--------------------MOONBEAMS AND SUNSETS--------------------
Chapter 7
The three knights had been in the south for five days so far, and had encountered thirty Copper Islanders altogether. All of these thirty had been cut down with the help of the ten man Yamani squad they were grouped with. The commander of the squad, Jinsei ((1)), was a strong man in his early thirties who knew no Common at all. Kel often had to translate for her two knight friends. Cleon enjoyed abusing her bilingual abilities and asked her to give the Yamani name of everything he pointed at. Eventually, after naming at least forty objects, Kel told him to stop because he was making a spectacle of himself, jabbing his finger around the area as if expecting what he pointed at to burst into flames. Turning, Cleon saw several of the Yamani men laughing at him. He blushed and stopped pestering her.
On that day, their group was camped at the edge of a forest near a group of cliffs. Local men from the nearby town acted as scouts, conveniently positioned at the edges of fields, in the forest or up near the cliff, and would send warning of Copper Islanders when they were spotted via ingenious magical pendants that gave off heat and light when someone was raising the alert. They glowed a different colour for each scout so the pendant's owner knew who was contacting them.
In the past few days, they'd built a routine – they would wake at dawn, eat, and then pass time until they received an alert. Upon receiving one, their group would rush off to the scout and then onto the raiders. Generally raider groups numbered no more than ten, and when there were more, another group nearby was called in. Kel, Cleon and Neal saw Merric and Seaver once when a group of seventeen raiders had been too many and another group came to help out, but otherwise, they did not see any other Tortallans. They had little contact with the Emperor, and Kel thought Neal and Cleon must feel even more isolated due to the language barrier.
At that moment, Neal was sat on the grass using a tree trunk as support for his back, and Cleon was sprawled out at his feet. They were talking idly about anything that came to mind.
"I bet there'll be eleven raiders on next call," Neal said, throwing an apple in the air and letting it thunk back into his palm.
"No, definitely fourteen," Cleon countered.
"Eleven."
"Why eleven?"
Neal sat up slightly. "Ten is too few. Twelve is too many."
"I don't think you can have too many."
"Sure you can. They have to be able to fit onto a boat. They can't walk on water, and they can't take a massive boat either."
Cleon rolled onto his side to look at Neal, propping his head up on an arm. "But shouldn't they search boats to see if there are raiders on them?"
"They could, but raiders are sneaky. And besides, do you know how hard fighting on a boat is?"
"Why, have you done it?" Cleon asked.
Neal frowned. "No."
Cleon snickered to himself.
"But I bet it would be really cramped!"
"Well, in any case, searching boats would certainly save us a lot of trouble. Then we wouldn't have to be hanging around here in this boiling weather for days on end."
"Anything you specifically don't like? Say... sunburn, maybe?" Neal smirked at his redhead friend.
"Oh, shut up," Cleon replied, glaring. "It's not my fault my skin burns more than tans."
Cleon had managed to acquire a sunburn every day so far. Despite his efforts to stay in the shade and slather himself in lotions, at the end of the day, Cleon was always lobster-red and irritable. The lotions that were supposed to prevent sunburn didn't seem quite strong enough for Cleon's skin, and Neal's efforts to strengthen them didn't seem to be helping.
"Kel, we're bored!"
"Can't you see I'm busy?" she replied, poring over a map with Jinsei. She'd been staring at it for so long that she saw it on the back of her eyelids when she blinked.
"What do they want?" asked Jinsei in Yamani. Kel just shrugged.
"Attention, probably. They're bored. We haven't seen much battle."
"Surely that's a good thing," he replied.
"Not for those two. They're too energetic - maybe we should give them less food."
The edges of Jinsei's mouth curled upwards in a subtle, wolfish grin. "That can be arranged."
Kel felt her pendant begin to warm, and traded a glance with Jinsei, who also fingered his pendant. "Alert!" she called in Yamani, and checked the colour of the crystal. "It's Kenichi - in the west."
"Mount up, boys," Jinsei ordered, packing the map away in his saddlebags. Kel walked over to Neal and Cleon and kicked their sides gently.
"Get up! We have a call," she told them sternly. They got up, bouncing around like five year olds about to visit a sweet shop, and went to fetch their horses. Neal had a gelding named Peony, Kel's mare was named Miya (which meant beautiful evening/night in Yamani) and Cleon's gelding was called Taro (big boy) ((2)). The ride through the forest would be short but speedy, and they left their horses saddled up so they could mount as soon as they received a call.
