Day Three, Four and Five

That night, Jewels went into her grey space and sifted through all the gold and gems in the room. She made piles and organized them according to gold and colored gems. When she found the Green Emerald, she made a safe in one of the bedrooms and locked it in the safe. When she came back out of the grey space it was still a long time until morning came, so Jewels went to the hot spring and took all the water from the hot spring and placed it into her pool that she made.

Morning came and Fenghuang helped Roc heat up the dried meat that they dried overnight. Once with was warmed enough, Fenghuang gave Jewels a portion and they all ate in silence.

"Any ideas on what you want to do next?" Nemean asked. "You still have three more days here or would you rather leave now?"

Thinking about her options, she turned to Roc and asked him.

"Roc, is there any hidden valuable treasures here that you know of?"

Roc thought about it for awhile before answering her.

"There is another mountain, west of here, that has a castle. I've searhched through it several times, and there's a lot of valuable treasures there. Even more swords, shields and weapons. There's also an old library as well, if you're interested in old scrolls and books. "

"Can you take us there?" Jewels asked.

"Of course, once we clean up, the two of you can ride on my back and I can fly us there. It should take us more than an hour by air."

"Then lets go there." Jewels said as she finished her breakfast.

------------------

Although Nemean and Jewels could fly, riding on Roc back was a lot faster. With one flap of his wing, it would take Jewels and Nemean 15 minutes to travel. They arrived to the desolate castle before noon and landed in it's courtyard. There was an eerie quietness that Jewels did not like, but with her birds and cat with her, she felt better to be on this journey with them. Roc led the way, showing them around the huge castle. One by one, Roc showed them where all the valuables were kept, and one by one, Jewels took it and threw them into her grey space. When they reached the library, Jewels became excited and quickly went into her grey space to build a huge library room connected to her cabin. When she came back, she threw every book and scroll in the library room and seeing it being filled up, made her happy. Within an hour, the library in the castle was empty.

"You're that happy because of books?" Nemean asked her.

"You'll never know what you can learn from them or where they can take you." Jewels said. "You can thank me later when there is something you don't know, but I know, due to those books."

"Sure, that'll be the day."

"You just watch, there will be a day!" Jewels declared.

As they made their way to the ballroom, Jewels was enchanted by its beauty and started twirling around in circles as if she was dancing the waltz.

"What are you doing?" Fenghuang asked.

"Its a dance, from my previous life. The dance is call a waltz and they use to dance the waltz in a ballroom just like this." Jewels answered.

"Show us." Fenghuang asked.

Jewels gave in and showed them how to waltz, one by one, they learned the dance and as Fenghuang danced with Roc, Nemean and Jewels danced as Jewels hummed the melody to the waltz. Roc and Nemean were fast learners and had Fenghuang and Jewels twirling around the room in no time. They were enjoying themselves so much that they did not see the eyes staring at them through the mirrors. It wasn't until it was too late, that they noticed the danger they were in.

The mirrors broke as a pack of wolves attacked. The large mirrors that lined the wall all broke as the pack of wolves came barreling at them, from the back, the alpha male howled loudly calling his pack to kill. Jewels whipped out her golden vine and held one of her daggers in her left hand. She whipped the wolves that came at her. The golden vine, shredded the wolf's skin, blood sprayed every time the whip landed on a wolf. Jewels was able to keep the wolves away from her as she whipped them into submission.

Nemean changed into his lion form upon seeing the wolves. He broke their necks and ripped through them like the wolf attack was child's play and Nemean can fight them all night. He killed so many that there was a small mound of dead wolves around him. Fenghuang, changed into her phoenix form and burnt the wolves in front of her into ash, she burned them so quickly that they avoided her and charged towards Roc. Roc stayed in his human form and fought them with his bare hands. His nails were sharp as his talons as he scratched and clawed at the wolves, digging and tearing into them.

As they fought, more and more wolves came, and Jewels infused some of her fire energy into her golden whip. Every time it touched a wolf, not only would it rip through it's skin, but it would burn them as well. The whole room smelled like burnt fur. Fenghuang's phoenix fire caught the room on fire, the beautiful floor and walls started to burn hotter and hotter. The wolves began to retreat one by one, but Roc and Nemean wouldn't let them. Fire didn't bother Nemean and with half a phoenix soul in Roc, phoenix fire couldn't harm him. Jewels's energy element was fire. So fire didn't scare her either, however phoenix fire, could hurt her and possibly turn her to ash if she touched it, so she stayed well away from burning walls.

