I found out that the copy of chapter two that I fixed up didn't make it on, so all my spelling errors, and typos made it to the public, no!

and I am too lazy to go back and fix them all again! So I updated instead, it was either one or the other, and I thought this one made the better deal.

Some things you might notice, if you have read the original, you will notice I changed the format. The original was trying to force my personal book onto Jade's character, and it just doesn't work, her character would completely change the book, so the plot wouldn't work out the same way, and that is part of the reason my other story, Jade, taken away, seemed so OOC.

Secondly, I have given Jade a middle name, simply because I needed something to separate her from the other children, if it was just Jade Chan, then they would never know if it was Jade or not.

Thirdly, I do know that Tokyo is not in China, and that the U. S. is not known for their cheap child labour. I do know that every state has laws prohibiting child labour.


Stack after stack of papers filled out, and even Uncle was looking slightly green. Finally, the strange writing stopped, and the liquid raced off the last page, onto the desk below. the top of the desk now filled with thousands of sheets, digging by hand seemed futile.

"This will take forever, we need Jade home for school tomorrow, not to mention, she has to redo her homework," Argued Jackie, "Isn't there a spell that can make this go faster?"

THWAK!!

"No magic, read!" Uncle divided the stacks up again, handing each one their own.

Uncle said something about expecting a phone call, and went to the other room, while the others sat on the chairs and couches.

Hours later, Viper pulled them out of their readings, "Jade Lui Chan."

"No, Jade's middle name is not Lui," Jackie patiently informed them.

"What is her middle name?"

Jackie coughed, "Mingxia Ning."

Viper angrily tossed her current sheet aside, as well as the next few sheets, "Most of these are too short. Most of the children only have one or two names."

"What an unusual middle name," Tohru commented, tossing pages aside and placing them on the table beside him.

Jackie nervously scratched his neck, "Yeah, Jade usually tries not to keep it to just Jade."

Their conversation was interrupted by Uncle entering with his pile, "You not done yet?! Jade will never be found if you don't huurry!"

Uncle traded his pile for the last one on the desk, and settled down on his chair to read it.

A few minutes later, Toru broke the silence, "Was that M-I-N-G-X-I-A and N-I-N-G?"

"Yes, did you find her name?" Jackie stood up to look at the paper.

"Yes, she is the last one on the page," Toru said, handing the paper over to Jackie.

"We know where she is, what do we do now?" Asked Jackie, turning to Uncle.

"Let me see," Uncle ripped the paper out of Jackie's hands, "hmm, we must try the extracting spell I came up with to see if there is enough of Jade's soul to bring her back to us."


The world is spinning, and my whole body aches, like Tohru dived on her twenty times.

Even moving her fingers hurts her entire body-spinal injury? Jade open her eyes, and see . . . a leaf. A large brown leaf to be exact, right on her face.

Where is Jackie? Is she still in Camp Wazi-place? Where is everyone? Why am Jade hurt, here, and alone?

Oh, yeah, Jade have the talismans! If I can reach her pocket, she'd be able to heal herself, duh!

She reaches for her pocket, and feels for the right talisman. Even her toes hurt from moving her arm, definitely a spinal injury. The horse can fix that in no time.

Jade feels around a little more until she got it! Immediately, the pain disappears. Sitting up, a pile of leaves fall of me, I am in the middle on the woods. Definitely not in China, or New Zealand. I may not study these things, but I do know that these trees look a lot like the ones we saw in Ireland.

Jade shivers, it's cold without those leaves. The wind goes right through her sweater!

Thunder rumbles, it's probably what woke her up.

CRACK!

The sound of lightening spread through the air, bouncing off the trees.

The sound of rain comes next, before it hits Jade. The trees have no leaves to protect her with, and she gets soaked within a minute.

Despite the fear of not finding this place again, Jade takes off.

There had to be shelter somewhere, Jade pulls out the rabbit, rubbing it and speeding up. This rain could last for hours, and the horse might not be able to heal her if she got too sick, or was dying.

She's running so fast, she nearly passes the small cabin. She wouldn't have even seen it if it weren't for the light.

Before she can change her mind, Jade's already up to the door and banging on it to be heard. The door opens immediately, and Jade runs in.

