It's the next day, and the newly appointed guardians were on the move once again.

Like the day before, Henry took the lead, his eyes glued to the map. Alianor and Jacquelyn were in the middle, the older's nose deep in the black book while the younger looked out for more shadow bunnies. Philip and Ryia made up the rear, the two deep in conversation.

"What's in the book?" Jacquelyn asked Alianor after checking out what she thought was a suspicious sound

Her best friend had been into the book since they woke up, and was quieter than normal.

"I can't tell you" Alianor answered

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not supposed to"

"But we're best friends and best friends share everything with each other"

"Except the contents of this book"

Jacquelyn groaned in disappointment. Why couldn't she know what was in the book?

At the front of the group, Henry stopped. He looked down at the map and back up in front of him.

Something wasn't right.

On the map, there was one line, indicating one path, but he was standing in front of two separate paths.

The others noticed his stalling and quickly made their way to him.

"What's going on?" Jacquelyn asked

"The map. It shows one path, but there's two" he explained

The other four took a look at the map, he was right.

"So, which way do we go?" Jacquelyn asked

Alianor studied the map. The path on it eventually leads to a river.

"Whichever way leads us to a river" she answered her best friend

At her words, Ryia began to observe her surroundings. If anyone knew how to find a river in the forest, it was her. Her many escapades and rendezvous in the forest, along with accompanying her father and brothers to work, taught her many things about the forest.

"I think we should go this way," Henry said pointing to the path on the right, before heading towards it

"Wait!" Ryia said before anyone could follow him "I think we should go that way" she pointed to the path on the left

"And how do you know that?" Henry challenged

"You want to question the Earth guardian?" Jacquelyn asked

"She's not the earth guardian...yet," Henry said

"It has nothing to do with me being the earth guardian. If you actually studied the map, like Alianor, you'd see that the path leads to a river close by. And if you listen, you'd hear the sound of water coming from that direction" she said pointing to the left

For the first time, the others paid attention to their surroundings and listened. The sound of moving water could be heard coming from the left path.

"She's right," Alianor said "It can hear the river"

Henry heard it too, but he didn't want to admit it. Not only was he wrong, but a girl had to correct him. This didn't look good for him, and his grandfather certainly wouldn't be happy about it.

Alianor took the map from Henry's hand.

"Hey, give that back," he said

She didn't answer and turned to Ryia, handing her the map.

"I think you should have this," she said, the others, except Henry, nodded in agreement

Ryia smiled and took the map from her hands before leading the way to the left path.

"Let's go!" Philip said finding himself right behind, and Jacquelyn right behind him

Henry stayed back with Alianor, wanting to confront her.

"Why did you do that?" he asked

"Because she is the better person to lead the way" she answered

"What makes you think she's better? I've been doing a good job so far"

"That's because all you had to do was follow one path"

Henry got annoyed "I'm taking the map back," he said, about to walk away, but she stopped him

"Ryia seems to know about the forest way more than we do. Admit it, she's a better fit for this. So leave her"

"Who died and made you leader?" he shot at her

"And who made you?" she shot back

With that, she brushed past him and fell in step behind her best friend. 

As they continued their walk, the sound of the river got louder and louder. Soon enough, they found themselves on the bank of the river. But things didn't look the way they expected.

There was a river there alright, but it was about twenty feet below the bank. They each peeked over the edge and saw the rushing water and sharp rocks down below.

"How are we supposed to cross this?" Jacquelyn asked, remembering that they had to go over it

"Over there," Ryia said being the first to spot the old rickety rope bridge that led to the other side

They all made their way to the bridge and stared at it. The rotten looking ropes and broken planks looked the furthest from safe.

"Do you still think we still hold have come this way?" Henry asked as they all stared at the bridge with doubt

°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°

Womp!

The limp body of a shadow warrior fell heavily in front of Caine.

"Argh!" he screamed in frustration

What was getting Caine so frustrated? His plan to defeat the Guardians entailed finding the table before they did. But the table was on the other side of the barrier. He thought casting protectant spells on his warriors and sending them through the barrier would work. But it seemed that he had underestimated his own spell and all the warriors he had sent so far came down burnt to a crisp.

"Send me another one!" he yelled

"Master..." his trusted henchman Abdul said, "I think it's time we come up with a different plan to get across"

Caine didn't want to admit it, but he was right.

"Very well," he said turning away from the wall

He began to make his way towards his coach, the King's, but newly painted black. Abdul followed him, and once they were both sitting inside, they rode off, leaving the shadow warriors to clean up the remains of their fellow fighters.

On their way to the castle, Caine began to search his mind for a new plan. After a few minutes, he had come up with one.

"We can build an underground tunnel, from this side to the other" Caine shared. If they couldn't go through, they had to go under.

