Katherine is Missing!

---Indigo---

"Hey, where's Kath?" Aaron asked me as the last of the fighters and curious people finally wandered off. Jeez. So many people wanted to see the cloak of Augustus or the silver dagger. Let me tell you: being famous is not easy. I felt sympathetic towards Katherine, whose swordsmanship was so good she probably dealt with this so much more than we did. Before, I sort of wanted to be in the spotlight. Just once or twice, you know? But all this attention was killing me; those people certainly don't even give you space to breathe! Another reason to continue keeping a low profile.

"Oh, um, I don't know," I looked around. "Maybe she's with Ashley and the others?"

"Hey, Aaron!" Lucian and Jason ran up to us, staggering and giddy. Ashley and Rachel chased them from behind, yelling something. Lucian didn't stop himself in time and almost crashed into Aaron headfirst. Aaron held his friend out at arm's length, examining Lucian.

"Why are you so disoriented?" Aaron asked, puzzled. He sniffed at the air around Lucian and jerked back. "You two haven't been drinking, have you?!" Aaron yelled. Lucian and Jason leaned against each other, giggly.

"You know you're underage! You're not supposed to be drinking!" Ashley stormed up to Jason and slapped him on his arm. Jason waved her concern away.

"It's—fine—Ash," he said, head lolling. His voice was slurred. "It—wasn't—even—beer."

"Oh stop lying to us!" Rachel exclaimed. "We saw you—in fact, a good thirty people saw you two—chugging down bottle after bottle of beer! Jeez! We turn our backs for two seconds and you two get into a drinking contest?!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" I got between the four before a fight could break out. "Lucian, Jason, you two were in a drinking contest?!"

"Yeah," Jason, who was slightly more sober, said. He tried to stand up straight, but collapsed against Lucian. "Don't worry, Indigo; they didn't give us real beer. It was—just—cider—"

"Yeah right!" Ashley produced a big bucket of ice water and dumped it over the heads of the two boys. They snapped awake, shaking water from their heads like dogs.

"What was that for?!" Lucian snapped.

"That's what you get for being drunk!" Ashley yelled right back.

"Kath wasn't with you guys?" Aaron asked, pushing Lucian and Ashley apart. They huffed and glared at each other.

"No, she wasn't," Rachel answered. "We thought she was with you guys."

"No, she left long before we were finished," Indigo replied. "We thought she went with you four."

"So no one has seen Kath?" Aaron asked worriedly, looking around. He spotted a passerby. "Hey, have you seen a girl with long brown hair tied in a ponytail, carrying two swords?"

"No, sorry," the man said, before continuing on his way. Aaron turned back to us, worry etched on his features.

"We need to find Katherine. Knowing her, she wouldn't just run off without telling us. Something must've happened to her!"

"Alright. Let's split up then." I took charge. "Ashley, Jason, Lucian, you three check that half of the area. Rachel, Aaron, and I will check on this side. We'll meet back here in half an hour. If anyone's got a lead, send a firework up in the air." I pointed at a nearby booth that was selling fireworks. "Red for danger, green for we found Katherine. Got it?"

Everyone nodded and we set off. Aaron charged ahead, pushing through the crowd. "Kath?" he called out, almost frantically. "Kath?" Rachel and I followed suit, looking right and left and calling Katherine's name. We asked potential, friendly looking people who seemed likely to have seen Katherine:

"Have you seen a girl, about this tall, carrying two swords on her back?" Aaron asked a couple, gesturing towards his shoulder height.

"She has grey eyes, brown hair tied in a ponytail, and wearing clothes like mine," I told an old woman selling sweets.

"She was the one who beat Eric in the tournament; you sure you haven't seen her around?" Rachel said to a guy with a sword, probably a contestant.

Time was ticking. Aaron looked more and more anxious and worried. Even Rachel was getting restless. "Katherine is smart, she can defend herself. Nothing should've happened to her," Rachel said to me as we weaved through another aisle of vendors. "If anyone tried to kidnap her or something—oh god, you don't suppose Lord Victor showed up and snatched her?"

"No, no that's impossible," I stated firmly. "Lord Victor has no idea where we are. Besides, even if she was captured, I believe Katherine's smart enough to have left behind some sort of a marker or signal to tell us where she went." Rachel nodded, agreeing.

"No one has seen Kath!" Aaron wringed his hands, circling back to us. He looked so worried I felt bad for him.

