An arrow flew past Nod and Bryanna as they got closer to the palace.

"Whoa!" Nod leaned out of the way.

Ronin's eyes widened. "They've come to the palace!" He pulled out his sword and flew into the entrance of the palace.

"Plan B." Nod smiled at Bryanna as he dodged some arrows.

"We're not going into the palace?" Bryanna's arms tightened around Nod's waist.

"Actually, we are, but I don't want you to get hurt." Nod spiraled downward to the water.

He held onto Bryanna and jumped into the water. Bryanna gripped onto Nod's shirt. Her grip grew tighter when she spotted a boggan swimming towards them. Nod's eyes widened, and he pulled the both of them to the surface.

"This way!"

Bryanna swam quickly after Nod, avoiding arrows without even knowing it. Nod swiftly lifted her onto the dirt under a tree root.

"Stay here. Unless a boggan comes after you, then run somewhere."

"Where?"

Nod shrugged. "Somewhere." He jumped from lily pad to lily pad to the entrance of the Palace, trying to get to his weapons as fast as he could.

Nod managed to kick some boggans of off a few leafmen as he reached his armor. Grabbing his sword, he defeated two more. Slicing, kicking, and punching, he made his way to the center of the palace. He spotted a few birds chasing away some of the boggans. He also noticed that the plants were slapping or throwing the boggans across the room. The plants then proceeded to sweep the defeated boggans off the edge of the room and into the water below.

"Your highness?"

"I'm all right." The young queen jumped up. "We just had a few in here. The rest seemed to be taken care of too."

Nod heard more splashes in the water. "Either way, you should be safe."

"I am." The young queen grinned. "This raid is unorganized and very small. There are less than two hundred here."

There was a loud scream coming from outside. Nod ran to the opening of the room and spotted a raven. Bryanna was dangling from its talons. Nod ran to one of the humming birds inside and hopped on.

The boggan aimed his arrow at Nod as Nod flew towards him. The arrow missed, and the boggan fired another, missing Nod again. An arrow shot through the boggan and he fell. Nod reached out to take Bryanna's hand. But the raven's grip on Bryanna loosened and she began to fall.

Nod flew down and took a firm hold of Bryanna's hand, but Bryanna's hand was slipping out of his. They stared at each other with wide eyes. Bryanna's heart raced as she tried not to look down. Nod grunted as he tried to lift Bryanna up, but gravity was getting the best of him. His shoulders felt like they were on fire from the amount of time he was hold Bryanna up and the amount of force he was trying to use to lift her up.

Bryanna closed her eyes as her fingers were becoming the only thing Nod had a hold of. Bryanna shook her head and looked down at the blury surface below. Her fingers slipped out of Nod's grip.

"No!" Nod stared at her.

Bryanna closed her eyes and felt a thud. The fall was a lot less painful than she imagined and a LOT quicker than she anticipated. She opened her eyes and sat up. She realized she had landed in Ronin's arms instead of the ground. Bryanna felt herself breath again, almost wanting to cry.

Nod sighed a sigh of relief and laughed as he flew to her. "Well that was pretty scary. Good thing Ronin was here."

Ronin nodded, landing on a branch. "It's strange that the boggans were trying to take Bryanna."

Bryanna frowned as she looked at the ground. "Is it bad that the fall was scarier than the boggans?"

Nod grinned and shook his head.

Bryanna looked down bashfully and smiled at Nod. "You should have seen your face." She laughed.

"You should've seen your face." Nod laughed back.

Ronin raised a brow and cleared his throat. "I'm going to find out why that boggan tried to take her."

Nod looked from Bryanna to Ronin with a smile. "I'll take care of her."

Ronin looked Bryanna over. She still looked frightened, but she also looked relieved. Ronin squinted as she examined Bryanna more. "Yeah... I'll let you know the details when I have them. Be careful."

Nod let out a small laugh. "I will."

Ronin nodded, helping Bryanna off his bird. He smiled one last time at them and flew off.

Nod took a hold of Bryanna's hand and quickly helped her up onto the bird. "I have something to show you."

Bryanna raised a brow and hesitantly wrapped her arms around Nod. They flew up into the sky. Bryanna saw the setting sun's light as they flew up to the top of the trees. It was very difficult to believe that so much time had passed. She woke up and it was morning. Now, suddenly after a few flying lessons, it was almost evening. Everything seemed to have happened in a few short minutes.

