(A/N: I am sooooooo sorry about this long ass wait. I've been so busy lately that I'm surprised that I even got to upload this. But don't worry! The wait is over! I plan to upload the rest of part one of "Running for Freedom" within the next few weeks after I finish some other things. Please be patient and work with me ^_^. But until then thanks for sticking with me after this looong hiatus and enjoy the chapter :D!)
LATER
JEWEL'S POV
As the man and I continued to walk away from Alfred I couldn't help but look back at him one last time. We then stopped walking, "Don't worry ma'am," The handsome said looking back at me, "He won't bother you anymore."
I nodded quietly,
"Are you sick?"
I shook my head, "No I'm fine."
The man opened his mouth to say something before my stomach suddenly started growling out loud. I clutched it in embarrassment.
"Seems like a lot has happened to you," He said, noting my frail attitude, "How about I treat you to some food? I'll pay."
I looked at him unsurely.
"What if this is a bad idea?"
I shook my head of those thoughts and smiled, "I would like that."
LATER
Soon the handsome young man was sitting across from meat a wooden table outside a small inn paying for a meal to feed the two of us. "So, how long have you been in the town?" He asked me, "I've never seen you around here before."
"Uhh, only a few minutes." I responded, careful of what I was about to say, "I was just traveling across town with a few friends."
The blonde man raised an eyebrow, "You mean that guy was your friend? He didn't seem like one to me."
"Yeah well, I won't have to worry about him anymore." I said, a sudden pang of anger running through me at the thought of Alfred kissing me.
"So where were you guys going before... y'know... all that?" The man asked.
"W-Well, we were supposed to go to Germany," I said lying through my teeth, "family members of mine are there." The beating of my heart slightly increased at my false words. While I was angry at Alfred, I knew that I couldn't give away their hideout. That would just be too cruel, even for me.
"Germany eh?" I watched as my acquaintance leaned back and placed his hands behind his head, "Haven't been there in a while."
"You've been before?"
He nodded, "Mm-hmm. I had quite a nice stay there for a few weeks..." I slightly pouted, "But of all the countries in the world, there is one place, that no country would ever beat."
My head tilted in curiousity, "And what place is that?"
The handsome man smiled, "A place of brighter days," He began, "where the bright lights and sounds were our joy each day and the nights were the heat of yearning."
My eyes sparkled in wonder at the sound of his words, "You speak so highly of this place," I managed to say, "where is such a location?"
The man's eyes flickered, "Spain."
"Spain? I've never been there. Exactly what's so great about it?"
He chuckled, "It's such an exciting place," His voice dripped with passion, "always bustling with exhilaration and happiness. I'd stay and live there if I didn't have other business here."
"Other business?" I asked, "What exactly do you do for a living?"
"Oh I'm a traveler," He answered, "I collect rare artifacts from all around Europe. In some cases, I'll get to go to Asia but only on special occasions. On my downtime, I stay here and tend to my family's farm, which we've had for quite a few generations."
"Is that your business here? Your farm?"
He nodded, "Yup. I'd love to live in Spain but..." He lowered his eyelids, "...I just can't bring myself to stay. This is my home and... without it I'd just feel..."
"Lost." We both said at the same time.
Soon our eyes locked onto the others, passionate green to innocent brown. I then looked away blushing. In all honesty, I felt the same way when it came to the Resistance. It did seem like a place I could've loved but... nothing would have felt the same as being with Kandake and all my relatives. Nothing would match the feeling...
I placed my hand on the stoned chocker that hung around my neck.
What I didn't notice was the way the man was staring at my necklace, "Hey miss," He asked and I looked up at him, "Where'd you get that?" He pointed to the blue jewel pendant.
"Oh! My mother gave this to me when I was younger. It was a family heirloom."
I notice the blonde man raise an eyebrow again, "That's funny..." He reaches into his shirt and pulls out the same necklace as mine, except the stone on his pendant was green, "...so was mine."
The man and I stared at each other for the longest of times in awe.
"Miss?" He said breaking the silence,
" Forgive me for not saying this earlier but..." The man smiled, "I don't know your name."
I smiled and looked at the ground in embarrassment, "I apologize, I didn't give it to you. But I don't know yours either..."
"Tell me yours first."
I blushed, "It's Jewel."
Suddenly he let his necklace fall back into place from his hands, and his smile dropped, before staring at me with a deadpanned look.