They arrived on the scene, a small clearing in the midst of the trees, and charged into a group of seven raiders. Neal always found it difficult to concentrate in battle; he couldn't help but stand in awe of the Yamani warriors, who were so precise and accomplished in their techniques and at the same time, visually stunning. He would often gape until one of his allies poked him in the stomach and knocked him out of his awe.
Turning, he saw Cleon beside him. "This should be easy," he commented.
"Probably," Cleon replied, eye on a Copper Islander. "Almost makes you wish there were more of them, doesn't it?" He didn't wait for an answer and jogged away, sword clashing with the crude weapon of a raider. Neal looked around, searching for more raiders or archers in the surrounding area. A bush shook a few metres to his right; he turned to stare.
Accompanied by war cries, a group of rugged men burst out into the clearing in front of him. Neal leapt out of the way and tried to count them - at least eighteen! He located Kel and pounded her on the back. "Kel, eighteen raiders just appeared from nowhere! We don't have enough men!"
She turned sharply and stared at him. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Afraid not," he replied. "What are we gonna do?"
"Pull back," she told him shortly, and then turned away. She roared something in Yamani. Their squad began to flood back into the cover of the forest, horses snorting loudly as they were urged on, and the raiders attempted to follow. Kel staved one off with her sword and gutted him. Adrenalin pounding, she backed up and took hold of her pendant. Squeezing it tightly and muttering the required words would alert any nearby squads that they needed help. "Archers!"
At her call, men at the back shoved their swords away and pulled out bows and quivers of arrows. Some stood in the saddle or dismounted and clambered onto nearby rocks or trees. This, however, meant that horses were left with no rider, and there were fewer swords to fight the Copper Islanders that fought on foot.
Jinsei gave orders to retreat and fall to defence. Eventually they backed up to a waist-deep river, and used this to separate them from the raiders until another squad arrived. Arrows finished the last of the Copper Islanders off while Neal tended to wounded with the help of another mage. After the dead were buried in crude, shallow graves, they gathered firewood and built a small fire where they cooked stew in a large pot. As darkness began to fall, a messenger bird drifted down from the light breeze and presented its note to Jinsei. He read it solemnly.
After everyone had eaten, he stood and read the letter's contents to the two squads. "Our spies have reported several battleships being prepared in harbours on one of the Isles, and the numbers of raiders landing on our coast has increased dramatically. We will be taking action against these further threats, but otherwise, all plans remain the same..." His eyes flickered as he skipped the rest of the note. "Can someone fetch paper? I wish to send a reply."
Once he'd scrawled a note and sent it by bird, Jinsei told Kel to get Neal and Cleon and come to speak with him. They assembled beneath a large fir tree out of the hearing range of the squad. "You're not staying with us much longer," Jinsei told her in Yamani. Neal and Cleon sat fidgeting, waiting for Kel to translate.
"Where are we going, then?" she asked him.
"Into the Copper Isles. The Emperor wants more people over there - it's likely he'll want you to sort out the person behind these raiders. Apparently he's a rebel, hiding on one of the less-populated islands… he's rumoured to be half-mad, which explains this hostility towards us for no reason. You'll be there to protect a couple of our spies and carry out anything they can't."
Confusion leaked onto Kel's face. "What? But we're knights. The spies are better suited to that kind of thing. They have proper training and they can assassinate people if need be -"
"Those are your orders, Lady Knight," he told her firmly, and waved a hand at Neal and Cleon. "Tell your friends and start packing. There will be a boat waiting for you at the south tomorrow with a spy, who will lead you to where you need to go."
She stared at him as he left, trying to work out the logic in the orders; she found none. Cleon began to pester her, asking what Jinsei had wanted.
"New orders," she said emotionlessly, beginning to stand. "We're going into the Copper Isles."
They both looked as perplexed as she was.
"Get all your things together in your packs. Tomorrow we need to catch a boat."
Neal stared at her. "Kel, you do realise we can't speak Kyprish?"
"Yes, I think I did realize that somewhere along the lines..." she said, eyebrows raised.
"We'll get killed! You can't just walk around talking Common without signing your own death warrant! Why don'tcha just give us big signs to stick on our foreheads that say, 'Foreigners on secret mission to kill Copper Island madman! Please stab this person in as many places as possible!'"
