Nod quickly flew back to the palace as Bryanna practically held onto Nod for her life. Nod laughed as his bird spiraled and Bryanna's grip grew tighter. They whirled passed trees and quickly landed on the rocks in front of the palace.

Nod was about to get off his bird, but he realized he was bound. "Um, Bryanna?"

"What?"

"Your arms are wrapped pretty tightly around me. I can't get off."

Bryanna took her face off his shoulder. "Oh. Right." She smiled and let go of Nod.

They both began walking into the palace to speak to the queen.

"Hey!" She jumped out between two flowers. "I've been looking for you! I heard you were able to walk again. SO are you ready to go back?" She grinned.

"Actually, I'm not." Bryanna stepped forward. "I was really hoping I could stay here. Whether it's for a while longer or... more."

The young queen tilted her head. She smiled taking Bryanna's hand. "You have a home that is a totally different world from this one. You are a part of something that you were born into. Don't you want to go back?"

"But that's just it. If I go home right now, I wouldn't have anything. My family was killed by a family friend that wanted money. If I go back now, I could be killed for that money or live alone with it."

The queen scratched the petals on the top of her head. She smiled. "Then the obvious answer is for you to stay here. You shouldn't go back to a dangerous place. Sure you won't miss it there though?" A guard began whispering to the queen, but she simply smiled and patted his hands.

Bryanna mentally took a step back. She thought about the past two days carefully, wondering what she really did have to go back to at home. Then, she thought of what kind of life she would lead here. She thought about what would or could happen to her. She recalled how beautiful the forest looked on top of Nod's bird, how everything was suddenly beautiful in this tiny person view. But then she remembered what happened the night before. There were dangers just as equal as her life before. However, here she had reasonable guards, and there, she had no one.

"I won't miss it at all." Bryanna's eyes locked with the young queen's. "There is nothing to go back to, and I have a feeling that I was meant to be here. There's no way I could have been saved by you guys the other day by sheer coincidence."

The young queen nodded. "You're a new leaf of ours then." She smiled. "Let's go find you a real house, so that way you can actually live here."

Bryanna grinned as the young queen took her hand, leading her out of the palace to Ronin. Nod followed, hoping Bryanna would actually be happy in this place. After all, she did mention that it was a lot more difficult to move around than being a stomper.

Bryanna paused and turned to the queen. "Can I speak to Nod for a second?"

The queen turned to Nod. Nod scratched the back of his head as  she smiled and walked away. The queen found Ronin and started explaining that Bryanna was to recieve a new home.

Bryann looked at Nod. "I ran into someone last night."

Nod's eyes widened. "Wh-what?"

"They said they weren't a bad boggin. They cleaned the water."

"What was their name? What did they look like?"

Bryanna paused. "I don't remember his name, but I remember he was wearing a rat cloak. Does that help?"

"Lots of boggins wear dead animals." Nod shrugged. "Do you remember anything else?"

"I could point him out if I saw him." Bryanna shook her head. "When I remember his name, I'll tell you."

Nod nodded. "I'll warn Ronin."

"Bryanna," Ronin called. "Come here for a moment." Bryanna nodded and walked to Ronin.

"What you staring at, flat face?" Mub stood in front of Nod. "The new girl got your eyes?"

"What?" Nod blinked.

Mub grinned. "You're lucky my sister doesn't have a crush on you anymore."

"You have a sister?"

"No. I just hate your guts." Mub laughed. "And you are the worst leafman I have ever encountered. So, what's this? You like the new girl or something?"

"Can I just help her around?" Nod glared. "What's your big deal anyway? Why do you dislike me so much?"

"Cause you think you're the hot stuff. Thinking you're the best rider around here. All like, 'Hey I'm the awesome Nod leafman, and everyone will know my name.'"

"That's not how I think at all. Except for the hot stuff part. I am the best rider here." Nod crossed his arms. "You can even ask Ronin."

"'I'm the best rider here.'" Mub mocked. "Listen to yourself. No wonder that new girl is all over Ronin."

"What?" Nod's eyes landed on Bryanna hugging Ronin. She let go and smiled as she said something to him.

"There's no way." Nod rolled his eyes. "She's probably really grateful for his help. There's no way she likes him."