"What did you say?"
"M-My name is Jewel. Jewel Fall."
The man continued to stare at me in surprise before suddenly saying, "Oh my god."
"What's wro-?"
In a flash the blonde man wrapped his strong arms around me. "Sir what's-?"
"I thought I'd never see you again...!" He said, his voice slightly quivering.
"What are you talking about?"
"Jewel," The blonde man stared at me with his yearning jade green eyes, "It's me, Tim. Your brother."
My heart stopped,
"My brother...?"
Tim nodded his head. "Don't you remember?"
FLASHBACK
14 years ago
I felt myself rolling around in the grass and laughing at my hearts content when I stopped at the bottom of the hill. "Tim come on!" I shouted at my brother who had his arms crossed and stared at me stubbornly,
"I won't do something that girly!"
"C'mon, Timmy! It's fun!"
"No!" He turns away before I stood up and begged, "Please Timmy! Stop being so stingy!"
"Stop calling me that! Now it's a definite "no"! You should learn to be more seri-." Suddenly in midsentence he screamed and began backing away towards the hill.
"Look out!" I warned before Tim slipped and rolled down the hill, yelping in the process.
When he finally slowed and stopped at my feet, dirt and grass caked his clothes, face and hair. Tim leaned up and began spitting out on the ground in disgust at the grime that somehow landed in his mouth from the incident. After helping him on his feet, my brother started dusting himself off in anger and began fixing his blonde locks.
"Tim, are you alright?" I asked, trying hard to stifle my laugh.
"I'm fine." He replied gruffly.
I suddenly burst out laughing, "It's not funny, Jewel!"
"Tim! Jewel! Where are you?" A man shouted from afar.
"We're right here Vader!" I responded running towards the direction of his voice. Then I spotted my beloved dad who hustled over towards us, his youthful blonde locks being blown about in the wind in the process,
"I thought I told you both not to run off too far from home," He scowled, "We don't know this place well enough to consider everything safe yet."
"But Vader, the hills are so tall here in South Africa! I couldn't resist!"
Father began directing us back to our home, "Well you're going to have to for a while."
My shoulders slumped over as Tim and I began to walk, "I told you this was a bad idea!" My brother whispered in my ear gruffly. As my head turned backwards I noticed Father following us before he stopped and continuously stared behind us.
"Vader?" I squeaked, "Is something wrong?"
It was a short pause later before he finally responded later saying, "No..." My dad then walked towards us and began urging us to walk faster, "Come on, let's go." He said.
THAT NIGHT
As I slept inside of my room I suddenly heard a thumping noise coming from below. My eyes shot open as I raised my head up, "Vader?" I squeaked, eyes darting left and right.
Thump!
The noise came again.
I looked across the room and spotted Tim, who was sleeping soundly, "Tim!" I whispered.
No movement.
"Tim!" I whispered a little louder.
My brother grumbled out, "What?"
"Tim, I think there's someone here!" I whispered to him, "We have to go get Vader!"
Tim turned to face me and groggily replied, "Jewel, just go back to-."
I held my hand over his mouth and placed a finger over mine, "Shh! Do you hear that?"
Thump!
Thump!
Tim's eyes widened and he nodded quickly. Taking my hand off his mouth he whispered, "Wake up Emma," He pointed to our other relative who was still asleep, "I'll go and get Vader." I nodded and Tim jumped out of bed and made his way to the other room.
I ran over to Bella and quietly shook her, "Emma, wake up!" I whispered, "Emma!"
My sister opened her eyes, "Wha-?"
I covered her mouth due to her loudness, "Shh!" I said, "Someone's here! Tim's going to get Vader."
Suddenly we heard a loud crashing noise.
TIM'S POV
I quickly ran over to my parent's room and rushed to my father's side, "Vader! Vader!" I said shaking him, frantically, "I think someone's in our house!"
My dad woke up startled, "What?"
Then we heard the crash from downstairs.
"Verdomme!" He said rushing out of the room and down the steps. I brushed down the hall, following him, and stopped at the staircase. What I saw made a cold chill run through me.
There were soldiers, British soldiers, standing in our doorway pointing guns at my father.
"What do you want?!" My father called, "I thought I told you to leave!"
"James Fall, you and your family are under arrest."
"For what?!" Vader lashed back, "We've done nothing wrong! It's not our fault that you greedy Brits can't get your hands on the mines!"