"Hold on tightly." Nod smiled back at Bryanna. "I'm going to show you what it's really like to ride a bird."

Bryanna tightened her arms around Nod, and his bird rapidly picked up speed. He began to smoothly twirl and spiral the bird around toward the setting sun. Bryanna laughed as she felt the strong wind touch her face from different directions. Nod laughed and had his bird sky rocket upward.

"Close your eyes," he called back.

Bryanna did so, pressing her body against Nod's. The wind felt stronger and harsher, like it was trying to drag them back down with transparent claws. She then felt like she was thrown up and floating on a cloud that was dancing in the wind.

"Open your eyes." Nod seemed to laugh as he spoke.

Bryanna saw a vivid view of the forest. She could see every river, every tree, and even some intricate designs that the trees seem to make from this view. She could see the movement of the deer and the paths some deer were taking.

Nod turned to see the sunset. "It's not an every day view." He stared at Bryanna who was awing the view of the forest. He watched her beautiful blue eyes shift throughout the forest. "Beautiful."

Bryanna smiled. "Very. It looks so nice from up here."

Nod looked forward, scratching his nose. "Well... uh... this isn't even the best view of the forest, believe it or not." He smiled to himself, shaking his head.

"Then what is? I wanna see." Bryanna moved some of her blond hair out of her face.

Nod sighed, quickly raking back his own brown hair. "I would show you, but uhm..."

"But what?" Bryanna placed her chin on Nod's shoulder, trying to see his face.

"You'll need more time here with us. The queen said she would return you to your world as soon as you were healed and ready to go. Which... you are."

Bryanna's brows furrowed. "Is she really going to send me back? Like back to my own size and everything? What if I tell her I want to stay?"

Nod shook his head. "She wouldn't let you. There's a balance we shouldn't interfere with. Our world as the protectors of the forest and yours as a stomper." Nod paused. "But we do have a date, so maybe I could postpone that for some time. That way you could stay a bit longer." He smiled.

Bryanna smiled back. "Or I could just stay."

Nod shook his head. "You have a world to get back to. A home. A family. The correct thing for us to do is keep you safe until you go back to your world. It's our job as leafmen."

Bryanna sighed and frowned. "I can't go back, Nod."

Nod blinked. "You have to. It's your home."

Bryanna pursed her lips. She wanted to, but she couldn't. "There's no home to go back to."

Nod furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

Bryanna lowered her eyes. "When you guys found me, I was running from some people that wanted my father's research with you guys. He was working with my friend's father. Apparently one of you were in my house. They managed to stab me, but I got away with some of his work, hiding it here in the forest somewhere."

"What about your dad?"

Bryanna took a deep breath. "I don't know. All I know is that I can't go back. Everyone is probably scrambling around for whatever information they can find at my father's house."

Nod glanced back at Bryanna, then the sun. "Really?"

Bryanna slowly nodded, blinking a few times. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. It's just I wasn't sure if I had anyone to go back to. Even if I did... money would be the only thing that accompanied me. That's part of the reason everyone was chasing my father and his friend's work. Money."

Nod frowned with a lowered head. "I'm sorry, Bryanna."

"It's not your fault, Nod, but thank you."

Nod smiled weakly. "Hey, we're all a leaf connected to one tree. No one's ever alone." Nod rapidly lifted his head up. "Maybe you could stay here with us. Maybe you should." Nod shrugged and smiled to himself.

Bryanna raised a brow. "Should?"

"That person might still be looking for you, so it wouldn't be safe to go back for a while. So you should stay here." Nod discreetly smiled, gently raising the height of his bird. "We need to tell the queen. But first, one more thing you should feel."

"Hm?"

"Hold on tightly." Nod grinned as his bird was elevating like a rocket.

Bryanna tightened her arms. She could barely squint to look up at the sky.

"Now relax!"

Bryanna did as she was told. She felt weightless, falling back through the air. She felt like a feather and loved it. The moment was sweet and carefree. There was not one care or one worry in her mind anymore.

Nod gently smoothed his bird to fly upright. He smiled to himself. "Well, this was a good day."

"Yeah. The flying really helped me feel better."

"It wasn't the flying that made my day."

"What was it then?" Bryanna leaned closer on Nod.

Nod smirked back at Bryanna. "It was the beautiful girl that's holding me."