Mub rolled his eyes. "And you're probably the prettiest boy she's ever met." Mub laughed. "I'm just saying, it's possible."

Nod looked back at Bryanna, Ronin, and the queen, wondering what they were talking about. He walked over to them, catching a few words like beautiful, best, amazing, and protected.

"Hey," Nod stepped into their circle. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to get a really cool home." Bryanna smiled. "It's going to be in the middle of the tree right over there, and it's going to have access to almost everything I need. And I won't have to worry about protection."

Ronin looked at Nod. "I figured if she's there, we'll protect her."

Nod blinked. "We?"

"The leafmen." Ronin smiled. "Who else?"

"Oh. Right." Nod laughed. "Because slugs wouldn't be able to do the job."

"Say what!?" Mub called from across the rock.

Ronin rolled his eyes. "It's almost time to sleep." He looked at Bryanna. "We should get you to your new home."

Bryanna great. "That'd be awesome."

"I'll help too!" Everyone looked at Nod. "To get her home. You're not in the shape you used to be Ronin. Let's face it."

Ronin smiled. "Sure. Actually, I'm pretty tired." He shoved Nod toward Bryanna. "Why don't you take her home?"

"Sure. Let's go."

Bryanna smiled as Nod led the way.

Nod cleared his throat. "So you're staying officially. 'Cause you have a home now."

"Yeah. I managed to convince them to make this place my permanent home." Bryanna's eyes shifted all around her. "Which is really cool because this place is better than I thought it would be."

"It'll only get better. As long as we're around, nothing bad can happen."

"Didn't you say you were going to tell Ronin about that boggin?" Bryanna looked at Nod.

Nod's eyes widened. "Oh man, I forgot. I'll tell him first thing tomorrow. I promise."

Bryanna smiled and nodded. "I believe you."

"I'm pretty glad my dad wanted me to become a Leafman." Nod moved some leaves around as he continued walking down the dirt path. He made sure the leaves didn't hit Bryanna as they swung back.

"It's not much further is it?"

"No. I recognized the tree you pointed to." Nod shook his head, jumping onto a tree root. "Just a little bit upward." He held his hand out to Bryanna.

She jumped and gripped his hand. Nod swiftly threw Bryanna up into the small hole in the tree. Bryanna looked around the small hole. She saw doors that seemed to have naturally grown in the tree. The place seemed a lot bigger than she imagined.

Nod came in. "Yeah. You'll need your own furniture, but this place isn't bad on its own."

Bryanna opened one of the doors and imagined that room to be her bedroom. She opened the other door and couldn't think of what to do to it yet. "It's perfect." She turned to Nod.

"I would imagine. This place belonged to an nasty old leafman a while back ago."

"Whoa. Old? Did he die in here?"

Nod lowered his head. "Right there." He pointed to a spot near the back wall.

"Seriously?"

"No." He laughed. "He died somewhere else. I think he was visiting his grand kids or something. You're lucky no one took this place and it's near the Leafmen."

"Why's that?"

"Because you don't look like you can fend off a Boggan."

Bryanna grinned. "Want to bet?"

Nod smirked. "Arm wrestle challenge."

The two intertwined their hands and they counted to three, but Nod quickly won.

"We need a surface." Bryanna glared.

"Sure."

The two laid on the ground, wrestling more than one round. Nod and Bryanna seemed to be perfectly matched. Their arrogance for winning took so many rounds that they forgot who won the most rounds. Eventually, they stared at each other with heavy eyes, trying to go another round. None of them noticed the sunrising behind

"One...... two....." Bryanna's head slowly fell onto her arm.

Nod was already asleep. Their hands never letting go of each other. Unfortunately, Nod was a leafman and had a daily duty as one. Ronin walked in after not, be able to find Nod anywhere else, and he roughly shook Nod's shoulder. 

"Nod, it's past sunrise." 

Nod slowly sat up and looked at Ronin with heavy eyes. 

Ronin glared. "What time did you go to bed?"

"Uh..."

Ronin rolled his eyes and looked at Bryanna. He sighed and picked her up, taking her to the bed that was still there. He grabbed Nod by his shoulder and dragged him away. "You've still got a job to do, Nod."