A/N Requested to be done ASAP by my best friend in Real Life. :) Here ya go hun! It's up! :D
Disclaimer: Still the bloody same…
Chapter 4
"Miles?!" Emily gasped, her angry glare burning her eyes. "What are you doing here?!"
He laughed, continuing to smirk rather nastily. "Why my pretty, I have been hunting you down for the past however many years now since your mother's death."
She was enraged. "You stay the hell away from me and my friends!"
Emily breathed in sharply as the man pressed his rough, chapped lips up again her smooth, soft ones. She tried pushing him away, but her meek grip compared to his strong one didn't suffice the situation at all. Her eyes widened in alarm as he started to deepen the kiss. After a bit, he tried forcing himself onto her, and luckily she knew how to pull herself out of his grip.
She pulled her dagger from her thigh and held it tightly in front of her.
"You sick bastard!" The girl spat in disgust. "How could you even possibly remember me?! Leave me alone!"
Miles ran a hand through his golden brown hair. "How could I forget your beautiful, innocent, little face?" He then laughed. "Oh and also, I need a little something from you…" His dirty smirk returned as he went to touch Emily. She wasn't going to sit back and let him do this to her, so she kicked him in the intimate area and ran for her life, literally.
She stopped running as she entered the practice yard. She heard the sounds of laughter coming from her friends.
"The kitchen!" She said to herself, rushing down there in a desperate attempt to feel safer.
Everyone stopped talking and laughing as they saw Emily approach them all.
Pepper gasped. "Oh dear pumpkin, what is wrong?"
Emily slowed her breathing down before she spoke. "I…I need to warn you guys…" She panted again. "Its Miles…he's after me…after us!"
She sat down next to Smithy, who put an arm around her. He could feel her shaking and tried to reassure her. "It will be alright, he will not hurt you." Unfortunately, the reassurance didn't work at all.
Emily put a hand to her forehead. "No Jethro, he already tried!" She became more frantic. "He has been after me for all these years, and he will not give up… he wants me to be his!"
Jester sighed. "My brother should not even be still alive!"
Emily hugged Smithy tightly. "I'm scared; I do not know what will become of me."
Smithy hugged Emily just as tightly. "Don't worry, there is nothing to fear; he has probably given up now anyway."
Jester spoke up again. "Do not bet on it…if he is out to get someone, he will not stop until he has them."
Emily nodded. "He will even start a war if he has to."
Jester sighed. "Look Emily, all I know is that no one here is going to let him touch you again, no matter how hard he tries."
Jane stood up, clapping her hands together as she formed an idea. "I know; Dragon and I will mount a patrol. When we eventually see him, we will come back and go straight to the king. That way he can get the other Knights to help Guard the Castle."
Emily smiled a little, with a flicker of hope showing in her eyes. "I hope this will stop him."
The blue clad man laughed. "Well with Dragon around, he would not dare to do anything else."
Jane nodded, seeming pretty pleased. "I will make sure I get front gate duty."
"Jane, please do be careful. My brother is pretty powerful…" Jester warned.
Jane smirked. "Well there is nothing he can do with Dragon around."
Jester's look of concern soon broke into a grin. "True, my dear Jane, true that."
The red-haired, fifteen years old walked out of the kitchen, saying she would be back as soon as she knew what was happening.
"Jane, please remind me again why we have to keep Jingle-Boy's brother away from the castle? I thought he would be happy to know that his kind would be coming for a visit?" Dragon asked, sincerely confused about why everyone was so frantic about him.
Jane chuckled softly. "We have to keep his brother away from the castle because he is not on his way here for a friendly visit."
The large, green reptile cocked his head inquisitively. "What do you mean; he is not coming here for a 'friendly visit'? His other brothers and sister's come here for a friendly visit, so why would this short-life be any different?" Jane was slightly hoping that she could enjoy the silence of the night without Dragon asking a million questions…but tonight was not one of those nights.
"Because…" Jane started. "His other siblings are not assassins like Miles is. They do not go around hunting others and killing innocent people, or assault women for that matter."
Dragon was starting to understand better, but was still confused slightly. "Oh, so he is after Jester?"
