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Everything crawled back to me as if it was yesterday. One minute, my life was like a dream, the next, it turned into a nightmare. I woke up, when my best friend, Andrea Ackhart, called me on her cell phone.
"Aren't you excited that it's our first day of high school tomorrow, of our last year?" she asked.
I just groaned and told her to go away. I fell asleep again for about half an hour. Then from inside my room, out of nowhere, she jumped on me, taken by surprised, i rolled and fell off my bed. I managed to catch myself in a crouch position, and one of my hands on five finger tips on the floor, while the other was on the bed.
"That's not fair," shouted Andrea, 'I don't have reflexes like that!"
"Life's not fair," I said, "Besides, those reflexes were only natur--" and Andrea jumped at me again before I could finish.

After awhile, I had to carry her down the stairs. I dropped her on the couch, as I collapsed on the floor.
"How much do you weigh?" I asked, breathing heavily.
"Nyehh," she said in defiance, and stuck her tounge out at me and turned around. I just laughed, and went to make some breakfast. I made some omelets, sausages, and got glasses of water. I let Andrea dig in, while i watched some TV.

I started to think back when my reflexes started to become like that. It was back when I was in the 5th grade, I kept getting bullied. It was a hard time for me; my parents and my brother were in a comma from a car crash, but I managed to stay awake. Andrea was like a sister to me, she always kept me smiling even when my family was gone. Her parents took me in as if I was their own son, and had always helped me through my childhood. When we were 14, Andrea's mother was diagnosed with a failing kidney, and had passed away. Her fater was so depressed that he condemned himself to alcohol poisoning. He fell deathly ill and died in the rehab from alcohol withdrawal.

When I came back from my day dream, she was already cleaning her plates. As I ate, she started wandering around; she wound up flipping though channels and poking me; really, she can't stay still. After we finished breakfast, we decided to walk around the town. Andrea kept going around into the shops that were filled with clothes and teddy bears. I wound up buying her a teddy bear and some clothes. Every now-and-then she would play with her necklace, which everyone thought it was a makeshift bullet, but in actuality, it was a real bullet. After watching a commercial, she was thoroughly convinced she wanted to go shopping. Not many people can convince her otherwise after she had set her mind onto it.

Before we left, I had to pack things in my backpack, knowing that we'd be there for a long time. I grabbed my brown leather duffle bag, and packed bottles of water plus chops and soda bottles. I guessed we would be walking around shops for a very long time. From past experiences we were there for several hours; as she would spend her time at shops as if it was her paradise, from which was partly true.

We stopped by a shope where she would pet the little puppies in their little fences. "They're so cute!" she exclaimed.
I just laughed and started walking out of the shop, "What!" she pouted.
As I walked out of the shop, something caught my eye. My necklace started glowing, shining bright red. It seemed to grow brighter when I walked in a certain direction. As I kept walking, I wasn't looking where I was going, and bumped into a red brick wall. I circled the building, seeing that my necklace was pointing at some people in the park. "Oi! What are you guys doing?" I called out.

"Tristan?" Tristan is that you? How you've been?" hollered one of them.
"Is that you Jackie Boy?" I hollered back.
"Heck yeah it is! So, what brings you to this spot?" he asked.
"My family heirloom, my sword necklace, the crest was glowing bright red, when I got closer," I replied.
"My ring had the same effect, instead, it glowed green," he informed me.
"Alright, but what's with this crowd?" I asked him.
"I don't really know, but they seemed to have glowing heirlooms as well. Strange, isn't it?" he said
"Very, wait...Isn't that Andrea?" I murmured.
"TRISTAN!TRISTAN!" she shouted smiling. I just smiled and walked over to her with Jack, she started playing with her necklace again, "Where were you? I was looking for you, until my necklace started glowing in a particular direction," she said.
"I was following my necklace and banged my head against a wall because I wasn't looking, " I laughed/
"It seems as if there are nine of us here, but why are we drawn here?" I asked. It seemed like I was talking to myself since Jack and Andrea were talking to each other, and the rest were murmuring to each other. A blue flash passed all of us, and all of us fell back. A blinding white flash and blue barrier appeared around us. Its aqua-like color seemed to be swirling around us like fish in the water. I touch the aqua-like barrier and my necklace started glowing bright red. While I touched the aqua barrier, my finer felt tingly, like it was putting my hand out into the falls of a waterfall. Another blinding flash of white light pierced through the barrier, and knocked us all unconscious. "Tristan, Tristan, are you okay?" Andrea kept asking. I awoke with her shaking me violently and repeating those words.

I was awaken in a strange place, near an active battle field. Blood stained grass everywhere with swords, spears, shields, knives, bows, and corpses loitered the grassy plains and forest. It felt like I was sleeping for ages, and was still tired.

"D-d-do... you know where we are?" Andrea stuttered.
"I don't know...." replied Jack, "but the main question is when are we?"
"What makes you say that?" Andrea asked again.
"...Well, for starters," started Jack, "Look at the area, not a building in sight." He then picked up a sword from the floor."And look at this: This crest is exactly like yours Tristan."
I got the sword from Jack and examined the crest on the hilt of the sword carefully. He was right; the crest was the same as my necklace.The Crest of the Hawk, marking the brace, the valiant and the strong; that's what it said in tiny letters next to my crest.
"What do you think happened here..?" I asked the two.
Before they could answer, we were ambushed by a group of people. "Halt! Who goes there?" one of the people asked, who of which seemed to represent a knight, "And what are you doing on the land of the Ackhart?"
"Ackhart?!" shouted Jack, "Ain't that your last name 'Drea?"
"Yeah.." smirked Andrea, "What of it?"
"...Well, whi is this placed named after you?" Jack shot.
"If I knew, would have I asked you where we were in the first place?" She argued.
"You two, just,..just shut up for a moment." I scolded.
When the two of them had shut up, I then asked the knight, "Can you tell us where we are?"
"You are residing on the land of the Great Ackharts," declared the knight, he then continued, "And you, lot, are trespassing on their great land."
"What?" shouted Jack "We are not trspessing. And we have an Ackhart with us right now."
"Shush, you idiot," Andrea scolded Jack, and pushed him down.
"Ow," winced Jack.
"Your problem, not my problem, and you're not helping." I shook my head with disappointment at Jack, "But back to the point...Can you people lead us out of this...Uh..Ackhart land? So then we won't be trespassing." I asked the knight.
"We cannot." Refused the Knight, "As true to our duty as Ackhart Knights, we cannot allow Trespassers to escape, we must do to you to what we do to all trespassers; place them into the dungeon, or Kill on sight if resisted."
"What?!?" shourted our group.
"Come without restraint, and we shall put you only in the dungeon." said the knight. By the time they were done lecturing us, it was nearly sundown. We traveled the forest for at least 4 hours, yet they were at every side, accompanied by one squire each, keeping to themselves; except Sir Nicolas, who kept pestering, interrupting, and lecturing on whatever we were talking about. Eventually, we finally stopped a little over 5 minutes after the hundredth time Jack asked when we were going to stop. "We'll camp here tonight, restrain them in an hour. Sir Carris and I shall scout with ahead." Same the one of the knights, whom of which I believe was to be their leader. "Until then, squires, watch them closely, " I started to walk around, and flashing looks quickly at the squires. They seemed to be unaware of what i was doing, and they all seemed a strong, and clever, considering they were squires for nearly 3 years.