A/N: Ok, so 19th Century American Casey is Danielle, and Derek is Bobby. We're almost done with the past stuff, so please stick with me:D R&R, please!
-Jacki :)
Chapter Two: Attempt Two: 19th Century America
On a farm in Pennsylvania, a man and his wife welcomed into the world a beautiful baby daughter. They named her Danielle and dressed her in the best cloth clothes they had made for her. They heard a noise outside the house and a knock came on the door. The father went to go open the door and saw their neighbors. He let them in, smiling at their 3-month old baby boy in his mother's arms. He let them in and led them to his wife and his daughter.
"Her name is Danielle." He said proudly.
Her mother smiled up at the neighbors and held her daughter tight, "I see Bobby is getting bigger."
The other mother held her son tighter, "Yes. He is." She smiled.
"I have a feeling that Bobby and Danielle will be the greatest of friends!" the father of Danielle said, smiling down at his wife and daughter.
The other three parents smiled and looked down at their children.
How wrong they were.
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Sixteen year old Bobby sat on his horse, waiting for the sun to rise so he and his father could get to work on their vegetable farm. He was staring the house that was a good mile and a half away. That was where Danielle lived. Danielle. The one girl he couldn't stand to be in the same area with. The one girl he seemed to care about more than the rest, even though they didn't get along at all.
Bobby turned his head to get Danielle out of his mind and noticed the sun rising over the distant horizon. He smiled, finally he would be able to do some work and distract himself from his neighbor. His father was bound to come out in a few minutes, and help Bobby to attach the plow to his horse, Gregory.
Just as he guessed, his father, Nicholas hurried out of his house and went over to his son. Bobby quickly slid off of Gregory and held the reins firm as his father pulled the plow over onto Gregory's back. After that was done, Nicholas began the plowing and Bobby was sent to the far garden to pick the ripe tomatoes and bring them inside for his mother. As Bobby grabbed the bright red fruits, he smiled to himself thinking about how he and Danielle were supposed to walk into the town today, because their parents were delusional and thought they were best friends. They were supposed to go to town to bring the produce and livestock to the customers. It was a task they had done for over five years now and it was always an interesting time. Danielle tried to completely ignore Bobby while all the while; he's trying his best to get her to react by annoying her.
It was his weakness, he would admit it, he could annoy her all day long, and he loved it. He especially loved the reactions he got from her. In his mind, that was the best part. That was probably why she hated him, but he didn't care. Sooner or later she had to realize that she was just fun to pick on. Of course, there were the times when she was just so annoying that even Bobby couldn't stand her. She would be all neat and perfectionist-like, that Bobby would steer clear away from her, and when she was like that, she would freak out on him any time he annoyed her. And it wasn't a good reaction.
Soon, his basket was full of ripe tomatoes and he sighed, he would now have to pick out all the ripe peas, which was not an easy job, even though he had been doing it for as long as he could remember. Sometimes he wished he lived in town, like so many of his friends. He thought they were so lucky, going to public schools and having indoor jobs and chores. Not once did any of them have to clean potatoes and carrots, or ever cut their fingers while trimming plants. They had the good life, or so Bobby thought.
The sun got higher and higher in the sky and made sweat collect on the back of Bobby's neck. He stood up from his current position of picking potatoes and looked over at Danielle's house. He saw her out in her fields, feeding and rounding up their cows. He knew she was picking out the best ones to take into town and he smiled, they would be taking cows on this trip. How fun. He always seemed to annoy her the most when she was leading large animals.
He knew that they would have to leave soon, right before lunch, or they would never bet back before dark. And their parents were very strict about them being back before dark. It was not safe out in the middle of the country alone in the dark. Bobby finished gathering the potatoes, and one by one he brought all the baskets of fruits and vegetables to his mother in the house, so she could pick out the ones she needed to keep and the ones that would sell the best.
As he waited patiently for his mom to separate the produce, he looked out the window and saw Danielle leading two large cows away from the herd. He couldn't see her face but he knew it was scrunched up like it always was when she was upset about taking animals away from the others; especially when they made noises of sadness. It was one of those things about Danielle that Bobby had learned by observation. He turned around when his mom cleared her throat and pushed the now half-empty baskets toward him. He smiled and nodded as he went back outside to ready the carriage to carry all the produce the long way to town.
Once he prepared the carriage and had Gregory attached to it, he climbed onto the seat and directed the horse towards Danielle's house. She was there waiting on her own horse, the two cow roped together and the rope was in her hand, her knuckles white over it.
"Do you want to ride in the carriage and I'll lead the cows? That might be easier." Bobby offered, knowing what was gong to be the reply.
She raised her eyebrows at him and cleared her throat, "No thank you, Bobby. I am perfectly capable of leading my own cattle into town."
He smirked and shrugged, "Alright. I was just offering. But suit yourself."
They started out riding toward town and Bobby could tell that Danielle was beginning to regret not letting him lead the cows. He smiled and continued to lead his horse down the road to the town. It took a good two hours to actually get to the town and three hours to get through all of the sales. It was now nearing five p.m. and Bobby and Danielle were very tired from the heat. They were ready to go home and they were packing up the empty baskets when a cry rang out in the middle of the street.
An elderly man stood in there, staring at Bobby and Danielle as if he were looking at two ghosts. Bobby leaned over and stood so he was partially blocking Danielle and whispered behind him, "Do you know this man?"
She shook her head, her eyes widening in fear as the man hurried over to them, a crazy look in his eyes. She stepped further behind Bobby, almost obscuring her from sight. The man was very odd looking. He wore a long robe and his white beard hung all the way to his waist. He finally approached the two and stood in front of them, beaming.
"Arthur! Elizabeth! I have been searching every century looking for you. It is a miracle that I found the time-travel spell in my book."