She sighed, obviously having had enough of his sarcasm. "Okay, Cleon, I will."
"The only problem is that no one would be able to understand it because Kel wouldn't know how to write it in Kyprish!" Neal told the redhead, poking Cleon's forehead with a somewhat manic grin. "Anyway, come on, we need to get everything together and get our bedrolls out."
Kel fell asleep slowly, anxiety about the upcoming mission keeping her from dreaming.
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"Maybe that's him."
"No, Cleon, I don't think it is."
Cleon had pointed to a withered old fisherman sitting on some empty crates by the pier, and Kel highly doubted that someone who looked about 80 years old would be leading them through the Copper Isles. So far on their wild spy-hunt Cleon had pointed out seven weather-worn old men and Kel had yet to see a young man anywhere. She wondered how they would find their spy guide.
"Looking for something?" a clear voice asked in Yamani. The woman who appeared at Kel's side had her dark auburn hair, streaked with red, tied back in a messy ponytail. She looked to be in her twenties.
"Well, kind of," Kel admitted. Neal and Cleon gawked.
"Oh, Tortallans," she said, switching seamlessly to Common without a trace of an accent. "I can help you out. Come this way."
A little disoriented, Kel and her two knight friends followed her. The lady knight had a suspicion that this woman was there to lead them to their guide. The woman took several turns through alleyways and narrow streets until they reached a small jetty where a fairly large fishing boat bobbed in the water. It took her one nimble hop to get onto the deck and then she turned and gestured for them to follow. Climbing down a tiny, creaking ladder, she pointed to the end door and squeezed against the wooden wall to allow them to pass. Then she was gone, leaving them to stare at each other in a daze for several moments before shrugging and opening the door.
Clustered in the little room were three extremely rugged men who all looked up incriminatingly as Kel stood in the doorway, Neal and Cleon stuck single-file behind her in the narrow hallway. The most grizzly looking man of the three gripped the little table they were sat around so hard Kel thought she heard a crack, and he barked, "Who're you?" in such a harsh tone that Kel almost fell over backwards trying to back out and find the woman from earlier.
She attempted to smile politely. "Well, uh, we're, um... are you...? We're looking for, uh, well, a spy?"
"Looking for a spy, are you? Well, why don't ye look for a spy somewhere other than my boat?" He spat the last word out ferociously.
"Uh, yes, well, we'll be going now..."
Neal and Cleon shuffled backwards as Kel did and, guessing enough from the man's tone, they realised Kel was making her escape and let her squeeze past them to reach the ladder and get back onto the deck. There they found the woman from earlier, expertly adjusting a bundle of ropes near the mast. Around them, a gentle whistling breeze caught in the sail and sent it billowing over their heads. Turning, Kel saw they were already several boat lengths from the jetty where the boat had been moored not long ago. They were in the sea. Sailing.
"Um, excuse me? I think you've made a mistake. I thought you were... well, we're on a -"
"...boat. Going to the Copper Isles."
There was a brief silence.
"What, you're our spy guide?"
"And you're a woman?!" Neal coughed out. Kel glared at him, despite the fact that she'd also made the assumption their guide would be male.
"Expecting a man, were you? Well, yes, I'll be helping you out. "Guide" is probably overdoing it a bit... anyway, sorry about earlier. I couldn't just announce I was a spy going to the Copper Isles in the middle of the street. I wanted you to meet the crew - did you introduce yourself to them?"
The three knights exchanged looks. "Uh..."
The spy grinned knowingly. "Ah, don't mind them. I'll introduce you later. We'll be having lunch soon - I'll knock on your door when it's ready and I'll explain a few things over the food. Do you want me to show you where you're sleeping?"
"Can we know your name first?" Neal asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"It's Ren," she said, bowing like a Yamani. "I'm Tortallan, really. What are your names? Maybe I've heard of you."
"Perhaps. I'm Keladry of Mindelan."
A look of realisation crossed Ren's face. "Oh - you're the Lady Knight..."
Yes, that's me... Kel thought idly. The only Lady Knight... the Lioness doesn't count, does she? Seeing as she was still masquerading as a male when she was knighted...
She realised Ren was speaking. "...dresses most of the time. It would probably be better, but understandably, breeches and a shirt at times... hmmm. Well, I can think about this later. Who are these two?"
Cleon was the first to speak up. "I'm Cleon of Kennan."
Ren turned to Neal expectantly. "Uh, Neal of Queenscove. Pleased to meet you."
