Karen's POV

The bluestone glows on the ground as sit beside it. The breeze flows through me while Kevin and Caspian are chasing Iris around. Caspian catches her and lifts her into the air, twirling her around, and then setting her down. Happiness overflows inside all the four of us. Kevin pulls Iris into a kiss while Caspian comes running to me.

He smiles widely and leans down to kiss my forehead and then my lips.

"How are you, your majesty?" he teases.

"Very well, my love. You guys are tossing poor Iris around like she is a doll." I laugh.

"What can I say? I love my best friend and she happens to be very small," he says. He sits down beside me and takes a sip of my orange juice.

"Hey, don't steal my juice!" I scold and he only takes it further away from me. I reach out and he pulls it further until I climb over him and surrenders only after I glare at him.

"Do not disobey your queen, Fransby!" I order and he chuckles.

"What happens when the queen is your girlfriend? Your eternal love?" he asks.

"Still no chance!" I remain stubborn.

"Really? What if I do this to my queen?" he slowly kisses my lips. But he pulls away quickly and looks at me with hopeful eyes and me being me, I shake my head.

He huffs and then proceeds to do the thing I hate the most. He starts to tickle me. I giggle hard and squirm under his hands trying to push him away but I wouldn't use my super strength on him. So I use my best defense. I take the Borat in my hands, and it glows brighter than the sun, blinding all of them around me.

******

My eyes flip open and I am met with the sight of dried golden leaves on the forest ground. 

That was a dream! But, it was so nice! Caspian, Kevin, Iris, and me with the Borat safe and sound with me. I was the queen. But why didn't I see Darius? Why wasn't he a part of my nice dream? 

I stir and try to stretch but then I hear something. I feel something moving on the tree beside me. I hear a hissing and slowly, very slowly sit up but I don't dare to look up. The hissing comes again and I am almost sure about what it is when I see Iris frozen on her tracks in front of me, her mouth hanging open. 

I quickly bring my forefinger to my lips to shush her and stop her from saying anything that would disturb the creature hissing above me. The hissing becomes slightly louder, signaling that the distance between me and the creature is reducing, so I slowly lookup. A big fat Cobra hangs above my head from the branch above me, all ready to strike.

It looks at me, its target, through its ugly beady eyes as it pushes its tongue out to hiss again. I, very slowly, raise my right hand above my head. I can hear Iris' heavy breathing and the crackling of the branch as the snake slithers down towards me.

The snake pulls its head back, ready to sink its fangs into my flesh and inject the venom into my veins. But just as it thrusts its head forward, grab its head with my hand and the rest of its body falls from the branch and dangles in the air. I tighten my hold around its neck and the snake keeps hissing, its mouth hanging open, baring its poison-filled fangs at me.

I stretch out my arm as far away from me as possible as I walk away from the tree. Iris stands there, with her jaw on the ground and then I see Kevin and Caspian freeze midst their tracks upon seeing me holding a snake, out of the corner of my eye.

I walk past them with the snake and away from our camping base. I walk far away from them and back into the forest. We won't be staying there for more than thirty minutes now, so why kill a poor snake. We were the ones evading their territory anyway. I could just tighten my hand with a small bit of my strength and the snake's neck would just snap right in two.

But no, why would I kill a poor snake? I am just going to throw the snake far away and then return to our base and then we'll continue our journey. Once I reach far enough, I throw the snake into the air as far away from me as possible. It lands to the ground with a dull thud and slithers away from me, minding its own business. 

Good boy! Or girl!

I sprint back to our camping site with my increased speed. Upon seeing me, Iris and Kevin run to me, both of them hugging and squeezing the life out of me in relief.

"Oh my god...I thought...that snake...oh lord!" Iris sobs in hysterics on my shoulder and Kevin pulls away, kissing my forehead.

"Are you okay, Karen?" he asks and I see a tear escaping his eye too.

"I am okay. You're crying? Kevin, you're seriously crying?" I chuckle, wiping the tear off his eye.

"Of course, he is crying. You almost died." Iris sobs.

"Oh, come on, I am fine now. And the snake is also safe." I assure them.

"Thank god!" says Kevin and hugs me again and only when they let go, can I breathe properly again.

Caspian is just standing there, looking at me, but his eyes seem to be dying to hug me. They show fear, concern, and relief all at once. I walk up to him, wrapping my arms around him and he doesn't waste a nanosecond in hugging me back.

"I am okay, Caspian," I whisper.

"I was scared, I'll admit. But thank the lords you are okay, Katarina." he breathes and kisses my forehead.

"Where is Darius?" I ask them, breaking the hug.

"He left for some firewood in the morning and woke me up before going," Iris informs. "I went to check on him but then he started annoying me, and so I returned to see you under a snake." 

