"Where's Hope,"Sonja asked.

I had just realized that Hope had spent less time than me outside today, which was weird. Today was a day that she would die for. It was warm, not like you want to die hot, but not to cold. Not windy, but breezy.

"I'm not sure," I answered. "She might be asleep".

Sonja's expression was bewildered. "It's kinda late, even for her."

I tried to put the pieces together as well. I was worried, but really didn't want to check on her. That seemed like a lot of effort and we already had enough planned.

"She doesn't get good sleep I think." Even though I didn't believe that was the reason she locked herself inside, I was keeping with it. I didn't want Sonja to be upset. Her smiling face is the only thing keeping this team going sometimes.

Sonja sighed, putting her mind at a place of ease. "You know her the best."

"Alright everyone," Tucker came over and kissed Sonja on the cheek.

"What's up with you," She asked.

Tucker beamed, "I don't know. I'm just in a good mood."

I decided to leave it like that. This seemed like the easiest solution.

Tom hopped over the fence from the house that he was staying at. He had his mask on the top of his head, which was a bold choice. He hadn't brought that out since we were in Mianite.

"Yo," he let out. I guess hi there was to formal. "I still need the grab the wands from Hope soooo....." Tom trailed off.

"We will just come with," Sonja butted in. "I want to check on her anyway."

"Why," Tom questioned, for once looking anything other than bored or obnoxious.

"She's been in her house all day," She said.

"She could be sleeping," I interrupted cautiously.

"Not even Hope sleeps in that late," Sonja insisted, narrow wrong her eyes and me and lengthening her words.

I left the conversation there.

I knocked on Hope's front door.

I was really worried about her. It's nerve wracking when she doesn't answer us. Hope has always got herself in so much trouble and never asks for help. She always makes a deeper hole because she won't ask for a shovel.

I knocked on her front door again, "Hope."

The door creaked open and Hope's big brown eyes peaked out.

"Kid," Jordan asked, "what's wrong?"

"I'm taking a day off," she murmured. "Thank you very much."

"You haven't left your house all day," I persisted.

"I'm fully aware," she spoke up just enough for Jordan to hear.

"We need you to help with the wands," Tom explained.

"I don't have them," she lisped.

"Your lying," Jordan commanded.

"Of course I'm not," She closed the door a tad more, and looked around the street with paranoid eyes.

Jordan sighed. "Okay that's it," he pushed past me to the door, "let me in."

Hope groaned. Then she opened the door wide open and allowed us in.

She looked tired, really tired. All of the blankets that were normally on the bed were on the couch.

"Why did you sleep down here," I asked softly, trying not to scare Hope off.

She had a really strong aura of anxious around her, that was very contagious. Though I think most of us were to worried to have any of that rub off on us.

She paused glancing down at her shoes. "Maybe," she mumbled.

"Why," I questioned.

She didn't answer, just flushed.

"Hope," Jordan lengthened on his words, stressing the fact that he was being really impatient with the subject.

She whined still staring at the ground. Her face got more red.

We stood there in awkward silence. Until tom opened his mouth.

"Oh for fucks sake what the hell happened!" he yelled. "It's not like you got kissed or something stop cramming up like a-"

"But I did!" Hope screamed, "I got kissed!"

I gasped. "OH MY GOD," I screeched. "PLEASE TELL ME IT WAS THE-"

"Prince," she answered lethargically, "yeah."

Tom fell on his knees, "noooooo!-"

I jumped up and down, "yes, yes, yes, yes." I pointed at Tom who was a crumpled mess on the floor. "Take that asshole!" I screamed.

Hope was confused through all our commotion. "What the hell is going on."

I was still bathing in my victory and didn't notice her questioning before I could defend myself.

Then realization struck her, "damn you guys!"

"Atleast Tom didn't win," Jordan said.

"You can't just bet on people being together. What if he didn't like me!"

"Well he did sooo-" Jordan lengthened on.

"What if I just decided to say," Hope paused, not sure what could really disgust Jordan, "you and tom are together."

