I changed out of my clothes and had a lengthy bath as soon as I got home. I was cleaning off the dirt and perspiration from my early adventure with the twins, as well as the aroma of horses. Earlier this day, it seemed like I had the best time of my life with Ren and Dan. Happy and completely oblivious at Fred's departure.

How could my day just go down the drain in just a few hours? The world has a funny way of showing you its humor. It sucks.

After cleaning, I put on some new and fresh clothes. With a towel in hand, I walked around in my room as I dried my hair. Once it was damp, I settled on taking a brush and combing it through, untangling the ends.

When my hair was completely dry, I laid down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. What Nate said about Fred becoming the next heir to the kingdom suddenly made me think about Fred.

Who knew Fred had a lot of weight on his shoulders? Just thinking about having the responsibility of ruling his kingdom even though he was in Thalia must be hard, and killing him. I can just imagine the training he must be taking when he was a kid: How to act like a prince...and eventually a king.

In his letter, he wrote to the king and queen how he was grateful he was for his stay. His short time here must have been considered precious.

But if he had all that burden, how can he still smile? Laugh? Be so nice and not sick and twisted like Ace?

I suddenly remembered a saying: The person with the brightest smile is the one hurting the most.

Just thinking about it made me ache again. I want to help him. I want to help Fred. I wanna ask him. Give him a choice on what he really wants to do.

Tell him that he doesn't have to do what he doesn't want to. He's not a slave. Everyone is free to make their own choices.

I want to talk to him.

I went out of the balcony in my room so I could get my fresh air. It was a cold night that I had to wear a cloak even though I was only on my balcony. I stared into the forest and thought about Fred.

My thoughts were broken when I heard a song - soft and mellow. It was coming from the forest.

As the melody continued to play, I felt like my body was swaying into the tune. Then, before I knew it, I lost my consciousness.

***

"...damn it! Wake up!" I was suddenly shaken awake by none other than Prince Ace.

I gasped and pushed him away. "What are you doing in my room?!" I demanded.

"You must still be dreaming to think of this as your room!" He snapped.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Suddenly I was aware of my surroundings. I wasn't in my room anymore. In fact, we were in the forest. My eyes widened. "How did I get here?" I asked.

Suddenly I heard laughter. A transparent figure suddenly emerged from a tree. "Spirit nymph." Ace said and pushed me behind him. "And there are a lot of them." I followed his gaze to see that there were more of them emerging from different directions.

"Rose. Ace!" Nate called out and emerged from the forest, followed by the twins. The twins were still wearing their riding outfits while Nate was simply wearing some trousers, a shirt, and a thin coat. He was probably going to bed.

"It's PRINCE." Ace snapped at him.

"What the-" Ren paused when he saw the spirit nymphs, who were now starting to surround us. The princes drew into a circle with me in the center.

"What happened here?" Dan asked.

"I-Uh....I had a bad dream. Yeah. That's right. A horrible dream." I nodded. "I saw his face." I gestured towards Ace.

"This idiot." Ace pointed towards me. "Suddenly went into the woods."

"Excuse me, you failed abortion, PRINCE! I did not! I didn't even know how I got here." I said. My temper was growing at this guy's accusations. "All I remember is that I was on my balcony."

The princes paused and turned to look at me - the nymphs were completely forgotten. Suddenly, Nate spoke. "You couldn't have been lured, have you?"

"Huh?"

"Couldn't hurt to try," Ren said and grabbed my hand. He leads towards the direction in which I assume leads back to the castle. Nymphs suddenly blocked our paths and hissed. One even tried to claw us with its sharp nails. Ren grabbed me as he jumped back to avoid the nymph.

"Well, that answers our question." Dan pointed out.

"You have got to be kidding me." Ace bellowed in anger and started going after the nymphs. The nymphs laughed and climbed the trees to avoid the furious PRINCE cursing at them.

"What's going on? Can someone please give me an explanation?" I said, ignoring the fact PRINCE Ace was shooting arrows at the nymphs, which was doing nothing since it would only went through them. The nymphs laughed at him, making him even more furious.

"The nymphs," Nate said. "Are creatures who can hear your inner thoughts. When they see you worthy, they will help fulfill your wish."

"In other words," PRINCE Ace finally stopped harassing the nymphs, who were now laughing at him from the tree, to face us. "You," he pointed at me. "Must have wished to see Fred."

I stared at Ace and raised an eyebrow at him, not happy with his accusation. "Excuse me, but I did not wish for this. And how can you be sure that it was me?"

"They lured you here." Dan pointed out.

"Hey." I pointed a finger at him. "Who's side are you on?"

"The point is," PRINCE Ace snapped. "It's your fault!"

"I told you I didn't 'wish' for this!" I argued. "I mean, I was thinking about Fred, but I didn't wish or have that big of a reason to see him. Think about it, if they do see me worthy and grant my wish, then wouldn't they have sent me home to my world already?"

"The princess has a point," Ren said, and Dan jotted the tally on an imaginary paper.

