me immediately. Signaling to his friends that they had been seen, he raced towards me. Putting all my energy and adrenaline into my legs, I ran as fast as possible. Knowing that I would not make it, I began screaming as loud as possible and used my presence so when the intruder tried to tackle me he just went right through me to the floor of the village. Continuing to scream out for help, I hoped that my presence would last until I reached them. It had taken about thirty minutes to reach the ropes when I was trying to go slowly and quietly so it would take about fifteen minutes to reach them at a dead run. Hoping that my voice would reach them before them, I had to slow a little. My presence was taking more out of me than I could afford right now.

Especially since I was using it in a continuous stream. Stumbling a bit the only thing I could hear was my heartbeat and the breathing of the man following closest behind me. Having learned his lesson about touching me, he was now waiting for me to become solid again. He seemed to know quite a bit about how a presence worked. I coughed, and my scream ended for a moment. My voice was giving out on me. Gritting my teeth, I knew that I would have to fight. I would not go down easily. I would fight until they finally won, but I would take at least one of them down in the process. Less than ten minutes after I had started running, I let out my biggest scream yet, and then turned to face the attackers. The first one flew through me before stopping. Surrounded by several dozen people, I was not sure if the native people had enough fighters to stop these people in their tracks. They would need the Black Renegades, Darius, Milo, and all of our guards to help them. Even then it would be a hard fought fight. We were all tired and would be surprised. Widening my stance, I pushed that stuff out of my mind. I had to focus on the fight in front of me. Pulling my dagger from its sheath, I held it in front of me.

A couple of scoffs and chuckles came from the men around me. They pulled out their primary weapons that ranged from swords, maces, hammers, axes, and spears. I kept my face calm and composed. They did not scare me. If I died here, then at least I had tried. I had given the natives, and my friends some more time. Shouts were starting to come from the village. Either my bed had been discovered empty, or my screams had been heard. Now my face changed. A slow smile crept over my face. These intruders would get utterly destroyed by their opponents. Lifting my dagger higher my presence gave out and I became solid again. Letting out a savage war cry, I charged at the ones directly in front of me. I managed to stab one of them in the stomach and they slid to the ground with a surprised look on their face. Reaching down I scooped up their sword. Holding it in two hands I attacked the rest of them. Having overcome their shock from me charging at them, their anger took over next and I was disarmed only a couple seconds later after only injuring two more people. Knocked onto my back on the ground there was nothing left I could do other than watch an ax descend towards my chest. Though I was tempted to close my eyes I refused to look weak in front of these men.

Looking defiantly into their eyes, I did not even move as the ax sliced closer and closer to me. Respect showed on some of the mens’ faces. Right as the ax kissed my skin someone slammed into the group and knocked them all away from me. Darius looked furious and his sword was a blur as he slashed and hacked in every direction. Struggling to get to my feet, I felt someone put their hands under my armpits and I was hauled up. Once on my feet my knees threatened to give out on me. Milo kept hanging on until I was finally stable on my own. Picking back up the sword I had stolen, I helped the rest of my friends utterly crush the intruders. It took about half an hour and we only sustained a couple of minor injuries. Hugging Darius after the battle had ended I thanked him with a kiss. Shock was the first emotion I saw on his face, but it was soon followed by happiness. After he kissed me again though, a new emotion appeared on his face.

Fear. “Ari, are you injured?” Pulling back from me, I realized that I was indeed injured. Where the ax had touched my skin, blood had coated my shirt and chest. As the adrenaline left me I would have fallen to the ground had Darius not caught me. Scooping me into his arms he rushed me to the native and Black Renegade healers. He was not taking any chances with my safety and they both examined me at the same time. After looking at the wound, they declared that I was not in any serious danger. The Black Renegade healer stitched me up while the native healer made and then applied a poultice that was supposed to reduce the pain and the swelling. Following them looking at it and then taking care of it, I was ordered to go to sleep so my body could produce blood to replace what I had lost. Happily accepting their order, I went to sleep quickly. When I woke up I was glad that it was just a natural wake up and not because I had a bad feeling or anything. Sitting up slowly so as to not pull my stitches, I got out of the cot I was in and stood up. My boots and dagger were by the side of the cot. Apparently someone had retrieved my dagger from where I had lost it during the beginning of the fight. Putting them gingerly back on, I walked out the door to find that all evidence of the battle had been removed.

