She depends on me, I need to do what I can, Zilian thought to himself. There was no doubt in his mind that Gienna would die unless he got her the Moonlight flower in time.

Anger and frustration welled up in his core. He was incapable of doing anything to help father, he stood hopelessly over Mauris as he passed away, and the best he could do for Charlee was staying out of his way. This time however, he would make it alright. There was something he could do for someone, and he was going to do everything in his power to save Gienna.

Zilian and Blade stopped outside of the entrance to the mansion, deciding on a direction to spread out. He pouted over the fact that they only had one clue, the flower could be somewhere in the dark forest. The problem being was that most of the land here was forest anyways, so it is not a clear enough of a direction.

“You take the east forest,” Zilian pointed behind the building, “and I’ll take the north. If we split up, we will cover more ground that way.”

Blade nodded, “I agree on splitting up, but…”

Zilian cringed when he said but, his father always face-palmed when he said but. Before he never understood why, now he saw why it was so annoying. Why bother in agreeing if you are going to disagree with them in the end? He was snapped back to reality, literally, Blade was snapping his fingers in his ears.

He shook his head, clearing those thoughts away, “Uh? What?” Blade’s face clearly showed he was annoyed from the scrunched brows and cheesy frown. He was righteously upset, Zilian was not paying him any sort of attention.

“I said that we do have a minor clue where this flower is at. Erica mentioned that the moon glowed on the flower undisturbed, meaning that the flower must be in at least a small clearing. Those areas are where we want to go first.”

“That’s right.” He exclaimed excitedly, but again reality struck. “But, we need a high vantage point, higher than the mansions roof top. There is no way we could do that.”

Blade grinned as if he had passed gas, Zilian almost chuckled because of his expression. He did not, however, expect Blade to draw the sword from his back, and much less so when he spun it in his palms followed by grasping it in both hands and striking the ground with it. As if it were not enough of a shock already, he furthermore was gawked as the ground shook under his feet.

“Another quake!” He cried out, remembering all too well his recent experience on the mountain.

Blade just smirked, clearly amused by Zilian’s reaction. The ground suddenly jerked and moved, he stood on a small piece of earth that grew taller and taller. The world around him shrunk, and even the awe-striking mansion looked like a small wood block as they came to a stop. Then the pillar stopped rising, tossing Zilian up a couple inches before he fell back down. He eyed everything wildly and crawled precariously to the edge to see how far they had gone, seeing the world at such a terrifying angle made him nauseating dizzy. He would have toppled over if Blade had not pulled him back by the shoulder.

“Don’t think about it man, back to the issue at hand.” Blade coolly stated.

A million questions ran in his mind, this experience was not different from when his sword exploded into a living lighting bolt. Why did his blade move the earth? How long did he know? When was he going to tell him?

These questions will have to wait, so he nodded his agreement with Blade. “Right, so we want to find some clearings.”

He stood up while holding his arms out to get his balance, worried that a sudden gust would knock him over the edge. He had a clear view over the field below, between the realms of land and clouds. A sensation of freedom filled him, this what the birds in the heavens must have felt.

He could see the entire length to the estate. The open fields to the south and the gate entrance at the west did not have his attention. However, his focus was on the east and north, quickly discerning that the flower could not be towards the north because it was too dense. The east however provided several opportunities, including a gorge that tore through a portion of the forest.

“I’ll do the portion after the gorge, while you do the half that is on this side of it. I will drop you in one of those clearings near the gorge.” Blade left orders that he could barely keep up with. The who starts at what point part was discernible, but the ‘I will drop you in’ part left him confused.

“What did you mean by the I will…’” He was interrupted as the pillar beneath him began to shift.

The platform stretched into a smooth earth slide that he skidded down on his back, depositing him in the direction of the gorge. He glanced at Blade who had his Buster sword at the edge of the slide; when he twisted the blade to adjust their headings, the earth followed its movement. He understood somewhat how Blade did it, it seemed like that he controlled the movement of earth with this sword.

In less than a minute, they had arrived over a clearing near the gorge. Zilian sneaked a peak over the edge to see the treetops less than a foot beneath them, until he felt a shove from behind. He fell over into the clearing onto the mushy marsh of peat.