"Ok," she said, still looking thoughtful. "Keladry, Cleon, Neal... why don't you go and find your cabin? It's the door on the right." She correctly interpreted Kel's open mouth and said, "I'm ever so sorry, but you'll have to share. Space is a bit limited around here, but hopefully with spelled winds it won't take too long to reach the Isles so we won't have to put up with cramped conditions for long. Why don't you go on down and put away your packs? Make yourselves comfy. Lunch won't be long - I'll knock on your door when it's ready."
"Ok. Thanks," Kel said, still trying to decide whether she liked the woman's straight-forward approach to things, and eventually deciding that she would be very polite until she got to know Ren better.
The crew of knights trailed below deck. Neal took the lead and shoved the door open, and they filed in to the little room. It was as small as Kel had feared it would be. After a few moments of rummaging, they discovered three hammocks folded up in a little chest by the back wall, and there was just enough room to sling them up and leave their packs below on the floor. Cleon clambered into his hammock immediately and, to all appearances, went to sleep. Neal and Kel similarly hopped into their 'beds', although Kel was wide awake and ended up gazing at the wooden ceiling, tracing the grain of the wood with her eyes as she mused over the adventures ahead.
It seemed Neal was not tired either, as he broke the comfortable silence. "Are you excited?"
She looked over at him slowly, stretched out in his hammock like a content cat by a fire. "About what?"
"This big mission. Going to the Copper Isles."
She chose to reply seriously. "Can anyone be excited about risking their life in a foreign country?"
"You did just that in Scanra. And I get a sneaking suspicion that you rather enjoyed it," he replied, grinning.
Kel smiled at the ceiling. "Heh. You know me too well."
"That's what more than a decade of friendship does."
"Gods... has it really been that long?"
He smiled broadly at her. "Yup!"
"I've lost track of time, really... it feels like a lifetime," she said. "Being friends with you is like looking after the most difficult, spoilt child ever known to man!"
Neal's grin morphed into a scowl. "I resent that!"
Someone cleared their throat. "Uh... lunch is ready. I knocked, but I don't think you heard."
"Sorry," Kel apologised quickly. "Wake Cleon, will you, Neal?"
"I'm onto it, Protector!"
Kel shook her head at her friend's perkiness and followed Ren out the door.
Over lunch, Ren introduced them to the crew members who were eating with them. The third crew member was on deck handling the boat and navigation. The man who had scared Kel half to death was the captain of the boat, Michael. The youngest member of the crew was a not-so-young 40 years old, a retired sea mage who could work the winds. His name was Shinjo. Neither Ren, Michael or Shinjo saw fit to tell them the name of the man up on deck, but from observing, they learned that everyone called him Eel. Whether this was his real name or not, they didn't find out.
The first day on the boat was a blur. Kel hardly remembered anything she did. She remembered eating and then feeling her eyes getting heavy, and telling the others she was going to bed. They left her alone in the cabin for a while so she could change into a nightgown, and by the time Neal and Cleon arrived to go to bed, Kel had snuffed out the dim lantern used to light their room, and they bumbled around in the dark until they swung themselves up into their hammocks. Everything went dark as sleep beckoned.
Suddenly, Kel jolted awake. A growing uneasiness in her stomach made itself known to her brain, and no matter how much she shifted around or how many times she willed her mind blank, her swirling stomach kept her awake. Eventually she got fed up of tossing and turning and flipped her legs over the edge of the hammock, falling to the floor with a little thud, and crept out the room and up the ladder to the deck. The faint figure of Eel shuffled around the front of the boat; she headed for the stern to avoid disturbing him, and spent a while gazing at the stars. She could still recognise the queasiness in her stomach, but somehow being up on the deck, breathing the slightly moist, salty air, quelled it a little. Must be sea-sickness, she thought resignedly.
She must have been out there for at least ten minutes when she heard someone approaching. Her first thoughts were that it was Eel, but this was completely dismissed when the person's hand found her shoulder.
"Neal?" she whispered softly.
"Hey," he greeted.
She glanced at him curiously. "What are you doing up here?"
"I was about to ask the same of you."
"Well, I asked first."
"I dunno. I couldn't sleep and then I saw your hammock was empty. Thought I'd come and find you. You?"
"Same - couldn't sleep."
He looked concerned, and asked, "Why not?"
"I was about to ask the same of you," she said.