"That's different," he answered.

"Why?"

"I'm straight and it's Tom."

Hope let out an exasperated groan. "Was it that obvious?"

Tucker shrugged. "Kinda"

She slumped onto her couch, "I'm so stupid."

"Bastard!" I screamed at Tom who was still crying on floor. I wouldn't say this is one of my best moments, but Tom deserved this.

Jordan sat by her on the couch. "Kid, you never learned how to read if people are attracted to you. It's not your fault."

"I just wish I could have reacted to it better," she explained.

"What even happened," Jordan asked.

"Well,"

Hope went on to explain everything. How Andor seemed pretty disgusted with himself over the fact that he kissed her without permission. How she read the bible. How she's afraid we might all be in danger, and the man who might be out to kill us just kissed her.

"Well," I put in my insight, "I don't think Andor is out to get us. I just think he wasn't very good of expressing himself to you."

Hope sighed, slouching herself in more of a couch crease, "I feel like a piece of shit. He shouldn't feel bad for kissing me. It's not like I said no."

"Is that the only reason why you feel bad," I continued.

Jordan was now standing in the kitchen, feeling very awkward about the situation. No one expected him to be giving out relationship advice anytime soon in Mianite.

Hope moved her gaze over to me and her eyes went into a weak glare. "Why did you say that?!"

I subtly laughed, "I'm sorry." I paused making my tone serious, "do you need time alone to think."

She nodded her head yes silently.

I gave her a smile. "Okay."

I felt so remnant to how she looked right now. I had gone through things like this. Developing feelings is difficult and for Hope I could see it going so many different directions, because her personality goes in so many different directions.

Tom grabbed the box of wands and we left Hope to deal with her first ever adult problem.

"Wagglinton," Tom swung open the wooden door, without permission given. "Where the bloody hell are you!"

I decided to just scream at him in my head about how rude that was. Honestly it was his personality and no one was going to stop that.

We all entered behind him, minus Hope.

Everyone was freaking out but really I expected them to kiss soon. The tension was actually so strong that when they looked at each other I wanted to tell them to go get a room.

Anyway mind my ranting. Wags house smelled like acid and flowers, which meant he was failing at making something. I couldn't figure out what it was though. Maybe he was trying to get his magic back or something, but wag doesn't have much trouble with potions.

Tom ran up the creaky wooden stairs, making me feel like the whole tower was going to crumble.

"Wagglington," I called out, hoping that if he thought it wasn't just Tom he would answer back.

"I'm here," he answered with the soft monotone voice he always has. It's almost like he's done with everyone in the whole world.

He peeked over the railing on his stairs. "Hello everyone. I assume you have all the materials." He moved his eyes to Tom who was only two steps below him, but really he was staring at the box more than Tom. "I'll take that."

Wag grabbed the box out of Tom's hand and moved back up the stairs. He was blatantly having trouble carrying the box that must have been a lot more heavy than it looked, because it took him a long time to get up three steps.

Wag put the box down on his wooden table that had a lot of light circles on it. He drank a lot of tea without using coasters.

He grabbed one of the wooden wands with the intricate curving pattern out of them. The paint was blue, yellow, and red. All the primary colors. Of course the design was beautiful, because Hope is an incredible artist.

Wag twisted the wand around, inspecting the wand more than admiring it. "Delicately painted," he grinned peacefully, "just like I told her too." Wag put the wand back in the box and laid his hands on the table. "Where is the child anyway."

Sonja decided to explain, "Well actually it's a long story-"

"She's having problems with the prince's abounding feelings," Wag answered the whole conundrum in one sentence.

Sonja squinted at him, "how did you?-"

"I'm not that immersed in my work," Wag stood up from his chair, "trust me she's fond of him. Sad for your tree though,"

"If your talking about me wizards boy," Tom growled, "then yes your right."

Wag's eyes lit up. "Let's get a move on shall we."

He picked up the wands and heads back down his stairs, the random chicken that lived here permanently followed around as well.