"Don't tempt me you low-down Boer!" The main officer shouted, "We tried to negotiate with you beforehand but you cowards chose not to listen! We warned you what was coming, how we would rage hell on your family's lives!"
"And your gluttony for riches will be your downfall! We don't want the gold nor do we care about it! Just take it! What more do you want from us?!"
The officer walked closer to my father, pistol still pointed straight at his chest, "I want you disgusting animals to get off our property, goddamn it."
"Tim!" A voice whispered to me and I turned around, only to face my mother, "Come, darling. We have to go!"
Snapping out of my trace I followed my siblings through a small basement door, my mother closely behind me. It wasn't until I heard a gunshot that my attention was turned back behind me,
"Vader!" I shouted. I began rushing towards the stairs, only to be stopped by my Moeder,
"No! Tim! We have to go!" She pushed me through the door as I struggled to get out of her grip.
"We can't leave him!" I shouted.
Mother pushed me forwards, "We don't have time to worry about this, now go!"
We continued running through the basement until we reached another door, which led us outside.
"Now, run!" Mother shouted at us.
In no time the majority of us were rushing through the tall grass underneath the night sky. Behind us we managed to see a light flickering and hear the neighing of horses.
"After them!" One of the officers called. When I looked behind my shoulder, while still continuing to run, I saw the worst thing possible.
Our house was on fire.
JEWEL'S POV
When I saw the flames coming from our house I stopped running and turned around shouting a "Vader!" In the process. "
Jewel let's go!" Emma said as she started pulling my arms,
"But what about Vader?! He's still in there! We can't leave him!" I shouted back as the men on horses started getting closer and closer to us. Suddenly we found ourselves cornered between a ravine of rushing water and the officers.
"Arrest them and send them to the concentration camps!" One of them said. Backing away slowly I suddenly felt my foot slip. From there, my whole world went into slow motion. I could see my brother turn around and try to react by reaching his hand out towards me. But it worked to no avail, and I fell into the river.
"Jewel!" My mother shrieked as she tried reaching for me. I tried to swim back and grab her hand but the current was too strong. I screamed as the tides pushed me further and further away from my family, choking on water and dirt in the process.
TIM'S POV
"Jewel!" I screamed trying to run and save my sister, only to be caught by one of the British guards, "Get off of me you bastards!" I shouted to him in fury.
"Do you want me to go after her?" One of the guards asked, cocking his pistol.
"If you so much as touch my sister I'm gonna kill you!" I threatened. The man holding the gun suddenly pointed its barrel underneath my chin. "Shut your mouth you little brat! Why, if I could call the order I would-!"
"Let her go," The leader said, "by the time she gets to the end of the rapids, she'll be dead."
Hot tears filled my eyes, "No," I thought to myself, "She won't be dead! She won't be! Oh God, if you're out there please let my sister live! Please don't let her die!"
LATER
They took us to a small shack in the middle of nowhere, far away from our home that we had grown accustomed to. Within each passing minute that my family had to stay there I could feel the tightening in my stomach get worse. The sight of Jewel falling in the river, vanishing from us, kept replaying in my mind over and over and it caused me to grimace. But I continued grasping onto the idea that my sister had survived those fatal rapids.
She would be alright.
But not only was Jewel absent from our family, Vader still wasn't here with us. "Maybe he found her in time, and is trying to figure out a way for us to get out of here..." I consistently thought myself. However, as time kept crawling on and on I began getting anxious and feeling relentless towards everything.
"Damn it," I heard one of the Brits whispering, "I can't believe we lost one of the kids."
"What do you mean "we"? You let her slip into the river!" The other guard said harshly. He then threw his hands up in the air frustrated, "Ahh, what the hell? Bottom line, the little broad's dead. No use complaining about it."
"She's not dead." I then said, much to their shock, "Don't speak about her that way."
The two guards turned towards me, "What did you-?"
"You heard me." I said in a bitter tone.
"Tim!" Emma whispered to me in fear.
"Well then," the leader said walking towards me, placing his face inches from mine, "Unless you think that by some miracle, your sister floated like an angel through those rapids and survived, she's dead..."
I furrowed my eyebrows.
"...just like your father."
That did it. I then lashed back, "No! You watch! She's gonna survive, and then she gonna come back with my Vader and he's gonna-."
Suddenly I saw the door open and the officer who broke into our house came walking in...