“Ugh!” Zilian grunted in disgust, the peat stained his clothes and smelled as bad as it looked. He gawked back up at the earth slide he was on just a moment ago before tossed off, it continued stretching over and past the gorge.

“Thanks a lot you pig-head!” Zilian berated his offender. He could have sworn that he replied saying ‘Your welcome!’, but he was too far away to be heard for sure.

“Well, at least I am here now.” He muttered.

Wasting no time, he ran around in this clearing to find any evidence of the flower. Unsurprisingly to him, he found nothing to suggest anything other than peat grew in this spot. Since he memorized where all the clearings were, he ran on to the next one and repeated the same quick scout, only to yield the same results. He spent several hours from going one to the next with the same tale to each one as he neared the mansion, his hope fell in dismay as he had already gone through about half of the clearings on this side.

He frantically scurried back deeper in the forest, but it all ended to no avail. He raced alongside the gorge following into another open area until the ground fell from underneath him. He did not see the hole hidden among the dense grass that spread over it.

“AHH!” He yelled as he fell. He attempted to reach out for the ledge instinctively, but he was too slow and slipped down into the hole.

Zilian bounced against the walls as he fell deeper inside until he dropped into a small opening at the bottom, he lifted himself and then swatted the mud that covered him spraying his immediate surroundings in grime. He looked around to see what kind of a mess he had got himself into this time, from what it seemed he was in a small rift in the gorge providing a small area where more peat grew. The air tasted even worse around this spot; however, he had all but forgotten the stench and mud ridden pit. Excitement ached in his bones, his core burned eagerly, joy painted in his every expression.

“Blade! Over here man!” He did not know if he heard him until he heard reassuring footsteps drawing near him.

Not bothering to wait a moment longer, he stepped to the edge of the entrance to this rift. Right there at the corner, grew the precious plant ever so delicately and precariously. Its splendor glowed in every bit of beauty that was claimed to be, yet in its inarguable beauty it bowed in humility, coveted to be as the most graceful sight ever seen.

“You found it!” Blade stepped alongside him. His eyes glowed in awe too, the Moonlight flower danced as a breeze passed around it as it glowed in the night sky.

Since Zilian was stunned in astonishment, Blade took the initiative to grab the flower. He plucked it from the roots and held it carefully in his hands, using his free hand to protect it from damage of the elements.

“Here, take it.” He ordered Zilian.

He stared the plant as he grabbed it gently from the burly swordsman, then Blade drew his sword for the second time tonight. Pointing the tip to the wall of this steep gorge, he made swiping movements with his sword. Steps formed from the earth took shape, popping out of the wall as the sound of earth grating earth cracked loudly, echoing in the narrow passage.

He reminded himself to query Blade about his blade later, but for now it really did not matter, he was just grateful it was so helpful at this time. They walked up the makeshift stairs to the top, and then trekked back to the mansions by foot so as not to risk losing or ruining the precious Moonlight. The remainder of their quest was kept in silence.

They found Erica right where they had left her, sitting alongside her old friend. She had not even notice them come in the room until they stepped in front of the flickering candle, casting long gloomy shadows.

She looked up at the two boys, “Oh, Zilian! I remembered something, it was in a hole. Oh.” Seeing that Zilian was a mess, she saw that he had that part figured out.

He smiled, she looked like that she was expecting some brash expression or reaction from him. Admittedly, he did not like being in this state, but he felt like he had accomplished something, and that meant a lot to him personally. He gave her the Moonlight flower that he took good care of, and she took it graciously.

A glint appeared in her eyes, she was about to cry as lips trembled and sob escaped from her. She wiped her face clear and hugged him and then Blade, repeatedly saying Thank-you. Then she went back to the task at hand, pulling out a bowl and mixing the flower with other indigenous herbs and fresh water, she mashed them into a sticky pulp with a wooden rod. After which she took the bowl and helped Gienna drink the antidote, lifting her head up for small sips.

“Is she getting better now?” Zilian asked hopefully.

Blade answered coldly but as the plain truth, “Only time will tell.” She did not appear to have a lot of time left, since she heaved heavily and groaned in pain with each taken breath. All he could do was hope that he had not been to late, he did not know how he would take another failure.