He grinned. "I asked first!"
"I think I'm seasick," she admitted, slightly embarrassed. "It's a bit better up here."
"You should have told me! I am a healer, Kel. Seasickness is quite easy to heal."
She blinked. "Oh, I never thought of that."
"But I kind of can't heal it right now. You need to drink some special tea, and I didn't think to bring any. You were fine on the ship over to the Yamani Isles."
"That was a big ship," Kel reasoned. "This one is smaller and it sways about all the time. Look, anyway, what about you? Why couldn't you sleep?"
"Thoughts," he said eventually.
She waited for him to continue. When he didn't, she prompted him by saying, "About...?"
"Oh, you know," he said, looking at the floor. "Just... stuff."
"Hmm. Well, ok, Neal. If you want to talk about it, I'm here. I'm going to down to the cabin now, okay? Don't stay out too long or you'll be really tired in the morning." She began to walk away.
"Good luck!" Neal called.
Confused, she turned around. "Good luck with what?" she asked.
"Sleeping," he said, grinning. "See you in the morning."
"G'night, Neal."
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The next six days on the sea were largely uneventful. Each morning, Kel would rise from her hammock and dazedly wobble into the kitchen. Ren always woke before dawn, and would be cooking in the tiny kitchen when Kel stumbled in. After a less than satisfying meal of porridge, Kel would have to amuse herself until lunch. Normally Neal and Cleon were awake by then (no one bothered to wake them up earlier, so they took advantage and slept in late) so time didn't drag as much; they would sit in their room or up on deck and talk about things. Dinner would probably be soggy vegetables and fish, although they ran out of vegetables by the third day (much to Neal's happiness) so they ate only fish and porridge after that, which became increasingly monotonous as the days ran on. Kel was always bored.
"Finally!" Neal exclaimed, wobbling onto dry land. "I thought we'd never get off that damn -" His sentence screeched to a stop as he caught the eyes of their burly crew. He decided not to risk their wrath by insulting their boat and swiftly changed the subject. "Well, uh, anyway, where's Ren?"
"Right here. Well, I have good news! I've received a message from the Emperor. I'm being reassigned – I'll see you guys back in the Yamani Isles."
There was silence for a moment.
"Hang on," Neal said slowly. "You're not with us anymore?"
"How is that good news?" Cleon interrupted, practically hysterical. "We're going to get lost and we don't speak the language!! Please tell me there's another spy coming with us!"
Ren rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "If there is, I probably would have been told about it."
"Oh, great." Cleon abruptly sat down on a crate. "Thanks a bunch. What are we meant to do now?"
Ren shrugged, but reached into her pocket. "This came with the messenger. I guess it's for you." She handed Kel a leather pouch that jangled when she shook it. Opening it, Kel discovered gold and silver coins.
"Fat lot of good that does us," Cleon grumbled.
"You can have this, too, if it helps," Ren said calmly, handing over a letter. "This is the message I received today. There aren't any orders in there for you, but take it anyway. I've already memorized it."
"Thanks," Kel said, bowing. "Despite all this, thank you for coming with us on the boat. What do you think we should do about the language barrier?"
Ren spent only a few seconds pondering the question. "I don't know. I suppose you could pretend to be mutes." She turned, shielding her eyes, and glanced at the sun. "Anyway, I have a boat to catch. Have fun." Without even a wave, she turned and strolled away. The three knights could do nothing but stare after her, dazed by the lack of information she'd given them. What were they meant to do now?
Kel looked down at the crumpled message in her hand.
Say goodbye to your friends at one pm - I'm sure they have other places to be, and so will you.
She read this out to her two companions, failing to see any message in the sentence. "I suppose it's some sort of code," she speculated, holding it closer to her face. "I don't see any hidden messages or signs of magic or invisible ink."
"The point of invisible ink is that you can't see it," Cleon remarked dryly, "so it's hardly a surprise that there are no signs."
"Hang on." Neal took the paper from her hands and examined it. "Look at the back."
Kel squinted. "It's just a few faint squiggles. It could be anything - creases, accidental dirt -"
"Ah, but that's what they want you to think." He held it up to the light. "Don't you remember when Eel got the maps out on the boat? I know we were bored to death, but I remember the outline of the coast. It looked a bit like this line here." He pointed. "If that's right, then this second line must lead into the land, like a road. Maybe it's the way we're meant to go!"
