"Quick hurry," Zina started running towards the lake making me run after her.

"Where we going," I managed between breaths.

She said nothing and just kept running towards an old tree by the lake.

She slowed down when we lost the guards that were trailing me and we started walking to the tree, trying to look inconspicuous. It was by far the oldest and tallest tree by the lake, its branches snaking out along the lake and some of the lower ones even brimming the surface. Its leaves were a healthy deep green and little flowers blossomed on them.

We stopped by the base and Zina looked around to make sure no one was looking and then sent a strong breeze into the branches.

Luka popped his head out from above, "About time," he said giving me a helping hand to pull us up. "Welcome to ukryt'sya," he told me proudly, "The hide-out."

I look around, the branches on the inside of the tree were mostly bare of leaves and flowers until it reached the outside, perfect for climbing around, it wasn't much but to a few kids with a wild imagination, it was amazing.

"Woah," is all I could manage to say.

"If you're done gaping around come look," I heard Koldan shout from further up the tree.

We all climbed up to him jumping from branch to branch, and carefully walking over them. He was sitting on a branch peering out of the leaves.

"What is it?" Zina asked.

"Zoya and Ivan are arguing again," he chuckled, "I can basically see the sparks coming off of her."

We were all laughing when Luka hushed us, "Shhh, code black," we all fell quiet immediately, although I didn't know what 'code black' was I had a pretty good idea.

The Darkling passed our tree and walked down an overgrown path towards an old rickety hut that had smoke coming out of the top, he went in and grimaced, immediately shutting the door behind him.

"What's in there?" I asked them curiously.

"Not sure," Koldan responded, "The only people that go in or out is the Darkling or a small serf boy, but I've never not seen smoke escaping it, whatever it is, it must be boiling."

We sat in the tree watching people go about their day to day lives as they caught me up on everything that Zina forgot to tell me.

Only when we noticed the Darkling leaving the hut did we notice that it was starting to get dark, as we were waiting for him to disappear inside the palace so we could successfully sneak down we noticed that he was limping slightly which only added to our curiosity of what was in the hut.

But eventually, our hunger for food got the better of us and we headed back to the little palace for dinner.

I laid down on my bed reading another chapter of my book before our classes tomorrow.

As the days rolled by I got accustomed to my routine, although I did feel a bit guilty from time to time about feeling at home in the little palace I tried not to think about it.

Training with Botkin was getting easier and easier every day as I grew stronger and I had even managed to beat Koldan in a round of sparing.

It was a hot day and we were the last two to arrive at class so that meant we were each other's only option.

"Where were you?" Zina had asked us, "we thought you were right behind us."

"We were," I whispered, "But somebody got distracted and slowed me down."

"It was so worth it," Koldan interjected.

I rolled my eyes, "Come on idiot," I grabbed him the collar of his kefta and led him to the empty ring.

"Ready for a new set of bruises?" He asked me, throwing a punch.

"Funny," I responded grabbing his hand and flipping him over onto his back, "I was about to ask you the same thing."

I stood up and offered him my arm to help him up, he took it but instead of getting up he pulled me down and rolled over on top of me and whispered in my ear, "Rule number one, never let your guard down."

I felt his warm breath beside my cheeks, "Get up," I crocked while blushing.

He promptly got up and we continued sparring until it was just the two of us and everyone else was watching.

We threw punches and kicks, dodged and ducked until I landed a kick to his side causing him to stumble, he threw another punch but I grabbed it and twisted it behind his back, and pushed him to the ground.

The class cheered and I let him go, he got up and shook hands to indicate that there were no hard feelings.

I left that class with Zina, Luka, and Koldan, with a spring in my step as we walked back to the little palace for dinner.

Dinner was filled with jokes and chats, all the while Koldan and I would be making faces at each other and laughing at them when no one was looking.

It was really starting to feel like home, I had even come to terms with calling the Darkling my father, and that scared me, it scared me that I was starting to forget about my past, about what some of these people did.

I felt guilty, guilty that I was embracing this new life, I even felt guilty for feeling guilty.

My training with the Darkling was growing scarcer and scarcer, it'd been two whole weeks since my last one, but I still practiced new tricks and techniques that he had shown me and that I had read about.

I still asked Genya the occasional question about my mother hoping to get some idea of who she was and what she had done that made it so hard to find out any information about her, but to no prevail.

Along with botkin's training and my classes with the other Grisha, I was starting to near the top of the class, I was even beginning to understand and recognize old and new Ravkan easier.

The only thing that would put the cherry on top of all of this would be to get my father to trust me enough to let me explore Os Atlas like everyone else.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for nearly 6k reads!! That number is absolutely mind blowing to me!!

Don't be scared to comment and give me any feedback, I always appreciate it and try to respond to everyone!!

Anyways have a nice day, don't forget to vote and comment, slán!!

Ps. Also when I upload or try to edit any of chapters, (drafts or published) they all seem to get mixed up, for example I had to quickly take down this chapter because it got mixed up with 9 and 10 swapping places, if this happens with any if you could you tell me what to do?

~ Sarah (PoshStarfish775)