~*~*~*~ Forget the Past ~*~*~*~
Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this degrading statement again?? For the last time, Alanna, Daine, Numair, Raoul, and everthing else that you recognize from a Tammy book belongs to who??? Let's all say it together…Tammy!! ^.^
A/N: This'll be a short chapter, cuz I got French homework to do. Yuck. The only thing I do not like about school is homework. As once said by Larzdinn, whoever invented homework should die a thousand, torturous deaths!! This chapter will affect the plot, I promise!! Enjoy!
Chapter Eight: You Should Welcome the Unexpected
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(BELLE'S POV)
Slowly, lazily, like a feather drifting down to earth, Belle slipped from the safe confines of sleep back to the real world. Voices sifted through the mist, most of them faintly recognizable. Whatever she was lying on was feathery and comfortable. Without opening her eyes, she tried to sit up, and a white-hot pang shot violently through her side. The voices halted at once. Belle groaned softly and sank back into several big pillows.
"Don't try to get up, child!" a harsh voice reprimanded her. "You'll only open that slice on your side."
'Slice on my side'? Belle's mind wondered. How did I get th-oh yes, that's right. I fell off Demon. Wait, how did I get here??
Again she bolted up, forgetting about her side, and before she could barely even feel the ache, she was shoved back down on the bed.
The same brusque voice sounded close to her ears. "Didn't I tell you to lie down?" Now Belle knew that voice. It was that of Margaret, one of the better, but more severe, healers in Ravensloft.
However I got here, I'm surprised father even allowed a healer to look at me. She thought wearily.
What she didn't know was the four people watching the scene in front of them were glancing at each other wit sorrowful, grim expressions.
After Belle's head stopped spinning, she slowly opened her eyes. All she saw was a wide, weathered face with strands of brunette hair falling over it, and a pair of unfriendly brown eyes. Both belonged to Margaret. She still didn't notice their audience.
"Who am I?" Margaret asked briskly.
"Margaret, the chief healer at the castle." Belle answered thickly.
"All right, child, I need you to drink this tonic. It will help to heal the cut on your side. Doubtless, it will make you feel a little tired. As soon as you start to feel yourself falling asleep, do so." And with that, she got up from the chair that had been dragged to Belle's bedside, gathered up her things, and swept out of the room, nodding abruptly to the four that Belle finally noticed, but did not identify.
As they did come forward, one sitting in the chair, and the rest standing around the bed, Belle recognized them. Her eyes widened, and she groaned again, this time in frustration.
Oh Goddess, why does it have to be them?? She wondered murderously. With my luck, they probably found me unconscious, and decided to perform a heroic deed and save me. How nice of them. They most likely think that I have to listen to them now.
Belle tried to roll over, giving them her back, but again the pain rocketed through her, forcing her to lie still. A small moan escaped her lips, and as she struggles to regain her composure, Daine-the one who had sat in the seat-spoke.
"Well you got yourself in quite a mess here, didn't you, Belle?" The question was not rude, or harshly spoken, but gentle and reassuring.
Belle ignored the question, but said in an almost inaudible murmur, "Where's Demon?".
"Demon is safe and sound in the stable. He was very worried about you."
Oh that is just wonderful. I wonder what they talked about? Belle thought sarcastically. But at the same time, Belle wondered warily what they had talked about. They could have learned some very personal things from her horse. And goddess knows, Demon thought he had to take care of her, and so he probably would have told them everything.
As if she could see where Belle's thoughts were going, Daine said, "But don't be angry at Demon." Some hesitation, and then, "He didn't do anything wrong."
Belle couldn't think of anything to say to this, so she clamped her mouth shut and started fidgeting with her bed covers.
"So why were you so scared when we mentioned that you might have Wild Magic?" Daine ventured cautiously, as though she were an elephant walking on thin ice.
So it's come to that again. But I don't have to tell them anything! Not unless- Suddenly, as if her very thoughts were condemning her, Belle's father burst into the room, standing tall and menacing in the doorframe. All five people in the room jumped when Lord Jared of Ravensloft slammed the door shut, cracking a potion of the doorframe.
He strode angrily to the foot of her bed, pushing aside Raoul and Numair, and taking no notice of it. He leaned over the bottom of the bed and pointed a finger at Belle.
"You little wench, this is the last time I will have this happen! I refuse to let you live under my roof anymore! As soon as you are able to get out of this bed, you will leave Ravensloft never to come back!"
And with that disturbing statement, he spun on his heel, and swept rudely out of the small room.
Belle felt like bursting into tears right then and there.
Is my father disowning me? Where I am supposed to go now? I can't stay here! Those and a thousand more wild thoughts bolted through Belle's mind, and she didn't notice the Lioness dragging a heavily protesting Wildmage out of the room, whispering in her ear.
