We're up at the crack of dawn it feels like since the sun is barely even risen and the sky is that bruised but healing color.

    I make sure we're quieter than mice on our way out since I can't risk Clifford waking up to find us creeping out, but this house seems to be battling me on that. The charm of old, quaint houses like this is vast, but with age comes creaks and groans and a house that if a super spy were to try to penetrate they would have their work cut out for them. Elle, of course, knows where every groan and creak lies, but Sephora and I have quite the time trying to follow in her footsteps.

    Thank God, though, that Clifford is a heavy sleeper- either that or he's whipped.

    Eudora gives us some provisions to hold us over on the way there, warning us to be careful, and giving me a reassuring whisper in my ear as she embraces me.

    "I'll watch him as if he were my own."

    Pulling back, I smile down at her with gratitude. "Thank you."

    "Be safe," She called out to us in a hushed voice as we departed.

    Elle glanced back frequently until the house, then eventually the village, disappeared as we journeyed the main road; it's the same road I traveled when I was first dragged (literally) to the castle.

    It's a quick walk in the beginning, mostly us keeping an eye out for strangers or any signs of trouble, but as the sky begins to bright with vibrancy and the sun rears its head above the trees, we become less on edge.

    "How long do you think it will take us?" Elle wondered aloud. "The last time I traveled to the castle from home was by horse when they arrested us."

     I sigh, "It'll take a while on foot. Believe me, I would know."

    "The important question to ask ourselves is what are we going to when we arrive?" Sephora prompts, always the one down to business.

    "Infiltrate the castle." I've always wanted to say a line like that; it makes us seem so edgy.

    "How?"

    I look at her, not really having an answer but knowing that there was a way we could.

    "Let's cross that bridge when we get there."

    She nods, anxiety still nipping at her heels.

    There's actually a lot of picturesque scenery to witness on this road when you're not fighting to keep from being dragged along. There's also not many people who travel this road either, probably shying away from the final destination that it leads to.

    Observing the view around us, I become curious, looking over at Elle who seems to enjoy basking in the sunlight.

    "How many provinces are in Edalirwen?"

    Registering my question, she glances up at the sky then at the ground and back again, silently calculating the total in her head.

   "I'm afraid I don't know...I've never truly thought about it. There are many, I know that at least. Why do you ask?"

   "Just curious."

   Resuming her enjoyment of the sun, I look away again, impressed with how the trees move in sync as if wind spirits race through them on either side of us. We walk for a while until our feet- mainly mine, unaccustomed to such strenuous walking- begin to start stabbing our soles. We decide to rest, refreshing ourselves before continuing further.

    Steering off the road into the forest with a small, well-lit clearing, we take a break, sitting on the log and tree stump available. Elle pulls out the food Eudora packed for us, divvying it between the three of us.

    "My mind will be at peace once this is over," Sephora says, taking a bite of the goat cheese.

    "My stomach will be at peace once this is past us," Elle replies in a jocular manner.

    "My stomach would still demand food even if the world was falling to pieces this very second," I interject.

    We laugh at our comments, continually nibbling at our food.

    "I've always thought goat cheese would be disgusting," I begin, holding my wedge out. "But honestly, it's really good."

    Elle beams. "It is. That's all I've ever known. I've never tasted cheese from a cow. How is it?"

    I'm a bit shocked by that revelation.

    "Really? It's equally good as from a goat, believe me."

    Sephora covers her mouth full of prunes, hiding a smile.

    "This is the first time I have had any type of cheese."

    Now it's both me and Elle who are blown away, giving her a dubious face.

    "Seriously!?" I croak. "How?"

    She gives a meager shrug, taking a healthy bite of the wedge.

    "It is very tasteful, though."

    Elle blinks, still surprised.

    "We're going to have to get you a goat or some animal that produces milk. How do you survive so-"

    Her words died abruptly at the loud snap of a twig nearby.

    Immediately, our lighthearted banter dies and we're on our feet- our defenses up. Sephora grips the hilt of the crude dagger she brought along, Elle stays behind us but in a stance that reads of calculating poise, while I quickly snatch up a thick tree limb that broke off nearby. We stare in the direction that the noise came from.