Kel took her time digesting his suggestion and staring at the lines on the back of the message. "I don't know, Neal," she said finally. "It'd be a long shot, but it's the only thing we've got, so it might be worth trying it."
"Might as well," Cleon put in. "Neal might actually be right for once."
Neal glared at his redhead comrade.
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"Do you really think that was a good idea?"
"Well, how were we meant to know? We'll go back, Cleon will be waiting at the camp and we'll show him the meat we bought and explain that it turns out the entire island speaks Common. It's not our fault."
"He'll be annoyed he had to go hunting for nothing."
"Ah, whatever." Neal paused and looked around. "Which way was it, again?"
She rolled her eyes. "'Again' being the operative word in that sentence..." Seeing his scowl, she took a step to the side as if expecting him to hit her, then continued. "Past this tree, and then left at the patch of wild flowers. Remind me to never trust you to remember our path. Ever." She considered something for a moment, then added, "You're just lucky I was paying attention this time."
As she had expected, his face was contorted into a scowl when he looked at her. "Short term memory lapse, that's all! You said 'tree' and it all came flooding back!"
"Yes, of course," she said. "I wouldn't have expected anything less of..."
When she didn't continue or offer an explanation for her forgotten sentence, he moved in front of her. Kel's eyes were roving round the little clearing. "What is it?" he asked.
"This where we left Cleon and our things."
Neal looked around. "This can't have been where we left our things, Kel, because they aren't here. Cleon would definitely be back by now, and if he hadn't, he would definitely have left our packs behind. Who's forgetful now, huh?"
She stepped forward, ignoring his jibe. "No, Neal, this is it! Look, the grass is squashed here where we put down our packs. And here, behind this rock - this is the pile of firewood we gathered when we got here. Don't you remember?"
"Oh," he said quietly. "Maybe you are right."
They stared at the pile of firewood in silence.
"Well," Neal began, "what do you think we should do?"
Kel rubbed her temples, cursing their bad luck in her head. "Wait here, I suppose. Cleon will come back... with our things. Everything will be fine."
"Will it?" Neal sat down on the soft grass and leaned back against a rock.
Kel hesitated. "Neal, what if something happened to Cleon and our packs got stolen? What would we do then? I mean, we have money, but we'd have to find out about Cleon, and the coins wouldn't last long."
"Oh, don't worry about it," he reassured her. "I'm sure Cleon just felt like going for a walk or something."
"Well... ok..." Reluctantly, she sat down beside him, and they began to wait.
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"It's been five hours."
"...I don't think he's coming back."
"Should we go look for him?"
"It's dark. We ought to get our bedrolls out and - Oh. Right. Our packs are missing."
"Do you remember seeing an inn in the village?"
There was a pause. "I'm not sure. We could go see."
"In the dark?"
"Well, what else can we do?
"Mmm...meh."
They began to push their way through bushes and overgrown grass in the vague direction of the village.
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Additional notes
((1)) I hope you will excuse me for neglecting to enter the last names of any Yamanis that Kel, Neal and Cleon encounter. There are only three full Yamani names mentioned in the books, but I also used a bit of my Japanese knowledge to fill in anything I couldn't find out from the three names. I assumed that the "noh" is a twist on the Japanese particle "no" which indicates possession or can mean "of", and the second name is used in the same way as Tortall as in a person's fief or their land, and NOT a family/last name. I wasn't feeling very imaginative so I didn't give them last names, but I chose Japanese names for anyone who needed a Yamani name because it was easier.
((2)) I chose the horse's names quite carefully. I once saw a description of Peony that said something about emanating moonbeams, a reference to the title (yay!). I chose Miya (beautiful evening/night) because it related to Hoshi (star). And, because I was feeling immature and childish, I chose Taro because it means "big boy" which made me laugh because Cleon is so tall... -snickers quietly to self-
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok, so, this update took ridiculously long to get to you. I know. And I'm sorry. Too many distractions. School is this horrific huge monster that regurgitates coursework all over me, and rabid bunnies have been trying to eat me with all these ideas for new stories. Gargh. I wasn't sure if I'd ever finish this chapter, but I skipped ahead and wrote a scene from Chapter 13 and it rekindled my inspiration. Things get very interesting later on in the story... anyhoo, I hope this chapter wasn't too dull. I think there's some interesting scenes in the next chapter, so hopefully it won't be too long in coming. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews - I'll try to update quicker next time :)