Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong Tamora Pierce.
OH MY GOSH! I AM SOOOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING!!!
I know, I know, I've been slack, but … I had a writer's block! Please go easy on me, It's hard to think up answers for them.
PS. Thank you so much for the reviews!! Now on with the fic!
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Round Two
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Thom grinned as he went through the elimination votes made by the audience. "I'm really sorry to say this *cough, cough*, but one of you has to go, I must say, it has been a very close vote!"
The contestants took a deep breath and crossed their fingers, each one hoping that they were still in the game.
"Well, I guess it's time for you to leave… " Thom took a deep breath, to make the next sentence more dramatic, "Alex. The audience all thought that your answer sucked, so bye-bye!"
"What!? But… but … I'm too good to be voted out!!" he protested, appalled that he wasn't even going to reach the semi-finals. He hated to lose!
Thom shook his head, "Majority wins, sorry Alexander."
With a swift wave of his hand Alex disappeared from sight, with his scream of 'NOOOOooooooooo!!!!' echoing through the place.
All the contestants went pale and gulped. Even Alanna was slightly shocked.
Thom, noticing the contestants go pale, immediately assured them, "Oh, don't worry, I just teleported him back to the palace," Everyone there immediately let out their breaths that they never knew that they were holding.
Thom whirled around and grinned like a hyena. "Now for the total number of votes..."
Alex *eliminated*
Sacherell 10
George 9
Roger 8
Jon 7
Geoffrey, Douglas and Liam 6
Gary 4
Raoul 1
"Well Sacherell it looks like if you don't win the audience over, you could be next."
Sacherell remained silent as he flushed in embarrassment. He was behind Alex in leading votes? How was that possible?
The host cleared his throat and announced in a loud clear voice, "Now for round two. Here is another question for you to answer … 'What do you hate about Alanna? Oh and you better be honest to this question.' you have 5 minutes to think of your answer."
Alanna glared daggers at her brother and smiled evilly as a plan came into her mind, Hehehe. He'll be sorry for doing this to me, I'll give him a taste of his own medicine. Ahh, I can see it now, 'Who wants to fence with Thom of Trebond?' …or …'Who wants to dress up Thom of Trebond?' Muahaha! Evil laughter rang in her head as she thought of various ways of getting Thom back.
~:*:~ 5 minutes later ~:*:~
"5 minutes is up, now lets see your answers, First up, we'll have Jonathan of Conte,' Thom motioned for the prince to step up.
Jon flashed a 100 watts smile at Alanna and the audience; trying to cover up the nervous breakdown he was suffering (A/N Aww, look at that smile he's giving you!) "Well, what I hate about Alanna most is …" Jon paused, wondering what to say next and how he should say it, so it doesn't get Alanna mad at him, "The way she never accepts my invitations t-to t-t-the balls and… a-and… *sniffle, sniffle* hurts my feelings!" Jon sobbed in a heart broken way.
Thom stared at the prince in shock and amusement. "Uhh…" Thom was speechless.
Alanna rolled her eyes, Him and his balls. (A/N NO! Not that way, you perverts!)
George looked thoughtful, he moved his gaze away from Alanna, to avoid her unnerving stare. "Well, I don't really have anything to hate Alanna about…"
Thom cut him off immediately, "I can see your lying, George," a white light was slightly highlighting George's feature showing that he was lying.
George's face immediately turned a bright reddish-pink in colour. "Oh, alright, what I hate about Alanna is that … well, she never visits me enough! It's not fair, she's always with that spoiled prince Jonathan!" He cried out, pointing at the 'evil Jonathan' and with that George started to cry fountains of tears.
Jon glared at the sobbing thief, "I'm not spoiled!" he cried out indignantly.
Thom stomped his foot angrily, his left eye twitching, "No comments allowed!" he growled.
…I never thought that George would hate me about that! Alanna thought raising her eyebrows in surprise.
George's sniffles reduced to hiccups, his eyes were red rimmed and his nose was red, from blowing it.