Roc and Nemean finished off the wolves that wanted to retreat as Jewels threw the dead wolves into her grey space. She wanted to harvest them for their soul stones, she was able to collect twenty wolves before Nemean grabbed her around the waist and with Roc leading the way, they broke through the glass window and flew out of the burning castle. All Jewels could think about was the lost of all the precious soul stones. There were at least thirty more soul stones she could have harvested. Feeling dejected, Jewels lets Nemean fly them to their next destination, not caring where they went.

Roc brought them to a beautiful waterfall. The four of them washed all the blood off of them while Nemean licked and healed any wounds that they had. Once they all were clean and safe, Jewels took the dried meat out of the grey space and gave out two portions to her animals to call while she only ate one portion. Deciding to take a rest, Jewels went into her grey space and took her time taking the soul stone from the wolves and skinned them for their pelts.

When she came back, she gave the carcasses to Nemean, Fenghuang and Roc. The three of them turned into their animal form and ate the wolves. When they finished off the twenty wolves carcasses, Jewels let them sleep while she kept watch. They worked hard and after eating to their full, sleeping it off sounded like the perfect thing for her animals to do.

When they finally woke up, it had been four hours and Jewels had walked around in search of plants and herbs. Upon seeing a field of wild ginseng near by she started to dig them up. When she dug up the first ginseng, it was a 1000 year old ginseng. When Jewels saw how old it was, she began to dig each ginseng up with vigor. 1000 year old ginseng could be sold for the value of five merchant manors in Madewell. She could own a home, three times larger than Brooks Manor with just one 1000 year old ginseng. Within the four hours and her animals sleeping behind her, she dug and dug. When they woke up, all they saw was a small pile of smelly root in front of them as Jewels dug the soil with her tools.

"Are you sure you need all of these smelly root?" Fenghuang asked.

"1000 year old ginseng worth three Brooks Manor properties. " Jewels said as she kept digging. "We're moving soon to Redbane, I need all the money I can get to provide for Uncle Jude and Pop pop. I need to know that they are taken care of if we are to go to Nemea. Besides 1000 year old ginseng can also be used as medicine."

"What can we do to help?" Fenghuang said as she listened to what Jewels said.

"Come, I'll teach you." Jewels said.

As she showed them the correct way to dig up the ginseng, making sure to let them know to dig them all the way down to its roots, that it would be more valuable if the roots were still intact. They set off next to her and start digging with her. If they had any questions, they would stop to ask Jewels a question and Jewels would answer and monitor them, making sure that they didn't damage the ginseng. They spent all afternoon and evening digging up the ginseng field. One by one the pile of ginseng piled up bigger and bigger. When it was time for a late dinner, Jewels finally called it quits seeing how the pile of ginseng would help her family for several centuries. She gathered the ginseng and stored them away nicely in her shed in the grey space. When she came out, she brought more meat out with her and gave her animals two servings each while she ate one.

That night they did not make a fire, they were sleeping out in the open and did not want to attract any unwanted attention to them. Jewels slept between Nemean in his lion form and Fenghuang who chose to sleep in her human form, while next to her, lied Roc in his human form. There were no reason for them to stand guard as they slept because Nemean, in his lion's form is sensitive to sound. If they were going to be attacked, he would hear them from miles away and warn the rest before anyone could sneak attack them.

The four of them slept until the next morning and woke up with the sun.

"Lets make our way back," Jewels said. "I think I got enough treasures to last me over many lifetimes."

The rest agreed with her and the four of them flew in their human forms. It took them the whole day for them to get back to the place where they first fought the cyclone of scorpions. They had to stop a couple times on the way for Jewels to rest, but towards the end of the trip, Nemean held her in his arms as they flew over the dead cyclone of scorpions. It was already night time, when Jewels saw several camp fires lit by the entrance of the portal. Before they got too close, the four of them landed and Fenghuang took the initiative to scout ahead, when she came back Jewels, Nemean and Roc took shelter on the limbs of a tree.