    "Who's there?" I bark, gripping the limb tighter as I creep closer.

    The person is hiding behind the tree, I'm sure of it.

    "Come out of hiding and show yourself," Sephora calls.

    The figure remains hidden behind the wide tree.

    "Alright, that's twice. No more chances."

    I was in fighting mode now. Holding my makeshift weapon up, I hurry to the tree where the perpetrator is hiding, prepared to attack when-

   "Whoa! Don't hit me! I'm sorry, it's just me, Clifford."

   "Clifford!?"

   The plucky, devil-may-care boy looks wide-eyed up at me from the ground, scrambling to his feet with a toothy grin.

    "Yeah!"

    My shock has worn off and now my disbelief morphs into frustration.

    "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back with Eudora."

    He crosses his arm at me.

    "You were going to leave me behind, weren't you?"

    "Um, yes. What else am I supposed to do?"

   "Take me with you." He then proceeds to give his rendition of a whiny four year old which I've seen enough of from actually four year olds. "I wanna be with you and Elle and Sephora and go where you're going."

    "No." My response is firm.

    "Why not? I can help you guys. Just tell me what we're doing."

    "And this is what I meant about my plans looking good in theory but never working out as smoothly."

    Elle and Sephora join me, their defenses down now that they see who it is. Clifford looks at the two of them for support.

    "Can I come with you guys, please?"

    "I think that decision is up to Mallory," Elle answers thoughtfully.

    "And the decision is no," I state unwavering.

    "But I can-"

    "Is it too late to beat him over the head with a stick still?"

    "Clifford." My tone is sharper than the blade of a box cutter. "You are not coming on this mission. If I have to drag you back to that house and tie you to a chair just to keep you from following us, I will. Now listen to what I'm telling you, the answer is no."

    Damn, that was the most intense I've ever been on anyone, probably aside from Xalale. I think even Elle and Sephora are taken aback by my tone.

    I'm expecting him to deflate- and he does slightly- but instead he becomes defiant with me, something that you wouldn't expect from a kid like Clifford.

   "Why are you being so mean to me?" His voice gets loud like it did the other time. "All I want to do is help and you keep saying no. You haven't been nice to anyone since Axel left!"

    There goes that knife into my back again.

    "That's not true," I growl.

    "Yes, it is!"

    "No, it's not!" Now I'm yelling over him. "Now, you're going back to that hou-"

    "Make me!"

     I knew if I stayed just a second long, even a mere second, I was going to do something I would regret, so I just walk away. I'm sure I'm searing to the touch at this point. I can't even form cognitive thoughts or spew any choice words, I'm beyond livid. I can't even begin my countdown to cool down I'm so heated.

     Thankfully, no one follows me as I walk farther into the forest. I need to be alone right now to collect my myself.

     It's only when I'm surrounded by nothing but forest and the chirping of birds overhead do I finally allow myself to stew. But just as quickly as my anger came, it depletes out of me in one instant.

    I'm frustrated, but I'm frustrated at myself.

    "What is wrong with me?" I smooth back my hair, shaking my head in disgust at myself. "He's right, you know."

    I have been extra hard on Clifford, especially if he mentioned Xalale. The kid doesn't even know what happened, isn't even involved with what went down, yet I'm taking out all the pent-up rage on him.

    Why?

    Maybe because he's a kid and I feel like attack him rather than taking my heat out on someone who truly deserves it.

   One thing's for sure, I can't keep doing this. I'm an emotional grenade and if we're going to have any chance against this threat, I need to rein myself in. But first thing's first. Apologizing.

    I've probably only been gone for four minutes at max, but every trace of wrath has disappeared from me entirely.

    I spot the three of them huddled over by the log, Elle and Sephora comforting Clifford whose cheeks are slick with tears. They notice me right away, but Clifford refuses to even lift his head to acknowledge me.

    "Can we talk, Cliff?" I use a softer tone, looking down at him apologetically.

