Honestly, I haven't abandoned "A New Generation" - I've got plans for that story, believe you me, but currently I am trying to get the ol'rusty writing juices flowing again (now it's the Easter Holidays! Whoop!)

So in this part of our tale, things get very strange for poor Miss Mindelan. As if facing an OFSTED inspection wasn't bad enough...

4

The first thing Kelly noticed was birdsong.

Cracking open an eyelid, a small, blurry, brown shape twitched and then disappeared with a flurry of wings. Kelly squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed them with her knuckles, before opening them again.

Her cheek was resting on dead leaves and earth. She could smell dirt and, now the bird had flown away, she could hear the gentle rustling of trees overhead.

Frowning, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. Her head hurt sharply and her vision spun. Touching the side of her head, Kelly winced as her fingers found a painful lump. She must have hit it really hard on the sink when she slipped…

She froze. The sink. She had been in the staff toilet in the gym. She had been at school. At work. She had been about to teach Year 7 cross country; had been gearing herself up with paracetamol and positive thoughts in order to face coercing a class of eleven-year old girls to run around the field several times. She had been trying to forget about her disastrous encounter with Dom the night before, with limited success. She had been trying to focus on getting ready for OFSTED, with even less success.

Blinking, Kelly tried to think; tried to explain away the fact that she had no memory in between the end of break-time and being here in the middle of…

The middle of where? It was nowhere she recognised. There was just a lot of trees and some sparrows who seemed very unafraid of her. There was a row of them, sat on a branch nearby, their heads cocked at her as if regarding some strange new creature.

Hauling herself to her feet, Kelly brushed the leaves off her tracksuit bottoms. Her bag was still looped around her arm; she dug in it until her fingers grasped her mobile phone. Pulling it out, Kelly squinted at it, wondering who she should call, wondering what on earth she would say, until she realised it didn't matter, because the screen was telling her there was no service.

"Bugger," she muttered, holding her phone up higher in a vain attempt to find a spot where it would work. Of course that doesn't work, she thought to herself, Only idiots ever think that works.

Kelly huffed a sigh and shoved her phone in her pocket. She looked around, trying to find some clue as to where she was. The sparrows continued to stare at her, a sort of wry amusement in their eyes.

"If you've got any bright ideas," Kelly said. "Then now would be a good time to share." Right, I've lost it. I'm talking to birds.

In truth, panic was starting in the pit of her stomach. Nothing was making any sense. Kelly could think of nothing to explain what she was doing here.

Suddenly, the sparrows peeped in alarm and flew off as a flock. From behind Kelly, there came noises, which sounded like hoof beats.

Common sense was telling her to walk towards the noise; that it was probably someone out for a ride in the woods; someone who could tell her where she was. Common sense told her that the sparrows had flown away because that's what birds did.

Common sense did not explain the tingling rush of adrenaline which raced down her spine at the noise.

Kelly turned and sprinted in the direction the sparrows had flown.

She ran, until she realised that she was only running away and not to anywhere. She still did not know where she was.

Pausing to catch her breath, Kelly strained her ears, listening.

The hoof beats had followed her. Or there were more people on horses nearby. Her heart was thumping not just from running.

It was from fear.

She pressed herself against a large tree nearby, flattening herself against the rough bark. Holding her breath, Kelly strained her ears to listen.

She could hear voices, rough male voices. They were not speaking English. Concentrating, Kelly realised she could make out a few of the words. German. They were speaking German, or something very similar.

"Ich bin sicher, dass ich jemanden sah…"

"Von der Stadt. Vielleicht ein Scout. Wenn Sie sie sehen, sie töten."

The hairs on the back of Kelly's neck were standing on end. Her German was basic – she hadn't really spoken it since college – but she had understood the last sentence.

When you see them, kill them.

She held herself very still, until she had sensed they had gone past. It was clear that wherever she was, she was not safe.

Am I in Germany? she wondered, peering around the tree. She could not see anyone. Or did they just happen to be speaking German? Don't be stupid, how on earth would I have ended up in Germany? Mind you, I don't know whereI am, or how I got here, Germany is as plausible a guess as anything. But why are there crazy murderers riding about on horses? Oh God, what on earth am I going to do?

About to step cautiously out from behind the tree, Kelly squealed as a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her backward. She found herself being slammed against the trunk. Another hand was pressed tightly over her mouth, stopping any more cries. Kelly shut her eyes in terror.

"Mindelan! What in Mithros' name are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

That whispering voice was oddly familiar. Neil! Kelly opened her eyes and looked into the frantic green ones of her best friend. He scowled at her and pulled his hand away.

"I thought you were taking the other side of the ridge with Merric? What are you doing here; crashing around in plain sight with no weapons, no less?"

