Harumi's POV

Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned to days. To extend our food supply, we'd caught some birds and roasted them, then added the excess to our bags. I admit, I wasn't too happy about it, but what could we do? After what felt like forever, Zane announced that we were almost there.

"Yessss..." Jay breathed a sigh of relief, "I'd started thinking that we'd gone in the wrong direction."

"I have a compass," Zane assured him.

"Oh, goody," Jay grinned.

I narrowed my eyes at "Morro." He seemed to be completely unaware that I had uncovered his silly little plan. Honestly, he was trying way too hard to act like a good guy with that sarcasm. Or was he even trying? Maybe he was smart enough to know that if you tried too hard, it'd make it obvious that you were the villain. But then, what if the real Morro just acted like this? My head was spinning. I was beginning to believe in my theory more and more. But how could Lloyd not see through him?

A horrible thought struck me. What if he'd already been brainwashed?! But a little voice in the back of my head told me that I was going a bit too far. Until I had any "real evidence", I was pretty sure that nobody was going to believe me. So I could only resist for a bit longer. At least I was good at that... I think. In order to get any proof of his true identity, I needed to do something. But what? My gut instinct knew there was someone here that wasn't who they said they were, and it must be Morro. Except nobody would believe me...

"Rumi!" Lloyd whispered in my ear, interrupting my thoughts.

"What?"

"Look!" he pointed straight ahead. "The forest!"

"Oh, yeah," I said absentmindedly, "Uh-huh."

I guess he could tell I wasn't paying much attention, because he sighed and leaned closer.

"Don't tell me you're still suspecting Morro," Lloyd whispered.

"Why not?" I wondered aloud. Cole glanced over his shoulder at us.

"I know him, Rumi. Trust me. I've known him for ages and he'd never touch a hair on you." he assured me. "I know he might seem unpleasant to you at first, but he's a good guy at heart. You have to give him another chance. "

"And if—" I started.

"And if he turns out as the Shadow Knight, we'll face him together."

Hesitant to trust Morro so easily, but knowing Lloyd had my best interests at heart, I nodded. Lloyd brushed my bangs out of my eyes but didn't say a word. I wished he would.

"Guys, the sun's setting," Kai said, "Should we head in?"

"No!" Nya gave her brother a reproachful look. "It's dangerous! What if there are wolves inside?"

"She has a point," Jay agreed, stepping backwards. "I ain't going inside 'till tomorrow."

That night, we camped out next to the forest. Once again, I found myself lying awake, unable to fall asleep. Something wasn't right. I just had a feeling that there was deception going on. As a master deceiver myself (though that shouldn't be something to be proud of), I probably had a sort of thing for detecting concealment and lies.

Quietly, I crept out from under my blanket and sat down a little outside the tent. Crickets chirped, joined in by an occasional snore issuing from the others. I fumbled through my bag for no reason, other than to keep myself occupied. It was strange why I wasn't even remotely sleepy. I hardly slept at all the night before.

My surroundings were tranquil, yet my head was swimming in thoughts. Sure, Lloyd trusted Morro, and claimed him to be a "good guy at heart", but was he? My hands felt something hard, thin, and smooth. Strange, I thought, I don't remember packing anything of the sort. I groped for the object and pulled out a pair of black chopsticks. And (I fumbled some more) a pair of green overalls, along with a green hoodie and a white blouse with red flowers for decoration. I stared at it for a full minute. Huh. I stuffed it back into the bag, and paused. Since we were headed into the forest, it'd be best if I tied my hair back. I took the chopsticks back out, pulled my hair into a tight bun, and stuck them in. Hopefully it'll hold.

"Middle of the night, and you're tying your hair back?"

I spun around. Nya was standing there, trying hard to suppress a laugh. I felt my cheeks burn. Thank goodness it was so dark.

"Yeah," I said defiantly, though my voice was quavering, "Why aren't you in bed?"

She knelt down next to me. "You know," Nya said, avoiding my question, "We haven't really talked to each other, have we?"

I found it hard to look her in the eye. After everything that happened, I didn't think anybody should trust me. Especially Lloyd. The only person who knew my secret was Morro, and I didn't trust him.