Liam stepped up, "Frankly, I don't know Alanna much, and so then, I have nothing to hate about her." Liam started to glow a slight white from Thom's spell.
Thom raised an eyebrow, and Roger smirked.
Liam saw that the gift was being used on him, and he yelped, turning as pale as a sheet of white paper. Liam opened his mouth … nothing came out; there were a few minutes of utter silence, no bird was singing, no horses were snorting, not even the frogs were croaking.
A shrill high-pitched girlish scream pierced the air.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!" The Shang Dragon's girly scream scared the birds out of the trees, made the horses run as far away as possible and the frogs jump into the water at once.
Everyone blocked their ears, trying to save their eardrums from bursting like rotten fruit.
"The gift! Get it off! Get it off!" screeched the Shang Dragon as he ran around hysterically.
Thom muttered something, and at once, and white light around Liam disappeared.
Liam continued screeching. "I knew doi-"
"Will you shut up already!?" growled Roger in frustration. Boy, Roger sure looked ready to rip the Dragon to shreds. "The magic's been taken off you!"
The Dragon immediately stopped running around like a maniac and straightened his clothes, coughing twice softly into his fist, "Well, anyway, we, uh, better get one with the game," he stuttered, to cover his embarrassment.
Jon was sniggering, "Ohhh, looky-looky, the 'Legendary' Shang Dwagon is afwaid of da gift!" he teased.
Gary laughed heartily at Jon's lame joke, as if it was the best joke that had been told in a century. "Hehehe, Yeah! I know! Who would've thought!" he agreed. He kept laughing until he saw Thom, looking very irritated.
Liam was deep red from anger and embarrassment.
Alanna was stunned as she watched the whole scene, I never knew that anyone would be scared of the gift, sure some people hate the gift, but I haven't met anyone 'scared' of the gift. And this person is the legendary Shang Dragon! Hmph, maybe he's a phoney an-
Thom interrupted Alanna's train of thoughts, "Alright, now let's hear what Gary has to say," he said quickly, afraid that a verbal fight would break out.
Gary looked deep in thought, which was a rare site. Finally he turned red, as he seemed to have picked an answer out. He grinned impishly, "Well, I don't really hate Alanna for this, but, I hated the way she never told me who she really was, and all through her page and quire years, she never told me that she was a girl.
And look at all the endless possibilities that I would've experienced if I had known that she was a girl, we could've started a wonderful relationship …" he trailed off, a dreamy look in his eyes.
Alanna shifted uneasily. Gary would never change.
Jon puffed up his cheeks, clearly angry at Gary's answer. "Alanna didn't tell you because she knew you'd hit on her!" he accused his cousin.
Alanna rolled her eyes in irritation, Typical of Jon to say such a thing.
Thom scratched his head, "Um, yes, that's … very nice. Now Roger, what about you?"
Roger grunted and pretended to think, "Oh, well, I don't have anything to hate her about…-" he said sarcastically, then he glared, changing his tone to an angry and annoyed one. "-Except if you add the fact that she had killed me by shoving her cursed sword into me! Oh, and there's her stupid cat that follows her around everywhere, oh, not to mention she hangs around the most ungrateful brat whom I can't wait to get my hands on! *Roger glares at Jon distastefully* and the-"
"Roger, stop," Thom ordered, having enough of the Duke's rants.
Roger just gave Thom an icy death glare.
Alanna looked confused, Wha…? I didn't get a word he said.
Jon shook his fist at his cousin angrily, and cried out, "Wait till I tell father this! He'll surely have your head!" he wailed.
Roger giggled stupidly, "Oh no he won't, you forget my dear cousin, I-"
"SHUT UP!" cried Thom, way beyond pissed off. Everyone shrunk back from Thom, acting quite like little children who had done something wrong. Thom took a deep breath to calm his nerves, "Thank you."