...holding my father.
My eyes widened as I assumed the worst. Father looked at me with a worried expression, "D-Did you find-?"
The way his gaze adverted mine I knew that the worst had happened.
Not only had the guards presumably already told my father about what came of Jewel, but none of them had found her.
My sister was gone...
...and there was no way for us to get her back.
"Take them to the camp," The guard ordered the other officers, "And make sure they stay there until their dying days."
Tears fell from my eyes as the guards forced us out of the shack and into a large wooden carriage, taking us away from the place we had grown to know and love.
THE NEXT MORNING
As the sun's glare hit my eyelids, I felt myself wake up. Almost a few moments later the heavy heap of guilt from what happened the previous night started flooding through my body. Jewel was gone, presumably dead, and there was nothing that we could do.
"No, Tim! Don't think like that!" I thought to myself, "Jewel's still alive! I can feel it! God will watch over her!" I clutched the green jeweled necklace that was under my shirt. Suddenly I felt the carriage swing to a halt, awaking the rest of my family from their slumber.
"Whoa now..." One of the guards driving said.
From up ahead I noticed a whole line of men mounted on horses, each one wearing royal attire. One of the men, who I guessed was their leader, walked his horse to the cart and said to the guards, "We have to search your cart."
The English general growled, "And why's that?" He asked gruffly.
"We are looking for some people in particular." The well dressed man answered. He looked into the cart at us, "Is anyone here of any relations to the 'Fall' family?"
Our heads perked up, "We are the Fall family." My father said, "Why?"
The man reached in his pocket and held up a piece of paper, which turned out to be a certificate, "You're freedom has been bought by the Grand Duke and Duchess of Belgium," He said sharply, "Please come with us and we'll take you to their homeland. They've invited you to stay."
Emma's eyes and face brightened up, "Really?"
The general grumbled, "This is absolutely insane! That is a false contract-!"
The Belgian guard held the paper in front of the pudgy British man's face, "It bears their seal." He said with a firm voice, "The Grand Duke and Duchess wish to see their family as soon as possible. So please, under your word, allow the relatives to get out of the wagon and come with us."
The British guard's eyes showed fury at the man as he refrained from speaking. The royal soldier placed his free hand on his sword, which was attached to his left side, "Unless..." He began, "you'd rather I take matters into my own hands."
"You wouldn't dare."
In a flash the guard pulled out the lance and held it close to the man's face, "Mijn goede heer, I have sliced and marred many men in my time, and spilled a lot of blood by means of no regard with these cold grey eyes of mine," the royal soldier said, "Your obviously fake attempt at being brave comes as no trickery to me, no matter how much of a proud face you put on, and how close you keep your guns and guards with you. I am not a soldier to be fooled with, nor am I one whom takes their job lightly. If you have any sense in the world, you'd allow them to leave with us, not a hair on their heads harmed, or your blood will be the first one to stain my sword today."
The soldier placed the lance's blade closer to the Brit's face, "So which is it?"
There was a moment of silence. My eyes darted from the British man towards the Belgian soldier and I gulped. Would I be seeing another death, except this time, up close?
One of the British soldiers leaned towards their leader, "Sir, do you want me to-?"
"Let them out." The officer said,
"Wait, what-?"
"Let them out. Now!"
The blonde soldier turned to his men and gestured them over. As each of the guards surrounded the wagon, swords and guns drawn, the main warrior walks to the back and looks at us, "Come, I'll help you out." He says extending his hands towards my mother. As she moved towards the edge of the wagon, the soldier placed his hands on her hips and lifted her off the cart and on to the ground. Next he did the same with Emma, who I noticed blush deeply and begin giggling at him.
My father hopped off by himself and then turned back to face me, "Alright Tim, come on."
I didn't budge from my place and was quiet, continuously staring out into space.
"Tim, come on!" Emma said excitedly.
"I'm not going." I said stiffly.
"Tim, didn't you hear? We're being set free-!"
"I know and I don't care," I said, "I'm not going anywhere 'till we find Jewel."
Father stepped forward, "Tim, I know you're upset but..." He paused, "we have to go on. What happened to Jewel-."
"Stop speaking like she's dead! Jewel's alive, I know it!" I clutched my necklace in anger, "I know it..."
"Jongeheer," the Belgian soldier said to me and I slightly turned to face him, "I understand how you feel, and I'm sorry about your loss, but we have to-."