Nodding hello to people that I passed, I searched for Darius, Milo, a Black Renegade, one of Darius’s guards, one of my guards, or one of my maids. Someone to tell me when we were leaving. Spying Sophia around five minutes later I waved to her. Spotting me, she ran over. “There you are. I just came from where you were supposed to be sleeping and was freaking out because you were gone!”

“Sorry. I came out looking for someone to tell me when we are leaving to continue on to Milo and the Black Renegades’ home.” I laughed. “I didn't mean to worry anyone, promise.”

Sophia sighed in exasperation. “We have not decided when we are leaving because we were going to wait until you had fully recovered.’

I shook my head. “No, we can not wait that long. Who knows what could happen in that amount of time? I am well enough to travel today. Take me to everyone else.” Sophia did not even argue with me since she knew that would have been useless. Strolling back in the direction she had come from, she waved for me to follow her. Grinning at how fast she gave in, I fell in step behind her. Matching her stride for stride, I saw the group at the same time she did. When I waved to them they all waved back.

“We are all so glad that you are okay.” I could tell that Alex was speaking for everyone when he said this.

“I am glad that I am okay as well. However, I was not okay to hear that you were planning on delaying our journey to Raetis because of my small injury.” Several sighs could be heard from the group when I said that. “I am serious. My injury is small and there is no reason that I can not sit in a carriage. Honestly it is probably pretty close to staying here and moving with the swaying of the trees.”

“It is no use trying to keep her here. Even if we try to, she will just pack up all of our stuff herself and force us all into our carriages before driving them all herself. That is how stubborn she is.” Everyone looked to where those words had come from and they all glared at Darius. He shrugged. “You all know that what I said was true. There is no use denying it.”

“What Darius says is true. We might as well give up and just continue on our way to Raetis.” Milo’s voice was exasperated, but firm. No one dared to argue or glare at him. Instead they all walked to the buildings they had been staying in and grabbed their stuff. Happy now that they had decided to listen to me and by the fact that we would be at the boat by either the end of the day today or tomorrow morning. Then it will be about two days in the boat until we made it to eastern shores. After that we would be in the eastern peoples’ land and we would have about an hour or two of walking before we would reach the kingdom of Raetis. Though I had started out dreading when we would reach Raetis and the eastern lands, I was now really looking forward to it and hoping that we did not have any more trials that we had to get through and survive before we got there.

Packing the rest of my stuff into the carriage, I grunted a little in pain when my stitches stretched in my chest. Liam, hearing my grunt, gave me a baleful look and pointed to the carriage. Knowing that he would pick me up and place me in the carriage against my will if I didn't do it soon, I waved goodbye to all the natives that were watching us, and stepped up into the carriage. Leaning my head back against the seat, I wished I could do more to help my friends pack up the carriages and take some of the load off their backs. Placing my hand on my stitches that were in the middle of my chest I pushed gently on them. Sucking in a breath from the sharp pain that radiated throughout my entire body from that one spot I sighed. There was no way anyone would let me help with anything for the rest of the journey to Raetis. Hearing someone climbing the steps to enter the carriage, I whipped my hand away from my chest and tried to look normal and not like I was in any pain. Seeing Darius come in, I knew there was no way I could hide anything from him, but I still tried. Giving him a big smile, I saw his eyes narrow. “How much pain are you in right now?”

“None. In fact I feel completely better.” Right after the words came out of my mouth I regretted it. Maybe if I had said that I was in a little pain, but that it was not that bad then maybe, just maybe, he would have believed me. As it was, he did not believe me one bit. Sitting down on the chair right next to me, he placed a feather light touch on where my stitches were. Sucking in a breath that had nothing to do with pain, I held that breath until he had finished probing my wound.