"We should have the chicken instead of Hope," Jordan joked. Atleast I think he was joking.

Wag walked us out to the front door where a blanket was laying on the floor. I hadn't noticed it when I got here first.

Wag lifted up the white sheet and dust carried around in the air everywhere.

"God dammit wag," I waved the dust away from me.

A circle of Latin numbers were written with chalk on the ground.

"Sorry," wag shrugged.

The yellow chalk made up the outside circle. The white fanned out to make the inside circle, and in the middle was a red letter. I don't read Latin so I really didn't know what it said, but it looked like an upside capital l by a sideways three.

Wag started taking the wands and placing them precisely where they were to be. He sat them in a zig-zagging motion around the circle, so all of the painted lines came together to make one tedious picture.

He then moved the wands out into the center by making straight diagonal lines to the center. It started to remind me sorta of a spiders web.

All the patterns stuck together even though it was the same design on every wand. Any direction you placed them, any place you say them, the design connected. I guess that was the point.

Wag placed the last four wands in a square connecting everything together.

The colors on the wands lite up. Bright enough for us to even notice in the daylight.

Wag stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"Well," he paused, "now I have to burn it all down."

Tom looked shocked from his word. "Well that escalated quickly."

Wag snapped his fingers. "I need a lighter."

No one moved.

Wag snapped his fingers again. None of us wanted to be his servant. No one moved again.

Wag sighed. "Please."

Sonja smiled, now uncrossing her arms. "Well since you said please." She grabbed the match box with a softened face and gave it to Wag.

Wag lite the match and stared the open match with bright face. He had on a smile that Tom would usually have, but it was definitely a lot more menacing on him.

"This will be bittersweet," he mumbled.

He laid the match down on the wooden wand and everything lot up like the domino affect.

The design burned brighter as the wood whisked away to ash.

The mark indented on the Latin numbers in the bright primary colors that were used. The colors blended together like melted wax on paper into the shades. Orange, purple, green shown as bright as the primary colors.

Everyone backed up as heat radiated off of the stone. The chalk seemed like it melted together with the design and only the red part was left.

Wags face got worried as the air went to a humid instead of temped hot. My body felt heavier and would definitely get tired easier.

A noise rang out in our ears. A white little noise that was incredibly loud and almost felt humid.

"I think I did something wrong!" wag yelled out.

"What was that?!" Jordan grabbed his sword on instinct, ready for a fight.

"I think I wrote death in Greek instead of growth in Latin!" Wag shrugged still screaming over the blank noise.

We all stared at him in exasperated shock.

Wag continued to look at the circle, feeling our eyes against him. "Sorry"

The colors swooned up together into one tornado of color and life. Something that should have been cheerful was very eery and threatening.

A monster made of stone and vine gasped out of the color. The tornado fell to the ground like rain and splattered all over the stone, only to disappear in the ground.

The creature glared at us with yellow eyes through a stone head that was staying on with gravity.

We all readied our weapon of choice and started up another battle.

Sonja's watch

I reached to my beige holster bag.

The creature met my eyes with his yellow piercing ones. His body was made out of complete stone, which made him seem invincible to fight.

I held my throwing knife in my hand. I placed my thumb on the spine of the knife. My body tensed, the creature still glaring daggers at me. The world was slow as I tried to figure out the perfect target. I knew my knives wouldn't hit easily.

Wag already had an orb of light laying in his hand. The ground shook as the monster was hit.

I had to make a move fast. To help the team.

I lifted my knife above my shoulder. I relaxed my grip and the knife flew out my hand.

It twisted in the air. The stone guardian twisted his head to look at me once again. The clank of metal from the monsters chest plate didn't make me feel any more accomplished.

My knife landed to the ground like a corpse. I hadn't laid a scratch on it.

The stone guardians maw opened. I shut my ears trying to keep out the shrieking noise that was protruding out of that thing. Why do monsters always make ear bleeding noises?!

