Eeep!!

"Awah! An intruder!!" Iris shouted as she leapt on the man trying to sneak inside the palace.

"I haven't had an intruder visit in a long time!" Iris grabbed the intruder by the head and dragged the man inside of the castle. "To the dungeon."

"To the dungeon?!?!"

"Yes!"

Iris was nearing the dungeon doors until Hero passed her,

"Oh Iris, you seem happy."

"Hero help, it's me Zeke!" Zeke shouted trying to claw his way out of Iris's grasps.

"Oh Zeke, long time no see."

"Help!"

Iris looked between the two confused,

"You two know each other?"

"Yes, we do! I accompanied Hero many times on missions." Zeke said, Iris reluctantly let go of the blonde-haired man,

"Why were you intruding?"

"I wasn't, I literally knocked on the door!" Zeke complained,

"I guess Iris was feeling a little trigger happy. So, what brings you here?" Hero said closing the scroll in his hand.

"I came to deliver the-" Zeke stopped speaking for suspension,

"Energy jars." he whispered,

"I can hear you; you know." Iris said annoyed that they were keeping secrets from her, though the mention of energy jars did pique her interest.

"Sorry Iris, this is top secret stuff." Hero said, gently scooting the young lady out of the room.

"Hey this is my palace, no secrets under my roof!"

"Sorry babes, can you let it slide this once?"

Soon Iris left after much protest.

Zeke took off the backpack that was on his back and handed it to Hero,

"I don't have that much of an understanding about energy, but you said you know someone that does right."

"Yeah, Iris. Though I don't know if I should leave her with such a dangerous task."

"I mean if you trust her enough to live with her, I think you can trust her to complete this task, beside Iris is a dangerous girl."

"I guess you're right."

"By the way, have you told her yet?"

"Tell her what?"

"You know, the 'trip' you have to go on." Hero's mood instantly dropped at the mention of this,

"It's that time already?"

Zeke nodded his head solemnly.

"I forgot about that." Hero whispered. One of the requirements of owning the sacred sword is that it cuts off a huge chunk of his energy,

"You can't be forgetting these things! In about a week you're going to basically be a walking corpse! Listen kid, I don't want to see you in the state you were in when I first met you." Zeke said placing a hand on Hero's shoulder, Hero looked away dully, all life seemed to be drained from his eyes,

"I forgot I'm not normal, I guess I was enjoying my life as a married man."

"You're not married."

"Oh yeah."

Zeke shook his head at his friend and handed him the bag,

"Don't forget to drink this condensed energy when you feel tired, I'm going to give you two days to explain everything to Iris before we have to go to the town of Wind." and with that Zeke left.

Iris soon peaked her head from behind the door,

"What did blondie mean just now."

"You heard everything?"

"Yes, these walls are thin."

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to tell you eventually. So, because of my situation, you know being combined with that stupid sword, I'm kind of sharing my energy with it."

"What does that mean."

"Well around this time, if I don't do frequent maintenance on my body, I'll lose all my energy and well sort of die."

"Die?!"

"Yeah, die. Kind of sucks doesn't it."

"Kind of. It really sucks!"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. As long as I travel to the pool of energy I'll be just fine."

"Where is this pool of energy."

"Well, it's halfway across Lagahama." Iris's jaw basically dropped. She then thought for a while, 'I can't have my minion dying on me."

"When are we leaving!"

Hero basically celebrated inside that she took the news so well,

"Yay Road Trip!"

Hero and Iris spent the next two days packing up their stuff. Iris packed the best weapons while Hero packed his greatest. scrolls.

"We're ready!" they both announced to Zeke and Alex who was in the cart.