    He continues to hang his head, staring at the forest floor, blatantly ignoring me.

    "Please, Clifford?"

    I wasn't going to leave this hanging any longer- I couldn't- but he's still acting as if I were a ghost.

    Then Elle steps in. Crouching down to look into his face, she used an even softer, gentler tone than I did- something only she can do.

    "I think you should go talk to her, she might have something important to tell you."

    He wiped roughly at his face, drying the wet trails on his cheek.

    "She won't yell at me?"

    "No, she's not going to yell at you, she just wants to talk."

    I could picture Elle in a modern day setting being the perfect elementary school teacher- kind and loving with every kid. She gets Clifford to at least glance up at me, even if it's only for a second, and walk to the side to talk with me.

    As we draw away from the other two, I sigh, looking down at him while he keeps his arms crossed and eyes trained to the ground as if in some competition with the forest floor.

    "Clifford, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being so mean to you the past few days. I'm just so...frustrated right now."

    He still doesn't look at me, marching on beside me.

    "You have every right to be mad at me, I haven't been fair to you. I'm sorry."

    I stop in my place, reaching a hand on his shoulder to stop him from continuing on, though I'm still being given the silent treatment.

    Crouching to his level, I attempt to look him in the face.

    "You've been nothing but helpful to me during everything and I appreciate that more than you know, but I just don't want you to get hurt. You're my responsibility while we're here and I couldn't live with myself if you got hurt while here, that's the only reason I left you behind. I should have told you, but like I said, I'm dealing with a heck of a lot right now. It's still no excuse for my behavior towards you."

     At first, I'm sure he's not going to acknowledge me or my words of forgiveness, but just as I'm about to sigh he slowly looks up at me, his arms becoming uncrossed and his voice small.

    "Are you mad about Axel leaving? Is that why you're grumpy?"

    Sighing, I glance away momentarily then look at him again.

    "I'm mad about how he left more than anything else."

    "How'd he leave?"

    I bite my lip, wondering if I should crush this kid's vision of how he sees Xalale. I realize that it wouldn't matter, he'd find out eventually, plus I needed to be honest with him.

    "He kind of double-crossed me. A Benedict Arnold but a little more personal."

    He probably doesn't even know who that is but it doesn't matter, his eyes widen in disbelief at that.

    "Axel? Why would he do that?"

    "Because..." Revenge? Mommy issues? Once a bad guy always a bad guy? "I don't 100% know."

    "Then we should ask him," He says, his eyes regaining that optimistic glow to them.

    "Yeah...it's a little harder than that."

    "Isn't that where you're going? You're going to see him?"

    "More like to stop the world from being destroyed."

    "Really!?" He gets much too excited at this prospect, not really understanding the ramifications.

    "Yeah, but that's not good because both here and home might get destroyed so we're trying to stop that by going to the castle and stealing-"

    "There's a castle!"

    "Internal sigh now."

    "Yes, but we need to be careful about this, it could be dangerous."

    "I wanna help! Please, can I help? I won't get hurt, I promise."

    One side of me, my reasonable, sensible side which could have saved me tons of grief from the beginning, is saying no still- he's too much of a liability. But the other side, the side with the little no-good voice that got me in this dilemma in the first place, is saying yes. It's obvious which one I should choose, but looking into the eager eyes of a kid who has wanted to help me since day one even when he didn't know what was happening, I know who- unfortunately- I'm going to side with.

    "Only if you promise to stay safe."

    "Yay!"

    He nearly bulldozes me over with his hug.

    I loved this kid. Pain the ass sometimes, yes, but a fantastic kid at heart.

    "Do you promise?" I say, looking down at him.

    "I promise. This is going to be fun!"

    He races back to Elle and Sephora, gushing about the adventure we were on and how we were almost like superheroes but not quite exactly and all such nonsense he usually spouts. As I approach, Sephora gives me an affirmative nod. I just pray I'm doing the right thing by letting him tag along.

    "We better start back up on the road," I say, bracing myself for another grueling walk.