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A/N: I am sooo sorry for leaving it there!! I really am!! But I have to get to work on What It Feels To Be Caged. If you haven't read it yet, please do so! It's my first Alanna fic, and she gets captured and sold into slavery. But come on, people, this is Alanna we're talking about! What's she gonna do?? Read and find out! Please, please, please, please, please!!!!! Oh, and there's another week of school coming up, in which I have CAT tests (beginning of the year exams), so I might not be able to get another chappie up. But you know what??? Reviews motivate me the most!!! *wink, nudge*
P.S. OMG!!! No A/Ns in the text this time!!!! Wow! ^_^
P.P.S. I'm writing this post-script the day after I wrote the chapter, so some reviewers are thanked twice, since I didn't do thank yous in the last chapter. And I'm too lazy to go to the trouble of deleting them. ;)
Thanx to:
Chibi-Chingo: No, I am glad to say that I did remember that Alanna is a healer, but I had to have Belle treated at the castle for this essential chapter to happen. ^_^ I felt bad for making Belle suffer longer than she should have. And don't worry bout saying that you acted bitchy, cuz just today I bitch-slapped a guy in my class…long story, but you get the idea. We're all bitches at heart, at some point or another. ;)
Lady Isabelle: Oooooo I love your pen name. Hehehe. =^) I hope you liked this chapter- I'm sorry it couldn't be longer. Thanx for reading!!!
M'cha Araem: At first, I was planning to have it in one big chappie, but Fido, that extremely annoying "security dog" had a problem with the upload, so I had to split it into two sections. Sry bout not getting this up last night, but I got in trouble and felt it best to just "hide" for a while until my parents forgot about it. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
KeladryLadyKnight: Thanx! And about the horse thing; sry bout that, I should have clarified myself. Have you ever heard of or taken care of an abused/neglected horse? One that hadn't eaten in a long time? When my stable takes in a horse that is in that condition, you have to regulate the amount of food that you give it, allowing it to eat more and more food each consecutive day. But if you give the horse too mush food at too much, or you give a healthy horse more food than it is accustomed to, their body rejects the food. And plus, horses do have a choke reflex. But anyway. Enough of my rambling. ;) I'll be more careful about comments like that in the future. Thank you for reading!! I hope you liked it!!
Keita: Short and sweet-I love your little face!! It's so much fun to see all you regular reviewers replying to my frenzied pleas for critique. =^) Thanx for reviewing!!
Shy: Thanx for R&R! You have to understand, Daine was just concerned for Belle, and let's face it, the other three people are well-known heroes/heroines, and aren't going to do anything to hurt Belle, so I figured it was all right. Keep reading!! ^_^
Gwen: I'm so glad you like my story! I like it too! Lol. =^) But anyway, I hope you liked these last two chapters! It's sad to think that there are real people like Lord Jared in the world, but I still have fun writing about him!
A Reviewer: *smiles joyfully through abrupt tears* Thaaaank you!!! ^_^ I couldn't write a story without them now could I? At least a little bit!! Thanx for reviewing!
Anita Blake: *sniff* Here comes another week of school, but it think I'm looking forward to it. I think. Hehehe. I totally agree with you about everything-especially Demon! I still can't decide if I like him or Belle better. =P And yes, sadly, I do seem to live off of cliffhangers. I try to update frequently so my cherished readers don't suffer too much!
Keziah: Yes, I desperately neeeeeeed Lady Knight!! I still haven't read it! *wails dramatically* *abruptly changes subject* Yes!!! I live for cliffhangers!!! I cannot survive without them!! (When I'm the one controlling them of course. XD) But I try to update religiously, so my precious readers don't suffer too much! Yeah, horseback riders rock! But some horses are evil-minded. *giggle* Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter!
Mackie: Hmm-in the earlier chapters I did have a lot of A/Ns, but you have to read all the way through. I get better, I promise!! ^_^ Hehehe. Keep reading!
M'cha Araem: Hmmm. I dunno why your reviews didn't show up. *scratches head* But I didn't block you, I promise!!! Hehehe. Why would I do that? I don't know. =D I love making Daine the big heroine in this story, I think she does it so well! I hope you liked this chapter! Surprisingly, all my teachers are really cool, and now we are on the top of the school! Lol. Thanx for reading!
RoseFrye: Yeah! Another Daine-lover! *high-fives RoseFrye* Yea!!! Ok, gotta calm down. ^.^ Bythe Goddess, I wish that my name was Rose, but it's not. *sniff* I do have a nice Irish name though, just like me! Lol. If you wanna know what it is, just let me know.
Keita: Thanks for reviewing again! I'm so happy that I have all these regular reviewers! *smiles through spur-of-the-moment-tears* *abruptly grins broadly* I'm so glad you like my fic!! Keep reading!
Larzdinn: Yes, I too, have had problems with our deeeear little Fido. Grrrrr. He can be very annoying sometimes. About French class. See, I moved to where I live now in January of this year, and started school here the third week of that month. For our school's curriculum, Foreign Language instruction starts in 7th grade, and in my old school, it was in 8th grade. So I started taking French 1 in 7th grade, along with all the other 7th graders. And now, I'm kinda finishing up French 1, and starting French 2. Most of my friends are all fluent by now, but I'm aaaaaalmost there!! =^) German sounds fun-that's what my friend Cati is taking. Demon was a little OOC in chapter six, but you have to understand that he was just concerned for poor ol' Belle. He's soo sweet!! ^_^ It's not exactly that Belle thinks her mother's death is her fault, it's just that she doesn't want to accept the fact that she may have Wild Magic. That's what has to do with the animals. But I haven't explained that. Yet. Good luck on your research paper! I would love to read your story if you ever post one!! I think you would be very good at it! Yes, I wish to high heavens that I was in highschool, cuz my old school was a HS/MS, and I had sooo much more freedom and sooo many more choices. Thanx for reading!
Chibi-Chingo: I agree. Lord Jared is a good way to vent anger. *grins evilly* Hehehe. XD Thanx for reviewing!!