My longest chapter yet! Here's chapter 6! Finaly getting to some action!

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Later that day, they stopped and decided to set up camp for the night. Even though it was only about halfway through the afternoon, they wanted to give the horses a break from riding. Colm arranged a ring of stones and gathered firewood, while Shanna and Emma put up crude tents by hanging blankets over the branches of trees. When they were done, Colm decided to take a walk in the woods by himself. While he was exploring, he felt a strange, but powerful urge to go in a certain direction. He started walking, then, to his horror, found he couldn't stop. He was pulled like a piece of metal to magnet until he came to a set of very steep wooden stairs. He soon found himself going up them. Up and up, on and on, it seemed to go on forever. At last he reached a stone cottage with a straw roof at the top of the stairs. Before Colm could even raise a hand to knock, the door swung open. An old woman looked out, her face filled with joy. However, her face turned from utter joy to absolute fury when she saw Colm. She grabbed his the front of his shirt and screamed, "What are you doing here, boy? You're not her! Get away from here and never come back!"

And with that she flung Colm head over heels down the steps. He tumbled down, yelping as his body was bruised and beaten against the hard steps. Down, down, down, Colm fell, until at last the stairs faded away into oblivion.

Colm moaned and sat up, rubbing his aching limbs. The sun was slowly sinking into the horizon. What happened? Colm grimaced as he remembered the old woman's face as she screamed at him to never come back. What did she mean by "You're not her!" ? Speaking of which, why was he draw to the woman's house in the first place? He shook his head, blond hair flopping over his eyes. He hurt, all over. He felt like his body was a mass of bumps and bruises. He slowly got up and limped back to camp.

"You were gone a long time," Emma remarked as he came to sit next to the fire.

"Yeah, uh, it was really nice out, so I decided to sit down for a while and accidentally fell asleep."

"Well, I made some soup," said Shanna cheerfully, giving him a bowlful of it.

"Thanks," mumbled Colm. He walked over to sit next to Soot, who shoved him playfully. Even though it wasn't a hard shove, Colm had to bite back a yelp at the pain that jolted through his body.

Why am I keeping this a secret? he groaned to himself. After he went and gave Shanna back his bowl, he went inside his tent. "It's been a very strange day," he yawned to himself.

Emma was awakened by a poke in the ribs. It was Shanna.

"Hey, wanna help me play a trick on Colm?" she asked, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Sure!" giggled Emma, leaping up.

Shanna showed her a bucket full of ice water she was carrying. "Okay we sneak up behind him, dump it on him, and run away," Shanna whispered.

"Alright."

They snuck up behind Colm, who was still snoring, and dumped the contents of the bucket over him, before streaking away to watch his reaction.

Colm was jerked awake to find his body a freezing mass of ice. He jumped in the air, yelling furiously. When he realized he was soaking wet, as well a cold, he was furious.

"Shanna!" he yelled. "Emma! What was that for?!"

Suddenly, he realized even thought he was freezing, his bruises didn't hurt any more. And when he looked down, he saw several pieces of ice on the ground. Magic healing ice? Where could you get that?

As soon as she was safely out of sight behind a tree, Emma collapsed with laughter. When she finaly managed to get a hold of herself, she said to Shanna, "We better be getting back now. Colm with be furious."

Shanna grinned. "It'll be worth it," she laughed.

They found Colm hunched over the fire, soaked to the skin. Emma struggled to keep a straight face. To her, Colm looked like an angry bull about to charge.

"What happened to you?" she asked coyly.

"As if you didn't know!" Colm exploded, springing to his feet. "Of all the rotten tricks to play…"

But his voice was drowned out by Emma and Shanna's peals of laughter.