The sun shone through the trees illuminating Alice, her brown hair turned almost red in the morning sun. She turned and faced J.J, a soft smile playing on her lips. J.J wished he could have frozen that moment, and stayed in that forest forever. Alone with Alice in that beautiful forest, but the peace was soon shattered by the sounds of the battle growing closer.





“Wait here, I'll be back in a bit” Alice's father said as he slammed the door to his office. Alice looked around at the familiar sight of her fathers desk with stacks of papers piled high and fancy pens neatly in their cases.
The evening sun shone in through the open window. Alice got up stretching her legs and walking around the office, her eyes fell on a ornate dagger resting in its case its handle was plane black leather but the blade was beautiful in the center runes and writing wove in and out of the designs that cover the blade,
At a glance you might see grape vines or ivy but the longer you looked the more the images would shift and change Alice saw a amazing jungle seen with monkeys and tigers and flowers of all kinds then she saw a beautiful underwater scene filled with tropical fish and dolphins. Alice pulled her eyes away from the enchanting dagger, she wandered around taking in the smell of the wood and the gleam of the cabinets.
As she was looking at some of her father's books a cool breeze blew in an odd smell. As she was trying to identify it she smelled something else, this one quite familiar.
She walked over to the window guided by the smell of smoke. She looked out the window and it was hard to see the sun was setting, casting a fiery glow over the village, but even so she could make out smoke billowing up over the houses. She freaked out and ran to her room, her heart was pounding in her throat as she reached under her bed and grabbed a leather messenger bag. She had made it with the hope too have the chance to run away, she raced back to her fathers office and grabbed the dagger.
Soon she was bounding down the front steps and racing for the rest of the village, the closer she got the worse things appeared, she saw houses that had already been burned to ashes, as she neared the center of town she heard screams and crying children searching for their parents.





When J.J woke the sun had just barley risen he sat up and looked around on his left Everns sleeping bag lay empty but on his right Alice still lay sleeping the sun now catching in hair making it turn an auburn shade of red.
He thought back to the night before how she had saved them from the soldier, he wondered why I mean why would someone risk their own life to save two random people who they’ve never met before?
“Why are you staring at her like that?” Everns voice startled him out of his thoughts “I was just thinking” J.J said “Sure” Evern mocked in a sarcastic tone “Anyway where were you?” J.J asked “I was looking for a town or train tracks so we could get back on track and head for Maho but i couldn't find anything”
Evern finished with a sigh “Wow some travelers you are” J.J started and turned around to see Alice now sitting up stretching “And what's that supposed to mean?” Evern said clearly annoyed “Well you do you have a compass?” Alice asked as she stood up “No” J.J said a little annoyed himself now “Well luckily for you i do Maho is due east from Lytora” Alice said handing Evern a compass she had just pulled from her bag
“Oh um thanks” Evern said awkwardly “Do you know how far we are from a town?” J.J asked Alice “Well i don't know exactly where we are but there is a small village in this woods that's on the border between Maho and Hato.” Alice said “Great” Evern said “lets head there to get our bearings and then lets head to the capital” J.J was hesitant he didn't think the king and queen would believe two random kids that randomly showed up
“Wait why are we heading to the capital?” Alice asked “Its a long story” J.J said “Well the capital isn't going anywhere”
Alice said “Fine ill try to explain as best i can. Ok so the king of Mal is building an army of kids and teens who come from families with special abilities he’s training them and preparing them for war. He’s planning to slowly take over his neighboring countries, from there expanding all the way to Duni and from there down to Maho and Hato” J.J said “So basically he’s trying to take over the world” Alice said “Um… yeah basically” Evern said