The rocky base of the guardian cracked open. Vines grew out of the opening. With a leafy green color and a strong smell of dirt, the vines came after me.

I was whipped off my feet. The vines clasped against my ankles and began to reach for my arms.

My other team mates were worried about other things. The vines were heading towards their limbs as well.

I grabbed another knife with my left hand. My right was already bound down to the ground.

My knife glinted as I raised it up. I slashed down against the vines. The vine backed away turning a sickly black. The black raced back to the owner, eating away at the lush green quickly.

The black tainted the monster like a blight and all of the green that was noticeable from under the stone shell was withering.

Wag saw the chance. He flipped open a page of his book. Another ball of light was formed in his hand.

He threw it like you would a baseball. The light hit the guardian. The light waves through the guardian like an electric shock.

The guardians eyes flickered to dead as the light orbed around him.

The monster fell to the ground like settling ash.

The body was gone and all that was there was dirt.

We all were tired from the battle, which was a lot worst because of the humidity.

From the pile of dust I heard crackling. I turned to see a beautiful flower glowing a healing white. The stem was a even richer green than the guardian itself.

I moved my eyes to Tucker. He grinned at me and I could feel the whole team be relived.

So we were walking out from the hardware shop with the fireworks that were eventually going to kill my child.

I was not okay with this.

"I'm not ready for the betrayal," I mumbled.

I felt like sobbing. It wasn't that I cared about the tree. It was the principle of the damn thing. I lost to Sonja.

I had gone on with Tucker and Sonja, because the hardware guy wouldn't give me fireworks without them. And I wasn't paying for the fireworks. This wasn't my idea.

We walked out of the door to the see Jordan talking to the Prince.

Sonja grabbed both me and Tuckers hand. "Cmon!"

She dragged us over to conversation that was honestly none of our God damn business.

"Hi," Sonja greeted to the prince perkily.

The Prince looked so tired I almost felt bad. But not really because my tree was dieing.

"I'm so sorry," he pleaded. "I don't know what to say to Hope. I can't find her!"

"Are you kidding me," Sonja laughed. "Thank you-"

"You should be apologizing to me god dammit!" I screeched.

Jordan rolled his eyes at me.

Then I saw a black blob out of the corner of my eye.

A girl with blonde and pink hair was sneaking around in a black hoody, and the prince didn't seem to notice.

I put down my options and I only found one that a really liked.

"LOOK AT THAT," I screamed, which grabbed the princes attention. "ITS WORLD SENSATION HOPE!"

Hope glanced up to me with and ashen face. She then moved her gaze to the prince making her look like a deer in the headlights.

"Hope wait!" The prince spoke taking hope out of her trance.

She bolted for it and never looked back. The prince ran after her, faster than I thought he could run.

"He's never going to catch up with her," Jordan said calmly.

We headed to my tree for the final goodbyes.

DAMN YOU TOM! DAMN YOU!

Like Jesus Christ I didn't know how I felt, and running away trying to avoid an awkward situation wasn't helping anything.

I had so many thoughts just there that had fully collected in one day. I felt sick and weird and lonely, and hiding under my bed dreaming I was back in Mianite made me feel a lot better.

But then Tom had to go ahead and throw me under the bus. It's not my fault that you decided to go ahead and place a bet with Sonja. He should know better Sonja always wins.

And I can't believe they were betting on it! Like was I this fucking oblivious!?

"Hope wait!"

I was still impressed that he could keep up with me honestly. It was cute, but getting less cute. I was running out of road.

I mentally sighed seeing the guest house in the distance.

Yay I'm almost there.

I obviously had enough stamina to make it to the house, but I think Andor was getting tired because he was lagging behind me. That meant I had enough time to open my door and lock it.

I grabbed for the knob and turned it, but it didn't budge.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

I was lost in the dark, and I had both keys in the house so I couldn't do anything about getting.

"Hope stop!"

Dammit no!

I ran up the hill that say in the middle of the two houses. I would have to brake in through my bedroom window.