The Child

Chapter 2: Aftermath.

Disclaimer: *is still hacking the IRS down with her glaive* THEY AREN'T MINE, I SWEAR!!!!! *bows to Tammy* they're hers! Honestly! *Tammy nods head, 'yes'* SEE?! Leave me alone!!

A/N: okay, so this chapter is in Alanna's point of view after she and Kel cross paths in the hall, and then when she saves Kel, I'm switching back to Kel's POV, so don't get confoozled, k?

Kel had been gone for quite some time. Sure, she said she was going to take a nice long walk, but still, it had been nearly an hour. Alanna had gone looking for her nearly fifteen minuets ago. She was about to return to the palace when deep in the Royal forest she heard a scream. It was distant, but unmistakably Kel's. Alanna sprinted towards the shouting. They stopped abruptly.

Galloping.

Alanna's legs and back protested the fast run but she ignored it. It would take a lot to make Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan scream. Alanna wasn't sure she wanted to face it herself.

The galloping grew faster and farther away. So Alanna ran even fasted. She had a cramp but ignored it as well. At last she caught sight of the thing she was chasing. It was a huge centaur. What was it holding?

Kel!

If Alanna could have run faster she would but the distance and speed was finally taking toll on her body. As much as she hated it, she slowed down just a bit. But that bit of decrease in speed may coast Kel her life.

Alanna tripped, "FUCK!" she screamed as she hit the forest floor. She got up as quickly as her tired body allowed and continued to chase after the fading hoof-beats. She couldn't see the centaur anymore. She had to use her Gift to light the ground to see his hoof prints so she could follow him now.

More screaming. Kel's screaming. She was in trouble! Painful trouble it sounded like. Alanna ran faster still and unsheathed her sword.

Kel's agonizing screams grew louder and Alanna reached a dark cave. She ran inside and gasped at the sight before her: Kel's clothes had been ripped off, and she was in a horrible position being raped by the gods awful centaur that had taken her. Alanna wasn't sure if Kel saw her or not, because she blacked out almost as soon as Alanna reached the cave.

Alanna was livid with rage. She screamed this rage and blasted the centaur with a particularly nasty blast of her magic. He flew across the cave leaving Kel in an undignified position. Alanna quickly threw her cloak over the young girl and walked back over the centaur, who was shaking blood out of his eyes. (His head hit a particularly sharp rock) Alanna pointed her sword to his chest.

"I don't know who you are, or who you think you are, and I don't care," she said coldly. "Do you understand the crime you have committed just now?" The centaur's only reply was to stare hungrily at Kel, then at Alanna herself.

Alanna couldn't help herself: she was so sickened by this monster, that she ran him threw at that moment.

Without a second glance at the thing, she ran to Kel and somehow managed to pick her up and carry her back to the palace.

***Kel's POV***

Kel awoke screaming. She was being raped! Why wasn't anyone helping her? She distantly heard voices shouting something. She heard none of them until someone gabbed her face and forced her to be quiet. It was the Lioness, her eyes filled with sympathy. It was a dream, Kel thought, relieved. It was all a dream… If it was a dream, why did her loins hurt so? She couldn't look the Lioness in the eye. A silent tear trickled down her face. More followed, these were less quiet. Alanna pulled her in to her shoulder as her mother might and let Kel sob into her tunic while she made soothing noises.

Kel realized some of her friends were in the room: Neal, Owen, and Prince Roald included. Duke Baird, Neal's father, was standing in the corner. Owen looked scared, Roald worried, and Neal was a combination of the two. They were all blurry through her tears.

"What happened, Kel?" Neal asked softly.

Lady Alanna hasn't told them, Kel thought to herself. She looked away from her friends, once again burring her face in Alanna's shoulder. Kel her Alanna say "Now may not be the best time Neal..."

Kel was in hysterics now. She was angry! At the centaur for what it did, how it hurt her. At herself for letting herself be so careless as to leave the palace without any kind of weapon. At Alanna for not coming sooner, and then, not telling the others for her. At Neal for wanting to talk about it. Her cries of pain and sadness had the occasional scream of rage in between. Owen took a few steps back. Roald wouldn't look at her. Neal came forward, trying to comfort his friend.

All he did was touch her arm.

Kel stiffened. Memories flooded her. All of what happened last night happened again in the brief second Neal laid his hand on her arm. She screamed and smacked his hand away as if it were hot ash. She looked petrified. She released Alanna to curl into a tight, protective ball on her bed.

"Kel, what's the matter?" Neal asked grabbing her shoulder.

Kel shrieked and flailed her arms and legs about---anything that would make him stop touching her!

"Neal, stop!! Don't touch her!" Alanna shouted over Kel's vocals. Once again, she put her arms around Kel and made soothing noises to try and calm her down. "Kel, what in the name of Mithros is the matter?" she said once Kel had quieted. Kel only shuddered.

Then she whispered "The touch...it feels...wrong. It reminds me of..." she trailed off, but Alanna knew what she meant.

"Reminds you of what, Kel?" Roald asked, still not meeting her eyes.

Kel's only response was to whimper. Her eyes pleaded Alanna to tell them.

Alanna nodded slowly. She should have told them in the first place. She left Kel's side and led the three young men to the other side of the room so she could tell them.

"Something awful happened last night. Kel took a walk and forgot to take a weapon." Neal opened his mouth to say something, but Alanna silenced him. "Let me finish! A centaur grabbed her. Raped her." The men gasped. Owen looked at the floor and bit his lip. "I found her and killed the beast, but she's in shock you guys. She will be for quite some time. Give her space. And don't touch her! I think that right now, a touch from any male will trigger a memory and send her into that." She turned and pointed at the curled up, heap of a scared girl under the blankets that was Kel. "She's frightened. Just give her time."

A/N: NOW this is the end. I promise! Until the next chapter that is…I'll get around to it. Heh heh…may be a while though what with school and everything. :( Not to mention I have another fan-fic in the works so…yeah. Okay, that little blue box down there is calling for you to review. So just go a head. ;) I hope you like it so far!!