"Six humans, all over the level 7. Two teams. One team, two humans all level 9. Second team, four humans, three level 7 one level 8. Two teams hate each other. There is a lot of animosity in the air."

"What time is the portal opening?" Roc asked.

"Noon." Jewels answered. "We have time. We can sleep up here for the night. It might be uncomfortable, but we don't know where the others are and I don't want to suddenly get jumped by any of them. "

They agreed to her plan and as they slept in the tree, they would take turns watching for any dangers through out the night. When morning came, the four of them made their way, jumping from tree to tree toward the portal. Jewels and the rest of them reached the outskirts of the jungle and watched as Aaron and Olivia attack the team. Without even thinking, Jewels jumped into the fight and helped the weaker team fight off Aaron and Olivia. Jewels had a personal vendetta against Olivia and when Olivia saw Jewels, she snarled at Jewels and attacked.

"I was hoping to see you," Olivia said as she came at Jewels with her long sword. "Maria and Lindsay sends you their greetings."

"I'll send you to hell first so you can welcome them. They'll follow you there soon enough." Jewels said as she dodge Olivia's sword and got inside of Olivia's defense. Jewels slashed down with her sword and cut through Olivia's body from chest to stomach. Pop pop made the best sword in the 4 Kingdoms. His swords were constructed in a secret way, that no one was able to replicate it. His swords were light, sharp and versatile. Jewels struck again, this time she aimed for Olivia's arm that held her sword. With one slash infused with fire energy, Jewels was able to slice through her arm. Olivia screamed, crying for help. Aaron seeing his comrade in trouble quickly kills the person in front of him and runs towards Olivia. Not giving Aaron a chance to save Olivia, Jewels throws her poisoned needle darts at Aaron. He was able to deflect some of them, but two hit him on his arm and on his chest.

"As if your darts can stop me." Aaron shouted as he kept running towards them.

Jewels wanted to take her time to kill Olivia for all the bullying she did to Jemma, but with Aaron coming towards their way, she was forced to kill Olivia in that moment. Jewels took her sword and stabbed Olivia in the stomach twice knowing that a stomach wound would hurt and kill her slowly. Although it wasn't the way she wanted to finish off Olivia, she could compromise with it. Turning her attention to Aaron, his speed has slow down as he was still running towards Jewels. When he reached within her whipping range, Jewels whips out her golden vine and infused her fire energy along with it, the vine was able to wrap around Aaron's neck and Jewels pulls him towards her. As she pulls him towards her, in his poisoned weakened state, he drops his sword as he cries out in pain. The vine tightens around his neck, squeezing air out from him. Her fire energy burned him from within causing his blood to boil. His lips turned purple as the vine suffocates him to death and her fire cooks him from the inside out. When his limp body fell forward, it was Olivia's screaming that brought Jewels's attention back to her.

"You monster!" Olivia screamed as she held her guts in her hand, trying to push them back inside her. "You are a monster and deserve to die! You are nothing but a good for nothing trash! Just a waste! A waste of space!"

"You're right," Jewels said as she walked closer to Olivia. "I am a monster, a good for nothing trash, a waste of space."

"Stop, stop right there, don't come any closer." Olivia whimpered.

"I'm a monster, because people like you made me into a monster. I'm trash and a waste of space, because people like you call me trash and a waste of space. But guess what." Jewels said as she stepped on Olivia's stomach making her cry out even louder. "This monster, this trash, this waste of space in front of you, is one who killed you and is standing on top of you as the winner. Now tell me, who's trash and who's not?"

Jewels uses her sword to cut straight across Olivia's neck. The look on Olivia's face was a look of surprised as if Jewels was not going to kill her. Jewels knew that once she started killing someone, there was no way she was going to let them live. It was a lesson she learned from her life as Julianna.

Jewels turned around to look at the three people standing far behind her. One dead body laid by their feet, a girl barely 16 years old and she was level 7. The two young men and woman looked at her in awe and horror. They were thankful that she helped saved their lives, but for her to kill two level 9 cultivators so quickly and ruthlessly, scared them. They were in awe because in front of them, she was just a level 5 cultivator. How could a level 5 cultivator kill two level 9 cultivators? What kind of monster is she?