    The others agree, so we start back up on the wide open road where we continue onwards. I trail beside Elle just as we get started.

    "Thank you." I've probably said that phrase more than anything else this summer but it's always in order.

    She smiles back at me, a warm reply in return before we concentrate on the road. "You're welcome."

Clifford actually shows some self-restraint, only asking if we were close yet twice, plus not bombarding us with questions galore. He mostly just talks constantly, which is fine by me if it's Elle or Sephora he's chattering away to.

    So far, we've all been pretty mellow about this plan of ours, which we haven't fleshed out since setting out on this journey- mainly in part to me and my last minute attitude. But the second I spot the familiar tip of the dark, looming castle ahead, my pulse quickens. Glancing over at Elle, I see she's become whiter than a sheet. Even Sephora looks uncertain about approaching closer. Clifford, in all his chatty glory, is still as hyperactive as ever, only noticing the castle when it comes fully into view.

    "Whoa! That's an actual, real life castle!?" He was practically drooling over himself. Every kid's fantasy right there. "Can we go inside? Please!"

    "Hush Clifford." We were coming to the main entrance, but a far off I could see sentries on post. We needed to be stealthy now.

    Directing us off the road, I lead them into the forest surrounding the castle. I'm crossing my fingers there's no guards on foot patrol or else we're screwed.

    Looking at us now, I can't believe how absurd we were in getting this far without tangible alternatives. I mean, what's one fairy witch, a girl with a pitiful dagger, a girl with no weapons at all, and an eight year old talkaholic going to do? Die, that's what.

   If my memory is serving me correctly, I recall the door to the servants' quarters never being guarded and tucked away at the back of the castle. That's exactly where I safely lead us out without raising any alarms. The door is locked, of course, but we need to collect ourselves before bursting in there.

    "So our mission is get into castle, swipe as many pieces of this orb as possible, then bolt. We can decide our next course of action afterwards."

    There were so many things wrong with how I said that. Firstly, everything in that sentence is easier said than done, and secondly, planning last minute is what got us into this lackluster mess- I'm not one to learn from my past mistakes apparently.

    "We need to find Coxen and Olivos," Elle says. "If we're leaving, we need to get them out as well, especially Olivos."

    "Where is Coxen anyway?" I ask.

    She glanced at the door as if she heard something then looked at us again.

    "When we came back to find you, Coxen and I, we disguised ourselves as part of the staff, that's how we were able to remind in the castle. Coxen is still acting as a guard, but Olivos was being used by the queen to learn about the orb."

    "And now that I'm gone, I'm sure he's her most valuable resource to using the orb." Sephora adds.

    In thought, I stare at the ground, my mind on overdrive. Finally, I think I have our new course of action.

    "Okay, so Elle and I will enter the castle while Sephora and Clifford remain outside to-"

    "I don't wanna stay outside, I wanna explore the castle."

    I shoot him a blazing look.

    "You promised me you would stay safe."

    "Yeah, but I wanna-"

    This time Sephora jumped in. "We have the most important job, Clifford. We keep guard so nobody catches us. Plus, you can talk to me more out here. You would have to stay quiet in there.

    He thought about that for a moment before the excitement reignited in his eyes.

    "Okay!"

    I sigh, relieved that was out of the way, and continue on.

    "Elle and I will pose as servants to get around easily, but then we'll split up. Elle will search for Coxen and Olivos while I swipe the stones. We meet up at a designated spot then come out to you guys and we're off. Sounds reasonable?"

    Elle nodded with a hint of uncharacteristic determination to her.

    "That sounds like a great plan."

    "Awesome, let's do this." I pause just as we're about to split. "If anything goes wrong, and I hope it doesn't-"

    "Don't worry." Sephora reassures me, her hand resting on Clifford's shoulder. "Everything will be fine. Be safe, both of you."

    "Same to you." Elle replies.

    Then the two of them retreat somewhere safe and out of sight to keep vigil.

    Either this was going to work without a hitch- unlikely- or we were going to crash and burn, and burn we would.