"Hello to you too, Darkling High Commander." Becky says, her voice soft for the first time ever, her head bowed in submission.

Say what?

I look back and forth between Becky and this mysterious man in the black cloak, wondering if this is the real Becky. What if it's a clone? Or a Becky from an alternate universe?

That's just my drunken mind speaking, I think while giggling.

The man in the cloak's eyes flash to me for a split second, melted gold. They're really pretty. I wonder if I held up actual gold to his eyes, what would be the difference?

A noise draws my attention away from his eyes. Is that a rumble?

I look over and see Zero literally shaking, although not in fear. The terror seems to have passed, and in its place, Zero have anger seething out from him, his grey eyes nearly glowing. The rumble is coming from his chest, which vibrates with each growl.

Having a faint idea why he's so upset, even with my drunk mind, I take a small step away from the Darkling High Commander. Zero's growl quiets down very minimally. I take the step back towards the cloaked man, and the volume of his growl increases.

Oh Zero. Your such an overprotective dog sometimes.

My mind conjures up the image of Zero with dog ears and a tail and I start laughing really hard.

"What happened to her?!" Zero snarls, turning to Max and Becky, who are side by side, protecting each other's backs. They share a look, before Becky nudges Max to speak.

"Well, um, she was in pain, and there's only a limited amount of options I could use. My powers weren't working that well, and um, you see, I had some Lecic-"

"How much?" Zero growls.

"How much what?" Max nervously laughs, scratching the back of his head and faking oblivious.

"How much Lecic?!" Zero close to roars.

The Darklings don't move, don't even seem confused as they watch this strange exchange with blank stares.

Max says nothing, before silently taking the empty bottle out of his pocket. Zero looks close to manslaughter, but my eyes drift to the Darkling High Commander. He's staring at the bottle in amusement, and is that pride? Why would he be proud?

I wonder if he has a name. I would hate being his friend if all I could call him is Darkling High Commander. What a mouthful.

As if sensing I'm thinking about him, my new friend turns to see my swaying on my feet.

"Hold onto the tree." He orders, his eyes softening. I stick my tongue out at him, but one of my hands casually rests on the neon yellow trunk. This jungle is so vibrant with all these neon colored plants. I wonder why I haven't noticed them before.

I'm drawn back down from La La Land by my name.

"Let Ashley go."

It's Zero, and he and my new friend are seeming to have an intense stare down. Hmm, silver meets gold. I wonder who will win.

"Ashley." The cloaked man says, looking at me with curiosity. "So that's your name." He mutters.

I hiccup in response.

Then as if it finally registers in my mind, I shout in happiness. "Zero! Your back!"

They all look at me in confusion as I push off the tree and stumble towards Zero, arms outstretched. The minute I'm two yards away from him, he rushes forwards, swooping me up in his arms and crushing me to him.

So this is what being mauled by a bear feels like.

"Why did you leave?" I sniffle, looking up at him with what I hope are puppy dog eyes. Zero hesitates, before opening his mouth to respond. Before he can though, were interrupted.

"Now that were all caught up, you all will be escorted to Highclere." The Darkling High Commander says, and is that anger in his voice. I'm surprised I even caught on to it, it was such a small amount, but the anger was still there. Why is he angry? Is he upset he lost a friend too? I feel the same way. I really wish my Shadow man would come back.

"Like Hell." Zero snarls, holding me tighter to him. My whole body is pressed up against him, the thin body suit Zero's wearing is doing nothing for a barrier. Any closer and I'll be practically melded to him.

I giggle thinking about how cool that would be.

"Are you choosing the hard way then?" The man asks, raising a hand. The Darklings go from their relaxed, at attention stances, to stiff, ready to kill ones.

Zero growls, and I feel the rumbles going out through his chest and into mine.

Finally, Zero speaks. "I'll go, but the others are left alone."

The man considers for a moment before smirking and shaking his head. "I would usually agree to that on normal circumstances, but these circumstances aren't normal. I'm not only after you, Zero, but it's good to see you're as self-centered as always. I also need the girl," he says pointing at Becky, "and her," he says, pointing at me, "as well. It's also very amusing that you think you are in any position to bargain after what you've done."

I feel incredibly sober for a moment. What Zero's done? What has he done to upset the Darklings so much, that even their High Commander has come after him.

Zero tenses, his entire body shaking. He's frustrated and cornered, his heart racing.

"Yay, a trip!" I exclaim. The sober moment is way over. "If we go, can we get a hot bath and food?"

The man looks at me, the corner of his mouth tilting up.

"Of course. You'll be a very honoured guest."

"Yes!" I fist pump, before poking Zero repeatedly. "Zero, I want to go! Please, can we please go?"

"No!" He scowls, glaring down at me and I didn't want to have to do this but it's time to bring out the big guns.

My eyes fill up with tears, and I start crying, my shoulders shaking. Zero starts panicking, his eyes going wide. Gently, he caresses the back of my head.

"Don't cry, Ashie. I'm sorry. I will never yell at you again." He murmurs. I sniffle for extra effect.

