Kilmo laughed again, "That makes a lot more sense. Shawn is weak. Jewel wanted to weigh you down."
"I am not weak!" Shawn objected.
Kilmo kept talking as if Shawn wasn't there, "But you need to go, and hurry. You  have limited time to destroy the ring. Good luck!" he called out as I grabbed Shawn's hand and started climbing down the tree. I looked up just in time to see Kilmo turn back into a guerrilla...

"Know what?" I asked, looking at him suspiciously. This guy only seemed to be getting weirder and weirder.
"You are the keeper of the ring-the one who has to protect it all costs."
"What?! Why me? I may have been looking for some excitement, but this is too much excitement for me."
The man started laughing, "She sold you that line about being chosen from depression, did she?"
"Yes, and who are you? Shawn is obviously not the first person you have harassed."
"Oh, forgive me. My name is Kilmo. This ring...it has power. The power to choose who will destroy it. You obviously have the qualities that its looking for, otherwise you wouldn't be here."
"What...what do you mean?" I stammered. I didn't think it had been to hard to get to where I was now.
"The tiger that I'm sure you ran into...he is a guardian of the forest. If he didn't think that you were up to any good, he would have attacked you."
"Interesting..." I said quietly, remembering how he had taken the ring from me.
"And don't think that it's going to be easy. It will get harder, and...well, how do I say this? Choose a better partner."
"I didn't choose him, though." I said, pointing at Shawn, who seemed to be irritated at the fact that he was being ignored.

"Okay." I rolled my eyes, realizing that this was what was going to happen the rest of the way.
However, after climbing to the top of the tree and telling myself not to look down, the guerrilla was not a guerrilla, but a heavy-set man, still holding Shawn upside down. But now the man was playing games with Shawn and acted like he was going to drop him from such a great height.
I was starting to feel sorry for Shawn now. I would not like looking at how far up I was, even while I was being held upside down. "Put him down." I said with more courage than I felt.
The man looked at me as if I was stupid, "Why? You don't even like this man, and he is not very bright."
I laughed, but tried to turn serious again, "I know, but I would still rather him be unharmed."
"And who are you?" the man asked, now holding Shawn with only hand.
"My name is Katherine." I said, watching Shawn from the corner of my eye.
The strange man almost dropped Shawn in his shock, "Katherine...take this man and the ring and leave. Hurry," he was visibly shaking as he placed Shawn on the branch and backed away, "This ring maybe have powers, but it's not worth it."
"What are you talking about?" I asked before he could take the ring off his finger.
"You really don't know?" the man hesitated and then he looked around as if he was afraid that someone might hear our conversation.

Chapter 2

The next day, I woke up to a blinding sun...by myself. Shawn's sleeping bag was gone, along with his other things. I muttered angrily, but I became even more angry when I realized that he had snuck the ring out of my pocket!
"That bastard!" I said as I glared at the place where had supposedly slept the night before.
I knew that I was going to have to go after him, because something in the ring seemed to be warning me that something bad was going to happen. It sucked even more, because I didn't know how much of a head start he had.
I grabbed my stuff and started heading east. Every limb in my body was telling me that I should just leave him to whatever trouble he got in to. However, my hear was telling me that that was not the kind of person that I was...and I had to agree with my heart. I would not be able to work at Taco Bell, knowing that I could be the reason for Shawn being killed.
I only walked for about two miles when I heard someone screaming above me. A big guerrilla was holding Shawn upside down. That's not what alarmed me the most, however. On the finger of the big fat guerrilla was the ring. I was horrified, but I couldn't stop laughing at Shawn's predicament.
"Oh real funny," Shawn yelled, "So hilarious. Just get me down from here!" he screamed.

"Fine." he put his own sleeping bag next to mine.

That night, we laid in our sleeping bags, staring up at the stars. Shawn talked tirelessly about his future, and I only half listened, gritting my teeth every time I heard Jewel's name.
"We still don't know who she is." I said for the millionth time.
"She's a damsel in distress."
"Yeah, damsels in distress are hardly able to do anything about their predicament. She's able to find people to fight to the death for her."
Shawn sighed in exasperation, "Well, apparently, she couldn't help the fact that you needed to be on this mission, because, I'm sure if she could, she would choose someone else."
That really cut deep, but I didn't say any biting words back. I had just wanted to think. Even though we had wanted to live exciting lives, this whole thing felt far-fetched. Jewel seemed nice, but I had a feeling that I was  going to regret helping her, and not just because death might be in the cards. Jewel seemed to be holding something back, and I was going to see what it was. Even if it was the last thing I did...

