CHAPTER SEVEN

'Marguerite' turns away from the horrified explorers and begins to walk through the thick mountain snow as the warriors charge past her, a hand grabs hold of her arm and she's propelled backwards she spins around to face Roxton, he puts his hands on either side of her face and forces her to look into his eyes.

ROXTON: I know you're in there Marguerite, you have to listen to me.

He hears Veronica yell behind him and he looks in her direction to see the warriors standing round his friends, their spears pointed directly at their hearts, 'Marguerite' laughs maniacally as she watches her protectors get ready to pierce the skin.

ROXTON: Lets see just how important you're baby is to these people.

He places Marguerite in front of him using her as a shield, he takes his knife and places it against her abdomen, one of the warriors screams as he watches him almost in disbelief, they slowly back away Challanger, Malone and Veronica, who take the spears from the tribal warriors.

VERONICA: Roxton what are you deed!

ROXTON: Improvising…Let them go!

A large old bearded man moves from his hiding place behind a slit in the stone and stands behind Roxton and Marguerite, he pulls a thick animal fur cloak tight around his bare arms and almost hovers above the ground as he moves towards his minions, he nods to them and they bow before him grovelling at his feet. They back away from the explorers and look fearfully at the chief then across to 'Marguerite'.

The chief turns around and looks at Roxton out of cold unmoving eyes. He speaks to 'Marguerite' in his own tongue.

CHIEF: Release her Alura, I need to speak to their friend.

She huffs and rolls her eyes, not happy with the situation, Marguerite looks up at Roxton.

MARGUERITE: What's going on?

ROXTON: You don't know?

She shakes her head worriedly.

MARGUERITE: No every things a blur…Whose he?

She nods in the direction of the chief.

ROXTON: I don't know but I think we're about to find out.

CHIEF: We want the baby.

MARGUERITE: You won't lay a finger on her…Or me.

CHIEF: Not as long as you have you're protectors.

MARGUERITE: Where's the falling sun?

He looks at her momentarily surprised.

CHIEF: Who told you about that?

MARGUERITE: That doesn't' matter now…You do know what it is then?

He nods and closes his eyes as if in silent prayer.

CHIEF: Many moons ago when I was a younger man we saw the red sun travel across the sky lighting up the night, it landed across the river one nights walk east from here…You cannot go there, one man did, a stranger to these parts…He didn't return.

MARGUERITE: That's all I need to know.

CHALLANGER: What's he saying?

MARGUERITE: I know where to go.

She looks at the chief.

MARGUERITE: You tell Alura to stay away, if she tries anything my…Protectors know what to do.

The chief nods again and speaks directly to Alura, Marguerite shakes slightly and Roxton comes to her side, he looks at her questioningly.

MARGUERITE: We shouldn't have anymore trouble.

CHALLANGER: Glad to hear it.

VERONICA: What about them?

She indicates the chief and the warriors.

MARGUERITE: They can't do anything, not yet anyway…We have to hurry we don't have much time.

* * * * * *

Later that night by a group of bare leafless trees at the foot of the mountain the explorers finally begin to fall asleep, Marguerite walks over to a boulder where Veronica keeps watch and sits down beside her.

VERONICA: Can't sleep?

MARGUERITE: Don't need to.

VERONICA: Well when we get out of this mess your going to be really tired.

MARGUERITE: There is one good thing about not sleeping…I won't need to wake up late.

They both laugh in spite of the current situation.

VERONICA: You won't need your morning cup of coffee either.

Marguerite feigns a shocked look.

MARGUERITE: Impossible! Coffee is a necessity.

VERONICA: So I've heard.

MARGUERITE: It's so quiet here I'm actually starting to miss our run-ins with a T-Rex.

VERONICA: You must be homesick.

MARGUERITE: Well we have to keep some sense of normality otherwise we'd all be insane by now.

VERONICA: For a while there you almost were.

They both sit in quiet for the next few minutes.

MARGUERITE: I wasn't in control of my actions and I've never experienced that before…Well not at that magnitude anyway.

VERONICA: The only time I've seen you not be able to control yourself is when you've been with Roxton -

Marguerite scoffs loudly and Veronica looks at her in surprise.

VERONICA: You're different around him…Well some of the time anyway.

MARGUERITE: Oh please he can be so stubborn and annoying at times -

VERONICA: Like you?

Marguerite turns away blushing.

MARGUERITE: He's like a, a…Brother to me for goodness sake!

VERONICA: (Disbelieving) uh huh.

MARGUERITE: This actually feels good.

VERONICA: What?

MARGUERITE: Just talking like I don't have a care in the world, just sitting down like this it's like I'm with…Family.

She stands up suddenly and laughs.

MARGUEIRTE: Just don't expect this again any time soon tomorrow I'll be my normal annoying and stubborn self.

She turns to walk away when she stops abruptly, she puts a hand to her stomach and gasps and Veronica looks up at her in alarm.

VERONICA: What is it? What's wrong!

MARGUERITE: She's a feisty little thing.

They both smile, they jump in surprise at the deep voice behind them.

ROXTON: She's like her mother.

Veronica smirks.

VERONICA: I'm really tired I'd better get some sleep.

She walks quietly past them.

MARGUERITE: Which mother might that be?

ROXTON: The only one I…I'm looking at.

He takes her by the arm and they walk away from the camp.

ROXTON: So…Like a brother eh?

MARGUERITE: Well I…That was a private conversation Lord Roxton; that you had no right to listen in on.

ROXTON: I was just doing what I do best and being annoying.

MARGUERITE: To aggravate me no doubt.

ROXTON: You were right about one thing though…Talking like this about nothing in particular, it does have a warm, family feel to it.

MARGUERITE: We've been together, we've all been together so long we might as well be.

ROXTON: So how do you know it's a girl?

MARGUERITE: Girls are always tougher…Or so I've heard.

They hear a noise coming from the camp.

MARGUERITE: What was that!

ROXTON: Nothing good I'll bet.

They hurry back to where they'd left the others minutes ago, their things are on fire and their friends are nowhere to be seen…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Just when you think it'll be smooth sailing from here on out something goes wrong, doesn't it?

R & R