None of that made any sense to Kelly. She merely blinked at Neil, her numb mind taking in details that concerned her greatly. When she had last seen him…it couldn't have been more than half an hour ago, it just couldn't…he had been wearing a suit and tie, lounging in his casually annoying way in the staffroom with a cup of tea.

Now…Kelly looked him up and down, speechless. He was dressed in what appeared to be chainmail of some sort, a stained dark green tunic with a symbol on it that looked rather like a rearing horse over a crown. A metal helmet shaded his dirty face as he drew a sword from a scabbard at his belt.

A sword. Not a fencing sword like ones Kelly had used in her brief dalliance with the sport. Not a plastic sword from the Drama Department's prop cupboard. A real life, sharp, deadly weapon.

Which Neil was holding. Even in her fuddled state, Kelly thought that probably wasn't the best idea.

"Neil," she croaked. "What's going on?"

He gave her a surprised look. "What…Scanran raiders, Kel, that's what's going on! Leftovers from King Maggot's army. The whole reason we're still out in this gods-forsaken part of the realm." He squinted at her. "What's happened to you? And what are you wearing?"

Surprised, Kelly looked down at herself. She was in exactly the same clothes as she had been earlier; her usual work attire of black tracksuit bottoms, grey zip-up hooded top with the royal blue tee-shirt underneath emblazoned with "Tortall Academy PE Department" and her faithful Nike trainers.

"What am I wearing? Neil, what are you wearing? You look like you just rocked up out of the Middle Ages. Have you been helping the History Department out again or something? And where the bloody hell are we?"

He stared at her for what seemed like ages. Kelly stared back.

Just as Neil opened his mouth to speak something flew in-between them, so close that Kelly felt a breeze tickle her nose.

She turned her head at the thud the object made as it stuck in a nearby tree. It was an arrow.

It was just one more surreal thing to have happened in an already surreal day that, for a moment, Kelly didn't even feel shocked. It was only when Neil shouted something incomprehensible and pushed her to the floor that sheer horror kicked in.

Suddenly there seemed to be a lot of people nearby. Horses too. Everyone was shouting – some people were shouting in English, some in that odd Germanic language – and there was clashing of metal on metal, followed by the occasional shriek. At one point, from very nearby, something heavy thudded to the ground.

Kelly could only hear what was going on, because she was curled up in a ball at the base of the tree, her arms over the top of her head.

Finally, the noises slowed and stopped altogether. Footsteps moved closer and a hand touched her shoulder.

"Kel? Kel, it's over, it's all right."

Neil again. He sounded worried. Kelly raised her head and looked up at him. He was holding a hand out to her, which she took, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

As he did so, he had to catch her again as her knees buckled. She had just seen what the object was that had fallen to the ground nearby.

It was a man. He was dead. There was a very large slash in his neck from which blood had pooled underneath him.

"Jesus Christ!"

"Kel, what's wrong? Please, you're starting to scare me!"

She stared around her. There were other men, all of them in armour as Neil was. They were cleaning swords, unstringing longbows, bending over…more dead men on the floor. They must have been the ones she had heard earlier, their horses were being held by more men in armour.

Kelly tried to speak, but her breath was coming in gasps and her heart was beating so fast she thought it might come out of her chest. If Neil had not been holding her up, she was sure she would have fallen.

"Kel!" Neil turned her around, grasping her firmly by the shoulders. He had a blossoming bruise on his face that hadn't been there moments before and someone else's blood on his tunic. "Look at me. Calm down and breathe!"

I'm having a panic attack. I'm having an actual panic attack, because nothing is making sense and Neil had become a sword-wielding maniac and there are dead people on the floor nearby and everyone is just acting like this is another day at the office…

It was so absurd that as Kelly took a deep breath in, she found herself giggling. On the next breath, the giggles turned to sobs.

"Sir Nealan?" One of the other men asked, his voice concerned. "What should we do? The Lady Knight…?"

"The Lady Knight is fine. She's just… Well, I don't actually know what's going on, if I'm honest Sergeant. I do know that we should get her back to New Hope immediately. Can you bring one of those horses over please?" Turning his attention back to Kelly, Neil grimaced at her. "I'm sorry," he said, and slapped her sharply across the cheek.

Kelly stopped crying and stared at her friend with wide eyes. Then, for the second time that day, the world rushed in at the edges of her vision and everything turned dark.

A/N I have made the Tortallans speak "English" and the Scanrans speak "German" (which I'm sure you have gathered!) Please excuse any poor German on my part - blame Google translate instead! (I can count up to ten and that's it!) Also, I tried looking for the Queenscove coat of arms, but had no luck, so I have taken some artistic liberties. This scene is set about four years after "Lady Knight" and for purposes of this story, our heroes are still living it up at New Hope. Cheers for reading so far y'all - I think I'll keep this story chugging on for a little longer to see where it goes! :)