"That can work master," Abdul said "But it would take a few days to get it done"

Again his trusted sidekick was right.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?"

There was silence as Abdul contemplated if he should share his idea or not.

"Well..." he began "You can get rid of the force field"

"And how would I do that?"

"The same way you put it there"

There was silence again in the coach before Caine grinned a sinister grin. Why did he think of that?

"I knew there was a reason I picked you as my right hand," he said, "We would have to search the King's library at once!"

The thing he needed was important, powerful. Dangerous in the wrong hands. It was the thing that started his journey as the dark guardian. It was the thing that gave him power beyond what he had before.

That thing was the Book of Dark Magic.

°~°~°~°~°~°~°~°

Henry held on tightly to the ropes on either side of him as he continued to make his way across the bridge. His steps were steady and careful, his feet seemed to not touch the planks when he stepped on them. He looked brave to the others, even though inside, he was just as afraid as they were. Him volunteering to go first was all part of the "Become the new leader" Plan.

Within a few minutes, Henry was on the other side. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he breathed a silent sigh of relief.

It was Philip's turn next, his gaze fixed on the other side as soon as his feet stepped on the bridge. He never looked down once and managed to get across faster than Henry did.

Ryia was next. Unlike the guys, her eyes were glued to the planks on the bridge. She never looked up at Henry and Philip, no matter how much her eyes wanted to. She wanted to be focused on the planks and where she placed her feet. One wrong step and the planks would break under her. Her tactics worked and soon she on the other side.

Jacquelyn was the next one to place her feet on the bridge. Unlike everyone else, she wasn't as nervous or scared about crossing. Instead of wanting to be focused, to calm herself down, she allowed herself to look around and get distracted. Her head turned and looked down at the rushing waters below her. That's when something caught her attention. In the water, pressed up against the wall of the tall bank, was a large boulder. The boulder itself wasn't interesting, it was the faded picture of a man's face painted on it

"Who's that?" she asked for the others to hear her

Alianor made no effort to peek over the edge to see what she was talking about, but the others didn't have to peek over, they had a perfect view from the other side.

"That's called Aylwin Rock" Ryia answered "Aylwin fell over into the river a long time ago, and the Luxians painted his face on the boulder as a memorial"

"So if I fall over and die, I get my face on a boulder?" Jacquelyn asked "Not bad compared to facing Caine"

Alianor shook her head at her best friend.

"That would be one pretty boulder" Jacquelyn commented, easing the tension in her fellow guardians for at while.

Though it took longer with her randomly commenting on things she saw, Jacquelyn finally made it to the other side.

It was finally Alianor's turn, and she looked a frightened mess. She placed the book inside her satchel, not wanting it to fall into the river while she crossed. She took in a deep breath and then grabbed on to the ropes. She wanted so badly to let go of them, they felt so dry and scratchy. But she had to hold on if she wanted to get across safely. Taking another deep breath she stepped onto the bridge. A creaking sound could be heard as her weight settled on the plank. Was the bridge trying to tell her she was fat? Couldn't be, she was 5'6" and rather slim.

She took step after step, as slowly as she could, cringing at the creaking sound the boards made. The closer she got to the middle, the more wobbly the bridge got. Did it do that before with the others? She hadn't noticed. When she was exactly in the middle, she froze. The wobbling and swaying were too much, and she was afraid she would fall over.

"Can she hurry up" she heard Henry say

She looked up at him, wanting to send him a glare, but she was afraid that focusing on making a facial expression would cause her to lose her balance.

Thank goodness for Jacquelyn though, she was sending Henry a glare more intense than the one she would have given.

"Give her some time" Jacquelyn hissed before turning her attention back to her best friend

Alianor waited for the swaying and wobbling to stop and once it did a few minutes later, she continued to walk across

"I will not fall, I will not fall" she chanted to herself as she crossed

The chanting was a good distraction because before she knew it she was standing directly in front of her best friend, who greeted her with a proud grin. She stepped off the bridge and onto the ground, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Finally" she whispered, her breathing a bit labored as if she ran across the bridge

They waited for a minute for her breathing to normalize.

"Are you calm?" Jacquelyn asked

"Yes" Alianor answered

"Good, can we go now?" Henry said annoyed by how long they were taking

"Can you shut up?" Jacquelyn said "Only the person with the map can say when we leave"

At that comment, Ryia giggled, while Philip tried to hold back a smirk. Henry rolled his eyes at the short blonde.

"Ready to go?" Ryia asked after the giggling

Sending Henry a smile, Jacquelyn answered "Yes. We. Are"

°~°~°~°~°~°~°~° 

And there it is, chapter 12! It's been a long time, I know, but my updates should be back to regular now...on this story at least. Remember to vote and/or comment if you like!

Chapter 13 should be up soon.