“Your stitches are good and are holding up well, but there seems to be some swelling. Most likely from you packing and carrying your stuff. For the rest of the day you need to take it as easy as you possibly can. Got it?” The stern look he sent me said that I better agree.

“Fine. I will take it easy. Since when have you been a healer though? Or had any of their skills?” My incredulous tone made Darius laugh.

“All soldiers in the west learn some medical skills so they know if a wound is serious or not and so that they can help others out when a healer is not available.” It made sense, but I refused to acknowledge that fact. Right when I was going to say something that I would regret later, the pain was making me mad and impatient, the rest of the people that went in our carriage bundled in. Signaling the driver that we were all ready, Milo sat down last and looked at me.

Before he could ask how I was doing or anything of the like, I cut in. “Was anyone else injured in the fight?”

“There were a couple of minor injuries, but no other Black Renegade, any of either of your two staffs, or the natives were badly hurt like you were.” Breathing a sigh of relief, I nodded my thanks at Milo for answering my question. Understanding that I did not want to talk about my own injury, he looked to one of the Black Renegades sitting next to him, I recognized them as one of Milo’s guards, and started talking to him. The guard had shoulder length black hair and had a scar across his left eyebrow.

A couple minutes later, when it seemed like their conversation was ending, I spoke up. “Milo?” He looked at me expectantly. “Who are your guards and what are their names?”

“That is right. I have never introduced you two to them.” Pointing to the Black Renegade that he had just been talking to, he started the introductions. “This is Jet. He is the leader of my guards and he is over all the security for the Black Renegades.” Continuing to point at each person that he named, I learned the rest of his guards’ names were Anders, Rik, Gareth, and Leander. I waved hello to them each in turn. They all seemed friendly to me, and they all waved back except for Rik who nodded. Out of things to say now, I looked back out the window praying that I would not see anything out there. There had been way too much excitement over the past couple of days for me. Also, I would not be able to help fight for the next couple of days. Nothing could be seen out there. Relieved now, I admired the beautiful scenery and saw a leaf floating in my direction. Reaching out my hand I caught the leaf and pulled it inside the carriage. Twirling it between my fingers I loved the way it reflected the light and created something that almost looked like a rainbow. Caught up in the moment I didn't even notice the time passing.

After what seemed like only a couple of seconds, I was startled to see the sun going down. Night had fallen upon us and the light was fading away behind the trees. Dropping the leaf out the window to slowly drift to the forest floor, I shook myself out of my weird mood and looked at everyone else. “Are we almost there now, or are we going to reach it in the morning?”

I was surprised when Anders spoke up. “We will be there in about three hours so you should get some sleep now, or you can sleep on the boat. However it might be hard to sleep on the boat if you are not used to it. The rocking has been known to upset people that have not been on a boat before.”

“Yeah that is very possible. I have never been on a boat before and, I can't believe that I did not think of this before, it could be a problem, I do not know how to swim.” Several sets of shocked expressions greeted me after this statement. “What?” I defended myself. “My kingdom is not near any water and my parents were kind of protective of my brothers and me. They did not let us do quite a few things that other parents allow their children to do.”

“That is true. They would not even let you help your servants in your own kingdom. Plus, you have never even been allowed out of your house other than a couple of visits to very good friends or family.” Darius’s voice held some understanding, but mostly just shock.

I nodded. “All of that is true, however, part of the reason for that is after Carter turned 16 and did not get a presence they wanted to protect me from everything. I was their last hope.”

“There were 14 years before that point where they could have allowed you to do things. What was their reason then?” He almost sounded indignant and I could tell that he thought I had been wronged by my parents.

“They didn’t want me to turn out like them.” My voice was heavy with resignation. “My mom and dad used to be super rebellious and they were fighters. There was no one else that would have taken them and my mom tells me to this day that if it was not for my dad, she would be single and a disappointment to her family.”