"Now our 7th bachelor, Sache-… where's Sacherell? Sacherell?" Everyone looked wildly around, each hoping that he was too scared to continue competition.
Suddenly, Sacharell popped out of the bushes, red faced and breathing heavily. "Help!" He gasped.
"What?" Thom asked desperately, thinking there was something terribly wrong.
"Old... *Breath* people... *breath*.... are chasing.... *breath*... after me.... *breath*."
"Why?" asked Thom.
"I...*breath* stole...*breath*... their... *breath*.... false teeth! *breath*!" Sacherell gasped.
Snorts echoed around the room, as the others tried desperately to cover up their amusement.
"Why on earth did you do that?" Thom asked, appalled.
"I wanted to show people what I hated most about Alanna," Sacherell said, finally regaining his breath.
"FALSE TEETH?" Thom cried.
More snorts.
"I ... I.... hate her smelly breath," Sacherall said quietly, turning red while he laughed nervously.
Alanna turned red in embarrassment. My breath doesn't stink! … does it? Alanna thought with a small frown.
Jon started to laugh outloud as if hearing Alanna's thoughts. "Come to think of it, Alanna's breath does stink doesn't it!?"
Roger, despite him hating his cousin laughed along with Jon. "Just wait till you see her toenails! I've seen them once, when she took off her shoes, they were nearly an inch long!"
The rest of the contestants started to laugh uncontrollably.
To say Alanna was pissed off at the moment was an understatement.
Thom coughed, which sounded mysteriously like a giggle before he looked expectantly at Douglas.
"Douglas of Veldine, our 8th Bachelor, what is your answer?" Thom asked, crossing his arms.
Douglas wiped his streaming eyes and bit his lip, wracking his brain for an answer. "Um …" Douglas was silent for a few moment before saying brightly, "I hate the fact that she can use a sword better than us! I mean come on, we're men, she's a lady! Isn't there something wrong with that?! We're the ones supposed to protect ladies, not the other way around." He looked happy at his own answer.
Alanna scowled, clearly not please with the answer Douglas had given. Chauvinistic Knight!
Thom gave him an odd look. "Oh … well then …"
Geoffrey smiled, "I know what my answer is!"
Thom nodded.
Geoffrey suddenly looked upset, he pouted. Making him look … slightly mutilated "I wanted to use Lightning, but Alanna wouldn't lend it to me! She said that it had a special meaning to her –" Geoffrey ranted on and on.
Alanna nearly fell of her chair at the idiocy of the answer.
Roger suddenly put two cents into the answer, "That sword is evil I tell you! My hand was numb after touching it!"
"Really?" asked a curious looking Gary. "Is that why Alanna wouldn't share it with us too?"
"Yeah! I bet that's why she never lets us hold Lightning!" shouted Raoul, trying to be smart.
Thom looked like he had a major migraine. "STOP!" he cried, a vein had popped up on his head. He was obviously stressed out.
The contestants cowered before him. They were always taught not to mess with mages, especially powerful and short-tempered mages.
Thom regained his composure and said in a very professional and formal voice, "Well, there you have it, our Round Two. The next Round won't be a questioning Round. But a Round that determines which one of you are loyal to Alanna."
"What would we have to do?" asked a frowning Shang Dragon.
Thom grinned, "Simple! You'll scale a high, steep and slippery, snowy mountain. Alanna would be at the very top, and then you'll have to bring her back down!"
"WHAT!!!???" they all cried in horror.
"Okay everyone, let's take a break!" Thom said cheerfully.
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Please review people! I want to know what you think of this story so far. I know it must be boring at some point and that its probably not even funny. But please review and tell me what you think. Only reviews keep me writing this story!
** VOTE FOR THE PERSON THAT YOU WANT **OUT** OF THIS GAME (in your review) May the best Bachelor win!
Jon
George
Liam
Gary
Roger
Raoul
Sacherell
Douglas
Geoffrey
Luv ya all!
~*~Angel~*~
PLEASE don't flame me! *begs on hands and knees*