The next three weeks passed in much the same manner as that first day of training. The same dull routine - wake up, breakfast, train with Reddust, practising powers and working with Fireflame.

At the moment, Flameheart was swordfighting with Reddust, the clash of metal against metal echoed through the otherwise silent grassy meadow.

Perspiration trickled into her eyes, and Flameheart knew that she would have to finish the fight soon before she collapsed from exhaustion.

Deciding to take a risk, she lunged under Reddust's arm and stabbed at him. But luck wasn't with her and Flameheart slipped on the wet grass, she reached for something to stop her fall, it just happened to be the hem of Reddust's shirt and she ended up pulling him down with her.

Reddust's warm figure pressed against her own, Flameheart froze staring up at Reddust.

"Sorry." She felt her cheeks redden at his proximity, he stared straight back at her.

"It's okay." For a moment, neither of them moved.

"Umm, I should go now." Flameheart tried to get out from beneath him but Reddust held her in place.

"Our session isn't over yet we still have ten minutes." He smirked, leaning closer. Flameheart noticed vaguely that his breath smelt like vanilla.

"Uh, Reddust? What are you doing?" She asked nervously.

Reddust didn't answer. Flames flickered through his eyes. Then all of a sudden, his lips pressed down against hers.

For a second, Flameheart was frozen in shock, but then started to kiss back. She hadn't had any feelings towards Reddust before this, but it just felt right.

After several minutes, the pair broke away, gasping for air.

Things were then sufficiently awkward.

"Uh, maybe. I should go now." Flameheart muttered, and pushed Reddust off her, scrambling to her feet.