"I am sorry," Jade bows a few times, "The rain came and I got all wet and I needed somewhere to go to get out of it."

"How did you find us?" The man growls, getting over the surprise of having someone charge into his home rather quickily. Nervously, Jade notices that he has a sword in his hand, the room smells of beer, and it looks like he hasn't shaved in a week or two, something about his character just screams criminal.

"I was running and I saw the light," Jade says honestly.

"Macail, why he's just a boy!" Sitting on the only bed is another older man dressed similarly, drink and sword in hand. Jade notices a third in the corner bow drawn and ready to shoot, he stands just out of the candle's reach, but he's dressed the same way as the other two from what can be seen.

Shoot! I mean, don't shoot, darn!

"Hmmph, 'could be sent first as a trap!"

The man on the bed laughs, "sure, sure. You're simply paranoid. Hey kid, what are you doing out in this weather?"

"I got lost from my camp, and was looking for it, but I couldn't find it," Jade easily replies.

"Uh huh, and when was that?"

"Yesterday, my Uncle and I were travelling to the city, and we were already lost."

The men start laughing again, "You sure are lost, the city's not for another four days travel, there's only one road, how did you get so lost?"

"We didn't follow the road, my Uncle thought he would take a shortcut," Jade filed away this story to remember later, if they asked again.

"I just need a place to get out of the rain.I can begin looking again tomorrow morning."

The man on the bed still chuckled, "sure, but how are you going to pay us for your stay?"

An uncomfortable feeling settles in Jade's stomach again.

A quick look around, the hearth in the middle of the room is empty, the lamp is nearly out of oil. The place is relatively clean, covered in dust, but at least it is orderly, and everything is in the right place. The room is rather small, with only five feet of room on either side of the harth. The bed, think!, a table, think darn it! and two chairs are crammed on the opposite wall.

Got it.

"I will go outside and gather wood for the fire."

"You won't be able to light it in this weather, boy."

Ignoring the boy retort, to save time, Jade informed him that she would be able to start a fire with the wood.

"If I start a fire, and gather all the necessary wood, will that be payment enough?"

The three share a look, "Fine," says the man on the bed, "But don't try anything funny."

Jade quickly goes out the door and gathers the necessary wood.

"Here," she says pulling in the last of the pile from outside. Stuffing her hands in her pockets, Jade activates the pig, filling the room with steam as the log warms up, and the ice melts.

"Ha! a magic user then!" The man laughs again.

"Yeah," Jade puts some wood in the hearth and starts up the fire.

The other man finally put his bow down.

"Sooo, who are you guys?" Jade asks, sitting on the other side of the harth. A nice fire between them makes her feel much better.

"Go to sleep, this storm will be here for a while, " Rookie says, warming his hands.

Alright then, Jade leans back on the wall, beside the fire. Within ten minutes, she starts to doze off. Soon after she falls asleep, with her hands securely on the talismans, just in case.

"I told you it was a trap!"

Jade leaps up, "What is it? What happened? Who's attacking?"

All three freeze mid-motion, the bowman was about to put out the fire with a bucket of dirt, the doorman (Macail) was holding his two large swords, and the leader was still sitting in bed.

"What did you do, you weren't there a moment ago," Macail spits out angrily.

"I was asleep," Jade answers a little too politely. I must have activated the snake.

"You had us worried, kid," The leader answers.

"Really? Why?" Jade asks, curiousity burning bright.

"No reason, go back to sleep," He lies down to end the conversation.

Bowman sits back in his little chair, setting the dirt on the ground, and Macail sits back on the ground, a few feet away from Jade.

Jade sits back down, and tries to go to sleep but the ground is cold, Macail is staring at her, the water from the rain is coming in under the wall, Macail is still staring at her back, she's now half covered in mud. The fire is cackling loudly.

Finally, Jade gives up, "Oy! Stop it Macail!" Jade rolls over and sits up angrily, "I can't sleep with you burrowing holes in my back!"

"How do you know my name?"

He sure looks shocked.

"Magic, how do you think?-"

"Taren called you by name before," Bowman cuts in, his voice silky.

Macail looks abashed, "Oh, 'not magic at all then. Go to sleep kid, I'm just making sure you don't vanish again."