Milo spoke now. “Those reasons might make sense to people in your lands, but in the east we treat our women very differently. The better fighter they are, the better they usually marry. However we do not just throw out the women that are different. If they like dresses and hate fighting, then we find a man that matches them and pair them up. If they want to get married, then they will get married. Might not be to the richest man, but we will find them someone. It has been officially part of our job to do it for around five generations of royalty now.”

“It is certainly an interesting system. I am not sure how that would work with our society, but it would certainly be different and maybe even funny to put it in place. People would revolt over it though so it is probably better to leave it in the east.”

Laughter was clear in his voice. “Yeah, I agree with all of that. Most things we do are better left in the east because we have lived like that for several generations, and you have lived your way for several generations.” The Black Renegades around us all nodded. It was clear that they all agreed with the two of us. Early the next morning, after at least most of us got a couple hours of sleep, we arrived at the boat. Clambering out of the carriage I stretched to try to get some of the soreness out of my muscles, but I immediately regretted it. Whipping my arms back down, I rubbed my stitches in the middle of my chest gingerly. Hoping that I did not pull any out when I stretched, I put my hand down again and hoped that no one had seen what I had just done. No such luck.

“Did you pull any stitches when you did that?” Turning around with a sigh, I looked at the Black Renegade’s healer.

“Hi, I did not see you there. How was your carriage ride?” Trying to keep my tone nonchalant, I attempted to distract them by asking tons of questions about them and not talking about myself or my wound. It did not work at all.

“It was great. Now how is the injury?” I dared not argue with how stern they sounded.

I sighed again. “It is fine. If I did pull a stitch out, then it does not really hurt or anything. I will be fine. If you really want to though, you can examine it again once we reach Raetis. However you can not do it before then because we have to hike to get to Raetis and there is no way that I will let us make camp only a little ways away from Raetis because of me.”

The healer gave me a look of deep displeasure. “You would think that I would be used to people telling me no and that they are fine, but I do not think that I will ever get used to people not wanting to heal and get better.” Rolling my eyes, I decided not to answer him. Plus I did not have an answer ready. Heading over to one of the boats, I noticed that there were two new Black Renegades on each boat. They must have been guarding them this whole time. Noting the relief on their faces, I realized that we must be really late in arriving here.

“Hello there. I know that we have never met before, but my name is Princess Ariana Esma. You can all call me Ari though. Ariana is such a mouthful.” From the stunned looks they were giving me, I could tell that it was the last thing they expected me to say. Their gazes drifted from my face to my clothing and I could tell that it shocked them as well. No doubt they thought I was like every other Princess who was not in the east and that I loved wearing dresses and was snobby and uptight. About to say more to introduce myself, I was interrupted by Milo. He came over and greeted each of the guards.

“She has probably already introduced herself to you, right?” They all nodded. “Her introduction was most likely not what you were thinking it would be, correct?” They all nodded again. Milo chuckled. “Yeah that is exactly what I was thinking she would do. As you can tell, she is not at all the person we all expected her to be. Prince Darius is not what we thought he would be either. He might even be less formal than Ari here.” As if on cue Darius walked over to us and put his arm around my shoulders.

“Hey everyone.” He spotted the new guards. “Were they here this entire time guarding the boats?” Milo and all the Black Renegades in hearing nodded. “Were we extremely late in getting here and were you all super worried about us?” All of them nodded again. “Great.” Darius walked over to them and shook each of their hands. “I am so sorry that we were so delayed in getting back here. Ari is like a target and attracts every danger within 50 miles in all directions.” Seeing my glare, Darius laughed. “You did. First Malick and Hunter, then the leopard, and last the people that invaded the village and almost killed you.”

Defending myself, I said, “Okay so yes Malick and Hunter were both after me, but you can not blame those last two on me. There is no way that a leopard could specifically target and attack one person. It just smelled all of us and was hungry. The invaders were not my fault either because they were after the native people like Everett and Aziza. Not me. The only reason they almost killed me was because I was the first one to spot them and was trying to warn everyone else. It could have been anyone that spotted them.”

