"How did you know to come here?" Katie asked Dorrie after the waves of galra were finally all defeated.

"I just knew?" She wrote on the ground using a stick and gave a silly smile to Katie. When Katie returned her an expression that said she doubted it, Dorrie took something out of her sachet. It was the magic notebook she had given Katie and the one she lost in Emberlands.

"But how?" Katie asked, wide eyed as she looked over the notebook and Dorrie gave her a brief smile before writing on the ground.

"Magic."

After cleaning up all the bodies, Katie's group and Dorrie's knights came together back to the camp to rest.

"Thank you for the help but how exactly did you know to come here?" Mark asked Dorrie once everyone made it back and she smiled as she nudged Katie to tell him.

Apparently she had tracked the notebook she gave Katie with magic because she was worried by Katie's lack of response. From there Dorrie begged her father to let her go and barged into Emberlands with an army to find only the notebook, not Katie. Then while she was going around the area around Emberlands, she saw many armored groups of Galra and followed them to find Katie and her group who were fighting all of them.

Katie explained to the others what Dorrie had told her on the way back and got admiration from Drew.

"You really came all this way because you were worried about her?- Er I mean him?" He said, wide eyed and Dorrie raised an eyebrow at Katie at his change of pronouns.

"They know?" She seemed to be asking with her eyes and Katie nodded.

"It's fine guys, she already knew my gender before this whole mess." Katie said to the boys and Mark looked mockingly betrayed.   

"So basically everyone, even my own twin brother, knew before me?" He said, dramatically gasping making Theo and Katie scoff a laugh.

"I was told by someone you would've told on me..." Katie said, her eyes tracking Theo's as they both avoided eye contact with Mark looking even more betrayed.

"I see the way you are, Teddy." Mark said, pouting and Theo winced from his nickname.

"C'mon, you would've back then." Theo said, trying to justify for himself while Dorrie looked satisfied, seeing all their relationships together. She was glad no one was mistreating or judging Katie because of her gender.

While the Dorian knights and the boys from Katie's group challenged each other to spars and played some games together,  Dorrie and Katie went to a quieter spot in the forest to catch up and plan what to do next.

Dorrie seemed to be curious how the reveal about her gender happened so Katie explained to her what happened after entering Emberlands and the troubles they encountered there.

"I'm sorry you went through that." Dorrie wrote in her notebook and Katie sighed.

"Well it's okay now and everything turned out fine," She said and then remembered Drew's plan. 

"We were planning to negotiate with them about new land so we could get their help before you came." She added and Dorrie looked like she was in deep thought before quickly writing her response down,

"I think you should still go on with that plan even if you got us now. It would inconvenience us they were to join the galra's side instead of ours." It said in the notebook and Katie nodded, agreeing.

"Yeah but I don't know if the Empress will believe us or betray us in the war." Katie said, bringing up another problem from the negotiation.

"You can put in Doral's word in helping them as well. I'll convince my father if he doesn't agree."   She wrote down and Katie smiled at her.

"Thank you Dorrie, you don't know how grateful I am that I met you. I would've already died before Keith came back if you didn't come." Katie said and she was sure she saw Dorrie blushing. Dorrie must've never gotten appreciated by a friend to be reacting to Katie's words like that.

"I'm glad I can be of help to my only friend." Dorrie's notebook said after she completely calmed her nerves down.

"Anyways, speaking of Keith.." Dorrie wrote down after a while and now it was time for Katie's cheeks to flame up.

"Nope, we are not talking about him yet-" Katie started to say while fanning her cheeks and turned to see Dorrie's teasing grin.

"No Dorrie- Nope-" Katie started again as Dorrie started raising her brows in a teasing way.

"Ughhh, fine." Katie gave in groaning as she put her palms against her cheeks.

"Nothing much happened." Katie said, pressing her lips together and Dorrie raised a brow that said she doubted it.

"How did he react towards you being a female?" Dorrie wrote in her notebook and Katie sighed as she put her palm under her chin to support her head.

"He didn't react much at first but then he started suspecting that I was Katie Holt. Of course I lied for the sake of keeping my identity hidden but he found out anyways." She said and turned to see that Dorrie was anticipating for the rest of the story.

"And? What happened next?!" Dorrie wrote in her notebook anxiously when Katie stopped talking.

"..I told him to treat me like when we first met as a prince and a knight." She muttered and got a disappointed look from Dorrie.

"I need to get priorities done and plus...he's a prince." She said, looking down and she felt Dorrie's gaze on her. "Between you and me, you're a better candidate as a royal blood princess to rule both your kingdoms with him."

Dorrie kicked her feet, causing Katie to look up at her and saw the message she wrote on the notebook.

"You may not be a princess but you're strong, independent, loyal, good willed, and beautiful. Anyone who ignores all these good qualities of yours are fools and they don't deserve to be by my friend." It said and Katie smiled weakly at Dorrie for the little motivation she gave her.

"Thank you. You're a great friend, you know right?" She said and Dorrie beamed proudly to herself. 

They caught up a bit more and then went back to the camp where the boys were to tell them the plan they had.

"So you're still saying we're still going to convince Emberlands even with your support?" Kenneth asked and both the girls nodded at the same time.

"Dorrie and I will go in alone to try to negotiate-" Katie started but already immediately got a disapproving stare from Theo.

"No. Don't you remember what happened in there last time? Im coming." Theo crossed his arms, daring them to argue back with his cold gray eyes. To his surprise after Katie shot him an annoyed glare, she sighed and nodded.

"Fine but no one else can except for us three then. We don't want them to react badly to a whole army showing up because we now need them on our side." She said and Theo nodded, agreeing with a smile. As long as he was going, he didn't seem worried.

"Alright so that's the plan. When are we gonna execute it?" Theo asked, licking his lips turning to Katie and she smiled.

"Tonight." 

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A/N

I'm sorry for missing the update last week but another chapter is out!! I'll keep continuing the two week update schedule so look forward to the next chapter two weeks from now. 😁

School just started again for me and I'm so tireeeddddd. I keep telling myself that I'll sleep early but always end up sleeping past midnight. The surprising thing is that the tiredness only hits after I'm done with school so I at least can pay attention in my classes.

For any of you who still have a month of summer break, I'm so jealous of you 😭 my summer break felt wayyy too short.

Anyway it seems like Dorrie and Katie are going to go into the tiger's den tonight to try to negotiate with them. How will it go? Will the Empress agree? Find out in the next chapter 😌

Thank you all for reading this week's chapter and I hope you all have a good day! ☺️☺️

- Silver ❤️