"Macail, Taren-What's your name?"

"You don't need to know," Macail answers gruffly.

"Fine, then I'll make up something."

Macail clenches his jaw, and even Taren's back stiffens.

"Go to sleep, child. I am the Holy Knight of Talisar, Darel. Taren and Macail are two of my squires. Sleep," The bowman speaks softly, and Jade's eyes begin to drop, the mud is so comfortable. "These woods are full of Talisarian knights, and bounty hunters. . . this is not the place for children, tomorrow. . . . " Jade falls asleep in midsentence.

Someone cussing the next morning wakes Jade up.

"Macail, calm yourself! We'll pick some more up when we get to town, nothing can be done for it now," Taren sighs in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Jade stands to see what they are looking at, something in their bag.

"I broke the bottle of ink."

"Oh," That's not too exciting.

"The rain has stopped, I suppose you must go now, to search for that Uncle," Taren prompts.

"Yeah, I guess I should. Thanks for letting me stay!" Jade gives a quick bow, before opening the door and going outside, not looking back once.

I should go back, Uncle might be able to find me easier.

Jade heads back to the spot. At first she sits, and waits, and after that she gets up and kicks the leaves around, with the dirt. Then she uses the pig to carve her name, and various pictures into the trees.

Hours pass, and Jade get's more and more nervous. Surely Uncle must have found the spell by now. They had found Jackie in about 8 hours of searching, what if Uncle had already searched this dimension, and had written it off?

Jade kicks the ground again, Uncle is taking way too long, and she is both starving and cold. For boredom's sake (and admittedly, warmth as well), Jade builds herself a fire, and settles down for the night.

Jade falls asleep late that night after working herself into another panic with reasons for why Uncle could have not found her yet.

"I am sending you home Jade. You should be in Tokyo, you belong there," Jackie said, wiping down the counters of the antique store.

"But I don't know anyone in Tokyo!" Jade exclaimed, suddenly terrified. She had just come home, she didn't want to go away again.

"Maybe we should send her to go live with my mother," Toru said, wiping his hands on his apron, and getting coal dust all over it.

"Ha, her father was going to send her to military school, we should send her to Kanses, good French military school there," Uncle came into the room with a book. Somehow this makes perfect sense, Jade realizes, the French children's military was in Kanzes to use the cheap child labour to ship antiques to Mexico.

"But I want to stay here!" Jade cries.

"No, it is best for you to leave, but I'll take you to the airport," Jackie says, pointing to the roof, and nodding.

Suddenly Jackie and she are standing in an empty Stealth plane. Jackie doesn't appear to be worried, even when the plane startes to move.

"Oh well, I took you this far, I might as well bring you home, I need to pick up some jade hands for Uncle anyways."

The plane starts shaking and Jackie suddenly grabs her, "The plane is going to crash, stay here!" He runs to the cockpit.

"pff yeah, like I'm going to listen to that!" Jade runs after him.

She opens the door when the plane does a sudden nose-dive, sending her flying to the back of the plane.

Jackie looks back from the seat, "Toss me the dog talisman! I need it!"

Jade feels in her pocket, Rabbit, Dragon, Wolf, no dog! Jade can see the ground is getting closer, and the wheel is gone.

"Hurry Jade!" Jackie sounds frantic now, something Jade hasn't heard before, it scares her. The ground is starting to come up fast, in just a short minute, they'll hit it.

Jade checks her pockets again, and when she pulls her hands out again, she notices she is wearing a ring, there it is! The dog talisman was turned into a ring!, Jade throws it to Jackie, but it flies back to her.

"Throw it harder Jade!" Jade throws it as hard as she can, and this time it keeps going towards Jackie, but it's not going to make it before the plane crashes.

Strangely, Jade notices that she has no protection now, the crash will kill her if she is in it. The Rooster activates on it's own, and she floats through the wall behind her, letting the plane fall on it's own.

BOOM!

The heat of the flames sends the dog talisman back up into the air. Jade realizes-somewhat with shock- that it came back without Jackie.

"Jackie!" Jade bolts up, still partly dreaming.

She shakes her head to clear it, trying to get the image out of her head. The clouds make it hard to tell what time it is, but to Jade, it looks to be about midmorning. Her stomach reminds her that she hasn't eaten in two days by aching, and making loud noises.