"No!" I shouted much to his surprise, "I'm not leaving until we find Jewel!"
"Tim, Jewel is dead!" Father said.
"Because of you!" I replied angrily, "If you had just done what the men said before and went with them she would be here, with us!"
"Tim, that was not my fault!" Father shouted back.
"Yes it was, and you know it!"
"Damn it this is taking too long," The British officer said angrily. In a flash he pulled out his long rifle and pointed the bayonet at my face, "Get out, now!"
I stared at the gun nervously before frowning, "I'm not going!"
"Sir, put your gun down!" The Belgian man ordered, drawing his lance again in the process.
"Get off the cart, goddamn it!" The officer ordered me.
"NO!" I shouted back trying to push the gun away from me. Big mistake on my part.
"I said-!"
Then it happened.
In a flash the bayonet scraped in a vertical line against my forehead, leaving a bloody gash near it. I screamed in pain and clutched the wound as blood stared leaking out from it. "TIM!" I heard my father shout from outside. Suddenly my head started spinning, and I began feeling very lightweight.
As my vision started to blur, all I could hear was the sound of the Belgian's voice saying, "Oh you've just messed yourself up big time, my friend."
Then the British man began screaming before I blacked out.
END OF FLASHBACK
I stared into my long lost brother's eyes with fresh new tears in mine, "Tim!" I whimpered while lashing out and hugging him back, "I can't believe it! I thought all of you were dead!"
"We searched all over for you, Jewel," He hugged me again, "I'm so glad that you've come back to us."
LATER
"So where are you staying?" Tim asked me as we continued walking through the town.
I thought of Alfred and looked at the ground, "I don't have anywhere to go," I stated, "Prior to when I saw you I was traveling with... him."
Tim turned around to face me, "Nowhere?"
"Yeah," I paused, "But it's okay. I'm sure that I can find an inn to stay at for the while-."
"That's unacceptable!" Tim said before quickly grabbing my hand, and walking down the street, "You'll stay in my house and with me."
I stopped him and slowly pulled my hand away from his rough, rugged grip, "No, Tim. I-I don't wanna bother you-."
"No sibling of mine shall sleep in the streets!" Tim snapped back at me.
I then laughed, "Just as stubborn as I remember him to be..."
"What's so funny? I'm being honest." Tim said raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"You're still so stubborn," I chuckled while shaking my head, "You really haven't changed." I noticed Tim blush slightly before pouting again.
"Look, I'll just stay inside of an inn for the night before leaving town tomorrow, it's no big deal."
"Like hell it isn't!" He says, "Jewel, it's no problem, really. You can stay with me."
I heaved a sigh and smiled, "Alright, Tim. I'll stay. But only for one night."
A small smile cornered his lips, "Stay as long as you need to."
MEANWHILE
ALFRED'S POV
As I continued to walk through the streets, I stuffed my hands in my pockets, disappointed. I knew I should've been trying to catch up with Arthur and all of them but, at the moment, all I could think about was Jewel and her last words.
"I don't know him. I don't know him at all."
A hand reached out from my pocket and placed itself on my forehead, "Arthur was right," I thought, "I should've kept her closer." I heaved a large sigh as I continued to walk. But it was then that I noticed that the town had become surprisingly quiet and empty. Then I stopped.
I sensed it and squinted my eyes.
Danger.
Seconds later there was a pistol fire which caused me to run to the left. "Shit!" I thought to myself, "He's here!" I ran as fast as I could until I reached a dark alleyway and zipped past houses that lay in my way. When the shooting didn't cease, then I became worried, "Shit! Why didn't I stay with Arthur?!" I cursed to myself, while hiding behind a stack of logs, "Besides, how'd he even find me?"
Suddenly the pistol shots got closer and closer to me and I quickly scurried away once more, looking for a place to hide. I couldn't risk knocking on one of the doors of the many houses, someone might get shot because of me.
Dammit!
I stayed huddled behind the large wooden stack as more shots suddenly rained down, "Cease your fire!" I heard a voice call out, "He must be captured alive."
I peeped out from my hiding place and noticed a barrage of men standing on one of the roofs of the houses. They were whispering to each other in Dutch and sadly, I couldn't make out what they were saying.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around quickly. Luckily for me it was only Arthur and Toma. "Where the hell have you been?!" He whispered to me and I shook my head.