Shawn started climbing a tree. I couldn't understand why we had trees. I had never seen so many trees grown so close together.
"If only we had something to get us up there without having to climb." I muttered.
Suddenly, I felt a stirring in my pocket, and a trampalene appeared right below us, "Sweet."
I jumped on the trampalene and reached the very top. I expected to fall back down through the trees and closed my eyes, trying to ready myself for the impact. Instead of feeling limbs biting into my flesh, however, I felt something soft underneath me.
I opened my eyes. I was laying on top of the trees. Shawn soon joined me. Instead of jumping on the trampalene, like I did, he had decided to climb up the rest of the way.
It was beautiful from up there. We could see the sunset in the distance and the moon that was a ghost in  comparison to the sky. "It's beautiful." Shawn sighed.
I silently agreed, even though I believed the word, 'beautiful,' to be an understatement.
"I say we make camp here." I said finally, taking out my sleeping bag.
"But there's still some daylight left." Shawn objected.
I looked up at him with a calm face, even thought that wasn't how I felt on the inside, "Are you going to keep arguing with me the way there? You can go ahead and continue if you want to, but it's not good to travel this close to night when you don't know what out there.

"What?" he asked innocently.
"Since when did you suddenly fall in love with her?" I was becoming angry. In my mind, I was becoming the knight in shining armor. Shawn was just along for the ride.
"Well, what's wrong with that? I mean, she's a beautiful princess trapped in a ring, and I'm here to save her."
"Really...what have you done that warrants a marriage between you and this princess. Let me tell you what you've done...you've ran, whined, and ran again. Not sure she wants to marry a coward."
Shawn smirked, "Do you want her for yourself?"
"No! But you wanting her is ridiculous and unfounded. What do you truly know about her?"
Shawn had to stop and think for a minute, "I know that she's beautiful and very sweet."
"Honestly...that's all you know about her?" I rolled my eyes at him.
"That's all I need to know." he argued.
I stopped talking. There was literally nowhere to go-except up! Trees were guarding all sides except for behind us. Millions of trees. "Nope. You are on your own from here on out." I said, backing up. I had always been afraid of heights, and I quickly realized that that had not changed.
Shawn looked up, "Aw, Kat, it's not that bad. Come on."

"Because I'm the one who came up with the plan. I'm the one who has been doing everything. I'm the one who doesn't want to deal with the tiger. Is that enough of a reason for you?" I snapped.
He looked surprised by my outburst and slowly nodded.
"Good," I said, "Now, distract him."
Shawn didn't put up any more of a fight as he said, "Here, kitty, kitty."
I could see the sweat on his brow as I grabbed the lighter that he held out. The tiger did not seem amused. I looked desperately for a stick that was not wet from the soggy ground. I finally found one by the trunk of a tree and lit it.
The tiger took a step back hesitatingly. He looked between me and the fire. "What is up with him and this ring?" I thought to myself as me and Shawn slowly backed up.
Finally, we turned around and ran. After running for about ten minutes, we stopped to catch our breath and noticed that the tiger was nowhere in sight.
Shawn looked around as if he couldn't believe that he was still alive. I kept walking, no longer caring if Shawn was with me or not. He was starting to be more of a burden, and I wasn't sure if I could deal with him right now.
Sure enough, Shawn followed me and started babbling on about what he thought was going to happen when we got to the end of our 'mission.'  "Maybe she will marry me." he said suddenly.
"What?" I stopped in my tracks.

I sighed as I stared at the tiger, who was snoring soundly. I could visibly see the ring in between his paws. I had the distinct feeling that this was not going to be easy.
I grabbed a long stick and slowly grabbed the ring with it and tried lifting it out of the tiger's reach. I was starting to get excited, but all of a sudden, he swiped a paw in his sleep, and the ring fell right in front of him.
"Come on, you can do it." Shawn said.
"Easy for you to say." I muttered, and once again, tried lifting the ring with the stick. Once I succeeded, however, the tiger decided to open his eyes. The ring was dangling in front of the tiger's face!
I jerked the stick up just as the tiger stood up and roared.
"Run!" Shawn yelled as he grabbed my hand and ran deeper into the forest.
The tiger didn't waste any time running after us. My thoughts were jumbled as I tried to escape the angry tiger. I, once again, wondered how I was convinced to become cat chow for a ring that I hardly knew anything about. Jewel was asking too much of us.
"Do you have a lighter?" I asked breathlessly. I was already running out of air, and I knew that I didn't have long.
"Yes. Why?"
"Just give it to me. No time to explain. Just distract him."
He stopped, "Distract him? Why me? Why can't you do that?"