Tyler cut in now. “Why were you out there all alone anyways? If you thought there was danger you should have woken at least one of us up to go with you.”

Shaking my head I responded. “I have no idea what woke me up that night. I just woke up all of a sudden and felt like something was wrong, but I was not sure what or if it was my imagination. For all I knew I had a nightmare that night, and that was making the bad feeling. Wanting some air, I noticed that there were no sentries around and thought that was a little odd. However, I had no idea what the natives' customs were and assumed that they thought themselves safe enough in the trees and did not need sentries. Reaching the ropes that brought us up, I got worried when I saw them down and moving with people on them. I jumped into the tree nearby and looked at the people climbing. Realizing finally that they were attackers, I rushed to warn everyone, but was seen. That is when they surrounded me and tried to kill me.”

“You were pretty far from the ropes when we saw you. How did you get that far away?” Gareth’s voice held a lot of skepticism.

“I used my presence until I was too exhausted to take another step. It gave me some time to run farther, but it made it so I could not defend myself very well.” Understanding could be seen in everyone’s eyes other than the ones that guarded the boats this whole time.

Milo cleared their confusion. “Ari has the presence to phase through things. Kind of like a ghost. In this state no one can touch her and she can go through any solid object.”

Clarifying my presence a bit I added on, “There are some limits to it though. The more I use it, the more tired I get. Also it is really hard to not to phase through some things like the floor. I am not sure what would happen if I went through the floor, but it is hard to make sure that I do not.”

With a concerned voice, Casey now spoke up. “You never told us that before. Your presence could be really dangerous to you. For now you should not use it until we learn more about it and learn what could happen when you phase through different things.”

Giving him a small smile, I replied, “I was not planning on using it anytime soon, but I was not planning on using it the last two times I used it.” My guards all exchanged long glances and I knew they were silently talking with each other.

Looking back at me now, Alex told me what they had discussed. “We decided that we will not allow anyone to come near enough to make you feel threatened and use your presence. Also, whenever you go somewhere, even if you feel like you are completely safe or that it is stupid, you will take at least two of us with you.”

My mouth dropped open. “I used to only have to take one of you.”

Alex looked at me with exasperation. “That was when you were healthy. Now you are injured and more vulnerable than before.” Accepting that explanation, I agreed to their terms. “Great. Now we can move on to the next problem.” Alex turned to Milo. “How are we all supposed to fit on those four boats? There is not enough space for all of us on them. Are we going to go in groups?”

Milo shook his head, but Jet answered for him. “No. We brought more boats, these are just the only ones in view. We were going to do only a couple of boats and go in groups, but that was too much of a security risk.” Going over to some bushes nearby, he pushed aside some of the foliage to reveal several more boats. Other Black Renegades uncovered the rest of the boats.

Leaning forward, I peeked around a couple of people to catch Tyler’s eyes. I figured he would be the most likely to grant my request. After all, he was my nicest guard. “Can I help row? Then I can learn how and it would be a good experience.” Tyler rolled his eyes in amusement. Shaking his head, he rejected my request. Pouting, I leaned back and folded my arms in frustration. This injury made it so that I could not do anything. Darius slipped his arm back around me and pulled me into him to comfort me. Laying my head on his chest, I let him hold me for a while. “They won’t let me do anything Darius.” A sudden thought popped into my head and I leaned back to look at his face. “Can I go on your boat without my guards and help to row your boat?” Judging by his laughter, his answer was the same as Tyler’s. Letting my head fall back onto his chest in disappointment, his laughter started to fade and his arms went around me to interlock on my back.

“I love how persistent you are. You know what you want and you do everything you can to accomplish or achieve that thing.” Amusement was very clear in his voice.

“I will take that as a compliment.” My tone was smug, but a bit disappointed. Glancing over at my guards I could see them all struggling not to laugh. They had not been worried at all about whether or not Darius was going to grant my wish of helping to row his boat.

“Just because of that persistence, you are riding with us Ari. Sophia can join us as well. However,” Alex now faced Darius. “can Hazel ride with you? There is not enough room in our boat to take her as well.”