Jane sighed. "No Dragon, he is after Emily, planning to make her his. He has no idea Jester works in the castle. We are trying our hardest to protect her."
Dragon finally got it. "OHHHH, so is that slightly different short-life in danger?"
Jane nodded. "Yes Dragon, we are trying to keep her, and the castle out of danger. And she is not different because she knows a little magic."
"So wait?" The reptile stated excitedly. "Does that mean I get to be a scary, fire-breathing monster at last?!"
The female knight laughed. "Yes, dragon! You can be a fire-breathing monster, ONLY when he comes near."
Dragon felt extremely happy that he decided to do some loop-de-loops and corkscrews in the starry night sky, making Jane feel a little dizzy.
"YES, WOOOHOOHOO!" He was excited. "So who's that short-life down there?" He asked, going back on topic. "He looks an awful lot like Bell-Boy…"
"Miles!" Jane gasped. "Come on! We must get back to the castle before he does."
The duo flew as fast as they could to the castle, hoping that they made it in time.
Jane patrolled the grounds and noticed that the intruder had not, yet made it to the castle.
"Good, we still have time to alert the king." Jane said as she hopped off Dragon's back. "Can you keep guard out here?"
Dragon nodded, jumping up and flying around the castle.
"So your majesty, seeing as the castle is in danger, shall I call our troops up here?"
The king nodded, looking slightly worried. "Thank you for informing me of this horrible intruder. Yes, please go and let them know, then come back and I shall give you all instructions on what I want you to do."
Jane bowed. "At once, your majesty."
While the knights were with the king, the others decided to stay in the kitchens for a little while longer.
Pepper sighed. "I hope he doesn't cause too much destruction."
Jester looked straight at Pepper. "Pepper, this is Miles we are talking about. He will do as much damage as possible; just to get the one person he truly desires, Emily."
Smithy sighed. "Do you not think you are over-reacting a little?"
Jester shook his head. "No! Not from what my parents tell me…trust me, they know what he gets up to…"
Emily cocked her head quizzically. "How do they know when they have nothing to do with him?"
Jester continued to explain. "Because Emily, they get crap off of the townspeople for what Miles has done. Some of the people can remember us with Miles when we performed. They get angry at my family and tell them everything that has happened. THAT'S how I know how bad he can be."
Everyone just looked at Jester. "I am sorry, I had no idea." Smithy apologised.
"No need to worry, I understand where you are coming from." Jester said with smile.
Emily yawned. "I think I best head to bed. I should give the Queen her medicine now."
Smithy smiled. "Goodnight, you know where I am."
She smiled and gently kissed his cheek, making him slightly blush. "I do, goodnight all." Emily smiled at them all and walked up to her tower.
Jane walked around the castle, making sure there was no sight of any intruder. Which at the moment, there was not.
"That's strange." Jane said to Dragon. "You would think that he would be here now."
Dragon nodded, agreeing with Jane. "True that, even with my brilliant eye-sight, even I cannot see him."
Jane laughed. "I know, but we must keep a close eye out. We can't afford to miss him."
Less than a split second later, they heard a female screaming, followed by some male voices yelling.
Jane gasped and ran down the stairs, surely enough to see a man running out of the castle gates. He had a young girl in tow.
Both Jester and Smithy were down there, angry.
Jane ran over to them and asked what happened, telling Dragon to go chase after them.
"Well." Jester started. "I noticed Miles walking in one direction and then Emily in another. I went to yell at him, but before I could do anything, he had grabbed Emily and ran off! I should have stopped him…"
Jane put a hand on the seventeen year olds shoulder, turning her head to face Smithy. "Did you see what happened?"
Smithy nodded his head. "I started telling him to get out, and just as I was about to go help her, he beat me to it. I tried tackling him but it was hopeless…because he just pushed me off!" He started pacing, running his hands through his blond hair.
Jane went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry, everything will be alright."
"How do you know? She could be anywhere by now!" Smithy snapped, and sighed when he realised how he spoke to her. "I'm sorry; I am just really worried right now."
Jane smiled softly. "It's alright. I know you would be very worried, you seem to really love her."
Smithy just shrugged her off and walked back to his forge.