Seeing as I didn't answer, she continued. "So, about your head hurting ... do you think that it has something to do with the Shadow Knight?"

"I guess so," I mumbled.

After a while, Nya stood up, seeing as the conversation was going nowhere and just how boring of a person I was to talk to. "I'm gonna go back in," she said, "Are you coming?"

I shook my head. It had been a week and a half, maybe, since we'd left. I hoped that everything and everyone was all right. Were the Ninja's parents worried sick for their children? Why had I dragged them into this? They were now far from home, in search of a weapon that might not even exist. I suddenly felt so stupid. Why did I think for a minute that we might succeed? Even if the Crystal Blade did exist, what chance did it really have against the Shadow Knight? And right now, he was attacking people, or planning to. All this time we only ever considered the danger that we'd put ourselves in, never stopping to think about our parents. I took apart the bun, buried my face in my hands, and before I knew it, I'd somehow drifted off to sleep.

Lloyd's POV

"Wake up," Morro said. I opened my eyelids a tiny bit. Light streamed through the translucent tent cloth. Beside him, Zane was examining his maps again. I groaned and brushed my hair out of my mouth.

"You need a haircut," he said.

I snorted. "Trust me. No one needs a haircut more than you do."

"You guys coming out?" Cole poked his head into the tent.

"Yeah, just give us a second," I said and threw the blanket off my body. Cole watched as I clambered out of the tent.

"You smell," Jay informed me when I got out.

"Thanks a lot," I grunted. Despite the sun shining brightly, I didn't feel as if I wanted to join in the positivity. I barely forced a smile when Rumi beamed at me. Something wasn't right. All throughout last night, I'd been walking in circles, trying to penetrate a dark cloud. I wondered whether the dream meant anything. Something told me it did. I squatted down at the banks of a small stream not far from where we'd pitched our tents, so I could have some alone time.

"Lloyd," someone whispered in my ear. With a jolt in my stomach, I spun around, wondering whether it was Rumi, only to come face to face with her sister instead.

"Lloyd," Ruby repeated, biting her lip and wringing her fingers together. She looked at me, with a calculating look in her eyes. It was intimidating. I shuffled slightly away from her. Ruby glanced over her shoulder.

"I need to tell you something," she said.

"Sure..." I said uncertainly, twisting my bottom lip.

Ruby opened her mouth but at that moment someone else came marching over. I tilted my head one way to look at the figure and Ruby, noticing my movement, turned as well. Morro stomped to my side, grabbed my wrist, and began wrenching me back towards the others. Puzzled, I looked back at the brunette, who was looking at us with just as much confusion in her eyes. My cousin didn't give her a second glance and she began chewing her bottom lip.

"Uh, Morro?" I asked, wondering why he'd come over.

He didn't answer and kept going, leaving Ruby still standing awkwardly at the side of the stream. After one last look at her, I picked up my pace to match Morro's, feeling relieved to have gotten out of that situation for some reason.

The sun reached its peak and I knew that we couldn't procrastinate any longer. This forest, Zane said, was very thick; so thick, in fact, that nobody had managed to map it out yet, or at least not to his knowledge. But it was the quickest route to the other side.

Everyone was crowded around a spot on the ground. When I asked them what was going on, Kai said that he'd stolen a newspaper form a nearby town a couple of hours ago. They were flipping through it to see whether there'd been any attacks yet.

"If there were, wouldn't it be on the front page?" I asked.

"Well, we have to check," Cole said, "Just in case."

There wasn't any news. Jay immediately began complaining about how people only cared about the rising prices of flower seed packets. Morro, however, wasn't shocked at all.

"I'm pretty sure there have been attacks. I mean, wasn't the palace raided last week? News that big, it should still be on the paper. Something like, 'Investigations into this matter are still continuing, yet nobody has found any evidence of the person behind the attack'. So even if there were, something of which I'm sure of, it wouldn't be publicized. I'll bet anything that the Shadow Knight wants to operate in secret. He wouldn't want anyone arming up against him. Maybe he'd already erased the memories of the people in the palace that day. Except us, of course," he added thoughtfully. "Remember that little town we got food from? Weren't they all cheery, without a care in the world? Even after the freaking Shadow Riders attacked?"