It isn't long before she's bored again, and completely out of things to do, she practiced her times table, there is nothing to eat anywhere around here, her pockets were empty, and she has drunk all the water on the leaves around here, if Uncle doesn't show up soon, Jade might be in big trouble.

BREAK

Uncle had prepared his wand, and was ready to start the chant, with Tohru's help of course. Together they waved and chanted over the ashes.

Almost immediately, the ashes began to glow and smolder, turning acid green. Beatiful stars began swimming under the surface of the ashes, at first only few, then growing in number, they danced and twirled right out of the bowl, around the room, and out of the building. The acid colour grew brighter, but as more of the little stars left, it faded until nothing was left, but an empty bowl. The dust spread across the entire room.

"Did any of the spirits go back to Jade?" Uncle asked, looking to Jackie and Viper for answers.

"I didn't see, did you?" Viper turned to Jackie.

"What were you doing?! making teeeaa?!" Uncle yelled, walking over to Jade. Checking her over, he added, "That is Tohru's duty, he makes good tea. But now is not the time for tea! We must determine if Jade is back."

Within few minutes, Uncle leaned back, "We need to try a summoning spell now, maybe that will work. But there's just one problem," Uncle stopped.

"What?" Jackie asked.

"Can't we just use more ashes to free the souls?" Viper put in.

"The souls are already released, the ashes carry nothing now. Jade's soul did not return to her body, she may have gone back to New Zealand, or to her parents, or to the food market. . . . " Uncle continued.

Jackie's head began buzzing, "Wait minute, what do you need for the spell?"

"I will prepare the ingredients, I need a piece of Jade's body, for her soul energy, something she loves for her heart, and something she made, for her mind," Uncle names off.

"You have her body, I'll go get her Super Moose-"

Uncle cuts Jackie off with a sharp CRACK!," I have to burn the part of her body, what do you want her to come back to, a teeeaapoot?!"

" No, I'll go get something Uncle," Jackie agrees, running out of the room.

Jackie makes it back in record time, "I got her hairbrush, Super Moose and her homework."

"Good bring it over here," Uncle told Jackie, pointing to the middle of the floor.

Jackie did as he was told, and was about to sit down on the couch to watch Uncle and Toru, when Viper came in, "Jackie, Jade's teacher is on the phone, she wants to know why Jade missed school today.

"Oh, is it that late already?" Jackie asked, surprised.

He went to the kitchen, and picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Hello, this is Mrs. Hartman, Jade's teacher?"

"Oh, hello Mrs. Hartman," Jackie nodded.

"Yes, Jade was not in school today, and she had an important assignment to hand in, on heros."

"Jade is not well," Jackie stuck to the truth as close as possible, "She completed her homework though. Should I bring it in?"

"Yes, please do. Do you know when she's going to be back, we have a test on Friday."

"I will drop it off tomorrow if Jade is not better by then," Jackie silently hoped she would be. "I'm sure she'll be better by then though."

"Yes, even if she is, please drop by. I'm afraid I think we need to meet to discuss Jade's -erroneous behaviour. Have a good afternoon, Mr. Chan," She hung up without waiting for a reply.

Jackie stared at the phone, erroneous behaviour? He sighed as he hung up.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble," Viper said from stove.

"I have to meet her teacher tomorrow," Jackie explained.

"That's my girl," Viper laughs.

Jackie looks around, "Where did Pacho go?"

"He and El Toro left this morning. They didn't want to interrupt our research, but Pacho was really upset."

"Oh," Jackie scratched his neck nervously.

"Yeah, I didn't notice either, don't worry about it. They understand," Viper says, getting out sandwich ingredients.

Jackie took out some soup cans, and they finished cooking silently.

"Why don't you go lay down, I'll bring Uncle and Tohru their dinner and I'll wake you if anything changes."

Jackie nodded, and went off to his old room. He didn't bother with the blankets, and fell asleep the moment he lay down.


So there we go, I think this may be the shortest chapter thus far, but it also took the longest to write. The dream especially. I first just had the part about the plane, but it seemed too cut and dry.

A South American scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain and sexual activity read on the computer with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late...