Royal Blood

Chapter 16 The Passing

Milo breathed in the fresh air, he was finally free. "It feels so good to be out of that cold, dark cell! I haven't seen the outdoors in weeks. I missed the sunlight."
"It does, Milo." She said, gleefully giggling to herself and frolicking through the grass .
"So what now? Where do we go? How do I get home?" He asked. All Milo wanted to do now was return home to Jake. His missed his brother terribly over these past few weeks and now he was finally able to leave this forsaken place.
"Well, we're going to get you home and I know just the place to get help."
Milo's heart leaped at the sound of that. People who could get him home. To Jake. It was a dream come true. "What kind of place?"
"A camp, a camp for people like us."
"Well, Serina, how do we get there?" He asked excitedly.
"Down this path, come on." She said grabbing his hand and quickly starting up the path to the camp.

* * *

"AMBER! JAKE!" Familiar voices called from the distance. The two swung around to see Luna, Zane, and Kris running towards them out of breath. The two rolled their eyes not wanting company.
Jake tried to walk away but the pain sliced through his ankle and up to his leg. He fell and Amber kneeled down next to him.
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Amber said examining his ankle, now a dark shade of pink and even more swollen than before.
"No it's fine." He lied.
"No yo-"
"Jake are you alright?" Luna interrupted Amber approaching them.
"Yeah I'm fine, now as you can see, I have a brother to save." He said, standing up to walk away, but his ankle gave out and he fell into the dirt and began to cry.
Now Luna's heart squeezed at the sight of Jake. She went down on her knees and gently placed her hand on his back.
"Jake come on, it's ok."
"No. No it's not." He cried trying to muffle the sound. "I was supposed to save Milo and now I can't even walk, I've failed him, let him down, let him die."
"Stop it, Jake." Amber said before he could go on, "We have gone through a crazy, kidd0-eating witch, an evil genie that turned us into stone, and not to mention that shape shifting Demon for him. He would be proud, he is proud. And with that Shadow King after us, he won't kill Milo. He is alive and he will he damn proud and happy to see you and all this effort you put into finding him." Amber blurted out graciously.
"Wow, Amber, that was sweet." Luna said still rubbing his back. "She's right Jake. We're so close to finding him. He just within our reach. You can't give it up now."
Jake sat up, his face covered in tears. "I can't even walk."
"Well I can help you there." Luna said her hands glowing a soft purple. She touched his ankle and in a matter of seconds the swelling disappeared and the color went back to normal.
"What happened?" Amber asked.
"I healed him." She said as the glow disappeared from her hands.
"Really?" Jake said wiping his tears, sniffling and trying to calm his breaths.
"Here I'll show you. That is, if you want me to?" She said hand out.
This time he took it. He stood up with no pain surging through his ankle. "Thanks Luna." He said gratefully, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Um, Jake." Zane said stepping forward. "I'm sorry too. I've been selfish and only thinking about myself and not your brother. But from here on out I'm all in!"
"Thanks and It's fine Zane." Jake said pulling him into a hug. Zane who was shocked by this decided to hug back.
"Now let's save my brother! He's been waiting too long." He said with great determination as they set off down the path.
* * *
Night was falling upon the forest and the camp was still 10 or more miles up the trail. Serina began to worry knowing that Milo was with her and that a full moon was going to shine tonight. What would he say if he saw her? He would think of her as a monster.
She quickly turned to Milo, "We should set up camp here. We need to rest for tomorrow."
Milo blinked with a confused expression, "But its not even that late. We can walk and put some more distance in."
Serina shook her head, "No, no, this time is too dangerous to be walking around. Creatures are crawling everywhere as we speak. It's safer in this area." She lied, "Come on, the ground isn't too bad around here." Serina quickly lied down, patting the ground for Milo to go to sleep.
Milo was confused at how strange she was acting but followed anyway and lied down, staring at her face as they both drifted off to sleep.