Disclaimer: I own Dara, Jalee, Tonia, this story and any other characters you do not recognize, while the divine Ms. Pierce owns everyone and everything mentioned in her books - which are as equally divine as her. Oh, and Mary Frith/Moll Cutpurse owns herself - she was one of the most notorious Elizabethan thieves of the British underworld. Okay, I think I'm done with this little history class. . .

Comments: Just, review.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Dana; who introduced me to T. D. H. B.

Chapter Three: Mother Goddess

The Mother Goddess drifted down to Alanna's tent. She went through the closed entrance of Alanna's tent and headed towards Alanna's bedroll. Once there she put a hand on top of Alanna's forehead and kept it there.

Alanna sat in a clearing - much like the one that her tent now occupied - in front of a giant tree stump. Beside her stood the Mother Goddess. The Mother Goddess took Alanna's hand and guided it to a small speck on the stump. Alanna gasped - instead of the line that had earlier occupied that small space, there was now a small wooden orb, that glowed a purple color.

"This is the Tree of Life," the Mother told her. "And this -" she pointed to the wooden orb, that now reclined on Alanna's open palm - "is Life's gift to you. Use it well, and it will reward you and save you from certain fates. Misuse it and it will destroy itself and you along with it."

"How do I use it?" asked Alanna confused.

"You will find the power within - when the time calls." The Mother Goddess paused for a moment. "You will have a rough road, my child - but one with many rewards. You will have great friends and great enemies. Goodbye, my child - we will meet again."

Alanna woke-up the next morning at dawn, under her pillow lay her open palm - which held the wood orb.

~*~*~*~

On the third day of Alanna, Liam and Dara's travels the three woke-up at dawn. Alanna hadn't yet shown her wooden orb to the two men, nor had she told them about the dream with the Mother Goddess. The group hadn't met any one on the road during since they had left the City of the Gods - and they hoped it would stay that way.

Around noon the three stopped beside the road and Liam took out his crossbow to hunt down lunch. Dara started a fire, while Alanna went to go scout the valley beneath the cliff a ways away from the road. She smiled as she hiked through the bushes, towards the cliff and the valley - as a girl she had enjoyed walking in the woods around Fief Trebond with Thom.

"Liam? Dara?" she whispered as she heard a rustle in the trees in front of her - not the rustle of an animal, but the rustle of a human in the leaves. Her answer was a human jumping on her from behind. The person - it was impossible for Alanna to tell if her attacker was male or female - pinned Alanna down to the ground, but before her attacker could do anything else, Alanna turned to her side as far as she could and they both went tumbling down the hill to their left.

They were stopped at the bottom of the hill by a large oak tree. The force of their fall caused the last of the fall leaves on the tree to come falling down on them. Alanna looked over to her attacker and saw a young boy with short, messy raven hair and matching black hair, wearing tan breeches and a black shirt. The youth smiled at her and stuck out a hand.

"'Tis Cutpurse. The name's Moll Cutpurse. And what would ye name be, lass?" she asked Alanna - who had realized by then that her attacker was a girl in disguise as a boy, like herself. What is she doing out here by her lonesome? thought Alanna.

"Alanna," said Alanna - there was no use in lying about her sex to Moll, she had already stated in her question that she had guessed. "Alanna of Trebond. Glad to meet you," Alanna said as she stuck out her hand.

Note: Just review - and chapter four will be up soon.