Jane felt terrible. She had never seen the blacksmith so upset. The last time she saw her friend like that was when the king tried to sell Pig.
Jane turned to Jester, sighing. "Well, I now have to tell the King that his healer's been kidnapped." She ran up to the throne room, knowing that the king hadn't gone to bed yet.
Jane ran up to him, looking up in panic.
The king grew worried. "Jane? What is the matter?" He asked.
Jane panted, trying to get her breath back. "It is Emilia sire…" She stopped for a breath. "Miles… he kidnapped her."
King Caradock's face went from worry to anger. "What?! My wife needs her wonderful assistance to get better! I cannot possibly retract another whim! We need her back as soon as possible!"
Jane bowed her head down in shame. "When should I summon the knights, sire?"
Caradock firmly said "You shall start now. Only search around for a few hours… it should give you enough time to find her, he should not have gotten too far."
Jane bowed and took her que to leave, collecting her fellow knights.
"You, Gunther and Dragon shall cover the North east, South West, North and East while Sir Ivon and I shall cover the South West, South East, South and West. We shall divide the other knights accordingly. We will find the criminal and healer soon enough." Sir Theodore commanded. "Only if you remember all of your skills. Use them wisely; and do not directly confront the enemy, he will only try to run once again. While he is not looking, you sneak in and retrieve the young lady, if he attempts to attack you, keep him busy. The other men can then sneak in and grab our victim, while our enemy is busy. Remember; fool the mind and the battle is yours. Either way, the plan should work."
Jane and Gunther both nodded. "Yes sir."
Jane and Gunther had both agreed to go on horseback, while Dragon was to fly over the top of them.
At the gates, Sir Theodore told them that they would meet back at the opening where they go hunting, when the moon started to set. He said it would give them all enough time to search at least half of the kingdom.
When the orders were given out, they all set out on their sperate ways. Their search for the castle healer had just begun.
"Jane, we have looked here three times already." Gunther complained. "They are not around here."
Jane sighed. "I know, but we cannot just give up on her, we just can't!" She knew that she could not rest until she found her friend. Even though it was proving to be a lot harder than they thought.
Gunther sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "And we will not give up on her Jane, but tonight is obviously not going to show us any great signs of finding her right now."
Jane shook her head, feeling greatly defeated. She blamed herself for this. 'If I caught him sooner, he would not have had the chance to take her. Jane, you are so stupid!'
She sighed. She hated to admit it, but Gunther was right. They had been looking around for over five hours and the sun was starting to peak through the horizon.
After lunch was when the next search was scheduled. They had to stay out the whole time, night and day until Emilia was found.
Jane and Gunther were both tired and ended up heading back to the castle, resting up for the massive search.
Emily woke to find herself tied up to a wooden post, surrounded by nearly two dozen men. Her clothes were torn and her body ached with sheer agony. Before long, she realized what had happened to her.
"You've beaten me up! Why do you want me so bad?!" She sneered, only to receive a mischievous smirk from their leader.
"You are a very good girl after all…" He laughed, along with the other men. "No one has proven to be as good as you… any man would surely feel great pleasure…too bad we got it before yours did."
Emily gasped, starting to scream and swear in Spanish. She tried wiggling her thin frame out from her trap, but that only lead to more trouble. She was smacked across the back of the head and knocked out…not regaining consciousness till hours later.
"That should take care of 'er for a while!" Miles laughed, untying her and locking her up in a dark room.
Back at the castle, everyone was wishing the knights the best of luck.
"Jane, please be very careful when you approach Miles, I do not want you to get hurt." Jester said, pulling her into a tender hug.
Jane looked up at him and smirked slightly. "Once again, I will have Dragon with me. He will fry him to a crisp if it needs be."
Jester looked at her and smiled. "I hope Dragon does…I know it's horrible for a younger brother to say that about their older brother, but Miles deserves it. Though I do not hope for him to hurt you."
Jane shook her head and pulled his head down to her for a kiss. "I'll be fine, now I better head off."
She then turned to her friends, who were filled with hope. "Thank you for the lovely food Pepper, and the Healing herbs Rake, and Smithy, I will not give up on her, Knight's Honour."