Reddust rushed to his feet. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay... I think. I just need some time..." Flameheart started to back away, then turned and sprinted towards the forest, a blur of red against the dark green of the trees.

~~~~~~~~~

Flameheart eventually stopped running, but by the time she had, she had no idea where she was.

She didn't have the slightest clue about how far she travelled, seeing as she was using her Speed Talent, so she could have been running for miles.

The young Guarder glanced around at her surroundings. She was in a dense forest, but it wasn't like the ones near the Guarders' Camp. This forest was full of rotting trees, all black and burned. There was an aura of evil in the air, and Flameheart had the feeling that she was no longer in Guarder territory.

Flameheart was confused, to put it mildly. She had no idea why Reddust would just kiss her like that. But if she was honest with herself, she actually enjoyed it. Flameheart had always liked Reddust, but whether those feelings went deeper than friendship, that was a mystery.

A rustling sound in the dead bushes caught Flameheart's attention. Her head snapped up at the noise, and she scanned the forest for any sign of movement.

Her spine prickled. Something was warning her that the forest had suddenly become very, very dangerous.

:|Flame?|:

She tried to contact her Companion, but there was no response.

The bush rustled again. Flameheart drew her sword, and the little light that broke through the canopy of trees glinted dully off its blade.

"Who's there?" she demanded.

The rustling was all the replied.

Then a black shape burst out of the bush and flung itself at Flameheart.

Luckily, Flameheart's newfound Speed Talent allowed her to dart out of the way in time, and raise her sword in defence.

"Who are you?" she demanded again.

The black shape paused long enough for Flameheart to recognise the black cloak as one of those worn by the Night Riders.

"What are you doing in our territory?" the Rider hissed.

"I didn't even know that this was Rider territory. I was just running." Flameheart answered cooly.

"Guarders do not come here except on a mission." The Night Rider hissed, obviously not believing her.

Flameheart opened her mouth to say something, but then heard another voice.

"Should I let her go? She doesn't seem to be capable of anything."

Flameheart glanced around wildly. "Who else is there?"

The Rider frowned. "No one. What are you talking about?"

It was at this time that Flameheart realised that this Night Rider was rather inexperienced and too sure of himself. She had the feeling that if the Rider was anything like the ones she had fought on her first day as a Guarder, she would be dead by now.

"I heard another voice." Flameheart said uncertainly looking around for any sign they were not alone.

The Rider was silent. Then Flameheart heard the voice again.

"Stars! She must have the Mind Talent. But she doesn't know what it is..."

The Mind Talent... That was obviously one of the many Guarder Talents. Flameheart assumed that it was the power to read minds.

So can I read minds now? she wondered. It would make sense if what I'm hearing is the Night Rider's thoughts...

The Night Rider spoke up. "You don't seem like you can doing anything by yourself." He sneered. "So I'll let you go with a warning: tell your other Guarders to keep better watch on their Apprentices because if I catch you here again, you're dead, understood?"

Flameheart nodded, still puzzling over the Mind Talent thing. Baking away quickly before she turned hearing the Night Riders cackles behind her and shot off in the direction she had come, hoping desperately that it led straight back to Camp.

All of a sudden, she heard Fireflame's Mindvoice.

:|Flameheart! Where the stars are you? I tried to contact you before but you didn't answer!|:

:|Flame! I'm fine, honestly. Something happened in training and I ran away. I think I ended up in Night Rider territory, and I was caught, but the Rider was obliviously inexperienced and let me go luckily. But, Flame, I think I have the Mind Talent. I could hear this thrid voice but no one else was there.|:

:|Stay where you are and I'll come and pick you up. You can explain all this to me later.|:

Flameheart didn't answer that. She just did as her Companion said and came to a sudden halt. She noticed that she was still in a forest, but this one was a lush green and there was sunlight filtering through the trees.

:|Don't ever do that again!|:

Fireflame scolded his Guarder, abruptly appearing beside her.

:|AHH! Flame! You scared the stars out of me!|:

Flameheart shrieked in her mind.

Flame just snorted in response.

:|Hop on. Kennaspark and the others are going frantic with worry.|:

:|Oops. I didn't mean to be gone for so long. It only felt like 10 minutes.|:

Flameheart said, guiltly.

:|They're waiting for you in you room. We're nearly at Camp.|:

Soon enough, Flame entered tha now-familiar clearing of the Guarder Camp. Flameheart noticed shamefully that there were many releaved glances thrown her way, and felt a surge of guilt when she spotted Reddust running towards her from Regulus Hall.

"Oh my stars Flameheart I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me and I-"

"Reddust! Calm down, it's fine. Can we talk about this later?" Flameheart interrupted him.

The other Fire Apprentice visibly relaxed.

"Yeah, that's fine. Meet me at my room tonight, you might want to go see your friends first, before they kill me. Kennaspark thinks that this is all my fault."

Flameheart rolled her eyes. "Sure. Your room number is 196 isn't it? I'll be there after dinner. And I'll see if I can talk some sense into Kenna, enough to let me go."

"Thanks, Sparky." Reddust grinned.

Flameheart groaned. "Not you as well! I suppose Kenna got to you about that stupid nickname."

"Actually, it's kinda cute. You should probably go now, see you tonight!" He started to leave.

"Yep!" Flameheart called after him, and then hugged Fireflame goodbye.

:|I promise I won't do anything stupid. See you tomorrow for training, right?|:

:|Right. I'm just a Mindcall away.|:

Flameheart grinned and darted into Regulus Hall. She made her way quickly to her room, number 176, and entered through the wall.