"Are you guys hurt?" Jewels asked as she came towards them.

"We're okay." One of the men said.

"I'm hurt." The young lady said as she held on to the side of her stomach.

"Why'd they attack you guys?" Jewels said as she took off her bag and searched for medicine and gauze wraps.

"They said we took something of theirs in the jungle. It was first come, first serve and we got to it first." The same man said.

"My names Jewels, what's yours?" Jewels introduced herself.

"We know who you are, you are legendary after all." The same young man said. "I'm Nick, that's my brother Noah. And she's Fiona, but everyone calls her Fi."

"Nice to meet you guys, wish it was under better circumstances though." Jewels walked toward Fiona and handed her the medicine and gauze. "You need my help?"

"Why would you help us?" Fiona asked not taking the medicine or gauze from her hand.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jewels said. "Do you have a problem with me?"

"No." Fiona quickly said.

"Well, I don't have a problem with any of you guys, so what's the problem if I give you the medicine and gauze wrap to help you out?"

"What do you want in return?" Nick asked.

"Did I ask for something in return?" Jewels said as she got annoyed. "Look, I jumped into the fight because I have a personal vendetta against those two people. I didn't jump in to save you sorry lots. So I'm no hero or your savior. I fought and killed them because I wanted to. Now, I want to help you. No questions and no strings attached. Are you going to take the medicine and gauze or not? Cause my hands getting tired and I have to hide the bodies before anyone comes through the portal and we have a lot of explaining to do."

The three of them look at each other and made a silent decision before Fiona took the medicine and Nick and Noah helped Jewels drag the bodies to the jungle to hide. When Jewels was in the Jungle, Nemean, Fenghuang and Roc were still sitting in the tree that she left them in. She called them into the bracer and made her way back towards the group of people waiting for the portal to open.

"You guys know what happened to the rest of the people?" Jewels asked.

"No, we lost sight of each other's groups once we split up and went our own way." Fi said as she wiped off the wound with her ruined shirt.

Annoyed, Jewels took over and took the dirty shirt out of her hands.

"Let me do it. The healer in me is annoyed with how your cleaning your wound."

Grabbing the water skin that was in her bag, she poured water over the wound cleaning it. She then took the medicine box away from Fiona's hand and spread the paste over the wound then she started wrapping the wound with the gauze. When she finished, Jewels stepped back to look at her work.

"You got an extra shirt on you?" Jewels asked.

Fiona shook her head no and when Jewels looked as Nick and Noah, they both shook their heads no.

"How did you guys even survive for five days out here!" Jewels said annoyingly.

Jewels went into her bag and took out the clean pair of shirt she had in her bag and gave it to Fiona to wear.

"You're a healer?" Noah asked Jewels.

"I know a little about healing. Not much though." Jewels told them.

"It looks like you know what you're doing." Nick questioned her.

"Its just a flesh wound. Anyone can clean a flesh wound." Jewels said as she place the medicine back into her bag.

"If you guys didn't bring extra clothes, how did you guys survive the jungle? Didn't your clothes get dirty? How did you guys clean yourselves up? Didn't you bring any medicine or gauze's? How about socks, you guys have to at least brought extra socks right?"

All three of them shook their heads no to every question.

"Food?" Jewels asked.

"Yes!" The three of them yelled together.

"But we ran out two days ago and have been starving ever since."

Jewels's head wanted to explode. Did they think they were coming to Sky Ship for a holiday? Jewels swallowed her annoyance and prayed to the Goddess for patience as she reached into her bag and gave each person a portion of the dried food she brought with her from Brooks Manor. She gave Fiona the clean pair of pants and socks and when she saw Nick and Noah's face when she gave Fiona a clean pair of socks, Jewels then turned around and gave them both a clean pair of socks as well.

"Eat, change what you have to change and be comfortable. You guys would have to share the water though. Its all I have."

The four of them sat in a circle waiting for the noon hour to arrive. By then Jewels learned what happened to the people beside her.