She hugged him softly, and then smiled at him with hope.
"I have faith in you Jane." He replied back. "I know you will not give up."
She smiled and thanked him, watching him turn around and go back to his forge.
"Jane…can we eat yet?!" The overgrown lizard complained. "We have been looking for nearly two hours straight with NO break…do you think we can rest for five or ten minutes?"
Jane sighed. "But Dragon, I promised Smithy that I would not give up on Emily."
Dragon huffed. "That silly short-life is interfering with our eating! I'll starve if we do not stop soon!" He groaned and rubbed his stomach. "Come on Jane, PLEEEEEEEASE?"
The young knight chuckled. "Oh alright, we can stop for five minutes so you can get something to eat, and then we get on the track again, yes?"
Dragon let out a happy cry of "YES!" and landed in the forest, pulling Gunther to a halt with the horses.
Jane, Gunther and the other knights discussed the places that they could try and look for a camp, while Dragon ate.
"Do you really think that the Spanish guards have taken her to a neighbouring Kingdom?" Jane asked, surprised.
Gunther nodded his head with confidence. "We have searched the whole Kingdom, Jane. This place is pretty small compared to most. Where else would she be other than a close by kingdom? Last night gave them enough time to escape!"
Jane sighed, turning to the other knights that were grouped up with them.
"What does everyone think? Should we go back and tell Sir Theodore?"
A new full knight nodded his head. "I know exactly where the Spanish hideout is."
The rest all gasped. "What? Sir Calisto, what are you talking about?" Gunther asked.
"I am Spanish, Sir Gunther… as you all know right?" He started. "Well years ago, when I was eight years old, I was taken from my family. Miles was taking all of the children under the King's command. I became a Slave, and was nearly killed by him, for trying to escape."
"The stupid Italian looked everywhere for venerable women and young girls all over Europe… before finding Emily's big family of Gypsies."
He stopped for a second to blink back tears. "He noticed that the Leader's wife would not budge, so he ordered that she be killed, and that her daughter was to be captured. I thanked god that her father had saved her.
During that time we had started travelling to England, knowing that was were the Gypsies were heading. He wanted that sweetie badly, very badly. He built a hide-out in Rosemary Valley, which is next to us, so he could track her down. He might have taken Emily there, so maybe we should tell Sir Ivon and Sir Theodore about that."
Jane smiled. "Thank you so much for this information, it helps us a lot, and I am sorry to hear of your past."
The boy smiled and tightened his long, black ponytail. "You are welcome."
So all of the knights headed towards the direction that the elder knights were at and shared to them their piece of information.
Sir Theodore commanded all the younger knights to go ahead, with Calisto leading the way.
The sixteen year old lead them all in the direction of East, before looking up into the distance.
"We should reach the Kingdom in approximately five hours, meaning that sun will have just set so…"
Jane and Gunther looked at one another. "So?" Jane asked, a little impatient.
The Spanish boy looked at the fifteen year old girl and sighed. "It means we would have to call it a night and find the closest inn there."
The other knights all looked at one another, nodding their heads in agreement. All of the knights, but Jane. She was determined to keep on looking for her friend, no matter what.
"But what about Emily?" She protested. "We cannot just give up on her like that! The King will not be very please if we cannot find his healer soon."
All of the other knights looked at Jane, as if saying she was crazy.
"Calisto is right Jane; we need our rest too as Knights." Sir Bruno explained. He was about nineteen or twenty, had peroxide blond hair, grey eyes and was stout in appearance. His height though, was another story. He was just a centimetre taller then Jane and his wisdom was well beyond his years. Everyone believed him to have an old soul, because of how wise and mature he was for a young man his age. "We would be no use to the girl if we did not have our rest."
He laughed lightly and Jane sighed, giving in. "Very well, I guess we will look for an inn when we get there."
The Knights continued on for another three hours before taking a break.
Back at the castle, Pepper was busying herself with handling the queen's medicine. She was being Emily's replacement until she returned… if she ever was to return, that is.
She entered the Highness's room and sighed softly, smiling at her. "Here you go your majesty." She said in the most cheery voice she could muster. For once in her life, she was pretending to be happy.