"Aaron, don't worry, I'm sure she's okay," I reassured him. "Katherine's skills are more than enough to defeat anyone that tries to kidnap her. I'm sure she just, um, wandered off or something." Aaron looked slightly comforted with this idea.

Rachel had the brilliant idea of checking the inn that Katherine's group was staying in. "Maybe she was tired and just went back to sleep," Rachel suggested. We went up to the bartender and asked if Katherine had returned.

"No, sorry, m'lady," he said. "No one's been in here save for some tired old folks. Your friend hasn't come back—she's the one with the swords and ponytail, right? I heard she won the tournament too, beat up that douche bag Eric."

"Yeah that's her," I said. "Well, if she comes back, tell her that we were looking for her."

Thirty minutes was almost up. We began to head back to meet up with Ashley and the others when someone called out to us.

"Hey! You're Aaron, right? Guy who won the cloak?" A man in his early twenties ran up to us, stopping before Aaron. He had a mop of curly brown hair, sparkling amber eyes, freckled cheeks, and a bright smile. He wore a white cotton T-shirt that was splattered with mud, faded blue pants, and a pair of farmer's boots on his feet.

"Yeah that's me." Aaron responded. "And you are…?"

"A friend of mine told me that you guys were looking for the girl who defeated Eric. I saw her pass by a while ago." We all snapped to attention.

"Really?! Where?" Aaron asked. The guy pointed towards a small hill off to the side. "I saw her walking towards there after the tournament, carrying a drink. She seemed a bit…sad." He shrugged.

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much!" Aaron shook the guy's hand eagerly and took off in the direction he pointed out to us. We followed, yelling thanks over our shoulders.

"Yeah, no problem!" the nice guy waved and called out after us. "Congratulations, by the way!"

Aaron charged up the hill. Rachel and I sprinted after him. He stopped at the top and looked around.

"She's not here…" Indeed, there was only a lonely haystack against a building, and no sign of Katherine.

"Where could she have gone?" Rachel wondered. Aaron bent down to pick something up.

"Guys, it's a cup." He sniffed the contents. "Apple cider. Didn't the guy say Kath was holding a drink?"

"And look here." I crouched down and pointed at a dark stain on the ground. "She didn't finish her drink. Judging by the size of this puddle, I'd say the cider was only half finished when she left."

"The ground's still wet, and some parts still have liquid on the surface," Rachel observed. "That means Katherine just left a few moments ago."

"Kath wouldn't just leave half a cup of cider here, unfinished," Aaron paced, thinking aloud. "She would at least throw her trash away. But the cup was on the floor, its contents spilled. Kath wouldn't litter, so that must mean…" He paused and looked at me, eyes wide.

"She left in a hurry," I completed his sentence. "But why?"

"Guys? Come look at this." Rachel was near the haystack, poking around. "Does this look familiar to you?" She held a ribbon up for us to see.

"That's Katherine's hair ribbon," Aaron and I said together. He took it from Rachel and sniffed it. "See, it even smells like her shampoo."

"And how would you know what her shampoo smells like?" Rachel asked, eyebrows raised. Aaron seemed suddenly very self-conscious.

"We, uh, sat next to each other during class," he explained hurriedly. "I used to catch a whiff of it every so often from her hair, so I assumed that was her shampoo…"

"Okay, so we know that Katherine was actually here. Where did she go? And why did she leave so suddenly? She must have left behind her hair ribbon as a sign for us to find, to tell us something." I bit my lip, thinking. "Did she leave behind anything else?"

"I don't see anything…" Rachel prodded around the haystack. Aaron was paced around the area.

"Hey, what's this?" He bent down to pick something up. "Oh my gosh. Indigo, Rachel, look." My eyes widened. Aaron was holding an arrow by the fletching and dangling it from his hand. "Why would there be an arrow next to a building? There shouldn't be any discarded arrows."

"No, it looks sort of new… it's not weather-worn or anything. The tip is polished, and the feathers are still intact." I looked at it closely. There was a piece of something stuck to the head. I pulled it off gently.

"A small piece of parchment," I said. "This arrow was meant to send a message. Where's the message?"

"The question is what does this arrow have to do with Katherine?" Rachel corrected. "Was she shot at? And where did she go?"

So many questions and none answered. Just as we looked at each other, clueless, a firework exploded overhead. Ka-boom! We all looked up, seeing the sky light up in a shower of green, followed by red. Three reds.

"We better hurry," Rachel said, running down the hill. Aaron and I followed, clutching the items we found as we weaved through the thick crowd to find the rest of our group.