"Then come here. We are leaving!" PRINCE Ace declared and grabbed my wrist. Once we were starting to leave, the nymphs quickly moved to block our way. They hissed at Ace, and he, in return, showed them his middle finger.

"Move it!" He yelled.

"PRINCE Ace. Nymphs are considered spirit guardians. You cannot disrespect them like that." Nate said.

"Bloodsucker gets a point for that," Dan said, and it was Ren's turn to tally the imaginary scoring.

"Do I look like I care?" He said and continued to wave his bow at the nymphs like they were pests. "And I do not want to hear complaints from princes who did not even bring their weapons with them."

"Ohh. Low blow, but he gets a-"

"Quit it!" Ace, Nate, and I yelled at the twins.

"Anyway, we cannot go back. We can neither defend nor attack the nymphs. And we all know that there's only one race that can handle them. The same race that they respect."

Ace clicked his tongue and glared at the nymphs. "Well, I am not Rose. Therefore I can leave." He declared and started to move without me. The nymphs blocked his path again and were giggling.

"Something tells me that they are doing this to you for fun," Nate said.

I watched the scene in front of me and giggled along with the nymphs at the pissed-off Ace. I stopped immediately when he turned to glare at me. I looked at the other princes to avoid his murdering eyes. "I guess you guys can go then since the nymphs have no business with you."

Ren, Dan, and Nate looked at each other. A silent agreement formed between the three of them. "If what you're saying is true that you did not wish for this, then maybe it is Fred who wishes to see you. So maybe seeing Fred can solve this, and the nymphs will finally leave you alone." Nate said.

"And if you're going, then we are going as well." Dan pointed out.

"After all, you can't go to Fred when you do not know the way."

Ace stared into the empty and dark part of the forest silently. "Something is not right. It is very rare for the nymphs to grant being other than fellow spirits their wish." Ace was seemingly interested at the spot in front of him. He narrowed his eyes. "On second thought, I'm coming along. Just to learn more about this unnatural phenomenon." Suddenly, he closed his eyes. The breeze suddenly felt icy cold around him.

And then there was nothing.

Nate suddenly draped his coat over my shoulders. I looked at him. "What about you?" I asked as I looked at his thin shirt. When I was on the balcony, I remember having a thin coat before. I must have dropped it on my way to this place.

"I'm fine. More importantly, your clothes are too thin so..." Nate looked away, blushing.

I suddenly realized that I was already in my nightgown and quickly wrapped the coat around me. Can't these nymphs lure me when I am wearing some nice clothing?!

There was a sudden movement at my side and a very loud snort that startled me. I paused as I recognized the horse. "Garius?" I whispered.

The horse's ears flickered in recognition at the name. It let out a soft neigh and looked at me fully. I smiled as I became certain that the horse was Garius, Ren's horse.

"Garius!" Ren beamed when he saw his bay.

"Wyren?" Dan saw his horse stopping beside Garius. It let out a neigh and stomped its foot.

Another horse appeared. This time it has a reddish-brown coat. When it saw me, it started nibbling at my hair. "Hey!" I moved my head back to avoid it.

"Ryde!?" Nate looked surprised as he stared at him. "How!?"

"Midnight called them. Obviously." Ace said. Now that I looked at him, a black stallion was now by his side. Its coat was a beautiful shade of black, and it shone under the moon’s faint light.

Nate pulled Ryde aside to stop him from harassing me. Wyren came to Dan's side and snuggled his owner. Garius, on the other hand, was snuggling me. Ren looked jealous that his bay favored me more than him.

"Seems like the horse has more common sense than my brother." Dan snickered, which earned a glare from Ren.

"I still do not understand how...?" Nate looked confused. "I mean, how did midnight know where you are?"

Instead of answering, Ace simply stared at him like the answer was pretty obvious. Nate could only shake his head as if he had already accepted that he would have zero responses from the reincarnation of Hades.

"Who cares? Let's go look for Fred." I said. We all let out a series of cheers until Ace held a hand out to shut us up.

"If we are going to do this, we have to be smart. We'll need supplies, and we obviously can't go back and get some. Buying is not an option since we haven't brought any gold with us."

Dan spoke. "Then what do you propose we should do?"

Ace looked anywhere but at us. "Right now? We'll camp out here." He said. "First thing in the morning, we'll go to the nearest place where we can get supplies and money to travel. It'll be a long one for sure. Fred might still be on his way to Hazel." Ace looked at Nate. "Prince Nathaniel, do you think we could stop by Vertez and get some supplies?"

Nate flinched at the name of his kingdom. I might be imagining it, but I could have sworn that I saw fear there for just a split second before it was gone. "We can." He said.

"Good." Ace nodded. "For now, we sleep. Well, we need our strength for tomorrow." At his words, I felt a rush of excitement wash over me. Right now, I ignored the ringing tug in my chest. Not only are we about to see Fred, but we'll also be traveling to a different kingdom.