The lady softly smiled back at the Cook. "Thank you Pepper, and have you heard anything about dear Emily yet?" She asked with concern.
The cook looked at the queen and sighed sadly, her smile gone. "No Highness, as far as I know, she still remains missing…oh I do hope she is alright."
Gwendolyn shook her head pitifully. "I hope she is too, she is a wonderful healer."
Pepper sighed once again and left the bedroom, taking the vile once it was empty and returning back to her kitchen to get on with dinner.
Smithy was beating away at a horseshoe forcefully before noticing Jester standing there. "Oh hello Jester, I did not see you there." He said with surprise. "Is there anything you need?"
Jester shook his head, and put a hand on the blacksmith's shoulder. "No, I do not need anything." He said casually. "Well actually, I think you can do something for me…" He began.
Smithy looked at him. "What is it?"
"For you to talk to us." He said rationally. "We all know you are hurting."
He looked up at the Blue-clad boy and sighed. "Jester…"
"Please Smithy." Jester cut in. "Building all of your emotions inside will not help the situation at all, so please talk and let us know what you are feeling inside."
Smithy looked up at his friend and shook his head, sighing in defeat. "Alright… I am hurting, and really worried…" He began. "As well as feeling the anger towards your brother and his army. I just hope that the knights will bring her home safe."
Smithy sighed, going back to work on what he was working on, saying goodbye to Jester when he left.
Emily pounded on the door of her darkened imprisonment, begging to be released.
"I technically gave you what you wanted, now please let me go!" She shouted, trying to use all of her strength to push the door open. She knew it was completely locked; but she didn't care very much, she just wanted to get out of there.
She heard the door unlock, and ran back to her "bed". She lay there, waiting for him to approach her.
"I heard you bang on the door." Miles said casually, a bit too casually. "And yes…you did give me what I wanted…but I had to force it out of you. That gives me a bad reputation of being a rapist… oh well. They can blame my brother for this… he is in the neighbouring kingdom you know? He is nothing but a lowlife jester anyway. Lucky I have a very close look a like, is it not lass?"
Emily sat up and glared. "You know, I actually did mistake your innocent brother for you."
The man jumped backwards for a second, and cackled. "Oh bless your precious heart; he isn't that innocent at all Emilia."
The Spanish girl sneered. "Now why exactly would I believe that when he's always framed for the evil doings YOU did?!"
The Italian went right up to her face and laughed again. "You do not even know half of the things that my brother has done. Romanus may say that he is a sweet and caring boy; but really, he is just a menace!"
Emily sighed. "And why exactly, is he a menace for?"
"He was born." Miles said heartlessly. "That's all that he did to wreck my life! Him, Eros, Julius, Crescent and Marceline all had to be born!"
The girl scoffed. "But I thought that was a good thing, when younger siblings were born."
He shook his head. "Oh well, they are here and there is nothing I can do about it… except kill them. Anyway, as long as I have you, I don't care." He got on top of her and grabbed the bottom of her dress, slowly trying to pull it off.
Emily screamed angrily and managed to pull her wrecked gown back down. When she done that; she wriggled herself out of his grasp, and ran out through the opened door.
"Cease her!" Miles yelled out to his army. "I want that girl!"
And so started their journey to retrieve Emily once again.
Emily ran as fast as she could, away from the Spaniards.
'What has my beautiful home become? Oh Spain, how could you let the King do this to you?' She thought. 'This is not how I remembered the army to be like!'
She continued to run; until she was sure that she was far enough.
When she was sure she was well out of their site, she pulled out one of her daggers and cut some branches off the bigger trees. With their leaves, she was planning to make a little bed to sleep in. For the night at least.
She grabbed her now tattered cloak and wrapped it around herself to keep the warmth in.
She scowled softly at the thin air as she felt tears filling her eyes up. Shutting her eyes tightly, she felt the salty liquid fall one by one down her dirt and sweat caked cheeks.
"I miss you." She whispered into the wind. "I miss you mama, I wish you were still here to help me get through this."
She sniffled before turning over and shutting her eyes, allowing sleep to take over her exhausted body.