"Wait, you are a witch?" Bobby asked, and Danielle peered around from behind his neck.
"I am a magician, thank you, Arthur."
"My name is not Arthur. My name is Bobby."
"No. You are Arthur, and she is Elizabeth."
Bobby shook his head, "No. We don't know you, and if you keep this up, I will let everyone know that you are talking about witchcraft!" he hissed.
The old man shook his head, sadly, "You do not remember your past lives. Oh, how much easier this would be if you did. So, you do not remember anything about King Richard, the curse, and how you two are supposed to save the people?"
Bobby and Danielle just stared at him blankly. "It appears not. Well, my name is Verdd; I am a magician from the Middle Ages. The time I come from, you two are Elizabeth and Arthur. You have disappeared from that time, and you were sent here, to this time. You were sent forward in time to try again, because you failed to work together and save King Richard's people from the curse. So you two now have to work together and save your people, or the curse will grow worse and worse!"
"So, if we are from the past, then how can we fix a curse from hundreds of years ago?" Bobby asked, curiously.
"I am not sure. But you have to find a way before you turn seventeen, Arthur."
Bobby sighed, "I am Bobby. And I turn seventeen in a month and a half!"
Verdd hung his head, "I have come too late. No matter. You two will have to do this now!"
Danielle stepped out from behind Bobby and folded her arms over her chest, "Why should we believe you?"
"Because you must! In case you want hundreds, maybe even thousands of people to dies, I suggest you listen to me, and work together to break the curse!"
"Work with Bobby? That's impossible. He is the laziest person I have ever met in my entire life, and I can not stand him. Besides, I don't even believe this! If you so much as utter one syllable about this again, I will tell the entire own that you are practicing witchcraft! Now leave us alone and let us go back to our homes." She turned around and hurried back to the carriage to finish getting ready to leave.
Bobby looked into Verdd's eyes and somehow knew he could trust him, "I will try to get her to believe. I will try to help!"
"Remember, though, you have to do this together. You can not do this without her, Art- I mean, Bobby."
Bobby nodded, and then hurried over to Danielle. He said nothing to her until they were back on the road. He was sitting on the now lighter carriage, and she was now just riding her horse beside him. She was groaning and looking up at the sky.
"Great, because of that crazy old man, we are going to be It will be after dark by the time we get home now!"
Bobby looked over at her, "Danielle, what if he was telling the truth? What if we were really meant to break this king's curse?"
"Not you, too! He was crazy, Bobby! You can not honestly believe him?!"
Bobby sighed, "Will you hate me more if I said yes?"
"Bobby, if you say that you believe this… I will never speak to you again."
He smiled, "Is that a threat, or a promise?"
She snorted and then made her horse trot faster so she was out of hearing range to Bobby. He sighed, it did not look like it would be easy to convince. He just somehow knew that they were meant to do it. He couldn't really explain it. So he was quiet the rest of the way home. He didn't say a word to her when they got home. In fact, he let two weeks go by before he even said a word to her again. He knew time was ticking until his birthday and he had to hurry.
"Danielle!" he cried as he ran out to meet her as she was grooming her horse.
She furrowed her eyebrows, "Oh, it's you."
"Yes, it's me. Danielle, we need to talk."
"If it's about that crazy witch man in town, then you're not going to get anything else out of me!"
Bobby sighed, "But just listen, if it really is true, and we didn't do anything, then it would be our fault that all those people die!"
"No, it would be the stupid king who got them cursed in the first place… and what am I saying?!" she cried, setting down the horse brush, "Bobby, listen, I don't believe in things like this. And if you do, then you are not a very smart person. Bobby, take my advice for once in your life. Let this go! Forget about it! There is no curse and that man was just crazy!"
Bobby sighed and left her to groom her horse, wishing he could have somehow got through to her.
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On the day of Bobby's seventeenth birthday, his parents sent him and Danielle into town to go buy something special to celebrate that night. They both rode on horses and they didn't say anything to each other. They hadn't spoken since Bobby had last tried to convince her Verdd was right. He felt awful, and he hated it. It was his birthday, and all he could do was feel guilty for not doing anything to break the curse he knew nothing about.
When they finally got to the town, they had just gotten off their horses and hadn't even had time to go into the shop before Verdd came rushing to them.
"So, did you do anything?" he asked, anxiously, staring wildly at the both of them.
Danielle groaned outwardly and stood up close to Verdd, "I told you not to talk to me about this anymore!"
"I tried, Verdd, I really did. I am sorry." Bobby said, sadly.
Danielle glared at him, mouth open wide, but then turned back to the magician, "I told you what would happen when you talked about that to me again. So, here I go!"
She ran out into the middle of the street and yelled at the top of her lungs, as Bobby and Verdd watched fearfully, "WITCH! THIS MAN IS PRACTICING WITCHCRAFT!!!!" she cried and watched, triumphantly as all the townspeople at once circled Verdd angrily.
Bobby backed away from the angry crowd at once and ran over to Danielle, "What have you done? He can not die in this time! He doesn't belong here! Why would you do that?!" he yelled over the noise of the townspeople's screams.
She turned to him to answer, but before she did, everything went eerily quiet and they turned to the crowd. Everyone seemed to be standing completely still, as if they were frozen. She turned back to Bobby, fear in her eyes, "What is going on? Is that man doing magic?"
Bobby shook his head, "I don't know."
Danielle grabbed Bobby's hand and pulled him closer, trying to find some comfort and reassurance. And then, suddenly, their touching palms began to burn and a bright light burst from between their hands, enveloping them both in a gleaming ball of light.
And then suddenly, they were gone as the light enveloped them completely, then disappeared, and the rest of the world sped back up to life again, and the crowd around Verdd began to prepare to burn him at the stake.