The minute she stepped inside, Flameheart was suffoccated in hugs.

"By Regulus Flameheart, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will personally cast a bonding spell on you so that you can't go 5 horselengths from me!" Kennaspark's words were muffled by Flameheart's shoulder.

"What's a bonding spell?" was all Flameheart could think of saying.

Kennaspark pulled away from her friend and burst out laughing.

"What's a bonding spell? What's a bonding spell? You've been missing nearly the whole day and the first thing you say when you come back is what's a bonding spell? Seriously Sparky!"

"Don't call me that!" Flameheart whined. "And what is a bonding spell?"

Willowheart shook her head. "A bonding spell is really just that - a bonding spell. It binds you to a certain person and you can't stray more than a certain distance from them. One of Kennaspark's Talents is the Spell Talent. She can cast basically any spell. It's pretty cool."

Flameheart nodded, absorbing the information.

Oceanfrost leaned forwards. "So tell us. What happened?"

Flameheart fidgeted nervously. "Well, I was swordfighting with Reddust, and I tried to end the fight but made a dumb move and I slipped on the grass, and accidentally pulled him down with me and he, he..."

"GO ON!" Kenna gestured to continue.

"Hekissedme." Flameheart said really quickly jumping up and down.

"Come again?" Breezestorm asked.

"Reddust, uh, Reddust kissed me." Flameheart repeated.

There was a moment of dead silence, before Room 176, Regulus Hall, erupted into excited squeals.

"Oh my stars what was it like? Is he a good kisser? Are you two, like, lovebonded or something now?" Kennaspark fired out.

"Wait lovebonded?"

"It's like the equivalent to going out." Kennaspark brushed the question off, the others firing similar questions at her.

Flameheart held up her hands. "Girls, calm down, and I don't know if he's a good kisser 'cos he's the only person I've properly kissed!"

"Oh." Kennaspark said, slightly crestfallen.

"Well, Sparky can explain the kiss later, what happened after that?" Breezestorm butted in.

Flameheart threw her a grateful glance, and continued.

"So he started to try apologise but I said it was fine, I just needed to be alone. So I ran. I've got the Speed Talent as well, now." She added. Flameheart then went on to describing how she ran through the forest, and the encounter with the Night Rider. At the end of her tale, her new found friends whistled in admiration.

"Well, you certainly had an adventure, didn't you?" Oceanfrost quirked an eyebrow at the Fire Apprentice.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. There was a third voice that I kept hearing, it said something about 'her having the Mind Talent'. Do you guys have any idea what that meant?" Flameheart questioned.

Willowheart looked thoughtful. "It probably means that you have the Mind Talent, the ability to read other people's thoughts, if they're not shielded. If you want, you could try it out on me, you know, to see if you can hear my thoughts."

"Um, okay. I don't want to hurt you, though." Flameheart said cautiously.

Willowheart laughed. "it's fine, you won't. I'll just take my shield down and you tell me if you can hear anything, alright?"

Flameheart nodded. In aboout 30 seconds, she heard the voice again, though it was slightly different, more, feminine, than the first one.

"So, if Flameheart can hear this, she has the Mind Talent. I've got that as well. It's fun to have."

Willowheart glanced up at Flameheart expectantly. "Well? What did you hear?"

"There was a voice saying that if I could hear it, I've got the Mind Talent, and they've got it to, and that it's fun to have."

Willowheart nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking. So, you've got three Talents now! It would be interesting if you had more. As far as I know, only Lightningstar and Reddust have more than three Talents."

Flameheart asked a question that had had her curious for some time. "What are all your Talents?"

Kennaspark answered. "Well, I have Strength Talent, the Invisibility Talent and the Spell Talent."

Breezestorm was next. "Mine are the Speed Talent and the Illusion Talent."

"I have the Invisibility Talent, the Foreseeing Talent, and the Mind Talent." Willowheart said.

"And I have the Touch Talent and the Farseeing Talent." Oceanfrost said.

"What's the Touch talent?" Flameheart frowned.

"I can basically touch anything and know it's entire past. Even if my skin brushes for the tiniest second against Kennaspark's, I would know all her memories, good, bad, and the secrets." Oceanfrost grinned wryly.

"Cool for you, not so cool for the other person." Flameheart shuddered, while the others laughed.

"Hey, it's dinner time. We should probably go to the mess hall." Kennaspark said, and stood up.

"I'll have to see you guys tomorrow, because Reddust has invited me over to his room tonight, just so we can talk about, uh, about what happened." Flameheart said.

"Well, don't be too naughty tonight will you?" Kennaspark winked at her, and Flameheart went red.

"Oh come on Kenna! That's just gross! What is wrong with you?" she shouted, and everybody laughed.

A.N....

So, a bit of action in this chapter, but it was mainly just a filler. Great thanks to @Cayley Davidson-Rowell who has been helping me write this story. Go follow her please! One of my BFF's And yes, Kelly's best friend Cayley was based off her. She might or might not reappear later in the story, or the series....

Anyways! I just got back from sailing camp, and stars, it was intense. Waking up at 5:30 am to do fitness, a 3 k run along the beach, pressups, situps, planking, the beep test, and running up and down 100 stone stairs 10 times every morning. Seriously? At 5:30? Who does that? Obviously the head coach....

I had the Teams Racing National Championships on Sat. The judges had know idea about the sailing rules, they just stepped in 'cos my team was smashing the team that was representing the club that was hosting the competition. Biased much, ey?

So 5 votes for the next chapter, please. I hope you like it.

What do you think's gonna happen between Reddust and Flameheart during their 'talk'?

We know a Night Rider is after Flameheart, but when will he/she strike next?

Comment your ideas, and I'll give a dedication to my favourite one!

Adios

Tess