"What happened?" She heard a voice but she couldn't tell whose it was.

"The people in there just started coming for us. I lost my sword and we almost got captured." A different voice said and she felt the vibrations as if she was on the person speaking.

"What happened to him?" A different voice asked this time and she felt a warm hand on her forehead.

"He drank some type of alcohol." The second voice said and she felt vibrations again. This person must be carrying her.

"What? How did that happen?" The first and third voice almost said in unison.

"I'll tell you later. Let's deal with him first." The second voice said and she felt herself being lifted into someone else's arms.

"We need to get out of Emberlands and the area around it." The third voice said and she felt vibrations from him this time.

"We can't." The first voice said, "It's now more possible that Princess Allura is kept here." 

The other voices didn't argue so she guessed that they agreed with the first voice. 

"Carry him on your horse." A fourth voice said, his voice almost identical with the third voice but it sounded slightly different.  "We need to make a plan somewhere for now"

Katie felt herself being moved away from the voices. She tried to open her eyes but she only got them opened half-way.

"Let..me..down." She said trying to get up, looking up in the bothered gray eyes of her carrier. "I can..handle myself."

As she mustered the strength to get out of voice three, Theo's arms, all the nausea hit her at once. The last thing she remembered was throwing up all over herself and Theo and then hitting the floor.

'Ugh, I hate feeling so weak.' She thought as sleep hit her again.

The flowing sound of water and the smell of campfire woke her up. She got up looking around, feeling a lot better and saw a back with half of it covered with scars.

"Great, you're awake." Theo said and turned around to frowning Katie.

"Where are we?" She asked instead of asking about his back.

"We're in a forest near Emberlands. We needed to retreat because of the sudden attack on you and Carlos." He said turning back to what he was doing before. He was washing clothes? Was that her clothes she saw? She looked down at her current attire and realized it was someone else's.

"That was my last clean shirt." He said referring to the one she was wearing. So that's why he was shirtless. Then she remembered what happened earlier.

"Ughh." She said rubbing her head, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." He said chuckling, "Everyone make mistakes."

Her cheeks flamed up. It was too embarrassing.

"By the way, I heard you drank alcohol without checking." He said and she shamefully nodded.

"I'm sorry, he kept bothering us about it and I didn't want Carlos to drink it." She said and he nodded.

"This is just your first time so it's okay but if there is a next time, warn them with your authority  and make them believe that you're too powerful to drink in a place like that." He said rubbing the clothes against the boulder.

"Okay." She said nodding but then realized something. "Wait, why not use my clothes?"

"The doctors wanted to take you with them but I volunteered to clean you. It would be trouble if they knew your gender." He said turning to her, "I couldn't get your bag so I gave you my shirt."

"Promise I didn't look." He added smiling when she covered herself and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Thank you." She said rubbing her neck and he nodded. "You're too kind to me."

"No problem. You should go change and meet up with Keith and the others." He said shortly and kept scrubbing the clothes. 

Katie went on a search to find her bag and found it in the mouth of Bandit. She laughed and patted his head.

"Thanks for protecting my bag." She said stifling another laugh imagining Theo trying to get the bag out of Bandit's mouth and failing. She took the bag, going somewhere far away from the rest and changed into her clothes behind a tree. She took Theo's shirt and returned it to his bag and wandered off to find Keith.

"Pidge, you're awake." Keith said, his sword out with Carlos and Mark by his side when she found them behind a large bush. It looked like they were discussing something like she expected.

"I'm sorry for the commotion I caused." She said bowing her head and felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Your recklessness never does stop, does it?" Keith said and Mark put an arm around his neck.

"Always full of surprises, huh." Mark said with a smile and Katie laughed awkwardly. She had a lot more surprises.

"But really, you're too reckless for your own good." Mark said looking down at her with concerned eyes, "You both could've gotten captured by those people."

"I'll find a way out then." Katie said positively trying not to think of what would happen if she really got captured.

"I'm sorry for letting you fight alone." She said turning to Carlos, "Thank you for not leaving me behind."

"I would never leave anyone behind." Carlos said and then smiled sheepishly. "I also got to show off my skills."

They talked, sharing some jokes and then Katie retold what happened in the pub to Keith and Mark. They discussed the things that happened and came up with a plan where they would be able to go back in Emberlands and come out in one piece. They stayed in the forest for a night and got prepared for the next day.

They woke up and went as they planned before.

"We will go in like normal and search where we haven't." Keith said, "But we stay together so no one is targeted alone and we can fight together."

The men agreed with the orders and went to prepare their horses and armor.

"You're coming right?" Keith said to Katie after the others were gone.

"Of course." She replied with a confident tone.

"Come but please don't drink any weird drinks this time." He said with a grin despite everything and she grinned back.

"Yes sir." She said and joined the other men at their horses.

"Pidge?" Carlos said and Katie turned to him, noticing that her sword was in his hands.

"Here. I borrowed it for a while." He said returning it to her and she grabbed it. 

"It's unfortunate that mine was stolen. It was a family heirloom." He said with a grim face looking down at the spare sword by his side,

"We'll find it." She said with a small smile to reassure him. Carlos nodded as Keith finally came to them.

They all got on their horses with their swords prepared and guards up. Keith led them back into Emberlands with confidence and they started searching again. There were many who stared and gave them looks but none of them attacked them at the moment.

Katie thought it was weird how none of the people were going for them but didn't argue with it and kept her guard up, ready to defend until the end of the search. She looked at her side to Theo who was wearing the shirt she was wearing before.

"I was expecting at least an attack." Theo whispered and Katie nodded.

"I still think they will attack." She said as they went back to the entrance after finding nothing. Suddenly Keith stopped on his horse and they all were forced to stop.

"Empress Lucinda." He said, his face hiding surprise in his face as the empress and many of her men were around her in front of them.

"Prince Keith." She said with a smile on her lips like usual.

"What brings you here?" He asked, a tight smile on his lips.

"To keep you busy." She said looking down at her red painted nails.

"What?" Keith mumbled so only the knights could hear it.

"Sorry darling." She said looking back at Keith smiling, "You can't leave this early yet, you must stay longer."

Before any of them could react, the pale empress with poison in her eyes said a command calmly.

"Attack them."

———————————————————————————————————-

Hey guys, how are you? We're about halfway in the whole story. Yes I know, "this is the 80th chapter and we're about halfway in?"

 I don't think people will like to read books with too many chapters so I'm thinking of continuing in a new book. Tell me what you guys think.

Also there were many chapters because most of them were fairly short so I'm gonna try to write longer chapters. 

I might also change the schedule of my updates to a chapter every two weeks because I am now busy with my school work and I'm currently writing three other stories, two originals and one fanfiction.

You can tell me what you think about this new change and you are the best if you read until the end. Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a good day! 🥰🥰❤️

-Silver