Darius looked to Hazel and saw her pleading look. “Of course Hazel can ride with us. I wouldn’t want to keep the two love birds apart.” Hazel and Joshua both blushed a little at his words, but they still seemed pleased because they could be by each other during the boat ride. Climbing into the boat, I almost was thrown from it when it pitched to one side unexpectedly. Throwing my arms out to each side to try and balance myself, the only thing that kept me from falling overboard was one of the Black Renegades who grabbed my arm and helped me stop the movement of the boat. Immediately sitting down after that, I sat right in the middle of the boat far away from the water. There was no way that I was going anywhere near the water. Especially since I could not swim and I was just now learning that I was mildly scared of water. Anything could be in there. My guards piled into the boat more confidently then I did. All of them can swim and none of them were scared of the water. My parents had made sure that all of them learned since my brothers and I had never learned.

Gripping the edges of the boat with a death grip, I did not relax it until everyone had settled in and sat down in the boat. All of our gear and stuff was packed near me. Alex and Tyler picked up the oars first and pushed us away from the shore to join back up with the rest of the groups. Their strokes were smooth and strong. Marveling over the fact that they both moved their oars in complete unison, my fingers ached to grab one of the oars and try it for myself. Peering around the boat, I noticed that Liam and Casey were watching me very closely. “What? Why are you two looking at me like that?”

“You do not know how to swim and have never been in a boat before. We are a little worried that you will somehow fall out of the boat, or that you will become sea sick. Either way we want to know right away if one of those things happens.” Though Liam’s answer was completely reasonable, there was still a hint of suspicion in my mind.

“There is another reason you are watching me isn’t there?” Seeing the guilt spread across both their faces I glared at them. “You both think that I might try to grab an oar away from Tyler or Alex.” Not even trying to deny it now, they nodded. I shrugged. “Well the sad thing is I was just thinking about doing that.” Lips quirking into small smiles, all four of my guards tried to contain their amusement and laughter. Barely managing it, they all quickly composed their faces. Paddling over to Darius’s boat, my guards all waved to his guards. I would have waved to them as well, but we had just gone over a little wave and it had rocked the boat. I had returned to clutching the sides of the boat in a death grip and there was no way that I was going to let go of the boat to wave to them. Nonetheless, I did manage to nod a greeting to them. Darius nodded back at me and I noticed that his face was a little green. “Are you sea sick? I thought you could swim!” I shouted across the gap separating our boats momentarily forgetting about my fears.

“I can swim, but I have never been on a boat before. Who knew that it was so choppy and made you feel like you were going to puke?” My laughter at his answer reached even the farthest groups and everyone turned their heads to see the source of the laughter. Some of them spotted Darius and smothered laughter of their own. The sound of someone gagging cut off my laughter. Peering around my boat I tried to see who was making that noise and my gaze settled on Sophia. Liam was holding her hair away from her face and was also rubbing her back. Soothing words flowed from his mouth, but Sophia continued to look miserable. Gently pushing Liam out of the way, I took his spot and asked her questions to take her mind off the situation. Very quickly, I had her laughing and looking less green. My questions mostly centered around either Liam or Hazel. Soon I realized that I had a real question to ask her.

“Sophia, do you think that our parents will ever understand why we were taken away? And why we might choose to stay in Raetis?” Tears gathered in my eyes when I asked those questions.

Embracing me, Sophia took her time to respond. “I am not really sure Ari, but there is something that I do know for sure. Our parents and siblings will always love us no matter what decisions we make in our lives. If we do return to them, even if it is years from now, they will welcome us back with open arms and will love to hear our stories. They will respect our opinions and they will try to understand why we made the choices that we did. Though it may be hard for them, they will continue to do everything they can for us and they will always be supportive of us. Especially if we have good reasons for what we did and for what we are now going to do.” My tears flowed freely and unrelentlessly now.