"I need some water," I say and Caspian immediately conjures up the water 

I hear the shuffling of feet and look in the direction of the sound to see Darius coming to us.

"What did I miss?" he asks.

"Well, you missed seeing Karen being cool and picking up a snake and throwing it away from her. Technically, you missed her almost being killed. Where the hell were you?" Iris scowls, looking more like an angry rabbit in her pissed state.

"I was looking for firewood and found none good, so I came back. Why are you angry at me?" he asks Iris. "And what the hell do you mean by her picking up a snake?" 

"I'll explain," I say. "Technically, I woke up and then was about to get up when I saw this cobra hanging down from that branch. It was about to strike and I grabbed its neck, took it inside the forest, and dropped it there. It went away minding its own business." I explain.

He stares at me for a while, processing whatever the hell I just said. "Are you okay now?" he asks concerned.

"Yeah, I am just relieved that nothing like that happened while we were asleep." I chuckle. Darius smiles and then hugs me. 

I think about my dream earlier. Darius was nowhere to be found but instead, Caspian was the one kissing me. 

It was a dumb dream, forget it.

"Are any of you guys hungry?" Caspian asks. I shake my head but Iris and Kevin look like they want something. I told them they cannot hold on to their hunger like us three can do.

"I am sorry but...I am a little bit hungry. I won't eat much I promise." Iris says.

 Oh, poor girl.

"Okay, so I want you both to eat as much as you want or until you don't feel hungry anymore. You guys cannot try to not eat like us because we can survive since we have more strength. Iris, if you don't eat, you'll be very weak and the same applies to you Kevin." scolds Caspian, sounding more like a big brother to them.

"I won't eat much," says Iris.

"Fine then, I won't carry you if you faint." he huffs.

"I'll carry her," adds Kevin. 

Of course, he'll carry her.

Caspian gives him an oh-really look. "What about when you faint?" he asks.

"You know what, we'll just eat." Iris agrees and they search through their bags for food.

I and Darius start packing all our mats into our bags and he also conjures up some water to fill three bottles because what if we feel thirsty on the way.

My little crush on Darius has been growing day by day but I am super confused about Caspian. He is nice to me and not his rude self, but still, I feel attracted to him. Hell, I didn't like Bella hitting on both Jacob and Edward at the same time, and I wanted to kick Katniss for having both Gale and Peeta at once and now here I am, in the exact same position.

Maybe Caspian just sees me as a sister. But then, a brother doesn't drunk kiss his sister on the neck and leaves hickies for god's sake. I am dying to know what goes on his mind. That dream showed Caspian with me. But not Darius. Caspian hasn't said a word about why he kissed my neck like that. 

But Darius at the same time has never been rude to me and has only been gentle and caring to me. And that's the reason I like him. He is just like how Kevin is to Iris. But I feel attracted towards Caspian and that shit confuses me.

After packing up everything, we load the luggage on ourselves, and this time I climb behind Kevin, and Iris is behind Caspian. We also switched horses. According to the map, we have to cross a mountain range. The range is quite big and the far end of this range is the Eastern Mountains where the dragon clan lives. We don't have to go there anyway.

We have to cross the mountain range as fast as possible and before nightfall, because it's a quite dangerous place and most likely will be passing next to the werewolf territory. And the last thing we need is to be noticed by the alpha.

Iris and Caspian in one horse is the funniest thing I have seen. While I cling on to Kevin for dear life, she keeps playing with Caspian's soft dark blond hair from behind. It's funny because she seems to be tickling his neck and he would occasionally reach back to tickle her tummy.

I cling on to Kevin careful not to squeeze too hard. Kevin's curls even more fun to play with from behind and I've played with them my whole life. He doesn't seem too happy with Iris playing with Caspian but he's just being silly. Iris has her eye on Kevin and only on him.

The mountain range is huge. The valleys are dark, filled with tall grass that reaches above our feet while they dangle down from the horses. I took my watch with me before we left the palace. It's past noon right now. The last time we had something was yesterday night and that was three cookies.

We might be in the middle of the crossing and the werewolf territory is close by.

"Kevin, you feeling hungry?" I whisper while resting my chin on his shoulder.

"A little bit, we ate today morning right, so not much," he says.

"My stomach is mad at me, I can hear it growling," I whine and he chuckles.

"We can't exactly eat without giving the others now, can we?" he asks.

"Kevin, I'm Karen, not Iris! Why are you talking to me like that, bro? Call be bitch like you used to, don't be so nice." I say and he laughs.

"Well then, bitch you ain't gon' get any more food from my bag," he says.

"That's more like it." I giggle and he reaches back to touch my cheek. "But I'm still--KEVIN!"

The horse neigh is fear and my eyes meet the angry gold pupils of the giant wolf standing right before us. 

**********

A/N: How cool was this chapter? It took me so much time though. Anyway, don't be silent readers, vote and comment folks.