When Jewels left, everyone was surprised as her recklessness and her audacity to go into the jungle alone without a group. But once she was gone, they all split up into four groups. The first group consisted of the level 3-5 winners, the second group, their group was the level 6-8 winners, the third group was Aaron and Olivia and the last group was the rest of the level 9-10 winners. Jewels went North, so Aaron and Olivia followed after her. Their group went east and the other groups went west. They didn't get far and weren't able to find anything valuable, until yesterday. On their way back they came back a different way and found an abandoned village. After searching through each home, Noah found a valuable object and when he took it outside to tell the rest of his group, Aaron and Olivia where standing in the middle of the village demanding Noah to give them the object.

One of their teammate, William, stayed back to fight Olivia and Aaron as they escaped. They knew William was dead when Aaron and Olivia came through the jungle and made camp last night. They knew it was just a matter of time, before they attacked and when they did Jewels jumped in. In the confusion, Emma was killed by Aaron.

"And that's the story," Nick said. "You find anything in the jungle?"

"No." Jewels said. "I mostly looked for rare plants and herbs, but I just didn't want to dig up a weed not knowing if it was poison or not, so I left them there. I couldn't recognize anything out there. Had I known Sky Ship had a jungle, I would have read books on rare herbs and plants so I wouldn't of wasted this opportunity." Jewels said dejectedly.

"Better luck next time right?" Noah said.

"There won't be a next time for me." Jewels said.

"Why?" Fiona asked.

"I'm Prince Raiden's golden gift remember?" Jewels said.

"I thought that was a rumor?" Nick interjected.

"Nope. True as the day is long. I am Prince Raiden's golden gift. Once the 4 Kingdom Peace Talks are over, he's taking me to Redbane." Jewels told them.

"How exciting and romantic!" Fiona squealed.

When Jewels didn't answer her, it was Noah who spoke up first.

"Isn't there something you could do or say to the King or Prince?"

"You idiot!" Nick said as he knocked him over the head. "Prince Ivan offended Prince Raiden and told him that Prince Ivan will give Prince Raiden a gift in his weight in gold and Prince Raiden chose Jewels. Did you forget? How could she ask for help from our King and Prince when it was Prince Ivan who made a mistake in the first place and had General Harvey agree to give Jewels away as Prince Raiden's golden gift."

"Oh yeah," Noah said rubbing his head where Nick hit him.

"Well at least you guys can try again next time and try your luck here in 5 years." Jewels said.

"I think one time is good enough for me." Fiona said.

"Us too." The Brothers said together.

They talked and talked until noon came and from the black portal a Madewell official came forward to see only the four of them. The official waited for 5 minutes before turning around and leading them back into the portal.

When Jewels walked out to the other side, there was a huge crowd waiting and cheering for them. Her family stood to the side of the stage waiting for her. Jewels smiled at them and as her eye met onyx black eyes, she could tell he was relieved and happy to see her.

"Congratulations to the four winners of the Madewell tournament and the survivors of the Sky Ship. " Prince Ivan announced to the crowd.

More cheers and shouts were heard as they were ushered into a carriage and brought straight to the Ceremonial Hal for celebration. When Jewels and her family met again, they couldn't stop talking to Jewels. There were several toasts and several wine bottles were empty within 2 hours.

"I'm quite tired," Jewels said as she put down her glass. "I would like to retire now."

Uncle Jude and Pop pop agreed and the three of the bid the Rowen Clan goodbye with promises to visit the next day to hear more stories. On her way out, as they made their way out of the hall, she was stopped by Raiden who had been waiting for her in the shadows. His arms came out and pulled her to the shadows. He hugged her tightly, holding on to her and smelling her hair. Jewels was surprised at first, but when she felt his arms around her and she could smell his scent, she relaxed into his arms and let him hold her.

"I probably smell horrible right now." Jewels told him.

"Hmm." Raiden said.

"You missed me when I was gone?"

"Hmm."

"You worried about me while I was away?"

"Hmm."

"You think about me?"

"Hmm."

"You miss holding me?"

"Hmm." Raiden grunted as he held on to her tighter.

"Will I see you tonight?"

"Hmm."

"You going to sneak in again?"

"Hmm." Raiden half grunted half laughed.

"I gotta go before Uncle Jude rolls back in here with an army searching for me."

"Hmm."

"That's all you're going to say?"

"Hmm."

Even though he only said the same one word the whole time. Jewels felt his intentions towards her clearly and understood his feelings. With one last squeeze he lets her go.