"I must add it was quite suspicious how nobody recognized the princesses of Jade City," Zane pointed out.

The others nodded in agreement. Still, Rumi had her eyes narrowed.

"Wow, you sure seem like you know what the Shadow Knight is thinking all the time," she hissed.

"Anyone who's not an idiot would know that," he snapped back.

She opened her mouth to retort, and was about to shout when I shot her a look that clearly told her not to. She pursed her lips and said nothing.

Nya cut through the silence. "By the way, where's Ruby?"

"Banks of the river," Morro threw his head back towards the direction of the stream.

Rumi shot him a look of pure dislike and marched off to find her sister. I swayed back and forth on my feet, wishing that I were anywhere but here. One glance at Morro told me that he was just as furious. Kai and Jay engaged in an awkward conversation while glancing at Morro and me, while Zane and Nya were reading the map and talking in hushed whispers. Cole poked at the ground with his foot. I hurried back to the tents and started packing everything up.

A couple of minutes later the others, along with Ruby, joined me and soon enough, we had packed our bags and were ready to go.

Kai stood at the edge of the forest, looking uncertain. He twisted his bottom lip and squirmed a little.

"What's wrong?" asked Cole, walking up to stand beside him.

"It just feels wrong," Kai murmured nervously, squinting up. The tree branches swayed eerily. Though it was noon, a chill that seemed to emit from nowhere ran down my spine. I shivered. The sun was still over our heads, but it had never seemed further away and less warming.

Jay snorted. "Scaredy-cat," he said happily and bounced over. I wondered how he managed to stay so optimistic. Then a shadow flitted across his face. The chill must've come to Jay as well, drowning all the cheeriness inside him.

"Let's get this over with," Nya said, holding tight to her backpack straps. Her knuckles were faintly white. Though Nya tried not to show it, I was sure that she was just as afraid.

I didn't know why they were all so scared. Surely nothing could go wrong? Even as I thought this, I knew I was lying to myself. Zane had not spoken of the dangers that lay on the path ahead of us, because he didn't know what they were, or if there were any at all. Somehow it made us even more worried. Only an hour ago the trees seemed calm, serene, and even friendly. Now they loomed over us like dark shadows, their branches like hands waiting for the right moment to grasp their prey.

My feet were rooted to the spot, not daring to move. I glanced sideways at my friends, who were frozen like myself. Rumi was supporting Ruby, who had become weak-kneed.

And then, without warning, Morro walked in, as casually as one would when walking down the street. We held our breaths, as if waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

"Come on in," Morro said, turning around, "It's as simple as that. Nothing's happening. Nothing did happen, and nothing will happen."

"C'mon," Rumi whispered to her sister and heaved her into the trees. Ruby's face was white and panicky. I honestly couldn't blame her. Something told me not to step into those creepy woods, and I couldn't agree more. I felt a strange sense of impending doom. The adults always said: Trust your intuition. Believe in your instincts. Whatever. Well they were right. There was no way, no how, no whatsoever I was going into that forest. And I knew that the others thought so, too.

Just when I was about to step back, Cole went in. Zane followed suit, and so did Kai, Jay, and Nya. I was the only person still standing there, petrified. Morro came back, caught my wrist, and dragged me in. Nothing happened.

I was still vigilant and wary of my surroundings. When no sound apart from the crunching of the leaves and fallen branches on the ground came, I finally started relaxing a bit. Morro grinned at me over his shoulder. I gave him a thumbs up.

But something still bothered me. It was chilly in the woods, and barely any light penetrated the forest canopy. It felt as if nightfall had come early.

I looked at Rumi, with her sister walking at her side. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a branch slowly moving towards Ruby. My heart jumped up to my throat. Before I could warn her, however, it picked her up off the ground, lifted her high up over our heads, and, from what I could tell, threw her as if she was a tennis ball. Ruby screamed, though I could barely hear it.

Yeah, my instincts were right.

A/N: And yes, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out a good chapter name (I didn't even have them until now).

The big thing happens in the next chapter. Be prepared guys. To be honest, I'd say the next three chapters are, in my mind, kinda inseparable, and a part of me wants to publish them together but I don't wanna overwhelm you guys with too many chapters all at once :/ 

Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it!