“Thank you for that Sophia. You always know what to say to me to make me feel better.” I felt her tears start to fall on my neck and knew that she missed her family as much as I did. We both knew that we needed to finish this journey and see what the eastern lands were like. If they were as Milo said then we needed to spread the word that the eastern lands were different then we thought they were. They were people that were way more similar to us then we had originally thought and we should start trading with them and becoming allies and friends with them. I hoped that my parents and brothers would come to see this in time. It might be a bit difficult because they had seen their only daughter taken from them because of the easterners, but I wished that they would see the reasons behind it and understand why it had to be done. I wished the same for Darius’s parents.

The rest of the boat ride seemed to pass by quickly for me, but for Sophia and Darius it seemed to take forever. Darius never puked, however sometimes he got very close to puking. He stayed near the railing the entire ride. Sophia did not puke after the first part of the ride, and she even seemed to improve to the point where she was only mildly sick. She mostly seemed normal by the end and even liked the last part of the boat ride. Alex jumped into the water and pulled our boat onto the shore so that it would not float away. Liam and Casey, who had been rowing since we had started back up after our break in the middle when it was night time, put their oars away and jumped out next. Tyler stayed in the boat to help me out. He lifted me up and handed me out to Liam who grabbed me and placed me on the dry sand. Extremely relieved to finally be on dry land I resisted the urge to fall to the ground and kiss it. The first step I took was extremely wobbly and I almost fell to the ground. Casey took one of my elbows while Alex took my other to make sure that I would not fall. Staggering like a drunk I went a little ways away from the boats until I reached a rock that looked like a good place to sit.

Slowly easing myself down onto it with help, I was soon sitting on it and felt a lot more stable. Putting my elbows on my knees and then putting my face on my palms, I slowed down my breathing and attempted to get my heart rate back to its normal beat. A hand fell on my shoulder and my head jerked up. My heart rate went right back up because of the scare, and because of the face only a couple inches from my own. Close enough to feel Darius’s breath on my face, I froze. I was unsure what to do, or what he was going to do. Darius leaned back and the moment ended. Looking around me, I understood why he backed away. Black Renegades were everywhere and some were looking at us along with both sets of our guards and both of my maids. We really needed to find a place with at least a little privacy. Grabbing Darius’s hand, I let him pull me back up to my feet and help to keep me on my feet. “You’ve recovered from your earlier illness?” I posed it in an innocent voice, however, my glee was evident on my face.

Darius sent me a glare that seemed more fake mad than real mad. He was just humoring me now. “Yes I have entirely recovered from what plagued me on the boat. Now we just have a couple hours of hiking and then we will have arrived in Raetis.” I did a short celebratory dance. Wincing a little from the pain coming from my injury, I ignored the worried looks from both Darius, my guards, and the Black Renegade healer.

Milo pulled all the attention from me over to him. “We are now going to start our hike through the forest and we will arrive at most of our home and kingdom Raetis.” The Black Renegades all cheered and pumped their fists in the air. After letting them cheer for a moment, Milo raised his hand for silence. “Now everyone grab your stuff from the boats and we will start along our way.” Running to grab all the stuff, soon all the Black Renegades were carrying all of our gear. Casey went over to the ones carrying our gear and tried to take some of their weight off, but they refused to give it up.

“You need to concentrate your efforts on protecting Ari. Not on carrying your stuff.” Acknowledging the point Casey let them carry it, but he still did not seem super happy about it. Beginning our trek into the forest I walked side by side with Darius. Milo was in front of everyone with Jet, Rik, Anders, Gareth, and Leander. The whole way to Raetis I was dazzled by the lush beautiful greenery that surrounded us. Yes I had been in the forest for quite a few days now, but most of that time I had been in a carriage which was just not the same as walking. Three hours later the kingdom of Raetis came into view above the treetops. My jaw dropped in shock at how beautiful and big it was. The walls were about the height of 15 full grown men standing on top of each other, and the castle turrets stretched up even higher. Guards on top of the walls spotted us as soon as we glimpsed them. Once we reached the front gates they shouted at us to stop and state our business, leave, or get shot at with arrows.