Kael wasn't moved by her speech at all, and instead he just glared at her. "It's idiotic, and you're not going to M'D-"

"You don't get to decide," Lyrik snapped, her nose almost touching his as she met his fiery eyes with her icy, silver ones. "You can't keep me here, anyways, so-"

"You have no idea what's going to happen!" he interrupted, his voice strained with anger and worry. "You could die for all we know, and-"

"I'm already dead," Lyrik hissed. "It can't get any worse." Kael flinched, but Lyrik didn't get why; she should be the one flinching, not him. 

"Don't go. You don't know where Kera is, or Mykel, and something could happen-"

"But nothing worse than this." Lyrik gestured to herself. "Either way, it's not like you can stop me. I'm going, Kael."

"No," Kael declared. "You aren't."

"Stop acting like you control me," Lyrik yelled. "You can't! I didn't ask for this!" A tear ran down her cheek. "I don't care what you think." She turned and walked down the stairs, her cheeks red with anger. He yelled her name, but she didn't stop. She opened the door, walked out, and kept walking.

What's that? Lyrik pondered, staring ahead of her. She had just gotten to the border of the city, not bothering to hide from frightened passersby. If they were going to treat her like dirt, then she would do the same to them.

A huge sign was standing on a pedestal ahead of her, not like a billboard but more like one of the "vote for..." signs she would see at her school when they were voting for class president. She stepped closer to it, reading it slowly.

➡️ C'Dall (0 MILES) ⬅️ V'Dall (500 MILES) ⬆️ M'Daol (200 MILES) ⬇️ T'Dall (900 MILES)

Signs, she realized. Where to go. I should've figured that there was one of these somewhere. I'm pretty close to M'Daol, that's good. Er... How many days should it take to get to M'Daol? I don't think I go up or down too much, maybe a bit? I could really use one of Kael's phones. Ugh, don't think about him! 

Well, I don't need any breaks, that's something. Um... Uhhhhhhh.... Gah, I'm not good at math...

Lyrik was saved by the text on the bottom of the sign:

100 MILES: 40 HOURS

Phew. I can put together 40 plus 40.

80 hours?! That's 3 days! I have to walk for 3 days?! She groaned. 

"Three days, great," she muttered to herself. "Just great." At least I know where to go. Straight. I guess it won't be too bad...

She looked ahead, as far as she could, and began to walk down the path. It was dirty without her make-everything-creepy curse, although it wasn't immune to it. When she stepped on the path, it turned old and wet with rain, although it was only lightly drizzling.

She began to walk. The further she got, the more she noticed the lifelessness. There were no birds or people; she figured it was because of the fact that  it was M'Daol, where no one wanted to go. Not even animals.

What freaked her out was the rain. She didn't know why; it just felt like a bad omen. But she was being crazy, there was nothing wrong with the rain.

She had left around dusk, and now the sky was dark, and the moon was high in the sky, light emitting from it onto the yellowed grass. Lyrik could see that, up ahead, there was another sign, and gates. She ran up to it.

~The Barrier Woods~

Continue through the Barrier Woods to reach M'Daol

On the back, it read, Welcome to M'Dall. Lyrik had heard of the Barrier Woods; they were the woods between M'Dall and M'Daol. Nobody owned them. She had never thought about going to M'Daol, so they didn't cross her mind, but she had to admit that she was a bit scared of the idea- going into dark, dangerous woods that separated the enemy kingdoms... And at night?

I'll sleep until morning, she decided, but she knew right away that she wouldn't be able to sleep. She'd be too terrified- she didn't love woods.

She sat down and stared at the gates. Trees were visible from behind them. How do they open? She hesitated before pushing them. They creaked apart.

Well, that was easy. She narrowed her eyes. Maybe I should just check if there's any other signs. They're all useful so far. Lyrik placed a foot forward, and suddenly someone's hand passed through her shimmering shoulder. She shrieked in alarm and spun around, ready to run, when she recognized the moonlit face.

"Kael?" she demanded, gasping. He nodded.

"I'm not going to let you go through the Barrier Woods alone. Don't you know that there are traps everywhere? Look!" He pointed to an X on the ground, where Lyrik had been about to step on, crouched down to grab a pebble, and threw it. Less than a second later, silver spikes shot up from the ground, high enough to reach past Lyrik's knee.

"Uh-" Lyrik thought for a comeback, not wanting to accept that Kael had just saved her. She really didn't want to know what would happen to her if she got hurt- or died- while being a ghost, or a Silver Eyes, or whatever she was supposed to call herself.

Maybe it would be even worse than what she was stuck with.

"Well-"

"You have to at least look where you're going if you're going to try to convince me to let you go to M'Daol by yourself," Kael said, exasperated. Lyrik snorted.

"So what are you going to do, be my 'protector'?" she asked sharply. She flinched as an owl hooted in the distance, only to regain her snappish posture with the slight blush of embarrassment.

"No. But I'm certainly not going to let you kill yourself. There are easier ways to get to M'Daol, you know."

"That take weeks," she pointed out, rolling her eyes and staring into Kael's. "I can't waste that much time."

"Well, what better things do you have to do?" the reporter replied blatantly. Lyrik gawked at him, but had nothing to make a comeback with.

"How did you get here?" she asked instead. He didn't seem like the type that would walk so far without stopping.

"I biked," he replied. Lyrik blinked. He biked the whole way? "We should wait for the morning to go into the forest," he suggested.

"That's what I was doing," Lyrik snapped. He sighed, but sat down on the ground, and eventually she did too, and they stared at the stars until they faded into a brightening sky.

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