"You promise?" I ask, pouting my lip a little. He nods enthusiastically. "And we can go with my new friend?"

Zero doesn't say anything, looking to Becky and Max.

"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice." Becky scowls, not looking up from the ground and Max shrugs, but still looks a little tense.

I break free from Zero with my new drunk super power strength and stumble back over to my new friend. He doesn't have time to dodge my arms as they wrap around him like snakes, holding on as a thank you and for balance.

His whole body goes stiff as a plate of iron, and I don't think he's even breathing.

"What-What are you doing?" He chokes out in a near whisper, still not moving an inch. Hmm, maybe I'm not squeezing hard enough?

I try to hold him a little tighter to show my gratitude, but nothing happens. Wait, there's a slight movement. Is he trembling? I look up a him, a huge goofy smile on my face.

"I'm saying thank you."

"For what?" He asks, his voice right on the edge of hoarse.

"For the future hot bath I'll be soaking in."

My new friend seems to become paralyzed again, and I step away, unwrapping my arms and frowning. Am I really that bad at hugging?

He recovers quickly though and clears his throat. Not looking me in the eye, he gives a flick of his fingers. The Darklings spring into action, surrounding Zero who looks close to collapsing out of pure rage. What did I do now? Is it because I hugged my new friend? I was just thanking him. Maybe I should have spent more time teaching Zero manners on the island. They would have done him a world of good.

The Darkling soldiers close in a tight circle around my three friends, and I look up at the Darkling High Commander.

"Hey! How come they get to be in the circle?" I whine, taking a heavy step forward. Before I can move much more, something latches onto my bicep. A hand.

I look back at my new friend who's staring down at his own hand that's holding onto my arm. He quickly clears his throat again, taking his hand away but moving in front of me and blocking my path to my other friends.

"You will walk with me." He orders and I place my hands on my hips. How dare he order me around like that!

"Listen here "Darkling High Commander" I don't care who you are but those are my friends and I want to be with them. Separate me from my friends and things will get very ugly." I warn, trying my best to give him a hard glare.

How do you glare again? I know your supposed to move your eyebrows downward, but am I doing it right? I'm pretty sure I'm making my eyebrows do some kind of weird wave motion now, like crowds do at football games. Speaking of facial expressions, how can you frown? Your lips are supposed to curb down like the letter 'n' but I find its really hard to do that.

"What in the name of Dalton are you doing with your face?" The cloaked man asks, staring at me in bewilderment. I stop moving my facial features and giggle, before hiccuping. The man shakes his head, mumbling something under his breath about how he hopes it'll wear off soon.

"To HighClere!" He suddenly shouts at the soldiers, and they start to march, still keeping the tight circle around my friends to the point where I can't even see them.

"Hey, wait!" I say, stepping forward to run after them, but my foot catches on the other and I fall on my knees.

"Owie." I whine, attempting to stand again, when a familiar hand comes into my vision.

I trail my gaze up the arm to the broad shoulders and finally to my cloaked friend with the eyes of gold.

"You said you wanted to be with your friends, right?" He asks softly, still holding out his hand. "Well aren't I your friend?"

I stare at him a little longer, before deciding he's right. I'm sure the others will be fine on their own, besides, their literally being surrounded by a bunch of new friends right now. I'm kind of jealous, but at least I have goldy-eyes here. He's way cooler.

I take his hand and he gently pulls me up, I'm about to let go, but he starts walking, leading me by my hand. I'm kind of grateful for it, because it keeps me from falling flat on my face.

We walk in silence for minutes, and I just focus on not tripping over my own feet again or the purple bushes. Then, a thought occurs to me.

"What's your name?" I ask, feeling sober enough to now do little skips beside him. He looks down at me in amusement, before looking straight forward again.

"Why do you want to know?"

I groan, looking up at the sky. "Seriously? Well duh, one, cause I'm your friend, two, you already know my name so I'm at a disadvantage, and three, it's annoying calling you Darkling High Commander."

I can't see his face that we'll, since he's keeping his head turned straight forward, but I could swear he's smiling.

"Lager."He finally says.

"Hmm, Lay-jer." I say, sounding it out. It comes out a little weird, but I'll blame that on the Lecic. "That's a very cool name!"

Lager turns and looks down at me raising an eyebrow. "Cool?"

I shrug, going back to skipping. "How much longer till we're there?"

That's when I notice the group of soldiers surrounding my friends who were up ahead have dissapeared behind a wall of trees and growth.

"Were actually very close." Lager says, only a few more yards away from the wall of plants. "Your group had unintentionally stumbled right into Darkling borders and we caught you right as we were leaving for patrol."

Lager steps up to a Bush and pushes it aside, letting me peer out.

"Welcome to Highclere. Home of the Darklings."

Dear readers, there we go, an update. Now that you have a little more details, what do you think about Lager? And try to predict what's going to go down at Highclere. Do you picture a long stay, like the vacation Ashley has in mind, or maybe something more dramatic and intense? Vote, comment, and come up with weird names. That's what I did for Lager. Do you like his name?

Lots of love,

Dangeroustoken.