Toma then watched as the Dutch men hopped off the houses, "They're coming!" She whispered.
As quick, and quiet, as a mouse we jumped back up on our feet and scurried away from our current location.
LATER
After we reached the outskirts of the town we stopped running and began trying to catch our breaths. Suddenly Arthur walked up to me and, in a fit of rage, grabbed my shirt's collar, "What the hell were you doing?!" He shouted at me, "You know it's dangerous for our kind to wander off alone in these parts! You didn't even have your weapons with you! Do you have any idea what would've happened if you had been caught?"
But I wasn't listening. My mind was on other things, "Yeah... sorry..."
Toma then tilted her head to the side and looked behind me, "Hey," she began, "Where's Jewel?"
Damn that girl for being too observant.
The lost gaze that I had in my eyes only deepened at the sound of Jewel's name, "Jewel's gone," I said blankly, "She's not coming back."
Arthur gripped my collar harder, "What do you mean 'she's not coming back'? Where'd she go?" His eyes furrowed, "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything."
"That's a lie Alfred!" Arthur growled, "What did you do?!"
"I didn't do anything!" I repeated.
"You're such a liar Alfred. I know you did something," Arthur began again, "I warned you to keep Jewel close to you and not let anything happen to her! But, of course, you didn't listen to me! You're so damn irresponsible and immature that you nearly got us killed and made us waste valuable time! Now, thanks to you, Gilbert's men have probably caught up to us by now!"
"Arthur, nothing happened..." I said lowly, trying to keep myself calm.
"You kissed her didn't you?"
I then looked into his jade green eyes, "What?"
"You kissed her," He repeated, "Didn't you?"
My lips were then sealed shut, and I was quiet. My gaze then went away from his for a while before looking back at Arthur. Then I noticed him smirk, "See? That's the exact reason I didn't want to take Jewel in the first place."
I snapped back at him, "Why? Because you thought I could actually help her?"
"No! Because I knew that you'd mess everything up! I knew you were gonna get too attached to her! That wasn't part of the plan! You should've told her Alfred, you should've told!"
All while he was speaking I felt my blood boiling and my temper slowly reaching its breaking point. I began clenching my hand into a fist, trying desperately to hold myself back.
"I don't even know why I chose to follow you!" He continued, "If we had done things my way, none of this would be happening! I knew something would go wrong! I knew I should've never accepted you as this group's leader! You don't deserve this position!"
Toma walked towards Arthur and placed her hand on his arm, "Arthur I don't think you should say-."
But too late. Because that was it. His words were the final nail in the coffin.
In a flash I lashed out, "Oh and you do?! What about what happened to us all those years ago, Arthur?! Unlike you, I wasn't gonna just sit around and let that damned army get away with their crimes they committed all those years ago! If it were up to you, we'd still be nothing but dirt poor farmers struggling to get our daily bread on the table. We would barely even have enough to feed the livestock, let alone ourselves! Don't you get it, Arthur?! Sitting and waiting wouldn't work. It would've only made things worse on us!"
Arthur's grip on my collar tightened, "Shut up..." He murmured, "...we would've been fine."
"Open your eyes you dumbass," I continued, "We would've died..." my eyebrows furrowed due to what I was about to say,
"...if it wasn't for me."
Arthur was silent.
"Look, the way I do things might be different then the way you would, but in the end it always works out. That includes taking her."
I then forced his tightly gripped hand away from my collar by grabbing onto his wrist, "Look, what happened with Jewel doesn't matter right now, Arthur. That's between me and her." I replied, still trying to keep my anger under control. "Let's just...keep going."
Without saying another word we continued to walk through the town, in search of the docks. Toma and Arthur followed without saying a single word.
"Damn it all..." I cursed under my breath.
(A.N.: Okay, now we're getting somewhere here! The next chapter, I will say, gets a little more into Jewel's past after the incident. Plus we also learn a little more about Tim as well. By the way, for those of you who don't know, Tim is the Netherlands (aka Holland) who is Jewel's brother, whereas the Belgian soldier was just a character I made up at the last minute. You may/may not see more of him in the next few chapters, and we might get a little more insight on what Alfred and Arthur need Jewel for. But it all depends on how the story unfolds. So until then, thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.
Traslations
Vader- Father
Verdomme!-Damn it!
Moeder- Mother
Mijn goede heer -my good sir
Jongeheer-Young sir
